#any escape
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#this is so funny to me bc creative writing classes have taught me that you can't give meaningful critique w/o knowing author intent#like 9 times /10 there isn't enough context to even critique someone on anything other than basic spelling and grammar in fanfic#craft is subjective let writers do whatever they want unless they ask#fanfic talk
These tags also highlight why, far as Iâm concerned, with very few exceptions, criticisms based on the idea of the âoverpowered characterâ are garbage. Most stories are NOT intended to be blow-by-blow performances in the vein of a pro wrestling match. Often the fights, or other acts (or heaven forbid, even the way things just end up magically fixed at the end of a story sometimes) are metaphors for other things.
There is one way in which this can be kind of justified, mind you, but thatâs less to do with power or strength and more the idea of a character being pulled along too easily by the plot. And very often this kind of âoverpoweredâ does NOT manifest itself in fights. Often itâs an unrealistic level of social finesse, or characters falling at the protagonistâs feet in ways that read as saccharine and like youâd expect some conflict or at the very least disagreement in a real relationship but here, it doesnât happen. And Iâd put the emphasis on saccharine here. Like it reads as some kind of promise. And said social finesse tends to extend to non-romantic encounters or else gets treated as the romantic equivalent of a celebrity idol in the flesh (or like the guy in fundamentalist Islam who gets the forty-two virgins as a reward for committing a terrorist act)
And even then, there are many ways in which things that look like this kind of overpowered-ness can be justified by the narrative. Like if itâs a comedy, or there are religious themes, or there is a good reason why multiple people might fall behind someone (this can happen if a character falls into a place which makes them a figurehead, which can happen to anyone, at least in theory, especially if they fall into a situation where people, or even one person, might be desperate for a savior). And sometimes the character might even attract something romantically akin to celebrity in the flesh because they really are a celebrity of a sort and that is clearly justified in the plot and they didn't just fall into that status without so much as a warning (and they may or may not take an actual lover or family).
Or sometimes (as in Sword Art Online everywhere except the Underworld which would be unusually primed to receive saviors) a character is just genuinely nice and happens to fall in with the right group of people and all those people like them but when other people are shown they don't like that person at a rate significantly higher than the average person would (and sometimes even some of the people who were part of the protagonist's group kind of brush them off initially). Or when there are crushes, they may not be connected to reality due to high stress situations.
Pretty much the only times you can reasonably say this kind of overpowered-ness is unjustified (with the reminder that genuine story overpowered-ness is usually socially based), without knowing the intent of the author, is if the story literally reads like some saccharine religious tract (as in, the character just falls into the situation and has their deepest desires granted with the same feel as Publishers Clearing House showing up to the door).
Or the other favorite of stories with overpowered protagonists, the âeveryone clappedâ kind of story. Which can be entertaining in its own right and might even have some good morals, but itâs for good reason that âeveryone clappedâ stories can be considered junk food entertainment (after all, usually every feat shown there is designed for maximum entertainment value and often doesn't speak to a deeper meaning).
As can their opposite, the psychological thriller, also junk food entertainment, in which characters are usually really underpowered, though sometimes they also take much longer to die than real people would in equivalent situations. Because those are really just designed to trigger vicarious fears, and even when people do add âdepthâ to those, itâs the barest amount, sometimes forced, and sometimes it doesnât even come across and the characters feel like they exhibit a severe lack of intelligence that is not justified by an intellectual disability (I could go on about that, this is one of the types of stories I find most annoying and even the few of those I like I could easily imagine being disliked by others who share my personality but not my actual life experiences).
And Iâd remind folks again that Iâm talking about the obvious extremes here, because there really is a huge gray area, and I mean huge, between the extremes. And plenty of stories get accused of overpowering characters unjustifiably and most of the time itâs a metaphor. And even some of the ones that arenât are merely logical extensions of magic systems which maybe didnât take into consideration a believable character whose behaviors and/or coping mechanisms dovetail perfectly with that system.
On that last item, Iâm looking at the Force here, mind you. Any issues that might come up re: Rey are really issues with the Force in general. You see, George Lucas never took into consideration what would happen if you took the Force and added to it a character whose primary coping mechanism is magical thinking, and he really should have, the number of characters who use magical thinking as a coping mechanism in fiction is truly staggering (for obvious reasons which are often justified given the nature of the art form).
