i think its time to talk about the intrinsic tragedy of a joke character in the world of ii. every single contestant was made for something. for example, taco was made to stir up drama. knife was made to be a stereotypical jerk character. but dough? he was made on a complete whim. mephone put no thought into him. he only thought "hey, we need a bow replacement", so he made a bow replacement. but that's the thing: there's nothing else to him. he lived as nothing and he died as nothing, and i think he himself understands that to a degree. he knows he's supposed to be bow's brother/bow 2, but he fails at the one thing he's meant to be. if he can't do that, what can he do?
this line in particular is one i think about a lot. he genuinely doesn't understand why nobody seems to care about him. and i think that ties into his own low self worth; if nobody cares about him, why should he?
now, i need to talk about ii18 and what it says about his character. save for suitcase, dough was the closest to killing off steve cobs. if his plan had worked, he would have possessed cobs and most likely have made him kill himself. but here's the problem with that: it's established in the scene right after that, if their host is killed or destroyed, the ghost is destroyed with them. that would explain bow's panicked reaction.
which is to say: dough was completely ready to destroy himself.
he did not care about the risks. he did not care that he would be gone forever if his plan worked out. i think on a certain level, he was expecting himself to be gone.
btw, here's brian confirming on twitter that dough isn't lying when he says he thinks he's bow's brother.
this is what makes his characterization in iv5 so beautiful to me. his theatrics, his emotions, they all prove that he's become something. he's more than just bow's brother. i feel as if bow finally accepted him as her brother after ii18, and i think that did wonders for him mentally. he's so much more of a person now, not just a bundle of tropes and gags.
ii already touched on how horrible it is to be a joke character with box, but i feel like dough hammers the point home. since the day of his inception he was ridiculed, despised, and even killed. he never even got a chance to defy his code like anyone else.
but here he is. he's finally growing past it. i think the amount of parallels he has with bot are no coincidence. bot is the same as dough to a degree, but bot had a support system while dough didn't. such is why dough was so slow on the uptake to being an actual person.
i also think hes finding actual passions outside of what's hard-coded into him. piano, technology (since he most likely made his death traps himself), and acting to name a few. it just makes me emotional to see as a long-time fan of his. he's finally someone. he's his own person...
im sorry if all of this comes off super disjointed i just love dough and i love talking about him,,