Not Gay Jared dijo:
as soon as she gets her memory back she just slaps them all away saying actually, I am a complete piece of shit, it's what's in my heart, and I'll die embracing it rather than try and make any amends. if anything, it shows that while people being damaged is sad, it doesn't ultimately excuse any harm they inflict on others because of it, and the charity and understanding of others is easily wasted on them. also the Tsukuyomi fight slaps
turn off that gat-dang setting that stops people from quoting you
everyone that yotsuyu snaps on is established in the narrative to also have been someone who wronged her, and the sequence in the midst of the trial again tries to paint her as a sympathetic, unfortunate character dealt a bad hand by life. while she ultimately doesn't ask for redemption or forgiveness, everything in the narrative around her - from gosetsu inexplicably going IT IS FATE THAT WE WERE SPARED (rather than 'it was bad writing') to Hien continuing to mulligan on difficult decisions to "sorry-your-voice-actor-got-murdered-now-you're-not-in-the-story" being completely correct about her and ignored for the rest of the game - all brews into a tacky sideplot that seems pretty keen on brushing over the majority of her characterization before the pratfall death.
No-one afterwards goes "shit, guess we were wrong in sparing the near-genocidal maniac due to a plot contrivance," everyone just packs up and stops talking about it. That is fundamentally the issue with its presentation: she's not redeemed in the Blizzard style, sure, but she's given a re-tread from "fun, campy genocidal maniac" to "well, she may be a genocidal maniac, but she's had a rough life. Don't judge her too hard, now."
as for Fordola returning, I assume it's because the chick who got handed the writing chair realized she was grossly underutilized, because the guy who wrote SB probably just thought she would make Zeno look even more super-special-awesome. Going from near-complete radio silence to her popping up both in the MSQ and the side-stories is a good sign at the least.
Yotsuyu's story is based in many Japanese folklore stories.
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It's never about how Yotsuyu can be redeemed but rather how he feels she deserves to be protected, especially in her state, as she's a product of her environment.
Doesn't Man of Steel have a bunch of biblical references stapled right into it? Don't know if those references make the movie any better, though.
While the mirror may be a nice little nod, there's fundamentally a bit of an issue when you try to suggest that a psychopathic sadist is 'evil born of innocence,' because it robs her of agency or responsibility for her own actions. It doesn't necessarily have to - you can both go "it's unfortunate that this happened, but you are still to be held responsible for what you did," FF14 just forgets that last part.
She might view herself as beyond redemption at the very end of the act, but it sure doesn't seem like anyone else - except Yugiri and a bunch of nameless peasants - wants to recognize her as responsible for her own actions. The suggestion that her life is some kind of cosmic, lamentable tragedy feels a little forced when you just whisked two separate characters away from certain death for no apparent reason other than to shoehorn the entire arc in. Doesn't help that it uses plot-convenient amnesia as lubrication, either.
Rather than "the campy sociopath gets her comeuppance and the samurai plagued with doubt and regret finds his redemption and peace" as the conclusion, we're left with "boy what a shame that those bad people made her into someone terrible oh and also gosetsu's just gonna go on a fun little vacation."
