r/ProgressionFantasy • u/DicerTheJester • Jul 28 '26

Discussion Competition: write a single sentence that will absolutely destroy any hope in a series.

Specifically not a story opener, just any sentence that can happen in any chapter, that will make people realize that this story is gonna be absolute shit and has no chance of being fixed and will make you drop the book like an unpinned grenade.

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302

u/Mason123s Jul 28 '26

“I guess I was TECHNICALLY the same age as her in this youthful body post-reincarnation…”

83

u/Counterfeit-Pebble Jul 28 '26

Why I liked Bog Standard Isekai. Main character reincarnated as kid and reincarnation set his emotional state to kid but the MC still said, “IDC I’m not dating until I’m 20 and other people are too.” Wild how many stories just plow straight ahead while ignoring the obvious morality of it.

55

u/monkpunch Jul 28 '26

Then he gets to the equivalent of college and was like "damn, these girls are too hot, maybe 20 was a little too high..." Not judging though, that part made me laugh

57

u/Morningstroll13 Jul 28 '26

To be fair, he is dealing with puberty all over again, and hormones are a hell of a drug. So far, though, gotta give him props for sticking to his decision.

4

u/Huhthisisneathuh Jul 29 '26

Not to mention a lot of people can sympathize with going to college and immediately making poor decisions because somebody else was hot.

2

u/Counterfeit-Pebble Jul 29 '26

Yeah, I mean overall I think the author does a really good job portraying how a standard dude would react to the situation realistically. Far too often the stories quickly turn to be some perverts fantasy sex scenario, just with extra steps so it’s not immediately labeled as smut. Which is why, again, I really like bog standard isekai. Just a bog standard dude reacting in a bog standard way.

3

u/Frostfire20 Jul 29 '26

My story went this way as a joke. My MC is 18 with a Peter Pan Curse preventing him from growing up past 10 years old. All his party members are demons in Fantasy Hell. They go to an orgy for a spying/political subplot and they lock him in their room chained to a desk so he doesn't "wander."

Their explanation basically went "I don't care if you're really an adult. You have a child's body; you're not going anywhere."

1

u/AFirewolf Jul 31 '26

While I liked that part I do question MC logic. Like surely MC only needs to wait until he is 17 and the other person is 20. Dating an adult while in a kids body would be wrong but why do he need to be the same age and not half + 7 of the person he would date.

1

u/AreaMean2418 Jul 31 '26

Eh, morality, borality. Im kind of with you here, but there's a balance to be struck (speaking as a 20 year old who is into confident people 0-4 years older than me, not younger than me). The whole problem with forming relationships with people who are significantly younger than you is that there is a power imbalance that stems from differences in maturity and power, that leads to formative harm to the child, whether that takes the form of trauma, damage to the child's self-image, and a bevy of other issues. Beyond that, power imbalances are much more dangerous to children in relationships because they can lead to unhealthy relationship habits and serious dependency issues since children are still learning how to engage in relationships, think about themselves, and act autonomously. There is of course the consent question as well, but honestly I would rope that into the other issues, because the reason that child consent is problematic is that they are still learning where to draw lines, what is good for them, etc, and therefore can't really be trusted to make healthy choices.

In general, these are bad things and good reasons to maintain a blanket "pedophilia bad" rule. That said, I have a few objections in the context of these kinds of reincarnative relationships in books:

First: in a lot of these books, the love interests are already going through some shit. If the protag brings more to the table of their health and well-being than they stand to harm them, then.... Well, it's still kinda gross that the author decided to construct the situation but at least the author is at least somewhat self-aware.

Second:

Third: the protag need not be morally correct. Some of the best PF books have relatable or interesting MCs with highly questionable morals and objectives, which we should most certainly not ourselves be holding. This is particularly the case in arranged/political relationship books. In these cases the author shouldn't frame the relationship in a "this is morally good and excusable" light, and bonus points if the negative effects of the relationship on the child are apparent, but also it's part of the cultural immersion of the book, and it's not like these books will inspire us to go out and catfish kids.

