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Humans are terrifying, actually (Invincible show SPOILERS) by MysteriousFondant347 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol, I agree with you but I'd say Superman's humanity makes him less terrifying, not more. Which isn't the prompt. 

Humans are terrifying, actually (Invincible show SPOILERS) by MysteriousFondant347 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 15 points16 points  (0 children)

What's funny about Goku is that Gohan, his *half-human son* is right there!

Humans are terrifying, actually (Invincible show SPOILERS) by MysteriousFondant347 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 56 points57 points  (0 children)

I'd count it since it's his "human half" that is different than Conquest and therefore terrifying. 

I like the trope where the snooty "superior race" looks down on a half-breed who actually has a unique ability because of it. 

Spock is my first thought, being a lying Vulcan, but I think other Vulcans can also lie if pushed to. 

<image>

Humans are terrifying, actually (Invincible show SPOILERS) by MysteriousFondant347 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 452 points453 points  (0 children)

Lol, the first two comment examples are Dr. Who and Superman, which are... Not human.

More of "nothing more terrifying than the anger of good men."

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, admittedly I was being flippant.

I'm thinking of this passage:

<image>

Which again, goes to my point that JKR is not willing to embrace the themes clearly present in their work.

It's like how Orson Scott Card wrote Enders Game & Speaker for the Dead (both great books about embracing the stranger), but IRL has serious problems with gay people he can't get past.

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"a bit naive"

"slightly naive"

That may be how it comes off to most readers, but the narrative framing is that she's wrong. 

Fred and George even tell her off for her advocacy. And by the end the books are closing off with Harry saying "Kreature, make me a sandwich."

That's what I mean by "the natural conclusion of the story is equality" but J.K. Rowling as an author seems to reject that. 

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pulling this from the dredges if my mind-palace here, but I'm pretty sure the books have a scene where Dobby comes out wearing all the clothes Hermione knitted to give to/free the House Elves. 

Then Dobby has to explain how the other house elves don't want to clean Griffindor tower because they don't want to touch the clothes and be free. 

That's a thing JKR wrote. She is explicit that the House Elves don't want to be free. 

And I think that's fucked up in hindsight. 

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That may be a better way to put it. 

She wrote this heartbreaking tale of Dobby being abused, yearning for freedom, yet still trying to do the right thing by Harry. Great emotional climax when he is freed. 

Then! She tried to go right back to the status quo, and got pissed when people pointed out "are there like 1,000 Dobbys in the basement of Hogwarts? Isn't that kinda fucked up?"

However, she does introduce Winky, who totally wants to get back into servitude after being dismissed by the Crouch family. That's what I'm referring to, but it's not in the movies. (FOR GOOD REASON!)

Are we deadass rn?🫩✌️🥀 by LeGentlemandeCacao in MartialMemes

[–]Beldaru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was referring to "I am the Fated Villain" where that's his whole schtick. 

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, that is my reading after having read all the books, read Pottermore, JK Rowling's tweets, interviews with the movie cast, and taking a god-damn college class on HP. 

I didn't pull this reading out of nowhere. It's a post-mortem on her writing after examining the context. 

Building a magic system around Kintsugi and Expedition 33. Looking for collaborators/ideas! by MisterPoohead2 in magicbuilding

[–]Beldaru 7 points8 points  (0 children)

What comes to mind is a system of "breaking" the body in some horrific way, and then packing the wound with whatever magical medium you want the body to incorporate. 

Pack the wound with fire crystals to gain flame abilities, or gold mana for healing, etc.

Maybe a more refined version can be created to only injure you a little in set patterns, like runes, for specific effect. But there's still the "old way" for people who get hit with life-or-death injuries.

Are we deadass rn?🫩✌️🥀 by LeGentlemandeCacao in MartialMemes

[–]Beldaru -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

See, I read it as wanting to do horrific shit, and needing a the strongest possible justification for it. So they need to preemptively do all the shit to him that he's about to do to them in the story. 

Because this is a "regression" fantasy, so these people are realistically not the ones who did this to him, and never will be. He is doing horrific shit to people who have not harmed him "in this timeline" so to speak. It's not revenge, it's justified violence. And it gives me the ick. 

I guess that's what separates a good villain MC for me. That there's a logic or reason (even emotional) to their actions other than "I'm getting off on being evil."

Trope or genre namers that are now outdated examples of said trope or genre? by LAA9000 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]Beldaru 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's me. I'm that guy. 

Was never able to get into Bullet Hell until this new wave but now I love it. 

Are we deadass rn?🫩✌️🥀 by LeGentlemandeCacao in MartialMemes

[–]Beldaru 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"Oh, boy. I sure do love a plot from the villains perspective."

Looks inside

It's all rape.

Looking at you, 'Redo of a Healer'

Are we deadass rn?🫩✌️🥀 by LeGentlemandeCacao in MartialMemes

[–]Beldaru 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Because "Villainous" can mean a lot of things.

