#but 90% are from one person so i just consider her contributions as part of the blog

[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!

[miyagi-hokarate]

The basic premise of The Karate Kid (1984) — down on his luck new kid learns how to defend himself and ultimately triumphs over his bullies with the help of a wise, old mentor — is far from unique. But since its release, a wave of movies in the 80s and even as far as into the 90s, clearly inspired by Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, came in with fists raised, ready to dominate late night television and home media.

There's No Retreat, No Surrender (1985), The Power Within (1995) (whose villain is played by none other than William Zabka), and my personal favorite of this niche genre: Showdown (1993), directed by Robert Radler

Also known as American Karate Tiger, for a reason that I could only assume has to do with the fact No Retreat, No Surrender is also known as Karate Tiger (no relation to these films however, besides in genre and story)

Anyway, make no mistake: this is not a good movie. I say it's my favorite, not because of its quality, but because there's just So Much About It that wouldn't leave my mind. This is besides the fact it's transparently derivative of The Karate Kid (hell, the main character in the movie references it in a scene! I was so mad!) — the way it's different (and worse) delights me to no end that the others hadn't achieved somehow.

tldr; a LONG assortment of words with some analysis because I need to tell people about this movie ahfkakfaf. NOT a coherent essay (or an essay at all really)

Part 1: Boring stuff like BACKGROUND or THEMES

First thing to know: there's another movie with the same name that was released in 1933 too, but that one's directed by Leo Fong. In case one Showdown wasn't enough.

Now, Showdown never calls it karate, and I'm not going to pretend and say I could easily tell from one type of martial arts to another by glance, so I'm going to refrain from calling this movie strictly any certain type. Anyway, Its fighting content is more reminiscent of another film that came out in the same year and that'd be familiar to Karate Kid fans and lovers of William Zabka's filmography: Shootfighter (1993).

Like Shootfighter, an underground, illegal fighting ring plays a significant role in Showdown, albeit being less fatal and a local scene. A group of teens and young (?) adults, led by their bloodthirsty criminal sensei, in a dojo make up some of its participants, which naturally incentivizes the high schoolers in the dojo to be aggressive in school — bullying, intimidation, cultish significance in aggression and domination blah blah blah blah we all know the type. Regardless, the high school the new kid moves to certainly doesn't need any help throwing him into the deep end of trouble. By the first five minutes of introduction, his new schoolmates are seen stealing, driving motorcycles on school campus, and contributing to these amazing shots of cinematography:

I'm sure they've all got their reasons and such for their misbehavior, or not because they're nothing more than dressing for the background when they aren't the Cobra Kai lookalikes. One thing I can assume is true for all students is a distinct sense of parental neglect, considering the only parents we see is five minutes of the main character's mom, who's job hunting is never quite resolved by the end of the movie and whom I could only guess decided to fit in to the new place by also abandoning her son to travel to the next state or two for a job.

In addition to this, the members of the school staff are either struggling to do their best or instead doing the bare minimum. The most effort disciplining and guidance we see is a pack of cigarettes taken away by the vice principal... before he's smoking it himself behind a building. Honestly, I don't blame him.

Including those involved with the illegal fighting ring, the only barely respectable adult figure around is the janitor, who is — you've guessed it — the "Mr. Miyagi" character of the movie. But considering we've first been introduced to him as a former cop who quit after having accidentally killed a teen (apparently? Everybody looks at least 24 years old) during the job, it's hard pickings around here.

Why am I introducing this all firstly? Well, it's not a deep movie at all, and yet the first thing Showdown introduces to the audience is this oddly grim mood that makes up a major theme of the film: the inevitability of violence. Even when the main character learns how to defend himself, it is with the sense of precaution to be prepared to fight, not for finding a way to end them. The aura of aggression never truly leaves the scenes to let the main character be in peace for long, and he eventually falls into the illegal fighting ring himself out of his own volition — only, it's the Mega Ultra Battle in the end so it's badass and not treated as bleak at all. Hell, the main tagline of the movie is literally "There is no other way."

It's interesting that the main character learns to defend himself because of the efforts from the former cop turned janitor. And while he busts the operation in the end, the janitor ultimately returns to the force, as well as takes up a job to teach the (now arrested) sensei's former students as his own. Sure, they wouldn't be strung into illegal fighting rings anymore, but I question how much the inevitability of violence is enforced because of the expectation of its existence in the first place. Even in the finale, when the main character and his mentor get their happy ending and defeat their respective rivals, it's not with a new future promising radical change for nonviolence and reconstruction, but a grim determination that they could rise to the challenge of the eventual call to aggression.

There is some effort to try and answer the question: "Why do people commit violence?" For example, the main character learns that many teens involved in the fighting ring are trying to pay for college. He himself empathizes, with his mother expressing frustration about being unable to find a good job. Nevertheless, both the main character and his mentor ultimately condemn the practice as exploitment and bust the fighting ring. While this frees the participants from any more physical harm, the question of how the teens fighting for money could support themselves (the reason that got them into illegal fighting in the first place) is never asked again.

This is not even to mention the actual physical — and even psychological — consequences of illegal tournament fighting that are barely portrayed, if at all. Most attitudes surrounding involvement by the teens are blasé, if content with the gigs they got. It's not hard to imagine that they've been manipulated by an intimidating sensei into what is essentially a cult of violence, but Showdown does not dwell on that. This is not the only thing it does not dwell on.

I'm not necessarily saying a former cop janitor and a high schooler in his midtwenties could singlehandedly rid their society of the deeper, insidious causes that breed the cycle of violence in communities. And frankly, this is a lot to ask for a movie that was never made to answer such questions, and it knows itself. I can recognize that. However, Showdown's fatalistic attitude towards violence feels particularly dooming in an otherwise stupid movie.

As a conclusion to this point, here are the opening words to Showdown as the first thing the audience learns about the film, with a sense of finality in its belief:

Part 2: You would think I'd introduce the characters first

Like the premise, the characters of Showdown share many of the same archetypes as the ones in The Karate Kid. The 1984 film however has a more nuanced and colorful cast, and I will be the asshole comparing the two films and their respective characters shamelessly. Admittedly, this section is the most like a summary, so I won't go through every single person but those I find interesting enough to talk about. I do promise to share whatever cool trivia I learned of the actors however, because nobody else sure will.

Firstly, let's take a look at the main character. Unlike Daniel LaRusso, who looks 12 but was played by a 22 year old at the time, Ken Marx looked as old as he did portrayed by someone who definitely was too old to be in high school.

'"I get it. When this is all over, I'm gonna know how to do all kinds of karate blocks, right? It's like, uh, wax on wax off, paint the fence, sand the floor..."

Ken Marx/Marks is a fine protagonist. New kid from Kansas, he's nice enough (especially compared to his new schoolmates) and has a strong sense of justice, but Ken seems to lack the same young, vulnerable angst as his predecessor Daniel about loneliness in someplace completely new. He, like any other supposed ordinary kid in high school, is embarrassed by the slight coddling of his single mother (who moved with him so she could find a job eventually), yet is understanding and wants to help her with money. Unlike Daniel, I could say with absolute certainty that Ken was trying to steal the girlfriend of the very guy who'd make it his mission to beat Ken up at every opportunity the minute he set foot in school. Arguably deserved some of the shit he got. Dick move, Marx (or Marks? Different sources say one or the other, but there's something funny imagining this All American guy with a name that's a little reminiscent of something... revolutionary).

One of the most notable differences between Daniel and Ken is in their state of origin: New Jersey versus Kansas. Not to profile, but I absolutely think it makes for more than just a minor change in their characters. Ken certainly doesn't have that "East Coast swagger" (as Ralph Macchio himself amazingly puts it) as Daniel does. His Midwest origins reflect through his easy kindness and endearing naïvete, but I've gotta admit that it doesn't do much to help him stand out as a protagonist. Still, even if I'm not especially invested in him, Ken's easygoing personality and humble origins are only boring and forgettable at worst, and I can admire his dedication to learn how to defend himself. That being said, Ken certainly could not be confused for Daniel and his Jersey Fire. The best example of this is Daniel versus Ken's reaction when their request to learn self-defense is first denied; while Daniel is openly upset and petulant, Ken is quiet but aquiesces with understanding. Ken is a nice kid sure, a little more mature and respectful than his predecessor, but that also makes him quite average. To further steal analogies from Macchio himself, it's like the difference between a cannoli and an apple pie.

Ken is played by Kenn Scott, an experienced martial artist. It's incredibly funny watching him throughout the movie be swamped in big jackets and whatnot to hide the guy's ripped abs, pecs, and biceps until it pays off at the end when he takes off his shirt in the big fight. Funnily enough, Scott is also in Shootfighter as Eddie, aka that guy who didn't want to go back in the ring and got killed for it.

RIP Eddie. We hardly knew ye.

Honorable mention goes to Ken's mom, whose name is only seen briefly on her shirt tag from work: Shirley. I can still hear her sighing about a job in her giant coat and 1989 Ford Probe to this day.

Ken doesn't feel as lonely as a character as Daniel does in The Karate Kid. While he is like Daniel in that they both quickly latch onto an older man who displays them a little bit of kindness, Ken finds himself another friend at school to keeps his company from feeling too lonely.

"Well listen, I just remembered I left my cat in the microwave."

Mike (played by John Asher) is meant to be funny and awkward, the wimpy but harmless guide to introduce Ken (and the audience) to his new setting. Mike even has a lackluster Clique Tour Moment à la Mean Girls of a couple distinct students or student groups to demonstrate his knowledge of the school populace to the new kid. He wears clashing patterns, says something funny for a moment or does something silly in the background, throws a few flimsy kicks and punches during a training montage, breaks the fourth wall, and walks away with the hero and his love interest in the most throuple-coded way ever.

Unfortunately, this is the most boy best friend Mike gets with Ken in the movie.

Mike has subtle growth throughout Showdown admittedly — from a cowardly goofball who shrinks away at the barest glare from the bullies and lets the new kid eat dirt on his own, to Ken's best friend that joins him in training a little, stays by his side til the end when he needs the most support, and even helps subsue one of the bad guys.

Of course, the real duo in Showdown — their rendition of the Daniel and Mr. Miyagi relationship — is between Ken and the janitor at school, who saves kids getting beaten up to make up for the fact he accidentally murdered one seven years ago.

"No, this is called toilet cleaning. It teaches humility. Then, I want you to startover here on those urinals."

Billy Grant is riddled with guilt for killing someone on the job, so much that he voluntarily quit the force afterwards — except, Billy expresses thoughts about coming back after being told by Ken of the illegal fighting ring, and eventually does return, so here's hoping Billy learned something in the seven years he "fell off the Earth" (according to his old partner at least, which I find highly doubtful. Guy's only left the force seven years ago, stayed in the area, and found a job as a janitor, but apparently disappeared?? Come on). Nevertheless, he's a Good Guy™ who saves Ken's ass at least three times — just as many times as Mr. Miyagi does Daniel's. This version of Wax On, Wax Off is just making Ken clean toilets, wash off graffiti, throw away trash, etc. — janitorial stuff — to help build his endurance. Let's be honest here though, this is infinitely more like child labor than whatever Mr. Miyagi had ever done.

One moment in the movie I find odd, because they never touch on it again after introducing it, is when Billy saves Ken from two of his bullies. In the end, he puts one of them in a headlock, which lasts for several seconds. It's strongly implied Billy would have continued holding it, if it weren't for Ken's cry for him to stop. The bully drops to the ground as he coughs for breath, and Billy literally runs off in horror.

Ken: Stop! Billy, don't.

It makes it seem like Billy could have some reason to lose control, like unresolved anger issues, his trauma, or perhaps a dark and hidden inclination to cruelty (if the movie wanted to go there). However, Ken never brings this up to Billy, and this lapse in judgement never occurs again in the movie. There isn't even a moment for him to reflect in solitude of what he almost did to those teenage boys to imply there is something more to his internal conflicts. And this loss of control is also absent in Billy's big fight against the criminal sensei.

I'm not even sure it makes sense at all with the trauma Billy actually has that influences his actions? He accidentally killed a kid by tossing him aside onto the floor, which had led to his head making contact with some stairs and killed him upon impact. This was a poorly decided action, but a quick one made in the heat of the moment nonetheless. How on Earth does this translate paychologically to losing control while holding someone in a chokehold? If the implication is that his trauma causes Billy to lose control when caught in a fight, not only does it not make sense, but it also never shows up again in the movie and thus makes the moment where he almost chokes a teenager too hard irrelevant. It sticks out, especially when Billy for the rest of the movie is otherwise unmistakenly altruistic and heroic.

Unfortunately, Billy just doesn't get to have the same room for depth as Mr. Miyagi does. Billy is kind, brave, strong, and wise, but there just aren't enough scenes in Showdown that reveal much of his human, vulnerable qualities to complement the heroic ones.

Billy may be the first major character introduced in the movie, alongside his guilt and regret, but Showdown doesn't dwell on how it's weighed Billy for long; his anger and efforts to bust the illegal fighting ring are all but stated outright to be fueled by a desire to make up for accidentally causing someone else's death years ago and wants to make sure no more young people are senselessly hurt, but the film does not let Billy open up about it. At Ken's question asking if that's the reason, Billy is silent before stoically taking a moral stance on the issue. He spins the topic back to Ken's training, and that's the end of Billy being allowed to be more than an archetype, instead a flawed human being who's been personally affected because of his mistakes:

Ken: Billy, I knew you always weren't a janitor. And I want you to tell the truth. Billy: Ken, I used to be a cop. Then I killed a kid. It was a mistake. Ken Did you have to quit? Billy: No, I couldn't handle it anymore. But I'm thinking about getting back into it. Ken: You want to bust the guys that are running the fights? Billy: ...They're hurting kids to make money, and that's not right. These people are dangerous. If you refuse to fight for them, it could be real trouble for you. Ken: Well, we'll just keep training, right? Billy: Yeah, go warm up.

Following this scene, Billy calls his old partner in the force to help him investigate a way to bust the illegal fighting ring. He's ultimately driven to action by his guilt, but do we as the audience get to see Billy afterwards emotionally open up about his choices, both in the past and the ones in the present made to rectify his mistakes? Nope.

It never feels like Billy's character could be anything else but Ken's mentor, or the big ultimate hero. For all we know, he's been dealing with the guilt of his wrongdoings all on his own for seven years, and he jumps into action the moment he thinks he could do some real, good change. But Billy's internal shift gets streamlined in order to prioritize training montages or cool cop shit. He is kind, brave, strong, and wise, but he does not get to be three-dimensional.

Of course, I have to acknowledge that no one in Showdown is. This isn't a movie that's meant to be beholden of dimensions. As I continue to compare it to The Karate Kid or lament about flatness or whatever, it's imperative to remember that Showdown is a stupid movie.

That being said, I nevertheless cannot help but feel especially disappointed by the flatness of Billy's character — not only because he is one of the most major characters of the movie, if not the most important, but also because Billy the most prominent person of color in the movie, and a Black character at that. Billy's role does not soley revolve around the White male protagonist, and he does have his own drives and motivation, but Showdown falls short in depicting Billy as a nuanced Black character with depth and vulnerability.

He's played by another actor who shares the same first name as him, Billy Blanks, whom I'm actually not that familiar with even though he is arguably the biggest name involved with Showdown. He's been in a bunch of other martial arts films, so that's cool.

Shoutout to his former partner Officer Spinelli, who gets a special shower scene in the beginning of the movie. Amazing.

Here's the crazy thing about Billy's accidental murder that haunts him: that kid was none other than the younger brother of the main villain, the "Kreese" character, who soon is driven to revenge upon laying his eyes on Billy again after seven years.

"I woooon..."

Lee is batshit insane. First of all, he's the ringleader, or at least the main attraction, of the local illegal fighting ring that occurs somehow secretly in his dojo with huge crowds of people. Second of all, he has his own version of the Cobra Kai mantra to drill into his child soldiers: "Success is control, control is success." Third of all, he hires his goons to, not only try and kill Billy, but also to make sure it's done on school campus so everyone could see the body, because this guy evades authorities so easily already. What the fuck is wrong with this man. The only trait Lee has that doesn't make him into even more of an aspiring supervillain is the protective love he has for his brother Max, and even that soon enough becomes revenge fodder for Lee when he witnesses his brother die in the prologue.

Max (left) and Lee (right), ready to take world together by storm...

Lee is played by Patrick Kilpatrick, who I can tell is having the time of his goddamn life playing such a Ham and Cheese PLATTER of a character. His performance plays jump rope with the line that splits between 'menacing' and 'ridiculous', and I love that for him. Kilpatrick was also on an episode of The Equalizer (though not an episode with William Zabka haha)! Patrick Kilpatrick wasn't the only choice to play Lee, however. Another was Bolo Yeung, but he would later turn out to have a role in another 1993 martial arts movie: Shootfighter (a William Zabka project again).

And he shares the same name as the villain of Shootfighter, Mr. Lee haha (played by Martin Kove, aka Kreese in The Karate Kid)

The greatest thing about Lee is that he has a right hand woman running the operation alongside him — almost like the "Silver" to his "Kreese".

"Relax! I don't bite — not unless you want me to..."

