History YMMV / TheWayfarerRedemption

** Borneheld, believe it or not. The sole reason he is such a loathsome asshole is because the world was repeatedly telling him "screw you Borneheld." He was a ButtMonkey on multiple occasions, almost enough to qualify him for the ChewToy trope, and rarely did anything ever go good for him without the help of the Seneschal's team of professional Smug Snakes. He winds up slowly falling out of favor, driven a bit crazy enough to murder his dad, and then he instantly regrets it. He is stuck in a marriage with a woman who would rather be banging, guess who, Axis. His own mother hits him when she sees him again and disowns him in favor of...guess who, ''Axis.'' He then loses all his battles against Axis, winds up dueling him, loses to DeusExMachina, and gets his heart ripped out. The author is telling us something very strongly about this character.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Borneheld, Axis' brother. While Borneheld is a JerkAss and hates Axis, he had an absolutely awful backstory as a ChildByRape who lost his mother at a young age and was raised by a JerkAss father. Most of Borneheld's worst actions come from being manipulated by Jayme and Moryson [[spoiler:who is really [=WolfStar=]]] and even his MoralEventHorizon, his murder of [=FreeFall=], is somewhat understandable given that the Icarii are the ancient enemy of the Acarites and he was in the middle of a war that he was told had been started by them. Borneheld undergoes more and more SanitySlippage as the series progresses and lacks anyone who genuinely cares about him; his wife Faraday hates him and wants to be with Axis, the King was considering disowning him, Jayme [[UnwittingPawn only sees him as a useful pawn,]] and even his own mother, Rivkah, says she always despised him when he tearfully tries to say hello to her. Borneheld is also subject to a very gruesome KarmicOverkill as revenge for [[SinsOfTheFather actions his father took decades ago]] and he had no say in. Many fans felt Borneheld got a raw deal and hoped he'd return later. Sara Douglass took note of this fan response and [[spoiler:Borneheld briefly returns in the sequel series, the ''Darkglass Mountain Trilogy'', [[WhatTheHellHero with a serious callout towards Axis]] for his method of death.]]

** Timozel. He starts as a kind-hearted boy who just wants recognition. He pledges himself to Faraday out of the goodness of his own heart. Then... He's brutally [[MindRape mind raped]] by [[BigBad Gorgrael]] and to a lesser extent [[ManBehindTheMan WolfStar]], then decides the easiest way to both protect Faraday and gain the respect he wants is to help Faraday's husband, Borneheld, because Faraday [[LockedOutOfTheLoop won't tell him about her own plans.]] Then Faraday rejects him and because of the mind rape, he's forced to become Gorgarael's general. And by the time he's found by Axis, he's been twisted and destroyed and Axis doesn't even hesitate once to kill him (though he's sad for the boy that Timozel once was, before all this). Wow.

** [=DragonStar=] qualifies at the beginning of ''Sinner''. Sure, he'd been a jerk in the past and, but he's stuck as a mortal, watching as the whole rest of his family gets to live forever, and most people hate him for a reason he doesn't even ''remember'' because of the way magic affected him.
*** You can tell how sympathetic a character tends to be (in general) by how good their treatment of Drago is - which at the beginning accounts for Zenith (his younger sister), Zared, & Leah. That's it... He's perfectly willing to plot revenge on everyone who mistreated him when given the chance, and he's not immune to self-pity. It takes being shown [[spoiler:what he did to his brother Caellum ''through the latter's eyes'']] for him to understand this, after which he steadily evolves into a MessianicArchetype.
** To a certain degree, [=StarLaughter=]. For all that she's a ruthless, heartless bitch, she didn't start out that way, and much of her cruelty comes from her treatment at the hands of her husband/cousin [=WolfStar=]. Towards the end there's emphasis on the "Jerkass" part of this evaluation.
*** She wasn't the nicest person before she died though, given that she committed regicide and spends the second trilogy of the series helping the Timekeeper Demons (Aka the epitome of pure evil) go to Tencendor so they can lay waste to Tencendor and cause millions of casualties and disasters that forever change Tencendor for her own selfish agenda.
** To a certain degree, [=WolfStar=] in the second trilogy. First he has to be the one to deliver the bad news about the Timekeeper Demons to the Star Gods and loses all his power, he loses Niah for a second time and during his mad plan to recreate Niah as a weapon for [=DragonStar=], ends up captured and raped by the Timekeeper Demons repeatedly and is badly injured for the rest of the trilogy because of it. But at the same time, he's a self-serving power hungry asshole who raped Zenith when Niah was sharing the body and planned to use Zenith to blackmail [=DragonStar=].

