| 1 | Sometimes, when there's a [[DarthWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck moment of awfulness]] in a book, you wish you were the writer and could either edit that part out or burn the book entirely. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Keep in mind: |
| 4 | * Sign your entries |
| 5 | * One moment per book to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut. |
| 6 | * Moments only, no "just everything he said, " "The entire book" entries. |
| 7 | * No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion. |
| 8 | * No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry. |
| 9 | * Explain ''why'' it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck. |
| 10 | * No Real Life examples including ExecutiveMeddling and FanDumb. That is just asking for trouble. |
| 11 | * No ALLCAPS, no '''bold''', and no ''italics'' unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the [=DMoSs=] out loud. |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | Series with their own articles: |
| 14 | * ''DethroningMoment/HarryPotter'' |
| 15 | * ''DethroningMoment/TheHungerGames'' |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | * Tropers/{{Sensemaker}}: [[Literature/TheScarletLetter Scarlet Letter]] by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's a reasonably good piece of fiction in general if a bit contrived. I cannot help but to be annoyed that the author has written in such a way that he seems to have a raging hate-boner for ugly people. The antagonist Chillingworth does objectively good things: He gains great medical knowledge from the Indians at considerable personal risk and uses it for the benefit of the community. When Chillingworth comes home to see his wife (and indirectly himself) publicly shamed, he comforts Hester, medicates her and her daughter and mostly blames himself for his wife's infidelity. He helps Dimmesdale medically and emotionally by correctly insisting that Dimmesdale will never fully recover until he relieves himself of whatever is weighing his heart. Despite these good acts, the Puritans of Boston seem ungrateful for having a man who has put so much effort into becoming a great doctor for them and seem to interpret everything he does in the worst possible light. Everyone, including the narrator and Chillingworth himself assumes that he is doing everything for the very worst of reasons -because Chillingworth is ugly. Just to hammer in his badness the narrator makes Chillingworth ugly and uglier as the story goes on. The reader finds him/herself asking "what can an ugly person do that counts as a good deed to you, Nathaniel Hawthorne?" The dethroning moment of suck occurs when that question is answered near the end of the book. Chillingworth dies and leaves his great fortune (that we never heard of before apparently Chillingworth choose to live an austere life despite being rich) to the cute child Pearl -though he knows it is not his daughter. The author claims this was his only good deed. The author has answered: "Die! and leave his money to a beautiful person. That's the only good thing an ugly person can do because the only good ugly person is a dead ugly person!" Cue Evil laugh. Scarlett Letter; hate speech against ugly people. |
| 18 | * Tropers/LongGunner15: The entire battle of Yonkers in ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. The tanks are ineffective... somehow. The artillery is ineffective... somehow. Anything but a magical headshot from a semi-auto. 22 or [[KatanasAreJustBetter mystical]] katana is absolutely useless, doubly so from those [[StrawCharacter evil, evil Westerners]]. |
| 19 | ** Tropers/PulpoOscuro: I think the author took the "invincible zombie" thing a bit too far. An Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot round fired by a tank is essentially [[{{BFG}} a depleted uranium arrow the size of a sub sandwich moving at a mile per second]]. I don't care if guns don't work against zombies unless you get headshots, the thing's not going to get back up from being hit by that kind of weapon. There simply won't be any body left to get up. |
| 20 | ** {{Tropers/GMantis}}: The way that the author portrays the Russian people in this book is unalloyed bigotry. Leaving aside that their government is cartoonishly evil (even Stalin never tried anything as evil as decimation), they are shown both as completely uncaring for anyone else ''and'' mindlessly fanatic nationalists. While all other peoples can realize on their own that they need to fight the zombies, only extremely harsh punishment can force the Russians to defend their homeland. Then the final scene with the Russian soldier shows that whatever the Russian government does to them, the Russians will still happily obey all draconian orders of their government if it makes Russia strong and feared. This is especially jarring in a book which showed mankind coming together and how there are heroes everywhere. |
| 21 | * Tropers/Xander77: The wedding proposal in the Literature/VorkosiganSaga novel "A Civil Campaign". It's also listed on the series SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome page, so YMMV, but the contrived nature of the scene specifically setup to present Ekaterine with a moment of awesome is so incredibly Narmish (and Nikki muttering "go-go mama!" made me throw up in my mouth a little). |
| 22 | * Tropers/{{Cliche}}: ''Literature/AtlasShrugged's'' DMOS came at the conclusion of Chapter 7, Part II, or Chapter 17 of the entire book. Some asshole politician decides that he would rather have a train go through a tunnel despite it being not safe to do so rather than wait for a safer alternative because it would mean missing his rally. Everyone on board suffocates to death. You'd think this would be a scene demonstrating a SenselessWasteOfHumanLife, but no. Creator/AynRand sinks as low as {{demoniz|ation}}ing every passenger on board as fitting one of her Evil Socialist Bad Dude character templates. |
| 23 | ** Tropers/StevePotter: In addition to the above scene, there was also John Galt's ninety minute speech... written verbatim. As terrible as the book was, it was at least interesting before this point. If Galt was say, promoting human ideals, the speech might have a little redeeming value, but instead we got a hundred pages saying that poor people are evil and people should look out for themselves. What shit. |
| 24 | * Tropers/{{Samadhir}}: The infamous rape-scene in [[Creator/AynRand Rand's]] ''Literature/TheFountainhead'', where [[GodModeSue Howard Roark]] forces himself on Dominique Francon. Now, I'm aware of the various justifications that have been offered for the scene, like "it wasn't really rape" or "she actually wanted it" or that it was "rape by engraved invitation", which might actually be true (though that would open an entirely new can of UnfortunateImplications). But even if you accept that, the scene just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Up until this point in the novel, Roark has shown absolutely zero sexual or romantic interest in anyone, and is also presented as a man of integrity who's a staunch supporter of individual rights and self-determination. And then suddenly, the novel wants us to believe that over the course of a couple of days, by seeing Dominique from a distance at his quarry and doing some repair-work in her house, Roark's sexual instincts arise, he recognizes her as his life's true love (as he never shows any interest in anyone but her throughout the novel), and manages to deduce enough about her psychological make-up from a couple of short meetings to know that she will enjoy being raped. Aside from being extremely improbable, the scene destroys much of Roark's character and makes him a lot less sympathetic. Of note is that the scene isn't an isolated incident; whenever a sex-scene occurs in the novel it's usually described as violent, rough, or "a shocking intimacy that needed no consent from her, no permission", a pattern that repeats itself in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged''. Since reading the novel, I have read several analyses where the rape-scene is presented as "an abstract meditation of violence and frigidity" or "a violent, joyful answer to the age-old paradox of what occurs when an immovable object meets an irresistable force" (no, seriously), which I think misses a much simpler explanation: Rand enjoyed rape-fantasies and so she wanted a scene in her novel that expressed that, regardless of whether it made any sense or if it destroyed its characters. |
| 25 | ** Tropers/YasminPerry: Rourke is an annoying MartyStu in general, but it's hard to get past him blowing up a rival's building & ''getting away with it''. |
| 26 | * Tropers/RiL: At the end of ''Literature/SonOfAWitch'': [[spoiler:after a long, rambling, essentially pointless story, suddenly these two characters have sex! Out of nowhere! With no explanation, leadup, or bearing on the story!]] Unfortunately Maguire tends to shoot himself in the foot in just about every story by dropping in something gratuitously and pointlessly sexual/scatological seemingly just for the shock factor (like the scene [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment with the tiger]] in ''Wicked''). It is, to paraphrase [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], like eating a delicious meal only to have the chef randomly come out and fart in your face. |
| 27 | ** Tropers/SophieSummer: Same for me. I also found the fact that [[spoiler:she pretty much raped him]] and it was never really addressed very, for lack of a better word, disorienting. The scene didn't even really make sense, logically. [[spoiler: Ok, so she's trying to warm him up. Ok, she's climbing on top of him. Wait, why is she undressing him? How did we get from trying to save his life to mounting him?]] |
| 28 | * Tropers/InsanityPrelude: Gregory Maguire's thing for gratuitous sexual/scatological/just plain squicky details. The "menstrual fountain" scene in ''Literature/MirrorMirror2003'' wasn't what put me off of his books for good (although it pretty much put me off of finishing reading that book)- it was when I tried to read ''A Lion Among Men'' and wham, gratuitous shit and equally-gratuitous masturbation (thankfully, this wasn't in the same scene.) That's when I realized it was really a pattern with his books. |
| 29 | * Tropers/Rowlomir: Just the first chapter of Wicked; you read the whole book the first time and it feels kinda dark and interesting, better than the musical, you read it again taking more time and you have to question why Frex shitted so easily. Yeah, I actually could pass Son of a Witch, but there are parts of Wicked and A Lion Among Men which purpose I cannot explain. |
| 30 | * Tropers/InTheWorldAndSea: The ending of ''Literature/{{It}}'' is what made me stop reading Creator/StephenKing forever. The reasoning for it sounds more AuthorAppeal AssPull than anything reasonable or logical. |
| 31 | * Tropers/IronLion: In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', the FateWorseThanDeath with which Belgarath punishes Zedar comes across as DisproportionateRetribution of the highest order. Zedar was a PunchClockVillain at worst; some of his acts, such as his involvement with Errand, were necessary for the Prophecy of Light to resolve. And he triggered Belgarath's fury by doing no more than defending himself against a completely unwarranted attack by Durnik. |
| 32 | ** Tropers/{{Exxolon}}: I agree on this one but the actions of the "good" guys in the prequel after the assassination of Gorek and nearly all his family are even worse. Essentially Salmissra at Zedar's urging sends assassins to kill the Rivan royal family in a doomed attempt to become immortal - she's hoping to impress Torak so much by killing the line of the prophecied Godslayer who's supposed to kill him that he marries her and makes her his immortal bride. Obviously Salmissra should pay for this, but the Alorns response is to invade Nyissa and slaughter 90% of the population as some kind of object lesson to stop future rulers meddling. 1.8 million people, nearly all innocent people (barring slavers etc.) killed who didn't know about the plot and could not have prevented it even if they had. Even the assassins may have had little choice - disobeying Salmissra would lead to their own execution most likely. Salmissra gets off lightly - she takes poison and dies peacefully before the Alorn army reaches her. |
| 33 | * Tropers/FarseerLolotea: In S.L. Viehl's ''[[Literature/StarDoc Blade Dancer]]'': [[spoiler:Jory agreeing to have Kol's babies at some point in the future, after she'd previously made it clear that she [[MandatoryMotherhood didn't want babies]]]]. As if getting them StrangledByTheRedString wasn't enough... |
| 34 | * Tropers/{{Eegah}}: From ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the characterization of Chapman in "The Andalite Chronicles." Elsewhere in the series Chapman was portrayed as a deeply tragic figure, who voluntarily became a slave to the Yeerks to ensure his daughter's safety and is now anguished at having to help them conquer the world. And then this prequel novel hits, and it turns out teenage Chapman is a {{Jerkass}} who gleefully tries to sell out his whole planet ForTheEvulz, which kills a lot of the previously established sympathy for the character dead. |
| 35 | ** Tropers/{{EcliptorCalrissian}}: There's also The Ellimist Chronicles. While a good story on its own, every single tidbit about the Ellimist's nature from the regular series is completely ignored, which makes it fail - hell, not even try - at being the great revelation of our mysterious ally. If "Ellimist" were a more common name, you'd probably figure they were two guys who happened to have the same name. Also, Crayak's origin is pretty much "and one day some Crayak guy who destroys ForTheEvulz showed up." The standalone story about an alien gamer who happened to use the handle "Ellimist" is interesting, to be sure - but it is not about the Ellimist we know at all, and doesn't tell us anything we didn't know about Crayak. |
| 36 | ** Tropers/{{TRANSawesome}}: 'The Experiment' was a crowning moment of suck in both morality and storytelling. It starts off looking like it's going into a fable about the importance of being a vegetarian (the slaughterhouse they're sneaking into is pure NightmareFuel) but by the end the moral seems to have slipped into "killing cows for their meat is bad, but burgers are tasty". If you're not going to pick a side in an ethical debate, then what's the point of devoting most of the book to it? And the net result of the Animorphs almost getting ground into burger meat? Nothing! The experiment had already failed and they achieved exactly the same thing they would have done if they found another reason to hang out at the mall instead. |
