I never gave Zena much thought originally, but your posts have persuaded me and made me curious. Can you share some of your thoughts or headcanons on her!! (◕ᴗ◕✿)
oh MY IRENE!! GOSH! you don’t understand how long I’ve been waiting for people to ask ME about MY zena thoughts. I hope this is good entertainment.. I hope this lets you see what I’m seeing. ..through the process that I went through in order to love her character! information under cut. sorry for wall of text!
BAD ANALYSIS, HEADCANONS, THOUGHTS - in that order! please read aphblr i love her i want u to notice she has at least a LITTLE depth . I made it easier by highlighting the key points in pink in each paragraph.. you can only read those..
ONE . THE (typed on a whim) ANALYSIS !
zena is, at her core, a … kinda bad person. Let’s be honest. she’s BAD, disguised underneath soft words and cute outfits. but she isn’t terrible. she isn’t horrendous- she isn’t BEYOND SAVING. she wants to be better. she’s just lonely. and this all shown from her origins; cocomau. yep. the show with like no depth and just video after video with the VAs messing around with a semi-established plot. (with the tiniest breadcrumb from mermaid tales!)
EXHIBIT A : My NEW SISTER controls MONSTER HIGH: THE MOVIE! (her first appearance ever)
zena is shown as a humanoid ghast- the new girl, who’s bit is that she’s terrified of monsters despite being one, and also just trying to navigate her way through the high school. now, what REALLY caught my attention (because I didn’t care for her until I noticed this,) is how desperate zena seems to be for appreciation. the ENTIRE movie she runs around trying to fit in, and the exact thing that makes her fit in is matchmaking. although messily and.. the wrong way. because she’s setting people up with the ‘love of their lives’, people start to adore her- start to talk to her. and zena catches on FAST. soon, she becomes so absorbed in the new attention she becomes greedy. whilst her matchmaking solutions were terrible at first, it only worsens- relationships are toxic, and she sees NO PROBLEM WITH IT. (hint hint: has she been in toxic relationships—friends, family, lovers— before, so she sees this as normal?) soon she rises up to the top of the food chain because of her new popularity scheme. but here’s the kicker: the entire time she seemed to genuinely care for aphmau, no matter how many times aphmau tried to stop her. zena slows down sometimes, goes to ask aph for her opinion now and then. (unless I’m mis-remembering- but I DO know zena cared for aph) by this point, Aphmau goes time and time again to try and intervene and whilst zena may shut down her ideas, she still seems desperate for her approval. Zena’s first best friend. she does not forget who her day ones were, and she refuses to let go of aphmau. zena seems to be loyal person, despite all her other actions. (possibly because she knows what it’s like to be abandoned?? A reoccurring theme with her character??)
EXHIBIT B : You NEED to DELETE that message!
okay, now this one isn’t nearly as bad as the first- we’re back in another high school setting, this time with a bit more interesting plot. all I have to say is: zena is an instigator. at first she teases zane and Aphmau for talking by themselves, implying that they’re a thing . (zanemau crumbs) and then, later on, when aphmau was trying to confront somebody ZENA swoops in and starts pinning the blame on Aphmau, rallying up a crowd of people somehow and getting them to all gang up on her- leaving Aphmau to run out of the library. Nothing noteworthy here, but an example of the lines she is willing to cross.
EXHIBIT… ???? : MERMAID TALES, THE SOUL ECHO! (this is not cocomau, but just an example of how quick she is to harm someone if it means to protect herself.)
I just included this to point out how IMMEDIATELY when zena wasn’t getting the answers she wanted, she went to hypnotize aphmau. Now, from her perspective, I kinda would’ve done the same.. this woman stole the only thing I had left of my family, even if I didn’t have the object originally? SHE ISNT ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS??? I’ll just go to what I’m comfortable doing! but like.. still. hypnotizing someone (implied permanently) is pretty bad. and it was her FIRST INSTINCT, in contrast to many of the other characters who I could confidently say they wouldn’t revert to hurting the other instantly and quick. zena isn’t good forced to be bad. zena is good slowly turning bad due to her being forced to do evil things.. (if that makes sense.) also! how can i forget! “I would give anything for a boring life like yours! Anything to be loved..”
EXHIBIT C : We ADOPTED a HAPPY GHAST in Minecraft!
in this video, zena is the protagonist. ..behind aphmau, who is the happy ghast. zena is time and time again pranked, and gets so upset over it- only to be swooped up and helped by her new friend! now, the only reason I bring this video up is because of this one line that had stuck with me: “Are you leaving me too?..” now- take note that like NOBODY in this video has left zena like permanently. when the hangout(prank) is over, yeah, they leave- but such small things aren’t worth noting for such a BIG line. and it’s dropped out of nowhere. and it’s never to be explored again. zena has abandonment issues, and seems to be quite desperate to latch onto and stay with somebody who appears to loves her. and it IRRITATES ME HOW THIS IS NEVER EXPLORED CUAUSE THIS LINE WAS THE KICKER FOR ME.
