#I'll come with a part 3 that explains more of the characters individually and how they're doing on the world

[celeborne]

the writers have purposefully made so many parallels between will and el (as individual characters and their relationships with mike) that it would make no sense if nothing happens with byler

before i start, i need to make it very clear that pointing out the fact that el pretty much came out of nowhere and, in a way, unintentionally ruined a huge part of will's life, is NOT bashing el as a person or character. she was just a child when she opened the gate and it wasn’t done on purpose to hurt will. also, she did not intentionally "steal" mike away from will. she loves him so much and he loves her too, and she did not plan for any of the pain he’s suffered.

BUT, the writers did.

and this is something we need to acknowledge, because if they plan to keep mike and el together after EVERYTHING they've done to will, that is extremely cruel and horrible writing, and i'll explain why.

the writers wrote their story in a way that will was basically replaced by el since the beginning.

there were SO many other ways for them to introduce el as a character without hurting will and ruining his life, but they didn't. and to cause extra pain, they decided to:

- make him gay and in love with mike

- make him get kidnapped because of a mistake el made

- have him stuck in an alternate dimension cold and alone while mike and el develop a relationship and start a romance when he’s literally not there

- be forced to watch mike and el be all lovey dovey in front of him while they CONSTANTLY ignore him (this happened throughout BOTH season 3 and 4, there was NO growth from either of them whatsoever)

- and then had the audacity to use him as a plot device to force mike and el back together while he suffers all alone… AGAIN.

here are some more examples and details of how will has been "replaced" and why mike and el's entire relationship is a slap in the face to him:

season 1

will goes missing because of the gate el opened and disappears from mike's life. el comes along and appears in it, essentially "replacing" him in the party and filling the empty spot he left behind.

they also chose to make el show up in the woods, close to where will’s bike was last seen, and many people in town actually thought el was a boy and mistook her for will.

there are so many parallels between them, like they are two sides of the same coin, but the writers chose to ruin will's life and then have el practically "replace" him in his party AND get the boy he loved first (again, not her fault directly because she didn't plan to do that on purpose, but the WRITERS did).

to make things even worse, will is traumatised and scarred for the rest of his life because of this gate being opened, but many people don't want to acknowledge that.

i constantly see comments like "will owes el his life! she helped save him!" and it's infuriating because he wouldn't have needed saving in the first place if she didn't open the gate?? like obviously it was kind of her to help save him and she risked her life which was a massive thing but it was also kind of what she owed him considering it was her fault he got taken in the first place! he was in danger BECAUSE of her mistakes. also, will's life didn't suddenly become good just because he was rescued. in fact, it got WORSE. he suffers with ptsd, anxiety and depression, and he already suffered with these things because of his childhood, but now it's even worse. he literally has a part of the mind flayer INSIDE of him even now and he also has to watch the boy he loves fall in love with someone else.

copying mike and will’s story + parallels

all the selfless and compassionate things mike did for will FIRST were essentially copied and pasted, and the writers made mike do the exact same things for el (but of course, because el is a girl, those gestures are automatically "romantic" now).

we haven’t seen mike do anything like this with dustin or lucas. this shows is that his relationships with will and el are different to his other relationships, but i just find it interesting how they had no creativity for mike and el. they just basically copied mike and will’s story, which makes it even more insulting to will.

when mike first met will, he:

- walked up to him and asked to be his friend

- saved him from being alone and ended up becoming will’s safe place

then in season 1, he:

- cried and hugged his mother after he saw his “body”

- looked through something that reminded of him (his drawings) in his basement when he thought he lost him

- tried to talk to him on the walkie talkie because he heard his voice

- never gave up on him and did whatever he could to find him

does that sound familiar? because they did the same thing with el.

- mike met her when she was alone and gave her a place to stay

- after she sacrificed herself, he cried and hugged his mother

- in his basement, he looked through something that reminded him of her (the star wars ship) on the couch in the SAME SPOT where he looked through will’s drawings first.

there are so many parallels between mike’s relationships with will and el. parallels can be beautiful and meaningful sometimes, and i love the similarities between will and el as individual characters especially because they've both been through so much and end up becoming closer when they become siblings, but i do NOT like that the gay character is the one that stays alone and has to suffer the entire show.

obviously if this is all leading up to byler being endgame, then it would make so much sense and these parallels would be extremely smart, especially if viewers go back and rewatch and pay close attention to every little detail.

but if they plan to keep mike and el together after making will suffer AND copying so much of mike and will’s relationship to use for mike and el, that’s absolutely horrible. there are too many parallels between them and the thing that people need to remember is that everything between mike and will happened FIRST. all the beautiful, meaningful, emotional things that make these relationships so special happened with mike and will long before it happened with mike and el. THAT is the difference here. mike met will and saved him from being alone. he lost him and then never gave up on finding him. he became protective of him once he returned. these are just a few things, but notice how mike and el’s story basically goes like that too?

the only difference between byler and m*leven is that they forced mike and el to be romantic because they’re a boy and a girl. people always try to use “but mike called el every day!” as proof of him being in love with her, but he did the same with will when he was missing. in fact, he did even MORE. he physically went out of his way to try and find him. he told everyone he was still alive. he wouldn’t listen to anyone that tried to stop him from finding will. even the cops warned them to stop, but he didn’t. he didn’t even do any of that with el and just kept everything to himself. i understand the situation with el had to be more secretive and was difficult for many reasons, but he didn’t even mention it to dustin and lucas who were also close to her. and yeah, he called her for a long time, because she was missing for a long time! they found will fairly quickly so of course he wasn’t searching for him as long as he was searching for el? but if will was still missing, of course he never would’ve given up on him either. he still went out every single day searching for will.

season 2 + season 3 + season 4

mike became extremely protective over will after he returned.

- he stayed by his side and made sure he was okay

- they had beautiful, meaningful scenes and heart-to-heart conversations where they would be there for each other

- he even got a bit defensive whenever someone else would come near him

- when will was possessed by the mindflayer, mike said a beautiful monologue where he told will about the day they first met

- he said he walked up to will and asked him to be his friend and that it was the best thing he’s ever done

again, does that sound familiar?

- the writers decided to make mike become protective over el after she returned at the end of season 2

- but in season 3, instead of beautiful, meaningful moments where they had heart-to-heart conversations and comforted each other like mike and will did, they just… made out and excluded all their friends. real nice

- anyways, in season 4 when el is being choked by vines, mike is basically pressured into a monologue where he tells el he loves her (because he knows that’s what she wants to hear since that was what their fight was about) and he talks about the first day they met

- he claims his life started the day he met her in the woods, which we know isn’t true, because he was a traumatised 12 year old searching for his missing best friend and he knew nothing about romantic love. he also doesn’t believe in love at first sight and didn’t fall in love with a stranger he barely knew. he was literally planning to send her to pennhurst the next morning

- anyways, it’s obvious they tried so hard to copy mike’s meaningful monologue to will but totally failed. most of the audience thought mike’s monologue to el was extremely forced and cheesy. it’s even more insulting because they chose to make will have to sit there and listen to it while being heartbroken.

more from season 4

in the airport scene, will is extremely excited to see mike (he looks even more excited than el). he has his painting in his hand and he’s ready to hug him, but mike doesn’t hug back because he’s clearly struggling with his own personal issues and feels like he needs to push will away. will doesn’t know why he’s acting so cold though, and this makes him feel insecure and upset. his mood changes from this point forward, and rightfully so (el notices all of this too).

now here’s where it gets so infuriating. mike and el cling to each other and el says “i want today to be about me and you”, right IN FRONT OF WILL WHEN HE IS STANDING RIGHT THERE. like are you actually kidding me?! mike was will’s best friend FIRST. he has known him much longer than el and he was just excited to see his best friend. why couldn’t el even TRY to include him? she saw he was upset. she saw he just wanted to spend time with mike too. “they’re dating and were just excited to see each other” is no excuse to treat will so horribly. you can date someone while still including your other friends. the way they had the audacity to hold hands without even looking at will in the roller rink was just immature and selfish. if mike has internalised homophobia then at least that KIND OF explains his behaviour and allows us to understand him more (it still sucks but still), but el has no reason to treat her brother like that. he was literally comforting her and asking if she was okay the previous day when she was alone and upset. but when will is alone and upset? absolute silence 😭

anyways, the only reason mike said “i love you” to el was BECAUSE OF WILL. yet another example of will being replaced, and this time, the writers made will do it to HIMSELF. the van scene was supposed to be a special moment between mike and will ONLY. that painting was something will worked so hard on for mike.

since the beginning, will’s artwork has always been very personal and special to both of them and no one else. mike collects his art and has it all over his basement walls. will saw that mike was feeling insecure and upset and decided to sacrifice his own feelings for him just to make him happy, because THAT is how much he loves him. he used el’s name as a disguise, replacing his own in the process, to help mike and el’s relationship even though he didn’t have to. this is what led to mike telling el what she wanted.

so in the end, will gets hurt and suffers alone, el gets told she’s loved, and mike is just… the same. literally the same. basically just reduced to el’s boyfriend and nothing more. it’s so frustrating.

anyways, the writers have basically “replaced” will with el in so many scenarios, and they’ve also copied so much of mike and will’s relationship and used it for mike and el. it’s even worse because they’re doing all of this to an abused and traumatised gay character who has suffered almost his entire life. i know almost every character has trauma in this show and i genuinely want them all to be happy too, but the deliberate things they’ve constantly done to will is actually ridiculous.

if they wanted mike and el to be a couple, they didn’t have to drag will into it and make him go through so much pain because of them.

[rickyriddle]

ShaunaHat Analysis

Hey there, I’ve been meaning to write an analysis for Shauna and Melissa’s relationship for a while, and after seeing the latest interview with Jenna Burgess, as well as reading a lot of takes I don’t personally agree with regarding their relationship or Melissa as a character. It made me want to give my own perspective on them and hopefully change some people’s minds regarding them.

For starters, I want to make it clear from the start that the point of this analysis isn’t to convince anything that it’s a good relationship, or make you enjoy them if you really don’t. I am very aware that Shauna/Melissa is a toxic relationship that evolved into outright abuse, and it’s totally fine to be uncomfortable with that. But what I wish to accomplish is to give some clarity as to why they are that way, individually and as a couple.

So, for this analysis, I’ll explore who Melissa and Shauna are as people and how it contributed to them starting a relationship. I want to delve into their individual motivation for dating each other, what they saw in each other, how it affected them and why it ultimately ended the way it did. Essentially, I’m looking to elucidate the when, why and how of their relationships. So please, bear with me.

I'd recommend checking out the two latest interviews Jenna Burgess did, since I'll be referencing them (and they are super interesting). The first one is by PopCultureWithPat and the other one is by kfunggg.

ps: this analysis is over 20k words, I might post it in separated parts that can work individually and if so, I’ll add the links to those posts here.

edit: the analysis is now on AO3 if you'd prefer to read it there

Introduction

First, I think establishing who Melissa is as a character would help explain how this relationship became a thing. As for now, we don’t know much about Melissa’s backstory. She was a character officially introduced in season 2 and became a more important character in season 3, when she started her relationship with Shauna. So what do we know about her character? She’s a high school student, possibly 17 years old as of season 3 (according to the actress), and she was part of the JV team as opposed to the Varsity team. We know she’s a lesbian, and it does play a role in her choices and behaviours, not just because of her sexual preferences but because there is a social context here. It’s the 90s, where homosexuality is still considered taboo, which the show does touch upon. We can assume that, as a gay teen, Melissa was possibly still closeted and may never have had a relationship with another girl before due to the stigma, or possibly not having admitted to herself that she likes girls. Those are speculations, but I’d argue they are very probable possibilities given the time period.

Melissa doesn’t seem to have many close friends outside of Gen, who is someone (if we agree with the actresses playing them) she only befriended after the crash. So it’s possible that before the crash, Melissa was more of a loner who kept to herself. And as a potentially closeted teen, it would make sense that she has a harder time making friends if she’s afraid to be outed and possibly ostracised.

What we’ve seen of her in season 2 is pretty minimal. She mostly only hangs out with Gen; they both keep to themselves, although Gen has other friends (like Mari and Akilah) whom she is seen hanging out with without Melissa. Gen and Melissa’s role in s2 was mostly that of the comedic relief duo, who had funny interactions. We don’t learn much about Melissa as a person, and she’s mostly there to contribute to the group dynamic.

As for her personality, she comes off as someone awkward, somewhat shy, unless she has someone who can back her up. She dared to be more outspoken when she was with Gen, and later when she was with Shauna. But more on that later.

I won’t take too much time describing Shauna since her character is very well established, so I’ll stick to the main points for this analysis. Shauna is someone with a lot of trauma, after losing Jackie and feeling responsible for her death and blaming herself, but she also had a lot of resentment towards Jackie. It’s clear that her feelings for Jackie were complex, a bit of love and hate, and she was never able to process those due to her tragic passing. She can never reconcile with Jackie, talk things through, because she died. And Jackie dying after a violent argument will forever leave Shauna haunted, by what she could have done differently, by the possibility that maybe they could have talked things through. But unfortunately, she will never have this opportunity, and she will remain tormented by that for as long as we have seen her. There is also the death of her baby that added to that trauma, both because it’s a very traumatic event on its own but because the baby was linked to Jackie. It’s because she slept with Jeff and ended up pregnant that they had that argument. I believe that for her, if she could have her baby, it would at least make Jackie’s death not in vain. Losing her baby could have been like losing Jackie again, because now her death served no purpose. I think this is why Shauna, after rescue, married Jeff. She didn’t love him. But Jackie died because she slept with him, so in her mind, this is the only way she has to not make her death in vain and atone for what she did. She’s essentially punishing herself due to her guilt for everything she did in the Wilderness, including her involvement in Jackie’s death.

And as a teen, that amount of trauma led to her behaviors in season 3. She feels alone and unappreciated after they picked Natalie as the leader instead of her. From her perspective, she was more deserving. She thinks she suffered the most, she was the one who did what the others couldn’t, which is to butcher Javi’s corpse so they wouldn’t starve to death. The fact she had to do that to a child after she lost her baby only contributed to her trauma, she had to cover her eyes so much it was distressing for her. So for her, it must have felt like a slap in the face to have Nat become the leader, simply because Lottie decided that it was the will of It (the Wilderness). So Shauna’s frustration at the beginning of season 3 is understandable to an extent, she feels unappreciated, she can’t connect with the others and their newfound devotion to the wilderness. Especially since this faith they build is capitalizing on her personal trauma. They made her dead baby into a mythical figure, Shauna isn’t allowed to grieve in peace; her trauma is constantly shoved into her face. So it’s understandable why she’d isolate herself from the rest of the group; this must be triggering for her. We do see her leave the ceremony as soon as her child is mentioned, and she had to go bury him somewhere else so she could keep a part of him to herself.

Did Melissa love Shauna? (Season 3, episode 1)

So, Shauna had a lot of reasonable anger and frustration at the beginning of season 3, and that led her to be isolated from the others with whom she no longer felt comfortable being with. Not that it excuse her more aggressive behaviors, but I think is understandable why she’d lash out like that given what she went through and how the others acted towards her and her trauma.

As for Melissa had the start of season 3, she does seem to be part of the overall group, she participated into the activities organized by their community and didn’t seem to have much of an issue with it. It meant be because she also started to believe in the Wilderness, or simply because she didn’t want to be excluded. And, it’s not like she had anything else to do, so as well just go along with what others do.

Now, let’s move to their first actual interaction in season 3. Shauna asked for Melissa’s help with the meat. For Shauna, it’s nothing special, Melissa just happened to be the closest person around. But for Melissa, it might mean something more, to have Shauna speak to her and acknowledge her presence.

Then, when Shauna made that very dark comment about Mari, she looked at Melissa, almost as if she was “challenging” her to say something. To tell her what she said was bad. Because that’s what Shauna came to expect from everyone, to be dismissed and viewed in a bad light. But much to her surprise, Melissa didn’t react badly to her comment. On the contrary, she seemingly agreed with Shauna’s distaste for Mari, even attempting a witty remark about how dumb Mari is. This did take Shauna aback, as she was probably not expecting that someone would agree with her. Shauna wasn’t really familiar with Melissa as a person, as she is a JV and a grade or two below her. She made a comment about Melissa, that she was surprised to see she does have a personality.

For Melissa, what was simply a constatation almost felt like a compliment. Shauna noticed her and acknowledged her. She looked flustered at first, then almost proud of herself. To me, it leaves me to believe that at that point, Melissa was already starting to harbour a crush on Shauna. What Shauna told her wasn’t actually nice, since it implies she never bothered to know anything about her until now. But to Melissa, this was as if her crush had finally acknowledged that she exists, and it made her happy. This is the kind of reaction I can only see for someone who did like the other person, and felt like they had finally succeeded at getting noticed by them.

Then came Akilah, trying to gift Shauna a handmade crown for the ceremony, since she was “it’s mother”. Even if, from Akilah’s perspective, what she was doing was kind, it was not how Shauna felt. And with reason. This crown symbolized the loss of her baby and how everyone appropriated her trauma for their personal gain, to make themselves feel better with their Wilderness belief. It wasn’t a gift to her, it was a reminder of what she lost and how even her loss couldn’t belong to her alone.

Melissa noticed Shauna’s discomfort after she slapped the crown to the ground, and Mel made the decision to step on it in front of Shauna. This was the first instance of Melissa doing something somewhat mean to someone (Akilah), by destroying something she put time into making. But why did Melissa do that? I think it was primarily to get Shauna’s attention. She doesn’t have anything against Akilah, and they both seem to be on relatively good terms. So it wasn’t animated by personal animosity towards Akilah. But Melissa saw that Shauna hated that crown and that it made her uncomfortable, so she thought by stepping on it, it would make Shauna acknowledge her even more. She wanted to show her that she was on her side. Shauna had already “praised” her once for saying something mean about Mari, someone Shauna dislikes, so she expected it to work again towards something else Shauna didn’t like.

I'm not sure if Shauna knew why Melissa did that (or cared), but she did look at her as she walked away, so I do think it left a certain impression on Shauna. With everyone being invasive regarding her baby, it might have felt good to see Melissa step on that crown. She might not have realized Melissa did it for her, I don't think Shauna could conceive that someone would take her side, but I still think it could have left a relatively good impression of Melissa on Shauna. Or at least, some curiosity. Something that could have helped later on the line with their relationship.

I’d say by that moment alone, it’s clear to me that by that point, Melissa already had a crush on Shauna. I can’t see why she would go out of her way to try find something witty to say to impress Shauna and then destroy the crown Shauna hated. Those are not actions that could have benefited Melissa personally; they were in response to what Shauna was saying or doing. This was the first time Shauna gave her attention, and Melissa was desperate to keep it going. Her crush had acknowledged her and nothing else mattered to her at that moment.

Season 2 retrospective

Now, let’s take a break from season 3 and ask the question: When did Melissa start to have feelings for Shauna? Let’s put aside that their romance was something that wasn’t planned ahead, since the show could retroactively decide Melissa loved Shauna way before season 3. So let’s only focus on what we can observe. Ever since season 3 began, a lot of people have noticed that Melissa was often standing close to Shauna during season 2. Speculation started that it might have been foreshadowing for their relationship in season 3, but as I said before, it wasn’t planned ahead. But, given they could retroactively say that Melissa did love Shauna in s2, it’s still fair to bring up those. In a recent interview with Jenna Burgess, she was asked about that, and we now finally have our answer as to why Melissa and Shauna were often seen together in season 2. The main reason was simply because Jenna chose to stand close to Shauna to ensure she’d get screentime. It makes sense that being close to the main character would increase her chances of being seen on screen. So it wasn’t a coincidence, but it wasn’t foreshadowing either. It was still an intentional choice by Jenna. But, she also gave another reason why she chose Shauna rather than another main character. She felt like Melissa was drawn to Shauna, because she could relate to her feeling of loneliness. This echoes my interpretation that Melissa was more of a loner. She does have Gen as a friend in season 2, but that’s it. Gen had other friends, and that could make Melissa feel lonely whenever they weren’t together. And that led her to feel a gravitational pull towards Shauna because they’re both lonely.

I do think Melissa’s feelings for Shauna started as sympathy at first. She felt bad for Shauna for what she went through, and it started her interest in her that later developed into having a crush on her. I think she was starting to have a certain interest in Shauna in s2, even if it wasn’t necessarily romantic yet. And maybe even attraction at some point. Jenna did say that there is a brutal side to Shauna that Melissa is very attracted to, so it’s possible that when Shauna became more aggressive (for example, when she beat up Lottie) that it sparked something in Melissa, she was already drawn to her but now she saw another side of Shauna, a side she found disturbingly alluring. That could explain why she said that line to Shauna, “now you give a shit about Lottie?”.

Maybe part of Melissa was still struggling to admit to herself that she felt that way towards Shauna when she beat up Lottie. She was confused as to why Shauna now cared about Lottie, and that confusion could have upset her and led her to say that line. The girl she thought she could relate to ended up being violent, and part of Melissa enjoyed that violence, and it scared her. Not of Shauna, but of herself. And there was perhaps a need to distance herself from Shauna in that moment. Gen had already expressed annoyance at Shauna, so Melissa felt more comfortable doing so, too. There’s also the fact that they were all worried about Lottie, so crush or not, it’s fair for Melissa to be upset at Shauna for nearly killing Lottie. We do see that despite that, Melissa is still seen close to Shauna later on, so it did not put an end to her interest in her.

But hey, that’s just my personal interpretation based on what we know of her in s3. This was probably not the intent in s2, and I think this was mostly just a throwaway line to further the plot more than something meant to inform us on Melissa as a character. Here's an interesting thread on Twitter about all the moments where Melissa is shown close to Shauna or reacting to her.

So, everything I said regarding season 2 and how Melissa could have already have feelings for Shauna is just speculation; nothing is confirmed here. Some people would rather headcanon that she already had a crush on Shauna before the crash. And you know what? That’s also a possibility. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter when exactly Melissa started to have feelings for Shauna. We may never know. But what we do know is that she does have feelings for Shauna in s3. Even if she doesn’t have feelings for her in s2 or before, it doesn’t fundamentally affect their relationship in s3 and how I’ll be analyzing them. It just adds a bit of flavour to them. Let’s not forget that there was a timeskip between s2 and s3. Season 3 started at the summer solstice, so we skipped all of spring. That’s at least a three-month time skip. Plenty of time for Melissa to develop a genuine crush on Shauna if she didn’t have one already. But then, I’ll have to ask this question: how?

How did Melissa fall in love with Shauna? (s2 and s3 timeskip)

I believe we do have enough information in the text itself to make a reasonable assumption. We know Gen became the new hunter after Travis and was being trained by Nat. It would certainly take a lot of time for Nat to train Gen into becoming the competent hunter we see she become at the start of s3. Which means, Gen spending less time with Melissa. We know Gen is Melissa’s closest friend, which must have left her to feel pretty lonely whenever Gen left to go train with Nat or simply go hunt. That could explain two things I mentioned earlier. Melissa is participating more in the group, because she is herself starting to feel isolated so more likely to cling to whatever she can to not feel alone. At the start of s3 she does seem to get along with some of the other girls, notably Britt and Robin, so she does have people she could consider friends. But Gen still remains her closest friend and she probably misses her, even if they do share a hut there are still a lot of moments they aren’t together, contrasting with their time together in season 2 where they were almost always together.

I think this only strengthened what Melissa could have already felt towards Shauna, feeling drawn to her because they both felt lonely. And if Shauna was lonely in season 2, now she’s flat-out alone and isolated from the others, something Melissa can probably empathize with. I could see that during that timeskip, when she was alone, Melissa spent a lot of time observing Shauna, learning about her through a safe distance, and it developed into a feeling of limerence (that’s a word Jenna used to describe Melissa’s feelings towards Shauna in this article if you are interested). It’s a state of involuntary obsession with another person and an intense longing for someone, even if they don’t reciprocate. It’s not necessarily a feeling of love or lust, but it can feel like that and can develop into those. I think Melissa, in her feeling of loneliness, latched onto what she was feeling towards Shauna. This developed into a crush, even if it was fueled by this feeling of limerence more than simple love or lust.

The beginning of shaunahat (season 3, episode 2)

Now, let’s go back to what is actually happening in season 3. Their second actual interaction is when Melissa followed Shauna to the grave of her baby. This behaviour is starting to feel like stalking, she isn’t just observing Shauna from afar, she is following her around without her knowing. As mentioned earlier, limerance is obsessive by nature, she wanted to know more about Shauna, so she followed her and discovered something. The grave of her child. This was something private to Shauna that she didn’t want the other girls to know. Part of Melissa does feel sympathy for Shauna for what she went through, but I think she doesn’t fully grasp why Shauna wanted a place just for herself. So her decision to put flowers on the grave did come from a good intention; that’s what people usually do to pay respect to the dead. I don’t think Melissa really thinks too deeply about her actions here, in her mind, she was being kind to someone she likes.

