Worst case of good writing going south within moments

[Rush Syks]

Hi Fellow Escapists,

I haven't been posting in a long while but I have just watched Jessica Jones and I am actually furious enough to write about it here.

Spoiler: Jessica Jones Episode 9+10 Spoiler

So towards the end of the ninth episode everything is set up for Killgrave to confess his behavior, but within seconds every failsafe doesn't work because nobody bothered to check them again although two lives are obviously at risk. Furthermore Trish can't shoot for her live even though it is implied that she started training on her fighting skills basically all the time. All that is only possible because one woman who actually has at least some idea of what Killgrave is capable off decides to ignore his danger and wants to set him free.

Now the funny thing is that I actually said to myself "Okay, they want to make it more interesting, I'll forgive this series this once, because it has been belivable so far". But right at the beginning of the 10th episode another character goes completely mental after beeing left alone with some serious drugs without supervision despite having screwed up once under their effect. That's two complete facepalms within 20 minutes of runtime, no Anime manages that!

Spoilerfree tl;dr
The series ruined all its good writing twice in 20 minutes so I quit for now.

So where did you experience intriguing and believable writing beeing completely screwed up within a matter of minutes? Might be a game, book film or whatever. I just wonder if you ragequitted media like that.

 

[Fox12]

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty bad. The whole movie is about two orphans trying to survive in post-war Japan. They're literally starving, which is pretty harsh, given that the girl is around five. It's the crux of the movie. She dying. Then it turns out their parents had tons of money in the bank, so the protagonist went and got several hundred dollars to buy lots of food. But, spoiler alert, his sister was already dead when he got back. It's supposed to be the most emotional moment in the film, and it's ruined. If he had money the whole time, then why didn't he just grab some in the first place? The decision is completely baffling, and it destroyed the film.

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

 

[soren7550]

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

The whole of it? Nah. The last ten minutes of it however...

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Signs. I love that movie right up until it's revealed that the aliens react to water as if it's an extremely powerful acid. Admittedly, the whole movie is building to that reveal, but it's still good.

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

The whole of it? Nah. The last ten minutes of it however...

I liked it, especially the ending

 

[Asclepion]

The beginning, 500 years ago, on the planet Zeist.

 

[Autumnflame]

Yeah that final moments of part 3,

The show how i met your mother basically threw out all the character development at the end and said lol.

Not exactly moments, but imo the decline of quality in the harry potter franchise in theHBP and DH books

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Are they referring to Mass Effect 3's ending up there? Because that gets my vote.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Are they referring to Mass Effect 3's ending up there? Because that gets my vote.

Oops. I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about Alien 3

 

[ObserverStatus]

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

The whole of it? Nah. The last ten minutes of it however...

Meh, a certain faction that played a large role in the second installment being indoctrinated all along, and a certain councilor being a traitor were both really weak twists.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I think maybe halfway through a book called The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss there was just a point where the main character went full overpowered power fantasy character. I mean he was a bit Gary Stu-ish in the first book (The Name of the Wind) and stuff because he's literally the best at everything but there are some interesting flaws, mostly in his mindset in that in his mind, he must look perfect at any cost even when there isn't really any harm in showing a few mistakes here and there.

Like not presenting himself as perfection incarnate just never enters his mind, I think that's pretty neat seeing the lengths a man can go too to look perfect and obviously, stretching himself out to look perfect often makes even more problems for him.

Then out of nowhere, y'know guys, we gotta make him get kidnapped by a sex fairy and get super good at pleasing women because... reasons? Then later he wipes a camp of hardened mercenaries single handedly.

Yeah, Kvothe slipped off the edge of the overpowered but relativity relatable side of the knife into the just plain bullshit.

Honestly i'd still recommend The Name of the Wind just for the way he writes. The content of the writing might not be super awesome but his writing style is pretty interesting.

Oh! How could I forget both of the old Darren Shan sagas? The Demonata books and the self titled adventures of Darren Shan. Not bad really but his endings are awful, especially in the Demonata. World gets rekt by demons, humans have no weapons that can hurt them and the bunch of guys who can actually fight demons get swarmed and/or killed off beforehand. Yeah just pull some bullshit and the main characters reset the universe. None of this ever happened now lol.

