Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160610032527/@comment-27885419-20160614151425

Morality is a confusing topic and it's hard to judge, 'cause we all are humans. What seems justified to me may not seem so to someone else. Taking the Robin Hood issue for example, he steals from the rich to help the poor, he considers his act justified. But to the person he's stealing from, it isn't, because Robin is taking something that doesn't belong to him and is causing an inconvenience. To the original owner, the theft can hardly seem justified.

Again, for many villains, we may feel that the heroes should just go and kill them and rid the world of their trouble. But then again, killing people for their convenience is what earned our villains that title.

In the end, it'd difficult to decide whether it's the intention or the action (and consequences) which matters more. Taking just the action into consideration belittles the motivation behind it, and forgiving someone based on the motivation can be equivalent to forgetting their actions and their impacts.

The show gives importance to redemption, but mostly the redemption is based on one action or incident, and everything else is  forgotten after that. Regina decided to change for Henry's sake and has stopped being decidedly 'evil' from then on, so everyone made a forgive and forget pact and all her crimes were now overlooked. Hook, in Baelfire's honour, decided to save his family, and fell for Emma along the way, and from then on tried to become 'better man' for her, which again implies not being decidedly evil. Team Hero again welcomed him with open arms, and past actions were more or less overlooked. Zelena here chose sister's love and the 'right' thing over her love interest who wanted to rule the world, and hence, she joins Team Hero as well, despite being certifiably mentally unstable(I personally think she's the one who needs a few sessions with Archie the most, of course with a anti-magic bracelet on her wrist for Archie's sake). Worst is Rumple, he reverts to darkness time and again, and is forgiven every time by Belle and if alive Neal (the only ones that matter to him) because of something along the lines of 'He's dying'(Seriously, Rumple and Hook are solid competitors in the 'staying alive' or 'defying death' contest, both being nearly same age and approx ten times everyone else's, and regularly near-dying and coming back to life).

Anyway, morality if we go into it deep is a difficult topic, and yes, as a role model to children, the 'heroes' here aren't perfect. But thing is, perfect isn't realistic.

Mostly, I find that the show takes intention into account over action, and hence there's a 'forgive and forget' every time one of the grey character has a change of heart.