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Let’s rant about… “Villain Redemption Arcs”
(Tithania)
So I’ve been thinking lately a lot about why Redemption Arcs work so well or not on TV. For this rant I am going to be using some examples of which I believe are good characters, as in great or awesome ‘villains’ and then the writers either managed to perfectly redeem them or not.
Let’s start with what makes a Villain a good villain? What do you think makes a perfect Villain? Is it the one that is evil just for the sake of being evil and getting their will done? The end justifies the means and all that? Or is it the one who gets a back story explaining their motives? Does why they want something really make a difference in how we perceive them? Does it really matter why someone does ‘bad’ things?
There is a quote from a 90s show I used to watch, the original “Charmed” and in an episode I remember Pheobe putting it this way: “Wrong thing done for the right reason, still is the wrong thing” However, here always comes the moral debate of what is good? What is bad? What is?
So here’s the thing, the notion of evil is abstract, and it completely depends on upbringing and society. It can be altered depending on where we are, precisely due to society. Is something viewed as illegal necessarily always evil? After all, the laws that govern each society are different; therefore concepts of good and wrong (evil) are too.
I asked a few of my co workers the next question: “If you were a Villain, regardless of the type of story in which you get to be said villain… would you like the audience to know why you are like that? Why you became a villain in the first place? The story or stories that make you who you are at that point of the story being told?”
And I found the answers interesting, 80% of them said that no, they do not want people to know their motives. They just want to be, and let people question and come up with whatever hypothesis they want, because apparently, they can’t come up with an actual villain who does not explain even if only a little bit their motives.
You know they do that at least in the random speech of ‘why are you doing this?’ Which reminds me, have any of you read the “Peter’s evil overlord list”? If you haven’t, you definitely should, it is a compilation (originally by Peter Anspach) of what are perceived as the Villains’ worst mistakes and what would they rather do instead of falling into those patterns that are the ultimate reason why the Villains do not get their Happy Endings. (http://minievil.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html)
So thinking about the answers that my coworkers gave me, I got to think about the redemption arcs; if 80% of the people (granted, it is not an official statistic though it was taken from a wide range demographics- I work on ships and we are after all many different nationalities on board all through the different departments, and we are also in a wide range of ages as well as cultural upbringing and areas of expertise-) think that they just rather the villain be evil, why do we have so many redemption arcs on books, TV shows and movies? Why are there now so many productions with back stories for the villains, and well known Villains at that?
Let’s take a short moment to mention just a few, the first I remember was Wicked, explaining why the Wicked Witch was how she was during The Wizard of Oz. They even gave her a name, which as far as I remember, wasn’t something showed on the original Wizard of Oz. And it is so famous and was so well received right?
There is another series of books, a trilogy, that comes to my mind right now, written by Colleen Oaks, I’ve only read the first one so far, “Queen of Hearts, the Crown”, and have the 2nd (Blood in Wonderland) in my TBR pile at home while I still have to get the Third one (War of the Cards).
Another interesting example I think would be X-Men’s Magneto in the movie First Class. Though one of my favorites so far are the ‘villains’ from Once Upon a Time TV Show (if we skip season 7, which was ‘meh’) because that was an amalgamation of everything (Awesome X-over if we look at it as a produced fanfic). And of course, how can we forget Angelina Jolie’s rendition of Maleficent, right?
We all grew up (or at least I think we all did grow up like that) listening to the same kind of stories, a valiant hero overcomes the odds to defeat a despicable villain. We learn to view heroes and villains as part of a binary system (black and white), it is a principle that defines the essence of every story. Children view this as an unbreakable law: Hero is Good, Villain is Bad. However at some point something starts to happen with our perception, the line between heroes and villains starts to blur and for some reason sometimes the Hero starts to look lame.
So, is that the reason why are we trying to sympathize with the Villains? What makes us want to understand why they are so evil and dare I say it, wicked?
Shall we try to define what a Villain is, or what makes a villain precisely that? After all, isn’t a villain just the character who opposes the main character? Just the person who is going to be wrecking havoc throughout the story?
Well, typically a Villain is defined as the main evil character in a story. They are crucial to any story of course, seeing as they are who oppose the heroes and protagonists. Villains are generally described as cruel, cunning, immoral, arrogant and mostly, evil. Without any villains to defeat, the role of a hero is meaningless.
There is the possibility that fiction helps us process conflict in the real world. As I said, while growing up we are taught about good and evil, and it is used as a way to avoid discussing the complexities of actual actions and choices. By the time we get older we begin to realize that the world is not as black and white as we were lead to believe. Villains are needed to help us understand this: Actions have consequences. They motivate us to aspire to something greater.
Now, what exactly is a redemption arc? Well, this is the part where the ‘evil’ character finally makes up for the mistakes that they made in the past. This is basically atonement for past sins and mistakes.
The beauty about these arcs is probably that everyone can relate to it. We all have made mistakes at some point in our lives, mistakes that may have been perceived as wrong and heinous to others. So the redemption arcs help us believe that no matter how much we messed up, we can still become better people, a better version of ourselves.
