How to Be an Edgelord in D&D 

If you want to put a twist to it, the edgelord persona is a pure act, hoping reputation and intimidation alone will keep him from being attacked, or will make him look cool to others. When it's revealed he can't fight well and why he put on the show, the rest of the party would help him become a better fighter or learn a skill that makes him a benefit to the team, like a knowledge of weapons or surprisingly good at interrogation or stealth. It would allow for character growth and unify the party. In essence he'd become a main character by subverting the edgelord.. and I hear subversion is all the rage now.

I messed with one D&D group I played with by saying, "You look over and see a man standing in a dark corner..." Everyone groaned before I said, "However, you notice he is facing the corner and appears to be investigating something. I shout 'Hey, I think the foundation is settling.'" You could hear the collective sigh

DM: "Your party of four halflings is stopping for the night at an inn. In a dark corner you spot a man with his hood pulled down over his face. The barkeeper tells you he's a dangerous fellow known only by his alias..." [The party lets out a groan] JRR Tolkien: "Now hold on, I'm going somewhere with this!" -If the Inklings Played D&D

I did a comedy character based on this once. Half-orc rogue, simple all black clothing, always alone and didn't talk much. It is later revealed through a series of horrific skill checks that my charisma is incredibly low, and I was only alone because I'm shy and don't know how to talk to people. All black clothes were because I had no fashion sense, but I'd once heard that black was cool, so that's all I ever wore.

Scratch the surface of any edgelord, and you will find a wounded idealist underneath.

Guts has to be one of the greatest characters I've ever had the luxury (and misfortune) of reading about. And I love the idea of a paladin that is terrified of bumblebees

My attempt at an edgelord character was an ordinary commoner who died in a monster attack that wiped out her entire village. Her resentment ran so deep, it not only brought her back to life as a revenant, but qualified as a paladin's oath of vengeance. She's terse, brooding, easily riled, and in combat she could be mistaken for a barbarian. However, all of the loss she's suffered has instilled in her a desire to protect others. She's questing for revenge against the monster that killed her, but she can get sidetracked easily if there's a crisis, because she doesn't want anyone to potentially go through what she did. It's not hard to convince her to go slay a den of monsters or stop an evil wizard. She's also not so antisocial that she won't share a drink or banter with the rest of the party. I didn't get any complaints when I was playing her. People seemed to like her, actually

If the fifth player at your D&D table walks in and you can hear “All Hail Shadow” blasting through his oversized headphones, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

One of the more fascinating edgelords is Cid Kagenou from The Eminence in Shadow. The writer seems to have embraced rather than avoided all of bad writing of edgelords, but did so to such an extreme and absurd degree that it is oddly compelling to watch.

When it comes to writing really anything, it's always about justification. You can have the edgiest or quirkiest characters, the most insane story, the stupidest plot twist and the most retarded power system imaginable. If you can come up with believable reasons why these things are that way, it will work.

I would argue that Goblin Slayer is actually a subversion of being an Edgelord. Yeah, on the surface it is easy to assume he is one, especially when one looks at how methodically and coldly he exterminates Goblins. However... his hatred and focus on Goblins is something that is justified within the show over and over again by showing us what terrible beings Goblins are. We also see, again and again, that "bigger" threats to humans are already dealt with by other adventurers, who themselves often underestimate or overlook the threat of Goblins. But much more importantly than that... whenever Goblin Slayer interacts with others there is actually a lot of kindness underneath his stoic and withdrawn behavior. He never, ever, judges others for anything. He always gives out valuable advise that has likely saved many adventurers, especially rookie ones. Also despite his hatred for Goblins he would not abandon anyone just so he could kill more. He also never brags or tries to impress others, in fact he is very humble all around. And, perhaps most importantly, despite being kind of a loner and having been a loner for the longest time, he actually works really well in a team and values his allies a lot. He even comes up with clever uses for their abilities, like for example having the Priestess use her light spell not as a source of light but as a magical flashbang, or using her barriers which are meant to be used defensively to instead block paths and trap enemies. He also constantly asks his party members for input and advise on any situation, often asking "What do you think?" and trusting in their plans. We also see that Goblin Slayer is not some invincible killing machine. He's amazing at dealing with Goblins, but when faced with anything else he can struggle quit a lot. And even when dealing with Goblins he knows his own limits and knows when to ask others for help when he knows he will be overwhelmed. To begin with his entire pragmatic fighting style developed because he was aware of his own limitations. And of course, similar to Guts, Goblin Slayer does carry a lot of pain and can have his breaking points too, like at one point he really breaks down because he learns that what happened to him in his past has happened to someone else, so he wonders whether his personal crusade against Goblins is even making a difference and such. Goblin Slayer is a great character in my opinion, often very underrated or misunderstood as... well... "just another anime edgelord".

The worst kind of edgelord is like a pizza cutter: all edge, no point.

I'm watching Goblin Slayer (series II) right now and your observations fit nicely with the eponymous character. He cares only about slaying goblins, except you learn that it is because goblins took nearly everything he cared about.

Yeah Guts is edgy for sure, but as you say, that isn't who he is; It is who he was forced to become as well as a reputation he gained from people who did not understand his actions. It is part of why he is also an anti hero. Not because he isn't a good guy, but he sometimes has to do some bad things. One of the saddest parts of his story, for me, got me right in the feels, is when a little dandelion spirit ends up killing itself to heal him, because he promised to take it out of the cell he was in to where the rest of them were. He had to win a duel in the process and would have been killed without its help. He was not sure if it was even real or not. But he fulfilled his promise the best he could.

