prokopetz:

Alternatives to villainous redemption arcs:

  • Revealed that villain’s schemes secretly served the greater good
  • Villain switches teams out of expedience; protagonists overlook the fact that they’re still a huge jerk because they now benefit from it
  • Context or status quo altered so that villain’s previously harmful actions become constructive and useful with no changes on their part
  • It turns out that villain wasn’t actually responsible for the one specific thing the protagonists are trying to stop or get revenge for; everything else they clearly did do conveniently ignored
  • Villain never repents or makes amends for any of the awful stuff they did, but they’re really hot, so no one cares