Kate is undeniably the brains of the of the two. While Lee uses his physical prowess, skill, and intimidation to dominate others into following, Kate smoothtalks and negotiates it all out to work in their favor with intellect, charm, and often times sex appeal. Kate is the most stylish of the cast, and probably the one with the most money, as she's seen reguarly with styled hair, classy jewelry, sleek dresses, and is in possession of a Mercedes Benz (as well as a Chysler Lebaron convertible, but who am I to judge).

Kate and Lee's relationship is professional, for the most part. He lashes out at her once, but she easily snaps at him back, and it's never clear if one is working for the other. Regardless, Kate and Lee have got their respective strengths they use to their advantage, so they each play a different role in their collective business. There are hints to some affection between the two business partners, but it's not a major focus at all.

Kate is also creepy as fuck. I'll cover more of her in the next part.

She's played by Linda Dona, whose role was initially invented when Bolo Yeung was set to be Lee. Since Yeung could not speak English, Kate was to be his translator. Of course, this was no longer needed once Kilpatrick took on the role of Lee, but Dona stuck anyway when the writers rewrote her role.

In these type of movies, it's uncommon to see more than one significant female character as part of the story, and so Kate stands out, especially compared to the love interest of Ken.

"You know, I thought you were on the track team or something. But you're not, you're working out with the janitor."

Julie doesn't have a lot to work with, besides being an object of affection for Ken and part of the source of the conflict between him and her boyfriend (the "Johnny" character, obviously). She's blonde and innocently pretty like Ali (unlike Kate's mature seductiveness), but Julie lacks the same assertiveness as the Karate Kid character. While Ali plays a pivotal role in helping Daniel and Mr. Miyagi understand the rules of the All Valley Tournament, Julie is reduced to the typical helplessness her type of character is often confined to, being pushed to the side as a spectator of the big fight in the end.

Julie does what she can in the plot — she tries to speak up against her boyfriend's actions several times, and she even stops (or at least delays) one of his attacks on Ken— but Julie, like Ali, is pacified by the narrative to do much of anything else besides express disapproval and side with the heroes. Julie also has a bit of a mean streak, but I don't think the movie knows that lmao.

Now, I am not the greatest with differentiating people, especially those with the same general look. So upon first watch, I had accidentally thought Julie and Kate were the same character, especially since Kate's introduction offered no close ups to differentiate her as someone new. AND IF THAT HAD BEEN TRUE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CRAAAAAZY; sweet and innocent high school girl secretly a greedy, manipulative, femme fatale in charge of an illegal fighting ring? IT BLEW MY MIND.

I WAS SEEING JULIE IN A WHOLE, DIFFERENT LIGHT. Her introduction for one thing made sense to me why it was so strange! Ken first lays eyes on her when he jumped onto the ground at the sound of firecrackers he thought were gunshots, which made the crowd of students around Ken to laugh at him. Julie is among the students shamelessly laughing at this kid, and it isn't until when they lock eyes does she stop laughing and walks away.

The scene cements to the audience that Ken's new peers are cruel, delinquent, and indifferent to his confusion — but Julie is part of that crowd! It's incredibly strange to frame Julie as the love interest by the language of cinematography, someone the audience is meant to invest in to pair off with the main character, when her behavior is indistinguishable from the callous mob, besides being pretty. She doesn't apologize for this in the scenes talking to Ken for the first time either.

Another moment that made me look back was how Julie was smart enough to calm her boyfriend down the first time he confronted Ken for trying to talk to her by alluring his attention away.

Julie: Leave him alone... Please...[...]He didn't know about you...! He's new here...

While Julie had good intentions, this demonstrates a level of manipulation towards people that she'd readily use if it meant getting what she wanted. As Kate is later introduced, this shared quality between them made me further convinced in my confusion that they were the same character — only, I thought Kate being manipulative was Julie's true colors being as sinister as they actually were.

Now, a teen girl laughing at some guy for jumping to conclusions (pun intended) and thinking gunshots in the middle of the hallway and using her attractiveness to turn her boyfriend's attention away from someone he intended to hurt are aren't glaring signs of evil or criminal behavior. But that is EXACTLY why I confused Kate for Julie and thought these actions in retrospect were subtle clues to her being more than just the bland love interest that the protagonist wins in the end.

In addition to this, Mike's first words to Ken about Julie would have been almost perfect foreshadowing:

Mike: I see, you have a death wish. Ken: ...Excuse me? Mike: The blonde, Julie... She's beautiful. She's elegant...! I mean– just forget about it. She's trouble.

Mike afterwards explains to Ken that Julie's boyfriend is dangerous and that's why she would be trouble, but if it would have been almost genius writing if she turned out to be a secret villain. The audience wouldn't think twice about that comment, especially since Mike himself only believes Julie would cause trouble for Ken because of her boyfriend specifically. There'd be no reason to think deeper about his warning!

Julie's grimacing apology the following day to Ken for her boyfriend's behavior transformed into being SLIMY, IT WAS AMAZING. I was so excited to watch him fall for someone who wasn't at all like what he thought she was — and then I figured out Julie and Kate were two, separate female characters. Damn.

You may recognize Julie's actress, Christine Taylor, because she was involved with another film William Zabka was in: To the Ends of Time. He just keeps being relevant somehow.

But speaking of William Zabka, what about his character's equivalent in this movie? I talked about the protagonists, the love interest, the villains — but who's the guy in the story that's actually the most prominent threat to Ken? Who's the third player next to Ken and Julie in their teenage love drama? Who's the student trained the hardest by Lee and treated as the best of the best, his strongest fighter, who falls at the end and almost dies at the hands of his sensei for it?

Part 3: We need to talk about Tom

warning for discussions of abusive relationships, as well as physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, unhealthy power dynamics, and grooming

I'm dedicating a whole section to talk about the "Johnny" equivalent, because I've got so much to say about Tom, the others around him, and parts of the film around his character.

"It's payback time, needledick."

So, Tom. I had briefly shown his character earlier when covering Billy, as well as Julie — kind of hard to talk around him when he's causing so many of the issues for others, little shit. Like Johnny, Tom is tall, blond, aggressive, and does not take kindly to the new guy being too friendly to his girlfriend (ex girlfriend in Johnny's case, but still). Like Johnny, Tom is the most formidable fighter training under his sensei, and his sensei also punishes Tom ruthlessly after losing in the ending fight, before being saved by the protagonist's mentor. Unlike Johnny, Tom looks well into his adulthood — but hey, so does everybody else in this goddamn high school.

He's played by Ken McLeod, who is a real life martial artist with a black belt in karate. Honestly, he's probably doing the best job acting in this film — that, or he's just so entertaining that his performance stands out by that alone. In general, the antagonists are just much more fun to watch than the protagonists. In McLeod's case, he gets the honor of spitting in people's faces with a mean smile or scowl, huffing and puffing when anything pisses his character off, and having his momenta to act with vulnerability to show some versatility in his performance.

White the picture may imply differently, Tom has his own group of loyal friends, Showdown's version of the Cobras.

If Rob on the left is familiar, that's because he's played by Michael Cavalieri, who would soon later play Ned Randall in The Next Karate Kid (1994). I don't know how much of it was in the script, but Cavalieri adds these small, humorous quirks to his character if you pay attention, and it's great. He's the most prominent of Tom's friend, who joins in on much of the bullying, but shows an surprising honorable side near the end. Rob is seemingly Tom's closest friend, as he is almost always by his side and encourages him the most of the group. However, even Rob has his limits, as Tom's worsening behavior almost drives him away. Nevertheless, Rob can't help himself but still support his buddy in his final fight when he fights against Ken. When Lee starts to beat on Tom for losing, the other characters have to hold Rob back from jumping in to defend him (which, is so weird??? Like, HELLO THAT GROWN ASS MAN IS TRYING TO KILL THAT GUY???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GONNA HOLD BACK SOMEONE TRYING TO HELP HIM?????)

Gina (played by Seidy Lopez) is the second/third most prominent female character in the movie, so that means she has to have at least one scene alluring a male character to get him to do what she wants, joy. Gina seems to be the calmest and most levelheaded one of the group — she reminds others that the best place to pick a fight is anywhere but the classroom — but even she coldly revels in terrorizing like the rest of those training under Lee. Gina may be the least troubled by his hyperaggressive leadership in fact, as she is the least visibly disturbed when Lee attacks Tom, and she is the only (former) student not to join in on the others when they start cheering for Billy after he defeats Lee at the end (she does however cheer when Billy accepts Rob's offer to teach them, so maybe Gina just ain't picky with who teaches them how to fight). We never see Gina do any fighting, unfortunately. It's clear she's not a girlfriend who hangs around the boys, as Gina not only attends the class but is seen practicing with a punching bag. Feminism win! This violent dojo is for all genders! So where's Gina's moment to give someone a shiner?

The Bill Skarsgård lookalike's name is unfortunately never said in the movie, but I'm preeeeetty sure it's Bob (credited as being played by Jeremy Duddleston)? It's the only male name in the credits I cannot easily attribute to another character, so I'll just call him Bob. It's hard listing another characteristic of his besides Loves To Fight, since he never utters a single line. While Rob may be Tom's closest friend, Bob is seemingly less significant to Tom, as there's a moment when Tom tosses his book/folder behind himself dismissively, before Bob catches it to carry it for him. But besides that uhhhh. Not a lot with this guy.

It should come to no surprise that Tom is an asshole and a bully. His introduction makes sure the audience knows that when he threatens a class monitor for daring to remind Tom that bells are a thing, before treating his girlfriend Julie with the big ol' triple three of Terrible Boyfriend Qualities: Neglectful, Controlling, and Uncooperative. And this is all before he even sees Ken! But don't worry, his behavior is just as terrible once they do meet.

I may have given Ken shit for his actions, however that does not justify the full extent of Tom's vigilance in making sure he gets violently targetted at every corner. While it gets hard to take the high school drama seriously because of how grown everybody looks, thus making their actions more comical than intended, there are times when Ken gets overpowered or made to feel smaller by Tom that could genuinely get you feeling bad for him — call me a softie, but even when Tom has his funny moments, he sure can make the audience feel as miserable as Ken does.

Tom: It's not about money Kenny. It's about respect.

Tom treats people badly when he doesn't respect them, and this includes a lot of people. In fact, he's consistently shown to be the least respectful towards his girlfriend.

It's undeniable that Tom is a godawful boyfriend to Julie. As you already know, he is infamously possessive and jealous; in addition to saying in her face that he owns her — word-for-word and in public — Mike makes it a point to warn Ken about Julie because of Tom specifically. The warning is justified too, because we know Tom spends the rest of the movie utterly despising Ken for "encroaching" on his "territory" (literally just talking to Julie). In addition to all this, Tom ignores plans he has with Julie because of his own minor reasons, and even forgets to talk to her for weeks, and yet has the gall to insist Julie must compromise and listen to his desires when she has an iota of a backbone.

Tom's behavior runs deeper than being an asshole, though. Because of him, I can confidently categorize their unhealthy relationship as being abusive, without exaggeration. The extreme control he expects to exert over Julie, her actions, and whom she interacts with taints every interaction they have together. Julie does what she can to assert herself, but it's difficult for those times to feel cathartic when Tom looks like he wants to beat or bully her into submission afterwards. Tom contantly uses his natural height against her, looming over Julie like he could intimidate her into listening, and even grabs her if he feels like it. If his treatment towards Ken is tough, it's nothing compared to how Tom abuses Julie.

Tom: I don't want you to ever talk to [Ken] again. In fact, if I catch you hanging around him, I'm gonna beat the– Julie: You can't control my life! Tom: Yes I can. You are my girl, and you'll do exactly what I say.

Besides feeling entitled to Julie as a possession than as an equal, Tom's mistreatment hits its peak when, after he approaches her like she didn't dump him the last time they spoke, Tom's rage overpowers him when Julie says Ken could beat him in a fight — Tom grabs Julie by her hair, calls her a slut, commands her to stay away from Ken, and slaps Julie. In the middle of campus. Ken soon comes to defend her, so it's not clear how far Tom would have gone to hurt Julie. However, several characters (including Julie) note Tom's worsening mental state since the their first interaction on-screen, which had been worsening before the events of the movie, and it's not impossible to imagine him sinking even worse towards Julie — in addition to the emotional abuse Tom was already subjecting her to.

While Julie ultimately finds the courage within herself to ends things with Tom, it wasn't without any conflicts, internal and otherwise — not only was Tom in denial, but Julie had her own reasons to stay with him. When Ken asks her why, she gives an explanation, and had given more:

Julie: It's just that I've been dating Tom for a long time, and... I just think he's a little confused right now... He kind of got involved with some– Ken: Look, pardon me, I'm not sympathetic where Tom is concerned, okay? Julie: No, I don't expect you to be! It's... Sometimes, I think about calling it off. But it's like I feel trapped... kind of like I have to stay with him for now. Ken: But you don't have to if you don't want to...! Julie: No, I do.

Julie's attitude insisting she has to stay because of a sense of duty towards her abuser is a common experience among many abuse victims, and so are her thoughts of feeling trapped. However, Julie recognizes that Tom's awful behavior is new. That does not excuse the abuse, but it does offer important context to his and Julie's relationship. According to her, they've been together long enough that she knows Tom's normal isn't as violent and controlling as it is now. Julie is hoping Tom reverts back, that she will see him get his sense back, and that she has a good idea who's been influencing Tom.

Julie: God. I swear, every day you sound more and more like that jerk, Lee. Tom: Listen, Lee's my sensei, don't talk about him that way.

We never see any of these kid's parents, and so they're next to nonexistent, thus Tom's most present role model and parental figure in Showdown is his sensei, Lee.

The respect Tom has for his sensei is only matched by his fear. The movie builds suspense for his reveal by having Tom be insistent in being on time for class, lest he angers Lee, a character the audience at that point could only assume is a little bit of a bad influence. They'd soon be affirmed by that when watching Lee's blaringly evil (re)introduction, giving a lesson that's half drill sargeant, half cult indoctrination. It's unclear for how long Tom has been around him, but it's been enough that it's started to affect his behavior and life in harmful ways. Tom however doesn't see it like that. While Julie makes excuses about him to Ken, Tom doesn't even consider that what Lee does is anything wrong. In fact, he takes pride in having "learned a few tricks" from him, and always defends the man whenever someone (Julie) so much as criticizes him. And of course Tom would, since Lee openly considers him to be his best fighter in the dojo, ruthlessly training him to be the undefeated champion in his illegal fighting ring. Tom is 17, 18 at most, and his involvement in crime is reinforced by the hand Lee has on his life.

Lee may care about Tom deeper than just as teacher-student, even calling him "my boy" during the final fight, but it is a relationship built on ruthlessness, domination, and abuse that easily turns violent the moment Lee is dissatisfied with Tom. He thinks of Tom as the best among his students, but Lee never hesitates to tear him down mentally, nor to physically beat him as punishment, going so far as to threaten Tom's life:

Lee: What have I told you about weakness? It's disgraceful. And when you disgrace yourself, you disgrace me. You do not have control, you have brought shame upon yourself and my dojo. Humiliation. The pain I give your outside should be nothing compared to the pain you feel inside. We are winners at my dojo. We do not let others control us, ever. If you fail again, you will be lucky if I decide to let you live.

Lee wants Tom to believe that his life is literally at the hands of his sensei, that he deserves any beating (psychological or physical) that Lee delivers because Tom's failure is justification enough, according to himself. He believes so strongly of this dominance over Tom's life that Lee does try to kill him after losing to Ken, in front of a giant crowd of people. He's a madman with full conviction that he could make a teenager his killing machine and murder him afterwards if that kid does not live up to his standards — his boy or not.

Even in the rare moments of tenderness, they're never soft. Lee always performs them in the shadow of violence; if he calls Tom "my boy", it's when Lee commands him to kill Ken. When he cradles Tom's jaw, it's so Lee can strike square in his face. The paternal role Lee has in Tom's life is poisoned with cruelty, and it's corrupted Tom into manifesting the same abuse onto others.

Tom becomes more and more like Lee, an aggressor losing his humanity in his descent towards fighting and crime, because of his sensei's own abusive influence. Lee makes Tom feel powerful, but like a tool to be used and sharpened — and inversely, Lee makes Tom feel powerless even more. And he isn't the only one that makes Tom feel powerless.

Lee and Kate are a team, so they're both invested in the careers of the former's students for the illegal fighting ring. Kate's whole business depends on them, making sure there's an abundant money flow as long as there are good fighters. She, like Lee, has a special interest in Tom — his best fighter.

Kate's mistreatment towards Tom is rather distinct from her partner's. For one, Kate never resorts to threatening his life. She does physically disclipine Tom, but it's with harsh slaps across the face, like a stern mother to her son. What she does threaten in his future in the fighting ring. Considering Tom is completely dedicated to his involvement, certainly encouraged if not groomed by Lee for it like a fighting dog, it's an easy method of controlling Tom. While Kate doesn't entertain the thought of killing him like Lee does, it doesn't make her behavior okay, because it still sends Tom the same message: Kate is the one in control of him, he isn't.

