ZILLY

the fandom distorted his character real bad, reducing him to a flat, nothing burger punching bag, who is stupid, too emotional and can’t do anything.

so, let me enlighten you and remind you of the way he’s actually portrayed by debunking the most popular lies about him:

“Tavros killed Grandpa to show off and flirted with Jade right after because he didn’t care about her feelings and just wanted to harass her”

the whole thing with Grandpa happened because Tavros has no concept of grandparents. trolls don’t have grandparents, in fact they barely have any encounters with older trolls, so obviously he assumed Grandpa was an intruder and killed him to protect Jade.

i’m not saying Grandpa deserved it of course, but Tavros didn’t off him because he wanted to cause harm to Jade. he didn’t understand Jade’s justified emotional response because, again, trolls typically don’t have a figure even remotely close to a grandparent in their lives.

and for the people saying “killing was too much”, may i remind you that we’re talking about a troll from Alternia? Alternians are very quick to violence because that’s what their environment requires them to act like.

this is the same as people condemning Vriska for feeding other trolls to her lusus: of course it’s a terrible and grim thing, but it’s survival for them. Tavros made sure Jade would survive so that her session could happen and the trolls could get help from the humans in the future.

“Tavros has no character development and was only a doormat for Vriska”

Tavros had a huge character development when, in the dream bubbles, he snapped at Vriska when she mistreated him once again. he flew away and, when he and retconned Vriska encountered, he had formed a huge ghost army, something that Vriska (despite having mind control powers) didn’t manage to form.

this event made Vriska gain respect and trust in him: Gcatavrosprite exists because Vriska trusted Tavros’ abilities enough to know he’d be able to manage and control GCat with his powers.

plus, people act like Tavros only interacted with Vriska, Jade and Gamzee. he spoke to various other characters as well: Aradia (who, reminder, avenged him), Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, Dave, Nepeta, Rose, John, Meenah… he even interacted with Equius off-screen. so no, his social life clearly doesn’t only revolve around his complicated relationship with Vriska and his friendship with Gamzee had going on.

“oh, but that’s the only thing he did!”

well, not really! Tavros wrote part of Doc Scratch’s code; only him, Vriska, Aradia, Terezi and Gamzee did this.

he may not be a main character, but this proves that he’s more important than many other fan-favorite characters that many assume have accomplished more than him.

“Tavros is stupid and weak”

Tavros canonically can fight, we even see him training to become a cavalreaper even tho he’s on a wheelchair (which i’m assuming takes a lot of physical and mental strength and resistance).

he just chooses not to fight.

is it because he’s lazy, or because he’s a pacifist? who knows. but what we do know is that he’s definitely not an idiot, and uses an alternative method so that he can still contribute during the game.

in Hivebent, we see him use his animal/beast communion powers to form an army of IMPs, making them docile and obedient so that they can help him with the puzzles, despite Vriska’s disapproval.

he basically cheated at the game. forming a plan like this doesn’t require you to be a genius, but it’s proof that Tavros isn’t as stupid as people claim he is.

“Tavros is just an innocent baby 🥺”

this idea that Tavros can’t even get himself to say curse words and is triggered by anything sexual is a HUGE lie.

Tavros swears multiple times in the comic and makes sexual jokes. plus, he literally has posters of half-naked fairy women on his respiteblock’s walls.

you can’t convince me this is all “innocent” behavior.

“Tavros is emotional”

…

i beg you guys to reread the part where Tavros burst out crying.

he was being pressured by a barely-alive Vriska into killing her himself, and she kept trying to convince him that was his chance to “prove himself” and begging to make her pain stop.

Karkat cried for way less, and yet Tavros is the emotional one?

anyways, thanks for your attention! i hope this helped you remember and understand Tavros’ character better! }:)