Answer for these scenarios

I have three questions:

1. I have thought of a scenariowhere a reality warper who tried to make a perfect utopia but the utopia that said reality warper made crashed down on him/her. He/She epxeriences an epiphany realizing that he/she cannot force people to be "good" and "perfect" all the time. There is an Aesop in this somewhere but I don't know what it is. What would be the Aesop in this?

2. Can there 'limits' to reality warping to avoid the fridge logic where a large majority of the plot can be solved by this power? I want to avoid that fridge logic by imposing said limits to the characters power but can there even be 'limits'?

3. I don't want one character to be in the right most of the time, is there anyway to avoid progtagonist centered morality?

We have the random question's thread for stuff like this :|

...

Naw, I'm just messing with ya ;)

For your first question:

The aesop would probably be something along the lines of "Utopias are unrealistic desires" but you don't need an aesop to have an epiphany.

2. What's the mechanism for the reality warping?

For the first one, you could have the aesop be 'freely choosing to be good is better than being forced to do so'.

As for question three, have the character do what they think would make sense. Don't have it always turn out to be the very best decision; you could have your character not know the fullest implications of their decision. This is the part where you really have to look long and hard at your character and know why they'd think/know this or do that. If the only reason you can come up with concerns the plot, you need to take another look at your character.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:00:48 PM by CrystalGlacia

Well, I would say that he/she can onl;y ward what is possible in the physical universe but as for other things such as making a universe or regenaring limbs, is pretty much what he isn't able to do.

I don't understand; "what is possible" in this universe isn't that well-defined if you can simply order energy to move from place to place.

regarding 3.

im pretty sure Protagonist-Centered Morality is centered around being easily forgiven because they're on the heroes side, less about always being right, and more about ignoring all the bad things they've done. dont do that, and you should avoid it.

if you actually meant "always being right" as in, during a debate or arguement, it shouldnt be too hard to just have them back the wrong arguement, like you would have the other people in the debate do, if you're not willing to do that, you shouldnt really concern yourself with 3.

if you meant, "always being right" as in, White And Black Morality, well, give the villains a point, make the protagonist naive or over his head or something, make his allies a bit less than altruistic to give him somewhat less credit when he starts speaking morals.

if you meant, "always being right" as in, never making a mistake, well i got no advice.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:00:40 PM by Tarsen

If you want him to make a mistake, all you need to do is have him make a mistake.

Mistakes aren't hard to work into a story.

well its always been a bit harder for me, since usually 1 mistake = gameover

Reality warper tries to create a utopia...

...reminds me of Death Note and Bruce Almighty. That isn't a bad thing, and neither are tropes, so let's examine the tropes of what has been done.

Death Note restricts the main character to the ability to kill, mostly criminals, but as the hero points out most people wouldn't be able to take the stress of killing even criminals to create a Utopia. Bruce is given the power of Almighty God, which he uses for selfish purposes at first, but then he is given the responsibilities of God, including the answering of prayers. Both stories examine the psychological stress of having that much power, in Bruce's case as him hearing the prayers as a constant buzzing inside his brain.

From what you've written, it seems like you have a character who can force others to be good, but only when focusing on them somewhat. Reminds me of Mark from Ugly Americans, who used mind control to force people to "have a nice day," "turn that frown upside down," and "dance." The later had nightmarish consequences because he forgot to tell the people to stop dancing...

Now, you probably don't want to deal with nightmare fuel like that, but what if we combine Bruce Almighty with Death Note? Bruce's powers were limited by geographic area, so let's say your main character was the warden of an experimental prison where the inmates were subjected to "rehabilitation." Make it Recycled IN SPACE! if you like.

Anyway, an inmate who leaves is outside the warden's power, and can "relapse." It seems the only way to make them stay good is to either keep them in the prison or expand the wardens sphere of influence. A third option is to create penal colony, still under the warden's control that is not so much a prison as a place to start over. Repeat offenders who are sent there can grow crops, build houses, perhaps even find love and start a business...

It seems less like a punishment and more a final recognition that the accused does not fit into the society and would be better off somewhere else. The warden has the power to ensure the inmates do not harm one another as they try to build their alternative to society. Depending on the size of the colony, inmates can be separated on the basis of their crime with the white collar criminals kept away from the murderers. And provided no one tries to film convicts competing over limited resources, the society that sends them away gets to look very enlightened while effectively chucking their undesirables into a black hole.

It might have worked, if it weren't for the natives. For any of a number of reason's the warden's power wouldn't effect those already native to the colony. Now the Warden has all sorts of things standing in the way of utopia...

Sorry, I got a little too into that idea. Still, that seems to be the core trope: what is the acceptable target for reality warping. Usually there's a place where it is acceptable to warp, turning a desert into a lush green oasis, and acceptable people, usually people who can't function in society for one reason or another. Probably the least political thing you could do is a weight loss clinic.

People who can't control themselves around food are taken by a reality warper to a garden of vegetarianism. However, their attempt to create a perfect "cruelty-free" society get ruined when the fat campers snare some rabbit stew, etc. I was almost going to say find the secret Mc Donald's across the lake, but that seems to have its own agenda.

Basically its going to be difficult to write this without designating an acceptable target or making the reality warper the villian. If you don't have an agenda, one will likely be assigned to you, so just make your list, get your reasons in order and write what you want to write.