I think the issue is the sequence goes "being an evil backstabber CAUSES paranoia, because you expect the same back", rather than "paranoia is evil".
I agree wrt. ATLA, totally--although in Soul Eater, it is more "paranoia is evil." In the series, there are partnerships between warriors and their humanoid weapons. The Big Bad was so afraid of his own weapon that he ate it, which is related to his Start of Darkness. He's also a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination who embodies the Madness of Fear. (There's an embodiment of the Madness of Order, too, who's pretty awesome and a fabulous subversion of Lovecraftian mad gods.) The Big Bad's portrayed more sympathetically/his disability is taken more seriously than Lovecraft would have done, but still.
Clearly the appropriate response is to write good people with paranoia.
Hell, yeah.
*looks at own work* . . . I think I've got that one.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-02-22 01:51 am (UTC)I agree wrt. ATLA, totally--although in Soul Eater, it is more "paranoia is evil." In the series, there are partnerships between warriors and their humanoid weapons. The Big Bad was so afraid of his own weapon that he ate it, which is related to his Start of Darkness. He's also a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination who embodies the Madness of Fear. (There's an embodiment of the Madness of Order, too, who's pretty awesome and a fabulous subversion of Lovecraftian mad gods.) The Big Bad's portrayed more sympathetically/his disability is taken more seriously than Lovecraft would have done, but still.
Clearly the appropriate response is to write good people with paranoia.
Hell, yeah.
*looks at own work* . . . I think I've got that one.
HELL, YEAH. :D