Blaming characters for problems in the plot
Sara Jaye's post on Damsel Scrappies got me thinking about this (actually, I started posting it there, but thought it might be off-topic). I've noticed that there are a large number of bashers who, when they complain about a certain characters, are really annoyed/upset with things that happened around or to that character. They're annoyed with the plot, but they're displacing their dissatisfaction onto a character. Examples:
-A character gets kidnapped or otherwise imperiled more than once, often in similar situations. What's really bugging fans is the "skipping record" narrative, but instead of saying, "man, I wish the author could come up with something different for once!", they blame the character.
-A hero does something out of character, and there's a love interest around when s/he does it. Fans are bothered by the out-of-sync actions of the hero, but instead of saying, "Based on X episode or Y dialogue, I really don't think he'd do something like that," they blame the love interest.
-A regular cast member is killed off or otherwise disposed of in a fake, unsatisfying way, and a newbie takes his or her place. Fans are upset over the fake, unsatisfying death/removal, but instead of saying, "They couldn't have thought of a better way to get that character out of the story?", they blame the newbie.
-a character is just fine on paper, but through sheer bad luck, always seems to be at the forefront when the show/game/book is at its nadir. The plot is the problem; the character gets blamed.
So... what's up with this?
-A character gets kidnapped or otherwise imperiled more than once, often in similar situations. What's really bugging fans is the "skipping record" narrative, but instead of saying, "man, I wish the author could come up with something different for once!", they blame the character.
-A hero does something out of character, and there's a love interest around when s/he does it. Fans are bothered by the out-of-sync actions of the hero, but instead of saying, "Based on X episode or Y dialogue, I really don't think he'd do something like that," they blame the love interest.
-A regular cast member is killed off or otherwise disposed of in a fake, unsatisfying way, and a newbie takes his or her place. Fans are upset over the fake, unsatisfying death/removal, but instead of saying, "They couldn't have thought of a better way to get that character out of the story?", they blame the newbie.
-a character is just fine on paper, but through sheer bad luck, always seems to be at the forefront when the show/game/book is at its nadir. The plot is the problem; the character gets blamed.
So... what's up with this?