(sorry in advance, this might get long) Not to play devil’s advocate or anything, but Roxy DOES display a LOT of narcissism symptoms, just not where the ‘say anything you don’t like is narcissism or gaslighting’ kiddie fans like to say. The Gregory stuff is pretty much irrelevant for a lot of already mentioned reasons, but people discount the possibility of NPD going “no no no poor sweet little bean just has bad self esteem!” and
OKAY.
So I have TWO responses to this! Bare with me here. The second one goes more into the traits you're talking about, so stick with me.
For the first one, I'm going to focus on your first ask, where you say that Roxy does show traits of covert narcissism. If this is in response to the post I reblogged about how some fans continue to call her a narcissistic bully (obviously using the term narcissistic wrong as is typical), then you have missed the point entirely. I apologise if I come across as aggressive here, my intention is to be as clear as physically possible.
What we were not complaining about her being labelled as a horrible person. We are not complaining about her potentially being a narcissist in the way you've described. We are not complaining about people criticising her. We are not complaining about people just not liking her.
The whole point of the post, was that we were annoyed by the hypocrisy. The point was about the double standards in a large chunk of fandom spaces.
You're right! Narcissism is used as a catch-all for someone people (not just 'kiddie fans') don't like and want to hate on, when that's not what narcissism is! But that's not the point we were making. Let me give you some examples of what we meant.
Whether you believe it or not, it's widely theorised that Monty killed Bonnie. It's a common interpretation that he killed Bonnie to take his place in the band, and to get the spotlight all to himself, with his sights now being set on Freddy himself. These fans often say that he did this regardless of the virus effecting everyone, and got more aggressive under its influence.
Now, these same fans, see Roxy. She tells Gregory that he has no friends. She calls him nothing, a loser and that she's better than him. She talks to herself in the mirror to boost her ego, and compliments herself fairly regularly throughout Security Breach while she is under the influence of the virus that changes their behaviour.
Many of these fans, adore Monty. They love him despite what he's done. They find him interesting, with more character depth than meets the eye, and ship him with the rest of the male cast liberally. He's UwU'd and a himbo and they love him as their poor little meow meow.
However, this is not the case with Roxy.
To many of these fans, she is awful. She's irredeemable and deserves everything she got. She's the worst character in the game. She only likes Cassie because Cassie is a big fan of hers and idolises her. She's nothing but an arrogant, self-centred, bitch, with the word narcissistic used incorrectly to encapsulate all of this.
Do you see the difference?
This was the point of the post. And please don't come at me saying not all Monty fans are like that, I know that already. To say that to me would also be missing the point.
The point is that, if you swapped the two over, and Monty did exactly what Roxy did in the game, while Roxy did exactly what Monty did... The results wouldn't change. Monty would still be their complicated, deep and meaningful character to thirst over and adore, and Roxy would still be the worst person you've ever met because how dare she kill Bonnie? That's irredeemably awful!
This is what we were complaining about. It doesn't matter what words are used, it's the fact that they're used by some fans to villainise her, and not anyone else. We were complaining about how Roxy can't be mean without being hated, virus or no virus, there is no excuse for being mean, unless you're a hot guy everyone likes and it adds to your hot guy character. It's not just Monty either, he was just the best example I could think of off hand. If Moon, Freddy, Sunny, DJ, Bonnie or even Foxy said the exact same things as Roxy, and acted in the exact same way, they would also be loved and adored for it, while Roxy is hated.
I'm going to say this one more time for those still missing the point, I am not saying everyone does this. I know not everyone does this. What I'm saying applies only to those that do this. This is just a common way to interpret these characters in a handful of corners of this fandom, and it's part of a wider problem you see in a lot of other fandoms as well. We are annoyed by the hypocrisy of how some characters are betrayed compared to others. The wording used is a separate issue, to the intention behind them.
I am not aiming to call anyone out with this. I am not aiming to start drama either. That is not the intention of any of this. We are talking about what we've observed and how we feel about it. This is not intended as an attack on anyone, or saying you shouldn't like your favourites or any other bad faith read you can make of this. We were complaing about what we've seen and how we feel about it. That is all.
And this is the last time I am clarifying that discussion. I apologise if this all comes across as rude or aggressive, I'm just trying to make myself as clear as physically possible. This being the second time I've clarified it, feels enough to me. I'm open to discuss some of this, but honestly, this isn't what I want to continue spending my night on, so if anyone wants to talk about this stuff, the responses may be slow. Got other, more fun stuff to talk about, ya know?