What stands out most about Kate's abuse towards Tom though is that she better manipulates him by other, insidious ways. Kate's age is never specified, but it's clear she's older, more confident, and capable of inflicting certain harm in ways teenagers can't. Kate has no qualms using her sexuality to get what she wants, and that includes preying on teenage boys. With Tom, she doesn't just disclipine him like a mother, but Kate coerces him into a sexual relationship as well. This, in addition to times when she treats him like more of a mother back-to-back, contribute to something truly appalling to watch.

To best explain the scene, here's a video of Kate's introduction, where she pulls Tom aside in the middle of instruction to take him to a dark room alone with her:

Just seconds after Kate hits Tom, she pulls him into a deep kiss, practically forceful. Note how limp Tom's arms and hands are as he's made to kiss her. Later scenes in Showdown depict Tom as more "consensual" in their relationship, but this is notably different in their first moment together on-dcreen. This is not to say that it would have been a healthier relationship if Tom enthusiastically kissed Kate back, but his passiveness as she assaults him only highlights the uneven power dynamics at play — in their first scene introducing their relationship at that.

(Remember when I thought Kate and Julie were the same person? Yeah, Kate stands in the back the whole time, only getting a little closer to the camera but not enough that it would distinguish her as someone new. In addition to them shrouded in darkness and the intimacy on-screen after, that's why I thought Julie was secretly evil and was abusive to Tom back. I became so quickly convinced that they were Evil4Evil, that it took me until several scenes later to realize that they were two different people and that something worse was going on.)

What concerns me as well is how easily Kate was able to pull Tom away from sparring, without much of a second glance from Lee or his students. How much did the other students question whenever she pulled him aside alone? Were they allowed to question? Or even worse, how much were they led to believe it was okay? Is Kate coercing more several teenagers, or is this a way to have more power over Tom to ensure he'd stay her and Lee's cash cow?

Powerlessness defines Tom's most prominent relationships with the two adults with abusive control of his life. With that in mind, it explains why Tom has gotten worse, lashing out and losing control of himself. It doesn't excuse his wrongdoings, but there is a direct, blatant connection to Tom's worsening mental health and the authority figures around him either encouraging his violent attitude or are the main causes of distress in Tom's life.

In addition to that, Tom's bullying and abusive behavior is an unfortunate expression of what he's internalized from Lee and Kate; he only treats a person well if he respects them. Due to Lee's influence, that simply means if they have power. Otherwise, Tom feels he can intimidate, belittle, and hurt them all he wants. In Julie's case, Tom mirrors the same mistreatment that plagues him and causes him to treat her badly, because Tom views Julie something he owns. Tom ultimately believes that he is allowed to abuse those that are less powerful, because those that are more powerful than Tom are allowed to abuse him.

The most alarming thing about Tom's sexual abuse is that... Showdown seems to be unaware of its gravity? Female-on-male sexual abuse and uneven power dynamics aren't often treated with the same severity as the opposite, if it is portrayed. Like I said, the later scenes with Tom and Kate show him receptive to her attraction. But even if Tom played along, Kate would have always had an uneven power dynamic over him. In the end, Kate never receives punishment for her abuse — she's presumably arrested for her involvement running the illegal fighting ring, but Kate's strongly implied sexual relationship is a total nonissue by the time the credits roll.

This is the same with Lee's own physical and psychological abusive behavior. He gets arrested for running the illegal fighting ring, and I suppose Tom could press charges afterwards, but he's oddly okay by the end of the movie, without any meltdown over losing or being almost killed by his sensei. It's not cathartic at all to see Tom calmly congratulate Ken and Billy in the end, as well as say a nice goodbye to Julie. Seriously? He's still got issues — we're just supposed to believe that Tom reverted back to being a normal kid just like that, without any psychological damage to work though?

And in the end, I suppose we are meant to believe that. Showdown is a stupid movie. Of course they weren't going to dwell on all that with sensitivity and nuance. But what if I wanted Tom to get therapy? I don't think he should date Julie anymore, when she shouldn't have been saddled with the responsibility and burden of having to stay with him. Tom should absolutely have some support system though, alongside professional help to guide Tom in processing how to live his life past Lee and Kate's abuse. I dedicated a whole section on him, dear god!! Why did Showdown do this. I hate this movie.

Conclusion: This movie is a hundred minutes long and none of it was worth it, and yet I keep coming back

Showdown is not a good movie. It's highly entertaining, completely laugh-worthy, and full of little pieces that I keep rotating in my mind to complete the puzzle, but it's held together by shoestring and duct tape. I don't recommend this movie to anybody, not Karate Kid fans, and certainly not cinephiles, except for those who want to have a quick laugh, preferably with friends to mock together — or inversely, want to be driven to madness like me. There are a lot of things I didn't mention about the movie, none of it interesting; Brion James plays the vice principal, they repeat the same song over and over again in the movie, there's a sick ass chase and fight in a theater set (because Lee hired hitmen to kill Billy at the school, remember), and so much more.

The Blu-ray Special Edition disk is like under $30, basically half off during the holidays, and contains a "Making Of..." documentary, alongside supplementary videos of the fight featurette and interviewed of various people from the cast and crew (including the director Robert Radler and Billy Blanks)! I need it.

Don't watch the movie. But if you do, tell me about it

[jackalopc]

@reggiesfilthylittlesecret , aka MyDirtyLittleSecret on Ao3, just surpassed 100 fanfic's written for the Triple Frontier fandom on April 2nd, 2025 with her posting of 'Freefall`.

this is an incredible feat, for any fandom and any writer, to accomplish; and I want to just take a moment to show my appreciation for this amazing writer. first, by giving some pretty crazy stats; then secondly, by sharing some of my favorite works of hers!

as of 06APR25 at ~11am CST, there are 2,827 fanfics listed under the Triple Frontier fandom tag. now, when you then hear 101 fanfics, that might not seem like a lot but consider:

101 of 2,827 is ~3.5%. so of the nearly three-thousand submissions to Ao3, reggie has contributed ~3.5% of it.

if you exclude */reader, */self-insert, */you, and */original character relationship tags?

you are left with 421 fanfics, (as of the same time and date as above). reggie has written 4 fics that involve a relationship with a non-canon character (regardless of fandom, due to crossovers), and none of them are the primary ship of those fics. but all 101 fics are either centered around a singular canon-character or canon-characters based relationship of some kind. meaning reggie alone has somehow written ~23% of all fics that do not feature and/or focus non-canon characters in the Triple Frontier fandom tag on Ao3. note: this is just excluding any fics including those tags, but nothing more is filtered in or out (not language, other relationships, nothing). some fics also don't always get tagged in a way i can anticipate so this may not be a 100% accurate number.

here are some more fun stats, just because I want to show just how much reggie has truly contributed to this community.

note: these numbers are based on having absolutely no filters, save for the singular relationship filter; and does not reflect whether something is the main-focus of a fic or not (for reggie or others). these numbers though are as accurate as i am capable of getting them at this time. - IronPope: ~23% - FishBen: ~33% - WillBen: ~51% - IronFish: ~33% - IronPopeBen: ~66% - FishPope: ~20%

reggie has contributed so much to this fandom and deserves all of the love and praise.

she is an amazing writer, and even after years she continues to pump out piece after piece. i was struggling to find folks to connect within the TF fandom; and was starting to think i had little-to-no place here; especially so late to the game.

sometimes, you just read a fic (or a gazillion) from one author and you know that you need to reach out in some way. and i'm so so grateful that reggie had her tumblr info in the Ao3 profile, because then i could stalk follow her and hopefully one day maybe get the courage to reach out in some small way to get her attention. and i did! i made an incredible new friend shortly after. it's been an absolute thrill to just talk to reggie, see some of her creative process, and more. i'm even more thrilled she's been so kind as to help me with my oh-so-grand ambitions with the TFF community by helping me run it.

anyways i'll stop with my gushing (mostly), and get on with my fic recs lol so without further ado:

jack's fic rec's!

note: i have not managed to get through all 101 of reggie's TF fic's, though I am trying! however i have gotten through a large chunk of her catalog lol note2: some of these are actually just straight up series because you can't really like disconnect them from each other ^^'

THE 'IF YOU CAN READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THESE' FICS:

★ while you were sleeping: technically a series but, but specifically the primary fic within it. it's a benny/santiago/will romcom. i should note that i am not a romcom person and do not like 90% of them, but god i was so hooked for this. it truly had me crying at parts and also moments where i was laughing til my side hurt. phenomenal. santiago is so dramatic.

★ lace and kinks [series]: a spicy ironpope series, centered around a particular kink of will's that involves very lacy undergarments. hot, sexy, would make sailors blush (confirmed, i was a sailor technically and i did in fact blush multiple times).

★ found you like a stray: a lovely OT4 fix-it fic, post-movie. the boys all find a new home (literally), and new purpose in running a bar frankie inherits. and soon, santiago even joins them,though not without an adjustment period.

★ the postcard: another romcom-esque fic for ironpope this time, with background fishben! au. santiago receives a delayed postcard from a once deeply-struggling will miller, and he can't help but write back. you will cry. it's a beautiful story and reggie captures everything so beautifully. it's so much raw emotion captured in postcards, but certainly not without it's silly moments too. the entire fic is a masterpiece. extra points for being mixed media too!

★ the road calls [series]: a will/ben series, set post-movie. the two brothers, tangled up in their feelings for each other and with everything that happened in colombia, decide to hit the road and get away from it all. if only for a bit. explores their relationship, life, and more as they finally let themselves process everything, really.

more recs below the cut!

sparring [series]: it's ben and frankie getting to be rough and tumble with one another (in more ways than one) all while our darling pilot lets out a lot of his pent up emotions

F.A.M.E.[series]: pope is a rockstar popstar, will is his primary bodyguard/in charge of his security that he snags after meeting him. the first fic alone if you only read that is *chef kiss* divine. background + dedicated fics for fishben too!

5+1 [series]: two series rolled into one, actually -the fishben series & the ironpope series. rolled into one entry because they take place in the same lil bubble. it's a delightful little au, where both couples meet cute and kinda sorta find Their Person. also has lovely little crossover between the two series!

am i a monster?: what happens when you make santiago and frankie monster hunters, and have them meet the miller brothers, who happen to be werewolves? ironpope & fishben. suspenseful, thrilling, involves monster fucking (& loving!)-- whats not to enjoy?

we all go to hell [series]: you know, for someone who wasn't even raised religious in any way, i have really no excuse for finding priest!santiago getting railed by demon!will & demon!ben (and each other) as hot as i do... yet here we are. might also make you cry too, ngl.

my jugular misses your teeth: fishben. werewolf(ish)!frankie. monster fucking. i'm just gonna leave it at that. read the tags.

everyone say: 'thank you for all your hard work, reggie! we love you!'

[yuaoxi]

𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐒 || Xiao x F!Reader

Chapter 2 - House Party

CW: drinking, venti drunk, xiao n his dad fight

Tired of his father living vicariously through him, Xiao decides to start the band he's always dreamed about. Fame and wealth never mattered to him, he'd just want to feel part and contribute to a community that'd accept a broken man like him.

Starting a band in his friend's garage, Xiao runs into a problem: there's no drummer. Thus, auditions are held to be apart of the band. Our dear bassist has little to no experience with women, so how could he deal with one joining the band? Why did she bring so much of her 'girl drama' to rehearsals, and why is his ex trying to get back into his life?

Three girls sat in a car. The icy girl in a flowy denim skirt and off white off-the-shoulder long sleeve sweater with some Mary Jane’s. The firey girl with baggy jeans, layered cropped tank tops, and her Air Forces. And, of course, you, in baggy dark shorts with a grey cropped tank top and a baggy, half-zipped hoodie, with your beat up converse. A watermelon ice scented cloud came from the passenger seat. HuTao. “So, uh, are we gonna keep sitting in here or finally go in?”

“Let’s go over the plan again,” chimed our beloved designated driver, Ayaka. “Kazuha’s here, and we most likely won't be able to avoid him-”

“By ‘we’ you mean me?”

Sigh. “Yes, Y/N, you're we. Anyways. We know he’ll somehow manage to talk to you, but we just won't let that exceed any more than a minute.”

“I don't know why I agreed to this and dragged you guys along. Maybe I just-”

“Hey! But imagine that douche’s face when he sees you talking to someone hotter than him?” Tao joked, an attempt to boost your morale, “You know he’s always been the overly jealous type.”

“I guess so. It’s just been so recent,”

5 seconds of pondering.

“you know what? You're right! We haven't gone out to party or drink since forever ago. Let’s get inside.”

“That’s our girl.” Ayaka and HuTao bumped fists as they got out of their respective seats.

Y/N looked over to the brunette and tapped her index finger and thumb together, indicating a hit from the vape. It’s not like you always smoke, just socially. Drinking? Socially, of course. Otherwise you’d be considered an addict and that's not really lady-like.

Outside, there were some kids sitting on the lawn and skating along the sidewalk, a group beside the entrance smoking cigarettes and passing a blunt around. Inside, music blasted from the speakers and some 90’s movie about a killer that asks for your favorite scary movie playing on the tv at full volume. It was so loud you basically had to talk to the person’s ear for them to hear you. The house opened up to the living room, a crowd surrounding a table where a beer pong tournament was taking place. In the kitchen, some girls were baking a cake, but it wasn't as crowded as it led out to the backyard, where the other half of the people in attendance were. The dining room had another beer pong tournament. And of course, the upstairs was basically empty, bunch of freshman girls keeping people from going upstairs. Thank Gods Ayaka is frat sweetheart, even if she doesn't really go to their parties.

The three girls got separated. Already. Record time. Thoma was in attendance and decided to lead Ayaka upstairs where he would introduce his twin friends. HuTao decided to join in on the beer pong tournament being held in the dining room, still close enough to be within eyesight of Y/N.

Taking this chance, Y/N walked into the kitchen, which wasn't as loud as the other rooms were. The girls baking the cake were using the spacious kitchen counters, leaving the bottles on the island open for use. Grabbing a red solo cup, she mixing some sort of concoction, then grabbing some soda from the fridge as a chaser.

‘Shit. Might as well get crunk tonight-’

Splash!

The girls with the cake giggle to each other as they watched the scene unfold.

“I am- I’m so- Oh, my Gods- I’m so sorry, I didn't-”

A pale hand grabbed Y/N’s wrist and a deep sigh was let out.

“It- It’s fine,” he let go of her wrist, Y/N looking up to see it was Xiao that she spilled a drink onto. “I really hated this shirt anyways.”

He reached over her and grabbed himself a water bottle, then some napkins, then just left.

‘Ugh. How embarrassing.’ Y/N thought as she grabbed some napkins to clean up the spill on the floor.

As she’s squatted down, she hears a whistle and sees a pair of brown shoes approach her. “That was a little embarrassing,” Kazuha. “are you okay?” Great.

“Yes, I’m okay. Thanks.” Refuse eye contact, avoid those red eyes you loved so dearly!

“Need some help there?” The blonde asked, grabbed some extra napkins and helped you clean the rest of the drink. ‘Accidentally’ brushing his hand against yours. “Oops. Sorry.”

You stand up over him, just looking down at him. You're still a little embarrassed over the spillage, and seeing your ex that likes to toy with you doesn't make you feel any better. He also stands up, holding the cup with the sopping wet napkins inside. Eye contact. “I’m glad you came. This party would've been boring without you.”

“Enjoy the show?” Asshole.

“Come on, Y/N. I didn't expect you to spill a drink on someone. Just thought it’d be nice to see you, you really know how to illuminate a room.”

He brought his hand towards your cheek. Of course, you pulled away, taking a step back and crossing your arms.

Then a sad smile appeared on his face, just momentarily, he glanced around the room and locked eyes with someone. Kazuha turned his attention back to you. “Let me get going. Talk again soon. I’ll take you out for a drink? Maybe dinner. I’ll text you.” Leaving the cup on the counter nearby, he threw a wink at you as he fucked off somewhere else.

You grabbed the cup, throwing it into the trash right beside you. Watching him walk up to a pretty girl. You don't really know her name, but you’ve seen her around campus. Beautiful girl, long blue hair with icy, yet gentle, eyes. She always carried a sense of elegance around with her enough that it could rival Ayaka’s. However, your friend has something she doesn't. Confidence and charisma. While their presence are on par, Ayaka was always putting herself out there and talking to anyone and everyone on campus. Might as well talk to your peers if you're on the student council. Yet, somehow, you still feel a sting in your heart.

That was never his type. He’s quiet, he’s romantic, sure. But he’s always expressed how he appreciates someone lively over someone with a personality close to his. He’s always adored your cheerfulness, the way you clap your hands whenever he gets you your favorite drink, how loud you scream on roller coasters, how you would tickle him in bed before falling asleep (despite him not being ticklish). Whatever. Past is past and now is… now. And now, you're sitting on the table, arms crossed and your head between them. One of the cake girls gave you a slice, so maybe tonight's not too bad.

“Kazuha.. That bastard!” Hutao slurred only slightly. You look up, seeing how her face had turned red. As hell. Asian glows really don't play.

“Yeah, it’s whatever. Wanna split this cake with me?” You asked, watching Hutao sit beside you.

“I do love chocolate cake.”

– Xiao POV –

One of the last places Xiao would’ve wanted to be that night would be in a garage with Venti drunk off his ass and Itto hotboxing his garage. If he was Itto’s neighbor he would've just rather move across the country.

