#idk what im getting at. but its important to make your antagonists compelling and aprils erratic personality shift

[twyrinehaze]

Referring back to your post, I think April’s reason for killing Gabbie is perfectly sound. Your points are logical and reasonable, but I understand April’s point of view in murdering Gabbie. For some people, family is everything. Even if we hate a family member or don’t care for them, there’s an “us vs. them” mindset at the end when they decide to justify their actions. The fact that Gabbie got Brett in jail, and then Claudia ended up being closer to Gabbie and distanced herself from April, those are the two main points why she decided to drug (and kill) Gabbie. Personally, those reasons are sound. I mean, of course they’re not valid reasons to murder someone, but April is just a psychopath and her reasonings make her think that her actions are valid.

when you choose to keep april talking she herself admits that she doesnt actually like brett and harbours a longstanding grudge towards him for taking the attention away from her in the family. personally i understand the "us vs them" mentality despite having family members with very deep flaws that i can resent sometimes, but if april really is just a deeply spiteful and cold person it doesnt track that she would stand up for brett in this way, who she sees as taking everything from her.

and if she really is so deeply spiteful in this way, i can think of a whole bunch of people her anger logically could encompass. the football team and tyler, who screwed her over and put her in the hospital? that never came to anything. brett himself, surely, would be a massive target for april? or, if we're still sticking w the idea that shes doing this for brett, even stevie would be a huge problem for her?

its not that i hate the entire idea of april as an antagonist, its that the prior pieces we get just dont add up to the complete full picture, which again, is kind of the most important part of making your murder mystery compelling. you cant just make your character "crazy" to justify all of their actions that dont fit.