NOW the SECOND response is more relevant to the rest of what you said.
You're absolutely right! You could attribute her traits to the covert narcissism that you've described! I've never said she can't be and I love the fact that you've drawn these connections with some level of understanding of it! I've only seen one other person describe Roxy as a narcissist that didn't use it as a way of saying she's awful and I love that! You might be the same person as that other anon, I can't really tell, but just know that I appreciate you telling me about your interpretation with actual information on narcissism!! I may not see her as such (for reasons to follow), but it's really interesting when people portray her differently to me, and can actually back up assigning her a label like that!!
I'll say my interpretation of her is different to what you've described, and I can elaborate on how I read and portray her any time you like but this post is already long so I'll save it for another time. We're different people, so of course we have different interpretations, that's what makes talking about a character interesting! This isn't the only reason I wouldn't describe Roxy as NPD though.
I will not say that she has NPD, and I will not argue the idea of her having it with someone that can tell me about it like you have. This is because I don't know enough about NPD to draw a conclusion like that. I don't have anywhere near enough information on actual narcissism to draw any kind of connections to anything. My understanding pretty much starts and ends with 'low empathy', and how people are constantly misusing the term by applying it to everyone they don't like, or people that are just kinda mean. As such, I'm just not in a position to use the term to describe a character at all.
I can research it of course, but until then, rest assured, I will not be describing anyone as such, fictional or otherwise. I have no plans to research it for the time being in case you were wondering on that one, so this isn't likely to change any time soon. I'm just not educated enough on the topic to confidently write Roxy as a narcissist. If people read my version of her as such, then that's great! But I will not go into a discussion on Roxy's character and refer to her as anything specific unless I know what I'm talking about. Based on what you've said, my version of her woudn't line up with NPD that much anyway, so it's likely not going to be a conversation I'll need to be having very often after this.
By all means, if you know what you're talking about or are willing to research and learn about it? Don't let me or anyone else stop you from reading Roxy as a covert narcissist! If that's something you wish to explore in her character then you do it buddy!! I'd love to hear about it!
I just can't really have a strong opinion on something I'm not educated on. I take no issue in people calling her a narcissist in the context you have described. I don't get involved in the conversations surrounding the misuse of the word as a general descriptor of every negative trait ever, as I don't have the knowledge to properly engage in that kind of discussion. So if you did talk about this more with me, I'm afraid I couldn't really offer you much but my own interpretation in return. Would still love to hear about it though if this is something you're familiar with and are interested in though, that's the takeaway here. I may not have all the information, but I can still appreciate someone trying to properly portray it, right?
And those are my two responses!
Tl;dr:
Response 1: If this was your takeaway from the reblogged post about people hating Roxy, you've missed the point. We're annoyed by the double standards between how she's seen as awful, whereas others are praised for doing arguably much worse things than her.
Response 2: YEAH!!! YOU HEADCANON HER AS A COVERT NARCISSIST IF YOU WANT TO AND KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT IT TO DO SO COMFORTABLY!!! YOU DO YOU!!! ENJOY YOURSELF AND DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE STOP YOU!!! I can't really have a big long discussion about Roxy displaying those traits though, because I don't have the knowledge to do so. Can still enjoy people talking about it though.
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DP x DC Prompt
…
There are no more heroes.
Well, okay. Rewind a bit.
Danny has been doing the hero thing for a while now. He’s had a big reveal; everyone has accepted him (including his parents), the GIW disbanded, the Anti-Ecto acts repealed, and generally, everything is going great. Some of the A-Listers are even training as junior ghost hunters to help give him a break from his rogues! (Being Ghost King makes things hectic sometimes, and he just needs the extra help. Sue him!)
The point is, literally nothing is wrong with Danny Phantom’s afterlife.
And then Valerie Gray, the Red Huntress, disappears in front of his eyes.
Danny is baffled! She’s just…gone! Valerie just popped out of existence, like she was never there. But no matter how hard he searches in the Ghost Zone, he can’t find her soul anywhere. His core isn't broken in grief. So she’s not dead. Which is good. So then, where is she?
