Counterculture punk child rebelling against strict religious upbringing. There was just a real appeal. You see yourself in things without consciously realizing thats why it draws you there. Too many things got/get labeled edgy..

edit: 2007 rather than 2010 but the sentiment still stands

Vegeta AMVs also

As someone who still has edgy OCs and an odd obsession with blood, I tend to see it as a response to an event that happened to me almost 6 years ago, when I got sent to an awful place that was overly religious and probably still is breaking at least one law. Looking at things that happened there, there’s no wonder I find blood so fascinating when it’s fictional. It’s because whilst I don’t want to kill, I want to see suffering to those who’d done bad things to me.


Another thing I’ve noticed is I’ve based a few of my OCs around events that happened there, such as the four rabbits, which were inspired off of the story of someone who escaped, who actually posted a video on youtube describing the escape and the teamwork put into it. There’s an entire species in my story that are both merciless and annoying. Fictional crimes may not be real, but people’s annoyance is, making a perfect chance to mock the things that they said and make a villain. The mockery versus the seriousness really adds something to it.

Also yes, I have had a gender crisis, why do you ask? /hj

As a kid i just thought dark subjects were interesting. When you are a child everything is sanitized, and for good reason, of course. when you start growing up you start getting exposed to more serious types of media that handle more realistic problems. I think a lot of kids are drawn to that because its so new to them and they want to make their own content like that, but when youre a kid you dont really understand the depth behind this stuff and youre still used to media you previously consumed being fantastical and exaggerated so you end up with like. a killer emo wolf with black and red fur and a spiked collar whos the last of his kind and oh so misunderstood because of his lust for blood.

there is also the desire to separate from "baby" stuff, like, "im cool. im 12. i dont watch barbie or kid stuff like that. im big now. i like grown up stuff..........like DEATH AND BLOOD AND MURDER"

and then of course, being a kid is hard and scary and confusing. so many new emotions and experiences you are having for the first time. your first argument with a friend. your first break up. your first pet loss. all of it hits so hard because its never happened before. sort of realizing that life isnt always happy. and having no way to express yourself other than art

i also really liked edgy characters because it kind of goes hand in hand with emo/scene culture which i was very interested in.

i think the tween angst content is some of the purest and rawest forms of emotion that exist in artwork if im being honest. i think it was so popular in the early internet because not only was the general public just more open to this stuff (millenial humor with all the random XD taco lawl youtubepoop was really big and The Norm for quirky online content which went hand in hand with general teen online enviornments) but people didnt get relentlessly made fun of for this stuff nearly as much as they would now. there was always ppl ragging on "2 deep 4 u" content in the 2010s but if a 13 year old in 2023 posted their edgy mspaint wolf with "bad" art skills theyd literally be harassed off the platform. its so sad knowing that kids cant rally have this phase anymore and r just forced to immediately grow up.

i sort of went off topic at the end but ummm yeah. i love emo ocs so much