| 37 | ** WhyNotNow: For me, there's a small, often overlooked moment that forever killed Marco's character. Oh sure, we all knew he had had suck moments before that which stank of total immaturity, such as floating Baby Rush bars in a pool and telling everyone it was shit or laughing at a horse taking a dump, all of which points to a juvenile and puerile outlook, but the worst moment for the character by far had to be his willingness to kill an innocent little girl to prevent the Yeerks from finding out their secret. The book tries to present this as a choice, that you have only two real options; let Karen, the innocent host being controlled by a Yeerk, go and then the Yeerks find out that the "Andalite bandits" are really human, or kill her to keep their cover. But upon closer reflection, there is actually an easier way out of this dilemma; just overpower Aftran, take her someplace hidden, starve the Yeerk out, and leave the innocent little girl with the Chee. Simple solution, problem solved. But Marco doesn't see that, and for someone who's supposedly so intelligent, it moves this moment from merely being disgusting to totally unforgivable and brings up some very UnfortunateImplications that Marco, the ruthless, cold-blooded bastard he is, may have thought of this, but disregarded it out of hand in favor of simply murdering an innocent child. It's one of the rare moments I applaud Cassie's stupidity because it actually worked out well in the end, no thanks to Marco. The character died with me the moment he made that cruel, evil choice. |
| 38 | * Tropers/{{JojiMC}}: I have made it no secret that I absolutely despise the ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' book series ([[HypeBacklash which I'll never get why is so popular]]) but because someone already listed two of my most hated scenes from the series, let's talk about the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' ''Literature/RevengeRUs'', shall we? During the third act of the book, protagonist Wade's parents are going out for the night which means that Wade's older brother, Micah, will have to watch over her. That'd be fine except Micah is a huge BigBrotherBully towards Wade, so, naturally, it only makes sense for him to be a [[BabysitterFromHell horrible babysitter]]. Anywho, as soon as the parents leave, Micah demands that Wade do all his chores for him, which Wade refuses to do. But then Micah - I kid you not - pulls out a photo of Wade sleeping while wearing nothing but her underwear. He then threatens to send this picture to her crush, Steve, unless she does his chores for him. Wow. Just... Just wow. Look, I get that ''Goosebumps'' can have a few mean-spirted moments at times but this isn't just bullying. This is borderline sexual harassment! I mean, we've got Micah - a seventeen year old teenage boy who's only a year away from becoming an adult - taking pictures of his underage twelve year old sister. That's just wrong on so many levels. Not to mention that Wade was in her underwear while he was taking this photo, technically making this child pornography. Was this story ghost-written by a pedophile who has a fetish for seeing little kids in their underwear? If it was, then [[{{Squick}} gross!]] Overall, if you're looking for a good book to read, skip ''Revenge R Us''. It's disgusting, obnoxious and has unfortunate implications. No. Read ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' or ''Literature/HarryPotter'' instead. |
| 39 | * Tropers/AHEM13133: In the ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' series, this comes in the eleventh book, ''Mystify the Magician.'' While the book itself is generally half-assed, hastily scrapped together, and gives the feeling of being only partly finished, the ultimate Dethroning Moment comes with the transformation of the intriguing, ambiguous, and deeply human Magnificent Bastard [[spoiler: Senna Wales]] into a CardCarryingVillain hefting around the VillainBall. Despite receiving extensive backstory and character development just two books ago, all of that is thrown out and [[spoiler: she]] becomes a two-dimensional maniac. From MagnificentBastard to SmugSnake, from TrueNeutral to ChaoticEvil, from VisionaryVillain to DespotismJustifiesTheMeans with helpings of ForTheEvulz, from ManipulativeBastard to BondVillainStupidity, with OverNineThousand levels in [[TookALevelInJerkass jerkass]] and [[TookALevelInDumbass dumbass]] gained in the process. It felt like a betrayal of everything that had made the character original and interesting beyond any other run-of-the-mill villain, and then [[spoiler: she]] proceeds to die one of the most unsatisfying deaths ever conceived. If there is anything worse than watching such a fabulous MagnificentBastard go this low, I don't know of it. |
| 40 | * Tropers/{{Ravenya003}}: Susan's fate in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', specifically, ''Literature/TheLastBattle.'' In the final book all the main characters die and enter Heaven - all of them except Susan, who has apparently lost touch with Aslan and Narnia because she's fostered an interest in "nylons and lipstick and invitations" and has ceased to believe in the fantastical adventures of the previous books. Not only does this feel rather OutOfCharacter (it seems bizarre that a character who was witness to Aslan's sacrifice and rebirth can eventually dismiss it as "a funny game we used to play as children") but FridgeHorror sets in when you realize that because Peter, Edmund, Lucy and their parents have died in the real world, Susan has just lost her entire family to a train accident. There is nothing in the text itself to suggest that she'll eventually re-find her faith, and the fact that her friends and family ridicule her before deciding to simply not talk about her anymore is an incredibly callous way to go about dismissing a major character just so Lewis can make a subtextual statement about how overt femininity and sexuality is bad for women. |
| 41 | ** Tropers/SophieSummer: Her fate makes even less sense when you consider that all the children grew up to adults in Narnia before being changed back to children when they were sent back home. She's already grown up, so why would she just now be going through the lipsticks and nylons phase? |
| 42 | ** Tropers/akanesarumara: It can also be seen as Susan not only starting to like nylons and lipsticks, but changing interests in general that got her kicked out: Though those could be seen as an immature mimicry of what she thinks an adult woman's life is (as Lewis himself considered in an interview), at least Edmund and Lucy always kept some of their interests, at least Edmund at the start of ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' is still seen willing to fight for something he believes in and Lucy shows interest in getting to Aslan's domain. Susan, however, loses her whole family and a chance for redemption just because her interests changed. |
| 43 | * Tropers/{{Lale}}: Anne Elliot's "[[IRegretNothing I have nothing to reproach myself with]]" speech in ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}''. So, according to the narrator in Chapter 4, Anne considers her decision eight years ago a mistake, yet she tells Captain Wentworth she feels exactly the opposite? {{Hypocrite}}! Captain Wentworth has to apologize for taking her rejection seriously and not running back as soon as he had his first few thousand pounds to the woman who made it clear his proposal was unacceptable; yet, Anne doesn't have to make any sort of apology to him at all?! DoubleStandard! The plot doesn't lead to any CharacterDevelopment or disillusionment for Anne but to her (and everyone else) realizing she always was and always has been perfect, and how dare anyone (including herself) think otherwise? And her response to Captain Wentworth telling her how much he loves her and how badly he still wants to marry her is telling him that she would have suffered more had she remained engaged to him eight years ago? WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHerBack after that?! I would cling to the frail hope that Austen was being ironic but A) the scene is played too seriously to be a SpoofAesop like Lizzie's and Darcy's conversation in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', and B) it's consistent with the {{anvilicious}} moral of the absurdly-executed scene at Lyme. This speech ruins the entire book -- what has been an equally beautiful and painful love story becomes a vehicle for preaching the importance of women yielding to persuasion and singing the praises of a supposedly perfect heroine! UGH! I want to rip my hair out and scream just thinking of it! And I want to throttle anyone who claims this is better than ''Literature/MansfieldPark''! How can such a preachy novel (of out-of-date morals, nonetheless) be so overrated?! |
| 44 | ** Tropers/{{Sensemaker}}: First time I read the novel I assumed Anne was just unwilling to admit to her future husband and herself that she had pointlessly robbed herself and her beloved of eight years of happiness. That's a big thing to admit to yourself and others and Anne was not big enough to do so -at least not immediately. However, people who know Jane Austen better than I do say that the author probably meant precisely what she has Anne to say. That's obviously nonsense and detracts from the story -however unlike Lale I do not let this ruin the entire novel for me. |
| 45 | * Tropers/{{Gravityman}}: What absolutely sold me that ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was utterly unredeemable was Charlie's reaction to Jacob taking Bella home. Now, to give you an idea of the CharacterDerailment at work here, Charlie had already been established as an overprotective police officer father toward Bella. But for whatever damn reason, after Jacob forcibly kisses Bella (technically sexual assault), and then basically brings her home to brag about it, Charlie fucking congratulates him for doing so. His exact words were "Good for you, kid." What may be even worse is that everyone plays this up as if Bella should love Jacob because of this. |
| 46 | ** Tropers/{{NobodyFamous}}: Given her treatment of him before then, I'm honestly wondering if Charlie hadn't simply given up by that point. Perhaps the biggest moment of rage-inducing behavior is after Bella returns home from saving Edward in New Moon. This is when Charlie confronts her about the fact that she had run off to another country without even asking him or so much as leaving him a note telling him where she was going, leaving him with no clue where she was while she went gallivanting around Europe. This happened during a period of time where he was still mourning the death of his best friend, something Bella only bothers to note when Charlie starts to go purple in anger over the way she's talking to him. And rather than act like the mature selfless adult she likes to think she is, she blows him off, talks down to him like he's the child, brushes off his very valid concerns regarding how Edward treated her and the way she was going around trying to get herself killed, and gives him an ultimatum that if he doesn't back off and let her have her way then she will leave. Then after giving him this ultimatum, she proceeds to dismiss him so she can take a shower. His health, his concern for her, his actually trying to be a parent and ground her happy little butt for being so stupid are all completely ignored. |
| 47 | ** Tropers/MHMhasf1998: My personal DMOS in Twilight is the [[spoiler: WriterCopOut at the end of the big epic battle against the Volturi. I mean, Meyer spends quite a bit of time hyping it up, and when the fight actually happens, it is good. The vampires partake in much badassery, it is well written (at least by Twilight standards) quite a lot of awesome things happen, and... it turns out to have just been an illusion planted into the BigBad's mind. Then the Volturi leave, without any confrontation or conflict of any sort. I mean... [[LittleNo no, just... just no]].]] |
| 48 | ** Tropers/OtakuSapien: Though even the fight scene was only an addition by the movie. In the books, there wasn't even that, leaving many fans feeling disappointed with the anti-climactic ending and some actually preferring the movie for this. |
| 49 | ** Tropers/MelancholyUtopia: When it comes to my DMOS, here's where the birthing scene in ''Breaking Dawn'' scores big. As someone who's pro-life, I couldn't laugh it off like with everything else in the series for its stupidity (trust me, the whole series is terrible), no, this outright offended me. Meyer, you can't try to promote the anti-abortion propaganda and have the baby nearly killing the mother at birth, you just can't! It makes you look ignorant and seem like you fancy the idea that a mother should rather die for a monster child's birth because abortion is eeeeeevil. Textbook example of BrokenAesop, much? Another kicker is that given Bella's character earlier in the books, it would also be OutOfCharacter for her to want the baby at all. She said she doesn't want any kids, but then out of nowhere she decides she would rather die than having an abortion. I can see Rosalie having this sort of attitude in this subject, but Bella? I know, one could argue that maternal instinct naturally kicks in; however, it's important to note that it starkly varies from person to person. Not everyone will feel that motherly instinct towards their kid; some mothers have been known to feel depressed post-child birth even. Meyer, I always doubted it, but next time, if you have any sense of smarts in your writing, try to keep pro-life lessons and one's parental behaviour completely separated from monster babies that eat themselves out of their mothers by a mile or so. |
| 50 | ** Tropers/shinymanaphy: I'm pro-choice, but I agree with the above. In fact, the entire pregnancy was just weird on that front. It seems as if Meyer is portraying the people who want Bella to abort the child as pro-choice and Bella herself as pro-life, right? Except... Edward tries to take the choice in the matter from Bella, repeatedly. His reaction to the pregnancy is to immediately decide she's getting an abortion, and then he constantly tries to persuade her to do it, even going so far as to get Jacob to offer to knock Bella up in Edward's place so she can have a baby anyway. What the fuck? Most pro-choice people reading the book would agree that Edward's behaviour is completely shitty, because he's trying to override and take away Bella's choice to keep the baby. Then, when the baby is born, we get the most Gorn-tastic scene imaginable for it. Umm... does Meyer want her audience to think pregnancy is a wonderful thing or not? If Bella had been able to give birth safely, it would've been a dull cop-out but it might've given more weight to Meyer's argument. But instead she dies! All I can think of is that Meyer was trying to make Bella into a martyr who we should want to be like, but... that's not exactly the way to do it, lady. Sheesh. |
| 51 | ** Tropers/BackSet1: While the entire series was basically irredeemable for me from the start (not helped my my pre-existing prejudice against it which, for the record, was based on things I'd actually learned ahead of time not just because everyone else hated it) what sent it over the edge for me was them having a tropical island off the west coast of Brazil. Brazil doesn't even have a West Coast and even if it did it certainly wouldn't have tropical islands. I know it's petty, especially considering the other horrible things this book series is rife with, but come on lady. This isn't even Research Failure, it's common knowledge failure. |
| 52 | * Tropers/{{Ronfar}}: The scene in ''[[Literature/SwordOfTruth Naked Empire]]'' in which Richard and his followers hack their way through a crowd of unarmed human shields as the author praises Richard and his men for their heroism in seeing past their "peaceful" appearance: the human shields were protecting the Bad Guys, and therefore deserved to die, not even rating a "WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife" moment. |
