 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, strong drug use, extremely traumatic themes, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | I'm invincible! Me! A member of the Smiling Dead! | „ |
| ~ Mel's delirious cheer after heisting the angel egg. |
Melancholy Hill, or just simply Mel, is the main protagonist of Glitch Productions' 2025 adult animated post-apocalyptic neo-noir web series The Gaslight District.
She is the only human left in the entirety of the Gaslight District, making her subject to being exposed as part of a prophecy that threatens to end the hedonistic afterlives of all who inhabit the area. Despite her desire to become a gangster like her father Ken, he strongly opposes it, fearing what would happen to her if she was found out.
She is voiced by Allanah Fitzgerald, who also voiced the Cyn/Absolute Solver in Murder Drones.
Appearance[]
Mel is a rather short, curvaceous but slim young woman. While the skin on her face and neck is a greyish teal, the skin near her scrape wound appears to be a more normal beige, implying that she's either wearing face paint or that her clothes protect her skin from the chemicals that stained her face. Mel has bright red pupils, purple eyelids and three eyelashes on each eye, as well as small freckles on her nose. She has straight orange hair that forms two bangs on the sides of her head and is tied into a ponytail at the back. For clothing, Mel wears tan bandages over her entire body sans her face, neck and hands, wearing a beige bandana and orange gloves instead. She also wears oversized brown boots.
Personality[]
Like the rest of the Smiling Dead, Mel is a sadistic and greedy gangster who commits brutal crimes with no remorse whatsoever. She's shown to gleefully shoot up other people and even joins in the gang's little ditty as they prepare to "cement" Jack, sentencing him to an eternity of drowning. Likewise, she's not above sacrificing innocent lives such as that of an unborn angel, all to get searchers for the lost human off her back. Mel appears to be quite hyperactive, often scrambling about when talking to others and gleefully cackling when announcing her evil schemes. Thus, it's no wonder that Mel highly aspires to be an actual criminal like her father and frequently asks to join him.
Despite this, Mel isn't a completely heartless person, seeing as she seems upset about "cementing" Jack and a bunch of her other friends, showing that she did somewhat treasure them. She also seems to be quite amicable with her uncle Mud and her "brother" Breadhead, forgiving the former despite his frequent betrayals and giving free beer to the latter. Furthermore, Mel genuinely cares for her adoptive father Ken as, while frequently misbehaving and incurring his ire, she does value her relationship with him, keeping to her pinkie promises as much as possible and even coming up with the angel heist as a way to help Ken's restaurant become more popular. Thus, while undoubtedly a bloodthirsty and remorseless criminal, Mel deeply cares for her family and does everything she does for them.
Biography[]
Background[]
Around 20 years prior to the PILOT, Mel was hatched from a prophesied angel egg in Heaven. The exact details of her past are unknown, but seeing as a picture of a baby her and Temperance is seen in the latter's lab, it seems that he had a role in creating and raising her. Whatever's the case, Mel would end up in the hands of Ken, a denizen of the Gaslight District, who would raise her as his own daughter. While leading a violent life himself, Ken would refuse to let Mel join in. This is because the Gaslight District possessed a prophecy that stated a human could end the hedonistic afterlives of the island's inhabitants. Thus, to prevent Mel from spilling her blood and exposing herself, Ken would send her to do menial labour in his butchery, hiding her true identity even from the rest of his family.
The Gaslight District[]
PILOT[]
The pilot begins with Mel and the Smiling Dead chasing down Jack, a rat of the gang in a car chase. As Mel lands on his car, she tries to pressure Jack into keeping her secret as a human, but he refuses, taunting Mel with the fact that Mud, Breadhead and the whole island would eventually find out her secrets. Mel insists that she'll stop that from happening, but Jack crashes his car before she can finish. When she gets up, she notices her blood spilled on the ground, thankfully only seen by a lone angel. The rest of the Smiling Dead surround Jack, with Breadhead brutally crushing his limbs. Jack tries to tell them all about Ken's lies but they don't hear him and thus, Ken orders Breadhead and Mud to "cement" him.
