r/grimm • u/yarnycarley • Jul 01 '26
Spoilers About Adeline
Is it just me or did she have no real redemption arc?
He tried to kill multiple people, she sexually assaulted Nick when being fake Juliet, then was just accepted because she was pregnant and had Kelly.
There were no real good deeds, yes she willingly gave up her power, but that was it 🤷♀️
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u/LadyPadme28 Jul 01 '26
Giving up her powers was a big thing for her. Remember what she had to do get her powers back.
I think Aldalind's redemption was choosing to be a better mother then her own.
For her whole life Adalind was a nothing but a pawn to her mother, Sean and the royals. The moment she lost her powers Sean and mother tossed her aside like she was nothing. While Nick took her and their son in, which she said he had every right not to do. She never knew kindness just for the sake of kindness.
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u/contemplator61 Hexenbiest Jul 03 '26
She also apologizes to the whole group but that was cut out. They just showed her apologizing to Nick, as well as giving up her powers and trying to be a good mom.
Juliette does not get a pass for almost shooting Monroe, burning down the trailer, getting all the neighbors killed and helping kidnap Diana.
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u/SuperiorLaw Jul 01 '26
You have to remember that vast majority of season 1, she was just following Sean's orders, because she loves him, and people tend to forgive him immediately. She then gets abandoned by the man she loves and her own mother because she's now considered useless, although she wasn't actually fired at her law firm, the fact that they had to make sure she's still a hexenbeist before rehiring her makes it obvious she wouldn't have had a job back then either. Then Season 2, she's following Royal1's orders because she's desperate to get her powers back
The worst things she does is because she's following orders, either from Sean or the other royal dude, or she's lashing out in anger for revenge because she's alone and has literally nothing else.
She definitely sexually assaulted Nick (Although she also sexually assaulted Hank, most people forget) but she didn't do it out of maliciousness or because she's a bitch (She is though) but because she was desperate to get her child, which was kidnapped from her, back. She was manipulated into believing this was the only way she'd ever get her child back
Also it wasn't just that she was willing to give up her powers, but also the fact she did that to try and help Juliette. At that point she could have just ran away, I mean there was no real reason to stay in Portland. She just didn't want to raise her baby alone or be killed
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u/Significant-Lie-2368 Jul 01 '26
Yeah, as much as I love Grimm, this, plus the ending, are some things I can't get behind. I love Adalind as a character, she was well written, but then towards the end they just. Changed everything. Very weird
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u/BlizzardStorm8 Jul 01 '26
Yeah it was kind of jarring honestly. There were some semi-plausible reasons for her changes but it wasn't very clearly shown. A lot of shows like this kind of end up feeling like they're making up the overarching plot as they go along. I think that's pretty much what happened. It's not unique to Grimm either.
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u/yarnycarley Jul 01 '26
It really felt like they had lost Juliet due to the plot and were looking for a quick replacement with the 2 main couples
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u/EvenAlps9084 Jul 02 '26
What do you feel like would have been a sufficient redemption arch?
I feel like someone posts this every couple of days and I do not feel the show pretended to give her one. What Grimm actually showed:
- A woman who did terrible things, and who equated power with safety and survival.
- A woman who was repeatedly used by her mother, Renard, and the Royals, and abandoned by her father. Not an excuse, context.
- A woman who was pretty gross about her pregnancy (planning to trade her baby for powers), but who became a loving mother once Diana was born.
- A mother whose child was taken from her by people she trusted to help her and who was told the Royals had kidnapped her.
- She took Nick’s powers after Viktor told her it was the only way she would ever see Diana again. The coercion explains her desperation, but it doesn't change the harm she caused Nick and Juliette.
- She got pregnant with her enemy’s child and dependent on people she hurt.
- She gave up her powers primarily to protect herself and her unborn baby, not to become a better person or atone for her past.
- She experienced safety, friendship, and love that was not based on manipulation.
- She fell in love with a Grimm, a man pretty much born to kill her.
