I am just wondering what people think are some of the most impactful moments in novels. It can be anything like fight scenes/dialogues/training scenes. Moments like when Dantalion plays Go vs. Elizabeth in Dungeon Defense or Seol Jihu training and running until he vomited in Second Coming of Gluttony. I am fine with spoilers but if you have to then feel free to put them in a spoiler block. Another one I can think of would be in SSS-class Suicide Hunter when Spoiler Kim Gong-ja commits suicide 4,000 times to go back in time
When one's favorite character dies. It's the worst when he knows he will die yet he throws himself into the fire out of a duty. That stuff traumatizes you. Otherwise, big twists are some of the most impactfull times in books. Like in Pandora Heart. That twist is number one in my ratings. I remember when I read an old fantasy book. It was quite special: the protagonist was a young woman who worked in a farm and just lost her baby. She saves a noble elf's baby who is the destined savior of the world. But she ends of being the destined savior of the world... second best twist rating. The book was really a breather from my usual fantasy books. The book was full of twists. At the end, the army is before the end villain and she calls it off. They just came from the capital and killed the other monster, and at the feet of the dragon's mountain, she tells them to go home. To go back to their families and to their land. And she leaves and goes back to the farm she was a maid in. And the magician guy who was with her all along, kind off a love interest, was the dragon and came to the farm to confront her... they talk, he goes from angry from being figured out to realizing he got played at his own game. Because he created this destined one prophecy to destroy the orher monsters and have fun and it became reality. Then he leaves. And she goes back to normal life with the destined one or not kid she adopted.
My favourite will always be the moment in the Omniscient Reader Viewpoint when we finally figured how the three main leads were connected or should i say imprisoned by the chains of fate! The timeline connections were done so effin impeccably and i finally got why the cover of the novel was drawn in such a way.I literally had chills reading how much they effin sacrificed and did for each other.
The last few chapters of When A Snail Loves. Those killers pov really made me lose my appetite for a few days. They were horrible. Both the killers and their pasts.
Definitely when the MC dies or is forced to watch someone they care about die (particularly if the person died to protect them)...regardless of if they may or may not end up being revived. Or when MC starts blaming themselves for something that really was not their fault. I actually just recently was talking to someone about how shocking Spoiler when the MC from Legend of Sun Knight dies in the last, especially considering that he was narrating from first-person perspective for the entire series. Obviously, the author temporarily switched to third-person perspective for the few chapters before MC was revived (with a cost) Also really twisted and dark scenes...namely related to crimes, particularly that of murder. In particular, I don't think I will ever really forget the plot of The Real Awakening because it was so disturbing in an unexpected (but well-written) way.
The most impactful thing I can remember in webnovels was in 'Reverend insanity' Chapter 1285 Perseverance (mild spoiler) - Because among them, some persevered because of responsibility, some persevered because of hatred, some persevered because of excitement, and some persevered because of love… And Fang Yuan’s answer? He was still expressionless, he continued to move forward relentlessly. I had once screamed, gradually, I lost my voice. I had once cried, gradually, I lost my tears. I had once grieved, gradually, I became able to withstand everything. I had once rejoiced, gradually, I became unmoved by the world. And now! All I have left is an expressionless face, my gaze is as tough as a monolith, only perseverance remains in my heart. This is my own, an insignificant character, Fang Yuan’s — Perseverance!
Yeah whenever characters monologue like this it always gives me chills. That’s why I love POV chapters, authors put lots of effort into a character’s backstory/thoughts and it really makes them feel real. Especially when you realize that character lacks a few screws in their brain
Usually the most impactful moments in a book comes as a moment of revelation: when the character either finds out what's important to him, or the reader gets to find out something key about the character. Usually this character is the protagonist, but there are times it isn't. It's moments like these that add so much more substance to the work. Most of these moments come at crucial times so they tend to be chock full of spoilers: Bu Bu Jing Xin Spoiler Maertai Ruoxi's fateful decision to leave the Forbidden City. She was still very much in love with the Emperor Yongzheng and he with her at the time, but she could no longer handle living with him and all the misery that came with it. A lesser writer would have still made it a love conquers all ending, but the writer wisely understood that the characters and who they were mattered more than that and used this decision to illustrate this. Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils Spoiler A Zhu's decision to sacrificing herself when she realized that their main enemy was her father. It's a super memorable event in a book filled with memorable events. Everything about this scene is great: the way it's set up, the imagery and the atmosphere, the promise of finally confronting the main villain, and the horror at recognizing that A Zhu had secretly replaced the villain. The story is all the stronger because it's told from her lover's perspective and the reader doesn't find any of this out until he does. The funny thing is that this passage doesn't look very good in Chinese. In fact, you can even argue that the prose sort of sucks. It looks decent in English though, but that's differences in how languages work for you!
Rokka no Yuusha, when Tsepse was defeated and he monologues about his achievements that borders on standing ovation or asspulls. How even in defeat he can still torment them. Spoiler He broke the hero's mind years ago so he would have nothing but hate for the girl he has been professing (his hypnosed) love to all this time and who had broken her cold shell and come to love him at the same time he becomes free of his hypnosis.