Harsher in Hindsight in this series.
Beatrice Traville's first appearance
- Stella's mother, Beatrice Traville's first appearance in "Visited" makes her first mention in "Bonding" harder to read. During Johnathan and Stella's argument, he says she's as spoiled as her mother, to which Stella gets defensive and fires back that she should have listened to her and not married a common lawyer. When Beatrice is introduced, it's understood that Johnathan's hatred for his ex-mother-in-law is more than justified, and if anything, he was being nice in just calling her spoiled since Beatrice mistreated him from the moment he met her. And with the reveal that Stella was raised from birth always to obey Beatrice, even when she disagreed with her actions, she comes across as less of a vain, selfish woman defending her equally terrible mother and more of a troubled, even abused, woman who was conditioned to side with her horrible mother even when she knows Beatrice is wrong.
- Stella and Johnathan's failed marriage also takes a darker light with Beatrice's first appearance. In "Lost" after Johnathan threatens to take away her visitation rights to Star, Stella reflects that she was raised to believe her opinion mattered more than what "the commoners" believed. It also appears that her spoiled nature was why their marriage fell apart. "Dressed" revealed that Stella is more aware of her flaws than she lets on and wishes she was not so spoiled, and may secretly regret leaving Johnathan and her life choices in general. Finally, "Visited" shows that Beatrice not only spoiled but groomed her daughter to never question her. This means that when Stella fell in love with Johnathan, she was moving away from her mother's toxic influence, but Beatrice's parenting still left a mark and eventually caused Stella to leave Johnathan for someone more suitable for her mother's standards. Thus, Stella may have had deeper reasons for leaving Johnathan than previously assumed, which she now truly regrets and is miserable in her remarriage to Jean-Luc, even if she's not ready to admit it.
Stella and Johnathan's relationship
Recent fics make "Unprepared" harder to read in hindsight due to recent developments and revelations.
- In this story, Star had a hard time accepting the fact that her father has a new girlfriend, Solene Brown, partially due to jealousy/fear of her father being taken away from her, but it's mostly because of the trauma that she experienced due to her experiences with Jean-Luc and Colette, along with the implied reason that she secretly still had hope of her parents reconciling someday, even though she knew that it was unlikely.
- Stella, herself, was also shocked to learn that Johnathan had a new girlfriend, as well as Star's behavior towards the woman (as Star acted very hostile towards Solene due to not trusting her, despite the fact that she had genuinely tried to be nice and friendly towards her). Stella, surprisingly, acted very mature and rational during the whole situation, admitting that she wasn't jealous and even tried to help Star repair Johnathan and Solene's relationship for their sake.
- Stella acknowledges that she had wronged Johnathan and does admit that she wants him to be happy and move on, trying her best to help Star mend their relationship.
- Stella also clarified that she loves Jean-Luc and that they have moved on. After things settle down, Johnathan genuinely appreciates Stella's kindness and maturity in the situation, and despite the tense past between them, that they will one day be able to truly forgive each other. Later fics show that their relationship has become less hostile onward.
- Things become darker as later fics imply that Stella is more self-aware of her flaws and spoiled nature than she lets on and secretly wishes that she wasn't like that. It's also heavily implied that Stella deeply regrets leaving Johnathan and is secretly miserable with her life but acts like everything is okay, which has yet to be confirmed or denied.
- It's also been implied that Stella's marriage to Jean-Luc has become strained. Star's flashback to her first meeting with her step-family shows that Stella was pretty insensitive and oblivious to her child when she implied that Jean-Luc might replace her father, and she seemed completely entranced by him, which would lead to many issues in their family later on. It's also shown that when they were first married, Jean-Luc paid a lot of attention to Stella, and she was completely infatuated with him when they first got; married. However, recently, Jean-Luc and Stella's relationship is implied to become strained as Stella is becoming more aware (or finally accepting) of his flaws. And Jean-Luc is paying more attention to his work and social climbing than his wife.
- In "Costumed", Jean-Luc gets impatient with Stella fawning over Pierre's costume because it's making them late to a country club party. At the party, Stella gets angry over Jean-Luc ogling another woman, Helen, and confronts him. Perviously, she just acted awkwardly and seemed to be in denial when confronted with her husband's womanizing and infidelity. This indicates Stella is aware deep down that Jean-Luc is not the perfect gentleman she makes him out to be and doesn't truly love her the way she thought, but puts on a facade in front of others.
Sam's relationship with her parents
- In "Stuck", Sam and Star are forced to work together when they're both lost near Camp Eerie, and during this time, they both share their issues with their parents.
