Emma Duval

**Emma Duval** is the main protagonist and heroine in ***Scream***. She is portrayed by Willa Fitzgerald.

## History

Growing up without a father was the start of Emma’s lack of confidence and self-doubt; she felt broken and defective- luckily, she’s got a ‘Gilmore Girls’-esque relationship with her mom to keep her from plummeting; unlike, her former best friend, Audrey Jensen. They did everything together, ever since they were little, but as they got older Audrey only got darker and Emma found herself drawn to the popular crowd. She always wanted to fit in, but would tell Audrey otherwise, because Audrey would bash the popular daily; named Nina Patterson, whom been bullying her since the 4th grade.

However, freshman year, Emma received an invite to come sit with the popular crowd, and because Audrey was absent that day. And as it turned out, she had an amazing day with them and even found herself bonding with one of the boys, Will Belmont.

When Audrey returned to school, Emma was torn between going back to her goth-friend or joining Nina and Will at their table. Emma tried to balance them both, and asked Audrey if she could have lunch with them instead, but Audrey threw a fit before storming off.

This left Emma standing there broken, but Will quickly stepped up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and told her everything will be okay. And she believed him. In fact, she believed and trusted in him so much, that later that month she gave herself to him — completely. They made love, and it was like everything made sense in the world now. She was happy and this put a huge wedge between her and Audrey because Audrey was not happy. Audrey was miserable and misery loves company. But Emma didn’t want that anymore, she didn’t want to be sad or dwell on everything that made them the bestest of friends. So, Emma ditched Audrey completely and found her spot among the popular crowd.

However, things began to change going into the next year. Nina stopped trying to be her friend and Will began to grow distant. There was something wrong- something the group wasn’t telling her and all of that tension led to her and Will breaking up. Emma was, yet again, lost and this time she didn’t have Audrey to run to. Audrey had moved on and became best friends with comic-book nerd Noah Foster. Emma would have turned to her mother, but her mother had been busy with work, and Emma was left by herself with nothing but pain and guilt.

She wound up falling into a deep depression and didn’t come out of it until she met newcomer Kieran Wilcox. He was mysterious, hot, and interested. But she was still hung up on Will, so she decided to stay away from him and any bad decisions that could be made. That was until she found out Will was sleeping with Nina while they were on a break. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Emma gave into her interest in Kieran rather than letting the thought of Will and Nina hurt her any longer.

Will later tried to make amends for what he did, but because of her abandonment issues with her dad, Emma chose not to forgive him. The last thing she wanted was to end up like her mother, in the way, of letting someone into your life who is just going to leave and screw everything up the way her father did. Emma continued things with Kieran, even sharing a kiss inside the greenhouse at Brooke Maddox’s party. But this only made her feel horrible because she truly did love Will. So, she decided to step back and hear Will out. She had a lot of good memories with Will and didn’t want to give those up, just yet. So, she took him back and rejoined his group of friends.

Everything seemed to go right back on track, especially since Nina and Tyler O'Neill were out of the picture due to some attack. It honestly, didn’t surprise Emma because they both had it coming. Those thoughts only solidified when Brooke blurted out that Will’s relationship with Emma was merely a bet.

According to Brooke, Nina bet Will he couldn’t have sex with her within a months’ time and that was why they called her over to their table that day. Now, Emma has a choice to make -- continue hanging out with the popular crowd or return to the life she had given up.

In the first season of ***Scream***, Emma starts off as a popular, fun-loving and affable teenager who is very aware of the town Lakewood's murderous past. However, the Brandon James Copycat Killer begins to stalk and murder Emma's friends one by one as Emma slowly become brave and resourceful in facing off the Lakewood Slasher in the finale.

In the second season, she finds herself as a target of another killer bent on avenging his predecessor by murdering more people, but Emma eventually stops and sends him to prison, where Kieran is murdered by  yet another killer. In the Halloween special, she was stalked a new killer, who had a romantic interest in Emma and wanted him for his own. He is instead killed by Emma after rejecting him.

## Personality

As the main character of Scream, Emma appears calm, reserved, regal and - unlike her sister - graceful and poised. Beneath this cool and collected appearance, however, Emma is quite turbulent; in truth, she was, for a majority of her young life, troubled by her abilities, a feeling which stems from a traumatic incident as a child. When she was younger, she had cared strongly for Will and, despite being the more mature and cautious of the two, Emma was still quite playful and used her intelligence to have fun and goof off.

However, after her father's death, Emma lived in fear and trauma for a great amount of her life as she became too terrified to let her powers overdevelop. She consequently chose isolation from everyone she cared for, including Wil, out of the presumption that her isolation would protect them from her power. This would eventually result in years of loneliness, misery, bitterness and grief. Regret would gradually take its toll on her as well when tragedies struck throughout her life from the accident with her father to the death of him, leaving her and her mother both to mourn and grieve alone.

Emma's damaging experience through the crucial stages from childhood to adulthood caused her personality to shift. She became reclusive, lonely, insecure, emotionally unstable, and genuinely depressed. For Emma, her powers and nature grew more restrained as the years passed, slowly molding her into the friendly person others saw her to be. When given the chance to rest and relent, however, as seen on the night of her life, Emma's true persona, one that is warm, kind, fun loving, and innocently mischievous, came about - but only briefly, and with restriction.

Emma also has an altruistic disposition that contributes to the compassion towards her people. Throughout the entirety of the show, Emma's actions are driven by the desire to protect her kingdom, and more importantly, her mother.

Though a benevolent and giving person, Emma suffers from emotional instability due to Will's death of keeping her. When her strong emotions are triggered, Emma often loses control over her emotions which can create dangerous situations for herself and others around her.

An example of this is when Will informed her that he had bet with Nina Patterson at lunch during Freshman Year, this plunged Emma into an "eternal anger", she began panicking as she realized she had brought harm upon her kingdom, which made her lose control of both her emotions and powers for the people she loved, resulting in trauma.

## Trivia

* Out of the four killers on the show, Emma has killed two of them: Tom Martin and Piper Shaw (her half-sister)
	+ She spared Kieran Wilcox because she wanted him to rot in prison, though he was murdered by The Third Killer eight months later.
* All four of her current love interests, Tom Martin, Kieran Wilcox, Eli Hudson and Will Belmont
	+ She contributed directly or indirectly to all of the deaths except for Kieran.
	+ Two of these were murders, who unsuccessfully tried to kill her.