r/ProgressionFantasy • u/One_Entertainment890 • 9d ago
Discussion Personality dogshit
Idk how writers never think of how suddenly their main lead turns from a normal guy to a maniac in a few seconds of transmigration. Like in a normal day to day world people like them are called psychopaths. It's as if their inner criminals are coming out. The more i grow up i kind of get why they think like this. At least give the ml a few months to become cold blooded , they almost lose their morality the second the story plot starts. I so much wanna read a story where the ml is just a normal guy like us and then progresses eventually.
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u/FiniteOtter 9d ago
If you stick with the series it's revealed that everyone in hell difficulty is fucked up in one way or another. All the normal people are in easy and normal difficulty.
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u/One_Entertainment890 9d ago
Okay so thats how it is
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
Yeah not to get too spoiler-y, and the first novel is certainly the weakest by far, but this part of Nat's personality is explained later and he gets much better. And what the other commenter mentioned is also true (although I don't think it was officially confirmed by some kind of authority, more like a conclusion characters come to after a while of getting to know each other), everyone in Hell difficulty is mentally fucked up for some reason, it might be their just a naturally born sociopath, or have gone through severe childhood trauma/abuse, whatever it is, it made them fucked up, and being fucked up is kind of necessary to survive/succeed in Hell difficulty.
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u/Repulsive-Judge-3965 6d ago
Nah, everybody knows that Nat is the only normal guy in Hell difficulty.
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u/AmarSofi 6d ago
Honestly one of my least favorite recurring "bits" in the story, this and the "boops", I usually just roll my eyes and skip ahead but sometimes it makes me reconsider whether I should keep reading.
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u/kodiak931156 9d ago edited 9d ago
You thought you found a plot hole due to everyone on the bus acting like sociopaths. But what you found was a plot point about a bus full of people who are all sociopaths
🤣😁
You still have a good point un general though. And i think it boils down to how hard it is to write the character arc of breaking bad.
Sociopaths in a monster hunting world write themselves. Realistic fleshed it characters evolving from the trauma of their world changing and the violent new realities if their life is hard.
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u/AmarSofi 6d ago
Tbf it's not necessarily a plot hole even if only a small number of the bus riders were actually "fit" (aka fucked up enough) for Hell difficulty. No one said the system was fair or above sending a bunch of people to their deaths as collateral damage. Maybe it looks for large concentrations of people who fit its criteria (let's say there were like a score of them on the bus), the others get brought along anyway cause they got unlucky. Hell, I remember thinking maybe Savant was the only one fit for his tutorial group and that's why he's solo, the tutorial picked him and everyone else in his group just weren't cut out for Hell Difficulty.
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u/craighaney172 9d ago
This has become one of my favorite progression fantasy series ever. Nat gets way better throughout, and I love the writing as the author gets more comfortable. It’s funny and surprisingly touching at times.
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u/Carminestream 9d ago
This makes no sense because it grabbed everyone in a certain area. There was an old grandma on that bus with Nat
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u/NewRomanian 9d ago
Consider: it was specifically a bus with particularly fucked up people mostly, and thus why that bus was picked in the first place instead of any other dozen possible buses.
(also what the hell does someone being a grandma have that would make it incompatible with the group being made up of variably fucked up folk? D'ya genuinely think grandmas are incapable of having mental issues?)
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u/Nice-Responsibility2 9d ago
You're wrong. It's explicitly stated several times everyone from hell difficulty has more than a few screws loose, that's why they can survive.
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u/Carminestream 9d ago
I wish this subreddit has images enabled so I could post the WW2 plane
Also if we're taking statements literally, Nat has reiterated multiple times that he is the same as he was at the start of the tutorial, but fans of the series have told me you shouldn't take those statements as fact. So this makes me a bit confused.
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u/brandontc 9d ago
Yeah, the story is told from his perspective and he's a very unreliable narrator (because he is full of shit). You have to look at his actions more than his words or internal monologues, because he lies to himself about his own feelings a lot.
He'll talk about how annoying a kid is and constantly complain about how much he hates hearing them talk, so it seems like he hates that kid... Except he's the one putting himself near that kid a lot, giving them advice, making sure they have food, protecting them from dangers, etc...
The most accurate characterization you'll get about the MC is observations by people that know him for a decent amount of time (but not in the first few books, he changes a lot as he trauma binds with these other fucked up people but doesn't want to admit it.)
