She is a predator, however, and it shows. Viciously competitive, she is constantly seeking new accomplishments; she is never content to just sit, to rest or even appreciate what she has. She's insatiable. In canon, she hoards piles of jewels and weapons and treaure, rooms upon rooms filled to bursting with the loot seized in her endless and violent campaigns. Often the threat of being outclassed in any qualification--any at all--is enough to galvanise her into action, sometimes to the point of absurdity or paranoia. And it's not just material goods. It's the hint, the merest taste or possibility of gratification that puts her most in focus, and it is when she's pursuing something that she believes might achieve that, however minor, that her interest is held most completely. It is then, too, that she may be the most dangerous. She may be hurt or lonely, or she may just be insecure, but though she is dismissive and flippant and callous to other people, she seeks them out regardless, relying on them for external stimulation and validation. Unable to relate to them normally (even by Troll standards), she instead abuses and manipulates them to get the results she wants. Sometimes she even helps them, although often this seems to be arbitrary and may begin or end for no apparent reason; the number of irons she has in the fire at any given point is a point of great pride to her, and she goes to great lengths to make and keep an ever-increasing number of plans, even seeing most of them to fruition.

Manipulation is Vriska's game, and she's damn good at it. Or so she likes to think. It's a little complicated. Even though the other trolls are widely suspicious of her--or even outright aversive--she still manages to get them tangled in her deceitful webs, alternating between helping those around her (or pretending to) and seriously injuring or actively hindering them. She's capable of being perfectly nice, even friendly, if it suits her mood or her ends, and can string people along for miles, proverbially speaking, before getting what she wants and dumping them or exacting revenge for some perceived slight or offence. Unfortunately for her, she's prone to irrational beliefs and relies heavily on her mind powers to achieve these ends, putting a great deal of stock in what she considers 'luck'--this does appear to be a real thing, according to recent canon, but can't account for all of it, and often it just seems to be Vriska's own stubbornness and refusal to accept responsibility for her circumstances. It's as though she refuses to see how anything can be her fault, and her hubris is immense. She's got a vindictive streak a mile wide, though, and actually has a pretty jealous nature, purporting (amongst many other things) to be jealous of another troll, Terezi, just for being able to manipulate with even greater skill despite having no powers at all; more rarely, she can be deeply vengeful and outright deranged when enraged or wronged in some way--she's capable of murder, and much, much worse given the opportunity to stoop to it. Usually she's just petty.

She's also a pretty hateful person. You'll need this here. In theory, all Troll emotions can be boiled down to one of two things: hate and pity. Hate, obviously, is what drives kismesis relationships and is a pretty major part of every Troll's personality. In most Trolls, however, their hate is mitigated and stabilised by their pity; without it, society wouldn't work. According to one theory, this is not the case with Vriska; instead, she appears to be more or less completely lacking pity, possessing only one half of the essential scale--she acts out hate and only hate--erratically, incessantly, and to varying degrees--which is exactly what makes her so unpredictable, vicious, and dangerous.

There are a few possible reasons for her terrible behaviour, all of them equally unsolvable. It could simply be inherent to Vriska--a characteristic or quirk of her nature and/or psychology, no more mysterious than the shape of her horns. It could be related to her lusus. It might be related to her emotional instability, preventing her from pitying completely, just as she is unpitiable.

Or it could just be that she is, in fact, trying way too hard.

As a young troll, Vriska acquired the personal journal of her venerable ancestor, the (in)famous Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. She was only a sweep or two old, just shy of the age where she was expected to begin providing for her monstrous lusus, a massive spider that fed upon the flesh of trolls; were she to be too weak (physically, mentally, psychically) to give her arachnoid guardian what it needed, it would have summarily devoured her. Needless to say, it was an intimidating prospect. Reading the journal, however, change that. Some might say she came into possession of this item too young, but she'd say she came upon it at just the right time. Either way, inspired by the graphic, detailed descriptions of Mindfang's vicious betrayals, violent conquests, and lurid sexual relationships, Vriska found the aggression and confidence she needed to be the best she could be and more, modelling herself on the improbable feats and grandoise narrative of her forebear.

Her obsessive drive to come out on top in every situation, her almost pathological need to be in control, her incredibly inappropriate mix of immaturity and overly mature overtures... in her mind, she is everything her ancestor was and more.

Basically, Vriska thinks she is six sweeps going on thirty.

In a lot of ways, she's really more like two sweeps going on six.

She's frustrated in all things, but none so much as this. Vriska may be trying to pick up the pieces of her life now that there's no lusus to take care of, but it's honestly impossible to say--she may have 'toned down' since the days predating the events of canon, but that's a little bit like saying 'well, the continent-devouring volcanic eruption isn't AS violent as it was before.' If she is, she's doing the worst job of it ever.

Her ego remains her Achilles heel. Her fits of insufficiency drive her to manic, almost neurotic levels of competition, and her egotism makes her overconfident, even dangerously so. Unfortunately, the two can coexist, and even cohabitate, making her personality not only abrasive but potentially deadly--to herself as well as to others. It's not hate or affection she's looking for, specifically--it's attention. She needs it, and she doesn't appreciate not being noticed for her incredibly awesome personality and obvious talents.