Let's Talk Characters: Glee's The Unholy Trinity

Hi, everybody. I usually don't post two days in a row, but I have a ton of half-finished drafts, and I thought it'd be a good idea to actually complete and post some of them before I write new ones. Now, onto the post.  I absolutely love Glee. It is one of my all-time favorite shows. I've rewatched it a lot, and the characters and stories mean a lot to me. Sure, it's not always the best quality, but it holds a very special place in my heart. So, today, we're going to be talking about three of my favorite Glee characters: The Unholy Trinity.

The Unholy Trinity are McKinley High School's resident mean girl clique. They started out that way, at least, but they became less that way after season one. All three of them are my favorite female characters on Glee [My favorite male character is Kurt, by far]. The thing that Glee did really well was giving them each depth and characterization. How many movies/shows can you think of with a trio of mean girls where one is the leader, one is the dumb, naive one, and one is either a total kissup to the queen or wants to be the queen. In how many of those stories are all three of them sympathetic with their own character arc? 

Exactly. Today, I'll be talking about each of them individually. 

Let's start off with Quinn Fabray, since her development comes first.

Warning: Significant spoilers for Glee will follow. Read at your own risk.

Lucille Quinn Fabray starts off as the leader of the Unholy Trinity. She seems to have everything: she's a straight-A student, captain of the Cheerios [cheerleading team], and president of the celibacy club, all while dating Finn Hudson, the popular quarterback. Sure, they both become less popular after Finn joins Glee Club, and Quinn also joins, to make sure he doesn't flirt with Rachel, but it isn't a big deal. She's still on top. 

And then she gets pregnant. She gets pregnant, as a sixteen year old, while cheating on her boyfriend with his best friend, Puck. Which is shortly followed by Sue Sylvester kicking her off the Cheerios, her parents kicking her out of her house, Finn breaking up with her (he was at least justified here. After all, she did cheat on him), and her deciding to break up with Puck, because he's not responsible enough. 

Quinn goes through your classic Fallen Princess story, where she has nothing. At least, that's what she thinks. And if you didn't feel at least a little bit sorry for her by then, do you even have a heart? During this time, the fellow members of the Glee club are the only people who are actually nice to her. And she slowly starts to learn that----shockingly-----having good friends is more important than being popular. It doesn't come off as preachy or annoying, and her season one arc is very well-written, and definitely my personal favorite.

And, yes, a lot of her characterization goes flying out of the window in Season Two, but, despite the fact that the writers didn't do her justice, I still like her. Even when she's being insane and manipulative. Quinn's special, and at that point I'd already gotten kind of emotionally invested in her, and, well, there was no going back. 

Because, yes, Quinn can be a jerk at times. She's manipulative, and she can be selfish. In both Season Two and Season Three, she's laser-focused on being prom queen, no matter what. And then there was that time in Season Three when she really wanted her daughter [for whatever reason], and was planting fake evidence to prove Shelby was an unfit mother. So, yeah, Quinn makes a lot of bad decisions, but she makes a lot of good ones, too.

Remember that time when she got in a car accident, and had to be wheelchair-bound for a few months? Rachel was upset, and blaming herself, and Quinn told her that it wasn't her fault. It was her own fault for texting while driving, and that Rachel had nothing to be sorry for. Or that time in Season Three when she and Santana stuffed the ballot boxes, so that Rachel could win. It was a genuinely nice and selfless thing to do.

Honestly, I think Quinn deserved a better character arc. Sure, she's super manipulative, and overall kind of a jerk, but I still hold firm to my belief that she's a good person at heart. And, honestly? She was just interesting, and I think that Glee could've been more interesting with Quinn as the main character [although, I guess they'd lose the singing and dancing once she graduates]. Also, the writers started and never finished a lot of storylines with her? Remember when she changed her style to punk? Or when she slept with Santana? I mean, I don't ship them, by any means, but it could've used a better explanation. Just my personal opinion. So, yeah. #justiceforquinnfabray. 

The next character I'm going to talk about is Santana Lopez. I think Santana might be my personal favorite character [despite my little Quinn rant above]. Her character arc was amazing, and incredibly impactful, and her one-liners are I-C-O-N-I-C. 

Santana starts out as Quinn's sidekick, but as soon as Quinn becomes less popular, she takes over as the mean, popular girl. After Season One, she and Quinn sort of fight for that position. I liked Santana back in Season One, mostly because Naya Rivera is a super-talented singer, and, I'll say it again, Santana's one-liners really are the best. However, in Season Two, she got an amazing character arc that wasn't rushed, didn't stop after three episodes, and *gasps*, made her a better character. 