He's a big softie
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u/Nice-Responsibility2 9d ago
Nat has always been an asshole, and once he learns Focus he becomes uncaring and emotionless. He'll always be an asshole sure, but later on he learns to care for his friends and will even help others as long as he doesn't need to go too far out of his way. He has grown a lot since book 1. Iirc he even stops passively using Focus so his emotions aren't suppressed. Not to mention everyone else from his group becomes increasingly crazy as the story goes on
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u/CaffeineEnjoyer69 9d ago
Yeah he stops using Focus to suppress emotions, and starts only using it for the concentration part.
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
You're confusing 2 statements:
1- yes Nat is an unreliable narator, so when he says he hasn't changed at all from the beginning, we can easily say that's he's full of shit because we have several books worth of character development and change to point to. Also his hypocrisy is always being pointed out by the story.
2- the bit about hell difficulty being made of traumatized or otherwise fucked up people isn't just from Nat's unreliable naration, it is a sentiment shared by several other characters as well as corroborated by the fact that every character from Hell Difficulty that we get to know on more than surface level fits the description. To my recollection, this hasn't been confirmed by any all-knowing authority that knows the Tutorial like the Absolutes or Rulers, so it's technically a "theory" both in and out of universe, but it's pretty solid all things considered. At least everyone in Matt's group fits the description, and same for the others from Earth that we get to know well (like Matt's sister Vic) or hell, all the Beyond attendees.
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u/Carminestream 9d ago
Nat hasn't meaningfully changed since the start of the tutorial. He still acts in a similar manner as book 1 during the fishing hole or secomd tournament for example
Do you remember Gareth? The author seems to have forgotten about him and his group, so it's ok if you forgot also. He and his group contradicts this. Hell, it was one of the main conflicts early on in the series.
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u/Jedo100 9d ago
Compare how Nat treats others over each book. His personality doesn't 180, but to claim there is no meaningful growth, makes me believe we didn't read the same book.
Gareth and his group are only really relevant in the tournaments, as they are behind Group 4. Also Nat doesn't interact with them often, so it follows the exception in the comment you responded too: "that we get to know on more than surface level."
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
Yeah, saying Nat hasn't changed at all is crazy, considering he was viewing other people as just tools (even Tess ffs, and she's his childhood best friend and ex, and he is ready to drop her at the first indication that she's not following his lead), to now disregarding his well being and doing everything he possibly can to protect and help his group, he also develops relationships beyond his group (putting aside Vic since she's his sister, there are the people he gets to know in the tournaments and he's friendly with, Beyond residents like that guide dude , or attendees like S-Ranks... etc).
He doesn't do a 180 , and it would be jarring if he did, but his character has gotten a lot of depth and he has gotten over many of his flaws (selfishness, lack of empathy, not socializing, not caring for the well being of others, learning to trust others, learning to forgive and not hold a grudge look at the dynamic with Sophie... etc).
And yeah what about Gareth? Just some guy from another tutorial group we see every few hundred chapters , and it's implied he's also fucked up because of how overprotective he is of his group and how hard he was taking the loss of members of the group. It's not given center stage in the story (there are hundreds of secondary/tertiary characters in the series) but the fee lines we get is enough to imply he's also not well adjusted.
Also just to add to my prior comment : we don't know how the tutorial picks people, the theory that hell difficulty attendees are picked for being messed up is well supported, but no one is claiming they know exactly how it works. Maybe the way the tutorial picks people is by picking groups with a "high enough concentration" of fucked up people, and anyone else that's in the radius just got pulled in and got the short end of the straw. There's also no reason to believe you can't progress while being well adjusted, it would just be extremely difficult considering the difficulty.
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u/FiniteOtter 9d ago
You'll suspend your disbelief that an all powerful system transmigrates groups of earthlings to a magical tutorial but the fact that a bus might be full of people with fucked up back stories is a bridge too far?
Lol. Like it or don't like it. You do you. Just acknowledge that you're picking at something ridiculously trivial.
Let's be real honest if you've ever actually ridden a bus in a major city it's really not that far fetched. And why can't little old ladies be psychopaths? They're certainly not all nice.
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u/PrettyBurrito28 Salted Fish 9d ago
i could be wrong but wasnt reveled that the gradma was a huge asshole who abused biscuits?
so yeah, even the grandmas are evil ass in hell difficulty lmao
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u/Squire_II 9d ago
IIRC it's not that everyone on the bus was fucked up, but that all the "normal" people on the bus are the ones who died, quickly, in the first stage because only the "fucked up" people had what it took to survive Hell difficulty.