In essence, you want your edgelord to be like Shadow's characterization in Sonic 06 and Sonic Adventure2 and NOT like Shadow's characterization in the IDW comics or Sonic Boom.

Great analysis of the one and only Struggler. 😎 Funny how a character that was originally based on Conan the Barbarian developed into something like Guts.

Another way you can write an edgelord, to me anyway? Show just how much of a toll their attitude and actions have taken on them way later in the story. Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd from "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" is a solid example of this. He goes from an idealistic prince with a heart for justice to a murder-happy revenge-chaser in the year you first meet him, but when you see him again after a five-year timeskip, he's alone, exhausted, and haunted by the voices of those who died while he was left to live. It's after one battle that costs the life of his father figure where he realizes just how lost he is, how deep in darkness he is, and how horrid his actions were. It's only his professor that is able to guide him out of the dark, helps him appreciate the people he has left in his life, and helps him fight the voices' hold over him. In short, show how the edgelord fell from grace, how it negatively impacted their lives-past and present-and then show the smolder of care that they once had, and have them get back in touch with it. I also frequently thought of this little proverb while you talked: "Those who are heartless...once cared too much."

I get it, good edgelord is when the character good at something yet they still failing in their quest

I would also add that, for further detail, Guts' "emotionless husk wandering the night" motivation isn't just revenge, but rather to draw evil spirits away from the broken Casca as he can't protect both himself and her in her weakened state. What is more, Guts finds a new level of emotion, motivation, and some (albeit limited) level of normalcy once he finds a new crew. In fact, there is a unique moment when he actually smiles on "a good day" at the beach. Guts' violent, powerful, and aggressive "edge lord" really is personified as the Berserker armor, which constantly nags him and threatens not just his life, but that of his friends.

Maybe you could even have a warrior clad in pitch black armor who ruthlessly cuts through armies single-handedly only to betray and kill his own evil master when he sees said master trying to murder his own long lost son with magic lightning or something. Maybe it could it work? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m a big fan of one character who I’ll call “the inverse edgelord” named cuthbert frunk w. bloodpaw, who partially hid his desire to die in combat by having several goofy personalities. His daughter was killed and after he slew the crew that did it, the stress and injuries caused him to go crazy, and he got comedy multiple personalities and bloodlust.

It's always good to see how a character trope, that is so misused over the ages, should be employed correctly to make memorable characters.

One thing to note is that Guts, while being generally an edge lord, has a history to back that up. You know, for instance the fact that he was [REDACTED] at the age of 8, something that no greasy basement dweller will ever add to the backstory of their "original, uber powerful dark character". Because, y'know, gods forbid their D&D alter ego will be subject of something so humiliating and traumatizing.

The other edgelord I want to try is a blood warlock that was forcibly bound to a dark obyrith godess or something like that that feeds off his life force in exchange for extra power. The twist is that the character is a child ringtail (Hadozee) with an oversized staff and wizzard's hat, and an overinflated sense of self like Zim. The idea is that he would be just too cute to take seriously.

Fantastic video mate, when it comes to edge lords some of my favourites are Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate, Guts from Berserk, Batman and Goblin Slayer.

I haven't even realized how long I've been waiting for you to talk about Berserk 😂

My old rule was that the key to the edgelord is contrast; A nihilistic rogue who loves to visit orphanages to appreciate the optimistic spirits of the children who reside there. A brooding, standoffish ranger looking down on everyone as fools, who will nonetheless pull out all the stops to save those same people because he can't let go of the ones he cares about. A young man who's been stabbed in the back so many times that he believes there are no truly good people in the world, so he is determined to be the first. But simply giving them a justification, writing my edgelords whole personalities is so fundamental to my thinking that I often forget that not everyone thinks about it. Also, I hadn't thought deep enough about the art of writing an edgelord until I saw this video because it is second nature to me at this point. Thank you for covering this; you made my day.

Fleet is a Harengon. A rabbit-like humanoid from the feywild. He was a very generic figure of his species. Eccentric, curious, constantly stricken with a level of wanderlust. Naturally, when one like that feels they've discovered all there is to see, it's time to go somewhere new, thus, he decided to go to the material plane. While I'm still working out the exact details, maybe an accident, maybe a loved one lost during transit, when he arrived, there was a level of desperation that was capitalized on by (insert personal antagonist here) and got him caught up in a very rough, likely immoral life that wore away his more happy-go-lucky exterior. When his actions caught up to him mentally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he did what he was best at: he left his (form of forced obligation) and wandered far and wide, eventually settling in the furthest place where nobody would want to come after him. Icewind Dale. At the start of when we're running the Icewind Dale adventure model, he's been living in the dale for 2 years or so. In such a rough place, folks care less about your past and more about your ability to give back to the community that is the Ten Towns. He's my first attempt at an edgey boi since my first game when I was still learning, and I like to think I'm handling it much, much better. He cares about his new home, even if he's a very pragmatic, rough individual, and I try to show that. He was originally hired by the party as a guide across the Towns, and it's been fun filling the survivalist roll as a take on the rogue, in charge of supplying trips, pointing out local customs, ect.

I love your writing/character tips. i swear these vids give me hope...

the tragic thing about bad writing is that, while it is easier for those who dont wish to engage with the time and care for good writing, it will NEVER have the layers of complexity and depth that good writing can achieve with very little. A badly written story can not get done in 4 hours what a well written story can get done in 4 seconds.

Litdev masking a writing advice video as a DnD video *chef's kiss*.

Yeah. Definitely ran into a few in my time. There’s one moment that’ll stick with me forever and I had to mute myself because I just couldn’t contain my laughter.

Interesting. So the humany hiding behind the "edge" persona is what makes these characters relatable.

