Discussion Rant: What do ya think about useless characters

One thing that triggers me in novels is when our op, genius mc meets some nice guys, forms a clique and everyone plays friends while leveling up. Ok it sounds normal but I get annoyed when the MC has to waste resources to power up his friends purposely. And the worst part is that his friends have 0 contribution to the plot. Nor do they have character development or a backstory in serious cases.

This is prominent in most xianxia novels. I don’t understand why the author can’t make said friends power themselves up instead of clinging and leeching off mc. Only a few chaps are dedicated to the friends and they don’t even have a personality and u can’t remember some of their names. You see the mc with drastic character change like in renegade immortal or you may have seen a shameless mc like in issth and awe but you’ve never seen characters apart from mc with those traits. We want independent characters not slugs dragging the mc down.

One of few exceptions of novels I’ve actually seen develop characters properly are Douluo Dalu and perhaps Overlord. Magus era is perhaps the most guilty of this. This is one of the reasons why i prefer solo mcs in xianxia

Another thing is arrogant young masters being bad for the sake of being arrogant...and well, bad. Villains with proper character development and backstories, along with a natural goal are what readers enjoy the most. Goal doesn’t necessarily need to be villainous, just something that conflicts with mc

What do ya’ll think or what sets u off about novels?

 

Useless character gets the girl.
Example, nobita nobi from doraemon.

 

The MC is what sets me of in every motherfucking novel.

Here's to hoping that the stupid MC gets choped into itty bitty pieces by the first arrogant young master he comes across.

 

U know a novel has went south when reader hates mc

 

Several reasons being the most likely

1. The ones that are as skilled / gifted as the MC have huge factions backing them, so they have to consider their benefits and can't do as they please
2. The ones that aren't as skilled nor have as large a backing, still want to be friends, but they both know that if they can't keep up, they'll be left behind
3. The ones that might have the talent or skills to rival the MC might not get along well with the MC, because the MC will triumph over all of them, and that sort of hurts their pride

 

I think the part where the mc is made to be responsible of cleaning up strangers' mess is what annoys me. Like when mc needs to work hard for the royalties who only want to take advantage mc's power or something.
It builds up the plot, yes, but being taken advantage like that doesn't sit well for me.


Also, mc's never ending monologue about a topic totally unrelated to the situation and keeps on repeating it as if it's the most important point. It spoils the fun of reading and breaks the flow of the story itself.

 

I'm also not a fan of when the MC progresses in strength he only encounters people of equal or greater strength.

Like regular people just stop existing once they've reached another level.

 

Besides WSAD they're all useless characters!~

 

Hey, its a rant thread.

I'm allowed my piece.

 

How about random arcs with people that has more depths than MC, but got forgotten until maybe a side note or small mention in future.

Also, MC that actually carries his friends are rare imo, most is dip and forget buddies. Is also because MC is a freak and got exp boost compared to many normal people.

 

the hell. . .

you need to move. . .
ahahahahaha

 

What do I think about useless characters? They’re useless of course. The answer is in the question~

 

I also agree about your point but I'm not annoyed because of the mc. I'm quite annoyed (or maybe more disappointed) that the author doesn't even consider building the background characters' personality and development properly and chose to focus mostly on the mc.

 

do you know why CWN's have so many useless characters? because they are too lazy to actually bother making side characters that actually keep up with the MC. they don't wanna put in the extra effort it takes to make those characters. not only that but having such characters makes it hard to have an OP MC when there are other just like them.

but what annoys me is when authors spend so much time on throw away characters. a whole chapter or even chapters on a character the MC simply kills instantly. like why waste all that effort like that? i mean i know word count matters and all but damn you could just as easily spend that word count on more important things than a character that's only going to exist for 1-3 chapters.

that and the horrible way authors have love interests keep up with the MC. they don't even put in any effort, they just have them disappear for a bit and after a stroke of luck or a mysterious master, they've somehow kept up with the MC even though the MC's cultivates way faster. what makes it worse is often they are just given some miracle pill that pumps them up whole realms. yet when the MC uses pills and items 10's of times more useful and valuable, he only goes up half a level.

 

What about space.Sometimes I'm life you need to take a leap foward

 

Yep, that always happens. Every now and again they have a 'MC trashes weaklings' scene, but other than that...
Another thing that always happens, THAT REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS, is that at the lower realms, those at higher levels are treated as rarer than qilin horns or phoenix feathers, but when the MC gets near that level, NOPE, they're a dime a dozen, coming out of the cracks everywhere like cockroaches. Like, WTF?

Also, speaking of qilin horns and phoenix feathers, they never actually seem to appear. Suppose they're living up to their reputation.

 

Well, that is called... Bad writing.

I don't read badly written stories, so I don't really have any view on that...

 

I like how your title summed up those long ass paragraphs that I didn’t have to read.
Useless characters are trash!

 

Also, more to the point of this thread, I would guess it's partly because the author feels obliged to introduce new characters every now and again, but doesn't want to have to keep track of them too much, and therefore just kills them off before too long or forgets about them.

 

Yeah I absolutely hate that, an entire arc for a side character that has no relevance to the start, like that over 50 chapters. What a waste of time