Is My Hero Being Too Violent?

In my current design, The Hero, or Anti-Hero, is a Kung-Fu Wizard that hunts Body Horror inflicted monsters or Eldritch Abominations and collects the demons' souls which possess people's bodies and turn them into monster.

In the first chapter alone, while he fights two of the monsters, he carves a rune in one's chest and set it on fire, while for the second one, shoving his hand in the monster's stomach, clawing all the way to the heart, pulls it out, and crushes it, and decapitating it for the good measure. As the story goes on, he also fights cannibalistic vampires, puppets made of live human, etc.

And he's a sixteen year old Ordinary High-School Student living in a modern (probably around 2010) city.

For your information, he has been trained to become a hunter when he was nine, much to his parents' displeasure (they had no choice) and actually started his work at 15.

Partially as a result, other because of his own fascination in stoicism due to his grandfather, he becomes an utterly stoic, unresponsive demon hunter. He also doesn't give a damn about gettin body blown up or subjected into Body Horror, which happens A LOT, as long as he could get it healed.

Would it possible for him to go through all that without breaking his sanity?

Also, do you think the setting sounds a bit dark?

Hard to say. Depends on how much of that is actually necessary for killing these beasties, and how much is just him being a sadistic little git.

It would probably leave scars, but if he can rationalise it as being part of the job, and has no reason to see his foes as people, he could probably pull through. He won't exactly be a normal kid, though, that's for sure.

edited 17th Mar '11 11:34:41 AM by Iaculus

It also matters what everyone else is doing, comparatively.

I find it a little unbelievable that he can even do that, unless monsters are made of paper. I haven't seen any extensively trained adults stick their hands in someone's stomach.

Kung-Fu Wizard + Rule of Cool + Charles Atlas Superpower I imagine.

edited 17th Mar '11 9:30:36 AM by Archereon

I don't find him as violent as one of my own characters, who will shoot someone if they've taken her favorite seat in a restaurant. Seriously! If someone is taking too long in a check-out she'll pull out her shotgun and blow them away. The only reason she hasn't been arrested is because everyone who has tried to take her into custody was killed.

Oh, and she also has a bad habit of shooting her guns off in random directions when frustrated.

edited 17th Mar '11 10:51:32 AM by SandJosieph

Was that meant to reassure him, Sand?

Kinda. He was asking if his character was too violent, so I gave him a comparison to another violent character.

I don't think it is wise to compare characters and the standards you write them with to unpublished (or flat out unwritten) works.

Yeah, I was just noting that shooting someone for taking your seat is a little way beyond 'too violent'...

"The only reason she hasn't been arrested is because everyone who has tried to take her into custody was killed."

Yeah, right. Heard about the Mad Trapper? A cop-killer going uncaught due to sheer violence seriously breaks Willing Suspension of Disbelief for me.

Well, the cops haven't actually gone after her as they are smart enough not to sacrifice one of their own, so they send disposable bounty hunters to try and take her. So no cops are actually killed.

To answer your question, OP... Well, it all depends.

What kind of tone do you want for your series? The target audience and/or target mood of your series would help you set the boundaries for what's 'too dark' or 'too violent'. And there's an element of personal taste. I'm all for senseless fictional violence, but someone else might be squicked by ripping out demon-hearts.

About the sanity thing: Maybe that could be another reason behind his stoicism? Either to stop himself from dwelling on what he does, or as a result of some kind of desensitization?

Otherwise, it's all on the character. As his writer, how much do you think he can handle? And do you want him to come off as crazy and ill-adjusted to your audience?

Wow... way to derail the thread Sand Josieph.

In response to the OP, correct me If I'm wrong but this seems to be done in anime/manga style where such ridiculous violence isn't out of place. Right? If that's the case then it would be alright.

So target audience and format is important.

@ Melloncollie, the Bystanders (for now, can't think of any name) ARE Made of Iron and like I said, The Hero is an Kung-Fu Wizard and he wears specially-augmented glove, which can also turn into nasty claws, for his job. Unlike many shonen protagonists, he doesn't have a whole lot of raw magical energy so he can use his magic only two or three times per fight. Oh, and yes, he does have Charles Atlas Superpower, which is common in my verse.

Well, she better not do that kind of stuff in my Lancer's favorite restaurant. If you make a mess in his restaurant, you die or get maimed. Although in other circumstances, I think they might make a good friend, is she happened to be a Blood Knight too?

About the setting, it's pretty much a dark Shōnen. What would distinguish it with Seinen? I mainly got the inspiration from Bleach and Kara No Kyoukai and seriously, if only I knew how to draw rather than write, I would have been a mangaka instead of a writer, but seeing how I have more talent at the latter, guess it's not the case.

I think I have posted the wrong question here: I was thinking and I wasn't interested in whether if my hero is too violent or not my question is...

Is My Hero Going Through Too Much For An Ordinary High-School Student? I'm more concerned about my character's sanity and how people react to him.

His parents are, at least partially, aware of what he does and worry about him, especially his mom, who's afraid if he becomes completely desensitized to killing.

When it comes to sentient beings, though, he prefers to do things as peacefully as possible and will give them a chance of redemption and mostly would hand them over to the authority.

edited 17th Mar '11 3:25:02 PM by dRoy

Well, is the amount of stuff he goes through normal for a teenager of his setting?

And, yes, I do think he might break at some point, perhaps in a Not So Stoic moment where he realizes that there's more to life than killing shit.

The teenagers in my verse..ever watched a Slice of Life series? The setting is like that, except it's prone to demons from another world possessing people's body and grotesquely mutating them. Seriously though, if you just saw my Power Trio, all really f**ked up in a way, in SOL series, you would really see them as purely Ordinary High-School Student, if not eccentric.

Oh, and he comes to admit that he does enjoy killing shit, the point at which he admits that he has an issue.

edited 17th Mar '11 3:29:44 PM by dRoy

You can say the word fuck. It is ok.

Trigger can definitely be something of a Blood Knight, though she's far more Trigger-Happy and just like shooting things.

edited 17th Mar '11 3:31:28 PM by SandJosieph

It's out of my own aversion. Call me pretentious if you will.

Then don't say f**k, because it carries the exact same meaning and the exact same intentions. What's the difference? If you don't wanna curse, I can live with that, but what did the letters "uc" ever do to you?

Meh, just a choice in vocab, really. I dunno, I just don't like using the full form and I rarely used the censored form either. Not relevant here, is it?

It's not, but cursing is an art form in and of itself, and if you wanna be a writer, you should probably tackle how you plan on going about that.

Probably. But come on, do I have to care about it in the internet forums too? Besides, characters in my story don't curse out a whole lot anyways.

Right, while the two stars aren't needed you don't have rag him about it, just pretend that it actually says fuck.

On a related note, sometimes I censor my swearing in real life so it sounds like "Fkk", it's kinda funny.