I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they don’t want Marina to be a villain in Side Order, and I felt like giving my own two cents on this.
Let’s put something straight right now: 99% of people who say that they don’t want Marina to be a villain would probably actually be fine with her being the villain. What you *actually* don’t want is for:
a. Marina to be a damsel in distress (whether that means kidnapped or mind-controlled),
b. Marina to have a stupid reason for being evil (ie. being upset about losing the Final Fest or something),
or c. Marina to just flip on a dime and start being a mustache-twirling villain out of nowhere.
I actually like the idea of Marina being a villain, if it’s done well. I like the idea of Marina feeling that the world is imperfect, and burrowing deeper into her own delusions (maybe through some sort of outside influence) and going too far by creating the Side Order world. But something that I DEFINITELY don’t want to happen is Marina betraying Pearl in any way shape or form. It’s made very clear through Marina’s Shojo manga about and love letter to Pearl that she thinks Pearl is perfect. Maybe that’s Marina’s goal: To make everything as perfect and beautiful as Pearl and what she has with her (hence the ink and environmental colors being very similar to Pearl’s ink colors.) But through some sort of virus, or other villain, Marina doesn’t realize the harm her actions are causing others, especially Pearl. Maybe that’s what happens at the climax: Pearl finally gets through to Marina about how much she loves her and the world, regardless of whether or not it’s perfect. She tells Marina that it’s all gonna be okay, as long as she’s with her.
In short, I don’t mind Marina being the villain if it’s done well, and neither do most of you probably.
« Do you remember fizzy fish? You used to drop 'em in your drink and watch the bubbles strip the crystal from the gelatin. Do sick fish sink? They float to the top when they're dead though, the things going on in my head, y'know. I'm weird me, dead weird.
The man I've become wouldn't abandon the boy I used to be, so come down here and talk to me! I've been dragged through the mud until I'm so washed up it feels good. You just can't trust an open book. Told everyone everything I've ever known, now everybody knows I was accident-prone.
[...]
I'm chipping away at the coal face of my own self-loathing. A wolf in sheep's clothing, I'm a danger to my own health. But you've gotta love yourself, see? So I'm taking my own ego down to the bistro of the soul, come find me, I'll be wearing a dead carnation on my coat!
[...]
There's no such thing as mistakes, just the creation of new situations with which we have to deal. »