Just got struck by divine inspiration
IMAGINE: a queerplatonic duo of Vigilante heroes. Sidekick and Hero.
And the hero’s one solid rule is to NOT forgive or forget, ever. Nobody should get to escape justice no matter how sad the story, right?
It’s kinda great for the most part: a lot of bad people who put on a “poor wittle old me” act that usually get let off the hook, or criminals that got forgotten end up getting dealt with.
But there’s also the problematic times where the hero isn’t exactly a hero, because she’s targeting a guy who had a bout of criminal activity when he was younger, but has since realised the wrongs in his ways, attempted to atone, and now it’s been 20 years and he has a wife and kids and a legitimate life or something. To her it just doesn’t matter, he’s still the guy, people can’t change, he’s still guilty and nothing can ever change it. Never forgive, right?
It gets to a point where it’s a flaw, a weird and pointless obsession in their practices. And all along her sidekick is her number one ally, her greatest supporter and enthusiast for the ideology (which probably didn’t help with the hero’s obsession and lack of flexibility with the no forgiveness/redemption ideology).
However, after years and years of this together, she ends up learning the sidekick actually had a horrible past of their own. They did terrible things. And joining the Hero? Refusing to forgive people no matter how hard they try? Trying SO hard to get rid of terrible people, regardless of anything, was their own attempt at redemption but they also can’t possibly bring themselves to believe they’re worthy or capable of it, and ended up projecting it, and it’s why they fell so in love with the hero’s ideology, because it affirmed their guilt, but also gave them targets to turn their self loathing onto.
But Hero, having seen up close and personal just what kind of person her sidekick was- not a bad person by any means, and her number 1 ally in the cause, forces her to face an uncomfortable truth that yknow, maybe people can redeem themselves and change and atone for who they used to be if Sidekick did all those bad things, but is still the best person they know. Obviously she doesn’t come around fast, but she does in the end. and side by side they learn that people can change and be forgiven, and in turn sidekick can learn to forgive themselves too for who they were and what they did.
Tl;Dr: Person who doesn’t believe people can be redeemed meets person who doesn’t think they can be redeemed and they both accidentally bounce off eachother in the most unhealthy way possible reinforcing a dysfunctional ideal until something breaks and it turns out their journey to healing is pretty complimentary to eachothers where one learns people can be redeemed and one learns they can redeem themself.