Information.

[hairgels]

► stats. personality. abilities. strengths. weaknesses.



( character ) Blaine Anderson
( canon ) Glee
( timeline ) Post 4.04 ("The Break Up")
( background ) Wikia to the rescue!

( age ) 17
( gender ) Mentally and physically male
( sexuality ) Alpha Gay

( appearance ) In uniform | Out of uniform
( eye color ) Hazel
( hair color ) Black
( height ) 5'8"

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( personality ) If you think of each character on the show as a stereotype, Blaine is the prep. He's a cheery, polite, clean, and overall dapper son of a gun. He's a big opponent to bullying as a result of being bullied for being gay. He transferred to Dalton Academy, a private school for boys with a no bullying policy, where he became the star performer of their glee club, The Warblers. After he begins dating Kurt, he transfers to McKinley to be closer to his boyfriend.

First of all, Blaine is gay. 100% gay. He's not ashamed of it, and he makes a point to stay up to date with LGBT politics. He enjoys stereotypically "gay things" like reading Vogue, fashion, and watching his calorie intake, but he's not a walking stereotype. He enjoys sports, knows how to fix cars, and is always seen as a man by others, regardless of his sexual preferences. There are a number of scenes where he's in the locker room with the guys and none of them seem to care. He's very aware of what he has to represent by being a gay minority and is proud of his friendships with others boys; he's stated repeatedly that he doesn't want to be a predatory gay which is especially the case with his crush on and friendship with Sam.

Though Blaine easily admits he likes men, getting to that point wasn't easy for him. His father made him build cars simply because he thought it would straighten Blaine out. At school, he got the crap beat out of him at Sadie Hawkins for going with a gay friend and was bullied to the point where he needed to transfer schools. He regrets not standing up to his bullies, so he encourages others to do what he couldn't: fight bullies. Being the man he is today, he's more than willing to offer a hand when it comes to speaking to bullies or creating a positive coming out experience.

He's out of the closet, but he still tries not to attract more attention to his sexuality than necessary. He says that he's out and proud, but he resists kissing Kurt in public and very rarely holds hands with him where anybody can see. They're a couple more by proximity rather than action. This is actually pretty important because as much inspiration that comes warbling out of his mouth, Blaine hardly swallows his own medicine. He can be hypocritical whether it's about confronting bullies, relationship ideals, or relaxing.

Like the other characters on the show, Blaine is all about performing. He's the full package: singing, dancing, acting, playing instruments – Blaine can do it all. He can be a bit of a diva, tending to organize largescale, public performances, and he's a perfectionist, preparing songs in advance or practicing moves instead of partying. It makes a deadly combination because he screams ATTENTION even when he's not actually, y'know, screaming for it. It's not that he's cocky, but he knows his talents. Compared to when he says "I don't know what I'm doing" in regards to romance and life, he confidently says "I know what I'm doing" in regards to performing. He loves it so much that he's willing to sink to unfathomable lows if it means he gets to perform: that includes jamming at a prom not his own school, singing at nursing homes and restaurants and the Gap, and taking jobs at theme parks over the summer.

IMO his dancing is corny because he tends to act out the lyrics. Seriously, Blaine. You need to stop.

With all that talent, you'd think that Blaine would be rioting every time he doesn't get a solo, but he's actually a team player. He knows that being a part of a group means being a part of something bigger, and he really values that. In fact, Blaine has the compulsive need to be a part of a unit. Whether it's with the Warblers, the New Directions, or the Cheerios, Blaine really likes being a part of the team, both the community and competing aspects. Significantly, Blaine decides to remain with the New Directions on two occasions due to influence from the people he values most (Kurt and Sam) and is later tempted to return to the Warblers in order to be a part of a group.

As far as groups go, Blaine's willing to commit to whatever the group decides, even if it means putting aside his personal feelings for the welfare of the group. In fact, he can be pretty damn selfless when it comes to groups and others. He puts their needs above his own and tries to please people. Create love, not war, right? So he doesn't mind sacrificing his own time if it means helping somebody else. For the most part, he's supportive of ideas or the paths that other people choose. And when all that goes South? Blaine is there to comfort or encourage them. And sincerely, to boot.