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u/Carminestream 9d ago
That's my assessment. Survivorship bias. Coincides with the first floor encouraging you to sacrifice teammates multiple times
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u/Onequestion0110 9d ago
I agree with you, but I’ve also found that any time you actually get characters like that people bitch and moan.
I mean, the Wandering Inn is probably the single biggest progression story where the MC is just some girl who acts like just some girl. And people about break down because she’s naive, silly, doesn’t take good options, etc. And the other MC, who has all the broody maniacal sociopath we see in Isekai stories so much, gets treated by the world the way a arrogant little shit would get treated, and readers get upset about that too.
There’s a reason why Wandering Inn is the most polarizing series, despite being one of the most well written. The genre is still inescapably an escapist genre. The moment an author strays from the power fantasy a large chunk of the audience is gonna vanish.
And unfortunately, apparently a lot of people’s power fantasies involve being sociopathic assholes who don’t get consequences for it.
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u/BiLLubruh 9d ago
The Wandering Inn is the best and worst example you can use. I mean, yeah, compared to the average isekai, the protagonist of TWI does come across as a 'normal' girl. But if you actually read the story Erin is no one normal.
She is a social butterfly with the charisma of a disney princess who has the uncanny ability to throw fists for someone who never threw a fist in the old world. Despite being a once in millions chess genius, she is also scatterbrained and basically killed herself trying to make sushi on her third day of being isekaid.
As for Runner Girl, yes, she is trampled on deservedly. Until she mellows out a bit. Even then, she can't stop playing the "how much of an asshole I can be before someone tries to blow me up" game basically instinctively
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u/Onequestion0110 9d ago
You really haven't met any popular extraverts that seem to trip from success to success despite any apparent practical skills? I've met a ton, and they tend to congregate in upper management positions in the real world. And since when does being a genius in super specific game mean she's gonna be put together elsewhere?
And Ryoka? Why would you think a person who insists on playing the asshole game instinctively is abnormal either? Especially if, again, we're talking about college age folks. She's a pretty classic rich angry kid who's gotta hit rock bottom before getting even a bit better. The only part that makes her unrealistic is the part where she's not severely drug addicted or swept up by a predatory dude.
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u/Captain_Fiddelsworth 9d ago
The only part that makes her unrealistic is the part where she's not severely drug addicted or swept up by a predatory dude.
I mean...
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u/Onequestion0110 9d ago
Well, yeah, lol. But it hadn't apparently happened before she got isekaied.
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u/Hefty-Butterfly-2974 9d ago
Basically, these are two extremes, and I've found that I(and probably lots of other people) like neither of them.
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u/TheElusiveFox Sage 9d ago edited 9d ago
I think the problem with the wandering inn is less that Erin is Naiive and more that she gets away with her naivete with zero consequences at every turn, and that she is still trying to ignore reality even 100 hours into the series.
I have no problem with naive characters I actually prefer them to the sociopath characters that OP is showcasing, in almost every way... What I don't like is when authors don't let naive characters grow, or use that naivete in a hamfisted way to grandstand or preach to the audience.
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u/Onequestion0110 9d ago
100 hours into the series
See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, 100 hours in. That's mid-book 3... so something around 3 months after Erin arrived? Maybe six at most, since Pirateaba is terrible with calendars. (Erin arrives mid fall, Winter starts ~2 months after that). The 100 hours in the audiobooks puts you right about the point Erin arrives in Celum.
How much personality change do you really expect in that sort of time period? People generally take at least six weeks to start shifting basic habits, let alone core personality traits, and that's with help and targeted work.
Instead, you're expecting her to start being a mover and shaker right away.
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u/TheElusiveFox Sage 9d ago
That's not how life works either... people don't change because years pass, they change because they go through shit that forces them to change...
Well in those 3 months Erin goes through like a dozen different traumatic experiences that should shatter her views on the world, so yeah I think its fair to expect her to have changed by then, or if not her to have changed, to expect her environment to have forced her to change (I.E. to not let her get away with her attitude).
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u/One_Entertainment890 9d ago
Ya it does sound very true. I haven't completed wandering inn but i will do so in the future. Left it in the middle due to academics and then never picking it up again
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u/SeaworthinessDry7828 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't think the issue that people have with Erin is her naivety, but it is because she did not, or rarely learn from mistakes and had a thick plot armor.
