#impossiblyshamelessearthquake

A lot of those interviews you mentioned I think came from before the mid-season finale aired (I’m not aware of anything since then, I could be wrong), but yeah I really hated that the implication was that “Oswald is damaged so he doesn’t know what love is”. Like ehhhhhhhh okay so you’re retconning his love for his mother and father as well? But I think what they were trying to get across was that Oswald is a pretty self centered character and starved for normal affection, so obviously, he’d cling onto anyone that dotes on him even a little bit. (Even Barbara or Butch is what I heard in another interview) But ultimately, that “love” is inherently selfish, it relies on possessiveness and jealously, so there was no other way for it to end other than badly for him and anyone that “got in the way” i.e. Isabella. (RIP)  

But now we know that Oswald really does (or did) love Ed, because he was willing to give up his own personal safety in order to keep him safe. He may have initially clung onto him for selfish reasons, sure, and at his weakest emotional point, could Babs or Butch have taken advantage? Absolutely. But they didn’t, and Ed didn’t (as far as I could tell) and so those feelings did ultimately become genuine, at least as far as the audience was led to believe. There aren’t many people Oswald would risk his life for, in fact, I think I can narrow it down to Jim, his mother and father. And now Ed.

Whether he continues to buy into the delusion that he just needs to “prove his love” to get Ed to love him back or whether he decides to go on a murderous revenge rampage is yet to be seen or hinted at. Personally, I’d be happier to see the latter, but it is Oswald, he did come back for Jim’s friendship over and over again despite the fact that Jim rejected him each time, and even prevented Oswald from getting revenge on Galavan.