Everyone take out your notebooks, @autistickiramman is teaching a masterclass on how to disagree with somebody like a regular, civilized person, instead of being a raging cunt like that previous anon was. Now clap.
I do agree with you that Caitlyn distasteful actions could have been way worse. Like, despite by slight critique of Caitlyn, I do adore her as a character and a person, and she's in my top 3 arcane characters overall. But I do also think that season 2 had an insane downgrade in writing quality that affected all the characters, including Caitlyn.
In her grief and anger, she definitely could have been way worse than what she was. I'm just a bit pissed off, because season two hypes her up as this incredibly intelligent and morally strong individual, maybe a little bit ignorant on the class front, but still a good person overall. Only for season two to just not follow through with that.
I do think it makes sense narratively for Caitlyn to kind of lose her marbles after literally psychological torture and the loss of a parent, but I think the execution paints her in a poor light. And a big factor of this is how rushed season two was.
Instead of adding nuance to her grief and displaying it in a realistic way, they only manifest it into scathing anger in order to push the plot forward. The first episode of season two gives you high hopes, showing her confusion, unsteadiness and sorrow, but then we don't see any of that again. I think it would add many more layers to Caitlyn character to have a few cases of her being pressured into making a decision, panicking and temporarily option out of it, wanting to think on the topic a big more, to show the confusion and unsteadiness is still there. Or have her be alone at some point and just break down into tears when she's in a private place and allows herself to be vulnerable, to show that the sorrow is still there.
Instead, they only focus on her anger, because it's the emotion that pushes the plot forward. It's like the writers just say "She's angry so she's making ruthless decisions. That's all there is to see here folks." about a character that is supposed to be so deep and nuanced, only because they can't be bothered to spend five minutes to give Caitlyn a few more human emotions other than hostility. Which in turn paints Caitlyn as a more cruel version of herself, rather than the multilayered girl we got to know in season one, and it makes it harder to want to sympathize with her.
To that problem contributes her rushed redemption arc. Again, the writers couldn't be bothered to pay more attention to her. To clean up her reputation as fast as possible, they don't address the lasting consequences of her actions. Nobody talks about the people that might have gotten sick or killed from the Grey in the streets. Nobody talks about how, despite asking Ambessa to reign it in with the violence, Caitlyn doesn't check to confirm if her order is being followed or not.
Caitlyn does things, but then those things don't have a lasting narrative impact. Because if they had a lasting narrative impact, she would have to go back and try to fix, or at least acknowledge them somehow. And that would require the writers to be good writers and to want to write Caitlyn well. And they don't wanna do that, because they don't want to write any character well in season two.
Between the lack of layers in her grief, and the lack of impact her actions have, Caitlyn is reduced to a very shallow character. She doesn't feel that much, and the things that she does feel, other than anger, don't last that long. She does a lot of things, but the things she does don't matter that much, because they don't have that big of an impact anyways.
So all we're left with that is substantial about Caitlyn her anger and her mistakes. That's what the writers give us about her that last more than one episode. So if Caitlyn fans, in an attempt to defend her, refuse to admit that her anger made her act irrational or try to act like all of her mistakes were justified, one way or another, Caitlyn goes from being a multifaceted person to being reduced to a nothingburger character. And I don't want that. Because I like her. Not the concept of her being always righteous, correct and justified in everything, that her stans seem to adore. Her. Flaws and everything.
I wish her own fanbase treated her better and allowed her to not be perfect, instead of removing all the aspects of her characterization in their attempts to rub her reputation squeaky clean. I wish the writers cared about her enough to make her substantial instead of stripped her of her nuance and keeping only the bare minimum of her that was necessary for her to be a plot device. I wish we saw her feel more sorrow, more confusion, more guilt, try harder to make up for things and earn forgiveness, instead of it just being handed to her.
Caitlyn season one is so deeply complex. She may lack class consciousness, but she genuinely wants to help. Caitlyn season two isn't driven by her morals at all. It's almost like they only have her resist Ambessa a tiny bit just to say "she's not fully evil, see?" but just like with everything else about her, those morals aren't substantial either.
Her resistance to Ambessa doesn't actually have an impact, since Ambessa continues to do her thing. Caitlyn doesn't make sure to check her order is being followed, which undermines her moment of resistance, making it look flimsy at best. Even after her redemption, doesn't seem to display much guilt or remorse other than one conversation with Jinx. In fact, in that conversation, Caitlyn is once again reduced to a plot device. She's more there to say things that will make Jinx reply. She's there as a tool so the writers can show how Jinx feels. Caitlyn doesn't actually get any resolution for her guilt in that conversation. Or at any other point. Yet another example of the writers not caring enough to make Caitlyn be substantial, and reducing her to a plot device instead.
I'm gonna stop rambling now because I don't have a point to make. This isn't leading to a conclusion. I'm just venting about how I like Caitlyn but I don't like the way she was executed in season two. I'm just really disappointed, because season one builds up something great. A well written, substantial character, that actually impacts the story in ways that last longer than an episode. Season two falls flat in comparison. And Caitlyn stans are making it even worse by trying to justify everything she does.
I guess that's the whole point of this post, it's me standing on my sandbox asking Caitlyn stans to PLEASE let Caitlyn be something NUANCED even if that nuanced person is flawed. Let your favourite character be held accountable a little bit, it's not gonna hurt her feelings, I promise.