Thriller Trainee Chapter 201 Discussion

The story follows the plot of transmigration, where our MC inherits the body of a character whose beauty is expressed over and over to the point that you'd think 'okay we get it'. The MC and a number of characters are put into 'instances' (i.e., survival games) where certain tasks have to be completed to successfully pass, the lack of which will result in elimination (i.e., death). Before going further in depth about our MC, let's look at our ML.

I'm going to avoid saying who the ML is, but if I had to summarise him, he is a character with no unique personality.

At least, in my opinion.

This contradicts the author's efforts to make him an entity of complexity and mystery. In short, his actions until now have just been chuckling whenever he appears, smiling all knowingly, and annoying the MC in repetitive manners. It certainly was entertaining at first (who doesn't love an overconfident rascal?), but the continuation of the same pattern for over a hundred chapters is, ultimately, a bore. I don't find him particularly evil (because his evilness in the story is hearsay, as the ML never actually.... gets to do anything particularly evil real time, or do anything at all actually) nor do I find him excitingly unpredictable. He, essentially, is a character I wouldn't miss even if he didn't appear for another hundred chapters.

Something that annoys me incredibly is how ML has no dignity and keeps going behind the MC like a desperate child, forcing himself on the MC, touching him without consent over and over, while the MC looks for ways to escape. In my honest opinion after observing these two for a couple hundred chapers, they should never be a couple.

Spoiler

not to mention that MC only starts developing something close to compassion for the ML after an instance where he encounters the 5/6yr old ver of the ML and basically gets convinced to be more understanding of the ML. The author smoothly avoided having to actually cultivate and nurture the bond between MC and ML through this cliche gimmick and thus made this pairing lose all credibility in my eyes

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Moving onto our MC. He is said to have Antisocial Personality Disorder (made me cringe upon reading this), which I assume is on the milder range of the ASPD spectrum. He lacks empathy, feelings of guilt, and other common ASPD traits. Regardless, he does try to help others, though not for reasons such as others' wellbeing. Or so the author says.

It's shown over and over that the MC has empathy and is able to feel intense feelings (guilt, love, lust, etc.), though the narrative justifies it with 'he just feels responsible' which either is the author intentionally mocking the MC convincing himself that he's heartless, or a genuine effort of the author to convey his ASPD to the audience. Imo, ASPD here is just a crutch the author uses to enhance MC's eccentric personality (which really isn't iconic or unique in any way to me), without actual effort made to consistently maintain this complex and stigmatized personality disorder.

Either way, rather than criticising medical topics and wondering whether MC's diagnosis is valid or not, I'd like to focus on the usage of convenience over and over when it comes to the MC.

First of all, the body that our MC inherits is of an albino male. However, the author explicitly states that this character has all the physical traits of albinism (e.g. lack of pigmentation to explain the characters 'fairness', which we know c-authors love) but none of the side effects of albinism. This treads a line between convenience and fetishism of albinism.

Back to the plot, our MC really does a good job at tackling obstacles. Now, I don't mean to call him OP (though it can be argued). The obstacles are pretty convincing and exciting, and may even leave some readers at the edge of their seats to see how the MC will get around this. However, the way MC tackles them, repeatedly, snuffs out the embers of excitement. It seems that everything is really too convenient. Not once have I seen the MC actually sit, brainstorm ideas and actively gather resources for solutions. This repeats over and over and over, to the point that I was no longer feeling any sort of excitement when there was danger. Because it wasn't long before the MC miraculously evaded it.

Perhaps 'miraculously' is not the right word, as the author spends around 4 - 5 paragraphs explaining why it was possible. At this point I'm just used to random help or objects appearing to aid the MC. It kills the whole flow.

Spoiler

Everyone hungry and starving to death in a famine instance? Author: He whips out fruits. Everyone stuck in a examination instance where they have to memorize a load of shit? Author: He has excellent memory. Stuck in the middle of life and death having to unlock a door with a pin? Author: he is a magician, magicians are good at unlocking things (me: ???)

Rolled my eyes so hard when everyone, including the MC, was trying the impossible task of grabbing a hot air balloon that was floating too high, and suddenly, a clown and the mad hatter that MC talkes to once several chapters ago suddenly appeared to help him.

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Another factor that kills the flow is the cringe-worthy comments from viewers. These comments basically hype up everything that happens in the plot, as if the author is laying down a script for us readers to follow. Not sure if that was the actual intention but it just makes whatever excitement I had completely disappear. Needless to say, I've been skipping reading all these comments.

As for the side characters, none of them are likeable or memorable but then again, the main characters aren't either.

So is the story actually interesting?

So far, no.

The games have a solid foundation but the MC's ability to smoothly overcome everything (at least till now) takes away any possibility of a rich, invigorating plot. None of the arcs so far have been memorable despite me being 200 chapters in.

For anyone who just wants to read a survival game novel to kill boredom, this novel will do just fine. For those who are actively seeking a well-written, thought-provoking novel, you might want to skip this. And for those who are here for horror, just read The Kaleidoscope of Death. Cheers.