A question for you: would you sort a living person with whom you are not in communication, and without her express consent, but whose words and deeds are very much on public display? Specifically: J.K. Rowling sure thinks of herself as a heroic Lion Primary; what’s your call?
I have spent a long time thinking about this lady. Possibly too long. But here's what I've got.
She's a Bird. She *likes* Lion primaries, and she likes them in that way a lot of Birds do - Lions feel magical and moral and easy and good. That's why Gryffindor is her good-guy house, and that's why Gryffindors always get a pass when they do shady things. They were always doing it for good reasons, because that's just how Lion primaries are. They know what's good, just by kind of feeling it.
(obviously this isn't at all how it feels to be a Lion primary, but it can SEEM that way, if you're outside looking in.)
And so she likes Lion primaries, and surrounds herself with Lion primaries. And over time, seems to have filtered for the most fiery, if-you're-not-with-me-you're-my-enemy Exploded Lions imaginable. This could also be why she's not interrogating emotional pings when she really should. Like it's heartbreaking to read some of her essays - like, no JKR, that's not a reason, that's a trauma response you ought to be getting help for. But she thinks there's inherent goodness with going with your heart over your head.
Which is also probably why, for the last two decades, she's been slowly surrounding herself only with people who agree with her - effectively Exploding her own Bird primary. She is notoriously stubborn and difficult to work with, and I have that from first hand accounts... but just think how much better an editor could have made books 4-7. Or the Fantastic Beasts films. Or the Cursed Child (we all sort of collectively forgot about the Cursed Child.)
But I see the Bird! I see the Idealism, I see the mind that likes puzzles, and systems, and mysteries. And then I see her just kinda... be lazy about it. Not think though the implications. Be happy with only a very surface-level understanding. Not edit, or update, or interrogate her system. (We know that her worldbuilding is sloppy. We know she grabs existing problematic tropes and then kind of uses them as-is.)
The more I dig into to her, the more I'll come across bits of her system that just seem very... young. They'll be things like 'Good people have kids, or if they can't, then they take care of kids.' Or 'People with mobility aids are good.' That's one's so weird I just have to bring it up. It's very consistent, and comes with the reverse - 'People who use mobility aids they don't need are evil.' Barty Crouch jr. is the HP example, but that situation comes up like - a weird amount in her mystery novels.
(also, I can't prove it, but I think Lucius Malfoy got a much more sympathetic edit after Jason Isaacs started playing him with a cane. Of course that could also be just because... he has a kid... so he can't be BAD.)
Harry Potter, the character, is also very much a Bird Primary. When he acts on really strong emotions it's because they're - yep, trauma responses. Mostly he's trying to figure out his world, synthesize everything Dumbledore and the Weasleys and Hagrid and Sirius tell him, in order to build his own system.
And he's a really loud Lion secondary, the way I suspect JKR is too. Her response to all of this has just been to double down, do MORE, be LOUDER. If her royalties, or the reputation of her IP take a hit, she honestly does not seem to care.
She's not stupid and she's not evil. Hermione was a complicated, fascinating female lead. JKR has an incredible knack for side characters. The books have good stuff to stay about grief, and depression, and I know it gets memed now, but it was a big deal (for me) when she said Dumbledore was gay. But this is how I think you can get someone who starts out in a reasonable place, and gets more and more out of touch, and harmful and wrong and dangerous - when locked into one way of seeing the world, and no one with the ability to contradict you.
hm... is it a bird thing to have a bunch of smaller systems instead of one consistent overarching one? i feel very, like... fragmented as a person, constantly jumping back and forth from personality to personality and worldview to worldview, and it's really frustrating to feel like i can't pin things down.
the best way i can describe it is as playing sudoku. there are a few fixed points you start from--the numbers that are already written down--and you have to piece together and logic them out from there to get the full picture. not too bad, right?
except... it feels like i'm constantly swapping between puzzles. the fixed numbers you're working from are different from puzzle to puzzle, and so are the numbers you fill in the blanks with.
the three options you get from this are:
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-refusing to ever play more than the one puzzle, which is how you get exploded bird. stagnating like that in a world that will always have more perspectives you hadn't considered is not good, for you or the people around you.
