semirahrose:

Exactly this! Sam is a forgiving person, and I think people take for granted that Sam should forgive even the worst offenders, without realizing how horrifying the real-life implications of that actually are. A survivor of assault does not owe his assaulter forgiveness. A survivor of torturer does not owe his tormentor forgiveness.

The sheer amount of hate out there for Sam defending himself from and expressing some long-repressed anger at his torturer of centuries (or more) astounds and disgusts me. It’s even more unsettling because of the clear double standards. Lucifer’s hate, violence, brutality, and rage are justified, but Sam’s attempts at self-protection are vilified.

I wonder if the same people who called Sam “backstabbing” used the same epithet for Lucifer when he forced Sam to endure visions of his own brutal torture and used them to convince Sam that God was communicating with him. 

Did they call Lucifer a backstabber when he lured Sam down there and trapped him inside the makeshift Cage and immediately started in with the gross prison rape jokes?  What about when he manipulated Sam and made him feel shame about himself, or when Sam’s firm “no” resulted in Lucifer physically attacking him? When he possessed Castiel and used Sam’s trust in Cas to stab his hand into Sam’s soul and try to kill him, did those people accuse Lucifer of “betrayal”?

Did they recoil in horror when Sam was forced to act as an intermediary for “god,” the being who didn’t deserve the faith of his followers, and Lucifer, the being who shredded Sam’s soul? Was it horrifying to them when Lucifer locked himself into Sam’s own bedroom to play out an immature tantrum?

Have they called Lucifer cruel and a traitor for raping Kelly Kline, bringing Sam back to life only so that he could use that life (and the threat of Sam’s death) against him and the people he loved?

People say Lucifer was on the path to redemption and deserved to see it through and pay his penance, but

that’s
not
true.

Redemption requires remorse, and Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, has not shown a jot of it. In fact, he has continued to laughingly torment Sam and glory in his fear. 

I mean, let’s just—

penance   noun: The performance of some act of self-mortification or the undergoing of some penalty as an expression of sorrow for sin or wrongdoing. 

And how about—

redemption   noun: an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.

No, what we’ve seen on screen is a gross sympathy play, a faux-redemption. SPN is very good at taking characters who have done cruel things and then trying to excuse their actions with “oh, but he’s been hurt,” or “oh, but he’s a funny guy who deserves to be loved!”

They try to excuse the inexcusable and cry “Redemption!” when no attempts at redemption have been made.

I’m not going to say that there’s any person who can’t be redeemed, but people who are worthy of redemption are people who actually seek it, no matter the cost to themselves.

So, no. Lucifer does not deserve redemption. He does not deserve to have anyone hear him out. Instead of apologizing, he has lied, manipulated, and cast himself as a victim rather than the aggressor he has spent the last several millennia being.

In fact, he deserved more than a rather tame push to the chest and a, “Yeah, I’m not letting you into my home again.”

In short, Anon, I could not agree more.