User blog comment:Corbierr/Character Analysis- Joy/@comment-4741712-20140906054855/@comment-4741712-20140913185223

Okay! Here's my real comment: I agree with you on completely on Season 1!! Joy had so much potential, but it went away in later seasons. (In fact, I’m still working on HOA crossover fanfic that comes after the S1 finale, has Joy back in the house, and she was nowhere near the way the writers/other fanfic authors portrayed her to be.  She even joins Sibuna!!)  Oh my, that Jabian kiss!! While I do ship Fabina, I completely agree that it was OOC for Joy to do that. The Jabian kiss was still there in HHA, but nowhere near as dramatic. After seeing a subtitled episode of HHA (which took place on Halloween), what happened was Ninke/Nina was doing a Sibuna-related task with Amber, and the rest of the house was playing truth or dare. One got dared to kiss the other (I don’t remember which), and Joyce/Joy kissed Fabian as Ninke returned from the Sibuna thing and witnessed it. That’s where the episode cut off. Speaking of HHA, this leads me to my next point…

I hadn’t really thought about the PTSD thing, and I think that would make for a lot better storyline for her. However, with regards to that, it wouldn’t have fit from HHA, which is likely why the writers didn’t think of it. In HHA, the search for the cup and Joyce’s disappearance were two separate storylines. In fact, Ninke wasn’t even the chosen one in HHA. We don’t even see Joyce until the play, unlike HOA, with her plot in Season 1 not revealed until Season 3. What happened with regards to Joyce’s disappearance was that Joyce and her family were witnesses to some “accident” with Rufus Malpeid and some other unnamed criminal. Joyce’s father was testifying against the criminal in court, and the secret society Victor and the teachers were a part of was just to make sure no one could link Joyce or her family to the school. They truly were protecting Joyce and nothing was related to the cup at all. I’m not certain, but there was another secret society that was evil in a later season. With regards to the cup, there was no chosen one in this or any plot until season 2. Another character, Zeno Terpstla, worked at a museum and was also after the cup. When creating HOA, they combined Rufus Malpeid and Zeno Terpstla into one character (Rufus Zeno) and merged and changed their plots as a result. So, the PTSD thing probably wouldn’t have applied as much as it would in HOA, so that’s my guess as to why it didn’t surface. However, for the most part, I agree with your points on Season 2.

Anyways, back to the point, and I have a lot more to make on Season 3. To be honest, I felt that Joy’s character in the beginning of Season 3 was more genuine than the end of Season 2. She seemed like a nicer person at this point. However, the one thing I have to disagree with on is the idea that Joy probably knew Fabian would reject her and got heartbroken too easily. To see why, let’s take a walk in her shoes. She started developing a connection with Fabian in the beginning of season 1, but then she gets kidnapped by her dad and Victor, yadda yadda yadda. When she does come back in season 2, Joy didn’t really persue Fabian until after Fabina broke up. Every time Fabian rejected her or pushed her away (especially when Joy wanted to kiss Fabian in order to drop the article from the Jackal), Fabian (who also sent mixed signals from time to time) gave the reason as still having feelings for Nina. She accepted that. But now, when Fabina does break up for good (and for a reason that is a complete cop-out for the writers: The Osirian now has to protect Nina apart from her?  How the heck does that one work?  But I digress…), Joy does give Fabian time to heal, spends more time with him, and finally decides to ask him out. Now the reason Fabian gives for rejecting her is that he simply isn’t interested in Joy. It makes sense that she got heartbroken. I also don’t find it hard to believe that she would want to quit Sibuna, drawing from my own and my friends’ own personal experience. However, I do agree that Joy should have joined Sibuna again. And I even know when, too!

With the descendant thing, I found it OOC that it took Caroline Denby bringing out robes for them to wear for her PTSD to finally kick in and for her to realize what’s going on. She should have realized that when Sibuna told her that what was going on was evil. She wasn’t even gone from Sibuna that long to know they were onto something at the gatehouse, and now her top priority is just to get her grades up and expose Jerome’s cheating scandal? She should have believed that what was going on was evil right away by Patricia’s and Alfie’s words alone! Jerome maybe I could get why he wouldn’t catch on right away. But Joy? Come on! And even if it wasn’t then, her ancestor possessing her should have been enough to get her and even Jerome on board!! But I don’t think that her never joining Sibuna was a good choice for the writers!!

With Jeroy, however, I actually do agree that Joy should have stood up to Mara. I couldn’t believe how long it was taking for Joy to tell Mara that she had true feelings for Jerome. But I’d really think Jeroy should have been together. Yet, your comment on Jalfie (if that’s the term) is in fact something I’d agree with. In fact, when Alfie sees the new and improved Joy and says “hummada, hummada”, I took that as foreshadowing for a future relationship with Alfie and Joy. But as the Jeroy plot developed, I began to ship Jeroy. However, I still don’t think that the way it happened was good as it destroyed both Jerome’s and Mara’s character. But again, I digress.

In conclusion, Joy was a character with a lot of promise, but like you said, was used in all the wrong ways. However, for season 3, I would have had her leave from Sibuna be only temporary, and changed the way the whole Jeroy scene developed.

Boy, that was a long comment!!