-embracing it and making zero effort to be consistent in your morals to any degree, the idea of which is upsetting and repulsive to me because down that path lies hypocrisy and untrustworthiness. it feels selfish, i don't at all like how easy it would be for me to give in to the urge, and it's a good way to make me lose all respect for someone.
-internalizing that all the different puzzles are part of a much larger puzzle, and you might just not see the connections between them yet, or know where to put them in relationship to each other on the board. this seems like the most realistic option to me, and the healthiest: accepting that there's potential to glean information from every system and digging for the fixed numbers lead to people building it, even if it's not at at all what the people who use that system want you to take away from it. not everything will make sense right away, and it's okay to be patient as you gather the knowledge and experience to look at something from the right angle to decide what it really means.
the problem is that this can result in
a) taking fucked up, harmful systems at face value and acting like they have equal validity as they are (hello centrism!)
b) being wishy-washy and refusing to do anything when people need you to act, because you believe all the systems fit together but you won't commit to one out of a misguided sense of humility
c) paralysis and scrupulosity over how you have to have it all figured out right away, oh god what if i get a detail wrong and harm people or let them down, i will never ever know how the pieces fit together but it's my duty to tear myself to shreds over it anyway. exploded bird, babey!
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i struggle with all of the above, and it's just. frustrating. it feels like i'm a shapeshifter who's lost track of their original form, or maybe never had one in the first place, and i want to be able to say things with confidence for once without going 'ah god damn it' when my perspective changes the moment i commit to a point of view. :/
any other birds have this problem? feeling like your systems fluctuate rapidly back and forth, instead of being built up and rehauled over time? is it possible for this to be a healthy way for a bird to work, or is it a symptom of burning/exploding/other unhealthiness?
Do you have any trick to know whenever you are a Bird Primary or a Lion Primary please ? I tried the exploding trick and it didn’t work since at my worst I was a mix of viewing people who didn’t share my ideals as the enemy and being paralyzed by how much I didn’t know and thus unable to make a decision or form an opinion (very nasty and dark period of my life I wish I could erase).
Being paralyzed by how much you don't know and unable to make a decision is a Bird primary thing (not knowing what to do can SOMETIMES be a Burnt Secondary thing, but in this context it seems it to be coming from the primary.)
The tricky thing always about sorting and identifying Birds is that they can build themselves a system that looks like pretty much anything, so you have to look at how they believe, how their beliefs are built, and how their beliefs change. Burnt Birds also have a way of looking like very miserable Lions... but yeah, this isn't an Exploded Lion ask. Exploded Lions don't doubt.
If anything, I think your Bird was more Burnt than exploded, that whole 'I do not trust my ability to reason' thing. Exploded Birds are more Birds who break their ability to take in information - they either stop taking in new information completely, or only take it from one very specific source, OR just get overwhelmed by taking in everything all the time to the point where they can't tell what's real or not.
So, I’m fairly certain I’m likely a burnt badger with some bird tendencies, but as I have thought things through, I still wonder about that.
The rest of my family all have badger and bird tendencies. I, myself, have a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve and to love openly with the people around me. I’m usually the ‘team mom’ for my friends.
Some Badger? Some Lion?
But this said, I do struggle in groups, particularly large groups. Part of this, I’m sure, is just that I’m autistic, and grew up in a time where it was much harder for girls to get diagnosed. I didn’t have much in the way of a friend group in my early childhood, and tended to be ‘the friend everyone hates’ because I was the weird kid.
I know what it’s like to be the unfavorite friend. I *also* know what it’s like to find large groups difficult. For me it’s literally an auditory processing thing. I have a lot of trouble being around certain types of noise. But I love small groups of the right people, and pleasant environments!
Even in my teens, I was ill at ease with my sole friend group in school, feeling like a bit of a third wheel at times. I took comfort in a fandom group on the internet, spending more time around adults in a Jedi community than around folks my own age.
