#QuestionOfTheDay what's a type of protagonist/hero you just absolutely can't stand and is more than likely to make you nope out of a story (either right at the beginning or eventually because you just can't stand them)?

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@ami_angelwings The gritty anti-hero. I'm honestly just so sick of it. I seriously don't see what people see in these sorts of stories. The good guys kill everyone's grandmas, but it's ok because in the end they save the day, not because they care but just because they wanted to save their own skins and it happened to work out that doing so saved us all.

Conversely, also "the paladin." The hero who is so goody-two-shoes that they offer tirades about how terrible everyone living is.

I can understand the first few stories of the gritty anti-hero that came out were something different. But now they're in everything! And maybe I'm a bit of an odd one out in wanting the "comfort" of a story centering around a flawed-but-tries their best hero that people can kind of look up to.

[adriano@lile.cl]

@ami_angelwings House M.D. and every other "talented jackass". I'm really done.

Also the very rich very bored protagonist of a novel in which he explores perversions because he's so bored.

[lalah@sakurajima.moe]

@ami_angelwings I don't like overly snarky or sarcastic characters, they are so annoying to me

[waitworry@sakurajima.moe]

@ami_angelwings male power fantasy isekai dude

[estelle@mstdn.social]

@ami_angelwings time-travel isekai man

often made worse due to the setting itself being flawed (even hollywood is notorious for this, anyone who time travels more than 500 or so years back becomes a superhero because people further in the past apparently didn't know how to exist)

[thepi@urusai.social]

@ami_angelwings I can't stomach comedy characters like Tomoko Kuroki (No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!) or Mr Bean (Mr Bean) where the entire bit is that they're mentally and especially socially challenged

[moxxieraccoon@is.nota.live]

@ami_angelwings easily the "I'm special without trying" kind -- the strongest example of this was the progag of "The Name of the Wind" which just... taught himself the purest song of the universe playing a lute in the forest alone for 3 years

[aharper@mstdn.social]

@ami_angelwings Handsome, white, men. Any one of those three is a strike, all three and I'm out. It's not that I personally dislike good looking white guys, I've just read too many stories starring them. Give me the "chosen one" trope about a haggard looking old woman and I'll give it a fair chance. At least there's a possibility of treading new ground.

[canageek@wandering.shop]

@xgranade @ami_angelwings That's interesting because I remember hearing an interview with Robin D Laws and he talked about how there are two types of characters, ones who are changed by the story they're in, and ones who have already been changed and wind up changing the world

[canageek@wandering.shop]

@xgranade @ami_angelwings I'm sure there's more than those two types, and I'm also remembering an interview that I heard in like 2012 when he started writing Pathfinder novels

[mast0d0nphan@beige.party]

@ami_angelwings The unrealistically optimistic protagonist who's invincible to pain, torture, or any kind of conflict that is instead experienced by their grouchy nextdoor neighbor who's destined to be shat on by the universe.

Y'know, your modern SpongeBobs, Coconut Freds, Unikitties, etc.

[leojetskifuelnardo@mastodon.social]

@ami_angelwings Twee and all knowing.

Whatever Ryan Reynolds is.

[rinmari@urusai.social]

@adriano @ami_angelwings

IMHO, nice characters can be interesting too! That doesn't make them "sue" characters! There are ways to develop a such a character!

[greyduck@wellduck.me]

@ami_angelwings The "all heart no brains" protag. Gets by entirely on their positive can-do energy and the power of friendship but are chronically, colossally useless in nearly every way. Be good at something, protag-kun. PLEASE.

Yes, this also includes "the genki girl" stereotype when "genki" is the start and end of her characterization.

[greyduck@wellduck.me]

@thepi @ami_angelwings I had such a hard time explaining to certain people why I could be highly entertained by one Rowan Atkinson character (Blackadder) while the other popular one (Mr Bean) drives me absolutely around the bend from distaste. "But it's the same guy!" Gaaah.

[greyduck@wellduck.me]

@moxxieraccoon @ami_angelwings "Bro, you can write that self-indulgent fanfic about What If I Was The Specialest Boy Who Ever Specialed but we don't all have to like reading it."

[moxxieraccoon@is.nota.live]

@greyduck @ami_angelwings it appears on "best fiction lists" far too regularly for how good it is.

[greyduck@wellduck.me]

@moxxieraccoon I'll grant that the books have craftsmanship going for them, in sheer "technical wordsmithing" terms.

But once you get past that, you're stuck with a *deeply* indulgent story that doesn't earn even half of the liberties it takes with characterization and plot conveniences.

[karstan@pdx.social]

@moxxieraccoon @ami_angelwings right?!? That book was THE WORST. Like, his only flaw was that he was too perfect. 🤮

That series was just page after page of white, male power fantasies.

[zdl@gamerplus.org]

@ami_angelwings Absolutely any situation where a child consistently (once in a while is OK) proves to be smarter than a thousand trained professionals around him is me closing the book, turning off the TV, leaving the theatre, etc.

I call it the Crusher Test after a particularly egregious example of it; a character that I can point to as one of three causes for me ditching the Star Trek franchise forever.

🧵 ️