Me as cartoon character= ‘Edith’ from Despicable Me

If you had to choose any cartoon character that is most like you, who would it be?

Edith from Despicable Me.

The connection feels like more of an emotional one, so I have to actually think of why.

Edith, to me, seems like, I guess what you would call a “wallflower.” She doesn’t need to be seen, she doesn’t want to be seen. She reminds me of someone who wants to blend in with the wall. She avoids the attention and spotlight, but that’s not to say she wouldn’t thrive in it if she was forced to, because she stays authentic to her true self. All the while, she develops her own style, she knows what she likes, she is her own person. She isn’t afraid of being that person. She isn’t a trend-follower, and she sets her own trends. Like for instance, she always wears that hat. And she doesn’t seem to care what anyone else thinks of her.

She seems introverted. Doesn’t talk much. More when spoken to. But inside she is just as fiery as an extrovert. She will dominate and speak her opinion and truth, act of her own accord, what needed. Overall she gives me very independent, happy, and content with her life vibes.

The hat feels like another connection. Edith is a very interesting combination of both tom-boyish and girly. It seems like she is a “Tom-Boy,” but Edith is a perfect example of: what appears is not always what is, because there are plenty of examples that she is just as girly as any other girl, she just does everything in her own way and style without any worry over repercussion.

Examples of her being girly include the ballet, which is also where I bring up the spotlight scenario. Again, when needed to step up, morally or whatever, or take action, she always does so. She may appear like a side character, but to me she is not. Just because she doesn’t need to be in the spotlight, doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be. In other words, just because she is not the main character with the most screen time, because she does not want to be, because she is not that type of person, does not make her any less valuable, interesting, or worthy of taking a deeper look into. What a side character would do is not step up. But Edith always does. In this way to me, she is a diamond, an overlooked stone, and the type of person that is a main character. But she doesn’t want you to notice it. She wants to be unnoticed. She wants to slip right through your fingers. But to me, these are always the people I seek out to find and notice.

Another example is how she always wears pink. It is kind-of funny to me, because it seems to contradict with the overall “boy” and “emo” aesthetic she appears to have. But it would only make Edith more who she is if she smartly is aware of this but doesn’t care what people think. She just dresses the way she likes and does as she wants.

Then again as mentioned she reminds me of an emo aesthetic. But I don’t view this is a bad way. It is hard to actually explain, and maybe no matter the words, I couldn’t possibly get this across. The balance of she both rings me as a happy, content person, but also emo. How can you be both? They’re opposite. It’s the same as I feel. I don’t know what emo stands for or is short for, but if it is short for “emotional,” that might be a good word to start describing it. It’s not that she is sad, but she possesses sadness. Or in other words a potential to feel sadness. It just means she has greater awareness, understanding, emotional intelligence, and capabilities. The ability to understand sadness, reflect, sympathize, empathsize, and grow from it. Not view it is a horrible thing. Not run from it. Not run from her problems, in the sense that she faces her challenges, fears, and hardships head-on. And is not afraid. Strong. Independent. Brave. Stubborn. Unwavering. Unapologetically herself and true to herself. She makes her own world, her own way of viewing the world, and sticks to it.

~

Up until this point, these similarities have been based on memory. Now, for some more similarities based on the movie that I just watched.

Edith gets annoyed with her siblings/sisters. This is a pretty relatable factor, but what I noticed all the characters in the entire movie had in common is resilience. The amount of times things would go horribly wrong but each character presevered. Including characters causing harm to each other. Siblings can go into this category in a mild way (siblings more annoy than harm), but for example take everything that happens to Gru or even Vector, or the minions, they are pretty un-hurtable. They constantly hurt each other (I mean physically) but never let that turn them into ugly vengeful creatures. Instead they always stay their happy minion selves. The perseverance of the characters I found to be truly astonishing and admirable.

Also, how could I forget!… Edith has this obsession with cool, violent, dangerous, life-threatening, and dead things. While Margot the older sister you could say is the more level-headed rational of the three, who sees things strictly in black and white. She is the alpha leader of the group, she is a leader in every way, and keeps the sisters in check, safe, happy, and takes care of all their needs. She is really a lot like a mother, but instead an older sister because the girls have no family and have to survive at the brutal, abusive “home for girls.”

But Edith is not like Margot. It’s not that she neglects her needs or doesn’t help Margot out, because she definitely does, as can be seen with her interactions with Agnes, (“That is a Cheeto puff”), but she definitely is less afraid or is at least more playful and puts herself into dangerous situations willingly. Unlike Margot, who is forced to think from the practical perspectives, who disapproves and tells Gru right away that his house is not appropriate for children, because this is her designated role, Edith thinks Gru’s house is the coolest house she’s ever been in by far, and thrives by exploring its dangerous secrets. Like with the closet full of spikes, how she quickly gets in it, or when Gru makes them pancakes and she is happy and thinks its cool that hers is shaped like a “dead guy.” There are plenty of other examples from the movie by the way.

Most would think Edith’s obsession with dangerous/violent things…that she’s really weird for that. But that’s exactly my type of weird and I am the same exact way. Edith, in every way, is just the exact same type of weird I am.