I don't usually comment on IF here, but I do spend a lot of time looking at this thread and I agree with quite a few of its opinions. But, honestly, today I need to vent and release all my frustration and disgust at so many things I'm seeing in IF lately, that I don't even know where to start.
I'd like to point out that English is not my first language, so please ignore anything. I just really need to get all my disgust out there.
I want to start by saying that lately there seems to be some collective outbreak among IF authors, where they all seem to have come to the consensus that cheating ROs is interesting and cool. I'm an avid reader of romance and fantasy, so I'm always looking for IF that has both, but I have no problem reading IF that only has one. The point is that now, everyone I meet seems to be normalizing an unfaithful RO simply because they do. Because, seriously, honest question, who looks at an RO like this and says "That's the one I want"?
I refuse to think that there are people who like this kind of RO.
An example of my pure dislike for one of this type is the R in that recent IF "You can't stop your love from dying", which I'm not even sure is the right name, but you've probably caught who it is. Whom I have a deep dislike for. Since he cheats on the MC and doesn't mind saying so when they find out, because after all, *** for him isn't love, so he's not cheating. And to make matters worse, from what I've seen, R and the MC are still together.
And R manages to be the combo of the "******* who thinks he's right and MC is a drama queen" + "the infidel". Which to me is as if they'd stuck Milo and Seven in a pot and he'd come out. And I don't think I need to tell you how much I hate both of them and their entire IF, because, frankly, we'd be here for hours just stating the obvious that has already been stated by yourselves, which I agree with wholeheartedly.
Which brings me to the next point, which all these ROs have in common:
Authors with characters who make you want to rinse your mouth out with bleach, yet the authors try at all costs to justify their actions.
I remember seeing someone's comment here, saying that just because someone wrote about an unfaithful character, it didn't mean that the author agreed with the character's attitudes. Which I agree with, after all, it's not because you write an IF that has violence, for example, that you agree with it. BUT IN THIS CASE, it's impossible not to think that these authors like the attitudes they write about. Because the extent to which they justify their characters' actions is unbelievable.
I already hate the fact that characters like that are ROs, but it gets even worse when the author himself knows that the character's attitudes are bad and that their character is horrible, but they want to give me at all costs a justification for them being like that, when no matter what you tell me, they're horrible. Stop wanting to put flowers on their head as if they were an angel.
Not to mention the fact that any complaint you make against their beloved character, they'll go straight to rudeness and ignorance with you. Which we already know the authors of Infamous, Night market and CoAaF (which, despite the fact that the damn king isn't an RO, falls into the same category as sympathizing with characters that are impossible to sympathize with) love to do.
And to add to my disgust, they don't put a single warning on the IF page about this kind of thing. And so I go blindly to IF about it, and come away with the urge to wash my eyes out with bleach and throw my cell phone at the wall.
If you're going to make characters like this, let me know in advance on the IF page, so I can save myself the time of reading garbage like this. And by that I mean, preferably, ON IF ITSELF. I can't stand reading IFs like this anymore, only to go to tumblr to find out that I'm definitely not the target audience, because the authors refuse to put it on IF. A perfect example of this, again, is R. I only found out that he cheated on the MC because I decided to take a look at the author's tumblr, which at least freed me from the eventual anger that I would get if I continued reading this bomb. Which unfortunately didn't happen with Night market, where I only found out about Milo's forced polygamy when I was well into IF, which gives me a headache just remembering it.
That's what I wanted to get off my chest.
Of course, there are other things like WIP authors who never update, but still have Patreon active, and keep saying every month that they haven't abandoned IF, just to give readers hope and keep them giving money. Wayfarer and KOE for me are other separate issues, because they're both good, but Wayfarer has the issue of impossible schedules to be done alone and KOE doing rewrites of things he didn't need because they were already good as they were.
Oh, and there are also those who like to torture and put as much trauma as possible on the MC, which you won't be able to choose how to deal with, or even do anything about. If it's meant to be a revenge IF, I WANT VENGEANCE, not therapy with some NPC that makes me want to give up on revenge if it's not a decision I choose myself.
Anyway, that's it
