Let’s talk characters: Slim

itsladykit:

I have a newfound love and appreciation for this boy, so I’m going to talk about him. I’m not even going to try to make a point about characterization. I’m just going to share some of my thoughts on him, and hope that maybe they resonate with a few of you as well.

It is very, very easy to look at Slim and see nothing more than the broken shadow of the skeleton he should have been. It’s even easier to see him as nothing but his brother’s lackey, a puppet that doesn’t think for himself; he is “the dog” after all.

But there’s more to him than that. He’s loyal to a literal fault, willing to stand by the ones he cares about when he should have left long ago. (He doesn’t value himself. He places others’ happiness and wellbeing above his own. He doesn’t think he deserves to be happy.) Despite that, he’s a survivor. He isn’t careless or reckless; he needs to stay alive for his brother’s sake, if for no other reason. (Who else would keep watch over Razz when he’s gone? Who else would keep his LV from rising? Or watch his back in a fight?)

He’s silent to the point of being selectively mute, but he still comes up with jokes and puns. He just doesn’t say them…unless he has a close friend at his side. Then he’ll lightly elbow them and whisper the punchline. And he loves music. When he’s happy (truly happy), he can hardly keep from singing, and when the crushing pressures of his universe become too much, he buries himself in Napstatton’s music or whatever he’s managed to scrounge from the surface.

He may be cracked, perhaps even broken in truth…but he’s still going, for the sake of the people he cares about, if not for himself. After all, he is a Papyrus, and Papyrus-es never give up.