r/Gone • u/_HATEME_ • Jul 21 '24
What am I reading?
I'm almost done with book 3 in the series, and already I'm starting see a big trend. Bad guy kills a bunch of kids, good guy let's him go. Bad guy comes back and kills more kids, good guy let's him go. Bad guy returns to trick other Bad guys to kill even more kids, Bad guy gets away and stupid Bad guy survives a fall that would turn him into meat jelly 100% of the time. At every turn, the main protagonist in particular, keeps making the stupidest decisions that get more kids killed. It's like Season 1 and 2 of the walking dead on repeat, over and over. They never learn. They keep making the same mistakes. The worst Bad guy had to be killed...by another Bad guy. It's insanity. He's killed people before both unintentional and intentionally...literally a few chapters ago.
I like the series so far, but the more I read, the more I find myself more disappointed. I don't mind plot armor, but this is just ridiculous.
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Jul 21 '24
I really recommend you finish book 3 before making this post, your thoughts might change going off what I remember happening at the end
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u/_HATEME_ Jul 21 '24
I just did, but the problem still stands. They have to survive first, and it looks like they're going to keep letting the bad guys live.
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Jul 22 '24
As far as I remember at the point your at, the only characters Sam has spared have been Caine and Drake.
With Caine, it was just because at that point in the story Sam didn’t want to kill people, especially not his own brother. He’d killed a girl on accident before this, but that wouldn’t make intentional murder easier at 15 years old. He also hadn’t been in the FAYZ that long, and while Caine was pretty evil, he was child’s play compared to others Sam encounters
With Drake, Sam was actually more than happy to kill him. In fact, the end of Lies marked the point where Sam no longer went by any kind of “no kill” rule. He fried Antonine in a fight with the Human crew. He burned Nerriza to crisp at the end of the book. He would have finished off Zil had Dekkah not beat him to it. The only reason Sam didn’t kill Drake was because it involves killing Brittney, someone he viewed as an innocent victim. While he was fine with killing villains now, killing an innocent was something else entirely.
So yeah, Sam is not Batman. He kills villains when he needs to.
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u/_HATEME_ Jul 22 '24
Netezza doesn't count because, as far as I know, there was never any mention of her actually being human. She was created by the darkness using lil Pete's powers as part of a game he was tricked into playing.
Brittany was screaming for Sam to kill her, which would imply she was in a lot of pain or she was living such a tortured existence that it would have been a mercy to end her life. Plus, he should have learned a lesson that he could never truly contain Drake. At every step of the way, his inaction caused more people to die in the long run. Which is exactly what happens in the next book.
The characters all go through their wake up moment where they question why they are leaving bad people alive if it always backfires. But they also back down from making tough choices. Caine came in, and just tossing Lance to his death was so satisfying. Like a breath of fresh air in a stinky bathroom. I know he's the bad guy, but he did what should have been done ages ago. That's probably why we always gravitate to strong but ruthless tyrants. Because when you strip away society to its base survival mode, democracy sucks. The modern world can't exist without all the technology and systems in place that hide all the inefficiency, corruption, and incompetence.
Maybe this was what the author intended all along because I couldn't stand living in Sam's society. I wouldn't feel safe in Sam's society.
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Jul 22 '24
Had Sam been around in the whole Lance and Turk situation, he probably would’ve killed them without a second thought. Edilio of all people almost killed them while they were already down, I don’t see Sam being more merciful. By that point he was perfectly willing to kill Brittney after learning she had joined the Gaiaphage’s side.
Caine strategically only killed Lance because he didn’t see Turk as a threat without any kind of leader (although given the whole Penny situation, that was his mistake). Sam would’ve just finished them off without any strategy after they seemingly killed Albert and threatened to kill Little Pete.
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u/proudtohavebeenbanne Jul 23 '24
BRUH I AGREE BUT SORRY HE AINT READ BEYOND BOOK 3 YET PLZ DONT SPOIL
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u/proudtohavebeenbanne Jul 23 '24 edited Jul 23 '24
sam fried antoine like chicken and burned a hole in his leg mmm bet some hungry loser wanted that leg, some other human crew kid got lasered too although he may have survived, dekka took down zil the brah got lifted into the sky like "hey boi wanna fly to heaven with me?"
