: Re: Does objective criticism exist, and if yes, does it matter? So, the rather controversial concepts of objective criticism and objectively bad art are a fairly hot topic, even more so nowadays.

@Kaufman555

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A Story Is Not Only One Thing

But, to ratchet down tension slightly, let's start by talking about painting. Imagine you saw a painting of a field of flowers, with a happy young couple having a picnic. Now suppose the flowers are pretty, but anatomically wrong. Still, the color palette is pleasant. The couple are drawn with incorrect proportions, and the food choices seem off. A picnic where they're opening cans of soup? Is this a joke, or does the painter really have no idea what would be practical for a picnic?

And here we would have plenty of room for criticism. Nit-pickers might jump on the flowers being wrong, while others may be indifferent. Someone may retort that you can't sincerely be bothered by the incorrect proportions of the people if unrealistic flowers don't bother you. Some people may be fans of the apparently intentional absurdity of canned soup for a picnic, while others may be turned off by the choice, even if it was intentional.

However, there are certainly objective measures that can be applied, particularly when the painting is presented, not as a joke, but as a serious attempt to present a happy and realistic scene. Anatomy and perspective, plausibility, maybe even mood, are in varying degrees measurable.

On top of that, while individual preferences vary, you can identify different segments of the "painting-viewing" public who prefer different kinds of paintings, or even who tend to be more or less concerned about different potential issues.

Still, everyone can agree that the colors look nice, even while they disagree about the canned soup.

Different People Get Different Things From Art, And That's Okay

You brought up romance readers who prefer "empty" protagonists, which many critics would consider to be objectively bad writing. And sometimes you may find romance readers who bemoan the emptiness of the lead, but otherwise enjoy a good romance.

Because a story is a multi-dimensional thing, serving one person's appetite for action and another's preference for reflection on consequences, and a third person's desire for both, people will often react differently to the same thing. The person who only wanted car chases and explosions may not see the difference between a good rationale and a bad rationale for a fight. The person focused on character development might not notice how badly choreographed a fight scene is.

Sometimes, one person wants exactly what the other does not, like canned soup on a picnic, or an empty "self-insert" protagonist. But often, differences in opinion and criticism comes down to differences in what different audience segments are even paying attention to.

"Was this consistent with prior canon and established character motivations and story arcs?" versus "Cool! More laser swords!"

As you create a story (or a sequel), you can never serve everyone - but you can certainly serve only some people and not others

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