#bpd coded character

[lindentea]

there are... just.. so many parallels between my two favorite BPD-coded characters. because obvious reasons. so here's my Blitzø/Ed Teach mashup. self-fulfilling prophesies, yaknow...?

y'know when you're spiraling into "i am a monster and all i will ever be is a monster" territory and you start believing all the ppl in your life that have ever told you that you're basically nothing more than a rabid dog...

sharing fanart (moreso than just art in general) is still terrifying as fuck!! plz be gentle. of course i'm looking at this and only seeing everything i hate about it, everything that makes the impostor syndrome go for the throat. but i worked on this for 21 hours already just in the last like five days and i think i should prooooobably do anything else with my downtime now.

(of course, what's even more terrifying than receiving negative feedback is receiving zero feedback at all...)

[fairyb0ii]

I was thinking about the Harry Potter saga (I like it, I'm a Slytherin person, but I do not support that transphobic b*tch) and I was wondering about which characters could be neurodivergent.

I think Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Severus Snape could be autistic. Maybe one day I'll tell you exactly why I do headcanon them as that.

And I read that Harry could have BPD or PTSD as well (a page that talks about BPD talked about him).

[theunluckyvandalist]

Ena shinonome bpd hcs

✪ she can only handle teasing from mizuki, if anyone else uses their kind of teases against her she will see it as a personal attack

✪ mizuki is their FP, they crave their attention constantly

✪ when she splits, she will isolate herself in her room and cry for hours. often not eating much until she calms down

✪ mafuyu got her a notebook so she would remember to write things down in case she dissociated

✪ one time she said some rlly painful stuff to mizuki when splitting and she never forgave herself for it. Mizuki forgave her but Ena still apologizes for it

[autisticzenitsu]

Zenitsu is BPD coded too

Yeah, I actually did notice he fits a lot of the criteria, though I didn't feel super qualified to weigh in on it since I don't have BPD.

[mothspore]

thinking about the way kaveh mourns the loss of a relationship with someone he sees every day

he has haitham in his life. he sees him every day. he LIVES with him for fucks sake, and yet his opinions of haitham are all thinly veiled guilt and mourning. he constantly talks about how close they were during school, how different their relationship was during school, etc, and then when that starts coming off a bit too sad, he starts going on about how much haitham has changed, and how he would never give him the satisfaction of thanks now

but that’s not true. it’s obvious that it’s not. he won’t thank haitham because he feels ashamed of the help he has received, he feels he is undeserving, especially after their fallout, after he said those words that were strong and hurtful enough to tear them apart completely. it’s not that he doesn’t want to thank haitham. he is afraid to.

he’s also trying to protect himself. he tries to keep haitham at an arm’s length, arguing instead of acknowledging conflicts as what they are, in order to protect himself from what he sees as an inevitable outcome of haitham kicking him out, removing him from his life. kaveh wouldn’t blame him, it was only fair. after all, that’s all he had ever known, as well.

kaveh is so used to loss. this situation with haitham is such dangerous uncharted territory for him, and that scares him. kaveh is used to losing and losing without any possibility for gain. his father passed, he will never come back. it’s not possible. his mother left for fontaine, and he stopped writing to her out of his own perceived responsibility for his father’s passing. she never reached out to him, either. he knows faranak will never return to sumeru.

what he said to haitham, he never expected for him to come back into his life. the arguments on the message boards and in annotations and such were just petty insults to him, haitham’s way of taking things out on him. he never expected haitham to offer his home up to help kaveh. the whole thing is so different that it scares him. he knows what to expect from loss, and he knows when to expect loss. but he has no idea how to cope with this. he spends all his time mourning the friendship they once had, skirting around acknowledging the help that haitham has extended to him, and waiting for the other shoe to drop, because he cannot comprehend that this could end in anything other than another loss, another hurt to add to his baggage. and he does not want to truly lose haitham again.

the only way he can ensure this for himself is to not allow the possibility of closeness again. he has flown too close to that before, felt that warmth, and been burned. he has watched those wax wings melt once before. he will not allow himself to fall again. he will not invite the sun in again, because he knows he won’t be able to resist the urge to fly too close once more, even knowing the perceived threat.

acknowledging the help haitham has provided would directly acknowledge that they are no longer enemies. it would invite some of that warmth, something that kaveh does not believe he deserves, and something he cannot afford. he does not want to lose again, so he pretends there is no chance to fix things, despite haitham’s clear attempts to prove otherwise.

