Random Questions Thread

How on earth can altruism be part of a dystopia? Literally the only non-positive thing I can think of for that attribute is if it becomes a Martyrdom Culture where "doing things for others because Good Feels Good" is REALLY loosely interpreted as "we must have Heroic Sacrifice ALL THE DAMN TIME."

Also, seconding the fact that there are way too many attributes for people to give any practical advice about, and many of them cancel out at least one other thing. Altruism would ESPECIALLY cancel out at least two or three of the others.

Do you want to see what does this evil and weak dystopia looks like, read:

In this dystopia, special people and the strong are forced to serve weak, normal people while everything is in chaos, crime runs rampant, people are forced to give their achievements to the parasitic government, atheists murder and discriminate religious people just to prove there is no God, individuality is illegal and a serious crime, the economy is controlled by parasites and looters, evil persons and ignorant masses do atrocities for 'the greater good' .

Free thought or free will is a crime, mobsters control nearly everything, constant useless sacrifices by cults for 'happiness' of the common people, proletariat hindering the greater people from achieving, and all sorts of atrocities by the following philosophies, ideologies and other beliefs that my philosophy and worldview considers it evil and weak.

The problem is: all the different philosophies you listed may exist in this dystopia, but they are in opposition.

I mean, those utilitarian cults would be hunted down by the genocidal atheists (but why are those atheists genocidal anyway?) and try to get rid of the parasites, and the criminals would try to sabotage the no-freedom policy when necessary to give people space to act outside the law.

Plus, it isn't altruistic to keep people from reaching their potentials, unless it is done to prevent great harm.

And why the obcession on almost holy "Great people" and dumb and evil "common people"? Are you really arrogant enough to think most people except you are stupid from birth and will stay that way? Would you rather be a slave to a "great person"? Do you have any idea of how things turn out when a group declares itself superior and decides another must serve it "for its own good"?

Actually, I think an "altruistic" dystopia could be conceivable if you consider colletivism altruistic (something not everyone may agree on, and I still haven't made a definitive opinion on) and take it too far.

Imagine a nation that took the stability and security of the society above any individual need, seeing people as cells of a great organism, and seeing those who think or act outside their caste as potential tumours. It would make a scary distopia, and the result would be similar to the society of The Giver.

But on the other hand, that society would need to police itself perfectly, otherwise it would either collapse, become a bureocratical maze or turn into another hypocrital dictatorship that governs "for the people" while its leaders live like kings.

edited 26th Nov '16 3:26:37 AM by EternaMemoria

You could make it work with a splash of futurism - make everything observed and controlled by a Big Brother super-computer. Kinda like in Paranoia except the computer is actually competent at it's task.

"Altruism is mandatory!"

What's a good portrayal of an unmasqued world? I'm writing a story involving superheroes and villains, which takes influence from stories like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Overwatch. Sometimes I wonder what living in a comic book world would be like for a normal civilian (probably not that great).

Context

For context, my story features a Fantasy Kitchen Sink that takes the trope in stride. You have everything from secret government experiments, ancient orders involving sorcery, ninjas with mystical powers, advanced technology beyond the public's grasp, and whatever else. Until 2035, the world hadn't known just what they were living in because of a combination of everyone - ranging from the orders, to the organizations, to the worldwide governments - making sure the world at large didn't know about it.

Then the Splisen happened.

An alien race invaded Earth for reasons unknown and caused a devastating war waged on all fronts. It was basically World War III, only this war was the Earth trying to defend itself. To combat the Splisen, all the world's nations banded together to form the Protectors. Using their best resources, and gathering as many exceptional people they can, they formed a task force that could fight the alien threat. At the forefront of the force were seven individuals that were known simply as The Seven.

After a hard-fought battle, they won. Afterwards, the Protectors remained as a global peacekeeping organization for heroes to protect the world from all threats, both within and without. Twenty-two years later, the world has become a very different place from what it used to be, as everyone knows that anything is possible.

So what I'm trying to ask, how does one realistically portray a world like this? Because now, it's impossible to believe that something is impossible. You got heroes both costumed and non-costumed running around using fantastic abilities, people using advanced technology not available to the public, magic exists in all forms, aliens are real, and the fact that gods of numerous types aren't fairy tale is now known everywhere.

What do people growing up in this period think of this? Also, what about people who were alive and oblivious before everything became revealed, what do they think? How does someone who did know deal with this headache?

For now, I have a quote planned for a government official I have yet to fully develop, which hangs a lampshade pretty well.

Government official: "I remember when all of this shit was kept secret, and the good people were none-the-wiser. It was just so much simpler back then. Now everyone and their damned mother has some sort of gimmick."

edited 27th Nov '16 9:50:50 AM by UltimateLazer

Uh, I cannot seem to open the context folder.