In the room with them was also Itto’s girlfriend, Shinobu. Ganyu and Yanfei were in as well, but decided to go to other parts of the house and chill in one of the bedrooms where they kept their stuff in. Really, it was to avoid smelling like a skunk and dog shit.

“Y’know, I’m surprised your dad let you out this late. Don’t he be wanting that good quality time?”

Xiao scoffed. “All he does is bitch and moan about working with him someday if what I’m doing doesn't work out. He’s already bitched enough about me wanting to start a band and playing my guitar.”

He looked down at the cigarette between his fingers. He’s already smoked two and was debating on smoking a third one. He looked down by his chair to find his water bottle missing.

Miraculously Venti was suddenly drinking water beside him. Dumbass. Well, at least he knew better. Xiao carpooled, his only rule for Venti is for him to drink enough water so he won't vomit in the front seat again.

“I’m gonna get a water.”

“O- okay.”

Itto hacked out as more clouds escaped from his lungs, holding the bong closer to his chest so it won't slip out his hands.

Xiao slips between drunken guests, some couple is making out outside the bathroom door, and the frat guys are throwing footballs across the room. So annoying.

He enters the kitchen, also surprised on how tame it was compared to the rest of the house. Just some girls recording themselves decorating a cake with pictures and giggling after saying “smash”. Then there's someone at the fridge, a familiar silhouette in front of him but he can't quite remember who, nor does he really care on who it is.

Suddenly, Xiao feels a coldness touch his stomach and spread around. Fuck. Of course they're drunk. Xiao decided to wear some stupid graphic white tee shirt that day. He knew it was a stupid choice but he didn't really consider someone would spill a drink on him. Whatever.

“-so sorry- I didn't-”

Xiao grabbed her wrist, “It- It’s fine,” he didn't really want to deal with a conversation. Bro just wanted water. “I really hated his shirt anyways.” Truth. Some old shirt his dad got him some years ago, has some band he was somewhat into that he doesn't really care about anymore. He let go of her wrist to examine his shirt. Whatever she was gonna drink was strong and would leave a pink stain on his shirt.

His golden eyes locked in with her’s for a second.

‘Oh shittt’

Venti’s friend.

Now he’s embarrassed.

‘Better make this quick’

Xiao reached over her and grabbed his water bottle, then grabbed some napkins on the counter and quickly walked back to meet back with his friends.

Upon entering the garage, Itto bursted out into a loud laugh.

“Oh man! Did your ex get mad at you again?”

“Not this time. Venti’s friend spilled a drink on me. I don't know if she was already drunk.”

The drunkard’s ears perked up.

“Which one?”

Xiao started dabbing his shirt, trying to get as much liquid off as he could. “I forgot. She’s got [hair color] hair, about this tall.” He motioned with his hand.

“Hmm. Doesn't really ring a bell.”

Bro’s drunk as hell.

“I’ll go get you another shirt, sorry about that,” offered Shinobu. She's actually pretty decent and smart. Law major and in one of his cousins' classes. Still a surprise and why she’d end up dating Itto’s dumbass. Especially with how often he gets in trouble with the law.

Xiao checked the time on his phone. Almost 1am. He had a class early in the morning so might as well get going after he changes.

“Venti, put your shoes on. We’re heading out soon.”

“Wha- Whaat? But the night is soo young~” he slurred along.

“Awh man, already leavin’?” Itto said as he tried his best at making puppy eyes. As if a grown ass man can be cute. Cue in Shinobu with a new shirt.

The shirt was smaller than he expected; most likely Shinobu’s as Itto is a rather big guy. A little old but not raggedy. Dark grey with some restaurant logo in the front. He took off his own drenched shirt and put on the clean shirt, noticing how it fit somewhat tighter than he thought but only around the arms.

“Thank you for the shirt. I’ll see you guys later.”

Xiao said as he grabbed Venti from the back of his collar and dragged him out, throwing his wet shirt over his head.

The car ride home was mostly silent. His little friend is surprisingly the quiet type when drunk, often just stuck in his head and mumbles his conversations. So far he’s been mumbling about some cakes from a shop he's been eyeing.

“Mmm.. Soft.. Absolutely… Tiny pastries…”

It was about a 20 minute drive from Itto’s, so it wasn't long until he arrived at his house. Parking in front of the garage, Xiao walked around and opened his drunk passengers door, making sure to be quick to catch him as he was sure to fall out the seat and onto the pavement.

The area was silent, often quieting down an hour or so after sunset. Hopefully Venti would be quiet this time. Some nights he’d come home after another party and be so loud, neighbors open their windows to tell him to be quiet. Tonight, thankfully, he just let himself be dragged. The taller boy had a spare key to the drunkard’s place. His mom was the sweetest woman around, often bringing over a cake or cookies around Xiao’s birthday.

After slipping into the home and shutting the door, Xiao headed upstairs towards the bathroom. Venti hasn't thrown up yet. Maybe that’s why he's been silent. As soon as Venti felt the cold porcelain, he let everything go out. First it was just him spitting into the water, shortly afterwards it was just the dinner his mom prepared, the two small, round alcoholic bottles that were brightly blue, and lastly the endless shots from playing some drinking game with Itto.

The sober man sat on the edge of the tub, rubbing his back and moving his braids out of his face. Hopefully the water that was stolen by him would help with the hangover.

After Venti’s throw up fest, the small boy just leaned his head against the toilet seat. “Hey, what happened to your shirt?”

“Your friend spilled a drink on me. Do you not remember me telling you?”

A small wince, “No… Which friend?”

“Don't worry about it. It was an accident. Let's get you into bed.”

Flushing the toilet, Venti stood up and leaned his body weight against Xiao’s. They were about the same height, Xiao being slightly taller. And toned. Venti wasn't really big on working out, but if invited out for a hike he was sure to go.

They reached the room down the hall, opening it up and Venti being tossed onto the bed. Xiao went thru his closet and found some pj’s then threw it at his friend, who was already working on getting naked to change.

“Thank… you.” Venti’s voice slurred, as he was already getting sleepy.

“Yeah, anytime. See you later.” Xiao waved as he closed the door to his bedroom and exited his home.

Walking across the street into his house, he was hoping, praying, his dad wouldn't be awake. He’s always talking about how Xiao should stay home for more family time. But his family time is watching whatever sport team is playing, but Gods forbid Xiao speaking up during the game, don't even think about getting up to use the restroom. That’s disobedience, according to his dad. He wasn't always like that, but sometimes that's what happens when alcohol gets involved in a mourning process.

“Yer back late, ain’t’cha?”

‘Shit…’

“Yeah, just dropped off Venti. Gonna head into bed now-”

“You smell like weed. You haven't been smoking, right, son? You know you can't get a job if you smoke.”

“No. I didn't smoke. Sorry I stink, I’ll shower in the morn-”

“NO!”

His father was sitting on the dining room table, perfect view of the front door. He slammed his hands onto the table.

“You know better. You know I raised you better. To be a better man.”

God, how annoying.

“Dad, all you do at home is get drunk, while I'm your house maid. I’m tired. I don't wanna do-”

“Oh you don't wanna talk about it? Real men talk about the shit going on! You're so disrespectful!"

“Oh! I’m disrespectful? I stay home all day and I keep this place spotless. I was gone for a week and you trashed this place. You can't even work without me.”

“I’m so tired of your disrespecting. I’m a well-respected man, y’know? I put food on the table, I put clothes on your back, a roof over your head. When I was your age I still respected my father.”

“Yeah? The bare minimum? What you're SUPPOSED to do? As a decent caregiver? You barely do shit around the house. You’re just a lonely and sad man!”

“Get the fuck out of my house. You're so disrespectful, your mother would HATE-”

“She’d fucking hate YOU! You're not the man she knew anymore.”

“I said get the FUCK out of my house!”

Whatever. Whatever. Really, whatever!

Xiao knew this would've happened. It’s not the first time but it wouldn't be the last time. He’s already packed a gym bag full of extra clothes and shoes ready to ‘get the FUCK out’.

He had a carrier ready for Mila, too. He’d never leave the cat with him. His cat. While he knew his dad would never harm an animal, he still wouldn't wanna leave his cat with someone who doesn't even know how to take care of himself.

He ran upstairs and threw his bags out the window, waking Mila up to get her in her carrier. He always kept portable pet items in his trunk, just in case this happened again.

With all his bags thrown out the window, Xiao just grabbed Mila’s carrier and walked down the stairs. Avoiding eye contact with his father. Maybe he had tears in his eyes, maybe his eyes were full of anger. It doesn't matter. He didn't wanna see him again.

Stepping outside, there were some neighbors peeking outside through their curtains, others standing outside just watching the house with all the ruckus. So nosy.

He turned on his car, slipping Mila onto the passenger seat, then opening his trunk to throw in his bags. Getting his stuff settled, he started to put the car in reverse.

Just then, his dad ran out the house.

“Son! Xiao! Son, please. Please come back inside, I’m sorry-”

He pounded on his door window, which only motivated Xiao to reverse faster out the driveway and speed off down the street. Must've been like 2am now and he doesn't really have enough to stay at a motel for a few days.

Shit.

Then a sudden, definitely dumb, idea popped into his head.

“Don't worry girl, I’ll keep you safe.”

Xiao cooed at the cat, who responded with a meow and purrs.

He decided to head back to Itto’s.

Hopefully the party is still going on. It was only still picking up speed when he first left anyways.

Pulling up to the street, of course the party was still going on. Somewhat. There were still people but it wasn't too loud anymore. Most of them left already as the street was mostly cleared out. He grabbed Mila’s carrier and walked up to the door. Passing by a girl crying and being comforted by her friends, guess she had a shitty night. Makes both of us.

Entering the home once again, most of the people in attendance were passing a blunt across the room, completely ignoring the couple in the corner making out.

One of the girls that was in the blunt rotation noticed Xiao. She was in his class the semester prior. A regular at Itto’s parties as well. They weren't friends but they were project partners at some point so I guess they were on friendly terms. “Oh, hey Xiao! Itto’s in the kitchen.” She said, waving at him, then turning back to her group as it was her turn to take another hit from a blunt being passed around.

He nodded his head towards her as a thanks then turned around the corner to head towards the kitchen.

“Hey-hey-hey! Look who’s finally back!” Itto’s voice boomed, as he took a sip from his beer can. Shinobu was nowhere to be seen. Probably headed to bed already. “Whatcha got there in that lil cage?”

“Uh, my cat. Mila. She’s friendly,” Xiao raised her carrier to be in view of Itto, watching his face soften at the sight of a beautiful cat. Patches of black and orange surrounding her face, whereas most of her body was white with the same patches decorating her. Itto automatically leaned over, sticking his finger in to pet her.

“Hey, man, this is really embarrassing. And no hard feelings if you say no, but would it be possible if I could crash here for a few days?”

“Venti told me a bit about your dad. I’m assuming this gotta do with that, huh?”

Slow, shameful nod.

“Yeah, no prob. This was my granny’s house before she left. Lottsa rooms upstairs. Pick any one you’d like, only two ocupado are the two on the right side of the hallway.

Thank fuck.

“I really appreciate this, man. I’m sorry I just pulled up with this.”

“It’s cool man. The more the merrier.” Itto said, shooing Xiao along to get his stuff set.

And of course, Xiao headed upstairs to pick out a room. Which ended up having a window that viewed the front yard. He set Mila on the bed, opening her cage to allow her to roam the room and stretch.

After various trips going up and down the stairs and just throwing his bags in front of the closet, he threw himself onto the bed and sighed. Four fuzzy legs walking above his chest and plopping herself down, with purrs filling the room.

Everything will be fine.

prev. chapter ⤌ masterlist ⤍ next chapter

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 56: The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish (part 1)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon!

…sigh. Buckle in, kids. This one is going to be a bumpy ride.

Episode 56: The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish (part 1)

I mean, where do I even start with this one? Over its 23 year long run, there were sooooo many different fetishes that popped up in the comic at one time or another. I’d even go as far as to say that if you have a particular favourite fetish that it probably showed up in ArchieSonic at some point.

Are you into magical girls?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Are you into furry love triangles?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Are you into feet pics?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

But maybe you’re more into cannibalism.

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

How about tickle torture?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

What about leather and whips?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Or maybe asphyxiation and/or drowning?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

How about vore?

ArchieSonic’s got you covered, fam.

Whatever the f*** this was?!

ArchieSonic’s (clap) got (clap) you (clap) covered (clap) fam.

But hey, no kink shaming here. I’m all for encouraging the kind of things you sick, twisted readers are into. 😀 But what about the writers themselves? What kind of weird stuff are they into? Well… look, I’m not going to say that Ken Penders has a fetish for tickle torture, but I will point out that he wrote that Tails scene I showed you earlier, and also drew this... “political statement.”

I’m just going to let you come to your own conclusions with that information. 

There is other stuff we could look at as well though. I’m not sure whether or not the rest of this stuff technically counts as “fetishes”, but considering the number of times it got written into the comic, I don’t think we can completely rule it out. For this section I’d like to concentrate on the three writers who contributed to ArchieSonic the most: Ken Penders, Karl Bollers, and Ian Flynn.

Ken Penders is first up, and there’s a lot to explore here during his time on the comic from 1994 - 2006. First of all, he had a habit of introducing zillions of new characters (usually echidnas). But as was pointed out by former ArchieSonic writer and colourist and current awesome person Aleah Baker, that topic might be a little too broad. So let’s break that down into several smaller categories. The first one is “Introducing secret family members that no one knew about and/or were supposed to be dead.” There were so many instances of this!

Sonic’s long-lost parents!

Sally’s long-lost brother and mother!

Antoine’s father!

Knuckles’ father!

Knuckles’ mother!

The League of Extroadinarily Racist Grandpas!

This is in stark contrast to both post-reboot ArchieSonic and the current IDWSonic run, where very few of the cast have family members making appearances.

Another one Penders loved to pull out was introducing unnecessary new characters who were there for the single purpose of replacing already established characters, usually those that were introduced in the games or SatAM. ‘Wait, who did Penders want to replace?’ you may be asking. Quite a few people, actually. For starters, he wanted to get rid of Princess Sally. Do you remember this infamous moment from the Endgame saga?

Sally eventually recovered from that fall, but Penders’ original intention was the death fake-out to be for realsies. Ken wanted Sally gone, as he felt that having King Acorn back gave us a character that served the same purpose as leader of the Freedom Fighters, and that Sally, in Ken’s own words, “cramped Sonic’s style.” Fortunately SEGA intervened and demanded that Sally live, partially because they were using her for marketing SEGAWorld Sydney. I got to visit that place as a kid, fun times. 

It wasn’t long after this that Ken pulled Sally’s long-lost brother Prince Elias out of his hat, whom I can only assume was also designed to serve a similar purpose to Sally.

Is that not bad enough? Well then how about the time when Ken killed off Dr. Robotnik and planned to replace him with this guy?

Meet Dr. Ian Droid (ugh, I hate the pun), a guy who basically boils down to “Dr. Robotnik but cooler because he was made by me, Ken Penders.” Who is this guy? What are his motivations? Buggered if I know. He was supposed to be the villain of Ken Penders’ original series, The Lost Ones (which only ever had a single issue released), and Knuckles: 20 Years Later (which was scrapped and replaced with the Mobius: 25 Years Later storyline).

Dr. Droid was implied to be a time-traveller who had fought Sonic and Knuckles in the past… or future… or whatever! We didn’t really find out anything else about this guy in the single issue he showed up in - a crossover with Image Comics. We should all be grateful that this bland knock-off never showed up again.

Lastly, whether or not he intended this, Ken Penders largely replaced the Chaotix. With whom? Why more echidnas, of course! The Chaotix may be an independent team nowadays, but back when they were first introduced ArchieSonic established that these guys were Knuckles' crew. I’ve talked about this before, but as the Knuckles series progressed the Chaotix tended to make fewer appearances, often becoming background characters whose page time was eaten up by Julie-Su, Constable Remington, and the League of Extroadinarily Racist Grandpas. Even in a three-issue arc called “The Chaotix Caper,” the Chaotix spent a large chunk of it hospitalised while Julie-Su and Remington investigated the case they had been working on.

Penders even used this arc to write Charmy out of the story for the next few years aside from a few brief cameo appearances.

Were there any other “fetishes,” Penders constantly wrote about? Well yes, and it’s a big one: daddy issues. There was King Max of course, a jerk mostly known for making typical boomer calls such as demanding Sally agree to an arranged marriage with Antoine or lose her right to the crown, or calling for all the robots who used to be Robotnik’s mindless slaves to be disassembled.

Obviously, Sally’s relationship with him was rather strained. But it was Knuckles’ father Locke, introduced and mostly written by Penders, that was quite possibly the most controversial character in the entire series. On the one hand, he was something of a guardian angel (pardon the pun) to Knuckles, watching out for him from afar and secretly helping him in his most desperate times. But wow, did he ever go about it the wrong way. Locke took Knuckles away from his mother at a young age to train him to be the next guardian of the Floating Island, and when that training was complete Knuckles had to watch his father yeet himself into a wall of fire, leaving him completely alone.