* WhatAnIdiot: Isfrael's [[spoiler:dealings with Qeteb in ''Crusader''.]]
** '''You'd Expect:''' No matter how much Isfrael resents Axis and his family, he would know better than to make a DealWithTheDevil, especially an OmnicidalManiac devil who has repeatedly betrayed his word to others and has a disdain for all life.
** '''Instead:''' Isfrael invokes Qeteb, and gladly agrees to turn over everyone in Sanctuary in exchange for preserving the Avar race.
** '''As a Result:''' Qeteb and his demons break into Sanctuary, kill all the remaining Star Gods apart from Axis and Azhure, and are only prevented from killing the rest of the survivors of Tecendor including the Avar because of Urbeth's timely intervention. Isfrael is also brutally raped in both mind and body for his treachery, and the Sacred Grove, the place where the elders of the Avar were staying, is also invaded by Qeteb, making Isfrael's treachery AllForNothing.

** To a certain degree, [=WolfStar=] in the second trilogy. First he has to be the one to deliver the bad news about the Timekeeper Demons to the Star Gods and loses all his power, he loses Niah for a second time and during his mad plan to recreate Niah, ends up captured and raped by the Timekeeper Demons repeatedly and is badly injured for the rest of the trilogy because of it. But at the same time, he's a self-serving power hungry asshole who raped Zenith when Niah was sharing the body and planned to use Zenith to blackmail [=DragonStar=].

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Borneheld crossed this by fatally, and remorselessly, backstabbing [=FreeFall=] (who was distracted advising Axis not to attack Borneheld). This is heavily lampshaded by the various reactions of Faraday, Axis and Magariz. The entire Seneschal crossed this line when it was revealed that their genocide of the Forbidden was [[spoiler: founded on a complete lie]]. If this alone didn't send Jayme and Moryson over the Moral Event Horizon, the revelation that they had tortured and attempted to ruthlessly murder [[spoiler: Rivkah]] certainly did.
** If [=WolfStar=] hadn't crossed it hundreds of years before the story began by murdering hundreds of children by throwing them into the Star Gate (effectively throwing these children into the cold vacuum of space), he certainly crossed it by [[spoiler:forcibly implanting his lover Niah's soul into his granddaughter Zenith, raping Zenith repeatedly, and trying to snuff out her soul.]]
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: [[spoiler:Caelum]] goes from loathsome in ''Sinner'' to admirable in ''Pilgrim'', and it's handled quite organically.

* MoralEventHorizon: Borneheld crossed this by fatally, and remorselessly, backstabbing [=FreeFall=] (who was distracted advising Axis not to attack Borneheld). This is heavily lampshaded by the various reactions of Faraday, Axis and Magariz. The entire Seneschal crossed this line when it was revealed that their genocide of the Forbidden was [[spoiler: founded on a complete lie]]. If this alone didn't send Jayme and Moryson over the Moral Event Horizon, the revelation that they had tortured and attempted to ruthlessly murder [[spoiler: Rivkah]] certainly did.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: [[spoiler:Caelum]] goes from borderline loathsome in ''Sinner'' to admirable in ''Pilgrim'', and it's handled quite organically.