beta
I feel that given more time, Duke could have had some sort of redemption. Not full 180, but a change. And tbh even with all his bad, it was still possible for him to become some kind of antihero even — but like his master said, his mindset ruined him. That said, I don’t remember his master once telling him this before in a way that wasn’t bad for his mental health. So the weight of those word’s didn’t hit for me.
The vibe is: “That’s what you get” after watching him descend? Huh.
I’m not happy Duke is gone because nothing changes whether he is here or not. He’s not a Zuko or an Azula. We weren’t given some traumatic backstory to relate to him. He’s like a stand-in character that just shows us how everyday villains are made in this world. Bc any other villain could have been him. He almost doesn’t matter because even the top ten around him seem to care less whether he lives or dies.
This is a terrible world awakeners live in. And I’m almost impressed that the writer never backtracked on that just to make us comfortable.
That said, because we spent so much screen time with him, ending his story just like that is dissatisfying.