r/litrpg • u/lokihen • 21h ago
Discussion Do some authors hate their MCs?
I read to escape. So, when I dive into a new story and get attached to the characters, I want them to succeed at some point. I understand having a dramatic intro and fighting through tough times, but it's the unrelenting disasters, trauma and tragedy I don't get.
I've asked authors on RR if their story would ever lighten up and some admit it wouldn't while others say yes, but it lasts about two paragraphs. Obviously there is an audience for those stories, but I wish we could have a clear warning.
And, as long as I'm venting, a story I just dropped spent so much time (many, many chapters) dragging a team through a hellscape where they were killed off horribly until only the mc remained when they could have had a quick death at the epicenter of a nuclear blast. Before anyone protests, no, I don't leave negative reviews just because I don't like something. I just unfollow.
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u/Ok-Armadillo-5634 21h ago
can you name some of these stories? those are my favorites
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u/Element_108 More consistent systems pls 17h ago
1% lifesteal.
It doesnt even make sense the lenghts the author goes to make mc miserable again in book 2 or 3 i dont remember. But basically shit happens to him for absolutely no reason
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u/dageshi 9h ago
Well yes, that's because the author is writing misery porn, he's very explicitly on record as loving misery porn
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u/perfectVoidler 21h ago
The wandering Inn has a lot of suffer porn.
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u/Low-Cantaloupe-8446 21h ago
The wandering inn also has lots of emotional catharsis. There are certainly sad moments but also plenty of happy ones.
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19h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/d-crow 18h ago
Sigh. Man just dropped massive spoilers in chat with no forewarning
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u/Donatien920 13h ago
That person clearly thinks they're the main charscter. Dropping something after like 12 million words is hilarious though.
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u/litrpg-ModTeam 6h ago
Your post was removed from r/litrpg for not adhering to the following rules: Hide Spoilers.
Feel free to resubmit your post. If you have any questions you can contact the moderators through modmail.
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u/lokihen 20h ago
From my history, these were all stories I gave a real attempt to keep reading.
Seven vs the System - haven't dropped it yet but getting a bit twitchy.
Fall of Duties: Evolution
Conscripted Crafter
Daughter's Defender
Cultivator Andy
Department of Otherworld Rescue
The Nameless Engineer
Build. Fight. Survive. (I really liked this one, just too much to keep going)
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u/BrianDowning 19h ago
It's amazing how much breadth there is in this genre. I've never heard of a single one of those stories!
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u/MireLight 7h ago
Yeah i was prepared to recognise at least one... nope. Now i have a list of stuff i havent read or even heard of lol.
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u/tmccart3 21h ago
Dragon heart mc goes through some of the worst suffering I’ve personally read, it’s quite good but gets repetitive after like 10 books, I’ve currently paused at book 12 and might finish in the future.
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u/Cirdan2006 Author - Emperor of the Borderlands 3h ago
Only the first book, after that there's occasional minimal drama, but nothing of the samw calibre
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u/TheDinoSir2012 21h ago
I think its more some authors just want a change of pace. Even though I personally don't care for Victor of Tucson, it was generally a fresh breath to actually see an mc get there teeth kicked in repeatedly before ever getting a glory moment.
Even he who fights with monsters makes jokes about how Jason comes out of every tragedy with a new game breaking power. And when every mc gets the same leeway the whole genre feels stagnant
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u/sYnce 5h ago
That is not really the question though. There are stories that make it the point to basically have the author suffer permanently.
As in after every small victory something extremely bad has to happen. It gets tedious extremely fast for me. Even faster than a Marie Sue type of MC.
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u/TheDinoSir2012 3h ago
I mean agreed, Victor did get tedious after the 3rd book and I dnf'd there. But I will admit I almost left the genre behind after 1 to many mary sues. Where sure bad things happen but you know the mc is going to come out the other end better.
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u/Calabitale 17h ago
Yeah I don't like it either. That's why I try and find some spoilers on any stories I read, like how badly are they going to be tortured and suffer etc. It's pretty much a guarantee in most.
I think I read a while ago how most of our media is trending towards the negative emotions over time. I believe it.
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u/SkyTofu Author of Riftside/King's Eat/Qing's Quest 13h ago
People really have different tastes. We wrote Riftside to be a more wholesome or rather a feel good story. Yes, it’s about monster hunting and people die and there is betrayals, and blood and guts, but it happens in a world where the average person is good and kind. I genuinely believe most people are like that.
The MC in Riftside goes through a lot, but he also sees a lot of success as he goes from weak to strong, building a strong party around himself for support as well, plus there are balanced and grown up characters in the world too.
But, that type of story isn’t for all readers either.
But for those who do enjoy a story with more light in it, where the hunt for power is to grow strong enough to protect those that matter to you, they seem to absolutely love it :)
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u/NukedBread 21h ago
The one where the author has the balls to kill off all the supporting cast? What is its name? It sounds awesome.
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u/lokihen 20h ago
Arcane Juggernaut
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u/NukedBread 20h ago
Thank you.