Ok, so Spoilers ahead for Once Upon a Time (we are going through a little bit of Regina Mills’ story), Buffy Vampire Slayer (will talk about Faith Lehane), She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (in this new version Catra’s arc was interesting developed), Babylon 5 (Alfred Bester was such a hatable character), The Originals and Vampire Diaries along with Legacies (Klaus Mikaelson), and of course, my current favorite all time show, The 100 (because Octavia Blake as Bloodreina deserved so much more). Oh, and we will also have mild Spoilers for Game Of Thrones.
I’ll start with my favorite character in the pool. Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time. I feel it is important to clarify that maybe, and just maybe, Regina Mills isn’t really a villain herself, however since she is the dreaded ‘Evil Queen’ from Snow White, then of course the character and her ‘alter ego’ are perceived as villains, correct?
Ok, yes, Regina, actual Regina, did commit lots of crimes, but we shouldn’t define characters JUST by the list of crimes they ‘allegedly’ committed, because that is only a small part of whom they are. They are the sum of all their choices (just like we all are), and the reasoning for those choices.
All through the show, Regina is in a state of moral ambiguity. There is no definite black or white to her actions, which is awesome because that is how real life is. Nothing is as simple as that (except for consent, which is as simple as tea… yes, I am still on the tea=consent train, so just hop on and enjoy the ride… here’s your ticket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8&t=13s).
In this show, all the ‘heroes’ had done terrible things ‘for the sake of love and the greater good’; from the all mighty Snow and Charming, to the Blue Fairy, and of course the main character, Emma (THE Savior). But that is fine right? Because they are the heroes, they are inherently good and therefore nothing bad they do can be thaaat bad. Right? Wrong! Remember Phoebe that I mentioned earlier? Well, here’s a reminder: ‘Wrong thing done for the right reason, still is the wrong thing’.
However for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that doing ‘wrong’ things for the right reason, does make everything right. What a better reason is there than love? If you look carefully into it, you can tell that almost if not everything that Regina did, was out of love, or driven by love.
Her mother killed ‘her true love’, which on the show we are told over and over again that is precious and the greatest gift and strongest magic that exists. And then she was forced into marrying and old dude in high power, yes, the King. And here is another thing that might be hard for people to understand because it was not explicitly said or shown, but it was heavily implied that the King abused of a teenage Regina in every way imaginable. So you see where this is going? Yup. Tea! And this relationship with the King came after years and years of being physically and magically punished and abused by Cora, her own mother (who is also a Villain, right, the Queen of Hearts after all).
Yes, Regina hated Snow because in her mind (remember a teenager at the time) that little girl was the reason her True Love was taken from her, which as misguided as it was because Snow was a child herself who got manipulated by Cora, she still represented the loss Regina had to endure. And to think that Snow would constantly parrot on and on about True Love, it makes sense that it stung several nerves on Regina while forming her adult life.
But guess what? As much as Regina, the Evil Queen, hated Snow and her Prince Charming, her vengeance did not involve killing either of them, not when the show starts with the ‘Dark Curse’, and not even on the first Curse she inflicted upon Snow. Her revenge was literally just keeping them apart, but not really taking their lives. On the 1st curse, the apple, a sleeping curse, to be broken by True Love’s Kiss. 2nd Curse, taking them to a place without magic –but amazing indoor plumbing and let’s not forget ice cream- and let Snow’s cursed persona be a teacher, she literally let her live and do good, granted, David who was Charming’s curse persona, was in a coma and “no one” but Regina remembered their lives in the Enchanted Forest, but still, no killings were done in those cursed 28 years. Why? Simple, because she still hoped and dreamt of that True Love, she still hoped to get her own Happy Ending.
Take into account that for most of her life, as portrayed by the show, Regina felt unloved and unworthy, except for Daniel (who was murdered by her own mother) and her Father (who was too weak or too coward to stand up for her), so there was probably no way Regina’s behavior was going to be rational with how she coped with all that.
It is said that when we lose ourselves in survival mechanisms derived from trauma, we may end up hurting the people we love. We might believe we can change but fear we won’t be given the chance.
Which is what I think was perfectly portrayed in OUaT through Regina… She wanted to be better, to be happy. First out of spite, to prove herself and everyone else that she was in control and that no one could take away her happiness ever again. Then she wanted to be better for Henry, her adoptive son, who for a while saw her as nothing but a Villain.
You know what happens when someone tells you over and over you are bad, or rotten, or unworthy, or evil… you start to believe it.
Regina realized at some point the consequences of all her past actions, if not the severity, at least the extent, which is an important point in healing and forgiving oneself. Even when she at some point during the Neverland Arc says that she regrets nothing and she feels no remorse, she at least knows that her actions hurt others the same way she was hurt by people in power before she reclaimed that power for herself.
