pudding character analysis!
I'm not gonna lie right now, Charlotte Pudding is one of my favourite characters. I know, I know, she’s an antagonist. Sorta? Personally I think she falls under this dere type, mayadere. Basically it’s a character that used to be an antagonist, but switched sides after falling in love.
I don’t know, I just love when teenage girls behave like teenage girls. One of the reasons why I enjoyed her character was honestly because of our closeness in ages. I was the same age as her while i was watching whole cake island, which is 16 if you didn’t know. It honestly just felt like she represented all of teenage girlhood or at least my experiences with it.
I will be honest first though, I went into WCI knowing that Pudding was lying throughout the whole time she was nice (it is difficult to keep away from spoilers i suppose). I was prepared to hate her, truly I was. I was surprised though, when slowly I started to identify with her more and more. Honestly, I couldn't help but fall in love at first sight, despite knowing of her lies and deception. A child of an Emperor, how could she be so sweet to the strawhats?
Of course then her true nature was revealed when she shot Reiju, and started telling her about how evil she truly is.of course this is the part i begin to dislike her, the way she spoke about Sanji broke my heart, especially with him standing outside. (i also loved the scene of him under the rain, tears in his eyes as he tries to light his cigarette again. Trying to revive the flames of the love he thought she had for him, only to realise it was futile as she didn’t love him in the first place, y’know, cause the fire can’t be lit under the rain.)
But after this line in chapter 902, ‘No one will ever fall in love with me. I’m a hideous, monstrous freak.’ It was heartbreaking to me because it was a realisation that everything she said about Sanji was a reflection of how she felt about herself. It’s common for a girl like Pudding, who’s been told time and time again that she was hideous and horrifyingly ugly because of her third eye to have a coping mechanism, especially one of projecting.
See, Pudding is an extremely confused girl. I cannot blame her for it, look who she has as a mother, Big Mom. She calls herself Big Mom’s favourite (if i can find the screenshot i’ll put it here) yet ever since young she was ridiculed and put down by her because of her third eye, even asking her to grow out her bangs to cover it up. This is detrimental for a girl’s self-esteem, especially coming from a mother figure, someone you are supposed to look up to and respect. See how she is being both put down (Big Mom says no one will love her because of her looks) and complimented (yet she is her favourite child) at the same time? Any little girl will become like Pudding when put through this psychological turmoil.
It is no wonder all she does is want to impress her mother, seeking her validation and love in every corner. Pudding has it drilled in her mind that she is unlovable, what else can she do but chase after that sliver of what seemed like love from her mother by lying by becoming rude and basically being a bitch? She will never get it from her mother though, with Big Mom merely seeing her as an important tool as with her awakened ability, she is able to read poneglyphs. (this is just a personal thought but i think her learning how to act and lie flawlessly is to be favoured by her mother as she has yet to awaken her ability. If she does not have any ability at all, why should her mother ‘love’ her?) It's a complicated emotion, to both love someone yet dislike them for how they’ve treated you, especially if they are of your own blood.
Thus these two main reasons cause her to spiral out of control. Pudding had lost herself, in all the intricate lies and personas that she plays, to the point she doesn’t know who she is anymore. This is honestly really common, especially in teenage girls, or maybe I've seen it with myself. Painting yourself in a different light because you hate who you are due to your flaws, in hopes that it will make you feel better. In doing so, you lose yourself entirely, forgetting who you even are.
Even when she switches over to the strawhat’s side she is seen to have this extreme shift in character, from being mean to Sanji then to being absolutely lovestruck by him. This is the most glaring evidence of how messed up she had become from her mother’s brainwashing. She questions herself, why does she even say mean things to someone she feels so dearly towards? It has integrated so well to her personality that she is unable to switch back to whatever she considers her true persona– the ‘mean’, the ‘sweet’ and the ‘vulnerable’ all mixed up in one person. Anyways, Pudding was honestly a refreshing yet realistic character I was able to relate to. The small faucets of her personality, the motivations behind her character was very eye opening to read. In learning about her, I felt I was learning more about myself, so to speak.
Pudding is a character riddled with self-esteem and self-image problems that stem from an unhealthy relationship with her mother and bullying. To combat that, she becomes rude and ‘evil’ to earn her mother’s praise as well as protect her heart in some sense. It is a story that most girls can relate to, the real life ups and downs of complex teenage feelings all rolled into one character. That is exactly why I love her, because she represents the honest troubles of growing up.
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