What it boils down to is this: if you are part of the group that Blaine is a part of? You're most likely good in his book. Or at least he'll do his best to get along with you.

So Blaine gets along well in groups, but what about when nobody is looking? For one, he's a hopeless romantic. Seriously, he's willing to sacrifice everything for Kurt and barftastically romantic crap spills out of mouth every time he talks about Kurt. His favorite holiday is even Valentine's Day. Think that's bad? His spaces are practically shrines to his relationship with Kurt, filling his locker, his nightstand, and his photoboard with nothing but pictures of him with Kurt. He even made a scrapbook of Kurt. Yeah.

As much as Blaine loves love, he's a bit useless in the romance department. Actually, he's useless in the entire Real Life department. Before Kurt, he never had a boyfriend, so he's oblivious when most people come onto him at first. Even when his best female friend, Tina, comes onto him strongly, he doesn't notice her feelings. He's an optimist and naive, generally trying to see the best in people rather than suspecting the worst, so his innocence is easy to be taken advantage of.

This isn't to say that Blaine is made up of sunshine, sparkles, and rainbow bowties. On the surface, Blaine appears to be a confident young man and while that's not an inaccurate statement about his performing bravado, he is hardly confident. He tends to put on a good front, but most of the time he avoids the issue because of his insecurities. He says to Kurt that he pretends to know what he's doing but in actuality, he has no clue. In fact he's easily discouraged, sensitive to words, and prone to cynicism. He instantly hates Valentine's Day after he was mooning over romance ten minutes ago. Blaine racks a lot of pressure on himself and he doesn't have many outlets to vent. He uses boxing to cope with most of his frustration, but when he refuses to vent, he can be distant, moody, and frustrating. He tends to shoulder his stress by himself, preferring to walk away from the situation or to remain silent and angry. When he's seriously hurt, he can even be passive aggressive about it.

But for the most part, Blaine is fairly non-confrontational. Instead of picking fights, he tends just to make faces when he doesn't agree with something. Even if it's difficult for him, he attempts to respond politely to conflict and accepts apologies nearly instantly. It's only when his hot buttons are pushed that he lashes out. He nearly gets into fights with Sam and Karofsky because he was told to sell his body and bullied for being with Kurt, respectively.

In fact. Blaine actually isn't good with feelings. Period. He's open when it comes to talking about facts of his experience, but when it comes to his personal feelings, he says, "I'm not really good at talking about my feelings. I'm much better at singing them." As already explained, he tends to avoid conflict than confront it. It's only in spaces constructed for brutal honesty (read: student counselor's office) that he can say the truth without feeling guilt. It turns out that Blaine has a lot of complaints but silences them all.

One of the things Blaine values most is doing the right thing. He's particularly sensitive about his morals. He considers flirty text between his boyfriend and another boy as cheating, and in regards to scandalous sexy moves, he says, "I'm not for sale." Honesty is a big part of this. Blaine isn't afraid to say the truth, even if it's something he knows the other party doesn't want to hear. He's deathly loyal and becomes morbidly depressed when his integrity is crossed. When he's the one who's been wronged, he's consumed by morose. When he's the one who's wronged, his guilt eats him alive.

As a creature of habit, Blaine is about schedules, regularity, and quite honestly, he can get boring in the long run. His go-to hangout is the Lima Bean, a coffee shop probably meant to be a rip off of Starbucks. However his regularity isn't limited just to coffee, it also extends to his relationship too. He schedules makeout sessions with his boyfriend, has a nightly skin sloughing regimen over the phone, and apparently doesn't text if it's not scheduled. He's more likely to play it safe than trek an adventure. Plus, he gave Kurt monogrammed towels for graduation and when they broke up, sent him a box of Gilmore Girls. He’s not exactly the most exciting.

Blaine's major relationships are with his older brother, Cooper, his ex-boyfriend, Kurt, his best friend, Sam, and his biffle, Tina.