Again, I can really, really relate. I went in a more Sherlock Holmes direction, but yeah. I imagine that there was probably a combination of things going on on that made it easier to make adult friends, but I’ve been there.
I’m still friends with people I knew back then on that site. They encouraged me, in a way, to lean into my more birdish tendencies, as we spent a lot of time talking about philosophy, martial arts, religion, spirituality, and how all of this related to what it meant to be Jedi. When I started watching 'The West Wing’ in my teens, I got so into it that I also developed a fascination for American history and politics.
Just playing Devil’s Advocate here, but I haven’t read about any Birdish tendencies yet. Fun bird secondary model sure, and that’s super common for neurodivergent people. If anything, the focus on groups - in group, out-group, good group, is making me think Badger.
Even prior to this, I had some admitted bird tendencies: I remember, in my final year of primary school, struggling to choose a project topic because I had so many different things I was interested in. I went from Shakespeare to medieval history to Victorian history to finally settling on Greek mythology.
Are you me? Even that list of topics is… very me.
(this is still a fun bird model, though.)
I had educational computer games that I loved. I had books on earth sciences (I loved volcanoes and dinosaurs as a small child), and numerous iSpy and Dorling Kindersley books. Yet, all I wanted was to have friends. All I wanted was for people to like me.
Oh my god. You’re making me think of high school me, and that persona I created that was deliberately impossible to be mean to. You wouldn’t be mean to me. That would be like kicking a puppy.
I tried – still try – so hard to be kind, to help where I can. Going to university and studying theology, I was in among older adults. I found it easier to talk to them. In our common room, we became something of a family. Going on, I’ve had a few friend groups in adulthood that had that same 'family’ feeling, although we always ended up drifting as life happened. I still have a small group of friends I consider to be my family.
You’re a really *loud* Badger secondary.
I have definitely been 'exploded’ though. It was during my time in a Star Trek fan group In that setting, badger types were very much expected – the more you work and contribute to the group, the farther you’ll go. I loved it, ranking up quickly as I worked with them. But, then I was given charge of a project that ended up not working. I burned out and broke so hard that I eventually got into a shouting match with someone and left. I’ve been in and out of the group over the years after reconciling with them, but… I’ve never quite managed to fit back in again, which has been the source of much sadness for me.
Nowadays, I prefer smaller settings because I can’t deal with large numbers of people without experiencing anxiety. I also burn out very easily when it comes to high-stress situations: as much as I’d like to be a book-keeper badger, I crash and burn when my stress levels get pushed up.
Amazingly, I have ALSO burned my Badger secondary because of a project that went sideways. And I promise you, there are ways to manage your stress levels so things don’t get that bad again. I had to figure out ways around my executive functioning issues, which were definitely very present and come up with rules for myself to ensure that I stop working, and don’t work too long on one thing. (like I never answer more than five Asks, or two SortMes at once. That’s on purpose.)
Yet, I will always love learning. There are so many skills I’ve picked up, so many topics I’ve read about, and not always for utility, but just because it was interesting. But I also know how to research and apply that research in times of difficulty. I’ve always been around computers from a young age, so I tend to be good with them (I built my first website at all of 12 or 13 years old)
I also know you come from a Birdy family, so I’m taking that into account.
and anything I don’t know, I can look it up (e.g., fixing my own laptop when it refused to start up). I sort of 'collect’ hobbies and information. This makes it easier, sometimes, to help my friends when they’re having difficulties
“I have a Bird model so I can help my friends better!”
(the Bird is a model, and leveraging the community remains your really big gun.)
(although I may occasionally edge towards being a wee bit 'authoritarian’ now and then; I’m afraid I’m a bit of a 'know it all’.) However, it does have the minor downside that if you give me multiple options and try to make me pick the right one, I can experience a bit of 'can’t see the forest for the trees’.
This is starting to sound more primary, actually. I know you said Burnt Badger but your Badger like… doesn’t seem Burnt. You have friends, you have happy functioning communities. Just because you don’t like it when all your friends and all your community members are crammed in a room at the same time doesn’t make you burnt.
