adding @Pablo.C.S 's post to this discussion to keep the flow going
"I recently read a thread asking how to redeem a villain character, instead of responding, as usual I thought it better to write a more comprehensive essay on the topic and make said essay, more accessible to new readers.
Right off the bat, redeeming a villain is very subjective, first it must be defined what a villain is, I personally prefer the term antagonist, since it's typically the role a villain takes, (posing a threat against the protagonist and/or their interests) and the term is morally grey.
Morality is in itself very subjective in general.
So to "redeem" it depends entirely on how much you perceive said character of being a "villain", it also depends on the reader to determine how much of an arc that character needs to have before they become redeemed.
But if you want a guide, detached from moral philosophy (and the ambiguities that come with it) on how to redeem a character, than here's a couple of tips.
whilst imperfect, these points seem to work well with audiences, in general:
give villain a tragic backstory: Tragedy = justification therefore sins forgiven.
Make their action necessary: Aka: the villain killing to survive is intrinsically justifiable, since self preservation is a universally understood concept and isn't tied to morality, it's tied to a primal sense of survival, therefore it is redeemable.
Give the villain understandable motivations: if their actions resonate with a member in the audience then their actions are redeemable, at least to those with similar values.
Give villain a boring, dreary overly long, preachy transitional arc: This works will with impressionable audiences, if they have the point hammered into them, then they'll eventually just roll with it and perceive the villain as redeemed.
forget it ever happened: this is the b-grade anime approach to redeeming villains, they simply forget about the villains actions, and eventually they'll perceive villain as redeemed, since their actions had no consequence therefore have no weight.
Introduce new, more evilerer mega-villain: if you have a super mega bad guy who eats babies and sets fire to puppies, then the previous villain will look great in comparison, and by default will be redeemable.
Alternatively if you are a super talented author, you can convince the audience member to abandon their previous interpretation of morality, then alter their perception to fit in with the moral code of the villain.
essentially, the villain stays the same, just the moral framework that caused the audience to see him/her as a "villain" will change, therefore result in the villain being redeemed.
As always, this is just my opinion, I'm more than happy to add anything to this list and hear you point out the flaws in my reasoning, etc. XD"
