Do you think some authors are way too precious about their characters?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

The ONE thing that kills my enjoyment of books is when a character is richly built, allowed to have some serious flaws, and put in an unwinnable (or, at the very least, very harsh) situation, then the author invents a half-baked excuse to save them or spare them punishment almost completely, effectively undoing everything that came before that moment in a way that's usually not even clever.

Like... "Yeah, you just confessed some major crimes on a letter home. A letter that's implied to be read by staff before reaching its destination. Don't worry, though! You have suffered enough! No juvie for you! Here's a gold star for honesty!". <--- Not a literal example, but almost.

I swear, some of the best stories I have ever read refuse to hold their leads accountable even after portraying them in the worst light ever to sell a "breakthrough" arc later. It just doesn't work for me and it makes me feel cheated of my time after enjoying a good story throughout the damn book.

Do you have any examples of this?

 

[Clippy]

Gandalf coming back after the fight with a balrog.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

That's literally the entire problem with authors in this romantasy genre I dipped my toes in. I'm trying try something new with something familiar in my love for fantasy and no one is willing to kill off anyone in this petty mean girl scene of fantasy high school or political sphere that clearly no one has done research besides a few GOT episodes not long war dramas.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Miyajima really loves Chizuru so much, he is either stalling the manga or doesn't know how to end the series. Can't blame him, Chizuru is a cute!

 

[χKai]

My argument is thus; being Fantasy he has a better chance of survival and full recovery (or class change I guess in his[Gandalf] case) than if it was meant to be less magical fantasy and more realistic.

I'll see myself out.

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Modern Batman comics will have Bruce punch his 15 yo son in the face, slam them to the ground, kick them in the face until it looks like a bucket of popcorn, pull a backbreaker on them, then scream in their face for 5 hours in a way that would make even Daddyofive go "JESUS dude, calm down!" and then literally get 0 comeupance or callouts from his family or the characters in the story and everyone will just go on with their day like nothing happened. Like how does this psycho not have an entire ARMY of Red Hoods gunning for his throat by this point?

Like idc HOW you write Batman, you should literally ALWAYS have him treat his family well otherwise you fundamentally misunderstand the character. It's like making a version of Sonic who isn't sassy or a version of Spider-Man who was born into a rich family and has no financial struggles. It's why I have such a problem with Arkham Batman too because he basically HATES Tim Drake yet the story literally never forces him to face consequences for it or have Tim turn on him, it's super infuriating.

 

[Kamako]

The Darren Shan novels thankfully (but brutally) revert this trope, when

Spoiler

in one of the last books of the series, the protagonist's mentor, Larton Crepsley, is shown escaping from a an unwinnable situation through some strange stroke of good fortune.

Only for it to be revealed in the very next chapter that this escape had been nothing more than the wish of the protagonist, so desperately had they hoped to see them survive, and in reality they had perished in a cruel and painful agony.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I guess that this is kind of the point, but YA books are specially notorious for this sort of thing, specially Van Draanen's (and I have always loved Wendelin Van Draanen).

Spoiler

There's literally a character who confesses to using, delivering and selling drugs, as well as several accounts of shoplifting going back at least three years, stealing from the household, selling off other people's belongings and even breaking and entering, yet she's given no consequences to face. According to the book's logic, her confessing is enough. The hell! That almost ruined a book I loved.