click flag first please :D Lightpaw Personality Traits (Summarized) Kind, optimistic, caring, friendly, selfless Darkpaw Personality Traits (Summarized) Pessimistic, cynical, selfish, short-tempered, introverted/anti-social, (and later on) caring Wow, they sure are opposites, aren’t they? But, that’s the point. They’re foils to each other. They bring out the best, and, also the worst in each other. They contrast each other in personality, and name. But, other than the fact that they’re both caring, they do both share one thing: They’re traumatized in some way. Obviously, I’m not an expert in this stuff, but I have researched this stuff before, so I do consider myself semi-knowledgeable. But, I do think that their behaviors and traumas are pretty obvious. Lightpaw has some trauma involving people leaving (most likely stemming from his father leaving them at some point. It seems to be likely that Snowboulder has been out of Lightpaw’s life longer than he’s been in it. However, this is only speculation.) Darkpaw has some trauma involving people getting sick (most likely stemming from her mother getting sick and eventually passing. It appears that this happened when Darkpaw was young, though we don’t know how young. Again, this is only speculation.) So… why do they behave so differently, then? Considering how popular Lightpaw is, it’s likely that he had a wide circle of people to support him. Which, is why he’s so, for lack of a better term, normal and whole compared to Darkpaw. Darkpaw, meanwhile is a plate that’s obviously broken. She’s hurt, and (seemingly) far beyond mending. From what I can tell, she didn’t really get any support (that she accepted, anyways) and wasn’t able to deal with her trauma the way Lightpaw did. Lightpaw was able to grow around it. Darkpaw only simmered in it. Trauma and grief are things that you never truly grow out of, you only ever really grow around them. Which… Lightpaw isn’t completely shattered – in the way that Darkpaw is, anyways. He’s obviously healed, and has had time to cope. But… he’s still broken. Which, can be seen in the cave when the Bound™ rope breaks. Even if he’s good at being a “whole” plate, the unfortunately familiar situation just highlights how broken he is. Similarly, Darkpaw thinking that Lightpaw is sick (and maybe dy!ng) just highlights how Darkpaw is broken, instead of just that she is broken. We saw plenty of that in the previous chapters. And we saw plenty of a “whole” Lightpaw, as well. “But, Bea,” I hear you asking, “why are we talking about plates and trauma and grief??? I thought we were talking about ships!” And we are! :D But this is me breaking down the ships, and why they work (and, don’t work in a few of the upcoming analyses.) But, TLDR; Darkpaw and Lightpaw are foils, and highlight each other in both the good and bad. They’re simply two sides of the same coin. (And, honestly, I think that if Darkpaw had more supportive cats in her life and was less self-pitying, she would’ve turned out (sort of) similarly to Lightpaw. And, the reverse for Lightpaw. I think that if he didn’t have so many good cats in his life, he would’ve turned out similarly to Darkpaw.) So, what about the other ships? OpaqueLight So, recently a new ship has cropped up in the world of Bound. OpaqueLight. So… why doesn’t this work quite as well as Darklight does? Well, ignoring the fact that Lightpaw obviously isn’t interested in Opaquestar the same way she is… I’m about 99% sure it’s because of their personality traits. Opaquestar Personality Traits (Summarized) (Possibly) sensitive, (possibly) emotional, (most likely other traits but she just hasn’t had enough screentime) Plus, Opaquestar also seems rather clingy, which… isn’t a personality trait but I might as well mention it here. Along with the fact that she seems rather insensitive/impatient when it comes to Darkpaw. Which I’ll get onto in a second. I don’t think Opaquestar is the best leader imaginable (but… to be far I think she’s (kind of???) young for a leader) and is a flawed cat. Obviously, all these cats are flawed in various ways, but I think Opaquestar (and also Darkpaw and Goldenpaw) are probably the most noticeably flawed in the cast. Opaquestar seems to be under a lot of stress, and also seems rather done with Darkpaw and her behavior. I… really can’t blame her for that, honestly. Darkpaw, at the time, was an incredibly flawed character. However, she’s gone through a bit of a character arc (apologizing to Lightpaw, standing up to Redpaw, etc.) and is a better person now. But, anyways, back to Opaquestar. Again, she seems stressed, and, like she said herself, lonely. She’s probably busy with a lot of her duties and isn’t able to make very many friends. Plus, she also seems emotional and possibly sensitive. We see this in the tree scene, as I’ll call it, where we find her crying over something (which… is presumably related to Lightpaw.)