But this kind of information overload you describe… that can be an Exploded Bird thing. Also, you casually dropped that you studied theology. Now that is a very, very Bird primary focus.
I will see the upsides and downsides of a lot of things. I once froze up in a job interview during a bit where I had to recommend the best phone for a hiker because I looked at the specs and went, 'they’re all good, and I don’t know which one is best’. I went for simply describing the best points of each phone and how they applied for walking. (I didn’t get the job.)
This could be an exploded Bird primary that’s not filtering information. It also might just be you using the Bird secondary model when you *really* should have been using your Badger (for what sounds like a customer service position.)
There’s also the irony that in spite of my bird tendencies, I was a rubbish student when I was at school. Math was, and is, my kryptonite (oddly, I was good at physics which was pure formulae, though).
… you can struggle in school for a LOT of different reasons.
I disliked having to cram and study for exams because holy heck, it’s boring! xD It’s only in recent years that I’ve rediscovered that writing things out helps a lot with learning (particularly when it comes to Duolingo)
Writing things out helps a lot of Badgers (it helps me.) And of course I disliked having to cram for exams. That’s not the way to do it! That’s not how you remember things long term! What’s the point of doing it at all if you’re not going to remember things long term (so to me, this is a Badger integrity of method thing.)
although in many more practical fields, I learn by doing and experimentation (e.g., knitting, gardening, baking, etc).
You list out the most stereotypically Badger badger hobbies ever and then say you like “experimenting” with them? Maybe I’ve read you all wrong, but how do you even “experiment” with gardening? Something that long-term, and process based? Do you mean like, literal scientific experiments? And same with knitting, you can invent new patterns and ideas for projects, but the reason those are such classic Built secondary hobbies is because you can’t really improvise.
I will admit that I struggle with getting upset about the state of the world and the fact that I *can’t* help everyone. I get so frustrated that the people who have access to the levers of power won’t fix the problems that they’ve been elected to fix. I get overwhelmed by the sheer awful. I’ve had to restrict my intake of news sources to keep from going to pieces. Yet, I will try to help where I can, even if all I can do is sign a petition or write to my elected officials.
That’s pretty par for the course these days. I will say though, that you read like an idealist to me. My best guess would be a Bird primary with a very Badger looking system. Although Lion (Paragon Lion) is also possible… as is I guess, just straight-up Badger. (But not Burned.)
Taking all of this into account, I am starting to wonder about my initial assessment using the SHC test. It did originally mark me as a Snake before talking it around to Burnt Badger. My bird tendencies are extremely loud, though, and that has always been the secondary that the SHC test has picked out for me. With this in mind, I do wonder what you would make of all this?
Well I certainly don’t think you’re a Snake Bird. If the test was so off for you, I’m actually going to put that as a point in favor of Bird primary. Bird primary has so many different looks that the test sometimes gets confused. I love the test, it’s the best version of itself that could possibly exist, but it is a tool.
Thank you very kindly for your time, Wisteria, and I hope you have a good evening! =)
hey!! so back in april i sent in a sortme submission, and you ultimately said that u think that i’m a slightly burnt lion primary + bird secondary (snake model). i just wanted to thank u again for taking the time to help me with that! but i just have some doubts still, and some more to say, i’m so sorry if it’s too much or all over the place!
i’ve always turned to other people in my life that i trusted and loved the most to help guide me in almost every situation, because i just get so indecisive, and i feel like i need an outside source to either affirm or deny my choice. but i feel like i usually end up going either with my gut feeling and feeling satisfied, or go with what “sounds” right but end up getting hurt.
If you didn’t say the thing about gut response, I would have described all this as Exploded *Bird.* If you really do feel better/safer/more satisfied going with your gut response, then that’s still a Lion. (Although I’m keeping open the possibility that you’re a Bird who thinks they need to be a Lion for some reason.)
but either way i just feel so guilty, like i can’t help wondering if i made the wrong choice or if i can turn around and choose the other one. so i feel like the whole process is just very burnt lion-y.
