How unscrupulous can you accept the MC to be?

[NotaNuffian]

This is a discussion so please bring your example if any.

Once again this is from my memory of a chinese work that I hated myself for reading way too long past my comfort as the MC just contorts into an arrogant cunt. The author tries to justify with hate sink villains but still, did a bad move (for me) to make their comeuppance tainted with MC's gloating.

For background, MC is a lowly ricefarmer in a cultivation sect. There is the monthly rice tax from the sect and there are also the protection fees in forms of rice from the first two bad guys MC had to deal with. First guy had a family of three wives and a smart child with the hope to be a better cultivator than the first guy. The second guy had a spouse.

MC one day got his golden finger and then created two types of debuff rice; retard rice and horny rice.

MC turned the first guy and his entire family into retards, which ended with the once-smart-now-dumb child's death by his now short-tempered father and the entire family in shambles. This was unpleasant to me as it reminded me of the extra "goodies" chinese products always have.

MC then turned the second guy into a cuckold by turning his virtuous spouse into a harlot who slept with the entire sect but the second guy. The kicker was that once the MC stopped giving his rice, the spouse broke the horny spell and was deeply remorseful even up until when the second guy burned her to death.

Oh, and MC gloated to the two men after he disarmed and tortured them physically near to their deaths on separate occasions. At this point the author still sells these guys as horrible people. But what he think might be justified looks to plainly disgusting to me, the actions of MC is disturbing and he is absolutely unremorsed about the collaterals.

So do you have any facepalm moments of MC that makes them into a scum?

 

[SailusGebel]

 

[MasFaqih]

Is this the chasm?,why do I feel disappointed in humanity.i don't want my hooman to be like that.

 

[Jerynboe]

Das… das pretty bad. I wrote an entire 300+ chapter horny mind control focused story. MC had the ability to do either of those kinds of things (make people stupid or turn someone into town bicycle) and didn’t because… well, it was a power fantasy at its heart, not a revenge fantasy. Extreme selfishness + callousness vs active cruelty, I guess? He wanted to unite the world under him to create a (surface level) peaceful and happy society, not to fuck over any particular person or make anyone miserable.
People/characters who revel in cruelty are a turn off for me, even when it’s justified by truly heinous targets. Especially when it’s from the pov of the cruel person.

 

[Amrasil207]

I had a prototype story that never lifted off the ground and was being rewritten in a piecemeal. I started normal, the MC got reincarnated as a Dictator (big flag already), and stuff like that. At first, she is deathly afraid that her act would be discovered (like Ainz) but instead of being disgusted or at least trying to find a comforting logic when confronted by the usual end justifies the means, she starts getting on the swing. I had written her background as dubiously tragic but also scummy due to self-interest and trauma. Anyway, once she thinks it is alright and has a whole cadre of yes-men... She has her moral codes eroded slowly but surely. Even deliberately ordered a scorched earth policy because she lost a proxy war. She sent her battleship loaded with 15 Kt nuclear shells and bombarded several coastal towns because of an ambush and was meant to send a message to others.

Suddenly I'm writing a literal worldwide Götterdämmerung with the MC ended up being the big bad villain...

So yeah, power corrupt I guess...?

 

[TheEldritchGod]

So yeah, power corrupt I guess...?

No. Addiction to power corrupts.
If one can avoid addiction to power, then power reveals your true nature.
An evil man with power will be evil, a good man will not. Alas, dopamine is a hell of a drug.
A good man addicted usually tries to justify his actions by at least lying to himself. An evil man becomes a horror.

So do you have any facepalm moments of MC that makes them into a scum?

Too Many To Count.
Mostly Chinese Manhua crap.

 

[Lloyd]

Never heard of anything that bad happening in a story. Your post makes me think Chinese people are just evil.

 

[TremendousHuman]

If I continued any of my stories some of my main characters would end up selling orphans to corrupt politicians. They would randomly take people off the streets to harvest their organs, they would brainwash people to betray their closest friends and lovers and family members. There was an entire plot about building a human centipede-esque thing out of innocents I was planning.

So yeah, that Chinese guy wrote a very messed up story. Fuck him, who the fuck does this shit

Never heard of anything that bad happening in a story. Your post makes me think Chinese people are just evil.

nah you're just trying to come up with a reason to be racist like a little bitch. Just be racist without trying to justify it like a real man

 

[Rhaps]

nah you're just trying to come up with a reason to be racist like a little bitch. Just be racist without trying to justify it like a real man

I support this message, join me in competitive racism. Fuck China!

 

[Cosmictapestry]

I read some Manhua and always ended up hating every single one of them except for one BL book.


Anyway, back to the story you mentioned—no.

 

[TremendousHuman]

I support this message, join me in competitive racism. Fuck China!

 

[Rhaps]

There isn't enough justifiable hate for them, they get to stay out. I main hating Chinese

 

[Voidiris]

It doesn't matter to me.

The only way a mc can be off-putting to me is if the protagonist is said to be objectively smart or a genius but behaves like an idiot, of course it's another think if the protagonist just couldn't new better in no conceivable way that would be harmful.

 

[TremendousHuman]

There isn't enough justifiable hate for them, they get to stay out. I main hating Chinese

imagine trynna justify your racism. "JuSTifyable HAte" You belong in the kitchen

 

[owotrucked]

Is it acceptable for a MC to swap the gender of captured men and sell them as virgin on the slave market? Asking for a friend

 

[NotaNuffian]

Is it acceptable for a MC to swap the gender of captured men and sell them as virgin on the slave market? Asking for a friend

That depends, does the GB make them beautiful and hot where as pre-GB they look like shit?

If yes, that's ok.

Unless you are selling them to the guro market. Then I am not judging the fetish. I am running.

 

[Jerynboe]

That depends, does the GB make them beautiful and hot where as pre-GB they look like shit?

If yes, that's ok.

Unless you are selling them to the guro market. Then I am not judging the fetish. I am running.

Phew. If making random ugly guys into hot girls and selling them into slavery is net neutral my MC is in the clear.

MC yells off screen “You hear that Abby! Your transformation from Abercrombie the elderly evil necromancer was totally justified. Maybe even actively good. Now get back to your lab and make me more disposable minions so that real people don’t have to die for my wars. Er. On my side, anyway.”

 

[Rhaps]

imagine trynna justify your racism. "JuSTifyable HAte" You belong in the kitchen

I do cook, but its the middle of the night here.

 

[Lloyd]

I support this message, join me in competitive racism. Fuck China!

I'm a huge fan of China in a geopolitical sense, but the fact is they have always been barbarians ruled by whoever could enact the most efficient violence over them. From the ancient Chinese warlords, to the Mongolian Khans, to the Ming hordes, to the modern Chinese warlords, to the Chinese communists, it has always been a land ruled by iron and blood, lots and lots of blood.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Chinese MCs are inherently evil. Even to "too good to live" comic relief MCs would only get a "Lawful Evil" on the moral alignment chart...

The more effed-up a populace, the more effed-up their literary creations. At least that's my theory. This would explain Japanese Hentai, Korean NTR porn badly disguised as "Drama" and Chinese murder-hobos.

The fact is they have always been barbarians ruled by whoever could enact the most efficient violence over them. From the ancient Chinese warlords, to the Mongolian Khans, to the Ming hordes, to the modern Chinese warlords, to the Chinese communists, it has always been a land ruled by iron and blood, lots and lots of blood.

Also this. And the heavy sanctions on (unprotected) coitus.