Miyu-chan wa Zutto Tomodachi - Ch. 2 - It's Been a While

[Eighty-six]

Ok, first of all, you don't "flesh out" the horridly evil character with a "he came from bad situation" circumstances unless your intent is to force the reader to sympathise with them. There's literally no other reason to do it

I've already addressed this assertion in the rest of the comment you responded to. I'll add that it's unproductive to juggle moral classifications of characters in this kind of conversation because it obscures the reality that we're still talking about a character. The "bad situation" attribute can be applied to any character, "horridly evil" or not, to engender sympathy from the reader...

...or for some other purpose.

Fleshing out any character in any way can be done for doing's sake, for the sake of other characters and/or events in the present or future of the narrative, and/or for the sake of some theme. And those are just general ideas off the top of my head-- never mind the specific "needs" that appear in a specific writing context.

Writing isn't math, and an author's intents often extend beyond simple emotional responses to the characters. The idea that this writing decision like this one has to be to force the reader to sympathize and feel as though his actions were justified almost certainly comes from 1) a lack of creativity, and 2) a lack of willingness to own one's reactions to a work (since the author can't force you to feel anything, and can at most attempt to make you understand the narrative).

 

[elhessan]

Scary and.... lovely??? Mostly scary.. tho I don't think she will harm Yuushin. Most probably, she will harm anyone who bullies Yuushin... And any girl who's trying to get close to him...

 

[joeymcclane]

IDENTIFY THEFT ISNT A JOKE

MICHAEL!!!!!

 

[JustA_]

Pls no bully pity chapter......

 

[00nowhereman]

shes cute so its ok

 

[74HC595]

a highschooler to be exact and one should understand basic morality

I don’t think that necessarily holds true, assuming even high school kids to be rational is a bit of a leap, a good fraction of them make the decision to get a nicotine addiction after all. Morality is taught to children from a young age, but it’s just a learned dogma, not a deeply internalised structure built atop a foundation of mutualism or game theory. If kids can question “why shouldn’t I do drugs”, what’s stopping them from questioning “why shouldn’t I extort from people weaker than me”? Until you take a while to think and understand what’s behind that dogma, it’s arbitrary. I don’t think you can be a responsible and resilient adult without building a morality from first principles, whatever the process it takes to do that.

Especially if the kid in question has amoral things done unto him, he’s probably already deconstructed any notion of morality and mutualism, and we’ve seen a bit of this environment at home that implies to that end. Growing up with abusive parents is a good way to internalise the pattern that idealistic morality is punished, while selfish exploitation goes unpunished; to internalise the pattern of tyranny. Tyranny and mutualism are both stable self-reinforcing structures, he’ll need a big mental push to transition from one mindset to the other, a shock to the core of this identity. And that’s the kind of moment that makes for impactful storytelling. But it’s also possible he skips right past becoming an equal and goes straight from tyrant to slave.

 

[thedinowarrior]

Too bad so sad, asshole lives in a trash heap, cry me a river

 

[arlindofrancisco]

I dont give a fuck if the bully has bad at home... a loser

 

[SakuraKotoni]

Clicked on the story for the cute girl expecting another palate cleanser romcom between the more serious stuff I'm invested in, staying for the intrigue and probably another serious series. I know there's only 2 chapters so far but I am hopeful, this has promise IMO.

However I don't like showing the bully's home life because it hints at a possible redemption arc. I'd honestly be much happier if the story goes, "Yeah here is why the bully is doing these things" and then proceeds to have Miyu mastermind him into getting hit by a train anyway.

 

[R2_Vanitas]

this author never cooked so hard, but recently, he is cooking

 

[motheblackcat]

Author pulls an interesting mystery drama with the main couple annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd here's an arc on the bully no one cares about cause he already ran out of idea or want to stall... (it's only chapter 2 come on! )

 

[YamiryuuZero]

Alright, this is really interesting.
Is she a secret twin sister or just an impersonator?

 

[JoeKerr]

Well it's certainly got my curiosity, my attention not yet.

Oh no, don't go showing the reason to why the bully is such an asshole. Can't he just be an asshole for assholiness' sake?

 

[mornoon]

Bully lookin like he needs an angel next door that spoils him rotten

 

[TheTopAdventure]

So she's not a shape shifter, ghost or other monstruosity beyond my mere human comprehension? aww, man, what a letdown

 

[Mangadexorgy]

What we should know:
1. Miyu was murdered
2. "Miyu" was near to Miyu's murder
3. "Miyu" is doing something for Miyu

 

[JaxunHero]

IM CALLING IT A SPLIT PERSONALITY
That Day during the Fireworks Miyu was in the same bullying situation as MC but was pushed too far & got into an accident
OG Miyu Persona Died & a New Persona took over

 

[idk234]

Honestly I'm way more interested in this now. Finding out what happened is way more interesting to me than spending god knows how long doing "Is she really her?"

me who is just wondering if she is pretending not to be herself

 

[BakedBanana]

Spoiler: Don't click if you haven't finished Kanon.

A girl who likes Taiyaki and supposedly died years ago? Where have I heard that before?

 

[monchi]

wow murai don't care. theres never a good excuse for being a bully