[ SECRET POST #2906 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2906 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 021 secrets from Secret Submission Post #415.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think the problem for me is how it's treated in the text by the other characters and the show itself.

Usually, if a character is murdering people or selling drugs, the underlying message will be "this is very bad and is going to have serious consequences." ('Serious' is defined by the show's overall tone and genre. Sometimes it means a slap on the wrist and sometimes it means an exceptionally painful death.) Even if the character is supposed to be sympathetic, their actions aren't excused or romanticized.

Then you have the opposite with a lot of fictional affairs. Characters that are against our protagonist are demonized for it, but if it's the protagonist who's cheating, there's always a "good reason" for it.

"Oh, their partner cheated on them first."
"They're always super selfless, so therefore they've earned the right to be selfish for once."
"Their partner is an asshole, so it's okay that they cheated on him/her instead of leaving. The person they're cheating with is better for them!"
"Can't you see how in love these two are? They're so passionate that they don't care about the rules!"
"It was just one time! Their partner is ridiculous for being upset about it!"

And on and on and on. The constant excuses the writers make for their characters is my biggest problem. NO. Your character is doing a bad thing. Maybe they have their reasons, but it's still a bad thing. All you're doing by saying it's not is making me hate your character.

Ugh, this is why I had to stop watching Scandal and The Good Wife.

Obviously, you have cases where writers are excusing characters who are murdering people and other nasty things. But I feel the same way in that situation. Murderers and drug dealers are not "poor babies who don't have any other choice and should consequently be forgiven for everything they're doing." No, they're (almost always) grown adults who got themselves into this situation and should rightly pay the consequences for what they've done.

Doing a bad thing doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, but it's still a BAD THING. That's all I'm saying.

[(Anonymous)]

The constant excuses the writers make for their characters is my biggest problem. NO. Your character is doing a bad thing.

Yes, this. If your character does bad things like cheating, expect to lose audience sympathy pretty swiftly. Unless you're an exceptional writer, which most writers aren't--and even then it's a hard sell.