fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5796 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5796 ⌋

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

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07. [SPOILERS for Genshin]

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08. [SPOILERS for Rings of Power]

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09. [SPOILERS for Clown Corps]

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10. [SPOILERS for The Handmaid’s Tale]

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11. [WARNING for discussion of self-harm]
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(linked for nudity)

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #829.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Favorite and least favorite redemption arcs?

Favorites: Dimmesdale from the Scarlet Letter, Darth Vader (I don't think it was done well, but I like it), Zuko of course (Azula when that happens lmao), Theon Greyjoy in GOT, Artemis Fowl, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Faith. Starting to realized that I like when female villains stay villains when they exist.

Least: wtf SPN does with its angelic/divine/Men of Letters villains excepting Castiel, Kylo Ren, whatever the MCU is trying to do with most of them

Favorites: Zuko, and Michael from The Good Place.

Favorite: Vader, Zuko, Spike on Buffy (even though he was awesome evil too), Anya on Buffy, Damar on DS9, G'Kar and then Londo on Babylon 5, Missy on Doctor Who, Michael in the Good Place,
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins in the LOTR book version, Boromir in both LOTR versions, Gru in Despicable Me.

Least Favorite: Maleficent because I hated that they had to demonize other heroic characters in order to turn her into not a villain (just redeem her, don't villainize other characters to do it), Rumple on Once Upon a Time because he swayed back and forth and never actually stuck with the redemption, Loki because they later just pretended his earlier villainy wasn't really his fault and it ruined things for me.

Yay to Lobelia and Boromir! They both made their own redemption with no help from others, and especially not from Powers. They were just ordinary people doing the right thing - eventually.

Favourite: Spike from Buffy - you could really see him clawing his way upwards, mess and bleeding fingers and all.

Least Favourite: Ben Kenobi - if they'd run it in the second movie, maybe, or earlier in the third. As it was, it just felt like he was under two different sets of mind control, Palpatine or his mother.

I would have liked to see him have to actually live with the consequences of changing sides.

I know you meant Ben Solo but this answer is sending me lmao WHAT STAR WARS DID WE WATCH???

Godammit. First-thing-in-the-morning brain fart. (Yes, I meant Kylo Ren Whatsit.)

I'M GLAD YOU FOUND MY COMMENT ENTERTAINING, NONNY.

It's the obvious answer, but Zuko's redemption arc is really the only one I can think of that I found completely satisfying.

I liked Spike's redemption arc overall.

Gaius Baltar from BSG had an interesting arc. IDK if I'd call it a redemption arc per se, but he definitely grew as a person over the course of the series, in a way that I found unexpectedly satisfying.

In the category of Redemption Arcs That Were Hot Trash But I Ate It Up Anyway: Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries.

Chiming in on the Gaius Baltar arc, because I still hold him up as an example of fantastic character work. Did he become a good person? Absolutely not. But was he a great character with a compelling arc start to finish? Absolutely.

Favorites: Scrooge, the Grinch (the original animated one, NOT the Jim Carrey piece of crap!) Zuko
Least favorites: Too many of the My Little Pony villains had redemption arcs. That's one of those things that's cheapened if overdone.

Most of the time I deduct points if the redemption arc ends in death, gotta say. I want to see them continuing to live and becoming a better person over time, that's more interesting to me than a heroic self-sacrifice.

That said, some of my favorite death ones are Severus Snape, Mary Morstan from BBC Sherlock, Gollum, and Jaime Lannister. I'd put Darth Vader in there except I think that was actually emotionally more about Luke's journey than his. Loki's redemption arc was pretty cool but his death was so stupid and pointless that kind of soured me on the whole thing.

I like it best when they don't lose their rough edges completely. Villain/henchmen -> antihero is the sweet spot.

I've never seen a redemption I thought was bad. Seriously. I've seen redemptions I don't think could happen realistically, but they all happen in fantasies where nothing is realistic to begin with. A bad guy deciding they were wrong and are going to be good now is always a nice bonus fantasy.

DA

I've seen some I thought were unconvincing or silly, but it's not like a redemption arc needs to be especially good to deserve to exist. It's a type of story that I either like or am neutral on generally so there's no major justification for it required.

Zuko, of course. And to a lesser extent, Iroh, who starts the series kind of in the middle of his redemption arc. And Nebula, from Guardians of the Galaxy.

On the less good side, Callisto's redemption in Xena felt pretty tacked on.

Favorites: Zuko and Iroh from AtLA, Nebula from MCU, and Valkyrie. Hunter from The Owl House, and Amity from the same had a pretty good arc that can be considered a redemption. Sasha, Grimes, and Andrias from Amphibia were pretty good. Gideon’s from Gravity Falls wasn’t “good” per se, but I did like it, and I liked Pacifica’s arc from the same show for similar reasons as Amity’s, even though Amity‘s was done better because of truly stuck. Chiming in with everyone else to say Spike from Buffy. I like Emerald’s from RWBY because it feels like Zuko’s, even though I admit it wasn’t done that well.

Least favorites: Loki from MCU, and I don’t love most other MCU redemptions besides Nebula or Valkyrie either, Loki is just the one I think is done the worst. Probably more from other works, but I can’t think of them rn.

SA

Thought of more! I’ll leave it at these though because it would be silly of me to keep adding these every time I think of more.

Favorites: Peridot from Steven Universe, and I also like Spinel’s and Jasper‘s to a lesser degree. Majima from Yakuza, in a way. Silver from Pokémon G/S/C. Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho. Kagura from Inuyasha doesn’t really count as having a redemption arc, but I still liked her development for similar reasons I like redemption arcs. Aizen from Bleach is the same way in not really being redeemed, but having an arc that was still interesting to me for the same reasons. Anime has a lot of good and bad redemption arcs, so I feel frustrated that I can’t really think of anyone else right now. My brain is constantly being forgetful so that’s just the way it is.

Least favorites: The Diamonds from Steven Universe. Sasuke from Naruto. Koga from Inuyasha because he became an annoying part of an already tiring love triangle to me after he wasn’t an antagonist anymore(And I both kind of like and kind of don’t like Sesshomaru’s).

I hate when a "redemption" is just one big showy act and then death. The interesting bit is watching a person decide to do better, then struggle to change, then reaching out for amends. It's not about saving the day, it's about that growth and there's something so worrying about so many narratives reinforcing this stance that redemption is all but impossible in life.

Favorite: Ken IchiJouji. They eventually walk back how much was or wasn't his fault but he had to have that long dark naptime of the soul and I loved that as a kid.

Least Favorite: Nathan in the RepoMan. Partly the death = redemption thing and partly because we only just learned the most evil thing he did to Shilo moments before he dies but none if it lands for me.

[ SECRET POST #5796 ]

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