Archetype:Trickster

Trickster
John Constantine (DC/Vertigo Comics) is considered the world's greatest con-man feared by gods and mortals, Heaven and Hell.
Archetype of:	Trickster.

"The Trickster represents the quality of randomness and chance in the universe, without which there could be no freedom. (...) The cosmos is interesting rather than perfect, and everything is not part of some greater plan, nor is all necessarily under control. "

― Starhawk, in The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979), p. 231

"The trickster, the riddler, the keeper of balance, he of the many faces who finds life in death and who fears no evil; he who walks through doors."

― Christopher Paolini, in Brisingr (2008)

"I'll kick them in the bollocks and spit on them when they're down, and then I'll be gone back into the darkness, leaving only a nod and a wink and a wisecrack."

― John Constantine (DC/Vertigo Comics)

"It seems you like tricking, but you hate to be tricked!! You may have lived for over 10,000 years. But to compete with my skills, you need another decade!!"

― Joseph Joestar to Kars (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part II: Battle Tendency)

The power of character who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior.

Also Called

• Fool
• Jester
• Joker
• Manipulative Charisma
• Master Manipulator
• Mastermind
• Mischief Mastery
• Puppeteer
• Sneak
• Supreme Con Man
• The Cunning One
• The One Who Lurks in The Shadows
• Topnotch Actor
• Ultimate Grifter

Capabilities

User is a Trickster: a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. The Trickster openly questions and mocks authority, encourages impulse and enthusiasm, seeks out new ideas and experiences, destroys convention and complacency, and promotes chaos and unrest. At the same time, the trickster brings new knowledge and wisdom. Even when punished horribly for their effrontery, their indomitable spirit (or sheer foolishness) keeps them coming back for more.

Tricksters can be anything from gods of chaos, bedeviling heroes for a few laughs, to master manipulators who use cruel ploys and sadistic choices. They can also be heroes (or more likely anti-heroes) who make up for a lack of strength or bravery with manipulation, planning, or outright cheating. The trickster is often a master of disguise and may have magical powers.

In mythology and religion, the trickster deities break the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously but usually (albeit unintentionally) with ultimately positive effects. Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both; they are often funny even when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks.

Applications

• Chameleonic Nature
  • Disguise Mastery
• Combat Perception
• Enhanced Charisma
• Enhanced Dexterity
• Enhanced Durability
• Enhanced Endurance
• Enhanced Flexibility
• Enhanced Gambling
• Enhanced Instincts
• Enhanced Intelligence
• Enhanced Reflexes
• Enhanced Senses
• Enhanced Speed
• Enhanced Thievery
• Enhanced Wits
• Escape Artistry
• Indomitable Will
• Luck
• Magicians Intuition
• Persuasion
  • Treachery Inducement
• Psychological Intuition
• Scam Artist
• Tactical Analysis
• Trapping Intuition
• Unpredictability

Variations

Powerful Tricksters can reach nearly or even fully divine status:

• Chaos Manipulation
• Fraud Empowerment
• Freedom
• Hidden Arsenal
• Hypercompetence
• Hyper Instincts
• Illusion Manipulation
• Intuitive Aptitude
• Lie Manipulation
• Magic
  • Magic Intuition
• Probability Manipulation
• Rule Bending/Cheating
• Shapeshifting
  • Gender Transformation
• Supernatural Charisma
• Supernatural Dexterity
• Supernatural Durability
• Supernatural Endurance
• Supernatural Flexibility
• Supernatural Gambling
• Supernatural Intelligence
• Supernatural Reflexes
• Supernatural Senses
• Supernatural Speed
• Supernatural Thievery
• Supernatural Wits
• Tactical Genius

Associations

• Absolute Gambling
• Absolute Illusion
• Absolute Thievery
• Absolute Unpredictability
• Enhanced/Supernatural/Absolute Condition
• Meta Luck
• Nigh Omniscience
• Omnicompetence
• Omnifarious
• Powerful Objects
• Reality Warping
• Rule Transcendence

Limitations

• Their very nature makes Tricksters unable to stay away from trouble.
• Since some tricksters are physically weak, they are limited to outsmarting the opponent by using tricks to win.
• May be unable to trick those with Reality Perception.
• People may find the user untrustworthy due to their nature of causing mischief and manipulating others.

Known Users

See also The Trickster and Tricksters.

