Angst Dissonance: Difference between revisions

#In real life, a viewer doesn't have to listen to anybody's [[Inner Monologue]] except their own, where so much whining is done.

#It's all one way. In real life, if you're having a good moan with someone, the person you're with can be reasonably confident that they'll have a turn to get some moaning in when you stop speaking (of course, depending on who you are, this chance may be quite slim, but it is nonetheless there). With a fictional character, while they can bitch to their hearts content at you, psychologically you will never get a chance to moan back to them.

#It's all fictional anyway. In real life, no matter how much they might be complaining, people are at least bitching about things that are actually happening, and that do have an effect, however minor, in their lives. But a fictional character's problems ''aren't real'' (although they may be [[Truth in Television|based in reality]]), and since fiction is mostly make-believe, most people would rather read and enjoy stories about people actively engaging and dealing with their problems rather than just complaining about them (since if they wanted to have people complain at them without doing anything about it, they can get plenty of ''that'' in real life).

#As with real people, no matter how serious or genuine the complaint some fictional characters [[Wangst|can just go way over the top with moaning about it]]. They may also just be moaning about nothing, or something that is [[Cursed With Awesome|actually pretty cool if they thought about it]]. The creators may also be [[Deus Angst Machina|trying WAY too hard]] to make things angsty for their characters, which can pull the audience right out of the story if it's just too obvious and contrived.

#Alternatively, the creator may insist on returning to a particular well of suffering for a character so many times that the audience becomes irritated and bored with seeing it dragged out well past what they feel is its sell-by date. Even if the angst is relatively well-portrayed and concerning something that would be genuinely difficult to overcome, eventually the audience is going to start insisting that the character ''and'' creator both get over it and move on to something new; the beauty of fiction is that, unlike in [[Real Life]], the grieving process doesn't ''have'' to be dragged out over a lengthy period of time and can be dealt with in a compressed fashion.

#The character who is doing all the angsting may be juxtaposed against other characters who have just as many reasons to angst -- if not more -- than the character in question, but nonetheless compose themselves in a more restrained, dignified fashion and overall deal with it better. Contrary to what some creators think, making one of your characters more whiny than the others will not endear them more.

#For the most part people who spend all or most their time complaining about things -- whether real or fictional -- just aren't very interesting or pleasant to spend time with.

#Even in real life, most people don't actually like hearing people complain, but they may listen anyway out of sympathy. With fiction, they expect to be entertained.