topic for meta - where does the master's narcissism come from? did it develop early on in his childhood? was there a trigger for it?
narcissism, alright, time to get this because i think i have all my thoughts put together on it.
the master’s mild narcissism comes finds its origins on the place i think we all expect: gallifrey. take a look at the gallifreyan society. mostly elitists, very much the “we look down on everyone and judge” planet of the universe. they were a great civilization, and they knew they were the best, so naturally this belief is going to translate into the younger gallifreyans.
and it did, powerfully so at one point, translate into the master. i wouldn’t say he was extremely narcissistic early on, though, to be clear. but that mindset has always sort of been there, in the back of his mind, undeveloped for some time. it wouldn’t be until he broke away from gallifrey that it would have made more of an appearance.
and especially when he started trying to take things over. there came a time when acting like he is the best and thinking that he really is the best sort of becomes the same things. however, i don’t think this lasts for a very long time. we see by the simm regen that the master isn’t actually all that self-absorbed. he’s fallen so far that he’s obsessed now with revenge and suffering and all that jazz, not with his own self.
what the master has for himself, i would only loosely label as narcissism, to be honest. because it’s not really that, it’s similar but it’s a little more complicated than self-obsession, because he’s not obsessed with himself and in many ways, he hates what he has become. he hates that he feels anything at all, he hates that he is a monster, he hates that he is alone, and he obsesses over a past slight by the one person who he genuinely cares about. self-adoration doesn’t come too strongly into that mix.