[moomeecore]

controversial opinion betty has way more autistic traits / coding than simon but ppl immediately jump on assuming characters who are neurodivergent coded/ have those vibes must have adhd if theyre energetic and autism if they're calm

[ahyesthesufferingoftvteens]

*Clears throat into the mic*

Adam is ASPD-coded. He repeatedly has difficulties with empathizing with the other characters in the two seasons. He’s hyper-focused on his goals to the point that he neglects to consider others in mind. He has a tendency to control and dominate in his relationships. These are all ASPD traits listed in the DSM-V.

This is the same guy that was A(. Completely ok with cracking someone trapped in ice and potentially killing them in the process as long as the person inside was not one of his teammates, and B(. Told the fourteen year old redhead with parental issues and self-worth insecurities that the only reason they were put on his team was because “there was an opening, you were available” in the most nonchalant way possible.

Adam from The Hollow does not understand how emotions work but he still tries his best. Like he is genuinely an asshole sometimes but when he knows he does something wrong, he makes up for it because he knows what’s right in the end and he still cares for those who are closest to him. He just needs the consequences of his actions spelled out in big letters sometimes. I love him for that.

As someone who has BPD I love Cluster B personality disorder representation that isn’t demonized! We aren’t inherently monsters! We can choose to be decent people just like a neurotypical person can choose to be a huge jerk.

…Also he’s giving Autoromantic. It’s a vibe. “I mean look at me! How could you resist?” Says Adam, who likely admires himself in a mirror daily and would probably kiss his clone if he had the chance. Good for him. I need the self-love he has. Go on casual dates with hot guys and then treat yourself to a movie night, Adam. Slay.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Have a nice day.

*Drops mic*

[robintism]

shinonome ena: npd or bpd?

A while ago there was discourse (albeit, on twitter, where else would discourse be) about Ena’s cluster B coding. About whether she was NPD or BPD-coded and “what’s wrong with letting people headcanon whatever they want?” The thing is that you CAN headcanon whatever you want, but coding is something interwoven with the canon narrative that serves a purpose for the character. 

If we want to argue about coding, we must first look into what sets NPD and BPD apart.

NPD and BPD are both Cluster B personality disorder, characterised by unpredictable, dramatic, or intensely emotional responses to things. Outwardly, many of NPD and BPD traits and behaviours are similar. Their respective episodes can look like one another’s and many mistake one for the other. These two disorders are also incredibly gendered in the sense that NPD women are notoriously misdiagnosed as BPD, and the reverse being true for BPD men. Women and female characters who display Cluster B behaviour are more often than not, diagnosed with BPD without being given much thought or consideration.

This is the core of the issue with Ena. Many are quick to point out the Cluster B likeness of her behaviours, but are unable to properly pinpoint the intention behind it, which would become the crux to solve the question. 

MORE UNDER THE CUT

Ena’s motivations & fears

At the start of the Nightcord story, we can see that Ena is jealous of Mafuyu’s innate talents, and even angrier at her for saying that she has nothing, when she has everything that Ena has ever wanted. Ena struggles with empathy here (which I will touch upon more later) but the key to her character is very explicitly shown here – Envy. She is envious of what Mafuyu has that she can never be able to attain, because talent is something you’re born with. At this point in the story, she already wants to disappear because of her perceived lack of her skill, and her belief that she will never be enough for her father, and herself. So seeing Mafuyu, who has everything she’s ever wanted (on a surface level anyways) also want to disappear, angered her to no end. 

In case I wasn’t clear enough, Ena’s motivations are linked to her simultaneous superiority and inferiority complex, her ego. She wants to be better than everyone else, and can be critical of others, but any criticism of her is a blow to her ego. In a way, Mafuyu’s depression is like a blow to herself because “If I were you, I would never be as miserable as I am now.” Not only is she unable to empathise with Mafuyu here, she’s suffered a blow to her ego. Her and Mafuyu are uncanny mirrors of each other here–Mafuyu has the talent, Ena has the will but both are miserable in their respective standings because they lack what the other has.

On This Blank Canvas I Paint is, in my opinion, one of the best Ena focus events because it dives deep into her insecurities and issues, even if it doesn’t offer an immediate and complete resolution. This event shows us the first of her many hurdles, and how she dealt with it in the process. It also shows us her very first “crash”.

At first when she was at the top of the Art Class and getting praised, she was happy and confident. Then came the conversation with Papanome, where her entire worldview and confidence was shattered. She was shaken and her next composition was a complete bust, it was as if a switch had been flipped. 

