EXACTLY!!! How does one get so irrevocably attached to a bunch of ball-less yes-men? I think I'd find LKH's 'emotional trauma' over all this way more realistic if there was actually some *depth* to speak of in these characters.

Yeah, they're pretty, but so what? So are 98.9999999% of the cardboard cut-out characters in your standard badfic. That doesn't mean we'll be permanently scarred if they die, heh.