Oddly Specific

[nano_moose]

So...I'm upset about a fictional character's death - really, genuinely upset, the way I was over certain character deaths in ME3 - but not because I don't think that character deserved to die or found the scene particularly sad. That character was an asshole, and plot developments had heightened the assholery to levels where death was probably the most merciful thing.

I'm upset because that character's few redeeming features weren't so much as touched upon.

I'm upset because the one redeeming feature that character did have was written out in such a way that one wonders why they bothered with it in the first place.

I'm upset because what characterisation and redeeming features they did have (pretty meagre) were about-faced in side-material and not in the plot itself.

I'm upset because that character's death was treated without a hint of poignancy.

I'm upset because I feel a little ashamed of being upset about this, because neither I nor anyone else have claimed it was a great story. And it's not. It still isn't.

But I feel much more gutted by this development than, say the ending of Mass Effect 3, and that had a fanbase up in arms enough to see BioWare hastily promise to expand upon it in a move I feel vaguely annoyed about, since I don't much like it when fans think they know better. But while ME3 did wring my emotions out of me, I was satisfied enough with what it gave me, as a piece of entertainment (albeit with a few lingering questions). Here, I'm angry and disappointed, regretting all the time I invested. And nobody's going to be joining me in protest. That's perfectly logical and fine. I shouldn't care this much.

So what does one do when angrily disappointed with a guilty pleasure?

...Hmmm. Probably write fixfic?

If anyone can guess what I'm talking about, um, sorry for the spoilers, if you care. But I kinda doubt it.

Comments

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who you're talking about or even what the game is, but argh, I know the feeling of being deeply invested in a character no one else cares about and then just -- having it taken away from you, regardless. It can completely ruin the rest of my enjoyment of the franchise or show or whatever form of media it happened in, because I suddenly realize that the creators didn't care about said character. And if they didn't care, how can I expect them to care about the rest of it?

Trust: broken.

And it's really difficult to voice that kind of thing, because I think the general prevailing attitude is that so what, it's fiction? To which I say, SCREW THAT. I love fictional characters just as much as I love flesh people; they can often have the same impact on me, can still shape the way I live my life.

Which kind of went into a tangent, but. I'm sorry that your character didn't have the ending s/he/it deserved.

[nano_moose]

It's not a minor character no one else cares about, is the thing (although the plot was pretty much a distant third priority to most people). The character was a protagonist who, in this new development, became a villain. Their end at the hands of the new protagonist was built up to be ignoble and completely deserved. And...well, given the changes to the character, it was, but the character I remember wouldn't have developed that way. It was like they needed a villain, so they took a familiar character (who was once pretty complex and always morally ambiguous, but not truly evil) and slapped a generically villainous story to their name that also happened to completely invert everything that character had been shown to care about, then had the new guy kill them, and expected us to cheer because the bad guy was dead. They took away the first character's likeability to ensure we'd like the new guy. And they didn't need to! That new guy's genuinely interesting on his own!

A whole bunch of interesting plot points were dropped, too. It's like a different universe with the same premise and names, but nothing else. It wasn't an Angel/Angelus situation either - if not for the side material, I'd have no idea what had happened to justify the switch (and the justification is excessively stupid, even for this universe, which is already pretty insane).

I'm sorry that your character didn't have the ending s/he/it deserved.
I'm just going to giggle at a private joke, don't mind me. But thank you. Fans of the obscure, unloved and unlovable, unite!