Drew

Shel's motives.

Shel, from the beginning, is shown to have enjoyed playing cops and robbers. She likes bringing justice to people who deserve it, or at least she thinks deserve it. In Abhorrence 1, however, she still seems to just kill whoever?

I assumed her main decision to become a sheriff was to punish people who deserve it. If she was gonna just kill whoever inconveniences her or who she thinks deserves it then she could've just did that on her own. Its not like they have the funds to catch her, or they would have back in 1975.

Not saying Shel should be an honorable cop by any means, but I thought her killing bad people was her rationalizing her behavior in abh 2. (She's a teenager here, so its fair she'd go overboard and the demon would take advantage of that) this mindset isn't lost through corruption either as she still believes she's doing the right thing but still going as far as to call her punishments unjust? So does she feel they deserve it or not? I don't get it.

I was under the impression she could ONLY kill awful people, but it sounds like that isn't the case. Her actions cannot be seen as justifiable when half of her sentences are done on impulse, not actual decision making.

Shel is possessed though, so the demon might kill indiscriminately and Shel herself justifies the behavior afterwards when writing case files or in her journal, which would make sense. Bobby does say she limits herself and does kill based on intensity of the crime and if there are witnesses, but she also kills Everard for simple hate speech and Mel McGee for racism?? Just because she was alone?

I assumed her being a sheriff instead of what she was as a teenager and how she was in Abh LEGACY (also younger, unemployed and killing based on personal preference) would force her to establish some sort of moral code due to her new duties as sheriff, but she's literally still killing people for having bad vibes at this point. I mean yeah, she is possessed, but I thought punishing bad people was the goal? She could've just killed anyone without them needing to break the law if that was the case.

Shel also seems to hate women who are prettier or unholier than her. She kills Melanie in the worst ways possible (mutilation, teeth, eyes and tits removed) which would've taken her a while, and Nikole gets her head busted in half for doing nothing but scamming and..being promiscuous. This doesn't make her logic flawed too much but its interesting to notice, as Rylee (also Shel's bully) calls her slurs (likely racist or misogynistic ones) and chased her into the woods. She ONLY beat him for chasing her into the woods and terrorizing her. Melanie suffered for what could've been hours or DAYS for being attractive for her age and calling Shel a wart while Rylee would've been dead or unconscious within minutes for possibly putting Shel in a position to be harmed by him?? Son.

In abh 1, Shel merely breaks Mervin's jaw for ARSON and racketeering, but Nikole is JUST a prostitute and her head gets turned into a bowl? Okay. What's worse is she was PLANNING to fake evidence just to get rid of her, so clearly she needs to be careful of who she kills and needs to make it make sense, otherwise she would've killed Nikole without needing input or fake evidence. So does she have a moral code or not?

Its also unclear who Shel is placing the blame on. She kills them and then comes back to make the case but if she can't come up with a satisfactory answer or culprit as to how a whole series of murders happened, then I'm not sure why the town hasn't lost faith or trust in her at this point.

She could be waiting to find a person she could frame as the culprit, but what happens after she arrests him? The murders won't stop. What then?

Bobby mentions the town trusts her completely, which is fair. As far as they know she hasn't been obvious in her behavior, but her coworkers should know. She says they don't like her unjust punishments, which implies they do know what she does and yet they don't do anything, and if they don't they must have their eyes and ears off, as Anabelle somehow finds out. Its never explained how, she just does. If she were able to figure it out why are the rest clueless.

Abh 2 is worse. I can excuse Shel's behavior. She's a brand new vessel, an emo and likely nihilistic one at that who lost her mother, of course she'd act out. I'll give her grace and skip over that, up until we get to Failure.

She kills a flower shop owner in hopes of undoing her curse. This doesn't make sense as everyone else she maimed prior didn't suddenly develope the curse instead of her?? What did she think was gonna happen? Especially after Suzie tells her the family is cursed.

I want to say Shel has changed, but she hasn't. Sure she's killing people who are actually bottom of the barrel a bit, but she still just goes after anyone who gives her a hard time. She's possessed, I know but seeing her immediately resort to murder makes her come off as immature still.

