Quotes you can build a character off of III: It's a crowd

[bionicleFanatic]

> The price of freedom is high. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. If I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not.

- Steve Rogers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier

[Erit]

"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?"

"The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed."

—Take a wild guess.

[HalfTangible]

"*laughing and sneering* Are you angry because I killed your friends?"
"Depending on the circumstances, I would have done something similar. It would be hypocritical of me to be angry with you."

*later, after brutally murdering her*

"... Oh, I forgot to mention: I am very hypocritical."

[Erit]

"*laughing and sneering* Are you angry because I killed your friends?"
"Depending on the circumstances, I would have done something similar. It would be hypocritical of me to be angry with you."

*later, after brutally murdering her*

"... Oh, I forgot to mention: I am very hypocritical."

Overlord's a goldmine.

[Kyrell1978]

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius."

[Wardog]

For "quotes that really sum up a character":

Frey was glad to see the back of her. Useful as she'd been, she was trouble right now. He still blamed her for his predicament. If she hadn't goaded him, he wouldn't have been forced to show off and pick up the relic.

Captain Darien Frey, unwilling to admit responsibility for getting himself cursed (in The Iron Jackal, from the Tales of the Ketty Jay series).

[Cluedrew]

I've got another back of quotes. Open the spoilers for sources and my interpretations.

Spoiler: "I wasn't done complaining yet!"

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-Emergency Exit

Don't go too far with this one, but venting by complaining is a legitimate character trait. Actually complaining about everything is a legitimate character trait as well, but that might be the "too far" because it drives me crazy. Maybe it wouldn't if it was all in character.

Spoiler: "Naomi only has two states, Smiling and punching. And she wasn't smiling."

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-The Far Side of Utopia

Anyone who solves problems by violence, and is rather happy the rest of the time. Happy instead of brooding or serious is a bit unusual, but another knob jumps out at me. That is where is the dividing line. Do they operate on a hair trigger, are they a bundle of joy with a flame of anger that is rarely seen or somewhere in between.

Spoiler: "So," I said, "There's now a god on my murder list."

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-A Practical Guide to Evil

If you do something to end up on the murder list, you will end up on the murder list. Doesn't matter who you are, they will find a way to make you pay.

Spoiler: "For as long as I can remember- two weeks."

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-Cat Legend

Character that can't remember anything from before two weeks ago. Not complicated but I like the little reminders, like how they can't tell the difference between something that has been there forever or something three weeks old.

Spoiler: "Think you can stay out of trouble?" "Of course I can! ... Probably."

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-Ode

{Glares at GM} Well, that is if you want to get meta about it. More this seems to matter of self-knowledge. They know they should leave well enough alone, let some questions go unanswered and that the immediate solution is not the best. But they just can't help themselves.

Spoiler: "Logic is for the weak. Follow me."

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-Misfile

And the living. There are other ways to make decisions, based off of emotion or instinct (or other types of reasoning depending on how you define logic). They seem to look down on going through things the slow way. Crank it up even further and you have a kind of anti-intellectual, I would make that one a villain.

[Kyrell1978]

Destiny's powerful hand has made the bed of my future, and it's up to me to lie in it. I am destined to be a superhero. To right wrongs, and to pound two-fisted justice into the hearts of evildoers everywhere. And you don't fight destiny. No sir. And, you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future, or you get all... scratchy.

[Max_Killjoy]

Destiny's powerful hand has made the bed of my future, and it's up to me to lie in it. I am destined to be a superhero. To right wrongs, and to pound two-fisted justice into the hearts of evildoers everywhere. And you don't fight destiny. No sir. And, you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future, or you get all... scratchy.

Is that from one of the The Tick? (In one of its multiple iterations...)

[Kyrell1978]

Is that from one of the The Tick? (In one of its multiple iterations...)

Yes...the 90s cartoon version.

[eru001]

Hans had his own thoughts about how to move the bus out of the way. They gave high emphasis to kinetic energy, and no emphasis to repair costs.

- 1632 Eric Flint

[superstrijder15]

"Well, that didn't go as I expected, but it provided a good lesson nontheless."
- 2012, My physics teacher, who often tried experiments the first time during class.

"That we ... In spite, or because, of being broken, may stand up and rise anew"
- 1983, Paraphrasing of Julia Ecklar and Leslie Fish in the song 'Hymn to Breaking Strain'

"It may not have been the simplest solution, but I learned a lot and might get points for creativity."
- Today, Me

[dmteeter]

"money can't buy knives" Surf ninjas

[Cluedrew]

Spoiler: "I doubt they pose any real threat anyway." "... ... ... Oy... aren't you gonna try and stop me?" "Meh, I don't really feel like it."

