Thinking about superhero fiction and its reliance on certain recurring terms, such as 'love', 'hope', 'peace', 'kindness', 'optimism', which it constantly invokes, to establish what it is 'about', and the eternal problem wherein a lot of it it ends up being about nothing.

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The words are gesturing at something, rather than saying anything.

And the key to making these work, making them not be buzz words, is to have a measure of clarity within your vision and storytelling, as well as tremendous specificity as to what it is you're trying to express.

A good example would be Kamen Rider Build, a superhero series about fighting authoritarian powers and structures.

It constantly reinforces the motif of its lead 'Love and Peace'.

But it works in a way a lot of other stuff that do this don't.

Here's why...

It's not operating in broad-strokes gesturing.

'Love and Peace', the defining mission of the hero(es) is defined as a set of ideas not about 'keeping things as they are', because things as they are are horrid, monstrous, and irredeemable.

It's about change.

The slogans of the superhero are exposed for what they are, slogans, in the face of a world and structures that are hell-bent on fascistic oppression, war-profiteering, and making the rich more powerful.

And so it becomes about imagining a better world than the one that is.

'Love and Peace' in the context of the show is saving people from the structures that bind them and destroy them, freeing them from monstrous situations, taking care of them and helping them, and fighting authority that will never change or can be salvaged.

And it's about doing it simply because if the world is fucked, if a fascistic, dystopic nightmare is all we have, *that is all there is to do*, it is what must be done.

It is the right thing to do, and it's the only thing worth doing with any measure of power you hold.

That's a viewpoint and perspective, as opposed to just invoking terms that mean nothing beyond what you're asking the audience to imprint onto them bc of associations.

The specificity of Kamen Rider, what it is about fighting, is extremely clear, and that helps.

This IS the show where in the heroes literally beat up TOTALLY-NOT-SHINZO-ABE, so it's pretty clear about where it stands lol.

Anyway, worth a look if you're into superhero stuff, and want to expand beyond the bubble of largely american stuff.