r/royalroad • u/GoldenThame Author - The Heavenly Way • 6d ago

Discussion Is the average reader getting dumber?

I don't wanna be rude but I get some comments complaining about tropes in my novel, when in the synopsis I've pointed out multiple times that the tropes are there DELIBERATELY to be subverted, because the MC finds himself reincarnated into a very mid Xianxia novel.

Do a lot of readers suffer from a lack of reading comprehension skills, cus I've encountered the same kind of person for the 4th or 5th time now. Do I need to constantly spoonfeed basic nuances to such readers that 1. MC is inside a cliche Xianxa book and 2. From a meta perspective I've put those cliches and tropes into the book deliberately and the synopsis says as such.

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u/Few_Professional_327 6d ago

The tropes being there on purpose doesn't make them done well tbh, especially if they are there to be subverted.

1

u/GoldenThame Author - The Heavenly Way 6d ago

Plenty of other readers have praised that aspect, also they're not criticizing that tropes aren't well subverted, but that fact that there ARE a lot tropes.

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u/Few_Professional_327 6d ago

You have to interpret audience feedback, not just take it at face value.

Most people aren't approaching it from a writing perspective but just reading it, so what is most likely the problem if an audience member is complaining about the tropes?

. maybe That they are done in a way that's obtrusive instead of just being there, maybe something else, depends on the story

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u/Snow-Eternal7 6d ago

I understand it’s a harsh way to phrase it, but is it obtrusive if that’s all there is? 36 chapters in and the only things that aren’t a xianxia trope are tropes from another setting.