who said anything about altruism?
They're still working to help him. Their motivations aside, they're trying to do right by the MC.
People, fictional or real, that actually learn and grow and change to be a little better than before are the type of people we actually need in the world.
Acting like because they fucked up once, they can never earn their way back in no matter how much they do to improve themselves and the world around them after the fact, is reductive and small-minded and how you end up with people who continue to be shitty and bad, because "I'll never be given a second chance, so why bother?"
No one is infallible. Those who seek to rise above their previous selves and be better people, whatever their reasoning or impetus, should at least be recognized in that light.
I'm not saying they're good people. Just that they're making the effort for someone they care about, and are trying to do right by the MC because he is worth that effort. Better late than never.
Sure, people are allowed to try and improve, and they should. However, as the saying goes “that is that, and this is this”.
These people are free to learn from their mistakes but they have no right to expect to be part of the MCs life just because they’ve turned a corner.
Shitty people being able to evolve into less shitty people does not make them deserving of being unilaterally forgiven. If a rapist reforms what do their victims get from that change? Absolutely nothing. The damage they’ve inflicted hasn’t changed at all.
You may say that it’s an extreme example but remember objectively what his life has been like:
The MC had no place of safety or warmth. Not at school, not at home. No friends, a negligent and openly hostile family, no teachers or authority figures he could trust let alone rely on. The people he cared about the most were the same people who betrayed him and hurt him the most.
Whenever they found a pocket of solace, be it a person or a club, it was cruelly taken away. This happened over and over.
He was assaulted, vilified, abused, and told repeatedly that he should disappear or kill himself. His life was so bad that he actually attempted to follow through with his tormentors wishes. He had decided that it was better to not continue living if it was going to stay like this.
Also remember he was not a mature adult dealing with all of this. He was just a young child when this began and it’s lasted for years.
