>>55634159Mexican shonenshitter take, but I'll bite because it gives me the chance to expand on some things.
>rationalizing their actions as "smart" or "competent"That's not at all what's happening. Truly intelligent and competent actions do not need to be rationalized as such, they already are. Anyone trying to do so is either bad at their craft and doesn't know how to depict things, or is just fucking dumb and is only exceeded in stupidity by people making the "muh rationalizing" argument.
>make them face actual consequences for their objectively shitty behavior and attitudes?Why does someone have to face consequences for everything? Wouldn't it be interesting to explore how people act when they get away with everything? Must EVERY transgression have "consequences" in order for you to not lose your shit? That's not how the real world works, evil and/or incompetent people do sometimes get away with it.
>A story or character does not have depth just because it's "grimy" or "realistic".Nobody is trying to claim that darker and greyer stories have more depth by their nature except for literal retards, and only a fool would believe that such a claim is implied by a statement. Those kinds of stories, however, when executed properly, do indeed tend to have more depth because they have more nuances and subtleties in motives and actions, and tend to have more complex and diverse implications for the audience to think about, as opposed to just "X is good/bad because it demonstrably is", which is the angle that a surprising amount of stories take.
