YMMV / Beti-Pahuin Mythology

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Some storytellers present Andome Ella as a sadistic bastard who gleefully raped and/or seduced the wives of the Ekang and utterly disrespected them with his boorish entourage of powerful chiefs who tried to run off with the secret of immortality, and wiped shit on Medang Boro's knee. Others portray Andome Ella as a victim of Akoma Mba's jealousy, ego, and bad temperment. Yet others say a young Engouang Ondo raped and/or carried on an affair with his wife, forcing Akoma Mba to defend his nephew (albeit some say Akoma put Engouang up to it in order to have a casus belli against Andome).
  • Depending on the story Angone Zok can range from Heroic Comedic Sociopath to Token Evil Teammate.
  • Ntoutoume Mfoulou is sometimes presented as a victim of slander. Though far from a saint, people often falsely attribute acts of cruelty to him.
• Badass Decay: In some modern performances Akoma Mba is a retired geriatric layabout who has to ask his nephew Engouang Ondo to steal magic fish for him since the vendor Ntoutoume Mfoulou refuses to take credit or coupons.
• Memetic Loser: Anvame Eyegue was a joke among the Ekang. Nobody recalls heroic feats from him. When his sister Obono was “kidnapped” by a mortal man he spent two weeks battling her lover before realizing she had taken the opportunity to run away again. He decided to cut his losses there. Then later he got beaten up by his wife after demanding a snack meant for their children. He defended himself from the teasing by saying he tripped and got tangled in a pile of ropes. According to the others she was sitting on top of him and pounding his face in before Emamemouhou Engoang walked in and saved him.
• Values Dissonance:
  • A man was well within his rights to hit his own wife, albeit she was free to run back to her family if it became intolerable. Nkudang eggs on Nsure Afane to fight Zong Midzi after the latter slapped her for being a relation of Angone Zok. "Hasn't a husband the right to strike his wife?" was her implication that she was Zong Midzi's for now, and he should should take her back by force.
  • Bride-kidnapping was just a fact of life. If a man was too poor to pay bride-price, he simply stole a girl. It was the tribe or clan's responsibility to be strong enough to prevent bride-kidnappings or to recover the girls.

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