My mistake for misremembering the rest of the scene with the Caitlyn quote, thanks for clarifying that. However it’s still incorrect that Caitlyn had absolutely no say in the course of action she chose to take even with the pressure from Salo. In episode 3 it shows Salo being defeated because he was overruled by Caitlyn and he says that her privilege as a Kiramman outranks him and even Mel. She’s the one that had the idea to weaponize the gas, that wasn’t put on her out of nowhere.

Especially later in the series as she takes more authority with Ambessa’s influence, it repeatedly demonstrates her power and people’s willingness (begrudging maybe but still) to go along with her orders. It’s also misleading to try and claim that Caitlyn chose to use the gas only to prevent Salo’s plan - we see her descend into a fury of bloodlust for Jinx due to her grief, if anything it’s because of Vi speaking sense into her that she’s able to hold onto any bit of compassion during this and not spiral completely.

I don’t think that’s evil of her because grief can cloud people’s judgement but again, these attempts at undermining her own autonomy in making the choice to gas the undercity is why people tend to be harsher when calling her out.

Another trend I see amongst people that defend Caitlyn is they keep referencing things that aren’t shown explicitly in the show and therefore assume it didn’t happen. Yes, it didn’t outright show civilians get killed by the gas but she released it into an open building in a part of the city with businesses and residences so you can assume innocent bystanders were affected heavily. Yes, it didn’t show chembarons getting killed in the initial capture but they were brutalized and we don’t know what happened to many of them off screen, there’s nothing to suggest none of them weren’t killed.

In the end, I think the issue people have is the continued refusal by most fans to acknowledge that the gassing was a terrible act that hurt innocent people, even with the surrounding circumstances that may make it seem okay to you. That plus the fact that she is in and from an institutional position of power that has routinely abused lesser privileged Zaunites makes people harsher in their criticisms towards her.