With Christmas right around the corner, rewatching Charlie Brown-centric holiday specials would be quite common for diehard Peanuts fans. Decades after the comic strip and the numerous animated offerings that followed, Peanuts continues to hold relevance in pop culture. With readers pouring in love for Charles M Schulz on his 100th birth anniversary a few days back in November, the legacy of Snoopy and his gang live on.

However, even though Peanuts is a merry and simplistic look at childhood, Schulz's writing and illustration can be quite realistic at times. Charlie Brown, for instance, is bound to go through a bleak existentialism owing to his social anxieties. As for his pet Snoopy and his brothers and feathered friend Woodstock, even the animals of Peanuts can have their moments of unexpected morbidity. This just goes on to show how multidimensional the characters of Schulz's universe can be.

Snoopy's Rainy Blues

For some people, their sad moments are accompanied by certain activities that go beyond mere dwelling in loneliness. While some might have a sad songs playlists and some would binge on the saddest movies ever, Snoopy seems to spend his rainy blues in the most dramatic fashion possible, possibly a habit he picked up from his human owners.

And so when it starts pouring and Snoopy is laying lazily on his kennel, the dog wastes no time staying cooped up at Charlie Brown's house, staring outside the window, sipping on tea while listening to sad songs. Compared to other heartbreaking moments in Peanuts, this strip still lingers towards the humorous side. But Snoopy's visualization of his response towards the rain is surprisingly bleak for the otherwise-merry canine.

Sad Thoughts On Mother's Day

Canonically, Charlie Brown and Snoopy first crossed paths at a certain Daisy Hills Puppy Farm from where the former adopted the pup. Even though Snoopy has had a near-perfect upbringing at the Brown household, even the dog can miss his family at times as this particular strip shows.

With Woodstock searching for his mother, Snoopy reminiscences over his own furry relatives (even though brothers like Olaf and Spike have met him at times), especially his mother who is never even featured in the comics! Hopefully, Charlie Brown might have taken him to his parents sometime in the future. After all, Snoopy is hardly the one to ever shed a tear unlike in this particular moment.

With Great Potential, Comes Great Pressure

Lucy's younger brother Linus has an eccentric touch to him, especially with the security blanket that he carries around with him every single day. However, Linus is quite intelligent and wise, given his inclination toward philosophy and moral reasoning.

Cursed with enough mature knowledge for his young age, Linus' smartness can serve as an obstacle at times as his parents and teachers might expect more from him than even someone older like Charlie Brown. All this "great potential" to achieve makes Linus pressured, a comic strip that plays out in a darkly funny way. On one hand, readers can chuckle at how the childish-looking Linus gives such introspective monologues, and on the other, some can just empathize with him for going through such tussles at a young age.

"More Than One Night"

Be it in the comics or the TV specials, Charlie Brown seems to be carrying a lot of emotional baggage for a young kid. Even if his insecurities might not be that adult-like, his way of looking at them or just addressing them to himself points towards a darkly mature direction.

This particular is a notable example as no kid would wake up in the middle of the night and ask "Where have I gone wrong"! In fact, Charlie is not even as big of a loser as he thinks he is. It is perhaps his self-loathing that becomes his biggest enemy. And going per this comic, he would clearly take "more than one night" to get over hating himself.

Charlie Brown's Depressed Stance

Apart from his inner emotional struggles, Charlie Brown's physical mannerisms also reflect a meek boy who is too afraid of facing the world. He takes his sadness a notch higher by slouching his shoulders in a "depressed stance."

Perhaps something that he picked up from adults, it is painful to see "good ol' Charlie Brown" manifest his so-called "depression" in such an underconfident manner. Given that he is willing to show his friends his stance and get this candid with them, he has clearly given up on impressing his peers at school or making his younger days livelier.

Spike's Troubled Past

Much like his brothers, Spike is a dog of few words. However, that doesn't stop him from thinking and in this case, overthinking. In one of the darkest moments from Peanuts, Spike narrates the reason behind him living in the desert.

As per Spike's testimony (reflected in thought bubbles), the dog had once chased a rabbit after some humans had simply ordered to "get him". Alas, the rabbit died under a car, and burdened with guilt, Spike moved to a barren landscape so that he couldn't hurt any more living creatures. The confession seems to come out of nowhere and hardly would a Peanuts comic strip address death in such a direct manner. Further, the very fact that Spike unconsciously followed human orders goes on to show the side effects of human control over domesticated animals like dogs. Within a matter of a few s, Spike goes on to address difficult moral questions with difficult answers.

Linus' Adulthood Plans

If there's any other human character in Peanuts who can match Charlie Brown's melancholia, it has to be Linus. The philosophical prodigy can keep himself occupied with his omnipresent blanket and his own deep thoughts on life but hardly does Linus have any moments to smile like an ordinary child would.

No wonder that his adulthood plans includes being "outrageously happy." The fact that the subsequent fears that would come with adulting might haunt Linus even further make this naive comic even bleaker than expected. Facing situations where even his protective blanket wouldn't be able to help him, Linus must make the best of his childhood because the "outrageously happy" plan seems to be a tad bit too Utopian.

Olaf's Leap

One of the most adorable Snoopy appearances was in the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm when Charlie Brown picked him up. However, a lot has changed for his brothers since then, having undergone more arduous journeys. When Spike isn't busy exploring the desert, Olaf pays a seasonal visit to his brother only to vent out his sorrows.

In this case, he even seems to make a jump off Snoopy's kennel! Given the small height of the structure, Olaf doesn't end up injuring himself but the fact that he says is "Not to worry, I've done this before" is definitely worrying. Self-esteem issues are also touched upon in the first with Olaf lamenting how he has grown up only to be winning an "ugly dog contest." Olaf definitely needs a lot of the reader's sympathies.