#if anyone misconstrues this as saying belos or odalia's actions were okay i will start throwing rocks btw

[anistarrose]

Hey, you all realize that the point of Watching and Dreaming wasn't "some crimes are so terrible that there is no point in giving the perpetrators opportunity to learn and make up for them," right? That it wasn't "violent bigots and abusive parents are automatically disqualified from redemption because to show them improving would be to sympathize with those crimes," right?

Like, you all watched the show where Caleb and Alador and frankly even Gwendolyn were paralleled with the worst of the worst villains, but actually tried to do better and succeeded, right? You all got that Belos had to die because he refused every opportunity to learn and work to correct his actions, right? You get that redemption doesn't necessarily mean being accepted back into the lives of people you hurt, but ultimately just means putting in the work to change, and that the refusal to change is the sole trait that really makes a villain "irredeemable," right?

You all got that the Collector is a direct character foil to Philip, as a lonely kid who grew up in an (allegorical) manipulative and intolerant community, and ended up hurting people as a result, but became the opposite of Philip by actually choosing to listen and mature at almost every opportunity? You get why "kindness and forgiveness don't always work, but are still no less important" was just as much the thesis of this episode as "yes, sometimes you do just have to kill a fascist" was, right?

(You remember that the first episode of this show was a highly metaphorical critique, but an unapologetic critique nonetheless, of the prison and justice system, right?)

#if anyone misconstrues this as saying belos or odalia's actions were okay i will start throwing rocks btw #please go read rnelodyy's “the owl house and restorative justice” post and maybe then you'll calm down #the owl house #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers