I would have to say fiction, if only because mental illness in reality is much less entertaining to watch, because it's sad. The simple reason why, as far as I can tell, is in fiction madness can make up the entire personality of someone. In reality, it's only a small part, and shatters the rest of their personality tragically.





That's true - the lack of psychoanalysis meant that anyone with disorders that kept them from conforming to social norms were considered "mad" and pushed away until they became reclusive.

The whole stereotype of a "mad scientist" was someone who consciously decided to concentrate on their own ideas and inventions, and shun social interaction. After a little while of that we get someone who behaves much like a modern reclusive gamer who lives in the basement - quick to temper, unable to speak normally to people, overexcited about favorite topics, etc.

Now that we know what that really is, "madness" instead has become something beyond human understanding, like we see in horror movies. An antagonist who embraces not his or her own obsession, but something beyond the reach of normal understanding.

And that still fits the profile of the Hooded Hood, because he embraces the spirits of Herringcarp, and an entire decision tree of the Parodyverse, both of which are beyond normal mortals' understanding.





I can't prove it, but I believe Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Korean) stories making it into mainstream U.S. entertainment had a huge influence on that.

In an American movie two decades ago, before that stuff started to insert itself into mainstream, there was a few minutes' exposition to explain why the bad guy is the way he is - except it would be along the lines of "he worked for MI6, was fired for being too extreme". That works great with an English-speaking audience who believes in black and white good and evil.

But Asian audiences have been told stories since the beginning of time where there are shades of grey; where the bad guy wins, and the important thing was the good people's fruitless struggle and sacrifice; or even more confusing, when you think someone is the bad guy, and it turns out they were right all along.

Those twists made it into American mainstream; where you can't really tell who the bad or good guy is anymore; where the good guy is flawed, and the bad guy has some good in them, or good intentions. And to understand all of that fully, you need to know what shaped those characters. So we have flashbacks or historical information that wasn't there before.

Before, oh, 2000 or so, nobody cared where James Bond came from or who he is, just that he's tough and has a license to kill; and the bad guy was simply someone who wanted to destroy or take over the world. Now the "bad guy" is someone trying to right the wrongs of a corrupt MI6, and shows Bond that he's been killing people he shouldn't. Bond still has to kill him because he's solving the problem by killing more people, but then he has to take on the corrupt organization he works for to redeem himself. In the end, nobody is really good or evil, it's Bond rising above his own failings for justice. And that comes directly from Japanese anime.

(there's an actual segue here, I swear...)





Lara believes the selfish part is he's willing to sacrifice everyone in the Parodyverse for the success of his plans. She would like to change his focus, to convince him that if he wins, and he does get to meet the Creators - destroying everything in the process makes it pointlessly destructive. That if he wants to focus on thwarting them, there are better ways to do it.





She's going to need those mints again.





It would appear to be that. Aspergers is the inability to describe thoughts, or the believe that your own thoughts are too strange for anyone to understand. In Faite's case, it's not her own thoughts, it's something external that can't sufficiently be described using human language. She'll try by using simple comparisons, but finding a good one is a struggle. That's why she'll often resort to just showing someone instead.





That might someday lead to Lara Night asking him directly if he was involved with her stumbling her way into the Parodyverse, and ask him point blank why he did it. It's much more efficient than speculating.





Then again, Chiaki does like to mess with people like the Hooded Hood, so she might just mix in a vision or two that are completely accurate, just so he doesn't know which is which.





Eventually she's going to begin to take issue with that.





That's another point where Lara would be annoyed with that kind of selfish behavior. She would point out that he could just ask. Especially since Faite is usually honest.





And here's where the taking issue comes on - because Liu Xi knows there are others who can do the same thing, especially Faite and Lara Night. Liu Xi might conclude then that she's being picked on because she's easier to push around - because Lara is fiercely independent and notably uncooperative, and Faite is almost purposely unreliable.