"I'll acknowledge that Cori has a point about humanizing the Rockets and thinking about their backgrounds, etc... but she applies it so INCONSISTENTLY."
It's interesting that you bring that up because it explains a lot about my reactions to fan stories that make evil villains suddenly not evil (that is to say, they're unironically and clearly not as evil as they are in canon). What I've found is that (all other things being equal) stories that portray ALL the villains as secretly cuddly bunny rabbits inside are almost vaguely charming (even if they're completely ridiculous)--it's where only some villains are redeemed despite them all being roughly comparable in terms of their evil in canon (or the heroes become villains for no reason) that it becomes a problem.
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It's interesting that you bring that up because it explains a lot about my reactions to fan stories that make evil villains suddenly not evil (that is to say, they're unironically and clearly not as evil as they are in canon). What I've found is that (all other things being equal) stories that portray ALL the villains as secretly cuddly bunny rabbits inside are almost vaguely charming (even if they're completely ridiculous)--it's where only some villains are redeemed despite them all being roughly comparable in terms of their evil in canon (or the heroes become villains for no reason) that it becomes a problem.