That actually made me make the "D:" face... it's something I'd rather not think about, but I appear to be in the minority on that opinion...

Not something I care to think about either. Regardless, it's not exactly an appropriate topic for the board, so let's move on, shall we? :)

Sorry, I knew it wouldin't be the most appropriate topic, I just mentioned it briefly to just tell ya'll then move on to something else, m'kay? :) . Anywaaay, here's one thing I've been thinking about, and I copy and pasted these signs from a site.
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Here are just some of the signs of child abuse:

Unexplained or repeated injuries such as welts, bruises, or burns.
Be over-friendly with strangers.
Be afraid to go home.
Think badly of themselves.
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Wilt does have unexplained inury's, such as his broken eye and lost arm.
Well, he is really friendly, mabe even overly friendly as some folks would put in. I for one believe he has always been friendly, but he does try to avoid conflict as much as possible because whatever happend to him in the past has affected him now and that is why he's afraid to cause conflict of any sort. I also believe that his smile is a sheild to protect those feelings.
I think he's scared to be adopted. He's afraid that if he goes bacck to another family, he'll get hurt again.
I don't think he thinks BADLY about himself, but he certainly does think less of himself than others. Now I don't believe he was abused by his family, certainly not his kid, but regardless, whatever happend to him, he does have these signs of an abused child, a child that could've been abused by anyone.

that reminds me of me.
....
-creeps away before anyone thinks anything-

As for adoption, I don't think Wilt IS adoptable. He's been in the house longer than any other friend. Even Uncle Pockets, the first friend, got adopted out. And when adoption days come around, where's Wilt? Not mixing with the other friends hoping for families. He's always away doing a job, helping Frankie and Herriman run things. It could be because he's always helpful, but I think its also that he's not looking to be adopted.

I've always suspected Wilt was mistreated before he came to Foster's, but maybe not physically beaten as some people would assume. He offers to punish or even starve himself if he thinks its what people want. Maybe his injuries were self-inflicted?

Oh my.......Uh, that's very, very disturbing what you got there. I doubt he would ever do that, but, hmmm.....I'm just shaing my thoughts on the very same thought on what Sims Katie brought up, the self-inflicted harm thing about Wilt. If those injuries were self-inflicted, it could either be because he came out accidently imagined cracked, or he cracked due to his past. We DO know that he hits himself, in that ep were they all came home from the beach and Frankie yelled at him, he said something along the lines of "I'll just go hit myself now, if that's okay!". Soooo, if he already abmitted to hitting himself, then mabe he might take it a little further?.....No, he wouldin't, would he?? Hmm........It's bringing tears to my eyes right now as I type this very sentence right here, but.... mabe....mabe you're on to something, Sims Katie. And of course the reason why he doesn't have any obvious recent injuries is because whatever he might have did, or what could've happend to him, he regretted so badly and, or was so hurt by someone else, that that peticular event in his life was defenatly the most worst, not an event quite as painful ever since. I know I tend to drone on and on, but I just wanted to give my opinion of the interesting, yet disturbing thought, if that's okay?

I can't really say anything else because it's all been said earlier! XD Anyway, I totally agree with you in saying that Wilt has some signs of being abused at one point of his life. I, too, believe that he's afraid to be adopted for the same reasons as you do and I am also beginning to think that his smile and cheerful attitude could be a shield to protect those feelings as well. He doesn't really seem to be totally open with his feelings, emotions or even his own past (example-how you've explained why he tries to hide those feelings and an even bigger example is in the pilot episode when Bloo tells him that he should play basketball. The thing is that Wilt says he used to, THEN gestures at his missing arm. But what's even more evident to this is that he totally changes the subject afterwards, as PBL has mentioned a few times on the old forum.) I don't really think that he's been abused by his family, either, but I still think that SOMEONE did something to him. If he HAS been abused by someone, then you can bet that it was probably someone outside of his creator's family.