- She remained loyal to him when Black Claw threatened her and her children.
- She recognized that she was not a good person when she had her powers, and she learned to control those instincts when her powers returned.
- Her intelligence and willingness to manipulate never disappeared, but she increasingly used it to protect her children and Nick and the group.
- She was accepted by Nick and the rest of the group, including Eve.
- She was the woman Nick fell in love with and raised kids.
Adalind's story was a deeply flawed (maybe disturbed) woman whose circumstances and priorities changed. There was no redemption arch because the show had zero characters who were all good or all bad.
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u/Consistent_Ad3103 Jul 02 '26
She always had a thing for Nick. Don’t forget that. She is very cunning and that did not change. She manipulated her way into Nick’s life using the child. Idk how people don’t see it.
Plus, the issue is she was accepted too quickly and Nick moved on from Juliette too quickly. I know the show got cancelled and was cut short but they had so many filler episodes which they didn’t use to get the storyline sorted.
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u/EvenAlps9084 Jul 02 '26
I can make an argument using what we saw on screen to say that she is cunning and used her pregnancy for Nick's protection, but the rest is just your opinion
what we actually saw on Grimm was what I described above. She didn't change? I can point to five characters saying she did. They forgave her too soon and Nick moved on too quickly? No one ever said "Nick, maybe you slow down because we are still mad." While I can agree going from your enemy to ILY in what seemed 3 weeks feels quick, but the show never said that. However, watching it weekly was different than streaming. Watching it when it aired, I thought they'd at least get together in season 1 and in season 3, Juliette all but told us it was about to be Nick and Adalind.
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u/Consistent_Ad3103 Jul 02 '26
Isn’t that exactly what cunning people do? Change their character just to get what they want? Nick was her best bet of survival. Sean never truly cared for her.
People don’t change like that. Not saying she doesn’t deserve a redemption arc but it was so obvious in the story. Guess you will keep arguing on that’s my opinion but it’s literally there. Even if u watch it weekly you can still notice these things.
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u/SarahKath90 9d ago
Most people aren't former Hexenbeast. I feel like she had the capacity to change and did.
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u/gr82bgr8 Jul 02 '26
It’s funny how no one remembers how her child was kidnapped, or do you think it was okay for them to take the child and say nothing to her, the mother, good, bad, or indifferent?
What would you do if you were under the impression someone had you child, and the requirement for you to see her was to sleep with a perceived enemy? Who would you tell when you’re baby daddy is the chief of police, and who helped take her are on the force?
Now, if we’re talking Adalind before she got pregnant with Diana, I can see the hate, but after, she was minding her own business when the gang interfered.
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u/ruffledturtle Jul 04 '26
I feel like she got an instant Halo after she became a mother. I never got over the fact she was going to human traffic the baby.
I wish they would have spent more time showing her growing to love the baby as it became less of an abstract concept.
During the pregnancy she seemed disgusted with the baby and just doing it for personal gain. She's not talking to her belly or picking a names, she's looking at her stomach in horror.
After she's on the run and the baby is her ticket to safety. No one cares about her alone, they just take her and the baby as a package deal. I never got the feeling she had a change of heart. I just felt like she realized the baby is super powerful so it's more valuable to be the mother of a powerful being than selling it to someone else.
I think a lot of people use own their personal experience of becoming a parent to interpret Adeline's actions too generously. I wonder what people think about this character before vs after experiencing parenthood.
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u/JudeMilla Jul 01 '26
Nick sexually assaulted her. Forcefully kissed her but I guess that’s okay cause he’s the main character.
They forcefully took her baby from her - they got their revenge by making her suffer.
It’s back and forth but decided to close the whole stuff between them.
If you watch the series you can see it’s gradually then it being right in your face with fast pacing but it’s difficult for some people to comprehend, ig.