Folklore/Mythology

• Tricksters (Mythology)
  • Saci (Brazilian Folklore)
  • Anansi the Spider (African Mythology)
  • San Martin Txiki (Basque Mythology)
  • Kuma Lisa (Bulgarian Mythology)
  • Sun Wukong (Chinese Mythology)
  • Puck/Robin Goodfellow (English Folklore)
  • Reynard (Various European Mythology)
  • Dionysus/Bacchus (Greco-Roman Mythology)
  • Hermes/Mercury (Greco-Roman Mythology)
  • Kitsune (Japanese Mythology)
  • Tanuki (Japanese Mythology)
  • Coyote (Native American Mythology)
  • Loki (Norse Mythology)
  • Māui (Polynesian Mythology)

Literature

• Cheshire Cat (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
• Hoki (Discworld)
• Agi Hammerthief (Discworld)
• Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter)
• Peeves (Harry Potter)
• Setne (Kane Chronicles)

Television

• The Trickster & His Brigade (Doctor Who/The Sarah Jane Adventures)
• The Doctor (Doctor Who)
• The Master (Doctor Who)
• Gabriel (Supernatural); also called Loki
• Tricksters (Supernatural)
• Kitsune (Teen Wolf)
  • Noshiko Yukimura
  • Nogitsune

Cartoons

• Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes)
• Megamind (Megamind)
• Discord (My Little Pony Series)
• Lotso (Toy Story)
• Woody Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker)
• Luan Loud (The Loud House)
• Mother Gothel (Tangled)

Comics

• John Constantine (DC Comics)
• Mister Mxyzptlk (DC Comics)
• Bat-Mite (DC Comics)
• Joker (DC Comics)
• Mammon (Image Comics)
• Flip (Little Nemo)
• Gwenpool (Marvel Comics)
• Impossible Man (Marvel Comics)
• Loki (Marvel Comics)
• Mystique (Marvel Comics)
• Spider-Man (Marvel Comics)
• White Spy, Black Spy and Grey Spy (Spy vs. Spy)

Anime/Manga

• Chelsea (Akame Ga Kill!)
• Gin Ichimaru (Bleach)
• Sosuke Aizen (Bleach)
• Utsugi Tsukimiya (A Destructive God Sits Next to Me)
• Truth (Goblin Slayer)
• Hisoka Marrow (Hunter X Hunter)
• Shaiapouf (Hunter X Hunter)
• Shippo (Inuyasha)
• Joseph Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Flip (Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland)
• Haku (Naruto)
• Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)
• Boruto Uzumaki (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)
• Taikoubou (Houshin Engi)
• Caesar Clown (One Piece)
• Capone Bege(One Piece)
• Charlotte Pudding (One Piece)
• Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece)
• Jabra (One Piece)
• Krieg (One Piece)
• Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)
• Usopp (One Piece)
• Teufel Diabolos (Senyu)
• Xelloss (The Slayers)
• Misogi Kumagawa (Medaka Box)
• John (UnOrdinary)
• Malty S Melromarc (Rising of the Shield Hero)
• Lazar (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's)

Video Games

• Araskes (Destiny)
• Hazama/Yuuki Terumi (BlazBlue)
• Queen of Maggots (The Cat Lady/Downfall Remake)
• The Contessa (Sly Cooper)
• Dr. M (Sly Cooper)
• Cyrille Le Paradox (Sly Cooper)
• Yukari Yakumo (Touhou Project)
• Tewi Inaba (Touhou Project)
• Trickster (Valkyrie Crusade)
• Loki (Valkyrie Crusade)
• Puck (Valkyrie Crusade)
• Erevan Ilesere (Forgotten Realms)
• Tzeentch (Warhammer 40k)
• Cegorach, the Laughing God (Warhammer 40k)
• Mephet'ran the Deceiver (Warhammer 40k)
• The Changeling, the Trickster of Tzeentch (Warhammer 40k)
• Lukas Strifeson (Warhammer 40k)
• Joker ("Persona 5")

Other

• Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice)
• Carrotjuice (Channel Awesome)
• Coyote (Gunnerkrigg Court)
• Reynard (Gunnerkrigg Court)
• Jane Crocker (Homestuck); via spiral sucker
• Jake English, Roxy Lalonde, Dirk Strider (Homestuck); via significant contact with other people in Trickster Mode
• SCP-1848 (SCP Foundation)
• Saturn Deer (SCP Foundation)

Gallery

Cartoons/Comics

Azula's (Avatar: The Last Airbender) intelligence made her very skillful in manipulating people.

Joker's (DC Comics) cunning is matched only by his sadism.

