I Don't Even Know (Wattpad Rants)

Double B Clichés Pt. 2

CHARACTERS

I have a few problems with this. Let me bullet point it to make it easy on your eyes.

🔘 The nerdy girl, if she's supposed to be a shy girl, for some reason has a sharp tongue when she talks to the bad boy. This usually results in either a) the bad boy calling her feisty and that he likes it, or b) a supposedly cute banter between the two.

Now, I get that it's supposed to kind of show that the nerdy girl isn't some sort of wimp or whatever, but it goes out of character. Especially if she's shown to cower against a bully (this includes the classic boy bully who slams the girl against the locker for laughs and the mean girl who outright degrades the good girl).

There are real people who are terrible at comebacks, or people who would rather avoid confrontation than argue, and that doesn't mean that those people don't have character or personalities. For once, I would like to read about a girl or boy with social anxiety issues overcoming their fears without the help of a love interest. Personally, I believe family or friendship can be more powerful than a romantic relationship, but more on that later.

Also, why is the girl always clumsy? And the bad boy thinks she's cute because she's a klutz? Like what? I guess making her clumsy is a way of humanising her, but it's like more of a way for her to randomly fall onto the bad boy. 

Being a klutz myself, I can tell you that it's not cute to trip over your own feet at all. And it also lowers my self-esteem, but it doesn't seem to really do anything to good ol' Tessa. She just falls over when it's convenient for the plot. >:/

One last thing that I'd like to point out is the fact that the good girl always hates the bad boy. An adorable romance book I would read would include a really good girl — a cute girl who's absolutely terrible at comebacks — who doesn't start out hating the bad boy. Like, wouldn't it be adorable if the bad boy was like a tsundere* character? He might warm up to the girl who's so persistent in trying to make him a better person.

(*Tsundere is an anime term used to describe characters that outwardly seem to hate everyone but gradually warm up to friends or love interests. Tsundere characters are usually females who pretend to hate a boy only to entail a kind of adorable scene in which they blush really hard and yell or get angry to hide their feelings. Personally, I like tsundere characters who do this to friends because it shows them opening their hearts just a little bit to a close circle that they give full loyalty to. An example of a tsundere character is the tsundere plane from Undertale.)

🔘 The bad boy. For some reason, the bad boy is usually characterised by his lack of proper parents. I get that no parents/abusive parents/nonexistent parents make it difficult for a child, but it doesn't justify the bad boy's actions. The bad boys I knew irl had parents that didn't even fit into those stereotypes. There are kids who are just bad for the sake of being bad or bad because of peer pressure.

You know what would make the bad boy a really deep character? If he was this really insecure guy who was forced into the persona he wears because he didn't want to lose friends. Like I said, friendship in stories is a powerful tool.

It has been proven that people, especially kids (teens), tend to do things they would never even think of doing when they are in a group. The right friends can make you a brilliant person while bad friends can make you do things that aren't...well, you.

🔘 The parents. This is probably one of my least favourite characters in some of these Wattpad cliché stories. Why? Because parents are supposed to be these amazing humans who are practically superheroes when it comes to their children. Now, granted, there are parents who should never have any children and parents who may turn abusive when addicted to substances, but in general, that is not what parents are supposed to be like.

As a side note, do you know what kills me with these parent archetypes? The influence they have on little girls who have the pleasure of reading a story about a main protagonist that has abusive parents. Take it from me as the sister of a girl who wishes — THINKS — she was the main character in such a story. It's just plain terrible.

Like, I get that you're trying to make the main character more sympathetic, but them having a romantic relationship spawned by their abusive household makes them a terrible example to growing children. What could these stories teach kids? That a knight in shining leather jacket will save you only if your parents are gone or abusive? Like PLEASE! I know it's harmless storytelling, but I just think it ruins an innocent child's mentality. Side note, out!

Also, do you know what a lack of parental figures can do to a kid? If a girl has abusive parents, then she wouldn't be the strong snarky main character that we all love in these stories. There are so many things that could go wrong here, and none of them are good. Kids with parents who are drug addicts or alcoholics are likely to fall into the same path because that's what they knew while growing up. They wouldn't be this nice, innocent girl that has a lot of heart. They wouldn't be able to trust anyone because the people they are supposed to trust betrayed them in the most horrible way! They might end up being controlling or clingy if they get into a romantic relationship. And the worst part of this is that girls who grew up with an abusive father are more likely to find a guy who's abusive in a relationship. It's just messed up.

(*SIGH* ⬆Well, you can tell that I'm not salty at all...😧)

MOVING ON!

🔘 The mean girl is basically a copy paste of Regina George from Mean Girls. I know, I know. So many Wattpad rants have said the same thing. But it's true. These girls are such shallow and "slutty" and dumb make-up wearing plastics.

There are some stories that show a bit of the mean girl's story, but why does it always have to be a jealous ex that brings conflict in a romantic teen novel? I mean, I guess these "blonde bimbos," as they are sometimes called (reminds me of Fairy Tail), could be a character who foils* the main protagonist, but I highly doubt that people who create these stories take that into consideration. Mainly because these cheerleaders are usually there to make the main girl shine with purity.

(*For those of you who don't know, a foil character is typically a character that is the complete opposite of the main protagonist. They can come as antagonists, minor characters, or even an important side character. Foils are meant to show the inherent differences between the protagonist and the foil character in order to highlight certain themes of a story. Charles Dickens seemed pretty fond of this literary device [Carton and Stryver as well as Lucy and Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities]. A common example of this is light vs. dark where the villain is the main character's foil.)

Also, what is up with making mean girls sleep around with everyone? Like, doesn't calling them slutty and degrading them also kind of make women look bad? I'm pretty sure there are girls who sleep around who aren't like these obnoxious teens. I personally don't agree with it, but it's not like I can say anything to them about it.

Did you know that people who have more than two partners by the time they are twenty are more susceptible to depression? I'm just saying that there must be a reason these girls sleep around. Why not make the mean girl's parents abusive? It would make sense for her to act that way if she does, but, no. These girls usually have super rich parents that shower them with everything they want. Wattpad logic, man. Ugh! 😑

I'm gonna stop right there on characters for now. My brain hurts just thinking about all the other cliché stories. *cough* Werewolves *cough*