The Introduction

Okay, so I intended to publish this nearly two months ago. Funny thing is that most of this was written and it was simply in need of some light revision. However, life was especially hectic at that point and I kept putting it off until we came to this point.

With that said, this Sussie's time to shine. Hopefully, my mediocre writing can do this great character some justice.

The Analysis

First, a comparison: I like to think of Sussie as a lot like Forrest Gump. She is unassuming, she is naive, and she does not necessarily grasp the world like anybody else, but at the end of the day, she can win one's heart in her own special way.

Several shows have a character that falls into that sort of category. Sussie is, at quick glance, precisely that: she is wacky, laden with signature idiosyncrasies, and generally, she serves as the butt of some joke every episode she appears in. However, more than that, she possesses something that helps her defy that label, and it goes beyond her being a live-action chin puppet: a level of dimension that makes it feel like there is something else going on inside of her, and something distinctly human. While she commands silliness, there is something deeply sympathetic behind those (googly) eyes. In understanding how her character has gotten to the point she is now, though, it is important to look at how she has evolved over the course of the series.

Her earliest uses rest in slapstick, but despite the lack of complication to her character, she feels decidedly different. Even by the standards of Season 1, she holds a special sort of pure naivety, but it is not until Season 2 that the show tries to define her more as a character. At a time at which the show is at its most cynical, Sussie stands out as innocent to a point where her logic is virtually imperceptible to everybody else. Do not misunderstand me—she is somewhat of a loose cannon—but her humor never feels like it is dictated by randomness so much as by something deeply-ingrained in her personality. Her worldview is defined by a childlike vigor; when she has parties, she loudly announces her guest’s arrival whether or not she will actually receive guests, and even when Gumball outright torments her, she finds some level of appreciation regardless.

It is Season 3's “The Question” in Season 3, however, that offers crucial insight into how Sussie thinks, and it is a decisive moment for how the show utilizes her character from that point on. She lays out her life philosophy onto the Watterson brothers as follows:

“The search for meaning is, in fact, the very thing that gives our life meaning, so, really, the only question that is truly worth asking is finding your own way to enjoy it.”

I know I have a tendency to say “deep” at this sort of stuff, but coming from a character like Sussie, it legitimately is exactly that (sort of). It also marks a point at which the show is actually trying to elaborate on her character and why she acts out in the ways that she does. She is a free spirit, and she cares about nothing but enjoying the human (or chin, I suppose) experience with not a pinch of negativity to bring her down. Life is interpretive, and she has found her interpretation.

Her attitudes, in that way, create a sort of impenetrable barrier between her and the rest of the cast. She exists in a universe numb to the basic pleasures of life, and in her strange, prevailing optimism, she gets warped into something of an oddity. In a twist of irony, the simplicity of her outlook makes her irresistibly complex.

That takes us to “The Weirdo,” an episode that I will, without a shimmering bit of doubt, declare a work of art (I kid, I kid [mostly]). While it starts out with the simple conceit of Gumball and Darwin trying to make Sussie less weird, it ends with a reminder that it’s important to let those quirks roam free.

The episode accomplishes this through a complex balancing act. On one hand, you have Gumball, who sees the world more bleakly but has come to terms with that darker reality, accompanied by Darwin, who, while optimistic, is operating on a moral high ground; on the other, you have Sussie, who sees everything in the world with an unfathomable sense of awe and wonder. Throughout most of “The Weirdo,” the two forces rest on each other like oil and water, but the episode never seeks to paint either side as superior to the other. While Gumball and Darwin are arguably playing a role driven by ignorance, their intentions are sincere. Seeing her as a misfit, they want to help her adjust to society. The episode just serves to demonstrate that she does not need their help. There is more than one way to live your life, after all, and we should not be blind to the variation or attempt to suppress what makes us who we fundamentally are.

Most importantly, “The Weirdo” never seeks to suggest that Sussie has a problem, or that anyone else does either. She merely gets the chance to demonstrate what her perspective on life is, giving our protagonists a set of googly eyes to see the world as she does in all of its surreal glory. This is her world, and she does not care about how weird you think her pocket mayonnaise, trash-gifting, and nude acoustic preferences are: she has meaning, and I am not ashamed to admit that it made me tear up a bit.

Sussie wants to serve as a reminder that not everything is just black-and-white, and that there’s no correct way to live your life. The mind is like a rainbow, full of infinite possibilities, and how we choose to find meaning in them doesn’t discredit who we are or make us anything less, no matter how incorrect one’s thoughts may seem to everyone else, Matt . While Sussie may seem pretty silly, I should think that all of us can afford to take away something from her.

The Closing Notes

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this!

As usual, I'm open to discussion! Do you agree? Do you disagree? Are you somewhere in the middle? Do you somehow bear an opinion that doesn’t even fall in that spectrum of opinions? How is there still not an article about Nicole yet? Keeping “The Weirdo” in mind, I will gladly tolerate and accept any and all comments. They are very nice.

Under any circumstance, hopefully I have been able to do Sussie and her greatness some justice! Enjoy the rest of your day and take care.