#a lot of people mistake a redemption arc as something biblical like washing away sins
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God I adore opposite character development.
I adore a good person gradually becoming corrupted, not becoming evil necessarily, but their choices stepping further and further away from anything good, their sense of morality bending until it's so distorted that they don't know who they are anymore, grasping tightly to that one thing that justifies it all to themselves and gives their continued existence purpose, until maybe they lose even that and are just left a shell, aimless.
I adore a bad person being tempted out of the darkness that they'd grown accustomed to and comfortable with. Some situation arises, forcing them to confront the fact that they are in fact a complex multi-faceted human and not an inhuman evil force, that despite everything they've done, they still have capacity to feel, to love, they have the ability to choose to do the right thing, and here they find themselves doing just that, whether motivated by circumstance, self serving, or for someone that they care about. And the more they find themselves doing good things, the more they question the foundations of their existence, of everything they've done, and is it too late for them to be good?
And I mean, what is more devastating: being a good person, but that pillar of identity fading to exist the more bad things that are done? Or being convinced that there is no point to goodness and even relishing living in that way, only to realise that despite it all, capacity for goodness existed this whole time, but it that every bad thing you did will always exist no matter how much good you do afterwards.
#watching Lost rn#and the character development goes crazyyyyy#got really good sweet people disintegrating into shells of who they once were#vessels of violence to serve their own agenda#they know what they're doing is wrong#and yet they do it all the same because they feel they must#and i do love bad guys turning good#because there is a horror to it#realising all that they've done cannot be undone#and thus the choice for good is so much more poignant with this realisation#because what is to be gained from this realisation?#it gives no motivation to walk further into the path of the light because of all the stains left behind#doing good after making the choice to do bad for however long only makes the past actions that much worse and severe#a lot of people mistake a redemption arc as something biblical like washing away sins#but a redemption arc done well actually takes into consideration the accountability that is then suffered forever after the fact#even if they are forgiven#they will forever know all the bad things they did#and they will forever know how they felt when they themselves did them#I'm a big fan of characters once bad choosing to be good and even their last action being a Good thing#again I think people largely misinterpret this on both sides#People hate it because they feel they are being manipulated into liking and forgiving the character#Some people love it because they do end up liking forgiving and even defending the character due to how they died#and both these people are wrong#doing a good thing doesn't equate to that person being good through and through and all of their sins absolved#but it does illustrate some level of change#(again change doesn't = absolution)#and that in their last moments their last choice was for Good#It illustrates that good and love is always an option#that change for the good is always an option#even a character that has done terrible things can choose to change for the better. can choose a positive impact rather than a negative sel
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