I think this is only the second time in the eight years since I started posting on SOL that I chose to delete a comment. But the last comment on The Runesmith Chronicles (as well as my response to it) had to go.
In my attempt to do these characters justice, I have to get into their heads and figure out how they would think, feel, and react in any given situation. That gives me a pretty intimate knowledge of their psyche and reasoning, including why they make the flawed or frustrating choices they do.
If readers get annoyed at a character's decisions (anyone remember Dax needing to kill someone because Kal bitched out?) or root against a bad guy? Cool. Fine. I get it. That means I’m doing my job and you’re engaged with the story. That kind of character debate is always welcome.
But there is a massive difference between calling out a character's actions and saying a main character who’s been here almost from the start should just be drowned and left for dead.
That isn't story critique... It's just pure hostility.
I'm too heavily invested in these characters and in keeping this comment section a good place to hang out to tolerate that level of vitriol. Debate character decisions all you want, but extreme hate will simply be deleted.