#we remember what he did and looked like but the villain standom tends to gloss over how clearly Compress explained their dynamic

[transhawks]

im stupid so sorry for this but how is spinners devotion and desperation to be useful and helpful all that much different from twices??

Okay, I'm going to ask that people give me some time. I've been working on a meta series for a weeks that will look at the League critically, but it's the second post and the first one is a discussion of heteromorphs in the series.

But just to give you a small preview of the second part where I discuss villains - it's not. That's the entire point.

Twice was mentally ill and constantly treating his friendships with the League as something he needed to prove he deserved. It was a very transactional way of thing - he repeats that he needs to make up Magne's death to them constantly, calls himself nothing while standing up and continuing to fight for them. As heart-touching as it is, it's also just very a very toxic sort of friendship. I understand this site skews towards similarly screwed up people, but imagine how a therapist would react if you told them, "I don't give a shit what happens to me, I just want my friend's happiness."

Like objectively, you know that's not healthy, right? I love my friends (my IRL found family of other qt first gen/poc) deeply, and can say that I live for them, but I also know that isn't the best mindset when it means I prioritize other people's well-being and happiness over my own. In fact, a lot of that mindset caused enabling of addiction and dangerous behavior widely in that friend group where people really had to detach in order to become better because dysfunction was so normalized among us.

Keep that in mind about how the League worked, even when Twice was around. You can't tell me it's good when some of Twice's last thoughts were "They accepted me, and how I'd pay them back?"

You know that's not how friendships have to work? Someone showing you basic decency, kindness, that shouldn't be something you feel like you have to repay. Twice had been abandoned and spit on so much that he never got out of the trap of thinking he had to do things to get people to stay.

So, to answer your question, it's not different. The whole point is that the League are deeply fucked up people who found each other, and if we're to be honest, did not get better, but got understood by people like them. I want to reiterate that - the League on some basis, had understandings with each other, but it's even stated by Compress, "A collection of warped minds who never bothered with prying into each others' pasts." They respected who each person was and accepted it, which societally had been done for none of them, but don't miss this part - they didn't help each other get better and overcome their issues.

And, frankly, it makes sense they couldn't! Like I said, friend groups of people like that often become spaces where certain behaviors and thoughts are normalized.

I'm going to add this - I understand that there's a popular fanon interpretation of the League of Villains where they are a found family who don't need society to get better and help each other. But that's the issue; it's lovely in fanfics, but absolutely not expressed in canon. Any attempts at helping each other were small. Yes, they have (had?) each other's backs, but the thing about being in a sinking pit with other people is that you need someone outside of it to pull you out.