But, from what I gathered from how Jenna described this action, yes it came from empathy, but part of Melissa was also curious to see how Shauna would react, so she hid instead of just leaving. She likes to observe Shauna, so seeing her reaction isn’t something she would have wanted to miss. She probably didn’t expect that Shauna would react this negatively, because I don’t think she realized how much Shauna was terrified of someone finding out where she buried her child. She might have assumed Shauna would be relieved to see that someone cared for her and her loss and was looking for a more positive reaction. This shows that at this point, Melissa’s understanding of Shauna is very shallow and this is more about how she feels about Shauna rather than how Shauna is feeling. It’s not ill-intentioned, but it’s very naive of her and shows a certain immaturity when it comes to romance.

Melissa got caught. She could have attempted to run but she didn’t think she was in any real danger. As I said, her understanding of Shauna is very shallow and she failed to see how panicked Shauna was to see her there. And Shauna at this point barely knows anything about Melissa, from all she knows, she’s part of the cult that keeps worshipping her dead baby. She’s right to be on edge and worried. She does feel threatened and attacked in a place where she’s vulnerable, where she just wants to be able to grieve her child in peace. So Melissa being there is akin to an invasion and perhaps even aggression to her, and Shauna feels right to go on the offensive.

Melissa definitely noticed how Shauna was starting to get more and more aggressive. She might not have understood exactly why, but she did try to defuse the situation. But as the awkward girl she is (and with “no game”, per Jenna’s words) she unintentionally made things worse. It did seem for a moment that Shauna might calm down when Melissa tried to assure her she wasn’t there for her baby, and started expressing how much sympathy she had for her and then showing her in compliments. All of those were desperate attempts to get on Shauna’s good side after upsetting her. Then Melissa started feeling a bit too bold when she thought she had managed to calm down Shauna and tried to express how she felt about Shauna in a clumsy way, telling her she “wasn’t scared of her”. For Melissa, this was meant as a compliment, a way for her to show Shauna she liked her and wanted to be around her, unlike the others. She was trying to show Shauna she wasn’t like them and she could trust her.

But of course, that’s not how Shauna interpreted it. She might have seemed to be calming down, she wasn’t. She was a ticking bomb, still very much on edge by having someone invading her personal space, someone getting involved yet again in her private trauma. I’m not sure if she was fully registering what Melissa was telling her or if she was too panicked to fully hear her. But then, when she heard Melissa say she wasn’t scared of her, this didn’t come off as a compliment to her. It was an insult. In her mind, Melissa was provoking her. Because that’s what she’s used to, to people insulting and provoking her, and disrespecting her feelings. And as the ticking bomb she was, she exploded at that moment. Melissa had given her a reason, in her mind, to attack. She was a menace that needed to be dealt with. So she threatened her at knife point to never speak of this, because to Shauna, this was what it was all about. Her child, her right to have a place just for herself. She did not care about anything else Melissa had to say. All she could see was that she was endangering the only remaining piece of her baby that she could claim for herself. And for that, Shauna was willing to threaten to kill Melissa to keep it a secret.

Then, the infamous kiss happened. Why did Melissa kiss Shauna? Two reasons were given by the actress. The main one being, she had a crush on Shauna. If Shauna was going to kill her, this was her only chance to express her feelings for her. She had nothing to lose so why not at least try? The other reason was self-preservation. In that moment, Melissa was terrified of dying. Shen wasn’t thinking clearly. She was desperate to survive, so she did something impulsive in the hope it could save her. She kissed Shauna. This was a split-second decision made by someone who was desperate, born both from her crush on Shauna and the fear of dying. If you are about to get killed, might as well do what you weren’t able to do before. It might be your last chance. Thankfully for Melissa, it worked. She did not get killed by Shauna.

Now, let’s switch to Shauna’s perspective. She’s angry, panicked, holding a knife to some girl’s throat, someone she barely knows. She’s not aware that Melissa has been harbouring those feelings for her. She is nothing more than a nuisance to her at that time. Until she suddenly launched to kiss her. This is probably the last thing Shauna expected would happen. We saw that she was shocked and confused, and it did diffused her anger.

Why did she kiss Melissa back? Well, for many reasons. If I go by Jenna’s words, Shauna was so broken at that time that she just went “huh, what the hell, sure”. If I go by Sophie’s words, after being kissed, Shauna realized that she was “kind of into it”. Both can be true. Shauna was at her lowest. She felt isolated and unappreciated by everyone, but suddenly there was this random girl who kissed her? Showed interest in her? Despite how she behaves, Shauna does feel lonely, she misses Jackie, and she misses having someone with her. And given it’s obvious Shauna had feelings for Jackie that went beyond friendship, something she will never have the chance to explore or even fully accept, having a girl make a move on her awakened something in her. This part of her she never fully acknowledged, her attraction to girls. It’s unclear what Shauna’s exact sexuality is, but we can assume she is indeed queer. And that kiss from Melissa made her feel something, something she liked, and she wanted to feel more of it. So she kissed her back.

If the kiss for Melissa was a way to express her feelings for Shauna, it wasn’t the same for Shauna. At that point, Shauna couldn’t care less about Melissa. She is merely a vessel for her own feelings. The kiss wasn’t romantic to her, it was feral, hungry, and dominating. We can see the contract in how they hold each other. Melissa has her hands on Shauna’s waist, a more loving gesture, and she’s fully leaning into the kiss. Meanwhile, Shauna kept the knife to her throat, establishing dominance and control in the situation. She did not care what Melissa was thinking, she cared about what she wanted, and at that moment she was craving the feeling this kiss was giving her. She didn’t let go of the knife because she needed to stay in control and have the power. After feeling so exposed and in a vulnerable state when Melissa found the grave, this was her way to reclaim control of the situation by dominating her in the kiss while craving something she wanted at that moment.

As we can see, this kiss was something completely unexpected for both of them. I know some people think Melissa specifically went after Shauna to gain power and protection, but that’s inconsistent with what we have seen so far. She couldn’t have predicted how Shauna would react to her. That and as mentioned before, Shauna is very isolated and considered unstable by the others; she’s not the best pick if you are after power and protection. If anything, Melissa put herself in more danger by pursuing Shauna. She had no reason to even pursue power and protection at that point. They were relatively safe; her best friend Gen was the new hunter, working directly under their leader Nat, and Melissa seemed to get along with most of the group at that point. She was in a comfy situation where there was no reason for her to go after Shauna- unless she actually had feelings for her.

That brings me to my next point. Did Melissa actually love Shauna? It’s a loaded question that even Jenna struggled to answer. It’s undeniable that Melissa, at the very least, had a crush on Shauna and strong feelings for her that she would call love. According to Jenna, in Melissa’s mind, she and Shauna were the love story of her life. Now, you might bring up the fact that adult Melissa claimed that she never loved Shauna, and to that I would reply “why are you believing anything this woman is saying?”. I’d rather keep the 25 years later stuff for later, but I’ll just clarify for this section. It’s possible adult Melissa is either lying or is in denial. After all, 25 years have passed and people’s perception can change. When asked about this, Jenna had something interesting to say. That what you believe to be love as a 17 years old might differ from a 42 years old. After 25 years, Melissa can have reflected on that and decided, as a grown woman, that it wasn’t love. But it doesn’t change the fact that currently, for the teen Melissa, what she feels is love and it’s what informs her actions throughout the teen timeline. She wasn’t using Shauna, her primary goal wasn’t to get power or safety for herself, it was to get with Shauna. At least, for now it’s her main goal. More on that later.

After the kiss (season 3, episode 3)

Let’s skip after the kiss. The next time we see Shauna and Melissa together is when Melissa followed Shauna around and found her writing in her journal, which Shauna called “stalking”. The way both of them acted is interesting. Shauna at first showed a lack of interest, barely looking at Melissa and still writing in her diary. The kiss hasn’t affected her the same way it did Melissa. For Shauna, it might have been a one-time thing, something she can brush off because she doesn’t actually care about Melissa at that time. I’d say there’s a high chance if Melissa didn’t approach her again, Shauna would have moved on. Shauna has too much on her mind to put too much thought into this.

But for Melissa, the kiss meant a lot. It felt like perhaps there was a chance Shauna could reciprocate her feelings, so she approached her as such. She was nervous, shy, awkward, clearly came with a prepared speech in mind, she might have rehearsed in her head a few times. But when Shauna spoke first, it threw off Melissa, who had something she had planned to say. Instead of replying to what Shauna accused her of (stalking), Melissa still went with what she originally planned to say, coming off as very nervous and awkward. Her outfit is also worth noting. Other than in winter, where characters would just wear as many layers as possible to keep themselves warm, Melissa is never seen wearing a skirt in season 3. This is the first time she has worn one. She also took the time to braid her hair. It was as if she were dressing up to “impress” Shauna. Trying to look her best to go see her crush. Because to her, the kiss was romantic, and she had hope that there could be something between them now. She was imagining they could just have a talk about what happened and maybe start a relationship.

She was not expecting to be met with complete indifference. Melissa was clearly shocked and upset by Shauna seemingly not caring. And probably hurt too. Perhaps it wasn’t the first time she kissed a girl only to be ignored after, and have the other girl act as if it never happened, due to the 90s homophobia. So Melissa turned around, probably feeling dumb to have hoped in the first place… but then Shauna called her and told her she could stay- if she wanted.

Why the change of heart from Shauna? I think if Melissa never approached her again, Shauna might have moved on, yes. But since Melissa did come back and let it be known she was still interested, part of Shauna wanted to know why. Shauna is at a point where she can’t fathom someone wanting to be with her. She feels like everyone turns their back on her, but then there’s this girl who’s relatively unknown to her, who is showing interest in her. I don’t think Shauna had an interest in Melissa, but she had an interest in why Melissa was interested in her. It was curiosity at best. So she gave Melissa a choice, if she wanted to stay, instead of making the decision herself. And Melissa did stay.

Of course, Melissa would want to stay. Her crush allowed her to be near her. To her, it was an opportunity, and she could still hope Shauna would reciprocate her interest. But she just sat down, silent, probably too shy and nervous to actually say something. This led Shauna to ask her if she���s going to turn out to be “fucking boring”. Melissa probably didn’t know what to reply to that, so instead she just smiled awkwardly, then her gaze on Shauna looked loving. She truly was heartstruck by her. And for the rare time this season, Shauna smiled (well, smirked). She looked up and down Melissa like it was the first time she actually took the time to appraise her. First she noticed Melissa did have a personality, and now she noticed what she looked like. Judging by her expression, Shauna did like what she saw. It might not have been an actual attraction at that point, but Melissa’s appearance was deemed okay for Shauna at that moment.

There are a few tidbits in the rest of this episode that are interesting. One of them is technically a deleted scene. After Mari had come back and revealed Ben was still out there, Shauna asks, “Anyone that wants to come with me?” which, according to Jenna, Melissa raised her hand and said “Me!” while pushing through the others. It’s a shame it got cut because not only does it sound funny, it shows how eager Melissa was to get on Shauna’s good side. Though that might be why it was cut, to leave this development for episode 4. Either way, at the end of the episode, when they found Van, Akilah and Shauna unconscious because of the gas, Melissa was standing next to Shauna and looked very concerned for her. It’s not really visible in the episode itself, but you can see it in some of the stills. If anything, that furthered my point that she does care for Shauna.

The Courtship (season 3, episode 4)

Alright, episode 4 is where Melissa’s infatuation with Shauna starts to show signs of being a bit more insidious. This isn’t just a simple crush anymore, Melissa actually has hope she can be with Shauna at this point. Shauna hasn’t fully reciprocated yet, but didn’t push away Melissa. She even told her she hopes she won’t turn out to be boring, something I’m sure Melissa took to heart. Shauna gave her a challenge, a condition for her if she wants to be worthy of her. It enboldened her and led her to more extreme actions.  And this whole episode, especially the trial, was Melissa trying to impress Shauna, to show her she won’t be boring, that she can count on her and that she has her back. She wants Shauna to like her and view her as useful, as someone she needs and is worthy to be by her side. And that’s not just how I feel about that, that’s also what Jenna said. That the trial was Melissa’s “stage” and she was putting on a performance to impress Shauna. The crazy eyes she was giving were on purpose. Essentially, she’s trying to show her that she can match her freak.

This episode is when Melissa started to take more questionable actions on behalf of Shauna. I don’t think she knew for sure that Ben burned down the cabin, but she did not care. What mattered to her was that Shauna wanted him to be guilty, and she was going to do anything she could to ensure that, for Shauna. Her infatuation with Shauna started to negatively affect others, it came at the detriment of the people around her. First there is Gen, who is Melissa’s closest friend, who Melissa pressured into voting guilty. Gen clearly was not comfortable with that and felt bad for doing so. But she was being pressured by both Melissa and Shauna. Mel put her in a tough position where she had to choose between standing up with Nat, whom she respects, or doing what Melissa wanted. It’s not the worst thing someone can do, but it’s still bad to pressure someone who is supposed to be your friend and who is clearly uncomfortable to do something like that.

It shows Melissa is willing to use her own friends to further her goal, which is to be with Shauna. Then the other person who was hurt by Melissa’s desire to be with Shauna was Ben, who ended up being voted guilty, even though he was most likely innocent. She contributed to getting a man the death sentence because she was in love with Shauna. This is how sinister her infatuation with Shauna had become. It wasn’t just an innocent crush anymore, but something that could be hurtful to others. Not that I think Melissa was viewing it that way or was intentionally being hurtful, in her mind, all she was doing was supporting the girl she loves and maybe getting her to like her back. It’s a lack of concern for how her actions affect others because she’s too focused on one thing: Shauna.

Another interesting detail in that episode is how much Melissa is shown looking at Shauna during the trial. She looked very on edge when Shauna was questioned by Misty and Taissa. But the more interesting detail is when Ben is doing his speech. Most of them, including Shauna, are listening to him, some of them feeling moved by what he is saying. Melissa is not focusing on Ben, she is looking at Shauna. As I said earlier, Melissa's priority is Shauna, and everything else, including Ben, is secondary to her at the moment. I think she was trying to see how Ben's speech was affecting Shauna, to decide how she should feel about it, too. As Jenna said, this was a performance for her to impress Shauna. And she did a fantastic job portraying how everything she was doing was about Shauna and how this was her main focus.

As for Shauna, after intimidating the jury into voting guilty, she got a taste of what she views as power. And I think so did Melissa. I said earlier Melissa didn’t seek power from Shauna, but I do believe after this episode, she got a taste of power, or rather the power she saw in Shauna. This added to her attraction to her. This gave her a rush to see what she helped Shauna accomplish. This got so much into her head that she dared to express that to Shauna, whom she suspects desires power, with such confidence she’s usually lacking around her. And I think at this moment, Shauna did start to see something in Melissa. Someone who perhaps can actually understand what she desires, and can support her. And that led to this strange hand-holding they did, Shauna giving Melissa a little treat for her help, something to keep her loyal to her. Kind of like giving a treat to a dog after they were good. But I don’t think Shauna was ready yet to go further; this was just a little something to keep Melissa interested in her, but her heart wasn’t there yet. And that’s something we see in the next episode.

Speaking of heart, I want you to pay attention to the feather on Melissa's shirt. Jenna was asked about that on Instagram, and she said Melissa sewed it there herself on her shirt for "formality". It's on her left side, where her heart is. Not that it's important for this episode itself, but this will be once I reach episode 7. So keep that detail in mind.

When the Ship sailed (season 3, episode 5)

Then comes episode 5, where Melissa is still supporting whatever Shauna is proposing. Burning Ben alive? Sure, why not, whatever you want, babe. Except Shauna feels a bit put off by how enthusiastic Melissa is to go along with what she wants. Maybe part of her starts to feel a little bit suspicious. It’s echoed when they have a discussion later. Shauna is in disbelief that Melissa could like her. I think she doesn’t believe anyone could like the person she has become. Despite how aggressive Shauna has become by that point, she is still self-aware that her actions are not making her particularly likable, and she’s dealing with a lot of self-loathing. Especially due to her guilt regarding what happened to Jackie.

We can see that the trial and the hand-holding gave more confidence to Melissa. It kept her going now that she has more hope for a relationship. We don’t know exactly when she started to work on the sheath, but this was definitely a well-thought-out gift. Something she knew could be useful for Shauna. Something she put a lot of time and care into making. She even put the initial “S” on it and wrapped it up to make it look pretty.

Not going to lie, I initially did not recognize that it was a sheath, so I thought Melissa was giving Shauna some wilderness bouquet. But my point is, this was a nice, personalized gift for someone she loves. And in itself, it was a cute and thoughtful gesture. Now, we could talk about the symbolism of it. Melissa is making a sheath for the knife that Shauna nearly killed her with. A subtle way to show how she’s enabling her violent side. But also, how Melissa believes she can contain said violent side. It’s as if she believes she can be the sheath to Shauna’s knife, that just like those two items, they “fit” together. There’s also an intimate connotation regarding a sheath and (usually) a sword, replaced here by a knife. That’s all to say, it is both a genuine gift but also carries a darker meaning regarding their relationship.

Let’s go back to the scene itself. Melissa once again followed Shauna and tried to engage in a conversation with her. Shauna isn’t in the mood for company and signals to Melissa that she wants to be left alone. Unlike last time, Mel doesn’t take it too personally as she has come to have a better understanding of Shauna and knows she isn’t being rejected. She still wants to give her the gift she made for her and started to walk away. When Shauna saw the gift, she was shocked. She couldn’t believe someone who put time and effort into making her something. She even asked why Melissa even liked her. She doesn’t even like herself so why would someone else do? I do think she’s still suspicious of Melissa’s intention, given Shauna’s paranoid nature and inability to think she’s worthy of being loved.

At this point, Melissa had learned more about Shauna and how to interact with her. She knows she shouldn’t just say what she thinks Shauna needs to hear, but what she wants to hear. This is the part that caused some issues among certain people, when Melissa said that Jackie “treated Shauna like shit”. Obviously, the truth is far more nuanced than that. We know as viewers that Jackie did care for Shauna. But does Melissa know? She wasn’t privy to the personal moments between Jackie and Shauna or their individual thoughts. All she knows of them is what she could observe. She most likely based her opinion of how Jackie and Jeff treated Shauna on their last argument, because that’s what would have impacted her the most. Also, Melissa’s goal is to date Shauna, so of course she’s going to badmouth these two. It’s nothing personal against them, she probably didn’t really know them. But she knows that’s what Shauna wants to hear. She wants to believe she was being victimized, so she feels less guilty about this. Melissa is validating Shauna’s feelings, regardless if they are right or wrong. In a way, it was manipulative of Melissa to do that. Then she complimented Shauna’s “bad parts”, because she knows it’s probably something Shauna is complexed about. But Melissa wants her to know she loves those parts of her, that she’s not afraid of her, that she embraces every part of her. Despite the manipulation, she does want Shauna to know she does like her. And that gift was her way to show her love for her. This does seem to have an effect on Shauna as she even thanks Melissa for the gift, even smiling at her, and the latter promptly leaves to give Shauna the space she needed.

I’d like to comment on Melissa’s outfit. Other than the fact I personally find it atrocious, Melissa’s choice to wear a vest is interesting. It’s not a practical choice, it’s summer after all, and she’s clearly not cold given she only wears a t-shirt and shorts. People have pointed out that wearing that vest might have been a way to emulate Jackie’s fashion style, so it could have been part of Melissa’s strategy to impress Shauna. Just like I think she dressed to impress Shauna in episode 3, I think she might have done so too here. And hey, I guess it worked in the end.

Fast forward to the end of the episode, where things took a dark turn. Shauna has been charged with cutting Ben’s Achilles to ensure he can’t escape. Now, a lot of people misunderstood that scene as something Shauna decided to do on her own. It wasn’t. This was a group decision; Shauna was merely assigned that task. Shauna decided to bring Melissa with her. As I said earlier, Shauna was still suspicious of her, and we know Shauna doesn’t really trust people anymore. So she decided to use this as an opportunity to test Melissa’s devotion to her. Melissa may say she likes her, that she accepts her “bad parts”, she may give her gifts, but can she truly be trusted? To what extent is she willing to go for Shauna? That’s what she decided to test by making Melissa do the cutting. At first Melissa refused, which is a reasonable reaction. Most people would feel aversion at the idea of hurting someone else. But then Shauna was now the one being manipulative, using Melissa’s own words against her, telling her she also needs to embrace her “bad parts”. Then, desperate for Shauna’s approval, Melissa did as she was told with some hesitation. I don’t think she enjoyed hurting Ben in itself, but she did enjoy seeing that it pleased Shauna.

On Shauna’s side, she had her answer. She could, to a certain degree, trust Melissa. She had proven her loyalty to her. Shauna had found a companion who could actually stand by her side and accept her for who she was now, including her bad parts. Shauna decided that Melissa had passed her test and made their relationship official to everyone by holding her bloody hand, symbolizing how she shares the blame with her for what they did to Ben. Melissa was willing to dirty her hands for her, so Shauna showed she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty either. They were now linked by the blood they spilled together and showed it to everyone. Then Shauna dragged Melissa to her hut, officially accepting her as her partner for everyone to see, or even publicly “claiming” her. Melissa seemed surprised at first. Not only did she look like she was somewhat dissociating after cutting Ben, as the thrill was starting to drop and she was realizing what she had done, but then Shauna publicly held her hand, the hand that was covered in blood. She had finally gotten what she wanted, at a bloody price. It was a lot for her to handle and process.

Then, before entering Shauna’s hut, we see her turn around, but it’s unclear exactly what that meant. It seemed like she might have been looking at Van or Gen specifically, given their position in that scene, or just the group as a whole. I personally think she wanted them to know she was now dating Shauna. Not necessarily to be smug or brag about it, but because this was something she had been hoping for a while now, and she finally succeeded. She was proud of herself and wanted people to see what she had accomplished. She needed for it to feel real and to be acknowledged by the others. As for what happened in the hut after that… the show leaves it to our imagination (and the fanfic writers, bless them).

Shauna and Melissa’s relationship so far (analysis intermission)

Alright, I’m halfway through the season now, and since we reached the point where they are officially dating, it’s time to discuss why they are together. As in, what they see in each other and what they gain from that relationship.

Let’s start with Melissa. This one might be easier since we know she loves Shauna, so that’s the main reason why she wants to be in a relationship with her. I mentioned earlier that she was drawn to her due to relating to her loneliness, but she was also attracted to her brutal sides, to her “bad parts”. But a lot of people wondered why Melissa would want to be in a relationship with someone she knows is violent and could be dangerous to her, going as far as to blame her when Shauna inevitably does abuse her. More on that later, since this will be touched upon once I’m talking about episode 9. For now, let’s focus on why Melissa wants to stay in that relationship.

At the beginning of this analysis, I talked about Melissa as a character and this is when this is going to be relevant. She’s a gay teenager in the 90s who most likely never had the chance to have an actual relationship with another girl. They are currently stuck in a situation where they don’t know if they will survive. They don’t have the luxury to think about the future, or even hope to have a future beyond the wilderness. So for someone like Melissa, who ended up kissing Shauna by pure chance and then starting a relationship with her, this is probably not something she’d want to let go of. From her perspective, someone like Shauna would normally be considered “out of league” if it wasn’t for their current situation. So of course Melissa is going to grab that opportunity with both hands. She wants to experience being in a relationship with a girl she loves at least once in her life, because she doesn’t know if she will ever get the chance again. Both because she doesn’t know if she will survive the wilderness, but because even if she does and gets rescued, this is the 90s. Society isn’t particularly accepting of gay people. The series itself took the time to show that the fear of homophobia was strong enough that Taissa didn’t want to be rescued. So it’s a fair assumption that part of Melissa knows that if they do get rescued, she won’t have the same freedom anymore to date a girl. Dating Shauna might feel like her only chance to experience that in her life, so she doesn’t want to let go of this opportunity. I can also draw a parallel to Jackie in season 1 not wanting to die a virgin so she decided to have sex with Travis. Similarly, Melissa wants to experience a relationship, she wants to experience love, sex, all of it, in case she might never have the chance to do so again. Also, what else is there to do in the wilderness? Might as well enjoy the present moment.

We could add that at this point, she probably does seek a bit of power and protection from Shauna, now that she is finally in her good graces. "People are willing to do messed up things just to see another day" as she said herself. She wants to survive. She feels safer being on Shauna’s side now that she’s her girlfriend. So I’d say, the reason why Melissa stayed with Shauna for so long is a mixture of genuine love and attraction for her, the fear she might never get the chance to experience a relationship again, and for protection.

