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The Spot's Seek for Respect and Revenge
Contrary to what many people think, Spot is an interesting character but, as happens in the movie, he is underestimated by everyone, so I decided to write this post to analyse this character.
His arc is a perfect mix of a comic relief character who seeks everyone's respect and a character who puts his revenge above all else to the point of hurting himself and others.
DUDE, WHERE'S MY RESPECT?
Let's be honest, everyone looks down on Spot and when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE because not only is he treated by Miles as just another villain in the crowd, Miguel ignores the potential threat that Spot is to the multiverse and dedicated himself to chasing Miles for the entire half of the movie but even we the audience underestimated him by dismissing him as comic relief but Spot is tired of everyone underestimating him and he proved to be a real threat he took both all the characters and the entire audience by surprise.
This desire to be respected is quite reminiscent of characters like Inosuke Hashibira, King from The Owl House, and even Ken from the Barbie 2023 movie: characters who are considered comic relief by everyone but are frustrated that no one respects them or takes their feelings seriously and decide to take actions to make everyone respect them. These characters are tragic and have serious self-esteem issues but the narrative presents them to us as comic relief to make us, the audience, let our guard down.
Inosuke is seen as comic relief by bragging about how strong he is and doing weird things but is later revealed to be a boy who is deep down afraid of being a child whose parents abandoned him because they didn't love him only for it to be revealed that he is a boy whose mother allows herself to be killed by Douma to save him.
King is treated by everyone as if he were a living stuffed animal and the character clings to being a demon king when in reality he is a child who, like Inosuke, was abandoned and hidden by his father to save him from the titan trappers and the archivists.
Ken acts obsessively towards Barbie and acts quite funny because he was programmed to be her boyfriend and is treated like an accessory so his sense of identity is low to say nothing and he doesn't know anything else.
Spot also gets this treatment: he's introduced to us as a villain who tries to steal an ATM but doesn't know how to use his powers and even tries to convince the store seller that he's doing nothing wrong by taking the ATM and the store seller hits him and the way he introduces himself to Miles as he has loaves spilling out of one of his holes, calls him villain of the week and even his fight with Miles is basically Miles dodging him smoothly while chatting with his dad on the phone and even we the audience dismiss that his motivation to revenge on Miles is because he threw a bagel in his face when actually it's much more than that and the bagel thing is just the tip of the iceberg. At this point Spot is comic relief for both the characters and us.
But these characters seek respect and take actions that make them respected by others:
Inosuke proves to be a pretty good demon slayer to the point that he and Kanao with Shinobu's previous intervention manage to defeat Douma, King discovers his origins and his powers and is a key part of saving the Boiling Islands.
But just as respect is achieved through positive actions, the desperate search for respect makes others seek it through negative actions to the point of being threats to their world, just as it happened to Ken and is happening to Spot:
Ken sneaks into Barbie's car and together they go to the real world and Ken feels respected in the real world and after he discovers that the world is run by the patriarchy, he decides to bring it to Barbieland and turns it into Kendom, making the Barbies be the accessories of the Kens.
Spot learns to domain his powers and after merging with the collider from Mumbattan, becomes a threat to the multiverse.
Ken and the Spot go from being jokes at to being threats to their respective worlds. They prefer to be seen as villains than to be mocked by everyone because having power makes them important people and their very low self-esteem is raised.
It's okay to want to be respected, but when you seek respect through negative actions, you end up doing even more damage to yourself and those around you.
What happens to Spot is a reversal of Ken's character arc, so much so that I would dare to say that the Spot is the villainous and dark version of Ken:
Spot and Ken have the same funny personality but hide resentment and low self-esteem, they both discover something new and use it to gain everyone's respect, and Ken and Spot are obsessed with the attention of Miles and Barbie because they feel their existence is tied up in that but while Barbie, after she with the help of Gloria, Sasha, Allan and all the resistance make everything return to normal but giving the Kens the opportunity to have equality with the Barbies, Barbie becomes sincere with Ken and apologizes for not taking his feelings seriously and encourages him to discover himself, showing him that he is enough and Ken decides to follow his advice but when Miles tries to convince Spot that he no longer considers it a joke, he doesn't listen and merges with the collider.