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-Emergency Exit

This is that villain that you meet early on but doesn't take you seriously for a while. Get a couple of small victories before they care. But when they do care, it might be time to start running.

Spoiler: "You're going to need another god," she told the creature. "I broke this one."

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-A Practical Guide to Evil

Although I don't think it was originally meant this way, but this gives me a kick when you give the voice an apologetic tone. A nice and kind character who is extremely strong and lacks control.

Spoiler: "I'm a good guy. It says so on my business card."

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-The Far Side of Utopia

This could be either the most honest and straightforward hero you have ever seen or a sarcastic villain. Either one works.

Spoiler: "I promised yer sister ye'd be alright, an' I like my kneecaps too much t' break a promise t'her."

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-Widdershins

The one who is speaking seems to be a bit of a survivor. The sister though, she seems to be the scary one. Who does care for her sibling and actually has a kind of friendship with the speaker. After all it is a promise and not something that is done entirely out of fear. A kind of tough love perhaps?

Spoiler: "I have places to go and people to be."

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A shape shifter or at least an impersonator. And a fairly active one at that.

I couldn't think of anything to add to this one, it spells out a general concept pretty explicitly, so I decided to format it a bit nicer.

"Why is it every time a new patient comes in, they can't look past the fact that Judy's a gorilla, and I'm a ninja? Can't you see we're people too?"

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"Well, except Judy. She's a gorilla."

[Vknight]

"Oh please it was just 1 Cloudkill spell there is not need to over-react to it"

[Cluedrew]

Only two quotes today, both are from the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons, both are from texts within that story world which are what the boxes are labeled with. As usual some notes on my interpretations are in spoilers.

YISUN was questioned once by their disciples at their speaking house. The questions were the following:
‘What is the ultimate reason for existence?’
To which YISUN replied, ‘Self-deception.’
‘How can a man live in perfect harmony?’
To which YISUN replied, ‘Non-existence.’
‘What is the ultimate result of all action?’
To which YISUN replied, ‘Futility.’
‘How best can we serve your will?’
To which YISUN replied, ‘Kindly ignore my first three answers.’

Spoiler

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Self-Deception: The most self-deceptive character I can think of is a villain, a monstrous villain who has themselves completely fooled. Maybe no-one else though, but they go along saying that what they do is good for the world and they really believe it as the burn and bleed it.

Non-existence: Since a character has to exist, lets go with stealth. Unnoticed and often un-affecting the world around them. Until! I have no idea what. Maybe nothing, maybe they are nothing more than the explanation of why someone else knows more than they should.

Futility: Someone who's every effort is futility is going to be... boring. But how about a saboteur (or mechanical a de-buffer) who thwarts others and tries to make their actions reach futility?

Ignore: Any character who believes that you should try for the sake of trying. Maybe they are just that stubborn about it, maybe they think trying will send an important message.

To train with the sword, first master sweeping. When you have mastered sweeping, you must master the way of drawing water. Once you have learned how to draw water, you must split wood. Once you have split wood, you must learn the arts of finding the fine herbs in the forest, the arts of writing, the arts of paper making, and poetry writing. You must become familiar with the awl and the pen in equal measure. When you have mastered all these things you must master building a house. Once your house is built, you have no further need for a sword, since it is an ugly piece of metal and its adherents idiots.

Spoiler

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They have seen war. They have seen violence. They have even mastered violence. And they hate it. They have seen what it brings and they have better ideas about what we should be trying to do.

More concretely, probably someone old, strong (preferably with a sword) and experienced who is some kind of pacifist now. Also carries some distain and anger for those who continue to fight.

[KyleG]

"what are we going to do tonight Brain?" "Same thing we do every night Pinky. TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD"

[eru001]

A man who think's he's clever brings a gun to a knife fight. A truly clever man takes his shot from much further away than that. If you have an advantage use it to the fullest extent.

[Stealthscout]

How about this one from Happy!:
My family heralry is 2 lions holding a banner saying" death before intimacy".

Maybe a hardcore urban bounty hunter or third generation death night?

[The Kool]

"Don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?"
*loading a large rifle* "Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."

