Okay no, I need to rant about this Mid story I read, because it had such ✨wasted potention✨. (The story is Be My Villain, for those curious, it's fluffy and cute. A solide 6.5 out of 10.)
Like, what was the point of having the love interest/the villain just decide to stop his revenge, if we where just going to have him solo it at the end?
For that matter, why did this "villain" never seem to actually have any big eternal conflic? There where some moments, but it gets resolved fairly quickly. Like, he dropped revenge so easily, and it never comes between him and the mc. If anything, I would have expected more angst over this core concept of the character, but instead we focus on the rather dull mc and the mc's his feelings that are just... normal?
Not saying it's bad, but as a main character, he's completly sepperate from the plot and not in a good way. Even his past, despite being somewhat linked, is basically a non starter, because he had ✨amnesia✨ and forgot everything. And then it's revealed that, yeah he was an orphan, but he wasn't actually experimented on. He had a nice life up to the point it blew up, and then he continued to have a nice life.
If anything, the MC shouldn't have been the main character, but instead the love interest. (Yes, the roles should have been swapped). Because at the end of the day, what the MC represents is the desire for an ordinary, if boring life. Which would then have made it a compelling conflict for our villain. The choice of a simple happy life, or revenge?
And then you END.IT.THERE. Don't let him get revenge. Him dropping it is the resolution of his arc. You can't have a character decide they no longer want revenge then proceed to actively get said revenge by wllingly soloing the final boss.
Is it a happily ever after? No. But that's a conclusion that isn't convoluted.
Instead, we get a dramatic shift in tone as the author didn't actually want to lost the revenge plotline, so we force the MC, whose been a normie and a damsel the whole time, into finally gets powers, only for that decision to immediatly get reversed after 2 missions. Like, he's training, strugglig, grappling with the loss of the normal life he wanted and then it ends up meaning nothing.
I guess we needed him to fight his kidnapper, but why are we bothering?
The loss of his everyday world would have been interesting... at the start of the story, but when it comes so late, and means litterally nothing, it's just filler to force the revenge plot along. It's litterly there just to gain access to the agency, but we have the dads for that. So what's the bloody point?
The worst part of all this is, the bad guys would have won by doing nothing. Because the ML decided to quit his revenge to live with the MC. The dads where poking, but not well, and the MC doesn't give a rats about any of this.
It's not a good feeling to realise just how uninvested the characters are in their own story or plot, and it makes them all incredibly passive.
They had to be forced into a situation where they would continue along the quest of vengeance, even though they where no longer invested in it.
And another gripe with this whole thing is that The MC acts so rightous towards the secondary villain/childhood friend, but he never had a bad life. Never had to deal with the actual devestation of losing all those he loved because he conveniently had✨amnesia✨. Sure, he was woried about his dads due to their job, and wanted a simple life as a result, but letting him tell of the bad guy, who didn't have cool agent dads/mom to protect him from the nastiness of the world is so tone death, and it's never addressed.
Why are we acting like the MC is right, when he never had to deal with the darkness of the world? He got handed a wonderful life, and yet where suppose to accept that his speech is rightous?
It also doesn't help that none of the characters really have personallities (except 1 guy), outside of relationships. The MC is so unenvested in everything except the love interest, the love interest had revenge, and then gets uninvested in everything except MC.
The dads had a bit more going on, but it's like all they ever did was tell the MC they loved him, and supported him.
The best friend also only ever seemed to exist to give the MC love advice, and suport him. She had like... 1 thing going on, and it just so happened to be the exact thing that would continue to help her support the MC.
I'm starting to realise just how much everything just centered around the MC and the Love interests relationship, to the point it suffocated everything else.
The worst part is that I love villain stories and the like, but it feels like some authors are to scared to just go for it.
