[ SECRET POST #3365 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3365 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 070 secrets from Secret Submission Post #481.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Inspired by #15

[(Anonymous)]

None of them. Not because I think redemption isn't possible for some, but because the number of properties I've seen go about it in a reasonable fashion is miniscule. Most of the time, the writers don't really put the work in. They have the villain have a change of heart, they have the heroes be suspicious for a little while, and then they have the villain make some grand, heroic gesture, and suddenly they're redeemed.

Once the heroes have accepted the villains as one of the good guys, the writers start treating any character who doesn't just jump on board with it as though they're in the wrong. They're either big meanies who just have to open their hearts and realize the guy who was eviscerating people for funsies last month has changed! honest!, or they're framed as vigilante extremists. Suspicion against the villain is framed as hurtful and unfair, rather than, you know, a perfectly reasonable reaction to someone who's hurt and/or killed a whole hell of a lot of people.

There's almost never any real work put in beyond convincing the hero and their inner circle, and acknowledgment of the fact that forgiveness is not compulsory is even rarer. If the fact that the villain can't erase what they've done, or make up for years of malicious acts with a few months of good deeds is even touched on, it's treated as an angst point for which the poor woobie needs cuddles, and not something that yes, is factually true, but is not actually an excuse to go back to villainy. They've earned that loathing and mistrust, and they might never completely win their way free of it.

Give me more villains who, five years after their heel-face turn, are still on some sort of parole, are still meeting resistance and suspicion and dislike from the victims and witnesses to their crimes, where the narrative doesn't treat it like those people are being unfair, and maybe I'll stop cringing every time I hear the words "redemption arc".