What would you say is the line between salt and general "that's what the character had coming for them"? Like Lila for example-- eventually her lies are going to crumble, and the other characters will probably be upset with her-- so a fic about that wouldn't necessarily be salt, right? Even though it may have been written out of bitterness/frustration of Lila's character, if it's not an extreme and just what felt like a natural reaction for the characters then would it be salt?
That is kind of hard to say. It really varies on a lot of things.
Someone like Lila, since she is a villain, can have a lot more thrown at her in terms of punishment and it not coming off as salt. This is because Karma is sort of expected with deceitful characters.
But someone like for example, Rose. Having her go through something awful like getting expelled would be too much, since she is a genuinely good person, and any actions that could be seen as salt (if any) would be too small.
So I think of it as a system to determine if the concept is salt or not on a character.
S.A.L.T
Sin: What did the character do wrong? I.E. do to go against their character? (Did they give bad advice, be pushy at a wrong instance, what was the action that made people think that wasn't right.)
Aim: What was the character trying to do in that moment? Was it a selfish motivation? Was it intentional? Was the character doing it with their initial alignment? Etc.
Liable: Is this on them, how much of this is the character’s actual character responsible for this? Is it something that can be pinned on them? Or was this simply a writing thing.
Time: Both referring to the number of occasions the character performed the action or something similar to it, and the amount of time that has passed since the action has occurred. Did the character develop for the better or for the worse after the event.
If the character’s actions exceed all of the criteria, it can't be considered salt, since punishing the character would be delivering Karma.
If the character hit this only exceeding in 3 categories, then it is pushing into the realm of salt, but still justified.
If the character hits two of the criteria, then the salt is justified to an extent as long as it is not taken too far.
If the character only hit one category then the salt isnt justified on the character. (writer’s salt then can come into play)
