An introduction: this series of lectures was created because of Venom's sudden popularity after the second trailer for the movie came out. I saw people arguing over how having a Symbiote or the Venom symbiote specifically worked, so i decided to create this post to give people a point of reference. From there people started asking me if i could blabber about other symbiote related topics and that's how these lectures were born. So here we go with the basics:

How the Symbiote actually works is the subject of many, many rectons along the years. The current (at least, current at the time i originally wrote this Lecture) version states that the Klyntars (the proper name for the Symbiote race) are naturally benevolent creatures that seek a good host to bond with so they can use their combined power to spread peace and justice through the galaxy. Unfortunately Symbiotes (for some """"strange""""" reason) tend to be extremely susceptible to bad hosts: if they bond with someone who's a legitimately terrible shit it influences their minds, regressing them into a more ferocious and instinctive creatures. That's the fate that befall the Venom symbiote, his first host actually forced him to help them commit a genocide that kinda super fucked up with him. Corrupted symbiotes are more generally known through the galaxy because their regressed state makes them seek out new hosts to drain and kill in a matter of months, in fact they're known as planet conquering parasites who kill almost every living thing on the planets they invade. The Venom symbiote (even if it was corrupted) apparently still had some resemblance of his former self since he wanted a host to live with instead of draining and kill them, but that made him an outcast among the rest of the corrupted Symbiotes, who then imprisoned him inside a machine that eventually found itself on Battleworld, a planet created by a cosmic being as a battle arena for Earth's mightiest heroes and villains.

Then Deadpool showed up. And wore the Venom Symbiote for 5 minutes and put it back.

Then Spider-man showed up and became the the facto first long term host for corrupted Venny. Because of their simple minds corrupted symbiotes usually tend to work only on a full 10 on the scale of emotions. There's no inbetween, they're either extremely happy and lovable or extremely angry and violent. Such a simple mindset and the fact that Venny was not used to a human moral code (being an alien and all) creates huge issues, especially in the relationship with Spidey.

Initially Spidey thought of it as nothing more than a cool suit but eventually the symbiote started being too needy, wanting to permanently bond with him and eventually also starting to pilot Peter's body in his sleep to go around New York and beat up people. This led Spidey to forcibly take off the symbiote which, because of its extremely simple mindstate became absurdly bitter and vengeful towards Peter, swearing to make him suffer for not accepting him. And the fact that because of their symbiosis the Symbiote now had all of Spidey's personal informations ready to use helped a lot in the ordeal.

Moral of the story: the Venom symbiote is basically a super ex girlfriend that knows everything about you and wants to ruin your life and kill you. A super buff and extremely sick looking yandere. Eddie Brock is basically the Symbiote's new boyfriend who also shares his hate for his ex boyfriend.

There's more shit to say about the long history of the character but i feel like i already bored you enough with the basics.

See ya next time!