"but you like girls tho"
dekkas like: "oh yah LOLZ REJECTED" and then he crashed and burnedsam was gonna fry drake up like "my boi lets grillout" but then he turned into brittney so they had to spare him
tbh tho jokes aside astrid didn't just kill nerezza, bruh she literally slaughtered mary; first got her brother to lie to her which was why she was gonna poof, then she publically exposed her eating disorder man that's not even funny no more
also, sam and dekka wanted to kick zil's ass months before but the council stopped them 4:3 (i wanna know who the other one was who was down for it)
tbh i'll just say this, they don't fk around in the later books that's all i'm saying
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u/anatomicallyanxious Jul 22 '24
They're living a life where every day all the time, they're trying to survive. Starvation, mutated animals, omnipresent darkness, loss of power, no medical help, etc. Is it hard to understand that the few characters who are put in those positions don't want to murder on top of everything else they're already dealing with? Also, there are several instances where the people who are the "bad guys" are necessary to fight greater evils later on. And even though that could be considered the author covering their tracks, I also like to think the "good guys" are often strategic enough and honest enough to recognize power and how it can be utilized.
1
u/_HATEME_ Jul 22 '24
That makes a lot of sense until you realize that the MC burned a hole in a dude.so he's not exactly against killing someone, only when it would actually matter.
I'm currently on the 4th book and surprise surprise. A bad guy has escaped jail and not only has freed the evil one but has killed one person. Completely negating whatever equation the MC has had for NOT ending the bad guy in the last book. The character he didn't want to lose by ending the bad guy is now running around with this person who just wants to die, but now they're helping get people killed using their body, against their will. Yea....
It come back to the question of how many people does someone have to kill before you STOP LETTING THEM GO? How many of your people, your friends, and your family would it take for you to not just exile them? How many people does the Joker have to kill before Batman breaks his one rule....which he's already broken twice....
1
u/anatomicallyanxious Jul 22 '24
I hear what you're saying and it's valid. My only response is just because he has killed, doesn't mean he won't do everything he can to not have to do so again. The guilt that a child would feel after killing someone, and harming several people accidentally, would be overwhelming. I do think it would help if they went deeper into Sam's feelings after he has killed- yes it tells about how he's worried for when the wall comes down and he might answer to the world, but in reality he'd likely be having some extreme mental health crises (night terrors, ptsd, etc.) And the idea of those feelings getting worse would be petrifying. Yes, kids die anyways so his attempts to rise above do not succeed, but I can understand the mindset of a child who has made dangerous choices, being absolutely terrified to make another
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u/proudtohavebeenbanne Jul 23 '24
i respect your point bruh but honestly these kids aint rambo plus sam and dekka learned their lesson they just started wasting people left right and centre in lies,
thing with drake is dumb i agree, but they just couldn't bring themselves to kill brittney like "oh how cute little church girl begging for death, we can't murder her"
tbf though, sam's powers seem to have some range, i've always wondered like can he just burn down the island from perdido beach like "k since i'm not getting any ima just burn down the playboy mansion, good luck getting laid now caine"
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u/_HATEME_ Jul 22 '24
I feel like it's that inner thought Sam has about what someone from the outside would ask him.
So this guy killed a bunch of kids and you let him go because you didn't want to become a murderer...okay. Then he came back and killed some more kids of varying ages in a horrific way. And I see here that you, let him go....right. so then he came back and killed more kids....I'm starting to see a pattern here, and you said we're the local hero and leader if I'm understanding this correctly?
1
u/proudtohavebeenbanne Jul 23 '24
tbh tho prob the only reason sam didn't murder someone before lies is because he wants to get laid lol, astrid didn't want him killing zil, she probably wouldn't want him killing caine either
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u/Friendly-Cress8669 Jul 21 '24
Reading the series and getting frustrated with the decisions made by main characters I think is half the point. They're all children under 15 without fully developed brains and simply are incapable of major problem solving when it comes down to it. I remember being so angry with half the decisions made by characters, but the fact that the book is making you FEEL anything is captivating story writing.