Quote Originally Posted by TeChameleon View Post
While I'll mostly agree that the other characters have had similar backgrounds to John, there is one glaring exception to the 'he's had it the same as them'- namely the intensive, government-sponsored brainwashing that brought out the 'helmet-hair' persona.

John's got some problems- he appears to have some untreated mental illness, and he needs to learn to take responsibility for his mistakes without tumbling into a destructive spiral of self-pity and -loathing, but he's a child (adolescent, whatever) in a very, very sick society, and I can't really blame him for a lot of his screwed-up-ness.
I mean, the "brainwashing" was just making him live through the suffering he inflicted on others. Yeah, it clearly messed him up and gave him issues, but it's also the only reason he stopped being a monster for a while. John became a monster all on his own well before any of that happened. Obviously the growth he's having now is much healthier than the brainwashing was, but he can hardly blame that for his problems when he was acting the exact same way before it happened.