Would this work? (character motivation, not game related)

[Astel]

I'm currently writing a novel, and I'm wondering about certain plot point...

In this world the humans barely survived a war against the elves (they kind of deserved it, to be honest) and are now confined in a small area of the world, with the constant threat of being wiped out if they venture out of their set limits, of course that generates some resentments... the thing is, barely anyone has seen the elves in almost 20 years, yet most people hate them as a pure concept.

My protagonist is witness of the almost lynching of an elf woman caught by pure chance in a small town near the limits, he saves her and after seeing her so weak and helpless, he can't keep that mental image of them being supernatural evil monsters, he had spent most of his life resenting the elves because his father died in the war (he didn't even get to know his father) but now he finds himself feeling a weird kind of fascination/obsession with this elf woman (not in a completely healthy way).
Just to get it out of the way, the elves in my setting are not particularly beautiful, as they are way too thin and with some disturbing inhuman features.

Could this be possible? Any suggestions?

 

[estriole]

my personal opinion... it's kinda forced... hatred that accumulated for long time and become 'common' concept is not that easy to ignore... it would be better that there's some interaction between the girl with MC 'before' it revealed that the girl is an elf...
example the girl wear hoods that cover the inhuman features.... then MC found the girl in the mountain or something... maybe seeing the girl helping some wounded animal etc (so the MC found that the girl is a good person)... some interaction happen few times between MC x Girl... then Girl caught out by the other villager and finally revealed that she is an elf... something like that could soften the MC before accepting the girl as an elf and not try to kill her too instead ...

hope this help.

 

[Astel]

The thing is, can you really call it hate when the object of your hate is pretty much non-existent? Like if your family told you that you dad was killed by fairies, but you grow up without even knowing how fairies actually look like.
And to be clear, this doesn't happen immediately, for most of the story they can even talk to each other, and honestly even by the end of the story it would hard, even dishonest, to call whatever the protagonist feels for the elf "love" in the usual sense of the word, more like some twisted sort of fetishism.

thanks for the feedback

 

[estriole]

The thing is, can you really call it hate when the object of your hate is pretty much non-existent? Like if your family told you that you dad was killed by fairies, but you grow up without even knowing how fairies actually look like.
And to be clear, this doesn't happen immediately, for most of the story they can even talk to each other, and honestly even by the end of the story it would hard, even dishonest, to call whatever the protagonist feels for the elf "love" in the usual sense of the word, more like some twisted sort of fetishism.

thanks for the feedback

hmmm in my opinion people can hate and fear something even they never even seen the real thing...
back in ancient days... people hate and fear sea monster even they never see them directly (ex: kraken etc)... lots of people could also hate some character in history (for example hitler) just by hearing what he done in WW...

using your example... if your family told you that your dad was killed by tiger in a jungle... even you never see any tiger you might hate the tiger for causing the tragedy to your family... especially when hating the tigers is already a common concept in your community... you might even shoot at cute baby tiger when you see one .

it's lots easier to hate or fear than loving something in this world...
and it would be magnified when you have some 'casualty'...

also i think when the hate already become 'common concept'... they might already spread on how their hate object look like... at least the unique characteristic... and like you said the elf in your story have unique characteristic... they might spice thing up the detail (make them sound more evil and dark)... but the unique characteristic might still intact... that's why i suggest the girl cover the unique characteristic using something like a cloak etc when first met the MC... and it also make sense if you're an elf and in human teritory that hates elves... you might want to hide you're an elf... unless elf does not know human hates elves .

and i don't say that it does not work at all... just feel FORCED in my opinion. .

hope this help.

 

[Astel]

It certainly helps, more than anything with the rewriting, as the novel is 92% finished as a challenge for the National Novel Writing Month. 50k words in 30 day is not a joke


Sadly, I'm writing in my mother language (spanish).
Thanks for the feedback again