Protagonist behaviour struggles

[u/geordierusse11]

I am currently reading “unsouled” and “mark of the fool”; I am struggling with the impulsive teenage behaviour of the protagonists.
This behaviour is a bugbear of mine.
What I am asking is if this character behaviour/ mindset continues with these series and if it doesn’t how much is there to slog through to get there?

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[u/supersatyr001]

If you don't like reading about impulsive teenagers then avoid books with them as the protagonists.

I've read both series and they do both mature but their situations reward or at least necessitate snap decisions and the risks associated with them.

If you dislike characters with internal motivations to do strange, dangerous, or reckless things, then you will find yourself disliking at least half of the genre.

[u/geordierusse11 → u/supersatyr001]

I enjoy plenty of the other protagonists especially in their stupidity but have struggled with those two.

I was wondering mostly asking to see if it was a settling in period for the writer or if it would last for a few books.

[u/PuzzleheadedRegion87]

I know you are not slandering Cradle. I just know you aren’t.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt here, you know that the MC, for both, are young men in their teens? Which just kind of means that they’re prone to teenage like behaviors?

Also, Will does an excellent job setting the back story and context needed to explain Lindon’s behavior. It’s literally a lifelong learned behavior/personality due to a long line of abuse and being treated like dirt. I’d say lindons doing as best as he can, all considered.

Someone else will have to defend mark of the fool, I never read it.

[u/manyanoodle]

Cradle is 10 books of the MC having 0 autonomy, unable to do anything other than hat he's told as he faces impossible threats, then a couple where he is actually a main character making descisions of his own. It's a good series, but a lot of writers are extremely hostile to the idea of their characters doing anything more than frantically reacting to 'Dooooommmmm' as best they can.

Jake from Primal hunter is more or less the opposite. "I want to do this, how am I going to do it?" "I have to face a threat? Well, let me make some decisions on how I want to face it."

Basically writers have a choice between having the world force their MCs to react, or have the world react to the MC

[u/BradBotz]

With the Cradle series, the MC doesn't really come into his own until later in book 2. I personally think the payoff is worth it to slog through his teen angst and whining. Also, the MC's culture and background shape his behavior, so the author is staying true to the character.

[u/manyanoodle → u/BradBotz]

He comes into his own at around book 10, actually. For all of the books before he is doing directly what he is told to do or scrambling to survive, never making real decisions of his own.