#willy tried to drown his kid stampler does not need or deserve a tragic backstory

[hopepunk-priest]

I think if you want Willy Stampler to have some kind of dark backstory that explains why he's like this, you're missing the point.

Willy is so unsettling because he feels real. In a story of monsters and eldritch gods and Chekhov's fucking snake, Willy is an abusive father. Full stop.

He is a brilliant villain because he is grounded. He is a brilliant villain because some people, even ones with good upbringings (which we know Willy didn't have ala ATMOD), are simply the kind of kids who kill cats and are cruel because they can be and shouldn't have children but do. The writing for Willy is phenomenal, Anthony's subtle voice cues and vocal patterns for this snake of a man makes him feel real.

Look, man, I get it. We all hate Willy. That's the fun of having a well written, well acted villain! But he doesn't need a redemption arc, he doesn't need his actions explained, he doesn't need to be sympathetic or relatable. He shouldn't be made any of these things.

You hate Willy because you know Willy. His cruelty, his narcissism, his inability to empathize combined with his eternal annoyance at everything around him and his entitlement to just about everything, his abusive behaviours, his clever and shameless manipulation of everyone around him... Wouldn't all this be cheapened by "but his childhood was bad uwu"? We know his father was a drunk who drank himself to death and we know the only positive influence he had was both ineffective and killed banishing the Doodler. What more could make him sympathetic to you?

Why do you even want this man to be sympathetic?

No villain in almost anything has made me more anxious than Willy fucking Stampler. No great monologue has ever made my stomach turn in knots quite like "shut the fuck up, I'm talking, never do that again". He is a fantastic fucking villain, just let him be a fantastic fucking villain.