mimsy best

Nathan is a minor antagonist within South Park, his first appearance was the Season 8 (2004) episode 'Up the Down Steroid', his role was minor but kickstarted the main plot, Jimmy abusing steroids that he bought from Nathan to get ahead in competition. From here, he's appeared with a connection to the main plot 8 more times, and once within the game The Fractured But Whole, as a minor antagonist in the Bring the Crunch DLC. His next appearance was 'Crippled Summer', an episode from Season 14 (2010), 6 years since his original debut. His personality had shifted a bit from UTDS, going from soft spoken and laid back yet shifty, to angry, loud, demanding, and psychopathic. Reasons for this behavior wouldn't be presented until the Season 18 (2014) episode 'Handicar', and only 2 minutes at the end cover it. Despite this lack of screentime, and the years between development in his character, he is one of the more complex and realistically tragic characters within the show. In this writing, events that lead and build to his development will be laid out and analyzed. At the end a bonus, less realistic, theory will be explored about an issue within 'Crippled Summer'.

Trauma, and the Result.

Traumatic events aren't a uncommon experience in this show, in fact they're often used just as a joke, a lot of Nathan's own trauma is just an in-joke for the audience to laugh at. The bulk of on screen trauma happens within 'Crippled Summer', showcasing Nathan being shot multiple times all over with arrows twice, bitten by a black mamba (in the middle of the woods where help would most likely take over an hour to get to him), blown up with a pound of C4, and finally, the distasteful start to a long running, horrofic joke with the character, being sexually assaulted twice by a shark. Even though all of this is played as a joke for the audience to laugh at (and they REALY think Nathan being SA'd, espcally by animals, is funny. It happens in the back of Mimsy's Phone Destroyer card too.), it's still, plain and simple,*trauma*. It is revealed later within 'Handicar', that his parents just...don't love him. There's no care for him within them. Sure, his mom kisses him on the head and calls him sweetie, but it's immediately turned around when he begs not to go to Summer camp that year (wonder why he wouldn't want to go back to camp...) and she claims she "can't understand him." She continues to ignore him the entire scene even as he grows more and more frustrated, eventually turning off the lamp on his nightstand despite his protest and leaves, and when she leaves she LOCKS the door behind her. Locks Nathan in his room. He can be heard falling and screaming in pain after, and continuing to yell for his friend Mimsy and run into things behind the conversation his mother has with his father:

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Nathan's dad

What's he saying?

Nathan's mom

That he doesn't wanna go to summer camp this year, but I'll be damned if he's gonna ruin our Italy trip.

Nathan's dad

Right.

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So she can understand him, she just chooses to pretend she can't because she doesn't WANT to listen. She doesn't love him, she would rather dump him off at a Summer camp and take her own trip because she believes he'll ruin it. They don't even acknowledge when he gets hurt and is screaming in pain, they just walk off. There's no love for him there, even in this single, 2 minute scene. 'Handicar' is also home to another SA scene used as a joke against Nathan, including him doing a "wacky" quip about "and I thought a shark was bad". He is also laughed at about the shark incident in this episode by Mimsy, the only friend he seems to have. Throughout the episode, Mimsy brings up Nathan just talking to his parents, and it's been established what happens when he does,so he shuts it down every time. 'Handicar' is just about a hurt, traumatized child trying to get away from a camp full of painful memories, only to get more hurt in the process...and to go home and recieve more neglect.

Nathan's response to the trauma he has experienced is, like the trauma itself, played as a joke. He hits people, he's angry all the time, he screams and yells and gets violent. He is SO HURT, he only knows HOW TO HURT BACK. In recent appearances, he's taken to usual vices. Substance abuse in the child characters in this show isn't uncommon. In fact, sometimes it's handled pretty well. Stan's alcoholism is played relatively straight, the tone remaining cold and somber for most of the scenes and even when played as a "joke" it maintains a serious, heavy air. Tweek is canonically addicted to meth without even knowing it, being made to work within his parents coffee shop, the parents lacing the coffee with meth to get people addicted and coming back. Tweek drinks this when his parents make him "taste test" it, and it has been shown that they keep him steady on it, obviously not wanting him to go into withdrawals.

Within Basic Cable, Nathan accepts Scott Malkinson's insulin as a trade for a Dosney+ account, using it himself before he handed over the account information. In the most recent special, 'Not Suitable for Children', he is shown smoking. His coping has gotten more unsafe and unhealthy.

Nathan and Friend(s)

Within South Park, characters tend to be broken off into groups of friends. The main five, Craig's gang, the Goth Kids, the Girls, all examples. There's also the Spec Ed Kids, though that is more a distinction of characters in a second class. Timmy and Jimmy are in this group, but are also within Craig's gang. Nathan's status within friend groups is..nonexistent. He's pretty much alone. He has Mimsy, and Frances is friendly towards him on occasion, but overall, he's alone. He hasn't even hung out with Mimsy since the Season 21 (2017) episode Moss Piglets. Likely, he is ostracized for his violent outbursts linked to his trauma. No one wants to hang out with the kid that hits and yells, who would? It's this reason, I feel, that Nathan IS so jealous of Jimmy. He's one of the popular kids, he's loved and friends with everyone. He has everything Nathan doesn't. Jimmy's parents are. Messy. Ableist at worst...but they still love him. They still care for him and his safety. At least more than Nathan's own. Jimmy has everything to Nathan, and he is so hurt and jealous. Everything Nathan does is for attention, because he has nothing. He wants to win the science fair because he wants people to pay attention to him, he WANTS to win the camp competition despite how much he hates camp because he gets to perform a song if he does and then people will be PAYING ATTENTION TO HIM. That's all he wants. That's why he's continued his original gimmick of being a dealer despite how many episodes center around him just being Jimmy's antagonist. If he's the guy that has anything you need or want, then he'll get attention. He'll be needed.

Nathan isn't the most tragic, yes, but he's up there for me, his whole existence built up on cries for attention and a want to belong. A character build on failures and traumas no one, especially not a child, should endure, just because it's "funny". Maybe one day we'll see him get his redemption arc, get friends and help. Get love.

BONUS: Cthulhu Theory

This is just a fun bonus because I don't really know where to put it, but I have a theory/headcanon that I enjoy thinking about a lot based on the impossibility of Crippled Summer.

South Park doesn't really shy away from killing characters off, they do it pretty often and pretty brutally. Even long running staple characters like Miss Crabtree and Chef weren't safe from being brutally murdered. So why is it that Nathan went through everything from being shot to crushed in 'Crippled Summer'?

I believe and theorize he's also cursed by Cthulhu like Kenny, unable to die permanently. He took several fatal injuries throughout the entire episode and just...walked em off immediately! Not to mention the episode ends with him being exploded by a POUND of C4, bit by a black mamba (which if not treated right away has a literally 100% fatality rate, and then a rapid fire of every other injury he got that episode repeated (Yes. Including the shark.). He should be dead, yet, he came back, for 6 more episodes and counting. I believe wholeheartedly he is also under Cthulhu's immortality curse, affecting him differently than Kenny. Personal headcanon being that since Kenny's parents just randomly stumbled into the ritual his curse requires a full death to be revived, whereas I headcanon Nathan's parents actually did a ritual as a joke leading to Nathan being just unable to die even temporarily.

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