Trickster figures across traditions

From Coyote to Loki to Anansi, the trickster is the universe's way of reminding order that it cannot seal all the exits. These figures are not villains — they are the system's immune response, the joke that keeps the story honest. Nasreddin is a beloved trickster precisely because he never uses his cleverness for cruelty; he uses it only to embarrass pretension, which is its own kind of mercy.