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.
These people hafe clearly never been exposed to sci fi. That shit happens all the fucking time in sci fi. Its a huge part of Babylon 5
Honestly the part that got me the most was how they couldn't imagine someone would be utterly disgusted and aghast at committing genocide that they'd just up and quit; is this how they imagine heroic troops to be?