EXHIBIT D : NEVER answer an UNKNOWN NUMBER at 12AM..
spoiler alert! zena is an actual yandere. tho I have to admit, jess wanted it platonic no matter how bad i ship zenamau. in this video, aphmaus friends are disappearing one by one, all the while aph just keeps getting creepy text from a number she does not have saved. who has been kidnapping her friends? ZENA! and the REASSSONNN?? “Oh, so now I’M the weird one for trying to spend time with you.” “But no- you were always too busy trying to plan sleepovers with your other friends! I just wanted to play with you..”
CONCLUSION :
zena is desperate for love. Badly. Zena is SO obsessed with the idea of being appreciated and adored, she lets herself get whisked away into her emotions and do whatever she thinks of doing first. from setting up toxic couples, to hypnotizing others permanently, to kidnapping her best friends own friends, from being desperate for a GHAST to stay by her side- zena is, at her core, a very lonely person. she can be surrounded by so many friends and yet still feel ultimately lonely because she has been with that feeling her entire life, even if only just implied. she has bad attachment issues, possibly low self esteem, possibly high functioning depression. (the possibly’s added because those are more headcanon territory. not the first tho)
and, yet, she does all these bad things but she DOES have a moral compass. zena wants ONE thing: love. and it seems that she understands that in order to have that love, she must listen to the others’ boundaries- their thoughts, feelings, because it’s what she has always wanted for herself as well. when Aphmau tells her that something is not okay, face-to-face, clear message- zena gets the hint and BACKS DOWN. (cough cough- ein?? as entertaining as he is..) not because of ulterior motives of “getting their trust”, but because she values the other as a person and wants to see them happy because they bring HER so much happiness. she is actively becoming a better person- she is TRYING. for her best friend, Aphmau. even if zena isn’t aphmau’s best friend. (as shown when aphmau calls KC/nana her bff instead over and over.) she gets jealous but.. she learns to control herself, and tries to be fine with it because she KNOWS that there’s no bond like friendship that borders sisterhood. She’s always wanted that for herself.
TWO . HEADCANONS !
ok.. these are all of the current ones I have. I’ll most likely make more in the future teehee..
1. alternates zena tended to the corn fields the most before leaving with aphmau- she got so used to the corn and most days all she would eat was corn! I think I put this in my discontinued gene x reader fanfic.
2. zena in general has bad abandonment issues. she gets scared at the slightest implication of being left alone again (permenantly) and she’s the type of girl to text you at 3AM asking if u still love her and then apologize for coming off as needy. has low self esteem honestly
3. zena in a modern setting like MID earth, mystreet, blah blah she would’ve liked to be a pilot. she likes the feeling of flight and the sky and she would’ve loved wearing goggles even if not necessary because it would match with the ghasts!!
4. she collects stuff of her interest- mostly things from the nether, but she really adores adorable little objects that she can display on shelves. Figurines, collectables..
5. always thought a farm would be cool. loves animals in general and finds most of them adorable anyway - and thinks maybe with the right tools maybe make a ghast area or just an area for flight creatures in general
6. Likes laufey she’s a lauver. I always think of her when “Too Little, Too Late” comes on.
7. she LOVES traveling. Like adores. you don’t understand he’s OBSESSED, and that includes incredibly dangerous areas like the nether. (as shown when Aphmau said the two could go to the nether together, and Zena got SOOO EXCITED.)
8. loves combining spooky themes with cute in her outfits. on halloween (her favorite holiday), she has the BEST costumes- because it’s fashionable and on theme!
9. if she knew about MCD (not in it)?? would find the shadow knights SOOO COOL. ..but only the idea of them! mostly. she understands that for someone to cause that much hurt, they must be in pain too- but that does not excuse the terrible things she did, even if she can relate on a heavy note. but like.. Zena would also be sooo jelly. shadow knights. KNIGHTS (knights are sworn to protect their lord- she only dreams of being able to keep her loved ones from all danger) in THE NETHER (her favorite dimension of all time.) she’d be hyped and put off at the same time.
THREE . THOUGHTS !
..I really love zena. she, at first glance, is a shallow character- and I understand some people may never be able to get over the fact that she looks SO MUCH LIKE SASHA. But she is not Sasha. she is her own unique person with much depth to her. well- I like to think, considering jess is HIDING SO MUCH OF HER AWAY FROM ME. but what really drew me to her were two things: her reoccurring themes of feeling unloved, and her effort to be better. she was a character that originated from a place with zero depth and just new story after new story- all kinda written in with shits and giggles. and YET. she prevails. she has depth anyway. even if just tiny little breadcrumbs I might have over-analyzed and jess has put zero thought into at all. I hope this convinced some people to be a bit more open to her.. whoever’s reading!