The Universe leads. We can only follow.

In her dialogue with Dyle, she asks him whether he prefers cats or dogs, and this serves two purposes:

1) It proves she's aware of the rivalry between cats and dogs, knowing that it's a common, polarizing "duality" type of question.

2) It's another example of her grappling with her label, as Dyle thought it would be awkward to say anything but "cat" to her since to everyone else, no matter what she says she's very obviously a cat.

While this also says something about Dyle in my own deranged mind about being caught between two popular extremes he doesn't agree with, on Scraps' side it's the first of many pieces of evidence that she knows she's a cat but isn't sure how she feels about that label.

When combined with some of her other dialogues like Pebble, Shrimpo, Finn, and Looey, she clearly has distinct stereotypical catlike mannerisms and traits such as hissing, Pebble (y'know, a dog) disliking her (and it being mutual), having a possible appetite for fish (if she wasn't just joking), a liking to yarn, and tail flicking when angry regardless of what she claims. She seems to believe that Yatta is making fun of her for being a cat just by meowing and insists that she isn't one, as though the label makes her uncomfortable just like every other time she insists she isn't a cat, even though Yatta says she loves them and makes it clear she knows full-well that Scraps is a papercraft. In a similar pattern to Vee with Rodger, she's so primed to expect certain forms of negativity or rejection that she defends against them preemptively, even when the "offending" toon actually has no such intention.

Along the same lines of expecting rejection, in dialogue with Cosmo, Scraps appears to be bracing herself for a bad reaction and trying to avoid taking credit for her folding work with the napkins, expecting to hear Cosmo complain and lambast her work for being poor or inconvenient. She doesn't initially take credit for her art in hopes that it will soften the blow or at least be less direct when she does eventually hear his apparently-inevitable complaints only to relax, cheer up, and allow herself to accept the praise once Cosmo makes it clear he's complimenting her.

And with his cousin Ginger, she similarly isn't so sure she should help out and it's only when Ginger says that it's not about being good, it's about spending time with the people you love, that Scraps start to relax and consider tagging along. Even then, she insists Sprout and Cosmo would be far more skilled/far better at producing "good art" with her as if to lower Ginger's expectations to say they might not make something good together even when Ginger doubles down in saying she'd just love to have company.

Teagan is one of her most telling positive interactions for me in that Scraps is more than happy to paint teacups for her because she knows Teagan just wants some fun variety; it's low-stakes, it's a use of this artist's talents, and Teagan clearly wants it. It's like what you'd get if you combined Cosmo's praise with Ginger's prior consent to participate — positivity all-around! Scraps loves to make her art, she's just so used to getting a negative or demeaning response that she tries to keep a low profile about it unless she knows she's in safe company that appreciates when art is simply done for the fun and whimsy of it.

Which leads into her "cornerstone" interaction with Brusha. Poor Scraps, Brusha absolutely tears her up. She bites into her with scathing "critique" (just negativity, really) that her art is childish, not real, and gets so nasty that she sooner assumes Scraps must be stupid or immature enough to actually taste-test glitter glue rather than believe she means "tasteful" in the artistic sense. To the point she has to defend herself by launching an attack against Brusha's abstract artstyle ("mine is realer than yours"). But why is that? And why would Brusha get so nasty about it? It's the first of two major jabs at Scraps for "doing it wrong."

I think Brusha is frustrated that Scraps gets joy out of her art, and beyond that, the fact she gets joy out of her written narrative in a way that Brusha herself is attempting to harshly reject. Brusha is very much the kind of artist that is fueled by pain and trauma to make her art, and one of the elitist types that think suffering is the only way to create good art — that happiness is somehow not a valid enough strong emotion, that it's weak in comparison to the "palette of negativity," a running theme with Brusha in general that I won't get into here since it deserves to be touched on in a post dedicated to her. But given that her dialogue with Shrimpo reveals she thinks any art that evokes emotion is valid, it puts her anger towards Scraps' art into perspective — it is valid by Brusha's own definition, because it makes her angry.

But Scraps can't see that! Scraps thinks Brusha legitimately hates her art for simply being juvenile and it even seems to demotivate her (according to Astro noticing she's been drawing less) when combined with how she was born disabled so her hands made it more difficult for her to draw. Her dialogue with Blot, as silly as it is, is her attempt to explore Brusha's own themes (an abstract emotional piece using lots of black and other dark colors) in search of legitimacy. It also proves Scraps willing to expand and explore, to meet Brusha on her terms, which Brusha herself isn't willing to do because of her own hangups. For being an abstract artist, Brusha is ironically very hung up on the do's and don't's of everyone's narratives and trapped in the black-and-white, leading to getting very upset with Scraps for enjoying what she was made for without putting any unnecessary labels or constraints on herself.

