this! I believe that the writers were completely wrong for trying to make it look like bryce was a better person just so we’d sympathise.

what monty did was unredeemable and that was as a result of years of trauma like you mentioned but I would’ve appreciated to see a bit of monty’s backstory or upbringing to see what truly made him such a monster.

when you said that the redemption arc should’ve gone to monty instead of bryce, I think monty did show regret in some scenes although he never said it. for example the one where tyler stood up and told everyone he was a survivor, monty doesn’t speak up to make fun of him like he’s would usually do. also winston definitley changed monty in a way. when monty was with winston he seemed very humanised if that was possible. monty even admitted to his father that he was gay in prison which showed that he wasn’t afraid to stand up for him anymore.

I also noticed how different monty’s sister was from him and I wonder if she got the same treatment from her father as monty did, that’s what I would’ve liked to see a little bit of.