@actualfelixmcscouty I just think you should know that I feel your tags in my soul.
- LET MY LARGE DORITO SON LIVE AND LEARN TO BE GOOD AGAIN
That’s it, that’s me.
man i just love locus very much
like, if he could figure out how to be human, maybe i could do it too
like. what we need are stories where monsters are humans and humans are monsters, and idk
i’m not exactly projecting much on locus, but he’s… so… hngh ;A; i love him
The arguments I see in fandom about ‘redemption arcs’ for him are so weird to me. Like, from a fiction standpoint I know where it’s coming from. Fiction tends to treat ‘redemption’ like it’s a prize. “Are you worthy of salvation? Yes, so now we bestow on you the story arc where readers are allowed to feel sympathy for you again.”
But while drippy regretful anti-hero story arcs are fun and all, that framework disturbs me on a human level because it’s like it’s asking us to disqualify people from being people based on horribleness. Or like there’s a point where you’re not allowed to try to work your way back to being a decent person again or to ever being worthy of compassion again.
When the reality is that there ISN’T a difference between ‘human’ and ‘monster.’ A monster is just what you get when a person goes too far.
It makes me want more redemption arcs where it’s more real, you know? How you’d treat a real human. Dude tries to commit genocide, yeah, he needs to answer for that. But what if he really is FUCKING SORRY? If he looks back and realizes he’s been 100% grade A shit, on an “Olympic competition for tyranny” level, and now assuming the law doesn’t execute him, he gets to live with all that guilt, trying to not be filth and maybe make up a little bit for what he did one day at a time.
I want redemption stories like that, where it’s not a prize. Where it’s HARD, and a messy daily grind, and you get the miserable but necessary experience of trying to recreate yourself as a post-monster you while frankly it’s all not as much about you as it is about the people who you fucked over. That’s human and at some level we’ve all been there. I feel like we need more of those stories.
The irony, really, is that RVB is loaded with those stories, but it’s never really been spotlighted in a way that makes you actively think, “Hey, everybody deserves a shot at being better.”
(On this note, if you’re interested in stories like this and giant gay alien robots don’t put you off, I HIGHLY recommend IDW’s More Than Meets the Eye comic, where fuckin’ Megatron is currently trying to work his way back around to being something other than a legendary-asshole.)
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/29savWv