Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Blathers' Backstory is Weirdly Terrifying

gamerant.com:

Blathers the owl has a legendary fear of bugs and is one of the most lovable characters in the Animal Crossing franchise. The source for this fear has been revealed to come from a traumatic event from his childhood.

Fans of the Animal Crossing franchise know about the lovable owl Blathers who is the curator for the museum players can add to their town or island who has a well-known fear of bugs. Players can give certain items to add to the museum such as fossils, bugs, and fish that will be displayed in the museum for the player and villagers to visit.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Players Are Frustrated with Blathers and His Museum

Reddit user xXDCTCXx shared an image that is a screenshot from Super Smash Bros. Wii U of the Blathers trophy along with some text that usually accompanies trophies in Super Smash Bros. explaining who Blathers is, what games he had appeared in at the time of the release of Super Smash Bros. Wii U but also mentioning that his fear of bugs that has «something to do with childhood trauma.»

With new Animal Crossing updates bringing Kapp'n into the game, players will be bringing bugs to Blathers more than ever, butthe origins of his fear of bugs are not as well known. Comments on the Reddit post bring some insight in a source to his profile on the Animal Crossing Wiki that explains his childhood trauma mentioned in Animal Crossing: Wild World. Apparently, when Blathers was a child, he was sitting at his desk with a mantis egg when it burst open on his desk causing thousands of the bugs to fly out and scare him.

Animal Crossing may not have the deepest lore in comparison to other games like that of a franchise like Star Wars for example, but it does have enough world-building to keep players immersed.