How to Write The Maze Runner Fanfiction ✓

47 | 'problematic' characters

hi, this has been tickling my peach for a while now and since i don't have a rant book or anything, i decided to publish this here.

i've been seeing a lot of books about 'problematic' characters lately. at first i thought it was a great idea, but then i read them and realized that many people have a misconception of what a problematic character actually is.

i think that people nowadays are so focused on having every single character be this peachy, perfect being who does absolutely no wrong ever. some of the things authors listed were decisions they personally didn't agree with/understand, mistakes, or just things that anyone could do because they are human.

especially nowadays, everyone is so caught up in everything that's going on in the world that they expect characters to be faultless to the point where one screw-up or wrongdoing causes the audience to point fingers and blacklist them for being 'problematic.' i'm not going to reveal names but one person literally had a character in their book with one (1) thing they did wrong.

an example of an actually problematic character: billy from stranger things. he's abusive without any apologies whatsoever toward his victim, controlling, and just a plain piece of garbage. his actions were not mistakes or natural human errors, they were wrong.

i really don't know how to explain myself further. i'm not trying to make excuses for certain characters who actually do fall under this category, i'm simply advising people to check themselves before they point fingers and post these things without consideration.

if we followed the guidelines that some people use for the word 'problematic,' then we would all fall under that category.