So why Regina’s full villain redemption arc worked? Let’s try something in order to answer that: Picture yourself in her place, go through it… You are abused all your life, yet you find love with Daniel. Your mother kills him and forces you to marry some old guy and babysit the child that you know ‘helped’ your mom kill Daniel. You are forced to live surrounded by everyone you know achieving happiness, everyone but you. Then you find one chance at being as happy as everyone else seems to be, but it involves the death of you father. And this is heartbreaking for you because it has to be by your own hands. However you have lived believing that in this world (the Enchanted Forest), everyone gets true happiness. So you end up in a different place where no one’s life is as perfect as they preached back in the other realm. And here you just get to be. You finally find some kind of happiness. You raise a son for 10 years, and you love him. But upon learning he is adopted and then about your past, he finds his biological mom, who comes in waltzing into your life and threatens to take your son away, which in your mind translates to take your happiness away. To make matters even more heart aching for you, this stranger that wants to take your happiness away, turns out to be Snow’s own child, Snow’s, who is responsible for the death of your one True Love.
How do you feel? That, what you just experienced by reading that in the 1st person, by looking at Regina’s life through her perspective, is call empathy. So, I ask you again, why Regina’s full villain redemption arc worked? Because Regina isn’t a real Villain. You can feel empathy towards her. She loves. She sees her own flaws. Yes, we already covered she did some heinous and ‘villainous’ things. However she is not completely Black. She goes from being the ‘clear’ cut evil character in the story, to be the anti-hero, and from there she becomes one more of the heroes who keep the town and their people safe. Hence managing to redeem herself.
For the next part in this rant I pick Catra… cutting to the core of it, first we ought to acknowledge that Catra is an abused child, and her story is one about trauma.
Let’s take a moment now to get on the same page, usually we view trauma as an isolated life shattering event that causes you to react or retract in certain ways. But trauma itself is broader and maybe universal, what I mean to say is that psychological trauma is damage to the mind caused by any and all distressing events that overwhelm our ability to process it in the moment.
I read that when this happens to children in development stages, it is possible that the damage becomes even greater than if it happens to an adult. Remember that for a child everything is already overwhelming, every new discovery is the most exciting thing ever (hence children’s capacity to be amazed), that is when we are completely vulnerable to the stimuli all around us and get to view each new experience as the way the world is. Formative years are called that way for a reason after all.
Catra is traumatized by a character (Shadow Weaver) who uses intimidation, manipulation, and verbal and physical abuse in all of their interactions. Catra’s relationship to Adora is important to her because it is based on the concept of Adora being her safety net, so when Adora leaves, she is taking her only protection against Shadow Weaver and all the other kids in the Horde.
During four seasons we see Catra trying to recapture that safety (Adora) using the dysfunctional tools she learnt from her abuser (Shadow Weaver) because that is just how the world is.
We may want to understand first her most formative relationship in her life, Shadow Weaver. She repeats constantly that she sees herself in Catra but she specifically sees the parts that she doesn’t like (Mirror laws!!!). Shadow Weaver was rejected too while trying to prove herself, and at some point, Catra became the outlet for her frustration resulting from that rejection. Catra who wasn’t born with some inherent power. Catra who constantly struggles for recognition. Catra who is constantly rejected by everyone but Adora.
There is an episode in which Shadow Weaver acknowledges her mistreatment of Catra but amends it with the next line: “I will not apologize for that”. Which logically enough, Catra interprets as the way the world is, because an episode or two later during a confrontation with Adora she says the same (even when with different words); “What do you want, and apology? You’re not getting one”
The way Catra’s mind may be working is: since the person in Power hurt her and the person that used to keep her safe abandoned her, then maybe if she is the one with Power, she won’t be hurt anymore so she won’t need anyone to protect her but herself.
If Catra’s arc is driven by the need to protect that child (who she was and still is in a way), we might be able to understand it better by looking at her childhood.
During the flashback episodes (Which I don’t remember which ones those are at this time), we get to see how Catra’s and Adora’s dynamic was while growing up. They both play together and they are both curious children. When they BOTH break into Shadow Weaver’s chamber, and they BOTH get caught, it is Catra who Shadow Weaver punishes (tortures) right before threatening her life, and she tells Catra that the only thing keeping her alive is Adora’s fondness for her. So from this we learn that Catra’s taught that she has no value if Adora doesn’t want her and that for that reason she deserves more punishment for the same transgressions than others (say Adora).
However regardless of all the grief she suffers and all the torture Shadow Weaver puts her through, Catra is content knowing that her best friend still wants her around, so she still is valuable. So for the time being, all is ok. The world is a mess, but they have each other. So when Adora leaves the Horde, Catra feels not only abandoned by her best friend, but also unsafe and without any value, worthless. And so her entire world crashes down.
