(disclaimer: I don't like isbeth, you can find a few posts of me bashing her. I am just here rumbling and trying to analyze a character)
I saw a post that was about how one of the last things Isbeth did was to choose Poppy over Malec by choosing to murder Malec and not Poppy during the final battle. Some comments said that they believed this was because Malec was more vulnerable than Poppy and he was within her reach etc, personally I think Isbeth chose to kill Malec because she could not bring herself to murder Poppy. After all, one of the intentions of the book is to let the reader understand that in some twisted, sick, and unhealthy way, Isbeth does love both of her daughters, especially Poppy (or at least I got that feeling while reading it).
“Good” and “Bad” Characters:
Isbeth is a very complex character, and that is a thing that I always have to give Jen. I might have my critiques on her writing but she creates this complicated characters that are not pure evil and that they are neither good people. It is not only Isbeth, for example, Sera is a murderer and a liar, yes she had her reasons but that does not take away the fact that she murdered, manipulate people, and lied. The same goes for Casteel who murdered god knows how much people and kidnapped a girl. Malik who again god knows how many he murdered and tried to murder the protagonist of the story when she was a child. Nyktos who can be very cruel and revengeful when he wants to. Kieran who followed Casteel to kidnap poppy and again god knows how many he murdered. Eloana who had a man embroiled in a cave for centuries and again! god knows how many she killed. Almost every single character is like this, even Poppy. She was absolutely ready to end every single innocent mortal in the entire kingdom of Solis only to get to Casteel when she believed that he was being hurt. The point is that despite they want the common good (to save the realms) and are "the good ones" they are not exclusively good. They have done awful things and it is clear that they are capable of great evil if they want to and especially if their loved ones need them. They are "good people" because the reader understands their actions and empathizes with their stories, therefore they become the good side, the heroes. Nevertheless, in this book universe, even the villains have a backstory which makes them much more complex (which I personally love). Isbeth is not the exception to this, she is evil and at the same time, she is not.
Isbeth; both sides of the same coin:
Isbeth had an awful life. She fell in love with a man that would not leave his wife for her, was rejected to be ascended, was murdered and brought back to life, was persecuted and had to fly the kingdom she lived in, and her son was murdered when was still a babe, she believed that her heartmate was murdered and then the ones that once were her people (those who live in atlantia) absolutely hated her for centuries after she was turned into the villain on their story. Her life was completely awful but there is when it takes a turn that is when she meets Jalara and later becomes the Blood Queen and the ruler of Solis. Here is the is when Isbeth goes from some type of victim to a victimizer and she is evil. She couldn't care less for what happens to the people in Solis and she forces the to give their children “the acention” even when she knows first-hand how painful that is for a parent, she also became the fear of the people of Atlantia. Moreover, she used and abused Ires, Malik and Casteel. Letʼs not forget how she referred to Malik as a thing/a property and not a person, and also when Casteel tells Poppy how Isbeth and the lords and ladies of Solies made him believe he was more of a thing, an object than a person. Last but not least, Isbeth might not have killed Poppy but she did murder Millicent, the daughter she claimed to love. However, she was not always a terrible person. Isbeth has dim glimpses of humanity throughout the series. Most of them come from vague memories that Poppy has of her childhood, for example when Isbeth used to brush her hair, or take care of her wounds when she used to tell Popy how beautiful she was, etc Poppy felt safe with the person she knew as queen Ileana, she knows Ileana would protect hr from the cruel duke and would not let anyone else like the priest or the lord abuse her. Another glimpse of humanity is when Isbeth ascended Ian because of Poppy so she would not lose her brother or the fact that she took care of Ian even after Coralenaʼs betrayal to her. Despite Isbeth being a monster, she also was not always or exclusively a monster. In some odd, sickening, and twisted way, she loved Poppy and Millicent. Is that love what led her to kill Malec or to do Primal magic to bring back Millicent. She loved her daughters but it was so clouded by hatred and centuries of resentment that it became something suffocating and horrible.
Do I think Jennifer will give Isbeth redemption?
I think and hope not. Jennifer may have settled Isbeth under this light of “oh she cares about poppy” and for that teaser that she posted of FBAA5 it can also be seen that Isbeth is being tortured by Sera, therefore she is a victim again. However, I do not think this is to put her under the light of innocence or to prepare for redemption, I believe that this is just because, as I said before, Jen writes characters whose personalities are more than just good or evil. Isbeth can be good by not murdering Poppy and evil for all the other things she did, Sera can be good for all the good things she does but evil when someone hurts her family the way Isbeth did. I believe that it is just part of the characters and story development. (Isbeth can not get redemption, there should never be redemption for a rappist. That would be one hell of a reason to drop the series)
Do I think isbeth deserves redemption?
No. No matter what she did at the very end of her life, how much she is suffering fein the abbys, how much she actually loved her daughters, etc. She made the lives of hundreds miserable and some she ruined forever even if they made it out alive.
She is an interesting character tho.
