Some thoughts on Lily's personality...

There was a discussion some time ago in the chat about Lily's (the vine using human hating fairy) personality; here are my thoughts on it.


Every time Lilly sees a human, she is reminded of how her sister was tortured to death. This angers her. She is also reminded that they could possibly do the same thing to her, which she fears. This increases and “hardens” her anger into hatred. She kills them with her vines the way she does so she can see for herself that she is stronger than them, that by rendering them helpless she knows that these humans, at least, are not powerful enough to hurt her. Killing them painfully also brings a measure of satisfaction from revenge, because her sister died painfully... but it also brings her sister's death back to mind, which renews her anger, her fear, and her desire for revenge.


Lea and the other human companions cause a great deal of cognitive stress on Lilly, because they break her expectations. She hates and fears the humans, but the human companions are (probably) nice to her, and don't threaten her. Every-time she sees a companion, she is reminded of her sister's death, and her hate and fear of humans, but the companion won't return that hate and fear.


With most people this could lead to a number of different “endgames”, depending on the person. Some people will see the lack of returned hatred and then question their own hatred. Some will hate that person MORE if they don't return it, possibly because they think that the person thinks themselves a better person. Some will see this lack of hatred, and assume that the person is being duplicitous (IE: going to betray them someplace down the road.)


I think Lilly was either the second or third type, probably the third type. Lilly “knows” how humans are, so Lea's lack of returned hatred means (in Lilly's mind) that she is planning to hurt them later. The more she sees Lea, and the more Lea is nice to her, the more Lilly is convinced of this (all the while being reminded of her own hate, fear, and memories of her sister's death). In addition to this, she may be suffering from cognitive dissonance. She “knows” that humans are bad, but Lea is nothing but nice to her. This leads to stress (which may be expressed as anger), and eventually lead her to try to remove the source of the dissonance (IE: Lea).


So, eventually her anger, fear, and mental stress override her desire to obey the pack laws and stay on the good side of her fellow tribe-mates, and she tries to take Lea out. This shatters her friendship with Crisis, which probably adds another reason in her mind as to why humans are bad.

I see no flaw in your logic. But what comes of this?

it's an interesting take on her and one that is very plausible indeed

I must say I have no defined plan for her yet but I know I want to have her appear in the story at one point.

I have to agree. Although I say it goes way deeper than just her sister. You have to look at not only what happened to her sister, but her as well. He lack of ability to grow beyond human size and her powerful plants magic. Then look at that Lily was captured at a time she couldn't use her magic. It is a safe bet that she was experimented on as well. Most likely some kind of military that was looking for an effective weapon against the hazardous wild life of Felarya. It is not known how long she was experimented on.

It's more of a survival instinct on blast. What I find it ironic is how Lea has a similar behavior. The major difference is Lea has a metal trigger. Meaning she wont become mistrusting until she gets betrayed. Lily is what would happen if Lea had a different trigger. Fear maybe',but I look at like her survival instinct just kicking in at the sight of humans going DANGER WILL ROBINSON. Attack Prepare to engage enemy. Just like a military command for a soldier.

Long and short Lily has simply been turned into a weapon and has long gone out of control. It wouldn't surprise me if she could understand Anna's technology better than she can. Her plant ability and lack of growth abilities are proof and a constant reminder of happened.

xlrp wrote:

Then look at that Lily was captured at a time she couldn't use her magic.

I'm sorry, you're misreading.

Wiki entry wrote:

Lily is extremely suspicious of humans. Her younger sister was captured at a time she couldn't use her magic and was tortured to death by them.

Lily wasn't tortured to death, it was her sister. Also she wasn't captured, ever. The wiki doesn't say if she can't get bigger or won't, either. Finally, it doesn't say whether Lily was captured when she (Lily) or she (Lily's sister) was the one who couldn't use her magic. We're still needing a clarification on that, Karbo.
It says "she never grow above human size". Do you mean "she never grew", meaning she can't, or "she never grows", meaning she doesn't?

She couldn't save her sister. So there's a bit of self blame. And she doesn't grow, but she could. Her preferred size is human sized or smaller.

Stabs wrote:

xlrp wrote:

Then look at that Lily was captured at a time she couldn't use her magic.

I'm sorry, you're misreading.

Wiki entry wrote:

Lily is extremely suspicious of humans. Her younger sister was captured at a time she couldn't use her magic and was tortured to death by them.

