Natalie C. Anderson
Teoksen City of Saints & Thieves tekijä
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Tekijän teokset
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Sukupuoli
- female
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Tilastot
- Teokset
- 5
- Jäseniä
- 662
- Suosituimmuussija
- #38,094
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 4.0
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 17
- ISBN:t
- 31
- Kielet
- 4
We have Good Guy and Bad Guy. Bad Guy is, like, really bad. They rape and murder innocent people and they won't stop. The justice system is either too corrupt to prosecute them or they're too careful to leave any proof of their crimes. The only way to stop them is to kill them.
Good Guy knows this and, while they have a strict moral code and have never killed anyone before, spends the entire book/movie hunting down Bad Guy to kill them.
The chance comes, they're face to face, Good Guy's gun pointed at Bad Guy's head. It's now or never. Good Guy's about to pull the trigger when Bad Guy says, "Go ahead, shoot me. But if you do you'll be just like me."
Despite the fact that Good Guy has had the whole book/movie to consider the consequences of what they're planning to do and come to terms with them, they think Oh shit, they're right. I can't kill them because then I'd be a killer. Bonus points if they're related in some way and the Good Guy can see some of their own face in Bad Guy's. Good Guy hesitates. Bad Guy takes the opening and goes for their gun.
There's a loud bang!
Good guy thinks Did they shoot me??? No I'm not hurt. Blood starts to spread on Bad Guy's chest. Did I shoot?? No, my gun's cold. Good Guy turns to look over their shoulder. Unexpected Side Character stands behind them with a smoking gun before slipping away into the night/mist/forest.
Good Guy turns back as Bad Guy slumps to the ground. Dead. Good Guy gets to have their cake and eat it too as Bad Guy is now dead and Good Guy got to keep their hands clean, never having to make any hard decisions or deal with any consequences of those decisions.
Scene.
I am so tired of this trope! First of all, the whole "If you do this you'll be just like me" thing is so overdone. Is killing someone ever morally justified? How about when taking one person's life could save the lives of countless others? Philosophers have debated this ethical dilemma for centuries. We've all heard about the trolley problem. We've all thought about what we'd do in that situation. And ultimately there is no "correct" answer, there's just what each of us decides is the ethical choice in a given situation given our own personal sets of values. So, sure, have this scene and maybe we can learn something interesting about the main character. We could get to see what she really values in that split second she has to decide what to do. It's tired but it would give some insight into our MC's true character. That is if the author has the courage to go through with it and have them make the choice instead of foisting the responsibility onto a side character we barely know and never see again.
Tina's story ends up wrapped up neatly in a bow and we never even see what she thinks about what went down. Her father is dead and she doesn't think about him once in the denouement, she just moves on. She never struggles with any sense of guilt or even considers what she would have done if Catherine hadn't been there to shoot Omoko.
She hasn't changed at all because of what happened and that's about the worst way you could end a book.
Still giving 3 stars because the set-up was really well done and I was really invested in the characters and the world.… (lisätietoja)