I'm reading a fic right now that was going good but has snuck in a type of story line that I find I dislike. I've seen it before in fics but never really thought of it as a dislike on its own because the place I usually see it is in badfic. What I'm reading isn't badfic. It's decently done and in a fandom I like. But I have put it aside and am not eager to get back to it because I don't like ratcheting up the abuse to near-fatal levels just to build sympathy or whatever the reason is. So-and-so wasn't just treated poorly, he was abused to within an inch of his life and - what a guy! - he's still on the job, hiding his misery and injury when he ought to be falling down in a bloodless faint and confined to bed for at least a week. I could take the abuse of another character earlier on since it rang true to me in ways this second one didn't, simply due to the characters involved. The second, though it would have been in character for the baddies, didn't play out like it should have, IMO. The guy was severely injured but, as I said, was still on the job to hide that he had been abused. There are also way too many "oh poor me" backstories to the main characters that are just heaping on more and more hurt so, I suppose, the reader will be happy when everything turns out in the end.
Please. I don't need this level of hurt-comfort.
But I know a lot of people really like this sort of fic and, done well, it does provide what is wanted. I'm sure other people find what I like to be not up their alley, too.
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Date: 2010-03-10 11:23 pm (UTC)I'm reading a fic right now that was going good but has snuck in a type of story line that I find I dislike. I've seen it before in fics but never really thought of it as a dislike on its own because the place I usually see it is in badfic. What I'm reading isn't badfic. It's decently done and in a fandom I like. But I have put it aside and am not eager to get back to it because I don't like ratcheting up the abuse to near-fatal levels just to build sympathy or whatever the reason is. So-and-so wasn't just treated poorly, he was abused to within an inch of his life and - what a guy! - he's still on the job, hiding his misery and injury when he ought to be falling down in a bloodless faint and confined to bed for at least a week. I could take the abuse of another character earlier on since it rang true to me in ways this second one didn't, simply due to the characters involved. The second, though it would have been in character for the baddies, didn't play out like it should have, IMO. The guy was severely injured but, as I said, was still on the job to hide that he had been abused. There are also way too many "oh poor me" backstories to the main characters that are just heaping on more and more hurt so, I suppose, the reader will be happy when everything turns out in the end.
Please. I don't need this level of hurt-comfort.
But I know a lot of people really like this sort of fic and, done well, it does provide what is wanted. I'm sure other people find what I like to be not up their alley, too.