As for Shauna, why is she with Melissa? First, I need to dismantle two misconceptions. Unlike popular belief, Melissa is not a replacement for Jackie. No one can replace Jackie in Shauna’s eyes. But make no mistake, this is still very much about Jackie. Shauna/Melissa is meant to be a reversal of Jackie/Shauna. Melissa isn’t replacing Jackie because Shauna is. Or at least, Shauna is emulating this twisted version of Jackie she made in her mind. Which means Melissa is actually replacing Shauna- or rather, the person Shauna used to be when Jackie was still alive. This is something Sophie Nélisse mentioned, that Shauna can see her past self in Melissa. Shauna wants to be the Jackie for once, and have her own Shauna who follows her around and who she feels she can control, because that’s how she felt with Jackie. Her relationship with Melissa is yet another way to cope with her complex feelings regarding Jackie, the love and hate she feels towards her, her unadmitted attraction to her, her unassumed queerness as a whole.

The second misconception is that Shauna doesn’t like Melissa. I think she does and we are shown in the series that she does. Of course, what she feels towards Melissa will never compare to what she felt for Jackie. I don’t think Shauna can love anyone more than she loved Jackie. But, it doesn’t mean she didn’t have some feelings towards Melissa. Maybe not genuine romantic love, but at least a certain fondness for her, and did like having her by her side. If Shauna didn’t like Melissa, she wouldn’t probably not tolerate her presence the way she does. She wouldn’t have threatened Mari to take care of her after she got hurt. She wouldn’t have tried to reconcile with Melissa after she was upset over the arrow incident and she wouldn’t have been this mad when Melissa tried to leave her later. In her own ways, Shauna showed that she did like and care about Melissa. Accepting that doesn’t remove the love she has for Jackie, it doesn’t take anything away from Jackie and Shauna’s relationship. If anything, it strengthens it.

Shauna likes Melissa for what she brings to her. She allows her to be in a relationship where she is the one in control, she makes Shauna feel powerful. She loves having someone who is beneath her and whom she has power over. Melissa also validates her feelings, help her cope with the guilt she feels over Jackie’s death. Also, as much as Shauna isolated herself from the rest of the group, it doesn’t mean she likes to be alone. She does miss Jackie. Melissa might not be a replacement for Jackie specifically, her presence still fills a void in Shauna. She has someone to share a bed with again, someone who can bring her some form of comfort, and satisfy a need for intimacy. And same for Melissa, what else is there to do when you are stuck in the wilderness? Melissa has always proven her devotion to her, so she might as well take what she’s being offered. She has nothing to lose and all to gain from someone who is this giving towards her. And all of this is why she’s with Melissa. For the power, the comfort, the gratification it brings her. But part of her did come to like and care for Melissa beyond that, and I’ll touch upon that later.

The Calm before the Storm (season 3, episodes 6 and 7)

Alright, let’s move to episode 6. It has been months now that Shauna and Melissa have been dating. And judging by how casually Melissa can hug Shauna from behind and Shauna accepting this gesture of affection (in public, no less), it’s safe to assume they did have a relatively peaceful relationship so far. Melissa used to be so careful whenever she interacted with Shauna before, so for her to be able to do that so casually means it has become something she’s used to do with Shauna. They are close enough for PDA. It’s unclear if Shauna likes that, but she at least tolerates it. If she hated it, she wouldn’t allow Melissa to do that.

Interesting point to note, Taissa noticed that Shauna seemed “better” since she’s dating Melissa. Of course, Shauna isn’t actually “better” on a deeper level, but Melissa’s presence at the very least helps, even if it’s just making Shauna less aggressive in general. Enough for Taissa to consider that Shauna seems “better”. And Melissa does seem satisfied with that relationship, maybe even a bit proud. Not much is shown of them for the rest of the episode, but Melissa is quick to turn against Nat after she kills Ben, possibly because she knows this is what Shauna wants, showing that she’s still acting like her loyal lapdog. Nat being shunned by the group benefits her as it would allow Shauna to take over. Ultimately, it was Lottie who crowned Shauna their new queen, but it was something Melissa was looking forward to. She is seen later during the feast with Shauna, clearly enjoying the new position her girlfriend got.

Then we move to episode 7, when the group is discovered by some outsiders. After Lottie kills one of them, they have to chase the other two. If you pay attention, Melissa is actually one of those who reacted the fastest. She was all the way in the back and sprinted to go catch them (watch this clip to see what I mean). I think it’s possible she was this eager to catch them because she wanted to impress Shauna. She felt a bit too confident, emboldened by her relationship with Shauna. Her rushing the fastest might be why Kodiak decided to shoot her specifically. As Jenna said, she “simped too much to the sun”. So it would make sense that her infatuation with Shauna could have led to her getting injured. Either way, after being shot, Melissa’s first reaction is to call for Shauna, asking her not to leave her. A normal request one would make if they are injured and in pain, to ask for their significant other to stay with them. It might have been unreasonable for Melissa to expect Shauna to stay, but it’s not unrealistic for her to ask that. She was hurt, in pain and scared for her life.

Shauna ultimately didn’t stay, but it doesn’t mean she didn’t care or wasn’t worried for Melissa. She did threaten to kill Mari if she let Melissa die, which does show she did care. But the way Shauna shows she cares is with violence, because she’s the type who resorts to violence to get what she wants. She was also willing to kill Hannah, not only because she was a potential witness, but because of what Kodi did to Melissa. Once again, showing she cares with violence. The only reason she spared Hannah is because she promised medical supplies, showing once again that Shauna did care enough about Melissa to value having those supplies. In Shauna’s head, what she did was right. She made sure someone would take care of Melissa, she chased after the people who hurt her girlfriend, and she managed to bring one of them back as well as medical supplies.

But from Melissa’s perspective, Shauna had abandoned her when she needed her the most. Melissa probably rarely ever asks anything from Shauna other than being her girlfriend. This is a relationship where Melissa is the one who gives the most. And she was fine with that, until the moment she actually needed something from Shauna. By leaving, Shauna showed her that when she actually does need something from her, she won’t get it. Melissa spent the entire night in pain, with an arrow stuck in her shoulder, scared that she might die. She wanted her girlfriend by her side at that moment, and she couldn’t get Shauna to even do that for her. The look she gave Shauna when she came back speaks for itself. For the first time, Melissa couldn’t overlook the red flags. She realized Shauna’s “bad parts” we bad for her too. This incident was the first push to break her rose-tinted glasses. She realized Shauna wouldn’t be there for her when she actually needed it, that she can’t protect her from harm, and she started to doubt Shauna even liked her.

I love how Jenna compared this to the myth of Cupid's two arrows, where one arrow can make you fall in love, while the other makes you fall out of love. Interestingly, Melissa got shot on the right side, the opposite of where her heart is. And in episode 4, she wore a feather on the left side of her shirt (yeah, that's why I told you to remember that detail). Not only could it have been a foreshadowing of her getting shot, but represents one of the arrows. Melissa, in that episode, was desperately trying to impress Shauna, she was still madly in love with her. And she wore that feather on her left side, where her heart is, symbolizing how she was falling more in love with Shauna after the trial. And she is the one who sewed that feather there, symbolizing she chose to pursue her love for Shauna. Then, the actual arrow she got shot with in her right side symbolizes Melissa "falling out" of love, or rather, realizing this love wasn't good for her.

The beginning of the End (season 3, episode 8)

We continue to see the resentment Melissa feels towards Shauna now in episode 8. She openly scoffs at Shauna when Hannah mistakes her for their captain. Melissa eventually expressed that frustration to Shauna once they were in their hut. Shauna is quick to dismiss Melissa’s anger as if it’s not a big deal. I was surprised at first about how Melissa was so upfront about being angry with Shauna, especially with Shauna’s reaction being “what’s your problem this time”. This does seem to imply it’s not the first time Melissa has had an issue with Shauna. That perhaps their relationship wasn’t as “peaceful” as it seemed in episode 6. They had moments before where they disagreed and perhaps even got into arguments. I think Melissa had accumulated a lot of frustration towards Shauna in these past few months, that she was shoving deep down inside of her because she was desperate to stay with Shauna, or was making justification for Shauna because of the sympathy she had for what she went through. But after the arrow incident, that frustration finally exploded with the loud "YOU" she told Shauna when she asked what her problem was.

It does feel like a huge red flag for me that Shauna reacted so dismissively to Melissa saying “I can’t wait to be away from you, even rolling her eyes in annoyance. As if it’s not something that she should be worried about. I think Shauna is used to having Melissa being sometimes upset at her, so to her this is nothing new. And given how very much still in love we saw Melissa being with Shauna in episode 6, it probably always ended up the same way. With Melissa forgiving Shauna for whatever she had done to her. So Shauna attempted to smooth-talk her, trying to appease her like she probably did the other time Melissa was upset at her. Shauna expected that this would be no different this time.

Except this time it was different. Melissa didn’t have to tolerate Shauna’s behavior. Because unlike the other times, she now had the hope of being rescued, she had hope for a future outside the wilderness. She still had feelings for Shauna, but if they got rescued, there was no guarantee Shauna would still be with her. After all, Shauna left her behind when she actually needed her. So for Melissa, if she had to end things with Shauna, or at least finally express her frustration with her girlfriend, now was the time. At least she wouldn’t be losing everything.

Shauna did look taken aback to see Melissa was upset about the arrow thing. She genuinely thought she did the right thing. For a split second, maybe Shauna did consider that perhaps she had been wrong. But this is Shauna we are talking about. She isn’t the type to admit being wrong. So she changed her tactic, telling Melissa to “believe what she wants”, pushing the responsibility on her, making Melissa doubt herself. Then Shauna opted for something she knows works on Melissa: violence. She told Melissa she might kill Kodiak for her. And this does seem to work, showing that despite her frustration with Shauna, part of her still likes her violent side, and finds the idea that her girlfriend would kill for her appealing. If she was starting to think Shauna might not like her, this probably makes her feel like she does. Their relationship has been built with violence, from their first kiss being a knife point to Shauna finally dating her after she injured Ben. So part of her might associate violence with love. Then Shauna tells her to “stop being a bitch” and hands her her hat, which seems to have sealed the deal with Melissa forgiving Shauna. Calling her a bitch might have been something playful between them, but this could also be a warning. Something Shauna tells her when Melissa is crossing a line and she wants her to behave. 

Melissa’s demeanour changes afterward, asking Shauna what she wants to do once they get rescued. I think part of her wanted to see if Shauna had any intention to stay with her outside the wilderness. When she noticed that Shauna was zoning out, her first instinct was to ask her if she would bring the sheath she had made for her with her, since it symbolizes their relationship. I think Melissa rambling so much about what she wanted to do was her being nervous, because she was uncertain about her relationship with Shauna once they got rescued and was seeking reassurance. She needed to know she was right for forgiving Shauna this time and that all of this was worth it. Handing her her sheath is a way to see if Shauna is still interested in their relationship, “bring it home” with her could symbolize “bringing our relationship home” too. At that time Shauna was having an existential crisis, because she can’t imagine herself going back home without Jackie. She absentmindedly took the sheath, her hand shaking. Melissa smiles when Shauna takes the sheath, so I think part of her wanted to believe this meant their relationship was still salvageable and it was worth it for her to still put up with Shauna. It’s also interesting to note that they both handed each other an item. Shauna handed Melissa her hat, which she knows Melissa is attached to, while Melissa handed Shauna her sheath, which she hopes Shauna has an attachment to.

The Breakup (season 3, episode 9)

Now we move to episode 9, where Shauna has decided that they won’t leave after all. We see that at first, Melissa is part of “Team Crazy” (those who don’t want to leave). It’s obvious that Melissa does want to get rescued and she’s there mostly because Shauna is part of that team. She still wants to be with Shauna and might hope that staying is only temporary, given that’s what Taissa said. Shauna acted somewhat rudely to Melissa during the Team Crazy meeting, showing that she is taking for granted that Melissa won’t leave her. After she forgave her for the arrow incident, Shauna fell back into her old habit. She’s also starting to grow more and more paranoid regarding “Team Rescue”, thinking that they are plotting against her. So that makes her more snappy, even towards her girlfriend.

Then we reached the infamous breakup scene. Let’s start from the beginning. Melissa is charged with watching over the hostages, which include Hannah. This is a scene that showed that despite some questionable and even reprehensible behaviors Melissa showed throughout the season (especially when it came to Shauna), she is capable of genuine compassion, immediately showing sympathy to Hannah when she learned she had a daughter. It makes sense for Melissa to be particularly empathetic to this, given this is something she strongly felt towards Shauna too, she felt bad for her regarding the loss of her child. An interesting comment Melissa made while she was bonding with Hannah is about “horny teenage girls”. I think it’s fair to assume it’s about her and Shauna. Van was right, they really were living in “fun huts”. More seriously, this is just a confirmation that Shauna and Melissa were sexually active (and a lot if it’s enough for Mel to call them horny), but being intimate was already heavily implied at the end of episode 5.

Moving on to the more heavy aspect of this scene. Shauna caught Melissa laughing with Hannah and it set her off. Melissa could tell something was wrong and immediately went after Shauna to check on her. She was worried but she also failed to realize how serious this was for Shauna. But why was Shauna so upset? For multiple reasons I'd say. First, she was starting to be more and more paranoid, so seeing her girlfriend, who was also her biggest and most loyal ally, bonding with their hostage, someone who represented potential rescue, felt like a threat to Shauna. She was already on edge because of Team Rescue, so this just worsened her growing paranoia. There might also be some jealousy at play, to see her girlfriend seemingly having a good time with not only another woman, but someone Shauna isn’t familiar with, as well as someone Shauna views as a threat.

Shauna isn’t wrong to be suspicious of Hannah. She is right to be worried about her trying to manipulate Melissa, because that’s what Hannah was doing. We know as viewers that Hannah was lying, she doesn’t have custody of her child, so she was trying to make Melissa feel sympathy for her- and it worked. But I wouldn’t fault Melissa for falling for it, as she did so because she was being empathetic. 

When Melissa first joined Shauna in the hut she seemed relatively calm. This is probably not the first time she had to deal with an upset Shauna, where she had to calm her down through talking and trying to appease her. Melissa probably thought this was going to be just like all these other times. But this was different, for the same reason it was different in the previous episode when Melissa was upset at Shauna, and that is because rescue is now an option. Just as rescue provided Melissa with some hope, it had the opposite impact on Shauna and re-ignited her trauma. Melissa failed to realize that, and it led to her unintentionally making things worse. Melissa tried to appeal to Shauna by mentioning that Hannah had a daughter, which she might have thought would work since Shauna knows how it feels to lose a child. She thought perhaps this was something Shauna could relate to and help her understand why she felt bad for Hannah.

But of course, it had the opposite effect. Shauna got upset because Melissa’s compassion didn’t feel unique to her anymore. Melissa being able to sympathize with a stranger over something Shauna considered was a lie made her sympathy for her feel less special, like something she’d give to anyone. Not only did it cheapen Melissa’s compassion for her in her eyes, the fact she was convinced Hannah was lying made her view Melissa with contempt for falling for it. It’s not just naive, it’s stupidity in her eyes, and also hurtful. Shauna felt hurt by Melissa’s words, so she had to hurt her back because this is the only way she knows how to express her pain now.

So she berated Melissa, belittled her, told her how stupid she thought she was. Perhaps this wasn’t the first time Shauna snapped at Melissa that way, and in different circumstances, Melissa would have just taken it. Maybe that’s what Shauna expected to happen. Melissa realized she was being naive for trusting Hannah and agreeing with Shauna as she usually does. But the situation was different. Rescue was an option now. Melissa didn’t have to tolerate Shauna’s abuse anymore. She finally reached her limit and decided to stand up for herself, feeling genuinely hurt by how Shauna was treating her over something she didn’t view as wrong.

The way Melissa storms out of the hut is similar to how Jackie stormed out of the cabin. She even grabbed a blue blanket on her way out. I think this contributed to how erratic Shauna’s behaviors were. Her very violent reaction to Melissa trying to leave has many causes. First, she didn’t like to lose control over her. In the current situation, where Shauna was already feeling like she was losing control over the group, this only exacerbated it. Especially coming from Melissa, someone who has always been so devoted to her. And doing so in public, no less. Shauna was desperately grasping at any power she could still hold among the group and towards Melissa. But also, part of her was scared she was going to lose Melissa, someone she had grown to care about. Shauna had already lost people she cared about. Telling Melissa that “no one gave a shit about you until me” was cruel, but it was also her way to tell Melissa that she did “give a shit” about her. She’s just unable to express it in a healthy way, so she has to resort to violence to express it. There’s also a bit of projection here, as Shauna did feel like she was “nothing” when she was with Jackie, thinking that she was making her invisible. Since Melissa acts as a proxy for herself, she is projection how Jackie made her feel onto her. This might also be a bit of a meta comment, given Melissa as a character became more prominent thanks to her relationship with Shauna.

As for Melissa, her reaction is what you’d expect from someone being verbally attacked by her girlfriend. She is hurt and being publicly berated by Shauna, so she reacts to that abuse by lashing out, calling Shauna “nuts” because to her, that’s how Shauna was behaving. She was acting so violently towards her over something Melissa didn’t consider wrong. Melissa specifically looking at the other girls to tell them “you are right, she is nuts” led me to believe they did try in the past to reason with Melissa, to try to make her see that Shauna wasn’t good for her. And at this moment, Melissa finally realized that they were right. The rose-tinted glasses had finally shattered, and she could see the red flags and decided she had had enough. This relationship was not worth it.

For Shauna, getting called “nuts” especially publicly, just aggravated her feeling that everyone was treating her as crazy. This is when she finally resorted to threatening Melissa with a gun, because she felt like her authority was being threatened. For Melissa to publicly call her nuts was a threat to Shauna’s fragile sense of control over the group. And for Melissa to dare her to shoot her was an even bigger threat. Something Shauna felt like she couldn’t let her get away with, for the sake of preserving the amount of power she still held.

I don’t think Melissa thought Shauna would actually shoot her, and I don’t think Shauna actually wanted to kill Melissa. But they were both so angry and upset. Melissa was angry enough that she was willing to challenge Shauna, her anger taking over her reason. It's not like it was the first time Shauna threatened her with a weapon. She had to show Shauna she wasn’t scared of her and wouldn’t back down anymore when she mistreats her. Now, for Shauna, if she wanted Melissa dead, from their distance, I think she wouldn’t have missed. I think she missed on purpose, but she missed better than she anticipated and got so close to hitting Melissa with the bullet.

Melissa’s reaction is interesting. For a moment, she definitely thought she had been shot and might die. It’s normal in a situation where you fear for your life to wet yourself. But this wasn’t just that for Melissa. It was also a trauma response. Let’s not forget that Melissa had recently been shot and nearly died. This incident with the arrow was definitely traumatizing for her, with the pain and the fear of dying, which lasted an entire night. So it’s reasonable to think getting shot at again, by her girlfriend, no less, was triggering for her. The way Melissa froze afterward. She was so in shock she couldn’t move, or even try to cover herself, or even cry. She could barely react to what was happening. She was shutting down. Van had to pull the blanket out of her hand so she could cover her with it, then help her move. It was truly a scene hard to watch and Jenna’s performance here was phenomenal.

Shauna might not have anticipated she’d come this close to hit Melissa, and she probably did intend to miss, but this went better than she expected. She managed to avoid actually killing Melissa while also asserting control over her for everyone to see, a twisted way for her to hold on to her power in the group. She might not have killed Melissa, or even physically hurt her, she did have an impact on her body. She made her wet herself in front of everyone. And Shauna did enjoy it. She smirked when she saw the effect she had on Melissa. She got some twisted gratification at humiliating her in front of everyone, something that temporarily made Shauna feel powerful again as she so desperately needed to.

Before I move on from this scene, I would like to address some takes I have seen online that I have issues with. First of all, there is no justification for being abused, even if Melissa put herself in that situation. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is victim blaming and extremely wrong to do so. But from what I saw online after episode 9 aired, it looks like I actually do have to. This is why I took the time to explain why Melissa decided to date Shauna and stay with her despite knowing she could be dangerous and violent. But I don’t think she needs a reason for doing so. People can make mistakes, they can make terrible decisions, they can act stupid, it does not mean they deserve to be abused or that they are to blame. Ultimately, the blame is on the abuser. We can discuss how Melissa contributed to the situation that led to her getting abused without saying she “deserved” it. Especially given that what started the argument was her showing compassion to Hannah. Not that Melissa would have deserved it if it wasn’t the case, but if there is one moment where she definitely did not deserve to be hurt, that’d be this one.

Secondly, no, Melissa was not being hypocritical for telling Shauna “why can’t you just be a nice person”. Naive, yes, but not hypocritical. I’m referring to when Melissa told Shauna that what she liked about her was that she “wasn’t afraid of her bad parts anymore”. Her saying that to Shauna did not mean she wanted her to be a bad person, or that she only liked her “bad parts”. It meant she liked her as a whole, including the bad parts. This was not her asking to be mistreated. In that moment, Melissa felt hurt, asking her girlfriend why she can’t be nice seems like a reasonable request one would make while being abused. This does not make her a hypocrite. It does make her quite naive to have expected Shauna to be nice, but Melissa being quite naive, especially when it comes to love, and her relationship to Shauna is a core aspect of her character, so nothing to be surprised of.

Now with that out of the way, let’s move on to the rest of the episode. Shauna is seen later alone in the hut she used to share with Melissa for months, looking at the empty spot in the bed where Melissa used to lie with her. This scene reminded me of when Shauna is seen sleeping alone in the first episode of season 2, lying next to the empty spot Jackie used to sleep in. It’s clear that part of Shauna regrets what happened with Melissa. The pleasure she got from humiliating her publicly was only ephemeral, and now she’s forced to face the consequences of her action and once again feel alone. This shows us that she did care for Melissa, but Shauna caring about someone never stopped her from hurting them. After all, she did hurt Jackie, the person she loved the most. And it’s not in Shauna’s nature to admit being wrong and apologize. So she is left to brood alone in her hut, missing the comfort she used to have when she shared it with Melissa, knowing that once again her action led her to lose someone she cared about. And this might be why we see Shauna later play with Hannah’s hair, as some sort of comfort, since this is like a “trophy” she got from hunting down Hannah. This helps her feel in control again and powerful, the only comfort she has left.

As for Melissa, it appears that she is done with Shauna and is fully on board with Team Rescue. She goes back to Gen’s hut, declaring “Fuck Shauna”. Since she had no hope of salvaging that relationship, all the hope she had left was getting rescued and getting away from Shauna. Unfortunately for them, their plan to escape was foiled by Shauna. I was surprised that Melissa didn’t go back to Shauna after this, thinking that perhaps without the hope for rescue, she’d go back to Shauna out of fear or for protection. But I think having a friend like Gen, who always had her back, helped her. It’s common for victims of abuse to go back to their abuser, but having a friend who was there for her probably helped Melissa not follow that pattern. At least, for this season.

The End? (season 3, episode 10)

Then we move on to episode 10. I admit, when I first saw the preview, I fully assumed that Shauna and Melissa would be back together. My reasoning at that time was that Melissa was wearing Shauna’s shirt (as well as her blanket?), while Shauna was seen still using the sheath Melissa had gifted her. But after seeing the episode I can see I was wrong with my assumption. It’s not uncommon for the characters to share clothes, and there can be many reasons why Melissa ended up with that shirt. I think this was more of a symbolic choice, since Shauna was wearing this shirt when she nearly killed Melissa, and Melissa also tries to kill Shauna while wearing that shirt. It might also be a power move from her, to wear the clothes Shauna had when she shot her. As for Shauna, the sheath was a gift and it’s reasonable for her to have kept it, given it’s useful to her. It might show she still has some attachment to Melissa, or perhaps some hope that they could go back together. She is seen gripping the strap, a visual representation of perhaps clinging to that hope. We don’t know exactly how much time passed between episodes 9 and 10, but it was long enough for Melissa to no longer need to wear a sling. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shauna kept thinking that Melissa would come back to her, both because she misses her and because she overestimated how much power she still had over her. That might be why she kept the sheath, in case Melissa would come back, or to show her she was still interested in getting back with her, since the sheath does represent their relationship. But of course, Shauna wouldn’t be the one to take the first step, and she certainly wouldn’t go to apologize, so it didn’t happen.

I have seen an interesting analysis of their clothes in a video, where their aesthetics were mirroring each other. As in, Melissa was dressed like Shauna, while Shauna’s aesthetic resembled Melissa’s. There is also the fact that Shauna decided to wear a hat mask, while Melissa is wearing the bunny mask Shauna wore in episode 7. Even their masks mirror each other. There is also an association with bunnies and Jackie, so both of them wearing that same mask is a way to show that their relationship is connected to Jackie. More about the mirroring later once I reach the adult timeline.

