In Defense of Gamzee Makara: Why He Is Extremely Complicated and Can't Be Written Off So Easily

The Grand Highblood, Gamzee’s ancestor, was VICIOUS. He sat in a throne room where the walls were painted in the blood of Trolls from every color of the Hemospectrum, EVEN ROYALTY! 

As such, viciousness and bloodthirst was in Gamzee’s blood.

BUT HE PURPOSEFULLY TOOK SOPOR SLIME, A SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO HAVE SERIOUS, LONG-TERM, HARSH SIDE EFFECTS ON THE TROLL BRAIN, JUST SO HE COULD REMAIN CALM AND NOT GO ON KILLING SPREES, AS HE KNEW WAS HIS NATURE. HE PUT THE SAFETY OF OTHERS BEFORE HIS OWN PHYSICAL HEALTH.

But being in the game was a mistake for Gamzee, because there was no more access to Sopor Slime within the game. He ran out of the substance that kept him a harmless, if extremely creepy, puppy.

An already on edge Gamzee, suffering from withdrawal symptoms, then crosses paths with Dave Strider.

Dave, NOT KNOWING THAT GAMZEE’S BELIEF IN THE JUGGALO GODS AND THE DARK CARNIVAL IS LEGITIMATE AND NOT A JOKE, messes with Gamzee about it and teases him.

It pushes Gamzee over the edge and he starts making threats and creeping everyone out.

MAY I FIRST REMIND YOU THAT GAMZEE ONLY KILLED EQUIUS AND NEPETA.

Gamzee only kills Equius when Equius starts tracking down Gamzee to confront him (Gamzee had no way of knowing that Equius was actually a chicken and had no intention of fighting a blood superior, he only knew that Equius was after him), and he only kills Nepeta in self defense after she attacks him for revenge.

It is at this point that Gamzee slinks off and collects the bodies of all of the trolls who had died thus far. Now, we KNOW that Gamzee had a flushed crush on Tavros, unrequited or otherwise.

And it is HEAVILY implied that Gamzee tries to revive AT LEAST Tavros, his flushed crush, via the legitimate in-game rules in kissing the body.

And when that fails, Gamzee proceeds to save the dead bodies, because he KNOWS that the game system has a way of reviving dead loved ones (see: all troll lusi) and that if he can get his hands on that method of revival later, he can revive his dead friends in a different fashion later.

Now, is Gamzee a villain?

Yes.

Does Gamzee have some sinister plot going on in the background that has not yet been revealed to us?

Most certainly.

But I think that, at the very least, we need to acknowledge that he is a VERY multi-faceted character, and NOT a ski mask Jason Vorhees “I’M GONNA GET YA” type villain.

You don’t have to like Gamzee

at all

He’s still a creepy ass motherfucker

But I don’t think you should totally write him off either

He still has that capacity for good that made him put the lives of the other trolls before his own physical and mental well-being.

And I think that we can at least agree that he’s WAY better than the Grand Highblood.