| 53 | * Tropers/KilgoreTrout: I faithfully bought and read just about every ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novel published that was set after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Did I read ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''? Yes. ''[[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy The Jedi Academy Trilogy?]]'' Indeed, I bought that. ''[[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy Darksaber]]''? I didn't like it, but I still bought and read it. The only one I think I didn't read was ''Literature/TheCrystalStar'' and the ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'' series. I bought all those books, from mediocre to good to awesome to terrible, because no matter how much I disliked any of them nothing was enough to make me give up on the EU entirely. (''Darksaber'' was enough to make me give up on Anderson, though.) So what finally made me swear off the EU for the foreseeable future? ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce''. One of my favourite characters, Jacen Solo, turns pure evil for the flimsiest of reasons and begins acting [[CharacterDerailment wildly out of character]]--and this wasn't just a single author getting him wrong, this was everybody. Then, he kills off another of my favourite characters, Mara Jade, which I felt was a MoralEventHorizon. You can blow up a Death Star, you can destroy Carida, but if you kill one of the EU's greatest characters how the hell are you supposed to atone for that even if you want to? Kyp Durron at least came to regret his actions and tried to atone for them. Jacen didn't. I stopped reading the books after the seventh one and read what happened next on Wookieepedia. Turns out that Jacen converted Tahiri into a Sith, so that she proceeded to become his [[TheDragon Dragon]] and does all sorts of horrible, evil shit. They kill off two of the biggest heroes in the story and top it off with a {{Retcon}}. They took Vergere, who made great points about how fucked up the Jedi philosophy was, and {{Retcon}}ed her into being a Sith because I guess Creator/GeorgeLucas got his panties in a knot over the idea of some moral ambiguity in his universe. |
| 54 | ** Tropers/{{Gholateg}}: Before all that? What killed the EU for me (and I had every damned book, Young Jedi and Crystal Star included)? The death of Chewbacca, done only to "Shake things up" and "Make the next series interesting." Bastards. They couldn't even be bothered to give him a proper send off, but gave him a pointless, meaningless death. The little useless sod he gave his life for died a few books later, negating anything his death accomplished. |
| 55 | ** Undead2814: I'm with both the above. Chewbacca's death made me sit out anything related to the Vong, but I still came back once all that was done... just in time for Legacy of the Force to make me give up on the EU period. Really, the only thing I can add to the above is that, to me, at least, Legacy of the Force is one of those DMOS so bad that it prevents me from enjoying the previous work that came before, since all I can think about is how it all ends up. I'll admit that may be immature, but there you have it. |
| 56 | ** Tropers/Bronnt: What killed the EU for me was the resolution of the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', and specifically, Zonoma Sekot. It was a quality series, overall, even though it had its weak moments. The greatest thing about it was the titular Jedi Order's quest to better understand the Force, since the Yuuzhan Vong's inability to be sensed was a contradiction in what they believed about it. This exploration led to a great deal of philosophical discussion that I found a welcome addition to the universe. So what's the solution? Not some new enlightened understanding, but the AssPull that the Vong's previous living planet "took the Force" away from them, since it can apparently do that. That reveal came absolutely out of nowhere and retroactively rendered moot a lot of great storytelling. |
| 57 | * Tropers/KenyaStarflight: I absolutely adore ''[[Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]'' (yes, that's the title), but the series hits its lowest point at the end of book three, ''The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two.'' While the first two books have excellent resolutions that end the story while leaving a door open for future adventures, the third book ends on a cliffhanger. This irritates me when it comes up in a series, as it feels like a cheap ploy to force the reader into buying the next book instead of relying on things like making us love the characters and story. The rest of the series is excellent and the DMOS wasn't enough to make me stop reading, but it certainly stuck in my craw. |
| 58 | * Tropers/SunnyRae: Read all the Evernight series by Claudia Gray. Now, she loved the first book, the second book she liked, the third book was "meh", but the last book was just awful. Talk about a stupid ending. Bianca and Lucas, who spent all of the previous books trying to be together, are finally together at the end. The BigBad is dead even after she became sympathetic, Lucas is no longer a "monster" (vampire) due to some AssPull Gray used by having Bianca, who is now a wraith, bringing him back with her ghostly blood. They had eternity together but they gave it up because Lucas turned into a whiny bitch about being a vampire and didn't like it. Now they have 50, 60 years tops together before Lucas dies of old age. Yeah sure, that's love. Leaving your lover to be alone for all of eternity because you didn't want to be a supernatural. |
| 59 | * Tropers/CCHooks: Steven Wakefield's Sudden Sexuality in ''[[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Confidential]]''. Especially since he had shown no signs of being gay, and had married one woman (Cara), been engaged to another (Billie), and had a nervous breakdown over a third's death (Tricia) to the point where he broke things off with Cara twice to pursue girls who looked like Tricia and mold them into her (and one of them dumped him because of this, which caused him to snap out of this). |
| 60 | * Tropers/{{Millernumber1}}: ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' during the picnic on Box Hill. After a mounting sequence of self-delusions with increasingly serious social consequences, Emma Woodhouse publicly insults a defenseless, silly, socially precarious older lady who she has known all her life. To her considerable credit, she heeds the sharp reprimand of her oldest friend Mr. Knightley and makes a significant HeelFaceTurn from RichBitch into benevolent and mature lady of the village. |
| 61 | * Literature/{{Discworld}} Series |
| 62 | ** Tropers/TheRealCJ: There's a moment in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'' that made me very annoyed. Early in the book, Granny Weatherwax gives a gullible villager a potion that contains the ingredients "Suckrose and Akwa" -- Sugar and water. It would have been very funny except, [[DontExplainTheJoke the joke is baldfacedly explained to the reader]] a short time later. Cue Creator/MarkHamill in 3… 2… 1: "[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries If you have to explain a joke, there is no joke]]!" |
| 63 | ** Tropers/LilMaibe: ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'', after Nutt returns to the university after running away, he and his friends are greeted by Ponder Stibbons. Ponder is almost panicking because he couldn't train the team in the protagonist's absence and instead had them run on the spot, which, despite being perfectly fine training, wasn't very effective. The [=DMOS=] is the reason given why he couldn't train them: It is not because he, who has a ton of jobs to do at the university, didn't have the time as his jobs needed to be done. No. It's because he couldn't remember any of the stuff Nutt came up with! And neither could, apparently, any of the wizards on the team. In short, it is another moment that exists solely to tell the reader how magnificent the character is. The utter derailment of the previous established characters solely to have Nutt shine as well as the, not long after, bit that added insult to injury (namely that the training had zero effect on the match at all) was the final straw. The whole subplot (if you can call it that, the thing drowns out the entire rest of the story without having any actual impact on it at all) is stuff I expect in bad fanfiction, not in a genuine novel. And in a Discworld-novel even less so. |
| 64 | ** Tropers/{{Mooncalf}}: Terry Pratchett's ''Literature/{{Thud}}''. There's a part where Angua and Sally are amazed that Nobby (sufficiently hideous and ugly that he has to carry signed papers identifying him as a human being) has landed an apparently genuine relationship with Tawnee, a dim but extremely beautiful stripper - he's apparently the only one who's ever approached her that way. They realize that while most men would get cold feet and consider her "out of their league", Nobby didn't care and asked her out anyway. Well that's neat, an interesting social observation. Except Angua announces it as "The jerk equation!" Say what? So apparently stepping out of your social bounds and trying to get along with a woman you're too ugly to deserve makes you a jerk? Tarring with a broad brush, there. |
| 65 | ** Tropers/{{Baeraad555}}: ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'' for the Discworld series as a whole. Vimes, whose most sympathetic traits have always been his proletarian sympathies and uneasy awareness that he could become a brutal KnightTemplar but for his [[TheFettered constant self-examination]], spends the novel learning that it's perfectly fine for him to be filthy rich and have feudal serfs, and we are told in no uncertain terms that he's [[IncorruptiblePurePureness so innately virtuous that he could never do anything bad.]] The moral of the story is that [[CaptainObviousAesop chattel slavery is bad]] but that it's fine to pay a member of an ethnic group half what you pay someone else for the same work, because that's just the all-benevolent free market at work. And then, in case that's not enough self-congratulatory self-righteousness for you, the plea of a broken old man for his villainous son to be exiled instead of executed is officially granted - only for us to be told that the son will be quietly executed, because slavery is really bad, you see! And most damning of all? The novel is not even especially entertaining. |
| 66 | ** Tropers/ZeroHelix: For me the true nadir of the series is Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld 4, something that reads like a complete 180 to the tone of the previous SODW books altogether. There was none of the parody, none of the humour, just the "science vs religion" Aesop that the first three SODW books had so delicately and masterfully deconstructed, instead now hammered home gratingly, anviliciously straight. It just didn't feel like Terry Pratchet at all. |
| 67 | * The ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' |
| 68 | ** Adept: ''Literature/{{Brisingr}}'' has this scene where Eragon, along with Arya, Nasuada and some other important members of the Varden gather together to discuss about the curse Eragon had accidentally placed on Elva. Eragon, who had become more powerful and knowledgeable regarding the Ancient Language, is now capable to undo the curse. Over the course of the conversation, [[DesignatedHero the heroes]] basically agree that Elva's powers are too useful for their cause, and it's better for them if they're not removed. They further remark that if Elva can't accept this decision, then she's a selfish brat who doesn't deserve the powers she have. What makes this especially appalling is that Elva is barely 2 years old, not a hardened soldier or a wise woman. She has been forced to [[PlotRelevantAgeUp magically grow up]] and mature just so that she can be strong enough to carry the burden Eragon had carelessly (and needlessly) placed on her. And now the heroes expect her to endure this for the rest of her life just because it's damn convenient for the war, which no toddler should be involved in the first place? |
| 69 | ** cricri3007: In Brisingr, Roran kills 193 guys in one battle. Now, while Eragon himself had been a CanonSue for the previous books, Roran was established as a BadassNormal, one that knew he couldn't fight everyone alone and knew his limits. And then, in one chapter, he kills more guys than [[CanonSue Eragon]] did through all the books until that point. |
| 70 | ** {{Tropers/Smoko}}: As someone who quite liked the series up until the third book (it was a refreshing change from the usual morally ambiguous, look-at-me-I'm-so-dark-and-bloody fantasy series), there was a moment that damaged it for me, to the point where I never picked up the fourth book. When Eragon uses Sloan's true name to force him to go to the elves and stay there, never to see his daughter again. Now, using someone's true name is MindRape of the first class; they are fully aware of what is being done to them, and they can't do anything except obey. This is the method [[BigBad Galbatorix]] uses to control his slaves. Yet not only does Eragon do it, he claims that he has the right to do it, and later on he's actually praised for taking that assumption. The instructions Eragon gives Sloan are also dangerously vague; he makes provisions for food and water (though how he can enspell animals to kill themselves for Sloan is anyone's guess) but places no protections in case another human being decides to run a sword through him or even if he just walks into a hole and breaks his neck (he is blind, after all). Yes, Sloan was a bastard. He'd also just been through months of torture and mutilation and the knowledge that they were doing the same thing to his daughter a few cages away. He's hardly a KarmaHoudini. |
| 71 | ** Kereea: For me it was the end of ''Eldest'', when Murtagh was revealed as having turned evil. It felt very forced and like the author realized Murtagh was the EnsembleDarkhorse and didn't want him stealing Eragon's thunder. Especially since its main other purpose was to give a reveal quite a few people had assumed by that point (which later turned out not to be true anyway). The books lost me right then and there. |
| 72 | ** Tropers/KenyaStarflight: I consider this series a GuiltyPleasure, but for me the moment that finally made me throw the book at the wall was the introduction of the dauthdaerts -- the mystical spears that have some ill-defined ability to kill dragons. The fact that these spears weren't introduced until Book 4 is bad enough (surely they would have been mentioned earlier, especially given that the particular dauthdaert Eragon gets his hands on is considered "notorious"), but also that they're given no specific reason to be dangerous to dragons. There's no mention of magical charms, poisons, or any other trait that would make this particular spear deadly to dragons, so what precisely makes them dangerous specifically to dragons? I was unusually lenient toward Paolini as an author up to this point, but this turned out to be the final straw for me. |
