Development of a sociopath.

Okay, so I've been trying to think up a couple of guidelines for a crossover story which takes place in a very nice friendly kind of world, though it still has some interesting ingredients like Magitek and otherwordly Mythology, as well as a strong theme of the power of friendship.

Heres a rough outline of how the stories probably gonna go;

Part one:BEGINNING and EXPOSITION. The three main characters meet due to circumstance, seperately count as an affably evil sociopath with a penchan for chaos; theres the idealist flying fighter just looking for his place in the world; and finally the [[Mr.Fixit fixer]], a character with his head in the clouds, just bumbling along and happy to mess around with anything made of metal, cog, or conductive wire.

The three of them each get their character defining moments breaking out of a facility for juvenile delinquents, and mutually decide that their simple desire for freedom is enough to band together, at least for the time being, and prepare themselves to go looking in places of the world far from civilization. So begins the journey.

The rest of the story is a pretty standard formula. The younger two of the group are taken away by said sugarbowls version of social services, deeming that they should grow up in the loving care of a family, not as orphans. The (anti)hero starts his quest to free them, at first out of simple curiosity, and to see if said other characters would turn to his methods to free themselves.. But later, he notices these strange feelings he's never had before... eg. pride at the feats of the lightning bruiser, when he almost manages to fight off impossible odds and escape on his own. Anger, when said escape attempt is foiled at the very last second by another party... Basically, a big bunch of emotional firsts for him, as he finds that he actually cares for something that happened to someone else, and feels joy at something other than manipulation.

Finally, there'll be a nice, big, explosive finale, where in a last showdown with the heroic antagonist, he sacrifices his own chance of escape to ensure that of his newfound 'blood brothers'. This might or might not mean a fatal heroic sacrifice..

So... any thoughts?

edited 24th May '12 2:39:22 AM by Zanzibar

If one of the guys is a genuine sociopath then I can't imagine his companions sticking around him for very long. How is this going to be handled? Played seriously or for laughs?

Also is this a script/screenplay? You seem to pretty much know already how the whole story is going to go.

Look at Dexter and I Dont Want To Kill You (especially the latter) for well-done sociopaths. The latter is more sympathetic than the former but the former does have that "realizes that he does in fact care about some people" thing.

It looks like you have it sorted.

That's... inaccurate. Some sociopaths can fake emotions so well that they are indistinguishable from "normal" people.

edited 23rd May '12 6:32:49 PM by StolenByFaeries

"That's... inaccurate. Some sociopaths can fake emotions so well that they are indistinguishable from "normal" people."

Good point. With that in mind I wonder if it would be interesting to write this from a first person POV with the sociopath as the main character. We get to see firsthand how he tries to operate in society.

That would be good - there are very few works that do that. I once again recommend the two works above for some takes on it.

Though in those both the sociopaths are also Serial Killers... of sorts.

^ He isn't quite that bad, but thanks to the setting just being mildly evil already would tend to stick out.

So far I think of him as a class C psychopathic manchild, an intellignet, able individual who nevertheless can act childishly naive and sees the world as his stomping ground. He CAN and WILL make plans to get something he wants though, and, again by the standards of the setting, is prepared to use very brutal methods to achieve his goals (for example, grabbing and dangling an obstructive bureaucrat out the window, grinning all the while, when any other character in said setting would never even think of anything more malicious than an insult.)

When theres nothing going on though, you wouldn't realize anything wrong with him... he's just friendly,excitable guy. At most a little eccentric.

edited 24th May '12 4:33:10 AM by Zanzibar

Siociopaths aren't emotionless, necessarily, just divorced from regret, guilt, and inhibition. It is possible for a sociopath to care about someone.

Mmm... all those points really are cool. And you really helped me to understand more about the sociopaths. That will help with my own sociopath too. Thanks, people!

On an unrelated note, how do you stop being a "new troper"?

A sociopath is not someone who doesn't feel emotion; it's more accurate to say they 'don't feel empathy'. They have difficulty recognising the emotions of others - as well as themselves.

I feel it's worth mentioning that most real world sociopaths live perfectly normal lives often without hurting anyone physically. Emotionally they likely hurt a lot of people due to bluntness and lack of empathy, but that's more unintended Jerkass than malicious intent.

Also true.

I am a sociopath, and I have lasting companions. Just responding to an earlier point about companions not sticking around.

I can also say I don't spend most of my day planning murders. A very ugly Hollywood stereotype, and nothing more.

I do not presume to speak for all of those like me, I just decided to give a little input given that I might be able to say something useful about the topic.

edited 30th Jun '12 6:51:23 PM by NickTheSwing

You've been diagnosed?

Yes, I have been diagnosed.

Do you mean that you have been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder or that you have been specifically classified as sociopathic? There is an ICD distinction between the two, with somewhat different implications.

I have been diagnosed as having Antisocial Personality Disorder, and "sociopathic."

In terms of development, though, its not really ever been something I've felt horrible about, and I've always had a moral code of my own devising.

Oh... just wow... I just noticed my character is not a sociopath per se, but more like... Gah, I dunno anymore!

Then they're probably more of a person and less of a category. :)

Yeah, its impossible to put anyone in one predefined category with one default behavior.

edited 6th Jul '12 11:09:35 PM by NickTheSwing