#uwe analysis

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.

As seen at the end of A Fateful Encounter and the beginning of What Lies Beneath, Emmelyn was more proficient with her powers and more effective when Melinda took control of their body. She immediately gave chase to the Evil, cornered her and was about to vanquish her once more, all by herself...

...until she saw the damage her powers caused to that poor family's home and lives.

From then on, it's Emma who asserts herself over Melinda's soul again, horrified at the damage she caused.

But here's the thing, she's the only member of Unicorn who pays the poor woman and her kids any mind. Edred, despite witnessing the state the house is in, quickly brushes it off because Melinda let the Evil escape, not once sparing a glance to the innocent people whose lives they just essentially ruined.

And that seems to be Unicorn's recurring flaw: they are so laser-focused on defeating the Evil in the name of humanity, they tend to overlook the individuals they're supposed to be trying to help.

This episode showcased this brilliantly: when Melinda's fire destroyed the bridge and threatened with harming lots of innocents, Edred and Copernicus were quick to solve the problem. The civilians even cheered for them!

But when it comes to dealing with people's problems individually, they tend to disregard them in the name of the greater good. Unicorn will do what's objectively right or best, which is usually the needs of many over one person's issues or desires, but they won't stop to think about the possible consequences of their actions beyond vanquishing the Evil.

This is especially prevalent during Emma and Melinda's confrontation last episode. Through Melinda's callous treatment of Emma and refusal to see things from her point of view, as she is devoted to their cause and Emma's refusal to merge with her directly threatens their mission, she also fails to understand asserting herself over Emma only serves in alienating her more.

If only Melinda had tried a gentler approach in explaining to Emma she is not responsible for the turn her life took but they really need to work together or hers won't be the only life that prematurely comes to an end, then chances are Emma wouldn't be resisting her and her powers as much as she's doing right now.

Edred has this same problem too, as evidenced through his interactions with Winston. Instead of explaining that the woman he loves isn't exactly there anymore, he coldly tries to push him aside, to get him to leave Emmelyn alone. He doesn't even try to relate to the boy's problem, even when they're essentially one and the same! Both Edred and Winston are terrified of losing their beloved because she's not acting like herself and, no matter what they do, she is constantly pushing them away. But because Edred has grown unaffected by people's struggles outside of saving them from the Evil, not helped by the fact that his actions are also fuelled by jealousy, he makes no effort to sympathise with Winston or even offer an apology or words of comfort. He just wants him out of their way and away from Melinda.

So far we've seen many instances where Edred could be very petty while, for the most part, Winston only deviates from his usual committed and gentlemanly persona when Edred pushes their romantic rivalry on him.

However, it's worth noting that Winston's inherent pettiness has always been there, instead of something he developed under stressful circumstances. Namely, as soon as the second episode, where we learned through a flashback he was glad Alfie's school, an orphanage, was going to shut down.

While it's understandable being miffed at losing because the opposing team didn't play fair, wishing a group of orphaned kids lose their only home over it is going too far.

Emma doesn't blame Melinda.

We're talking about the same girl who's been resenting the newfound presence in her body ever since she became her host. The same girl whose influence over Emmelyn's body has caused her to be conflicted, and troubled, and reject both her past lives while desperately seeking a connection to them.

And now she just discovers Melinda ruined her life in more ways than one, by being the very origin of her need to take over her body and her subsequent loss of identity, and she doesn't blame her.

Because she bore witness to what happened. She saw with her own two eyes how Melinda was just a kid who had no control over her powers when they corrupted her mother. Emma knows there is nothing Melinda could have done to prevent Morgan from becoming the Evil.

Again, she was just a kid.

Now, what we must understand about Meldred is that it's a love born from adversity. Their whole relationship, all incarnations, has been marked and dictated by their mission and its necessary sacrifices. They both chose to dedicate their lives, throughout countless lifetimes, to fighting The Evil.

And that greatly impacted their relationship and the way it works and how they bounce off of each other.

Relationships born from adversity and crisis tend to become deep and long-lasting fast (as evidenced by Emma and Melinda's eventual bond with each other). The fact that Melinda and Edred have been deeply in love for over a thousand years is proof enough of that.

However, the moment Emma entered the picture, there was a new factor neither could have accounted for that changed everything.

A different kind of relationship. Because Emmelyn, now influenced by Emma's presence and her memories, couldn't keep up with Edred's intensity.

Since their love has been so impacted by The Evil's doing, alongside their more serious and uptight original personalities, the burning passion and love Melinda and Edred feel for each other never had time to simmer down into something more comfortable but equally meaningful.

It never got the chance to be like Emma and Winston's relationship.

As opposed to Melinda and Edred, who were brought together by crisis and have had to intertwine their love for each other with it, Emma and Winston are "simply" childhood sweethearts. They're undeniably close and, more importantly, able to just enjoy their relationship because they were born into money, without any really binding responsibilities, and grew up without a care in the world.