I'd love to see you make more videos like this, talking about a type of character and how to make them work. I hope we get videos on comic relief characters and paragons, my personal favourites!

Is this a bad time to bring up Shadow The Hedgehog? A edgy hedgehog who started off as a villain because he was driven to madness by the military gunning down Maria Robotnik, a person he cares about like a sister. I'm sure we know the story of Sonic Adventure 2, but even though he seems like a hack character, Shadow works because he care about those who are close to him, like his teammates Rouge The Bat and E-123 Omega.

I've been toying with an idea for an edgy D&D character. A former grave robber, playing bounty-hunter while quietly on the run. And he was a grave robber in the historical sense; stealing bodies, not their possessions. His client was a wizard who claimed to be developing arcane healing. I haven't settled exactly what crime he's actually committing; necromancy, making flesh-golems, whatever. It all goes wrong and the graverobber and his merry little band of friends take the blame. He escapes, and so does the wizard. Years later, he's traveling in perpetual disguise, playing the part of a hardened mercenary, albeit one with unusual tools and dirty, oily skin. Every time he hits town, he checks for wanted-posters and bounties even if he's not looking for a job. He never says who he's looking for. (himself or the wizard) In his long-term plot, the wizard will turn out to be set up as a court mage or something somewhere.

Good point about proper motivation for these type of characters. Two player dynamics problems I can see doing these characters in D&D are: 1. Them attempting to kill other player characters, possibly in their sleep if they're real jerks. 2. Being so evil it makes it impossible for players who want to player good characters to be so, because they'd either have to not be helping them, in the same party, or even have to fight them to meet a reasonable definition of good.

the last D&D character I played was arguably an edgelord. but like what LD says, he wasn't just "ugh I'm all lone, I don't care about anyone, fuck the world *self harm*" instead, it was a carefully crafted set of circumstances that lead him from being a brash violent child, to a strong good man that wanted to live a virtuous life, to being broken again and seeking vengance on a god, but was still able to have a goddamn sense of humor and work well with others. short version is, chromatic black dragonborn, society says they aren't allowed to even have a name until they've earned one and supremacy among clutchlings especially is an easy way to earn it, so his sibblings bullied him for being the runt, until he wound up killing one of them, literally being found by his parents chewing on the brother's head, earning the name Skullbiter. Then he went on to learn how to wield a sword, and became a guard for a temple to Tiamat, and was so taken with his God that he taught himself to read so he could read scripture, and was being groomed to become a priest of Tiamat until the temple was attacked by warriors faithful to Bahamut, Skull was the sole survivor, and saw the lack of any gudiance from Tiamat, any warning even, the complete silence as a betrayal, which under the homebrew dragon society of the campaign world we were playing in, a Dragon's Promise, if broken, can only be repaired with *death* so, Tiamaat broke a "dragon's promise", Skull is now determined to kill her for her betrayal *of her own children*, that was his premise, that was his *origin* . . . . how I played him was a man with a history of being a merc and the above, and known for taking trophies, his belongings were mostly trophies he'd taken, and every battle he took something only from those he killed. The jaw of a huge beast that attacked the party, a few teeth he got a smith to make into daggers for the rogue, the mefchanical heart of a clockwork soldier, the skulls of several other creatures outside of that edgey shit though? he could make jokes with the other party members, he would smile and have good times with them and was even in a reomantic relationship with another PC (worry not, neither of us wanted to actually roleplay sex, it cut to black and comes back on the next morning when that happened first, and became just "yeah they fuckin" from then on withoutn much focus) basically, Haegorn Skullbiter had a dark past, and a mission for grim vengeance, but he was still a fucking team player and didn't threaten his party members just to show how "edgy" he is. he DID threaten an ally once, but that's because the ally was determined to make another, near mortally wounded ally, come with him on a dangerous quest to if they're very very very lucky have almost no chance to heal her wounds and he wasn't about to risk her life on bad odds.

Playing a game of Exalted, with a bit of an edgelord Night Caste. His family was slaughtered and he was left in a blind rage for a while, wherein he learned the trade of an assassin and started killing for profit. However, before the game even begins, his rage has cooled down, and he's now stuck being REALLY good at killing people and not much else. As one of his Defining Intimacies states: "Assassination's a job. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it isn't." He does care about his brother (btw his brother survived and he just learned this) and we see hints of him caring about others (one of his other intimacies is guilt for someone he wrongly tried to kill and took her eye out). But in Exalted, characters have an almost absurd level of power to affect the world around them. Silent Mask became cynical because he was angry his family was slaughtered, but came to believe the world couldn't be changed and lost hope. Now, however, he has the power needed to not only help, but to change the world outright for the better, and learning that to regain his hope is his arc. The idea behind having his rage cool off-screen was to get his arc started before the game even really began. Game just started so we'll see if this works out.

My first real attempt at an edgelord was an undead fighter in 3.5. His body was desiccated but mostly intact. He would eat heavily spiced food with the party so that he could taste something, even just a little. Meals became the main roleplaying point for him as most of the time he stabbwd bad thing or used strength to lift heavy thing. Went to great lengths to hide his undead state when helping the innocent, so that they would accept the help. After major battles he would often be missing large parts of his body, even limbs as he rarely escaped battle with more than 10hp. He even got a sanctioned necromancer to improve his undead body with grafts, or to just replace a missing bodypart. His whole thing was embracing what he is, while holding onto the flickering humanity within himself. Torquille would often disregard his own safety to protect his party. The edgelordyness usually came out during combat, embracing the dread of undeath against the wicked. He was searching for the necromancer who slew his village and turned him into what he now is. I had just played darksouls and was dipping my toes into berserk when I made this guy.

