I'm not going to defend Paul being disrespectful towards people he doesn't feel much respect towards as such, but...
It's not so bad that I want Paul to die: I just want to see him humbled.
You mean like the time he got flat out OHKOed by an improvised telepathic weapon and lost his ring, hospitalizing assbeat to follow?
Or the time he got his memory wiped by Psimon, burned all his charge like a jackass because he thought he was dreaming, and wound up being nearly useless for most of the rest of that mission?
Or the time he got laughed at by the gods because he was acting /too/ cautious and respectful of traditions he didn't know or understand to the point of undermining his common sense?
I mean, how humbled are we talking here, because his story isn't exactly lacking for moments of personal failure, stumbling, and recovering from his errors, or even just acknowledging when he's outclassed. One of the earliest conversations he had with Kid Flash was an honest breakdown about how he could wreck Robin, but KF would most likely mop the floor with him because, at the time, he had no real hard counter for super-speed.
Part of the reason I like Grayven's story more than Paul's now is for all his bravado, Grayven (ironically enough) knows who he is. He's learned repeatedly that, while he may be personally powerful, he can get his ass handed to him by a normal with the right tools.
Again I'm going to have to cite all the times Paragon got his ass handed to him, or the times he skated by the skin of his teeth. Remember when Klarion shut off his ring entirely for awhile? Or heck, even little moments like when the Sivanas just casually jacked everything out of his subspace storage and there was a whole lot of shit-all he could do about the Sheeda Huntsman?
I mean, come on, /in this update/ he flat out admits that he couldn't take the Hols without his rings. The man is not /unaware/ of his weaknesses.
I guess my real problem with Paul is that he has no tact and refuses to even pretend he could handle some situations better with help.
You mean like the time Johnny Sorrow nearly flat out killed him from two full rings, and the only thing that saved him was calling the Guardians for help with the tools he needed?
Or how he started an arcanotechnological revolution, seeking counsel and support from just a whole bunch of people to accomplish an entire swathe of objectives, up to and including but not /limited to/ freeing someone from possession by a being he didn't think he could kill on his own without endangering the person he wanted to save? How many times has he consulted people like Mera, John and Sephtian because he knows he has no clue of his own when it comes to magic?
Or how about how he doesn't go marching off to Apokalypse because he knows he'd get his ass beat sideways if he got into a premature confrontation with Darkseid? Or how he got Tamaran off the ground to help him found his Corps and start cleaning up Vega with the help of anyone who could be persuaded to improve conditions there?
Paragon's story has /literally/ been 'get other people involved all the time as much as possible because not only do I not know or care about everything, I cannot be a single point of failure for everyone to lean on'. That is his /thesis/, contrasted against Renegade's path of esoteric conquest and benevolent rulership.
The one time he /didn't/ do this was /specifically/ not getting the /League/ involved because he did not feel that he could trust them in a specific matter. And you know what he did? He got a WHOLE BUNCH of other people to help him because he wasn't going to go after Nabu solo because it turns out Parapaul is not actually that arrogant.
Well that and every word out of Paul's mouth just seems to leave the listener feeling condescended to. His words just give off that aura of "I know better you poor stupid child so let me solve everything while you continue playing pretend cops and robbers".
He condescends and disrespects people who are comporting themselves in fashions and under circumstances he finds unworthy of respect, but that's hardly the only way he interacts with people, or the only attitude he has about them. Heck, he /gets/ condescended to in pretty much every interaction he has with the Controllers and Dox.
Yes, his attitude in moments like this where he just doesn't give a damn about someone's opinion can be grating and viscerally repugnant (something Renegade is AT LEAST as guilty of, see: Themyscera), but if that's all it takes to make you completely forget every other aspect of his character, experiences, trials and accomplishments then I don't know what to tell you except 'read it again'.
Paragon's story is not a one-way street of being awesome, unstoppable and smarter than everyone around him any more than Renegade's is, and acting like it has been is a disservice to the story and any constructive conversation we could possibly hope to have about it or the characters who comprise it.
