Sea_Gull

joined 2 years ago
 

This could be a spell that encapsulates the series' magic system, or just a notable standout that stuck with you, or whatever.

Favorite - Giga Slave from The Slayers. It's a spell the main character cobbled together from an ultimate spell invoking a demon god, instead changing the incantation to instead invoke an entity greater than that. It 100% destroys its target if it connects, but requires a level of control and focus or it would destroy the world outright. It's cool to me in that it was an invented spell and you don't often get to see active creativity in a magic system. It also creates a cool moral question for the characters about using such a spell. The magic system of Slayers is just really cool like that.

Least Favorite - Avada Kedavra from Harry Potter. It's an instant death spell and anyone hit by it dies instantly with no chance of resuscitation or revival. It's illegal in the setting, but it's only ever used by the bad guys. There's no history to the spell, no counter measure, and it's considered just evil. Meanwhile there are other spells that are technically lethal on hit, but are perfectly fine to use against an opponent during mortal combat. It's interesting because on the surface, it invites moral questions. A quick and painless death spell that has little chance for collateral damage if it connects.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We're going to have to start making excuses for the lack of terror.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

It's a crime there aren't any Newgrounds emojis

 

I could just see 2004 Newgrounds.

It was a fun movie, but god damn.

Also imagine getting paid to be thrown down the stairs for a movie.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

You're right, but this is a palatable and easy to remember/articulate thing for libs to say. It's useful and opens the conversation up to concepts like social contracts.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

There's that one scene at the end of the first Captain America movie and he runs out into Times Square after being in a coma for 80 years. I couldn't imagine how much psychic damage that would do

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I hate how Amon is given a sympathetic backstory that gets no exploration at all. He's supposedly orphaned by benders who his parents couldn't fight.

That's legit what happens to Katara before the start of TLA. But instead of exploring that trauma, the story focuses on what it feels like to bend and how losing that is a profound loss.

It could've been a cool exploration on the themes of powerlessness and coping with that, but instead it's just that benders are just better and if you don't bend then you need to get out of the way.

In stories, it's easy to assume you'd be a character with powers or knowledge, but the reality is more likely to be you're the one on the outside of power in these fictional settings

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Castlevania, despite some of the creators being creeps, has a good one with Sypha and Belmont. It's established off-screen and you simply see them interact as a couple that works closely together.

You don't see the courtship at all and there's little eroticism. I don't know if lacking that excludes it from being considered romantic.

But I like the relationship where they clearly care about each other and I'm certain the romance would be believable if they showed it in-scene. It is odd however how Belmont has a foul mouth but won't say something explicit to Sypha when they're alone.

The other romantic relationships in the series are also established off-screen for the most part. You see couples talking to each other in bed and stuff, but there aren't too many declarations of love or discussion on their relationship, but I think the lack of dialogue around that could be excused by it being 1474.

2
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I'm fortunate enough to have good credit and I qualify for a decent apr for a personal loan.

It would help give me breathing room for some time and help me make a career change. Are there any obvious traps to look out for?

Edit - Thanks for the advice, everyone! I'm not planning on taking out a loan anytime soon. I'm just under stress and hate my job. I just wanted to know if getting a loan would be a viable option to buy some time/recharge for a little bit without immediate bills on my ass.

 

I'd personally like to see more gender non-conforming roles in societies.

In a society with magic or space tech, why does there need to be a coded gender for certain jobs?

This goes for 'character classes' too. I'd love to see more healer archetypes that are cis male, or wizard types that are black or brown without relying on stereotypes.

I'd also like to see more of that in occupations too. Why not have a union of earth magic construction workers who happen to be mostly women in one city?

What about the rest of you? What cool things would you live to see in sci-fi/fantasy?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Theseus's Beater

 

Target, MasterCard, power tools, and everything else. I knew a lot of these companies were in bed with each other, but it's a disturbing thought to consider Target as part of the MCU canon.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I can feel that a little. It kinda makes me mad how freely people these days could put anime decals on their cars when I was bullied for liking it as a kid

 

The set up is that somebody is making one of these things and they were so delicate that any noise above a whisper could deflate them, ruining them. Then the punchline is when someone or something makes a loud noise and the souffle collapses as predicted.

It feels like such a relic these days. They don't do the gag anymore and I wonder what that said about pop culture at the time.

Has that joke come up again in recent years or am I that detached from TV?

What are some other jokes that seemingly vanished?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

A flow chart that just leads to :vote:

 

I'm kinda asking about story-breaking powers you avoid, but it could just be abilities that make you uncomfortable writing or exploring.

One thing that makes me uncomfortable for example is telepathy. Not even mind control or psychic surgery levels of mind powers. Just simple mind reading/communicating.

I get very uncomfortable with the idea of someone being able to look into my mind and I get skeeved out when trying to imagine how characters like that would work.

Another uncomfortable power for me is time travel of any kind. Maybe it's the perfectionist in me. The idea of being able to undo any mistake is overwhelming. And I dunno, feels sort of trivializing of people.

What about the rest of you? Are there any powers you prefer not to explore or write about?

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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Wrong comm sorry.

Anyway, I'm down to chat about anything people wanna talk about.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Just like Finn!

I hate that the possibility of a complicated story/moral question died on the vine in the first ten minutes of TFA when a smiling Finn gunned down his former child soldier friends.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

In my book's setting, anyone can learn magic, but the time, teaching, and practice required isn't allotted equally. Different learning styles and material conditions mean that people who would be talented sorcerers end up doing mundane work augmented by magic.

One part of the history though is that there's been a history of laborers who used magic derived from servitude to cause a class-based revolution. The nobles who practiced fancy complex magic were few in number and lacked the experience to fight a long war with farmers who water crops by hauling thousands of gallons at once or cleaners who can sweep a castle with a single wind spell.

The tools of their oppression (being railroaded into service-based magic) became their liberation. Centuries later, that informs policy on magic and how it's accessed.

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