This is further talking about guts as I have just started reading and recently finished the Blackswordsman arc and would like share my point of view. I felt it was very clear the edgy persona was cope. It may have helped that their was a fairy pointing out his emotions and that I understood him to be a realist. but from him brushing off people and being an asshole, I took was because he was wanting to distance himself from people as he was branded. And not trying save fucked up face from get decapitated was because it was a suicide mission. This was made very obvious by him LITERALLY CRYING that he created another person run by hatred like himself, but knew that the hatred would keep her going from ending it all. Yh was just saying it’s funny how some people only look at characters at surface level.

15 seconds in and I'm already chuckling at the use of the standard array

These are all good points. To piggyback off of those points, I would also add that you can do an edge lord character in a good way by having some sort of plot twist. You could have your character start off as a stereotypical edge lord that people groan and complain about. But as the story progresses we see that this person is actually in disguise because they are someone else but they pretend to be an edge lord so that they can get closer to their objective and then once their true backstory is revealed they can drop the edge lord act and explain their mission and purpose and make it a part of the main story. That way they are not taking away from the entire party but can add value to it. And you could always pull a strider/Aragon from Lord of the Rings.

I had fun with a character that was essentially an anti-edgelord. An arcanist that was abducted and raised by a cult of assassins, necromancers, and ninjas ruled by a council of liches. However, the guy that inducted him died of a heart attack before he could explain to the others why he was to be trained. So they just stuck him in the library and sort of forgot him. Since he never had to go on missions for the cult, he stayed pretty innocent. When he was 50, he finally left the monastery of the cult and was horrified that the townsfolk reacted negatively to him in his cultist robes, driving him out of town with pitchforks and torches. So he spent the next 20 years trying and succeeding in softening the image of the cult, much to the annoyance of his fellow members. He made his robes pastel colored, wore a flower crown, and used his foul sorceries to assist the locals - healing wounds with devil's blood, growing crops by imprisoning fey spirits, and etcetera. His ultimate goal was to prove himself to the lich council so that he could join them on his death, but spent spent the entire campaign trying to serve the needs of both the cult and the party. Things came to a head when he unknowingly undermined the lich council, in a sequence of events that lead to him declaring himself Emperor. The Emperor had for whatever reason, decided that he didn't want to be seen by anyone for decades (staying behind veils at all times) and had even gone missing. Definitely a goofy campaign. Doing the most absurdly edgelord stuff all sing song and cheery for the good of the people and the lich council.

I heard an analogy that I think works well to describe how many writers (or D&D players as the case may be) go wrong. Because I do believe many of them come from a sincere place, and aren't intentional trying to muck up stories/games. That analogy is the "cargo cult." Cargo cults developed when isolated, primitive tribes were suddenly exposed to the creations of the modern, industrial world. The members would see crews leveling a forest and building a runway. Later planes would begin landing and delivering abundant food, medicine, tools, etc. Naturally, these tribes did wanted the same things and tried to do it themselves. So they began cutting trees and making runways....but to their consternation, no planes with goods came to them. We understand what they did wrong because we understand planes. We understand that the existence of planes cause runways to be built. But since the tribes saw the runways first, they assumed that building runways causes planes to exist. I think this is what well-intentioned writers (and edgelords) sometimes do. They see the "cool" surface aspects of a character....and they think by putting those together, it will make the character's personality compelling. But seasoned writers learn that the compelling personality comes first....and the "cool" (or edgy or whatever) surface elements flow from that.

That gives me an idea for a flaw of a DnD Rouge. "I feel the need to be seen as a dark, brooding badass and I'm embarrassed whenever that façade fails."

Edgelord is the name of one of my custom character classes. Basically combined the HP cost mechanic of Findl Fantasy Dark Knights, another type of special attack that does it's damage scaled to missing HP. Also a decent melee fighter and limited arcane casting similar to the Eldritch Knight - "spells that are weapons to wield " in contrast to my other custom class Swordcerer. Every weapon is an implement for casting a spell, the Swordcerer's spell book is alt fire modes for his arsenal.

You know... I may have done this by accident. I played a character largely defined by their relationship to a land as it was before it was overrun by demons, and over the course of the campaign, I spend as much time as I could to show this character giving respect and reverence to the land that once was and the people who lived there. The way he fought may have been brutal, but it was straightforward; charge the enemies to push them back preferably into a wall... And the anvil to his preverbal hammer was a Paladin who specialized in "attacks of opportunity" who could hit enemies every time they were pushed back. While I didn't usually try to make him intentionally edge-lordy, the one time it may have been invoked was during an arena match in the middle of the demonic abyss to catch the attention of a demon lord; and after pulping their demonic champion of the arena in the opening round, he screamed "DISSAPOINTED!" at the top of his lungs. Oh... Also after trying to be merciful to a drake by only punching her unconscious so the rest of the party could focus on fighting the demons, he ended up married to said drake.

In my experience, "Edgy" not only means blood and violence and seggs and black trech coats. "Edgy" always comes with a form of "protest" against "The Man" or "The System". And that's where it gets absolutely fucking obnoxious: - "Edgelord" will take ANY situation regardless of context to complain about "the Man", and worse yet, to excuse his world view no matter how deranged. - "Edgelord" will have suffered great (and edgy) abuse at the hands of an authority figure, only to prove that their violent contrarianism is justified, regardless of how much sense it makes into the story. - "Edgelord" will always take time to lecture other characters (and the audience BTW) about how they are not only wrong, but stupid for not being cool like him. - "Edgelord" will always be a Gary Stu who is the author's mouthpiece, and the plot will twist into a pretzel to "prove" him "right" every time. - "Edgelord" will mock any character with altruistic traits like hope, love, compassion, forgiveness and redemption. - "Edgelord" will want to die, and more importantly, want to kill, because he is a nihilist in the most shallow way possible. I hereby present my thesis: SJW characters are edgelords.