- Sam confesses that while she does not hate her parents, she resents how they're always trying to change her and dislikes how they act as super preppy, colorful, happiness-obsessed people who look down on goths, the working class, and people who aren't what THEY consider "normal", and she also resents how they wish for her to conform to their ideals.
- Star confesses her issues with her own mother, Stella. She reveals that for a long time, she resented her mother for running off with Jean-Luc and had abandoned her. She also reveals that she barely gets to see her father due to his work schedule and that she has felt miserable because of this. Star admits that while she knows that her mother has apologized and is trying to make things up to her, it will be a long time before she can truly forgive her.
- Later in the series, it shows that despite all her flaws and naivety, Stella is genuinely trying to be a better mother and person for her child. While Star has not completely forgiven her, their relationship is getting better, and Star and she are slowly rebuilding their former bond. In contrast, Sam's relationship with her parents remains strained, as Jeremy and Pamela don't change for the better and even become worse. This is highlighted in "Bonding", where the Manson parents are portrayed as being desperate status seekers who kept trying to get into the exclusive "Golden Guild", going as far as using their daughter and kissing up to the club president, Eleanor Wellington, to get in. However, their cowardly sides show when they deny Sam having been seen by Eleanor when they think she caused trouble, and they also hid during the ghost attack (although, to their credit, there wasn't much they could do in a ghost attack). It's no surprise that Eleanor lost her patience with them and kicked them out of the club, only extending a membership offer to Sam in the end.
- Like in the series, Sam's grandmother seems to be the only person in her family with whom she has a positive relationship because she both understands and accepts Sam for who she is. It's also revealed that Ida doesn't hold much respect for Sam's parents because, while she does love her son very much, she's disappointed that her son only wants to join the club because he sees it as a status symbol to boost his ego, and she is also disappointed that he still lives with her and has not done much with his life aside from living off the family fortune. She also considers Sam's mom an airhead redhead whose "only good thing she ever did" was giving her a granddaughter.
Star's relationship with Christopher
- In "Stranded", while Star is arguing with Danny about his friends, he points out that for all Sam and Tucker's faults, they are good people who he knows he can trust and asks if Star can say the same for her friends. Star finds herself shocked that she can't answer; as in, she can't say that she trusts her friends or think of any positive traits about them. Once she is alone, Star cries in realization, and it is implied that this is where she begins to re-evaluate her life and relationships. It becomes harsher once it is revealed that Star has a cousin named Christopher, whom she was very close to as a child, but has recently been on bad terms with. In "Staged", Star shamefully reveals to Danny that she took her relationship with her cousin for granted and began to distance herself from him when she befriended the A-listers. Things got worse after the A-Listers did a cruel prank, and Star chose not to stand up for Christopher and even tried to justify the prank, which ended their friendship. Star admits that she brainwashed herself to believe that Christopher was the one in the wrong and that Dash and the other A-Listers were blameless, something she now deeply regrets and has been carrying the guilt of for a long time. Star even recalls her and Danny's conversation on the island, so she must have remembered Christopher when Danny questioned her.
Colette's relationship with Stella.
Colette's relationship with her stepmother, Stella, takes a darker light in later stories.
- In their first appearance in "Lost", the two of them appear to have a close mother-daughter relationship, to the point where Colette openly calls Stella her "Mama", much to Star's (Stella's biological daughter) annoyance. Despite seemingly being close to each other, their relationship is seen as negative because Stella favors Colette over Star, and Colette is an unpleasant person that bullied her stepsister behind Stella's back. However, things change once Stella realizes that she is being unfair and a terrible mother to Star and makes an effort to change. This includes Stella no longer favoring Colette and being more willing to discipline her when she gets into trouble and when Colette tries to mess with Star. However, it was hinted in future stories that, despite how close they seem to be, Colette does not really care about Stella.
- However, in "Stuck", Colette, when trying to get Star into trouble, thinks to herself how easy it is to fool Stella, hinting that she does not respect her stepmother much.
- In "Dressed", when Colette sees Stella miserable after an argument with Star, she sees this as a chance to manipulate her. This shows that Colette has no concern for her stepmother's feelings, as she is angrier that her manipulation of Stella did not work, and Stella is more concerned about Star during the pageant.
- To be clear, Colette wasn't jealous because she was afraid that Stella might've liked Star more; she was being petty that Star was getting more attention and materialist goods than her.
- It becomes darker when Spectra reveals to Team Phantom that Stella is possibly more aware of her flaws, and she appears to regret her life choices and is in denial about her husband and stepdaughter's true natures.