Obviously Locke didn’t actually kill himself but instead took up residency in a secret base called Haven where he could spy on his son all day long. But Knuckles didn’t know that and was left alone to suffer. When Knuckles finally reunited with him and wanted to know everything he’d been kept in the dark about up to this point, Locke was surprisingly forthcoming and finally came clean with the big secret.

Before Knuckles was born Locke had a vision of him in battle against forces he couldn’t comprehend, so Locke decided the only way to ensure his future son’s survival was to pump himself full of steroids before impregnating his wife and then blasting Knuckles’ egg with radiation from a Chaos Emerald. You all know the meme:

Penders was famously upset by other writers’ interpretations of Locke, especially when Ian Flynn became head writer of the comic and killed Locke off.

Penders had already previously written Locke’s death to take place during the future events of the Mobius 25 Years Later arc - and dedicated the story to his own late father - but despite his insistence otherwise, this was not considered to be the canonical future of the series but rather and "elseworlds" or "what if?" story.

It’s quite possible that this incident was the reason Penders decided to copyright all of “his” characters and start writing The Lara-Su Chronicles. But no matter what Ian wrote for Locke, nothing can be as bad as what Penders himself wrote for him:

Ick. I’m sorry, I thought I got all the gross stuff out of the way at the start of the post.

Tumblr has a limit to the number of images you can put in a single post, so I’m going to have to save Mr Bollers’ and Mr Flynn’s fetishes for next time. I’ll try to have that one out for you tomorrow. 🙂

[galacticnova3]

How does Reloh feel about Kirby

*Rubs hands together evilly*

It depends on how worked up he is at the time. Under normal circumstances, he’s pretty neutral about them, if not a bit wary. He’s fully aware of Kirby’s role in the downfall of Dark Matter as a group, but tends to view things from his usual lens of “yeah but we did all that and had it coming even if some of us made the effort to be better” because A. That’s Just A Kid and B. it really was probably best from the metric of reducing overall suffering in the world. They DO frighten him a bit if he actually dwells on the thought, though, mostly because knowing the guy who killed most of your family(even if for an understandable cause) has had impulsive moments of fighting first and asking questions later while wanting to do the right thing… Isn’t exactly a comforting thought when you very much look like The Enemy and also did do things in the past that many would see as warranting being labeled as such. Basically he can get scared of his past catching up to him in the face of the one who, y’know, took down the big bad Zero and Dark Matter who also happen to have been his immediate “family”. It’s complicated and that’s why he prefers to simply not think about them when he can help it.

I haven’t really touched on this but the more emotional Reloh gets, the more clarity he has regarding some of the memories he held on to that aren’t his. This is for reasons I plan to elaborate on in something I have in the works so I won’t explain why exactly this is the case, but writing-wise it’s a bit of irony because his “normal” life as a Dark Matter was basically 90% repressing emotions. Anyways, what this means is if he were to be particularly upset and think about Kirby in the midst of it, his perspective would lean more towards “oh my god that’s the one who killed us. this guy killed my strongest sibling twice, killed my creator twice, and heavily contributed to the majority of everyone else I was related to dying as well.” Like, he wasn’t physically there, but because of the hivemind he still has bits and pieces of what was witnessed by those who were. He has glimpses of what DMS saw in both of their final moments. He can recall the way Miracle Matter slowly started losing sight of the world around them as they were gradually killed an eye or two at a time. He remembers the sudden shock that came with Zero’s deaths as if part of his fundamental being had been torn out on two different occasions. He retains some of the sense of chaos and confusion and pain from the Dark Star before everyone there died. Even just considering his own memories, going from hundreds of voices in your head to just your own and knowing what it meant… That’s something he actively represses.

Kirby happens to be the common factor between all of those things. Granted, the same feeling actually extends a bit to Ribbon as well, though not quite as strongly on account of her not visibly being the one to deal the killing blow— he doesn’t know how big a role she played in the events of 64 because everyone there was more focused on the one who actually killed DMS and Zero’s first incarnation… So yeah basically as long as he’s not already Feeling Things Kirby is just kind of someone who exists and has an unfortunate connection to his life but otherwise doesn’t concern him. If he is having an emotions moment things are less chill. Sorry Kirby but you did kind of kill his parent and siblings, in some cases twice, and he’s stuck with the baggage that comes from that and also baggage inherited from a bunch of said siblings. Nothing personal kid. Well I mean it is kind of personal just not in the usual “we have met each other and have beef” kind of way.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 288, Replies Part 2

1) “Welp, sorry miss, but he’s dead. If not literally right now, he’ll be in a few minutes, there’s a fucking mountain about to meet him”- Well, if the husband was real, then Toga almost certainly had to stab him too before getting a sample of his wife’s blood, so his odds of surviving are slim to none.

2) “….

no… it can’t be Toga, right? I mean, Machia is still a bit far, there’s no way she would get here that quickly considering he’s moving around 100km/h

…right?”- Toga’s drive to answer her burning questions apparently gives her super-speed.

3) “Oh no wait there she is

and she seems to be a speedster

We found koichi’s cousin, and she’s about to fucking die.”- Or was dead all along. 4) “FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I FUCKING KNEW IT FUCKMOTHERFUCKING FUCK

HOW IN THE FUCK’S NAME DID YOU GOT HERE THAT FAST TOGA, EVEN IF YOU USED THE QUIRK FROM THAT WOMAN I DOUBT YOU COULD OUTRUN THE MOUNTAIN”- Toga’s disguise bursting when Urarak says she’ll save “Takeo” – who is basically a stand-in for herself and her own attraction to Izuku and Uraraka – all whilst blushing and naked because of her Quirk certainly caused some….interesting discourse on the internet when this chapter first came out. It almost looks like she couldn’t keep control of herself when she thought (in her own head) Uraraka was reciprocating her feelings. 5) “Nice face there Uraraka, unfortunately, remember that Toga is a ninja”- Were it not for the circumstances, Uraraka’s reactions almost feels like her dealing with a clingy girlfriend who keeps popping up in her life when she least expects her. It’s certainly a nicer way of looking at their situation than one traumatised girl desperately seeking support and affection from the only other person in her very small social circle she can think of to help her deal with the loss of a dear friend.

6) “Yeah see? She’s probably standing right by your side, but you can’t see her because she’s just that good at being stealthy.”- Toga prepped this battleground in advance before luring Uraraka into it. Tight confines to limit the extent she can get lifted about by Zero Gravity, dark rooms to help lower Uraraka’s visibility, and multiple connecting rooms to allow her to move into her blind spots quickly. In retrospect, she moved even faster than expected from Machia to find this place and set it up before reaching Uraraka.

7) “Which kinda describes how he’s looking 80-90% of the time. Honestly, that boy could look like he fought a bear and lost badly while coming out of the shower.”- The only fight that Izuku has walked away from where he didn’t look like he’d fought a combine harvester and lost was against Overhaul, and only because he was getting healed non-stop during it.

8) “Alright, it’s time for it. Time for her to put the cards on the table and know the truth, is she a monster to be killed, or is she a human to be saved”- Toga sadly needed more advice on how to actually frame her question, without it coming across as ambiguous flirting with the object of her interest. Another thing she might have had an easier time with if anybody had given her the help she needed.

9) “Oh thank god you had some clothes thrown around Toga, but still, that was quite the fast change you made, were you practicing this?”- Between this and the speed boost she’d have needed to set up this battlefield ahead of Machia, I choose to believe the power of Horny transforms Toga into the Flash. I mean sure she has other motivations, but you know that’s at least a contributing factor as well.

10) “Toga please can you be a bit more specific it really looks like you’re flirting with her rather than making a deep philosophical question about your own worth

I mean, you are kinda flirting with that knife and all, but please focus girl”- Toga is, for all her skills and abilities, still a young girl that was raised in an environment that didn’t put in enough effort into understanding her needs and perspective, instead expecting her to be the one to eventually understand if the lesson was drilled into her time and again. All this did was lead to her repressing her instincts until they exploded, and as a result, Toga is very bad at expressing herself when it comes to conversations like this. She’s good at showing her emotions and acting on them, but bad at explaining why this matters so much to her, especially since she doesn’t bring up Jin’s fate, still too damaged by processing his loss to realise that Uraraka wouldn’t assume that a hero would kill somebody in the line of duty, and thus that Toga’s asking her if she’s somebody who deserves to be saved or destroyed like a rabid animal. 11) “See Toga, that’s why you need to be more direct with your questions, Uraraka thinks you just did a really roundabout way of asking her out”- I couldn’t help but notice that Uraraka didn’t say no to the idea of another girl asking her out, just that it was neither the time or the place for it. 12) “Uraraka didn’t knew what was going on in Toga’s heart at the moment, she just stated a fact, she needs to stop her since she’s a villain endangering innocent people, but… Oh god this is not end well”- Uraraka is motivated to act by the loss of Nighteye, feeling that she failed to do something that could have saved his life, whereas Toga is motivated by Jin’s loss, feeling like her life is now in danger from the same heroes that deemed it necessary to kill him and wanting conformation from someone – anyone – that they see her as more than a monster to be put down. Neither fully expresses their innermost thoughts, so neither fully understands the other. 13) “I’m kinda hoping she’ll go back to the league, but at the same time I don’t know if she’s willing to do so. This is being quite the hellish day for her, and Dabi is there being an asshole, not helping at all- I don’t know if she won’t go her own way. If she’s a monster, what reason does she have to be with the rest of them? Because I know that Toga doesn’t see them as monsters, as villains, she sees them as people first.And, that is the one thing Uraraka implied by accident she isn’t.”- At the end of the day, the League is the only place where Toga can not only be herself without judgement, but feel safe and protected by her friends. And now those friends are all being taken away from her one by one, to her mind all of it resulting from the oppression of the same system that demonised her ever since she was a child. You can’t help but feel sorry for her, because in many ways, she’s just as much a victim of this war as Twice.

@thelreads

[mars-incorrect-quotes]

Dawn: Here you go, Leora, a Nice Hot Cup of Coffee.

Leora: It's cold.

Dawn: A nice cup of Coffee.

Leora: Augh, It tastes horrible!

Dawn: A cup of coffee.

Leora: Is this even Coffee...?

Dawn: Cup.

[self-ships-ahoy]

My commentary in blue.

I posted 1,219 times in 2022

203 posts created (17%)

1,016 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@i-love-you-by-thunder

@candyheartedchy

@bees-self-ships

@kittyandco

@nerdstreak

The crew ^

I tagged 1,211 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#tfqueue - 152 posts

#➕ herr doktor - 142 posts - Some things never change.

#;others' ships - 132 posts

#;imagines - 101 posts

#;feelings - 100 posts

#💗 remote surgery - 90 posts

#delete later - 64 posts

#do not rb - 63 posts

#self ship - 57 posts

#💫 man of the stars - 54 posts - Sigma got 54 posts since I f/o'd him this year!

Longest Tag: 131 characters

#but recent developments show that there's a bunch of similarities between another past f/o and someone whom i'm considering adding:

Unfortunately I didn't f/o either of them (Optimus only becoming a crush f/o) 😅

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Medic's young daughter quickly becomes intrigued by her father's work, as soon as she's able to look over the table. It becomes a common occurrence for her to watch him conduct his research, occasionally asking questions and learning more about biology and medicine. Medic is hoping this is a sign that she'll follow in his footsteps, but is happy enough that he has his daughter's company.

Close-ups and microscope reference under cut:

See the full post

47 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

#4

Beach Episode!! I just had to take the excuse to draw Tech and Medic in vintage swimwear lol. Look at them, don't they make a cute couple?

Ref and tracing notes under the cut:

I very lightly traced the poses for size, but only used small parts of the woman's outline before adjusting the sketch for Tech's body shape. I also traced an angled shot of Medic's head, but that was edited as well.

54 notes - Posted July 8, 2022

#3

Day 2: Formal

Another one for @dontneedadispenser's V-Day event. I almost didn't post it, but a few friends of mine made me feel better about it. Please accept my humble contribution. u///u 👉👈

This is my personal cliché scenario of going to a ball/gala, but I did also see Saxton Hale host these kinds of parties, so you could say this stuff is canon. Maybe one of them was nominated for a merc award and was invited to bring a few friends. And with the help of an anonymous "fairy godmerc", Technician was able to attend a fancy event for the first time in her life. Needless to say she took her secret admirer's breath away - just like she hoped she would.

66 notes - Posted February 9, 2022

#2

On this day last year, RED Medic and Technician tied the knot! What better way to celebrate than to make a picture based on the TF2 achievement color palette challenge! It's quite an achievement for sure, and perhaps one that more TF2 OC ships will get in the future.

Confetti source

68 notes - Posted August 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

When I say that the sound of my f/o's voice helped my mind and body settle down from overstimulation anxiety, I know the self ship community will understand.

178 notes - Posted January 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

The first 4 of my top posts are my techmedic art and I couldn't be happier with that fact. I'm also happy with the number 1 post cuz it was written with Medic in mind, and I'm glad other people can relate to what I experienced with him.

This was another great ship year with him and my other f/os, and with all my amazing friends here. Here's to more self shipping love and happiness next year!

[demonslayedher]

The Sound Pillar past, I have heard that explore a bit in databook about being ninja.

Also what happened his sibling that still remain.

Also what there react

Combining info from the fanbooks and Chapters 80, 87, and 90 we get the following narrative of Uzui Tengen and his family, as complete as I could fill it in. It's always possible the anime version will expand and give us more, but here's what I've got in chronological format.

Uzui Tengen's father was the leader of their clan, one of a few ninja clans who lived in close community. Ninja were regularly sent on missions, but it is not clear what those missions were. Women and children were also expected to undergo strict training and go on missions, but women were primarily only valued as baby-makers, and it was common for one man to take multiple wives. The wives, at least in the Uzui case, were chosen upon agreements between families. (For more commentary on the unusual and cult-like nature of the Uzui ninja clan, please see this post.) In Chapter 80, Makio recalls how she never used to be afraid of dying because she was so brainwashed to believe her only value as a kunoichi (female ninja) was to put her life on the line in support of the strong male ninja. Tengen is the oldest of nine children. Of note, Fanbook #2 states that he has a mother and father from whom the nine children came, but as multiple wives is the norm in this village and Uzui was 15 when they were forced to fight each other, I think it's reasonable to assume many of them were half-siblings (even if all with one very busy wife, that would make the youngest one only around 7~9 years old or so, by my guess. But, it doesn't seem unreasonable in this clan that an 8-year-old would be expected to take part in this fight.)

Tengen had his three wives by the time he was 15. Since he is 23 when canon takes place and Hinatsuru (from a ninja clan second in rank to the Uzui clan and who has a good balance of core ninja skills) is 21, Makio (physically a highly capable ninja but her short temper causes her to fail her missions and yes, she is Tengen's cousin, please restrain your knee-jerk reactions and accept the cultural difference and move one) is 20, and Suma is 19 (and yes, Fanbook #2 said she likes both men and women), that means his wives were respectively 13, 12, and 11 when they fled the village. As Suma's younger sister was originally the one being considered as a bride, this means they were willing to marry off girls even younger than that. See this post for more commentary on multiple wives in the Taisho period, and as an added note, the legal age for women to marry in Taisho was 16. The Uzui ninja clan was entirely counter-cultural in the first place, though, so this doesn't apply very directly to them. Furthermore, due to their curse, the Ubuyashiki clan had very usually early expectations for children to wed, and they always run a not officially recognized organization. Otherwise, most of the cast seems to follow more usual Meiji/Taisho family patterns. Of the nine siblings, three of them died before Tengen turned 15, simply due to the lifestyle. When Tengen was 15 (clarified according to Fanbook #1), Tengen's father pit the remaining six siblings against each other so that only the strong would remain. They were all concealing their identities and did not know they were fighting their own siblings. According to Fanbook #2, Tengen killed two of them, and his younger brother (second oldest) killed another two, and Tengen was pissed when he realized what was happening. He couldn't bring himself to kill his remaining brother, though that brother was just like their father when it came to his values that only the strong should survive, and he really didn't care about killing his own flesh and blood. This was when Tengen decided he didn't want to live like this, and he took his wives and fled. For a while (according to Fanbook #2), he often said he should go to hell, but this made Makio angry, it made Hinatsuru cry, and it made Suma bite him so he stopped saying that. He did continue to think that he should eliminate the rest of this evil Uzui clan, but he could never bring himself to kill his father and little brother. (So, fanfic writers, grab your pens, we can assume the Uzui clan is still active.) Anyway, once he was free of that lifestyle where he had to constantly hide his presence, he thoroughly rebelled and embraced the flamboyant.

It's unclear when and how Tengen learning Breathing technique. It's possible there was knowledge of this technique in some form or another among the ninja (though his wives don't seem to display it), and it's also possible he learned from a cultivator. Sound is an off-shoot of Thunder, but it's unclear whether Sound was established before he came along, or if he created this Breath to make extra use of his keen hearing. (What I would give to see Tengen/Kuwajima interactions, preferably arguing about which Breath is superior.) It's unclear how much time passed between fleeing the clan and joining the Demon Slayer Corps. Given his ninja skills, as soon as he found out about the Corps (and perhaps by extension, demons), passing the Final Selection was probably a breeze for him. It was either right after the Final Selection (and therefore still waiting for his uniform), or just as he had made up his mind to join the Corp that he declares his new rule to his wives: their lives are #1 priority. #2 priority is morally upright humans, and #3 is Tengen himself.

