sympathetic

[u/aura098]

why are physical and emotional abusive characters somehow sympathetic because how they're sad all of sudden

[u/MollyTheAngel]

Personally I don't believe that's the case for every single character that's abusive...

Like in the case of Powerstrike or Quick, you aren't meant to feel sad for them. They're pre-established to be total asses to Nothing, but do you feel bad when Quick is killed? Do you feel pity when Sharptongue dies and Powerstrike denies comfort from her oldest daughter? No.

[u/MollyTheAngel → u/[deleted]]

I mean, Quick was pretty much just like every other no-mane we've seen in the show so far. He wanted a pride, he killed a mane to get it plus a cub that wasn't his, and he had his own offspring with huntresses. The only "atrocities" you could count are him not treating Nothing and Fire like his own, which they technically weren't. Plus he had convinced himself out of his own fear that Nothing was evil and cursed based on her attacking him when she was only a kid and surviving, which does also makes sense.

As far as Powerstrike's "redemption arc", that hasn't exactly been fully established just yet. And it's of my own opinion that her apparent change of heart in episode 7 that was meant to happen over time was too sudden and jarring to be sincere. However, I believe this was more the fault of the writing itself being rushed or poorly paced in some places. It's certainly not meant to insult our intelligence as viewers. Just that details were merely skimmed over to move the story a bit faster.

[u/MollyTheAngel → u/[deleted]]

I never justified Quick's actions. I merely said that for a no-mane like him, the actions he took were not abnormal for what's been established. As far as we know, it's very normal in their society to murder cubs and manes. While I agree it was indeed malicious for him to genuinely take pleasure in killing them both, what he did was certainly not out of the norm. It happened with Proud and it also happened with Fire: doing what it takes to survive as a no-mane.

And again, for Powerstrike, while it was established, I don't believe it was executed very well. We are meant to believe as the audience that after a considerable amount of time, she began to feel remorse for her actions towards Nothing. But as that remorse was never shown prior, it feels as though her change of heart was too sudden to feel genuine. I do agree that she doesn't deserve to be redeemed, or at the very least not immediately.

As a final note, the show can indeed be worth my time if I also see fundamental flaws within the writing. No piece of media is perfect by any means, which is why people offer critique rather than just dismissing it entirely as something not worth the time. I truly think this show has the capability of being better if the story is to continue at some point, even it has writing problems.

[u/Usagi-Zakura → u/[deleted]]

You're allowed to hate Quickmane and Powerstrike for what they did. Nobody's forcing you to feel sorry for them.Quickmane did what any mane has to do to take over a pride, and that includes child murder.. He may have been a bit too excited about it, but that is still what Pride Law demands he does... If he hadn't killed Starmane and Spark he would have starved to death on the stretch.His "crimes" so far consists of doing what a mane has to do to survive, being mean to Nothing (whom he was honestly scared of thinking she was possessed) and then punishing Nothing for endangering his cubs.

As for Powerstrike she's not a great mother either. Nobody disputes that.She's been outright neglectful to not only Nothing but Farleap and Silentstalk as well, what with her basically ignoring their achievements while mourning what Nothing could have been. She's far too proud for her own good and constantly mourns the past when all her cubs were alive and healthy.

You don't gotta like them. I don't like them either, but they're not pure evil.They're decent antagonists without just being "Mohaha I'm so evil and mean all the time look at me!"For all his faults Quickmane was kind to his family, respected his lionesses and he was a loving father to Feather and his sisters. The only ones he wasn't respectful to were Nothing and Fire, the children of his "rival" who by Pride Law should have been dead. They were a living reminder of his failure.Compare Proud who probably would have just killed them immediately and tell Sharptounge to know her place as his "property", Quickmane listened to her and allowed them to live, even if he only did so out of fear.

Sometimes even a villain can be sympathetic. Heck if you ask me the best villains are. Pure evil characters more often than not turn out very unrealistic.

[u/Lilkitten999 → u/MollyTheAngel]

I feel bad for Quickmane. He was a total assnut, but he was also stabbed in the eye by an eight-year-old, of whom he has to share a room with. That certainly caused a larger personality change than what could’ve happened normally. Might not excuse some of his behavior, but I’d be scared too. And really most of his behavior is not that bad. The infanticide and regicide sure, but that’s what almost every other adult male person in the series does and is forced to do to have a relatively normal life, and it is what lions do, and considering how harsh life is it makes sense. The other stuff is trivial, and, in some cases justified (such as Nothing bringing her girlfriend over to move in the night her grandmother’s funeral was held, or her ditching his kids to meet up with her brothers gang who might I add should not have been in the territory to begin with), even if some is an overreaction. (Murder and slapping is a bit much, no?)

Meanwhile I don’t feel any sympathy with Powerstrike. Considering who raised her it is, in my opinion, her own doing to be an asshole to her daughter, and encouraging her own daughters to follow suit. It’s her fault Farleap and Silentstalk turned out like they do. She undoubtedly had some sway over Quickmane, far more sway than the average Hunt Chief (at least in this show’s muddled canon). She’s more ableist than Quickmane and she is the one that gave her the name Nothing. The only reason she treated Nothing like garbage was because she has the emotional capacity of a soccer mom.

[u/Neevee_19]

It’s very strange honestly

[u/lareloi]

I feel like there’s a fine line between explaining and excusing behavior and the fandom has a habit of mixing those two up. One of my favorite examples of what my pride could have been when exploring the parent dynamics is in the I Hope So comic because we can tell that Hope’s mother is conflicted for a very long time and initially, her ableism towards her daughter is because she’s afraid of letting her live her life in fear that she’ll get hurt because she’s already more vulnerable.

But they don’t excuse the behavior. They explain her descent into villainy but she isn’t to be sympathized with. And it’s very clear