One thing that I think is really interesting about Lars as a character is that he’s been shown to thrive and have massive positive development when he’s outside the context of like, conventional society.
It’s one of the reasons I can somewhat understand but ultimately disagree with criticisms of his, heh, let’s say Space Pirate arc. People saying that his enthusiasm, confidence, and level of competency while leading the Off-Colors was very out of character strikes me as an inaccurate take. Like, yeah, maybe if we’d had less time with Lars beforehand… But the thing is, we already had an entire episode showcasing how Lars thrives when he’s removed from an environment that has conventional social expectations pressuring him…
Lars has a lot of talents, and he can actually be very friendly and a great team player, but we just never saw much of that because a lot of Lars-centric episodes took place in Beach City, and mostly worked to demonstrate how much of a fucking wreck he is in normal society. He gets massively socially anxious, and is constantly worried about being accepted by those he deems cool/interesting/worthy of admiration. He works so hard at being something he’s not in order to fit in that he doesn’t even realize people are naturally inclined to like him, if he’d just stop trying so hard (The New Lars/The Good Lars). And this has been an issue for a long time, ever since he was a kid (as seen in the flashback in Horror Club).
Sadie’s commented multiple times that Lars is like a totally different person sometimes, but it’s only when it’s just the two of them. I think comments like these were originally taken by fans to mean ‘oh he only acts nice but doesn’t actually care about Sadie, he’s really just a selfish asshole’ when in reality the situation was ‘Lars is actually an okay guy and definitely cares about Sadie, but he just gets so fucked in the head when he’s in public that he can’t seem to help acting like a total fuckwad’
Not to say something like social anxiety excuses rude/mean/generally selfish behavior, but what’s most interesting to me is this sort of character arc, where someone very common and ‘normal’ becomes more and more confidant the more unconventional they become, the farther away from societal constructs they can get. Like, Lars died, turned pink, became like a weird magic portal/bag-of-holding, is stuck in space, and leads a misfit band of aliens… and he’s never seemed happier.
This is the other reason why I think people were too harsh of his breakdown during Lars of the Stars, saying it seemed out of place or that he recovered too well/didn’t actually change, and that they don’t really get it (or at least, aren’t looking at things from the perspective I am, which is fine). The whole point is that the moment Lars gets back in that headspace, thinking about his place in ‘the group’ (this being his relationship with The Cool Kids, who seem to work as a metaphor for society as a whole), he falls right back into old anxieties and habits. He sees things for what they’re not (Sadie’s happiness = Sadie trying to hurt him, rather than Sadie surviving through hard times as he is); he falls into self-pity and self-hatred, even though he’s absolutely thriving.
Anyway, I was just thinking about how that’s a cool arc; I remember always wondering what they were gonna do with this asshole, and in the end I’m really glad about the direction he went in. I think Lars is an interesting character, an example of how breaking away from conventional societal pressures and environments can help bring out the best in people.
Hopefully once he gets back to Earth, Lars will have a chance to show everyone just how much he’s changed for the better!
