よい子ぶりをほめられ、ちょっと悪い子ぶった言い方をする自分がかわいかった

[Soult]

Hello, good morning!
I'm playing a game where the main character is praised by his mom for getting up early, and he replies that the only reason he did was to get breakfast, since later he'd have not been able to do so. After that, he tells himself this same sentence:

よい子ぶりをほめられ、ちょっと悪い子ぶった言い方をする自分がかわいかった

I think I understand almost all, I'm just having problems with the bold part since I thought 「ぶり/ぶる」 was to fake something, to pretend, and, as I understand the sentence, I don't catch why that verb is there and not something like 「だって、である」. This is my shot:

I felt pathetic for the way I said that I pretended to be a good boy to get praised when I was (actually) being (a) bad (boy).

I want to know what I'm missing or what I'm misunderstanding.
Thank you in advance for your replies!

 

[KLAUSED]

よい子ぶりをほめられ means he was praised for behaving like a good boy and doesn't necessarily mean he was faking it. 悪い子ぶった言い方 means he talked like a bad boy. かわいい means cute not pathetic.

I was praised for being a good boy, and I found it cute that I talked like a bad boy.

I don't mean to sound harsh but your translation shows your understanding of the original sentence is quite inaccurate.

 

[SoLaTiDoberman]

He was praised by his mother because he got up early.
If he was an honest boy, he would have said, "thank you, mom. Yes. I am a good boy!"
But he didn't choose such an honest response, because it seemed embarrasing for him.
He would have probably been at a rebellious age or something.
Therefore, he twisted the reason for getting up early, saying "it is not because I'm a good boy, but I just wanted to eat breakfast soon."
He tried to show that he was in age of resistance, by that twisting answer, just like a bad boy would say.

And he thinks now about his behavior objectively, and he regards it as "childish" in a positive sense, or "adorable."

"I was praised for being a good boy but I responded pretending to be like a bad boy, which I now think is adorable."

I think the logic here is somewhat confusing.
You should know the concept that "pretending to be a bad boy" is an adorable thing.
Got it?

 

[gengo]

よい子ぶりをほめられ、ちょっと悪い子ぶった言い方をする自分がかわいかった

I was praised for being a good boy, and I found it cute that I talked like a bad boy.

I think the last part of the original applies to the entire first part.

I was so cute, talking in a sort of bad-boy way when praised for being a good kid.

Soult, -ぶる means to take on the airs of something. Don't confuse this with ふりをする.

Ex.
聞こえないふりをする = to pretend not to hear / to act as if you can't hear
政治家ぶったところがない人だ = He doesn't act like a politician

 

[Joschl]

I (also) think that the entire clause in {} refers attributively to the noun "[自分]".

[{よい子ぶりをほめられ、ちょっと悪い子ぶった言い方をする} 自分] がかわいかった

 

[Soult]

Wah, thank you so much! I read pathetic instead of cute, so I interpreted that he was actually sorry for his reply and felt ashamed. That is why I didn't understand when he said he was "pretending" to be bad when he was, for sure, bad. And Solatidoberman's explication of "pretending to be bad is actually cute" helped me, also. Thank you so much for your answers! I didn't reply sooner because I didn't receive any email, so I thought I hadn't been replayed yet.

 

[gengo]

I read pathetic instead of cute

You probably confused かわいそう（可哀想）with かわいい（可愛い).

I remember an American friend in Tokyo who saw a woman pushing her baby in a stroller. My friend leaned over to look at the baby, and wanted to say "あぁ、かわいい！," but instead said "あぁ、怖い (kowai)."　The mother's startled reaction was priceless. Of course, I quickly stepped in and said, "「かわいい」というつもりでした."

We all make mistakes.