#Malcolm Reynolds is another example he can be really shitty to the people around him but there’s no doubt that he cares a lot for his crew.

[rdng1230]

The Asshole To Caring About People Ratio

Rewatching some shows and I think I’ve put my finger on something.

There is a really important ratio for me that exists between a character being an asshole and a character genuinely caring about other people. For me I can get behind a huge amount of assholery if the character goes out of their way to care about other people (and I get that that tolerance is different for everybody, and is highly situational depending on genre etc.). But when that ratio starts to get messed with without proper acknowledgement/narrative framing by the writers it reeeeaaaaaally bothers me.

If a character starts to not care about people but remains the same amount of asshole while the show carries on as if nothing has changed, I don’t think it’s very good writing. I love a good tragedy, I love a good negative character arc! I just hate when characters behave in a way that suggest a backwards slide or a journey into the dark without the narrative ever acknowledging it. I believe most people would agree that if a character stops caring about people altogether that’s usually a tragedy. So why are there so many shows where that happens and the show doesn’t even bother to acknowledge it? This is just a personal preference but if it’s the type of media with root-for-able characters, then writers can’t fuck around with this ratio without acknowledgement and a narrative framing shift.