Discussion Least Favorite MC Archtype

What is it that you really can't stand while reading a novel? Beta-male Japanese MC? Revenge-happy Chinese cultivator? I am just curious.

I really hate those MCs where they set themselves up for failure, then state "it's not my fault." For example, the MC of Library of Heaven's Path is a frequent offender. He destroys something, goes "it's not my fault! How was I supposed to know these common sense knowledge... *sob sob*," BS's his way out of it and proceeds to do it again a few days to a month later.

Novel's Redemption has a perfect example appear mid-way through. The guy is a kleptomaniac that causes trouble, making everyone hate his secret identity. He ends up destroying everyone's homes due to his secret thief tunnels collapsing from a downpour. The guy then complains to himself that "it's not his fault" and "how was he supposed to know the tunnels would collapse" and running away with his stolen goods.

 

By far Beta Japanese MC

 

MC with no brains or loose their brain along the way + the “it’s not my fault”/ misunderstandings that hurt others.

 

transmigration mc who supposedly have lifetime experiences, transmigrated to a much younger body... suddenly forgot their mental age and acts all petty and childish, or those supposedly no. 1 agent, most powerful assasin, doctor etc etc who became idiots and fools once transmigrated.. yea im talking about typical female transmigration cns

 

Indecisive MCs and MCs who don't act like adults and have no logic.

 

mine is the mc who in their past life acts all evil, cruel and a loner or say they are the best assassin but once they die and reincarnated they charge head first into any young master that makes fun of them without a plan. and they dont even kill them, just beat them up. like omfg.

I can't read assassination light novels since they all just charge head first with no plan amd rely on plot armour.

 

MC that don't kill everyone who says he is trash

 

An MC who is overly stupid and an MC who thinks being raped or controlled is romantic. (Or knows it isn’t, but gives in immediately anyway.)

 

Can't say "No."

Commonly Jap MC's but even this pathetic garbage has their bottom of the barrel: characters who literally can't say "No" to anything.

MC: "I must go save the kingdom! The demon king's army approaches!"
Random Female Side Character: "Can you help me do my laundry?"
MC: *immediately starts following RFSC*

It's particularly easy to spot this kind of abhorrent and disgusting "writing" because the MC won't even say "yeah sure." They give absolutely no indication of affirmation or negation, non-MC's just do stuff and MC just happens to be there doing it with them, regardless of any other context in the story.

Straight-up the fucking worst and makes me want to stab people in the face over the internet.

Honourable mention is also for amnesia-anything. This is the worst "plot device" in the history of plot devices and this needs to go away. "Pretending to have amnesia" is just as bad.

 

Let's see...
- MC got caught w/ the "arrogant young master/miss" syndrome (CHN novels at most)
- MC's indecisiveness when it's about relationships (most JPN novels w/ non-committal harem)
- the superior feeling that felt almost/borderline racism and/or bullying
- villains that really crossed the line

 

MCs that repeat the same error all the time. Whether that be assuming that earth’s spirit Qi is too low to allow cultivators beyond a limit that consistently increases as their powers grow, and continuing to be surprised with each revelation of how wrong they are; or always leaving their friends and family unprotected to be attacked or used as leverage; or never asking for guidance on cultivation even as they keep finding out after the fact that their self cultivation almost killed them. Etc.

 

1. I hate MC's that are suppose to be OP, but in fights they struggle super hard, but they won't kill and whine and grandstand about it.
2. this one is the female transmigration MC who was a powerful assassin but can barely fight out of a wet paper bag. All while saying they don't need help/saved but they do. Then being a b@#ch to the ML for saving them. all the while using the ML.
3. the MC that hate @ssh@le people and beat them up when they see them. But find this one @ssh@le that is either fat/ugly and become friends with them even though they act the same/worst then all the other @ssh@le the MC beats up.

Edit* thinking about it all the MCs I listed are hypocrites so I guess I hate hypocrites

 

I can agree with all of the above pretty much, it's like reading a broken cookie cutter that just copy and pasted from other stuff. now if the writer actually gives a legitimate reason for those actions ( I remember reading one I may have eventually dropped where the MC "played" ignorant of the side chicks feelings and stated why he did so and it was valid from an outlook) but most of the times it's just cookie cutter.
Now the ones that really get on my nerves are the stories that the writer seems to have lost his place in what he was writing and on the same page they state one view from the MC and like they skipped a whole arc the page ends with the MC having the opposite view (usually of some no name, short term character used as a foil) or the follow up is so bad it makes you go "and just why did I read all of that just so that nothing much happened" or talks of doing basically death and destruction on the foil character/s and ends like a wet firecracker in the rain.

 

can I say I hate villains who never heard of the mc even after he beats some well known person or does something amazing? like he beat the number 1 person in this country, but goes to a next country and everyone is like who are you? your trash.

 

Oh! I hate those! The "I was the best in this one particular field (usually assassination) back in my world, so obviously I'm the best in all these other fields too. Especially, magic or cultivation."

They are what made me start to stay away from female MC stories. If the MC is going to be OP it is okay for her to just be a genius. It doesn't matter the MC is male or female, somehow having the "greatest assassin ever" make stupid mistakes or not know how to interact with others is not cool. Just attribute everything to "instinct" and you can make it a low-level gag. Sorry, this was just me ranting.

 

Someday, I want to write/find a novel where the amnesia-thing gets pointed out for being BS. Not a "amnesia? yeah, right." But a full on, "that is one of the worst lies I have ever heard. Who are you and what are you doing here!?"

 

What was that zombie apocalypse novel with the game elements and a skeleton summons called? Anyways, it was really good (not fabulous, but still good) until the author started to get incredibly racist. At first, the racism was uncomfortable but could be explained as being part of the reaction to the apocalypse. Until it grew and everyone had to agree that not only was the author racist against all foreigners, but had a prosecution complex stating everybody is racist against China.

It was really disappointing.

 

Naive Japanese MC

Very different from beta MC because this MC will act all knowing and alpha but in the real world his actions would get him killed, exploited, or worse in seconds.

 

Ah, the type where if he was a side character he would have died in the first couple chapters.

 

I always find it amusing how EVERY trait of "Beta" males that people hate are also traits of the a stock shonen hero.
Seriously what are the 2 biggest complaints, a lack of libido and not killing those who deserve it. Who else meets that Goku who never kills anyone, is a big friendship teddy bear, always goes for reforming and was forced into his marriage by his wife.
The personality is the same (because they come from a specific set of Japanese cultural values and censorship, since almost every WN author hopes to get published one day, for material aimed at non-adults), the only real difference is the amount of action scenes.

That and a lot of things that people are complaining about "Beta" males not doing are actions that would either not add anything of value to the story or actively make it worse. If you want sex go read porn, otherwise it does not add to and often detracts from the story as Anyone who read the Anita Blake series can tell (the story starts going down hill way to fast at the novel where the author decides to give her succubus powers). anything that does not add value should be skipped. Things that are not stated still happen all the time, so saying the character never does X because it is never explicitly stated is idiotic, especially from somewhat repressed cultures that just do not talk about X openly and X would be culturally inappropriate before some other condition was met (like marriage) .