Jocko Willink is a legendary edge lord. Dude seriously says things like "I don't smile because my enemies might see the glint of my teeth." Or "I always hang out in the dark and facing entrances because the enemy might come at any time." But he's not cringe at all. That's becayse Jocko Willink walked the walk and his edginess isn't a cringe weak and pathetic person trying to project power when they have none. Jocko Willinks edgelord hijinks comes from what he calls "post traumatic change" because he experienced immensed trauma and had to adopt a specific demeanor and lifestyle to survive. Just adapt that to your character. Your edgelord character maybe the same level as everyone else but they've adapted a ton of traits that would allow them to be a monstrous battlefield asset at the huge cost of being social detriment. Sure, your jaded fighter can take on the entire King's army by himself but your party is here to garner the king's favor, make gold and retire happily. Your fighter offends the king, slaughters dozens of men, no diff but now your party is worse off and your edgelord both got his moment of glory AND shame.

You only got the like for Hajime Saito. The Shisengumi had only one path, Slay Evil Immediately.

"I don't have any friends, I hate other people, I'm so alone." - brennan lee mulligan "problem player"

You can make a good case that Raistlin from Dragonlance is an edge lord done right. Neutral mage turns (or reveals himself to already be) evil who becomes the big boss of darkness after the party is no longer useful. Awesome character and great character arc.

Another great video. Perfectly illustrates why most fail to understand what makes the "edgelord" actually work as a character. Nicely done LD \m/╰_╯\m/

I really enjoyed your video, especially because you referenced two of my favorite anime supporting characters- Hiei from YuYu Hakusho and the Wolf of Mibu from Rurouni Kenshin.The episode where Hiei uses the Dragon of the Darkness Flame on Bui is one of my favorite all time anime episodes.

Two of my favorite edgelord type characters are Ryoma Nagare and Hayato Jin of Getter Robo. Ryoma's more a violent, fight happy guy with sociopath tendencies. He has an eye for an eye mentality, e.g you harm him, his allies or humanity, he will kill you without a 2nd thought. However, he got his morals, he doesn't approve innocent civilians being needlessly killed, cause at the end of the day, his end goal is humanities survival. He's horrified to learn humanity can be just as worse as the monsters he fights, putting into question what he fights for, but even then, still willing to defend mankind, even if there is bad eggs. But what gets him really is learning that even the Getter robo he pilots will eventually become a universal threat, seeing the catastrophic side it unleashes in present, eading him to leave piloting it for years. Hayato is an interesting case as he would be textbook definition of a both a low functioning (initial introduction) and high functioning psychopath (rest of the series). He was low functioning as he started a revolution cause he was bored, mutilated the faces of any underling who opposed him, and was revealed as coward when a real threat appeared. But after his debut, his persona shifted to high functioning as now he's calm, rational, rarely acting on impulse, but it's clear he's violent and willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Even when he learns the Getter Robo will lead to humanity becoming universal dominator's, compared to Ryoma who has more moral compunctions about become the thing they sought to destroy, Hayato believes in seeing how far humanity and the Getter evolves, as well, arguing just because humanity will one day become the aggressors, he still argues humans have a right to defend themselves from everything trying to kill em, even the threat that is under the thumb of the Getter in the future. The Getter Arc anime ending also gave something else to him, even a psychopath, if you take everything away from them will also break eventually, no man, no matter how callous, can go on having everything he stands for or values in whatever way, be it a reason to fight, those they need, aspirations/goals, their way of life, their home etc, be taken. Arc's anime brought that to light as by the end, it seem like Hayato being in his 5-'s-60's is done with being Earth's defender and wants to pass on the role. By the end, he's just glad to meet his comrades in the afterlife, instead of an ongoing struggle.

People forget. A badly made Edgelord is just the edge of a blade. It cuts, it bleeds, it does nothing else. Boring. Selfish. Useless. A well made Edgelord is more than just the edge. It’s the full blade, sharp and blunt sides, the cross-guard, the handle, AND the hand that wields it all together.

In my personal experience I find that well done Edge lord characters are done by the nicer members of a group. although I could be biased because I generally am the player in question. one thing that helps is to talk as a player to your other players and hash out a course of action of your character so that they don't get in the way of others; although I do find does the best way to do it is to have a set goal with your character or reason for their edginess and use that as an reson for them to be less involved an important story beats. The less you're involved in story beats the less of a main character your character becomes, although it's still important to occasionally talk to NPCs never let your character be too much of a shut in. that's only one step to making a good edgy character another important one that is to find times or reasons for them to stop being edgy for a second or two, examples are something they actively appreciate like other characters granting validation to the edge lords opinions, or even find some creature cute (even if it's something weird like a skeletal cat). Edit: all of the points he makes in the video are of course good, I find his takes to be some of the more well thought out ones, the reason for my message being the way it is even if all of these things are true it is still important in a game of d&d to avoid main character syndrome; also examples of how to give the depth that he mentions in this.

I liked playing "local boy done good" type of characters. Usually a fighter of some type that sends home money to help support his friends or what's left of his living family. 👍

Although I don't have a neck beard body, I have also played edge lord characters. In my case, it's the manifestation of love and loss. I'm usually some kind of metaverse rebel who seeks to right certain wrongs committed in the past. Like LD said, the secret to making the character work is to be passionate, not apathetic.

