#especially now that Hori said this is a GLOBAL problem

[problemswithbooks]

I’m obviously in the minority, but to me Hori really hasn’t sold me on the LoV. I know he wants his readers to like them, feel bad for them and want them to live and be saved, but I honestly don’t feel any of that.

Mostly it has to do with how he characterizes them. For the most part he only gave them sad backstories and called it a day, expecting the terrible things that happened to them to be enough to garner sympathy. And it does, to an extent. I feel bad for Shig and his pals, but that’s about all. Just a casual, that “that sucks, and shouldn’t have happened”, but that’s all.

It’s personally really hard for me to engage with these characters who do zero positive things, except care about there friends, which is kind of a low bar. I mean Enji cares about Hawks--his friend, but that doesn’t suddenly negate the shitty things he did to his kids. 

And there were so many opportunities to give them something more. Dabi complains that the Heroes are using the kids to fight, but still goes after Tokoyami. Would have really elevated his character if he’d either refused to fight him, or at least been shown to be holding back, because he doesn't want to kill a kid.

Shigaraki talks about how Heroes sweep the people they can’t save under the rug. That people are abandoned--labeled villains due to poor circumstance, yet Shigaraki’s biggest kill count are other villains. He has hated every other villain he’s come across that wasn't part of his tiny group. Would have been nice to have him try and actually forge bonds with other villains, before taking them out once he realized they had detrimental viewpoints and plans. Instead of just using them for his own needs before discarding them once they proved useless to him.   

Toga thinks about how terrible it was that the Heroes killed Jin, but is seemingly to stupid to realize that she has been killing people for years and is currently watching as the Giant Man they control is squishing people, while on the way to join their Boss who plans to level Japan--possibly killing thousands. Wow, it’s almost like those lives don’t matter to her and she doesn’t see anyone but her pals as human beings worthy of living.

Compress supposedly comes from a long line of thieves that stole from Heroes, but from what we’ve seen most Heroes aren't even rich--they’re middle class at best. Plus he hasn’t stolen anything or given back wealth to anyone, even though he works with a millionaire CEO. He doesn’t lament with Jin about how horrid poverty is or explain how Heroes are to blame for it. Did the Government cut spending on Social Programs to instead pay Heroes? How is leveling the country and forcing millions to be homeless going to fix poverty?

Twice doesn’t seem to care about what happens or if he hurts or endangers people suffering just like him, as long as he has friends. He’s literally the guy who’d jump off a bridge if his friends told him to. He has whatever moral compass will suit the people who are nice to him. If Shigaraki told him to kill a baby I have to belief he’d do it because he’s never shown to go against anything Shig does, and Shig has been shown monologuing about destroying everything over a picture of a god damn baby. 

Spinner was bullied so badly because he looks like a lizard that he couldn’t leave his house, yet he isn’t shown to really care about other Mutant type Quirk havers. He joined the LoV because he wished he was as convicted as Stain, and later realizes Shigaraki is hot and he has a destruction kink so time to kill thousands of people for his new boyfriend. The only reason he becomes the figure head of Mutant liberation is because AfO, the main bad guy, who wants to rule the entire world realized it would be good for his evil plan. Why not have him be the one to suggest it? Say that Mutant types are strong and will be a benefit to AfO, perhaps even as an ulterior motive to try and keep other mutants safe from AfO, while also gaining more equality?

I want to like these characters. More then that I want a complex story that makes me conflicted during the fight scenes. But I just don’t care. It’s really hard to be mad at S&S for going in for the kill with Shigaraki when he wasn’t any better before he was possessed and is currently trying to steal her Quirk so AfO can be unstoppable. He had the same goals as AfO, except he was the one sitting on the throne. He’d be doing what he’s doing regardless of AfO (and sure he was groomed into thinking that, but it’s not like being a victim suddenly makes him harmless).

And it’s not like I want them dead--I don’t, but at same time it doesn’t feel like a moral failing of the Heroes if they try and kill them either. It’s like in Avatar when everyone but Aang wanted Ozai dead. I’m glad Aang didn’t kill him, for his own well being, but I don’t see it as the rest of the Gang being morally wrong for wanting Ozai killed, given the situation they were in. Giving Ozai a sad past wouldn’t have changed that feeling either--because he was currently doing awful things.