What's the biggest gripe readers have against your mc?

[ShamelessPatheticMook]

For me, it's revenge, or more accurately the lack of it. I didn't realise how many people would go into the story expecting my mc to get pay back.

I don't write revenge stories.

Never have and likely never will. I don't find that type of story super compelling in part because I'm not a proponent of revenge.

 

[J_Chemist]

Probably the fact that I write him to be not-omnipotent and not all powerful, though he has the power to overcome much of what he faces. I write using the Character's knowledge and experience. If they don't know something, then they don't get to use it. My MC has to earn his keep and train to achieve everything in front of him. He doesn't get handouts, which requires him to ask the stupid questions or read books to find his answer.

To some readers, it makes my MC look like an idiot. But if they actually put themselves in the MC's shoes, they'd realize he's just a regular dude who got tossed into a life he has no idea about and is honestly just trying to fake it till he makes it.

What some of them don't realize, likely because they skip over stuff, is that the MC does his due diligence before he throws himself into a furball. He's learned from his initial mistake and now takes the time, if he can, to properly read, learn, and prepare for the battles ahead. He utilizes the knowledge within The Library he has access to and takes the time to confer with individuals who may have more experience/knowledge of something than he does. It ruins some of the surprise, because I feed the MC proper information that someone would get if they actually asked a question to someone with knowledge (take a new chef asking an experienced one the proper recipe to a dish; they'd get the ingredients and likely be told how to properly cook and serve everything). But, if the MC doesn't ask, he doesn't get it. It's on him afterwards to do the labor and succeed.

So yea. My MC is a normal dude with some magic that he has no idea how to properly use and constantly deals with shit a lot bigger, badder, and spicier than he is familiar with and people don't like that I don't make him an OP Powerhouse.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

VP: She makes dumb mistakes.

OP Witch: She is dumb as a block.

Sleeping Giant: She is dumb as a block.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

For me, it's revenge, or more accurately the lack of it. I didn't realise how many people would go into the story expecting my mc to get pay back.

I don't write revenge stories.

Never have and likely never will. I don't find that type of story super compelling in part because I'm not a proponent of revenge.

Early volumes of my work have my readers screaming "DOORMAT!", "ULTRA-BETA", "CAN'T TOUCH HIS GIRL!"...the usual labels for characters who can't fight back much, and doesn't engage in sexual stuff because he believed otherwise.

But I have other plans, and endured the stupid comments. Nowadays, I think the complaints of my readers are some minor plotholes they find in my work (which are easy to fix).

 

[ShamelessPatheticMook]

Probably the fact that I write him to be not-omnipotent and not all powerful, though he has the power to overcome much of what he faces. I write using the Character's knowledge and experience. If they don't know something, then they don't get to use it. My MC has to earn his keep and train to achieve everything in front of him. He doesn't get handouts, which requires him to ask the stupid questions or read books to find his answer.

To some readers, it makes my MC look like an idiot. But if they actually put themselves in the MC's shoes, they'd realize he's just a regular dude who got tossed into a life he has no idea about and is honestly just trying to fake it till he makes it.

What some of them don't realize, likely because they skip over stuff, is that the MC does his due diligence before he throws himself into a furball. He's learned from his initial mistake and now takes the time, if he can, to properly read, learn, and prepare for the battles ahead. He utilizes the knowledge within The Library he has access to and takes the time to confer with individuals who may have more experience/knowledge of something than he does. It ruins some of the surprise, because I feed the MC proper information that someone would get if they actually asked a question to someone with knowledge (take a new chef asking an experienced one the proper recipe to a dish; they'd get the ingredients and likely be told how to properly cook and serve everything). But, if the MC doesn't ask, he doesn't get it. It's on him afterwards to do the labor and succeed.

So yea. My MC is a normal dude with some magic that he has no idea how to properly use and constantly deals with shit a lot bigger, badder, and spicier than he is familiar with and people don't like that I don't make him an OP Powerhouse.

Ah, I know exactly what you mean. A lot of readers self-insert themselves into the position a character holds within the story and not actually character themselves. This results in a weird sort of cognitive dissonance as said character acts in a way contradictory to the reader's own. I've seen it within a review of my own story. The reader stated that anyone who endured the kind of pain my character went through would be rendered a sobbing mess but failed to account my character is not a normal person. They had inserted themselves into the position my character held with the story but my actual character. My character is a prideful hero who had seen more than their fair share of troubles. What breaks the average person doesn't apply to them.

Early volumes of my work have my readers screaming "DOORMAT!", "ULTRA-BETA", "CAN'T TOUCH HIS GIRL!"...the usual labels for characters who can't fight back much, and doesn't engage in sexual stuff because he believed otherwise.

But I have other plans, and endured the stupid comments. Nowadays, I think the complaints of my readers are some minor plotholes they find in my work (which are easy to fix).

Oof, a lot of peps reading like strong, invincible and tough characters. It is impossible to escape such critics

 

[EliseValkyria]

They tell that my Mc is too naive for not being a jerk all the time with everyone, just because let's say is too OP against regular common people, so he is naive because in school he just don't kill another student that irritated him( not even on bad way, just a hobby detective, so he just ask a lot of things). I mean just because someone is annoying don't that means that have the right to kill him right away, that is not how the world works.

