there is literally someone on your post trying to argue that Oliver only killed one person. I've seen multiple people argue that Oliver isn't responsible for Felix or Venetia's deaths because he "just left the razor blades" or "didn't force him to drink the poison". I think people are really attracted to the obsessive elements of Oliver but they want to moralize him to themselves so they try to whitewash everything he's done. like, they want to lust after the bad guy but they don't want him to *be* a bad guy. it is silly to hate Farleigh for those reasons, I agree, but I think that's where some of the hate for Farleigh is coming from. there have been lots of comments about how Farleigh "deserved worse" or was "lucky" to get away with only losing his family but not his life. so to me a lot of the malice seems to be coming from people who want Oliver to be the true victim and put Farleigh in a malicious context to try and flip their narrative positions.
I blocked a few but I ended up pretty much leaving the fandom and tag cause it was hard to find people who enjoyed canon Oliver not fanon Oliver.
They're not absolving Oliver of blame or even whitewashing him, it's just speculating on whether or not he truly was the cause of their death. Oliver might have only actually killed ONE person but he had full intent to kill ALL THREE. I really don't consider it trying to moralise his action because he DID attempt murder even if he wasn't the CAUSE of Venetia and Felix's deaths, he still TRIED to kill them. Trying to kill a person vs Succeeding at killing a person really is not all that morally different.
Emerald left it vague on purpose, there is no real evidence of what actually happened, aside from Elsepth's death we never got to really see how Veneita and Felix died. All this speculation is just viewers trying to fill in the blanks with their own ideas and theories, and that's the fun of watching films! you can interpret it in many different ways
so to me a lot of the malice seems to be coming from people who want Oliver to be the true victim and put Farleigh in a malicious context
You're literally conflating two different things together, but okay you can feel what you feel. Oliver is a victim of a situation he himself caused but that doesn't mean he isn't the villain of someone else's story. There can be multiple perspectives of a situation.
And personally, I don't even think we know that much about canon Oliver at all, he hides so much from himself and the audience. But this reply is getting really long already, so eh.