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.
What a bunch of fascist freaks, the soldier who's disgusted by their orders and becomes a rebel is a common trope throughout fiction that touches on war
"it takes a long time and a lot of effort" yeah almost like there are consequences for disobeying immoral orders, as if there should be stakes for characters and the choices they make, god forbid we have a plot
This is the part that got me the most! Like the guy was ordered to commit a genocide and he was genuinely shocked and disgusted as any ordinary human should be; him leaving the military is supposed to reflect well on his character! Like, was I talking to military brats or something?
Doing the right thing and paying a high price for it is something we see in real life, with people who know they'll pay a high price choosing to do it anyway, like Aaron Bushnell who literally killed himself in the most painful way possible, or the (two?) people who sabotaged an arms plant that was making weapons for Israel KNOWING there would be high legal consequences (although obviously this being years later, I'm not saying these people should've influenced their thinking, just that it IS a thing that happens).