nnozomi

Oh yeah, definitely! This just had me thinking about it sort of sideways, hah, in that I feel like the reader isn’t generally approaching character actions with vast analytical skepticism to begin with, so provided that we spend enough time up close with a character we’re pretty unlikely to feel like they’re driven by “because the author said so.” (And really this is the essential difference between fiction that’s character-driven and fiction that isn’t, right? Because for me all the books that jump immediately to mind as having this issue are ones falling under headings like hard sci-fi / speculative cyberpunk / Sci-Fi With a Message, where the author’s principal concern was very obviously to show off their worldbuilding or their politics, not their characters. Cough, Frank Herbert...) ITA that ensuring that the reader has a feel for what the character’s “rational” looks like is the crucial point!