| 73 | ** PuffPuff: I was more or less reading out of a "can't complain if I never read it" mindset to begin with, but the point where I finally just snapped and rage-hucked the whole series altogether was the part where Eragon lets the slaves get eaten to test a stupid theory that he could have tested just by leaving an animal carcass out (but oh noes, that would violate his preshus veganism!) and then whines about it. Our fucking hero, ladies and gents! |
| 74 | * Tropers/SuperSaiyaMan: From George R. R Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' we have [[spoiler: Joffrey's]] death. This is right off the heels of the [[WhamEpisode Red Wedding]] [[spoiler: where most of the protagonists are killed off]]. Instead of him being killed in a rebellion, stabbed in the back by a main character, or dueling [[ActionGirl Arya]] in her epic RoaringRampageOfRevenge... he gets killed off by [[spoiler: choking on poisoned pie]]. To make [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tyrion's]] and [[TheWoobie Sansa's]] lives more horrible since they get blamed. |
| 75 | ** Tropers/cricri3007: I get it George, your series is oh-so grim and dark and realistic and everyone is an asshole and can die... but can you please NOT kill a (genuinely nice) character only because he was doing a "too good" job? And by someone we didn't hear of since three books, while Daenerys isn't dead yet? |
| 76 | * Tropers/WoolieWool: The rape scene in ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant''. The sheer senselessness and cruelty of it completely destroyed any sympathy I may have had for Thomas Covenant and made me throw the book down in disgust. There's no point or attempted justification, it's just "I'm gonna violate you now, kay?" If this asshole is supposed to be the hero, why should I care if he defeats the villain or not? |
| 77 | * Tropers/SeptimusHeap: The first book of ''Literature/SeptimusHeap''. There is a line where it says that Jenna has no Magykal powers. It can break your mind trying to understand why this line - and the whole {{Muggle}} Princess aspect - had to be part of the story. In a story where all people with Magyk have [[ColourCodedEyes green eyes]], giving the hunted-down Princess to a Wizard family is basically just [[MuggleBornOfMages asking]] [[PaperThinDisguise for trouble]]. Also, there is no evidence whatsoever that this aspect is required for the plot to work. [[MagicalComputer The biology]] [[MagicGenetics behind it]] [[ArtisticLicenseBiology is fishy as well.]] |
| 78 | * Tropers/{{Alexoftheworld}}: The book 'The Girl Who Could Fly' was nothing more than a cheesy, poorly written clone of a far more [[Comicbook/XMen successful series]], but two moments destroy it. One scene is where the main character, Piper, is crippled and loses her memory. One kid didn't know what his powers were. All of a sudden, he has the power to heal and bring back peoples memories. The second one involves the villain, Dr. Hellion. The twist is that she can fly, but as a result of a tragic accident involving the death of her sister, she is devoted to killing other mutants. If she's so depressed about her sister, why didn't she just kill herself? Killing other mutant creatures isn't a way to make you feel better; it's just selfish! And to make matters worse, we are expected to ignore all her actions and pity her. Now do you see why this book makes me vomit? |
| 79 | * Tropers/{{HMSaph}}: There was one moment in ''[[Literature/TheInkworldTrilogy Inkspell]]'' that made me really angry. I thought Dustfinger's wife Roxanne was an okay character until the penultimate chapter. [[TheDragon Basta]] had killed Farid earlier in the book, and Dustfinger made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with the White Women]] -- his life to bring Farid back, and the deal was made. Roxanne decides to take Dustfinger's body somewhere, and when Farid disagrees with her, saying that Orpheous can use WordPower to bring him back, she gives us this needlessly cruel line: |
| 80 | -->"Get out of my sight! The very first time I saw you coming to my farm, I knew you brought bad luck. ''[[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead You]]'' [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead ought to be dead, not Dustfinger]]. That's how it is and that's how it stays." |
| 81 | * Tropers/{{Wanderer2004}}: The entire, final story arc with Wendy Nogard in ''[[Literature/WaysideSchool Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger]]'' is up there with everyone's usual mistreatment of Todd. Heartbreak or otherwise, Wendy had no excuse to take it out on others. There's no telling how many folks she must’ve harmed emotionally before reaching Wayside. But her redemption... ugh. Okay, so Wendy reads the thoughts of a baby she's about to murder while planning to make said murder look like an accident, and BAM, instant redemption? That’s absurd even for Wayside. I would think redemption involves admitting one’s own wrongdoing (usually out loud to others) and then striving to better oneself. But no, the book doesn’t see it that way. Also, given these students' past experiences (especially recently) with bad teachers, how did nobody suspect things had soured ever since she arrived? |
| 82 | * Tropers/{{DrGonzo}}: The Literature/HorusHeresy novel ''The Outcast Dead'' has a glaring error in its narrative that kills the whole book for me. For context, the whole book takes place on Terra, just after news of the Heresy has reached earth, and the Istvaan III massacre has already taken place. Mark that last bit, it'll be important later. About a third of the way through the book, the Emperor receives the ill-fated psychic warning from Magnus of Horus' betrayal, which winds up angering the Emperor enough to send the Space Wolves to Prospero for some smashy-smashy. The moment of suck comes in when you realize that in two previous books in the series (both by the same author as this one, even) explicitly says that this warning was sent before Terra was aware of Horus' betrayal and before the Istvaan III massacre. Handling the established timeline in such a lazy way brings down the entire book and contradicts the entire point of the Magnus storyline. |
| 83 | * ''Literature/WarriorCats'': |
| 84 | ** Tropers/{{BlackCatMisfortunate}}: The series' Dethroning Moment was in the ''Power of Three'' arc when it's revealed what the arc title really means. It left a sour taste in my mouth that the plot revolves around [[spoiler:cats with superpowers]]. While I still enjoy the books and read them, I sometimes find it hard to believe that the same people who wrote the first arc wrote the newer books. [[spoiler:Despite the fact that there are more fantasy elements present in the later arcs]], it shows how much less imaginative the series has become overall. The specific moment for me to choose for a [=DMoS=] nomination, though, would have to be when [[spoiler:Lionblaze realizes that his power is that he can't be injured in battle (making him essentially invincible) because it removes any suspense from any fight he'll ever be in; the audience knows that he's going to win, and while there is still a threat of other cats being hurt, Lionblaze is never in any real danger even if he takes on much larger animals known to kill cats by himself--which he does. Despite the fact that it is sometimes PlayedForDrama the audience is always aware that Lionblaze will never risk being hurt or dying in combat. Since this is a series where AnyoneCanDie, it takes away a lot of the suspense and investment in battles.]] |
| 85 | ** Tropers/{{Lightflame}}: Even though ''Omen of the Stars'' is my favourite of the arcs, a reveal about a third of the way through ''Sign of the Moon'' is the lowest point for me. [[spoiler:Ashfur is in [=StarClan=]. This is the guy who was an accomplice in a plot to kill his Clan leader Firestar, and who tried to burn Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf alive. (Those three weren't just his Clanmates. Lionblaze was his apprentice.) Why did he get there? Apparently it's because of his motivation: he got friendzoned. Never mind that Thistleclaw went to the Dark Forest because he liked fighting, or that Hawkheart was sent there because he accidentally killed a she-cat who was destroying his herbs. Four counts of attempted murder and a count of treason are apparently perfectly acceptable if you got friendzoned.]] |
| 86 | ** Tropers/{{piv}}: The reveal of the Dark Forest in Starlight did this for me. Beforehand, it seemed as if [=StarClan=] was unbiased, their only objective being keeping all four clans alive. The idea that every clan cat went to [=StarClan=] regardless of how they acted in life also feeds into the shades of grey morality that the authors tried to show in the series. The fact that some cats go to [=StarClan=] and some to the Dark Forest, when cats on both sides have committed similar crimes and broken the warrior code in numerous ways just reeks of injustice. It also takes away from [=StarClan=]’s ability to guide the clans: a lot of those Dark Forest cats must have had some experiences that they would use to benefit the clans, or at least their own clan. |
| 87 | ** Tropes/{{Wildstar93}}: It was formerly the bonus scene in ''Shattered Sky'' for me, and then it was ''Moth Flight's Vision''. But now that I think about it, I've decided to go with the prologue for ''River Of Fire''. The [=ShadowClan=] cats who helped Darktail overthrow Rowanstar are regretting their actions in [=ShadowClan=]'s ruin, only for Needletail to show up and tell them that it was all Rowanstar's fault. So instead of acknowledging her part in doing wrong, [[NeverMyFault she pins all of [=ShadowClan=]'s problems on Rowanstar]], whose only crime was not being stern and strong enough to keep some unruly Clanmates out of trouble. Heck, she even acts like a smartass to Yellowfang for calling her out. I know Rowanstar wasn't that good of a leader, but calling a cat like Needletail a hero while throwing an otherwise okay cat like Rowanstar under the bus leaves a very sour taste in my mouth, making Needletail look very UnintentionallyUnsympathetic and Rowanstar UnintentionallySympathetic to me. |
| 88 | ** Tropers/{{WarJay77}}: In my opinion, ''Mapleshade's Vengence.'' She was set up as a very interesting villain in the fourth arc, having been in the Dark Forest longer than the rest of the villains. She was also involved in Crookedstar's backstory and influenced Tigerstar during his own novella. All of this is fine buildup for the first female villain in the series. However, her novella just ruins her for me. In justifying her story by making the rest of [=ThunderClan=] seem like jerks, they effectively made her into what many fans consider to be a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, with people believing her murderous actions were okay because of what her Clanmates did. This is in addition to the first female villain being evil only because of forbidden romance issues, which is already an overused trope in the series, and contrasts with the male villains who were after power for the sake of power. It just seems like poor writing for what could've been a very interesting character and it highlights the tendencies of the authors to give sad backstories to their villains that only seems to convince readers the villains weren't evil. |
| 89 | ** Tropers/{{Snowsky}}: Speaking of ''Mapleshade's Vengeance,'' even if the writing weren't a travesty in itself, nearly every character in that book turns into a completely horrible person (well, cat) and grabs the JerkassBall, IdiotBall, or both, seemingly for the ''sole purpose'' of making Mapleshade's life hell until she snaps. To start with, [=StarClan=] sends a message to Ravenwing that Mapleshade's kits are half-[=RiverClan=] because...why? What purpose does this serve besides starting the DisasterDominoes, especially since they have never done this to any other queen whose kits are secretly half-Clan? (Bluestar, Graypool, Silverstream and [[spoiler:Leafpool]] say hi.) So Ravenwing knows now, and he figures out specifically that they were fathered by Appledusk, who (accidentally?) killed Birchface, Oakstar's son. Okay, this is bad, but surely Ravenwing can take two seconds to calm down and think about ''what's going to happen'' if he spills the beans?[[note]][[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Unless]] he was so much of an asshole that he didn't care that he was about to get four of his Clanmates, three of them innocent children, kicked out of their home, but him being a jerk is not any better than him being an idiot.[[/note]] No, he goes and publicly blabs the secret to all of [=ThunderClan=]. Every cat is enraged, with Frecklewish being especially furious because Mapleshade lied to her about the kits' father being Birchface, her dead brother, which is understandable. What is not understandable is Frecklewish turning on not just Mapleshade but the kits, calling them "half-Clan creatures" and shouting for them to be driven out, when before she had loved them and promised to help care for them when she thought they were her brother's kits. And we're still supposed to sympathize with her after this? (Nettlebreeze even refers to her as "poor helpless Frecklewish" in a later book.) Oakstar kicks Mapleshade and her kits out of [=ThunderClan=] and they prepare to head to [=RiverClan=], but the kits drown when they try to cross the river as it suddenly floods. [=RiverClan=] shows up and brings Mapleshade and the dead kits to their leader, Darkstar. Appledusk blames her 100% for the kits' deaths and calls their relationship a mistake in front of his Clan (which comes across as him throwing her under the bus to get back in their good graces). They welcome him back with open paws after Reedshine (his other mate) gives them a speech about how brave and loyal he is, while Mapleshade is refused shelter in [=RiverClan=] and told by Reedshine to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown "go away, because she's caused enough trouble tonight."]] And then Mapleshade begins her revenge murder spree, became the most feared villain in the Dark Forest, blah, blah, blah. The point is, ''Mapleshade's Vengeance'' is a complete IdiotPlot because the whole chain of events could possibly have been avoided or gone in a different direction, had anybody been able to act rationally or let go of the JerkassBall for 3 seconds. But do you know what one of the worst parts is? Absolutely none of these characters besides Mapleshade herself have any significance to the overall plot of the series outside of this book, even though there were plenty of opportunities for them to appear as [=StarClanners=] in ''Omen of the Stars,'' which is a massive waste of potential. Partly because of that, post-mortem Mapleshade is a borderline GenericDoomsdayVillain whose only motivation is "manipulate events to make the Clan cats' lives suck, rally the Dark Forest, start a war, destroy the Clans, and [[spoiler:fixate on Sandstorm and kill her because she had the life I feel like I deserved, providing a convenient excuse for Spottedleaf to save her with a HeroicSacrifice and become DeaderThanDead so Firestar doesn't have to choose between them when he goes to [=StarClan=]]]". |