Is like if people just see: strong MC= someone else has to be killed in every chapter . I don't remember every ex- marine special forces going in a kill spread because his mechanic couldn't repair his car back home.

 

[Rhaps]

LITERALLY THE FIRST CHAPTER where they ask something while reasonable, complain about why the MC doesn't do this, doesn't do that? Buddy, you only know her for 3 minutes, you don't understand her. I, the author, actively tries to not understand her for my own enjoyment. How tf do you think you can see her in all of her glory when she had only ONE line of dialogue.

 

[Thraben]

Someone complained very angrily and viscerally in my DMs that my male protagonist being sexually submissive was ruining their enjoyment of the story's COMBAT.

My response: Umm, what?

 

[ShamelessPatheticMook]

LITERALLY THE FIRST CHAPTER where they ask something while reasonable, complain about why the MC doesn't do this, doesn't do that? Buddy, you only know her for 3 minutes, you don't understand her. I, the author, actively tries to not understand her for my own enjoyment. How tf do you think you can see her in all of her glory when she had only ONE line of dialogue.

Ngl, reading this did elicit a chuckle out of me. It's tough out there, keeping on keeping on mate

Someone complained very angrily and viscerally in my DMs that my male protagonist being sexually submissive was ruining their enjoyment of the story's COMBAT.

My response: Umm, what?

Never had one take it to the dms. You have my mighty condolences

 

[Thraben]

Never had one take it to the dms. You have my mighty condolences

I've had three so far, one for that complaint, one for a request for more chapters (love that guy, the pair of clackers on him for DMing me at midnight for 'moar' because he liked the story, what a legend), and one for a self-admitted minor nitpick that we resolved with discussion

 

[Bartun]

My MC is just an idealistic, naive, slightly arrogant teenage girl with no idea how the real world works so she makes A LOT of dumb-ass mistakes at first. She is forced to grow and evolve through the story but many readers don't like her because she makes mistakes that other more mature protagonists wouldn't.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

My toddler-sized apple tree nymph got hate, because she choose peace instead of war. Mostly from people on RR.

Because, you know, all that toddler nymphs want, is to watch the world burn. XD

 

[CrimsonGenius]

I think someone said was how he accepted the power of fire.

 

[tf1394]

Someone complained very angrily and viscerally in my DMs that my male protagonist being sexually submissive was ruining their enjoyment of the story's COMBAT.

My response: Umm, what?

What story?

 

[vaBerry]

I haven't gotten that much feedback on my character yet, but on another site, I received two-star ratings without any explanations and I think it's because she's forgetful of where she puts her purse/shoes and I have to say, it's not her fault it's mine. I forget about them

 

[Thraben]

What story?

I deleted it specifically because, if I'm going to get comments like that in my personal dms for writing it, I'm not going to post it. It's still being written, though

 

[tealery]

On a story I don’t have posted here I threw in a one-off comment about my MC not knowing who Gojo was and someone commented that she was too clueless ???

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The only gripes I've seen so far was:

Kelly fell into a "wrong-headed" trope in Strange Awakening
and
Jack Diamond seems to be at least a borderline sociopath (which is kind of in genre for a noir) in Diamond in the Rough.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

Probably the fact that I write him to be not-omnipotent and not all powerful, though he has the power to overcome much of what he faces. I write using the Character's knowledge and experience. If they don't know something, then they don't get to use it. My MC has to earn his keep and train to achieve everything in front of him. He doesn't get handouts, which requires him to ask the stupid questions or read books to find his answer.

To some readers, it makes my MC look like an idiot. But if they actually put themselves in the MC's shoes, they'd realize he's just a regular dude who got tossed into a life he has no idea about and is honestly just trying to fake it till he makes it.

What some of them don't realize, likely because they skip over stuff, is that the MC does his due diligence before he throws himself into a furball. He's learned from his initial mistake and now takes the time, if he can, to properly read, learn, and prepare for the battles ahead. He utilizes the knowledge within The Library he has access to and takes the time to confer with individuals who may have more experience/knowledge of something than he does. It ruins some of the surprise, because I feed the MC proper information that someone would get if they actually asked a question to someone with knowledge (take a new chef asking an experienced one the proper recipe to a dish; they'd get the ingredients and likely be told how to properly cook and serve everything). But, if the MC doesn't ask, he doesn't get it. It's on him afterwards to do the labor and succeed.

So yea. My MC is a normal dude with some magic that he has no idea how to properly use and constantly deals with shit a lot bigger, badder, and spicier than he is familiar with and people don't like that I don't make him an OP Powerhouse.

Your mc sounds like a very intelligent person, I guess intelligence is being a gary sue for such reader.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Haven’t posted it yet as I want to get it completed first, but I expect it to be one of these...
1. Female MC.
1.a. Not reliant on a man.
1.b. Too reliant on a man.
2. Not infallible.
3. Not OP.

People are going to find nits to pick.