Just ranting

"Vengence, Forgiveness and disappointment"

Hello there people, How's going?

Today we're going to talk about a rather strange yet common topic here in Wattpad and that is... Forgiveness and revenge. I actually talked about it in the abused and neglected story but i never went into full detail so I thought I should go back to that. 

Now, I know you may be wondering why would i waste my time talking about this but let's stop what we're doing for a moment and think for a moment. I'm sure you noticed that most of the books on this website that we read have at least one chapter with involves revenge or forgiveness, hell some of them are all about revenge or forgiveness.

While there's nothing wrong with that, I noticed that the delivery of these themes always comes out flat and undeveloped... which is pretty common in Wattpad, I know, but we're trying to make this website a better place so let's talk about it.

But first, we need to establish what exactly is revenge and forgiveness in order to understand what is wrong with Wattpad books that aboard this theme. I was going to make a narrative for this chapter but unfortunately, I already had to rewrite this chapter 4 times because Wattpad keeps screwing me over so I gonna go straight to the point. 

Without further thought... let's get into it.

Let's start with Revenge which is by far the most satisfying part of most stories (In my opinion). To put it simply, Revenge is the desire to cause harm in some way to someone who wronged you. It is a desire so strong that it can be the whole motivation of a character and we as an audience can easily feel excited for say character as they work their way through the story to have their revenge at the end.

Revenge is usually shown to be a bad thing in media because it causes a never-ending cycle of hate so you shouldn't want revenge and just let things be. Are the media wrong? no, they kinda have a point but as always, most of their points are as deep as a puddle.

Instead, society will tell us to choose the other option which is Forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the act of letting go of an emotion, trauma, or wrongdoing of another and moving on with your life. According to the media, forgiveness is something that only the strongest can do and the act of forgiving is by far one of the noblest in the world. "Forgive and Forget" is a phrase that is used commonly by people who believe in forgiveness.

Is it true though? well, that's debatable so I'll give you my opinion of which of these topics.

Starting with forgiveness:

1-) This noble act thing is complete bullshit, wanna know why? because we humans aren't capable of fully forgiving anyone, let alone moving forwards and leaving our traumas in the past. That's impossible because while your heart may be able to move on... your body and brain don't.

The human brain and body are incapable of fully forgetting a traumatic experience or something that bothers you deep in your core, here's an example: Wanna know why you remember that extremely cringe thing you did in school when you were younger? why does your brain suddenly makes you remember just how cringe and awful it was? Because that thing you did is now burned deep inside your conscience so your brain is going to keep reminding you of it, and now you gonna have to live with it. 

So long that the experienced you faced was something that left an emotional scar, you will never fully move on from it and will get reminded every now and then by either your brain or your own body. Why do you think bullying victims still flinch sometimes when they see their old bully despite forgiving them?

2-) "Forgive and Forget" is a terrible phrase and advice. From an edgy Wattpad protagonist perspective, do you think you can forgive a person who killed your family right in front of you just because they changed their ways and now you want to pretend it never happened? Like I said before, it's impossible to fully forgive someone who has wronged you, you will always hold some resentment toward them.

3-) The idea of those who forgive being stronger than those who don't is once again, bullshit. The whole idea runs around the thought of the feeling of Hate being a weakness and holding grudges makes you look petty. Sure, Blind hate and rage can be seen as a weakness but only ignorant people will actually see hate as just a weakness.

Hate can be a very...VERY powerful motivation. Even stronger than determination because it truly drives your whole mind and body into it. As for grudges... I can see why it could be seen as petty but at the same time, only the innocent doesn't have a single grudge against something.

Here's an example:

Holding a grudge against someone who grabbed the limited edition of a manga in front of you? that's petty.

Holding a grudge against someone who humiliated you? That's normal, I would actually ask if you're alright in the head if you didn't.

Now for revenge:

1-) Revenge can be one hell of a motivation to make you go on but it comes with its price which usually is... people being extremely sensitive and emotional. Have you ever met someone who throws a tantrum at anything that you do? high probability of that person may try to do something to get even to you, even if is just for something small like not wanting to share your bag of chips.

2-) Revenge runs purely on emotion, There's nothing truly logical about it. Is just you wanting to get even with someone who has wronged you.

3-) In Real life, Revenge is usually a very immature thing. Why because only very sensitive people will do and they will do it because of anything THEY think you did wrong.


Now let's go to the Wattpad books and analyze how the writer uses these two topics.

Revenge in Wattpad book is... Trash. The majority of the time is just the protagonist brutally murdering or torturing those who have wronged him, While there is nothing wrong with that... We as an audience need to agree with the Protagonist's actions and motivation in order to enjoy such a gruesome act.

I can understand you torturing the guy who brutally murdered everyone you cared about but are you seriously going to torture your own girlfriend, mind-break her, turn her into a slave and then kill her just because she cheated on you?

Look man, I know betrayal sucks but revenge doesn't have to be about violence. Having the main character become a pretty awesome character to the point that his ex would become absolutely jealous of him and start questioning her decisions would be a much better way to get revenge in this scenario. If you torture and murder her, you just gonna make yourself look like the villain of the story.

Also, why in these books where the protagonist gets his revenge in a brutal way against someone who didn't deserve such a brutal act, do the other characters treat the protagonist like he did the right thing? Why does nobody questions anything?

Meh, I'll probably never know so let's move on.

Forgiveness is treated like a joke in Wattpad books. Seriously, there is no arc of the protagonist moving on with what happened to him and forgiving the person who wronged him, In these stories, the protagonist is pissed at the person in one episode... and then is all okay, and everything in the next one.

There's no development between the protagonist and their "nemesis". Is just "Look man, I know you fucked my life but I forgive you" and then BAM! they are best friends... or harem members if the "nemesis" is a girl.

Some books kinda realize this so they make the "nemesis" buy gifts for the protagonist but that just makes it worse because it feels like the "nemesis" is trying to buy their forgiveness instead of earning it.

And don't even get me started with the "I forgive you because I'm better than you" trope. I can't even roll my eyes anymore because of how much I used to do it when I saw this trope.

All in All, just like anything in Wattpad. Revenge and Forgiveness are undeveloped and end up becoming unsatisfying. That's my opinion at least, What do you think about it?

That's all for today, sorry for the lack of updates but I gonna have to work overtime this whole month. It's gonna be a pain.

Anyway, Thank you all for reading this book. I hope to see you all in the next chapter.

Peace ✌️.