This is so baffling to me, bc I almost never want to read about Just Some Guy; I want to see the people who are exceptionally competent, charismatic, dedicated, and/or otherwise superlative in their fields! It’s fiction, so give me the wish fulfillment of a Protagonist Meritocracy! - ThreadSky

kilerkki.bsky.social • 31 days ago

This is so baffling to me, bc I almost never want to read about Just Some Guy; I want to see the people who are exceptionally competent, charismatic, dedicated, and/or otherwise superlative in their fields! It’s fiction, so give me the wish fulfillment of a Protagonist Meritocracy!

Reposted from Reactor Magazine

What if the protagonist of A Memory Called Empire was not a scholar, but just...Some Guy (™)? That's the plot of Edward Ashton's The Fourth Consort. Sasha Bonkowsky reviews this high-antics, high-politics science fiction story:

reactormag.com/book-review-...

Comments

meowbrey.bsky.social•31 days ago

I also don’t get why the only variations possible are Scholar or Some Guy. Like have some variety maybe and then you won’t need to resort to making an NPC your protag!

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

You can still have everyone explain things to your protagonist (and the audience) if you make him a goodhearted and superlatively beautiful warrior who studied the blade instead of the worldbuilding!

Hmm. This sounds like too many of my protagonists…

cairosene.bsky.social•31 days ago

i was just thinking about this in regards to the left hand of darkness and how i get that genly is a stand-in for the everyman reader that was the audience for scifi back in the day but i really just wish he was something. anything. no more just some guys!!!

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

Yes!! Gosh, the tasteless cardboard standin for Everyman is sooo boring, let’s just get rid of him and focus on the interesting people he was there to see anyway.

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

Recently encountered this with Warwick Deeping’s 1940 THE MAN WHO WENT BACK—guy smashes car in 1939 & wakes up in post-Roman Britain facing Saxon invaders; it’s supposed to be a call to arms for All British Dudes Against Germany but it still barely works bc MC is not himself interesting at all.

cairosene.bsky.social•31 days ago

augh disappointing!!!

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

I was really hoping at any point that it would Matter that the guy was a qualified engineer back home, but nope, it was all about Awakening the Manly Embers That Smolder Within Every British Gentleman to Fight Off Barbarians, etc

stultiloquentia.bsky.social•31 days ago

Same hat, and it goes double for anything involving romance. So many of my DNFs are down to me grousing, "Why do you even like him? He's just some guy! You haven't had a single stimulating conversation on the page!"

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

Yes!! tbh I see enough of my super cool friends in real life who ended up with Just Some Guy who doesn’t even seem to like her or have anything truly likable about himself; I don’t want that to happen to my fictional friends too!

bettytheteapot.bsky.social•31 days ago

The Starlord problem. You want me to believe Gamora is into this guy? She likes his "sense of humour"? It consists entirely of memes that are twenty years out of date from a culture she hasn't met!

twigofwillow.bsky.social•31 days ago

But how else will the Some Guys of the world be able to believe in the fantasy that they too are Important and Special?

kilerkki.bsky.social•31 days ago

Honestly if they WERE (or became) Special I’d be more along for the ride. Just Some Guy rises to the challenge, discovers new reserves of grit or develops new skills, makes himself worthy of interest—becomes a Bilbo Baggins, rather than just a bumbling baggage to someone.

twigofwillow.bsky.social•31 days ago

That's also true!

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