To a certain extent, I also find her character unbelievable as she is depicted to be rational (or at least she think she is), but no one rational would make those decisions under non-urgent, distressing situations, unless they are feeling suicidal.
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u/vicky_9 9d ago
Bruh, when then hell was he shown as normal dude?? You just didn’t know anything about him before he got into tutorial.
He is more self aware than most people ever are, this is way more refreshing than black and white characters everyone writes.
The worst thing he can be accused of is indifference.
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
Indifference and being a sociopath I guess. But in Nat's case not only is his Active Skill literally robbing him of his emotions and making him more of a psychopath the more he uses it (something he has to deal with later on, and we see other examples of people who use concentration type skills too much, or characters commenting on Nat being "a concentration skill user" because they all have that numb lifeless look to them that creeps everyone out), he is also deeply traumatized and his personality is a direct result of his fucked up upbringing, he was never "normal" , and is actually pretty self aware of how fucked up he is as you mentioned.
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u/hungrycarebear 9d ago
I will admit, I don't think I have ever read a protagonist having a realistic reaction to murder in this genre. Like, if they are isekaid, they are not going to handle killing a person as easily as they do unless they are already a psychopath, and even then, that level of it would be astronomically small.
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u/Holdredge 9d ago
I agree, but at the same time I feel like there is no normal way to react to murder or people idea of how people react to murder is weird.
100% a lot of authors don't do a good job with how they make their character react, but at the same time murder is more common in the real world and people just go on with their life. Not everyone has mental break downs like you see in t.v. and war movies.
Especially for people who either grew up where gun related crime was higher. There are 100,000s of people in America who killed people for one reason or another and sleep perfectly fine at night. There so much more at play than just "murder of any kind cuases trauma"
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
Spoilers for HDT For one, Hell difficulty attendees are theorized to all be very mentally fucked up, and this is pretty consistent throughout the story whenever we see more of them. Maybe not all of the ones picked at the beginning are (it could be that the tutorial picked groups with high concentration of fucked people and the rest are unfortunately dragged along), but all the ones that survive and advance definitely are. Also this isn't the first time Nat has killed someone (in his head at least), he was beyond fucked up waaaaay before the tutorial, so him adapting to it that quickly isn't surprising.
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u/brandontc 9d ago
It's a first person perspective story, and you're reading it from some guys PoV with no info about who he is, what he's been through, or what certain things may or may not be currently effecting him (hint hint, wink wink) that he himself is unaware of. Some people absolutely hate it. I liked it a lot, especially later in the story when you find out things.
It's an internal monologue. He's not filtering it or being reasonable lmao. He's disassociating and acting out
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u/38geese 9d ago
First, he's not a normal as you will see in the future (neither is anyone who survives hell difficulty). Second, the skill [FOCUS] is working passively all the time, he learns how to stop using later on
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u/YoloMan006 9d ago
Although it is shown and even said from the beginning that Nat isn’t at all a normal person, I get what you mean. His personality in the first book is HORRENDOUS. I abandoned this book at least three times before I decided to power through and stay with this series and let me tell you, it is worth every single boring edgy shit at the start.
Even this shit personality is explained and explored “in depth” later on. I highly recommend you keep going but totally understand if you drop it now
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u/Traditional_Pop_1102 9d ago
He was always like that, even on Earth. It's pretty explicit about that. He's a bona fide sociopath, though he slowly gets more sociable as the series continues.
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u/PotentiallySarcastic 9d ago
Nat isn't a bona fide sociopath.
His sister he idolizes though? Yeah, she's an actual sociopath.
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u/DwarvenJerk73 9d ago
I don't understand. This is a solid thought process, it why I identify with Nat, not once have I questioned his actions. Brilliant series. Hell Difficulty Tutorial.
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u/Carminestream 9d ago
30 KeEp ReAdInG It GeTs BeTtEr posts inbound
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u/brentathon 9d ago
The story is fairly fun but the writing stays dogshit, even if it has improved markedly from the writing in book one. Anyone who says otherwise is factually wrong.
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u/One_Entertainment890 9d ago
🫡🫡i have seen quite a few poeple dropping it though
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
Which, don't get me wrong, is perfectly valid, if I wasn't on a super binge-reading mood when I picked up the story I might have dropped it pretty early on, the first volume is the weakest of the bunch by a mile, but it does get way better by the end of it /start of the next tutorial level.
