Caine Soren is, at first glance, the main antagonist of GONE. He isn’t the cause of the FAYZ, but he is the first to try and take control and manipulate the inhabitants. Caine uses force and manipulation, and is fine with even murdering to get what he wants- which is power.
He spends the first book taking control of Perdido Beach, and through the whole series is obsessed with taking control, even declaring himself the ‘king’ in PLAGUE. He murders a kid he deems to be a 'traitor’ directly after he crowns himself, to scare everyone and show them he isn’t above murder, or using his powers for evil.
When you contrast Caine and a character like Drake, Caine almost seems good- while Drake is a misogynistic psychopath, Caine is a sociopath who thinks he is in love with Diana, who will do whatever he has to to get what he wants- including threatening the girl he claims to love.
But Caine is not good. The events of LIGHT may make him seem like he was redeemed, when he sacrificed himself to be a human vessel for NEMESIS, to fight the gaiaphage.
But Caine is not sorry for his actions. He doesn’t regret taking lives, or threatening hundreds of people, hurting others for his own gain. The only thing Caine regrets is hurting Diana, and it’s easy to mix up Caine sacrificing himself for his girlfriend, between Caine feeling guilty for his actions throughout the series. Maybe his sacrifice was for Diana, so it was selfless, but it wasn’t redemption, because he wasn’t sorry. He did not regret his actions of murder or torture. He didn’t care about anyone else in the town, his sacrifice wasn’t for the greater good- it was for Diana.
Diana Ladris is a redeemable character. While she never takes a life, she is complacent while Caine threatens and controls the kids of Perdido Beach, and is shown to be cold and uncaring in the earlier books, even selfish.
However, after her cannibalism in HUNGER, we see a huge shift in Diana. First is her guilt- she is disgusted with herself, and even contemplates suicide, though Caine won’t let her die, for his own selfish reasons. Eventually, she somewhat passively joins the “heroes”- Sam, Edilio, Astrid- and is shown to be fearful for what will happen once her baby is born.
In the ending of LIGHT, Diana mentions she has been attending therapy, and that it has helped. Diana did some horrible things, including but not limited to watching children being tortured and killed by her boyfriend, and eating another kid after he committed suicide- but she is sorry for these actions. She has remorse- and immense guilt shown in her nightmares following having eaten part of Panda. Which is what ultimately shows the biggest difference between Diana and Caine- Diana is redeemable, and Caine is not. Both are young, and reckless, and think they are in love, but the truth is any relationship like Caine and Diana’s, built off the imbalance and manipulation and threat that has touched the relationship over its course, would be toxic to anyone particularly a 15 year old.
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