Some of the others come forward with ideas on how to find her. A few ghosts volunteer to go out into the mortal realm, an area Danny had declared off-limits, to see if she was out there. Danny approves it. He rounds up some of the friendlier (i.e., discreet) ghosts and Amity Parkers and demolishes the outside travel ban.
So everyone spreads out, looking for their dear frenemy and teammate. But it becomes apparent very quickly that something is wrong with the rest of the world.
There are no more heroes.
Every single living superhero on the face of the Earth has just…vanished. Villains are running amok; the countries are in chaos! Some aliens are invading Earth, mythical deities are trying to take over, and society is crumbling to the ground. Everything is on the brink of collapse.
Well, Danny was still there. And so were his people. They were pretty spread out, so could they just…take up the mantles? He also knew where to find the souls of dead heroes in the Zone; surely they wouldn't mind coming out of retirement for a little bit, especially if they couldn't die again. Oh! And that skeleton army leftover from Pariah Dark's reign might be useful in repelling those invading forces.
Honestly, there were more than enough hands to go around! And with the heroes gone, Danny didn't mind letting everyone out for a little break, as long as they followed his rules. They wouldn't stop the search for the other heroes, but hopefully, when they found them, the heroes wouldn't mind Danny's intervention too much. :)
In other words:
Someone fucks up, and all of Earth's living heroes are either wished out of existence or are whisked away to some far-off realm where Danny hasn't checked yet. In the attempt to figure out what's going on, Danny lets the dead run amok over the Earth as they search for clues. The skeleton army repels the invading armies, the souls of dead heroes deal with the world leaders, and his rogues and other Amity Parkers set up shop in place of famous heroes, trying to get the cities under control again.
Basically, they just do their best to keep everything from imploding until the Justice League and others are back.
(And why is it that Danny hasn't disappeared? Well, whatever caused everyone to go poof! only affected living heroes. Anyone heroes that were dead in the first place, or even just half-dead, stayed behind.)
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Hey, Jake & Jack fans, is this anything?
Both men imprisoned (literal & metaphorical).
Both offered an out from their current predicament by an outside force (arguably in the case of Brain Ghost Dirk).
Both have loose ties to Lord English visually.
Yellow initial glow & Gamzee involvement too.
Sometimes a guy just needs to explode (same pose too).
Both dual wielding weapons.
That same said weapon type (for Jack Noir) having killed Jane Crocker.
It's really looking like Jake is going to do her in.
I would also like to point out that we've had interactions involving these three (Jane, Jake, and Brain Ghost Dirk) before that consisted of similar topics & themes.
Brain Ghost Dirk implying that he's just there as moral support, a manifestation of Jake's powers, and as a coping mechanism. Jane also talking about ruling an empire with him while talking down to him, similar to how she saw and/or still sees him in Beyond Canon's Candy timeline. Jake also being uncertain about doing anything to harm her despite all the bad things she's doing.
Brain Ghost Dirk going away tells us that Jake's more hopeful than he's ever been. This is the moment where he is the most sure of his decisions than he's ever been in his life, whatever those decisions may be in regards to Jane and how to handle this situation.
He is probably going to shoot Jane down, quite literally. I would also argue that after all this time, the lad isn't beating the Lord English allegations. We might as well have a parallel of him killing Jane much like how Jack Noir killed her right before he got possessed by Lil Cal & given some of Lord English's immense power.
Alternatively maybe we'll get to see what the power of hope or hope bullets can do to someone whose done so much wrong & come so far off the deep end in terms of moral wrongdoings. Maybe with every shot that hits her, she'll begin to be swayed to the side of good & start to self-reflect.
I'm still not fully convinced that Gamzee actually cured Tavros' peanut allergy, I mean just look at the panel.
This could absolutely be interpreted as Jake injecting his hope power into the epipen and by proxy injecting both his power & the epipen into his son! If younger Jake is strong enough to defeat Grimbark Jade, then adult Jake might just be strong enough to defeat a peanut allergy is all I'm saying! In fact, now that I'm rambling about it, this seems like the more likely outcome is Jake's hope power swaying or (in the very least) confusing Jane mid-fight. Hope bullets, they would look cool & would be pretty strong!
The power of believing in others & wanting things to change can be a strong tool indeed, Mister English.
If there's one person who still believes in changing Jane's mind (or bringing her back to proper canonicity depending on how you interpret the recent lore), it would be Jake English, the believer.
Okay, maybe this is something! Tally ho!
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