So question then, why does she not leave with Adora when she asked her to come with her? Surely it would have saved a lot of time, and heartache. And then there would be no redemption arc needed for Catra. Ok, kidding, not. Plot wise that was probably the reason. But story wise, why didn’t she? Well, Catra was in a defensive state, in which her mind maybe thought that the offer was just an after thought. That she was not worthy of coming back for. So if she was going to be left behind, why not leave before that happens. The famous Fight or Flight response we all face at certain points. So in Catra’s case, this became the perfect opportunity to prove her independence and own value. If she never needed Adora in the first place, her betrayal can’t hurt her anymore. But then, every other offer of closeness is one she doesn’t think she can afford (enter Scorpia and her efforts to make her open up and just be). And so her future relationships get marked by that. She keeps asking for space and boundaries (which Scorpia, bless her heart, completely ignores) only to have those boundaries keep been pushed and tested.
Her abused mind makes Catra a walking paradox, she craves for connection as any lonely kid would (or any sentient being mind you), but also the fact that she learnt to see any connection as a precursor to pain.
So when in the end Catra is ready to change, right after connecting with Glimmer over their own insecurities (while both being held prisoners). She knows maybe it’s too late, but she is there then and so she does one good thing (save Glimmer) and she expects to die, and she is ok with that (thinks she deserves it even) because she knows (feels) there is nothing left for her, no forgiveness that she doesn’t even deserve, no chance at a different life (Like Regina in the mines with the crystal right before Henry was kidnapped and taken to Pan). But she survives, Adora came back for her and it doesn’t make sense (again like Regina, and Emma going back for her, not letting her do any sacrifice by herself, because she matters) and then she is offered a choice: accept Adora’s forgiveness and embrace that chance at a different life or define herself by her lowest points and let her story end.
We later see how impactful a change of environment is to Catra (again, like Regina), it is not linear, she reverts to aggressive defense when she feels overwhelmed, but she improves. She eventually confronts her abuser and she stands up for herself. And eventually she returns the kindness shown to her by trying to protect everyone, specially Adora, from her own self destruction. And lastly, without any expectations, she stays with Adora, until the end to help her through that last final battle.
So just like Regina Mills, Catra loves. She sees her own flaws. Yes, she did some ‘villainous’ things. However she is not completely Black either. She was never the villain in this story, from the beginning she was the antagonist, the anti-hero, and from there she becomes one more of the heroes who fight to keep their people safe. Hence managing to redeem herself.
Let’s talk about Alfred Bester now… if you do not know who this is, I strongly recommend you go binge watch Babylon 5 like right now. Bookmark this rant of mine, watch B5 and then come back to read a little bit about Bester. Because it is an amazing TV Show which I believe was produced ahead of its time, and therefore got unjustly underrated.
Or just stay around, finish the rant and then go watch Babylon 5 and get to see for yourself the awesomeness of the Show and Walter Koenig’s great portrayal of Alfred Bester.
Now for real, Alfred Bester, or as many of us tend to call him, Mr. Bester, is a telepath, but not just a regular telepath, a Psi Cop, which is the ‘Police’ of the Psi Corps (Telepath Organization).
He is a recurring character that most people see as a mild villain in the story due to his confrontations against our main characters. He does seem to enjoy antagonizing with them, especially with one Susan Ivanova (gosh I love that character too… take a chance to learn the Babylon 5 mantra by Susan Ivanova… https://i.redd.it/gpwq6a59fj201.jpg) who despises the Psi Corps for reasons that go beyond even Bester’s understanding.
Through the show we know that Mr Bester was raised by the Psi Corps (like most human telepaths, after all, once your ‘talent’ manifests and they catch up to you, you are given three choices: Life and service with Psi Corps, Take suppressants which end up taking more than you are willing to sacrifice, or Prison) where he learnt that ‘Corps is Mother, Corps is Father’.
First time we see Bester is when he is hunting for a rogue telepath named Jason Ironheart, who allegedly had confidential information which could be used against Psi Corps and Earthdome, however the truth was that Ironheart was escaping from torture and experimentation.
While on the Station, Mr Bester was cunningly polite trying to garner all the help he could from Command Staff, without revealing all the information he had on the ‘mission’ at hand. He convinced all the Senior Staff that Ironheart was dangerous. Eventually Ironheart managed to escape (aided by another telepath – Talia Winters - and the CO of the station, Jeffrey Sinclair) and Bester was forced to leave B5 empty handed.
He returns later on now hunting for an underground telepath movement that went against all that Psi Corps taught and preached. Once again, he managed to ‘enlist’ the help of the command staff and of the commercial telepath (Talia Winters). Things don’t go as he planned or wanted but still we got to see a side of him that even when cruel and cunning, told us that he truly believed in Psi Corps.
Next time he comes back, it is to get out of circulation some sort of black market drug, though it seemed that he had ulterior motives too, as he was forced to take telepath suppressants in order to prevent him from scanning ‘regulars’ without their consent.
Later on, he chooses to work in tandem with Sheridan (the CO of B5 after Sinclair left) at several points during the ‘Shadow War’. He wanted to save his lover who had been kidnapped by the Shadows, however he withheld that information in the beginning of his team up.
