Why don't I care about the side characters at all?

[BlackKnightX]

Whenever I read or watch something, I only care about the protagonist or the main characters—usually only the protagonist. So when the story shifts its focus to the side characters, it's like a countdown on my patience. If it goes on for too long, I lose my interest. I just wanna get back to the protagonist.

Now, there are some side characters that hold my interest. But that's only when they are exceptionally well-done. Like they own the story in that moment. Like they are the protagonist themselves.

Let's take Overlord for example. I love it. The characters are very cool. The worldbuilding is awesome. But my only gripe is that it focuses a lot on the side characters. Don't get me wrong, I love many of them. Especially those in the Ainz Ooal Gown. But my patience is running low whenever that happens.

This has never happened before when I was young, but now I just wanna stick to the protagonist. If the story really needs to focus on the side characters, then make it short or relate to the protagonist, somehow.

Are any of you guys the same as me? If not, then what the hell happened to me?

 

[TotallyHuman]

You got braiwashed

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Whenever I read or watch something, I only care about the protagonist or the main characters—usually only the protagonist. So when the story shifts its focus to the side characters, it's like a countdown on my patience. If it goes on for too long, I lose my interest. I just wanna get back to the protagonist.

Now, there are some side characters that hold my interest. But that's only when they are exceptionally well-done. Like they own the story in that moment. Like they are the protagonist themselves.

Let's take Overlord for example. I love it. The characters are very cool. The worldbuilding is awesome. But my only gripe is that it focuses a lot on the side characters. Don't get me wrong, I love many of them. Especially those in the Ainz Ooal Gown. But my patience is running low whenever that happens.

This has never happened before when I was young, but now I just wanna stick to the protagonist. If the story really needs to focus on the side characters, then make it short or relate to the protagonist, somehow.

Are any of you guys the same as me? If not, then what the hell happened to me?

I also have that preference, especially whenever I read stories that's focused only on the main pairs. Unless my interest is piqued by a side character/side couples, I'd drop it once the story focusing on such characters takes long.

 

[Empyrea]

Usually authors want you invested in their MC so they put a lot of work into them.

Also, (Obligatory comment about the youth these days having a short attention span)

 

[BlackKnightX]

You got braiwashed

How so?

 

[Corty]

You read too many stories where all of the side characters were nothing but set dressings, 2D cardboards and steps for the protagonist to step on to look stronger/better/more capable than anybody else. Those characters were only disguised as people that is why you feel like this.

 

[Noldere]

Are any of you guys the same as me? If not, then what the hell happened to me?

I don't know what all you've read/watch, but so many stories end up with everyone who isn't/aren't the main character(s) being utterly irrelevant. Once you've experienced enough of these, you just start wanting authors to stop wasting your time.

 

[SailusGebel]

You don't care about the side characters cause you read works where the said side characters are utter garbage.

 

[FluffyGura]

Isen't it because you read the story based on what the author promised to deliver? Like the description of the story, usually it give you a summary of what the story will generally be about.Hence the main protagonist is the one that deliver the story to you with some side character enhancing the reading experience.However said side characters have the word side in them for a reason as they do not progress the story as much as the main protagonist do, hence causing your patience run low when the side characters are introduced as they only disrupt the reading experience.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I thinks it the way that MCs are written compared to the side characters. I love good side characters more than the MC usually but it's different for every book.

 

[Paul_Michaels]

Yeah it depends on the author. I feel a good author knows how to make side characters more interesting and actual people instead of just white noise. But then there's also a store hers where the main character is as exciting as dirty dishwater.

 

[PhantommFangs]

Are any of you guys the same as me? If not, then what the hell happened to me?

Bad writing happened to you. I remember reading a book as a teen, where one or two of the side characters were so popular they got their own books series written. Good writing is irreplaceable. And those books were damn good.

 

[StainedGlassThreads]

Eh. I don't mind following around side characters around for a while. Often I really enjoy getting to see the world from new perspectives, or the protagonist from an outside perspective. I enjoy it a lot when, after spending a lot of time in a protagonist's head and getting to understand the reasons behind their actions, we spend some time watching them from the outside and see how weird they really come off as.
Of course, this is all assuming good writing. But even if it's not good writing, just... eh. I assume we're following this side-character around for a reason, and we'll get back to the protagonist when we get back. Not everyone's as patient as me though.

But yeah, a lot of stories will make their selling point be 'look how amazingly cool the protagonist is!', and end up making side characters comparatively weak, flat, or foolish. So it's in part a feature of the genre, part bad writing, and possibly just part preferences. I tend to find the comments sections of chapters with POV changes far more annoying than the actual POV changes, for example.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

They're poorly written in the first place.

The author forgot to pay attention to the side characters. and once author try to focus on them, they suddenly look awkward.

 

[melchi]

Whenever I read or watch something, I only care about the protagonist or the main characters—usually only the protagonist. So when the story shifts its focus to the side characters, it's like a countdown on my patience. If it goes on for too long, I lose my interest. I just wanna get back to the protagonist.

Now, there are some side characters that hold my interest. But that's only when they are exceptionally well-done. Like they own the story in that moment. Like they are the protagonist themselves.

Let's take Overlord for example. I love it. The characters are very cool. The worldbuilding is awesome. But my only gripe is that it focuses a lot on the side characters. Don't get me wrong, I love many of them. Especially those in the Ainz Ooal Gown. But my patience is running low whenever that happens.

This has never happened before when I was young, but now I just wanna stick to the protagonist. If the story really needs to focus on the side characters, then make it short or relate to the protagonist, somehow.

Are any of you guys the same as me? If not, then what the hell happened to me?

Eh, if it doesn't move the story forward somehow then yeah it is wasting time. Overlord has a really big cast. In the first volume almost all of the NPCs of the guild are filtered through Momunga's view. It is just later on when they are given tasks to do on their own. However, I too share the frustration that some big mysteries are put in place at the start of the series but little progress is made on them through multiple books.

I like with bookworm does, there are a lot of side characters there as well but the stories on about what they are doing in the background are added to the end of the book.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I usually find the protagonist boring and want to see more of the side characters.

 

[BearlyAlive]

That's just bad writing happening to you. Side characters should always be written in a way so readers don't know if they're a major character or until the story makes it obvious. Characters that are only there to fill in "empty spots in the audience" should stay as nameless mobs. If the you only encounter those or by everything that's holey "This situation NEEEDS this kind of character to work" writing, those aren't characters, they're just bad writing or glorified plot devices.

The only difference between a side character and a main character should be the amount of screentime they get. They should always have at least their personality, motivations and goals down, as those are the minimum requirements a character need to be (imho) allowed to exist. And no, self-insert MCs that don't even have those basics down aren't characters, they're just no-plot devices! /rant

TL;dr: You got corrupted by bad single string narrative and MC-centric writing into not caring about anything but what's in front of you. I'd blame both the wood of holes as well as chapanesean YA centric novel culture.

The plot is dead, long live the PLOT!