god i love imp (big spoilers)

you know, the more i think about worm, the more i realize that aside from skitter, imp is one of the best fleshed out characters. and the amazing thing is how her characterization is all in the background where people don’t notice it. just like imp herself.

when she’s introduced, you can say that she’s a stereotypical “hood rat” kind of girl. but the reality is that she’s a girl who is constantly ignored and shoved to the side by everyone around her. even her own brother, who while petitioning to become her legal guardian, never actually considers her feelings about pretty much anything. she’s struggling for attention, so she acts out in ways that naturally grate on the people around her, because at least then, they have to acknowledge her. and of course when she acts like this, people have a tendency to lash out at her because they see her as being intentionally annoying, and since the only attention she can get is the bad variety, she’s a serial runaway, leaving home any time that tensions get to a boil.

now flash forward to around arc 10, she’s gotten powers herself, and has joined the undersiders. she’s slowly finding a position on a group. she’s still grating on people’s nerves, and still is faced with people treating her like an annoyance though. and it doesn’t help that her power exasperates the exact same problem that she’s had her entire life. she’s been ignored by everyone around her, and her power… makes people ignore her.

small wonder that as time goes on, she gets really close to reagent. after all, he’s kinda the exact same way in the group. he’s the guy that annoys people all the time, he fades into the background all the time, and he’s ok with this, in fact, he prefers it that way. he can relate to her, and she sees a kindred spirit in him. and despite the fact that he’s a body-snatching sociopath, they end up having a very healthy relationship with some amazing communication, they share every secret with each other.

now let’s jump to after the time skip. she’s lost her friend and oddly enough, is practically running her own gang. she killed heartbreaker and for all intents and purposes, adopted his family. now she’s got a group that is looking up to her and supporting her, while still helping to police the city of brockton bay. she’s found her place here, she still needles people intentionally, but it’s all fun to her. and oddly enough, each bad joke she makes has a note of seriousness to it, and you’d notice that the other undersiders prefer her this way. they find it offputting when she doesn’t make that ill timed, inappropriate joke, because that means something’s wrong. that and she’s been annoying tattletale by randomly pulling out incredibly cultured references out of nowhere.

and here’s where i realize something that’s been missed by almost everyone else.

imp is one of, if not the, most observant person in the entire story. she notices things that others ignore, almost like an inverse of her power, but completely unrelated to her power. when she was first introduced, she knew her brother had powers, but wasn’t told what they were. but by digging around online, she was able to figure out his secret identity and through there his powers.

I figured out who he was after that, saw something about some villains robbing a casino on a night he wasn’t at home, started keeping track of times he wasn’t available and it kept matching up. Called him on it, and he didn’t do a very good job at denying it.”



(6.3)

she figured out skitter’s secret identity within seconds of meeting her.

“Look, I know you’re on his team. Process of elimination, you have to be the bug girl.”

(6.3)

she figured out the core problem with shadowstalker’s personality and the cause behind her constant anger.



“Not a guy that’s in touch with his emotions. Way I always saw it, they’re there, he’s just oblivious to it all. Had to be. So it’s only after he’s through with you that he realizes maybe he was a little hard on you, maybe he twisted the knife harder than he usually would, because it bugged him. There you are with a family, and he can feel your emotions, and he totally knows you don’t even realize it in the slightest. He’s blind to his own emotions and you’re blind to the emotions of others.” “Is this going somewhere?” Shadow Stalker’s voice. “You’re prattling.” “Take it from me, as I tell you what the lazy jerk who body-controlled you told me. Your mommy loves you lots, Shady.”

(29.5)

and when Weaver returned to the bay, she revealed something special.

she is the only person in the entire series that figured out Weaver’s tell. alexandria doesn’t forget anything and processes everything, and she couldn’t read her. tattletale’s power fills in the gaps in her knowledge, and she never figured it out. armsmaster had a super advanced lie detection system that read a person’s posture to tell if they were lying, and he couldn’t read her. but imp… imp could read her.





“Man, the way your bugs reacted. Hilarious. You act like you’re all stoic, but then I just have to look over there and over there and I see bees and butterflies circling around like eagles ready to dive for the kill.”

“Kidding. This is fun. Come on, butterflies, I see you over there. Do your worst, I know you want to kill me.”



(25.6)

absolutely no one else notices this. she’s the only one to have ever figured weaver out. and she didn’t need superpowers to do it.

then you have the epilogues. when a lot of questions about her get answered. she’s taken over an almost motherly position with the heartbroken and is again policing the surviving settlements. and a lot of details come together. she hates being forgotten and she refuses to let others suffer the same fate.

“Sucks to fade into the background, let me tell you. Not even talking about my power. It really… sucks. And I think, you know, I’m not very good at taking care of people. You lot excepted, almost all of those people who mattered are gone, one way or another.” “Mostly the one way,” Juliette said. Samuel elbowed her. “Mostly the one way,” Imp agreed. “And I can’t do much. I’m not the type to take flowers to graves or anything like that. I’m not the type to cry, and sometimes I really wish I was.” “You make sure they’re remembered,” Samuel said. “That they don’t fade away or get ignored. I’m trying. But how do you even do that? I gotta go with my gut, and my gut says that one friend ought to get a fair shake, after the fact. So maybe I do my part, make sure history isn’t a dick to her. And for your brother, well…” “Making people take care of puppets?” Samuel asked. “I feel like he’d get it,” Imp said.

(E.2)

shes protective of people, like her brother was, she tries to needle people, like alec did, she’s been reading up, like taylor did and most importantly, she’s trying to keep them all together, like taylor did. even to the point where she’s the only person who understands how to meet rachel halfway, just like taylor was back then.

even the small details are remembered, to the point where it hurts to realize that after the final battle, she started wearing her hair in cornrows, like brian did.

and considering that she stuck with taylor in the final battle when everything was going to hell in a handbasket and tried to comfort her every step of the way… i’d safely say that she’s one of the best characters.