For me a great way to be an edgelord in DnD is to not start off as an edgelord but become one. One case was when I played as a young squire training to be a knight ready to help the world! Only for the reality of the situation to hit him in the face over and over again. Until one day he finally he learns to fall in line. Ironically this made him an edgelord. Going from “We shouldn’t kill the chimera’s babies, they’re defenseless!” to smashing up an entire blue dragon hatchery, defenseless kobolds included, because he knows what will happen if he doesn’t.

If Guts is the perfect example of a hero being an edgy, Jorg Ancrath is the best example of a villainous edgelord who still manages to be a compelling character. He's the villain protagonist of the Broken Empire series who pretty much crosses the Moral Event Horizon during the first two chapters, but his characterization, motivations, and charisma makes you want to see his story through, for better or worse. I would describe the series as kind of like Berserk, but the protagonist is like Griffith with Guts' backstory, but slightly more redeemable. He is Guts if he took the wrong path in life and gave in to his hatred and rage, but still managed to find the light, or at least a fragment of it, near the end.

I'm playing a pretty edgy character right now in a PF2e game; she's a Hemothurgist (3rd party Blood Mage class) revenant (a background for "died and came back through sheer force of will/passion as a partly but not fully undead creatire) Beastkin (basicly half-lychanthrope) whose token is a black-haired edgy looking anime wolf girl, who is on a personal mission to hunt down the lychanthrope who "killed" her. Oh, and to dial up her edge even further, she is also is heavily spec'ed into necromancy/making undead minions. She even has the edgelord look, as she wears an armored coat which is described as looking like the typical edgelord tattered black longcoat, and is wolf girl, as stated before (she dosen't go as far as to have heterochromia though, that would be TOO MUCH of a sterotype). That being said, the party has no issue with her because despite her personal revenge motive, she actually works well with the group. Thing is, what really drives her is the pain that came with losing her family, who are honorable nobles who believe her dead, and she fears might not take her back if she went back to them due to her....partly undead...state. Her love for the home she had, and the people she cared for, still burns within her, as do the values of her former family. Losing that home and those bonds is what fuels her hatred for her enemy, and further, her hate for injustice in general. She cannot stand to see evil go unpunished, and as a result can sometimes get into dark territory (For example, suggesting a bandit leader who murdered many people, if let free, should have her hands cut off and canine teeth ripped out so she can never take an life again, as a punishment) when it comes to debating what to do with captives, but that is driven by a passionate hatred for injustice that stems from the virtues instilled in her by the family she lost, rather than a sadistic bloodlust. Of note is that when it comes time to make major decisions, usually suggests the party turn to their Champion (Pathfinder version of Paladin), of all people, to guide them, as she respects him greatly and sees him as a better person that herself, despite their difference of opinions on whether evil should be shown mercy or punished swiftly. She still has her values instilled into her by her honorable noble family, in spite of her losses and what they've made her into, and to a degree knows she is a "fallen" individual who has become unstable and dark as a result of her experiences. Hence why she respects the champion so highly; in many ways, he's the person she wishes she could be, and feels she might have become in a different life had she not suffered the losses she did and become the.....not completely human...monster she is now. The fact she's also mainly a support character also helps her get along with the party. Her toolkit is mostly about performing blood transfusions to heal and buff allies, and using undead servants to gum up the battelfield and waste enemy actions. Granted, she still has some murder-y spells focused on dealing persistent bleed damage, but she's not even remotely close to being a "dps" character, and plays a much more supportive role in combat overall. This plays into her general additude as well. She looks the edgelord part and has the absolute lack of mercy when it comes to dealing with those she deems as wicked characteristic of a lot of edgelords, but when interacting with people she doesn't view as wicked she actually is quite amiable. She was after all a noble at one time, so she still remembers how to be and act polite, and when meeting strangers is courteous and friendly, rather than brooding and standoff-ish. Her edge comes out when dealing with those who have violated her trust, or whom in her eyes are clearly wicked; not merchants, guards, and strangers she has no reason to believe are evil. While not exactly quick to trust, if you don't have ill-intent, she will actually treat you quite respectfully. Hell, one of the most fun moments I had RPing her was when she debated a gloomy, edgy nihilist who worshiped the god of the end of the world, Goretus, with her arguing that life actually did have meaning and value.....because, despite all her angst and all her ruthlessness, in the end she still believes there are things worth fighting for. If there wasn't, she'd have no reason to be pursuing the one who took everything from her as zealously as she is. She's been a lot of fun, so yeah.

I once brainstormed an "edgelord" character and have just been waiting for a chance to use him in a game. He's a human Rogue with a gravelly voice who sits in the brooding corner and never stays "with" the party. (He goes everywhere they go, but on the flanks and in the shadows.) He fights using an eastern style katana and never shows his face, and he often intimidates NPCs for information. His solution for most threats is to kill them as quickly as possible. Sounds like a stereotypical "edgelord" right? Well... He never sits with the party, hides his face, and talks in the gruff voice because he suffers from crippling social anxiety. His parents are both alive and well, he writes to them every week. His katana was a gift from his father and his cloak was made by his mother, they wanted their brave little warrior to have the best adventuring equipment. He learned his class skills by reading books at the library. The reason he kills enemies quickly is because he is overcompensating and wants to show the party what a good Rogue he is, he's deathly afraid of rejection and just wants to fit in. Whenever he "intimidates" someone he is just trying to make normal conversation, but because his voice is so rough and gruesome the DM turns it into an intimidation check rather than a persuasion check. All of this info would be hidden from the party at first, and the details of the rogue's true nature would be revealed a piece at a time as the adventure goes on. Tl;Dr wholesome good boy who only looks like an edgelord on the surface.