However, about the self-inflicting wounds thing, I don't really think that Wilt thinks THAT badly of himself to want to go as far as to hurt himself. If he had been like that, then he'd say things such as "I'm worthless" and "I'm such a loser" a lot of the time. He's never really said anything THAT bad about himself before, though. I think he has just enough confidence in himself to not want to do that kind of thing, but that's just what I think.

What he actually said was "I'm gonna go punish myself, if that's ok."
I hate myself for even thinking about it, but you may have a point. What disturbs me about Wilt is his eagerness to punish himself and convince himself that he deserves it. Like in "Crime after Crime", he was actually agreeing with Mr. Harriman's punishment of going early to bed without dinner and then trying to make it worse on himself by proceeding to stand in a corner like a preschooler. Skipping dinner and feeling hungry for it probably doesn't qualify as inflicting harm on oneself, but it's a start. I remember my Human Development teacher talking to us about an abused child he had taken in who did not eat or drink anything until he had done his homework. That was how this kid received his punishment from his severely disturbed mom. I'm not 100% convinced that Wilt's origins were abusive and cruel, but that attitude and personality of his could definitely raise a couple of shrinks' eyebrows. Who knows what else Wilt would be willing to do to right whatever "wrong" he did. He certainly has an easy time giving himself misery.

One of the theories I've had(and it's not the only one, mind you, so it's far from being etched in stone)is that Wilt's willingness to help others even at the cost of his own comfort, safety and well-being, as well as his chronic apologizing, and his apparent low self-worth, might stem from him actually having done something horrible in his past, or at least something HE thinks is horrible. His behavior might be a form of atonement, the Wilt equivalent of Earl Hickey's List, and Wilt's way of avoiding "bad Karma". Like Earl, Wilt might have been injured(Earl got hit by a car and wound up in the hospital, fortunately with no long-term disabilities)as a result of something bad he did, perhaps to survive after being abandoned, so he figured out that if you do something bad, something bad happens to you, so if you only do GOOD things, good things happen to you. Unlike Earl, though, Wilt is not forthcoming with the events of his past, but keeps them buried, and they're starting to really fester their way to the surface, like a splinter. As a result, we are seeing a gradual, but noticeable, deterioration in his emotional state, which makes him feel that bad things are STILL happening to him, and that therefore he must not be doing enough good to stop them, and that causes even more anxiety.

I do believe that Wilt's line(spoken to Mac)in "I Only Have Surprise for You", in which he berates Mac for not talking about his problems, but taking them out on a little Imaginary Friend("Artie"), was a deliberate and ironic allusion to his own emotional/mental state, a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black!

pitbulllady

Those were also my thoughts too. You know, I meant to post that same kind of thing in my post, but I erased it to edit it I guess, and then forgot about the whole thing. Well anyway, like I was gonna say, Mabe Wilt did something in his past that was so awful that he couldin't forgive himself, still can't, and has been slipping further and further into insanity for years ever since, and his sanity growing worse. The poor sweethearted soul, mabe he is......cracked.....Yeah, that's what he is, he's cracked. Mentally disturbed. Actually, mentally disturbed sounds better, but cracked explains him just as well. I have a thought, mabe his injuries, if self inflicted, are an obvious cry for help, but he's just to scared to tell anyone about what is troubling him. You never know, there could be more than one reason of why he doesn't talk about his past. We ALL know that his past is to painful to talk about, and we've got the theory that when Wilt hurts himself that it's out of guilt because he possibly done something horrible in his past, or at least something HE thinks is horrible, that he just can't let it go. Those are two reason's of wich we thought of, now here's the other reason why he might not like to share his past with anyone, mabe it's because he's afraid that if he tells somebody what happend, IF HE's the one who done what he thought was horrible, then everybody will hate him, and everybody will abandon him. Or.......here's another thought. We DO know he has a past, and we don't know what happend to him, sooo, mabe something happend to him and he's afraid to tell anyone because they might not believe him. Like this case, a child gets robbed of their innocents, the abuser tells the child that if THEY tell, their family and everybody they know gets hurt or murdered. It could also be the possible case with Wilt. And when I say "robbed of innocents", I really do mean something like that, or a very simular situation, like threat of a different kind.