Sylvester the Cat Headcanons
It's here folks. One of the two big ones. One of the longest ones. Ladies and gentlemen...Sylvester the Cat.
-By far one of the most versatile and talented Toons after Bugs and Daffy themselves. Want him to play hero? Villain? Something in between? Cowardly pet? Sylvester’s got it covered. Whereas Bugs specializes in clever trolling and escalation, and Daffy specializes in satire and parodies, Sylvester specializes in the art of physicality and movement itself. He can either be incredibly clumsy and bumbling or incredibly graceful and nimble.
-He’s very, VERY snarky. Not witty like Bugs or observant like Tweety is…just snarky. He can and WILL snark about anything.
-Sylvester can be rather moody at times as well as easily irritable. However, he definitely brings his own flavor of boisterousness and energy.
-Like most Toons, Sylvester isn’t big on social media. He does, however, have a Tumblr account that Tweety set up for him. Unlike Tweety, Sylvester actually responds to comments. No one on the internet knows it’s Sylvester they’re interacting with because he made sure they wouldn’t be able to tell it was him.
-He also has an ao3 account. His user name is cattypawpuss (he came up with that user name himself and is damn proud of it). Sometimes, he’ll post stories of his fellow Looney Tunes.
-He refuses to go onto Wattpad. He took one look and was so horrified by how much grammar issues there were that he noped right out of it.
-Surprisingly well-read! He loves reading, especially history books and combing through historical documents is the best form of entertainment for him. He’s also a big fan of mythology (his favorite is Norse Mythology, though he also really likes Roman Mythology). Greek Mythology he finds "too overrated."
-On the topic of Norse Mythology, Sylvester's favorite Norse character is Vidar. He finds Vidar heavily underrated and can relate to him on a certain level.
-Speaking of roman mythology, Sylvester's a big fan of the Aeneid! He's read it over several times and loves finding new details each and every time.
-You wouldn’t believe how many people have asked if Sylvester’s into Harry Potter….but honestly, he could care less for the book series. He DEEPLY admires the writing style and worldbuilding, but the series itself doesn’t pull his interest.
-Sylvester makes up dramatic backstories in his head every time he appears in a new cartoon. He also changes the reason for why he wants to eat Tweety in these “backstories” each and every time.
-Sylvester has a very…messy handwriting style. It’s best described as a horrendous mixture of looped, cursive, and manuscript print, His handwriting is ineligible to humans. Somehow, Toons can read it perfectly.
-Sylvester writes and thinks straight from the top of his head. This can have the effect of making his thoughts (and writing) seem a bit jumbled and disorganized. But one can easily tell the clear amount of effort that Sly puts into his work.
-He also doesn’t really believe in editing/constant drafts (this was inspired by myself). He’ll take one look, say the piece is good to go, then post it. It’s only after the post that he starts catching grammatical/transitional errors and sheepishly goes back to fix it.
-A small thing Sylvester enjoys is writing in journals and making lists. The journals are so he can get his thoughts down properly without wasting various papers…the lists are because he likes the structure of it and how much he can put down.
-Sylvester has a guilty pleasure for True Crime, especially old/unsolved cases. He’s often making his own guesses on what happened and how it can be solved (and critiquing/snarking at the human investigators the entire time).
-In general, Sylvester is a LOT smarter than he lets on! Not only is he a big lit nerd, he’s also a big history nerd! He also has some decent knowledge of engineering and inventing thanks to his trap and contraption building skills so he’s one of the few Toons that can understand what Wile E is talking about.
-Sylvester is also a big fan of theater and Broadway. He’s the one who got his son Sylvester Junior into theater in the first place.
-He has a BIG love for Charlie Chaplin and sees him as the essential showman. He will instantly debate with someone if they disagree.
-Sylvester's favorite short is the 1957 short Birds Anonymous. He thought it really showed off his acting skills and successfully endeared him to audiences further.
-Another of Sylvester's FAVORITE shorts was 'Back Alley Oproar.' While it wasn't 'Birds Anonymous' (Sylvester's all time favorite short), he loved getting to play the trickster for once and had so much fun with it. Plus, he actually WON in that short!