Lily wasn't tortured to death, it was her sister. Also she wasn't captured, ever. The wiki doesn't say if she can't get bigger or won't, either. Finally, it doesn't say whether Lily was captured when she (Lily) or she (Lily's sister) was the one who couldn't use her magic. We're still needing a clarification on that, Karbo.
It says "she never grow above human size". Do you mean "she never grew", meaning she can't, or "she never grows", meaning she doesn't?

It is not really stated that she wasn't. I look at it as Lily and her sister were both experimented on. That resulted Lily's hatred. I say mean never does because she can't. It was never really stated what happened to her.

It's an interesting spin on Lily. Although from a little discussion I had with Karbo, her fear and hatred of humans apparently isn't just blind rage. I asked Karbo if she'd listen to Temi if she was confronted by a harmless human and the leader of the pack had something to say about it. Karbo told me that Temi has enough authority to make Lily stop attack for now apparently. So how do we study that?

Sean Okotami wrote:

It's an interesting spin on Lily. Although from a little discussion I had with Karbo, her fear and hatred of humans apparently isn't just blind rage. I asked Karbo if she'd listen to Temi if she was confronted by a harmless human and the leader of the pack had something to say about it. Karbo told me that Temi has enough authority to make Lily stop attack for now apparently. So how do we study that?

I would think that as Temi being the alpha leader of the tribe. For Temi to be the leader she has to have enough skill to throw all members in check.
Not saying she rules by force. But know how to all he members a spanking if she needed to.

Personally, I think saying "Well if her sister was tortured by humans and she hates humans it's not a far stretch to assume she hates humans too" is a bit much. Wouldn't it be better to assume that, since it doesn't mention her being tortured, that she wasn't tortured?

The way I see it, she felt helplessness at being unable to save her sister and her hatred of humanity is her way of coping with it. Some people go on a binge to make themselves powerful enough to "never let it happen to someone else" (A police officer who aspired to join the force because his brother was killed by some gang-related crime when he (the cop) was little), some try to blot out the incident (Blank out about a year of their life, for instance), some try to strengthen their character so that "If the moment comes again, I will not hesitate to step in" (Volunteering to be a hostage instead of someone else), and so on. Lily's choice of the matter for coping was "Humans are evil, they must be stopped" and turning them into a target, an enemy. This is pretty much in line with the first proposed coping method, but more on the revenge end than protective one.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

I see no flaw in your logic. But what comes of this?

I only posted this little bit because I ran across the notes I had made during the aforementioned chat session, and I wanted those notes out of my inbox and placed somewhere useful. I couldn't find anywhere useful, so I posted them here.

So there's no secret plan or idea behind my post, other than "I think this is a good description of Lily's personality (and thus could be useful to people writing her), so I'm going to post it and people can tell me what they think I got wrong."

Malahite wrote:

Personally, I think saying "Well if her sister was tortured by humans and she hates humans it's not a far stretch to assume she hates humans too" is a bit much. Wouldn't it be better to assume that, since it doesn't mention her being tortured, that she wasn't tortured?

The way I see it, she felt helplessness at being unable to save her sister and her hatred of humanity is her way of coping with it. Some people go on a binge to make themselves powerful enough to "never let it happen to someone else" (A police officer who aspired to join the force because his brother was killed by some gang-related crime when he (the cop) was little), some try to blot out the incident (Blank out about a year of their life, for instance), some try to strengthen their character so that "If the moment comes again, I will not hesitate to step in" (Volunteering to be a hostage instead of someone else), and so on. Lily's choice of the matter for coping was "Humans are evil, they must be stopped" and turning them into a target, an enemy. This is pretty much in line with the first proposed coping method, but more on the revenge end than protective one.

One thing to keep in mind is that she doesn't hunt down humans. Well, not any more than any other fairy. But when she comes across a human, then the hatred kicks in, which manifests in a cold, cruel personality. But she doesn't track down humans or seek out specific ones or anything like that.

Silent_eric wrote:

Malahite wrote:

Personally, I think saying "Well if her sister was tortured by humans and she hates humans it's not a far stretch to assume she hates humans too" is a bit much. Wouldn't it be better to assume that, since it doesn't mention her being tortured, that she wasn't tortured?