- Spectra states that while Stella wishes Colette loved her like a mother, she may be secretly afraid that she is halfway becoming a sociopath who sees her as a means to an end, which Colette had proven Spectra's point before by showing no concern for Stella's emotional well-being and was just frustrated that she failed to manipulate her.
- In "Snowed", Colette acknowledges Jean-Luc is spending Christmas having "fun" at a "gentleman's club" that he doesn't want his wife to know about, indicating she knows her father is cheating on her stepmother, but doesn't see it as a problem.
- Finally, in "Traveled", Colette refers to Stella in her mind as her father's "stupid wife" who turned him against her, despite Stella being her stepmother for years, and they had clearly appeared to have been close to her at the start of the series. This is a clear sign that any affection that Colette may have/had for Stella was shallow at best or a ploy to manipulate her into letting her do whatever she wanted.
- This comes to a head in the story "Blackmailed", where it is revealed that Colette is secretly still in contact with all her former stepmothers along with her biological mother, Suzette. Aside from her mother, Colette has no true attachment to any of her stepmothers, even though they genuinely cared for her and honestly did try to bond with her.
- Colette also secretly rejected some of her stepmother's attempts to set positive examples for her or try and teach her to be a better person while secretly pretending to be a sweet and well-behaved child around them in order to manipulate them.
- It is also revealed that Stella believes that Colette's biological mother abandoned her and didn't properly take care of her, while her former stepmothers were all gold diggers who did not honestly care about her, with Stella telling her she wants to guide her, even though she not her mother by birth, she still loves her very much. Colette then thinks to herself that Stella is a fool like all her other stepmothers while lying by saying that she loves Stella too, showing that not only did she NEVER love Stella, but she never loved any of her stepmothers who had cared for her.
- Ironically, Colette becomes slightly more sympathetic because it's heavily implied that her mother leaving her and prioritizing her charity projects over her, along with her father's negative influence and constant remarriages, has negatively influenced her and the reason she never became attached to any of her stepmothers is because she knows that they will not last with her father remarrying soon after he lost interest in them.
Stella's support of Star's relationship with the A-Listers
- During Stella's debut in Lost, she supported Star's past friendship with the A-Listers and treated them kindly when she visited her daughter. However, she was unaware that Dash, Paulina, and the rest of the A-listers were were toxic influences on her daughter, and at best, were just false friends who didn't truly care about her. Stella apparently didn't notice this and allowed her daughter to continue being friends with them because they were rich and popular.
- Stella also had been fond of Kwan and Paulina when Star was still part of their social circle.
- She approved of Kwan dating her daughter, believing that he was a nice, handsome young boy, and didn't seem to understand why Star broke up with him. She was apparently unaware that Kwan was an indecisive bully who was a terrible romantic partner for her daughter and was visibly disappointed to learn that they had broken up.
- Regarding Paulina, she thought she was a nice and pretty young lady and recalled how Star always spent time with her during her previous visits. When Star revealed that she had ended her friendship with Paulina, Stella was shocked and asked what had happened. Star angrily explained that she and Danny were trapped in school during a time when Paulina wanted her to go to her party, and when Paulina showed no concern for Star's safety and was angry that she did not go to her party despite knowing what happened to Star, Star ended her friendship with Paulina. Star also thinks to herself how she and Paulina were never truly close to each other and only had a fake friendship that was based on their social status and keeping up appearances. Even after explaining all of this, Stella did not understand why Star chose to end their friendship, and she was implied to be disappointed that her daughter and Paulina weren't friends anymore.
- Upon meeting Danny, Stella was visibly unimpressed with him. She was rude to him, originally thinking that he was her daughter's stalker, and even treated him as a servant when he brought their luggage to their hotel suite. To her credit, aside from those previous instances, she did try to be civil with him (in her own way) and didn't get in the way of him spending time with her daughter and stepdaughter during the visit. She tried to get to know him better by asking questions about himself and his family. She was visibly unimpressed to learn that he was both middle-class and wasn't on any sports teams at Casper High. However, while tactless, Stella was not outright rude to Danny to his face, unlike her husband.
- However, things get worse when Star and Danny leave the table. Unaware that they had returned, Stella and Jean-Luc began criticizing Danny when they thought he wasn't within earshot. Stella callously said that she didn't think that Danny was good enough for Star and said that she hoped that her daughter would choose "someone more suitable" than him, showing that she looked down on Danny for his social and economic status.
