Category:The Cynic: Difference between revisions

{{IndexTrope}}

A character who believes that the world is, to put it lightly, a bad place. Who expects the worst from everyone, believing that [[Humans Are Morons]] and/or [[Humans Are Bastards|Bastards]] and morality is [[Grey and Gray Morality|grey and grey]], [[Grey and Black Morality|grey and black]], or [[Evil Versus Evil|black and black]], assuming they subscribe to any notion of morality at all. If someone puts forward an idealistic or optimistic premise, [[The Cynic]] is about equally likely to respond with '[[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|That's moronic]],' as 'That's a nice idea in theory, never going to happen.' This character may be indifferent to their (perceived) [[Crapsack World]], or may be [[Knight in Sour Armour|heavily critical]] and [[Deadpan Snarker|sarcastic]].

Related to [[The Cynic]] and very often overlapping is [[The Pessimist]], who will always expect the worst out of everyone and everything, believing that [[Finagle's Law|anything that can go wrong will go wrong]], and sometimes even things that can't. [[The Cynic]], however, is likely to be more apathetic and less [[Wangst|Wangsty]] about the whole thing.

The [[Trope Namer|Trope Namers]], the Greek [[wikipedia:Cynicism|Cynics]], were not especially cynical as we now understand the term - they believed that people should reject all conventional notions of happiness, like those that involved wealth, power, fame, idealism, etc., and live a simple, natural life with no possessions, sharing some similarities with Buddhism. However, since many of the Cynics (such as [[wikipedia:Diogenes of Sinope|Diogenes of Sinope]], one of the pioneers of the philosophy) took the philosophy to its extreme, criticizing traditional social values while living in squalor ('cynic' is from the Greek word ''kynikos'', 'dog-like'), they were seen by thinkers in the late 18th and early 19th century as pessimists, misanthropes and [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche Wannabes]].

This character is likely to show up in either a [[Crapsack World]], where they are always right, or in a [[Sugar Bowl]], where [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|they exist solely to be proven wrong]]. Of course, in more realistic settings more nuanced forms of cynic can also turn up, their rightness index varying.

This is a [[Super-Trope]], so examples should go to the relevant subpages if possible.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters]]

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Archetypal Character]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:The Cynic]]

{{related|The Idealist}}

{{related|The Stoic}}

{{related|Cynicism Tropes}}

{{related|Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism}}