...I mean, I guess I\'m unsure it solves the problem if the modern stories now acknowledge that what the characters are doing makes them amoral murderous monsters? At least I could relate to the old stuff, if in a way that makes me cringe remembering my teenage self so full of confusing hormones he could barely think straight.
I mean, for starters, modern spinoffs (for the most part, because once again there are numerous authors and they don't write the same) don't have the characters feel like 'amoral murderous monsters' at all - as I said in the review, chosen fics to spork tend towards more blatantly evil/unsympathetic targets and the agents are actually written in a way that makes them feel like characters instead of ranting author mouthpieces (add on that not every spork involves murder, there being worldbuilding explanations for the ones they do have to kill, and that more innocent targets are outright spared, I feel like the idea that the group only writes to brutally kill and relish in bloodshed is absurdly outdated). Secondly, acknowledging that the setting may have innate flaws allows for in-universe introspection and worldbuilding (which I've seen used to solid effect reading through a few of the newer works), and I'm all for folks doing their best trying to make something interesting out of this setting. Finally, you can literally ask the group about their thoughts and justifications on their public forum about what they do and why if you still have questions. I've seen it happen a few times, and the genuine folks have caused productive discussion because [surprise surprise] the community is, as I said from my research, shockingly chill. I'm not really fit to answer every question in-depth myself, so you're better off asking the folks who actually have answers.
This was very well-written, but it feels much more like a review of someone else's review, rather than of the PPC. It also seems a little... not hypocritical, but not entirely fair to say in a negative way that criticism of the PPC is outdated... when the review you're referring to is from 5+ years ago.
Frasmotic's review may be five years old, but I mentioned that in my review as it's the most obvious example of the PPC's apparent reputation. And judging by such things as the appearance from a PPC member on this wiki earlier this year sparking a familiar debate, or the first reply to this very review throwing out an 'amoral murderous monster' label, and I think it's fair to say that reputation is still the current one and relevant enough to address.
I mean, I haven\'t touched the setting (franchise? no, it doesn\'t make money, I don\'t know what to call it) in years. I was just going off the descriptions you provided in the body of the review itself where you said that in modern treatments no bones were made about the PPC being awful people doing evil things (presumably for the greater good? I was a bit unclear on that point too).
Eh, the PPC being villain protagonists wasn't the image I was trying to describe at all (recent spinoffs lean the other way by making the characters actually relateable and well-written for the most part, on top of all the worldbuilding explanations mentioned multiple times earlier), and in hindsight that single quote you're talking about may not have been the best example to bring up since the image of the in-universe group being all edgy assassins with little justification is outdated, but also the time period that quote was referring to. Definitely distracted from my main points too, so apologies if the unclearness confused you.
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An attempt at analysis of the modern PPC
The reviews of this group and the discussions they caused on this page led me to conduct some research on the community, and… well, here's the result. This is gonna be a long little research dump, so apologies for length in advance.
In short, while frasmotic’s review on the PPC rightfully criticizes the smug, early-Internet and hypocritically amateurish feel of some 2000's PPC stories, that analysis feels less relevant when looking at what the PPC transformed into over two decades. Almost every aspect of their review criticized things that the PPC has moved on from, by the looks of things. From cursory research: authors are no longer mentioned where possible, agents aren't treated as valiant heroes (A phenomena I only saw in one spin-off that is funnily enough seen as aged by the community yet heavily referenced on the PPC Trope page. Otherwise, acknowledgment that they may essentially be murderers is something even older spinoffs noted: “We’re evil. Miss Cam is evil. This is just sad.”), and the term ‘canon rape’ was used by a single spin-off so buried that I literally could not find it after a week of hunting. I assume it's an old one, however, as judging by the current PPC community that terminology would be killed on arrival.
Spin-offs as a whole are not only less frequent and spork blatantly ‘worse’ fics (I know quality is subjective, but we’re talking ones that would struggle as much as ‘My Immortal’ or any of Dakari King-Mykan’s works to find support. In fact, the latter receives heavy criticism on This Very Wiki), but have much higher quality control compared to twenty years ago. Add on that the community is positively tiny for a writing group (with there being less than a hundred members, with even fewer who write for the setting), and the claim that this fanfic-sporking group is somehow comparable to phrenology in scope and scale feels absurd. (If I can be honest, sometimes comments about the PPC feel like wild leaps to made-up strawmen or outdated ‘gotchas’ or even just projection - “I guess that's what happens when PPC fans get their feelings hurt” in response to getting a review flagged comes to mind.)
It's actually fairly ironic, considering many tropers on This Very Wiki who have criticized the PPC have done so with writing takes so dated even the PPC itself moved on from it over a decade ago. A good example of this is its now-deleted entry on the Broken Aesop page, where assassins were called hypocritical for ‘always winning’ (Trained assassins doing their job? The horror. Plus, there's a solid enough number of ‘failed’ missions in-universe that disprove the second point) and thus ‘indistinguishable from Mary Sues’ (ignore the fact that even the PPC itself has recognized that not only is ‘Mary Sue’ a loaded term, but execution takes precedence over concept when deciding whether a character is good or not. I'm sorry, but as a writer this ‘criticism’ is utterly infuriating). It's honestly strange seeing criticisms of the PPC not only be inaccurate towards the group's current state, but outdated in the sense that said ‘criticisms’ feel like they came from the bowels of early 2000's forums themselves. Considering that one troper actually vandalized the group’ Wiki on November of 2022 (something easy to prove at the time considering their Fandom name was the same as their TV Tropes name), there's also a sense of hypocritical self-righteousness. Twenty years changes a community, but it looks like some individuals never age.
Speaking of, let's look at the one (1) example that's been used to claim that the modern (at least, 2016-era modern) PPC is comparable to their older form: a review on this page that got removed after a comment suggesting said ‘review’ (see: a single sentence claiming the PPC was a bunch of bullies) stop with a grudge. Research on this topic was more complicated, but apparently the issue traces back to a former member turned troll after being banned for doubling down on bigotry and creating multiple sockpuppet accounts in an attempt to bypass said ban. It's a long story, and they do have a Wiki page recording this years-long issue, though I'm hesitant to link it here since I'm not sure if that's allowed in a review. Either way, using this to claim the community can't take criticism is a mistake I can see the reason behind, but it definitely doesn't hold up with context.
Is the group’s focus on fic-sporking for everyone? Absolutely not, to the point some of its own writers have ignored the setting’s sporking aspect entirely to write worldbuilding pieces (with one of them being a personal candidate for the best series I've read on the internet, funnily enough - Shift Twentieth and the Janitorial Division is a unique experience). In fact, from what research suggested, a solid third of active members just hang out in the community, having arrvied due to friend recommendations, which makes sense considering how genuinely chill the community seems to be despite their subject focus and what their reputation may make it seem.
Does the older age of the PPC, with its author-bashing, self-righteous claims of helping people learn, and sporking of any decent fic for the crime of not being canon deserve to be left in the bin? Absolutely, and even the current PPC has acknowledged that when asked (they're not exactly closed-off, either, so one can absolutely ask them and they seem fine with answering questions when they're not aggressive accusations).
However, the issue that comes with the only in-depth review on this site criticizing old aspects of the PPC is that it kind of creates the idea that the modern PPC is the same, which from the simplest of research is far from the truth. In fact, the difference between the somewhat aged image of the PPC that appears on TV Tropes versus the PPC itself is so jarringly different that one is virtually indistinguishable from the other minus shared terminology. As stated earlier, twenty years changes a community, but I guess reputations last forever. A pity, that.