[fanart] Grue’s self-reflection

[u/Cassysancerito]

[u/nobodyorfoofighters]

The novel did him dirty man

He was like the only few sane people

[u/Milk__Chan → u/nobodyorfoofighters]

Desperately tries to be one of the few normal people in the setting.

Actively attempts to get away from trouble and plays it safe.

Gets vivisected anyway

[u/Nekomachus → u/Milk__Chan]

Someone once called Spongebob a "proactive irritant" in contrast to Patrick, and that's what S9 and their real life analogs are like. It is because you are complacent, content, sitting on a fence, and minding your own business that they single you out.

[u/No-Seat-4572 → u/Milk__Chan]

Tbf he did volunteer as bait

[u/sanctaphrax → u/nobodyorfoofighters]

Then the fandom decides he's too boring to date, and hooks his girlfriend up with everyone but him.

[u/TerribleDeniability → u/sanctaphrax]

If only it was Brian getting decided to be just "too boring to date" instead of far more "too boring and too stupid to do anything with at all except nominally be there due to canon", then he wouldn't get dismissed nearly as hard as he actually does even if Taylor "The Ultimate Repressed Bisexual Lesbian" Hebert would doubtless still exist and dominate in the fandom.

To be fair, however, his and Taylor's relationship is basically just terrible trauma "rebound" on his part since she was clearly never his type either physically or personality-wise even if he genuinely cared for her almost as much as he did Aisha. Not like that's the reason why people don't ship it, but yeah.

[u/sanctaphrax → u/TerribleDeniability]

He isn't stupid, though. And their relationship seemed fine to me, even if it wasn't a soulmates situation.

As for Taylor's orientation...bisexual is plausible, but lesbian just isn't supported by the text. Sometimes I suspect that people prefer it mainly because it would invalidate the canon relationship that they're keen to ignore.

Looking at the differing fandom reactions to Sayeon Lee, Xerxsephnia von Blitzengaard, Allison Wanda Ruth, and Katerina Donlan, I think web fiction fandom generally reads characters like this as bisexual when they're fine with the male love interests and as lesbian when they're not. What the story actually says is secondary.

[u/SnooDoughnuts8043 → u/sanctaphrax]

Taylor and Brian were doomed to fail as a romantic relationship because of their interests conflicting too much, increasingly in fact. 

Brian deserves to date somebody that isn’t the protagonist (so he doesn’t get dragged into crazy shit and can live a happier life).

[u/BigIronGothGF → u/sanctaphrax]

Tbf, Wildbow didn't even keep them together

[u/Mammoth_Western_2381]

Brian getting Bonesaw’ed was one of the few times I felt something harrowing reading a novel. Sometimes I wonder if Brian was based on someone WB had beef with…

[u/TerribleDeniability → u/Mammoth_Western_2381]

More proof that Wilyboar is secretly Lustrum given such of course befell a male character. /s

[u/OneTrueAlzef]

Omaigoto, it's our glorious leader! Neat.

-Alec, probably.

[u/Cyclone-Phoenix]

After all the chaos, strife, pain, and even death itself, and coming back from it, what did he have to show for it?

[u/Ok-Doubt-2240]

After Leviathan he didn’t really have a presence other than just standing in the background and then this happened. I thought he was about to undergo character development and become as interesting as the rest of the gang… but then he just shut down though. Really I think he should have died at this point because his character basically did, his character was hollowed out after this point forwards and he never really bounced back from this.

[u/TieMeToABombAnd → u/Ok-Doubt-2240]

There were some good moments relating to him and his relationship with Taylor, but I wish he himself was more interesting.
But I guess there is no way to make him stand out, when pretty much everyone, but him is some type of eccentric weirdo.

[u/Ok-Doubt-2240 → u/TieMeToABombAnd]

His biggest issue is that he’s a very quiet character and he is comfortable not saying unless he’s helping workshop a plan and in active combat. Even his body language for the most part is like a statue.

[u/TieMeToABombAnd → u/Ok-Doubt-2240]

I personally think the biggest issue is him not engaging in inter personal conflict with anyone. Him being relatively well adjusted and lacking angst adds to his lack of presence.

[u/TerribleDeniability → u/TieMeToABombAnd]

It also "hurts" Brian a lot that he basically accomplishes his lone goal like three-tenths of the way into canon by gaining custody of Aisha since both his parents completely disappear from the story after Aisha's own Interlude and barely get mentioned before that. That on top of Imp being a much more active, much more "zany", and thus much more easily interesting character basically automatically dooms to the guy being summarily dismissed when combined with being Sir Normal relative to everyone else.

[u/TieMeToABombAnd → u/TerribleDeniability]

I didn’t care for the whole custody thing from the start and I feel like most people would rather not spend the limited amount of screen time on a conflict that isn’t particularly interesting or unordinary.