singelisilverslippers replied to your post “the sense of entitlement of some readers is just RIDICULOUS god”
okay so i haven't read the fic and i'm not in 1d fandom, but based on what you're describing (and what i've seen in other fandoms), i wonder if part of it might be this: in the first scenario, where there's a moral authority within the story that rebukes the protagonist, the reader doesn't have to do any work. the narration is relatively reliable, the other characters condemn the 'bad' actions, and a resolution is reached. in your most recent story, it sounds like, there
>is a lot more unreliable narration, and it is up to the reader to identify the morally problematic actions of the protagonist. it falls upon the reader to recognize that the protagonist is acting 'badly', and because the protagonist is an unreliable narrator or because of the artistry of the story, it falls upon the reader to internally condemn those actions. some readers just can't/don't want to/won't do that work.
(i also suspect a lot of it might also be a tendency in fandom to gravitate towards moral absolutes rather than allow characters to be interesting and flawed and accept them as three-dimensional figures.)
YES wow, lightbulb moment for me, i think this was the missing part of my analysis. so like: if the moral universe of the story is unstable, then if the reader wants moral order it is up to them to provide it. providing that moral order (such as by passing judgment on characters’ actions, or figuring out their motivations) could be unpleasant or strenuous for various reasons, but especially if those are the characters they want to love and celebrate. so the less restorative work that’s done internally in the story, the more there is for the reader to do. seriously, thank you for this insight!!
dulosis replied to your post “the sense of entitlement of some readers is just RIDICULOUS god”
i love the way you think and talk about these kinds of things! especially going deeper than just writing certain things off as an 'ambivalent ending' which... (going off this and also your subsequent post and the writer/reader contract) is something that i would say most people do, and what a lot of readers take issue with. i'm thinking specifically of the difference in comments between an ending where things aren't tied up as neatly (e.g. pray till i go blind) and the
sense of disbelief that people seem to have that yes, that's it, there isn't any more, that's the total story being told (esp when the idea of moral absolutes is played with) and ones that follow the more traditional model. anyway what i'm getting at is thanks for putting words to a thing i've been unable to articulate to myself for years! <3
ooh yes, i didn’t even think of tying the unreliable unpunished protagonist issue back to the whole SEQUEL PLS issue but now that you point it out, it totally seems connected. so let’s say there are two main kinds of SEQUEL PLS readers, the ones who are like “i loved this world so much, i want to stay in it for longer,” and the ones who feel like they’ve been cheated of the resolution they expected and that a sequel is needed to repair the damage. the first kind is satisfied with the contract and wants to extend it, whereas the latter - the disbelieving reader you talked about - feels they got ripped off and demands the sequel in restitution. and why do they feel ripped off? because they didn’t get the sense of wholeness that they understood to be the contractually guaranteed outcome of the reading experience.