And this issue can also apply to other poorly considered magic systems, which donât take into account what might happen if a common type of coping mechanism was introduced, because sooner or later, if you create a diverse cast of characters and your system is poorly written, a character will come along who checks all the boxes and needs little to no training to master that system. and you know what? Even some well-written magic systems have characters who fly through all the progression with no training.
And thatâs sometimes the point. Take Mary and the Witchâs Flower, for example, as shown in the Ghibli film. The magic system in that story (or at any rate the metrics of it as judged by those who train in it) is actually intentionally poorly designed and the protagonist is supposed to fly through the progressions without training. Because it turns out the practitioners of that magic system care only about increasing their power level and creating lots of pretty tableaus and have zero regard for actually controlling that power or fine-tuning the purposes they have for it. And it turns out that their magic system can collapse as easily as a house of cards just by chanting a spell. In other words, one of the lessons of that story is the idea of âeasy come, easy goâ.
Nah, fam. It's not about "taking" criticism. It's about the fact that unless a writer asks for it specifically, it's a dick thing to do on a website that is rooted in community.
If a writer wants critique they will ask trusted friends or professional associates (in the relevant field). When a writer shares a fic on AO3 it's not necessarily with the aim of improving their craft (there are better places for that). It's about sharing joy.
Positive comments enhance that feeling of joy and community. Negative comments do not.
Fic isn't a product to be evaluated. If it's not for you, then you can just walk away. đ
#fiction#fanfic#literary criticism#overpowered#note that my take applies to fiction in general#I'm not just talking about fanfic here#though that applies too#mind you people writing fanfic do come up with Mary Sues for a reason#sometimes they are folks in desperate need for some kind of escape from a shitty life#and that is why while these escapism stories aren't good quality#I don't have an issue with them on a fundamental level#what I do have an issue with in regards to those#is the shitty circumstances which force someone to be that desperate for some escape#any escape#unhealthy escapism is a symptom of a problem#it's not a problem where there's no need for escape
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Bruce Wayne is canonically a very handsome man (he is called a "pretty boy" and he is in his 40s, for fuck's sake), and he is pretty famous as a rich philanthropist who doesn't want to leave his awful cursed crime infested city. So, there must be a ton of people thirsting over him on the internet. Fancams, edits, fanfics and imagines ("kidnapped with Bruce Wayne đ by a Gotham rogue"), the whole charade!
And anytime one of the batkids stumbles on a thirst post, they have the most dramatic disgusted reaction, loudly gagging, before sending the link to the batkids chat, because if they must suffer, then they should all suffer. Clicking on a link in this groupchat is like playing russian roulette, and getting rickrolled is a good ending.
#bruce wayne#batman#batfam#dc comics#my ramblings#no I'm not tagging them all I want to live#being a batkid is being cursed to see everyone thirsting over your father figure as Bruce Wayne AND as Batman#tim: guys what do you think about this?#jason: FUCK U FUCK U FUCK U FUCK FUCK U FUCK U#cass: đŹđ¤˘đ¤Ž#damian: drake your end is near#steph: thanks i'm going to bleach my eyes now#dick: this is how you treat me??? your perfect big brother who loves and cherishes you???#harper: i know i should never have given you my number#barbara build a program that block any bruce thirst content so she never gets the fright but she will send a link to one from time to time#because of his years of stalking Tim cannot escape the Bruce thirst posts they pop up all the time
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Constantine is noping this situation, you can't make hi-..ah fucking damn it
John was already paled when Kronos got revived, but seeing the eyes scalding blinding Fear of God staring into your very soul and judgment every inch power that was in that godlinng babe was enough for him to started drinking his emergency booze.
He is not dealing with Greek Gods bullshits, especially if that what he puzzling in the pieces together Then Kronos's story was becoming twisted all together. Nope, he isn't. Batman can bribe him all he wants. He is fucking leaving now!!
Fucking with THAT right there especially with the contract he still owed Kronos for, he rather suffered the complete obliteration of his soul being torn to shreds once he dies then have that god find him. He is escaping of here before She even noticed that he is Here with her ol time relic still in his pocket.
Before he can even get one step in the portal ready, he already felt his chest tightening as if his entire chest was being squeezed like a kid's teething toy.
Fucking dammit, he should've left right when Kronos was still having that psychic backlash, he knew he should've trusted his gut, fucking time Goddess and her all knowing of when and where.