Weird, must be a glitch. I removed it so you can see it. I just figured I'd make it easier on the eyes, oh well.

Folders glitch out on the forum if there is more than one post with them on the page - every folder in later posts only controls the first one. Evidently, that also includes the header post, so yeah.

If you have folders open by default, they all stick in the open so you can read them, at least.

edited 27th Nov '16 10:29:09 AM by Adannor

I see now. Hopefully this gets fixed sometime.

is having a stoic (or snarky) japanese half-demon girl wielding a katana sound weird to you? (i can't say trope worthy but who I'm I to judge)

Not in the least bit.

I swore someone would have called me a weirdo or something.

Naw dude, this is a pretty open-minded place for the most part. If someone called you a weirdo we would shut that shit down, no exceptions.

edited 27th Nov '16 4:08:01 PM by randomdude4

I would say that when framed in those terms, it's a bit of a Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot description - but many characters can sound like that if you describe them the right (?) way.

lol. I'm just asking since, in a story of mine, I'm trying to avoid the common cliches in anime and Japanese works.

I would not call it weird. Maybe a bit archetypally standard (in its own way) but not weird.

Its really not an NPZR case. It's really just a few related archetypes together.

Oni and half-oni are common in Japanese myth, the character is Japanese and she has a sword from Japan. If it was a story set in mythical Japan she'd be a standard filler, tbh.

Now, how weird that is depends on what's the story around her.
If it's a modern urban fantasy world with common use of swords by the fantasy parts and she had for some definite reason travelled away from her homeland, that's no weird writing hoops at all. She's basically a regular immigrant in that world.

As I said, it's mostly how it was phrased.

she's stuck inside the body of some girl that release her actually. so chances are, it takes place in modern japan.

This is a fairly gruesome question, so I'll apologize for that in advance.

Would it be physically possible for someone's jaw to get torn off by being struck with a blacksmith's hammer hard enough (i.e. lethal force)? I want this character's death to be pretty brutal, but I also don't want to fall into the trap of Made of Plasticine, which I feel would remove a good chunk of the weight that his death would carry by dying in this manner.The father of this protagonist has been pretty well developed, so it's not like this is going to some bit character, and I want it to be horrifying.

On top of that, even if possible, would his death be overly gory to the point of Narm?

For context, the secondary-protagonist's father has a gambling addiction and has wracked up a significant debt to a loan shark, a debt he has repeatedly deferred to a significant degree over a few years. Angered at not receiving payment, the loan shark and some of his Mooks break into the home of the protagonist and his father, hold them at knifepoint, and demand their owed money, to which the protagonist's father denies having it again. The loan shark then realizes that the father is never going to get him his money due to being unreliable, and strikes him over the head with the hammer. The father starts trying to apologize to the protagonist - who's watching in horror and pleading for mercy - to which the loan shark tells him to shut up from his ramblings and strikes him again, this time across the mouth, which then tears off his jaw and results in him bleeding to death on the ground. The loan shark then tells the protagonist to gather the owed amount by the next day, or else he's going to go after his half-sister elsewhere in town and do...things to her (said half-sister is only eight at the time btw). The rest is irrelevant, but that's generally what happens in the scene.

I lack a definite answer, but the jaw is actually a fragile articulation, that can be dislocated rather easily provided someone knows where to hit. I guess a hammer removes that last part, so with sufficient force it could probably break it. I'm not sure the jawbone would fly across the room, but the person hit would be left with his jaw hanging (literally) in a very grotesque and bloody smile.
As for the description, my personal take would be to avoid describing too much and leave the most gruesome details to the imagination. For instance, simply describing the father being unable to speak or even yell correctly after the second blow would be enough. Again, this is only my personal taste in the matter.

Can an English person immediately tell someone is from Scotland from their accent alone?

Just wondering because I have two characters in a superhero story who are based in London and they meet. Houdini / Betsy Carmichael (a criminal with powers of teleportation) was born and raised in London and can immediately tell that Switch / Isobel Hamilton (a hero with the power of electricity) is not from around there and isn't even English, having been born and raised in rural Scotland and moved to the big city when she turned 18. She can tell this immediately by the way she speaks, which isn't stereotypical, but still different and taunts her by saying "I think you're in the wrong place, lassie".

But a lot of people outside the area probably wouldn't be able to tell someone is Scottish without it being really stereotypical. I'd imagine it'd be a lot easier for a English person to immediately recognize a Scottish accent. Would you say that's realistic?

Of course people from the UK can tell the Scottish accent apart from other Commonwealth accents. I'm American and think the Scottish accent sounds very different from, say Received Pronunciation just from watching a lot of Doctor Who.

Makes sense. Just wanted to be sure. I've heard that Scots are sometimes mistaken for Irish people over there, or are asked what exactly their accent is, so I figured I'd ask.