[three characters looking awfully bland] The protagonists:

  • Annoying goody two shoes leader who’s a paragon of virtue
  • Nerdy scientist with no backstory who keeps doing poor puns
  • Super bland dude who’s an obvious self insert for the writer
  • People die because they’re “good” and refuse to break the rules
  • They win battles through plot armor and the power of friendship

[a cool looking grizzled character smokes a cigar in a spaceship interior, a foot up on the controls, while a spaceship blasts a mega laser outside in space] The super evil antagonist:

  • Played by the most charismatic actor available on the market
  • Keeps doing the coolest looking things (but you must hate it)
  • Has the coolest secret lair and his henchmen love him
  • Is named Adolf McMurder and genocides with a smile
  • Says an awesome one liner before murdering an orphan

[a nerdy dude in flannel points at a storyboard of the two previous images] The naive screenwriter:

  • At least this time he’s not writing women, phew
  • Has too much trust in his audience’s media literacy - About to give the super evil antagonist yet another zingy one liner
  • Surely if we show him killing an orphan the audience will hate him
  • Right, guys?… Right??…

https://thebad.website/comic/overly_cool_villains

https://bsky.app/profile/thebad.website

    • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      the pain of the Farseeir trilogy, or the pain of the stuff with Bee? idk what u mean

      i just read the first trilogy a month or so ago tho and it’s peak, it’s incredible how much she gets you to care about the characters

      • baines@lemmy.cafe
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        4 days ago

        very much agree

        but she has two broad groups of main characters

        suffers but takes action

        suffers and spends his time wallowing in self loathing

        first 6 books are great

        broader world building is great but some of the other MCs are the second case

        last 3 books are a combo of the second case and hitting all the nostalgia points and its sad