What's wrong with CN writers?
Saturday, October 12th, 2024 16:51![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cashewOne 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.
 |   |
no subject
Date: 2024-10-13 06:58 (UTC)Or, it could be a target audience thing. Imperial era cdramas are typically aimed for younger girls more, than, say, modern family drama shows.
Also, a "smart and socially competent main character" just doesn't lend itself to easy drama or conflict. A well written novel might have the room to develop such a character, but TV or movies will probably not go that route. Like, offhand, I am hard pressed to think of any such examples. (And honestly, both smart and socially competent in EN stories tend to be a flag for villain characters than hero...)
no subject
Date: 2024-10-13 09:51 (UTC)Er, I believe whump was a common one. But HP canon also doesn't really lend itself well to a competent main character given that Harry Potter basically does nothing in the stories and mostly has his success handed to him by Dumbledore or whomever is trying to protect him.
I mean, Rurouni Kenshin has a pretty competent main character. Both Kenshin and Kaoru were competent people who were immensely likable. And Rurouni Kenshin is a shounen series (aka target audience age 13 boys), so I don't think it's an age thing.
Given that I have seen reviewers come out and say CP and pretty faces are the main draw of period dramas, I'd have to agree that for some weird reason it seems like 古装剧 has now become synonymous with Shoujo Romance... Which is weird when you remember famous period dramas from the '00s and '10s (such as《雍正王朝》、《康熙王朝》、《汉武大帝》、《大秦帝国》、《琅琊榜》、《芈月传》) were all famously not romance and focused on political machinations of competent main characters. And when you look into the even earlier stuff from 80s and 90s (like 《三国演义》、《红楼梦》、《西游记》、《宰相刘罗锅》、《包青天》, etc.), again the main character(s) are all very competent (socially, emotionally, and intelligence-wise) and likable.
I mean given the examples I listed earlier, I would say that's not the case at all. You just need to make the villains competent, too, and then boom, all the drama and conflict.
I mean that's one of the main reasons why most period drama TV shows are adapted from novels. All the examples I've listed above were novel adaptations. Plus, modern period dramas are also novel adaptations. The only difference is that previously the novels used were classics, while modern period dramas adapt web novels. Even then, in the case of 《芈月传》 and 《琅琊榜》 (which were adopted from web novels), they were still pretty decent with competent main characters and a focus on political conflict (both released in 2015). Meanwhile, modern period dramas adapted from web novels almost exclusively focus on immensely bland romances. Even when there are other elements that are fun (like in 《御赐小仵作》 where the mystery is genuinely interesting), those elements have to take a backseat whenever the romance comes up, rather than making the romance take a backseat to the plot/mystery/politics/etc.
I don't think smart and socially competent is a flag for villains at all. For example, Picard is a socially competent and fairly intelligent main character. Like, sure, he's not a genius, but he's still high on the intelligence ladder; and he's the captain of a space ship, so he has to have some pretty good people skills. Han Solo is a classic lovable rogue type (socially competent and a trickster). Classic Superman and Batman and Flash (before the weirdo grim-dark stuff took over DC) were all smart and socially competent people. Heck, almost every good guy in Captain America movie was both smart and socially competent (Steve, Bucky, Peggy, Colonel Philips, even Howard Stark qualify). Steve Rogers is only awkward around women, but in terms of rallying the troops and calling people to arms, he's aces. And Steve Rogers obviously is smart because he comes up with creative ways to solve problems and has an eidetic memory (or at least he can memorize map locations with a glance).
So I would say there are plenty of smart and socially competent characters that are portrayed as heroes in EN media. Similarly, there used to be plenty of smart and socially competent people who were main characters in Chinese period drama. 诸葛亮、林冲、孙悟空、林黛玉、包拯、康熙、雍正、汉武帝、唐太宗、武则天、狄仁杰、刘墉、穆桂英、杨延昭、…… There's tons of examples. Most of the ones I've listed are not only main characters of their respective works, but also portrayed heroically. (Yes, some are real historical figures, but they're still fictionalized depictions in the TV show.)
no subject
Date: 2024-10-13 16:20 (UTC)With period dramas, I think they have different subcategories. Eg. Though taking place in the same dynasty,《雍正王朝》 falls under (历史)正剧, while 《如懿传》falls under 故偶. The former is targeted more towards adult audiences, the latter young female audiences who are just there for the romance. Based on general sentiments from the TV show forum on douban, there's a general complaint 故偶 quality has been going down the gutter over time, as story and plot get sacrificed for bad directing and actor/idol politics. And there's also complaints that new 历史正剧 continuously run the risk of getting taken over by romance plots that never existed in history, because there's no confidence that people are willing to watch actual history dramas anymore.