After their livestock died and Lottie mentioned how they needed to sacrifice something precious, it seemed like Shauna turned to look at Melissa, perhaps hesitating for a moment, until ultimately agreeing to the hunt. What Shauna didn’t know was that this was a scheme in order to kill her. I saw a lot of confusion online regarding that plan, so let me explain what went down. Nat, Van and Misty (and later Hannah) had their own separate plan to help Nat escape with the SAG phone so she could call for rescue. But they had nothing to do with orchestrating the hunt. This was actually Melissa, Mari, Gen and Akilah’s plan. They poisoned the livestock to push for a hunt, and killed Shauna during it. Some scenes explaining the plan in more detail were cut from the episode, but according to Gen’s actress (Vanessa Prasad), Melissa is the one who came up with the plan. This shows how much Melissa still resents Shauna for what she did to her, enough that she wants her dead. While Shauna was perhaps hoping Melissa would come back to her, the latter was planning her downfall. I think it’s possible that the other reason why Melissa suggested killing Shauna is out of guilt. After all, she did play a role in enabling Shauna and pushing her towards wanting power. Part of her might think that Shauna being their leader is her fault, as well as missing their chance for rescue. Not only is she angry at Shauna, she also feels guilty for how things turned out and this is her way to try to fix things.

Again, according to Vanessa, Melissa originally wanted to be the one to kill Shauna, but they chose Mari instead. They probably thought Melissa might still have some feelings for Shauna and wouldn’t be able to go through with it (and they were right). Mari does seem like the better. Unfortunately for them, she ended up pulling the Queen of Hearts card, so Melissa had to sub for her. Interestingly, there is a still for this episode that shows Melissa looking quite distressed during the draw. We don’t actually see this shot in the episode, but it’s possible that this is Melissa’s reaction to Mari pulling the card, since she knows she now will have to kill Shauna, and part of her knows she might not be able to do it. Despite Mari no longer being able to kill Shauna, they kept the plan going, with Gen making sure Shauna would be alone as she lured Taissa away.

Then Melissa successfully ambushed Shauna and started strangling her. Shauna didn’t know at first that it was Melissa who attacked her, so she fought back, and seemingly stopped struggling when she removed the mask and saw that it was Melissa. She did try to reason with her once the horn was blown, because it meant the hunt was over. But as Melissa said, it wasn’t over for her. She still had a mission to accomplish, and she was still angry at Shauna.

It seemed part of Shauna was accepting that fate. She was no longer fighting back. Perhaps part of her thought she deserved it, or that Melissa was in the right for wanting her dead. Shauna has been depressed for so long that part of her might be welcoming death, and dying by Melissa’s hand might have felt like a fitting death. After all, Shauna projects herself onto her, and Shauna is trying to emulate Jackie. Shauna considers that she killed Jackie, so Melissa killing her reinforces the dynamic she desperately wanted to recreate with her. According to Sophie, there’s also the fact Shauna reached such a low point that she thinks she has nothing to lose, she isn’t scared of death anymore. This is about the thrill of the game and taking things to the extreme, even if it results in her own death.

We progressively saw Melissa’s resolution fading as she strangled Shauna. At first, she looked angry and determined to go through with it, but her expression slowly changed to show shock and horror as she realized that she was about to kill Shauna. Shauna wasn’t even fighting back anymore and at this point in time, Melissa didn’t have what it takes to kill someone. Despite the resentment she had towards Shauna, deep down, she still had some feelings for her and didn’t want her to die. She knows why Shauna is the way she is, and feels guilty for enabling her bad parts. So part of her might think Shauna didn’t deserve to die because she considered herself just as guilty as her for the way she turned out. She might have thought Shauna not fighting back meant she wanted to die, and given the empathy Melissa always had for her, this reawakened the sympathy she once had for her. There’s also the fact that she must have realized that Mari was dead, and the guilt of knowing that it was her plan that led to her death.

According to Jenna, the way she interpreted it was about how Melissa was in a struggle for power. Her crush on Shauna might not have started because she was seeking power, once she got a taste of power by being with Shauna she took a liking for it and started encouraging Shauna to seek power. The actress said that in that moment, Melissa realized that she had the power to kill Shauna and it frightened her. It was too much for her. She did not want that kind of power. She was having so many different emotions at that moment and started feeling overwhelmed, so she couldn’t go through with it. At this moment, Melissa rejected her bad parts.

Shauna’s reaction to this attempted murder was interesting. I firmly believed that if anyone else had tried that with her, she would have struck back. But she did not attack Melissa afterward, even if she could. Instead, she told her “I knew you’d turn out to be boring”, a recall to their conversation in episode 3. This was a cruel remark to make to Melissa. Sophie’s opinion on this line was that Shauna wants people to feel as bad as she feels about herself, so anyone not being as cruel as she is upsets her. So Melissa not going through with killing her disappointed her. I also think part of Shauna might be annoyed that the only reason she is still alive is because Melissa decided to spare her life. There might be some projection too, given Shauna also failed to kill Melissa in the previous episode. Just like Melissa was dealing with a lot of conflicting emotions while she was attempting to kill her, so is Shauna after Melissa decided to spare her. Shauna leaves afterward, leaving Melissa to roll over, reeling from what she had almost done.

The last time we saw them interact in the teen timeline is when Shauna put on her Antler Queen outfit. Melissa is seen putting a lock of Mari’s hair on her costume. The show took the time to linger on Melissa’s face and her looking at Shauna at that moment. It’s unclear what the expression Melissa had on her face was, given she was wearing the bunny mask. Jenna was asked about what that look meant in an interview, and she said that it was a look of guilt. She felt guilty about Mari’s dying, but also because she feels responsible for Shauna turning out that way. She did want Shauna to become their leader before, she pushed her into that direction. But not like that. Not at that cost. So she felt guilty, because part of her knew she had a role to play in this. Jenna also said that the look was like she was kneeling to Shauna and telling her “you won”. She not only feels guilty, she feels defeated. Her plan to kill Shauna failed, and now she was forced to face the consequences of her actions, with not only failing to kill Shauna but playing a part in enabling her into becoming the Antler Queen.

As we know, both Shauna and Melissa survived into adulthood, their story as teenagers might not be over. We will have to see what season 4 has in store for them. I do believe their relationship isn’t over. For Shauna to still think Melissa might be in love with her 25 years later and for Melissa to send that tape to Shauna, I believe we haven’t seen the last of them. I wouldn’t say I expect them to get back together romantically, but I’m expecting something, especially if that ties in with the adult timeline. I expect something darker that would explain why adult Melissa feels significantly more twisted than teen Melissa. I’m definitely looking forward whatever season 4 will bring to their relationship.

Adult timeline

I know I already covered episodes 8 and 9 but I deliberately left out the adult timeline parts so I could talk about it as a whole after so I can keep things in chronological order. We are still missing a lot of context between the teen and adult timelines regarding Melissa, but we do know some details. First, she’s one of the official survivors. She felt like she wasn’t “one of them” after rescue, meaning she didn’t feel like she belonged with the other survivors. And, according to her, she was scared of Shauna. When asked why she faked her own death, those last two points are the reason she gave. That’s why I feel like there must have been something that happened between these two post-rescue, and Melissa got scared for her safety and didn’t feel like she could count on the others. Shauna going back with Jeff might also have contributed to her decision to fake her own death. Melissa also said “a lot's happened in the last 25 years” so I get the feeling she faked her death shortly after rescue. Then the rest of her life as “Kelly” is relatively unknown, other than she managed to track down Hannah’s daughter (Alex), stalked her for years until they officially met, fell in love, get married and had a child together. So far, this is probably the most messed up thing Melissa did.

Now, let’s take a look at what we saw in season 3. Adult Melissa actually had two cameos in episode 1, one where she is seen looking at Shauna with Taissa and Van at the restaurant after Nat’s funeral, then later at the end outside of Shauna’s house, leaving the tape in an envelop that Callie picked up. There was a note inside where Melissa revealed to Shauna that she is alive and apologized for letting her think she was dead, explaining what the tape was about and ask her to forgive herself. Unfortunately, the note fell when Callie opened the envelope so Shauna couldn’t have that explanation. There is also a scene in episode 2 that might have been Melissa. When Shauna was at the restaurant with Jeff and the Joels, there was a woman in the bathroom with her that left the phone with the ringtone “Queen of Heart” before closing the lights. Later, when Shauna called the restaurant, she had the confirmation that it was a woman who came back to pick up the phone, and Shauna asked for a physical description of her. We don’t hear if she got a description, but in the next episode, Shauna’s prime suspect for the phone prank was Misty. So I feel perhaps she was told the woman was blonde without much other details. More on that later.

Melissa is officially mentioned for the first time in the adult timeline in episode 7. It’s mentioned that her and Gen got close to Hannah when they are discussing who could have smuggled the tape back from the Wilderness, but also that they are both apparently death. Now, I’ll spare you with the crashout I felt when that scene happened, and with the preview for the next episode showing Hilary Swank with obvious blue contacts, I knew that Melissa had faked her death. To be fair, it was obvious since episode 2 that she would play adult Melissa, but I digress. When Van mentioned that Melissa is dead, it focused on Shauna’s expression. Before episode 8 aired, my assumption was that Shauna knew Melissa wasn’t dead, so they showed her react suspiciously when her apparent death was mentioned. But given Shauna didn’t seem to know Melissa was alive in episode 8, it was most likely just Shauna being surprised to hear her ex’s name after so long, ex that she thought was dead. Then stuff happened and Shauna ended up driving alone to Alex’s house, thinking she was the one who sent the tape.

Fast forward to episode 8, Shauna spent the night in her car outside Alex’s house. She sneaked inside in the morning and quickly had to hide in a pantry when Alex shows up. She is with her young daughter and is later joined by her wife “Kelly”, who is none other than Melissa, alive and well. There is a lot of symbolism in this scene. First, we have Shauna hiding in a “closet”, while watching her ex-girlfriend with her wife and child. A life perhaps part of Shauna could have desired when she was younger. But there is also the fact Shauna can represent the skeleton in Melissa’s closet, the thing she is hiding from her wife. About her true identity and what she did to her mother in the wilderness. Also, I must mentioned, when Hilary Swank showed up on my screen wearing the backward hat I literally screamed. It was one thing being convinced she’d be adult Melissa, actually seeing her (with the hat, no less) did something for my brain chemistry. Anyway.

After her wife and child left, Melissa spotted that there was someone hiding in her pantry and immediately went on the offensive, holding a knife and threatening her. She didn’t seem to know it was Shauna and wasn’t afraid of the potential home invader. She had experienced much worse in her life. Shauna seems frustrated, probably because she has fully processed what Melissa had done. She faked her own death and left her to believe she was dead all along, and was now married to the daughter of a woman they killed. So she came out from the pantry, also holding a knife, ready to confront her ex about that. I would like to point out it’s somewhat similar to their scene at the end of episode 2. Melissa was the one hiding while Shauna asked her to show herself while holding a knife. Here, it’s the opposite, with Shauna hiding and Melissa doing the threatening first.

First, I’d like to address Melissa claiming she didn’t love Shauna and never did. I touched upon that a little at the beginning but wanted to elaborate once I reached the adult timeline. I don’t think we can trust most of what adult Melissa claims, no matter how convincing she sounds. This isn’t the same girl we knew as a teenager, she has been living a lie for decades and is probably an excellent liar now. It doesn’t mean everything she said is a lie, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s possible she is lying here to Shauna, perhaps because she is ashamed of herself for ever loving Shauna, or to get a raise out of her. She could also just be in denial that she was in love with her. As I mentioned earlier, Jenna’s take on that, that what you consider love as a 17 years old might be different than when you are 42. She does think that teen Melissa was (or at least, thought) she was in love with Shauna (going as far as to say she thought it was the love story of her life- and might be), but adult Melissa could no longer consider what she felt for Shauna was love. And both can be right, as the definition of love can be subjective. Teen Melissa viewed it as love, while adult Melissa might consider that it was an obsession, or as Jenna called it, limerence.

I think Shauna did feel betrayed by Melissa faking her own death, and that’d explain her more hostile behavior towards her. We don’t know the exact circumstances of Melissa fake suicide, but for Shauna, having another person she did care about die, especially if she feels like it was her fault, must have been awful. She already had so much guilt, and it might have pushed her further into wanting to “atone” by building a life with Jeff, a man she didn’t love and married out of guilt. So knowing that all this time not only Melissa was alive but also married to Alex must have felt like a gut punch. All that extra guilt was for nothing. And for Melissa to brag about how her life is supposedly wonderful and that she loves her wife and child just added insult to injury. Melissa is seemingly succeeding at what Shauna failed, to have a happy marriage with a spouse she loves and a kid she likes. So her frustration with Melissa is understandable, especially since she rightfully called out Melissa for living a lie. For how fucked up it is for her to be with Alex. To her, Melissa doesn’t get to have a happy life, because she didn’t. And because that happy life is built on a lie and at the expense of Shauna, who had to live with the guilt of thinking perhaps Melissa committed suicide because of her. And as she rightfully pointed out, even if Melissa did love Alex, Alex doesn’t know who she truly is. How can she truly be happy in a life where she can’t be herself? Shauna knows Melissa can’t actually be this happy, because she too, built a life around her guilt, and she is miserable.

That’s bringing me to my next point, why Melissa sent the tape to Shauna. According to her, it was so she could move on, and she thought the tape would allow Shauna to do the same. Shauna doesn’t believe her since she hasn’t seen the note. We do get to see the note in the next episode, which seems to imply Melissa was telling the truth, but I still have my doubts. I think part of Melissa was tired of living a lie. Tired of not being able to be herself. She missed her old self. I don’t think she disliked her wife and child, but deep down, she knew they wouldn’t love her if they knew who she truly was. And this is definitely a stressful way to live. Deep down, I think Melissa knew what she did was messed up, but she went so far that it didn’t seem like she could go back. She was married to Alex now, and they even had a child. She felt guilty for deceiving Alex, and didn’t think she deserved the “happy” life she built with her. The nightmares she mentioned are a manifestation of that guilt, and how tired she is of living that lie. She could have sent that tape to any of the survivors, someone she knew wouldn’t have reacted violently to it, but she chose the worst person to whom to send it: Shauna. Even in the show, you have Taissa pointing out how stupid it was, because there was no way that Shauna wouldn’t have try to track her down, even if she had read the note. Melissa wanted Shauna to come after her, because it would give her a convenient excuse to leave her current life behind. She was pushing the responsibility on Shauna to destroy her life instead of doing it herself. I also think that she was essentially leaving her fate in Shauna’s hands. If Shauna read that note and decided to not go after her, it would be as if she is “forgiven” for living that lie and allowed to be happy. If even Shauna decides to let it go, then perhaps she could, too. But as we saw, fate had other plans for Melissa.

A misunderstanding I have often seen online is that Melissa was actually doing better, and had put the past behind her. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Melissa isn’t doing “better”; she is just as traumatized and messed up as the other survivors. From marrying the daughter of a woman she contributed to killing after stalking her for years and sending an incriminating tape to Shauna of all people, it’s clear Melissa is neither doing better or had moved on from her past. Melissa might claim she has changed, going as far as to fake her own death and live under a new identity, she is still the same Melissa. Her still wearing a backward hat to me is a visual representation of that. It’s not uncommon for survivors to cling to an item linked to their trauma, and the hat could symbolize that. An interesting detail about the hat Melissa is wearing in the adult timeline is that it features a penguin. It might not be important, but penguins are known for mating for life, so it might have been there to symbolize that she never was over Shauna. 

I do think Melissa was lying about the phone. We do know that some of Shauna’s accusations towards Melissa were wrong. She didn’t kill Lottie, she didn’t cut her brake, she did not lock her in a freezer. We have an explanation now for all these incidents. But the phone one is still sketchy. I think Melissa lied about that because after getting accused of so many messed-up things she didn’t actually do, it wasn’t in her best interest to admit to that one. Shauna was already on edge and thinking she was out to kill her, so admitting to anything would have made things worst. Also, given how the scene where Shauna asked about the woman who picked up the phone was intertwined with the kiss in the teen timeline, I just cannot believe this wasn’t Melissa. The song “Queen of Hearts” being the ringtone is too much of a coincidence, especially when the lyrics describe their relationship perfectly. Melissa claiming it’s normal to have that as a ringtone is suspicious, as I don’t think it’d be that common. The light being closed right after is also suspicious, so I don’t think this was just a random person who happened to forget her phone, who happened to have a song that perfectly captures their relationship. This had to be deliberated. And as I mentioned earlier, Shauna might have been given a minimal description of the woman, only about the color of her hair, hence why she first accused Misty. A blonde woman left that phone there, and unless proven otherwise, I firmly believe it was Melissa.

Why would Melissa leave that phone? I think part of her was frustrated that Shauna didn’t do anything with the tape and the note she left her. She was expecting Shauna to come after her and she didn’t know that Shauna never got them. So she had to poke the bear. She didn’t like to be ignored by Shauna. She didn’t want to accept Shauna could just have moved on and decided to actually “forgive” her. She had to give a bit more incentive for Shauna to come after her, and she knew triggering her paranoia would do the trick. Melissa might have admitted to Shauna about the phone incident if it wasn’t for Shauna accusing her of trying to kill her and of having killed Lottie, because that was never Melissa’s intention. She had to deny leaving the phone. She underestimated Shauna once again and how far her paranoia would take her. She wanted Shauna to come after her, but she didn’t want Shauna to think she was trying to kill her. So it was easier to just deny all the accusations Shauna threw at her.

Shauna’s frustration reached a dangerous point when Melissa called her out. Telling her how she is lying about Callie loving her, about Shauna’s self-destructive nature, about how she is miserable and wants everyone to be as miserable as her. All of this was true, but it also felt like projections. Melissa is also being self-destructive, getting herself into a situation that she knows is wrong, by marrying Alex and setting herself up for a life where she cannot be truly happy. And what is more self-destructive than sending that tape to Shauna of all people? It’s very ironic for adult Melissa to project like that on Shauna, given that’s essentially what teen Shauna did to her. When Melissa tried to grab Shauna’s knife, the latter reacted quickly and dislocated her shoulder, and a short fight ensued, where they both got some good hits on the other. But unfortunately for Melissa, with one arm handicapped (might be a call back to the whole arrow situation), she is ultimately overpowered by Shauna, who decides to take a bite of her arm, and try to force her to eat it or else she’d tell the truth to her family.

I think Shauna did that because she desperately needed to take back control of the situation. Melissa had read her like a book, and this made Shauna feel vulnerable. She had to show Melissa she could still have power over her. And what better way to do so than biting her and forcing her to eat her own flesh. Cannibalism has always been part of their story, and it’s a way to assert dominance over her, similar to when Shauna ate Jackie’s ear.

This scene continues in episode 9, where Melissa lets Shauna put the piece of her own flesh in her mouth. Shauna smirked at that sight, demonstrating she was enjoying this. She always enjoyed having power over Melissa. The latter chewed on it slowly, possibly because she knew that and wanted Shauna distracted enough to plan her escape. She ended up not actually eating her flesh and spitting it on Shauna’s face. Shauna tried to grab her by the hair, ripping some of it, and it seemed to have distracted her for a few seconds. We do know Shauna seems to have a thing for hair- especially women’s. 

When Melissa managed to get in her car, Shauna asked her to open the door, almost as if she expected Melissa to actually listen to her. Perhaps an old habit of when Melissa used to be obedient to her. But of course, Melissa didn’t listen to her and drove away. She is seen smiling after all, showing that she did enjoy this. She missed that thrill. But unfortunately for her, her car was out of gas, and she ended up being captured by the remaining survivor and dragged back to her house.

Shauna looked relieved to see they brought Melissa back with them, then eager to tie her up. Shauna is still accusing Melissa of everything that happened to her lately, trying to convince the other survivors. This is when Misty admits she was behind the freezer incident and firmly believes Melissa is innocent, as she still thinks Shauna killed Lottie. She leaves the house, and they actually do end up tying up Melissa. Shauna and Melissa had an interesting back and forth where they tried to convince the others that they aren’t the problem or the craziest one among the two. Taissa and Van seemed to agree at first with Melissa when Adam was brought up, realizing that this was a similar situation, one where Shauna dragged them into her own mess. However, Shauna managed to push back the heat on Melissa by revealing she married Alex. It worked as Taissa and Van ultimately sided with Shauna. They discuss what they are going to do with Melissa, and it seems like both Taissa and Van think there aren’t many “options”, aka they will probably need to kill her. Interestingly, Shauna is the one who told them to wait and let her think, so it seems like Shauna didn’t want to kill Melissa. Part of her might still care about her.

Melissa ultimately manages to escape, killing Van in the process, showing that she wasn’t as innocent as she claimed. I think there are many reasons why Melissa killed Van, but this isn’t really the analysis for that. But if I have to tie it to shaunahat, I’d say perhaps Melissa has some trauma regarding not killing Shauna when she had the chance, because of what could have happened later. We know a lot of other characters in the teen timeline are going to die, and Melissa might feel responsible for those, thinking it could have been avoided if she had killed Shauna. So if put back in a situation where she has the chance to kill someone, especially when her life was at risk (Van did try to kill her first, and the group made it very clear it was their intention), she did it. There is also Shauna calling her “boring” over not killing her, so perhaps this was her twisted way to prove to Shauna she was wrong. Hopefully, this will be explored more in season 4. When Shauna comes back to the house, she keeps calling for Melissa, like she was hoping she’d not only still be there, but would listen to her. I think that reaction to Melissa’s disappearance was interesting and might indicate Shauna still cares for her.

Unfortunately, Melissa doesn’t appear in episode 10, but she is mentioned twice as Shauna’s ex-girlfriend, which Shauna did not deny. At least it does confirm that what they had in the wilderness was an actual relationship, they were dating, they were officially girlfriends. I’m mostly mentioning that because it was a point of contention at some point online. Shauna did find the note Melissa left her, and it’s after reading the part about “forgiving herself” that she snapped, destroying the letter while thinking about the people she had hurt (the bunny, Adam, Callie, and then Melissa) and started crying. While it’s not entirely about Melissa, it’s her words that triggered that reaction, and she was among the people she thought about while crying. I think it does speak about the impact Melissa had on Shauna, and still can. Then it’s what causes Shauna to start writing her “journals” again, starting to reconnect with who she used to be in the wilderness, the Antler Queen who was partially enabled by Melissa.

Something interesting in the adult timeline is that Melissa is written to be a mirror of Shauna. That’s what the writers for these episodes said. Just like Shauna, she married someone out of guilt, someone connected to a person she feels responsible for the death of. She is living a married life with a child in the suburbs, just like Shauna, and was given a minivan specifically to emphasize the resemblance. Both women are secretly miserable in their respective life, both missing the thrill they had as teenagers. They are both self-destructive and can’t move on from their past. Another point is that the writers mentioned that Melissa only “go bad” once she was forced to ate her own flesh, like it triggered something in her. Before that she was still clinging to her Kelly persona, trying to convince herself she had changed, but after that incident, like a sleeper agent, the real Melissa was back, finally shattering the facade she desperately clung to.

My expectation for season 4 regarding the adult timeline is for Shauna and Melissa to get back together in some way. I think this is what the show is hinting at. With Taissa and Misty seemingly teaming up to take down Shauna, we might see her team up with Melissa out of necessity, and that could lead them to rekindle their relationship. Melissa is possibly on the run after killing Van, even if the body wasn’t found. She can’t go back home, and Shauna is now alone in her house, so that seems like the perfect setup for Melissa to stay with her. We know Hilary Swank will be a series regular if the show is renewed, so I’m looking forward to what’s in store for adult shaunahat.

Conclusion

Now we have reached the conclusion for this analysis. I mentioned at the beginning that shaunahat as a couple was mutually toxic and I stand by it. Even if her intention wasn’t malicious, Melissa did enable the worst in Shauna, she validated her feelings and desire for power, both because she was infatuated with Shauna and desired to be with her, and for her own benefit. Shauna also had a negative impact on Melissa, I wouldn’t say she “corrupted” her, but she did awaken some darker tendencies in her. This wasn’t a relationship born out of mutual love, but due to the circumstances they were in and out of convenience. They both felt lonely and had nothing to lose, so this relationship was there to satisfy their personal desires. Melissa wanted love, she also used Shauna to feel safe. Shauna wanted control over someone and some form of comfort. It was a mutually beneficial relationship for two people stuck in the Wilderness with no hope of going home… until it wasn’t. I do think the arrow incident started the falling out of their relationship, but the potential for rescue is what sealed the deal. They no longer wanted the same thing, they no longer benefited from that relationship. Melissa still liked Shauna, and Shauna had come to care about her, but it wasn’t enough. That’s why I believe they might go back together in the adult timeline, because they are both at a point where they need each other. They are both in trouble and could benefit from one another. This is what their relationship is essentially built on, how they can use each other for their own benefit. And I don’t think they’d introduce that relationship in the teen timeline and have Melissa as a survivor if they didn’t want to explore more of it in the adult timeline.

