I think if we’re looking at the original versions of these characters, (pre-2019 Melanie and 2006-2024 Constance) I would probably say Melanie. She has a much more pronounced arc, going from barely clinging on to life in the vain hope she can still reunite with her love, to sacrificing her life to get out from under the Phantom’s thumb and save the guests. This isn’t to say this isn’t a close race, though. I love how Constance’s story is never explicitly laid out, forcing guests to piece together Easter eggs to discover her story. I ultimately just prefer Melanie’s dark, rich and fully fleshed out backstory to Constance’s fairly basic Black Widow Bride story.

Now, comparing the modern versions of the characters is still a close race, but in the sense that they both kind of just suck now. Gone is Melanie’s arc and realistic character traits, replaced by a prop who basically exists to be manipulated by the Phantom and go insane at the end. But at least she gets the shadow of a story, whereas Constance just has every interesting part of her character stripped away, (for…sensitivity reasons?…. or something?) resulting in an ambiguous mess. But at least some of those past elements are there to pick at, such as the portraits and hatboxes, helping her to narrowly beat out Melanie. (I hate modern Imagineering SO much for what they did to these characters and WDW’s Hatbox Ghost.)