what i find fascinating about the minnie/virlak dynamic is how obsessed they are with each other, for different reasons.
virlak sees minnie as the one he can’t control. she’s so powerful and headstrong, and she hates him so fucking much. though he’d never admit it, somewhere in the back of his head there is the knowledge that she could very well wind up beating up. and while that pisses him off, it intrigues him. he’s never been beaten before. he’s never met his match before. and then there’s the fact that his fear tactics stop working on her. even when he’s murdered her parents, murdered derrick right in front of her, she will not submit. never, ever again. and to him, it’s kind of arousing how she refuses to ever be under his thumb again, how she hates him more than she’s ever hated anyone, how she’s just as obsessive as he is --- which is creepy and predatory, so don’t get any ideas, weirdos!
and minnie sees virlak as the sole reason her life is the way it is. he manipulated derrick, he groomed them in their teens, lured them into a false sense of safety before he started abusing them. he took her innocence, in a way. made her a weapon of mass destruction. he killed some of the people she loved most. he’s like a parasite she can’t pull free from her skin, and she knows that alone gives him a perverse sense of control over her, but she also can’t help it. after derrick, all she sees is red. virlak’s face surrounded by red. almost all she thinks about is virlak, how she’ll kill virlak, what virlak will look like at her feet as he draws his last breath. parasitic as he is, she needs him to keep going. because without that unwavering desire for vengeance, she would crumble.
they like... feed off of each other. he is the greatest enemy she’ll ever know, and she is his ultimate failure, insecurity. it’s very intense, toxic, but holy shit its so interesting.