| 90 | * Tropers/{{Pysiewicz}}: ''[[Franchise/TheWitcher The Witcher saga]]'' has its ups and downs over the course of five books and the preceded antologies of short stories. But then the ending is finally there. Every single character that somehow survived till that point, including Geralt and Yennefer, is unceremoniously killed off or at least badly maimed. If you had a name - you are dead by the end. If you were nameless, then you die by the dozen. This includes even incredibly minor characters. And not for dramatic effect, nor for the shock value, but simply for the sake of it. The entire setting shares this fate - there is inevitable ice age incoming and some sort of superplague, combining traits of the Black Death and ebola, is brought back with Ciri by accident from another world. Within final 50 pages, everyone is dead and the world is extra-doomed. All of it, because the author openly claimed boredom with the series and its characters. In the same time, he was equally open about destroying and killing everything, so nobody will be able pick up the verse to continue. This just came out as petty and spiteful, robbing the saga from having any real ending or sense of closure, while in the same time being simply mean-spirited. At least newer generations of readers can always indulge in games' continuity, but back when the saga ended, there was nothing saving readers from the bleak GainaxEnding, earned after having read through almost 3000 pages in total. One of the ultimate cases of ShaggyDogStory in Polish literature, as all the events of the saga meant almost nothing and are fully undermined by the end. |
| 91 | * Tropers/{{Highwaystonowhere}}: ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' by Michael Grant is mostly a wonderful series, but was it really necessary to degrade Diana Ladris in the way they did with the disgusting, torturous birth? |
| 92 | ** Tropers/{{Creamstripe}}: I'm a huge fan of the series, but I personally objected to some of the more meaningless deaths in the final book, [[spoiler: including Brianna's]] ''Light''. Michael Grant is a good author, but seriously, is it necessary to kill off characters left and right simply to elicit an emotional reaction from the audience? We get it. [[BigBad The Gaiaphage]] is a sadist who slaughters people ForTheEvulz, now can we go on with the plot? |
| 93 | *** Tropers/{{H0p3l!v3s0n}}: (More of a “Dethroning Aspect Of Suck” than a DMOS, but whatever) I do like the book (I’ve only read a bit over half of the first one at this point though), but there’s one aspect I just absolutely ''despise.'' The portrayal of Little Pete, an Autistic child, is just dripping with UnfortunateImplications. He’s portrayed as uncaring about the things around him, basically emotionless except when he’s having a meltdown, and overall as a burden. It honestly reminds me of what I’ve read about that one Autism Speaks ad that portrays Autistic kids… basically, almost exactly like Pete is being portrayed here. Again, GONE is a good book, I just… I just ''can’t'' get over their absolutely stereotypical and overall just ''bad’' portrayal of Autism. |
| 94 | * RAZ: I've been a big fan of the Literature/AgentPendergast series since ''Literature/TheRelic'', but after reading ''Literature/TwoGraves'' I'm seriously considering dropping the series. In the previous novel, ''Literature/ColdVengeance'', [[spoiler: Pendergast discovered his wife Helen had actually survived the events of her apparent death and spent the entire novel searching for her, only for her to be captured by the society she'd been in hiding from at the very end.]] Oh well, it's a cliffhanger, but as long as there's a solid resolution to it [[TemptingFate that should mean it'll be worthwhile reading, right]]?. Nope. [[spoiler: She's [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off anti-climatically at the very beginning]], also meaning the events of ''Vengeance'' were completely fucking pointless. What a way to turn everything into a waste.]] |
| 95 | * @/PugBuddies: Mortal, the second in the Books Of Mortals series by Creator/TedDekker, had a huge Dethroner. In Forbidden, the first book, he introduces us to Feyn, basically queen-to-be of the entire planet. She was a strong female character, but not in the way he usually writes them: Instead of being a fierce warrior, she was a shrewd leader, committed to truth at all costs. Well, by the beginning of Mortal, due to a huge SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome on her part, she is [[spoiler: legally dead. Through basically dark magic, her creepy half-brother, Saric, the series' BigBad, revives her, stripping her of her free will and making her his puppet. She commits many heinous acts throughout the book because, as stated before, she has no free will. Dekker explicitly states this, and yet when she betrays the heroes at the end, she's treated as irredeemably evil. Dekker acts as though she chose to do all of those terrible things, when in reality, she literally had no choice.]] To see a strong female character reduced to that status for the sake of a plot twist was a huge Dethroner. |
| 96 | * Tropers/{{Smoko}}: ''Literature/TheObernewtynChronicles'' is an excellent series that is generally very underrated. However, the romance between Elspeth and Rushton is sickening, and it's a real shame, because it was set up to be quite interesting. In the first three books, Elspeth and Rushton are obviously attracted to each other but they both have very serious flaws that would prevent a healthy relationship between the two. Rushton is overly aggressive and controlling towards Elspeth--never trusting her judgement, fighting tooth and nail to prevent her from going anywhere with the slightest risk--and Elspeth in turn is terrified of intimacy and has her own trust issues. So, you would expect to see a relationship between them actually address these issues--and it does. Elspeth's issues. Everything that is wrong in the relationship is entirely her fault and Rushton is pure and blameless. This reaches quite frightening depths in ''The Stone Key'', where Rushton is openly abusive to Elspeth and still she shoulders the guilt, having thoughts like "If I had only made love to him, he wouldn't be so bad" and "His aversion to me was proof of love." And in the end, it turns out that [[spoiler: while Ariel did tamper with Rushton's mind, he never intended for him to be anything but loving towards Elspeth so as to hurt her more when he tried to kill her]], meaning Rushton chose to behave in such a repulsive way. While all this is bad enough, it gets worse. In ''The Sending'' not only are Elspeth and Rushton still together, it's held as a shining example of True Love. They are literally spiritually bound to one another, that's how strong and true their feelings are, and it's even stated that neither of them could ever fall in love with anyone else ever again. Elspeth is a teenager throughout the series, and starts her relationship with Rushton at about the age of fifteen. A disappointing and disgusting end to what could have been a really good premise. |
| 97 | * Tropers/ASplashingKoi: As a fan of ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', I awaited the release of its final book, ''The Blood of Olympus'', with a lot of anticipation. When I got it, the book did not fall short of expectations... except for the part where [[spoiler:Nico moves on from Percy]]. My God, that was awful and just reeked of pure, pure lazy writing. After so much emphasis on Nico's angst and hurt and self-hatred, this is how it ends? He just casually tells Percy he's not his type and high-fives Annabeth? No conversation to make amends, no extended reaction from Percy, nothing else? And he just conveniently walks away to Will Solace? I have nothing against Nico pairing off with Will, but the way the whole thing was portrayed felt as if Rick Riordan was trying to come up with the most convenient way possible of getting Nico out of the way of Percy/Annabeth, which had been endlessly shilled in the previous book, without killing him off. |
| 98 | ** {{Tropers/Iris}}: Apparently RR decided to throw consequences and emotional heft out the window, because it's quite a theme in that book. Jason healing his sword wounds from the first couple chapters with ~the power of believing in yourself, Leo being brought back instantly, negating his HeroicSacrifice, Nico being able to overcome years of InternalizedCategorism just because a cute guy spoke to him-but the absolute nadir for me was the fight with Kym. Percy reveals that he's been [[DeathSeeker intentionally fighting poorly]] as a result of his guilt and trauma from Tartarus. Understandable. Good, even. After all, the first thing we learn about Percy is that he's a "troubled kid" by all accounts. So Jason tells him he gets that... and says nothing else, even when Percy is visibly looking to him for help/sympathy. And it's never brought up again. Not by the narration, or Percy, and certainly not Jason. Not only is it depressingly neglectful writing when compared to the deft handling of Percy's abuse in the first series, it makes you want to punch Jason in the face. If this was Rick's attempt at proving Jason is a responsible leader and a caring friend, it failed miserably. |
| 99 | * Tropers/Madeleined2: For the most part, I liked ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'', but I just hated the ending of the "Lutta" subplot in book 11. Basically, Lutta was kidnapped as an egg, enchanted to be a shapeshifter, and raised since birth by a hagsfiend named Kreeth. Kreeth enchants her to look like another owl named Emerilla so she can steal the ember from Hoole. Over time, Lutta begins to genuinely fall in love with Hoole. Eventually, she confronts Kreeth, announcing her love for Hoole and defying her in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. And then what happens? [[spoiler:She is killed off in the most unsatisfying way possible when the real Emerilla shows up and her mother kills Lutta out of rage. Lutta's spirit then goes to Hagsmire, and nobody mourns her.]] And even worse, [[spoiler: Hoole then hooks up with Emerilla, who he'd never even met in person, simply because he had fallen in love with the owl who was impersonating her.]] The author and all the characters seem to agree that Lutta deserved what happened to her, and no one gives her any credit for trying to defy Kreeth and rise above what she had been cursed to be. |
| 100 | * Tropers/Silverblade2: I read ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' out of BileFascination but even then there was a moment that was so awful it wasn't even funny. Early on, Anna jokingly sends an e-mail to Christian claiming she never want to see him again. How does he react? He breaks into her apartment and proceeds to rape her. Anna only tells him that it was a joke after [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization enjoying being raped]]. Wow! This is so wrong and offensive. |
| 101 | ** Tropers/{{Catmuto}}: There are a lot of moments in the ''50 Shades'' books that could serve as a [=DMoS=]. The above is a great example at showing just how abusive their relationship is, despite Ana not having signed any kind of dom-sub contract. But I think there is a worse scene. Even if one slogs through the first two books and gets to the third, and makes it through the majority of that book to get to this scene, it is still terrible. Now, Anastasia finds out she's pregnant - honest accident, her birth-control shot seems to have stopped working early. The horror comes when Anastasia has to tell Christian. Before she tells him, she repeatedly mentions how she knows he'll get angry. And boy, he gets angry!\ |
| 102 | He starts yelling at her, blaming this entirely on her ([[SarcasmMode because, obviously, having sex with her did not get her pregnant and is totally not partly his responsibility]]), demanding that she abort because he does not want to 'share' her with anyone, not even his own child, and practically throwing things around, before storming out. Then, he eventually returns hours later, dead-drunk and tries to have sex with Anastasia, who refuses because she's rightfully angry at him. She found out that he went to another woman - it's not outright stated that he slept with Elena, but her indignation that her husband ran off to talk with another woman about something so important, something that only concerns the two of them, definitely makes it come off as if he did.\ |
| 103 | Aside from Christian then acting all sad and badly-put-upon because her being pregnant means she'll never, ever have sex with him again and will put the baby ahead of him, the scene does bring up a wonderful moment in the next chapter: Anastasia calling Christian out on his behavior upon hearing the news and how he ran away instead of acting mature, like he claims to be, and refusing to accept the responsibility he had in creating the child. A wonderful moment unfortunately ruined, as Anastasia reverts to her demure ExtremeDoormat personality immediately after and never has that backbone again. That was a great scene, with potential of finally giving Anastasia some CharacterDevelopment and standing up to Christian, but ultimately ruined. It's like [=EJ=] James heard people complaining about Anastasia's lack of spine, then threw this in to appease the complainers, only to go back and blow them a metaphorical raspberry. |
| 104 | ** Tropers/ThatsNumberwang: Like most women I had a copy of this book pressed into my hands at some point. Unlike most women however I actually have friends who are in the BDSM community. And nothing makes it more obvious that the author has never remotely experienced BDSM for herself that this concept of such a ridiculously detailed sub-dom contract. Here is a very important piece of advice for anyone reading this: If a man or woman wants you to sign a contract that basically makes you his/her slave forever, that person is NOT into BDSM. That person is a psychopath. The submissive in a healthy sub-dom relationship is the one WITH the power as he/she decides on the limits, the safe words and on how long such a relationship continues. The dominant is merely acting out a part. This is such a mirror image of Fifty Shades that it is absurd. |
| 105 | * Tropers/MathsAngelicVersion: Knut Hamsun was a competent writer, but the ending of ''Victoria'' was quite frankly disappointing. [[spoiler:It looks like Johannes and Victoria will finally be able to be together, then the Diabolus ex Machina strikes and Victoria randomly dies of tuberculosis. I'm okay with tragic endings when they're a natural consequence of the events in the plot, but this was just Hamsun pulling something out of his... uh... behind to force a sad ending. I can imagine him thinking "All good stories end in tragedy, right?" and/or yelling "Cry, dammit!" while writing it.]] |
| 106 | * Tropers/{{Kenyastarflight}}: I had high hopes for Karen Russell's ''Literature/{{Swamplandia}}'', and was enchanted with her writing style and the setting of the novel -- less so with the characters, but I kept reading anyhow. But then, out of nowhere, our protagonist Ava -- a thirteen-year-old girl, mind you -- is [[GratuitousRape gratuitously raped]] clear out of the blue by the Bird Man. It sickens me to see rape used as a a cheap means to [[RapeAsDrama inject drama into a story]] or [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil vilify a character]], especially child rape. And worse, not only does the rapist [[KarmaHoudini get away scott-free]], but [[AngstWhatAngst the book makes no effort to show Ava suffering any ill effects from the assault]]. If you're going to include rape in a novel, you had damn well better treat it seriously and not as a cheap plot device, and you had better show just what kind of devastating effects it can have on the victim, not gloss over them and/or pretend it never happened. Ugh... why was this novel nominated for a Pulitzer again? |
