I can fix him. /silly

Here’s my personal, lukewarm take.

Like all of the trolls, I think it’s important to remember Eridan started with an internet personality caricature. Especially as a generational peer to Hussie (I’m the same age as Toby Fox, for perspective) I felt like I either met or WAS all of these garbo people as a tween/teen growing up on the wee internet.

NOT to say that we should forgive or excuse sh-tty behavior, but just to say that their cringey flaws are relatable. I certainly said, did, and thought some godawful things when I was 13. I was also raised in a toxic environment— caustic and rigid family religion, hard right politics. What I’m getting at is, I can see parts of myself in Eridan and vice versa, and it’s TRAGIC. I love him, but I don’t I think he’s justified or makes good choices. I understand him and I want to shake him and, well, fix him. The tragedy of Eridan (AND FRANKLY, A LOT OF THE CHARACTERS!) is that we can see them walking towards the precipice but we can’t save them. We can see why he does what he does — even if we don‘t agree with him. I appreciate that in a character a lot more than “bluh, I am BAD GUY (tm) and I do BAD THINGS! END OF STORY!”

Also. He‘s funny. What an overdramatic lil dork.