I really like Episode but there are some stories that make it hard to continue because I wonder why the author would think certain things are okay or would “normalize” certain behaviors. I don’t want to take away from a good story just bc some things in the plot don’t fit my views on how things should be. And I get it, Episode is a form of escapism where we can twist our reality a bit. But still, I hope I’m not the only one who struggles with this from time to time. For instance, I have literally stopped reading stories where the female MC would keep sleeping with her male love interest and he’d consistently treat her like crap; and she’s basically bending over backwards to please him. Things like that makes me go WTF.
Does anyone else experience this? How do you disassociate when you’re reading an Episode story when some behaviors, comments, or beliefs don’t align with your own life and how you live it?
Does anyone else experience this? Yes everyone experience action that take place in a story .
I see alots of readers and authors that has state in a comment about it but it true i do experience when i read the story.
How do you disassociate when you’re reading an Episode story when some behaviors, comments, or beliefs don’t align with your own life and how you live it? Well, I would say it depends but it don’t fix my life . As the way the character have treat each other but that how story written and even bad word that character have to each other like if you have read Mafia you would see the way they treat a woman like trash and some will treat them as love but in the story i would say it is sad to see character go through in a hard life and i know authors for some don’t want to copy story so that part i unterstand but it like bother readers . who have read a story to the point . They want to know why she fell in love with him? Why he treat her like trash ? Why is Mafia sleep with each other and then in end of the day , their are done in relationship? Why do Mc or Mafia don’t have good relationship? why boys always bad boy ? why good girl always date bad boy ? What was reason in reading a story that contain behaviors ? Why do i spend gem on story if it not worst for story? Why do killer always harm family or love one ? Why do character always end up with ex and then with next man ? why bad boy always sleep with good girl?
Why Mc or Mafia always end up pregnant in story? Why parent are so violence with their children ?
Why parent is a drug dealing?
All of that question was ask alots of time but i live with respect and more but i never live in that can of life the character have face in a situation . They put them self through .
But everyone live different and some story have real life action .For some people who are going through it in life . I feels your pain and i can see it in story what they trying to said for characters.
My opinion is if a story doesn’t agree with your values, don’t read it. Don’t feel that you “should” be able to disassociate from a story that doesn’t fit your values. There are plenty of other stories out there that don’t have topics like that. (I’ve been sticking to the Episode Community Recommendation and contest winner shelves). For myself, if the action(s) that I don’t necessarily agree with has a reason to be in the story, character development, moves the plot forward, I can deal with it, if the story is well written. But that doesn’t mean I want to continue to read story after story after story that has those same themes. Read the stories you enjoy. Skip the ones you don’t.
If I can’t connect with the main characters, I stop reading…if the li treats the mc badly, depending on the context of the mistreatment , if I don’t like it, then I don’t read it… we all have our own values, so like others have said, if it compromises your values, move on, there’s hundreds of great stories to read
I tell myself that it isn’t me and that everything else about the story makes it worth it to keep reading, but this is only the case with stories which I deem to be pretty good – plot-wise, directing-wise, development-wise etcetera. An example would be Carly from Home Wrecker, I love the story but absolutely despised Carly and practically everything about what she did and how her thought process worked. I know the story is a thriller and Carly probably wasn’t written to be liked anyway (plus, other characters condemned her actions), although I think Joriemar tried to write her in a way that some readers would feel sorry for her (…which didn’t work on me), but I had to suppress that dislike to keep reading because I genuinely wanted to read more and I knew it wasn’t just about Carly, there was more to the story than her and there were other characters that I could better relate to and accept. However, my dislike for Carly (the MC) did impact and hinder my reading experience but nonetheless, I’m glad I found the story and managed to push through it til the end since it was well-written, different and aesthetic. 🤷
With all of that being said though, I do exit a lot of stories because I couldn’t connect, relate, agree with nor find anything else to get me invested that’d work around my dislike/disagreement.
It’s also hugely different for me if the said actions/words/beliefs happen in a story and it’s promoted rather than condemned. I mostly exit right away if the author is seemingly promoting behaviors or beliefs that I don’t believe in myself and/or view as problematic + wrong or questionable.
For those, I don’t just disassociate, I leave.
What was previously said is right though (at least to me), you shouldn’t feel that you need to disassociate when reading a story that challenges how you feel and what you believe in. It’s quite alright to just quit a story that you don’t agree with, you always have the choice to keep reading or exit.
I just stop reading it. It’s not just Episode stories. Books, movies, tv, there’s plenty of stuff out there that can be problematic. I just don’t reward them with my reads/views if I’m not into it. You don’t have to finish every story you start.
I don’t have to. Reading stuff that I don’t agree with or can’t relate to easily is second-nature to me. The ‘WTF’ factor usually makes me more interested lol. I usually just stop reading when it’s stops being WTF and starts becoming boring. Or ‘boring’ compared to what it was before. But I have always been the type of person who purposely goes out of my way to see what’s on the other side.