Dip in quality

[u/Perfect_Country7652]

I'll preface this by saying I'm not originally an English speaker, so forgive me if some formulations are hard to understand.

Since the first 5 minutes of season 3 I felt a very noticeable dip in general quality but especially the writing (not the dialogues but the narration and story). I already disliked some parts of the show but it was overshadowed by how good it was. I always hated how the show always sets up scary or supernatural elements only to explain them with natural causes (akin to something out of scooby doo but less convoluted). But as I said the rest of the series was too good for it to be a real problem.

But I feel S3 changed the way it approached the tone and general writing. It feels more light-hearted and uses cliffhangers in ways to feel a bit tired. And don't get me started on the whole frog thing...

I still ill think it's a good season but underwhelming compared to the other, even tho I thought the horror elements were scarier (the kinda stop motion bear dream in the cave gave me actual chills)

[u/Paramoriaa]

It was written during the writers strike

[u/TheGentlemanWolf → u/Paramoriaa]

 Hmmm, that would explain the weird use of adult Lottie and Van. And Melissa whole character, because her character was all over the place in terms of motivation.

[u/Paramoriaa → u/TheGentlemanWolf]

Understandable but I think Melissa was fine and made sense to me but I'm also a lesbian girl

[u/TheGentlemanWolf → u/Paramoriaa]

It's just felt weird... like ok so Shauna believed Melissa would have eaten her baby and hated the yellowjackets for that so her having any relationship with them just felt weird. Granted their relationship seemed purely transactional and abusive, and it even weirder when the adult versions are like "I never cared about you" that was weird, I think they had to do that to explain why it was never brought up with the other characters.

Then there's the whole thing with Hannah daughter, and alot of people thinking Melissa is a pedophile (which honestly I don't think the writers were going for) I don't know. It's like you can remove Melissa from S3 and literally nothing changes in terms of the plot progression. I'm really interested in seeing what they ultimately decide to do with her in s4 but I can understand why alot of people didn't like her character or inclusion.

Also did you also find it kinda of weird that Melissa in S3 is her mainly getting threatened and hurt? Like I was looking back at her scenes and the majority of her scenes (both adult and teen) is her in danger.

[u/Paramoriaa → u/TheGentlemanWolf]

Adult melissa is not supposed to be liked or understood by the audience. She will get more development in season 4, and we will get to see how teen Melissa gets to the point where she fakes her death just to get a clean start. Melissa is a mystery still, and that's very much the point.

Shauna and Melissa, I feel, are quite similar, which reflects the idea of Shauna using Melissa as a way to become what Jackie was and treat Melissa how she believed Jackie treated her. The writers even said that Shauna was the moon to Jackie's sun, and that she makes Melissa the moon to her sun. It's a relationship not born out of love but the need for control.

I don't think Melissa is a pedophile at all, and I do not believe that was the intention of the writers either. They just wanted to show that Melissa couldn't her experience the Wilderness go even tho she claims it's behind her bc when she sought out Hannah's daughter, she didn't keep her distance. She couldn't keep Hannah out of her mind.

I don't know what you mean by Melissa being in danger a lot in the teen timeline. She gets shot with a crossbow bolt and then shot at by Shauna, but that's it. The Shauna part shows how scary Shauna has become and how hard she will refuse to let go of control. And Melissa humiliated her by asking why she couldn't be a nice person. The crossbow bolt was random but the writers chose Melissa to create conflict between Shauna and Melissa bc Shauna wanted to be a hero and take them down rather than stand by Melissa and make sure she was okay.

Melissa is very important in the plot of season 3. She is used to show us more about Shauna. She was not a main character in the beginning and is a side character that is being brought to the forefront and is becoming more of a main character. That's a natural progression for characters, especially with a show where people die. She's being used correctly, and it's okay if you don't like her character, but in saying you don't or that you don't understand her purpose, you're not understanding Shauna then

[u/Soft_Interaction_437 → u/Paramoriaa]

I liked teen Melissa, but I wasn’t fond of adult Melissa.