Character Changes: Spam
Spam does not have a character sheet, go figure. Not one that I’m aware of, anyway. So here’s a less-pixilated drawing of him instead:
His job seems like being the ray of sunshine with a tragic backstory, although that makes less of an impact when everyone else also has tragic backstories too. I’m pretty sure Kayla is the only member of the main cast who doesn’t. And Cameron, but she’s tortured enough without one.
Or… now that I think about it, the better way to think of this is that everyone has problems in their lives, and almost everyone has experienced loss and pain. Summarized as “everyone has a tragic backstory” it doesn’t look very good, but I think it can serve the story just fine.
His entire involvement in the ZP comic itself is two short scenes where he licks two different people (Cameron and Vanexa).
Because he doesn’t say anything in the comic itself, I once saw someone theorize that Spam was nonverbal. Which would’ve been cool, especially for an excitable, expressive, loving character like him, because he has to find creative ways to communicate everything he’s feeling.
But if he were intended to be nonverbal, he would be, so that’s not what I’m doing with him.
I actually don’t have anything to criticize about his character, it seems pretty well-rounded. Silly, kind, eccentric, sometimes annoying, easily distracted… all good. Great character traits with natural flaws.
The only thing I need to get into remotely deeply is his history.
Spam’s lore is that he witnessed his father’s murder by this wolf villain. I think I found somewhere that this happened outside Safe Haven, and that’s why his mother moved the family there (he also has numerous siblings).
Because of this, he has trauma and sometimes feels really sad on the inside. I’m pretty sure his friends don’t know this about him, or at least, they’re not shown to know.
I’m going to change this story somewhat. In this version, Spam was born in the animal district, but the family moved to E! after his father’s death. Spam saw it happen, but he didn’t clearly see who did it.
(It will later be revealed to have been a different ZP villain than the wolf. This story has too many characters already to keep this one-off villain with no depth, and there are better options.)
His friends definitely don’t know this about his past, but Vanexa will find out first.
In E! Spam became friends with Kayla since she lived nearby, and he met Vanexa through her. The three of them have been friends ever since.
Spam also likes writing songs. I imagine that Kayla and Zill both do too, since they’re also interested in music. Spam writes the most, then Kayla, and Zill the least.
I also like to imagine that he enjoys writing love songs with cheesy lyrics just so he can make Kayla and Zill sing them. But that will probably not end up being relevant.
Lastly, he’s not a good student, due to the fact that he gets distracted so easily. This is one thing that separates him from his friends as well — the others do pretty well in school.
That’s all for now!