Pet Peeves about Characters and Character Development

Probably when the main character just reacts to events instead of doing things. Like, I can understand if it’s the first few chapters of like, an isekai or urban fantasy thing and they just found this weird world thing, but once they learn things they should do stuff! Some characters keep this up the whole story, and it’s real annoying when the main character is basically a non entity with 0 free will

When perfectly understandable reactions are treated as the character's worst moments/never forgiven/the person causing the reaction is portrayed as right. Most recent example that's annoyed me, Character A doesn't like Character B, he's several times tried to disengage from Character B, he's walked away, he's said no I'm not talking to you, he tried to walk away again. Character B insistently got in his way and demanded attention and advice. Character A is portrayed as the bad guy in this situation and the right thing to do was relent and do as Character B asked. And what's worse is that fans are often of the same opinion "he should just give him advice, he's being mean". Now Character B notoriously can't read the room, he is so socially awkward it's painful, but Character A continuously goes out of his way to try and be away from Character B and is portrayed as the bad guy for saying leave me alone or I don't want to talk to you or even lashing out one time.

Obviously a very specific example, but it happens all the time that characters, especially shounen inspired MCs act in these really awful way and people reacting normally or understandably are the villains just for not automatically accepting their friendship and this shounen nonsense.

I don't mind unique names,but i saw (maybe even on forums) creator asking us for name advice, and some names were usual names, just in different countries, but some suggestions were weird spellings of basic/common names, why is it bad to give your character basic name? My mc is named Dawn which is pretty basic in my opinion, also i almost every character(except for literal random characters that are just there to be there ,like teachers, random classmates, etc) has name that tells about their personality/role in story

I hate when some character is portrayed as mean/evil (this depends on do you read some high school story where it usually is just mean person, or fantasy where antagonist wants to kill everyone) ....they are only on the evil side because we see story from the eyes of mc, for example in High School Musical (keep in mind i watched this AGES ago), Sharpay is villain only because Gabriela (i think that's her name) is mc, if roles were reversed and S was protagonist, she would of been seen as girl that did everything she could but still wasn't good enough , i'm also SURE that Disney would portray G as some new mean girl that stole everything from S.

There is also that movie called Zapped i think, where mc BRAINWASHES guys in her school just because they happen to be male ( she hated how messy her new step family is so she decides that every boy is messy????) and girl that stole her device is portrayed as evil? Now, i watched this when it came out (google says 2014) so i forgot everything, if i did ,feel free to correct me

Names are hard when you're not going for an english or germanic name. A simple example is Dragoș. Sounds cool in a part of the world, derpy in another.

For many Mihail Popescu might be an exotic name,

Very recently, yesterday, I had a character called "Buffalo Nacablacam." I nicknamed her "Crash" real quick.

My rule is: Short or easy to roll of the tongue.

Really dislike this:

Suddenly forgetting your skills and experience because "development"

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And the whole "man dumb but lucky" stereotype.

I also hate manchild characters so basically every character
Will Ferrell ever played.

I think names are just a really tricky thing in general and you're never going to please everyone with them. As long as I like it, I've basically given up trying to please people with naming. For instance I have a character named Ruairi, which is basically pronounced Rory. Lots of people would say that's dumb why not just call him Rory then? But it's a legitimate celtic variation.

I like giving my character unusual names because it just a fun thing to do. I don't think I really need to explain myself at all. I think it sort of silly to expect writers to stick to only American names, it just get boring after awhile.

I don't know why you are being to hard on Xavier, that name is not that weird. And it might be a bit more popular than you think. At least in the US, it is more common as an African American name.

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I think names get annoying when the author goes out of their way to make a name difficult to read or pronounce. Example, Elon Musk's child. With stuff like that, I would gladly prefer Apple or Frog instead.

I think this is the thing for me with name guides. Like, if someone asks I'll tell them, but like when you start saying "give the readers a pronunciation guide for everything not common in America" that's a bit... not great? America-centric? Like at that point, I'd just say, give a pronunciation guide to all names. Who's to say my readers from countries where English isn't as common know how to pronounce Michael or Rebecca? I think as long as you're not making a name up and sticking a load of new letters in, I'm not that bothered by how people pronounce my characters names anymore. Who does it actually harm if they're pronouncing them wrong? Did it change Harry Potter than apparently lots of people didn't know how to pronounce Hermione? And if you're reading on Tapas, you probably have the internet and can look if up if it bothers you so much.

It's like, taking a step slightly to the side, I once had to explain to someone the reason a manga didn't explain how the Japanese school system works, is because they assume you know. Would you expect an American show to pause to explain how the American school system works? That's where I am on names; if people care, they can look it up or ask.

What annoys me is fake character development, so the character learned a lesson, sometimes even got a significative haircut, became more mature while keeping the original traits that makes them endearing......

but suddenly, all that is forgotten and the character behaves exactly like before their so called development.

Is understandable when a character struggles to learn the lesson.....but when said change of heart is dropped like an electric pencil, one has the urge to roll their eyes for all the wasted scenes that led to that so called development.

Another one that rubs me off is when a character changes so drastically that they are basically another character. Without a justification like a brainwash machine or possession, these changes becomes weird and breaks the willing suspension of disbelief.

I end up reading A Lot of web novels for work, and my current Absolute Least Favorite things to see are

Relatable Pathetic Lead - The lead whose main characteristics are "eats a lot", "is stupid", and "somehow everybody loves them or they need to save the universe". The dude version of this is usually horny, the girl version is usually clumsy and easily flustered. Especially in a drama, it really throws me off if the main character never seems to take things seriously or work towards things and that's not treated as a conflict. None of those are bad traits. Like, Luffy from One Piece may be a hungry dumbass, but he's also a pretty complicated character, if a very simple person.
Honestly, I'd rather have a character with no flaws than somebody who seems genuinely irritating and incompetent with no particular interesting points beyond a generic good heart and it's always played as cute and funny. It's supposed to be a 'relatable' thing, but isn't that... pretty harsh on your readers. I want leads who are active and driven, or at least inactive for interesting reasons!
I prefer my incompetent characters to be stone cold, unrelatable weirdos with baffling side skills. Like the entire cast of Noazaki-kun.

Surrounded by Props - My biggest nemesis is Dude Isekai where everyone just stands around to make the main character look good. Every lady is helpless and in love with him, or an evil seductress (and also in love with him). Every dude is a irredeemable asshole or the main character's lackey.
It speaks to a worldview I find genuinely creepy and upsetting, like the author can't imagine seeing people as anything other than "mine or in my way". (To be clear, this isn't limited to dude isekai, but it is where I see is the most) I also worry about young readers who read nothing but this stuff and talk about a character acknowledging flaws or apologizing as weak and uncool, and people who don't suck up to the lead character as evil.

The Trauma Chain - I like stories dealing with how we react to extreme circumstances, but so many authors seem to attempt to accomplish this by bring in a new trauma every five chapters. People can spend their entire life recovering from one terrible experience, but protagonists in these stories can lose their entire family in a fire and then, at the end of the season/book/arc, the author declares it dealt with and moves on. It's especially frustrating when a character I really love dies, and it's supposed to have this huge impact, but then they're just never mentioned again and nobody seems impacted by it. American TV seasons are particularly bad about this IMO.
For a good inverse, I love in FMA that Nina remains a guiding force for Ed and plays a role in his final decision at the gate. She's a side character, but, even if they didn't say her name, her impact stayed.

When every character in a story talks about how this character is so smart, but it ends at that. The character in question never does anything to prove they're smart. Just one dumb decision after another.