So I had this crazy idea. I've decided to just throw it out there. Try not to laugh, but what if marshall has always been the battered one in his abusive romantic relationships?
I sort-of agree with
@Illuminati Order Official on this one, with a caveat: she
needs everyone else to believe it.
Dodging powerlevel a bit here but, it's come up a number of times that Mel is likely suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, with a smaller albeit nonzero chance of Borderline Personality Disorder. It's essentially impossible to say for absolute certain at a distance, but if we assume what she says and does at face value, there are a lot of red flags for either of these things, though more the former than latter.
There is plenty of demonstrated framework for NPD in particular. It seems (more from kiwis digging than anything Mel has stated herself) that her relationship with at least one of her parents was likely similar to how she treats her own kids. NPD can in some cases be "hereditary" insofar as the pattern of behavior is learned, internalized as normal, and perpetuated.
Smelly demands full control of the narrative at any given moment. She will gaslight, cajole, threaten, and browbeat endlessly until the listening party relents to that narrative, or removes themselves from her sphere of influence entirely. We can generally assume from Marshall's demonstrated behavior that anyone cowing to the narrative is now "favored", treated with at least the appearance of affection and respect. I say "appearance" because Mel has demonstrated more than once how easily she will discard him for a perceived slight, which isn't something normal people in healthy relationships do. In fact, I'd wager every time she "left" him was a situation where she iced him out for a slight, and pre-supposed the new narrative to be sans-Marshall, in case she decided to ditch him wholesale. However, it was very likely a tactic to rein him back into place, and emotional or psychological abuse is definitely a staple tool of narcissists. Men are (at least imo) more susceptible to it because they are, at least in American culture, praise-starved by design. Women have attention heaped on them from the time they can talk, obsessive praise or scorn offered about every aspect of their lives, personality, appearance, and so on; whereas men tend to be measured solely by their ability to provide a service or skill of apparent value. It's rare they are genuinely praised for anything, so any scrap of it will bait in a man who hasn't established a firm core identity for themselves, creating a feedback loop of dependence. Most men don't suffer from this, but quite a few do, and the ones that do are prime targets for narcissists, since their ego's health relies entirely on the approval of their abuser. If we suppose Smelly is NPD, it would go a long way to explaining her trail of exes, men who weren't dependent on that abuse cycle for validation, and rightly told her to fuck off, before she landed on someone so fragile and desperate for validation that they would take anything, even her cruelty, over nothing.
It's easier to measure this off of Marshall than the kids, because kids are already hard-wired to trust and follow parents, even if every core instinct is screaming at them that something is wrong. Frankly this is what sickens me even more than any possible abuse the manlet suffers, because those kids literally have no choice. They will either end up perpetuating the cycle, or breaking off hard from it, but carrying a ton of baggage to unpack for most of their adult lives. There's a colloquial term for the latter - "fleas", or quirks and behaviors demonstrated by NPD sufferers who are not themselves NPD, but have so deeply internalized the practice as normal that they practice it out of instinct.
Not that I'd ever admit this in a real-life or professional setting of course, but quite frankly, the best thing that could ever happen to manlet and the childpack is her disappearance in Minecraft. She is likely beyond help, excepting that her NPD might be "manageable" assuming she cared enough to do so, but history clearly shows this isn't a priority for Smelly.
If we assume for a minute that thug gives Marshall a proper beating, there is a chance he might come away from it with a newfound core identity. Losing the fear of pain or failure from experiencing it will change a lot of people, emboldening them to live their lives more fully and directly. In specific, an ass-beating can't really be seen as "traumatic" in the same way one might be traumatized from (as examples) active combat experience, extreme violence, or other similar triggers. It might traumatize him on some level, but with more of a galvanizing effect than a destructive one.
Then again, he might just re-affirm his manlet status. Seeing as he's a child-killer, I'm personally ambivalent at best about his journey of self-improvement, because he's still a sack of shit.
