We all know how V9's ending went down and that it can be summed up as "fuck the haters, Ruby! You are perfect, slayyyyyy". No introspection. No self awareness. Zip.

Now, that alone is pretty sucky. But, as the title states, the real kick to the teeth for me is the fact that a lot of this could be fixed or at the very least alleviated by a very simple change. You wouldn't have to change the story much, even.

Instead of the Blacksmith being a cheerleader and telling Ruby where the haters can stick it, she guides Ruby to a realization : The Cat was right. Ironwood was right. Everybody in Neo's vision was right. She messed up, badly, and a lot of harm has come from her and the team's actions.

Now, the Blacksmith could still offer the choice of becoming someone or something else. But the lesson she wants Ruby to learn is that she'd just be running away from all her problems and that, despite everything, there is still time to learn from past mistakes and rectify them, or at the very least not repeat them. Something Ruby then takes to heart, becoming a genuinely better, stronger and wiser individual than she was before. The rest of the season could play out as it did in the actual series.

This would have worked retroactively as well both in and outside of the show's narrative. It'd be the writers and the characters acknowledging that every stupid, nonsensical decision that's been made was... Well, stupid and nonsensical. That, going forward, things will be better.

I'm not sure what you guys think, of course, but the fact that a few changed-around lines of dialogue written by someone who has exactly zero expertise in writing stories could make such a huge change makes me believe the writers knew exactly what they were going for. They deliberately chose to write a feelgood fanfiction instead of writing something that's smart and interesting.

EDIT : I also just realized it would have been a slightly more tasteful way of going about the suicide thing. Instead of... Whatever we have now, we'd have at least gotten the message that suicide is not the answer. That there is always a way forward, no matter how dark it gets. On that note, I hope V10 will at least address the team's response to the whole thing. But I doubt it.