I truly believe this team up was a turning point for Mr Bester. Yes, he still believed in the Corps, after all ‘Corps is Mother, Corps is Father’, but he also believed in Life. He chose to ‘cunningly’ fight for everyone who was willing to live. He could no longer rely on the higher ups on his organization because the telepaths that the ‘Shadows’ had abducted (among them his lover) were not really abducted but offered as cattle.
He even got to the point where he let Sheridan and the others know about a plan from Psi Corps and the Earth Alliance President, to turn the public eye against Babylon 5 and its staff . Of course there was a catch, so he made a trade. The information in exchange of aid to get his sick lover to a place to find a cure to her illness.
When he eventually learns about a plot to dismantle the Corps, he uses Garibaldi (B5’s Security Chief) as a spy to learn the full details of the plot. It turns out there was virus that attacked just telepaths, and unless infected telepaths got regular doses of the cure, they would all die. He manages to recover the samples of the original virus and cure. He did this of course out of survival, but once again, it was thinking about the full extent of what the enslavement or destruction of all telepaths could/would cause.
So, we know for sure he is an unconventional character. He is not a villain, and as far as we know, he does not get a redemption arc. He runs away and after years spent in hiding, he is caught and trialed for war crimes (Telepath Wars, which were not really part of the TV Show). However it is clear that all he did was for Love too. Misguided, maybe, but love nevertheless. To his Family. To his Lover. To his People. To the Psi Corps.
He had good intentions but he went to complete extremes in order to accomplish what he thought was right. Remember Pheobe? Here I go again, “Wrong thing done for the right reason…” Bester struggled to come to terms with limits to his actions to achieve his desired goals, he operated in a Dark Gray and ambiguous area.
And as I said on a tweet before, he was a character who was hatable in such a lovable way. In Koenig’s own words during an interview, “he was critical to the story… he was a character who moved the story along, not just articulated the circumstances but actually was involved in the story itself. Who had his own belief system his own entire life. His own personal problems and conflicts and we got to investigate those over the course of 12 episodes…” Do you realize how amazing it is that a character who appeared only in 12 episodes all through the course of 5 Seasons (20 to 22 episodes per season), had such an impact not just to the story but to the whole fandom?
I do believe that given the chance he might had been able to accomplish redemption. The fact that Garibaldi could not forgive him and his actions, was definitely biased. Granted, when on trial, it was not just his actions against Garibaldi that got him sentenced to life in Prison.
Then of course there is the other side of the coin, we (and by ‘we’ I mean me, myself and my other me) wouldn’t have wanted a Forced Forgiveness arc for Bester. Remember that forgiveness is not something that is owed, and in fiction it is not something to just be thrown out all of the sudden. Yes, we get to relate to the characters we watch, we get to see if they really want to make amends for their past mistakes, but this forgiveness, when and if it comes, should be gradual, not spontaneous.
In the end no matter how you look at it, there are things that no one can easily forgive, such as genocide or cold blooded murder. I concede, there are characters who have committed such acts and still get that forgiveness we look for in Redemption Arcs (like Regina Mills), but not all people get the chance to show how remorseful they are, or how willing they are to atone for their past. Such is the case of dear Mr Bester.
Then there is Niklaus (Klaus) Mikaleson… THE original Hybrid (One of the Original Vampires and a Werewolf). So, let’s get into a little of who he is and why he managed to get a redemption arc.
Klaus was a recurring character in the TV Show “The Vampire Diaries” (First mentioned there on the second season), and later on he became the Protagonist on the Spin Off “The Originals”.
One of Klaus’ siblings (Elijah) mentioned on VD that Klaus is a recluse and trusts very few people. You see now where this is going? Yes, Klaus obviously has trust issues all because of his upbringing and experience in his millennial life. Later on through both TV shows we learn the complexity and back story of Klaus.
During a while he is the big bad villain in town (Mystic Falls), and we learn that he is willing to stop at nothing in order to break a Curse (sounds familiar?) His goal was to liberate his werewolf side so he could sire his own super species of vampire-werewolf hybrids.
Through both TV shows we see that his relationship with his family is ‘complicated’ to say the least. There is a love-hate-love factor all the time. His closest family ties are his Brother Elijah and his sister Rebekah. Other than his family, he eventually creates a close bond with one Stefan Salvatore, and later on with Caroline Forbes, which proves to be a turning point, since he gets to actually show fondness for her, showing us how much he cares when allowed to do so. On the Originals we also get to see that he had an adopted son of sorts, an orphan he rescued and cared for, and later on turned into a vampire himself, though that relationship is strained by betrayal. They eventually get to trust in each other again, and join forces to defeat all the threats to them and their family.
We see all through both shows how deep betrayal cuts into him, how much he dreads it and how much it changes him, since it usually comes from family members. The fact that his (and his family’s) motto is ‘Always and Forever’, ties them to each other in a way that even when ‘backstabbing’ each other, they know (or at least hope) they will always be there for each other, in the best and in the worse of moments too. So I think that is the reason why betrayal weights so heavy on him, because it is not just a direct disregard of their motto, but because it proves that maybe it is not truth, and he will be alone for eternity.
