Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33754845-20190919204913/@comment-24018437-20190920074454

Kaitryona Acheron wrote: Raven is the best kind of villain: a sympathetic one. She commits atrocities (e.g. killing the spring maiden, neglecting/endangering her daughter, conspiring to kill her brother), but not out of evil intent. Her motivations are more complicated and gray than, say, Cinder's. She also balances her evil deeds with moments of altruism.

So, while she's not wholly bad, she's still bad, and she's still a villain.

See, a lot of people say that. That she takes no pleasure, or that her actions come from a good place...But that isn't that true. She's doing these things to keep a group of people alive who murder, pillage, steal, rape, rob and do shady deals like human trafficking around the kingdom. A kingdom which, from the looks of it, has plenty of fertile land to support people so they don't resort to banditry.

Saying Raven is sympathic is like saying a crime boss who does horrible things in a detective film is sympathic. She doesn't do anything sympathic, her goal isn't sympathic, she doesn't say anything sympathic, the people she's trying to keep alive aren't sympathic...So no, she's not a sympathic or even complicated villain. She's, aside from her relation with Yang and being the Spring Maiden, pretty much just a thug.