Lightpaw, meanwhile, isn’t really much of a foil/contrast to her. While I do have to mention that ships don’t /always/ have to contrast each other, it really does help with the chemistry. It gives it flavor - it makes it more interesting. Anyways, Lightpaw is incredibly awkward around her, and is a bit stilted. Overall, he doesn’t seem to understand why she wants to be “friends” with him. If anything he’d rather be hanging out with Russetmud right about now. (PLATONICALLY PLATONICALLY) So, while, yes, it could still work as a ship, in my opinion one or both characters would need to undergo a character arc in order to be at the same compatibility as DarkLight is. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that! But right now, the ship feels awkward because we don’t know enough about Opaquestar (again, not enough screentime). I wouldn’t be surprised if OpaqueLight suddenly becomes a lot more compatible in a few chapters, anyhow! Time will only tell! But, TLDR; Opaquestar and Lightpaw don’t contrast each other as much, nor do they have as much chemistry and Darkpaw and Lightpaw do. They just don’t know each other well enough, yet. DarkRed So, what about these guys? It’s a similar to OpaqueLight. They just don’t know each other well enough yet. Plus, we just haven’t seen a whole lot of Redpaw in the first place, either. I do have to admit, he does seem rather similar to Lightpaw, if only he went with the flow, more. Redpaw Personality Traits (Summarized) Caring, (most likely) people-pleaser, (most likely other traits but he just hasn’t had enough screentime) “But, Bea!!!” I can hear you saying already. “Redpaw only shares one trait with Lightpaw!!! Why are they similar?????” So! Yes! I did only note down “caring” for Redpaw. But, that’s only because we don’t know a whole lot about him yet. However, he behaves rather similarly to Lightpaw when it comes to Darkpaw. (AKA attempting to care for her, though it’s a 50/50 if it’ll work or not) So, if they’re so similar, why doesn’t it work as well, then? Again, this is probably because Redpaw hasn’t had a lot of screentime, however, Redpaw doesn’t really know Darkpaw. He has an impression, and most likely his own image of what she’s like, and not… what she’s actually like. Lightpaw, however, has seen her at her worst (hopefully. I sure hope that was her worst-) and knows a lot more about her. So, again, it’s simply a chemistry thing, plus a lack of screentime with Redpaw. I’m sure we’ll see more of him soon, though. But, TLDR; Even if Redpaw is similar to Lightpaw in several ways, he just lacks the chemistry with Darkpaw that Lightpaw has. Plus, he doesn’t really /know/ Darkpaw, and presumably only assumes what she’s really like. CW: Mentions of (emotional) manipulation below! GoldenRed So… why the big old content warning, you may ask? Well… in short GoldenRed isn’t exactly a healthy ship, currently. Goldenpaw is manipulative, and Redpaw is just too much of a people pleaser. They both need to go through a character arc before this ship will be healthy. And, while I’m not going to be justifying any of Goldenpaw’s behavior, I do just want to put some light on why she (might be) behaving the way she does. So, from what I’ve gathered, here’s her personality. Goldenpaw Personality Traits (Summarized) (Emotionally) manipulative, (implied) insecure, self-centered, (most likely other traits but she just hasn’t had enough screentime) And, like I mention there, it’s likely that she’s insecure. Goldenpaw gets rather quiet/reclusive when Redpaw and the other apprentices (I… don’t remember their names, oops. The pink one and the pirate guy) start talking about Darkpaw. Which causes her to be self-centered and manipulative. It appears that she has the mindset of “if I hurt you first, you can’t hurt me back,” which is an unfortunately common mindset with people who are hurt/insecure like this. So, (emotionally) hurting Darkpaw essentially “protects” Goldenpaw from being hurt in the future. Plus, she desperately wants people to like her (specifically and especially Redpaw) and gets upset/reclusive when people seem to dislike her or when she isn’t the center of attention/conversation. (As seen by her trying to redirect the conversation away from anything positive about Darkpaw.) HOWEVER! I am not condoning her behavior in any way, shape, or form. Manipulation is a nasty thing, and Goldenpaw seriously needs to go through a character arc to grow out of it. But, I must say that it’s rather nice to see a manipulative character with feelings and proper motives. So, TLDR; GoldenRed is toxic because Goldenpaw is manipulative and Redpaw is too much of a people pleaser. They will both need to grow as people before it’ll even be healthy. … yes, I did just talk for 2k words about fictional characters and their relationships. But, yes, be prepared for a part two focusing on the rest of the cast! :D bound and its cast is owned by @gazerofstars thumbnail is a poorly drawn lightpaw by me