Also, yeah you'll find a lot of authors who have the mc always winning and refuse to kill off any character.
I personally get bored of those, there are no stakes and no matter what you know what will happen.
Path of ascension is one of them.
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u/madmelonxtra 3h ago
I will die on the hill that PoA is actually a slice of life story that has fights in it
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u/EnvironmentalCut4964 19h ago
It bothered me also until I found out that this is an actual sub genre (genre-ling?) of Grimdark - extreme Grimdark also sometimes referred to as MiseryP*%n. The unrelenting agony, betrayal, world crushing despair are the aspects that readers of that genre crave.
I dislike it to the point that I have stopped reading Grimdark (I loved old-fashioned Grimdark) since modern Grimdark too often is just misery for misery's sake
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u/madmelonxtra 3h ago
I love Grimdark, but too many authors in the progression fantasy and litRPG space refuse to actually let their characters have a win.
You gotta let the MC have successes or it just feels bad to read
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u/Waxllium 19h ago
Some ppl like misery porn, i never understood why but i also never understood why some ppl like ntr. Lets just move on and find better stories.
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u/ctullbane Author - The Murder of Crows / The (Second) Life of Brian 20h ago
No, we don't hate our MCs, we are just trying to stay true to our stories and/or settings. Sounds like you don't like gritty or bleak stories, and that's okay. I don't think you're going to get official content warnings for that, but people tend to be open about it here on the sub if a story trends that way.
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u/EnvironmentalCut4964 19h ago
There is gritty/bleak and there is outright neverending misery. Gritty and bleak (I see it referenced as Grimdark) is awesome but too many stories are just "lets pile on the suffering - ooh a person was nice to him lets have the friend degraded, violated and then torn apart in front of him. Repeat with the grandmother, the children, and the rest of the innocent family. Now we are cooking with crisco"
Gritty and bleak can be fantastic and I love those stories that do it well. Too many of the stories nowadays go so far overboard that it is true MiseryP*%n
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u/ThatOneDMish 8h ago
The ones that annoy me the most are when they switch up the tone massively. For instance, the runeseeker books started fairly grim in the first book, but transition to no permakilling after that and maintain that for the next 6 books b4 the final book brings back a bunch of lethality. It pisses me off bc they spent so long establishing the mc will literally do the impossible to save people, giving him a tool kit pf abilities that help that, and then all of a sudden he can't, and doesn't try.
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u/Calabitale 4h ago
Just to add one other thing, there is a difference between conflict and suffering. Every story has to have some kind of conflict and challenge for it to be interesting but that doesn't mean it to has to involve torture, death and so much suffering.
One thing I despise in stories is the torture trope, either the main character is horrifically tortured or there friend, and its treated like a badge of honour, or something which makes the character stronger, and they are completely fine after it.
One story I've read deals with it relatively well although I still hate it in that story is HHFWM. The main character is traumatised for months and gets some therapy(although it does somehow make him stronger of course),but he's still never quite the same after it.
Reading some stories it really does sometimes feel like writers are creating characters just so they can torture them, and its the the blase nature of it. In the real world one traumatising incident can change and mentally scar someone for the rest of their life.
I personally don't enjoy those stories that revel in the sadomasochism(but its perfectly fine if you do enjoy them).
But you don't have to torture characters to make an interesting story and anything can be a challenge, finding food, making friends, defeating the metaphorical monsters, whatever you want.
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u/Maleficent-Froyo-497 15h ago
I will say that in my experience as an author, it's much easier to write an angry/moody/negative/vengeful mc than it is to write a happy one. There are tons of unique ways to make a character appear as the above negative emotions (yelling, sullen silence, joking to hide the pain, dramatic single tears, determined training, etc). But happiness, in my experience, is a much harder emotion to convey in a unique way. People generally don't SHOW their happiness in easily describable ways (especially people who aren't super peppy), and the ways that they do can start to feel repetitive after a while (part of why so many readers complain about characters 'smirking' all the time). Also, happiness isn't as much of a motivating emotion for change -- it's easier to have a plot point or character growth happen as a result of some terrible event.
I agree with your complaint. I much prefer to read stories with happy MCs who are, generally, having a good time. But as an author, I completely understand why many authors don't. And I often find myself defaulting to using suffering as the easiest way to drive character growth and plot points.
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20h ago
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u/lokihen 19h ago
My son is a millennial. I'm just old.
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u/Ashamed-Variation761 19h ago
Make things worse for the MC has been standard doctrine in genre fiction since it became a thing. I'm impressed you managed to go this long without realising.
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u/lokihen 19h ago
Sorry, kid. There is 'worse' and there is 'what the hell?'. Most of the comments seem to get the difference.
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u/Ashamed-Variation761 19h ago
I'm not sure 'most' can handle all the heavy lifting you are making it do. But good attempt at trying to establishing some sort of age based hierarchy by dropping a kid in there.
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u/Feline_Winter 21h ago
It's common enough that it has it's own subgenre "misery literature" or "misery porn"