SALEM AIN'T A VICTIM, SHE'S A VILLAIN.
Okay this is going to be a long post, but I need to put this out there. I see a lot of posts about the gods being wrong, and Salem not deserving what she got, she's a victim, etc. I don't think there is a lot of understanding about the SEVERE weight behind Salem's crazy selfish actions.
If you could bring back somebody that you loved who has passed away, would you?
The answer is almost certainly going to be yes from anyone reading this. So I understand why you would think that Salem's request is a reasonable one, because you would do it. But that is exactly the problem.
Salem did not exist in a vacuum. She wasn't the only person on the planet who'd suffered a loss. To lose their only family or lover or friend. Hell she probably wasn't even the first to ask the gods to bring someone back. Salem lost a loved one, but instead of dealing with those feelings of loss and grief THAT EVERYONE ELSE HAS TO ACCEPT TOO, she chose to walk directly to a god and say "Hey! Elevate me above every other human being that you created and bring MY loved one back."
And God said no. Politely even. Explained it to her and everything. And she screams at him! That BY ITSELF is a execution from most other gods in every form of media and religion. But he just says to "let him rest" and gently removes her.
THIS is where Salem becomes the villain in my eyes. She CONSCIOUSLY goes to the other God and purposely deceived him to get her way. The other god sees it happen and they almost fight.
Why? Because this is what the Brother Gods agreed NOT to do! They both KNOW they're fallible creatures. They've been fighting for EVER and finally they come to an agreement on something. FINALLY they set aside the animosity because they no longer wanted to fight. Then Salem comes and almost starts ANOTHER round of these brothers destroying creation. Directly tampering with the delicate balance of the worlds current reality.
You can tell this is the case too, because as soon as the Destruction God realized he'd been tricked, he immediately apologized and took back (ASHED) Ozma himself.
THIS is why Salem was punished. She could have destroyed the world with her selfishness. But EVEN THEN the gods tried to teach her. Harshly, yes, but again she almost destroyed the world. All they asked was that she learn the importance of life and death (i.e. accept that Ozma was gone) and they made her immortal so she couldn't take the easy way out and just kill herself to be with him.
Instead she CONVINCES PART OF THE WORLD TO TRY AND KILL THEIR GODS.
The Destruction God was so disappointed...he had finally done something good that he could be proud of and gave humans an amazing gift, and they TRIED TO KILL HIM WITH THAT GIFT!
He assumed that if one human could cause this much strife than maybe they had failed. But they STILL didn't leave the decision to themselves. They brought back Ozma and said, "Hey, we don't know for sure if we can trust you guys to exist anymore, and we're gonna leave. However if you can bring humans together and prove that we're wrong to doubt you than we'll come back. Otherwise we'll have to erase this failure.
Then they gave him the CHOICE to do so. Which is really what it comes down to.
Salem had every opportunity to make better choices. She could have chose to grieve and move on. She could have chose to listen and accept that she was wrong either time she was punished. Every action the gods took was a direct response to her actions. She's directly responsible for the fall of humanity and her own curse.
TL;DR Pretending Salem isn't at fault here is like pretending you don't need to get whooped when you break somethin after yo momma told you to stop playin in the house.