| 107 | * Tropers/MsCC93: A moment that infuriated me from the 6th book of ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' (Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1) was when George & Harold started a "Squishy Fad" which involved putting ketchup packs under the toilet seats and it would mess up the clothing of people who sat on the toilet. Because it became so popular, Ms. Ribble decided to prank Mr. Krupp. Mr. Krupp then proceeded to blame George & Harold (I can see why Mr. Krupp would think they did it, considering the pranks the two boys always pull and their reputation as troublemakers). The kicker, however was that Ms. Ribble and the other fourth graders all said that George and Harold weren't responsible for the prank that resulted in the students' (save the 4th graders) clothes. You would think that Mr. Krupp would believe them, considering how the teachers usually never come to George & Harold's defense. Then the bratty snitch Melvin Sneedly tattles on them for coming up with the fad, landing the two boys in detention. True George & Harold came up with the fad, but they weren't responsible for everybody messing up their clothes after the pranks. Another sad thing is that in book 3, Mr. Krupp even went as far as to refuse to punish George and Harold for tricking the lunch ladies into baking cupcakes with vinegar and baking soda without evidence when the lunch ladies complained about the duo's actions. He only punished them because the lunch ladies quit their jobs (the punishment was actually lenient and well deserved ). In this book however, he just dumps his punishment standards out the window. [[NotMeThisTime he just punishes them despite them not playing any pranks]]. This is why I liked Mr. Krupp better in the movie, because he at least gave the boys lenient punishments despite him being a ChildHater. |
| 108 | ** Tropers/{{savagegenius}}: Let’s flip the script and punish both Mr. Krupp and Melvin despite being reasonable, shall we? The moment in question, of course, is within the second book, where Mr. Krupp bans the two from attending the invention convention and forced them to stay in study hall all day (justified, since they stuck everyone else in the school to their seats the year prior using their own homemade glue). What do they do next? Sneak into the school the night before the convention and sabotage everyone’s inventions-that is, everyone except Melvin’s, whose invention they promise to not tamper with in exchange for his silence. Melvin, who is legitimately concerned for the other students along with his own invention, promises out of desperation and lets the two do their dirty work. During the convention, the boys’ pranks result in the entire audience-and possibly the auditorium itself (technically vandalism)-getting extremely messy, the students’ hard work being all for naught, and the entire event ending prematurely. Keep in mind that nobody has done anything to the duo out of pure spite that warranted any of their actions. This causes Melvin to break his promise out of annoyance, and Mr. Krupp to use this as proof to give the duo detention for the rest of the year. Now the actual dethroning moment is how we’re supposed to hate both Mr. Krupp and Melvin and see them as Jerkasses despite being completely in the right. Say what you will about Mr. Krupp being a little too happy about the punishment, but he had a point due to them pissing him off that much. It just makes it all the less satisfying when George and Harold get away with everything as usual. |
| 109 | * Tropers/{{Kablammin45}}: So there's ''Literature/TheIncredibleWorldsOfWallyMcDoogle'' the faith-based comedy series by Bill Myers. I followed the books and seemed to notice that the writing seemed to gradually get a little funky, [[SeriesContinuityError particularly continuity-wise]] and [[CharacterDerailment characterization-wise]]. I mostly just brushed off these odd moments until the final 28th book "My Life as a Supersized Superhero" where the lack of concern for continuity culminated in a moment that ended up leaving me very frustrated. At some point, Wally (who has turned invisible thanks to a superhero gadget) hijacks a TV studio broadcast to give a PSA about world hunger. When he and his friends arrive home later, they find that... it's being picketed by an angry mob, who not just clearly don't give a crap about what Wally was talking about, but don't seem to give a crap about the people Wally was talking about, (seriously, they're holding up signs saying "[[JerkAss Let The Starving Feed Themselves]]" and "[[ItsAllAboutMe Stop Annoying ME With Their Problems!]]") and even beat the snot out of Wally once they find him, [[FelonyMisdemeanor just because they were missing their TV shows]]. Sure, there may be some TruthInTelevision involved, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't go to measures like THAT. But that isn't the end. It's implied that even Wally's OWN PARENTS were part of the angry mob! So, not only were [[AbusiveParents Wally's own parents beating him up]], but there's even more CharacterDerailment involved. See, not three books earlier (My Life As A Belching Baboon) Wally's parents actually postponed the [=McDoogle=] clan's own freakin Christmas festivities so they could fly over to Africa to help with a food drive. Honestly, what happened between then and now to get them from doing something that to not giving a rat's butt about it? It really doesn't help that the events of "Belching Baboon" are even mentioned shortly before this happens in "Supersized Superhero". It's almost as if Bill forgot to make sure this story was lining up with the continuity of rest of the series. I was upset when no books came out after "Superhero", but perhaps it might have been for the best if the writing was getting to be this bad. |
| 110 | * Animeking1108: I'd like to point out that I found ''Literature/LittleBrother'' by Cory Doctorow an overrated book that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot sadly had a lot of wasted potential]]. A lot of my issues with the book [[TheScrappy stem with]] [[DesignatedHero Marcus]]. He is [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]], [[EntitledBastard entitled]], and a huge GaryStu. However, I think the moment that really made me hate him was early in the book. After a terrorist attack occurs early in the book, this causes his home town to be under heavy surveillance. However, Marcus's father approves of the security measures, which sparks an argument between them. However, Marcus has his head so far up his own ass that he refuses to see things from his father's point of view. He fails to understand that [[spoiler: he has been missing for several days in government custody, and his parents were worried sick about him]]. However, the book paints Marcus's father [[InformedWrongness as being in the wrong for supporting the government's extreme methods]]. Are we really supposed to root for such a self-righteous bastard who doesn't think about his parents were put through? And don't you dare point out how evil the DHS were in the book. 1. Marcus [[spoiler: didn't know that they captured his friend that got stabbed]]. 2. He was kept in custody for as long as he was because [[spoiler: he refused to comply with orders to give the Big Bad his phone, which had nothing incriminating on it]]. 3. His refusal to follow orders while under interrogation made him look suspicious, along with his history of hacking to play hooky, so of course they were going to keep a careful eye on him. 4. As far as most people knew, [[DesignatedVillain the DHS were just doing their jobs to protect the country after a fucking terrorist attack]]. Another thing I hated about this book was the Black and White morality. You're either against the DHS, or you're an idiot or a bad guy. There is no middle ground in the story. |
| 111 | * cricri3007: ''Literature/{{Revan}}''. I get that Drew Karpyshyn probably doesn't like what the sequel did to his character from the first game. I get that it's essentially a commercial for the then upcoming MMO. But, retconning the Exile as someone who just lost her connection to the Force and then got it back somehow is the biggest [=DMoS=] for this book. Why? Because, by retconning this, he makes the entire second game pointless as if it didn't happen (not helped by the fact that none of the Exile's companions get even a mention). All in all, it feels like he doesn't want to even acknowledge Kotor 2's existence, which pisses me off to no end considering it was my first introduction to the Star Wars universe. |
| 112 | ** Tropers/{{Allronix}}: Seconded. The whole thing does Exile and the second game dirty, but the first game isn't given any favors. At least the non-mention of Exile's crew spares them from the IdiotBall the party member characters from the first game are handed. Bastila just sitting by, knocked up and left to Force knows what? Nice one, you asshole. What, were you expecting Carth to step in and raise your kid for you? Canderous is a barbarian, but he's not mindless or incapable of putting his foot down. Why didn't he just find another way to talk his wife out that stupid idea? T3-M4 is unceremoniously incinerated. HK-47 ends up as a pain in the ass RecurringBoss. And the whole thing is pointless as the alleged two finest generals of the Mandalorian War don't make any damn backup plans, charging into a patently obvious trap, only for Scourge to do what Sith do best. (The fact that dirtbag gets to play KarmaHoudini bunking out on the Knight's boat just adds insult to injury here.) Oh, and Those Two Idiots don't even manage to smuggle out any evidence the damn Empire exists, so the Republic gets caught with their pants down and ends up devastated anyway. AllForNothing. Don't give me this bantha shit about "tempering" the Emperor, either. A long, protracted, and blood war of attrition is what the son of a Sith wanted all along, all the better to wipe out the Republic, embezzle from the Empire to build up his "side project" on Zakuul, and eventually have a [[OmnicidalManiac Universe For One.]] One of the finest protagonists Creator/BioWare and the Franchise/StarWarsLegends ever produced is reveled to be nothing more than a pathetic pawn; pawn of Kreia at the start, pawn of the Emperor, pawn to the Council, and pawn to the Emperor again, [[ShootTheShaggyDog finally put down like a rabid dog]] in a heartbreaking BossBattle. All to build up a [[InvincibleVillain boring, undefeatable]], but pathetic VillainSue with a bog-standard motive, and the depth of a third-rate Saturday Morning cartoon antagonist. I expected better from the fellow who made Darth Bane so compelling and did more to explain the Sith in six minutes than Lucas bothered with in six films. |
| 113 | * WillBGood: ('''Note:''' I'm just moving this entry over from DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible-- I have not read this book, but the Horrible page recommends putting individual books from otherwise well-regarded series on this page; if the original author of this wants to come and replace my name with theirs I'm fine with it.) ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has ''Crossroads of Twilight,'' a {{Doorstopper}} without content which generally takes place at the same time as ''Winter's Heart'' (the previous book). Most of ''Crossroads'' consists of PurpleProse about food and clothing — the book has 822 pages, but you could condense it into 100 and not miss anything. The BigBad in this book is grain weevils. The series has Loads And Loads Of Characters, but very few of them appear in what passes for the main plot; the book needs a 50-page prologue to explain what everybody's doing, and it doesn't help. Rand, the driving force of the series as a whole, only appears in the last few pages; he has the long-awaited confrontation with Loghain, but nothing comes of it. Every female character is identical, and they're all unlikable stuck-up bitches. The series had been heading this way for a while, but this is the nadir. But the later books are better, and you don't have to read this to understand them. |
| 114 | * WillBGood: ('''Note:''' again, not my opinion but another entry moved from DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible) As ''Crossroads of Twilight'' is to ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', ''Naked Empire'' represents the bottom-of-the-barrel for Terry Goodkind's ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series. This book, even more than the others before it, is mostly [[AuthorTract one gigantic sermon against communism and pacifism]], containing the infamous "[[StrawCharacter evil-pacifist]]" plot of Bandakar. Even outside the conflict, Richard's dialogue is [[CharacterFilibuster constantly saturated with Goodkind's views]] when he's talking to his friends (including an idiotic side conversation where Richard and his half-sister discuss the "right" of hair to live on a person's head). The main plot of the series is advanced barely an inch by the end of this book, there are [[CharacterFilibuster speeches]] that go on for pages or even whole chapters, and the plot's resolved in one of the most blatant {{Deus Ex Machina}}s in literature. |
| 115 | * Pegase: I love Creator/TamoraPierce and own a copy of almost every book she's ever written. Some of her more recent books like Battle Magic and Melting Stones aren't quite up to par with the rest of them in my opinion, but they're still pretty good. However, I cannot bring myself to buy or reread Mastiff because [[spoiler: Tunstall betrays Beka and Farmer Cape and leaves them to be tortured. All because he has some weird delusion that the status upgrade the bad guys promise him will make him worthy of Lady Sabine, who already loves him just fine in a function relationship. The insecurity I understand, but leaving the girl he's trained since she was a Puppy, his friend, to be tortured? That destroys his character.]] I had trouble from the get-go with Mastiff because the main action plot starts too soon, which doesn't leave a lot of room in the plot for world building which has always been one of my favorite qualities about Tamora Pierce's books. But I really just couldn't handle that twist though because it ruined the character for me and retroactively cast a shadow on the series. It was an edgy move and a plausible twist, but I really hated it. |