Which is why Emmelyn is capable of laughing and goofing around Winston. It's not necessarily that she doesn't feel anything for Edred—if anything, I'd say her conversation with Winston back in a Love's Last Light about how she had Emma's memories but there was so much more (before the camera focused on Edred) seems to imply she actually has both women's feelings for each of their lovers, but can't act on either out of respect for the other, as @theunawakening can testify—rather, I'd wager it means that their relationship just isn't like that.

Seng said it himself, Melinda had never laughed like that before. And like Edred said, that is because that's not Melinda, but a completely different person.

Melinda can be warm and deeply caring, but outwardly she's laser-focused on their quest against The Evil, deeply scarred by the trauma of what happened to her mother, and acts rather callous and harsh as a result of it. Even when she's trying to do something nice—like how it was implied she kept trying to push Edred away when they first met not because she didn't think him capable of helping or handling himself, but because she didn't want him to sacrifice his everything for their quest, her quest, just like she'd done.

Melinda and Edred's love for each other is deep and long-lasting, but it's been influenced by outside forces for far too long, never given the chance to just be explored and enjoyed. They were always focused on putting a stop to The Evil; they never had time to just be a couple!

I'm convinced there were definitely more subdued moments between them, just like there's been more positive, softer interactions between Edred and Emmelyn (namely, their interactions in The Heart of Kings and Darkness Before the Dawn right before Winston appeared). It's just that they've never had the chance to be together without raising any kind of stakes, like how Edred running away with Melinda directly led to a civil war between the Elves and the forest dying.

But now that they're younger and they get to wear their hearts on their sleeve, now that their approach has shifted from confrontation to compassion in their quest against The Evil, now that Edred has come to accept Emmelyn is not his Melinda...

Now I truly believe they can learn to mellow out, which will then help strengthen their love.

In a way, I suppose this makes sense, seeing as Emma was Melinda's reincarnation even before she was awakened. But there is just something tragically beautiful in the way their stories began.

Because, in a way, both Emma and Melinda's lives ended because of their powers and Merlin.

It was because of Copernicus reawakening Melinda and the fact that the reincarnation cycle was Merlin's idea to fight the Evil in the first place that Emma lost her life, her family, and even her identity as Emma Fairfax. It's because she suddenly found herself with powers she can't understand and another presence within her that she was forced to leave all behind, all she ever knew, and try to adapt to her situation to the best of her abilities.

It was because of her powers and her role to play in Merlin's plan that her life officially ended. Hadn't it been for them, she would have been married to Winston by now, with her relationship with her loving parents intact and a bright future ahead of her.

And Melinda?

It was because of her powers going haywire that she lost her mother. And it was because Merlin kept them from Morgan, for whatever reason, that things ever escalated.

More importantly, Merlin is actually responsible for the eternal war his daughter and her friends have been fighting over a thousand years! If it weren't for him and the events leading to the creation of the Evil, maybe Melinda would have known peace, instead of dedicating her life, throughout multiple lifetimes, to fighting a powerful force that it will just keep coming back to the end of time.

In a way, both Emma and Melinda are victims of the circumstances that were robbed of their lives way too soon. And that is just such a beautiful tragedy...

Melinda is an Apocalypse Maiden, an incredibly powerful being whose powers have the potential to end all life as we know it!!

That's why Morgan wanted to take her magic away from her, to save her daughter from whatever terrible fate awaited her and humanity. I'm going to hazard a guess and say Merlin kept their daughter's powers a secret from her in order to prevent that, either because he wanted to study and learn about Melinda's magic with the intention of learning to control it for their daughter's sake...or because he wants to control it, control her, for his own nefarious plans. After all, he did say it was the most powerful magic in the universe.

(Let's not forget how Merlin appears in the enemy's section of the show's banner)

Morgan even treated Melinda's magic as its own entity, rather than an extension of her daughter. And the way the magic resisted Morgan's attack is more reminiscent of a demonic possession rather than Melinda knowingly doing the resisting.

And let's not forget how it literally possessed Morgan.

Judging by how the Evil lamented at the beginning of the episode how Melinda only grows stronger, I'd dare say her goal isn't so much destroying the heroes, as it is ensuring whatever is behind Melinda's magic doesn't have another chance to come back and be set free. Because if the same thing capable of vaporising a zombie elephant, flattening a whole square, summoning a kraken and then single-handedly tearing that same kraken to shreds ever got loose...

Then it would take far more than just a quartet of heroes to save humanity.

If you haven’t noticed already by my posts, I’m pretty much team Meldred when it comes to the love triangle in Unicorn: Warriors Eternal. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I’m a basic bitch; they called each other “my love” and that was enough for me to pledge my alliance to them. 

Of course, given Emmelyn’s predicament, Edred’s less than ideal reactions to the conundrum, and Melinda not even remembering her own story with him, it all makes for some very interesting character interactions and dynamics. And given how we still have much to learn about their original selves and their pasts, that allows us to speculate about how they met, fell in love, and how it all evolved into the situation we’re facing now. 

In light of The Heart of Kings, I have come up with a few reasons why this ship is so compelling to me, namely, why Melinda fell in love with Edred even though we are still missing her perspective in this whole situation, and how it explains (though not necessarily justifies) some of Edred’s recent actions. 