It does, yeah.
also, when i said that i felt like everyone develops some sort of improvisational model as an adult, i actually meant to say foundational (i think that’s the term?) secondary models.
I think you wrote the first submission early enough that the terms were still in flux. If you meant to say that you think all adults have learned to model built/prepwork secondaries, that’s completely different, and skews me in the direction of thinking that your Bird secondary might in fact be a model.
also, on my bird secondary, i feel like i might have some lion in there? when i was young, i was quite shy, but when i would get comfortable enough i wouldn’t think as much before i acted.
That’s a human thing, but I’ll keep an eye on it.
and then in middle and hs, there was this internal struggle of not being comfortable enough around certain people to be outgoing and social, to show that side of me to others, and i would be jealous seeing other people just be themselves so easily.
This specific thing most likely relates back to your Burnt primary. Burnt Lion are often jealous of un-Burnt Lions, that’s a thing.
i think back then i viewed it as either not being yourself at all or completely showing yourself to someone.
This could be evidence of Lion secondary… but it could be Lion primary. I’m starting to think that your secondary might have been very Burnt, and you were just living in your primary for a while.
it takes me so so long to open up to people and truly be myself, and even then i may never be my true self, but just peel back certain layers. i feel best when i don’t have to think about what to say, or when i don’t have to think about what’s worked in the past.
This could describe Lion, Snake, Badger mirroring… but I don’t think it actually describes Rapid-Fire Bird.
it can be useful, and i definitely use it more and more every year. knowing what i’m going to do/say helps.
So you model a Built secondary (probably Bird)
especially because i get so stutter-y and scared
Like this is burnt secondary… but it seems like there might also be anxiety or something else going on here. It’s not ethical for me to armchair diagnose though.
but when i peel it all back, i feel like i might be an improvisational secondary. one of the things that i’m proudest of is when i got my first job. it took me longer than my peers to get one because i would get so scared to go to the interview, so i would back out the day before. but during all of those times.
Ouch. Burned secondary (and anxiety?)
i would turn to my family and best friends for help, constantly asking them what to do.
That’s your Burnt Lion again. (Little words in there like ‘constantly’ give this the feeling of… out of control.)
but when i applied for the job that became my first job, i was sure of myself and i didn’t tell anyone until i was going to the interview, in which i told my parents. i felt so much better to act alone and when i was sure of myself,
Oh that’s a Lion primary, unBurning.
and to just go and do it. it was a big step for me. idk if that points to any one secondary, or that still applies to bird.
Gee, that just sounds like a unBurnt secondary. Not even sure which kind exactly. Feels good, right?
i’ve always looked to other people for direction. i get so indecisive or overwhelmed and end up getting overwhelmed and just laying in bed all day, so other people guiding me, specifically my mom and best friend, helps a lot.
I would really, really look into mental health resources and getting yourself a therapist of some kind. The debilitating level of fear you’re describing, and something like lying in bed all day, is starting to sound like clinical anxiety and depression. It isn’t supposed to be that hard, I promise.
but when it comes down to it, nobody can really make me do anything but myself. i’m not gonna do something unless i care about it.
Lion primary.
i find that i do enjoy the process of certain things, like cleaning, learning a new piano/choir piece, or even just driving somewhere. i enjoy doing things for people that i care about (which are a very select few) and enjoy the process of that.
This, this is good. This is a secondary starting to unBurn and take pleasure in things again. Little bits. Little things. But it counts, and it’s a huge step. From this little list, I’m starting to think maybe Badger… but I honestly have no idea. You’ve got a very delicate, healing secondary, and you should nurture that.
i feel like i could be a snake primary with a slightly burnt lion model? i definitely do have a hierarchy of people whom i care about and prioritize in my life, and i get very defensive over certain people in my life. the only thing that i’ve ever felt really strongly about in life has been my family, and making sure that nobody bad mouths them, even if i agree with what they’re saying. but for everyone else who isn’t family, i’ll prioritize certain things over them. for example, when there’s an argument involving my best friend and our other friend, and the other friend is right, then i’ll side with the other friend, but sometimes the best friend could guilt trip me into making me be on their side just because they’re my best friend. idk it’s all so complicated. i can usually see both sides of an argument, and have trouble choosing because they both are valid or true.
