How to create a clever and sly character with the personality of a snake?

[LilTV1155]

Just act like C2 from Code Geass.

Don't know anything about C2 or Code Geass.

 

[Jemini]

eh, people know different things. What exactly defines intelligence? the standard definition is the ability to "acquire and apply knowledge and skills" which basically applies to everyone in their own way. I've known people who cant even spell their own name or tell you what 7 x 7 is, but can speak three languages and hotwire a car.

Are they dumb? smart? Not quite sure how the whole IQ things works or how its scored. Seems very generalized. Like, it measures certain critical thinking skills? Which i suppose makes sense, but then a lotta people with specific knowledge will be excluded. Gonna have people thinking they're idiots just because the things they're adept at arent on the test. Not that im saying i disregard IQ scores. I usually trust in something perfected over decades by people more knowledgable than me.

The dunning kruger effect applies to general knowledge in a given subject, IQ measures a person's ability to problem solve and recognize patterns. A person with higher IQ will very quickly apply their problem solving and pattern recognition to the way life itself works and realize the best way to go about life is to acquire knowledge in a broad area of different subjects, and will start absorbing information from everywhere.

At the same time, as they start gaining all this knowledge, people with higher IQ will recognize the underlying pattern of the dunning kruger effect and also generalize THAT to life itself as they realize this pattern repeats in literally every area of knowledge. They will start to skip the low information self-assured stage in any given subject and recognize the holes in their own knowledge a lot sooner than others.

Therefore, higher IQ people apply this effect to life in general.

This is EXACTLY why I kept telling you that you were wrong when you talked about copying to portray smart people. 1st, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock does not act like an actual smart person at all. In fact, the self-assuredness he walks around the world with has him coming off as rather dumb to anyone who knows how intelligence really works, and only someone with lower IQ would fall for that illusion created by the fact the plot just allows all the things to work out for him.

2nd, portraying a character as intelligent involves a lot more than just the attitude they come off with. It also involves them demonstrating their problem-solving skills. In order to demonstrate their problem-solving skills, the author needs to create a problem for them. A problem created by the author can always be easily solved by a person with exactly 1 standard deviation of intelligence higher than the author in a way that makes it easy for the audience to follow the solution and buy into the intelligence of the character. If you go any farther than a 1 standard deviation difference, the author needs to start hand-waving away the methodology the character went through to arrive at the solution, and this harms the audience's ability to believe the intelligence of the character.

Now, with this out of the way, the original Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came off as someone with an intelligence in the 150s range because it was meticulously well explained. Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock comes off as someone with an intelligence somewhere between 100 and 115 who has an attitude problem and a big opinion of himself, because he's just re-using things that look like the plot of the original Sherlock Holmes but you cannot actually follow his solutions and the problems being presented by the writers are not that easy to follow either.

The art of being a sly snake is how to muddle communication, while making sure people think what you want. It is also a mindset. You have to enjoy it. The stress relaxes you. You want thongs to almost fall apart, then pull your ass out of the fire.

I think wanting thongs to fall apart is more a pervert thing than a snake thing.