The reason this works with Ken but not with Spot is due to two reasons:
Barbie knows it's not entirely her fault with regard to Ken's programming but acknowledges that she hurt his feelings, apologizes for it and even makes him see that he can be more than the role of being her boyfriend. While Miles knows it's not entirely his fault for the collider situation (it's Kingpin's fault for wanting to use it in the first place) and tells Spot that no one sees it as a joke, he doesn't acknowledge that he previously hurt Spot's feelings neither does Spot make him see that he can be something else than just his nemesis or that he can even be a hero with his powers which makes Spot even more attached to his role as Miles's nemesis.
Ken, despite being a doll, has a human appearance and has connections to others in Barbieland that aren't just Barbie. Spot, despite being human, does not have a human appearance nor does he have connections to anyone else, so he clings to his rivalry with Miles as the only "connections" he has.
Basically the entire arc of these characters can be summarized up in the chat beetwen Silco, Vander and Jinx from Arcane:
Vander: "You'll get people killed. For what? Pride?" Silco: "For respect."
Silco to Jinx: "It's okay. We'll show them. We will show them all."
REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD
Speaking of Silco, Spot's obsession with getting revenge on Miles reminds me of Guts, Silco and Neo in the sense that they seek revenge because all of them lost everything they had and also because the only thing that makes sense of their lives is to take revenge on those who took everything from them and to make things worse none of them respect Spot, Guts Silco and Neo and even look down on them which makes Spot, Guts Silco and Neo have more reasons to get revenge but Guts, Silco and Neo differ from Spot for the following reasons:
Guts still has loved ones who love him despite how tough he can be.
Silco has a bond with Jinx that despite being flawed is also a bond he developed because he related to Jinx's pain and said bond humanizes him and makes him think of something other than revenge.
Neo has the opportunity to choose her new physical form and she has the opportunity to rediscover herself to start again.
But Spot? he has absolutely none of these things. Spot doesn't have loved ones to care for him like Guts, he doesn't have a bond with someone he can relate to or humanize like Silco, and he has no chance to change his form or start again like Neo, even worse, Spot doesn't even have a human appearance like Guts, Silco and Neo do. That's why when Miles tries to stop Spot from merging with the collider he doesn't listen to him and it's because revenge is the only thing that gives meaning to his life and Spot doesn't want to lose something again as he lost everything else.
Spot lost absolutely everything: he is no longer human, his coworkers make fun of him and he lost his job, his family does not want to see him because they see him as a monster, he cannot reverse his current physical state and I doubt anyone would want to give him a job or that a person wants to date someone who looks like Spot so having a life, a job, a normal appearance and even a romantic relationship with someone is impossible for him so he clings to the only thing he has is his anger and revenge towards Miles to the point that he wants Miles to lose everything, making the only thing he has is his rivalry and thus making Miles feel just as lonely and miserable as him.
The Spot's Seek for Respect and Revenge
Contrary to what many people think, Spot is an interesting character but, as happens in the movie, he is underestimated by everyone, so I decided to write this post to analyse this character.
His arc is a perfect mix of a comic relief character who seeks everyone's respect and a character who puts his revenge above all else to the point of hurting himself and others.
DUDE, WHERE'S MY RESPECT?
Let's be honest, everyone looks down on Spot and when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE because not only is he treated by Miles as just another villain in the crowd, Miguel ignores the potential threat that Spot is to the multiverse and dedicated himself to chasing Miles for the entire half of the movie but even we the audience underestimated him by dismissing him as comic relief but Spot is tired of everyone underestimating him and he proved to be a real threat he took both all the characters and the entire audience by surprise.
This desire to be respected is quite reminiscent of characters like Inosuke Hashibira, King from The Owl House, and even Ken from the Barbie 2023 movie: characters who are considered comic relief by everyone but are frustrated that no one respects them or takes their feelings seriously and decide to take actions to make everyone respect them. These characters are tragic and have serious self-esteem issues but the narrative presents them to us as comic relief to make us, the audience, let our guard down.
Inosuke is seen as comic relief by bragging about how strong he is and doing weird things but is later revealed to be a boy who is deep down afraid of being a child whose parents abandoned him because they didn't love him only for it to be revealed that he is a boy whose mother allows herself to be killed by Douma to save him.
King is treated by everyone as if he were a living stuffed animal and the character clings to being a demon king when in reality he is a child who, like Inosuke, was abandoned and hidden by his father to save him from the titan trappers and the archivists.
Ken acts obsessively towards Barbie and acts quite funny because he was programmed to be her boyfriend and is treated like an accessory so his sense of identity is low to say nothing and he doesn't know anything else.