Also because you’re Burnt, and because you’re not used to trusting your own takes on things and your own responses to things. I’m not even sure I can responsibly pick though all that. Because you say the only thing you’ve ever felt strongly about is your family, but I strongly suspect that the only thing you’ve allowed yourself to feel strongly about is your family (and your best friend.) And that doesn’t seem to make you feel good and strong, it seems to make you feel… guilty.
At this point I do think Burnt Lion is most likely… but if you came back in a month and told me, I think I’m a Burnt Bird who really likes Lions and was trying to be a Lion… I’d buy that too.
i also like i could be a snake secondary. i feel like i’ve always been quite avoidant since i was a child, but it’s never felt wrong. in fact, it’s felt quite good, to be able to get myself out of a situation, or something that i had to do. i would usually pretend to not be aware to get out of doing something or to hide something, and it usually worked. now, i do it more regularly, specifically to get out of doing assignments for school, or i’ll find a way to get out of giving a presentation but still get points. actually it could be bird still because i try to look at what i’m working with before acting.
Honestly, too Burnt to tell. Because you’re not telling me about how you did things, you’re telling me how you didn’t do things. And of course there’s carry-over, but that’s an important distinction. You easily could be a Burnt Snake secondary, sometimes called the “driftwood” snake. This could be Burnt Lion, shutting down. This could be Burnt Bird secondary even. Badger is the *least* likely I think, because Burnt Badger secondaries like to overwork themselves, especially when it comes to school… but this is an example of Burnt secondaries kind of looking similar. Which they do.
sorry if that was really long and rambly and all over the place. thank u for taking the time to help me!
I hope I did help, a little. Mostly, I hope things will turn around for you.
I’ve started thinking about Burnt Bird primaries as the exact inverse of Burnt Lion Primaries
A Lion primary burns because they are cut off from their ability to FEEL. A Bird primary burns because they are cut off from their ability to THINK.
That’s why so many people are using “cult” as a go-to example for Burned Bird. Cults are that way - don’t ask questions, don’t think about it too hard, we promise it’ll all make sense eventually. This is also why Inspector Javert is such a good example of a Burned Bird. Fundamentally, he doesn’t trust his ability to reason. He is good so long as he follows the letter of the Law exactly. He cannot edit or adapt or even question his system, and when he realizes it’s flawed he shatters.
In the same way that Burned Lions can look like stressed-out Birds (forced to a rely on an outside system when all they want to do is follow their gut) Burned Birds can look like extremely stressed-out Lions (trying to be happy doing something just Because It’s Right, when really they want some ability to check their math.)
An Exploded Lion is someone who has leaned too far into their primary and cut off their ability to grow and change. Their way is Right and Correct because it JUST IS and if you don’t feel that way you are the enemy. There’s a persecution complex to the Exploded Lion. People who disagree are Out To Get Them.
In the same way, an Exploded Bird is someone who has broken their ability to take in new information. Either they are taking in everything, discounting nothing and getting stressed and overwhelmed (think Chidi from The Good Place) OR they find ways to discount any new info that contradicts their system. Think Conspiracy Theorist. There are a million ways to debunk “the moon landing was fake” but none of those sources count because they’re government lies, or fake news, or Illuminati lobbyists or whatever. Exploded Birds go hard for the Ad Hominem fallacy: I disagree with a piece of data, because I disagree with its source as a whole.
(This does make me realize that Agent Fox Mulder of the X-Files, charming as he is, is basically an Exploded Bird power fantasy. He really does live in a world where everything that contradicts his system is a carefully designed, deliberate deception.)
Hey, Exploded Bird/Lion Sec anon here! Thank you so, so much for sorting me. It’s helped a LOT.