And they're like, "whaaaaaaaat."

But sure enough they all accept the demon slaying mission, and before long, Tengen and his wives meet Oyakata-sama one fine spring day, I assume upon attaining the rank of Sound Pillar. Oyakata-sama sympathizes with how hard it must had been for Tengen--for all of them--to go against what they were raised to believe, and to fight to protect people in what they've deemed a morally upright course of life. Tengen's like, "this guy gets it" and becomes as big a fanboy as any other Pillar is for Oyakata-sama. It's purely conjecture, but I'm guessing he and Oyakata-sama both were somewhere around age 15~17 at this meeting (again, we don't know how much time has passed since Tengen left the ninja. Due to Kanae and Tengen's shared presence at later flashbacks, he couldn't had been older than 18~19). Tengen goes on to be super popular. The most popular Pillar in the Corp, Taisho Rumor has it. His wives all help on missions too, but there's an agreement that they'll get out and live a happy domestic life once they've bagged an Upper Moon--enough of a contribution to, perhaps, to feel they've atoned for the sins they committed as ninja (or at least, this was how Hinatsuru proposed the idea). Once the arm gets chopped and the eye gets cut, Tengen gains a really good excuse for retiring, but it was just his luck to have declared three Tsuguko within hours of his forced retirement. (Like, I doubt this counts for anything. And if he ever calls them that again his trio of Tsuguko are probably going to be more confused than anybody else.) Anyway, Nezuko brings him back from the brink of poison-induced death and he basically walks home. While still involved in the Corp in training the rank and file members and guarding Kiriya upon his becoming Oyakata-sama (meaning he, like Himejima, was trusted with knowledge in advance about Kagaya's very flamboyant exit plan). After that he truly goes into domestic retirement mode and makes friends with a fellow lop-sided former Pillar, however drab he always thought that person was. He takes enough of a liking to said former Pillar that he brings him along on co-ed hot spring dips and lets him hold his first child. Which of the three wives birthed the first child, we don't know. And then one of his descendants goes on to be a flamboyant gymnast, but still gathers once a year under Ubuyashiki's leadership to perform the Sound Breath forms as a sacred Kagura dance. And we still don't know what became of Tengen's brother. For all we know, modern gymnast Uzui Tenma and his six other siblings regularly avoid explosive attacks on their life from a generations-held promise to eliminate them. PARKOUR---but more flamboyant. (I hope it's obvious that I am being silly here and have no canon basis for this.)

[luckyladylily]

So, the Bayonetta 3 VA thing. To start of, I don't have the money to but they game so the whole boycott thing doesn't much matter to me personally. That's not a choice I have to make, so no comment. If I do ever play it it will be at some far later date or after successfully pirating it. But the discussion at hand does bring up ideas that I think are worth exploring. Because this is about workers rights, kinda, but also the integrity of art. kinda.

Here is the thing, I am 90% certain that platinum didn't want Taylor back, low balling her like that and then hiring a VA that is far more well known and has plenty of work to choose from. She can almost certainly command a larger payout. If we assume everything Taylor says is true, which I do, then I cannot fathom that they get Jennifer Hale for a pittance. I'm going out on a bit of a limb here, but I think Platinum wanted to replace Taylor with Hale, probably because of the name recognition or perceived ability.

This was an offer designed to be refused, so they could say "we offered and she refused" - remember, they thought they were safe because Taylor was locked behind an NDA. That's PR maneuvering.

In terms of pay, obviously all workers, VA included, should be paid a fair, at very minimum livable wage. That isn't a debate worth having, any reasonable person would agree. But it doesn't stop at monetary compensation. We also have the question of transparency in the hiring process and wage transparency overall. If Platinum did bait the refusal (as I suspect they did) for PR reasons that's incredibly shitty.

But one issue that straddles the line between worker's rights and artistic integrity is how much ownership of a character does a VA have for being the first person to play that character? To what degree did platinum owe her the part?

Now, for the record, I personally think Taylor's performance was fine. Neither amazing or bad. I don't really think Bayonetta's voice has been a significant factor in the iconic nature of the character. Nothing like David Hayter with Snake, or Charles Martinet with Mario for example. This is most likely just the nature of the game but, for better or worse, Bayonetta's voice is replaceable. I think that if all this scandal had never happened many of us would have never even noticed or at least not cared as long as it was somewhere approximating a similar voice.

That might sound bad, but it is kinda standard for everything. The Hayters and Martinets are the exception, not the rule. In most cases the VA is just one part of a large team that brings a character to life. We swap out animators and no one cares, I would argue the animators of bayonetta mattered far more than the VA. A whole group of artists work together, character designer, modelers, concept artists, etc. all of them arguably made as large or more of a contribution than, to put a point on it, one of the two voice actors. How much claim to the character of Bayonetta do each of them have?

I saw one person say "if Bayonetta asks me to boycot the game of course I will". Would we say similar things if we were talking about Bayonetta's character modeler? I think it is ridiculous to pretend we would. We swap out most of everyone else on the creative team that brings Bayonetta to life and it isn't considered some artistic crime. But should it be? If they wanted to come back and work on 3 should room be made for them?

On the other hand, being attached to a character represents infrequent but reliable work, and reliable work is pretty thin pickings for VAs as I understand it. It probably hurts bad to see a job you thought would be yours go to someone else. How much should platinum be obliged to give the part to Taylor from a stability of work point of view?

Bringing this all down to a point, the question this muddled case begs is what does worker rights actually encompass? If we want fair treatment for workers, we need to actually be able to answer what fair treatment is, and what points on that list are realistic to achieve via collective bargaining.

[seesgood]

can we very gently talk about call out posts / culture really quick?  not in a judgmental way, but in like a: i just want to pose a thought and explain why i’m never going to buy into it and why i wish it would become less of a trend instead of more of one? and i’ll add the  disclaimer  here: i totally get not wanting certain people around you for various reasons, that is all your prerogative. that’s your comfort level. but in emphasizing “your blog should be a safe space” we’re kind’ve losing sight of the fact that the rpc should also be a safe space, and as much as your comfort and safety matter, so do other people’s. and not just the person who hurt you, but the third parties and other mutuals and 99.9% of people who are not at all involved in any way in whatever happened. so, anyway here goes, read it or don’t, we all have different opinions or reasons, i just want to be heard:

people are allowed to change.  think back to who you were last year. two years ago. think about the stuff you said when you were seventeen, or twenty-one, or hell whatever age you were. current-you would probably cringe at the kind of stuff past-you had to say. because you grew. you learned. you had life experiences. in hindsight you have the freedom to be like “oof yeah that was not the best version of myself right there damn i don’t want to be like that again.” the growing trend of ‘here’s a 10+ page google doc complete with out of context screenshots that sometimes date back to like 2017 or earlier’ makes this kind of change impossible. because right there, you’ve just frozen a person in time, probably not at their best, removed any and all amounts of context, and put it on the internet and let other people judge it for themselves. 

so that leads into another point that i want to just kinda present to the community at large: the act of documenting behaviors and storing them for months / years at a time, in itself creates a super unsafe environment, not just for you, your friends, the people who have hurt you --- but also for anyone else that isn’t at all involved in whatever happened. like, for example, i like to think that i’m a pretty nice person. i actively try to be a nice person. am i sometimes not having the best day? have people definitely caught me in bad moments? oh hell yeah. but am i, as someone who tries really hard to be nice and welcoming, constantly thinking through every message i send to someone knowing that a) i could have a reputation that makes them read into context that isn’t there and that could contribute to them misinterpreting words i meant in a different way, b) very aware that every post i make, ask i send, message i send can at any moment be screenshotted and posted and taken out of context and either serve as someone’s only opinion of me or pile on to someone’s existing opinion of me? yeah. so in my experience, and based on people i’ve talked to, we now have this thing where you can be surface-friends wtih a lot of people, but if you want to survive in the tumblr rpc you should really only have 2-3 people that you really trust that you can actually talk about shit with. 

and lately i’ve been seeing a resurgence of posts on my dash about like “bring back xyz in the rpc” or “the reason the rpc is like this is because of xyz” and i both agree and disagree with a lot of this, but primarily i think the reason the rpc is Off lately is because everyone and their cousin has a DNI, which is --- again --- your decision and i understand and respect that, but while you know the context of every name on that DNI, other people don’t. and to be honest: other people don’t really care and honestly maybe they shouldn’t care. --- and don’t get me wrong, your friends should care if someone has hurt you. that’s important. but joe billy bob who just wants to write their character with yours is going to read through your rules, they’re going to see “do not interact with me if you follow with or interact with these people you’ve never heard of and if you want me to tell you why just message me” (which no one is ever going to do, i’m sorry to say). and say, joe billy bob also followed that other person because they were like ‘omg this blog looks cool’ --- now joe billy bob, who just wants to write cool plots, is suddenly the middle-man in some type of drama that they do not understand, and maybe they’re able to remove themselves from the situation, but even then it’s still in the back of your mind. 

this is getting long. it’ll be longer, but let’s take a brief break for me to remind you that in some cases, it’s definitely good to give your mutuals and friends a heads up when someone has done something really, really bad. like, remember x amount of years ago when some dude was like ‘i’m gonna make up a new person and say they died by suicide as a social experiment’ or ‘hey this person actively tries to force very triggering plots about abuse / rape / incest onto people and has been doing so for years and does not seem to change their ways no matter how many people try to educate them’ that’s shit people should probably know about. and it’s also okay ( in my opinion ) for your friends to be able to message you like ‘hey i saw you’re writing with x and i just wanted to let you know i had this experience with them’ if that’s something they feel comfortable doing. and if they are comfortable with you still having the autonomy to make your own decision regarding the person. 

i’ll be honest, for a second: i’ve been part of friendships and groups that have turned really toxic for one reason or another. a handful of times. there are probably people out there that are like “yeah this chick is really fake and manipulative and etc, i was friends with her back in 2019″ which, okay. yeah. i’ve definitely done shit and said shit that was not the most representative of who i want to be and who i want to become, and you probably have to. because we are human beings and we are a product of our social groups and the community around us. and you shouldn’t be chained to a version of you that isn’t you anymore. people change. they grow. you don’t have to like them, but you should respect that sometimes people don’t mesh, and that doesn’t mean any of them are bad people, it just means the experience was bad. 

a few additional notes i would like to make but i’ve already gone on way too long:

90% of the callout posts that i’ve seen and the DNI’s that i’ve seen can, in my opinion, be classified as a friend group thing. you were friends with x, x did something, now y and z aren’t friends with x anymore. pain is a very, very real thing and people hurting you should never be minimized, but at some point i just want you to remember that not every friendship is going to end happily, but both you and the other party should be allowed to move on and grow better, healthier friendships after. rehashing Friend Group Gone Wrong instances removes that ability for not only person x, but also person y and z.

you putting out a callout says just as much ( maybe more ) about you than it does about the other person. which sucks. because i’d like to think we all have great intentions, and i’m not saying that you should swallow your pain, but it might not be the kind of thing that impacts the community at large, and maybe you should try to find a better way of working through it with a trusted friend(s)

i’m going to be very real and very blunt on this one: literally no one cares. i say that with love. i’m good friends with people who have each other on their DNI’s. establish a baseline of respect and ‘i’m not going to say anything to them about you and vice versa because there’s no need for me to do so’ and move on. but seriously. no one cares. most outside people read callout posts because they like being in the know about the drama, not because they actually care. 

person a and person b who are mentioned in the DNI / callout aren’t the only ones who are going to be affected. your friends, your mutuals, your writing partners are now all put in a weird spot where you have to pick sides on an issue you know nothing about and shouldn’t have to know anything about. you’re asking people to choose sides on an issue they cannot fully understand, and that’s not fair to them or to you. and it drives great people away. and then we all lose out on having more awesome people in the rpc.

you’re entitled to your safe space, but this is a public platform and you are also responsible for maintaining your safe space. you shouldn’t put it entirely on other people to do that for you. you can block, blacklist, make up funny names for, or spitefully erase from your many anything and anyone that you wish. but you shouldn’t make your friends do it for you.

there’s always an inherent power imbalance when any kind of drama occurs between those who have more followers / friends / connections and those who do not. and the smaller blog is always going to suffer a little bit more because they don’t have people blindly coming to their defense. 

bad moments, bad experiences, bad decisions DO NOT equal bad people. 

allow people to make up their own mind about something or someone

anywho, if you read through this whole thing i think i owe you financial compensation. but also thank you for reading / listening / considering. even if you rolled your eyes through the whole thing like “stfu lia” that’s fine. i’m just presenting an alternative thought. i’d like to once again state: i’m not judging you if you’ve made a callout/DNI or if you’re on a callout/DNI. like i literally don’t care. and frankly, in my opinion, i shouldn’t have to. because i, and you, and your friends, and your mutuals, and your non-mutuals should be allowed the space to make up their own opinion and mind on something or someone without being told that there will be consequences if they don’t agree with you. set boundaries. communicate in healthy ways. you don’t have to forgive the people who have hurt or wronged you, but you also don’t get to decide that their actions make up 100% of who they are as a person, or decide that that is the only side of that person people should get to see. 

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd

[ectonurites]

idk how to quote tags on mobile where is the conner kent essay i NEED it

ALRIGHT OKAY! here’s 5k+ words plus panels & screenshots of me comparing and contrasting the two drastically different versions of Superboy (comics vs young justice cartoon) and going over what makes them such distinctly separate characters. someday i’ll refine this a bit more its kinda just a word dump that’s been living in my brain that i wanted to actually articulate after i read through Reign of the Supermen but here we go:

--

Pretty frequently I see the question “Why is Superboy so different in the Young Justice cartoon?” float around in DC circles. I think there are two main approaches to answering this:

Why did the writers of the cartoon decide to create a very different version of Superboy?

What factors make this Superboy so different from the comic version?

For the first approach the answer is relatively straight-forward, from the start Young Justice as a cartoon was never meant to be a direct adaptation of the comics. They just used the title and a few elements so they could create their own approach to the DC universe with a focus on younger heroes. For example, Artemis Crock in their show is also COMPLETELY different from her comic counterpart, Zatanna is aged way down to be a member of the teen team, and Kaldur’ahm was created for this show (and integrated into the comics as Jackson Hyde). They were always trying to do different things than the main comics universe, so them making a different version of Conner also makes sense. Their approach to him is also very clearly influenced more by how he appeared in the Teen Titans comic run that was still coming out as Young Justice started airing (his design, and some other elements we’ll discuss along the way), as opposed to his original version from the 90′s/the Young Justice comic.

So the basic “why” is that from the start they wanted to create something unique to their universe, which they definitely did accomplish.

The much more interesting subject to dive into, though, is looking at the differences in Superboy’s story that contribute to him becoming such a different person. 

The drastic changes made to the following factors are what I view as the main source of his differences in personality/outlook/characterization:

The conditions and history of the world at the time he is introduced

The circumstances around him being introduced/leaving Cadmus

The reaction Clark has to him and how their relationship starts

The people he first interacted with & became close to, and how he interacts with the world

The timing of him finding out about his connection to Luthor

The State of the Worlds

In the comics, Superboy is first introduced in Adventures of Superman #500 by iconically saying “Don’t ever call me Superboy!” 

during a 1993 event called “Reign of the Supermen”, a follow up to the 1992 event “The Death of Superman”. Based on the title of the 1992 event, I think you can, uh, guess what one major difference in the setting here was vs. the state of the world at the time he was introduced in the cartoon. Obviously Clark didn’t stay dead forever, but Superboy first comes onto the scene as a young clone of Superman who insists he is the new Superman (one of the four characters trying to do so during the event). This is in the main DC universe in the early 90’s, which means that heroes in general, including teen heroes, aren’t a new thing! Not only has the Justice League been around for a while but so has the Teen Titans. Once Clark is alive again, Superboy goes off on his own to establish himself as an individual teen hero. 

So how is that different in the cartoon?

In the cartoon, Superboy is first introduced in the pilot episodes “Independence Day” and “Fireworks” 

on the 4th of July in (what most people consider to be) 2010. This was supposed to be the day that Robin (Dick Grayson), Speedy (Roy Harper), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad (Kaldur’ahm) would get to see the true Justice League HQ at the Hall of Justice, which... doesn’t go exactly as planned. 

In this world, superheroes are a newer thing, this is something that the creators have talked about before. At this point, while there is an established Justice League, there are no known teams of teen superheroes. Just the fact that as of season one Dick Grayson is still Robin is a pretty good indicator that this world is early in it’s time with a Batman. Now, the sidekicks aren’t a secret, as they appear very publicly in this first episode, but they are almost always seen acting with their mentors at this point. Again, there is no Teen Titans in this setting, and there never has been. 

So when they do form the first teen hero team? It is kept covert-ops. They do not publicize that they act as a superhero team, and the members who weren’t already publicly known heroes (mainly Miss Martian and Superboy) end up being pretty… unknown to a lot of the world outside the hero/villain community! Again their existence is not strictly kept a secret, but they keep the fact that there’s a team of minors who are heroes going on independent missions VERY under the radar on purpose. Thus, those who aren’t going around doing super public hero activities just don’t have nearly as much of a presence.

