I was writing a fantasy novel and in it, the captain and his troops were ordered to massacre a village (of fictional creatures); after the massacre the captain quit his position in anger and disgust; the captain had also smuggled a child out of the village.

When I mentioned this on a writing forum I was on, people got upset and everyone rebuked the idea that the captain would quit his position and defy orders because…it takes a long time and a lot of effort to become a captain.

This was supposed to be a positive reflection on the character, that he would be disgusted at being ordered to commit a genocide (it wasn’t JUST a massacre; absolutely no one from the village was to be allowed to live, including kids), but posters got upset because…it takes a long time and a lot of effort to reach such a rank and no one would quit their positions or disobey orders, that it was unrealistic; people were genuinely upset; PEOPLE WERE GENUINELY UPSET.

My conclusion? A rewrite of the character so he’s not a military dog, but someone else who would’ve been in the area and ignored. My novel has anti-colonial themes although they weren’t that central to the story; if the military are supposed to be jackbooted thugs then that’s how they’re going to be portrayed going forward.

I genuinely can’t believe people would actually be upset at this point when it’s supposed to reflect well on the character; this post was also an old one, as in around 2016-2018, so before the Gaza genocide or the Russian SMO. Absolutely disgusting bootlicking individuals.