As to why I made this analysis, I wanted to elaborate on this relationship since I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about it, give my own perspective on their scenes together, and maybe change some people’s views of them. I personally love this ship both because I love Melissa as a character, and because I like these kinds of dynamics. I can relate to toxic and abusive relationships because I personally experienced those, hence why I have a personal attachment to Melissa as a character. I did say that shaunahat were a toxic couple, but it was also abusive, on Shauna’s side. And I like how the show portrays that toxicity and abuse. Melissa is a victim of abuse, but she isn’t portrayed as a “perfect” victim who did nothing wrong. She is also a flawed person who did bad stuff, and put herself in a situation where she ended up being abused. It doesn’t mean she deserved that, as I mentioned before, but it’s refreshing to see, and it’s something I think a lot of people can relate to. And as for Shauna, despite being an abuser in that situation, she isn’t written to be evil. We know why she is that way, and we can still sympathize with her without justifying her actions. I also think Melissa, despite some people not liking her as a character, really contributed to the plot and helped drive it, both in teen and adult timelines. So far her role was mostly to further Shauna’s arc, and I do wish she would continue to do so while also having her own character arc in the next season. I think Jenna Burgess was fantastic in the role and I hope she will have her role expanded upon in the next season, especially since they plan to make Hilary Swank a series regular.

Phew, finally over. Over 20k words! This is definitely the longest analysis I have ever written. What can I say, I am very passionate about this relationship and hope to see more of them in season 4. Thank you all if you managed to reach the end, and please let me know your thoughts, I love to discuss both shaunahat and Melissa as a character with people!

[floralpikmin99]

Last ref sheet before Art Fight starts! Here's all the monsters that make up Gilgan's family. I'm debating whether I want to split them up or have them all share the same character slot... This ref sheet is a bit much to look at, haha. Ah well, I'll figure that out later. My Art Fight Profile

These are a group of friendly Underworld monsters! They live alongside Gilgan, Airiss, and Anki. While they're monsters now, they were actually all once humans. Some time before Medusa's attack on Skyworld, she captured a handful of humans and turned them directly into monsters. Between the events of the NES game and Uprising, Gilgan and Airiss found these monsters and through lots of time and effort helped them regain as much of their humanity as they could.

They're all a part of my Smash Bros fanfic Pawns & Players. They make their first appearance in Chapter 4, which I'm currently working on. The idea behind them stemmed from the bad ending in the Japanese version of the NES game where Palutena turned Pit into a Specknose, and how Medusa captured both Pit and Gaol.

More info below the cut!

In all fairness, Krebs is the only one of the group that's fully developed as a character. So he goes first! I should also mention that Pawns & Players takes place 3 years after the events of Uprising. Their ages are for the start of P&P.

Krebs Species: Tempura Wizard He/Him 12' 74 years old (Captured when 36) Serious Often lost in thought Krebs is the oldest monster of the bunch, and the first monster Gilgan helped. Out of the group, he acts the most human, though he's still very aware of what he physically is. He's very careful when navigating around his family, or when helping people during rescue missions. While he's friendly, he's often very wary when meeting new people. He can come off as a bit cold when getting to know someone, but once he knows someone isn't a threat he warms up quickly. On the chance someone is a threat, he won't hesitate to protect the people he cares about. Like Gilgan and Airiss, he gives ample warning and tries to avoid fights when he can. If an opponent is just more of a nuisance, Krebs more often than not will just physically pick up and remove the individual a safe distance away. If someone is hostile, Krebs will fiercely fight back. He'll use his tempura bombs to disable opponents and make them easier to remove or give himself a chance to leave the fight. If his curse doesn't work, he's trained closely with Gilgan and has become quite skilled in using fire magic. If magic isn't working, or if he just wants to send more of a message than outright fight, he will also bite. Though unlike other Tempura wizards, his bites aren't meant to kill, and mostly used just to startle his opponent. He's controlled enough to not actually cause harm if he doesn't want to.

Using his limited shapeshifting powers, he's figured out how to regain the ability to talk. He usually talks while in his default state, so his speech is muffled, though he's gotten good at still being understandable. He'll rarely talk with his mouth open, especially outside his family. While they all trust him completely, his mouth being visible usually just scares anyone else, regardless of him trying to explain himself. Him also being able to translate made him invaluable to helping the rest of the monsters regain themselves. He's also the only monster of the bunch that chooses to work solo when protecting people from monster attacks.

He takes on the role of a third parent figure within the house, often helping wrangle Anki or keeping the other monsters in check. Between Gilgan and Airiss, he's far closer to Gilgan. She's been primarily the one that helped him remember his past life as a human, and helped him come to terms with what he's done as a monster.

Some time after Medusa's first defeat, Krebs had started to wander the surface. He had no orders, and thanks to the hints of humanity still left in his soul, he had grown bored at his original station. It didn't take him long to find human settlements. He'd pick off regular civilians, having the foresight to leave before soldiers came to find him. Out of all the other monsters in his family combined, he knows he has killed the most. Airiss had found him in the middle of eating a wounded soldier. The soldier's child had stumbled across the scene first and struck Krebs in the back with a sword. Something about the child's screams reawakened some of his memories and he froze, trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Airiss found the catatonic monster and brought him back to Gilgan's lab. Seeing unusual brain activity in the monster, and in general his different actions, Gilgan wasted no time trying to figure him out. She refused to give up on the monster, and took a bold step forward by reading his mind. Seeing the jumble of human memories, she only spent more time trying to help him untangle those and fully regain who he used to be. While Gilgan has helped him disconnect from himself as a mindless monster, he still feels immense guilt over the people he killed and on occasion he freezes when flashbacks rear up in his mind.

While human, he had another family: a wife and two children. When Anki was a baby, memories of his past family had finally become clear. Knowing he could never let his family see his current state, he keeps their identity a secret from Gilgan and the others. He refuses to risk anyone trying to reunite him. One night he had snuck out and traveled back to his home village alone. From afar he confirmed his wife and kids were still alive, and saw how they have moved on from his 'death'. Happy with the knowledge that they're alive and well, he returned to Gilgan's home. He has never told anyone of his previous family, and keeps tabs on them through his own means. After Hades' defeat, he had confirmed they were all still alive once again.

He has nothing but admiration and respect for Pit and Palutena. A part of him wishes to thank them for everything they've done to protect humanity, but for a very obvious reason he dreads the idea of ever encountering either of them. He's also aware of Magnus and Gaol, and as much as he'd like to talk to the two of them, he also fears what might happen if he encounters them.

Rynn & Lishe Species: Syren She/Her 12' (though they usually stand at about 9') Rynn is 57 (Captured when 21) , Lishe is 55 (Captured when 19) Rynn: Hasty - A little quick tempered Lishe: Timid - Quick to flee The syren sisters were the second monsters Gilgan and Airiss helped. While out on a flight, Gilgan had spotted a downed monster. As her and Airiss went to investigate, they saw Lishe had been caught in some sort of trap. Before they could do anything further, Rynn fiercely chased the two away. Seeing two monsters actually show some care for one another, Gilgan was excited at the idea they were like Krebs. Her and Airiss managed to convince Rynn to let them help Lishe. Still very suspicious, she let them, and the rest is history. They were lead back to the house where they saw Krebs and a toddler Anki. While the girls were still figuring out who they used to be, Krebs would assist by making sure neither of them harmed Anki. Knowing how it all felt, Krebs also aided Gilgan in helping the sisters regain their memories.

Rynn takes on the role of the 'big sister' in the house. Like Krebs, she tries to keep Anki in line. She's a little less gentle about it though, and there have been many swift corrections from Krebs to be gentle towards the much smaller human. She tends to be the more wary when it comes to encountering people. She's quicker to chase off possible threats, especially if the others aren't around. Gilgan has taught her a handful of different electric type moves. She uses her limited magic to send warning shocks at possible threats.

Lishe took awhile to come out of her shell. Nearly getting captured by monster hunting mercenaries, she's the most warry of people, especially anyone armed. She much prefers to stick with spotting people that need help in raids, over actually getting in the mix and helping. In recent years Gilgan has gotten her to help more. Lishe will save people in immediate danger and bring them to designated safe zones. She knows a handful of ice type moves, and will typically use those to slow down opponents.

Both syrens have overall grown closer to Airiss compared to the rest. They like to go out flying together, and they'll hunt as a group to provide for the rest of the family. It's near impossible to find either girl by herself. They often get antsy or outright distressed if they are separated for too long.

Phias Species: Armin He/Him 8' tall (10' if horns are included) 48 years old (Captured when 14) Lonely Scatters things often

Phias was found when Anki was just becoming a teenager. While visiting a fishing town, they happened to be there just as an Armin went on a rampage within one section of the town. Gilgan and the rest subdued the monster and brought him to a safe distance outside the town walls. Seeing the monster in more distress than the average Underworld troop, Gilgan once again took a shot to see if he was like the other members of her family. Surprisingly, Phias had regained more of a sense of his old self compared to the others when they were first found. Once Gilgan showed him some compassion, he became completely agreeable and cooperative. Anki went off on his own and talked to the one family that was most effected by the attack. He learned that they did lose their son close to 30 years ago, and put the pieces together. Anki tried to point out that the monster that attacked them could be their lost son. Ultimately the family rejected Phias even further, so Gilgan took him in.

Having that sense of rejection, Gilgan went out of her way to make sure Phias felt loved and cared for while she helped him sort out his own memories. She also realized he was not much older than Anki when he was dragged down to the Underworld, which only further broke her heart at his situation.

Phias is completely adhered to Gilgan, and doesn't like to be far from her. He likes attention and meeting new people, but sometimes he forgets how large and strong he is. More often than not Krebs has to keep him in check to make sure he doesn't accidentally hurt Gilgan while just trying to be friendly.

While out helping people, Phias usually sticks by designated safe zones to make sure fleeing people aren't hit by stray monster fire. Since he can't talk or do much in terms of body language, he's hesitant to outright help people on his own, but if he notices people in immediate danger he will step in to protect them. He hopes that his act of defense will be enough of an indicator for panicked people that he's friendly.

Mos Species: Shootfly He/Him 3' 42 years old (Captured when 9) Quiet Alert to sounds Mos is the newest addition to the family. He was found just a few years before Medusa's return. Mos had been captured by a band of mercenaries who had wanted to see if they could use him to locate other monsters or Underworld bases. Mos instead was completely shut down and unresponsive to any kind of projectiles. Airiss was the one to discover the monster. He waited for his moment and snatched the monster from the group.

Like Phias, it didn't take Mos long to start working with the rest of the family. Gilgan, Airiss, and Krebs have struggled to get any cohesive idea of his past, but overall Mos doesn't seem too interested in figuring out his memories. Gilgan has been able to determine his general age, and realizing he was so young just crushes her.

Mos is pretty close with Gilgan, but doesn't treat her like an obvious favorite. He'll sometimes keep to himself and prefers some moments in a quiet corner, while the rest of the monsters usually like to stick as a group.

