Soooooo, last time I made a post about Catra I compared and contrasted her with Gloreth from the recent film/adaptation Nimona as I felt it was a good example of a when a villain was truly beyond redemption vs someone who still had a chance to turn their lives around. Just one problem Gloreth wasn't the Director and the two are only related.
I don't know how I made such an obvious mistake but I did. Somehow I thought that the Gloreth had gained immortality even though the film made it VERY obvious that this wasn't the case and before I knew it I was kinda rolling with the idea that these two where the same person. This is far and away not the worst time the word, "Oops" has been used (I think the world nearly getting destroyed by nuclear weapons due to a bear trespassing should be at the top of that list) but for me it's certainly one of the more embracing.
So, consider this a Take 2 on that with a more appropriate character who is WAAAY to easily forgiven after all the shit she pulled which included, but not unlimited to, Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Murder, Attempted Murder, Regicide and Inadvertently getting God Know how many people killed after she blackmailed a Vampire and said vampire found out. And if you play your cards right she can get away with all of this thanks to her sister over looking all of it if she just admits that's she's sorry.
I'm of course talking about Syanna from the Witcher 3 DLC Blood and Wine. It's rare for me to say this but this is honestly one of those few cases where I actually think the Bittersweet Ending (where both Syanna and Dettlaff die and Anna Henrietta throws you in jail (only to be saved by best Bisexual Boy Dandelion)) as the better ending because to be perfectly frank, both characters crossed the Moral Event Horizon and showed no real regret for their actions.
But just focusing on Syanna right now I found the character to be immensely unlikable and her more positive traits are all Told to use instead of Shown to us. We're told that she's a good person, we're told that she and the Duchess were very close as kids, we're told that those she wanted the knights she had murdered dead only because they abused and beat during exile and we're told that she still loves her sister. But that's just it we're TOLD all of this.
And what little we see of those she had murdered doesn't do anything to back up anything she claims. Sir Milton de Peyrac-Peyran is shown to be helping innocent people against bandits attacking their village, de la Croix is nothing but polite and friendly to Dettlaff who felt so horrible about killing him that he cut off the arm that did the killing. Even the Duchess, for all her faults, is mostly nothing but helpful to use until the third act of the DLC and in the end, as we learn, Anna Henrietta was the ONLY family member who tried to help Syanna and WILL murder her if given the chance unless you REALLY Go out of your way to redeem her. If you can even call it redemption because it basically boils down to "Take the words of a compulsive liar and murderer that she's the victim in all this."
I've said it before and I'll say it again Redemption is defied by a character recognizing that they have done wrong and wishing to atone for that wrong. Syanna does neither of these, she believes that she is the victim in this and goes to murder people and we're suppose to take her side in this... because! I hated this with Kylo Ren and I hate it here.
Again, Catra does a lot of horrible things but she does what she can to makeup for it and shows regret for it. Look at her in Season 4, she's running the Horde, she has all the power she could ever want and she's shown that she is a force to be reckoned with. And yet she regrets her actions, she has nightmares about opening the portal and betraying Entrapta. She tries, in her own way, to apologize to Scorpia after mistreating her and at the end she just waits for death and even saves Etheria from Horde Prime.
By the end of Season 4 Catra is not the Villain anymore but just a broken girl who has nothing left and knows that she has only herself to blame. Syanna is unchanged, she's asshole at the start and an asshole at the end but just and asshole who has a Ruler for a sister to get out of jail. And no I don't think her going to confront Dettlaff was her attempt to atone for her mistakes because again, she's a God Damn Liar and I honestly think she thought she could just manipulate him again to get herself out of the mess she herself put created. Just look at how she talks about Dettlaff if you ask her, she speaks of him as an unthinking animal who she had no real feelings for and then as a tool to use in her quest for Revenge. Dettlaff's actions in the game are deplorable and truly evil (I mean he's basically throwing a tantrum and declaring war on all of Toussaint because his Ex-Girlfriend lied to him which results in several thousands of innocent people getting killed (even Regis will stand with Geralt against Dettlaff because he knows his friend has gone to far)) but that the fact of the matter his there would be no problem if Syanna hadn't manipulated and blackmailed him in the first place.
In the end Catra learns she is in the wrong and wants to be better and Syanna is just an ass who cannot be trusted and willingly endangers an entire kingdom to get back at the one person who actually wanted to help her.
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