And she's not the only one with hangups about personal ability, identity, imposed narrative from Arthur and Delilah, and validation that cause them to lash out at Scraps, either!

Welcoming Vee to center stage, I find her two dialogues with Scraps to be more of Scraps' "cornerstone" interactions. The poor girl gets torn up for simply being lucky in the second of two primary discussions that criticize Scraps for "having fun wrong" and, unbeknownst to either of them, also disparaging her for her innate feline traits again (increased luck, since gold cats are meant to be good luck charms).

Given that Scraps was meant to be a toon of inspiration that encouraged kids to never stop trying and creating, I imagine she was on Vee's gameshow as a contrast to Brightney — to say that even if you're not book-smart like Brightney, you can have fun too, and maybe you could even win! Don't be discouraged from participating or get down on yourself for not being a big trivia buff, you still have a chance! Which is an entirely fair message to send to kids to encourage them to try new things, but it ends up grating on Vee especially in her dialogue with Flutter where she insists the gameshows weren't rigged in Scraps' favor.

Vee prides herself immensely on her intellect and clearly likes it in Brightney too, which makes sense — for the smart toons, the quiz show should be a meritocracy! If you're smart you get the answer right and if you're not you don't, end of story. And given Vee's need to prove her own worth, to prove she doesn't need any upgrades or replacements, of course she believes in that idea of a meritocracy. But this is where show messages for children clash heavily with the very real thoughts and feelings of the toons involved, leading to Vee becoming frustrated and upset that Scraps keeps succeeding in ways that are "unearned." Vee has had to fight for her own existence and relevancy every step of the way and, to her, everything just seems to fall in Scraps' lap. How upsetting.

Scraps doesn't like to think she's all that lucky because, once again, she simultaneously seeks legitimacy while also not wanting to be assigned a label that inspires conflict or pins her down and describes her in ways she might not like the implications of. In their interactions, luck and merit are mutually exclusive, so to be "lucky" is to be something Vee will never like, and thusly she avoids it at all costs. Her innate luck is just a part of her, likely sourced from some combination of feline traits and narrative convenience from A/D, but she doesn't want to pin it down like a bug to a board — not just to stay on smooth terms with everyone, but so she isn't forced to live by the constraints of a definitive label.

These reasons are all well and good, they make sense on their own in terms of conflict avoidance and wanting to just have fun and get along, but surely she could live with a few toons not being her biggest fan. Why cling to this label-rejecting idea so much, denying you're a cat and trying to make yourself as palatable as possible?

Goob.

She loves him so dearly, and him in return. In his dialogue with Vee he doesn't see the need to feud with his big sister, never taking his place on an opposing podium during Vee's gameshows and just wanting to support her from the sidelines. In many of their dialogues they seem to be deeply bonded to each other: Goob telling Brightney that Scraps is doing well, telling each other they'll be there to support and protect one another, building each other up with compliments and love. Even when they have skins together they're never in opposition or themed with any contrast, always aligned. Themed after ice cream and after flowers together, they do everything they can to deny the notion they have to butt heads with one another. If one believes the notion that Scraps may even be partially responsible for shaping Goob's overall healthy mentality (as opposed to how Squirm turned out, alone and with very little positive reinforcement) by making sure he knew her little brother was perfect the way he was (his sharp teeth, great hugs, "being a little different isn't scary," not needing to prove himself to anyone), it's no coincidence they share those same values.

If Scraps is to accept her similarities to a cat are more than a coincidence, she has to accept Goob's similarities to a dog might be more than a coincidence too. Pebble likes him and he loves Pebble back, he's goofy and furry and utterly all-loving, endearingly clumsy without a care in the world, and those little side pieces of fluff look just a little too ear-like for comfort. Sure the similarities are less overt than they are with Scraps, but the plausible deniability of it is exactly what Scraps relies on to keep herself happy. He's all she has, she needs to keep him by her side.

To accept those two things would be to accept they're meant to dislike each other. Fighting like cats and dogs, black and white, brother and sister, older and younger, a thousand contrasts meant to spark division. For as long as she denies she's a cat, she can't be in narrative opposition to her little brother, and they can keep loving each other just like they always have.

Scraps simply wants to be. She wants to be, and she wants to love, and she wants to have fun regardless of labels or what's the "right way" to do those things or the fact that she's disabled — she doesn't want a rivalry between brother and sister, cat and dog, smarts vs luck, abstract vs real; she wants to do art for art's sake and spend time with those she loves and cares for. That's it! Why is that so bad?