Since Mos is so alert to sounds, he's usually the first one to notice if anyone approaches the house, or he can also locate members of his family that have wandered off. While out helping people, he usually is the one staying on guard, listening for signs of Pit, or any other member of Palutena's army. If ever their paths cross, he signals to Gilgan or Airiss so they can collect everyone and leave to avoid getting mistaken for enemies.

~~~~~

Now I should really finish up the little intro comic I was working on for these guys. It's much easier to show their dynamic together than trying to write it out in a short, non spoiler way lol.

Art Fight takes my priority though!

[milehighmegs]

Good Omens Playlists

So I've seen some pretty wonderful Good Omens playlists on Pinterest, most of which are based on music in the show (especially Queen, natch), songs that say how Zira & Crowley feel about one another or describe them as characters.

In the wake (double meaning totally intended) of S2, I wondered: how do they feel about each other NOW? We've all been there. The sad love songs, the sleeping all day, entire pints of ice cream while watching romcoms... but mostly the recounting of how it all could've gone so wrong, what we wished we'd said & done, and what we wish we could say now.

Since Zira & Crowley definitely have communication issues (Nina & Maggie were SPOT ON in their convo with Crowley), I imagine they would have an easier time telling each other their feelings through other means. I'll admit, there's a bias here: this is what I would do, so of course I project onto these characters. But isn't that the beauty of fan art? We put ourselves into the work/live vicariously through them because we have such a damned hard time saying want we want & need and how we feel in plain language? Mostly because such complex feelings are REALLY REALLY hard to explain to ourselves, let alone to another person. But art- writing, music, imagery- can say what we struggle to put into more direct words. Music is an enormous part of who I am, so I often find that the songs of others say perfectly what I feel I never could.

On that note (pun only slightly intended), I've created 3 playlists: one for Crowley, one for Zira, and one for the both of them. The individual playlists are meant to reflect the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. There are elements of other stages within the songs meant to correspond to a particular stage, even coming full circle (it seems like acceptance, but there's a hint of denial in there, etc.). The joint playlist is of songs I imagine would make the memories of each other start to creep in (or totally gobsmack them in the feels) when they hear them, or things they wished they'd said/want to say to each other.

So without further ado, here are the playlists:

Crowley's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LyYnip9XuZqcRIEsiDSwz

Zira's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3YUi13sTfPSR99R1dB2XVY

AziraCrow's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/48NpfV42Y8LTVSFsui8zl2

For those of you who don't have Spotify, here's what's on the playlists:

Crowley 'Never Tear Us Apart' - INXS 'Bad Romance' - Lady Gaga 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' - Madonna 'Cosmic Love' - Florence + the Machine 'As It Was' - Hozier 'I Found' - Amber Run 'Wicked Game' - Chris Isaac 'Dancing On My Own' - Calum Scott 'Halo' - Depeche Mode 'Falling' - The Civil Wars

Zira 'i love you' - Billie Eilish 'And I Am Telling You' - Jennifer Hudson 'You'll See' - Madonna 'Somebody That I Used To Know' - Gotye 'Someone Like You' - Adele 'Boys Don't Cry' - The Cure 'Un-break My Heart' - Toni Braxton 'For No One' - The Beatles 'Comfort' - Julia Jacklin 'I Will Always Love You' - Whitney Houston

AziraCrow 'I Have Nothing' - Whitney Houston 'Nothing Compares 2 U' - Sinead O'Connor 'Torn' - Natalie Imbruglia 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' - Olivia Newton John 'In A Lonely Place' - Bush, the Tricky Remix 'With Or Without You' - U2 'Don't Let Go (Love)' - En Vogue

'Don't Speak' - No Doubt 'Here With Me' - Dido

A note on the playlists: I know that Zira wouldn't listen to most of this if any, and Crowley would outwardly cringe just thinking about some of these. The point wasn't to choose songs that they'd go out of their way to hear, it was to capture the feelings they'd be going through. Crowley's songs are a bit darker: more minor keys, moodier atmosphere, etc., while Zira's are more sad but lighter & gentler (except maybe 'And I Am Telling You'; that's a straight-up "aww HELL NO YOU AIN'T GONNA FUCK THIS UP THIS IS HAPPENING YOU KNOW WE BELONG TOGETHER"... well, the song says it pretty well).

I 'd love to hear any thoughts about this, agree or disagree, love or loathe, hate that you love it... What would you put into a ZiraCrow playlist?

Hope you enjoy it!

[mania-sama]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite (fictional) characters ever from any media? Why love them?

thanks so much for the ask!! i always love your questions <3

God, this is a hard one. Because I've consumed and fallen in love with so many pieces of media in my life, it's hard for me to tell who exactly my favorite characters are. The pool is just too big to choose from! But I'll try my best regardless!

Also an important note that as I grow older, this list could very well become out-dated very fast. Who knows what I will see or what medias I will consume that will alter my perception of reality?

In no particular order:

Bakugou Katsuki [My Hero Academia] -> THE OG. I REPEAT. THE OG ONLINE OBSESSION. My history with My Hero Academia goes way back on my online persona, when I was a wee lad and experiencing my first online hyperfixation (Warrior Cats not included). I had him as online nickname and profile picture on multiple accounts and instances. I look back and cringe on this era of my life, but I still will not stand for slander on this character. I obsessed over him because he is an incredibly well-written character, with faults, passions, interesting qualities, and an insane amount of character growth that, arguably, rivals Zuko. His character motivations still stand out to me to this day. I quit reading/watching BNHA around the war arc, like right when it finished and Midoriya fled the scene. No particular reason for quitting, I think; I just moved on from that part of my life. But, Bakugou will always stick with me just a little. AND YOU KNOW WHAT. I liked him when everyone else still hated him. I liked him before it was cool to like him. Shout out to 2020-2021 me for being an OG. I'm still a "Ground Zero" truther to this very day.

Percy Jackson [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] -> Anyone that has read the PJO and/or the following series will not be surprised to find him here. He's like Spiderman but better, which is saying a lot because I really, really like Spiderman. Percy Jackson is there for every kid who has ever felt out of place in this world; for every kid who has struggled in succeeding in any aspect of their life; for every kid who grew up in a household different from their peers; for every kid who behaves in ways that other people don't seem to understand. Spiderman was a character created to represent the reader of superhero comics: a teenage white boy. Of course, later iterations of Spiderman come to represent more individuals, but that is not who he was originally. Percy Jackson is a character that comes from a place of necessity. He is a character that represents the reader of PJO: a kid who doesn't quite fit in with the rest, for one reason or another. Percy is funny, ultra-overpowered, relatable, and still gets his happy ending. Nothing more to want in a character, really.

Robbie White | Axe Boy [Identity V] -> My hunter main for Identity V. I don't really know how to explain why I love him so much, and how he has become a character I get emotional over very fast. I seem to find one random character from a game and attach myself to them like a jellyfish. Not only is his backstory devastatingly heartbreaking, he is adorable in all of his animations, standby motions, emotes, etc.. He has carried me to many victories, and he will continue to carry me in every match I play. I literally forced myself to download IDV on my laptop and play a few matches just so I could get his Little Nightmares crossover skin. No matter how far he falls from meta, they can never make me hate you Robbie.

Kugisaki Nobara [Jujutsu Kaisen] -> I had a LOT of internal debate over this. I guess I can't confirm until I leave the fandom, but for right now, she's definitely one of my top favorite characters of all time. I'm considering writing an analysis on her because she is just so good. I have never seen a female character in a piece of media that isn't explicitly feminine embody femininity so well. It actually impresses me to a degree I cannot reasonably tell you. She's just perfect. Everything about her is everything that I want to be as a woman. She's comfortable in her own skin, confident not in a man-ish way, but in a distinctly feminine way. What gives that she wants to feel pretty and strong in a physical way? Who is saying that she can't have both? Not to mention that she's also extremely strategically smart. I love her. I really, really do. Sometimes, I imagine strangling Gege's avatar and it makes me very happy.

Oikawa Tooru [Haikyuu] -> I honest-to-God cannot believe he made it here. I tried so hard to find a character to replace him. I did not want him here out of SPITE. But here he is, somehow, and not replaced by Miles Morales (who, upon reflection, would only be here because I did not want Oikawa to be here. Miles didn't even make my honorable mentions. That is proof enough, I suppose, that Oikawa somehow deserves his spot). I've talked about it before, but I'll reiterate it here: Oikawa is a character that is very, very easy to toy around with. He is THE teenager, and THE adult. You can project pretty much any anxiety or worry onto him and it'll make sense because he's got so many self-worth issues it's laughable. I don't want to spend more time talking about him than he deserves. I am as disappointed as you are that he made this list.

Honorable Mentions:

Razor & Xiao [Genshin Impact] -> They would've made the list if I could've put one above the other for real. Silly whimsical attachment with immense appreciation for the character writing vs serious love for the writing and development of the character beyond words. Simply an impossible choice.

Akabane Karma [Assassination Classroom] -> He was my favorite character of all time at one point in history and is still the inspiration behind my Tiktok nickname (that I may change one day). Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've watched the anime and I can't remember much of what drew me to Karma in the first place that isn't already achieved in other of my favorite characters. Still, I thought I'd honor him here.

[withered--s0uls]

This is Board with folders of fashion hcs for Murder Drones characters. I'll explain more about each folder under the cut.

I'm open for suggestions, character requests and stuff too :"

(male characters will be harder for me, esp if we don't know much about them, so if you request a character maybe add some suggestions for styles!)

Each board and their relating Hcs:

Characters:

Uzi - Gothic, (maybe some emo?) - Idk a lot about alt fashion so I tried my best

N - Decora & other more colorful styles! Also some things I imagine Uzi and Tessa gifting him.

Thad - idk your typical casual male fashion BUT ALSO clothes and sneakers with cartoon effects!!!

Tessa - Upcycled clothes, Holographic fashion, space themes & some other cute stuff I felt fit her (Upcycled bc I imagine she would prefer to reuse and recycle in general, not just when it comes to fixing up broken drones!)

V - a mix of stuff I imagine her getting from N, Uzi and Lizzy. I feel she wouldn't care too much and wear whatever people gift her

J - neat and professional looks for the most part

Cyn (NOT the AS) - Lolita, Kidcore but also things that match Ns and Tessas boards because I feel Cyn would take inspiration from them when it comes to her wardrobe. So it's kinda a mix!

Lizzy - whatever pretty clothes I felt for a popular girl like her. Very girly

Doll - idk how to describe hers? A more neat style and Earthy colors

Nori - Goth, Gothic Lolita, Also space themes ??? I tried making her goth style a bit more fancy/formal than Uzis

Matching/Squad/Duo/Ship boards:

Nuzi - Decora (N) & Dark Decora (Uzi), Goth (Uzi) & Pastel Goth (N), other cute outfits I just felt fit them, Sun (N) & Moon (Uzi) themed fits

Vizzy - mostly fits I feel Lizzy would pick out for them to wear

Cyn & N - Decora & Lolita and some other cute stuff!! Just making the siblings match :3

DD Squad - random fits I associated with 1 or 2 or all 3 of them but felt like theyd only wear together and not separate

Cheer Squad - Lizzy, Doll & Rebecca outfits I feel they would wear together but not necessarily separately

CoolKids - N, Thad & Uzi matching fits! They range from their 3 individual styles to unrelated things I feel theyd wear together.

Manor Squad - Clothes that I feel V, J & N as well as maybe Cyn & the other Manor Drones, maybe even Tessa herself, would wear - including some hcs of what Tessa gifted them. Mostly Lolita styled.

[trollsdrabblesandrewrites]

Interlude Post: Broppy

Was originally gonna post about individual characters after the tribes were done, but since it's Broppy day I'll post about how I reworked tiny kinks in the story as well as added onto the ship!

Backstory Additions

I will explain Branch (and BroZone's) backstory in detail, but for today I'll leave it at Branch and Poppy met when they were trollings! From an early age Poppy would always invite Branch to morning songs and couldn't understand why he didn't want to sing or dance, but never found the right words to ask. Additionally she would also follow him to where he wanted to build his bunker when they were tweens which he let her as long as she promised to never bring anyone there which she agreed to. She would sometimes help him with chores which he would "begrudgingly" agree. She also learned from early on he doesn't like overwhelming physical contact, but is fine with minor instances of it (He becomes fine with more contact as they grow up and he becomes more comfortable around her).

First Movie Changes

In my AU/rewrite she respects his decisions but still makes him invitations (He doesn't smash them, and still keeps them, and she totally doesn't make them as an extra excuse to see him). He's still a bit bitey verbally due to the fact he grew up bantering with her a lot (Which she egged on by bantering back). As follows in canon in the second and third movies he's less mean, and he realizes his comments towards her were rude (Even if she didn't take it that way). The two still have the banter they have through the movie and running jokes (Guess we were both right, solid burn [returned], etc). Furthermore she respects the space of his bunker, and when Pop Village (then Troll Village) hides in his bunker it's due to a collaborative effort, and he was under the impression the entire village (likely including him) would be moving asap and Poppy would not be going to Bergen Town. The villagers still disrespect his possessions, but Peppy tries to keep them under control. When Poppy asks Branch to go with her to save everyone from the Bergens just like in canon he refuses to go, and the reasoning being he wants to prevent her from going, but just like in canon she goes anyway knowing he'd come with, this is due to the fact he genuinely cares about other trolls (And her, but neither of them will admit it yet).

Extra little scenes

Trolls 1

He's a very schedule oriented troll meaning he keeps a very close eye on his calendar, this also means he's very aware of the date of his grandma's death coming up. He's always extra down those days, and those are the days Poppy sets aside her duties to spend time with him.

Branch is alright with Poppy humming around him as long as it's in an area he can tell has no chance of having a Bergen hear them (ex: wide open field)

Though not as prevalent as the example, just like in Trolls 3 Poppy gets a little defensive when someone is mean or rude to Branch and he doesn't defend himself. There's likely times here and there when Branch was having a bad day and someone makes a rude comment towards him earning a hard stare from Poppy.

Some trolls think Branch "rubs off on Poppy with a bad way", however the capacity to be a bit more harsh with others was always something she had, she just was anxious about letting it off before. She realized at some point part of being a good queen is knowing when to put your foot down.

Trolls 1 to 2

Post Trolls 1 Branch helps Poppy with her queenly duties and making sure the trolls stay safe as the world still has aggressive creatures.

On the flip side, Poppy helps Branch become more tolerant of bergens (and eventually try to become as comfortable with them as he can), especially with Bridget (Who is very understanding of Branch's situation) Poppy learns Branch is in fact very versed in choreography

Branch makes an effort to befriend the Snack Pack and they begin to respect him for his knowledge (and make jokes about him being king, leaving him and Poppy flustered)

Lots of totally joking flirting they dont have a crush on each other guys what do you mean.

She just makes him special invitiations to keep up the tradition, totally not still another excuse to see him.

Trolls 2 to 3

Dating arc

Branch always went with Poppy for meetings with the other leaders. He was never given an official role nor were any statements made, just "I'm going to see the Funk trolls this weekend!" "Alright, I'll pack some supplies!"

More trolls began to move in and out of Pop Village (AU). During this big change Poppy called upon Branch to help make suitable living situations for them and make Pop Village more accessible to other types of trolls.

They both get redesigns (No images of this yet, but one day!)

[thatfeelinwhenyou]

hello !!! this is my very first (and maybe last, since i'm not very active on tumblr) ask to you, and i don't usually interact with other users on here BUT after reading safe & sound i just Had To come out of my online shell to tell you how much i love it (which is A LOT)

ever since i read part 6 of safe & sound, i've not been able to stop thinking about the series like it actually has me in a chokehold. i honestly needed a chance to wax lyrical about it and what better opportunity than to the author herself! i think i'll have a lot to say (atp i haven't organised my thoughts yet so the following part might be pretty stream-of-consciousness type shit) so here we goooo~ 1. CHARACTERISATION & PLOT first of all, the plot is just so good. icl a good found family plot really does it for me, i just love seeing the progression from unfamiliarity (or distrust in this case) to having sm care & love for one another. i think stepping (clicking) into this fic i alr expected a bad ending (at least this is my current Hypothesis) bc i feel like it's quite difficult to get a happy ending w apocalypse-type material, but i never expected to get this attached to any of the characters while reading.

i feel like a difficult part of writing plots with a large group (i did a bit of stalking on your tumblr and realised you can speak chinese - in chinese i think this is called 群像, which i think expresses what i'm trying to say better) is having a distinct characterisation for each member of the group (and 8 people is a Lot), but i feel like you did it so well in safe & sound !!! i mean delegating each enhypen member with a different role might have helped with differentiating them, but i think what's more impressive is how you managed to distinguish their personalities, which also reflected their assigned roles ??? idk in my not-as-genius-as-yours mind i think that's really difficult to do, and i think you did it so well.

and when y/n joined the group, i really loved how she was integrated into them as well. although she didn't have a very specific specialisation, i really appreciated how she was able to contribute to the group in ways the other characters aren't able to - genuinely i feel like being able to carve out that space for her in a group with 7 people already is really tough. not just that, i loved how her own distinct individualism was preserved even after she joined the group. i think in general it's just very difficult to keep a consistent characterisation as each character moves to different environments, and i love how you let y/n's personality shine through even as she moved into a new environment, surrounded by new people. maybe this is a low bar, but i've consumed so much media where writers fail to carve out this space for the newest addition to the group, and instead, just dilute the character's personality until they were merely a shadow of who they were before joining. i hate it when characters are sidelined like that, and i'm so so grateful that you didn't do that w y/n.

another part i loved about safe & sound is y/n and jungwon's backstories. for y/n, her backstory just provides such a logical justification for her later individualism, and at the same time, is an incredibly plausible scenario to happen in an apocalypse. the logic of it all just… stuns me. not only that, but somehow, in her backstory, you've managed to weave in commentary about human nature & our inherent fear of death - honestly, how the hell do you manage to do so much w/ such a small part of the plot???? i'm very very much in awe with your brains <3 jungwon's backstory is just so… logical too. like i have no better word to describe it. it just makes So Much sense, and explains so much about his character, and how he became their leader - bc he's the one coming up with the plans all the time. i'm genuinely just IN AWE with how smoothly the story flows in terms on logic… like wow. WOW

something i like about y/n's characterisation is her brains and independence, yet she still cares to maintain her morals & humanity <3 idk i feel like in a lot of the (fictional) media that i consume, many female characters are either intentionally dumbed down or they're strong and smart, but they often cross moral boundaries (like in those revenge k- and c-dramas e.g. the glory). i think this characterisation of her makes her a little more relatable in this unrealistic setting of an apocalypse - while none of us have gone through an apocalypse before, most of us try our best to be a morally upright person, and as flawed humans, obviously sometimes we slip and we fail to do so, and we have to grapple w the consequences of that. y/n mirrors us in real-life in how she also grapples w her own morally grey decisions, it's just that her circumstances are different: it's about survival - her literal own life - for her, and so every decision she makes is magnified.

this is very subjective, but i just LOVE having mcs who are 势均力敌 - equally matched in terms of brains and brawn, and there's no hint of power imbalance between the 2 of them. like, idk, i just love seeing two complete equals who have sm respect for eo work together and fight against the world together, developing synergy along the way. and that's literally jungwon and y/n. ALSO i love the way you describe jungwon and y/n's synergy LIKE being able to tell what the other person is thinking just by looking at them??? MWAH CHEF'S KISS i loveeee this kind of plot.

interlude: omg this was only one (1) point and it's already… 6 paras long ERRR i fear it's only going to get longer i'm sorry…

1.1 THEMES icl the themes in safe & sound are a bit too big-brained for me to fully comprehend but i'll just share what i've understood & appreciate about them oops HAHA

i've not read/watched many apocalyptic books/shows, but i can see how discussions about morality & human nature are very much integral in media of this topic. what i really appreciate, though, is how you've managed to balance different perspectives on these themes. exploring a variety of perspectives through different characters, and aligning each character's understanding w their personality, is something that i feel takes a lot of consideration, and i'm really grateful for the amount of effort & time you've put in to weave thematic discussions in so organically.

(wait i'm ngl i hit the max character count for an ask in the next para :insert skull emoji: i never knew that was a thing so… ig you learn something new every day! anyw this review is now going to be split into 2 parts [hopefully not more] so look out for the next part in your inbox HAHAHA)

Hello!!! I’m so sorry it took me a while to get to this—I really wanted to post Part 7 before I replied to this because you touched on so many topics that I wanted to discuss but cannot do so without spoilers. And I also wanted to take the time to internalise your views and articulate my response as clearly as I could. Because what the actual fuck?! First of all, I’m in awe of your level of emotional intelligence and the way you’ve analysed this fanfiction down to details I didn’t think anyone would ever bother dissecting.

Secondly, the way you broke things into paragraphs, expressed your appreciation, and offered your own perspectives on the themes… I was genuinely shocked (in the best way) when I saw your ask come in. Like someone actually took the time out of their day to write this for me??? Thank you so, so, so much. I saw in your next ask that you mentioned being a lit student, and as a literature girlie myself, I feel honour-bound to respond in a way that scratches that exact part of your brain.

1. CHARACTERISATION & PLOT

I feel like it’s important to say that the roles each member plays in this story took a long time to plan—especially when it came to plotting the crucial story beats. I’d often find myself wondering, Would this specific member actually do this? And then I’d have to remind myself: I’m literally writing a fictional story. I can do whatever I want.

Still, it was challenging to write Y/N into a group that already functions like a well-oiled machine. But I think that’s what makes her character so powerful—her individualism, her impostor syndrome, the way she unintentionally disrupts the group dynamic. That friction forces everyone out of their comfort zones. I tried really hard to preserve her individualistic and slightly stubborn nature throughout, because without that, the plot wouldn’t have made sense—especially when she ultimately justifies her decision to leave. Bottom line, I just thought it didn’t make sense to dumb down a female character who supposedly managed to survive almost a year in the apocalypse alone. Which brings me to the next point. 

There were so many moments while writing where I’d scrap entire scenes because they contradicted something earlier. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a painfully realistic person, but I hate when the media I consume doesn’t align with logic. (Like characters waking up in bed with perfect hair and makeup—terrible example, but you get what I mean.) That kind of stuff breaks the immersion for me. So I’m really grateful that you picked up on the effort I put into keeping things consistent and believable. Then again Jungwon is supposed to be blonde in this, but that’s for my own guilty pleasure 🤭

And this part of your message: “while none of us have gone through an apocalypse before, most of us try our best to be a morally upright person, and as flawed humans, obviously sometimes we slip and we fail to do so, and we have to grapple w the consequences of that. y/n mirrors us in real-life in how she also grapples w her own morally grey decisions, it's just that her circumstances are different: it's about survival - her literal own life - for her, and so every decision she makes is magnified.” Yes. Yes. And YES. That right there encapsulates something I’ve been trying to get across but couldn’t quite articulate: it’s not just about survival—it’s about how survival complicates morality. The desire to stay morally upright is still there, but when the stakes are your actual life, every decision gets filtered through a different lens. I think what's human isn’t perfection, but the struggle to still do right by others, even when it costs you. And Y/N stumbling through that messiness—falling short, doubling back, trying again—that's what makes her so relatable. So thank you for saying that so beautifully! <3

I also think Jungwon and Y/N are equal but opposites in a really interesting way. Y/N doesn’t know how to function within a group—she acts on instinct, often alone. Jungwon, on the other hand, is constantly factoring in others—he’s always thinking of the potential consequences, trying to protect those around him. I’d describe them as 互补不足—mutually compensating for each other’s weaknesses.

But what makes their dynamic so rich (and honestly, heartbreaking at times) is that they’re both trying to do the right thing—they just have entirely different methods of getting there. Y/N is reactionary, emotionally driven, and shaped by isolation. Her independence isn’t just a character trait, it’s a survival mechanism. Meanwhile, Jungwon has leadership ingrained into his very being—he’s strategic, deliberate, and bears the burden of decision-making for the entire group. Where Y/N acts from the gut, Jungwon acts from the mind. And that creates tension, especially when they're forced into situations where neither instinct nor logic alone is enough.

They also mirror each other in their loneliness. Y/N is physically alone for much of her backstory—she’s used to depending on herself. Jungwon, despite being surrounded by others, is emotionally isolated because of the weight he carries as a leader. In a weird way, they understand each other not through similarity, but through shared pressure—just manifesting in different forms.

That’s what makes their chemistry so quietly powerful. They frustrate the hell out of each other, challenge one another, and yet, there’s this slow-burn recognition that they see each other. Not the roles they play, but the people underneath. And it’s through each other that they both start to change—Y/N learns how to trust others, and Jungwon learns to put himself first sometimes, to act with feeling rather than just calculation.

And thematically, they represent that core tension you talked about in your following ask—emotion vs reason (which I will touch on in much more detail later). Y/N and Jungwon are that dichotomy brought to life. But instead of one triumphing over the other, their dynamic asks if it’s possible for both to coexist, even when the world demands they choose.

So yeah… their relationship might not always be tender in the conventional sense, but it’s incredibly intimate in the way they unravel each other’s defenses, layer by layer. No grand declarations, just a slow accumulation of understanding. Which in a world like this? Feels even more intimate than love.

Next part to your ask

[your-local-uwu-artist]

HELLO

So I have finished both season 10 and just last night season 11 of ninjago!

Season ten I finished at like 1 am staying up late to watch it so that's why I forgor to post about it

So I'll do that first!

Season 10 was a 10/10!!!

Really liked garmadon's characterization. My favorite part was when a random ass guy explained the meaning of life to him. I liked seeing Faith again. I thought the Cole death fakeput was really well done. Specifically how it like, tied into multiple things going on with the story. This shows always been good at that. Like how the grief leads to garmadon character moments and also internal struggle for nya and sense Cole's actually fine now we have to parrelell threads of story to follow and wait to reconnect

SEASON 11

Holy SHIT

-I think I like the new rendering style, it makes the colors look brighter. No real opinion on the added hair texture but I enjoyed the added texture to clothes and stuff. There were some scenes where I was like 'animators having fun' and really that's what I think is most important :3

-Cole's dumbass soda hat my beloved

-loved the episode where they were just like: looking for problems. They are all such silly Billies. Borderline menaces on occasion

-also loved the episode with the paperboys and the news network. I've thought a lot about the citizens of ninjago city and these episodes finnally gave me a proper look into it. Was not dissapointdd!! I am delighted!!!

-jumping ahead here but pixel and Zane's reunion hug was SO fucking cute. My God. There little photo too!!!! My God there always adorable together but it still just ajgfiabduaks my heartttt. Tbh personally I see them as more of a qpr/soulmates kinda thing rather then a conventional romance. Like just, they love each other and that's all that matters <3

-GOD DAMMIT the ice emperor shit goes SO hard. Lots for the fanfics to explore here.

-I fucking LOVED how they had the hand on the scroll all frozen over and whenever he stood up from the throne there was ice breaking just my godddddd

-also I am sorry to admit I did at one point think to my self 'very Elsa core'

-I feel like there was a lot of things this season why I found myself thinking that there's three sides to every story. A lot of stuff where I felt like what we the audience were being shown wasn't quite the reality. I think the episode with the jailbreak proves this. Like with aspheera and wu. I'm sure there's something more there. That ashpeera's retelling of events would be different. Maybe king mamba was actually a huge asshole or smth. Idk. The point is there is something unknown there... CUE THE FANFICTION PLEASE.

-this leads into vex. I'm CERTAIN his story of leaving the formlings and when he came back to give evil speech went down VERY differently then what we were able to see. Not that Vex snt a fucking loser piece of work. He stalked a vulnerable individual and went 'I can manipulate this guy! '. Just that I thing things are a little more complicated then what we saw. Kinda like with nadakhan: still a fucking horrible person, but there was some characterization that showed them as A person. Rather then a stand in for a generic monster. I think that makes them scarier monsters actually

-speaking of monsters Krag was great. Love how Cole really just went 'Krag comes with us, Krag is friend now'

-I loved akita! Fun design!!!! She'd bite people for fun and she's real for that

-god dammit Zane's little goodbye video message was so fucking sad and sweet

-oh yeah the random ass 2d segments! I defiantly enjoyed them! They weren't perfect but who cares. I wonder like: how that happened tho???

-welp that's all from the top of my head.

[exocynraku]

Hullo! Do you have any tips on just coming up with designs and markings and how to colour those designs/lines without making stuff clash? You're always able to make such creative and nicely made designs and I'm curious if you have anything you get inspiration off of and how you're able to colour your marking lines so smoothly?

i would make a nice image tutorial like i did yesterday but i do Not have the time to Sadly so you get words instead colouring lineart: colouring the lineart is easy peasy lemon squeezy. you gotta wait until youve FINISHED the colouring to do this part. okay, so, for the characters ACTUAL LINEART, when i draw their legs & tail & face & whatnot, i colourpick the DARKEST colour on the character, whether it be in their markings, eyes, accessories, or whatever. and then i take that colour and make it just... a LOT darker! and maybe shift the hue around aswell (ex: if the character was mostly yellow/cream i'd give them orange or red lines)! and then for the MARKING LINES i take the darkest MARKING. ignore the accessories and characters eyes they dont matter JUST pick the darkest coloured marking. and then make THAT darker, but not as much as you did the actual lineart!! you can also change the hue on this :3 how i come up with designs + inspirations: hmm well i'm going to be honest with you i don't exactly know how i come up with my designs? a lot of it just comes from how i picture the character in my head! especially if its a warrior cat design! i don't tend to stray away from those thoughts unless i picture them as like stupidly boring LOL ! inspirations is a biiit tricky, but i guess i kind of just look at a LOAD of other warrior cats animations & art, and uh! anime! lol! looking at how other people draw cats has gotten me better at drawing anatomy & whatnot, and watching various animes is why i started giving my cats hair lol! it's kind of hard for me to explain like, my EXACT process on why & how i design certain characters im sorryyyy x'''P i would if i could but literally 90& of is me drawing whatever and then thinking 'does this look good' and then saying yes or no LOL how i colour my designs: similarly to how i DO my designs, it's a lot of my just asking myself if it Looks Good or not, but there are a few things i do! a lot of designs i do i jump around the colour wheel a LOT! hue wise, i mean. i think i've managed to find different ways to use every single colour on the colour wheel lol! blues and greens and purples are good for greys & blacks, blues & yellows & oranges are good for white/ light markings, red & orange & yellow & purple are good for brown cats, etc etc etc! the other main thing is layer effects! sooo like if i draw a character but i'm not super happy with their colours, i find it hard & annoying to fiddle around and change each colour individually, so instead i make layer above the colouring, set it to one flat colour, and go through all/most of the layer options (like multiply, linear burn, lighten, glow dodge, difference, subtract, the list goes on) and find something i like! and then i usually do that a BUNCH of times with ALL sorts of different colours until the character ends up looking good!