Spot also gets this treatment: he's introduced to us as a villain who tries to steal an ATM but doesn't know how to use his powers and even tries to convince the store seller that he's doing nothing wrong by taking the ATM and the store seller hits him and the way he introduces himself to Miles as he has loaves spilling out of one of his holes, calls him villain of the week and even his fight with Miles is basically Miles dodging him smoothly while chatting with his dad on the phone and even we the audience dismiss that his motivation to revenge on Miles is because he threw a bagel in his face when actually it's much more than that and the bagel thing is just the tip of the iceberg. At this point Spot is comic relief for both the characters and us.
But these characters seek respect and take actions that make them respected by others:
Inosuke proves to be a pretty good demon slayer to the point that he and Kanao with Shinobu's previous intervention manage to defeat Douma, King discovers his origins and his powers and is a key part of saving the Boiling Islands.
But just as respect is achieved through positive actions, the desperate search for respect makes others seek it through negative actions to the point of being threats to their world, just as it happened to Ken and is happening to Spot:
Ken sneaks into Barbie's car and together they go to the real world and Ken feels respected in the real world and after he discovers that the world is run by the patriarchy, he decides to bring it to Barbieland and turns it into Kendom, making the Barbies be the accessories of the Kens.
Spot learns to domain his powers and after merging with the collider from Mumbattan, becomes a threat to the multiverse.
Ken and the Spot go from being jokes at to being threats to their respective worlds. They prefer to be seen as villains than to be mocked by everyone because having power makes them important people and their very low self-esteem is raised.
It's okay to want to be respected, but when you seek respect through negative actions, you end up doing even more damage to yourself and those around you.
What happens to Spot is a reversal of Ken's character arc, so much so that I would dare to say that the Spot is the villainous and dark version of Ken:
Spot and Ken have the same funny personality but hide resentment and low self-esteem, they both discover something new and use it to gain everyone's respect, and Ken and Spot are obsessed with the attention of Miles and Barbie because they feel their existence is tied up in that but while Barbie, after she with the help of Gloria, Sasha, Allan and all the resistance make everything return to normal but giving the Kens the opportunity to have equality with the Barbies, Barbie becomes sincere with Ken and apologizes for not taking his feelings seriously and encourages him to discover himself, showing him that he is enough and Ken decides to follow his advice but when Miles tries to convince Spot that he no longer considers it a joke, he doesn't listen and merges with the collider.
The reason this works with Ken but not with Spot is due to two reasons:
Barbie knows it's not entirely her fault with regard to Ken's programming but acknowledges that she hurt his feelings, apologizes for it and even makes him see that he can be more than the role of being her boyfriend. While Miles knows it's not entirely his fault for the collider situation (it's Kingpin's fault for wanting to use it in the first place) and tells Spot that no one sees it as a joke, he doesn't acknowledge that he previously hurt Spot's feelings neither does Spot make him see that he can be something else than just his nemesis or that he can even be a hero with his powers which makes Spot even more attached to his role as Miles's nemesis.
Ken, despite being a doll, has a human appearance and has connections to others in Barbieland that aren't just Barbie. Spot, despite being human, does not have a human appearance nor does he have connections to anyone else, so he clings to his rivalry with Miles as the only "connections" he has.
Basically the entire arc of these characters can be summarized up in the chat beetwen Silco, Vander and Jinx from Arcane:
Vander: "You'll get people killed. For what? Pride?" Silco: "For respect."
Silco to Jinx: "It's okay. We'll show them. We will show them all."
REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD
Speaking of Silco, Spot's obsession with getting revenge on Miles reminds me of Guts, Silco and Neo in the sense that they seek revenge because all of them lost everything they had and also because the only thing that makes sense of their lives is to take revenge on those who took everything from them and to make things worse none of them respect Spot, Guts Silco and Neo and even look down on them which makes Spot, Guts Silco and Neo have more reasons to get revenge but Guts, Silco and Neo differ from Spot for the following reasons:
Guts still has loved ones who love him despite how tough he can be.
Silco has a bond with Jinx that despite being flawed is also a bond he developed because he related to Jinx's pain and said bond humanizes him and makes him think of something other than revenge.
Neo has the opportunity to choose her new physical form and she has the opportunity to rediscover herself to start again.
