Wimpy Characters
Written by: Sharon on January 11, 2006I HATE wimpy characters. Nothing makes me want to hurl a book across the room like a wimpy hero or heroine. I also hate characters who “wimp out” in the end. These can be strong characters with strong motivation and in the end they do the quintessential wimp out because it “just isn’t the right thing to do.” :STFU:
Bah. Don’t be a puss, I say!
Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon is a huge wimp. I spent most of the books thinking for God’s sake, be a man! And this is coming from someone who has a deep appreciation of the Beta male.
I recently read a book that literally had me cheering. The characters were very real, very flawed people. Linda Castillo’s “Dead Reckoning” was an awesome, awesome book. Her hero was addicted to pain killers and liked to chase them with vodka. Her heroine suffered a horrific attack in her teens that also left her twin sister permanently disabled. She becomes an assistant district attorney, and at first I groaned and thought, oh the typical “No one got justice for me so I’ll get justice for the world,” but Castillo gives this woman as a motive, revenge. REVENGE, and she doesn’t wimp out. I loved it. Too many times you have a character embark on revenge and in the end they do this politcally correct bullshit speech about how they can’t go through with it because it would make them no better than the other person. Snort. 
Castillo’s heroine plans her revenge. The statute of limitations for the crime committed against her has run out so she knows there is no recourse in the legal system. So she hires a private investigator to track her attacker down. In the meantime she uses her connections with the district attorney’s office to procure a gun that cannot be traced back to her. When she finally finds her man, she methodically covers her tracks, goes to his apartment and shoots him. Only the hero prevents her from killing the man, though she does shoot him twice. :rambo:
I love it when an author doesn’t wimp out.
January 11th, 2006 at 9:47 am
I have Dead Reckoning on my TBR shelf and I see I’m going to have to get it out sooner rather than later!
January 11th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Sharon, I love it. I have to buy that book.
January 11th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Oh I have to get that book!
Usually, I’m totally for the villain to get killed. It’s SUCH an anti-climax when he/she’s just arrested and jailed. :evil2:
January 11th, 2006 at 10:20 am
You’re absolutely right - wimpy characters SUCK. :cursing:
Sounds like a good book. Might have to make a run to Barnes and Noble soon…
January 11th, 2006 at 11:56 am
I can always feel when an author stops short of going all the way. Sometimes I feel an editor’s restraint reining them in. Castillo’s book sounds awesome.
January 11th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Gah–I HATE wimps in the end! I hate it when we get to the end of a book where the bad guy deserves the worst of the worst, but he doesn’t get it, thanks to the PC police. If a character deserves to die, let the h/h kill them! I think authors worry about their h/h being not likable, but personally, I will respect the h/h AND the author more for not letting anyone wimp out.
Not long ago I read a milrom that was really good, but one detail bugged the hell out of me. The h/h were stranded in a jungle, and when a bad guy found them, the hero, being a special forces dude, was going to kill the guy so the rest of the bad guy’s army wouldn’t find them. The heroine flipped out “Oh, no! You can’t KILL someone!” So the hero just tied the guy to a tree, in an incredibly STUPID move. The bad guy would wake up later and surely yell until the rest of the army showed up, and then they’d find the h/h.
I was really angry at the author for having her hero do something so stupid, and it seemed like a setup so that she wouldn’t have to show the hero killing a person in cold blood. It was really disappointing. :(
January 11th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Now that’s rare. She actually went through with it. I’m gonna have to get that book. Too many times I read where the character plots something deliciously wicked, only to find some personal religion/moral … whatever. It’s only because the writer was TOLD the reader would find the character completely unredeemable. I disagree. I like to push the limits. I like my characters flawed, and the more flaws, the better (within reason, of course).
Fiction-wise, hunting someone down for past sins and actually following through with whatever it is you’ve planned is compelling. To me, anyway.
Tanya
January 11th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Ugh Larissa! that would make me want to bitchslap the heroine. I HATE heroines like that. :puking:
Tanya, Im with you. I think it makes for a compelling plot.
January 11th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
sounds like the author did a great job with the motivation and the actions of that character, Sharon. I too hate wimpy characters. Poor me characters. Whiny characters.
January 11th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
The art of giving characters balls.
I like it. And there’s not nearly enough of it. Sure…a rescue is nice. But so is being in charge and taking each day on your own terms.
Wonder if this might be the new fad. :evil2:
That would be too good to be true.
Grins*
January 11th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
I love strong characters. I think the fact an author may pull back is due to many factors, fear of reader disappointment, editorial input, making characters unlikable, etc. I don’t think it’s right, but I know it happens.
January 11th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I like the characters who act so “true.” Elizabeth Berg is a wonderful character creator. They almost seem real.
January 11th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Sounds like a great book, Sharon. My beef is with heroes who are portrayed as really ruthless and dangerous at first, and are completely de-balled at the end. I don’t want my shoot first ask questions later alpha :rambo: turned into a sensitive pacifist. :mickeymouse: Anne Stuart’s Black Ice is a good example of a ruthless, dangerous hero who stayed that way.
January 12th, 2006 at 3:02 am
Oooh, love it!
January 12th, 2006 at 4:37 am
That’s what I loved so much about Linda Howard’s CRY NO MORE. The hero and heroine got the job done. If they hadn’t, I would have thrown the book across the room then and there.
Eff the damn rules, write a heart stopper.
January 12th, 2006 at 6:47 am
I love characters who give you the ending you’re waiting for. :)
January 12th, 2006 at 8:48 am
Argh! There is nothing worse than a wuss-assed character. That’s a wall hurler for sure.
January 12th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Sharon, if you haven’t read her, you will really LOVE Minette Walters. I spent yesterday reading The Dark Room, which isn’t her latest, but it is GRIPPING. In the end, the heroine realizes that there isn’t enough real evidence to convict the killer on anything more than a couple of assault charges, so she has him murdered to protect herself and anyone else he decides to go after. All her books have strong characters like that. Acid Row, The Sculptress, Fox Evil and Disordered Minds are other books of hers, and they are all excellent.
January 13th, 2006 at 8:04 am
You give me hope.
My H/H takes them out - and do not suffer from miles of angst afterwards, either.
January 13th, 2006 at 8:10 am
See, I’m not the only bloodthirsty one :evil2: I see I’m in good company!
May 31st, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Best of the text i read about a problem.