So what if Melissa has natural advantages and just blunders into some stuff. Thats a natural part of life. Some people will always have the leg up due to luck and circumstance. Its how things goVaranus wrote:Melissa didn't lord any of those advantage over Cerise except perhaps the attention from boys and her leadership of the coven. The wand and Tiff's training were things she was embarrassed about, not boasting in, and she only revealed her new position as president to try to stop a mob from attacking her.Absinthe Green wrote:I'm convinced that Cerise's fury is rooted less in Melissa being the leader and more about the thoroughly UN-earned advantages being handed to her - Tiffany's training, Coven leadership, Erotic attention, Hekate's Power-Up, the Tacky Wand, the school presidency, etc - compounded exponentially by Melissa's a.) lording those advantages over her and - so much more than anything else - b.) the constant, consistent, predicable shiving of Cerise's confidence and self-worth at the hands of someone she's had to rely on for leadership and trusted as a friend.
Heck she was a good sport when she beat Cerise in that duel, but that didn't matter to Cerise because Melissa still got recognition over it.
She has lots of freudian excuses certainly, but none of them come close to justifying the things she has done or indeed diminish how shallow her motivations are. I know you are stopping short of truly saying her reactions are justifiable, but I still think you are far too soft on Cerise. I mean what about her supposed girlfriend who she dumped in the volcano with the same indifference as the rest? She engineered the death of someone who had never done anything but care about her, and for what?What really brought it home for me re: how desperate, isolated and lonely Cerise is was when she realizes that she's dying and wonders "if anyone will cry". That really got to me . She's had her own remarkable and hard-won achievements she earned by her own merit outshone and dismissed out-of-hand by an overprivileged and underworked pampered brat with baseless advantages who can't enjoy her own victory or thank the person responsible, she worships a goddess that insults her wardrobe by comparing it to someone w/ far more resources than her while sponging the same clothes off of her, her romantic attempts imploded on her through no fault of her own, she's undercover in two institutions full of people who'd consider her a monster to be killed if they knew she's a witch, and the one person Cerise was perfectly reasonable in imaging was on her side let her know they can't be trusted keeping her (hetero)virginity in confidence. On top of all that, Cerise has to run a daily gauntlet of abuse from someone she can't get away from due to the risk of being exposed and killed. Poor kid. Something had to give.
Let's not forget that it isn't as if Cerise had no popularity in the school, she just remained obsessed with ANY attention Melissa got. Melissa on the other hand had no problems with Cerise becoming popular in school, she just reacted to her questionable plans (pretending to be a lesbian) and dumb luck with her usual bluntness.
Again I think you're too dismissive of Cerise's blame in all this. None of Mel's "abuse" of her amounted to anything near the mass-brainwashing and attempted (assuming Tiff and the others are alive) multiple murders Cerise has resorted to. And again Mel did nothing to prevent Cerise from attaining her own popularity in the school beyond pointing out very valid flaws in her plans. The only thing she shot down were attempts to usurp her leadership of the coven, which is a position she has a right to defend even from a friend. You also act as if Melissa was never put down or insulted by Cerise, their bickering has long been a part of their relationship, and likely helped hide from Melissa the real psychological problems that were growing in Cerise from it.I'm going out on a limb and cutting Faith some slack - Cerise made it pretty clear that Faith was unaware of her connection, we were given a clue that Faith's absurd levels of popularity weren't based solely on her wit & charm. In fact, Cerise used that revelation against her to let the air out of her confidence in the same way she's terrified of Melissa using her virginity against her - another example of the abused taking on the characteristics of their abusers b/c they have the evidence of their own experience that abuse works.
Melissa is abusive? Since when? Apathetic maybe when she shouldn't have been but I can't say anything Melissa has done warrants Cerise's psychotic and homicidal behavior.
Sounds more like someone is projecting their own anxieties into a character. NO MATTER how UNfair life is, and some people get dealt pretty ****** hands for life, Murder, Manipulation and Mind Control are never excusable alternatives. Cerise was not pushed into some corner and she broke... Cerise has choosen -some of those choices being really really stupid-
Cerise's issue is her Inferiority Complex,... So what if Mel is better then her as a Witch/Magical beinh? So what if Jacqui can have boys unzipp there flies by just a simple pass while you get the feeling Cerise has a hard time getting a guy... only for them to turn out to be gay! It doesn't matter. What mattered is oddly enough is despite all that Jacqui and Mel accepted Cerise for who she was... Cerise had two friends that cared about her... and she has pissed it away.
The thing I see, is Cerise has never seen herself as Mel or Jacqui's friend, She just hung with them for the status or the simple reason they didn't chase her off.IE They just put up with me... I mean the whole virgin thing is telling when she immediately thinks Jacqui is playing favorites. Whats sad is that the other two do see Cerise as their friend or did... Cerise may very well have broken the one real thing she had if she survives all this.
Mel is not Cerise's problem.
Cerise is Cerise's problem... Trying to blame Mel for all of this is basically ignoring the issue and trying to justify Cerise's actions.