#i always wanted andromeda to acknowledge the villain that dylan was slowly becoming

[whumpfish]

I cannot stress enough the importance of transformations that are not necessarily redemptive.

- Cold and misanthropic villains who learn to care for the people close to them

- Coerced villains/minions running away–not to help the heroes, but to help themselves

- Villains who have dedicated their life and existence to The Cause who develop agency, who begin making their own decisions for their own reasons, whether or not they are GoodTM decisions 

- Bigoted villains who learn to stop being a dick in that specific area

- Villains otherwise driven by hate who reevaluate their motives if not their purpose

- Heroes so dedicated to The Cause that they stop caring for the people around them

- Heroes who stop caring in a healthy way, who become jealous or excessively competitive 

- Characters on all sides with trust issues who learn to trust, if only one or two individuals

- Selfish characters who learn self-sacrifice, even if it's only for fellow team members instead of a hero team or a Noble CauseTM 

- Characters who stand up to their abusers/refuse to be taken advantage of anymore in their interpersonal relationships outside the context of switching sides

There seems to be a growing expectation and even demand in fandom that villains be redeemed/redeemable, that heroes only become more GoodTM, and that anything else is somehow shortsighted or glorifying bad behavior. But people don't only grow in one direction, and personal progress doesn't have moral requirememts. Personal change doesn't have moral requirements. 

People can learn to love, to trust, to grow, to think for themselves without experiencing a major paradigm shift, and people don't always experience major paradigm shifts for the better. The fight for GoodTM and its necessity can actually be highlighted by a hero who goes bad and must then be defeated by former allies. Agency can actually be more profound if it doesn't conform to expectations or tropes within the story, because it becomes twofold: the character in question liberates themselves not only from the restrictions imposed on them by their circumstances/leaders but from those imposed by the reader/viewer as well.

#my fav character in the castlevania animation is literally isaac #i always wanted andromeda to acknowledge the villain that dylan was slowly becoming #but i wish there was more #writing #writebrl #writing advice #writing tips #whump #whump prompt #writing prompt #tropes #hero tropes #villain tropes #writer #fiction #fanfix #fanfic