Plot twists that readers hated

[SirGutsalot]

A few months ago I dropped a bombshell in my comic by killing of one of the main characters when there was only a 2 main characters to begin with. My readers were just like -WHYYYYYY!?!?!?

Have there been decisions you've made in your comic that have ever backfired?

[Kura]

Not really a plot twist but some readers got really pissed off at the introduction of a female character that had the potential to get in the way of their m/m headcanon ship.

Really there are some readers that I just very vocal about her, lots if "I want to stop reading this comic because I hate her so much" or "I almost stopped reading a few times because of her." Then them expression a lot of happiness when something bad happens to her. "I like watching her suffer because I hate her so much."

And she just.... hasn't even done very much in the story yet? She hasn't even gotten in the way of the readers 'ship'... she just being there and having the potential to because she is a female character is apparently enough for people to get angry with the direction the story is going in?????????

[ahhvecadoes]

y i k e s.
i worry about that with new characters being introduced over the next few chapters. shippers can get really cutthroat real fast.

[AoDLegacy]

Oh that stuff? Is it still happening or have they calmed down of late? People who get upset over silly ships miss 90% of the rest of the story because of their obsessions lol. It reminds me of when people outright burned their bleach collections.... ...even though that was their money/their parent's money, not Kubo's, they were destroying. So ridiculous.

Fans are scary creatures o_O

[AoDLegacy]

As for my comic, don't have a big enough fanbase for such outrage, but if I did, and a certain event finally takes place in my comic, ho boy I can see the mushroom clouds from here. That'll be an interesting day. I'll just say that my comic follows my love of tragedy a bit too strongly, but you wouldn't notice from the tone of the starting point of the series I definitely will be uprooting more traditional story paths in this comic, that's for sure.

Generally I find when people flip out over plot twists in hateful ways, the twist was either not executed right or they're just upset about not getting their way. Both are common end results.

[lynestjules]

The only complaint I got so far is when I re-wrote the original story to make it a lot better. Some of my friends who had originally inspired most of my characters got annoyed that I had changed their personalities or cut them out completely.
I think they're over it, in most cases, it made their edited character more popular.

[Vanesalisa]

the apart they said we should talk or open the box or room part it gets me every time

[LordVincent]

Not really a plot twist but some readers got really pissed off at the introduction of a female character that had the potential to get in the way of their m/m headcanon ship.

Really there are some readers that I just very vocal about her, lots if "I want to stop reading this comic because I hate her so much" or "I almost stopped reading a few times because of her." Then them expression a lot of happiness when something bad happens to her. "I like watching her suffer because I hate her so much."

And she just.... hasn't even done very much in the story yet? She hasn't even gotten in the way of the readers 'ship'... she just being there and having the potential to because she is a female character is apparently enough for people to get angry with the direction the story is going in?????????

This whole thing is absolutely awful, but to bring some understanding to the table as to WHY they are doing this, it's because of the way women have been portrayed in yaoi throughout its history thus far. They are either 1. homophobic evil creatures that aim to break up the couple somehow because they think it's bad or disgusting, or 2. romantic rivals that aim to STEAL OUR MAN!!!!!

It is a straight up sexist way of depicting women, and it ends up affecting the way young girls grow to feel about other girls as well as themselves. They're not depicted as individuals with complex feelings or opinions of their own. They are used to symbolize concepts (homophobia) or they are objects. Shallow punching bags for the fans to take their anger out on.

The best way to combat this view of women is to create something that defies this depiction in the media. Just create strong women, weak women, complex women, women who have a reason for what they do. Women of all kinds! Depict them as people. It's okay if you have a woman that gets in the way of the male romance, too, as long as you develop her personality and make her a person, not an object.

For example, I actually intentionally "female shitlord"-baited my audience once. I introduced Nunia from Bloodroot as if she was gonna be a threat to the gay romance. Then it turns out that she's a lesbian who's in a happy relationship and has better shit to do with her life than to get between two gay men. Oops.
This was something I did, knowing how human psychology can work out. If I introduce something in a manner that goes along with audience expectation of what women in yaoi are like, and then shock their system with new information, it forces the brain to think in new ways and reconsider their patterns. If I hadn't lured the minds that I intended to affect into what they considered homely and safe territory initially, I may not have opened them up enough to be able to reach out to them.

Sure, we can all preach gender equality and the like to the people that already agree with us, but what is the point in that? The people we truly need to reach out to are the ones that still carry the problematic tendencies.

[shaneoid77]

Aye, Wil (Night Twink) was seeing a guy but he had to break it off and then the guy kind of stabbed him in the back. I was kind of going down the BL angle but wanted to show the intensity of a fleeting relationship. I lost a few subs over that haha.

[jiany0u]

YES PREACH!!! I'm a woman, I love women, and I love writing/drawing women, but my comic is BL so the main characters are men. So, I'm having every single one of the side characters be women and they're all going to be amazing. I remember reading a yaoi manga where the MC was best friends with a girl, and they had a really fun and friendly relationship. The woman was super likeable and well-developed, too. It was so refreshing! (But then the MC's boyfriend violently raped him and they still kept dating so... next)

Also, the bait-and-switch you mentioned is kind of a brilliant idea.

[Mari]

Basically all of my main's plot twists were hated, but more because they were sad & depressing than because they were thought to be OOC or bad.

[indagold]

The main villain in my comic: Welcome Back made all the girls reading it nosebleed over back when I posted it on deviantart. Constantly shipping him and Mallena, shipping him with everyone. Everyone wanted Jacob and I gave him the shaft because, well, his death was bound to happen. I kinda suspected people got angry he didn't exist anymore because the ones that shipped him stopped commenting. They only commented when he appeared.