It's Diana being idealistic. One of Diana's ideals is that you don't assume that any living, sentient being--let alone your sibling--is irreedemable. Even if everything in the world suggests that someone will always make the evil decision, you give them a chance to prove that "certainty" wrong. That's what she did with Hera, even though, by the second year of the run, she knew a fair bit about Hera's long history of evil acts. In issue 23, she'd known the First Born for about four days (during three of which she'd been unconscious), and based on that knowledge she shouldn't have offered him a chance to surrender?
Idealists often look "blind, stupid, and/or insane" because they're trying to live up to unrealistic standards of behavior. Hades see Diana that way; he says loving everyone is ridiculous. But Heph suggests that it's ridiculous to Hades because he's not capable of it. I suppose I'm not capable of loving everyone either, or of offering monsters redemption--but I like that Diana is "ridiculous" in that way; she's ridiculously good!It's Diana being blind, stupid, and/or insane.
That's a choice. Do I save Milan by not only ending the fight but giving up the information Cassandra wants, or do I fight on and refuse to jeopardize Olympus, come what may (which is what Milan himself says she should have done, by the way)? A lot of pure warriors--and even soldiers in modern armies--would make the latter decision. In war, casualties happen, and sometimes civilians get caught in the middle; warriors do what they can to prevent to casualties, but they don't typically compromise mission objectives or give up critical information to avoid casualties--unless, like Wonder Woman, they are more than merely warriors.Cassandra, she had no choice on. Cassandra had a hostage and would've killed someone Diana cared about if she didn't stop fighting.
Good for Soule. But if we're thinking of the same scene, Diana was beating Faora while Zod was beating Superman, and Zod and Diana mutually agreed to a ceasefire that each saw as a tactical necessity. But would Zod have given up critical information event to save Faora (the way Diana gives up the First Born's location to save Milan)? It's possible, since Zod seems to have real feelings for Faora; but it's also very possible that Zod, while trying his best to save Faora in the fight, would have refused to compromise his mission even for her sake. Pure warriors are often uncomporomising in just that way.Soule did the same thing when Diana negotiated a truce between her and Zod when he and Faora had Superman hostage.
She could have walked away if she let Hades keep Zola and Zeke. Granted, a true warrior might not have done that either; it wouldn't have been honorable. Instead, a warrior might have fought on, hoping Hermes would prove able to spirit them all away. It might not even occur to such a warrior to make a deal, and they certainly might refuse to give the adversary a weapon he could use to inflict a fate worse than death, like "loving" Hades. The way I see it, Diana had a good inkling what was coming when Heph handed her Eros' gun; that's why she smiled in that knowing way in that panel. She was prepared to trade herself for Zola--not a warrior's solution.Hades? She had no choice but to negotiate with him. He had her completely helpless and could've killed her with the greatest of ease. She couldn't have solved that problem with violence. She already tried. She got her ass kicked (again.)
Oh, of course the First Born is much more evil than Hera ever was. But Hera's actions were bad enough that she could easily have looked like someone who didn't even deserve the chance to surrender, let alone a shot at redemption. She looked that way to many readers. But Diana is idealistic enough to believe that everyone deserves, at the very least, a chance to surrender. Again, in issue 34 she insists on Cassandra getting a chance to redeem herself.Hera was petty and cruel. Not nearly as "monstrous" as a genocidal cannibal god. Hera, at her worst, never tried to destroy the entire world just for spite. She only punishes people who have somehow wronged her. Don't want to get hurt by Hera? Don't piss her off. Don't want to get eaten by the First Born? Don't exist on the same plane of reality as him
A lot of warriors would probably agree with you. But I like that Diana is idealistic enough and peaceful enough to spare her life and hold out the improbably possibility of redemption even for her.Cassandra was already broken beyond repair by that point. Letting Hera kill her (or killing her herself) would've been the act of mercy at that point.
Whether it was "a complete and utter failure" or whether Hades just needed more time to find his way after getting this opening, she is, by even trying, being a warrior (firing a weapon) for peace (giving her enemy a chance to develop a more loving, peaceful heard).Her effort to reform Hades was a complete and utter failure, so I hardly count it any great achievement of hers.