My favorite edge lord is Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos, who seems only to care about money, but who will do anything to keep his family and friends safe.

Umbrie wears gothic lolita fashion with a small armory of concealed daggers. however, she maintains the edgy, chuuni, hyperefficient persona, because deep down, she is lonely, unable to connect, and a depressed but well intentioned cinnamon roll who lets herself be weaponized as a tool because of that. but she isn't a murderhobo or emotionless husk. not even a mindless bundle of rage. she bonds closely to and depends upon approval from close friends she treats like family. because she traded one harsh set of standards for another. she got tired of being the prodigy constantly weighed against her mother. and well, she decided "i wanna learn how i tick, not how others think i tick." she has a strong need to please.

To put simply, for Edge to be properly done it's suppose to be depicted as a maladaptive defense-mechanism to a traumatic event in the Edgy character's life that highlights the character's flaws and need to overcome that pathological trait through development. You get an Edgelord if the character's edge is to make him look cool and try to mask he is a Gary-Stu.

That music drop was perfect. 💥

A good edgelord is like a good sword, it has a sharp edge and a point.

We use to call them Munchkins, not to be confused with Steve Jackson's Munchkins.

Edgy boi characters I write have to die. I find it the only truly fitting end for the Edgy Boi. They have to lose everything, they have to regain it all, they have to lose themself in the darkness, they have to have redemption, but then they have to die. I don’t believe in happy endings for the Edgy Boi, only happy endings for those around him.

Remember that your characters behaviour reflects the environment that they exist in and the manners and practices that they have adapted to cope with their situation. They are products of their own nature and nurture, same as us.

Having played D&D in just a year.... Learning a hell of a lot within the iceberg that is this tabletop game. Edgelords in basic terms are those who are shocking, edgy, controversial & scandalous for its own sake. & how I'm interpreting Main Character Syndrome; no one character is the protagonist, the team acts as personalities of the character that is the team

Something that is very obvious when you read Berserk for example is that Guts is not edgy for the sake of being edgy. He is cursed. He survived hell. His lover was driven insane and Guts and everyone he saw as family were betrayed by their best friend who became a archdevil. Guts is edgy with the goal of pushing people away from him. People that are around him dies, so he pushes them away in order to protect them from him. At the end of the Slug lord at the end of the Blackswordsman arc. The reason he is so edgy is because the slug lords daughter have just had her entire sheltered world collapse as he father "the slug lord" were shown to be a demon and was killed. Guts is "evil" towards her in order to distract her from the fact life just fell apart, and give her enough hate towards him to keep her going and keep her alive. It is kind of sad that you have to make people hate you enough to prevent them from killing themselves.

Never formally played D&D but I have two characters that I'd like to bring to life one day, one is a Rogue with the charisma and sociability of a bard with grey areas but a strict code of honor while her Bestie is a young, naive and optimistic Paladin that sticks to the rules to a T, they're total opposites and get into the craziest shenanigans ever XDDD

If you boil it down, people want characters that are well written and still feel human and relatable. Also being a plug for Berserk is always a good thing. Guts as a character is an entire series of videos.

When the new player (typically a rogue or a bard and often a tiefling) shows up and the first thing they do is to: a. rob a party member, b. murder an npc for no reason, or c. burn down a building full of people; you have to ask if they just want to play a sociopath or if they actually ARE a sociopath. I love running lawful evil characters and, while they occasionally remind you why their second axis is evil, most of the time they are more reliable allies than the chaotic characters, even the chaotic good ones. The key is that bad boys need to have a reason to work with the party and stay on good terms with them. If you are going to have conflict at the table, it's best to agree with another player that your characters are going to act as dramatic foils for one another and pick the areas of disagreement so that they don't prevent the party from working together.

Tip 1 don't go overboard.

I think that a good edgelord means being indifferent towards being ethical, but not for the sake of being edgy. The character Amos from the show "The Expanse" is a great example. Someone who won't hesitate to escalate a situation to 100, but does so with purpose and not for the sake of being edgy.

In the anime The Eminence In Shadows, the main character is purposefully made into a super edge-lord who's far stronger than anyone else, but unlike most isekai anime it's not just to make him "awesome" but to make fun of him and his crazy antics, as most of the time he's just completely winging it to look and sound cool whilst making retarded choices that, somehow, always works out (as he's "maxed out his luck stat"). Everyone else thinks he's some awesome, infallible genius, but he thinks they're just playing along to his bs fantasies to be respectful or have fun.

i missed these explanation videos

In my D&D group we got one edge lord, his as the looks pretty much nail down: dark hair, dark clothes, magic cape that makes smoke (100% esthetic), edgy backstory. But he got none of the personality, he is deadpan, enthousiasme (when things go his way), very silent otherwise (which as lead to the joke of other character forget his there and get jump scared when he speak again) and one of his goal is to find a cape of theatrical mouvement (a cape that move in a dramatic way) so he can wear both cape. Am happy that we have our Edge lord.

Riku from Kingdom Hearts threw away his life and home to the darkness because he wanted to see other worlds, allowing a demon to possess him body and soul, yet he resisted at the end when he realized how he hurt his friends and clawed his way to becoming not only a good guy again, but one of the most important characters in the story of Kingdom Hearts, and one of the greatest heroes in modern fiction. A bit gloomy, but caring deeply for others.

Edgelords, hard exterior soft interior. Surprising one of the better ones came from the sonic series, shadow the hedgehog, at least for: sa2, heroes, shadow the hedgehog, and 06. Any entries after that are questionable. Shadow likes to come off as tough and distant, but for the entirety of sa2 he's trying to fulfill Marie's promise, even if he's remembering an incorrect version for the majority of the game. For prison island when he hears rouge is trapped, he rushes in to save her knowing the bombs he put on the island are going to explode soon.