I was having a shite time with understanding myself, trying to get why kid!me and current!me seem like such different people. The part about a Lion system changing to a (Burnt) Badger one? That explains So Much.
You know, I was filled with so much joy when I read this though, looking back at my life and seeing it through the lens of my Sorting, and suddenly everything’s so clear. I love the feeling of understanding after months of frustration.
And IDK why I didn’t consider Exploded Bird earlier, I went back and read the description and damn if it doesn’t fit me to a T. I think, the first time I read it I was too repulsed by the other type of Exploded Bird (conspiracy theorist) and just, having a mini crisis as I parsed through all my decisions and convictions to confirm that I wasn’t one. They make me super uncomfortable.
Lion Sec is obvious in hindsight, but they’ve always seemed too powerful and confident for me. I really do feel stifled in my current situation, unable to be truthful without the atmosphere at home becoming unbearable. Being bullied in the past hasn’t exactly helped either, I hate keeping my head down but there are times when I feel like it’s the only choice. I am trying to become bolder so that I may, one day, live unapologetically.
After I sent that Sort Me post, I had started changing my values to more Lion ones. But I really do like Badger morals, so I think I’ll instead focus on unburning that. And after that’s done, try to find a way to mend that exploded Bird Pri.
Also, sidenote, I read about Bird Lions becoming temporarily catatonic after their entire worldview being shaken, and damn if that wasn’t me after my sister told me about the Brain in a Vat theory. Bit extreme, but I spent m o n t h s trying to recover. Currently, I have a love/hate relationship with Philosophy.
Thanks for the lovely note, Bird Lion. It helps putting words to this stuff, and I love that I could help with that a little. I like your plan. It’s a good plan. And you’re right, Exploded Birds *are* tricky. Exploded Lions have a very distinct *look* to them, and so do Exploded Badgers etc. But Exploded Birds can make themselves nuts taking in all the information - or none of the information - and that looks very different from the conspiracy theorist type who has picked only *one* source to trust.
So I was thinking about Exploded Primaries in general and Nico di Angelo (from the Percy Jackson books) in particular, and it seems to me that fictional Exploded Lions and Snakes are likely to be at least somewhat antagonistic, Exploded Birds can go either way, but Exploded Badgers are more likely to be protagonists.
Exploded Lions are likely to trample over other people in their haste to do stuff for their Cause, which tends to make them disliked by the fandom even if they’re mostly meant to be “good guys” (e.g. Dumbledore).
Exploded Snakes tend to have that creepy stalker obsessiveness with their People (e.g. Snape) which also tends to make them disliked, although now that I’m rereading @swearingintengwar’s initial post about exploded houses it doesn’t mention obsession, just us-versus-them mentality
An Exploded Bird who is stuck in inertia probably isn’t doing much plot-wise, but I could see a Bird Primary sinking into inertia and then getting out of it as part of either a redemption arc or a fall into darkness. A Javert-style Exploded Bird who refuses to rethink their worldview is probably an antagonist for similar reasons to an Exploded Lion.
Exploded Badgers, on the other hand, seem to mostly be (unhealthy) protagonists, probably because “giving too much to other people” is something society usually considers good albeit misguided. E.g. the aforementioned Nico is definitely an Exploded Badger during House of Hades and Blood of Olympus, although he seems to have healed his primary between Blood of Olympus and the Trials of Apollo series (thank you, Will). I’m sure an author could write an antagonist who dehumanizes large groups of people and then puts too much of themselves into antagonistic causes, but that seems a lot less common.
But maybe this is me being biased (being a Badger myself) or just because I’m not thinking of counterexamples? Was wondering what you thought.
It is weird that Exploded Badger is the only Exploded primary that is culturally regarded as good. Exploded Snakes and Exploded Birds are either framed as villainous or tragic. Exploded Lions could have been heroes if only they didn’t “go too far.” But Exploded Badgers - martyr yourself, give yourself to the world until there’s nothing left, you are too good for this sinful earth. There are a lot of stories that glorify that (… the giving tree.) And ugh, it’s so Victorian.