Part 6 << >> Offical Quiz that Decision the Fate of this continuing fic >>> Fic Released
#dpxdc#dc x dp#danny phantom#dp x dc#dp x dc crossover#dc x dp prompt#dcxdp#danny is the ghost king#de aged danny#then come john constantine#john doesn't want to go near the baby god#especially seeing that infinite Crown on that baby's head#yeah fuck thaat#that the Final Secret boss of all Gods and deities#he escaping before he get noticed#he not caring for any bribes batman#he running for his very soul man#but nope#kronos been noticed you're there Constantine#you can't hide from time#female kronos#female clockwork#kronos is like and Where do you think you're going?!?#comments feed me and my inspiration to continue the story more
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We NEED to talk more about Neil's escape from Columbia because I don't think anyone's fully appreciating just how unhinged it really was. Neil really hiked six miles along the freeway in the South Carolina summer heat, face bruised from being knocked out cold dressed like a homeless person carrying a big ass duffle bag and started strolling up to truck drivers like, "Hello there! I'm just a regular sociology student interviewing long haul truck drivers to learn about their culture! Would you allow me to interview you while you drive to your next stop?" And then he did in fact interview a truck driver AND take full notes like he was really doing a presentation on it. That is FERAL
#neil canonically has the best Totally Normal Guy persona but i don't think there's any amount of blank smiling#that could convince someone that was a normal situation no matter how good his lying was#you KNOW that truck driver thought he was escaping human trafficking or some shit lmao#aftg#neil josten#all for the game#the foxhole court#sorry i haven't posted in a while i started going to a different university full time and it was a big adjustment lol
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I always underestimate how easy it can be to entertain a teenager. I have this preconception that small kids find everything fun even mundane stuff while teens are jaded and self-conscious and need elaborate or cool activities, but my teen cousins are visiting this week and when they arrived I was in the greenhouse having an issue with the filter in one of the tanks, so I asked them if they could catch all the fish from one tank and move them to the other tank, and they were delighted to be given little dip nets and sit on the edge of the tank to hunt fish for 20min. As I asked them to do it I was thinking, itâs like those duck-fishing fairground games from when they were toddlers, theyâll probably think itâs a bit cringe, and five minutes into it these jaded teenagers were like, hey itâs like duck fishing at the funfair when we were toddlers, I've missed it, itâs fun :D
#it's my mum who has preconceptions about teenagers actually and then her concerns rub off on me#i'm like [teen cousins] are visiting this week and she's all worried like what are you going to do with them so they're not bored?#are there any escape games in your region?#the answer is no. The only escape game around here is the one pampĂŠrigouste thinks she was born in#but i made them play go fish with real fish and they were enchanted#tomorrow we will go for a swim in the stream with poldine
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left to die
#id in alt#ultrakill spoilers#ultrakill#minotaur#vm's art#originally had the exit elevator but was changed to a hole so its even further from any semblence of escaping
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rhaenyra outsourcing motherhood to rhaena and assigning her that passive feminine role was REALLY interestingâŚ.. rhaenyra as a character is at her most fascinating when she is forced to navigate and ultimately perpetuate the gendered structures she despises and wishes she could transcendâ the seeds of her tragedy already sewn here. just great character work
#esp because in the books rhaena is painted as the sweet peaceful girly girl to baelaâs gnc rebellion#but woah itâs cool that theyre both actually straining at it. wah#itâs also very targ women can only escape the bounds of the patriarchy when they have their dragons and even then they actually cant.#like thats an illusion of freedom for the most part âšď¸#hotd#hotd spoilers#obviously rhaenyra doesnt really have much of a choice here but thats the point itâs a system#and to have any power at all you will have to crack under the desires of that system and the whims of your stupid misogynist vassals#thats the rosby stokeworth thing!!!! ITS HAPPENING!!!!!!#what would you sell to break your chain. who would you throw under your wheels#god rhaenyra is just a triumph of adaptation huh. theyre gonna hit that swing into selling her soul so hard
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#caitvi#arcane#me rn#life has been poopy recently but im glad i can daydream about caitvi as an escape LMAO#speaking of thank u to caitvi artists and fic writers bc every time i see any caitvi fanwork#serotonin just shoots up to my brain to remind me to be happier lol#ik its shallow but yeah...... it helps a lot esp with me being busy and tired irl#meme#type: gif#media: arcane#s1 ep5
