Strange trait of Chinese MCs...

After reading Chinese novels... I kind of got feeling that in general Chinese male MCs are stupid, not uneducated but just brain dead in decision making, no different from their opponents. Female MCs seems to be all over the place, from stupid to smart. A little passive and submissive though. Especially it is visible in cultivation type of novels.

Why is this so prominent?

 

chinese webnovels are expected to update at least once or more daily, simply don't have time to write anything more complex than dumb and angsty.

 

THE WORD COUNT MAN! THE FUCKING MACHINE GUN RELEASES! 月票月票!!!

 

Search for official publications that didn't start as web novels

 

probably also partly a cultural thing, i bet

 

Word counts and the fact that few people actually like reading/watching characters that are smarter than the reader themselves.

If they did every major movie and popular novel would be more similar to Sherlock Holmes. Instead you get characters like Harry Potter.

 

Many Japanese and Korean novels started as WNs too. Still, there less stupid male MCs (they kind of have tunnel vision and beta-forever syndromes on other hand).

It's very boring to read about brain dead protagonist though for long.

 

I don't think we read the same novel.

 

And yet they make creators boatloads of money every year. Keep in mind that Chinese authors who gain a following for putting out a lot of content make money. Japanese WN’s don’t usually get paid.

Frankly most protagonists aren’t that stupid, but they aren’t geniuses either. When I read this complaint usually the person means “they aren’t doing what I would do”.

Same as so many people complaining about beta protagonists would be pussyslayers and warrior kings in the MC’s place.

I’ll say the same thing I usually do: maybe CN novels aren’t for you, just because some people like it doesn’t mean you should force yourself.

 

for a rant post this thread is actually civilized.
Since most things are already explained i will just put in a tip, don't read harem CN novels. Most of the female members end up as a part of faceless mob characters down the line or go missing only to show up with a problem later.

There is not blob with a suit and tie so make do with this statement

 

Chinese male MCs have a real issues about having plot armor without disguise which dictate their decision making, like they know that they are protagonists in the novel.

Beta protagonists is logically acceptable ones since beta with cheats would still be a beta. However, it sometimes becomes strange that they didn't grow in character.

I think it is a problem of almost all harem novels.

 

Because of culture Chinese chacaracters usually have rigid thinking. Not just the MCs but everyone else. This makes everyone make stupid choices rather often but they're reasonable or at least consistent within the story.

 

There’s a couple different points in there.

1) Chinese authors seem to believe in destiny/fate a lot more. I’m not sure if thats a writing convention or something actually common in Chinese culture. So they are much less shameless about deus ex machina because the MC was destined to be super power and ‘coincidences’ work in their favor ultimately

2) Back to word count, crunching on chapters means they don’t have time to setup a lot of thing. Like hints their super powerful friend B was in the area. Seat of the pants writers in the west like Dean Smith would backfill in the hints because they release finished products not stuff the readers see same day

3) we might differ on what plot armor is, but pretty much every MC anywhere benefits by survivor bias. They survive slim chances because the story wouldn’t end well otherwise. They survive bulletstorms that would kill 99/100, etc. This is a problem with action stories in general, made worse by poor planning

Not trying to dump on him a lot, just pointing out that Sherlock Holmes would have a couple possibilities for all the mysteries in the potter books in a few pages and tested them within a chapter or two.

Harry Potter is more of an Everyman character meant to appeal to kids who suffered from bullying, including feeling victimized by parental figures, and who want something magical to happen to them. The first chapters lay out why people should continue reading. Later chapters read more like mysteries.

 

I originally was going to point out that there are a lot of intelligent protagonists out there as well but I realized I'm currently reading a book where the main characters constantly do the most foolhardy things imaginable (and it's not even a webnovel). Still, it's not all that bad out there; especially if you're not reading xianxia novels. I primarily read historical novels where intelligent protagonists abound.

Even so, I don't think that it's necessarily good for characters to always make the best move. Doing foolish things is very much an ingredient in quality storytelling. I even like it when writers make their protagonists into complete dumbasses. It's only bad when the writer thinks that they're writing an intelligent character when they're not.

 

Most CN MCs to me, are smart and hmm, murderous...(*shiver*)

 

A lot of Chinese MCs, especially in cultivation novels, don't need to be very smart. It's all about power and the ability to solve everything by brute force. Studying ancient martial techniques that will rapidly increase their strength is infinitely more useful to them than street smarts because they'll just kill anyone who lies to them.

Japanese MCs on the other hand tend to be a lot smarter and more careful, but beside of their obligatory cheat power are very weak and tend to have timid, milquetoast personalities that stop them from standing up for themselves, even when it would greatly benefit them, because they don't want to be mean or something.

 

Harry: I'm wot M8?

I don't think he's very smart, he's a bit of a jock In fact I recon that the trio could be separated like this Harry-talent , Ron- Intelligence, Hermione - Knowledge.

Harry touches the broom, immidiatly knows how to fly. Has innate talent to protect himself from Voldemort via touch.
Beats the First obstacle leading to Philosophers stone on a broom , in tri-wizard tournament uses a broom to resolve one of the problems.
Can have wand laser duel with voldemort , because of his talent.so on and so on.