My current character is basically Guts and My Group loves home and None of them Know Berserk but because I’m playing him the way you’re talking about and the other way I have him heart is the Pet Creature he has (picture a flying Marshmellow) he loves and they all find it cute not only that the world the DM built is Dark and Gritty so I Fit into it and the other players have Dark Back stories as well they see my character is Full of Hate but also Saddness and is Broken not Inhuman

I want to make a *reversed* edgelord. Its a half devil barbarian who's got all the edgelord trappings. But instead they have encased their dark past and deeds in a kind, gentle, and calm (if just a bit melancholic) personality and a desire to do only good in penance for their past and keep the devil within securely chained down. The idea is that the party wont even know that the big papa bear who acts as the muscle was once a cambion. It is a play on the notion that sometimes the only thing that can defeat a monster is a tamed monster.

The main issue is that even if you have an edgelord with depth, it's very hard to convey that in the limited time you have at the gaming table.

Good Video I now know what I need to put into my new d&d character

Damn, I didn’t know they’d retconned Frank. I prefer the older version where simple bad luck pulled him back in, First Blood style after he’d successfully pushed the way into a box he only opened in the dead of night. Edgy bois only tend to work as the main character or when virtually sidelined; Sasuke was probably in his most powerful moment in the series when he inadvertently saves Naruto from his brother, but he’d been semi-absent for a fistful of chapters prior. That you can easily seem like the main character when you’ve been absent for a while is usually missed by people who want to play one. An even worse troupe we’ve all been guilty of is the chronic loner (often a Druid thanks to D&D’s ridiculous lore) who wanders off on their own. Edgy Bois at least need sycophants alive…

I have a player in my own games (I do GURPS and handle an eclectic mix of setting stuff) who I think does one of the best takes with an edgelord character by playing them as a comic relief glass cannon type. He's a total badass who can shoot a falling dime from 900 yards away, but as soon as he gets hit, he quickly folds into a quivering mess until he can regain his composure. It also has a very deliberate childishness to it where most characters with a bit of seasoning can see he's totally full of shit.

It's silly, but the first example of an edge lord I think of is Shadow the Hedgehog from Sonic. He became an edgelord because of Government agents murdering the only person he ever cared about. Its because of his love that he becomes the dark brooding edgelord he is today. This also depends on the adaptation, as they change his backstory in some versions.

One day I hope I can see you do a whole video on Hajime Saito

TTRPGs are a social activity. Narcissistic people have a hard time fitting at the table. Combine that with a kind of character which isn't easy to write and you have, well... A failure.

if i played D&D i'd be a bard necromancer. a bard and his band of merry men by day, a necromancer by night. my strongest skill would be me and my undead band playing never gonna give you up, making both my party and the enemies dance.

This video reminds me why I found Advent Children Cloud so frustrating. He's largely agonizing over grief that was already dealt with in FFVII proper, so that it feels to me like an excuse to have Cloud say "not interested" and repeat his moody behavior from the early parts of the game. It comes across as glorifying the moodiness itself, instead of glorifying the humanity behind the moodiness. It also makes it so that Tifa and the others have to carry most of the dialogue and character beats by themselves, since Cloud is uncommunicative much of the time. Remake Cloud is a much better realization of the edgelord archetype. He's much more lively, and carries his share of the character interactions. Also, as the game goes on, it becomes clear he's really socially awkward, and not really able to keep up the cool facade for very long. Also, when push comes to shove, he's an emotional squish-mallow, which is a good trait for any edgelord to have. (I think Hajime Saito is a special case, in that his edginess comes with a great deal of humor as well. He's such an unrepentant hardass that it becomes funny watching him bounce off the rest of Team Kenshin, contrast their idealism with his cynical POV. Also, Saito is designed to be a supporting character, not a protagonist. Edgelords tend to work best as a extra spice, rather than the whole meal itself) Good video!🙂

Are you saying Edgelords are Tsunderes by another name? And the failed versions just don't realize the softer side.

How would shadow the hedgehog fit in? I think he fuels the stoic, cold hearted, reluctantly helping others stereotype.

I once got accused of having "Main Character Syndrome." In the game in question, I literally went to four consecutive game sessions, each of which was three hours long, without rolling a die, for any reason, or beling permitted to speak in character. Why was I accused of this? Because I wrote in character journal entries into the game group's "Miscellaneous" channel on the game's Discord server. Could you call my character an edgelord? Well, his mother died while giving birth to his sister. His Orc village had a tradition in which each Orc was left to journey, in search of their own identity, befode being permitted to return home. But, he had a loving family, and part of his journey was to find a means by which to resurrect his mother. He was a Neutral Good Monk, in a party of nominally good characters, even if they were almost all either Chaotic Neutral or Nuetral Evil, in behavior.

1:17 He's stealing backstories from everyone. At least he focused more on the INTERESTING Black Swordsman rather than, you know, the OTHER Black Swordsman.

Leo Whitefang is not what most would think when you think of an edge lord. A King who bravely leads his men into battle with a smile and full of boastful bravado. He smiles because he doesmt want his men to panic as he leads them to their deaths, and he has extreme survivors guilt for those who died before him. Why does Leo love battle? Because he wants to die with his men. Why does he make objectively foolish decisions in battle? Because he wants the enemy to kill him, his men mistake it for bravery and follow him into the fray, none as experienced in combat as Leo, and so die but Leo survives. And so the cycle continues. A perfect example for "why does my charscter love battle" he doesnt he just wants to die but wants to honor the men he lead into battle. Guilty Gear used to be fucking awesome.