To make a long story short (not like it matters, I’ll be sure to expand on this nonetheless), I would say the reason these two love each other so much is because their each other’s everything. 

In Melinda’s case, I’d say the reason she fell in love with Edred is because he is probably the first person in her life since at least her mother’s death to love her unconditionally. 

As we first learned in The Past Within and recently confirmed in The Heart of Kings, ever since she accidentally turned her mother into the Evil, Melinda’s relationship with Merlin has been strained. Today’s episode showed Merlin does indeed love his daughter, but he’s been blaming and reprimanding her for what happened and her perceived “lack of control and strength” since she was a little kid. And until Emma stepped in and put Merlin in his place, Melinda had clearly been carrying that burden her whole life, internalising that fault, throughout all her reincarnations. Or, as she said herself, for over a thousand years. 

So while there’s clearly love there, it was far from being the kind of unconditional love one would expect from a parent. 

Moreover, there’s everyone’s reaction to her. Throughout the entire episode, everyone aside from Merlin and Unicorn had referred to Melinda as either “the dark witch” or “Edred’s witch” (which I’m convinced is just a clever way to undirectly call her his bitch, given the show’s setting). Nobody calls her Melinda, not even when the flashback showed she was around when Edred ran away and in the present everyone seems to know it was her he left everything behind for. And judging by his throaway line about how everyone blames her for leaving, even though they had never returned since then...it all seems to indicate not many people had actually interacted with Melinda up to that point, even though they were all familiar with her.

This, alonside the fact that she was distant and in hiding during the wedding ceremony (which, admittedly, could be because the elves don’t like outsiders intruding upon their traditions, though, then again, they seemed perfectly fine with Unicorn once everything was resolved), seems to indicate Melinda was an outcast, probably has been her whole life as a result of her powers and dark and mysterious nature.

(This is clearly her watching Edred’s wedding, c’mon)

An outcast Edred gave everything up for. 

At this point I wholeheartedly believe Melinda fell in love with Edred because he was the first person in her life who consistently placed her as his top priority. The first person who never failed to look out for her and reassure her he loved her. 

Because I think we can all agree Edred’s love for Melinda has been one of his central, most consistent traits, as well as one of his most redeeming qualities. He’s been devoted to her since the very beginning.

Whereas Merlin callously brushed off her near death experience when they first battled the Evil (in the show, at least), the moment Seng confirmed she was hurt Edred rushed to her side and got angry on her behalf at her father. 

Even now, even when they’re fighting the Evil or its minions, Melinda’s safety is one of his biggest concerns. Whenever she gets hurt or knocked out he is always the first to call out for her. If anything happens to her during a fight, he will immediately ask Seng to find her. And he will be worried sick for her if it seems like something’s troubling her.  Except for the ship incident, whenever Melinda needs help, Edred is always there, willing to give her and ready for her to just...take it.  Even if making sure she’s okay means preventing her from seeing nude statues of men, he will do anything for her without question.

Even if that anything means abandoning everything he’s ever known and breaking the unbroken line for her sake. 

Melinda is everything to Edred, and that means everything to Melinda.

In a way, his loving promise as they said their goodbyes when they thought their time together was up sort of feels like a reassurance on his part. Almost like it’s not the first time he’s had to remind Melinda that his love for her cannot be changed.

And of course, this all ties back to Edred’s side of the story. 

As I was saying, Edred essentially turned Melinda into his whole world when he left his kingdom and family behind for her. We don’t know if by that time Unicorn had already been formed or if on the contrary that was just the beginning and he met Melinda under completely different circumstances. But we do know this: Edred gave everything up for Melinda. 

He essentially came to the conclusion that he didn’t need anything else as long as he had Melinda. 

As we’ve already seen during the episode, this was in no way ethical nor logical, and directly led to a lot of trouble, but the matters of the heart rarely are logical or even ethical. 

Now, with this in mind, let’s think about his actions so far during the series. 

I don’t mean to justify any of them, because one of the things about Edred is that he can be equally heartwarming and charismatic as he can be flawed. So it’s important to understand his actions still had harmful consequences (hurting/alienating Emmelyn, undirectly causing the kraken that destroyed Copernicus as well as Winston’s lycanthropy...); it’s just that now we have a better understanding on why he did what he did. 

Edred not only left his home, but also agreed to fighting an endless battle against a powerful Evil that has clearly endangered his life and those of his closest friends for centuries, and it all seems to indicate he did that for two reasons: for the good of the world, and for the promise of being reunited with Melinda every cycle. 

But suddenly, upon his latest reincarnation he finds out the love of his life doesn’t remember him, seems to be fonder of some random human than of him, isn’t even acting like the woman he fell in love with, and might not ever return his feelings at all during that reincarnation. And, apparently, all because her host’s spirit is asserting herself over her and holding her back. 

From his perspective, his desire to bring Melinda back and lack of care for Emma make perfect sense: without Melinda, he has essentially lost everything. It basically means sacrificing everything for her in their first life was pointless. 

That’s why he’s so desperate to get her back, why even the smallest sign of affection from her is enough to render him flustered and as happy as a kid on Christmas Day. Because right now it’s the only thing he has to go by that his love is still there somewhere.