Additionally, he is constantly running from his ‘Father’ who wants to end his existence, though he subconsciously keeps looking (hoping) for his approval.
The next and most important pivotal point in Klaus’ life, is the birth of his Daughter, Hope, who he originally didn’t want anything to do with. His life view changes the moment he embraces the fact that he is to be a dad. All his actions from that point onward, are not driven by greed, or the search of power, not even survival of his self; but for the safety of his child. His only wish is for her to live a happy and healthy life, which of course proves to be tricky seeing as she is a tribrid (witch, werewolf, vampire), and is hunted because others fear how powerful she may get to be.
He unwillingly accepts that to keep his daughter safe, he is to be kept as far away as possible from her. And even though it breaks his heart (and hers), he knows that is what is needed until a more permanent solution is found.
Klaus is willing to go to the ‘dark’ side over and over again if it means he gets to keep his baby girl safe. He ends up ultimately sacrificing his life (his existence) just to ensure that Hope is alive, even when not happy with his decision. On the last episode of the Originals we get to see that moment of acceptance in which he knows that even when he most likely will not get to ‘Peace’ (Heaven) and therefore never again to see his family, and most importantly Hope, he still is there to keep her safe.
He is constantly mentioned on the final Spin Off of the series (Legacies), where his daughter Hope is the protagonist. He is portrayed as this big bad evil person that destroyed or tried to destroy everyone’s life without any regard of others (which yeah, he did for millennia), however Hope gets conflicting emotions about it because even when she knows that to be true, she also knows that is not the full story, she did know her father, she has memories of him being loving and caring with her.
On Legacies’ final episode, we are shown how in the end Klaus did manage to get to Peace, and he muses about what a gift it is to be able to leave her one last message. He tells her to carry it with her in the years to come. He says: “You will make mistakes in life, that comes with being a Mikaelson. You will go through hard times for no one with your power knows how to use properly. You will find love and lose it, for such is the burden of Immortality…” He goes on and tells her that she is his Peace, and even though he may regret many things in his life, he doesn’t regret a single moment spent with her. “Always and Forever”
And that was his redemption Arc. Hope became his anchor and his Will to be better, to atone for his past actions. Indeed, his Hope for a better life, a better future. And in the end, he managed to do so, regardless of the cost.
And now we have Faith still to talk about…the rogue and dark vampire slayer. You know the drill by now, a little back story coming now.
It is implied that Faith had a difficult upbringing and life, which left her with various trust and emotional issues. Though she eventually found some sort of stability with her Watcher, that was completely shattered when said Watcher was killed by a vampire (Kakistos). This event prompted Faith to go to Sunnydale and seek for assistance from the Original Slayer (Buffy) in dealing with him. They became friends but it was obvious they were ‘opposites’ which weighted heavy on Faith and her perception of life. Quid Pro Quo. Her take on life is “See, Want, Take” because that is what she knows. Like Catra, she knows that if you want something you have to take it before someone else does, and you may have to use force in order to accomplish that. Because things and people had been taken from her.
After a few set of events that ended with Faith accidentally killing a human, she is shunned out and outcast by Buffy and her team, and as a result, Faith ends up teaming with the big evil of the Season, Mayor Wilkins.
Let’s take into account that the reason she sided with Wilkins was because he validated her, he showed her that he cared for her and her well being. She doted on her. Took her out from living in the cheap and dirty motel, and provided her with a nice loft where to live. He gave her all that she had been craving. All she had had with her Watcher before Kakistos killed her. She had stability again.
On the day before the seasonal Apocalypse threat, Faith is stabbed in the guts by Buffy, and ends up in a coma.
While in coma she shares a ‘slayer dream’ with Buffy, providing her the answers on how to stop the Mayor, because deep down, even when he was good to Faith, she knew what he planned and what he was doing was anything but good.
When she wakes from the coma she switches bodies with Buffy thanks to a magical device (courtesy of the late Mayor Wilkins). I’ll give you one chance to guess as to why she took the chance to swap bodies with Buffy.
Yes, you nailed it (or at least I hope you did). It is because in her eyes, Buffy had the perfect life. She had a support system which had always been there for her. She had always been forgiven for all her mistakes. She was perfect. She had stability. And most importantly, she had friends and family who loved her. And Faith had craved and dreamt and desired that for as long as she could remember.
However, that body swap does not last and she ends up running away to LA where she is recruited to kill Buffy’s ‘True Love’, Angel (The Vampire with a Soul). She chose to take away whatever she could.
We discover then that she wasn’t really trying to kill Angel but to get killed by him. She was remorseful of all the things she had done, and was looking to be punished, expecting it even. She knew (in her mindset that is what made sense) that the punishment she deserved was Dead. In the end Angel being all noble and all, talks her out of her suicide rampage and Faith surrenders herself to the Police. She stays in Jail atoning for her actions for three years before busting out in order to assist Angel’s team in dealing with Angelus (Angel’s Vampire WITHOUT a soul persona), and once that is dealt with, she heads back to Sunnydale in order to assist Buffy’s team to defeat the First (the First great and ultimate Evil).