-Shepherd Book, Firefly

[bc56]

The caterpillar sees not its destiny, except by fulfilling it. Only by shedding our previous bodies can we become beautiful butterflies. I see you have no wings. Let me show you mine.

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0531.html

[PastorofMuppets]

When I'm through with you, you'll be a member of the elite agency that's been thanklessly defending this big-ass country since the second American Revolution.... the invisible one.

[King of Nowhere]

I've seen the world as it should be. You are no part of it

that's the fluff text of a magic: the gathering card, great for any kind of holy avenger

What doesn't kill me, it makes me stronger

this is for my current character, a monk who runs headfirst into any kind of danger expecting to be uplifted by the experience.
Now that I'm high level, I could also add "and you'd be surprised by how many things tried and failed"
On more sober days, I could add instead "though I've needed a raise dead twice, not sure how that counts"

On that night when a bad guy took my family, I cried. But then I found resolve. Bad guys would no longer make m cry. I'd make them cry instead

Also from my current character, another one good for a kind of avenger.
IT also sets a kind of moral code: you make someone cry that is not a bad guy, you are a bad guy, and it is ok to make you cry.
Basically it's "you started it".

They say knowledge is power. That's undoubtedly true. They also say money is power, and that's also true. So I offer you a fair deal: power in exchange for power

that's something I was planning to use in my campaign, but never got the chance to. It can work for anyone dealing with information.

A lord of life and death dispenses life to the dead and death to the living. A master of life and death understood the secrets of life in death and death in life

Introduction for a lich. To be accompanied with spooky hand gestures of extending an arm with the hand palm up (for good things) or palm down (for bad things), so that you end up like a judge condemning or absolving.

A predictable turn of events

Works for a god wizard, or a wannaby god wizard. I'm using it for a villain that will make chess metaphors for everything.

The strong must not protect the weak. The weak must support the strong.
The strong do great things. If the weak sacrifice for them, they can be even greater.
The weak can't do great things. If the strong sacrifice for them, what are we left with?

this is a phylosophical argument in support of the lawful evil alignment. This quote is uttered in my campaign by someone who is as much a good guy as a worshipper of the god of tyranny can be.

I like kids. They are selfish, amoral, loathsome individuals, but they get away with it because they are cute. We have that in common

"Angel-face" Tony, assassin. Works for an evil character with high charisma.

[Cluedrew]

I'm back. As usual the spoiler warning is the quote. Source (if any) and my thoughts are in the spoiler. Only open them if you want to. Also there is a secret theme to the quotes this time, can anyone figure out what it is?

Spoiler: "<I suppose I should being with my child-hood.>" "<Oh, wow! You were the cutest thing ever!!>" "... <You know what? Forget my childhood.>"

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-Keychain of Creation

For some reason I have a vision of a dark and moody character trying to set up their tragic back-story and someone else will just not let things get dark.

Spoiler: "Rude or not, we are feeing merciful." "*ahem*" "That is, I'm feeling merciful."

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-Keychain of Creation

Yes, I would not like to be associated with such wishy-washy concepts are mercy. I think this sets the tone for a funny villain pair. The straight let's get the job done one and the crazy I sing a song of evil one.

Spoiler: "I know magic science."

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-Keychain of Creation

I just love this as a: neither magic nor science is not enough of a hand-wave for you. The character seems aware of that.

Spoiler: "I like to have an audience who might appreciate it when I explain every single nuance of my genius plans!!" "Ah. Exposition. Lovely."

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-Keychain of Creation

The generic meta-appreciating villain and the hero who is a bit tired of it.

Spoiler: {Battle Rages} Holding Sign: "Violence is not the answer."

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-Keychain of Creation

An actual non-violent character in a role-playing game? What madness is this? But the sign gives them a definite hippy vibe. And actually interested in reducing violence as opposed to just letting others do it, luckily not enough to actually disrupt things during a battle.

Spoiler: {Battle Rages} "Three guesses on who gets to clean up when this happens..."

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-Keychain of Creation

The character you build off of this quote.

Spoiler: "[...]invert the photon charge[...]" "THAT SHOULDN'T DO ANYTHING EVEN IF IT IS POSSIBLE!!"

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-Keychain of Creation

A very frustrated scientist. I feel the best way to make a character this is to combine the two, both the doer of bad science and the one who is frustrated by it. "This really shouldn't work but it does!" as they do something to save the day.

Spoiler: "Are you trying to make me laugh? Because I'm good at it."

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-Keychain of Creation

I feel like this is someone who comes off menacing/brooding, but really isn't.

