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asurabackuplogs · 4 years

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Ok so i have a bunch of scrambled thoughts on lil cato so heres my biggole brain vom to respond to your criticisms:

While i will admit that much of my immediate attraction to the kitten with the mohawk is due to his phenominal voice performance, i think that the subtle ways he's designed and animated also go a long way in defining the character where the literal text of the show falls a bit flat. if it were merely a script i was reading I think you're arguments were valid, but as a cartoon there is a lot of important body language and implications that can be drawn from what little backstory we get.

In terms of physicality, lil cato's walk cycle is very exaggerated and overcompensating. He stomps his feet, swings his arms, hurls the upper half of his body forward in an attempt to look bigger. In s1 he's shown leaning against walls and being very physically closed off, up until he nearly blows himself up which leads me to a bit of a tangent but bear with me:

I like to refer to a certain trope in literary works as the Standard Paternal Icon. Avocato is this to a T. his story starts out as the classic 'trying to avenge my son' bit. he a protector of both his son and later gary, he's gruff and unemotional unless its dragged out of him, and the people who love him are expected to have that love reciprocated through grand gestures instead of conversations and legitimate bonds. This last part is stated all but explicitly when lc admits that his father never told him he loved him and gary's response is 'well he did this badass thing so obvi he does.'but getting back to the subject of lil cato's body language. In the first episodes we see of him he's either hunched over and too big for his britches or he's a screaming mess. He's trying to imitate his Standard Paternal Icon's body language but is shaken into more childish fits through trauma. The first thing we see of him is desperate crying and begging his father to run. We're then told that this behavior is not normal for him in the prison episode where we see how he acts when he's being a little shit. when he's acting more like himself, tough, defiant, and the proud son of a cato. This contrast is what initially drew me to his characterisation.

The next time we spend time with lil cato is when his father has just died. He's gruff, closed off, doesnt wanna talk, and gary has to literally chase him through the vents to get any sort of reaction from him. Gary's body language is open and affectionate (and effeminate from a traditional framing standpoint) he's eager to hug, stroke, touch, and otherwise break the boundaries of standard masculinity. This is then turned up to eleven when he is able to openly weep over the death of his friend while lil cato gets uncomfortable and annoyed by the display.lil cato tries to express his grief in traditonally masculine ways, violence and logic. He attacks a ship for catharsis and it doesnt work, and then he tries to highjack nightfall's shop to solve his problem and that doesnt work either.

It is only when little cato has suffered an even more traumatic experience that he allows himself to crack, just like we saw in his initial introduction. when he's blasted out of nightfall's ship he lands very pointedly in a fetal position with Gary positioned above him. Protecting him physically like a standard paternal icon, but also holding him in a pose remeniscent of the maternal icon. I.E. he's being emotionally open to lil cato. This is when lil cato allows himself to be vulnerable, curling up into gary's hug and crying in front of the whole ship.

I think its telling that the first thing lil cato says after gary calms him down is 'I thought you were leaving.' its never shown how lil cato feels about gary abandoning him at the time, but its shown here it did effect him and it perhaps had something to do with his more machismo attempts to overcome his grief.based on little cato's reaction to gary and some supplementary information we get about him in season 2 i'll go over later, i'd say that lil cato's main internal motivation is to foster a meaningful bond with his father. that dream is stolen from him literally when his dad dies, but also in that the relationship he wanted from avocato never really existed. even when things were going well. This is a kid who did not feel loved or confident in his relationship with his dad, and thus responds to that grief in the only way he thinks will make his dad proud of him- through violence.

And this is when we get specifically into why i like his s2 characterisation so much. Using this desire as a viewpoint, its easy to get into little cato's head and see why he acts the way he does. The change isnt that drastic when you consider that he is a kid who only ever wanted a dad, loses his dad, and then loses the guy who was gonna look after him in his dad’s stead.

The fact that he spends a few weeks working for clarence is glossed over, but from his perspective he spent that time digesting everything that happened. it likely felt as though he just lost another father figure, or perhaps an entire family if his affection for mooncake and hue is any indication. Often times people will hype up relationships in their minds once they are over, and lil cato was sure gary was as good as dead. It is in this post-dynamic mindset that he might have decided gary was a father figure he wanted, which is why his relief and open affection for gary is a prominent change in his writing this season.We see lil cato trying to impress gary, from his enthusiasm in the dance scene to him considering leaving kvn to die for gary's approval. the dance scene specifically bares notice because of his facial animation. he's excited by the prospect of this thing gary's into, and seems more eager to indulge in gary's interests than he is in the actual dance. This kid is starved for a role model and gary gives him what he wants in spades to the extent that eventually little cato just ends up mimicking his behavior outright. again i'll cite the stellar voice performance, theres a good balance of insecurity and enthusiasm whenever he interacts with gary that tells me he's not sure about this whole 'hugging and dancing and giving each other pet names' thing but he likes how it feels. If you imagine how the timeline felt for little cato he is trying to bond with a father figure he thought he lost and is enjoying how well its going.

now i feel like mentioning that i dont think this is the only stuff going on with little cato’s writing, only that these are the themes that most attract me to the dynamic and thus the ones i’ve thought the most about. i’ll probably have more to rant about tomorrow but im super sleepy rn lol

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