Ena’s father is a bad father, and he shouldn’t have said all that in such a manner, but for the sake of this analysis let’s take a deeper dive into his words. Papanome, as a seasoned artist, has experienced the industry much more than Ena has. He KNOWS the reality behind the industry, and knew his daughter well enough to understand that if she kept going with that kind of mindset, she would’ve crumbled. And she did. 

The next time she went to class, she was criticised by her teacher, and he even points out her core motivation “If praise is all you seek” because all this time, she’s only ever been praised for her artworks. It was her primary motivation in this field, to the point that she grew complacent and stagnated without realising that her peers have evolved well beyond her. 

That realisation shatters her again, when she realises that everyone else has improved but her. Her sense of self-worth begins to deteriorate and she spirals, she even disassociates to the end of class and quits impulsively because she couldn’t take it anymore.

Basically, it struck her ego and she has a narcissistic crash. Narcissistic crash happens when a person with NPD becomes unable to uphold their grandiose, confident image due to a perceived fatal blow to their ego or reputation. This leads to a breakdown which manifests as angry outbursts, depression, withdrawal from others, irritable or defensive behaviour, and verbal or physical aggression. My understanding is that, internally the pwNPD feels a loss of self along with perceived rejection and abandonment. (Side note: I was doing some research thinking this was a splitting episode but it’s actually a narc crash, you learn new things everyday). This describes Ena’s crash and other outbursts really well. She tends to be very defensive and actually did withdraw from others, she even dropped out of her art class without warning after this incident. This is because her ego has classified the art class and her teacher as a threat to her image and self-esteem, so she needs to withdraw from it.

Again, this is the crux of BPD vs NPD. The key to BPD is the persistent fear of abandonment, while NPD has to do with the ego. None of Ena’s (coded) cluster B behaviour stems from a fear of being abandoned, or being unable to define herself. It stems from her need for grandiosity and her need to be important, successful and better.

Ena’s right to exist

Ena validates herself through the amount of praise (and therefore, also criticism) she receives. When her artwork was first criticised in her flashback in On This Blank Canvas I Paint, she loses motivation, her grip on herself and her sense of self-worth. When her artwork doesn’t gain traction on her social media, she posts selfies, which admittedly get a lot more views and compliments. While she is disheartened by her artworks not getting as much attention, because she does actually love art and drawing, she is able to in a sense, replenish her narc supply by posting pictures of herself. 

The Primary Narcissistic Supply is attention, in both its public forms (fame, notoriety, infamy, celebrity) and its private, interpersonal forms (adoration, adulation, applause, fear, repulsion). Any kind of attention, both negative and positive, contributes to the narc supply. Here, Ena taps on her own face card to boost her narc supply because she knows she will gain attention through it. She validates herself in these forms and lives vicariously through her followers’ eyes. 

This isn’t to say that there is anything inherently disordered or even wrong about wanting attention, especially attention online, but this combined with her other traits combines to form a bigger, narcissistic picture.

While BPD sufferers also have issues with their self-worth and identity, and may use similar methods to have a better grip on themselves, it manifests slightly differently. Borderlines are more likely to shape themselves into what others want, in order to avoid abandonment. Whereas narcissists are more likely to show off the more palatable parts of themselves while hiding their perceived weaknesses, so everyone will only see their inflated self. In a sense, both “manipulate” how others view them in order to feed into their personality disorders but in different ways and for wholly different reasons.

Narcissus flowers 

Also, Ena has a lot of association with narcissus flowers. In her 3rd anniversary redesign, there are narcissus flowers on the pattern of her dress. In her card, I Don’t Want To Give Up, she wears a flower crown made of these flowers, and they are also spotted on the pattern of her dress. One of her outfits from a card where she is explicitly shown to be painting, a card that represents the exploration of her character (since it’s a colourful festival card), is called “Narcissus Salopette''. 

Other than their obvious correlation to narcissism and by extension, NPD, these flowers represent Ena’s self-obsession and her need to overcome it to achieve something great for herself.

One of the official art also has this. 

Rin, in the Empty Sekai, is a direct manifestation of Ena’s feelings. Here they mirror each other, and Ena is shown as a reflection of Rin in the pond, much like the infamous Narcissus myth where he drowns to his death after falling into the pond from admiring himself too much. The myth of Narcissus warns us of self-obsession, to the point of neglecting the world and the people around us. We destroy ourselves in the pursuit of ourselves because we can’t see beyond it.