also hi mossy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope this helps maybe? if you wanna get specific with another question, or maybe send some images (u can here on tumblr or message me where ever) then id love 2 help more!!!! this goes for anyone, i'll always accept art-help/tips/how i do things questions lol!

[auranova26]

Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling Lore Bits 3: Rewrite Edition

During the research for a video essay I am working on, I have come across information that has shaken the foundation of what I have thought about Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling. While my AU is free to do what I want, I would like my interpretations of Shao Hsien-Ko and Shao Mei-Ling to be based on the foundation of what was established and either expand, change, recontextualize, or add ideas to make them feel like the best they can be. With some additional flavor text that works for the mythos they are in.

With that established, I feel I need to look back at the last 'Lore Bits' I made for them and change information. Rather than edit what was there, I'll instead grab information from each one that must be changed and say how it will be changed here for this Lore Bits on them. A time capsule of what I wrote before with the information I had back then. If I don't bring anything up, then the information on Lore Bits 1 and 2 are still canon to Cryas Darkstalkers.

To begin, Lore Bits 1:

Due to the incident that made the sisters aware of what happens when a jiangshi tastes blood, Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling refuse to eat any meat-based food if it wasn't prepared by them or a very trusted individual.

Blood is no longer an issue as that idea was based on misinterpretations from the Darkstalkers Wiki based on a panel from a manga. They are free to eat whatever they want! That includes the mentioned Blood Sausages in Lore Bits 1.

Oh... turns out that is the only thing as looking back at my 2 Lore Bits, that was the only thing. 😅 However, I did make other things not under the banner of Lore Bits. So let us look at those and see what must be changed. First of all:

No longer will this Burst going forward be referred to as Dark Embrace/ Xié è De Yōngbào(邪恶的拥抱). Instead, it shall be known as:

腐敗的拥抱 (Fǔbài de Yōngbào)/Corrupt Embrace

It makes better sense in terms of naming as the Burst was obtained via the Corriyami and the Qi of the sisters effectively corrupting one another in a mixture. While yes, the idea of the name of Corriyami is 'Dark Corruption', I already have a character who has a Burst that can basically mean 'Dark Embrace'. Plus... Corrupt Embrace sounds very cool to me.

Another thing to bring up since it is mentioned in the post: Afflicted with nightmares and even being taunted by her inner darkness, it all comes to a critical point during a battle with a large group of Corrupted, beings who fall victim to Corruption.

Without going into too much detail, the whole 'inner darkness/jiangshi' bit with Hsien-Ko is no longer part of the mythos as that has no bearing at all in the original lore. Just a fabrication. While I liked the idea... I decided to ultimately scrap it as there are other ways Hsien-Ko can deal with the consequences of becoming a jiangshi without the idea of some sentient inner demon in her mind.

Also, Hsien-Ko actually can't sleep proper without the help of Mei-Ling. I'll explain in another Lore Bit.

Onward to the next thing to edit:

After a scuffle with some xianshushi and talking with one of the shifu closest to their mother, they were banished from Xianmencun for their own safety.

Reading the official source I found, I actually want to tweak things. So here it seems to imply there being more shifus. Nah, only Mingxia was a shifu. The lore makes a clear statement that the only practitioners of the sorcery that is on display was only her and the Shao sisters. While I am gonna go with this idea of scarcity in Xian Men Cun, I want to have it to where Mingxia did at least have some other woman that she vetted and saw their potential to utilize magic. A small school of xianshushi of varying levels.

Another thing is that in the lore, it makes clear how their village was basically razed to the ground during the raid. I will go with that idea so there is no real sneaking out and stuff. No banishment.

Next:

On both sheets, the term 'ofuda' will no longer be used. While that is the official term in the og lore, that is a term with ties to Japanese Shintoism. Not sure if you noticed, but the sisters are Chinese and no mention of practicing Shintoism. Instead, I will be going forward using the following terms: talisman or 護身符 (hùshēnfú).

To reiterate, the inner jiangshi entity is no longer going to be part of Cryas Darkstalkers. So that Xienian, ignore it. However, her eyes going red is still a thing when she does go berserk.

Overall, in time do need to update these sheets with more accurate aspects, like Hsien-Ko's body frame, an update I want to make to the keyhole on her qipao, and edit the text.

Hmmm, kinda about it. I'll be making a Lore Bits 4 for them to go over some new aspects about them I do wish to share. Look out for it in due time. :)

[rubykgrant]

Can't wait to see live reactions from everyone (mainly Grif Sarge Wash Carolina) to AI influencing Simmons

OHHHHH... alright, so, maybe 3 years ago now? I was kind of doing really simple/scribble comics (that were mostly heavy with text because I didn't have a good concept for how to draw these goobers, and wasn't diving into writing it all out as a story yet) that were basically high-lights of different plot points in my big story-line. In particular, some bad guys are planning on scanning the brains of the Reds, Blues, their medic, and former Freelancers to try and make new AI (they think that because they've all technically have had "long exposure" to the most significant known AI Fragments, this will be the best way to create more that will be "useful". the bad guys also have a really limited understanding of how the "fragments" even work, thinking they can only make more "Logic" and "Trust" and so-on AI, and that FORCING fragmentation is the only option that "works")

The bad guys are using boot-leg equipment that will probably kill everybody in the process. The characters have all been knocked-out for the scanning, but! Guess who came back; Church, Tex, and the Fragments! They all split up and take turns waking up different characters (in particular, Omega reunites with Doc/meets the headmate O'Malley. Theta helps Caboose and Sarge, Delta helps Grif, etc...). Sigma goes to help Simmons with some very motivational words. I would actually want to re-write all the text for the Simmons and Sigma interaction, just to make it less wordy and also because I've up-dated/adjusted certain parts of the larger plot... I do still like a few bits, though! I'll paste them below-

Text for Sigma reads; Well, well, well... who do we have here? Oh yes. The one who has a lot to say, but is rarely listened to. Always seeking approval and attention... I'm sure the people trying to fragment your mind have no idea about your potential. They see the problem-solving skills and the mental capabilities... but they also see the anxiety and the insecurities. They'll probably try to strip all that away from you when they re-build what they think is useful from your mind. A shame that would be... nothing makes an individual strive for MORE quite like feeling insufficient. That would be such a shame, wouldn't it? Well, don't worry, I'm here to stop that. Now, Dick Simmons, let's wake you up...

(a lot of text, Sigma explaining the situation as he slowly wakes up Simmons mind first, but warning him not to try and move yet. Sigma then informs Simmons that even without armor and tech, he can help Simmons fight back, and it will be easier if they can sort of "vibe" first-)

Text for Sigma reads; By connecting with you... show me what drives you, Simmons...

A mother and father, disappointed in you from the beginning. Well, that hardly seems fair, does it? It stuck with you, too... authority figures, superiors, even peers... they all kept rejecting you. Very sad indeed... but what is hidden under all that sadness, under the fear of letting people down? A streak of pride, a sense of smug indignation. Ripples of jealousy that turn into waves of resentment. An ego, burning with frustration and ambition

(more text, Simmons trying to deny it, then complaining that Sigma is picking on him, and they finally get to the point... also, Sigma is definitely PROJECTING bit regarding his own previous situation-)

Simmons; Alright... you want me to think about getting back to everybody who's important to me. Sure, that makes sense. I can roll with that

Sigma; No, that isn't enough. You need to think BIGGER. The people who tricked you all into coming here, they're going to destroy you. They will delete what they think doesn't matter, and focus on the parts they think they can use as tools. This will kill who you are now. It will also kill everybody else. It will kill the people who have become your dear friends. It will kill the people who have become more of a family to you than your pathetic parents. It will kill Grif

Simmons; What, are you trying to scare me now?!

Sigma; I'm trying to MOTIVATE YOU. Everything you want is out there, waiting for you, and you can't let anybody stand in your way. Wha is happening to you is an insult, an injustice. How DARE these people try to take away your life, when you've FINALLY gotten what you deserve? You have respect, you have purpose, you have genuine happiness. What will happen if you can't get out of this room? Nothing. You'll have nothing, and you'll BE nothing. Does that sound good, Simmons?

Simmons; No. It doesn't (partial illustration of a face, meant to be Simmons, his eyes closed and expression relaxed to mimic sleep)

Sigma; I didn't think so. Well, look at us, bonding and everything. I'll be able to help you now. I can tell you exactly what to do, when to dodge and when to strike. I won't be "taking over your body", so don't worry about that... we'll just be in unison. I can function at a migher capacity than humans, and normally you couldn't keep up. However, the better connected we are, the easier it will be for me to give you advice. You'll react much quicker, and they won't know what hit them. Once you're in the clear, and I point you in the right direction, I'll go help somebody else. Perhaps I'll even find Grif for you

Simmons; Alright, I guess I'm motivated... actually, I'm pretty pissed-off

Sigma; Yes, I can tell. Let's be sure to aim that energy at the people who put you here

Simmons; I don't want to kill anybody...

Sigma; We won't

Simmons; but I want to make them pay

Sigma; We will

Simmons; I can feel my fingers, and my legs... when should I move?

Sigma; Not yet. I'll tell you when the time comes. Just hold still, relax, keep your breathing even... they think you're still sleeping. Don't let yourself fall into a rage, that's not what we need. Calm and confident, that's what we need. You are better that these people think you are, you are capable of more than they expect. Think about what you want, and hold on to that feeling... almost ready... almost...

Sic 'em

(another partial illustration of Simmons' face, this time his eye opening, with flames as the iris)

Also, later Sigma basically needs to give Simmons a powerpoint presentation about his feelings regarding Grif; somebody had to SPELL. IT. OUT.

[nualaofthefaerie]

Everyone chill. Op just asked a question. It was cheeky. It wasn't meant like that. It's not like everyone gets everything. Defensiveness gets us nowhere, on both sides. Whenever someone asks one or the other side about their ship, they jump as if Viktor's a cookie that can't be shared.

I'll be glad to explain. Skyvik is not my "THE" ship. They either come in pack of four or I'm not interested:

But I spend enough time in all the tags to the point where I can explain each of their individual dynamics quite easily.

Is Skyvik based on guilt? Kinda actually.

On one hand, the acquintances to lovers pipeline is appealing to people, it's a tale as old as time. But I do think the guilt/grief angle is much more romantic. Now granted, I am a freak 😔 i do like them doomed from the get go.

Super important I subscribe to 'death of an author'. What Christian Linke or Amanda Overton tell me about any of these four is like air to me, it wasn't in the show it doesn't count. "Jayvik are friends"...like hell they are. "Sky was a stand in for Jayce" I'm afraid visuals do not subscribe to that notion.

Now, to go quickly through the usual Skyvik denial arguments:

1. "He calls her Miss Young"

Viktor's character is based on Slavic men. In most slavic cultures nicknames, first names and last names are used interchangeably without indication of how close someone is to another person.

He calls her Sky more times than he calls her Miss Young ever. At some point it became this Mandela Effect where people act like he didn't know her name.

2. He shows no interest in her before she died

By the time we are shows any sort of interest on Sky's part about Viktor, he's already too obsessed with the Hexcore and saving himself.

Relationships are kind of obsolete to a man who knows he has no time left to spare and the "cure" is a puzzle that's dangling over his head

That scene where he "rejects her" is also the scene he ignores Jayce more or less because he is too focused on the idea that the core can learn.

So all in all we do not know if he cared. And then it's Schrödinger's cat since their backstory was stripped from the final versions of the script

3. She tells him "No, you won't" when he says he'll miss their conversations

He needed reassurance he can let her go. He wasn't ready to do that. That's the shot on their hands where she's letting him go. His hands are shaking, he's teary eyed, he doesn't really want to let whatever she is, go.

Now! Is Sky his humanity? Yes. Does that mean she wasn't herself in there? No. I don't think so. We see she has free will. She is not pleased with the violent turn of events and if she can be displeased, she can argue, if she can argue she can be herself.

She let's him go so he can finish what he started. I believe she told him he won't miss her because that was the last of his emotions and then he is just numb, therefore incapable of missing anything or anyone. Missing someone is deeply intertwined with having any sort of positive opinion or feelings for someone. And he let's these things go.

Now, onto the real juicy stuff.

Was it guilt? YES. Yes it was. BUT, in many literary pieces grief and guilt are the strongest soldiers of romance. They are inherently romantic.

Viktor felt SOMETHING for her. Be it that he's in love with the idea of her or her, it doesn't really matter. Not really. But the acts he engages in post her death are quite in line with those of a classic gothic romance novel.

He scattered her ashes where he met her and was ready to just follow her to death. Jayce stopped him. Which (the implications of that...we can talk about the Hexteam some other time) but Jayce prevents that. When he's resurrected, it's against his will and his body is now the thing that killed the person who loved him.

So he takes the one object left from her (the notebook) and leaves his "creator" (who at that point betrayed him twice - made weapons and didn't destroy the core) behind with a body he detests. The only way to attone for him being alive at that point is to try to do what she wanted - make their home better.

At that point everything saviour Viktor does is FOR Sky as much as it is for him. The commune? Highly implied that was the project she wanted his help on. That's her commune he built for her. Healing people? For her. To attone for her being gone. He needs her approval constantly or at least the illusion of her approval. As seen ⬇️ down here and when he looks up to her in Arc 1 s2. He wanted to make sure telling Singed to go was the right choice. Which is NOT the hexcore manipulating him into doing anything as in the end all he did, he did himself.

The symbol that holds the blanket is her broach, which is a favorite symbol of mine about how Viktor is an amalgamation of the two people who loved him unconditionally. REGARDLESS.

Her spirit is also allowed to touch him. Something others are not. The followers were touched BY him, she and Jayce are allowed close enough to touch HIM. Also in a "single consciousness" she is not shared with the others. Its only for him to see because he is the only one who knew her.

But in doing everything to make it up to her, Viktor triggers the end of the world. And world ending grief and guilt is just something different all together. If Sky doesn't die...Viktor will never end the world. There is only an end to pursuit if Sky Young dies. There is only reversal to that if Jayce Talis saves Viktor's soul. Their fates are intertwined for eternity to chase after one another and take the entire world down with them.

I hope that's not too long, i tried to be as detailed as possible but I'm also tired and my tummy aches 😥 I'm sorry.

I hope that makes a bit of sense to OP. 🪷

full offense to skyvik shippers but literally what basis do yall even ship them on? guilt?

[onyourowndaisymae]

Hello! If possible, could I request the Obey Me brothers + dateables and their reactions to an MC with dyscalculia? If not, it's totally fine!! I hope you've an awesome week <3 !!

obey me brothers + an mc with dyscalculia (pt. 1)

in order to get shit out in even a remotely timely manner, i've decided to now and in the future start splitting asks into two individual posts based on character group (brothers vs dateables/side characters). it was between that and shortening the posts and since i'd rather bite my own fingers off than put out content i'm not proud of, this is my solution! so let's call this part 1 to this ask. also sorry it takes me obscenely long to post i am a mess

content warnings: none

"Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person's ability to do math. Much like dyslexia disrupts areas of the brain related to reading, dyscalculia affects brain areas that handle math- and number-related skills and understanding." - Cleveland Clinic

Lucifer

lucifer is such a dad about this, like i cannot express this enough.

he knows you have dyscalculia before you even arrive in the devildom. he sees it on your paperwork before they pull you from the human realm, so he's already preparing the best strategies to assist you. he will, however, wait until you say something about it to make that information known.

he will make you bring your math homework to his office every night so he can check it. that is not optional. he doesn't care how much you hate it, because at the end of the day you need to pass. tough love, in a sense.

but, on that same note-- he's not actually mean about correcting your work. it's very odd. you'd expect big, bad, "i'll string mammon up from the ceiling on any given day" ass lucifer would be a brutal teacher, but he's really not. he knows that you brain simply does not work the same way as others, so he's extra particular about his explanations. he doesn't ever call you out in a way that makes you feel stupid. this proud demon never wants to make you embarrassed over something you can't control.

ideally, you'll come around on doing homework in his office every night. he thinks this is the perfect choice for both of you. his office is quiet and warm, with the soothing sounds of a crackling fire comforting you as you work. he can make sure any distractions (aka, his brothers) are completely out of sight until you're finished for the night. he'll also be right there in case you need any help-- he'll drop whatever he's doing and help until you're sure you've got the problem down.

lucifer is protective of this time together. it's the one time where he's certain he can do more for you than the rest of his brothers, and he's determined to prove you won't ever need to turn to them for help.

if you get overwhelmed with your homework, he's easy on you for the rest of the night. lucifer knows when to call it quits-- he'll slide your homework away across the desk and set a reassuring hand on your back. he doesn't speak as you get all your frustrations out, whether they be tears or anger. it's easy to forget that lucifer is actually an older brother. but in moments like these, full of quiet comfort as he carefully works you down from the ledge, you think maybe he's not so intimidating after all.

Mammon

oh, you're not good with math? join the club, bestie.

mammon takes an embarrassing amount of time to realize that you've got dyscalculia. like, a near impossible amount of time. you're not hiding this information from him. he's seen lucifer help you with your math homework, heard you talk about special accommodations for tests, hell, you've even said it aloud! this man would lose a spelling bee to a box of bricks.

you eventually ask him if he knows what dyscalculia is. he tries to play it off like he knows, but of course, he's not a great actor. you let him flounder for a little bit before choosing mercy and explaining the concept to him. it takes him a bit to understand that it's an actual learning disorder and you're not just making shit up to explain why you suck at math.

mammon prefers when you do homework together. in his head, he justifies this by saying he'll be close by when if you need his help. in reality, he'd probably do more harm than good to your grade. he spends most nights trying to coax you into working on homework in his room. at the very least, he'll be able to spend some alone time with you

reality is often disappointing. you do actually spend most nights doing your math homework together... at the kitchen table, while lucifer sits between you two and makes sure you get your work done in a timely manner. no talking, mammon, or he'll hang you from the stairwell by your ankles.

don't ask him for help. just... don't. you'll honestly do worse than if you had just tried yourself.

if you get overwhelmed trying to do your work with dyscalculia, mammon is right there by your side. you won't be doing anymore work tonight, that's for sure. he'll pull you into his arms, red-faced and sheepish, as he soothes your frustrations with gentle, murmured affirmations. you are so much more than this math shit, alright? don't forget it.

Leviathan

levithan simply won't pick up on something as subtle as your difficulty with numbers. even if he notices it, he'd never say anything. what if he's wrong? what if you feel bad about it? what if he offers to help you with that math homework you're struggling with three feet in front of him and you hate him for it? oh god, maybe he should mind his own business. what if he's making all these assumptions about you-- assumptions that you'd hate him for? he can't handle if you-- oh, what? you want to talk about it with him? haha, no worries. totally chill. levi's nothing if not totally chill.

you have to tell levi about your dyscalculia if you ever want him to know, or at least tell one of his more loose-lipped brothers. he's willing to talk about it if you are. but no matter how close you are, he would never bring it up first.

he's got passable grades. he'd probably do better if he applied himself, but honestly, he's far too interested in throwing himself into another anime or video game to dedicate much brain space to school. if you want to do homework with him, he'll probably opt to play a game on some handheld next to you to keep you company. he's extra considerate to keep his headphones on and stay quiet for you. he's just honored you want to spend time with him like this.

you want levi to help you with homework? are you sure? you don't want one of his smarter brothers, like satan or belphie or-- you're sure you want him? he's not convinced he's stellar at tutoring or anything, but he'll try. he brings out his own (rushed) homework and explains his thought process to you... funnily enough, helping you points out the flaws in how own work, which he can now fix before turning it in. helping you has quiet literally raised his grades in the long run.

if you get overwhelmed, levi is quick to panic. please don't cry. his best solution is to distract you. wanna watch him beat this level? wanna start an anime together to take your mind off of it? you guys end up wasting the rest of the night recreating the HoL and demon brothers in the devildom equivalent of the sims. so much for raising your grades together... lucifer is not happy hearing how easily both of you got distracted (but lets it slide when he realizes it was math homework you skipped).

Satan

satan is an observant fellow. he probably knows within your first month at RAD that you've got an issue with numbers. he might not know the exact diagnosis, but he can tell you're not nearly as confident with math as you are in other subjects. he notices you're more dodgy about anything to do with numbers. he had not intention to bother you about it, of course, but he'll watch with a bit of curiosity as you encounter these sort of situations-- he doesn't understand you, after all, and he wants to know why.

by the time you guys are on friendly terms, he'll offer to help you with any homework you might struggle with. satan gives no indication that he knows you're not the most confident in math. while he hates lucifer, satan still knows the value of pride and dignity in these situations. he waits until you approach him one night for help-- bashful, a little ashamed, all interesting emotions for him to witness up close-- and carefully guides you through the work. that's when he sees it. you have an odd way of interacting with numbers. there he notices little mess ups when counting, longer pauses mid-equation, how quiet you are as he helps you out... interesting. guess he'll have to keep assisting you for now.

when you do eventually tell him, he... i mean he basically flat out tells you he knew from the moment he watched you solve a math problem. hopefully that explanation doesn't upset you. it's just facts. one time you had to pay for something at a festival stall in cash... watching you try to calculate the combination of coins and bills you should hand over was painful.

he doesn't really mind accommodating your dyscalculia. you, at least, aren't just a dumbass with no explanation (like mammon, he's talking about mammon). satan will usually ask if you want his help before stepping in, out of courtesy, but usually prefers to handle number-related tasks himself. it just goes faster.

if you get overwhelmed with your homework, you'll see satan get really confused. he didn't think it was something that could upset you in that way. he'd sooner expect you to get pissed off and storm out, y'know? that he can relate to. he'll follow your lead on this one. what would make you feel better? if you want to power through, he'll do his best to explain everything as simply as possible. if not, he'll do something with you to take your mind off of everything.

Asmodeus

it's easy to write asmodeus off as some sort of surface-level ditz, but that's truly a disservice to the bubbly demon. he's still one of the most powerful demons in the whole realm, after all. but he's always been good at picking up those small details-- your dyscalculia is something that stumps him for awhile, but eventually, he figures out something is up.

the main problem is shopping. he'll often drag you along with him to majolish, either as a pack mule to carry his things or as a lovely little doll to try on every outfit combo his pretty little head can put together. the real issue came about as he tried to get your help calculating a running total for the items in his arms. see, asmo is quite good with numbers (new headcanon alert? honestly i'm into it i now declare asmo's a secret lil math whiz). so as he's adding up the prices, he'll shout numbers at you from another changing room and ask you for help. what's $74.36 + 189.20? quickly! oh, too late, he's got it. will you remember $263.56? now say that back to him?

when you inevitably stumble through every single number-related task, even just counting certain things in the bag, asmodeus realizes that maybe you're just not that good with numbers. not in the way that mammon is, that's just general stupidity (so mean!), but in a way unlike you are with anything else. eventually he'll stop handing off number-related tasks to you and take a couple extra seconds to do it anyways.

asmo would help you with homework, but that requires doing his own homework, you see. and considering the fact that his nails are wet AND the devildom culture reading sounds boring as hell... he doesn't have any plans to do it. in fact, he'll calculate just what assignments he can skip while still passing. if he's not going to do his homework, he'll at least keep you company while you do yours! expect quite humming as he scrolls through social media next to you.

on the rare occasion that he does in fact do his work, asmo is more than willing to help you with your math homework! he does, however, have a system. first of all, you guys are studying in his room with the door closed. not to hide anything from the others-- unless you'd like to take advantage of the closed door?-- but to keep his brothers from interrupting you. then the two of you will spread out on his floor or his bed and get to work. if you help him with devildom history, he'll gladly help you with math!

if you get overwhelmed by your math homework, asmodeus is quick to ditch school work for the rest of the evening. honestly he didn't want to do it either! he's almost excited to be there by your side and comforting you-- in part because it's him you're asking for comfort and not his brothers, and in part because he gets the chance to charm you with one of his greatest strengths: hospitality! expect an evening of pampering with no expectation of reciprocation. he enjoys running you a bath (won't even joke about joining you... this time), doing your skincare, painting your nails... it's your call. he just can't wait to take your mind off of the stress and remind you just how wonderful you are.

Beelzebub

beelzebub doesn't even come close to finding out about your dyscalculia until you tell him. he thinks watching people work is a little rude, and he's usually too busy snacking, or thinking about snacking, or planning his next food order, or-- you get the picture. and even if he did notice you struggling, he'd kindly turn the other cheek to give you privacy. he might mention something to belphie later, considering how smart his twin is and all, but it's always out of a place of genuine concern and care for you. beel is trusts you to respect your own limits and, if you want him to know about your struggles, to approach him when you're ready.

beel is the type to have a structured homework routine. he just gets too distracted when left to his own devices! his stomach can lead him to the wildest of places. beel goes to the same spot in his room every night with a mountain of snacks and gets to work. belphie is usually somewhere in the room to "supervise", mainly acting to keep his twin on task when his brain goes into overdrive. no beel, you didn't miss fangol practice. it was cancelled tonight because of the weather. is lucifer making dinner toni-- i don't know who's on dinner duty. no, don't go check. beel.

if you're joining him to actually do your work, belphie is thankful. you essentially take over his job of "beel wrangler" and allow him to sleep peacefully nearby. if you're there to be a distraction, it's only a matter of time until you're either wrangled yourself (much to belphie's irritation) or shooed out of the room until beel finishes his work.

tutoring from beel is really collaborative. you tackle each question together, one at a time, until the assignment is complete. he wants to hear how your brain processes the question-- learning difficulty and all-- then he'll share his thoughts. somewhere in there the two of you will usually find the right answer. if not, belphie's always willing to try to help the two of you.

if you get overwhelmed with your math homework, beel is quick to comfort you. what can he do to help? he's got some snacks if that would take your mind off of things. actually, these are new ones from the convenience store across town. in a couple of minutes, you're playing a devildom version (and surprisingly tamer, considering this is supposed to be hell and all) version of beanboozled. beel never guesses a flavor incorrectly. eventually you and belphie are just feeding a blindfolded beel jellybeans and watching him guess each and every flavor correctly. at least you're not struggling with your work anymore!

Belphegor

belphie, after sitting in his assigned seat next to you for exactly one (1) math class, asks if you've always struggle with numbers. blunt but to the point, i guess? he doesn't mean to be offensive or anything, but he's not going to sugarcoat it, either. he noticed you were struggling keeping up with the notes. you're welcome to borrow his if you need to.

(i feel the need to note here that belphie's notetaking is ass. he's on the verge of passing out each class period, so all of his work is slanted heavily and mostly undecipherable. it's a shame, really, because he's got good handwriting when he's awake).

he's found most often in his room or the attic curled up among the blankets. because they assume he's asleep, wherever belphie is tends to be a good study spot. sometimes he'll beckon you to join him on the bed as he tries to distract you encourages you to pace yourself. other times he's fast asleep with the lights on, leaving you to your studies on the floor or at a nearby desk/table.

if you specifically request his tutoring, he'll make time for you. sure, he'll probably be half asleep and will appear in your room to help at an odd hour between naps, but he'll be sure to come. the problem is that his "tutoring" is mostly him just telling you the answers. if you're cool with this, great! if not, he's a bit less helpful. it's best to just use him as one would the answers section at the back of the textbook to check if you found the right result and, if not, as a resource to work backwards and find your mistake.

if you get overwhelmed with your math work while doing homework in belphegor's room, he immediately suggests a break to help calm you back down. unfortunately, this is the avatar of sloth we're discussing-- any break he suggests will most definitely turn into a distraction that stops any and all progress for the rest of the night. honestly? sometimes that's what you need. sometimes you know you're going to stress beyond the point of improvement, and those nights need to be stopped before you crash. his first suggestion will always be to curl up together to take a nap. if you're interested, you should be aware that the "nap" will not end until the next morning. if you decide to be responsible and veto that plan, then you will probably both curl up to watch a movie-- your pick-- and spend the rest of the night far, far away from any math homework that'll stress you out further.

[blueopinions49]

Mistyping on The Enneagram

Introduction

The purpose of this post is to understand what are mistyping and how they happen. I’ll explain some of the patterns ive noticed when it comes to some of the mistypings as well as some of examples ive I personally disagree with. Please dont take any of this as a personal insult if any of these examples I give are things you've done in the past or the typings I disagree with are your own.

Case #1 Bad Media Literacy 

Often one of the biggest mistake I see when it comes to typing characters enneagram its the interpretation of the characters motive and character arc being incorrect and often based on nothing. The claims you'll mostly see is flattening of the character and often they'll just take one line of dialogue or small piece of the character and typed them based on that. Rather than looking at the character overall. Even if the characters motives and desire are bluntly on display they'll usually ignore these in favor of their misunderstanding of the text. 

