I am watching Crown of Candy first time (just finished the Sugar Plum Fairy fight) and I wish I did, but I really just don't vibe with Saccharina.
Like, no shade AT ALL to Emily, I think she is a masterful creation, but I just cannot get on board with her.
Iike, they are all coming from a place of trauma and emotion. Amathar and Ruby have lost their daughter/sister, been betrayed by a close family friend, been exiled from their kingdom - one has had his past mistakes come back on him in the most brutal way, the other had her entire worldview shattered. Saccharina has abandonment issues, children trauma, a history of abuse, and I don't think growing up with horrible nuns and then a band of marauders gave her the bestest of social skills. That's all fair, and I can see whether this is leading them to clash, Saccharina wants the family she always dreamed about and she wants in now, Amathar and Ruby and not in a position to be as emotionally available as she wants - yes at times they are being actively rude, but even when they aren't Saccharina seems to take the fact that they are treating her like a comrade rather than a beloved family member of a personal slight. And on Amathar and Ruby's side, this woman is a stranger to them, of course they aren't going to have the immediate relationship that she wants but that doesn't give them the right to take their grief out on her.
But for me the difference is that narratively, Amathar and Ruby are constantly being called out on the fact that they are letting their grief cloud their reaction to Saccharina. Theo does it, Caramelinda does it (from a politics POV), we get all of the marauder OC's reacting when A and R are rude, but noone ever calls Saccharina out for the ways that she's being rude, or the way that she is refusing to meet R and A where they are at.
Like, after the Sugar Plum Fairy, when Saccharina said that thing about how...'Oh I could have dealt with her but I chose to do something with you' to Ruby, and then got offended when Ruby wasn't immediately grateful. But, like, that's a rude thing to say. Saying 'I could have done the impressive thing you did and the only reason you got to do it is because I threw you a bone' is a rude thing to say. And I get where it is coming from in Saccharina - it's the same thing she did when they first met and she threw that feast. She thinks if she is useful to them, they will love her how she wants. and that it tragic - but no one ever challenges Saccharina on it and says, hey I get where you were coming from, bad execution though. Instead her marauders just act like the others have committed some heinous crime against Saccharina by not immediately fawning over her for saying that.
Even when Ruby does give Saccharina the olive branch and tries to explain her side, Saccharina doesn't really empathise - she brings it back to her own trauma, and how much she wanted a sister. Again, she isn't willing to meet Ruby where she's at. She doesn't really seem to want to build a relationship, she wants that relationship now, on her terms. (Again trauma, but still) but that's just not possible. I sympathise with her completely, but she is a stranger to them, an adult stranger. Who they met under the worst conditions, they're not going to have that immediate relationship that she wants.
I really wanted to like Saccharina and there are moments when I do. But I think if Saccharina was also being called out (And hey, I'm not finished she might be) on the moments where she's maybe being a bit of a dick, where she's disrespecting Amatar and Ruby's emotions (even if she's doing it with a smile, and with over-eagerness and accidental insults) or on the moments when she takes them treating her as a comrade rather than a confident as a slight (obviously not counting any of the times when they are actually being rude to her) I think I would be more settled with the character.