There is obviously tension there. Not everyone trusts she is not going to flip again. So we see Faith battling with herself in order to avoid falling into old patters, and to prove herself that she changed, even if others do not believe her, she knows she is not the same traumatized teenager that first went to Sunnydale after losing her Watcher.
It is said that after defeating the First, she joins the new Slayer Organization in Cleveland and works hard to prevent Slayers going rogue like she did. Atoning herself, and completing her redemption arc.
For the next part in this rant we have Bloodreina… Octavia Blake is actually an interesting case, and I am not saying that just because of the fact that I love “The 100” (which yes, I do), but because Octavia went through an evolution/devolution/revolution arc herself. She grew as an individual, then she was corrupted, then she got redemption.
So let’s dive into her growth first. Then we will tackle her ‘Corruption Arc’ and finally her ‘Redemption Arc’.
Octavia Blake, being a secret Second Child in the Ark (the space station where she was born) was forced to be hidden from the rest of the population all her childhood and great part of her teenage years. When she was discovered at 16 years of age, her mother got ‘floated’ (executed by being literally floated into space) and she herself was put in prison, her only crime being alive. She was part of the 100 juvenile criminals that got sent to Earth in hopes to determine if the planet was already habitable so the Ark population could follow suite due to air recycling system problems.
Once on Earth she gets to become. She interacts with the other kids. She forms bonds. Later on when they discover they are not alone on Earth, that there are survivors who they call Grounders, she even falls in love with one. She trains herself with him and with another warrior who takes her under her wing. She becomes a warrior herself, Skairipa is how she is known as then.
She was the first who embraced ‘Grounder’ culture because she never had felt like she belonged. Before being captured on the Ark, her only human interactions had been her mother and her older brother (Bellamy, who by the way, I believe is the true culprit and only responsible for all the things that went wrong on the series… More on him on a later rant). So when she got to feel as part of something greater than just herself, she latched onto it wanting to thrive.
After Lincoln, the Grounder she had fallen in love with, was killed in cold blood, Octavia started to lose herself more and more into the fights. On Season Four she won a conclave (a fight to death) for the right to have her people be the ones to occupy a bunker that would be the only safe space from a worldwide nuclear meltdown. However she chose not to have only her people (Skaikru, which is how people from the Ark were called), but to let a certain number of people from each of the clans to get into the bunker, that way all of them and all of their customs would be saved and continued. There she united them under one banner, Wonkru. Her motto was ‘you are either Wonkru, or the enemy of Wonkru’.
At first, she was an unwilling leader to the people in the bunker and we see in Season 5 through several flashbacks how she became known as ‘Bloodreina’, and how that title ended up being the start of her ‘Corruption Arc’ and affecting the actions she had to enforce in order for them to survive and still thrive while living in the bunker.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk briefly about what exactly is a Corruption Arc. It literally is the opposite of a Redemption Arc, duh. No, really, it is. People, including fictional heroes, can get corrupted when something they value more than their morals is put on the line. Survival of her people was the original case for Octavia. It is entirely possible that were Lincoln have to been alive at the time in the bunker, she would have been more centered and less ruthless, but the fact remains that survival of mankind was her goal.
When after years of confinement in the bunker, Wonkru is ‘rescued’, the rescuing party and Wonkru fight over for the control of the only green patch of land on Earth, Shallow Valley. In the end, the pettiness they all show ends up destroying even that, rendering Earth completely inhabitable and forcing everyone to board a space ship and leave the planet.
There is a line by the end of Season five in which Octavia says to Dyoza (the character that lead the faction opposing Wonkru: “One garden, two serpents. Eden never stood a chance” Which is the point where she realizes that the consequences of her actions were far beyond what she would have at some point considered acceptable loses. The tipping scale there, the one that makes her now want to change back to who she was before being Bloodreina, is probably when Bellamy is tucking her in the chryostasis chamber (where they are supposedly going to wait 10 years to give time for Earth to ‘heal’) and Octavia compares that to when he used to hide her under the floor at their quarters in the Ark. She goes and tells him she loves him (even after they betrayed each other during that Season), and he answers: “You’re my sister, and part of me will always love you…” but she knows that the other part actually wishes she was dead.
Season 6 and Season 7 are her Redemption Arc. On Season 6 she is left to cope alone and survive by herself on the new planet (yes, now we are on different planets, fun times). And on Season 7 we get to see her being somewhat happy and free of responsibilities while living on another planet with Dyoza (yes, they form a bond and a strong friendship) and Hope (Dyoza’s child) for 10 years. Eventually she gets back to Wonkru and by the end of the series, she is the one who stops ‘The Last War’. With a heartfelt speech she goes on and on about life, and how Wonkru is All Man Kind, and that both factions were the same. By stopping that war, she unknowingly ensures that all humans survive annihilation at the hands of a powerful alien species who were judging Man Kind’s readiness to ‘transcend’ and become one with them.
