I hear you. It's hard not to be a little annoyed (in a vaguely superior way) when people fall for cheap tricks.
sociopathic
YES. I'm glad you mentioned that. I am so done with "this character is a violent sociopath who will KILL for NO REASON and has NO CONSCIENCE AT ALL". It's kind of like the "quest for vengeance" trope. It's easy to do, and it excites people who aren't bored with it or haven't yet had occasion to really pick it apart. But I think it's ultimately a cop-out. If you make a character a total sociopath, you don't have to actually explain their actions or how their actions change them. You can write super-violent, darker-and-edgier scenes that give the audience a thrill without "wearing out" your mayhem-causing character with trauma or introspection. And you can make a character "super mega badass" by excising any possibility that they might show vulnerability or anything else that would compromise their "most badassest killer assassin space marine ninja demon vampire terminator ever" image, thereby gaining an edge in that adolescent arms race to produce the Scary Badass™ who could totally beat up that other Scary Badass™.
It's also often done in a very shallow way, too, which further irritates me. Being a true sociopath is a massive character trait, but too often the word "sociopath" is tossed on as a coat of psychic shellac that merely prevents water damage or the need to explain feelings. Contrast something like American Psycho, which makes the entire movie about exploring the mind of an extreme sociopath, and the awful psychic void inside him. The comic/cartoon version of the Joker also does the trope well, IMO: first, a remorseless, gleeful killer is useful if all you really want is to give Batman a villain to fight, and second, they do delve deeper into the concept with (if I remember right) a fascinating exchange in which the Joker explains his origins by saying that, when the pain gets too much to bear, there's always the option of insanity: "insanity is the emergency exit". I think Jhin may be meant to be a Joker-type character, and that could work.
Another problem is that making a character a sociopath who just wants to kill and has no problems with killing doesn't leave a lot of room for a meaningful character arc. On the plus side, it doesn't demand much: it's pretty easy to figure out the character's motivations, because you've basically stamped KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL all over their psyche. But on the other hand, you don't get much out of it, either, other than a "force of nature" character for others to react to. In contrast, when approached in a mature way, making a character a sociopath is a high-risk, high-reward play that demands a lot of serious thought (and plot focus) but can pay some significant dividends, if you're willing and able to find something novel and meaningful to say in that barren wasteland trod over by so many mindless action heroes/villains/whatevers.
I guess what really gets me is that it's a sellout move. A certain kind of audience member, usually a younger one who's just emerging from a childhood of simplistic, bright-and-shiny fairy tales, is REALLY REALLY REALLY excited by super-grimdark, gory, gray-morality fiction. To such a person, a murderous sociopath is a shockingly profound new concept that exposes them to the novel idea that life can be unfair, brutal, and ugly. It often also appeals to teenagers who are feeling vulnerable, powerless, and overcome by new emotions by giving them a caricatured image of an unbreakable, superhuman figure who does not know fear or shame. (I feel this may in part be a gendered thing.) I don't want to be too snarky about that. I was there once. I remember reading Preacher, an utterly grotesque comic book that was my first, graphic exposure to the idea that the human body was a thing that could be torn apart, as a teenager. It made a huge impression. I feel like now I'd look at it, roll my eyes, and say, "this is just violence porn." But that's because I've already understood that concept. I hesitate to scorn people going through these initial steps of broadening their fictional perspective. Still, it's a sellout move, especially when there's nothing more substantial packaged with it. Watchmen, for example, used grittiness and misery to say something meaningful about the myth of the superhero.
Disclaimer to all of the above: I love 40K lore, which is just about nothing but a bunch of sociopathic macho killers inflicting mass death and destruction FOR THE EMPRAH. I accept judgment for this.
