I've been meaning to make one of these all week - but life gets in the way, you know? Anyway, I have one Li Mei Cheng, majestic and mucho need of relationships and role playing. A little about her:

Li Mei is one who believes she is God's gift to man and that nearly everyone else is their to amuse her in their own way. She's incredibly fun loving, and charismatic when she's having fun. When she's not she's snippy, rude and very, very mean. She's very, very loyal to her closest friends, but not so much that she overlooks the benefits or harm to herself. She's very elitist but can overlook social lines if you're guaranteed to give her a dose of unparalleled fun.

So, if you want something, come get it. If you've got ideas, let me know. Pretty much everything flies with me.<3

Just a quick question, and don't take this the wrong way, but just how would such an uncharismatic figure be elected into a prominent position? That seems to teeter on the unreasonable to me.

well, that's the things. so long as li is kept happy and amused - which is quite often, as she manages to create her own amusement quite often - she's quite charismatic. and no offense taken. it's an understandable concern. <3

Well, to be honest, I study political science and psychology, and it just seems incongruous to me.

A true leader is an individual that recognizes that other pepole are better than them in certain traits, and positions those people in a way to succeed for the conglomerate. They are willing and enthusiastic to do their part, and are not afraid of dirtying their hands. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the entity is more important than any one individual involved.

Li Mei seems to be selfish; she's above work, and usually sets up others to puppet for her. She lacks the leader's selflessness and replaces it with sadism. None of these are leadership qualities. Advisor, perhaps, but leader, no.

I suppose you could counter by saying that "if certain needs are met, she's very [insert the blank]" but these seem more auxillarary than principal. Anyone can achieve self-actualization if all of their primary needs are met. Anyone can demonstrate leadership when the situation is made for them to do so.

I ran into similar problems for my character. I actually asked Andie about the Joker position, but eventually decided against it altogether, since Zephyriah doesn't like to surrender control even when someone who is more apt to lead comes along; she doesn't want to reconcile that someone is better.

It's not anything personal, I just feel that, for the purposes of believability and sanity, that Li Mei should have some more redeeming leadership qualities and a bit less on the selfish, egotistical ones. The character reads a bit like an allegory right now, and I didn't sign up for a Beowulf RPG. :P

<3

I understand what you're saying and a true leader isn't any of the things that Li Mei is. But Li Mei isn't a true leader. She's a leader in high school. More often than not, in high school students vote on who they like, who's the most charismatic, etc, rather than who they think can do a truly exceptional job leading them. In fact, most often the people who are qualified to be leaders don't bother running, because it's just high school. And there are plenty of leaders who got by on nothing but charisma. Hitler is a prime example - he was a terrible person with several psychological problems and managed to start a second world war. But for the majority of that war, many of the Germans loved him and found him to be their saving grace.

I understand what you're saying about Li Mei. But I think it's necessary to take into account that more often than not in high school, the rules or norms of political science are rarely taken into account.

Hitler is actually a terrible example. Hitler capitalized on his era. Germany was still readily scapegoated for their transgression in WWI, the Weinmar Republic fell apart, the Reichstag fell into flames, the Ruhr Valley was forcibly taken apart, crippling their industry. The populace was still enamored with prior Imperialist ideals of Social Darwinism. Hitler came along, promised security, offered prosperity, guaranteed a future and got people to buy into his ideal. His charisma sold his ideal, it did not sell him. Secondly, I think Hitler is a fair bit more charismatic, especially as an orator and a leader, than Li Mei.

Take it from someone who did do leadership in High School, it's often more personal in High School than it is in politics. People know each other, they talk, there are fewer people to know, fewer people to talk to. As the sample gets larger, the candidates get less personal; hence why you see more of a focus on issue based ideas.

In high school, it's all that much more important to have a charismatic true leader. It may not be a particularly competent leader, but still someone with genuine leadership capacity.

And I also would caution you against warning that "many leaders don't bother" because it's high school. Most every politician, successful or not, got their start in high school or earlier. Some people naturally take charge, and you clearly see that in the grassroot politics of local high schools.

Believe it or not, high school politics isn't all that different than real politics. You still campaign; you still vote for those that you feel most familiar and optimistic about; many still participate with a degree of ignorance or apathy; the same skills a leader needs to have in politics, they have in high school. There's just bigger fish to fry out there.

It's like a sport, in all honesty. Sure, college and professional football players tend to be miles better than your typical high school player. And the vast majority of high school football players won't cash in playing football, but that does not mean that the same schemes, the same skills, and the same sense of team and camaraderie aren't there at the high school level. And pretty much all pros (maybe with the exception of 1 or two) played football at the high school level.

Take Presidents for example. Almost all of them were members and leaders of their respective fraternity. It's not a coincidence.

As I said, I can understand if you're defensive. You already wrote the character. It's just not something that's readily endorsable.

I don't think Marisol and Li Mei would get along very well. I think we can work out something based on that.