-His least favorite short is the 1951 short Canned Feud. He thought it was way too mean-spirited towards him and the mouse (we’ll call him Murray) he co-starred alongside in that short was near unbearable to deal with.
-Sylvester is much more tolerant of mischaracterization than, say, Tom Cat is. He gets a good laugh at how easily fans "soften" his edges to make him seem harmless. He's not innocent and he loves reminding fans that he isn't.
-Sylvester has a habit of laughing at the pain of other people or when they're arguing. He doesn't actually THINK it's funny...it's a habit born out of nervousness/unsureness on how to react.
-Being that Sylvester was designed by his creators to be "perpetually hungry", Sylvester has random pangs of hunger that cramp his stomach. Since he's a Toon, he doesn't actually FEEL hungry...but it's annoying and distracting all the same. To counter this, Tweety will bring him specialized Toon gum to help him fight the effects off.
-Sylvester’s favorite season is Fall. Not only does it bring a feeling of comfortable coziness within him, he loves seeing the colors change and how he can have all sorts of fun in the leaf piles that gather up (he will fight anyone that calls jumping into leaf piles “childish.”
-Sylvester is a big fan of Boogie music and 70s Disco music in general. Any time a good Boogie and/or Disco song is put on, he’ll immediately get up and start dancing to it. He’s surprisingly not a bad dancer!
-Sylvester, owing to being the most "instinctual" of the Looney Tunes, absolutely gets zoomies like a real cat does. There have been several occasions where Sylvester is just zipping around a room chasing nothing in particular.
-Surprisingly, Sylvester isn’t as neurotic as the cartoons portray. He still is, don’t get me wrong, but’s not as easily startled or scared by jump scares or ghosts.
-What he is scared of is things like puppets and dolls. He genuinely finds them creepy and uncomfortable to be around. He thinks they have a secret life and are constantly watching him.
-Sylvester also isn’t all that fond of dark places. He’s not scared per say, but he gets a lot more snappish and unnerved when in one.
-If he has to wear some form of clothes, then Sylvester would choose hoodies. He loves hoodies and will sometimes wear them in his downtime. They make him feel safe.
-He has a habit of talking to himself out loud…and for long hours too. He’ll often get so absorbed in his talks that he doesn’t recognize when someone’s trying to talk to him as well. The topics of his talks to himself can range from made-up stories to just general thoughts.
-Surprisingly a deeply talented rapper. He can spit bars like it’s no one’s business.
-Sylvester isn't ticklish. He has literally no tickle spots to avoid. Unfortunately, what he IS very good at doing is finding the tickle spots of other Toons. He mainly uses this against Tweety...mostly when he notices Tweety's been having a bad day and needs to let out a few laughs.
-Sylvester is a surprisingly effective fighter, the best of the Looney Tunes. He is a BEAST in combat and happens to be an expert in boxing, wrestling, and martial arts. That being said, he prefers not to fight (or show how good he is to the public, as he wants to keep the illusion) unless absolutely necessary and the moments he does, he aims more to incapacitate and stun than outright destroy his opponents…unless they’ve hurt the ones he loves. THEN he’s kicking their ass six ways to Sunday.
-Sylvester is also VERY good at parkour! He’ll often spend time running across the rooftops of Toontown with Tom. He’ll often use a mixture of parkour and agility in his fighting style.
-Can hold his alcohol pretty damn well. He’s especially fond of Toon-branded whiskey.
-Has his own nickname for Tweety: “sunshine.” He reasons that if Tweety gave him a nickname, it’s fair Tweety gets one too.
-Sylvester chose the middle name James himself. He chose it after reading and researching its meaning of "supplanter" and "one who follows." He thought it fit.
-Sylvester is actually really good at naming things! He's into etymology for fun and loves finding out where words and their meanings came from.
-Owing to his love for etymology, Sylvester can speak several languages, both Toon and human. For human languages, he’s fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, and Latin (he’s especially fond of Latin). In Toon languages, he can easily understand what non verbal and non communicative Toons are trying to say…even when they don’t make any noise at all.
