Election Candidate: The Jovial Contrarian

I’d prefer him in Parliament for Prime Minister Question Time, but I welcome his wit in any office.

Careful, calculated, and confident action is what we need in out mayor. Contrarian for Mayor!

I’ve been prodding my nose into the Jovial Contrarian’s campaign and it seems that he has an interesting connection to The Manager of the Royal Bethlehem. It seems they are plotting, or rather the Manager is coercing him into a plan against the Bazaar. As a newcomer to London I’m not well-versed with the Manager’s nor the Contrarian’s opinions of the Bazaar, can anyone be so kind as to explain why the Manager has an interest in mingling with revolutionaries? Is he just bored or does he hold a grudge against the Bazaar for what it did in the past?

That’s a good question. I’m not sure, myself, but here’s my take on it. (Spoiler contains spoilers about the revolutionaries and The Manager)

The Contrarian is affiliated with the revolutionaries, and generally opposes the Bazaar’s control of London. But as we learn from from his actions in The Affluent Photographer story, he believes that the Bazaar’s protection is probably necessary for London’s stability in the Neath. From investigating his campaign we know that he opposes, or at least isn’t fully supportive of, The Liberation Of Night, a super secret endgame plan of the revolutionaries that will kill the Bazaar but also snuff all light in the Neath and plunge London into an endless night of chaos and anarchy. This is, according to some, a good thing.
What the Manager seems to tell him in the conversation you mentioned is that the Liberation is the only path to freedom, that there is no middle ground between it and subjugation to the Bazaar’s will. As to why the Manager should be so interested in the fall of the Bazaar, I’m not sure. He once made a pact with the Bazaar to save his lover’s life, which didn’t turn out very well for his lover, nor for the Manager, as his lover now blames him for his condition and wants nothing to do with him(also his city was sent to the Neath and then eventually destroyed). Maybe he just holds a grudge, after all the Bazaar did to him. On the other hand, much of what the Manager does seem to be about his desire to get back into his lover’s good graces, so perhaps he thinks that ending the Bazaar will do that, as the Bazaar is responsible for what happened to his lover?

I have no idea what this man wants but I’m voting for him because the alternatives are worse.

Though I do admire and respect the man, I cannot in good conscience vote for someone so intimately involved with the anarchists. Indeed, I’ve done a little work for them here and there but they always gave me such an uneasy feeling. This is coming from a man who prefers the company of the Rubbery Men and Bohemians. The Anarchists are a literal powder keg just waiting to explode, and I will not provide them the spark.

May Fortune Favor the Bold.

The Contrarian is a frivolous, flip-flopping buffoon. As mayor, he’d be unreliable at best.

That being said, he definitely has my vote.

[quote=The Masked Felon]The Contrarian is a frivolous, flip-flopping buffoon. As mayor, he’d be unreliable at best.

That being said, he definitely has my vote.[/quote]
I agree with the frivolous- he has a serious side, but sometimes he doesn’t show it well. i agree with the flip-flopping, though you’ll note he questions other beliefs, not supports his own in the one time free players see an argument.

he tries to find cracks, not build his own case. He wants better arguments, better beliefs, and the only way to get that is cut at the vulnerabilities of the inferior.