Nasty habit of raising the stakes so hard but still wanting a happy(ish) ending but with no actual recourse to put things back on track without y'know, resetting the universe/turning back time? Honestly a bad ending where demons wipe out the world and the main characters fail would have been easily viable. Would that be more lazy though? He either resets the world and the good guys win or like 9 books of characters fighting demons gets wiped out cuz they all lose in the end. Both leave readers unsatisfied with the ending. I guess I would say that the former makes people unsatisfied with the ending but the latter makes the readers unsatisfied with the entire series.

He needed to chill out before deciding to just literally open the gates of Hell onto Earth and immediately writes himself into a corner for the final book.

Interestingly enough, he wrote a standalone novel called The Thin Executioner and that had a perfectly good ending. Guess he just has a problem with extended series.

 

[Worgen]

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty bad. The whole movie is about two orphans trying to survive in post-war Japan. They're literally starving, which is pretty harsh, given that the girl is around five. It's the crux of the movie. She dying. Then it turns out their parents had tons of money in the bank, so the protagonist went and got several hundred dollars to buy lots of food. But, spoiler alert, his sister was already dead when he got back. It's supposed to be the most emotional moment in the film, and it's ruined. If he had money the whole time, then why didn't he just grab some in the first place? The decision is completely baffling, and it destroyed the film.

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

Actually that's one of the main points of the movie. That trying doing everything on your own is dumb. Or more accurately, the downfall from pride.

 

[monkeymangler]

Not so much "good" writing going downhill as "decent for a 800 episode series", but the Pein arc of Naruto with the Deus Ex ending which took everything that the series had been moving towards and threw it into traffic was egregious in my mind.

The series never recovered from that, and only went further downhill.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Not so much "good" writing going downhill as "decent for a 800 episode series", but the Pein arc of Naruto with the Deus Ex ending which took everything that the series had been moving towards and threw it into traffic was egregious in my mind.

The series never recovered from that, and only went further downhill.

I'll second that, but I think the total overpowered "I can break every single rule the entire series has established up to this point because screw you I can!" Madara fight tops that. The ninja war was actually interesting, giving other characters chances to shine, until he showed up. And then it stopped being a war and turned into a battle of gods with all the ants getting stepped on.
Oh, and let's not forget that, after that, it literally turns into a battle of gods, or at least against a god. Stupid.

 

[monkeymangler]

Not so much "good" writing going downhill as "decent for a 800 episode series", but the Pein arc of Naruto with the Deus Ex ending which took everything that the series had been moving towards and threw it into traffic was egregious in my mind.

The series never recovered from that, and only went further downhill.

I'll second that, but I think the total overpowered "I can break every single rule the entire series has established up to this point because screw you I can!" Madara fight tops that. The ninja war was actually interesting, giving other characters chances to shine, until he showed up. And then it stopped being a war and turned into a battle of gods with all the ants getting stepped on.
Oh, and let's not forget that, after that, it literally turns into a battle of gods, or at least against a god. Stupid.

I stopped caring about the series when Tobito unveiled the mind control laser in the moon. But the ninja war arc lost me entirely (I stopped reading and just read summaries) when the 2nd Raikage no-sold Super Saiyan Naruto's Rasen Shuriken. Because his lightning armor was just strong.

BULL. CRAP.

You established that lightning jutsus are weak to wind jutsus. That is the single most powerful wind jutsu ever created, being fired by the most powerful ninja alive, powered by the most powerful creature to walk the earth. It destroys on a freaking sub atomic level. FOLLOW YOUR OWN DAMN RULES KISHIMOTO!!!

 

[Fox12]

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty bad. The whole movie is about two orphans trying to survive in post-war Japan. They're literally starving, which is pretty harsh, given that the girl is around five. It's the crux of the movie. She dying. Then it turns out their parents had tons of money in the bank, so the protagonist went and got several hundred dollars to buy lots of food. But, spoiler alert, his sister was already dead when he got back. It's supposed to be the most emotional moment in the film, and it's ruined. If he had money the whole time, then why didn't he just grab some in the first place? The decision is completely baffling, and it destroyed the film.