Lorenzo (American Dad!) made a deal with Roger Smith to teach him guitar lessons that will ensure his victory against Jamal at the cost of his soul…

…but Roger cunningly conned Jamal into covering the "price for [his guitar] lessons", saving Roger from Lorenzo's grasp at the cost of Jamal's soul.

Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes) is perhaps one of the sneakiest characters in cartoon history.

Loki (Marvel Comics) is the Norse God of Mischief.

Mystique (Marvel Comics) uses her shape-shifting powers to deceive people often.

Spider-Man (Marvel Comics) often uses tricks to take out his opponents.

Alejandro (Total Drama World Tour) is the most untrustworthy and manipulative player in Total Drama history.

Luan Loud (The Loud House)

Anime/Manga

Hazama/Yuuki Terumi (Blazblue) is known as the 'God of Trolling' because of his use of obnoxious and sarcastic remarks to either hurt people's feelings or manipulate their emotional responses in his favor.

Sosuke Aizen (Bleach) is an extraordinary master of trickery and deception, he had deceived Soul Society for a century and manipulated the entire Gotei 13 for his own goals.

From a young age, Joseph Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) was considered a master trickster, outsmarting a variety of opponents with dirty and unpredictable tactics, including beings that have lived for over tens of thousands of years.

Hisoka (Hunter X Hunter) is a deadly hunter with equal strengths in both physical and mental categories but his most deadly aspect is his unpredictable nature. Doing things that will either amuse him or not.

As one of the royal guards Shaiapouf (Hunter X Hunter) is extremely loyal to Meruem however in truth he is truly loyal to himself and Meruem and is willing to betray, deceive and manipulate anyone who stands in his way even his fellow royal guards.

Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto) can use his skills in unique and confusing ways.

Boruto Uzumaki (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations) is tricky and smart despite his age. Even though being a genin he excels on chunin if not jonin-level, as he creates new jutsu's his own ways.

Obito Uchiha (Naruto) was so skilled in his acting such as "Tobi", he was able to deceive almost everyone in the entire world that he was "Madara Uchiha", down to his voice.

While not the smartest guy around, Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece) can be sneaky and has some clever attacks.

Usopp (One Piece) is a highly skilled and experienced liar. His fighting style revolves mostly around outsmarting the opponent through clever tactics and trickery.

Living up to his wolf tendencies, Jabra (One Piece) has been known to trick people through convincing lies so he could attack them when their guard is down.

Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece) dethrone King Riku and disgraced the Riku bloodline, making him look like a hero in front of Dressrosa.

Krieg (One Piece) lives up to his moniker "Foul Play" as his tactics revolve around using dishonest and underhanded methods to defeat his enemies.

Capone Bege (One Piece) is a master of bluffing...

... tricking Caesar Clown, an expert liar himself, to surrender.

A master of deception, Charlotte Pudding (One Piece) is a master of deception, she feigned kindness and innocence to completely concealed her true wicked nature, her victims who fell for her trickery includes not only the Straw Hats but the entire citizens of Tottoland.

Xelloss (The Slayers) "Sore wa Himitsu desu~!" ("That is a secret~!")

Malty S Melromarc (Rising of the Shield Hero) is always manipulating and betraying everyone she meets. Those who have believed her lies have lost everything they had as she laughs at their despair, something the Four Heroes all experienced first hand.

Video Games

The Contessa (Sly Cooper) was able to fool Interpol into sending her criminals who she then steals from.

Dr. M is a skilled manipulator, tricking Sly into leading him through the Cooper Vault via a tracer placed on his cane and planting doubt in Bentley's mind about his friendship with Sly.

Cyrille Le Paradox (Sly Cooper:Thieves in Time) was shown to be an adept manipulator, having been able to persuade El Jefe, Toothpick, Grizz, Penelope, and Ms. Decibel to join him, only to betray them all in the end.

Tewi Inaba (Touhou Project) Trickster, Luck-bringer, Leader of the Rabbits of Earth.

Trickster H.png

Trickster (Valkyrie Crusade) is a chaotic trickster goddess.

Loki H.png

Loki (Valkyrie Crusade)

Puck H.png

Puck (Valkyrie Crusade) is a trickster fairy.

Araskes the Trickster (Destiny)

Others

Loki (Norse Mythology) is the god of mischief.

Carrotjuice (Channel Awesome) is a rabbit-like creature and a parody of Beetlejuice, taking the Nostalgia Critic's personal hard-drive and messing with him constantly.

The Trickster (Sarah Jane Adventures)

Gabriel (Supernatural), also called Loki