| 116 | * LegalAssassin: For the most part, I thought ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' by Cassandra Clare were just fluff books; not very intricate or well-written, but still fun enough that I could be entertained for a few hours. Even "City of Fallen Angels," which was just one big angst-fest with plot thrown in at the last minute, was still pretty okay in my view. But then came a certain moment "City of Lost Souls" and my patience with the series broke. Said moment? The main villain Jonathan (I refuse to call him Sebastian; that's not his name and you can't make me call him that, Clare) attempts to rape the protagonist Clary, who's also his sister. And pretty much right after that, the characters don't acknowledge what happened and none of them change based on that moment. A BigLippedAlligatorMoment is jarring enough, but when that moment is a rape scene it becomes infuriating. No writer should EVER just throw in rape or any other touchy subject into a narrative without addressing the issue somehow. But what really makes this moment a [=DMoS=] is Clare's response to readers' responses to the scene, where she 1) revealed that the scene was there to establish Jonathan as an irredeemable villain, 2) said trigger warnings were a form of censorship and shouldn't be used, and 3) called people who thought Clary should've reacted more to the attempted rape sexist because they were trying to impose a "right way" to react. My thoughts are 1) Jonathan was already planning to brainwash people and destroy the world, so that should be more than enough to establish him as irredeemable, 2) trigger warnings are there to warn about content one may not be able to handle, not to censor writing, and 3) while I agree there is no "right" way to react to rape, Clary didn't react to it at all. Even if you ignore how poorly handled the issue was, it's still bad writing to not have a character react to something that happened to them. It would be just as bad if a male character was tortured and didn't have any emotional response to it. What really irks me is that Clare essentially did what many other grim-dark series like ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' have done - throw rape in for the sake of showing evil or darkness - and yet she gets praise for her supposedly "progressive" take on sexual violence. |
| 117 | ** Tropers/PrismaticVoid: I always found the books to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure, but my most hated moment comes from the very end of the series - at the last moment, Jonathan is purified of all demon blood by the heavenly fire, and he suddenly becomes a perfect NiceGuy in the last few moments before he passes away. The early parts of the series spent a lot of time talking about Downworlders and how they aren't evil for having demon blood, and that evil is the result of your actions, not the circumstances of your birth. Then at the ver end, all of this just ends up forgotten, and Jonathan is evil for no reason beyond his demonic blood. It wasn't his upbringing that lead him down a dark path, it was just the fact that he was born evil. |
| 118 | * Tropers/MelancholyUtopia: As much as I love ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' for its epic tale and classy story-telling, and am a big defender of Tolkien when somebody criticizes it, there's one moment even I don't like, and it's Gandalf's death and resurrection, for the same reasons I spited Pell's survival in ''Manga/OnePiece''. It was meant to be a HeroicSacrifice for the heroes, that he gave his life so they could survive the cave... only demeaning it by having him come back even stronger (specifically "Gandalf the White"). Just... what was the point? There was no reason for him to stay alive either, he's done his part in the quest of destroying the ring by providing guidance to Frodo. There's nothing more for him to do, he might as well stay dead. As much as I admire Tolkien for his years of planning the story and his old style of writing, this moment goes to show he is as prone to flaws as anyone else. |
| 119 | ** cricri3007: The "No man can beat me" "I'm a woman" scene. A moment of awesome for Eowyn? Yes. But ever since I read it for the first time, I've always felt it was... weak, an AssPull or something. In my mind, it'd have make much more sense if the one to kill him was a dwarf, an elf or even a Hobbit. |
| 120 | * Tropers/{{Tiggerific}}: For Tolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', something that's always bothered me about this book is the second and third kinslaying. You'd think that after the first, the elves would know better than to keep the Silmarils from the sons of Feanor, but no, it takes two more kinslayings for them to realize that getting in between the sons and their shining gems is a bad idea. Seriously, why didn't the elves just hand them over instead of risking countless lives? I've heard some excuses, but they don't really make sense. With Dior, he didn't hand it over because it meant a lot to his family (in that it was the jewel that his parents stole from Morgoth) but put it this way: if people you knew were dangerous demanded a family heirloom or they'd murder your entire family, you'd do the smart thing and hand it over, wouldn't you? Instead, Dior loses his life and his entire family (except his daughter Elwing) loses their lives, along with a good chunk of the populace of Doriath. (Added to that, the Kingdom were already aware of the first kinslaying, so they knew that the sons of Feanor would kill their own kind to get the Silmarils back). The fact that this happens adds an extra amount of stupid to the third kinslaying, because the Havens of Sirion were filled with many survivors from various conflicts - including the survivors from Doriath, who should definitely know by now the colossal stupidity of keeping these darn things away from Feanor's sons. And the person who actually ''had'' the jewel was Elwing, who lost her entire family in the sacking. The excuse here is that the Silmaril gave hope to the people of Sirion and they didn't want to lose it - only to lose it anyway when a good number of the people there are killed. The ''only'' explanation that makes sense is that the Silmarils caused a similar affect to gold sickness in dwarves, but still, you'd think at least one person would see reason and realize that the lives of everyone around them are worth more than a single pretty jewel. For me, it was two DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot moments for the price of one. |
| 121 | ** CodaFett: Speaking of the Havens of Sirion, something that really messed up the story for me is the ultimate fate of Tuor and Idril, who left their people to sail into the West not long after Gondolin fell. That strikes me as extremely irresponsible and selfish. You're the two experienced Highborn rulers of this refuge colony made up everyone not yet enslaved or killed, but you leave all your subjects and your children behind...for what? It wasn't even implied that they were going to ask for help like Earendil would later do, they just peaced out. The story then goes on to present this as noble and beautiful, but to me it sounds like cowardice. |
| 122 | * Tropers/PugBuddies: For the most part, I enjoyed the ''Literature/WelcomeToNightVale'' novel tie-in with the podcast. However, I lost nearly all sympathy for both protagonists at their final confrontation with [[spoiler: the Man in the Tan Jacket. Maybe it's because the podcast and most of the novel seemed to portray him in a more heroic light, but when he's finally revealed as a villain, I didn't quite buy it. Yes, luring three people to a strange town in hopes of making them stay to clean up someone else's mess is a {{Jerkass}} move, but as the book made abundantly clear, his options were limited. The real Dethroner, though, was when Diane said, without a hint of irony, "Maybe if you'd been a better mayor, none of this would have happened." Low blow, Diane. The Man would've been well within bounds to counter with, "And if you'd been a better girlfriend, maybe Troy wouldn't have left." That is the depth to which she sank, blaming the victim for a disaster he didn't cause and was not prepared for. I thought it couldn't get any worse, but when Jackie and Josh joined Diane in calling the Man names, I was proven wrong.]] |
| 123 | * {{Tropers/esq263}}: Literature/LeftBehind. One DMOS was in ''Kingdom Come'', when Kenny Bruce's entire family and girlfriend conclude that he has turned traitor and joined The Other Light. The problem: It was known beforehand that Kenny Bruce intended to infiltrate The Other Light to spy on them, and the person who revealed his so-called "defection" was a known liar and traitor. This would be like if your son, brother, or significant other was a cop and you knew he did undercover work; then a guy who conned you out of a sum of money approached you with a transcript of a web chat or text in which said cop is soliciting someone for drugs or child porn; and, despite your knowing the cop for years and being in a familial or romantic relationship with him, you immediately believe the con man and conclude that the cop really is dirty. This portion of the book appears to have been put in solely to add some conflict to the story. It is completely lacking in verisimilitude, as I can't imagine anyone with any sense, who really knows and loves someone, jumping to such a conclusion with such flimsy evidence. |
| 124 | * ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': |
| 125 | ** {{Tropers/KrazyTVWatcher}}: Don't get me wrong. ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' is my favorite book series, [[DarthWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck but there are some moments that even fans can't stomach.]] One moment from this book series that really bugged me in particular was from the second book ''Rodrick Rules''. On page 104, Greg told his readers about the time he told on his brother Rodrick for swearing at him, [[DisproportionateRetribution which ended with Greg getting a bar of soap to his mouth]]. Rodrick [[KarmaHoudini should've been punished as well]], [[BigBrotherBully because he knew better than to spout foul language in front of his little brother]]. |
| 126 | ** {{Tropers/Vampireandthen}}: I used to enjoy this series, but as time wore on and I kept reading the later books, Greg as a character just started to stop appealing to me. The books can still be funny and enjoyable at times, but at the same time, the way the author can exaggerate situations was also an issue for me, because I really began to lose the suspension of disbelief. For the defining moment in all this, though? Hmm.......I would say the pig. Sweet Jesus, the pig. Sure, maybe you could have me believe the Heffley family now has a pet pig, I could buy that....but when that pig [[AnthropomorphicShift starts wearing pants and walking around on two legs, can work a TV remote, and who knows what else]]? My suspension of disbelief broke right there. As for Greg, the moment I started to turn against him as a character would probably be when....holy crap, I really can't think of one. There are just so many. His selfish attitude and his belief he will be famous just got on my nerves. Heck, his status as a ButtMonkey got on my nerves. The way he treats Rowley, for example, gets on my nerves. I would really have to think to find a single moment. |
| 127 | ** Tropers/SpaceHunterDrakeRedcrest: I really love this series, but ''The Getaway'' was easily the worst in the series, even worse than the already miserable ''The Long Haul''. Easily the worst scene in the book is when Greg finds a spider in the hotel bathroom. He explains that due to a horrifying experience with a spider egg as a child, he's [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes deadly afraid of spiders]]. Fair enough, I'm also arachnophobic. But what happens to the spider just seems like unnecessary animal cruelty. First, Greg drops a glass on it to trap it. Then when it gets free, Greg tries trapping it again with a food cover, [[AnArmAndALeg cutting off one of its legs]]. The spider then starts crazily running around on the ground, because, you know, ''it lost its leg.'' It then crawls over to the toilet seat, so Greg slams the lid shut and the room service guy ([[FridgeLogic who somehow got in the room, in spite of an earlier conversation]]) flushes the spider down the toilet. [[spoiler: Except it doesn't, because Greg's dad finds it and hits it with the bathrobe.]] This isn't BlackComedyAnimalCruelty; this is just animal cruelty. The fact it's a spider doesn't make it better; even if I'm afraid of them, they're still living creatures. It's sad when [[TooBleakStoppedCaring even arachnids don't survive this story unscathed]]. |
| 128 | ** Tropers/{{Grotadmorv}}: I think Greg went through steady CharacterDevelopment from books 5-8. However, this seems to have been reverted, especially since ''The Getaway'' (book 12): case in point, ''Wrecking Ball'' (book 14). In ''Hard Luck'' (book 8), Greg finds his Meemaw's ring and hides it in his closet because he fears that his other family members will sell it for money. In ''Double Down'' (book 11), Greg recalls his deceased Nana and hopes that she's happy in Heaven and says that she deserves to relax because she had a hard job as a waitress. He even regrets having not been nice to her and says that he understands if Nana doesn't like him. In ''Wrecking Ball'' (book 14), he celebrates the death of his aunt and instantly thinks about what he wants to use his inheritance money for. When his mother tells him that nobody in the family except her was nice to the aunt, Greg doesn't care. Greg went through CharacterDerailment, particularly in ''Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid'' (a spin-off), but this scene confirmed it. |
| 129 | ** Tropers/MathsAngelicVersion: I think ''DOAWK'' has been suffering from {{Sequelitis}} for a while, but it was the ending of ''Wrecking Ball'' (book 14) that made me give up on the series. The Heffleys are about to move, which could have led to some fresh and interesting plots... and then, in one of the last pages, the idiot who was supposed to move the hot tub backs up and hits a couch, which causes the hot tub to fall and severely damage the house. As a result, the buyers back out and the Heffleys are stuck with their ruined house (and apparently no compensation, even though the destruction wasn't their fault). Basically, Jeff Kinney set up an interesting new direction for the series,[[note]]or at least a great SequelHook -- I would've been fine with the Heffleys moving back after a book or two in the new location[[/note]] and then threw it out at the last minute with a stupid and frustrating DiabolusExMachina because StatusQuoIsGod and nothing can ever go right for the Heffleys.[[note]]Apparently the next book does [[ThrowTheDogABone throw them a bone]], but at this point it's too little, too late.[[/note]] |
| 130 | * {{Tropers/Pgj1997}}: [=PrimaGames=] has had their fair share of blunders when it comes to their strategy guides, but there's one incident I'll never forgive them for. See, when the NES Classic Edition launched, they released a special strategy guide called "Playing with Power: Nintendo NES Classics". The book is a massive throwback to gaming strategy guides at the time, with the page layouts drawing clear inspiration from ''Magazine/NintendoPower''. However, there's one major flaw with this book, and I don't know how anyone didn't manage to catch it. In the section for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' there's a section that reads, quote "Here is a complete map of the overworld. It is made up of 128 screens. You have to climb mountains, brave monster-filled forests, cross rivers and lakes, and even a haunted cemetary in order to find all the Triforce fragments and save Zelda". [[http://ift.tt/2fJZsNL The map isn't there.]] And it certainly doesn't help that [[GuideDangIt the original Zelda is extremely cryptic unless you know it by heart]]. Oh, but it gets worse. Instead of trying to fix the issue, Prima gave everyone who complained about it [[https://www.primagames.com/games/nintendo-nes-classics/pages/legend-zelda-overworld-map this PDF link]] to what was supposed to be there. And, to my knowledge, they never made a second edition of the book that actually fixes this. We didn't pay 20 bucks to print shit. If we wanted to use the internet for this, we would've done so in the first place (hell, there's [[http://www.nesmaps.com/maps/Zelda/ZeldaOverworldQ1.html one map in particular]] that's much more useful than this). Would it have killed you to proof-read the book at least once before it was rushed out? |
