youve probably answered something like this before but who is your LEAST favorite beta troll
As a Person? Eridan.
As a Character? Gamzee.
Eridan’s a well-constructed character with distinct goals and a distinct purpose in the narrative. It is excessively difficult, no matter how many people pretend otherwise, to lose track of Eridan as a character within the story. From Page 1 of his existence within the comic, it is impossible to read him as anything other than what he is - a shitty, Pathetic, needlessly violent, Racist little Genocidal Incel with zero respect for Women and anyone he sees as “beneath” him. Not once when he is on screen is it possible to construe him as a positive force. To do so takes a staggering amount of effort. His actions resonate throughout the rest of the story in a really unique way, especially considering how short the duration of his presence is. Which is good, considering his arc culminates in him successfully Genociding the Troll Race in the Destruction of the Matriorb!
Like, I talk quite Negatively about Eridan here on my Blog quite regularly. But that’s not because I think he’s poorly written - in fact, my incessant chattering about him is specifically because his writing is quality enough to give me a lot of very strong opinions about him. He’s well written! Mechanically speaking, he is a good character! He’s just an awful, AWFUL little man, and I’m glad he died. Hope he finds a way to die again. XOXO.
Gamzee’s just a badly written racial caricature that I’m tired of people pretending was good in any way. There’s no true internality to his character. There’s not much depth to him. He mostly exists to serve as a catalyst for more plot to happen - and that’s fine, but his uniquely open existence as a tool for the narrative just kind of makes it weird and annoying when people act like he’s this super deep character. He isn’t - he just does things whilst being riddled with so many AntiBlack Stereotypes it’s almost impressive. And the thing is, the things he does are interesting, and the plots he is at the heart of are interesting, but they just aren’t interesting in the same way that literally every other Beta Troll has the capability to be.
Gamzee Plots are mostly only interesting because of the effect Gamzee Plots have on other people. Like, come on, let’s be serious - no one actually cares about the Gamzee/Terezi Abuse Subplot from Gamzee’s perspective. 100% of the intrigue is in the effect Gamzee is having on Terezi, not in questions of “Why is Gamzee doing this?”, or “What does Gamzee think about this?”. No one actually gives a shit about what’s going on in Gamzee’s head during Murderstuck, right? What we care about isn’t “Wow, Gamzee’s really messed up, he’s going through it so badly that he’s just snapped and killed a guy. Wow, can you imagine what it’s like being in his brain right now? Imagine what he’ll think of this after this is all over, that’s gonna be so rough, how’ll he recover?”, it’s “Holy shit, Generic Scary Guy has just killed Blorbo! Oh no, Blorbo! That’s so sad! Nooo, not Meowrails!!!!”.
Gamzee could be replaced by literally anything else and nothing would change, except the fact that the comic would feel substantially less racist. Replace him with a Wizard. Replace him with a cloud. Replace him with a different Beta Troll. You could probably get away with replacing him with Eridan in Murderstuck, as far as kills go. Honestly, you could probably get away with replacing him with Eridan in general - up until him dying, that is. I still think Eridan should die exactly where he did.