See, Santana is a closeted lesbian, who's in love with fellow cheerleader and member of the Unholy Trinity, Brittany S. Pierce [we'll get to her next], and it was kind of the best thing that happened to the show. 

I mean, first of all, we get Brittana aka the most adorable Glee ship of all time [except for mayyyybbbeee Season 2-3 Klaine], but it was also a super great story. I mean, I'm kind of a sucker for those kinds of romances [Why? I ask myself that daily. Feel free to question my nonexistent sanity], but it was so freaking realistic.

Santana's seen all the awful things that Kurt has gone through for being openly gay, and she's scared. She's scared that she'll face that same kind of harassment. She's scared of what people will say behind her back. I mean, a part of me just wants to scream, ''Come on, Santana. Stop being such a scaredy cat, and tell Brittany you love her'', buuuuuut it did feel more realistic the way it actually happened [and I kind of have a thing for slow burn, anyway]. So, I love Santana's depth, and how she's not afraid to call people out when they need it. Also, she's just so complex. It would've been easy to just have her be the catty cheerleader, or have her whole personality be that she's a Latina lesbian, but that's not what Glee did. Because, Santana is a lot of things. She's gay, Hispanic, sassy, fashionable, a tad lazy, tough, loyal, an extremely talented singer and dancer, and, yes, a little bit catty. I think I've listed all the reasons why I love her, so, let me just say, even if you aren't too into the show, look up Best of Santana Lopez on YouTube. It will make your day. 

I mean, how can you look at this, and not ship them?

Next, we'll be moving on to the final member of the Unholy Trinity and the other half of Brittana, Brittany S. Pierce. 

There's always that one girl in fictional mean girl groups. She's a lot nicer than the people she hangs out with, and she's also a bit of a ditz. Brittany is that girl times 10000000. She's super sweet, and one of the nicest characters on the show, but, man, she does not have any common sense. For example, she didn't brush her teeth. Instead she used to wash her mouth with soda because she thought Dr. Pepper was a dentist.

I don't think an episode of Glee goes by without a silly, random, or weird Brittany quote.

I feel like this GIF pretty much sums up Brittany. Seriously, what is going through her head sometimes?

Anyway, like I was saying, Brittany is......not always the brightest. To her defense, she almost always means well. 

Brittany is also pretty naive. She sees the best in people, has an almost childlike innocence [she still believes in Santa Claus, when she's seventeen], and she kind of lives in her own little world. She's sort of like a popular, less-intelligent Luna Lovegood. 

Brittany doesn't really have her own character arc for awhile. Instead, she was part of Santana's [you know, she was the girl Santana fell in love with]. In Season Four, when she got held back, after everyone else graduates, she gets her own arc. She still has a smaller part when compared to Jake or Marley, but she was focused on a lot. And I could not have been happier, because she absolutely deserves it. 

See, part of what makes Brittany so amazing is her compassion. That's something we could all learn from. I'm not saying you should act as dumb as she does, but she was always thinking about other people's feelings, and how her decisions affected them, Such a sweetheart. And when Brittany cries? When Brittany cries, you just want to hug her. 

And, have you seen her dance? She's amazing. The other thing is that, even though Brittany's dumb, it's not done in the usual dumb blonde way. She's more absent-minded than shallow. So, in short, she's a stereotype that's not stereotypical. And then at the end of Season Four it turns out that she's a math genius. So, maybe, she has her own, very weird form of intelligence. Actually, it's quite likely that's what it is, as opposed to her just being stupid.

And, also, she's the other half of Brittana [aka my favorite ship of all time]. I know I talk about this ship a lot, but, SERIOUSLY, it was so well-written. I didn't want to change or correct anything, or write fanfiction about it or anything. I was happy with the way it ended, and, ahhhh, it's worth watching the show for.

Needless to say, Brittany stole my heart from her first appearance, and she'll always be one of my favorites. 

Congrats if you made it through that monster of a post. So, basically, to sum things up, Quinn's characterization went downhill after Season One, Brittany deserved a story arc all to herself, and Santana.......Santana's arc was pretty flawless, actually. Basically, The Unholy Trinity TOTALLY should have gotten a spin-off, and I love Glee way more than is healthy. 

But enough of my ranting. I want to hear your thoughts.

Have you seen Glee? What are your thoughts on The Unholy Trinity?