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eshusplayground:
eshusplayground:
Note: I originally had another half-written post delving into this topic. Then Tumblr went, “LOL! Fuck you!” and ate it. This is my second attempt.
As a fan of many characters deemed villains in their respective stories, redemption arcs are often a topic of discussion. Does this or that character deserve redemption? What makes for a satisfying redemption arc? Which redemption arcs work or don’t work?
However, it’s rare for me to come across a conversation that examines the concept of a redemption arc itself, let alone the forces that shape our understanding of what redemption means and how it works.
With that in mind, I’m going to see what I can do to crack open the assumptions behind redemption narratives and see what interesting alternatives present themselves.
Keep reading
It’s Shabbat, so I shouldn’t be writing anything, but I figure since I’m writing about Jewish stuff, it counts as Torah study.
I wanna come back to this because I’ve been thinking about it off and on, and I want to elaborate on some things that I hinted at before.
I came across a post on Tumblr or reddit that said that Azula doesn’t deserve a redemption arc because she hasn’t suffered enough. When I read that, I felt a sudden revulsion toward the post and the person who made it. It was like someone showed me a graphic picture of something disgusting.
Now that I think about it, the revulsion I felt was a deeply Jewish revulsion toward the idea of redemptive suffering. I’ve written before about Jewish tradition rejecting the notion of redemptive suffering. We have a whole book in the Tanakh about the effect that suffering has on a person’s character. Sure, some people rise above their suffering even better than before, but some people get worse. We don’t put a lot of stock in the idea that the best way to get a person to evolve morally is to afflict them with pain and misery.
Furthermore, what if a person’s wrongdoing is rooted in pain and suffering? What good would adding more pain and suffering do? How does that repair the damage they’ve done? How does that heal the hurt they’ve caused? How does that bring more good to the world?
eshusplayground:
eshusplayground:
Note: I originally had another half-written post delving into this topic. Then Tumblr went, “LOL! Fuck you!” and ate it. This is my second attempt.
As a fan of many characters deemed villains in their respective stories, redemption arcs are often a topic of discussion. Does this or that character deserve redemption? What makes for a satisfying redemption arc? Which redemption arcs work or don’t work?
However, it’s rare for me to come across a conversation that examines the concept of a redemption arc itself, let alone the forces that shape our understanding of what redemption means and how it works.
With that in mind, I’m going to see what I can do to crack open the assumptions behind redemption narratives and see what interesting alternatives present themselves.
Keep reading
It’s Shabbat, so I shouldn’t be writing anything, but I figure since I’m writing about Jewish stuff, it counts as Torah study.
I wanna come back to this because I’ve been thinking about it off and on, and I want to elaborate on some things that I hinted at before.
I came across a post on Tumblr or reddit that said that Azula doesn’t deserve a redemption arc because she hasn’t suffered enough. When I read that, I felt a sudden revulsion toward the post and the person who made it. It was like someone showed me a graphic picture of something disgusting.
Now that I think about it, the revulsion I felt was a deeply Jewish revulsion toward the idea of redemptive suffering. I’ve written before about Jewish tradition rejecting the notion of redemptive suffering. We have a whole book in the Tanakh about the effect that suffering has on a person’s character. Sure, some people rise above their suffering even better than before, but some people get worse. We don’t put a lot of stock in the idea that the best way to get a person to evolve morally is to afflict them with pain and misery.
Furthermore, what if a person’s wrongdoing is rooted in pain and suffering? What good would adding more pain and suffering do? How does that repair the damage they’ve done? How does that heal the hurt they’ve caused? How does that bring more good to the world?