The way I see it, she felt helplessness at being unable to save her sister and her hatred of humanity is her way of coping with it. Some people go on a binge to make themselves powerful enough to "never let it happen to someone else" (A police officer who aspired to join the force because his brother was killed by some gang-related crime when he (the cop) was little), some try to blot out the incident (Blank out about a year of their life, for instance), some try to strengthen their character so that "If the moment comes again, I will not hesitate to step in" (Volunteering to be a hostage instead of someone else), and so on. Lily's choice of the matter for coping was "Humans are evil, they must be stopped" and turning them into a target, an enemy. This is pretty much in line with the first proposed coping method, but more on the revenge end than protective one.

One thing to keep in mind is that she doesn't hunt down humans. Well, not any more than any other fairy. But when she comes across a human, then the hatred kicks in, which manifests in a cold, cruel personality. But she doesn't track down humans or seek out specific ones or anything like that.

Well, the wiki says that she sometimes use humans to lure others to the members of her pack. The wiki even says that fairies like hunting with her because hunt is usually good, albeit gruesome. So it does she has some conscious thoughts over her hatred by contributing to everyday hunts.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Silent_eric wrote:

Malahite wrote:

Personally, I think saying "Well if her sister was tortured by humans and she hates humans it's not a far stretch to assume she hates humans too" is a bit much. Wouldn't it be better to assume that, since it doesn't mention her being tortured, that she wasn't tortured?

The way I see it, she felt helplessness at being unable to save her sister and her hatred of humanity is her way of coping with it. Some people go on a binge to make themselves powerful enough to "never let it happen to someone else" (A police officer who aspired to join the force because his brother was killed by some gang-related crime when he (the cop) was little), some try to blot out the incident (Blank out about a year of their life, for instance), some try to strengthen their character so that "If the moment comes again, I will not hesitate to step in" (Volunteering to be a hostage instead of someone else), and so on. Lily's choice of the matter for coping was "Humans are evil, they must be stopped" and turning them into a target, an enemy. This is pretty much in line with the first proposed coping method, but more on the revenge end than protective one.

One thing to keep in mind is that she doesn't hunt down humans. Well, not any more than any other fairy. But when she comes across a human, then the hatred kicks in, which manifests in a cold, cruel personality. But she doesn't track down humans or seek out specific ones or anything like that.

Well, the wiki says that she sometimes use humans to lure others to the members of her pack. The wiki even says that fairies like hunting with her because hunt is usually good, albeit gruesome. So it does she has some conscious thoughts over her hatred by contributing to everyday hunts.

I disagree. She lures humans yeah. And she is good at hunting, and a good pack leader, but she can't turn the hatred off. She just becomes cold and hateful towards humans. But this doesn't mean she goes after them exclusively. She will likely do the same thing to a neko, or a rare elf, even though the wiki doesn't specify that explicitly.

Silent_eric wrote:

I disagree. She lures humans yeah. And she is good at hunting, and a good pack leader, but she can't turn the hatred off. She just becomes cold and hateful towards humans. But this doesn't mean she goes after them exclusively. She will likely do the same thing to a neko, or a rare elf, even though the wiki doesn't specify that explicitly.

I disagree with her going after neko's and elves. She would only go after them as food to them. But will not go after them with any malice.

xlrp wrote:

Silent_eric wrote:

I disagree. She lures humans yeah. And she is good at hunting, and a good pack leader, but she can't turn the hatred off. She just becomes cold and hateful towards humans. But this doesn't mean she goes after them exclusively. She will likely do the same thing to a neko, or a rare elf, even though the wiki doesn't specify that explicitly.

I disagree with her going after neko's and elves. She would only go after them as food to them. But will not go after them with any malice.

That's exactly what I'm saying. She would hunt them for food. But not with hatred and wanting to torture them. But she still hunts and eats them the same way. And if she's in a pack, she will trick them just like she would a human.

Silent_eric wrote:

xlrp wrote:

Silent_eric wrote:

I disagree. She lures humans yeah. And she is good at hunting, and a good pack leader, but she can't turn the hatred off. She just becomes cold and hateful towards humans. But this doesn't mean she goes after them exclusively. She will likely do the same thing to a neko, or a rare elf, even though the wiki doesn't specify that explicitly.

I disagree with her going after neko's and elves. She would only go after them as food to them. But will not go after them with any malice.

That's exactly what I'm saying. She would hunt them for food. But not with hatred and wanting to torture them. But she still hunts and eats them the same way. And if she's in a pack, she will trick them just like she would a human.

I'm unsure on that as it is stated that she only has no human friends. But it is reasonable to say she might have befriends a neko or elf at one point or another and would not seek to give them such a cruel death.