MarkB
Legend
...and yet we have all the other movies indicating otherwise. Questions of religious redemption and the requirements therefor notwithstanding, how many times does a shady character have to save literally millions of people (or more) before we start thinking he or she is on a path of atonement?
I'll put it this way. I always knew Darth Vader was a villain in the Star Wars trilogy, but I still fully bought into his redemption arc in Return of the Jedi.
And then I retroactively unforgave him once I saw what he did during the invasion of the Jedi temple in Revenge of the Sith.
People can accept the idea of a character with a shady past who's on a path of redemption, right up until they're confronted with the full reality of that past, in detail.
Or to put it another way, a lot of us will judge someone on the basis of their worst day.