There are, like, a lot of very good reasons this couldnât be done in an animated childrenâs show, but a plot beat Iâve always wanted to see in an animated show is that youâve got, like, the typical animated show set-up, plucky and idealistic rebels against a massive and nebulous evil allegorical empire, youâve got all the archetypical characters who show up in shows like that, youâve got obvious implications atrocities are being committed by the bad guys but you never hone in on it beyond the general signifiers like burning buildings in the background. (yes I am thinking about She-Ra here.)
Youâve got your peridot type or your Scorpia type or potentially your zuko-type. The clearly-antagonistic-but-obviously-engineered-to-be-likeable-enough-to-get-a-redemption-arc type of character. You have them slowly go through the motions of realizing the empire is bad, or realizing the power of friendship, or having a moment of connection with the protagonists and realizing that they arenât Thriving ⢠under the oppressive system.
 So they do what these sorts of characters usually do and defect to the protagonists side, and the protagonists chalk up another win for team principle and compassion, and they accept the defector with open, if cautious, armsâŚ
And then a supporting character pulls out a gun and shoots the would-be redemptee in the head, because their entire family was in one of the buildings that the redemptee set on fire in the background during a previous one-off episode.Â
And, to be clear, this wouldnât just be a mean gag or a one-off commentary on audience sympathies or out-of-universe discourse on redemption arcs. Episodes going forward would deal with the fallout of such a nakedly ruthless act of retaliation.
 Itâs now next to impossible to deal with would-be defectors in good faith anymore because itâs been proven the heroes canât stop acts of vengeance in their own homes, its not clear who among the heroes is even extending the olive branch in good faith to begin with or if it was always a trap. If things ever turn in the heroes favor, Bad guys are now escalating the stakes and fighting to the last man, because they know they arenât gonna be forgiven if the nicest person in their ranks couldnât be forgiven. Thereâs internal political tension about what to do with the assassin (nothing, they need the manpower) and how to go about disavowing the action when half the group doesnât even want to disavow it- the redemptee might have been nice, but they also burned buildings full of innocent people, a lot of people are just glad they werenât the ones who had to pull the trigger. Friendships end over this.
A lot of narratives about forgiveness in these kinds of shows are more about how itâs interpersonally healthy and beneficial to forgive and let people grow. I want to see a narrative about how thatâs also, like, politically the only path forward if you donât want to lock your society into an Orestian blood bath, which I have always found to be a much more compelling argument against revenge in general, just as, like, a rule utilitarianism thing. I want a bittersweet ending thatâs essentially tracible back to that cathartic, unretractable decision to kill that one likable flunky.
Of course, it would be very difficult to set this up without telegraphing that this is the kind of show that does That Kind Of Thing, and the actual killing canât really happen until season two at the earliest, so Iâm having a hard time figuring out a way to execute this where it would maintain its punch.