Dealing with Shit He Does Not Want To Talk About a la Blaine Anderson, he doesn't talk about Cooper. His brother is a Hollywood hotshot and has overshadowed Blaine ever since they were children. By this point in the canon, he's resolved his differences with him, but it can't undo years of criticizing. Quite frankly, his older brother has had more of an impact in his life than they can ever reconcile. It's because he lives in the shadow of Cooper's Hollywood success that Blaine constantly feels the need to try harder and be better, especially in comparison to his brother. He tends to dwell on what other people say but even more so if it's said by Cooper. Their relationship shows that although he no longer believes in running away from bullies, he allows himself to be pushed around by his older brother and, consequently, people he values.

Unlike Cooper, Blaine can talk for days, months, years about Kurt. They meet when Kurt decides to transfer into Dalton and Blaine loves him so much that when Kurt asks Blaine to transfer into McKinley, Blaine packs up his bags and says OK. Blaine would literally do anything for the one he loves, even if it meant sacrificing his professional career for him. He loves Kurt so much, in fact, that he's okay with masturbating until Kurt's ready to have sex. (That's true love, man.) Multiple times throughout the series, they say that they're completely honest with each other. Blaine's devotion to Kurt might seem a bit melodramatic but Kurt seriously changes him. The best example is how Blaine trusts Kurt so much that he's willing to go to prom.
Not everything is wonderful in paradise, though. When Kurt ignores Blaine, Blaine feels as though he's been abandoned. He gets lonely not just from missing his best friend Kurt but his boyfriend Kurt. See, there are things about Blaine, like how needy and dependent he is. He's so impatient and miserable that he cheats on Kurt a mere two weeks before he's supposed to see him. (Blaine chooses to hook up with somebody he doesn't even know, suggesting that it meant nothing but physical needs.) When Kurt can't accept it and breaks up with him, Blaine falls into hardcore moping. He tries to explain what happened to Kurt every opportunity he gets, refusing to give up even when Kurt ignores everything he has to say. It's not until Kurt calls him that they resolve to be (best) friends again.

Following his breakup with Kurt, Blaine makes a best friend in Sam, who runs as his vice-president. They bond over bro things like comics and superheroes. When Blaine thinks about transferring back to Dalton, he ultimately stays for Sam. He's so supportive of his best friend that he's more supportive than Sam's girlfriend Brittany when Sam's poor SAT scores absolutely crush him. Blaine later develops a crush for Sam but refuses to confess. He's proud of their friendship and doesn't want to risk anything lest he lose Sam completely.

His other big relationship is with Tina. Although she's one third of a friendship triangle with Blaine and Sam, she begins to crush on Blaine when her boyfriend graduates. Blaine loves Tina like he loves all women, but he can't return her affections so they remain as close as two friends with incompatible sexualities can be. For example, he goes to the McKinley Sadie Hawkins dance with her.

I want to end this personality section with a little blurb about Blaine's clothing because I think it's the most representative thing about his personality. Also because his wardrobe is fabulous. When he was at Dalton, Blaine wore his uniform nearly exclusively which defined him as a Warbler. The only time he doesn't appear in it is when he's "off the clock" at Rachel's party and a few times hanging out with Kurt. Blaine takes pride in his uniform and what it represents: being a part of something bigger than the individual. In fact, when he transfers to McKinley, he points out that he's not wearing his uniform precisely because this is such a big departure for him. It's also notable that Blaine wears his uniform perfectly, nothing amiss.

When he's out of his uniform, his clothing really does express who he is. He tends to wear really bright colors, typical of his cheeriness and boldness. He's not subtle and neither are the colors he wears. He style is preppy: collared shirts (usually button ups), layered cardigans and vests, capri pants, and a bowtie for every occasion. No, really. He has a bowties are like Skittles: taste the rainbow. He uses a messenger bag instead of a backpack, showing how meticulous he is about looking fashionable at all times with some retro flair.
After his breakup with Kurt, Sam gives suggests he drops the bowties and Blaine's wardrobe features colors with darker saturation and starkly contrasts grayscales, navy, white, and nudes against a pop of color. His style becomes looser both in structure and layering, sometimes even not buttoning his shirts all the way. He even gets sloppy with the gel, claiming that he doesn't even “gel on weekends.”