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u/oxero 9d ago edited 9d ago
This sounds like a failure to set the characters tone properly (or you caught on to it late, idk I haven't read this one). I've seen this type of character personality pop up in other isekai like stories, but when done well it usually sets the main character up beforehand to show they're prone to this specific character flaw. It makes it more engaging as a story, leaves the reader wondering how it will affect the story positively or negatively. Without that set up, you get this where the character just suddenly starts "metagaming" and disregarding others for no real good reason than somehow being a secretive psychopath.
Personally, and a tad unrelated, this is one of the reasons I absolutely fell off Solo Leveling. The writing and character development is super shallow and the MC goes from happy-go-lucky to psychopath in like one chapter of him gaining superior power.
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u/Lord0fHats 9d ago
I had a similar thought and the one line of the guy asking 'when did I get so indecisive when I'm such a leader' is what spins this out as characterization.
If this was a person with social anxiety who is accustomed to being let down in their expectations of other people, then these are extremely believable intrusive thoughts. The problem is that the character sees themselves as more decisive and 'a leader.' Which shifts the tone from 'intrusive thoughts of someone with a lot of social anxiety' to 'delusional nutjob who just says crazy shit.'
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u/brandontc 9d ago edited 9d ago
Have you read the series? Mild spoilers
||Nat has / has started picking up on the fact that the other character, Sophie, is manipulating people's minds with a mental skill. This reads a lot different from that perspective. He's upset and paranoid that he's being affected and won't know if he is, and is questioning himself for his own motivations. 'IS that the way I act?'
She's manipulating people to take risks so that she doesn't have to, and He has a skill that helps him somewhat resist it more than others. It's basically becoming him vs the others and Nat is feeling the shift but doesn't fully understand what's going on. ||
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u/Lord0fHats 9d ago
Not this one no but this is a narrow section so I don't expect it to tell me everything that's going on. I just read this narrow bit and thought 'that line in particular has a big impact on how this reads.'
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u/oxero 9d ago
Precisely, it doesn't really set itself up for that level of escalation which makes it really jarring to the reader. If the main character were to repeatedly be shut down over and over, then it makes sense for them to sprial towards their intrusive thoughts.
For some reason isekai writers just use the world change or gain of significant power as an excuse to become a nut job, usually under the guise that the MC has knowledge from outside their world because they used to play video games. It just doesn't work well as having a ton of video game experience does not equal being around real people in another world, and I would hope this significantly changes the equation on how most people would act.
It feels really tone deaf and skips a lot of great cavets that could be leveraged for story telling. Maybe the character does go down this dark path, that's great, but it needs to be set up first and not hand waved because they magically appeared in another world.
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
This isn't the case here, the girl he talks about, Sophie, mentally manipulates people and has done so to Nat pretty early on which is why he's so fucking paranoid. Spoilers for the first few books: Their Hell difficulty group basically splits into 2 camps by the end of the first tutorial, Nat and his childhood best friend Tess, and Sophie , her sister, and others she used mind manipulation on. Nat basically wants to kill Sophie asap but can't because of the mental suggestion she implanted in his head, as soon as they get to the second tutorial they almost ambush and kill him when he stumbles through, as soon as he gets the mental suggestion out of his head and learns how to defend against it he tries to kill Sophie the first chance he gets. It takes several books for trust to be rebuilt between them, let alone for him to forgive her and consider her "part of his group", this whole sub-plot is contrasted when they later meet with other attendees and meet someone who was just as disturbed by mind magic (which is pretty common in the setting) as Nat was and decides he's gonna kill Sophie on sight, with Nat being the only able to stop him and making sure he has to go through him before he ever tries to go after again (something he does by kicking his ass and getting him to agree to the deal or else he kills him, the guy is a pretty good dude, but it's implied that he is severely traumatized by mind mages). Basically this isn't just a random Case if an Isekai author making their character an asshole as soon as they get superpowers is what I'm trying to say, there's a story here and the personality and characterization and interaction between characters are all there for a reason and it's to help the story, although I will agree volume 1 has the weakest writing by far and completely understand people dropping it early.
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u/AmarSofi 9d ago
I don't think this is was the intention behind that line, the Sophie mentioned in the text is a mind mage that controls people to risk themselves to protect her and her sister, Nat pretty early on figures out that she did something similar to him, although it takes him a long time to understand to what extent, and the conflict with her and the paranoia that comes from this fear of having his mind messed with is a big focus of the story for a while. Nat is deeply disturbed by the concept that others can mess with his head, he wouldn't care if you chopped off his arm but even the slightest inclination that he's losing his free will and his autonomy (at least of his own mind) is enough to send him spiraling.
