#ultimately; I think Clawd deserved better

[ratstuckinamarble]

I think the narrative problem with Clawd is he's mostly just.... there. Background characters get more wants and quirks than he has so far. That won't be a problem if you really like his design or the way he's acted, but for the people who aren't innately sold on the aesthetics and acting, it really doesn't give much to grab on to. We've had shots of Ghoulia playing viddy games with Frankie and Lagoona, Manny's been around whenever there's academics or book learning involved, heck even Heath and Spectra get enough one off lines to hint at interesting things about them and their families. Clawd though... he had that bout of being over-bro-tective... he... has been separated from his mom but isn't given a plot about pushing harder to get her back, or even standing in the way of the plan, out of fear for Clawdeen... he's new to school but Frankie's new to being ALIVE so it's hard to really make that a new interesting plot point... I've never MINDED him, still, I can't say I was ever excited to see him. Goobert being on screen got me cheering. You'd think it'd be hard not to make Clawdeen's second born but technically older long lost monster pest hunting brother an unexciting thing. So when he and Draculaura are given a pair of crushes on each other, outside of the meta appeal, it's just... meh?

(Especially compared to Clankie and how Deuce was handled- the slow hint dropping, the many hang outs and scenes together, shared personality traits they bond over, clear acts of caring and interest on both sides, Frankie and Deuce being good buddies completely separate of Cleo, the three of them getting an ep together just to SHOW how Cleo and Deuce are happily broken up and Frankie's blushing like crazy over Cleo...)

But who knows. Maybe Clawd and Draculaura will get a enough good moments going forward to smooth things over. It's not like the Monster High Generation 3 writers aren't GOOD at writing, obviously. Maybe they just focused on other stuff and this is the casualty of that. It could get better. Right?

You've made some really interesting points. Now that you say it, it really doesn't feel like he has much of a goal. While Clawdeen is constantly doing her all to get their mom back, he's mostly busy adjusting to the world, but like you said, that's already Frankie's thing.

And I've always found it strange that he isn't more upset to be separated from everyone he knew in Beheme. He's in a stressful situation! So why don't we really see him struggle? His cheery demeanor is sweet, but it's hard to buy that he'd never have his moody moments with how harsh we're supposed to believe Beheme was, and him getting separated from his mother and presumably other people. Wouldn't he worry about them not knowing what happened to him? Why do we never see that?

Something that also strikes me as odd is very much him "just being there". Because it always feels that way, despite him being someone from another dimension! But that's kinda it...? Why doesn't he get to have traits that truly make him stand out? It's a shame really, I remember being rather intrigued when he was first introduced, but that excitement fizzled away. When I think about it, I can list some traits and whatnot, but he fades into the background compared to how other characters grab your attention.

And comparing Clawd/Draculaura to other ships, they did get some level of build up, not in terms of crushing on each other (I'm hoping the show will let us know why they like each other), but we have seen them interact before this several times. But we don't know why they're friends aside from "he's Clawdeen's brother so they're in each other's vicinity". (This is actually an issue I have in general though, us not getting to see how a lot of friendships we know to be fairly recent started.) I wish a lot of the scenes they had together didn't feel so awkward. Please just make them caring about each other believable.

I am hoping to grow more fond of Clawd and less annoyed with this ship, maybe it is just a consequence of other aspects being prioritised until now. I do know the writers are capable of better things.

I'd also like to use this opportunity to clarify: I don't hate Clawd. I just think he's boring, which is doing him a disservice because I know he has the potential to be much more.

There's more I could say, but this is getting quite long. Thank you for your input anon, I appreciate how you looked for reasons he feels off to some of us. It certainly helped me collect my thoughts a little better.