"most helpless character I've ever come across in fiction" Either you don't read/watch much or what you're saying is an opinion without much context.
Oh? Examples please? As I said before Maya takes the Damsel in distress trope to whole new level's.
Ok, i am going to break my own rule of not to speak to this guy. You dont feed the troll.
Honestely i am never sure if he is an incredible mysoginist adult, as he claim, or he is a 12 years old boy, wich seems more reasonable belief. Anyway such a proud ignorance over fiction is more than a son of two librarians can stand.
For started we live in a post-Kafka world. An author who made her entire work out of characters who cant overcome even the most easy tasks in the world. We had a story in wich not even the coprotagonist, but rather the protagonist does literally nothing all across the story right until the end when he kill himself couse his family can't even stand him. But even better we had in "The trial" a fiction in wich the protagonist goes from door to door useless, as the burocracy eats him alive with nothing he can do to overcome his doom. Thats when it comes to helpless character.
But you want a damsel in distress?, wich even if is a literary trope you still claim that there is no example to put against Maya. Well, tell me what Helen of Troy does in 10 years of war wich are to blame on her? What Penelope, wife of Odisseus did in 20 years except to sew? And someone remember something that the queen Guinevere, Arthurs wife, did except to cheat on her husband? And what about Isolda, did she do something, except to unkowingly drink a love potion? And Ofelia from Hamlet, what she does except to drawn herself? Cossete from Les Miserables, she did something meanwhile everyone where getting shoot, half of them trying to help her? Did Esmeralda from The Huncheback of notre Damme, does she something besides fucking the only character who dont give a crap out of her, meanwhile the huncheback save her ass again and again? And what about Cunegunda, from Candido, a character who is defined by being slightly less idiot than her husand, but not to much? Or Eugene Grandet from Balzac wich is a sterotype of every naive girl ever alive. What about Madame Bovary, who got herself broke before killed herself couse she wanted to cheat on her decent husband. Or Mathilde from Stendhall, wich does nothing except to get bore. Did the Queen Anne of Austria something in both the three musketeers or the continuation, even if in both books the plot is always to save her ass? Has any female character from Hemingway ever done something besides to serve drinks to the protagonis? Arwen from Tolkien, did she does something except, again, to sew meanwhile the whole world risk their luck in a war? In the One thouthands and one night, a male protagonist watch as his girlfriend kills alone an entire army to protect him meanwhile he does nothing. Hey, did Anna Karenina, Natasha Rostova or Dunia sister of Raskolnikov, did any of them do anything? The first two get in love of the wrong guy, screwing a couple of dudes lifes, the latter one get tricked by an ashole until his brother save her ass.
I got tired, there are hundreds of names on that list. But even with that is useless couse the main point here is in wich moment in life someone can get so fuck up that can advocate to strongly reject to help someone wich is in need with the main reason being: that they are in need. How cannot read this as a guy justifying his own selfishness?
How to talk about literature when the whole narrative process, as any human interaction, demands to feel pitty of thoose who are in need? How you read Oliver Twist, a story about a poor orphan, when you dont give a fuck about others people problems. Even worst you find, to have problems, a descalification by itself. It's not only clear that you didn't read anything except porn games and maybe the Atlas rebelion, but you also couldnt read anything besides that, because you couldnt understand them at an emotional level with that mentality.
