You might be wondering, is she really going to be talking about Unicorn: Warriors Eternal in the year of the lord 2026?
And the answer is, yes, pretty much. Especially because this is something I've been meaning to talk about for ages now.
One little detail I have always loved about Melinda's character design is the lines under her eyes, or wrinkles, if you will. Especially the sheer contrast it creates when she suddenly loses them and the implications behind it.
For most of the show, Melinda indeed has those wrinkles under her eyes, which do a great job at making her look serious, focused, and older. Compared to Emmelyn and Emma's much softer features, it really brings home the fact that both are younger and far less experienced than Melinda. It highlights that disconnect between the original Unicorn and the current one.
However, on a more tragic take on this, compare the frames where Melinda keeps her wrinkles to the ones where she doesn't have them. Such a small change makes all the difference.
Now, Melinda is positively gorgeous. Always. God bless Morgan's genes.
But there is no denying her wrinkle-free self looks younger and cuter. Since she's always frowning as an adult, she looks more like an adorable grumpy bear than the mysterious, unyielding dark sorceress we know her to be.
And this is where tragedy truly strikes. Because we don't know how old Melinda was supposed to be in the original timeline, only that she and her team were older than Emma, Alfie, and Dimitri. That places Melinda anywhere between her 20s to late 30s, early 40s at most. Someone so young shouldn't have wrinkles.
So what are those lines under her eyes then?
Stress marks from fighting the Evil for years, convinced it was her fault because she couldn't stop her magic from corrupting and "killing" her mother.
Now, compare the frames where she has them to the ones they disappear once more. The sheer difference it would have made if only Melinda hadn't internalised that guilt and self-loathing for years. If only that childhood mistake (and Merlin's neglect) hadn't haunted her her entire life.
I'm just saying, it this was an intentional choice, it was brilliant.
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