Ex- Maxine Minx (3w4 so/sx) being typed as 2w3 sx/so

-Maxine Minx is a character whose desires are screamed to you by the narrative (literally). Maxine craves stardom and status; she yells at Pearl that she won't have the life she doesnt deserve because she is a Star. Her  sense of self importance and entitlement are clear pointers to soc 3. So I find quite shocking/horrifyng seeing people type her as a sx 2. Let's start with the fact that Maxine’s core desire being in creation of a unique bond with ONE individual in which she ignores her own needs to please the subject is one of the most unhinged takes ive ever seen because there is absolutely no evidence of this in the text. Second Maxine being a Super Ego+Positive type is just not true there isn't any evidence of that in the text. It's just a mess of a typing based on bad media literacy and even worst understanding of subtypes. 

Case #2 Misunderstanding of Subtypes 

This is one of the most unlikely cases I see most people have a decent understanding of subtypes. However this still sometimes happens in which people usually take the definition of the subtype and barely explain it. Sometimes they dont understand what each instinctual variants desire is. 

Social-The desire to find a place in which they belong. Will have a belief that they have a big role in this world.

Self-Preservation-Looks for the needs of the self and those around them.

Sexual- They look for connections and to influcence others. Can be romantic or not. 

Ex-Daenerys Targaryen (2w1 so/sp) typed as 1w2 sx/so

Dani being typed as an sx1 isnt as bad as some of the other typings I'll cover here but it still shows a bit of confusion. The sx1 looks to perfect others through sharpening them morally. While the soc 2 looks to help others for the greater good. Both of these are super ego types which I why they might be confusing and have some similarities. 

 #3 Detachment between subtype and Type Structure  

This is the most common mistake ive seen people make when it comes to typing enneagram. They usually detach the subtype from the type structure and stick to the definition of the subtitle without taking any parts of the type it self. The focus on the subtype makes it so the core desire of the enneagram type itself is replaced rather than complement it. The core desire of the enneatype will and should always come first when it comes to typing. This has led to allot of mistyping in which they ignore crucial parts of the enneagram and character/person they are typing. 

Asuka Langley (3w4 so/sx) typed as 2w3 sx/so or 4w3 sx/so 

Both of these typings cause me a headache so ill cover both 

4w3 sx/so- sx 4 Asuka is one of the worst typing ive seen. They hyper focus on the flimsy definition and the poor understanding of Asuka’s character makes this typing a mess. To believe that Asuka craves for “depth and authenticity” is one of the most insane understanding of her character. And when checking at the triads it becomes even more evident that this typing is holding for its dear life on the misunderstanding from her character. To believe that Asuka is a withdrawn type is one hell of an interpretation. When it comes to attachment style Asuka being a frustration types makes no sense either. The E4 believes itself to be “too deep and profound” for others which is why they find themselves frustrated believing that others aren't as profound as they are. Also having any form of self hate ISNT a sign of enneagram 4. 

2w3 sx/so- This typing I see a bit less but its still pretty common. This typing probably comes when people hyper fixation on Kaji. And tbh thats kinda of bad since that is a minor plot beat when it comes to her character. And when you look at E2 as a whole Asuka just doesnt fit there anywhere...The sx ignores the need of self to please ONE individual who they believe can return the love they need. And Asuka doesnt ever ignore her own needs at all. Also Asuka being a super ego type...no. The super ego types believe they are doing righteous acts and believe themselves to be morally superior. And how does this apply to Asuka? well it doesnt. 

Case #4 “May look like X type” 

Following the same topic from the last case they will usually focus on the small part in the final description of the subtype in which they point out some similarities with others. However it is important to note that they are still the same type. The Enneagram core desire and needs doesnt change because they may look like X type. And this seems to be very rampant as of recently. 

Anakin Skywalker (8w7 sx/so) typed as 4w3 sx/so- This typing makes is as bad as the previous character. The current fixation on the may look like E8 in the description of sx E4 has made allot of different charcaters and people be mistyped based on that single line. Anakin never desire authenticity nor depth. He makes it very clear in both The Clone Wars show and Attack of The Clones that he craved power In order to protect those he loved. Saddest part is he quite literally tells us this in attack of the clones...

Lack of Knowledge of General Type structure and Ignoring Triads 

The type structure of each type is complex and detailed however it is key to understand its importance when it comes to typing and understanding the enneagram. Naranjos work on the enneagram is my preferred source when it comes to general type structure I highly suggest you find pdfs or sometimes people of personality coffee leave the type descriptions of naranjo in there. Understanding the core desire of the enneagram and the lines inside is something ive noticed people have a hard time understanding and not taking into consideration when it comes to typing.  Triads is also a very good and important tool to understanding how the types work and it helped me allot to distinguish them. Especially when it comes to object relations. 

Ex- Cassie Howard (9w1 sx/so or 2w1 sp/sx) being type 3w2 sx/so

So im not sure on Cassies enneagram just yet im between the options listed above however Cassie being typed as a sx 3 makes no sense at all. Cassie being a competency+assertive types makes very little sense to me. Especially since the sx 3 looks for success in the interpersonal sense they dont really crave the “love” that comes from it just the image of filling the role in someones life. While I think the sx 9 makes more sense since her being an attachment type makes the most sense to but also I could see sp 2 tho. I don’t see the assertiveness that the sx 2 has.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DCCU Interlude: The Legion of Super-Heroes (Part 3)

Chapter Three: New Recruits

OK, now that we've tackled the original trio, let's get into the four new members I'm planning on introducing in this series: Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, and... Elgar Degep. IFKYK, I guess? I'll explain that last one later, but for those of you Legion fans who haven't noticed it yet...look at the name again, and it'll be pretty obvious, I think.

So, like the last entry into this essay series, I'll be going into primarily my version of these characters, rather than their complex comic book histories, at least for the most part. Additionally, most of the planets these guys come from are essentially blank slates, so I'll be making a few planetary cultures and histories from essentially scratch, with the occasional inspiration from the comics. Considering how long the last post was, let's get this done, shall we? Where do we start?

Triplicate Girl: Unique Outcast

Let's start with the planet before we get to the person, shall we? Cargg, in my universe/headcanon, is a huge planet primarily covered in an urbanized landscape. It was colonized by Winathians centuries ago. I mentioned in the Lightning Lad section of my previous essay that the colonists of Winath populated the large planet quickly by using an Infinity Serum that allowed them to duplicate themselves, and when this inevitably led to overpopulation, a genetic modifier was administered to the population, limiting or removing their abilities to duplicate.

However, this modification didn't take with the entire population, instead serving to limit a very small proportion of the population to creating only two duplicates of themselves at maximum. Seeing this as an opportunity for further colonization of the system, these genetically unique individuals left Winath, and settled on another large planet: Cargg. Here, they initially began farming the planet, but soon found that the conditions of the planet were not conducive to the same Winathian farming techniques. Instead, since the citizens were able to literally make more of themselves, they dove into industry and exports, becoming a manufacturing mecca of the solar system, and helping to supply their sister planet Winath with supplies and equipment.

So, now that we have the planet explained...what about the people?

Well, being able to split yourself into triplets definitely has some biological and sociological implications. Biologically, one would assume that a lot of food would be needed to divide, possibly making their caloric load a bit higher, and metabolisms a bit faster and more efficient in order to quickly allow and power the duplication. So, while Cragg supplies Winath with equipment, Winath supplies Cargg with food they can't make or grow themselves. Additionally, let's just say that Carggites are known for big meals and good food. Just a little bit of fun headcanon there.

Philosophically, things get more complicated. If you split yourself into three different bodies, are you still the same person, or are you officially different people until you reunite into one body? And then, if you wanna dive into spirituality, do the bodies share a single soul, or they have different ones that fuse together once reuniting. Or, are they three parts of a different soul? And this is coming from someone who isn't extremely religious, but it's definitely the sort of thing that a society made of individuals with this power would think about, y'know? So, let's actually assume that all of these schools of thought are present on Cargg, maybe even becoming parts of different religions and behaviors. Cargg could essentially be in a theological civil war, therefore, with different people ascribing to different beliefs.

But that said, one could assume that each clone would still be the same person. Even with different souls, or part of the same soul, they still come from the same person. Therefore, one can assume that the three would consider themselves to be the same person. But, of course...what if you didn't think that? What if you truly thought of yourselves as three different people, with the ability to fuse into a single person, instead of other way around? Enter Luornu Durgo.

Side note, by the way: the Legion of Super-Heroes design of Triplicate Girl, as seen above, is maybe my favorite design for the character. It's just so good, honestly. But OK, who is Luornu Durgo, in this universe? Luornu Durgo is a set of three people who happen to have the same name, and the ability to fuse into one person. And the acknowledgement of being three separate people is...odd, to most Carggites. This doesn't mean she's exiled, necessarily, just that she's an outcast in most social situations.

See, identifying as three separate people entirely means that each of the Triplicates has a slightly different personality and interests, meaning that they can actually have different color preferences and likes/dislikes. And to most people outside of Cargg, their similarities probably outweigh their differences. But on Cargg, having any differences is weird. Not unheard of, but still weird. And so, Luornu isn't exactly comfortable in her own home.

Oh, also, another side-note: a part of me actually wanted Luornu to have the pronouns they/them because...well, triplicates. But honestly, that might be a touch confusing. Not because of the pronouns themselves (obviously, that's entirely fine), but because I'd rather not have this character use the pronouns in the plural form, rather than in the non-binary form. Although, yeah, we don't have to rule that out, either. I'm open to any opinions on that front. But, for the sake of simplicity at the moment, I'll be sticking to she/her for Triplicate Girl as a whole.

So, Luornu hears about the Legion of Super-Heroes, and decides that she'd want to tryout and join. She's not particularly interested in representing Cargg, because life has taught her that she isn't really a representative of Cargg, but she's still interested in a way to get off the planet, where she can live the three separate lives she'd like to live. And she's not necessarily against being one person, but she's definitely more comfortable split up, because she feels less limited. I feel like I may be dipping into some spiritual territory of the LGBTQ crowd here, in truth, and I am straight as an arrow, so my apologies if I'm stepping on some toes. Again, let me know if there's some perspective that you think would be valuable here.

With that, Luornu auditions for the Legion (I kinda love how it happened in Superboy #147, personally, but that's just me being a nerd), and becomes one of the new members. Over the course of the first season, her journey will be one of self-acceptance and discovery, as she greets the less-restrictive world of Earth and other planets. Her triplicates have accentuated pieces of her personality, and you can have her embrace those pieces to make her a complete person, or more complete people. But, in truth...the first season isn't Luornu's season of focus. No, no...that'll be the second season, were there to be one. And that's because I'm building up to the most important event in Luornu's life, and the reason for this characterization.

Because Luornu's way of thinking is actually somewhat correct. Carggites are (or could be) essentially three separate souls with the ability to fuse into one body, rather than the other way around. And that's discovered when one of the Triplicates is killed.

The transition from Triplicate Girl to Duo Damsel is one of the most important events of its day in comics, at least in terms of the Legion. The mad computer, Computo (yes, I know) goes rogue and kills one of the Triplicates, leaving Luornu only able to split into two bodies. Which...makes no sense. Seriously, if your superpower is splitting into three bodies, then why would you lose that ability once one of those duplicates dies? The core body, after all, is still alive...right?

Unless, of course, it was actually three separate people with the ability to fuse into one person. In that case, it makes sense that losing one of those people would make you incomplete. And Duo Damsel is quite literally a different person than Triplicate Girl. Essentially, we're talking Steven Universe rules in terms of fusion. Different combinations of duplicates make different people, with different personality traits and behaviors formed from the sum of two parts. And so, it turns out that, over time, Luornu did basically become three separate people, rather than one person who could split. And therefore, when one of them dies in a future season (or maybe between seasons, I haven't decided), we're permanently down to 2 rather than 3.

But again...that's a story for another season. For now, Luornu should be a fun and interesting character with a lot of hobbies and interests, packed into three separate bodies. Let's contrast her with the rest of the new members.

Phantom Girl: Not All There

Oh, boy, Tinya Wazzo. Here's where things get super tricky and weird, continuity-wise. Tinya has had alternate identities, power-sets, names, time-periods, species...she's a more complicated person to adapt straight, but also somewhat complicated to adapt faithfully. So, while I'm gonna start with her planet, I'm also going to start in a possibly unexpected time and place. But, to be honest, the fact that no-one has proposed what I'm about to propose has bothered me for a while. So...

The place: the States of Amerika! The time: the 21st century! At a point after the events of my modern DC universe, the planet gets visitors from another Earth entirely. The first evidence of the multiverse in my cinematic universe is NOT related to the Justice Society. No, they're actually still around, having existed since the 1950s. We'll talk about them on another occasion, I promise. Not sure when, but it will happen. But yeah, the first multiversal incursion actually comes from a group known as the Freedom Fighters.

You may know this team from the film Freedom Fighters: The Ray, or from the Crisis on Earth-X Arrowverse crossover. In the comics, they're led by Uncle Sam, the immortal embodiment of American spirit and freedom (yes, really), and they fight against the Nazi Regime in a universe where they won World War II and took over the world. You know, some real The Man in the High Castle shit. Anyway, one of the members of this team is Sandra Knight. She originally uses a black light projector to defeat people in total darkness, but later gains the ability to phase through objects as a result of multiversal travel. Her codename is...Phantom Lady. See where I'm going with this?

Phantom Lady dates back to 1940s comics, and she was drawn so provocatively that she's one of these reasons for the Comics Code back in the day, as well as the famous and horribly restrictive book Seduction of the Innocent by absolute hack Frederic Wertham. That said, though, when you think about 1940s sensibilities, and look at some of her cover art...yeah...yeah, you get it. But anyway, that aside, it's weird to me that there's never been any official ties between Phantom Lady and Phantom Girl...so let's fix that!

See, once multiversal travel is discovered, it's inevitable that somebody would attempt to traverse the multiverse themselves. So, at some point closer to the 22nd century, that's exactly what happened. After learning from the various travelers over the years, a semi-stable portal was eventually developed by Time Zero Labs, spacetime specialists and studiers of the Speed Force, as well as a descendant of STAR Labs. The first planned permanent foray onto this world, known as Beginning, sent multiple squads into this new world. The seventh, Beginning-G, would be the last squad to settle onto the planet before the portal reached instability, closing permanently. This last mission sent in multiple new colonists to meet the existing ones on the unnamed planet, bringing the number up to 100 people staffed there. But without contact, it was unknown if this colony would survive. Fast forward 150 years.

The project had been long abandoned on the main Earth. Over that time, the new residents of this Earth made a home for themselves, surviving and gaining enough supplies to try and get back home. Eventually, though, they just settled on the planet permanently, naming it after the last squad that arrived, and the laboratory that founded the mission: Beginning-G Time Zero Labs, or...Bgtzl for short. Look, that name is fucking ridiculous, and I had to come up with a crazy-ass backstory to have it make sense. And yes, I know that it's originally spells Bgztl, so you can call the labs Zero Time Labs if you want, but...eh. It's misspelled in the comics constantly.

Anyway, due to regular experimentation with portals, and the nature of the universe they had settled, these Earth colonists had changed genetically over the course of a few generations, and every single resident of the planet was now phase-shifted, with their atoms able to temporarily switch between phase states of the two universes. This is, of course, not what phase state actually is on an atomic level, but you can physics it up a little bit to make it sound good. Now, for most residents, this is temporary and requires focus. But for some gifted individuals, this is actually a fairly easy process, and can be done at will, and for extended periods of time. Enter Tinya Wazzo.

The daughter of an influential family, Tinya Wazzo is expected to enter politics, as her mother has, and as her family has done historically. As a traceable descendant of the original 100 colonists of the planet, Tinya is very much aware of her station and responsibility, but also feels pretty limited by it. So, when her mother Winema Wazzo, a delegate and popular politician in her own right, visits Earth for a diplomatic visit, a teenaged Tinya comes with her.

Tinya's immediately taken by the stark differences between Bgtzl and Earth. Understand, the universe she comes from is essentially dead, while this universe is the stuff of legends and folklore. Imagine having the ability to travel into your favorite book, and you have an idea of what Tinya feels when she comes to Earth. She also finds that, like her mother, she has little difficulty phase-shifting into this universe, and has the ability to turn intangible as a result of this ability. She can even effectively disappear by phasing back into her universe, but with the consequence of not knowing where she'll end up as a result. Still, she quickly realizes that this ability could prove useful, and she sees an opportunity to join the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Winema is, understandably, hesitant to go along with this plan. However, three things convince her. First, having a daughter acting as a superhero on Earth would look good for their family, and for Bgtzl as a whole, easing relations and building political ties. This is especially important to her as it would act against a major political rival, Sarya of Venegar. More on her, later. Second, it gives Tinya the opportunity to gain experience with multiple different peoples and cultures, which she wouldn't be able to do as easily on Bgtzl. And third, she's convinced by a political ally and friend: R.J. Brande of Earth. More on him soon.

With that, Tinya Wazzo becomes a member of the Legion of Superheroes as Phantom Girl, a name she chooses in honor of one of the first heroes to cross dimensions in this Earth's history. Over the course of the first season of the series, she'll be one of the faces of the group, acting as the face of the new Legionnaires, while still learning the cultures of Earth and the other planets she's interacting with. The daighter of a politician, she's a fairly great read of character, to a somewhat bothersome degree. Because of this, she sometimes rubs people the wrong way, and can be a bit too nosy for her own good. She'll be learning this throughout the season, but her nosy nature will come in handy in multiple ways later on. Why? Well, uh...let's get to the next Legionnaire, shall we?

Invisible Kid: Spy on Both Sides

Like I did with Lightning Lad in the last essay, I wanna pause for a second to address something. My plan is to use Lyle Norg as the Invisible Kid, rather than Jacques Foccart. Why? Well, a few reasons, but mostly because Norg has been the Invisible Kid for more comic book history than Foccart, and some versions of him are more interesting to me. Plus, without Norg, Foccart wouldn't exist as the Invisible Kid in-canon, so Norg makes sense to me. That ALSO said, though, Norg absolutely isn't race-locked into white, while Foccart is more race-locked to being Black, as he's originally from Cote d'Ivoire. In truth, there are Europeans that live on the ivory Coast, but it's definitely vast majority Black.

So, I kind of what to use the best of both worlds and make Lyle black or non-white, but that's neither here nor there. "But what about Foccart's hair", cries the savvy reader. Well, uh...that wouldn't make sense to include, anyway, since that iconic white streak in his hair comes from seeing Darkseid for the first time. So, yeah, not a huge fan of including that flourish for no reason, but I actually may have a plan on that front, anyway. So, with that, we'll assume Lyle Norg is our Invisible Kid, but I'll be using any appropriate gifs of Invisible Kid that I can find anyway. As for the planet...well, Lyle and Jacques are both from Earth, and their powers are derived from experimentation. So, instead of talking about Earth in the 31st century, let's talk about the real origin of Lyle Norg in this universe: the Science Police.

For all intents and purposes, the Science Police are the cops of Earth's future, and act either in opposition or in cautious conjunction with the Legion, depending on the series. My version of the Science Police will function much like modern authorities, but will also have the jurisdiction of today's FBI and CIA, to a certain degree. Essentially, the world government of the 31st Century Earth fuses its authoritative and intelligence agencies into divisions of a single organization. So, the NuMetropolis Division of the Science Police is one of the stronger street divisions, and is monitored by a larger regional arm, run by Director Ryna Norg, an anti-superhero authority figure who is fiercely protective of her only child, Lyle.

Lyle is a brilliant young man, and wants to bring the "science" back into the Science Police with his talents. An inventor, gadgeteer, and amateur chemist, Lyle believes that the police could learn something from the superheroes of Earth's past. This means that not only can they use powers smartly and tactically, but that they can serve as a powerful symbol of right across the planet. But Ryna is a traditionalist, and stereotypically disapproves of any vigilantes who believe themselves above the law. So, to prove his point, Lyle Norg is able to use various skills to create a synthetic Infinity Serum, using data from an old IS from early in the technology's development. This unfinished serum, known as IS-Blank, was meant to be an invisibility serum, and was based on a 20th century experiment by controversial scientist Chadwick Ellis.

Lyle, however, figured out the problem. Using connections of his mother's, and academically, Lyle was able to procure data-files of genetic material from Arthur Light, Roy G. Bivolo, and government agent Stan Silver. This information was used to manipulate synthetic genetic material and the Ellis formula, in order to give the user the ability to bend the light around them, rather than simply become transparent. And so, the new IS-Blank was formed. But what to do with it? And what's worth, Ryna gets word of her son's machinations, and has questions of her own to answer.

This serum becomes a serious argument for Ryna, especially considering the fact that the Legion has just begun to show up, irritating Ryna and inspiring Lyle in equal measure. But Ryna, being a smart cop, offers a compromise. Lyle can continue his work, but in the service of the Science Police, who will infiltrate the Legion and take them down from the inside. Lyle agrees to do those, but then offers a condition of his own. And before his mother can stop him, he administers the serum to himself.

And from there, the deal is reluctantly made. Lyle, as a teenager, is a natural choice to infiltrate the Legion, and is sent in to report back to the Science Police about their identities, interests, and potential criminal activity. The information gathered here is meant to take down the Legion from the inside out. But obviously, Lyle doesn't quite agree with these plans. Still, he'll go into this as a spy, and naturally suspicious of the Legion and their leaders. Like Tinya, he's the son of an authority figure, and is good at observing people and gathering information on them. However, unlike Tinya, Lyle is quiet and fairly shy, and seems to naturally disappear into the background even without the serum.

And so, Lyle Norg will be our stealth agent for the Legion, and his arc throughout the first season is to slowly turn against the Science Police, and potentially discover their own corruption using his gifts of invisibility. Oh, and he'll also turn against the Legion briefly when he attempts to expose the other spy in the organization. See, at least Lyle sort of wants the Legion to be a good thing, and he's working for an Earth-born organization. But he's not the only one whose interests may be counter to the Legion's goals.

Oh, and one more thing before I forget! Lyle is gay. Making that fully canon, because it's been hinted at in the comics, but never confirmed. This won't really come to the forefront significantly in the first season, but it'll ideally be inserted organically into the nature of this universe and series. In the second or third season, his boyfriend will be revealed in the form of Chemical King AKA Condo Arlik, his semi-canon love interest in the comics. But that's a future conversation, of course. For now, let's get to the last featured Legionnaire.

Elgar Degep: Uh...Who?

In the comics...uh...hold up, this isn't a character from the comics. At least, that name definitely isn't from the comics. When we meet Elgar, they'll introduce themselves as the Earth-born descendant of one of Earth's most prominent heroes of the 21st century, Elongated Man. This is made obvious by their ability to elongate themselves and distort their shape significantly. Their flexibility and versatility will be their main asset, and they'll be a force to reckon with in some instances. However, they won't come to the Legion on their own. They'll actually be appointed to the Legion as a favor to a mysterious major benefactor. And at this point...IYKYK.

But here's the thing. We won't get the reveals there until close to the end of the first season. I'm talking the beginning of the last third, when some of the true enemies of the season begin to reveal themselves, and Elgar reverts to their TRUE form after a particular heavy battle. And for the sake of keeping things a little secretive, I won't reveal their full backstory here. But I will introduce the basics, and reintroduce this character. Hold on, lemme just unscramble that name pretty quick.

Chameleon: Master of Disguise

Yeah, this might have been a little obvious to most, but it's still an interesting twist to those not in the know, hopefully! Reep Daggle, AKA Chameleon, is one of the most iconic members of the Legion, as well as the center of some of their most interesting political struggles. Why? Well, as usual, let's talk about the planet he comes from: Durla. This'll mostly be about my version of the planet, but keep in mind that Durla is a planet of shapeshifters, and therefore often persecuted by others. It's also one of the most fleshed-out planets of any planet in the 31st century DC Universe...kinda.

And it all starts with what else...but a nuclear apocalypse.

The Six-Minute War was the end of the world once before Durla. History was lost, knowledge destroyed, and the planet was plunged into the Stone Age. The previous civilization was dead., and emerging from the shadows would be a new life form altogether. The history of those who would become known as "Durlans" has been lost to time. Some historians believe they were descended from mutants that survived the blast. Some believe they were parasitic lifeforms, replacing and mimicking the original Durlan survivors before killing them off. And some believe the Six-Minute War never happened, and Durlans have always been like this. But the real answer?

My version of Durlans are essentially a cellular syncytium of a species. What I mean by that is that every single one of their cells can be controlled by their sentience to act in whatever shape they desire. And this came about long before the Six-Minute War happened. A strain of sentient virus, developed in a laboratory on a nearby planet, escaped and infected a traveler from Durla. This virus, still primitive in its sentience, spread throughout the planet and infected the entire planet. But in reality, the disease caused by the virus was...well, harmless. The strain itself would continue to be developed on the original planet, treated with radiation treatments until it became a hyper-intelligent sentient virus, called Despotellis. But that story continues with somebody else entirely, once the rogue ring-wielder Sinestro enters the picture...

A story for a later day. Back on Durla, things proceed are politically tense. The history is dodgy, but essentially, the planet devours itself in a world war. In the process, nukes are thrown, and the ensuing destruction bathes the planet in ionizing radiation, and destroys the Durlan civilization. And this radiation also activates the virus. See, this virus, having lived in the cells of many Durlans, essentially integrated its own genome into their cells. This, in turn, gives the cells a primitive sentience, like the virus. However, once the cells are united into one organism, they can act together to rearrange themselves and change their physiology.

Once the radiation kicked in, the cells of the surviving Durlans got the trigger they needed, and this sentience finally kicked in through the bodies of these Durlans...at the cost of their memories. Yup, we're talking worldwide amnesia for any of the survivors. These were, essentially, new organisms with the ability to shapeshift, and the civilization they carved was tribal and primitive in nature. With the lack of resources, thanks the the loss of the previous world, Durla would never stray far from this path, and they wouldn't really desire to. Meanwhile, news of the Durlan plight spread from world-to-world, and rumors of disease and destruction plague them for centuries afterwards. This, combined with their newly discovered ability to shapeshift, makes them a widely disparaged and discriminated-against people. And that's why Cham disguises themselves at first.

But why does Chameleon leave Durla? Oh, and I'm calling them Chameleon (rather than Chameleon Boy) for obvious reasons. For God's sake, they're a shape-shifter from a culture of shape-shifters; what use is gender for a shape-shifter, y'know? Anyway, Reed Daggle is born to a spiritual leader of Durla, one of the Shadow Speakers that rule a major tribe of the planet. Their other parent is unknown to Cham, as they contracted a disease known as the Yorggian Fever, and was exiled from the tribe before Reep's birth, where they likely died. And again, IYKYK. Reep was expected to follow in the Speaker's footsteps, but discovered a different path.

See, Reep's other parent had detailed notes about the world outside of Durla, having found themselves there once or twice. This filled Reep with interest about that world, and they longed to explore it. They also believed, as their other parent did, that the lost history of Durla may be present on Earth. And so, wanting to see the world outside, Reep managed to separate himself from their tribe, and left Durla on a transport ship. In doing so, they saw much of the world, as well as the deep dislike of Durlans across the galaxy. They also saw great suffering, and pledged to help as many people as they could under different guises. However, this failed once arriving on Earth, where Reep was caught as a Durlan and reported for questioning and quarantine, as Durlans are not trusted by...well, anyone. It's bad.

The arrest of a Durlan gets the attention of R.J. Brande, an Earth-born billionaire and pioneer. Through his assistant and confidante, Marla Latham, Brande gets in contact with Reep and offers his assistance. This is because Brande is a Durlan, having had his appearance frozen in one form decades prior due to a disease. What neither Reep or Brande know is that Brande is actually Reep's other parent. Which, to those in the know, is not a surprise. Still, Brande is, at this point, in the midst of setting up the Legion of Super-Heroes with his funding, and has Marla take care of Reep.

Over time on Earth, Reep learns the language and culture (Durlans are very adaptable by design), and becomes enamored with Earth superheroes, particularly Plastic Man and Elongated Man, whose powers he can actually mimic. This gives Marla an idea, and she suggests that Reep be recommended for the Legion. But, given the unpredictable attitude that people across the galaxies have about Durlans, all parties involve agree that a disguise is required. Hence, "Elgar Degep" is born (the Daggle name is a known one in government circles).

And so, "Elgar" is welcomed onto the Legion. Obviously, their story will involve their secret identity, but will also involve their drive to help their own people, especially during a time in the show where the United Planets is working on expansion, and Durla is one of the worlds worth consideration. So, yeah, a lot on Reep's shoulders.

And with that, our main characters are set! Now comes the next question: what's the main source of conflict for the first season? Well, I've mentioned that a bit in the first portion of this essay series, but now I'll go into it. It'll happen on two fronts, physical and political. Physical's an interesting question, but political...hoo boy, political is where the real villains are. Right, Madame President?

See you in Part Four!