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May your hardened heart be woken By the soft and distant song Of all you left here unspoken All the shards we keep stepping on - Take this body home Take this body home Call the wind, and let her know Take this life outgrown Take this broken soul Call the stars, call them all And take it high, take it far, take it home
#svsss#luo binghe#shen qingqiu#bingqiu#sqq#lbh#scum villain#heard the song Take This Body Home by Rose Betts and it nearly took me out at the knees#it really really suits sqq's self-detonation in hua yue city right? i'm not the only one feeling this?#considered adding some literal shards for them to be stepping on - since sqq's sword explodes - but i couldn't quite make it work#anyway this has been playing like a music video in my head for the past couple days highly recommend listening to the song#if you haven't heard it before#can't get over the absolute dissonance between how sqq views this scene and how everyone else must feel about it#like to him he's just completing his plan - hopefully keeping lbh from destroying a city with energy imbalance and escaping The Plot#nbd! he and sqh have planned it all out it's FINE :) off he goes!#meanwhile everyone who loves him - including lbh who worked years to get back to him and is trying to work through a lot of grief#and resentment and doubt and longing and... - watches him DIE in FRONT OF THEM#just collapse while coughing up blood sword disintegrating energy completely consumed#like holy hell sqq could you traumatize the people around you any more???#no wonder lbh went a little bit crazy after that like my man was already not in a great place but what the fuck#lbh watches his shizun presumably sacrifice himself for him ONCE AGAIN like after he's finally Gotten Strong his shizun is STILL#coming to harm in an effort to make up for his shortcomings#my art#most of the time out here drawing what amounts to muppets and then sometimes i get the urge for this and just need to cover everyone in blo
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Just two guys on a pier attempting to brood.
#stardew valley#sdv shane#sdv alex#i also think about how alex just doesnt have any positive men in his life...#and how he can say like oh yeah i love my grandma! but my grandpaaaaa oh just kidding haha#like ok you escaped one bad household for a better one but how good is better#shane is very direct with his go aways but its very different from georges go aways#to me personally idk so this is kinda based on my reaction to the two town grouches
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It's difficult for you to say aloud, I know, so I won't ask you to. Rather, I would ask you to consider a proposal. Stay on permanently.Â
#elementary#elementaryedit#tvedit#sherlock holmes#jonny lee miller#*mine#you can see how the question haunts him#not in a bad way but he knows he'll never figure out the answer if he lets watson get away#i love how he can't face her head on just yet but it's so satisfying when he finally does in the later seasons#anywho should probably stop watching ele reruns if I ever want any hope of escaping these two
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idea!
more in op tags for those that see this post reblogged (unless reblogger included the ideatags)
#alan becker#animator vs animation#ava#ava tco#ava the chosen one#ava tsc#ava the second coming#ava yellow#OKAY tagsplaining time#so basically my idea was that tco was unaware that he was in rocketcorp#and also unaware that hes being watched and/or kept an eye on via the box#victim purposefully made sure chosen doesnt see the box's door open#keeping chosen unaware of whats outside or the fact he could escape at any moment if he was quick enough to run through that door#(even though hed most likely get paused again before he could go anywhere else)#because if chosen knew there was a way to get out it was most likely that he would just. want to leave and not cooperate more#but since he DOESNT know... sure he still wants to leave but to him there is seemingly no way out and the only other thing there is victim#sure the box door opened when victim got the memory scanner but then again tcos face was on the floor or something (view the box 12:45)#so he wouldnt be able to see that#hed hear something yeah but the box's door barely makes a noise so its prooobably unlikely tco would think that a door just opened#this idea is so so fun teeheehee#lilacsart
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I had a very odd dream where a train (or bus?) I was on got yanked into another world. While my dream had nothing to do with SVSSS, it did have my waking self thinking about how hilarious and/or horrifying such a thing could be as an AU.
Imagine Shen Yuan riding the subway, train or bus one day, when something happens and his whole car gets yanked into the world of PIDW. Nobody else in the car knows anything about PIDW, so Shen Yuan finds himself with the self imposed task of keeping this eccentric group of strangers alive in a weird world full of demons, monsters, and aphrodisiac plants.
The groupâs first assumption would probably be that theyâre still on modern earth, and just got teleported somewhere. Their second assumption, if they come across common folk, might be they somehow ended up in the past.
