Ok, general rambling done but I just, I gotta ramble about my favourite character from Spider Riders.
(warning for series spoilers on the off chance anyone plans to watch this show)
So, Grasshop. This loser is, probably my favourite character(or one of them). Like, he starts off like, a Team Rocket type villain. You know, woefully incompetent at their job and exists solely to get beaten by the protagonists and is really not that much of a threat, is really kind of a coward and tends to pull dirty, underhanded tricks in order to win. The butt monkey character. You know, that kind of character.
(my running headcanon is that someone submitted his name for promotion as a joke but then it went through now heās a among the Mantidās top four and whoops! cause joke or clerical error aside, idk how he got that position).
And yet, he has some of my favourite character interactions and my favourite character arc in the series.
I mean, truthfully his motivation boils down to āI just want to be someone my wife and kids can be proud ofā. He wants to make them happy and provide for them. Cause he absolutely loves his family and is vocal about it (at least as far as the dub goes). Like, he straight up gushes about his wife and kids and is absolutely unashamed about how much he loves them (several characters remark about he talks about his family all the time). And likewise, despite her nagging, she does love him (I love her line about how he āmay be be a goof, but heās my goofā). Their reunions are adorable and it just solidifies how much they love each other.
And then in the second half of the show, after heās been disgraced and basically kicked out, he has one heck of a character arc that culminates in a heel-face turn I sure never expected when I first started watching. All because, quite honestly, one person decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust him(granted this all came from a ~6 year old but, you know, someone had to do it). Which leads me to something else interesting.
Heās made out to be the most cowardly character in the series. When given the option to fight or run, heād rather run and hide. Heās not a fighter (unlike Stags, Beerain and Buguese he never directly engages the Spider Riders in combat, he usually sends someone/thing else to do it) and as soon as a fight stops going his way he is out of there. So yeah, heās a coward(and a self admitted one at that).
And yet, he pulls probably some of the bravest moves in the show.
Twice he puts himself between Sparkle and someone who was intending to kill her, even though he knows full well canāt fight them. First is against Scarab where uses his own body to intercept an attack aimed at the little girl, the second was against Beerain, who is arguably more dangerous where he does attempt to fight her. And I can almost guarantee that if someone threatened one of his kids in such a manner heād do the same thing. Cowardly he might be, but heāll suck it up when someone he cares about is in danger, he literally would not be able to live with himself if he let someone he cared about get hurt(he even states this, that if he allowed Sparkle to get hurt heād never be able to face his family).
And in a case of āprobably seemed like a good idea at the timeā he actually goes up to Mantid and straight up says ādo what you want to me but spare the Spider Ridersā. Like, dude(and wow the resulting scene, letās just say itās a good thing this show is not that dark and not aimed at an older audience). I mean, the moment Mantid takes him up on the offer heās realizing that maaaybe that wasnāt the smartest thing to do but, he still did it nonetheless.
Like, I consider those actions hella brave, esp for a guy who normally turns tail and flees or hides. Like, he straight up willingly risks his own hide, for someone else.
And he gets some glorious character interactions during this heel-face turn process. My favourite being his relationship with Princess Sparkle. Cause sheās the first one to trust him and befriend him (even though at the time yeah he was intending to use this friendship for his own gain). Cause frankly, itās adorable. And once he does make the turn you can see he just wants to live up to the expectations she has and not disappoint her. And the fact that sheās about the age of his own kids helps(I wonder if at some point his ādadā instinct kicked in and so he was just like āI must make sure she never comes to harmā cause she may be a Spider Rider but she IS still a 6 year old child, and he IS still a dad).
I dunno, when I started watching Spider Riders I just waved him off as āgoofy comic relief villainā but like, he ended up really winning me over and I have a soft spot for the guy. (also apparently in the sub heās a lot more, self aware/4th wall break-y which sounds hilarious as all hell)