#but this ask feels extremely disingenuous given the context of this blog

[frumfrumfroo]

It's clear that audiences will go to great lengths to find something admirable or attractive in characters that are designed to be monstrous. Is this because humans are desperate to see goodness in even the darkest of hearts? Or is it because humans are just inherently drawn to and fascinated by evil? The contempt many people have for idealistic characters like Superman leads me to believe it's the latter.

People also go to impossible, wilfully blind, Plastic Man-like lengths to avoid seeing complexity and vulnerability in characters who were designed to be sympathetic despite being antagonists or having done bad things.

And it's for the exact same reason that they dismiss or feel the need to make the 'dark, gritty' version of characters like Superman: cynicism. Often childish cynicism which refuses to comprehend that the entire point of Superman is that he's a paragon and what makes him interesting is using him to hold a mirror up to the society whose supposed ideals he was created to represent. That an actual challenging narrative isn't cutting Superman down into yet another pragmatic, 'realistic' hero, but pitting a genuinely aspirational figure against morally difficult circumstances which we recognise.

The same childish cynicism which thinks any human person is simply born evil and unable to change or heal, that's there's some point of no return after which growth is impossible, or that there's anything anyone can do to render themselves no longer human and thus undeserving of ethical treatment by others.

The same childish cynicism which sees compassion or even simply a desire to understand and dismisses it as 'fascination with evil', or, as is usually the actual attack even if not explicitly stated, of 'having the hots for the bad boy'. Looking for a character's motivation and expecting that they have one beyond 'muahahaha evilly evilly evil!' is just the most basic level of engaging with the text.