Questionable Questing

I think its basically that. You can't find yourself acting like that IRL so you imagine an aspirational version that can say or do the things you wish you could.

I get it

it's just when some people do act it out irl that

well, when it's cute, you could say it's a bit chuuni, but often, it's not cute, so it's cringe and, well, you know what I mean, right?

Yeah, probably because how they imagine it and how they say it hits different. People go, um, ah, err, pause and trip over their own words. They feel they sound insincere when they are trying to be authentic and you can hear that in their voice, that they don't really believe what they're saying, thus...cringe.

Some readers also get mad at protagonists for not noticing something, calling it clueless, but most people don't notice visual cues irl, since most people don't stare at other people because that's weird or something... and some times, social interaction requires one side to intentionally act clueless to get the ball rolling

but, ya know, readers and writers seem to wanna have it different

Reality of how things are, and ideals of how they should bit, tend to not meet. Entertaining fiction is when you balance them to your readers.

Well, sometimes it overlaps. They say that you have to kill your heroes to make a good story, as in an author should be able to hurt their protagonists in meaningful ways.

Or maybe I'm just a masochist.

I like hurting my heroes, but then have them overcome that and have their happy ending with everything ending well.

...I just haven't gotten around to the second part at the moment.