Ultimately, this isn’t to say that you can’t headcanon her to have BPD or relate to her if you don’t have NPD, but ignoring her very blatant narcissism coding is just really, really weird when 1) NPD is severely stigmatised 2) NPD women go under the radar by professionals and casual armchair diagnosers in favour of BPD.

[samd1o1]

Yooo! Claudia was confirmed to be autistic!!!

I definitely agree she's autistic! Although I wish she'd also get confirmed with BPD. But I doubt that one would ever happen. Still a win though!

[mothmanyeetus]

Okay I’m sorry, I need to rant.

If you say the Spymaster came before Missy because of how he switched up on the Doctor, you are participating in BPD coding erasure.

I have no problem with theorization, ‘what if’s’, and aus. I have a problem when you say he HAD to have come first because of how he acts with the Doctor vs how Missy did.

The Master is a very BPD coded character and when you say that Missy must have come after him because of her attitude towards the Doctor vs his, it’s erasure.

People with borderline SPLIT. We change our minds violently, especially if something happens to trigger that event (in this case, the Timeless Child). To completely erase that split is to erase part of that character.

Honestly, I think most people do it for the “ship”. Sorry that you think your Thoschei is ruined despite the fact that Sacha himself pretty much has said it outright that the Master is STILL in love with the Doctor.

It pisses me off to no end that it seems like people can’t handle a borderline coded character. Yes, we change our minds. Yes, it can seem like it came out of left field. Yes, we emotionally break over the ones we love.

The characters that help represent us shouldn’t have to be pushed aside just because YOU don’t understand.

From what we know, the order is correct. Sorry you can’t understand characters not necessarily meant for you. x

Rant over.

[lindentea]

tbh i didn't like him at first either! and then i got to him crying himself to sleep on his couch at the end of "Ozzie's", and then "Oops" and... ho-leeee shit. it just suddenly clicked so hard for me.

my polycules keep being really sweet and helpful to me and i don't feel like i deserve it and uhhhhhh Blitz really is just becoming a self-insert character for me, huh?

[razzberrydazz]

Just finished watching through season 1 of Arcane in preparation for the upcoming season 2

And I gotta say, I love Jinx

Jinx my Beautiful Princess with a Disorder, they could never make me hate you

BPD-coded unhinged characters my beloved

I love that her entire father-daughter dynamic with Silco is this meme:

[aetherial-boy]

‘we need more BPD representation’ ‘more BPD coded characters’ you couldn’t handle Chloe Price. you couldn’t handle Kaveh. you couldn’t handle Catra. you don’t deserve more BPD coded characters when you can’t be normal about the ones you already have.

[mewos-laptop]

Had a convo w/ a friend abt the way Basil gets demonized in the Fandom and figured it wld work as a post ssssooooo here you goooooo

(Sarcastic intent for all of this, it's long as shit so I'm putting this here so ppl don't take it the wrong way)

"Oh wow, this character has canonically been abandoned and neglected in some way for their entire life, and act very rashly, impulsively, and obsessively because of it !!! I wonder if maybe these are symptoms of underlying trauma and a personality disorder. Ohhhh that couldn't be !!!! It's clearly just bc they're and annoying little bitchy abuser manipulator who just wants to date Sunny for his own gain and doesn't care abt his friends 😁😁😁😁 I am not perpetuating any prevalent and harmful stereotypes about BPD, an already stigmatized and demonized disorder which systematically makes it nearly impossible for health professionals to believe you in anything you say, which causes even more trauma for the person suffering from BPD. I'm so glad that I know this character SSSSOOOOOOO WELL and I am now going to post my hot takes abt them and their BPD symptoms all over Tiktok to make teenagers without personality disorders agree w/ me more, and therefore make them ostracize and demonize real people with BPD !!!! I am such a good person for this, and do not need to face any consequences to my abelist actions !!!!"

[qoldenskies]

I think they did genuinely mean he has OCD because he was always written with his neurodivergence in mind. There are a ton of overlapping traits plus being autistic statistically increases the likelyhood on having OCD. Not giving them too much writers to much credit though because I doubt they did research into the different types of OCD. Contamination OCD is the one most portrayed in media so it’s a common misconception that it’s the only type.

im hesitant because the way its mentioned is so offhanded im almost tempted to assume it wasnt really intended, just used as a descriptor to mean that he's neurotic and cleanly. but it would be neat if it was more intentional than i thought .... i choose to believe that in my heart of hearts

[murdocktm]

daredevil & bullseye = bpd 4 bpd enemies