Then they run into some monster, or people riding on swords with specific uniforms, or a commoner mentions a name or event only Shen Yuan recognizes. The rest of the party debates what sort of Xianxia or Wuxia world theyâve ended up in, while poor Shen Yuan sweats bullets. He knows exactly what world they are in, and they are so screwed.
I have this image of poor beleaguered nerd Shen Yuan successfully protecting and leading this group of primary school kids, their cute teacher, and a handful of grannies and grandpas, while all the other adults and older teens keep wandering off and getting themselves in trouble.
#Shen Yuan#SY#Scum Villianâs Self Saving System#SVSSS#SVSSS Idea#Story Idea#* Shen Yuan assumes the cute primary school teacher will end up part of the harem#* He is completely oblivious to the fact sheâs crushing on him- as are the groupâs young male dumbasses eventually#* Yes I do think women can crush on Shen Yuan too- and he wouldnât notice that either#* All the kids adopt him as their gege- and the grannies and grandpas as their grandson- a whole platonic harem#* Luo Binghe crosses their path eventually and promptly starts crushing on Shen Yuan too- NOT the cute female teacher#* Not sure what part of the plot they interrupt as any option could be funny#* Binghe escaping the Abyss to get adopted by a clan of modern weirdos#* Late stage Bingge abandoning his harem to play host to Shen Yuan and company#* Disciple Binghe somehow getting collected while on a night hunt- and Shen Yuan stealing a proper manual for him#* Every option is a delight!#* Oh yeah- Shen Yuan knows all the top secret artifacts- monster parts- etc. so he probably grows himself some meridians#* Heâs starting cultivation so late thereâs no way heâll reach beyond maybe foundation establishment- but thatâs fine#* Unless he dual cultivates with a heavenly demon of course- but like thatâll happen đ
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case study of the self-identified god
#obsessed with the fact that rain world is a game about survival#yet every character we meet has the express goal of trying to optimize killing themselves#every creature in game seems perfectly content fulfilling their role in the ecosystem no matter how many cycles they do the same thing#(rly obvious with gourmand's entire route. guy who lives their life to the fullest without the slightest hint of resentment)#it was really only the ancients who thought they were above it and thought of it as something to escape from#5pebbles is so interesting because the only reason hes âââgodlikeâââ is because of his vast knowledge. if he was in any slugcats shoes he#would die instantly which is ironically what hes been trying to do this whole time#this comic was kind of exploring the idea of awareness (divinity) as something that drags down ones enjoyment of life (walking).#if 5p would humble himself down enough to walk around like any other creature#he would a) be much happier in life and b) achieve the ascension he's been gunning for for millennia like all the slugcats did#but he never will.#getting rid of all his work on the problem or even his awareness of it entirely#would just be a trick of convenience that steals away his godhood#and him calling himself godlike is kind of a cope LOL#a cope being faced with a problem he was never meant to solve#a cope being faced with what he did to moon#a cope being faced with the rot inside him#oh well.#anyway fuck 5 pebbles i hate that guy#rain world#rain world fanart#rw five pebbles#rain world five pebbles#rw gourmand#rain world gourmand#five pebbles#rain world void worm#rain world ancients#also JUST KIDDING ilu 5p. you suck but iđu
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Pleaseee please stop characterizing Lizzie by the fall she "took" in Secret Life. Please pleaaase stop only placing character significance on the fact that she died instead of Jimmy. Please let her be a character
#I know there's no escaping misogyny (intentional or otherwise) in this fandom but my poor girl man#literally 50% of Lizzie discussion I see is how she took the fall for Jimmy#and the other 50% is âomg seablings :)â does she have any character not debendant on a man? does she? can she?#sorry for making another post like this. Im so peeved#ldshadowlady#lizzie#blabber
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dear the long-suffering Pearlescentmoon fandom trying to find fics that are actually about Pearl:
go onto advanced search
go to character tag and enter Pearl's character tag
go to "any field"
then type "summary: Pearl"
hit enter
you now only have fics with Pearl in the summary of the fic
profit
#this works on any word/name + if you put more than one word just put quotation marks around it btw#imparting my newly found wisdom on the long suffering pearl stans. we will escape the grian fic flood one day trust#pearlescentmoon#dlsmp#double life smp#traffic life#hermitcraft
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