- After Danny left, Star (thinking that he left because of what Stella and Jean-Luc said about him) got angry and called her mother out on her actions and treatment of Danny. They soon got into a HUGE fight, and Star began giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Stella, along with Jean-Luc and Colette, pointing out all their flaws and the things that she hates about each of them. She didn't hesitate to tear Stella apart verbally and ended it by saying that she hated her.
- Star recalled her past and complex relationship with her mother while lost in the Ghost Zone. She also remembers how Stella's abandonment and her desire to "compete" with Colette caused Star to befriend the A-listers in the first place. While Star had been planning on cutting Stella out of her life due to her abandonment and being a lousy mother in general, Star does end up recalling more of her mother and how they were when she was a child. She remembers that there were times when Stella wasn't always a bad mother to her, but she was genuinely hurt by the divorce and Stella's neglect.
- Thankfully, their relationship ends up avoid being completely destroyed since, thanks to the Infi-Map, Star manages to see a glimpse of her mother being truly remorseful that Star ran away and admitted that it was all her own fault. At the end of the story, when Star and Danny return home, Stella genuinely apologizes to both of them for what she has done. She also vows to be a better mother and more supportive of her daughter's choices.
- To Stella's credit, the following stories show that Stella kept her promise and genuinely is trying to improve herself as a mother and a person for her daughter's sake. It's also shown that she is also trying to have a better relationship with Danny, though initially, it seems that it was both out of guilt for how she previously treated him and a way to please her daughter.
- However, after getting to know Danny better, Stella genuinely becomes fond of him and truly comes to support his relationship with her daughter, to the point where she is even okay with Danny marrying Star in the future.
- Later stories, especially during Visited, reveal that most of Stella's toxic behavior stems from having an cruel, emotionally abusive mother whom she had trouble standing up to. Thankfully, by the end of the story and thanks to Character Development, Stella finally gains the courage to stand up to her mother and cut her out of her and Star's life.
- The story Traveled shows some about Stella's past and more details about her as a character when she and Pierre visit her childhood home in New York. That story also shows Star's former friendship with the A-listers and Stella's support of that friendship in a darker light.
- Stella had a pet horse named Pearl, which was a birthday present when she was a child. She admits to Pierre (her baby) that Pearl is one of her only real friends growing up, except for Eleanor Wellington.
- Stella also recalls more of her past. She recalled that during her youth, she mainly hung out with wealthy "friends" whom her mother told her to socialize with when she was younger. It's heavily implied that Stella didn't even like these friends and only spent time with them due to her mother ordering her and Stella being too afraid of her to say no, something she has come to regret deeply.
- While not much details were given on Stella's former friends during her childhood, the fact that she regrets being friends with them implies that they were likely False Friends who didn't truly care for her and the suppose friendship was shallow and for show....meaning that, Stella unintentionally repeated her mother's actions that caused her daughter to be friend with horrible, toxic people who didn't truly care about her.
Stella's relationship with Joy Strong
Stella's relationship with her former mother-in-law, Joy Strong, also becomes more tragic in hindsight.
- Stella reveals that contrary to what would be expected, she and Joy had gotten along famously when the former was married to Johnathan, with Joy treating her like part of the family. Stella admits that deep down, despite all the denial she had about Beatrice during that time, she had viewed Joy like the mother that she had always wanted, and truly did love and looked up to Joy as such. It becomes tragic that, due to Stella and Johnathan's divorce, her relationship with Joy also soured greatly and Joy made no secret about her resentment and grudge against her former daughter-in-law.
- Stella admits that she knows Joy hates her now and understands that she brought said animosity onto herself, but she also feels greatly hurt by Joy's constant insults, criticism and degrading comments. She reaches her limit with her and when she tries to defend herself and say that she has changed and asks why she can't let it go, Joy threw it all back into her face and finally explains the true reason for her grudge against her. She reveals that she and Kirk felt personally betrayed by her when she left Johnathan for another man and deeply hurt him and Star. She also pointed out that her action had a very negative influence on Star and she also pointed out that Stella had been a terrible mother for years, and due to not being around Stella for years, neither Joy nor Kirk had witness her Character Development and thus, still believe that she is still the same tactless and shallow woman who broke their son's heart.
- It becomes even more heartbreaking when Joy reveals that neither she nor Kirk had ever even liked Stella in the first place. They only acted nice to her to please Johnathan but no longer feel inclined to. Such news nearly breaks Stella's heart. To learn that her former-in-laws and the woman who she admitted that she viewed as more of a mother to her than Beatrice never truly liked her is utterly devastating to her. The Fentons, Solene and even Johnathan thought that this was too cruel and call Joy out on what she had said.