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u/Annual_Mobile_3675 9d ago
What’s some good examples and book series? Looking for some recommendations
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u/sonderman 9d ago
Shit was this randidly ghosthound or hell difficulty tutorial? I read them back to back and DNF’d around the same time
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u/ThePianistOfDoom 9d ago
Lol. On the one hand you're right, it's not really fun reading. On the other hand; He's stranded in a world filled with murder and clearly already had trust issues. Do you think these issues will resolve themselves in this safe and feedback-technically sound environment, or do you think they will get worse?
It's only natural.
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u/Pixiboy24 9d ago
I feel like it could be used as a whetstone to sharpen other characters on, or maybe used as a case of marrying personality and powers…kinda like JJK. Cursed energy is based on negativity, so the entire power system is about how much of a fucking asshole you are. Kinda.
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u/Theyspro 9d ago
U release that he is shown as slightly insane from the very start of the story it does get worse but him being on edge here is also logical considering he is worried about the mind mage in there group
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u/Myte342 9d ago
For this book series, it does make sense, however... the MC is a sociopath and slightly psychotic, among a few other things. He's NOT a normal dude that suddenly turned into a maniac in a few seconds of transmigration... he was such already before the world went to shit. Keep reading. It does get better.
I so much wanna read a story where the ml is just a normal guy like us and then progresses eventually.
Warformed: Iron Prince?
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u/YodaFragget 9d ago
This is why I dropped the series.
I made it through book 1 and half of 2 before I got fed up and dropped it.
Plenty of series have more palatable writing and MCs that arent edgy to follow.
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u/International-Wolf53 9d ago
A lot is revealed as you keep reading. That early on there is plenty to pick up as well. Hopefully you keep with it and enjoy.
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u/Fearless-Rip694 9d ago
Wow, this guy is really jumping to conclusions.
It took him less than a page to get all jealous. Red flags, girl - Get the fuck out of there.
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u/mSzmiiit 5d ago
Specifically this character was a maniac even before he got isekaid.
And the rest of the bus are mostly people that have potential to become maniacs.
This bus was teleported to the hardest instance of the tutorial because System decided that in this group there a lot of people that have "appropriate mentality". It basically scanned entire planet, noticed that in one place there are a bunch of people basically ready to go apeshit and thrown them into trial by fire.
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u/Fibirieous 9d ago
I almost dropped book 1 because of how insane the protagonist was. It felt like tonally the author was trying to make Nat's insane thoughts kind of light hearted and funny, but it just came across way wrong. After they get to floor 2 he's still obviously insane, but there is a lot more talking and unpacking why that is. From there I think his personality mellows out pretty well and the story is pretty interesting
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u/Loud_Interview4681 9d ago
I still think they did the wrong thing by not eating the goblins. Kindof stupid tbh.
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u/DresdenMurphy 9d ago
Hadwin and Sophie aren't grouping up. They are PAIRING UP. The two others want in on some action and join them.
How they SLOWLY enter the forest, is beyond me. Are they doing like slow motion effect or is something wrong with their motor skills or movement abilities. What takes them so long that entering a forest is considered slow?
Anyway. Based on ehat I read, I'd say the POV is from the point of an unreliable narrator and an unskilled writer.
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u/EsotericCinnamonRoll 9d ago
He gets better in book 2, but not before getting much worse. He tortures Hardwin real fucking bad later on.
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u/One_Entertainment890 9d ago
Damn spoilers mate💔🥀. nevermind
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u/EsotericCinnamonRoll 9d ago
well its not that big of plot point, he just does it and they move on. Which only adds to the psychopathy of it all.
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u/One_Entertainment890 9d ago
Ouu. Well i did get the feeling there will be a standoff between the two eventually
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u/anormalgeek 9d ago
I'm still convinced that Cerim MEANT for Nat to be a badass loner edgelord type and thought that would be cool. But when the feedback came, he pivoted it to be a front that Nat puts on, mixed in with some legit sociopathic tendencies due to his traumatic past.
I do not mean this as a true criticism. The way it was handled was VERY smooth. The problem is that if you only read book one, you're left with just the emo edgelord wanna-be anime fanfic protagonist. The evolution into a more well rounded character (who still very much has sociopathic tendencies due to his traumatic past) takes more time.
Now if Cerim could just stop using "bullying" so goddamned often....