Douchebaggery! and other psychs

[Suraru]

Everyone is a douchebag, just some are more self centered then others. Take me for example, I am proud that I am an intelligent, kind person with his heart in the right place. So, because people don't see that, it saddens me. So, I tell them why I'm awesome!

Its human nature, take my brother, he doesn't get enough compliments in his life because he is an attention whore who everyone is sick of. He is a huuuge douchebag, because what little good things he can do is all he has, so he embraces it.
Now take Gilbert Godfree, I met him in person. Worlds, biggest, douchebag. Everyone knows he is rich and powerful, and he is used to compliments. Don't give him any, and he will get a bit uncomfortable because he is used to the amount of attention he gets.

Where am I going with this? I dunno, but too much attention = douchebag, too little = douchebag, and just enough... = douchebag.


This is a thread to talk about human personalities. Keep it on topic, and post here instead of other threads (because we find ourselves talking about politics like this a lot).

[jayjaycaps]

You want to learn about natural human duchebaggery? Reread Lord of the Flies. True human duchebagery at its finest: 6-16 year old boys with no rules.

[Suraru]

Ah yes, a book with some of the greatest characters ever written. Why? Because they weren't written with weaknesses and strengths, they were written with Human's weaknesses and strengths, followed by their own.

Story Writing Tip: Understand the 7 deadly sins from Christianity, then give them to all of your characters. Its hard, but it makes a better, more realistic characters.

[jayjaycaps]

I always liked Rodger, although I don't know why. Probably has something to do with the whole "secretly wanting to hurt EVERYONE" thing he had going on.

[Zender_Solarheart]

Story Writing Tip: Understand the 7 deadly sins from Christianity, then give them to all of your characters. Its hard, but it makes a better, more realistic characters.

Wow, that's a very good idea, actually. *takes notes*

Since cooking up small stories is something of a hobby for me, I'll have quite some fun implementing that one...though, depending on the target audience, I may have to adapt the sin of Lust into something more like "wants something so much, they'll go to immoral/unethical lengths to get it." After all, just about every cardinal sin pretty much stems from pride. In the case of Lust, it's essentially the "I want him/her all to myself" kind of pride, thinking that you deserve him/her more than anyone else, so it's easy to "adjust" for story-writing purposes.

[Suraru]

FUCK TARGET AUDIENCES!
David Lillie taught that to me (even if indirectly). Write what you want to write, don't alter your stories to allow a larger audience.
That's why the media sucks so much.

[talin]

^fully agree!

Slight changes to get your story across better so people will understand what you're talking about is understandable but changing parts to make them less controversial or to "target a bigger audience" often makes it average in multiple areas rather than amazing in one. Don't forget to give your characters admirable traits as well like the willingness to make sacrifices for the good of others.
Actually story spoiler for an idea I have, read at your own discretion!

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I've been playing around with an idea for a genius who sees humanity in decline and secretly constructs a massive robotic army under the cover of a steel parts and machinery manufacturing company. He goes from a college student to an international private business owner (who is secretly waging a war with a "non-existent" militant society that is trying to put a stop to his plans.) and finally he unleashes his hell upon the earth killing and abducting billions. The ending is highly controversial and people would say "OMFG the bad guy WON?!" but in reality it would paint a picture of him somewhat being the good guy. The base theme is "If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, what is the stairway to heaven made with?"

[Smackman]

it'll target everyone if you actually know what you're talking about. some people just try to write when they have nothing to say. like im pretty sure LOTR was the farthest thing from pandering to the public. but since tolkien had a lot of story to tell and he knew how to write coherently it worked out.

but some people just arent artists, i know "everyones an artist" but some people really have very little to say about anything so they try to write a novel and fake like everything but one little concept, so they end up using doucheyness and abstract symbolism to write, its very common in death metal lyrics

basically if you dont relate to it its more than likely that noone does, if you invent some kind of insincere passion its usually something that doesnt exist in anyone but others who have invented the same thing in themselves

[Smackman]

But yeah i guess im a purist

I kind of think art relies on the few things all people have in common and not the 7 billion things they dont

[talin]

Makes sense but I'm pretty sure everyone can comprehend the morals "Don't give up", "Don't be afraid to rely on your friends" and, "Sometimes sacrifice is necessary". All of which were in LOTR so as long as you touch on things like that and display it in a creative way then your going to have a fairly large fan base, especially if few other people had sent that message in a way that speaks to people.

[Zender_Solarheart]

For the record, when I mentioned adapting stories to a target audience, I meant more like, say, if one of my stories was used in my dream career of a game developer. At that point, there's a certain degree of "adjustment" that has to be done for marketing purposes, otherwise it may not even be allowed to sell, y'know?

But yeah, in terms of the stories I write simply for kicks, I don't censor or sugar-coat my work. If I want the valiant hero saving a tiger-woman from tentacle rape, cutting the monster into tiny gore-bits, then making passionate love to her that same night, I'm at liberty to do so in private.

[Smackman]

I thought lotr did so well not because of the morals, but because each character practically represented a part of everyone.
mainly with the fellowship, i mean they werent archetypes but there was an obvious humanity to all of the characters. i think the movies definitely lessened that to a degree. I thought boromir was the best character in the movie, the movie really fucked up aragorns character in a way, like they made him seem extremely heroic when he was more of a prodigal son. like he was kind of a dirtbag

[BlueLight]

What does Lord of the Rings have to do with douchebaggery?
Stop with the douchebaggery, offtopic posts, people.

[Suraru]

Not really off topic, the main topic is about douchebaggery, and other psychs, which include the psychs of characters, which is what were talking about.

[Smackman]

stop naziing the topics... thats getting really fucking annoying on this forum

[jayjaycaps]

What about Tyler Durden from Fight Club? That's psychs AND douchebaggery rolled into one person!... Or more specifically, two people, but what ever...

[Zender_Solarheart]

And then you have this fucker from the Mega Man Zero series:


That guy takes douchebaggery to a psychotic level.

[Suraru]

Btw, douchebaggery is a psych, incase you didn't know ^^

And smackman, stop starting fights, PM him next time.
Blue, either your offline, or mature enough not to respond. Its hard to believe either of them XD

[Zender_Solarheart]

On the subject of personalities, I try to keep mine rather open and non-judgmental when I can, but I will admit that there are times when I slip up (especially if a strong moral value is at the heart of the problem, such as someone being abused).

Though, that's just how I see myself; truth be told, the very concept of a "douchebag" is mostly dependent on how other people see someone. I mean, there are some cases where the bitch/bastard's just rotten to the core, but most of the time, it can be described as "one man's villain is another man's hero." This concept is found commonly in a case of a two-party dispute, be it a political debate, a military conflict, or simply an out-of-touch couple arguing. Each person believes he/she is right, and likely have others who would agree with them on that. Hell, even the most infamous douches of human history (Hitler, Stalin, you know the types) believed what they were doing was right, and had followers who supported that notion.

My point is, the person you may see as a "douchebag" or a "prick" likely has people who think otherwise of him/her. After all, if people could actually agree 100% on how they saw people, we wouldn't have Bieber albums and Twilight films still making money, now would we?

[mando]

Is it just me or does Douchebag only apply to guys? I've never seen a chick and been like, man that chick is a douchebag. I might go, man that chick is a bitch, that chick is an attention whore, or any other variety of adjectives/nouns, but never douchebag.