LNH: Deja Dude lnhq.info entry

[Martin Phipps]

On Apr 2, 6:46 am, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:

> >  Also, you could say "Deja Dude was an
> > exaggeration of the Real World Martin Phipps" and not "Deja Dude was
> > an exaggeration of the Real World Martin Phipps's annoying traits"
> > because it is still pretty much saying that I am annoying and that, in
> > itself, is annoying.
>
> Well, that's the thing.  We all have annoying traits, and I, for one,
> thought that the early Deja Dude was, in fact, supposed to specifically be
> based on your own perception of your negative traits, with the positive
> ones only coming to the fore later.  Much like many of the WCs.
>
> Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Super Apathy Lad, f'rinstance.

Well, okay, but if the early LNHers were supposed to be unflattering
parodies of the writers themselves I think this shows a bit of
humility.  The challenge for people writing the LNH in the mid
nineties was to take these flawed individuals and turn them into
heroes.  I don't think this description of Deja Dude portrays him as a
hero.

The fact is that when I originally wrote Deja Dude I called him Cliche
Lad.  There was even a gag where Deja Dude says that he isn't Cliche
Lad anymore so he isn't going to portray himself as a little kid.
And, of course, Deja Dude did eventually get married and start a
family.  We even saw him teaching in Taiwan at one point.
(Specifically the issue where Deja Dude became the leader of the LNH
and disappeared around noon time just as he was telling students who
had passed and who had failed.  The gag was that leaders of the LNH
were disappearing at midnight it was midnight in Net.ropolis.)

Which brings up a good point: Deja Dude often represented not what I
wished I could be but what I wished I could do.  He was pure Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego,_and_super-ego#Id

"The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure which
contains the basic drives.The id contains the libido, which is the
primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the
demands of reality. The id acts according to the "pleasure principle",
seeking to avoid pain or displeasure aroused by increases in
instinctual tension."

By contrast, characters like Ultimate Ninja, Plot King, Continuity
Champ and Kid Kirby were super ego characters: they represented what
writers wished they could be.  Note that the negative aspects of
Ultimate Ninja (ie him killing members of the LNH for sport in the
Peril Room) were added by other writers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego,_and_super-ego#Super-ego

"The super-ego aims for perfection.[17] It comprises that organised
part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely
unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual
goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that
criticises and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and
actions."

I don't think we could extend this analysis to villainous characters.
Everybody sees themselves as a hero.  Nobody sees themselves as a
villain. So I object, actually, to Psykeye being described as a
"split" from Deja Dude.  Granted, Deja Dude himself did naively see
Psykeye not as a threat but as a kind of brother.  It was basically a
kind of conceit where someone that looked like him and talked like him
couldn't be evil.  But, again, the problem is that nobody sees
themselves as evil: everybody sees themselves as good and, hence,
doing "evil" is just simply a matter of being able to justify one's
actions.

So, yeah, I think the entry still needs to be cleaned up a bit.  And
if there are similar problems with other entries I think that needs to
be looked into too as people may be sensitive about how their
characters are described.

Martin