Chapter 31 Family Ties Part 2

[Free_Falling86]

The entire story goes back to the shot heard around the world. Burt shooting out the mirror of the tanker truck during the pissing contest between Scratch and himself, back in season one. Put two stubborn people in a locked room and see how long it takes before they go at each other. From there everything escalates, like you read about. We all listened, so we all know how it happened, most of us just choose to take a blind eye to it all and live in denial because of the way the story was introduced to us: The Tower are the 'good guys'.

The long and short of the Latch saga is simple. Her brother was murdered (self-defence being arguable) and like anyone else--argue this if you like, but I'll stand behind this to the day I die--she wanted blood for it. Justifiable 100%. As far as what 'made' her 'psychotic,' we still don't have all the details on that. You can say it was being repeatedly raped by a member of 'the family' but truth is, we still don't know. We don't know if it's simply the light she's being portrayed in or not. We're all very much guessing (I don't care what anyone says, the story isn't finished and the story itself is inherently biased, deal with it) at this point, and will likely see the series finale leaving us with a lot of unanswered questions.

I very much agree with this. As much as I love We're Alive (and that is a whole honking lot), it is told pretty much told in the protagonists' (read: Tower members) point of view, as many stories are. So anyone against the protagonists are shed in a negative light for the most part, which is the case with Scratch. The story is not told with an omniscient narrator so when we first meet Scratch and Latch, we as the listener are not supposed to like them. Suffice to say, her actions towards the Tower certainly don't endear the listener to her, but there is more to Scratch than what we've been given. We will most likely never get to hear her story, and if we do, it will still most likely be cast down by our heroes. Scratch is a murderer, Scratch is evil, Scratch is no better than the biters, so why should we care... However, I have always found the antagonist the most interesting. Maybe it's because they're mysterious and we usually never get to hear their story, but I still can't help but be interested and like them. I sometimes can't agree with their methods and means but I certainly can see where they're coming from (99% of the time that is).

One thing that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine is when people slap labels on characters willy nilly. Like calling Scratch psychotic and psychopathic. The truth of the matter is, we really don't know. I wouldn't categorize her as psychotic because she doesn't fit the bill. She doesn't have false beliefs that are not based in reality nor is she hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there. She knows exactly what she's doing. She's just trying to figure out how to get to that point. And, well, she maybe psychopathic, but there's just as a high percentage if not higher that she isn't. Psychologists actually are arguing about psychopathy and what it is and what personality elements should be included in its definition. If the experts are having a hard time figuring it out, how are we supposed to know. The truth of the matter is we don't. She may have certain behavioral characteristics that fit in within the current psychopathic definition, but we still can't say that she's a psychopath because all we're given is the witness and stories told of her bad actions. We were lucky to get a bit of back story from Scratch (thank you Kc!!!) that wasn't inherently shown in a negative light. But I'm afraid those moments will be few and far between. But it is understandable why she's accused of it because psychopathy tends to be used as a label for people we do not like, cannot understand, or construe as evil. And I understand why people hate her. Heck, the only villain I loathe is Iago from Othello, and I wanted to take a knife and run him through. But I just can't see Scratch in that manner.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to add my 2 cents.