-Sylvester can get a little...particular about how big his nose is in productions. Can't be too big, but can't be too small either. He feels modern productions often completely mess it up.
-He absolutely SUCKS at any form of sport. Quite a few Toons are incredibly surprised at this. He’s so great at fighting and physical combat but he can’t shoot a basketball or hit a baseball correctly?
-To explain the tip of his tail sometimes shifting from white to full black in some cartoons…it’s mostly a reflection of his ink stabilization. When he has a lot of ink reserves on him, the tail is white. When he doesn’t and he doesn’t feel well, the tail is black.
-Sylvester suffers from quite a bit of Imposter’s Syndrome. He KNOWS he’s at a good place and is successful in his life…but he doesn’t know if he deserves it. Not when he’s had horrible thoughts and urges trying to push him into hurting others.
-Sylvester's biggest fear is his instincts taking over him. Like I’ve said before, as a Toon he was created NOT to have those instincts, but he picked them up from watching real life cats. However, that also means he's very slowly developing a TRUE predator instinct around small animals like Tweety and Speedy. And as he cares for both of them (especially Tweety) greatly…he fears that one day, he might just genuinely hurt them.
-Because he’s the most instinctual, Sylveser also suffers from several intrusive thoughts. Most of these range from “eat Tweety” “kill Speedy” to “hunt.” These thoughts constantly fill his head and Sylvester does his absolute BEST to ignore them but it’s slowly been getting really hard to do so.
-(TRIGGER WARNING!): So he doesn’t hurt anyone, Sylvester practices self-harm with a secret DIP-laced knife he has in his possession. It gets rid of the intrusive thoughts because Sylvester gets so focused on cutting himself up. He obviously KNOWS this isn’t healthy but because he doesn’t want to tell anyone of his issues, he can’t think of a better solution.
-Divorced Sylvia a few years after the original run of Looney Tunes ended. They still talk but…it’s complicated. Sylvester admits he could have done better with Sylvia.
-Sylvester Junior is his pride and joy. He has never been more proud or felt more love towards anyone in his life. Sylvester Junior loves his dad just as much and despite Sylvester’s stubborn tendency to go in over his head and embarrass Sylvester Junior occasionally, Sylvester Junior secretly thinks his dad is one of the coolest people ever.
-He does still chase Tweety around off-screen…but it’s more so for the fun of it rather than actually wanting to eat him. He’s grown to care very deeply for Tweety over the years and is surprisingly protective over him. He wishes Tweety didn’t blame himself or feel so guilty about hurting him on-screen though.
-Best friends with Wile E. Coyote. Sylvester can actually offer Wile E a lot of insight on certain inventions and contraptions that most other Toons can’t. It’s to the point where Sylvester is one of the few Toons fully allowed in Wile E.’s lab.
-Is super tight with Penelope Pussycat and is the one Penelope goes to when Pepe isn’t around. Pepe was the one who introduced them to each other.
-Is close friends with Thomas ‘Tom’ Cat of Tom and Jerry fame. They met at a 1948 party in Toon Town, recognized each other, and immediately hit it off. The two make it a point to meet together at least once every week. Sylvester being the more social of the two, also drags Tom into meeting other cartoon cats with him.
-Aside from Tom, he also makes it a point to meet up with other famous cartoon cats. Felix the Cat? Coffee chats once a week. Garfield? They’re swapping recipes and complaining together. Top Cat? Philosophical discussions about the chase and the nature of life.
-Good friends with Pepe! They often hang out during breaks or go for drinks together after work. They did date in the past, but broke it off after realizing they had different life prospects.
-He and Speedy are also good friends. Speedy and Sylvester bond primarily over watching their old shorts together and snarking about them however they want (Speedy’s comments are a tad more lighthearted than Sylvester’s though).
-Sylvester’s dynamic with Hector off-screen is…tense. They have too many differences for them to truly get along. Not to mention Sylvester knows Hector uses “beating him up” on screen as a stress reliever for his own issues…and let’s just say he is NOT appreciative of it.
-He’s bisexual. He discovered he liked boys before he also liked girls. For a while, he thought he was just gay.