This is prevalent when it comes to the firefighter, Scout Derren. My mutual pointed out Shel did not need to kill him. It could've been a threat or arrest, anything! She could've even reported him. She's the sheriff, he'd fold easily. Scout did not need to die. And what's worse is she put him under "Curfew law"?? What??

I also don't understand what Bobby meant when He says she doesn't hurt Byron. Byron has a physical eye injury and Shel admits to hurting and slashing him. At first I was under the impression that Deana had injured him since she was confirmed to be abusing him.

But Shel also says she hurts and slashes him.

It is clear to some extent Shel understands she has to act normal and set a good reputation, but she also admits in her case files her coworkers are somewhat privy to what she does and don't agree with it. Unless this has been undone or the entire police force is corrupt, making Anabelle and Aiden the only exceptions.

Now if Shel were obvious in who she was slaughtering, then the entirety of Abh and her plan would fall apart, I get that but I don't understand why she's not suspected when she doesn't even try. I don't think they have any reason to suspect her, she is the sheriff, but she doesn't clean up the crime and only returns to report it later. The only detective they have is a murderer himself for fucks sake. How are these people not put off by a series of murders that aren't being solved?

Why would she need to make the murders feel legal if no one is supposed to know she's committing them? It seems she's trying to convince herself that what she's doing is justified, since its somewhat out of her control as she is possessed. This would make sense. Its different than her going after criminals and killing them, and having everyone know she killed them because she makes them out to be evil or they are evil.

The only deaths I can understand are the Teddie's (sold a man to cartel), Father Ripley's (committed murder, as a pastor no less) and POSSIBLY James, if he had caused the death of a minor via the drugs he distributed knowing the effects.

James is another thing I want to mention. She knows family isn't off limits, but she keeps Byron alive while killing James off. This could just be to stay loyal to abh LEGACY, but Shel holds so much hatred for her father and yet spares him, (if what Bobby said about her not touching him is true, despite the case files saying otherwise) then she is aware of what crimes deserve death and what don't (Bobby confirmed this too. He says she kills based on severity and if there are witnesses) then why does she spare Byron, who apparently made her life hell (He did not. Deana was just as stern as he was. Deana was just gentler) but kill Nikole, and critically injure Mervin for less? Some part of her must know he's innocent, which is why she not only doesn't kill him (or harm him, perhaps) but he somehow escapes, so she didn't have him under as much lock and key. She also doesn't seem too bothered by him escaping, either.

Unrelated but i find it very funny she goes to church to pray. Like, you're beyond saving at this point. He put your whole family on hold 😭💔

She also tosses a homeless man into prison and just...doesn't feed him? Even if she chose to starve him, she again has other coworkers. She must've isolated him or lied about feeding specifically to do that, which makes her even more of a douche.

I would choose to have Shel spare Jaden, Nikole, Mervin, Everard, and Scout. They just needed a to be taught a lesson, threatened or simply ARRESTED. Nikole especially because its likely she's not doing what she does because she wants to, but rather because she has to. Having Shel swallow her pride and try to help another woman out, even if Nikole wasn't willing to be helped would make her a whole lot better.

Having Shel just kill anyone because she feels like it makes it hard to take her seriously and doesn't set her apart from anyone else at all. Even though I say she's possessed, she seems to condone her own actions with little to no guilt which leads me to believe she's been corrupted or she agrees with this approach.

I'd make her just a BIT more selective on who she is murdering. Sure, there can be a few questionable victims, but she's too damn old to be killing people just for offending her. She's been a vessel for 20 years, and she has a reputation to uphold. If Anabelle somehow found out I can only assume someone else will really soon.

The only other problem I have besides the writing are character designs. Abhorrence has a specific time period, the 1900s, and other than most of the characters being devout Christians and a few racists, nothing else shows this. Most of the characters in Abh 2 are from sign ups, so I guess altering them too much would make them unrecognizable to their owners, but it could've been done and explained in a way that makes sense.

Ughhhhh quick sketch based on an anon ask i saw on this blog

Also extra lazy doodle