He's extremely groomed to the point where there's not much that he wears that's natural. He's particularly picky about his unruly hair so he tends to slick it flat with hair gel and part it conservatively on the side. He doesn't like to be seen with his natural hair style. Ever. The repression of his hair is another example of his squeaky clean representation and exemplary of how he represses naturalness and displaces it for artificiality.

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( abilities, strengths, and weaknesses ) Blaine doesn't have any superhuman abilities; he's just a normal 17 year old with a fondness for the stage, bow ties, and hair gel. Nothing out of the ordinary, but here are a few skills and things that make him Different From Other People:

( abilities )
—He's got the beat: Blaine's an amazing singer and dancer. He can play various instruments, notably the piano and the harmonica. He also acts. So yeah. Performing? He's got all the bases covered. Speaking of which, he has the ability to convince others to join him in largescale public flashdances. Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that's a skill.

—Pop culture buff: His scope of knowledge includes, but is not limited to: television, cinema, theatre, fashion, celebrities, gossip, magazines, music, sports, politics, and trends.

—Fight Club: Blaine Anderson founded the Dalton branch of Fight Club. Which he obviously can't talk about. How many characters do you know of that have founded a Fight Club jfc.

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( strengths )
—Team player: He values being part of a group because it means being a part of something bigger than himself. He's good at taking direction, accepting decisions, and conforming to the system. He wants to fit in which means that he doesn't like to cause trouble.

—Empathetic: Blaine is supportive of others, especially emotional. He easily perceives what they're feeling and try to cheer them up. He's good at listening and offering honest advice; not what that person wants to hear, what that person needs to hear.

—Charismatic: People like him and he likes people. He's friendly, handsome, and talented. It's no surprise that he tends to be popular.

—Integrity: This is what Blaine values the most. Because he's so honest, he even comes clean about cheating on Kurt in season four. It's difficult to be honest, but he makes it a policy.

—Diversity: He's not a stereotype of gay, gay, and more gay with a gay on top. He knows a lot about sports and cars and he affiliates himself with the men of the group. He knows a little bit about everything and can do pretty much anything, especially when it comes to performing.

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( weaknesses )
—Sheltered: This is best explained through Dalton. It's tradition that when a new member joins the Warblers at Dalton Academy, they must care for a bird. It's a metaphorical gift: its cage is Dalton Academy and the bird (which undergoes a dying transformation and then dies) represents each member. Not only does Blaine understand how the cage works, he says that it's even better for the bird. When he transfers to Dalton from his old school, he was just avoiding bullies instead of facing his issues. He remains innocent, naive, and oblivious largely in part of this sheltered lifestyle.

—Sentimental: While being sentimental isn't necessarily a bad thing, romance tends to swallow him whole when he's in love. He's so selfless with Kurt that Kurt could probably have told him they were going to have a suicide pact, and Blaine would have done it. He goes all out for love, so it can be dangerous. Later when he breaks up with Kurt, he mopes to the point of not being able to eat, sleep, or bother to gel his hair. Dude, seriously?

—Dealing with his shit: Blaine is the best person to talk to about anything until you ask him about his feels. He pretends to know what he's doing, but half the time he's in a state of doubt. He'd rather avoid the big questions if he can, and even when he acknowledges that there's a problem, he tends to bottle it up.

—ALCOHOL: Blaine is a ridiculous lightweight when it comes to alcohol. He drinks waaay too much, but way too much in his book is like two drinks. He gets seriously drunk off a single beer in one episode and in another, he doesn't even remember where he is or how he got there. Regardless, he's a happy, loving drunk who just wants to have a good time. With alcohol? Every night is the best night of his life.

—(Lack of) Hairgel: I sort of mentioned this already but hey. Blaine is extremely self-conscious about his natural hair and thinks he looks like Medusa without a ridiculous amount of product in his head. He doesn't like the idea of anybody seeing him without gel to the point that he doesn't want to go to his own prom if there's a ban on hair gel. Fun fact: his hair gel is raspberry flavor.

—Presents: His ideas for presents suck. He gets monogrammed towels for Kurt's graduation. Sufficient to say, he is more practical than anything else.

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