#(also. tangent. don't wanna say that the fandom weirdness is because kallus is white but hello. it's because kallus is white.)

[jaguarys]

One thing that really grinds my gears when it comes to the discussion of Rebels is the consistent misrepresentation of Kallus' redemption for ship purposes.

Kallus' redemption arc is not about Zeb. Yes, Zeb kickstarts it, but he did not make Kallus a rebel. And I find it so irritating when people reduce his arc down to "haha he fell so in love he switched sides" like please.

For Kallus' redemption to work, for it to be worth anything, Zeb cannot effectively be a part of it. The entire point of Zeb telling Kallus to search for the answers to questions he hasn't asked is because Kallus needs to see it for himself. He needs to realize for himself. He needs to realize everything he's been a part of.

And that's why I dislike it when people woobify him and turn him into this character who's constantly asking for forgiveness from Zeb. Because even aside from the fact that it's just weird to put Zeb in the position where he needs to constantly forgive the guy who was complicit in his planet's destruction, that's just not what the arc is about.

Kallus looks for the answers. And in the end he's more aware than anyone what he's done, what he's been a part of, and that it needs to be fixed. He's not a soft character and his redemption doesn't change that, it just means that he's changed his actions to be consistent with his morals. Zeb is not guiding him or teaching him or even present for most of it, and that's important.