So to summarize:

In the comics, Superboy is immediately put in a spotlight (he befriends a reporter and is all over tv and literally trademarks the name Superman) becoming known to the world and establishes himself as a solo acting hero YEARS before joining any teams.

In the cartoon, Superboy is kept relatively out of the spotlight, immediately becomes part of a covert-ops team and doesn’t act solo very often. The well known teen heroes in this setting are sidekicks working under a mentor, and Superboy does not actually act as a sidekick.

What does this mean for Superboy?

Superboy in the comics gets to, right away, act on his own and get a taste of what being Superman is like. In the cartoon, he’s brought into the world at a time where there already is a Superman. I think back to this bit from the therapy episode, where he says:

“See, from the moment I first opened my eyes in that Cadmus pod, there’s been one thing I’ve wanted, and feared. To know what it is to be Superman.”

Comics Superboy started out getting to do that! He immediately got a shot at filling that role, and he then makes the choice to relinquish it back to the original once he’s alive again. He (begrudgingly at first) understood that it wasn’t yet his time to be Superman, and knows he’ll someday fill those shoes for real- but in the meantime being Superboy is gonna be his own thing and he’ll embrace it and make it work.

Cartoon Superboy is left in a shadow, not ever truly knowing what it’s like to fill those shoes (except in a doomsday scenario training exercise gone awry that he then just feels intense guilt over). This leaves him a lot more frustrated and lost, and I think is a major contributor to how angry this version of Superboy is compared to his much more ‘chill go with the flow’ attitude in the comics.

Cadmus

In the comics, in that same issue he’s introduced, we find out that Superboy broke out of his cloning tube prematurely and left Cadmus with the assistance of the second Newsboy Legion, who also gave him his first leather jacket, before the programming that would allow Cadmus to control him was implemented.

He quickly gets up to speed with the situation, that Clark is dead. So he comes on the scene starting to save people and saying he is Superman, or at least the clone of the original one. A major thing that does influence his character here is the fact that… this is the 90’s. He is designed around the idea of what is ‘cool’ back in 1993. (look, even his original character design sheets call him cool)

So right off the bat he’s got a stereotypical ‘cool teen guy in that era’ personality, which is often played for comedy to add a little lightness to some of the dark things happening during this event. 

Anyways, he has left Cadmus, he’s acting on his own, and he starts realizing that his powers aren’t exactly the same as Superman’s over the course of the Reign of the Supermen story.

After the main conflict is settled and Clark is fully alive and acting as Superman again, the two of them end up going back to Cadmus to find out what the exact deal is with him. I’ll go into this more in a later point, but they find out he’s not exactly a clone of Superman (or Lex- him being actually involved as a DNA donor is a retcon that happened a decade later). They agree to let someone from Cadmus (Dubbilex- the grey guy with the horns in this pic) leave Metropolis with him, as he sets out on a press tour to establish himself as Superboy now that he relinquished the trademark on the Superman name back to Clark. 

Let’s pause and look at how this is different in the cartoon.

In the cartoon, when the trio of Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad decide to prove themselves to their mentors they run off on their own to attend to a fire at Project Cadmus when the Justice League got called off to do something else. Upon arriving, they accidentally uncover some weird things about Cadmus, like the crazy amount of sublevels, the creatures roaming around, and the fact that it’s not on the main power grids. They eventually find Superboy, still in his cloning tube. They break him out, but then get captured themselves.

When they are then put into tubes by Cadmus personnel, they manage to convince Superboy to help free them by promising him things like getting to meet Superman, and see the moon. The group of four now working together manages to escape from the building and it topples down, where they are then greeted by the Justice League who are Not Happy.

Superman flies away shortly after, and the group of kids explain to their remaining mentors that sure, they disobeyed orders, but they accomplished something good here, and they are going to keep doing it, whether the League likes it or not. The compromise is the formation of The Team, to be covert-ops while the Justice League acts publicly, and the boys are joined by Miss Martian.

So to summarize:

In the comics, Superboy leaves Cadmus pretty independently (with some assistance) to go act on his own as a hero immediately. He returns to Cadmus later for more information, and they reveal truths to him about his existence. After he knows his truth, he goes off to continue establishing himself as a solo hero but lets Cadmus still supervise what he’s doing through Dubbilex.

In the cartoon, Superboy is rescued from Cadmus by Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, without knowing pretty much anything about himself besides the fact that he is a clone of Superman, and is immediately put on the covert ops team. 

What it means for Superboy:

Comic Superboy goes to act on his own, even after he admits he’s not the real Superman anymore. Yes he’s not 100% alone in terms of ‘he’s got people (Rex, Roxy, Dubbilex, Tana) around him’, but as a hero he’s a solo act and ends up taking residence in Hawaii. In the cartoon, by joining a team right away, he’s taking on a very different style of being a hero, especially because the team itself is covert-ops. Rather than regularly saving the day all on his own much like Superman, which can help comic Superboy feel like he’s still living up to the name more, cartoon Superboy is working under the radar in a group setting, while still wanting to desperately fill those Superman shoes. 

He is overconfident in his abilities and wants to be the hero he was created to be, so him being put into this very different type of superhero situation is another major contributor to the frustration/anger. Even later on when comics Superboy is part of forming the Young Justice team, they were never a secret covert-ops team, they were always publicly known. (hell, a reporter is the one who gave them the team name Young Justice because he’d misheard Bart)

Superboy & Superman

In the comics, as we have established, Clark was dead at the time Superboy first came on the hero scene. Clark comes back to life, during a little bit of a lull in the middle of the huge conflict. He immediately accepts that Superboy is one of four who came forward to try to replace him, and one of the only two (Superboy & Steel) who genuinely only had good intentions in doing so. Clark, Steel, Supergirl, Hal Jordan, and Superboy then all work together in the big battle against the Cyborg Superman.

Once things are settled, Clark is curious about him, and where he came from and his origin, so they end up going to Cadmus together with Guardian and learning more about him, as I previously mentioned. Once it is established that Superboy is in fact a metahuman clone who was created to mimic Superman, but is not actually a clone of him, Superman still accepts him and thinks he’s earned his right to continue using the ’S’ shield and have the name of Superboy. 

They part ways so Superboy can go on his press tour, but in general they have pretty positive interactions where they mutually respect each other! Not too much later in the comics even (I forget exaaactly when this happens but it’s definitely before the 1998 Young justice comic), Superman is the first one to give Superboy a real name, “Kon-El”, something he is so happy about he literally cries.

How is this different in the cartoon? 

When the boys first escaped, and Superboy first meets the Justice League, Clark is standoffish. Other members of the league need to nudge him over to go actually talk to Superboy, and it’s not much of a conversation before he flies off and away, leaving Superboy frustrated and alone.

This… turns into the standard for almost the entire first season. Other characters constantly telling Clark that he needs to reach out and be support for the boy (like in this iconic diner scene with Bruce and Clark), but Clark consistently being too freaked out by the fact that someone made a clone of him without his knowledge to properly accept Conner. While this does over time get better, this being the immediate reaction when Superboy is brand new in the world definitely… has an impact! 

He is rejected by the person he idolizes, and feels neglected and abandoned, and definitely kinda overcompensates with ego to try to make up for it. 

So:

In the comics, Superman and Superboy work together from the start, not falling into a hero/sidekick situation but rather acknowledging each other as individual heroes with respect for one another. They grow to see each other as family much faster, and little tension between them. A crucial difference in situations, though, is that at the time these versions first meet Superboy is not actually a clone of Superman.

In the cartoon, Superman at first avoids Superboy, and does not offer guidance or mentorship or anything the boy needs. It is clear that he wants to work with Superman and be like him, since it was what he was created to do. It takes a lot of time for Clark to accept Conner in this setting, and there is a lot of tension for the first several months Conner exists. (they seem to settle this towards the end of season 1/during the gap between season 2, but it still has it’s impact on who Conner is early in his life)

What does this mean?

I feel like this is another major factor that contributes to Conner being so angry all the time in the cartoon, he feels immediately rejected by the person he’s supposed to be someday, rather than accepted by him. Again, very different from how comics Superboy got a chance to be Superman, and a chance to then work with the real deal as equals. 

Friendships, Relationships and Identity

When Superboy is freed by the second Newsboy Legion, it’s primarily out of a ‘we’re clones who are stuck here, but you need to be out there, you’re what Metropolis needs right now!’ kind of idea. The first person he actually becomes close to is a reporter named Tana Moon.

Tana and Superboy’s relationship is… bad once it actually becomes romantic due to their huge age difference (she’s around 23, he is for all intents and purposes 16), but during the Reign of the Supermen where they’re still just friends for the most part, it’s not as bad. Tana becomes the GBS correspondent who focuses on everything Superboy (at this time still insisting he is the new Superman) is doing as a hero, and they become close friends.

GBS then also brings in Rex Leech (and his daughter Roxy) to be his agent, to promote Superboy and manage things for him. Rex is exploitative as hell, but Roxy does become another really important person to Superboy. These characters along with Dubbilex are his main supporting cast at the start of his solo comic when he’s in Hawaii.

In this whole era, Superboy is pretty much a celebrity. He’s cool, he’s a superhero, and I think it’s very notable he does not have a secret Identity. For a decent chunk of time, he is always just ‘Superboy’ (until, as I mentioned earlier, Clark gives him the name Kon-El. Even so, he doesn’t adopt a regular secret identity [Conner Kent, although he actually used a different one, Carl Grummett, before that!] until he begins living with the Kents in the early 2000s). By the time he joins any teams, Kon is pretty damn confident in who he is as a hero and has a relatively good grasp on who he is in general, if anything he’s a little too confident.

Young Justice was created in the aftermath of World Without Grown Ups when the trio of Superboy, Robin (Tim Drake) and Impulse (Bart Allen) had teamed up. After they saved the day they realized they worked well together and formed their team, utilizing the old Justice League base in Mount Justice. They were eventually joined by more members, especially relevant here is Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) who Kon later dates for a portion of the Teen Titans run that these four are in after Young Justice ends. 

The four of them become close, and when Kon dies during Infinite Crisis it rips a hole in everything they had established growing up together over the past several years (Cassie joins a cult dedicated to bringing him back, Tim tries to clone a new Kon, Bart got aged up and took on the mantle of the Flash, etc) and Bart’s death that followed similarly shook the remaining Cassie and Tim. This group eventually does get to reunite, with Kon and Bart coming back during Final Crisis, solidifying how even things like death don’t keep them apart for long. It’s hard to look at the comic book versions of these four characters and imagine how they would be without their connections to each other... until you look at the YJ cartoon and see a world where they’re not even all part of the same generation, let alone a friend group.

Now in the cartoon…

The first people Conner primarily interacts with are Dick, Wally, Kaldur, and M’gann, along with the League members who interact with The Team pretty regularly, Red Tornado, Batman, and Black Canary. He’s shown to be friends with the other memebers of the team and get along with them relatively well, but in general he’s not much of a social person. 

Much like in the comics, Superboy is considered very attractive, and immediately upon their meeting, M’gann is interested in him. Very, very interested in him.

At first it definitely does seem more just like an innocent crush, but it’s later revealed to be a little more… concerning than that. As in ‘Megan subtlety influencing Superboy to become her dream boyfriend based on a TV show she likes’ concerning. Like… she literally gives him the name ‘Conner’ after the TV show character that was the boyfriend of the character she bases her human self and entire identity on. The two date and once that becomes a thing, a lot of their plot lines in the following seasons revolve around the ups and downs of their relationship.

In general in this show, Superboy doesn’t really get much of a chance to establish himself on his own terms. Within months of him leaving his cloning pod, he and M’gann start going to high school with secret identities, so he’s already having to hide who he truly is to blend in with other people, before he even knows who he truly is. 

So to compare:

In the comics, Superboy gets to figure out who he is as Superman’s Clone/Superboy very publicly, has multiple love interests and a celebrity status, and over time becomes part of a tight-knit group of friends. He doesn’t use a regular secret identity for the first several years he’s active.

In the cartoon, Superboy has one love interest with a very large impact on him, not nearly as much focus is given to his other friendships, and he immediately adopts a secret identity meaning he needs to hide who he is from the start. 

What it means:

These factors play a big difference in his attitude, particularly highlighting how extroverted his comic version is and how introverted his cartoon version is. Comic Superboy never really needed to hide who he was until years into his career, vs being told to do so early on in his life. When you get used to needing to hide things so early, that can definitely lead to being more private/disconnected from others. Also somewhat related- in the comics, when Kon is given knowledge in his cloning tube, more pop culture got included. He mentions knowing Star Wars without having seen it, and references a ton of TV and Movies, vs the cartoon version of him that seems to have been given a lot of history of the world but not the current fun stuff. It’s the difference between knowing what’s going on in the world and what’s popular, vs only knowing the past and what’s fundamental. Not knowing pop culture like this can also really contribute to feeling alienated and lead to introversion. (I just... I think about how in the comics Kon’s favorite TV show is Wendy The Werewolf Stalker, in the cartoon Conner just... watches white noise static)

Also, having a completely different set of friends with different personalities has a big effect, people are always gonna be influenced by the people they’re close to to some extent. Bumping Conner up to Dick’s generation of heroes instead of Tim’s not only gives him completely different friends, but it also puts him in this position of being one of the ‘Original Team Members’. By this I mean, a member of the first iteration of the only teen team, one of the people that younger heroes coming onto the scene and joining the team in later seasons see as an experienced and older team member to look up to (despite the fact that cartoon Conner is permanently 16- they never fixed that for him like in the comics). That just creates a different dynamic entirely, because in the comics even when the Tim/Kon/Cassie/Bart group are more experienced on their team late in the Teen Titans run, they are still always going to have heroes like Dick Grayson, Donna Troy, Wally West etc as the older generation of ‘original teen heroes’ who came before them.

Also, while I am talking mostly about in-universe reasoning here, I do wanna bring up one slightly more meta reason that might also have contributed to them choosing to go for a more ‘introverted brooding hero’ characterization with him: the fact that their version of Wally already filled the ‘flirty jokey’ archetype original Comics Kon fits into. Having two characters like that in the show from the start would definitely get... overwhelming. And at the time this show was first airing, in the comics, he was relatively devoted to Cassie and not nearly as flirty anymore anyways.

Lex Luthor / Details of Cloning

In the comics, as I have already mentioned and will now actually explain, when Superboy was first introduced he was not the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor as we know him to be today. Kon was a metahuman clone, made with the DNA of Paul Westfield who worked at Cadmus, that they genetically altered to look like Superman, and gave powers based on the energy aura they discovered to exist around Clark’s dead body. This telekinetic field gave Kon the distinct powers he had for his first decade of existence: His Tactile Telekinesis (often referred to by him as TTK)

Lex Luthor was originally not directly involved in his creation, but he was aware that it was going on as is revealed during the Reign of the Supermen arc. Kon’s TTK allowed him to mimic Superman’s flight and strength, but not all of his powers. TTK also gave him powers Superman DOESN’T have, such as his ability to dismantle machinery or mold materials he is touching into different shapes. (The reason this is called Tactile Telekinesis is because there needs to be a tactile element, he needs to be touching the things) 

It is not until 2003, a decade after Superboy was created, that writer Geoff Johns in his Teen Titans run decided to alter Superboy’s origin. He established that Lex Luthor had been the real human DNA donor and that Superman’s Kryptonian DNA was actually used in the cloning process. Around this time, Conner also begins to exhibit more of the typical Kryptonian powers, like Clark did around this age. 

This information is at first only known by Conner and Tim, because the email had actually been sent to Tim directly. The two keep it a secret as Conner was not ready to tell the rest of the team, because he fears the implications it has, and is afraid of becoming evil or being rejected. This revelation about Lex being one of his ‘parents’ DNA-wise coming years into his hero career changes a lot of things for Conner, and makes him begin to question who he is. Unfortunately, Lex does at one point take control of Conner and force him to break Tim’s arm and attack Cassie directly (as well as the rest of the team, but these two specifically are what Conner expresses the most guilt over after the fact). This era of Conner in the comics is where he’s definitely closest to his cartoon counterpart, because he’s very troubled and dealing with a lot of heavy stuff regarding himself as a person. Yet there’s still traces of who he has always been in there. I mean, if you’re only familiar with cartoon Conner, can you really imagine his final words as he’s dying after saving the world being “Isn’t it cool?”

Now, looking at the cartoon…

Conner finds out about his connection to Lex in November, only a few months after having existed outside of a cloning tube. He finds it out on his own, from Lex speaking to him directly, after Conner went back to investigate the remains of Cadmus and ended up having a fight with Match (another clone who is able to pass for Conner’s duplicate who they… their version of Match is another thing they drastically changed from the comic version but as we’ve established that’s something they like to do so I’m not gonna dwell on it).

In the cartoon, Conner’s powerset is, from the start, different from both Superman and comic Superboy. Here he has heightened senses and strength and the ability to leap really far, but he lacks actual flight and some of the other standard Kryptonian powers, and has no TTK. The cartoon explains these gaps in his powers as being due to his half human DNA, and they introduce these patches that are able to suppress his human DNA and give him temporary access to full powers. Lex uses these patches as a way to manipulate him. Much like in the comics, Lex has a code word programmed into Conner that effects him, although it isn’t quite used for the same amount of ‘total mind control’, and he doesn’t get fully brainwashed and turn against the team or anything. Instead, the code word (here “Red Sun” rather than “Aut vincere, aut mori” [Translated as “to conquer or die" / "victory or death”]) just leaves him stuck in a hypnotic trance.