But Spot? he has absolutely none of these things. Spot doesn't have loved ones to care for him like Guts, he doesn't have a bond with someone he can relate to or humanize like Silco, and he has no chance to change his form or start again like Neo, even worse, Spot doesn't even have a human appearance like Guts, Silco and Neo do. That's why when Miles tries to stop Spot from merging with the collider he doesn't listen to him and it's because revenge is the only thing that gives meaning to his life and Spot doesn't want to lose something again as he lost everything else.
Spot lost absolutely everything: he is no longer human, his coworkers make fun of him and he lost his job, his family does not want to see him because they see him as a monster, he cannot reverse his current physical state and I doubt anyone would want to give him a job or that a person wants to date someone who looks like Spot so having a life, a job, a normal appearance and even a romantic relationship with someone is impossible for him so he clings to the only thing he has is his anger and revenge towards Miles to the point that he wants Miles to lose everything, making the only thing he has is his rivalry and thus making Miles feel just as lonely and miserable as him.
Hobie Brown had a plan from the beginning
So a little while ago I saw a post that said that Hobie's biggest weakness was that he quit the Spider Society when he did (I can't find that post so I won't link it). I don't really agree with this.
The thing about Hobie Brown is that he knows the value of community. Obviously, we don't get much back round about his personal life in the movie so I'm going to go off of the Spider Punk mini series.
I'm this run Hobie is homeless. He lives out of a van and a community center in Brooklyn (he's originally a New Yorker) but he's not alone. He lives and/or works with a bunch of friends: Captain Anarchy (Karl Morningdew, E-138's Captain America and a gay native american man), Riothart (Riri Williams, E-138's Ironheart), Mz Marvel (Kamala Khan), Hulk (Robbie Banner), Daredevil (Mattea Murdock, in E-138 she is a blind punk drummer in Philadelphia) and other unnamed characters. So even though they switched up his backstory in the film I still belive that he's not alone in his home universe. Punk culture, anarchy and communism are all about building community and helping others.
Honestly I think thats why he's part of the Spider Society in the first place because he obviously does not agree with anything their doing. He's there because he knows they will recruit vulnerable teenagers who don't have the support that he does. Thats why he takes Gwen and Pavitr under his wings I think (to make it clear Hobie is also a teenager that needs support he's just uniquely positioned to give it in this situation because of his background but he is still very much a teenager.) He also knows that sometimes the best way to take down the system is from inside of it. He's gonna play along till he can take them down.
I think it makes perfect sense that he "quit" when he did. At this point Miles knows Spider Society is really fucked up, he knows his dad is gonna die in two days and he's made it clear that he will not go quietly. Hobie knows all of this and trust Miles to have everything handled. I think that he also knows that when Miles escapes Gwen is going to be disillusioned by the Spider Society and get sent back to E-65.
So he trusts both Miles and Gwen to be able to handle themselves for the moment, but because he knows the value of community when organizing he also knows that they can't do it alone. So he quits (like he always knew he was going to). He knows that the best use of his time and skills right now is to make sure they have everything they need to oppose Spot and Miguel when the time comes. We all know he made at least two watches (he had to have made one for himself as well) but I think that he was also recruiting the rest of the band at the same time.
The only other main spider besides Gwen that we see in the chase scene is Peter. We see Penni that one time during the confrontation scene but not again. I think that he was finding Pavitr, Peni, Noir, and Ham. I think he knew that Gwen would probably go to Peter first. He probably knew when she activated the watch he gave her and brought everyone else to regroup.
But Margo was also in that final shot and Hobie would not have had enough time to recruit her between Gwen being sent back and the final shot. I think they have been working together behind the scenes this whole time. When Miles sends himself back, sure at first she didn't know what was happening, but when she saw Miles in the go home machine she kind of froze. She is looking right at the controls for the machine and there is an option to shut down. She doesn't press it. She could, but she didn't. She even tells Lyla to get out of her way, probably because she doesn't want her to interfere too much. She may have known she was gonna help him escape before that scene even happened. Once that was done she could get out and regroup with Hobie and the rest.
So ya I don't think he's a coward for quitting when he did I think he was really smart. We know he plans and excutes political actions in his home universe. Actions that could defiantly end up with him or others in jail. When planning things like that you need to be smart about it, often times for particularly dangerous things no one has all the information till the very end, of course he'd keep it a secrete. Even from Gwen because she's still not ready. He's not a coward he just knew how to best utilize his and everyone else's skills. He knows when he needs to be in the background as opposed to the front line.