Spoiler: "Everything she does is layer on layer of sheer deviousness. [...] She's up to nine layers already." "Extra drinks for the handsome bearded fellow in the corner!" "... twelve."

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-Keychain of Creation

I have no idea how one fits three layers of deviousness into one sentence. But layer them one, create devious plans for your fallback strategies for one of the masterstrokes you might use. And if you don't use the masterstroke, you could always...

Spoiler: "Do you know everyone?" "Of course not. Just the powerful, attractive women."

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-Keychain of Creation

A well connected individual who is kind of a playboy. Or playgirl, don't matter as long as they are mostly into ladies.

Spoiler: "What's first up - Smash a boulder? Instant sleep punch? Shoot lighting!? No! Wait. I'm new. That's ok. Standing under a waterfall? Fingers in hot sand?" "Calm down."

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-Keychain of Creation

(Of course it was punching a river in half, its Exalted.)

I love the enthusiasm and the ability to find something to be excited about.

Spoiler: "But it won't make them happy." ""Happy"? What does that have to do with anything?" "Yeah, I have no idea where that came from."

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-Keychain of Creation

Some people have been fighting the (good?) fight for far too long. Battle warn and not sure why they are still here, but they just assume they are supposed to be.

Spoiler: "I'd say I forget that other people don't have my memory... ... But I don't."

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-Keychain of Creation

A character who has a super-human memory and sometimes finds themselves at odds with others because of it. (What do you mean you forgot that conversation we had 3 years, 2 months, 3 weeks... wait.)

[Cluedrew]

And here I am again.

Spoiler: "I think I'd like to learn more about how to rescue kidnapped kids, first." "Are you sure, Tyler? We could have a riveting conversation about the second amendment and how it relates to offensive projectile superpowers."

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-PS238

I think this was meant to be sarcastic. But the idea that someone would discuss political history over figuring out how to save the day is... interesting. They will need someone to keep them on track or they might become a kind of side-villain, making it harder to address the problem.

Spoiler: "So you've been staring at me in my sleep?" "Only for the last few hours."

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-Kiwi Blitz

Focused, patient and with no concept of social niceties.

Spoiler: "I'm not sure how to explain this without sounding stupid?" "What's the problem?"

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Doesn't care about pride or image, just wants to get the job done. Nearing "murder-hobo" so they should probably care about something to keep them from going all the way.

Spoiler: "Ahahahahahaha! ... Ahem ... Have fun, don't get killed."

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-Emergency Exit

I know what you are about to do, I know it is a terrible idea and I am going to let you do it anyways. I'm not sure what character would be best served by this, maybe some hands off mentor type.

[Melayl]

"Fight the good fight every moment, every minute, every day. Fight the good fight every moment. Make it worth the price we pay"
Triumph (the band, not the dog hand puppet)

"All we are is dust in the wind"
Kansas

"I am here to chew bubblegum and kick [redacted], and I'm all out of bubblegum."
Rod Roddy Piper in They Live!

"Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies."
Me

[DeTess]

Spoiler: "You were bluffing, then. She was never in Danger." "When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing.

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-Six of Crows

There's a bunch of different ways this character could go, though all of them would be morally ambiguous. Whether the character has earned their reputation or not, they use it ruthlessly to get what they want.

[Cluedrew]

To Randuir: Hey, someone else using my spoiler style, glad you like it.

Spoiler: "It has the body of a man but the eyes of a puppy, what is it?"

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-Emergency Exit

Someone is excited. {Wags tail}

Spoiler: "I am an adventurer not a hero." "What's the difference?" {Thoughtful silence} "I get to do stupid things because I want to instead of being morally required to do so."

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Sounds like a good but not quite heroic roguish adventurer.

Spoiler: "You use undead goats one time and nobody ever lets it go."

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-A Practical Guide to Evil

And why would they if you consider undead goats to be a simple solution to a problem. I mean what self respecting necromancer uses goats.

Spoiler: "After thirty years in a grey room with no windows, you learn how to make your own fun."

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Someone who was locked up for a long time but manages to find reason to be optimistic anyways. And find entertainment in boring places.

[-̗̀ (ↀωↀ) -̖́]

"That light at the end of the tunnel you're seeing, thats not god, thats the muzzle flash from my gun"

Pretty good for a atheist gunslinger

[Malphegor]

Little boy, I'm just a man, a mere civil servant! Against, this tyrant god!

(From Ludo's Broken Bride)