[ SECRET POST #5912 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5912 ⌋

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


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.



__________________________________________________



07.



__________________________________________________



08.



__________________________________________________



09.



__________________________________________________



10.



















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 32 secrets from Secret Submission Post #846.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

07. https://i.imgur.com/Cn4fqU0.png

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. There are character endings for redeemed villains inbetween 'happily ever after' and 'redemptive death' but writers don't seem to realise they can do that.

[(Anonymous)]

For Zuko, the show ended on a positive note, sure, but the sequel comics go into a lot of detail about how complicated reparations and unification end up being for him as Fire Lord, so...not the best example maybe?

[(Anonymous)]

+1. And even if you don't count the comics as canon, it's very clear from Korra that a lot of work was done post-war to rebuild all the nations, and Zuko would have been in charge for most of that. Look at how the Southern Water Tribe is doing by the time Korra is born, and that was probably the worst-hit place.

[(Anonymous)]

I was gonna say, did we even consume the same canon here? Because Zuko absolutely did not get off easily, he had a whole lot of work to do to try to fix what he'd done.

[(Anonymous)]

+100

And I didn't even read the comics. People didn't /just/ forgive him or trust him off the bat in the show either. He had to prove to them he was really trying and doing better/different, and admit that he did wrong. The group didn't welcome him with open arms and it's quite clear he also felt a lot of remorse for his wrongdoings. Him facing his uncle was a big deal for him even.

And if you felt it went by too quickly, well, it's a kid's show with X amount of episodes. I think the point was learning how to ask for forgiveness and being able to forgive others. Anyway, I agree with the moments in Korra, it's clear unification took work. Now I want to check out the comics!

[(Anonymous)]

NA
This thread is very helpful for me because the secret and first comment made me think I was going crazy. I didn’t read the comics and only watched part of LOK when it first came out and don’t remember it so was really doubting myself for thinking Zuko was the worst possible example.

[(Anonymous)]

The goals when it comes to fixing the bad that people do should be to 1) fix whatever damage they've done to as much an extent as possible and 2) prevent them from doing more. Neither of these things requires punishment. Any shortcomings involved in redemption should never be about the villain not suffering enough.

If the villain has to do public service and hates it, that's fair. Has to pay back the families they've taken from? Fair. Needs to be killed because it's absolutely the only way to stop them? Fair. Gets tortured because they deserve to be punished for the sake of punishment? Wrong, and with the current generation's mindset (that it's good and moral if the person is evil enough), should not be further supported even in fiction.

[(Anonymous)]

THIS. Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

All of this. A villain having to fix whatever damage they've done IS them facing consequences. They're not getting off scott-free, they fucked up and they have to put in the work to unfuck whatever they did.

[(Anonymous)]

+1000

[meadowphoenix]

I agree about the comics stuff but I will ALSO say, that to the extent I have a problem with the antagonist being given power, which I agree feels like they have been rewarded, I think this is about whether you trust the media. Do you trust Zuko's change? Do you trust that Zuko will use his power for "good"? In this case, yes, because Zuko starts out with a moral center. He was banished for having a moral center against the institutional rules. His villainy, such as it was, was always balanced with a very large degree of wanting to do things the "fair" way. It's not hard for the heroes or us to believe that Zuko should be trusted with power, because Aang, for instance, knows he could have killed him at several points and didn't. Also it's a show that invokes spirit knowledge aka you can't be bad if you can do this one thing, because the spirits wouldn't let you, and literally has a trio of episodes to reconcile Zuko with the Gaang, except Toph lmao.

There is media where I do not trust its idea of ethics and so yeah, the redemption of the antagonist being that they get to be in charge, largely because the heroes now trust them and nothing else.....aggravating.

[(Anonymous)]

"They deserve to be punished more and anything else is rewarding them" is a Catholic as fuck take and I'm sick of how much stealth Christianity has leaked into fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

YEP

[(Anonymous)]

That’s an evangelical take, unless you’re store-brand Catholic like Mike Pence. If you’re RC or EO, you confess, do your penance, and you’re free to be until you fuck up again.

Now, the Catholic take that needs to get the fuck out of fandom is that thought crimes are real and every natural impulse is a sin that needs to be forgiven.

[(Anonymous)]

Preach it.

[(Anonymous)]

+infinity