...OK, I've been reading your reviews since I found this reconstructed directory, and I've enjoyed them...until now, as I feel you completely missed the point here. Charmcaster was NEVER meant to be justified in what she did, that was never the intent of the episode. But she WAS meant to be sympathetic, and a display in moral grayness, and much of what you say here is flat-out wrong.
Especially glaring is your Linkara reference, which falls flat. He NEVER said "actions make a character sympathetic". He even said in regards to Ransik "This isn't Magneto we're talking about here". He's saying Magneto is sympathetic, and Magneto has done much, MUCH worse than Ransik.
What Linkara meant is that a sympathetic backstory doesn't make a villain sympathetic, it's their MOTIVATIONS that do, even if they take wrong actions in pursuing it. Ransik was just an anarchist and criminal, but Magneto was fighting for the rights of an oppressed people. This doesn't justify his actions, but it makes him sympathetic.
Likewise, Charmcaster was genuinely trying to free her world...and when she did, everyone went to war and started fighting over power. Can you not see how that would make her resentful toward those she sacrificed? You say she "does horrible things without a single thought for anyone else", forgetting entirely that she didn't pull this until after the time of chaos where those "anyone elses" ALSO did horrible things without a second thought all in the pursuit of what they wanted.
And her other motive was to resurrect someone she dearly loved...again, a very clearly sympathetic motive. It doesn't justify her actions, but claiming those actions make her not a sympathetic character is dead wrong. She's like Magneto here, not like Ransik.
"A character you feel for, watch go through Hell, and understand why they're doing this" describes Charmcaster to a TEE. The majority of Ben 10 fans do feel for her, they do watch her go through Hell before and after this, and they do understand why she does what she does because they can understand that loving your father and being stuck somewhere where nobody else loves you, even after you freed their enslaved asses, would drive her to very extreme and evil lengths to find her happiness. It doesn't make her a monster, it doesn't make her unsympathetic, it makes her a lost and lonely girl who has done the wrong things but still has HOPE (yeah, that name was chosen for a reason) to get better.
She DID feel remorse for her actions. I saw you arguing against that above and have to call bull. "No point in continuing?" If she wasn't remorseful, she would have just kept searching for another way to bring her father back that wouldn't cost any lives and make him upset at her, not because taking lives was wrong but because it didn't get her what she wanted. Instead, she gives up the Alpha Rune that forces servitude to her (notice that she's not wearing it next episode) and is to actually rule Ledgerdomain the right way, even when she finds the job boring she's doing it to make up for what she did to the realm's denizens before.
And lastly, "Ben and Kevin argue..." NO. This wasn't a sexist "boys against girls and the boys are right" case. Kevin was on Gwen's side: he agreed that Charmcaster WAS sympathetic. It didn't justify anything, true, but Gwen wasn't arguing that and neither was the episode. She was arguing that, even after her unjustifiable actions, Charmcaster is deserving of pity, and Kevin agreed because he could empathize. The point of the episode was that sometime people who do terrible things do it for human and sympathetic reasons, and Kevin can understand that better than anyone else since he has an even longer history of it than Charmcaster. Only Ben doesn't sympathize with her, and if you think the guy constantly made to be a foolish jackass this entire series is meant to be the correct one here, then I don't know what to say.
Look, I'm sorry if this sounded ranty, but Charmcaster was one of the late Dwayne McDuffie's favorite characters due to her moral nuance and her character arc, and you grossly misinterpreting and misrepresenting it makes me have alot of negative feels. Nobody was ever trying to say she was right and justified in what she did. But she is sympathetic and she is a developing, redeemable character, so painting her as just a remorseless monster is about the biggest slap in the face to Dwayne's intent as possible.
Please ignore obvious RP account stuff
Especially glaring is your Linkara reference, which falls flat. He NEVER said "actions make a character sympathetic". He even said in regards to Ransik "This isn't Magneto we're talking about here". He's saying Magneto is sympathetic, and Magneto has done much, MUCH worse than Ransik.
What Linkara meant is that a sympathetic backstory doesn't make a villain sympathetic, it's their MOTIVATIONS that do, even if they take wrong actions in pursuing it. Ransik was just an anarchist and criminal, but Magneto was fighting for the rights of an oppressed people. This doesn't justify his actions, but it makes him sympathetic.
Likewise, Charmcaster was genuinely trying to free her world...and when she did, everyone went to war and started fighting over power. Can you not see how that would make her resentful toward those she sacrificed? You say she "does horrible things without a single thought for anyone else", forgetting entirely that she didn't pull this until after the time of chaos where those "anyone elses" ALSO did horrible things without a second thought all in the pursuit of what they wanted.
And her other motive was to resurrect someone she dearly loved...again, a very clearly sympathetic motive. It doesn't justify her actions, but claiming those actions make her not a sympathetic character is dead wrong. She's like Magneto here, not like Ransik.
"A character you feel for, watch go through Hell, and understand why they're doing this" describes Charmcaster to a TEE. The majority of Ben 10 fans do feel for her, they do watch her go through Hell before and after this, and they do understand why she does what she does because they can understand that loving your father and being stuck somewhere where nobody else loves you, even after you freed their enslaved asses, would drive her to very extreme and evil lengths to find her happiness. It doesn't make her a monster, it doesn't make her unsympathetic, it makes her a lost and lonely girl who has done the wrong things but still has HOPE (yeah, that name was chosen for a reason) to get better.
She DID feel remorse for her actions. I saw you arguing against that above and have to call bull. "No point in continuing?" If she wasn't remorseful, she would have just kept searching for another way to bring her father back that wouldn't cost any lives and make him upset at her, not because taking lives was wrong but because it didn't get her what she wanted. Instead, she gives up the Alpha Rune that forces servitude to her (notice that she's not wearing it next episode) and is to actually rule Ledgerdomain the right way, even when she finds the job boring she's doing it to make up for what she did to the realm's denizens before.
And lastly, "Ben and Kevin argue..." NO. This wasn't a sexist "boys against girls and the boys are right" case. Kevin was on Gwen's side: he agreed that Charmcaster WAS sympathetic. It didn't justify anything, true, but Gwen wasn't arguing that and neither was the episode. She was arguing that, even after her unjustifiable actions, Charmcaster is deserving of pity, and Kevin agreed because he could empathize. The point of the episode was that sometime people who do terrible things do it for human and sympathetic reasons, and Kevin can understand that better than anyone else since he has an even longer history of it than Charmcaster. Only Ben doesn't sympathize with her, and if you think the guy constantly made to be a foolish jackass this entire series is meant to be the correct one here, then I don't know what to say.
Look, I'm sorry if this sounded ranty, but Charmcaster was one of the late Dwayne McDuffie's favorite characters due to her moral nuance and her character arc, and you grossly misinterpreting and misrepresenting it makes me have alot of negative feels. Nobody was ever trying to say she was right and justified in what she did. But she is sympathetic and she is a developing, redeemable character, so painting her as just a remorseless monster is about the biggest slap in the face to Dwayne's intent as possible.