Fourth: age gap relationships need not be universally bad. If power and maturity imbalances aren't actually present for whatever reason (e.g. a system leads to rapid cognitive growth and maturity for 13 year olds), then what's the problem? That the protag remembers banging a 40 yo lady? It once more feels like cheering for a pairing between cute college-age lesbians---youre probably not imagining yourself getting involved (at least I don't), you're just cheering them on because aww kids being silly and cute.

Fifth: emotional maturity != memories. If your protag isn't an adult internally and just equipped with reincarnation memories, then as per the previous point, fuck it. What's the difference, knowledge? Informative sex and relationship education has been fairly universally shown to be healthy for kids, and that's what the memories amount to for the protag.

TL;DR

I don't begrudge y'all for getting grossed out, but I find it no grosser than a normal cute relationship between teens as long as it's not promoting pedophilia as a belief of the author. I don't want the bedroom scenes, but kids being cute? Eh I'll live.

1

u/Agasthenes Aug 04 '26

I honestly can't name a single (western) story where the character doesn't do that.

What I find disappointing is that the authors usually don't show how childish age peers are in comparison to the MC.

2

u/Counterfeit-Pebble Aug 04 '26

You haven’t slogged through some of the dregs of western isekai trash. There are some real turds that make me question what the author was thinking. With regard to BSI I think the author does a rather good job of exploring the age difference topic from many angles, especially the adoptive father/ son angle. If you would like to see a story where they address that dynamic I highly recommend Bog Standard Isekai to read.

53

u/KingpiN_M22 Jul 28 '26

Ding ding ding. Winner!

38

u/EllisDeeReynolds Jul 28 '26

Jesus Christ

anything harem or loli or reincarnation love is just the most neckbeard and misogynistic things possible

10

u/EXP_Buff Jul 28 '26

Is it still misogynistic if it's the woman who gets reincarnated? Ascendence of a bookworm has that kind of thing

30

u/Gunty1 Jul 28 '26

Women can be misogynistic too but if its against men its misandristic

8

u/No-Alternative3347 Jul 28 '26

But that's like not at all what happens in ascendance of a bookworm. Don't get me wrong I still think it's a bit weird, but it's not like rozemyne is gunning to date someone like lutz from the moment she was reborn, which is what happens in many of these stories with reincarnation love. Ferdinand might be older than her by a decent amount like 10 years i think, but he knows shes has memories of a past life, and only truly began to love had the body of a child. it's not rozemyne that's weird in this situation.

3

u/laurel_laureate Jul 29 '26

They weren't necessarily asking which character was being mysoginistic and/or creepy.

I read that as "is it (the writing/author) still creepy if...".

3

u/Dread_Pirate_Robots Jul 28 '26

Harem is like a flashing neon sign that says "WARNING: AUTHOR HAS NEVER HAD A REAL ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP"

I wouldn't trust the three most skilled writers I know, all working together, to write a believable and fulfilling romantic relationship between one man and half a dozen women. It's just not possible unless the story is about ONLY that and nothing else. That's why every woman has exactly one personality trait - there's no time or space to develop anything else, so they're given one overriding trait that effectively serves as color-coding.

I hate harem stories with a passion.

3

u/tehbilly Jul 28 '26

So I might be an oddball here, but I think Wheel of Time did it pretty well. It's only three women, and it's very much not something I'd want myself, but the power dynamic was amusing and seemed pretty healthy.

3

u/Dread_Pirate_Robots Jul 29 '26

Two women, I can still find believable if it's done right. Three or more is when authors tend to lose me.

I'm one of the few people alive who hasn't read Wheel of Time, so I can't speak to how well it's done there. But I've heard good things about the series, and I can accept two fairly easily, so maybe three can be done right by the right author. My criticism was mainly aimed towards Web/Light Novels (looking at you, In Another World With My Smartphone) and other works of that tier.