cashew | What's wrong with CN writers? (Reply)

One of the frustrating things about looking for fic in CN is the overwhelming amount of unequal relationships. Maybe this is just as bad in the EN fic-sphere and I didn't notice because I just wasn't really paying attention to the meta stuff because I was too busy being annoyed at OOC writing. But in CN writing, after looking through the archives for three different completely unrelated fandoms, the glaring trope of an unequal relationship is really starting to bug me.

This problem is this unequal relationship is also painfully blatant in the canon material, too. So maybe I'm just getting sensitized. But man I hate it.

I'm really tired of writers romanticizing the dynamic where one person does all the emotional labor while the other person just gets to be brainless and do whatever they want, trusting their friend/romantic-interest to pick up the pieces and wipe up after them.

In HSR, 景元 is doing all the cleaning up after 丹枫/丹恒. (This is kind of especially bad given how 丹恒 is supposed to be part of the Main Character Party and should be doing heroics, yet somehow the narrative steadfastly refuses to acknowledge just how much effort 景元 put into saving the guy's ass from prison. Like would it kill the guy to say "thanks for getting me out of jail, I owe you my life"?) In 《御赐小仵作》, 景翊 is doing all the social elbow greasing for 萧瑾瑜, despite the latter being higher ranked than the former. In 《君子盟》, 王砚 is constantly putting himself into politically dangerous (aka life threatening) situations to help 兰珏 out of whatever mess he got himself into. Simultaneously, 兰珏 is putting himself constantly in danger to cover 张屏's social incompetence.

And it's not just friends that get shafted. In 《御赐小仵作》, 楚楚 is a socially incompetent airhead who just walks into danger like an idiot while 萧瑾瑜 has to make plan after plan to keep her safe. Which then results in his friends & older brother (that's three separate people!) having to chase after the idiot to keep him safe. Because all must sacrifice in the name of romance.

But honestly I'm just frickin' tired of main characters who are socially incompetent idiots. Can we for once have a politically suave and socially well adjusted main character? I swear we (C-dramas) use to write this type of story. Where the main character is intelligent, both politically and emotionally, and the main obstacles comes from the antagonist setting up (social/political) traps while the main character has to figure out how to disarm or avoid said traps and the drama comes from the main character maneuvering to outsmart the enemy rather than having them dig the hole deeper and deeper themselves.

Like what happened to the smart and socially competent main character? I'd like to be able to like a main character for once. Gah.

Edit to add: I've noticed that shows with homely actors tend to write more likable main characters whereas every "pretty" series (where eye candy is clearly a priority) inevitably falls down in this aspect. Sadly, modern C-dramas are lacking in homely actors. I desperately need a show where the average age of actors are 45+ or something. Because good fucking lord these young ones cannot emote.