User blog comment:B214/side series/@comment-5916303-20150204121324/@comment-1746153-20150205073431

He still took it very well, I mean, even if he killed Aria on impulse, they still immediately noted how easily he did it. And he felt absolutely fine afterwards, as if he didn't just kill a human being. No matter how much you hate a person, you can't just shrug off the actual murder so casually if you're, well, normal.

That actually leads into a problem that I have with the series as a whole - the lack of moral ambiguity. The Empire is portrayed as overly corrupted, and it's shoved into your face on every opportunity. Sure, the Night Raiders throw that "but we still kill people, and it's actually kinda bad", but it feels too weak when we see the Empire's people who are 100% bad with no redeeming qualities. And to me, that's a bit boring to see the good guys kill bad guys who could have as well be video game generic enemies.

Again, with Wave in the lead, we could get a more interesting moral conflict. First off, Wave himself is more experienced in fighting humans, and I'm pretty sure he values life in general. Second, he, despite being a good guy by nature, joins a group that's on the side of the "evil".

Also, it's one of the reasons Ran is my favorite - he is wrapped in moral ambiguity, so to say. On one hand, he was kind to his friends and cared about the kids, but on the other, he was capable of murder and even brutal torture (with a smile, too).