Speaking of Star Trek and Comic examples you give, it also makes me wonder if there is also a slow shift over time that reflects the generational changes (or perceived changes). Like, if we take Trek, the original TOS!Kirk was an intelligent and suave guy, not really a womanizer if you actually look at his episodes. However, pop culture warped his characterization, and when they recreated him in ST09, they went with the memetic caricature of him, who was smart, but also an edgy asshole (and not well socialized). Similarly, Picard in his recent serial "Picard" is a more edgier than original TNG (which granted, may partially be due to Stewart indulging in some mid life fantasies or something).
As for comics, if we look at Superman, his original movies didn't emote much, but certainly wasn't the emo wreck that was the latest movie. If we look at the TV shows, the older "Lois and Clark" series was romance centric, but definitely geared towards adult audiences with mature views of romance, and had mature characters. Whereas the newer "Smallville" series was aimed at younger audiences, and had much more emo and edgy main.
The act of grim darkness taking over the industry...would you see that more as due to a change of tastes within the writers own preferences? Or them catering to (or thinking they need to cater to) a reflection of the change of taste in the audience?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-14 01:38 (UTC)Tenipuri was originally aimed at boys, but once the author realized the audience is predominantly fujoshi he clearly tried to appeal to that audience ... poorly. (Konomi wrote multiple author's notes referencing the popularity of Atobe and even drew "fanservice" of Atobe in the shower, he definitely knows.) And then there's the musicals where it's pretty clear it was purely appealing to the female audience (especially the Dream Lives).
My first response is "it was already in the gutter". But I guess even the gutter have different levels of bad...
As for the subgenres, yeah, part of my complaint is that one subgenre has taken over the entire genre and all the other subgenres risk turning into 古偶-esque copycats.
I mean this is the complaint I have. But it's not even just 历史正剧, even 野史 and 民间故事 like 《白蛇传》, 《杨家将》 or classic wuxia titles like 《绝世双骄》, 《射雕侠侣》 risk becoming dominated by the romance when these genres used to prioritize politics, with romance being heavily embroiled in the political struggles (either court or clan or religion conflicts based on the set up). The conflict between Daoism and Buddhism is one of the most used tropes to generate drama...but now there's not even a peep about it, even in 仙侠 works that draw liberally from the religions to build their fantasy world.
Wat. I'm cry.
I mean there's a generational shift in that the millennials (aka people our age) are the main show writers and directors now. So I guess we can blame our peers for this development... (T_T)
100%. But also apparently there's been a new Superman cartoon (My Adventures With Superman) that returned Superman back to some of his former glory (aka smart and kind, rather than an emo wreck) according to my friend. So at least in EN media there's been some backlash to the grim-dark. Not a huge wave, but the resistance is there...
Honestly hard to say without systematically comparing works being released. Like the rise of Twilight and 50 Shades would suggest there's popular interest behind emo works. On the other hand, Snyder's Superman and Batman got panned universally and caused WB to freak out, so clearly people still like traditionally heroic Superheroes.
Meanwhile, there's also the issue of government intervention regarding the types of popular media. In China there's the censorship issue, while in US major funding for blockbusters come from the US military, plus there's CIA funding of arts for propaganda reasons. So...it's complicated. 🤔
no subject
Date: 2024-10-14 06:10 (UTC)Wrt to 古偶 taking over, the general blame I've seen being cast is that romance-focus is the only subgenre that still "sells" anymore, as in, retains a decent enough audience to "make up" for the costs of filming. What with the generation that only watches TV gradually, giving away to the generations that grew up with internet, and also the rise of the generation that grew up with short videos (douyin).
I'm not sure I buy all of that entire chain of logic, but it is probably true that focusing on romance over politics is probably easier to write for than anything plot-heavy, because all you need is an attractive enough cast and the audience can do half the work for you in shipping them. *shrug* Could just well be people being lazy or the industry getting a little too...em...capitalistic? :p
no subject
Date: 2024-10-14 08:42 (UTC)There's probably multiple factors. Government intervention certainly doesn't help. Profit driven writing as opposed to art driven production also results in formulaic scripts. A engineering emphasis in education policy results in the humanities having a lower score requirement and recruiting lower quality students, thus producing a generation of shitty writers. Now AI is supplementing the shitty writing which makes this situation even worse.