I don't think I need to mention the third installment in a certain Sci-Fi series, do I?

Actually that's one of the main points of the movie. That trying doing everything on your own is dumb. Or more accurately, the downfall from pride.

I didn't get that at all. The protagonist never came across as particularly prideful. He even steals food to eat, and that's more shameful then relying on your parents money. Maybe it was prideful not to go back to his aunt, but that's about it.

Besides, there's a whole scene where the protagonist is upset because he can't find money for his dying sister. To have him suddenly have money undercuts that. They should have cut that scene, or, at the very least, added a scene where he initially refuses money. Maybe I'll re-watch it soon. I admit that my memory is sketchy. All I know is that I was furious with that movie at the time.

 

[Amaror]

I think maybe halfway through a book called The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss there was just a point where the main character went full overpowered power fantasy character. I mean he was a bit Gary Stu-ish in the first book (The Name of the Wind) and stuff because he's literally the best at everything but there are some interesting flaws, mostly in his mindset in that in his mind, he must look perfect at any cost even when there isn't really any harm in showing a few mistakes here and there.

Like not presenting himself as perfection incarnate just never enters his mind, I think that's pretty neat seeing the lengths a man can go too to look perfect and obviously, stretching himself out to look perfect often makes even more problems for him.

Then out of nowhere, y'know guys, we gotta make him get kidnapped by a sex fairy and get super good at pleasing women because... reasons? Then later he wipes a camp of hardened mercenaries single handedly.

Yeah, Kvothe slipped off the edge of the overpowered but relativity relatable side of the knife into the just plain bullshit.

This so much. Being awkward around women was basically one of the very few flaws the character had and then he gets turned into Mr. Sex-God, Superseducer. It's just so stupid.
Now all that's left basically for him to turn into the worlds best accountant and mathmatician, thats flawless in managing his money and he's officially without flaws.

 

[syaoran728]

Several years ago I read a Japanese light novel that I thought was pretty well written at the time. It was a lot of fun and it had decent pacing. It took the trapped in a video game story and played with it in an interesting way and made best use of its setting. Its characters were fairly likable and had decent chemistry. The build-up, twists, climax, and conclusion all came together to make a very enjoyable story.

Then a few years later the novel got its anime and the goodwill I had towards the series withered faster than a Yahtzee boner in the presence of a JRPG. The characters became repetitive and boring, the pacing was shot in the foot, and the plot really didn't go anywhere. What started out as a solid setting with a well structured story became a great big mess. While its hard for me to call it abysmal, it certainly isn't good. I have no problem if anyone likes it, but Sword Art Online squandered most of its potential.

 

[the December King]

I think maybe halfway through a book called The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss there was just a point where the main character went full overpowered power fantasy character. I mean he was a bit Gary Stu-ish in the first book (The Name of the Wind) and stuff because he's literally the best at everything but there are some interesting flaws, mostly in his mindset in that in his mind, he must look perfect at any cost even when there isn't really any harm in showing a few mistakes here and there.

Like not presenting himself as perfection incarnate just never enters his mind, I think that's pretty neat seeing the lengths a man can go too to look perfect and obviously, stretching himself out to look perfect often makes even more problems for him.

Then out of nowhere, y'know guys, we gotta make him get kidnapped by a sex fairy and get super good at pleasing women because... reasons? Then later he wipes a camp of hardened mercenaries single handedly.

Yeah, Kvothe slipped off the edge of the overpowered but relativity relatable side of the knife into the just plain bullshit.

Honestly i'd still recommend The Name of the Wind just for the way he writes. The content of the writing might not be super awesome but his writing style is pretty interesting.

You... you have to get out of my head. This sums up the books for me almost to a tee, as I really enjoyed that first one immensely.

In A Wise Man's Fear, I really didn't like the warrior woman ninja race either, and Kvothe's time with them felt like a ham-fisted and inplausible way of humbling him by saying he got beaten up by a little girl for months on end. The book had some cool ideas, but ultimately between the faery queen abduction and the time with the ninjas, it left me frustrated.