Redeeming Qualities

**Redeeming Qualities** are the good qualities presented in a character. These qualities make it where the audience can feel a degree of sympathy or admiration for the character because they display good qualities that humanizes them. Heroes who do good for others have redeeming qualities by default. Not all villains have redeeming qualities, some villains who are Pure Evil for example have no redeeming qualities making them stand out as lacking any sense of humanity or decency. These traits are often connected to the character traits of the character.

## What is considered to be a Redeeming Quality?

List of actions and characteristics that would be considered a redeeming quality.

* Assisting someone who is in need of help because they are doing it to be of genuine help the person.
* Giving a genuine apology to someone for doing something wrong.
* Showing remorse or regret for having committed or participated in committing a crime that harmed someone.
* The character puts their life in danger to protect someone that they love, care for, or respect.
* Showing honor for someone or something and following it earnestly without showing signs of being duplicitous or manipulative.
* Showing genuine disgust or outrage over the wicked actions of a villain which shows that the character have standards and they are not willing to commit an egregious act that the villain committed.
* Genuinely mourning the loss of a friend, family member, or someone the character cared for.
* Showing relief or happiness that someone the character cared for is safe.
* Showing concern or being worried that someone the character cared for was harmed.
* Taking responsibility for the bad deeds the character has done and making genuine attempt to atone for their actions.
* Caring for the feelings of the people the character is around.
* Stopping a dangerous villain or criminal who is out to harm others because they are doing this to protect the people against them.
* Standing up to a dangerous individual or a bully to defend someone who is being harassed or mistreated.
* Deliberately choosing to give up one’s own life or freedom to secure one’s safety so that person can not be harmed.
* Trying to lead or guide someone because the character cares to support them not because they are trying to manipulate them.

## What is not considered to be a Redeeming Quality?

List of actions and characteristics that would not be considered a redeeming quality.

* Making a fake apology that is stated with sarcasm or was not made to be genuine.
* Doing a good deed or multiple good deeds with the intention of making oneself look good to others for ill-intentions such as to deceive someone or multiple people.
* Showing fascination and an obsession for someone than actual care for their being. This means the character does not care for the person’s desires or feelings and is only interested in them to satisfy a psychological gratification. The character would not mind crushing the spirit of the person they are fascinated with or obsessed with and violating any boundaries as long as the offending character gets what they want from the individual they obsessed over.
* Treating people as tools and expendable material. A common example is seen with how bad bosses regard their minions.
* Showing no reaction or care that a person close to the character was seriously harmed or killed.
* Being in a romantic relationship or married. Characters can be in romantic relationships and not show any care for the person they are supposedly in love with. They are only interested in either asserting power over them in the instances of domestic abuse, manipulating them or psychologically abusing them.
* Lying to someone with the intent to have them harmed or killed.
* Using the idea of maintaining order in society to violate people’s rights and inflict harm on the innocent.
* Worshiping a being. The character may only be doing this to follow an ideology and is doing this as self-interest as they see the being they worship as an extension of themselves and their ideology. They are not doing this because they have any beneficial intention for anyone.
* Saving someone’s life in order to manipulate them later or to maintain their palatable appearance or to improve upon it while only looking out for their own self-interests.
* Joining a temporary alliance to go against another villain or another character, not because they care about helping others but because of what the character can benefit from the alliance if they succeed in stopping the threat to them.
* Raising someone such as child or mentoring someone while not caring for them as individuals and also using them for their personal agendas.
* Faking concern for someone who is dire situation.
* Using one’s own tragedy as an excuse to harm or kill innocents.
* Showing interest to someone after having mentally or physically abused them and viewing them as a pet.
* Constantly lying to someone that one claims to be in love with or care for.
* Showing shallow emotions that does not reflect genuine care or empathy for an individual or others.
* Showing a degree of anger or rage that is irrational and motivated by pettiness.

## Redeeming Qualities and Moral Concepts

The table below is to show the meaning behind the keys on the image above.