Laura Palmer is One of the Most Tragic Characters in Horror

I have seen a lot of TV shows in my time, but Twin Peaks took the cake when it came to featuring one of the most tragic stories to a character. This specific character I am referring to is Laura Palmer, who suffered both in life and in death. Laura Palmer is the one character who starts the events of Twin Peaks, leading down a path of mystery and supernatural strangeness. After her death, multiple characters talk about her in many different points of view, talking about the strange and crazy events that led up to her death.

We then get the prequel movie that shows what Laura went through before her death, and it was freaking brutal, to the point that I was struggling to get through the film. This film did get a lot of controversy upon release, and I think that David Lynch had guts to even stoop this far with Laura's backstory before death. 

The reason why Laura had suffered so much before her death, was because she was being hunted by a powerful entity known as Bob from a supernatural realm called the Black Lodge. This entity became very interested in Laura, and was determined to take over her body. Bob even went as far to possess her own father, that led to Laura further losing her mind when she realized that she was no longer safe in her home, and her father was now gone, taken by this monster that was hunting her. 

Laura continued to go down a life of pain and suffering even in her personal life, taking part in the most corrupt lifestyle to escape from this evil entity.

What was even more insane was that Laura was a high school student…and the people that were aware of this…who knew she was in desperate need of help…only used her for their own benefit. 

Twin Peaks showed a glimpse into their own evil world, while balancing out a supernatural monster that would feed on this evil in the real world, to prey on this poor girl who never deserved any of this.

It was so sad how Laura only found true peace when she died. After she was murdered by her possessed father and tortured by two men who hired her and another girl for corrupted work, she found herself in the company of Dale Cooper, who had started to investigate her death when he first arrived to Twin Peaks. 

Laura had found her angel watching over her, including Dale Cooper, who she had met before he even arrived to Twin Peaks. He became one of her guardian angels, and she finally looked so happy for the first time, and this ending of her character broke my heart.

She got her happy ending in a way, only to end up getting tortured again in an alternate timeline, when Dale Cooper got the idea to try and save her by going back in time. Seriously, I get why Cooper wanted to try and change the past in another timeline, but Laura should have been left alone. Despite everything she had gone through in her past life, she was at peace.

Laura Palmer is one of the few characters in a television show where I felt so sad every time I learned more about what she had gone through in her past life. Even though she had friends and several family members, it wasn't enough to keep her safe from the monsters that plagued her in real life and from the supernatural realms.

Laura should have been spared from all of this evil, but because of this supernatural monster, it was never going to leave her alone. 

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn