I know this is gonna be an unpopular opinion but I actually liked that they made Carnage (the symbiote) a separate character to Cletus Kasady in Venom 2, because something that's always kinda bugged me about Carnage as a whole is that fact that it feels like the symbiote itself has absolutely no personality of its own. It just feels like Cletus was given eldritch superpowers since he's the one who calls the shots, and as far as I'm aware, we never see or hear anything from the symbiote itself (please correct me if I'm wrong tho). It's like Carnage isn't even its own person, its just... Cletus, but he gets to be even more murder happy than he already was.
And while I've heard people explain it away as "oh they're just so in sync you can't even tell that Carnage is two different people", that explanation... honestly feels like an excuse not to flesh out a separate character. Like seriously, what is the Carnage symbiote thinking or feeling while Cletus uses it to do whatever the fuck he wants? Does it like the violence or does it hate being used to kill against its will? Is it okay going along with whatever Cletus wants or does it resent him for never allowing it any semblance of control? I can't help but feel like the lack of characterization of the symbiote itself is a massive amount of wasted potential.
You could have an arc about the symbiote growing to hate Cletus for robbing it of autonomy, and potentially even breaking free to find a host that won't hold it back.
You could have a bit of a reversal on the way Venom was introduced, where Carnage at first seems to be non-sentient, only for the story to slowly reveal that it is trapped by the whims of its host over time.
Hell, you could even do an arc similar to the movie where Carnage genuinely was born evil, but its goals ended up clashing with Cletus, causing them to turn on eachother!
And it's not just Carnage either, there's a good number of symbiotes who aren't actually given any characterization outside of being an extension of their host, and the fact that this is so fucking prevalent just... really bugs me.
Cletus: *says the most enby ass shit despite being a cis guy because he thinks conforming to norms of any kind is for pussies*
ALSO CLETUS: *sees Venom and Eddie being romantic with eachother 2 seconds later* HA! I DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE A FA---- BROCK!
Headcanon that somewhere in the multiverse that there is a symbrock wedding and Cletus shows up just for cake, shoves it over, then leaves fast as fuck thinking it's genius.
"Cletus, gay people are real!"
*literally omnisexual and demi* "NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT!"
I just watched Venom 2 and the film is simply about Frances Barrison and Cletus Kasady trying romantic and sociopathic moments together while Eddie and Venom are in a recent divorce
🇧🇷: Acabei de assistir Venom 2 e o filme simplesmente se trata da Frances Barrison e Cletus Kasady tento momentos românticos e sociopatas juntos enquanto o Eddie e Venom estão num divórcio recente