Later that morning, Mel and the rest of the Smiling Dead carry on with their civilian lives, Mel and Breadhead helping Ken manage the Whale Belly Butchery while Mud continues snooping around. Mud offers to hire Mel for triple of her pay, which she refuses since she's doing free labour anyways. Ken arrives, grumpily ordering everyone back to work. Mel remarks that Ken's grumpy because she's finally becoming a member of the Smiling Dead and produces a plan for the gang's next heist, which she plans to execute with them later. Ken tries once again to dissuade her, but he's ignored as she unveils the details of her plan: to steal the human egg set to hatch and destroy it. Ken, as usual, is not on board thanks to the presence of the Virtues: angelic agents who could sentence the gang to a torturous eternity in the Inferno if they were caught. The rest of the gang, however, still want to go ahead with the heist, so Ken takes Mel to the freezer room for a heart-to-heart talk.
Ken points out the nonsensical nature of the heist, seeing as the real human is Mel. Mel quickly tells him that this heist is actually a way to prevent the Rotlings of the District from ever questioning her nature as a human, pointing out how many of her friends Ken had to "cement" after they realized she was a human. Ken retorts that while Jack's discovery of her true nature was accidental (caused by him witnessing her nose bleed after reading a raunchy magazine), Mel had exposed herself on purpose to several of her friends, forcing Ken to "cement" all of them. Mel quickly convinces Ken that slaying the "human" would make his restaurant much more popular, and after confirming that her plan is as accurate as possible, Ken agrees to the plan on one condition: Mel sticks with him throughout the heist.
The gang get to work executing the heist, passing customs at Paradise Lost and disguising themselves as guards at the checkpoint to Heaven. From there, Breadhead triggers an angel swarm, Mud hijacks the communications to misdirect the guards, while Ken and Mel prepare to go up the staircase to Heaven undetected. However, Ken spots a mysterious door and decides to split up with Mel, telling her that he needs to make a "pit stop". When questioned on why he's leaving despite their earlier agreement, Ken initially rages before calming down and telling Mel to give him five minutes before they ascend the stairway together. Mel, however, is still mad at Ken for breaking his own agreements and ascends the staircase alone.
Mel arrives in Heaven and sees the Angel Mother, who turns out to be much stronger than reported, brutally beating her up. The Angel Mother recognizes Mel as the prophesied human, remarking that the time to fulfil her purpose draws closer each day. Mel manages to stun the Angel Mother by driving a knife into her skull and makes off with the egg, Angel Mother in hot pursuit. She trips down the stairs but is thankfully caught by Ken, who's upset over her breaking their promise. Breadhead rescues the duo from the angel storm, tossing them into Mud's truck while holding off the advancing avians. As Ken is scared for his daughter, one of the guards and a Virtue, Diligence, manages to grab onto the truck and duels with Ken, but is thrown off and shredded by the angel storm. Delirious over her plan succeeding, Mel laughs triumphantly before passing out from blood loss.
Later on, the gang gather the island's denizens to the town square, where Ken holds a ritual, praising the Black Hand which grants the Rotlings eternal undeath and proclaiming the renewal of the cycle. However, just before Mel can destroy the egg, it hatches into a baby angel, exposing the gang as frauds. As such, the episode ends on a cliff hanger, with Mel and the Smiling Dead surrounded by an angry mob. A scene afterwards shows Mel hugging the baby angel fearfully, Mud staring at the duo with suspicion, Ken looking down with sorrow and Breadhead looking scared, looking across to the mob.
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Mel's full name is a reference to the song by Gorillaz: "On Melancholy Hill".
- Interestingly, the world Melancholy is derived from the Greek words "melania chole", meaning "black bile" as it was believed an excess of black bile caused depression. Thus, this matches up quite well with Mel's black blood.
- She is the one of the only Glitch protagonists who isn't considered a hero, seeing as all of her acts are currently entirely criminal and selfish. However, there is a good chance that she'll become more benevolent and heroic as the series progresses.
- Nearly all of her drawings and notes were made by her voice actor, Allanah Fitzgerald.
- As stated by the show's creator Nick Szopko/Part-Time Seagull, Mel is 20 years old.
- Her voice actor, Allanah Fitzgerald, confirmed on their Twitter that Mel is bisexual.
- This is also seen in show, where Jack's demise by cementing was caused by Mel's nose-bleed while looking at a magazine with women inside and her holding hands with a male Rotling named Romeo.
- According to Nick, Mel likes to lie a lot.
External Links[]
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Rotlings Virtue Corp. Others | ||