| 131 | * Tropers/793ws: I happen to be a fan of the Literature/MrMen books. But even though i am a fan, it doesn't mean that the series is immune to screw ups every now and again, like with Little Miss Naughty and Little Miss Bossy's behavior in "Little Miss Shy And The Fairy Godmother," where they both [[KickTheDog cruelly taunt]] [[TheWoobie Little Miss Shy]] for blushing and [[TearJerker/MrMen make her cry.]] I normally find Little Miss Naughty and Little Miss Bossy's {{Jerkass}} behavior funny, but what they did was cruel even for them and what cemented it was the fact that went [[KarmaHoudini unpunished]] for what they did. It makes me wish i could climb into the pages and give Little Miss Shy a hug. |
| 132 | * Tropers/{{Nightfurywitch}}: I don’t even remember its name, having blocked it from my memory, but one Mark Twain story gets under my skin in the worst way. To sum it up: kid gets abused over small things, grows up, gets married, beats his wife, before murdering her and their kid with an axe, [[EsotericHappyEnding with no comeuppance. And this is portrayed as]] [[BlackComedy a comedy story.]] And the reason he gets away with all of this? [[FlatWhat Because he doesn’t have the same name as someone in a Sunday School story.]] I get that it was a different time, but this isn’t funny at all. When it starts you feel bad for the kid, but when he grows up, you just want karma to come and blow his head off, but nope. [[KarmaHoudini He gets off scot-free for axe murder.]] And he wasn’t even likeable enough that you wouldn’t want him to go to jail! Basically, while Mark Twain may have made some iconic and well loved stories, this one should be forgotten for good. |
| 133 | * Tropers/MewLettuceRush I am deleting my previous entry in order to add a book that pissed me off even more. Not only is it one of the worst plot devices I have seen in any book, but it permanently put me off any of the authors other books (with the possible exception of the Crank and Burned series) The book Impulse I generally liked although I hated the ending. Its sequel, Perfect, I at first thought was better than the first book, however once Cara met Dani [[NoBisexuals I immediately had a bad feeling]] about how the plot was going to go. I ended up looking ahead slightly. Not only was I right, but it was far worse than I thought it would be [[spoiler: her boyfriend Sean [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharecter who had such potential as a character that reflected the struggles of athletes both professional and otherwise]] into a rapist and a stalker.]] [[DesignatedHero Yet he is still supposed]] [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic to be someone with sympathize with over mental illness.]] Yes, you read that right. Not only that but Cara is now [[UnfortunateImplications a lesbian out of nowhere because apparently bisexuals don't exist.]] I dropped the book right afterwords. |
| 134 | * {{Tropers/wimpykidfan37}}: This troper is a loyal fan of Creator/DrSeuss, but I am here to talk about "The Glunk that Got Thunk". It is the final story in the book "I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today and Other Stories". In it, a little girl is tired of thinking of "fuzzy things" after dinner, so she decides to thinks of other things. Unfortunately, she finds herself thinking about a terrible monster called a Glunk. The story is great until the climax, when the girl tries to "un-think" the Glunk, but needs her brother's help to do so. The girl learns her lesson and still only thinks about "fuzzy things" to this day. The lesson is that girls can only think about "fuzzy things", which is just sexist. Adding to the sexism is that it was her brother, not her sister, who helped her. Worst of all, this book completely reverses everything the good doctor said about imagination in his much better known books like "On Beyond Zebra" and "Oh the Thinks you can Think". |
| 135 | ** Tropers/{{Unicorndance}}: The Dr. Seuss book that I hate the most has ''got'' to be ''Literature/ThidwickTheBigHeartedMoose''. True, the other animals were in the wrong for not listening to Thidwick and freeloading, but it claims that they deserved being shot to death and stuffed, which they absolutely didn't. |
| 136 | * Tropers/{{willowoftheriver}}: ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' is a great book, but towards the end, when Mina is very clearly being fed on by Dracula ... no one notices until Renfield out and out tells them. Which would be fine, except it's directly on the heels of Lucy dying a long, slow death from the exact same cause, which van Helsing, Seward, Arthur, and Quincey were all there for, and the Harkers have read a detailed account of. Everyone just writes the symptoms off as the current events just being 'too much' for a woman to handle, and worst of all, Mina sees Dracula come into her room in the form of mist that begins transforming into a man, but writes it off as a dream. |
| 137 | * Tropers/TwilightPegasus: I'm probably going to commit blasphemy here in the eyes of fans of this book, and I don't want to begrudge anyone who likes it. If you like it, cool! More power to you! But I can't bring myself to sugarcoat this so I'm going to come out and say it: I absolutely ''loathe'' ''Literature/TheHateUGive''. I think it's a poorly written, overly melodramatic, {{Anvilicious}} AuthorTract that [[DontShootTheMessage completely botched its intended message of advocating against senseless violence towards people of color by people in positions of authority]], and many parts of it completely reek of racism. What do I mean? Well, since I can't put the entire book on here, I'll mention two specific moments that made me hate this book with the fury of a thousand suns. At one point in the story, the main character, Starr, introduces her white boyfriend Chris to a new kid on the block, [=DeVante=]. At first, the two don't quite hit it off, but after a while, they do become friends. Normally, this would be considered very sweet and heartwarming. But how does Angie Thomas write them officially becoming friends? With this passage: "According to [=DeVante=], Chris's massive video game collection makes up for this whiteness." What?! So, apparently, according to this book, in order for a black person and a white person to be friends, the white person needs to have something to "make up" for having white skin, as if being born a certain skin color is a crime! The hell?! How is someone's skin color something that needs to be made up for?! Didn't Martin Luther King say that people shouldn't be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character? Saying someone needs to have something to make up for being born a certain skin color is like saying an autistic person needs to be an IdiotSavant in order to make up for being autistic, and we all know the UnfortunateImplications behind that line of thinking! As if that wasn't bad enough, in a later chapter, Chris and Starr have a talk in the midst of a riot, and Chris...apologizes to her on behalf of all whites for being white. [[SincerityMode No, I'm not making this up.]] I read the whole thing cover to cover, and as soon as I read that line, I never wanted to throw a book at a wall so hard. Being born a certain skin color is NOT something one should apologize for! You can't control how you were born, and those two scenes, along with many other moments that plague the entire book, make me feel like Angie Thomas is trying to say that [[DoubleStandard it's not okay to be racist towards people of color but it's totes okay to be racist towards whites]] [[UnfortunateImplications because they're all evulz!]] No. Every kind of racism towards any person of any skin color is wrong, no matter what kind of person they are and no matter who started it first, and it's especially wrong to try and promote such a disgusting double standard. It's for this very reason that I can't bring myself to like this book, and I can't fathom how it became so popular. This is not the standard to which we should hold literature in any way whatsoever. Seriously, when two episodes of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' and ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}''[[note]]The episode in question is called "Good Cop," which aired a year before the Trayvon Martin murder.[[/note]] manage to tackle the same issue in a more engaging, sensitive, nuanced way, without indulging in bad stereotypes and botching their intended messages, you've got serious problems. |
| 138 | ** Tropers/KrazyTVWatcher: I liked watching ''The Hate U Give'', but even then, there are moments that have their fair share of flaws, especially when you pointed out that Chris Bryant, Starr's boyfriend, ''[[BigLippedAlligatorMoment outright apologizes sometime near the end of the story just for being white]]''. That's like apologizing for something you didn't do, and having a collection of something ''and'' being a different skin color is '''not''' how people become friends. While the book itself was decent in its own rights, moments like this are enough to make me shake my head. |
| 139 | * Tropers/{{Arxane}}: ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' is a fantastic book with amazing detail, wonderful characters, and a brilliant story that’s engaging from beginning to end. However, there was one moment that stained an otherwise marvelous book for me. Deep into the book, Aliena is still married to her awful husband and is not allowed an annulment, preventing her from marrying her true love Jack. Unable to be together openly in a strict conservative Christian society, they agree to meet in secret every so often to maintain some form of intimacy. This seems to work for a few years, but then Aliena suddenly announces to him that she can’t live like this any longer and will seek to move away from him, taking their kids with her. This announcement came out of nowhere with no buildup, and Aliena sounds so sure of herself without any hesitation or conflict. If she had shown even just a little bit of genuine heartbreak at the idea of leaving Jack, it would’ve showed how difficult the decision was, but instead, she was firm and resolute with no room for argument. What makes this all even worse is that her awful husband eventually dies, freeing her to marry Jack, and she does...without any contrition for her firm decision to leave not too long ago. She received no rebuke, no emotional conflict, and it aggravated me to see such a potentially powerful moment in the story be wasted like this. |
| 140 | * Tropers/CapriciousSalmon: I've decided to change my DMOS from the agnostic bashing in "Life of Pi" to ''Literature/TheTestaments'' by Margaret Atwood. Now, "The Handmaid's Tale" is one of my favorite books and despite a few problems I take with the show, I think it's a great franchise. There's a lot more stories you could tell in the world of Gilead. But an issue I take with the sequel is how it's so painfully clear Margaret Atwood wrote TT to cash in on the success of the show and make her own canonical ending, and how it sheds the ambiguity of the original novel just to do it. The events of the book after Nichole learns her true identity feel like something out of a Hunger Games ripoff. My biggest DMOS is the fact that Agnes and Nichole learn they're sisters, they make it to Canada, and then they proceed to reunite with their mother, who embraces them and says "my babies!" This is something that would never happen in the original novel! In the first book, everything is ambiguous and Offred is unreliable because in context, she's done nothing but sit in a room all day waiting to be ritualistically raped once a month, and has no access to writing material or anything enjoyable to do. Nothing truly gets answered because that's the point. We don't even find out if Offred got out, they just imply it, so it's easy to make your own ending. In the second novel? Yep, Offred got out, and she's a rebel, because Mayday is 100% real! Yep, Daisy is Baby Nichole, we're not gonna let you figure that out for yourself! I feel like this would fit better in the show itself, but not as a sequel to the novel it's based on. |
| 141 | * Tropers/BrendanRizzo: While I like ''Literature/AlouettesSong'' and think it’s a worthy adaptation of E. E. Smith’s [[Literature/SkylarkSeries original series]], one thing I just cannot stand is the pointlessness of Martin’s homosexuality. He says he’s gay at the start, but shows no evidence that he is attracted to other men. This wouldn’t be too bad, were it not for him hooking up with—and marrying—the very female Margaret in the ending, after the conflict has been resolved. Yes, they were married in the original, but in that case, what is the point of changing Martin’s sexuality in the first place, if not for tokenism? And if the author wanted him to be attracted to both men and women, then why not make him bisexual? The [[IfItsYouItsOkay excuse the character gives]] is a gigantic copout, and the whole thing is a great example of how not to include LGBT representation. |
| 142 | * Tropers/MightyMewtron: I couldn't finish the novel adaptation of ''Literature/DearEvanHansen'' because of how they {{retcon}}ned Zoe and Connor's relationship. In the musical, Zoe describes how she can't grieve her brother because of how badly he verbally abused her, and is very reluctant to hear that he had any secret good qualities. It's a unique and sadly under-explored take on grief. The book, in an apparent effort to make Connor more sympathetic, plays this as Zoe exaggerating her memories of Connor, with Connor himself clarifying that this didn't actually happen. And thus an incredibly interesting aspect of the Murphy family dynamic is removed, as if the writers were too afraid to show an abuser's perspective. |
| 143 | * Tropers/{{falcon2484}}: As a kid, I was addicted to movie tie-in novelizations (the best of which may have been Alan Dean Foster’s adaptation of ''Film/TheLastStarfighter''). One that I never got my hands on until recently was William Kotzwinkle’s novelization of ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. And once I got my hands on it, I threw it away less than 100 pages in. Never mind all the superfluous, tedious garbage about the alien’s every single thought on being accidentally left behind by his shipmates; my breaking point was the passage where Kotzwinkle describes Mary’s feelings about her sons, Elliott and Michael. He comes very close to saying outright that Mary hates them and wishes they were either dead or had never been born. Saying I rolled my eyes at this would be a huge understatement; I was disgusted. To crib a line from Dorothy Parker: “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” |
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