I'm just fucking lazy and I don't wanna write a page right now. TO DO: better body text! less nonsense... archive of materials and LINKS for FRIENDS.
I have quite a bit to say about Waver but at the moment, I'm kind of struggling. Waver has been one of my favorite characters going on a decade now. He's just such a little guy, I can't help but love him. There's something very charming about a guy who tries his hardest but kind of sucks. Beyond that, I think it's really interesting to see a character at two distinct stages of their life - we don't grow with Waver, we're not there for his ride. We just get snippets of who he is at a given time, what mannerisms and eccentricities are carried with him, and how his desires manifest. Listen. He's fun! I like how he's kind of a neurotic weirdo. I like that moment at the end of Fate/Zero, when we see the horrid messy state of his room, and we're lead to assume that Rider left that mess, only for the flash forward to show Waver lives in a pigsty in his thirties. It's fun. Look. He's such a guy. Part of my love for him is that, when I first was introduced to the Fate franchise, I was around the same age as Waver is in Zero. I really related to this specific element of his character, where he worked so hard to project his image of what was "proper" or "ideal." I liked how he refused to indulge in fun with the people around him, because he had crafted some fiction about it being beneath him, that it would ruin his image. Of course, in ones proper adulthood, it's easy to see how juvenile this sort of train of thought is. There are ways of being that are socially rewarded, but a teenager doesn't fully understand what that actually looks like, and thus forms an incomplete and juvenile image of what the ideal adult is like. I like that Waver is in that very awkward transitional phase of adulthood in Zero, and that, when we see him later on, he's still subject to these weird thought patterns he formed in adolescence, irrational ideas that he can't quite shake off.
I love that, as an adult, he no longer has these hangups about indulging in his interests, that he's driven so much by personal agendas, but that he has to set those elements of his life aside to participate in society. We all grow into ourselves in this fashion, but it's just a fun touch. It's very simple and obvious, that Waver has a Work Persona, that when he steps foot outside of his apartment, he is no longer Waver Velvet. That his position and title make him more than what he is, and he can't stand it because, in his own estimation, he hasn't earned it. Of course, he's not wrong. Waver lives in a society of standards so high, they're impossible to meet. Passing few mages do anything worthwhile, but especially not Waver Velvet.
[He] always speaks with a kind of disdainful condescension, but that doesn’t come from looking down on his interlocutors.
Rather, it stems from a self-deprecating feeling of “compared to that, what am I even doing? I look like an idiot. I’m the biggest fool here!”
- TM Manuscript【型月稿本】- Lord El-Melloi II
Of course, that's wrong. He's one of the greatest instructors in the Clock Tower, a man who understands just as well but explains better than anyone. But he can't do, can he? So of course it's not enough. Mages upturn their lives, create vacuums where there should be space, demolish and rebuild over and over again in a race toward perfection of their craft, and I love that Waver is just as much in love with that practice, that he holds it in as much esteem as he resents the society surrounding it. I love that, whether through self-preservation, or apathy, his critique of it is limited to grumbling. I'm sort of rambling here. I just love him. I love how Urobuchi wrote this very authentic teenage white boy with self esteem issues, someone who knows just how much he struggles but sees potential in himself, who can't verbalize why he is the way he is and why he fails, so he concludes he must be some misunderstood, unappreciated genius. I love that he resents himself for who he was as a teenager, that he's sad and hardboiled as fuck as a fully fledged Complete Adult, that he can't lend himself any sympathy in the face of his being Just So Wrong and Stupid. I love that Waver takes for granted who he is, like a normal person. Like anyone, he assumes he's not living up to what is expected of him, that his impact is limited. We see what Rider inspired in him, and how it touches other people, but Waver himself is blind to it. I love that he's never enough for himself; that no matter what he accomplishes, because it is of his doing, it won't be sufficient. He's just... he's the guy!
Also I like that he's a huge gay homo. And also a rat. i fyou peer into my mind and see and perceive as i do then you'll know.
FUN PICTURE'S collection
I plan to write things soon and make this page GOOD but in the meantime here are pictures. That I like: if you RIGHT CLICK them you can open them in a new tab. try it on your clamputer.
For more Waver, check this page. Otherwise, go HOME!