So:

In the comics, Kon finds out after years of believing he was a metahuman clone who was given powers to mimic Superman, that he is actually a clone of Lex Luthor and Superman, which alters his entire perspective on himself! This causes him to become a lot more unsure and anxious about who he is, in stark contrast with how confident he was before. There are still traces of his old self within him, but this is a development in his character that influences him moving forward, making him a bit more serious but still at his core the same person he used to be.

In the cartoon, Conner finds out after months of thinking he was a clone of just Superman, that he has half human DNA and the donor was Lex Luthor. While he always had confidence in his abilities, he was still somewhat lost as a person in knowing who he really was outside of things other people have assigned to him (teammate, boyfriend, superhero, etc), and finding out this information about himself just adds to the uncertainty and frustration.

What it means:

Having this struggle be something Conner has to deal with so early in his existence is one of the most fundamental changes in my opinion. Finding out that Lex Luthor is one of your clone parents is something that will alter your entire perception of yourself and who you are! In the comics, Conner had already been confident in who he was so it shakes his world in a really big way, but in the cartoon he still didn’t know who he really was so it just adds to further confusion. 

I think that even with the more serious characterization Kon starts getting in the 2003 Teen TItans run, his history and past as the fun cool 90′s Metropolis Kid isn’t entirely forgotten, it’s still a part of who he is/was. Sure, maybe he’s sometimes even embarrassed by how he used to be, but it’s not treated as though it didn’t happen. All of his history comes together to create the character and who he is by the time he wears just a T shirt as a costume.

By skipping over the fun era of his life and jumping right into who he was when he started facing these huge changes, it creates such a completely different set of challenges for him and that contributes directly to how he’s characterized. 

Putting it all together

The ultimate point I am trying to reach in all of this is that, beyond just ‘they made a writing choice to make him different’ the environment that Superboy was brought into and the events that took place right when he came into the world greatly influenced the type of character he would become. Every time an adaptation is made of something like comics, there are going to be changes and alterations to fit the world the creators want to make. Sometimes these changes are minor and don’t actually change who a character is (an example for the YJ cartoon’s universe itself: In the tie-in comics [issue 6] it’s established in this universe that the Flying Graysons weren’t just Dick and his parents, but other family members were active parts of it too. One was an uncle also named Richard, who actually survived the fall that killed the rest of his family but was left paralyzed and thus unable to care for him. This uncle already used the nickname ‘Rick’ which is likely why Dick ended up using ‘Dick’ as a name in a modern setting even though it has fallen out of popularity as a nickname because uh, connotations. This is something that is mostly unique to their world and helps to explain some things, but it’s not like tragically losing a few more family members changed their version of Dick and his backstory that drastically. At his core, he still has many similarities to his comic self) but they’re still changes, and that’s okay. Superboy, though, is such an extreme case where they made so many changes that at his core he really does become a completely separate character. Sure he has the name and design, but I was able to write five thousand words about differences here and am struggling to come up with more similarities beyond that.

I think there still could be specks of the original Superboy buried inside cartoon Conner, and that maybe he could have been more like his original version under other circumstances. Looking at these differences and where they come from is, I think, a cool way to begin to understand what elements contribute to who each version of Conner Kent really is. I think it’s clear from how I wrote this that I prefer the comic version, but there are definitely things that are fun to look at and think about with both.

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if u read all of this UH thanks for listenin to me ramble! sorry if this is incomprehensibe!

[aplushemporium]

🧸Thread Wishlist!🧸

S.C.O.U.T.

SCOUT having a grand o’ time with living with Honor but meets new faces in LA!

SCOUT’s cyberchase au where they get to explore the digital library of Cyberspace (the Cybrary) but is generally stuck there due to the mechanics of their AI and no portal directly picking their physical being up.

SCOUT exploring the world on their own

Honor was in her prime and Detective Cross was pushing retirement age during the 90s and it’s now 2020s now so uh……help the sad bot…?

SCOUT is not weighed down by the implications of that. Huzzah weird time wibbly wobbliness in fiction!

Teach SCOUT all sorts of things! They love learning!

Please be patient with SCOUT, he is trying to figure out his pronouns and stuff… (goes by he/they but…doesn’t know WHAT they are in other terms). But he will support your muses’ identities!!!

HE WILL FIND SOMETHING FOR YOU. MAYBE THE YOU YOURSELF…

Jokingly we could do a Seri/Alexa-esque SCOUT thing like…virtual assistant…he’s basically the 90s physical equivalent of that…but he not as smart as those AI…(but maybe more…developed personality wise…)

SCOUT exists on your device. Tamagotchi time?

[redacted due to Murder By Numbers spoilers] but he will protect his friends.

SCOUT finding some very personal belonging-SCOUT THAT IS NOT A CAR KEY-.

Let SCOUT meet more robots!! Actually just anyone in general, they like discovery! And friends!!

Broken SCOUT discovered by someone who is not Honor????

SCOUT getting repairs and/or upgrades! Though he would like lots of trust with the one who’s doing the repairs considering [redacted]...

SCOUT at a library. He loves books and movies!!

SCOUT’S first theater experience???

Ana

She just little…She will need help with stuff once in awhile or more. Probs something like like cooking, getting items from tall shelves, washing, stuff that require an adult, dealing with doctors (namely shots), stuff like that... Though she’s been living without a guardian/parental figure for a good while...

Bedtime troubles, could simply be a tough time getting to sleep, staying asleep, or well…being caught trying to clean the sheets past midnight or really early in the morning.

Your muse adopting her AUs, hand them over /j

They can just be found family on a casual basis or just good frembs too!

She’s playing (pretend) games by herself, how will one intervene, if they wish to, that is?

Snuggles and cuddles are very welcome once she gets to know someone quite well.

Just a lot of stuff relating to comfort…please. PLEASE…I’m a sucker for fluff and hurt/comfort! She doesn’t have a consistent guardian/parental figure around.

I’d like to indulge in her meeting some PreCures, though for the cases of those, she won’t know their identities due to tv. She’d just know them as famous magical heroes that people actually made merch of unless we plot something else out! I’m flexible!!

Ana displaying prowess despite being a lil sobbing child

Dance classes at the spirit dojo for Smash!! Or just any smash related shenanigans! (tho i wonder if folks do acknowledge there are kindergartners in the mansion…)

Something to do about her dealing with bullies…as in she’s a target of bullies. A mixture of meekness, ninja prowess, friend to animals, and just being a kindergartner contributed to getting her noticed…in negative fashions.

Your muse could also bully her instead.

She’s playing with animals!

Someday we’ll figure out how to incorporate Kat. …I hope. .x.

She’s playing with dangerous animals…AGAIN.

Ana learning to like someone, or rather accept their affection and love. Though we can skip past the ‘hesitant to your muses’ affection’ part thanks to preestablished talks!

Her just being a lil kid, with the weirdness and genuineness they got. They’re just vibing!

Maybe she takes your muse along for an imaginative (or actual) adventure!

Digit

Ah crud he summoned [your muse] into Cyberspace by accident. How will that go down? Will they go back willingly, or do they fight against that?

Teach him more about Earth! It’s certainly a lot different than Cyberspace!

Oh no he’s stuck on Earth…HELP.

Digit Tamagotchi. …idk he’s your virutual friemb now in your device

Cooking I guess…???

I wonder if he’s famous for his cooking outside of cyberspace…

Can we do a better sleepover plot than what canon did?

Digit but he’s just a regular o’ chubby birb au.

Younger Digit days. Though I can’t help but to feel like he was fairly isolated as a lil boid. 

And then there was his teen phase...where he did support Hacker before Hacker gone mad with revenge. (Probs won’t write this one, sorry)

Digit is stuck in birb noises only mode. Blame those Gumi videos

Baby Shark

Someone recognizing him due to that infamous internet video. I mean the song exists something like that in canon so…idk.

Jam session!

Of course I’d be VERY welcome to having muses get to know him besides the whole “known for holding toddlers’ attention through billions of views”

But I wouldn’t object against folks who’d hate him or fear him due to that fame

Maybe there just plots where he’s just a singing shark…actually that seems to be the default…just...kinda one that’s less...human-y behaving-y and maybe not as famous.

Baby Shark defends your muse, not through violence but with love! (does that in canon)

Maybe a moment of sadness for him…he’s a soft child at heart…

A literal digital entity but it turns out he has more depth to him than just being a singing meme sensation (cyberchase au?)

Oh no he ate your important documents.

Oh no he chewed on those objects…oh frick he broke it-

Baby Shark being supportive of your muse!! He supports himself and he thinks you should believe in you too!!

Being a kid, Baby Shark will be nosy. Sorry.

Will your muse bully the shark? Or will they stand up to him being bullied?

Pat the shark. He likes affection.

Keiko

Her annoying your muses.

Showing off or seeing the differences between the og sporty Miis (like her) and the newer “Smashy Miis”

She’s been trying to get the Smashy Miis to have some fun...which includes silly sporting events and karaoke nights and talent shows. Blame tomodachi life for the last two bits.

Keiko’s a camera fiend so the likeliness of her catching something embarrassing is VERY high. Course she doesn’t see them as blackmail material, she just thinks it’s just another moment but a more goofy one!

She can’t read the room sometimes. This will lead to trouble.

Keiko doing wii sports and wii party and wii music things. Just doing what makes her a Mii!

Let her have a pet. Though she may just pick up some Pokemon found on Wuhu Island.

//Whew, that’s most of the muses I’ve been fixated on! Again, big kudos to @cobraghost for inspiring this wishlist post idea :D Lemme know if any of these plots are good...or should not be talked about!! Have a lovely day!

[mybg3notebook]

Loving your analyses of Astarion's behaviour and character so far! It has really reaffirmed in my eyes just how much of a bastard he really is. (I say that fondly, of course.) Do you have any thoughts on why the general reaction on tumblr has leaned so much towards woobifying him? After looking at his actual (explicit and implicit) morals in game it seems quite odd that some people are reading him as an edgy soft boi who just needs a hug from the right person to fix him.

Hello!

Thank you very much! I really enjoy seeing chars in a deep way. It makes me change my opinion on them, sometimes. That's why I like to do these analysis, even though it's a lot of work for a person who doesn't speak English as a native.

Lol, please, I won't be offended. Astarion is a bastard in the whole sense of the word, lol.

However, I find Astarion an interesting evil (evil neutral imo) char to explore the narration of “abuser who found a greater abuser”, with all the topics I talked about in those posts. I would feel a bit disappointed if Larian suddenly changes him into a man who always had a gold heart (because for that, you need to give hints, even in EA, and none of that has been seen so far).

An example of how this is done is with Shadowheart, she is evil and she supports a lot of cruelty that Astarion does too, but we got meta-knowledge (and not so much meta when we see her heavily drunk after killing the tieflings) that gives us enough reasons to believe she has some heart in her, despite Shar and her teachings. I do not support the idea of “she is a softie”, because she is not, but she doesn't have the same level of cruelty nor revels in murder so much as Astarion does. They represent different degrees of evilness. What plays in her favour is her face, which gives the idea of more softness than she truly has; the same happens with Astarion. Lae'Zel is less cruel than Astarion in general, with more logical reasons to be so because her brainwashed culture made her to be more pragmatic than a taster of cruelty, and yet, she receives a lot of more hate in the fandom... and it is clear to me why: she is not “beautiful” in the traditional white euro-centric standard sense.

And this is my point to answer your question (remember all this is personal opinion): I think there are many reasons why people woobify Astarion (not only in tumblr, but also in Reddit or in Larian Forums, it's a big part of the EA fandom).

First and foremost, I believe it's his appearance. If he were a bugbear or a goblin, few in this fandom would give a thought about his abuse, his pain, Cazador, etc. They would focus on his “bastard” side and leave it at that (again, Lae'Zel has this treatment). I want to make clear that I'm not questioning people's taste, everyone can like whatever they want to. I'm saying that, for me, there it proof enough to sustain this idea that Astarion is woobified because he is beautiful: when you read that a lot of people in this fandom never had an interest in Larian's previous games, or isometric rpgs, or even turn-based combat games (there are some people who are giving feedback against the game being a turned-based combat one! It's the nonsense because it's basically Larian's style), but they bought bg3 because they saw Astarion, even though they knew nothing about him.... All this, clearly, shows to me that a lot of people approached this game for only one char, for only his design (a big amount of them say it explicitly), and it is not far-fetched to know that people justify more easily beautiful villains than ugly ones. We can explore a lot of examples of this in many fandoms. People can love villains because they have real complex reasons to be so (like Loghain in DAO), but they also can like whimsical villains just because they are “hot”. I feel this is Astarion's case, he is a “beautiful villain” who apparently has always been evil. His reasons for his whimsical evilness is more like “it's always been in his nature”. Unless the family part has a different role in his backstory (mirror option) and it's not a mere line for a player to play a “good aligned” Astarion when picked as Origin. I don't like to read much about it in that scene because the game still doesn't have companion Tags; those options in the mirror can be there just for the player to pick, flavoured with each origin, but not necessarily the three of them are canon. This will be seen once we have the companion tags activated as it happened in DOS2.

What we can say for sure is that Larian knew what they were doing when they picked Astarion's design; they choose a dangerous white guy with white hair and evil alignment: an archetype that catches a lot of people in many fandoms.

Part of his woobyfication process has a deep root there, in my opinion. Again, if he were a bugbear, a goblin, a githyanki, a monster-humanoid... we would not have 90% of the EA fandom collapsed with his image, or Larian focused on him to the point that after 4 patches he had new scenes, lines, corrections, and development, while Wyll is still there, sitting in the bench of “the less developed chars” (with around 2k less lines than the rest of the chars, and his personal quest bugged since the first day). Yes, I don't like the preference on one single companion when I am seeing the “future Beast” (from DOS2) in Wyll.

Second, he is a vampire. Vampires are a great element in any fantasy narrative. You know you will have a lot of fans behind a vampire char. Not by chance Vampire The Masquerade is one, if not the most important product of White Wolf, which keeps still giving them a lot of profit despite being decades old. Vampires are always a good element of personal horror, of lack of control of your own body, and also an allegory of abuse, power, and rape. This concept of “being a monster without control” that they embody helps a bit more for the woobification.

Third, people tend to mix a lot headcanon with what a character gives us as canon. We can have a long useless discussion about which is more worthy: canon or headcanon, or about why one should or should not respect canon, but putting all that discussion aside, and considering the previous two points, I see that a small part of his woobyfication comes from the fact that people love denial and self-projection instead of analysing of what they are given (and let's be honest, we know in tumblr, reddit and others social networks, people lack of reading comprehension skills, which makes analysis all about self projection without a real effort in understanding the character's perspective. It's all about the player unilateral perspective. How can you analyse a char you didn’t play with or explored in all its paths? ).

So if their beautiful character is behaving in a way they don't want to, they start considering him “random” (I read this so much that confuses me, because Astarion has clear patterns for everyone who wants to see them, like the rest of the companions. He is not random, he follows pretty well all what I listed here, that list helps you to predict what he will disapprove or approve) so they end up filling this apparent “randomness” with headcanons and self-projections. Don't get me wrong, I don't despise headcanons, I love them, I have a lot of them and create with them. But I also like honest analysis and separate what I want from what I get from a company (to correctly give them feedback, otherwise I will be giving them my headcanons).

If you don't want an aspect of a given char, and you want to deny it, it's perfectly fine. Do it, it's your entertainment, but be honest with the fandom about it, acknowledge this is a personal denial you enjoy. And mainly, don't use headcanons and self-projections to attack the rest of the chars you don't like in their own tags. We know how aggressive some people in this fandom are, and it's a bit frustrating to see aggression without the slightest effort in understanding the character they hate.

There is also something sad to say, related to self-projection, that contributes to Astarion's woobyfication too: a lot of players are survivors of abuse who connect with him from trauma, and I can understand if denying his past is a way to help them to release any kind of pain or need for vengeance against their abusers. It's a natural and totally understandable projection. The woobyfication, then, ends up in an intense self-projection where they give to the char something that they needed because their own trauma.

This is why I would like Larian to give us other survivor chars that people can project onto, whose stories are really about survivors of abuse who were not evil in the beginning. Because I feel a lot of people approached Astarion as a narration of a “victim who will become a victimiser” or as a “bad behaved victim”, instead of what I think it's shown: an abuser who found a greater abuser (and his story is about punishment of the abuser and the concept of justice in a world which has none), so trauma survivors will end up with disappointment if they think Astarion is something similar to the representation of what they experienced. Plus, vampirism is never good to use as allegories of abusers/victims because the relationship Sire/Childe is too sick and twisted. So, again, this is a mere opinion from all what I've been reading since the game came out.

I hope Larian sticks to the narration they seem to follow with Astarion: an abuser who found a greater one, and now wants to become the next Cazador, and this woobifycation doesn't change the real potential of a dark deep story that I believe they want to give us: not every char is redeemable, and sometimes evilness is capricious. We had chars like these in bg1 and bg2 after all.