Narcissist Graves - Saoirse's Yapfest i
Cracks my knuckles. Briefly covered it in the reblog I did from Gomz but I want to talk about it properly. Sidenote, I haven't finished Modern Warfare 2 yet, so there may be things you think would lend themselves to this post that I have missed. Feel free to tell me about them!
Before I start! People who demonise NPD, Cluster B in general, believe in "narc abuse", or use the term narcissist as an insult are not welcome to interact with me.
Phillip Graves with Narcissistic Personality Disorder
I'll break this up into symptoms using this same link that I referenced previously as my point of reference, just for continuity. This is a great resource I encourage you to read :) It uses the DSM-5 for the diagnostic criteria, which I'll finally get to now
Having a grandiose sense of self-importance, such as exaggerating achievements and talents, expecting to be recognised as superior even without commensurate achievements. I think a lot of points for this are spread throughout the rest of this post (the first that comes to mind is him referring to Shadow Company as "the pros"), but I think his first appearance lends itself very nicely to a specific example for this. Truly, Graves is just doing what he's paid to do. But he makes it quite clear that he believes the 141 and Los Vaqueros should be grateful to him, like his actions were an act of benevolence, and the way he talks to Shepherd afterward seems to suggest he believes it places him far above them.
Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, beauty, and idealisation. Honestly, I don't have anything I think is extremely solid for this one. I think the lines I've used throughout this post and Graves' general behaviour can sort of lend themselves to this, but I honestly can't think of anything solid enough to be worth putting here. I suppose you could argue that he already has that success with Shadow Company, and the fact that he tries to cover up what happened with the missiles no matter how many lives it costs sort of highlights that preoccupation, prioritising his reputation - his success, his power - over the lives of people, guilty or innocent.
Belief in being "special" and that they can only be understood by or associated with other high-status people (or institutions). Graves makes it very clear in the tank fight that he believes himself to be far superior to the army; way too good for it. He associates himself with a general, someone with a whole lot of power that can offer Graves more power and a handsome amount of money, considering he and Shadow Company are hired mercenaries. He calls the uniform of a soldier a limitation, a skin that he shed "like a fucking soldier, son", and he snaps back at everything Soap yells at him with such confident and clean justifications and taunts that it's hard to say he doesn't truly believe what he's saying, that he's better than everyone "hiding behind that uniform". When he first appears, he also lumps himself and Shepherd into the same descriptor- "friends in high places", putting himself in league with Shepherd while also making it clear he sees himself as above the 141.
Demanding excessive admiration. Honestly the best I can think of for this is his line about "let the pros finish this". Shadow Company is absolutely far from 'the pros' of the situation, especially when they're standing next to not only the British SAS, but also the "best hand-picked warriors on the planet" to boot.
Sense of entitlement. Again, Graves sees himself as too good for the army. On top of that, he simply decides he can just take Los Vaqueros' base purely because he likes it. He clearly believes he is entitled to it.
Lack of empathy. I think Graves lacks empathy pretty much the entire time he's on-screen. There's the obvious, like all the killings he oversees in Las Almas, but I think just using that is in poor tastes. He also completely lacks empathy for Alejandro who, while a hothead, was very reasonably upset over Graves taking his base and detaining all his men. I think the way he talks to Ghost after Soap escapes his betrayal lends itself to this point too- he completely lacks remorse for what happened, for injuring two of his allies, and if anything he sounds a bit amused while talking to Ghost and is frustrated that he can't catch/detain him.
Envy towards others or belief that others are envious towards them. This one is less obvious, but I think that, yet again, some of his lines in the tank fight can be put down to this. He talks down to Soap in ways that suggest he either thinks Soap is envious of him, or should be. Mostly in the way he calls Soap 'son', 'Johnny', and lines like "Hahahah! That's almost funny comin' from you but then again, I remember my first rodeo too." He puts Soap far below him, presenting himself as the best possible turnout that Soap should either aspire to be or be jealous that he can't attain it too.
Arrogant, haughty behaviours and attitudes. Come on. This is Graves. He is truly nothing if not arrogant, he's so confident in his success that he openly mocks Soap during their final fight. Most notably in my mind is "Knock that honour shit off, Johnny. I'll be sipping tequila, forgetting where I buried your ass in a week. That goes for both of you. Can you say the same?", "There's only two rules here, boys. Walk away or win. Guess which one I choose?" and a lot of other things he says in the tank fight that I've already brought up.
I was very tired when I wrote this, so there may be points I wanted to make that I either missed or didn't finish, but right now I don't think there are. This was very fun to write and I recommend you do the same with your own favourites. Just make sure to do research into stereotypes, representation, etc.! At no point am I trying to say I think Graves is a narcissist because he does bad things. I think Graves is a narcissist and he also just so happens to be a war criminal <3