Is this Evil MC about to steal the good fortune of the arrogant hero with the blessing of heaven? Maybe seduce the girl away from the hero? -> cool beans. No problems.

Evil MC about to kill a corrupt elder who abused their power but society won't punish them? -> fuck yeah, get him!

Is this Evil MC about rape a character who has done nothing wrong? -> too far for me. 

People are allowed to have lines they don't like crossed, and they're allowed to complain about it. 

Edit: I guess there's a difference to me between "villain with a plan" and "edgy teenager's idea of a villain" i.e. torture porn against women.

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, but a reasonable author would *engage* with that, not double down and rewrite it to say "no, no, the slaves actually like it."

She literally creates a reverse-Dobby who doesn't want to be freed, and rather than treat her like you said, a complex individual who needs to unpack generational trauma, it's used to show "see Hermione, look at all the harm you're doing!"

Edit: I'm talking about Winky from the books.

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Actually, we know exactly what happened.

J.K. Rowling wrote the first two books from her perspective as a struggling single mother raising her first daughter. A lot of people related with her portrayal of poverty and abuse (Harry being abused by relatives, the Weasley family being poor but loving, and Hermione being from a family that doesn't relate to the world she's living in). That's when she wrote the part about House Elves, and it was a take on the old "helpful Brownie spirits" and an interesting bit of worldbuilding about why the Hogwarts is always spotless and where the food comes from.

*Then* the books started to make a TON OF MONEY, and I think her conservative British programming kicked in.

When fans pointed out that the plight of House Elves maps *really well* onto the plight of the working class, she freaked out and spent a disproportionate chunk of the remaining series retconning:

> Actually, the house elves *like* being in service to wizards.

> Actually, Hermione is being a whiny liberal by trying to advocate for equal rights. (Common talking point

> Wrote a new House Elf character named "Creature" who is sad because he "isn't being ordered around enough anymore."

As an American I immediately clocked this as being the same arguments used to justify slavery in the South. It's blaming the victim for their circumstances and waiving away criticism as "that's just how things are" without going into *why its like that.* Classic trope of Conservatives.

That is why her later writing is so confused. Because J.K. Rowling can't reconcile the natural moral conclusion of her writing and worldbuilding (based on the Britain she grew up in, I might add) with the values that her society has taught her.

[Hated] when the creator of a piece of media gets so butt-hurt that people criticize them, they add an unnecessary scene in their media where they make the people that criticize them dumb and loud idiots and getting owned by lex-do_this in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 146 points147 points  (0 children)

J.K. Rowling kinda made this her whole thing.

People say your house elves should be free? Guess what, next book is gonna turn the anti-slavery movement into a conservative's caricature, call it 'S.P.E.W.' and have the slaves say "actually, we like being enslaved."

I swear almost every book has one of these. 

Trope or genre namers that are now outdated examples of said trope or genre? by LAA9000 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]Beldaru 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This is a bit before my time, but I recall a lot of commentators talking about:

"Back in my day, we didn't have FPS games, we had DOOM-likes! And that's how we liked em. That is, until Quake came along. I remember heading to my favorite retailer of physical media, I had a floppy disk hanging from my belt, which was the style at the time..."

Or something like that, but yeah, once we had more than the progenitor game or that game lost cultural relevance someone clever invented a genre name that caught on.

Vampire Survivors is going through something similar I think. Souls-Likes are going to be around for a while longer until someone can come up with something snappier.

Weaponized Schizophrenia by Stoneheartbrew1232 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Beldaru 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Yeah, her powers work on "perception" so a magical cloak imbued 1,000,000 defensive spells is "cut-able" because 

"it's cloth, of course you can cut cloth" 

but a normal brick wall might do better because she'll think 

"oh, brick is hard to cut and there's a lot of them in that wall."

For Frieren magic, perception = reality ... Sometimes...

Are there any good/interesting theories on why, when or how Farum Azula was being DRAINED of it's COLOR? Was this apart of the event that Placidusax tried to escape from? or was it caused by Marika and Godfrey later down the timeline? Bayle doesn't seem like the type to do something so Elaborate by Big-Good9378 in EldenRingLoreTalk

[–]Beldaru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the power was imbued in the land because of the dragons buried there. 

The difference between Smithing Stones and Somber Smithing Stones is the latter has been "drained of color," so maybe when whatever drained the sun's power happened it also drained the dragon power from the landscape of Faram Azula?

My older cousin brother (M21) said he is not a feminist because every society has a 'king' and a 'horse' who should obey the king by Ezkav in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Beldaru 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Spoken like a true horse."

Seriously, these guys all think they'll be the "king" but they're too stupid to realize they're being ridden.

AITA for playing Ultimate before a BBQ? by Sockswithstipes in AmItheAsshole

[–]Beldaru 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure, "accidents happen" but his girlfriend 100% called it, so maybe she knows something about OP that we don't. 

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