Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5279400-20171221060603/@comment-24593235-20171231234105

Aine1989 wrote: I am wary of Drizzy and Gothel having redemption arcs because let's be real here; redemptions on this show are either hit or miss. They can write great redemption arcs involving real character growth. They can also write redemption arcs where the victims are blamed for what the villain did or it's all brushed under the rug because family and "she went 4 days without murder". I think over the course of the show I've just lowered my expectations and learned to view Once Upon a Time differently than I do other series. If I like the villain and I feel bad for them, regardless of how much I think they truly deserve it, I'm probably going to root for their happiness. I don't think Regina, Rumple, Hook or Zelena truly deserve happy endings, but I still root for them to get happy endings anyway simply because I like the characters. They've showed as much remorse for their wrongdoings as the writers care for them to show, the heroes have been written to accept that, and the actors play it believably enough, in my opinion, for me to believe it.

It also comes down to what the writers want and how they've written the storyline. For those villains, they always include a side to them that's meant for us to feel bad for them, usually through their flashbacks. Regina suffered Cora's abuse and the loss of Daniel; Rumple was a coward and lost his wife and son; Hook lost his brother and the woman he loved; Zelena was abandoned, later abused, and all alone. Despite the horrendous acts these characters have committed, the writers rely on the tragic parts of their stories to make them more sympathetic for the audience.

Steering this back to Drizella and Gothel, the writers seem to want us to feel bad for Drizella. We saw how poor her relationship with Lady Tremaine was - he mommy issues and how she clings onto any mother-figure she can find. 7x04 and 7x06 gave us scenes where we got to see Ivy/Drizella in a far more vulnerable state, and I think that's the writers' way of telling us she's not all bad. Is that the best way to go about it? Not really, considering she's still doing some pretty bad things, but the writers don't seem to care about that. The writers wanna have their cake and eat it too, but I, for one, don't mind it in this case simply because I like the character.

For Gothel, meanwhile, the writers haven't really peppered in any of those more vulnerable scenes. We've just been shown this twisted woman who shows no remorse for anything she's done without so much as even a tragic backstory to go along with it. Perhaps one is coming in 7B, but I personally hope not. I don't mind them redeeming villains, especially when I like said villain, but they don't need to redeem all of their villains. I think Drizella serves well as being the misguided one who eventually finds her way back to the light while Gothel acts as the true threat of the season, meant to be defeated.