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What Do You Think of the Cute Assassin/Innocent Killer Stereotype?

ShadeZ

Maester
What do you think of the character in books who looks like a stand up citizen young man the kind who helps old ladies cross the street, or helps people carry their groceries to their car, has blonde or brown hair and blue eyes, wears over sized often brightly hued clothing, loves animals, is all around "cutesy" but is also a cold blooded killer? Would this be a good "cover" for an assassin? Would it be a good look for an assassin when he is "off duty"?
 
"It's always the quiet ones." - Is what comes to mind when you use that description. Mostly seems to be coming off as a sociopath with that description, it's not just camouflage, it's an entire act. There's nothing stopping said assassin from being like that. Hells, one of my earlier world build's, my most unassuming assassin was an accountant. Who quite enjoyed both killing and crunching numbers.

Actually, on that thought, I think that's where my current Assassin Queen wormed her way out of. Queen's secretary who is at home in mounds of paperwork and just as at home murdering someone through the shadows. And sometimes killing them with paperwork.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
"It's always the quiet ones." - Is what comes to mind when you use that description. Mostly seems to be coming off as a sociopath with that description, it's not just camouflage, it's an entire act. There's nothing stopping said assassin from being like that. Hells, one of my earlier world build's, my most unassuming assassin was an accountant. Who quite enjoyed both killing and crunching numbers.

Actually, on that thought, I think that's where my current Assassin Queen wormed her way out of. Queen's secretary who is at home in mounds of paperwork and just as at home murdering someone through the shadows. And sometimes killing them with paperwork.
Yes this character was taught to build an alias around his own personality. So he built one around the fact he also likes helping people who need help. It's common for him to blow his cover because he will see someone getting mugged and help them
 
Might just want to join the local guard and 5-0 then. May be a slight conflict of interest (if such boundaries exist in the world), what with upholding the law while breaking the law to go murder some person for cash/ideology/got told to.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
Might just want to join the local guard and 5-0 then. May be a slight conflict of interest (if such boundaries exist in the world), what with upholding the law while breaking the law to go murder some person for cash/ideology/got told to.
Well in this case the local guard WERE the muggers (corrupt government) lol. But point taken.
 
I don't really see the problem here. Nobody thinks of themselves as being "a cold blooded killer". Everyone is the hero of their own story. This character might well view himself as the protector of his home country, religion, or the innocent, or think that his victims deserve to die or whatever other reason. That's just one part of his personality. And helping others could just be another extention of that.

Of course, not every killer will help ladies cross the street. And maybe a real psycopath does see himself as a cold blooded killer and has no other reason to kill.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
Nobody thinks of themselves as being "a cold blooded killer". Everyone is the hero of their own story.
Not with this case. This guy truly thinks himself to be a killer. Now he grew up in the wilds with a vicious tribe like people, so being a killer doesn't really make you good or bad, it just makes you stronger or smarter or faster than whatever you killed. In this tribe, the sick, young, elderly, and weak are at high risk of being killed by some of their own as it is a might makes right culture. Anyone can challenge anyone and leaving a defeated rival alive as we know tends to end badly. This guy became protective of those weaker than him who wouldn't normally make it though largely because everyone else feared him as top of his class. They also war with other tribes, this tribe became so skilled at war though that they eventually were able to simply be assassins for their leader and take out the competition before it could grow to be an issue.
 
The only possible issue with that kind of cover is that poor execution (both from the author or the character themselves) could make them look like someone trying really hard to be "totally-not-a-serial-killer".
 
Yes this character was taught to build an alias around his own personality. So he built one around the fact he also likes helping people who need help. It's common for him to blow his cover because he will see someone getting mugged and help them
This can be very interesting from a character development POV. If your assassin chooses to help others at the cost of blowing his cover, can he still be considered to be a good assassin? I feel an existential crisis coming on...
 
In this tribe, the sick, young, elderly, and weak are at high risk of being killed by some of their own as it is a might makes right culture. Anyone can challenge anyone and leaving a defeated rival alive as we know tends to end badly.
While I don't have any issue with the cute assasin trope, this is one I do have an issue with. A tribe this violent to its own members feel unrealistic to me. If you routinely kill off young people you simply end up with no people left. Everyone is sick or young at some point. And with killing off weaker guys, well, the guy at the top is strongest, so he would be killing pretty much everyone.

Even from an evolutionary point of view, such a tribe would evolve to get weaker over time, not stronger. Since you would naturally kill your closest competitor first, you would kill the second strongest person first, and then the next and so on. So you would have one strong guy at the top ruling over a bunch over much weaker people. Do this for a couple of generations and you end up with a lot of weak guys.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
While I don't have any issue with the cute assasin trope, this is one I do have an issue with. A tribe this violent to its own members feel unrealistic to me. If you routinely kill off young people you simply end up with no people left. Everyone is sick or young at some point. And with killing off weaker guys, well, the guy at the top is strongest, so he would be killing pretty much everyone.

Even from an evolutionary point of view, such a tribe would evolve to get weaker over time, not stronger. Since you would naturally kill your closest competitor first, you would kill the second strongest person first, and then the next and so on. So you would have one strong guy at the top ruling over a bunch over much weaker people. Do this for a couple of generations and you end up with a lot of weak guys.
Challenges are incredibly uncommon. Usually the only challenges issued are for the role of king or heir to the king. When the character in question takes over as King he defeats the old king but doesn't kill him as it is his own father. He is immediately thereafter challenged by over twenty people. He easily defeats the first and most aggressive challenger but he kills him by leaving his guts out given the brutally slow death the other nineteen retract their challenges. This character later is caught by his friend who questions the morals behind the idea of killing one man in a slow excruciating way to avoid having to kill twenty. The character just responds that he has never been one to let morals play too much of a role in his choices, one man died instead of twenty and that's all
 

ShadeZ

Maester
This can be very interesting from a character development POV. If your assassin chooses to help others at the cost of blowing his cover, can he still be considered to be a good assassin? I feel an existential crisis coming on...
I probably should use a word more like hunter of stealthy warrior to talk about this character as he is not particularly stealth reliant and can become invisible at will. Plus usually he kills the robbers and hides his face if he helps someone. His cover is only blown if one of three things happens. 1. He is lazy with his kills and uses trademark weapon or strikes. Like most killers he falls back on certain killing methods if he isnt modivated. The guards know it is him in everyone was kill via a bare handed attack as this guy tends to be too lazy to draw or use weapons if he is in a mood. 2. If he leaves a weapon of his there. He is a high ranking killer and had weapons that are specially made for him for example he is the only one who uses a particular kind of thrown knife. 3. If someone see his face or recognizes his armor. He is the only assassin who wears white as only the high prince is allowed to wear white among said tribe. Because of this his armor can make him obvious as well as his eyes due to an incident with a poison when he was younger his eyes change hue with his mood. There are many cases of someone dying after their eyes begin to change hue with their mood and often their skintone changes too but there are no cases known except him where the person seems full intact and unharmed.
 
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