Sacrifice

It's Saturday. Trying not to dwell on my own issues today, thought I'd watch cartoons. Really how I start most Saturdays, so no big surprise there.
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Just got done watching Legion of Super-heros. Part two of a story based on the Sun-eater Saga. I couldn't really decide after last week if I liked it or not. A number of characters were just sort of introduced without, in most cases, much in the way of back story (Ferro Lad being the most relevant to this post.)

*********SPOILER WARNING*************

This week, in part two, Ferro Lad sacrifices himself to save the Earth from destruction. And why should we care? Given that we just met him last week, we don't have much reason. He seemed to have personal issues, but they were never explored. It really seemed the writers of the show wanted a big emotional-type climax for this season and just picked something that worked in the original source without looking at WHY it had an emotional impact.

Granted, this is fiction and fiction is all about telling lies, but I expect something from those lies. One is to not expect me to care just because I'm told I should. Make me care. Dive me a reason.

Some are probably saying it's the medium. What should I expect from a cartoon? Have you ever watched Princess Mononoke? When the Wind Blows? Read Barefoot Gen? Read A Contract with God or anything of Will Eisner's?

I enjoy Chuck Jones style lunacy as much as the next guy (probably more). What I'm trying to say here is that the choice of medium being comics (or animation) dosn't exclude more depth than shown by the story I watched today.