Stupid, Weak and Needy

[FifthView]

I've just finished marathoning the first five episodes (of eight) of the second season of the Amazon show Hanna, and it seems the showrunners have turned the main protagonist into a stupid, weak and needy character.

I think you can make a good protagonist who is one of these things. But not all three.

I mean, this is almost CW network level bad writing.

The first rule of bad writing is to make a cast of characters who constantly lie to each other, keep secrets from each other, and never talk to one another—simply to manufacture "tension" and to keep the story from being resolved in a single episode or two.

The second rule of bad writing is to make your main protagonist a weak, needy idiot—to manufacture tension, heh, and keep up a false, forced constant rotation of try-fail cycles so the story doesn't resolve too quickly.

^my 2 cents.

 

[pmmg]

Well. Ive not seen the series but i will say two things i strongly dislike are weak main characters and stories that depend on people keeping meaningless things hidden. No one does that. Not sure how needy is meant but i suspect i would agree.

 

[FifthView]

Well. Ive not seen the series but i will say two things i strongly dislike are weak main characters and stories that depend on people keeping meaningless things hidden. No one does that. Not sure how needy is meant but i suspect i would agree.

Weak can take on multiple meanings, and after posting I thought about it some more and think any of those meanings would work here. Physically weak, weak willed, or some other weakness are fine for me if a character is not also stupid and needy.

Needy...In the context of Hanna, this means she desperately wants to be not alone. She's needing companionship, friends, a place where she belongs, etc. In other contexts, a needy character might need love, or some feeling of security, or whatever. Now, all of these sorts of things make a person human. We have needs. But needy, to me, means the need has become all consuming, the single biggest driver of the character. You can forget morality, intelligence (even street smarts), and even to some extent compassion, empathy, and so forth, because the need becomes all for the character, or almost all. Every action, at least every important action, is chosen because of how it promises to meet that need. The character can't do anything else, really. That's neediness. (I may be exaggerating a little here, but I hope I've been clear...heh.)

As with weakness, neediness might be fine for a character, as long as she's not also weak and stupid.

I think these three traits might actually make for an interesting character, as long as the character only has one of these. Heck, a stupid character can be funny and charming—as long as he's not also weak and needy.

 

[The Dark One]

I saw the thread title and just had to make sure you weren't talking about me...

 

[Carl Brothers]

Haven't seen the show. But if it's approaching CW writing bad, then i'll pass. I do agree with your take on weak, needy and stupid. I have a low tolerance for stupid in any characters really, but particularly in the main character.