#and redemption arcs

[rookthebird]

"redemption arcs are toxic, you shouldn't try to fix someone!"

actually it is so important to me that being in community and experiencing human connection can save people. thanks

[cronchy-baguette]

caitlyn's garden of violets

[sangthael]

why was seawatt kind of sassy

[jellysnail-draws]

🐞

[bonksoundeffect]

Pov you've been judged and found wanting

Anyways, just felt like drawing older Zuko and Azula

+

[the-overanalyst]

unmatched ship dynamic: "i've done terrible things in the past" x "all i care about is who you are in the present"

[eagleeyethree]

Brothers gotta stick together.

[emeryleewho]

There's a huge difference between redemption and humanization. I feel like a lot of "redemption arcs" aren't actually redemption at all, they're just attempts to humanize the villain so that they seem multi-faceted, but people read them as "redemption arcs" and think that that is meant to justify all the evil they've done before and negate whatever made them a villain in the first place. I think true "redemption arcs" are actually kind of rare because true redemption would take making the villain acknowledge their crimes, reevaluate their actions, actively choose to do better, and then proceed to make amends and become a better person, and that would this take more time than most stories are allowed to give their characters.

I've also seen people argue that a character has to be poised for redemption from the jump for it to work because once a character does something "too bad", they can't be redeemed. I completely disagree because redemption isn't justification or forgiveness, so no matter how horrible a character's actions, they could choose to become better, but because a lot of people (including writers) think redemption means "erasing the character's flaws and making it so they did nothing wrong ever", a lot of attempted "redemption arcs" just end up erasing a character's entire history or justifying every evil thing they've ever done. And yeah, in these cases, the only way to make a character go from a villain to a perfect cinnamon roll with no flaws *is* to have been planning it from the beginning and make sure they never do anything that can't be explained away later.

TLDR: real redemption arcs require a lot of self-awareness, patience, and growth, which are things that are rarely actually allocated to villains, and that's why real redemption arcs almost never get executed. The reason people think redemption arcs are overdone is because there are so many attempts to either humanize a villain that get misconstrued as redemption or attempts to blatantly erase who a character was in the name of "redemption", which is really just poor character development.

[islandoforder]

personally i am on team “oisin does legitimately have a crush on adaine and it is just slightly complicated by the plans to you know murder her whole party but like wow she has such potential for rage if she also dedicated herself to ankarna we really could rule the world together hey ivy don’t you think adaine would make an amazing rage driven wizard empress?”

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

ANTAGONIST FIDDLEFORD❗️⁉️❗️❗️💥💥💥 FUCK SHIT UP BABYGIRL, I BELIEVE WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND WRONGS <33

30 years ago, during Ford and Bill's fallout; instead of threatening to steal Ford's eyeballs, Bill just goes ahead and steals Fiddleford's! Which then further leads to Fiddleford parting ways with Ford as his research assistant.

In my perfect world, where my AU is a 40-episode fully animated show; this episode would reveal the seemingly unsuspecting Old Man Mcgucket as the leader of a powerful secret cult of memory erasure. Mcgucket, believing Ford to still be under the influence of "the demon that stares," kidnaps him and attempts to "exorcise"/erase the so-called demon out of Ford's brain.

However, with the metal plate bolted into Ford's skull not only keeping out demons such as Bill, but also keeping them in; Bill is forced to instead take over Ford's body with nowhere else to go. Together with the twins who've come to rescue their Grunkle Ford, they frantically run from a hoard of cultists and their terrifying leader.

The twins discover that their Grunkle Ford's past goes much deeper than they had originally anticipated, and that their Uncle Bill isn't who they think he is....

[abbidavisart]

I made a villain to go with @kianamaiart 's magical girl OC

[emilyrosecreatives]

i have walked through fire every single day of my life 🔥

[maelicgrn]

FNAF FANART?? IN OUR TIME AND YEAR OF 2024? HELL YEAH

[videogamelover99]

Alex Hirsch going "I'd be interested in exploring Bill confronting all of his lies" during the Seattle book signing and him going "This is my child. Please be kind to him. He doesn't deserve it though." during the San Diego book signing...

It makes me incredibly happy that he's just as obsessed with this problem triangle as we are.

[laxxarian]

Everyone thinks Danny is an alien or a ghost, so when the league tried to teach Danny on how to act like a human when he's in a disguise (clothes switched, contacts used and dyed hair for human disguise. Danny didn't tell them about his other half nor had he revealed it), Danny thought it was funny.

Funny that in fact, Danny is an actual human, a living person, a child who goes to school and acts normally when he's with the others.

So when they tried teaching him some lessons about how normal folks don't have the capability to lift a couch with a finger or punch a guy that creates a crater, Danny had to stifle a laughter.

He already knows this, he literally lives as a human but no one has to know that until Maddie came in on the Watchtower (let's imagine that she can be there), Danny became serious as Maddie stares at her SON who was supposed to be grounded.

And with that, Danny panicked and tried to leave by intangibility but Maddie was fast and used one of her ghost capture rope and tied Danny back to her. The heroes were then alarmed by the actions of the woman when they paused to hear the next few words of the said woman.

"Daniel James Fenton! Tell me exactly why you're here when I specifically told you, you were grounded?"

Danny just sheepishly laughed and thought up an excuse when his eyes landed on Batman, "Uhhh.... Batman said I could go here!" Danny pointed.

[the-bar-sinister]

I think I really prefer the term "rehabilitating' for a villain who's going through a character arc and becoming a better person, over 'redeeming'.

Not only does it take away the culturally christian connotations that "redeeming" has, but rehabilitating also better shows the context of, you know, actually putting in the work and effort to overcome their problems.

From now on, for me, it's not a "villain redemption arc" its a "villain rehabilitation arc."