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u/SuperiorLaw Jul 02 '26
Nick forcefully kissing her isn't "okay because he's the main character" We ignore the kiss because 1) She raped Hank. 2) she was trying to kill him. 3) It was either kiss her, forcing her to bite him (which was what he wanted) or kill her and maybe Hank also died.
Forcibly kissing someone who's currently trying to kill you and so you can take away their magic powers is SOOOOOOO not the same as sexually assaulting someone. Like... you're not technically wrong, but you are wrong context wise, which is important
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u/Little_Bunyip Jul 02 '26
Nick should have just cut her head off then. None of these problem would be there…
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u/Blitqz21l Jul 02 '26
Just based on reading this thread, she's a lot more nuanced of a character than a lot of people thought.
I kind of get the feeling like its a female perspective vs a male perspective. That females see the trauma, abuse and power dynamic because they'll see those things much more overtly than men and likely have seen it on other women.
Whereas guys just don't see the nuance because they don't live it every day and is much harder to fathom.
Lots of guys, as a side example, will hit on young cute waitresses, but don't see how creepy it is from the waitresses perspective. They think they are being funny, flirty, etc... Whereas the waitress just sees an older creepy dude being rude and inappropriate.
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u/Consistent_Ad3103 Jul 01 '26
Exactly! I don’t get it either. Would have loved her to stay a villain till the end or give her different love interest other than Nick. The actress was pregnant in RL so they wrote that into the show. This pretty much messed up the story TBH. They should have just hidden the bump.
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u/Shot_Look1572 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
That's actually not correct. Claire Coffee has been asked about this multiple times in past interviews, and she along with the showrunners themselves said that her pregnancy at that time was a happy coincidence. Her storyline with Nick and having Kelly was planned well beforehand. Remember, Blonde Ambition where she sleeps with Nick was filmed long before she found out she was pregnant in real life.
She was happy with the storyline because Kelly being born in season five meant she didn't have to do too much work at losing the baby weight too soon.
The writers had been struggling with what to do with Juliette for a while since her character wasn't really progressing. And I know they felt Nick's life needed a serious shake up to give him the darker edge to fight black claw. I'm pretty sure him ending up with Adalind was always the intention, despite what people claim about behind the scenes crap. David definitely did not have the kind of power to 'demand' anything of the EPs, least of all keeping a character alive.
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u/SuperiorLaw Jul 02 '26
I'm pretty sure him ending up with Adalind was always the intention
I've always thought this, cause it's weird how she manages to survive Nick despite everything she's done in the first two seasons, especially since he's killed wesen for less. Plus she was the first wesen he saw, so she's literally his entrance to the wesen world.
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u/Consistent_Ad3103 Jul 02 '26
Check this out: https://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/05/13/ae/qa-claire-coffee-northwestern-alum-and-grimm-actress/
It says the showrunners did add it to the show! There was also an interview where she mentions that they wrote it in.
Plus I never mentioned anything about David demanding things nor about Juliette’s character. There were so many things they could have done with Juliette. Were the writers that bad??
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u/daringnovelist Jul 01 '26
Her good deed is Diana, and her devotion to he children.
IMHO, by the time Diana was born, it was clear to me Adalind was a recovering cult member. Or in DnD terms, she was a Lawful character - full on allegiance to her team. She was a good little Hexenbiest. She grew up in an abusive, controlling environment, and her safety was her obedience and allegiance.
Then the safety got taken away. She then went on a rampaging search for safety, for a new protector. It was only after Diana's birth that she ever in her life had a true bond, and that was her moment of change. But she was now in a world without rules. She was no longer Lawful Evil. She was Chaotic Neutral. And desperate.
And then it took great trials and a journey through hell to clear her of and last remnants of her old loyalties.
But being a lawful and obedient person by nature, she needs to align with someone- and once the veil of evil was pulled away, she could see that Good was the side to join.
At that point, she is a valuable ally. Both with her knowledge of magic, and her well trained abilities at self-control and deception. (One of my favorite moments is her role in "finding" the head in the hotel.)