Octavia is such an intricate character that no matter how much I talk about her, I will never do her (or Marie’s representation of her) justice. Just know that she went through great hardship in life and she overcame everything. As I said before, she did grow, and then she got corrupted (because yes, she liked having power) and yet, she found something worth living for, opposed to something worth dying for which had been what she learned things should be like.
Know that I am not in any way saying that a ‘shitty’ life justifies you going and doing things that are socially, morally or legally ‘dark’, ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. Not because I was abused or faced trauma, I will go out and kill people, or harass them or torture them… but I also think that in order to sum it all up, it gets down to what Michael (who now that I think about it, is another example of a redemption arc even if not in the same way) from “The Good Place” said: “People improve when they get love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don’t” In my perspective, that is why there are redemption arcs, because we can relate, we show empathy towards people who we know/see are or were wronged. We get hope from them, because we know if anyone (real or fiction) could forgive anything as atrocious as ‘stabbing someone’ (Faith), ‘ripping hearts out’ (Regina), “countless of murders’ (Klaus), ‘forcing cannibalism’ (Octavia), ‘tried to kill you’ (Catra), ‘violated your mind’ (Bester)… then whatever our wrongs can surely be forgiven, if not forgotten. Because sometimes if we need forgiveness and want to change, someone might give it to us. And the same goes the other way around, sometimes, if we believe in someone, they might not let us down.
Though remember, that chance at redemption isn’t owed (Like Bester shows us) and it’s not usually expected, but still is possible, because it turns out, it is easier to believe in yourself if someone believes in you first.
So the original question was: Why Villain Redemption Arcs work so well? My hypothesis is that it derives from the fact that No Villain is ever going through said redemption arc. They work because we confuse the Villains with the Anti-Heroes, with whom we can relate.
Who is the best Villain you can come up with? And then define if they are a Villain or an Anti-Hero.
I think that the original Disney Villains for example, are indeed Villains… say Jafar, Scar, Lady Tremaine, The Evil Queen, Ursula, even Maleficent… Another good example of Villain in my mind is ironically, Lord Voldermort, and we should never forget about Lex Luthor, at least in the comics (I am still trying to forget Smallville’s version of Lex).
Though the best example of a Villain and an Anti-hero and their motives are probably the Lanister twins from Game of Thrones.
Cersei’s and Jamie’s actions all through the series are definitely dubious and outright ‘wrong’, correct? Starting with the relationship between them fueling everything they do, like throwing a boy down the window of a high tower because he caught them in the act of betraying the King by being together.
So Jamie’s actions are driven by selfless love and later on, honor. He loves Cersei so much that he wants to keep her safe, even if what he does to accomplish that safety is wrong (once again, remember Phoebe? ‘Wrong thing done for the right reason, still is the wrong thing’). He knows his sister is not always right, he knows his sister is ‘twisted’. He knows she is not the best fit for the Iron throne. Yet, he doesn’t care, because he only cares about her. He doesn’t even really care about himself. And we see that when even after having been captured by Brienne of Tarth, the moment Brienne is in danger, he jumps to try and help her, because as she said later on the series, Jamie is an honorable man.
Here’s the thing, we all get somewhat blinded and corrupted by love. And that was precisely what happened to Jamie Lannister.
Cersei’s actions on the other hand, seem to be driven always by greed and hate, jealousy even. Wanting Power for herself. Hating everyone who threatens that power. Yes, we see that she ‘does’ love her children, in probably the only way she knows how to love. And she goes down the ‘evil’ rabbit hole once her children are taken away from her (yes, killed). So by losing her children, who were probably the only link she had to a selfless love, she ends up becoming the Villain all Westeros came to hate.
In conclusion, I think the Anti-Hero usually is driven by Fear, by Love, or by both. Even when there usually is Anger in the mix, the root of their goals are Fear and Love (which reminds me of a song, “Fear and Love”, you may want to listen to it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O-x9TMWYKw] ‘Fear can stop us loving, love can stop your fear… but is not always that clear’).
An Anti-Hero might be a broken hero, who fights against perceived injustice in a way that is mostly seen as villainous, evil if you will. They do have good intentions but they struggle to come to terms with limits to their actions to achieve their desired goals.
While the Villain is driven by Hate and Greed and then they use all the tools they have to inspire Fear in others. They absolutely oppose everyone but themselves and their goals. They do not have good intentions at all seeing as they are in general selfish and egocentric. They tend to be arrogant and cruel, showing no remorse at all.
The redemption arcs therefore only work for Anti-heroes, because they are remorseful of their actions. They may not regret them, because in the end those actions and choices they made got them to where they are at that point in their lives. However that does not mean they do not feel bad for any pain or hurt they caused others.
Think about it and let me know what you think
- Oh… and an especial and individual (and most likely longer) Rant on Regina is coming soon(ish). Not to worry, if you are here for a particular character from the tags, I will be posting an individual ‘rant’ for each of them too. Just not immediately
May we meet again.