Betrayal and Heroic Suffering in SF/F

S.J. · Jul 28, 2010

Etola said:
What I would be interested in seeing is a story about a character who's forced into betraying others in order to save a loved one--and in the end, decides not to go through with the betrayal (or perhaps never intended to, in the first place) because they know that the hostage in question would want them to do the right thing.

Ooh! Or a character who betrays her country/friends/family and ignores her own moral code to save her loved one... only to find that her loved one, disgusted by what she has done, turns his back on her. OR the two are reunited but their relationship is tainted by the things one had to do to save the other. Either way, the betrayer gets their true comeuppance.

And yes, I am intensely aggravated by this sort of shallowness in fantasy. Sometimes it seems like writers choose to ignore the moral implications of their characters' actions. The betrayer killed FIFTY PEOPLE and he's forgiven and everything is okay again? To me that smacks of laziness, or cowardice, on the writer's part. I would be interested to know if this anime further explored the betrayer's internal torment/guilt. Often the only thing worse than doing something you KNOW is completely wrong is getting away with it.

And to be honest, if a hero forgave a betrayer like that, I would question his judgement from then on. I would suspect that he was not very clever.

It's not the specific tropes that annoy me... it's the lack of true, deep, real consequence. The betrayal of fifty people could be turned into a story all by itself, rather than jammed into a larger conflict, and if explored deeply enough it might cease to be an irritating cliche.

But in the end, I suppose, fictional life is cheap. Death is an easy motivator.

PsychicToaster · Jul 28, 2010

It falls into the "a million is a statistic" category. Once you cross into the territory where you can't easily memorize the names of everyone killed, the emotional magnitude of the crime diminishes drastically. It actually becomes easier to forgive them because its harder to wrap your head around just what it is you're forgiving them for.

SPMiller · Jul 28, 2010

Part of the problem is stakes. In general, people like to read stories about the world being in danger (or the galaxy, in certain types of sf). Depicting such a story necessitates a relatively large cast. Unfortunately, there are hard limits on the word count (or, in movies, the run time), restricting just how deeply we can go into the many characters. So, writers are forced to rely on stock characters to some degree, and the careful application of tropes can really save time.

PsychicToaster · Jul 28, 2010

You can bridge that gap by focusing on how the world ending would impact one, specific, important person to the MC.

For instance: the MC must save their child from an alien attack. It's horrifying that the world's population is being vaporized one by one, but what makes it emotionally impacting is the threat to one important person. You can't focus your emotional bond on something so nebulous as "the world" or "your platoon." It's always specific feelings for specific people. It may be that the MC cares about Johnny because he's in his platoon, but if the character never had a face, there's no reason for the reader to care.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jul 28, 2010

S.J. said:
Ooh! Or a character who betrays her country/friends/family and ignores her own moral code to save her loved one... only to find that her loved one, disgusted by what she has done, turns his back on her. OR the two are reunited but their relationship is tainted by the things one had to do to save the other. Either way, the betrayer gets their true comeuppance.

And yes, I am intensely aggravated by this sort of shallowness in fantasy. Sometimes it seems like writers choose to ignore the moral implications of their characters' actions. The betrayer killed FIFTY PEOPLE and he's forgiven and everything is okay again? To me that smacks of laziness, or cowardice, on the writer's part. I would be interested to know if this anime further explored the betrayer's internal torment/guilt. Often the only thing worse than doing something you KNOW is completely wrong is getting away with it.

And to be honest, if a hero forgave a betrayer like that, I would question his judgement from then on. I would suspect that he was not very clever.

It's not the specific tropes that annoy me... it's the lack of true, deep, real consequence. The betrayal of fifty people could be turned into a story all by itself, rather than jammed into a larger conflict, and if explored deeply enough it might cease to be an irritating cliche.

But in the end, I suppose, fictional life is cheap. Death is an easy motivator.

Well, as far as logical trust goes, the betrayer wasn't going to do it again, because the hostage was dead and they didn't have any other reason to betray the person, but from a realistic emotional standpoint, it's just not that easy for someone to get over such an enormous betrayal.

I totally agree that the betrayal all by itself could have been a story, and that perhaps being stuffed into the larger conflict was exactly the reason it felt so hollow. You didn't really know much about the betrayer, or why her relationship with the hostage and her personal character would cause her to betray 50 people who she was ostensibly very close to to.

It was just a really quick way to throw in some of that heroic suffering that authors love to dump on the MC.

Betrayal and Heroic Suffering in SF/F

S.J.

Addict? I can quit whenever I want!

PsychicToaster

Writing Ninja

SPMiller

Prodigiously Hanged

PsychicToaster

Writing Ninja

Liosse de Velishaf