My TPN Character Analysis Series (Part 1): Barbara
(!!MANGA SPOILERS!!)
In anime/manga, when it comes to female characters that are not your typical bubby outgoing girl, people are quick to jump to conclusions about their personality, and one of these examples is Barbara.
Most people in the TPN fandom don't like her because she's apparently "too aggressive" or was "mean to Emma when she expressed her opinion about the demons." But they don't really understand why she is the way she is.
To start this off, her behavior is rooted through her trauma. She thought she was going to get adopted with her best friend Cislo when they both came of age (I say that because the specific age of shipment for Goodwill Ridge is not confirmed) when in reality, they were both sent to Lambda, an experimental farm that was known for heavily testing and drugging children. Not only that, she was severely traumatized because of what the people in that facility did to her. They ran experiments on her, drugged her, and it eventually gave her super strength, but it doesn't erase the fact that they damaged her mind physiologically.
When Norman blew up Lambda and saved her along with other victims, she was finally experiencing what freedom felt like after spending four years of her life living in torture, and because of that, she saw Norman as a savior, a God, which is why she indebted her loyalty to him.
Now, the main thing that makes her stand out from the rest of the other characters is how outspoken she is about her feelings. She was never given a healthy outlet for her trauma, so she kills demons and eats them as a sort of coping mechanism. She wouldn't care if people are uncomfortable with it because frankly, why would she? She wants people to know what the demons did to her, even if it's in a way they don't like. She will prove her point, whether you like it or not, which explains this moment in Chapter 124
Like I said in the beginning, most people in the TPN fandom don't like her because of this specific moment in the manga, but there's a reason why she acted the way she did, and a huge reason why it's absolutely valid for her to feel this way. She had never seen anyone who felt sympathy for the kind that murdered her people, tortured her, she believes that all demons are the same because of what she went though in Lambda.
Her reaction wasn't just a "valid crashout", it was more than that. She saw Emma's hesitation and only said what she said out of assumption. She can't sympathize with the demons the same way Emma does because she saw how much the demons did to her. She wasn't saying that to be rude to her, it was because she couldn't understand why Emma, who was raised as demon food, wasn't happy to have the demons exterminated. Yes, she might have gone a bit overboard when it came to explaining her feelings, but she's not meant to be a perfect character. She's meant to be flawed, not in a bad way, but in a way that would want to make you want to understand her reason for her behavior.
Barbara, you deserve better girl. No one will mischaracterize you on my watch! 😭🫂