I'm a writer and a reader. In fact, reading great books is what drives me to try and write my own.
That said, I'm going to come down HARD on readers.
We insist on realism in our fictional characters, and why? Because no one really wants to follow a perfect ten through a six hundred page novel, or a ten book series. #notmycharacter.
So we campaign and cheer for ,and love a character with issues.
Katniss Everdeen. Awesome hardcore huntress driven by necessity.
Has MASSIVE PTSD problems from her stints in the Games, but nothing prepares her for the loss of Prim.
REALISTIC. Worth that three book series plus some, in my humble fan opinion.
I'm a part of a group of fanfiction authors, (don't ask me, okay? I don't even know why. Ask the little gremlin on my left shoulder, let me know what the little prick has to say about it..) and the subject of realistic vs. expectant came up, and I come down hard on the side of realism.
See for yourself.
Spoiler alert for the Sarah J. Maas fandom, it's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, if you've not read it, I recommend you read Throne of Glass first, then A Court of Thorns and Roses.
So I'm a realism over expectation reader/ advocate, because it's human to fail, to grieve, and TO SUFFER.
So me, being me, clapped with...
You know, because they're not cutouts with different names. They're their own character, not press-out pretty faces expected to be exactly the same beyond the name differences.
*screams* it's possible to have WOMEN characters that the DIFFERENCE is NOTABLE and WHOLLY ENJOYABLE. *breathes deeply, pinching nose..*
Where Katniss Everdeen Comes Into the Rant...
Oh, you just need more huh? OH, YEAH! I'M SURE. NO, IN FACT I'M POSITIVE, THAT KATNISS FIRST THOUGHT IS, " I NEED TO HOLD IT TOGETHER, FOR THEM."
Newsflash.
NO
NO, AND HELL. NO.
Do me a quick favor. Pretend you just spent two years of your life fighting all the odds, and surviving, and acting completely different from who you are to keep your loved ones safe. And grappling ineffectually the mental and physical trauma Katniss endured during that time period, and YOU SURVIVED IT.
And then, the revolution that your volunteering for your sister sparked takes your sisters LIFE IN FRONT OF YOU. THE WHOLE REASON YOU HAD CLING TO THOUGHOUT EVERYTHING... it's gone.
Yeah. You're entitled to attempted suicide and a recovery stint. Don't you think?!
You'd think, huh? No. Fic writer 2 agrees with fic writer 1.
I..... .....
Elain Archeron had just had everything. Everything....she'd known for her WHOLE life stripped away from her.
SHE GETS TURNED INTO THE SPECIES SHE'S BEEN TAUGHT TO HATE.
AND THEN ZHOT! SHE GETS MASSIVE MAGICAL POWERS.
Trauma. Trauma. Add to it mentally destructive powers, (this is covered in the books, it's canon..,) AND... YOU'RE EXPECTING MORE FROM A GIRL WHO'S SPENT HER LIFE UNDER HER SISTERS PROTECTION.
OH, I'M SO SORRY! LOL! HAHA, REALISM, BUT I WANT HER TO BE FEYRE, NOT ELAIN.
SCREW YOU. SCREW. YOU. YOU'RE WHY YA FICTION SUCKS BLACK BANANA SKINS.
you know, those press-out female characters who don't differ beyond the names, who star in damn near every feel good, heroine centric novel written by men to 'show girls how to be properly behaved, mannered, and must always save the day, in a ladylike manner, who never loses her façade of perfect control.. YAH. THOSE CHARACTERS SUCK. And you WANT THEM.
*WATCHES AS THE ENTIRE POINT OF TITLE NINE GETS SWEPT AWAY*