Anvils You Needed To Be Dropped

I agree with that as well. In all the stories I have going right now most of my main characters are in their late twenties and thirties.

edited 25th Nov '11 9:46:27 PM by NoirGrimoir

Did that too. My main characters are all around 24-25 at my current point in the story. (Well except Samantha, she's 23.)

Hell I go the other way too, some of the characters are well into their 60s (Khornan) and still going like they were 25.

It just brings a more down to earth more solid feel you agree?

I

edited 21st Jun '17 5:24:45 AM by ArlaGrey

Hmmm... Anvils in my works.

The recurrent anvil that my works tend to drop, from orbit, is that "the world is too complex for people to improve it by merely having strong/good will". Essentially, that people who preach that "nothing is impossible", or that talk their kids will be able to do everything they want or dream of, or who turn to "world love" or "religion" to the solution to the world's most important troubles, are way past the point of insanity.

But more important than that, one can not simply go and make one thing better — it ends up making everything else worse. Getting things better is a process, and having better things is a process too, not a goal.

Another anvil that I drop is that credentials are a matter of trust, not capacity, and thus matter only after you've used them. That you saved the world once means nothing when the next apocalypse comes up. Only after you have saved the world again you can use your credentials to wash away lingering issues. Never delegate functions based on credentials.

I feel bad for having the core casts consisting of 16 years old high schoolers...

My anvil...well, don't have much, but let's see...

The major antagonist of the first arc is a serial murderer/necromancer that keeps on murdering people because he thinks that he has came too far to stop. He's actually the main characters' homeroom teacher and once lectures about Sunken Cost policy. Near the end of the arc, Jang Hyun-Soo, the main character, hits him with the lecture and tells him to put an end to not only crimes, but also his own suffering and guilt.

Another would be shown through two characters who can unleash extreme physical strength when agitated. Even though they pretend to act normal, because of all the deaths they committed, they constantly suffer from nightmares and worries that one day they will be caught by cops. In fact, anyone who is remotely capable of kicking ass in my work has some weakness or issues that haunt them.

16, 23, 24, 26, 26, 30, 45.

Oh lawdy, the hell if I know. I guess...something about the death penalty.

Something...

My last story had the rather simple anvil "tolerance is bad if what you're tolerating is bad".

My current story has the subtler, but still anvilicious anvil of "sometimes, your ideas win and you lose".

Heart Is an Awesome Power. Good night.

For the record, I'm not sure how simply avoiding the Kid Hero can be construed as any kind of message on whether it's a good thing or not.

Well, the kid hero is a lot more obvious in fantasy novels. It's as if the writers think that by starting their characters young on the whole saving the world thing, they'll be more interesting. Also, that fantasy novels are automatically limited towards younger audiences.

And my story is a fantasy. SO.

No, I mean how is simply avoiding it a message that it's a bad thing? It's not something so common in fantasy that your choice not to use it would make it obvious that you disliked it as a trope.

In that sense, you're right, it's not an anvil, just a personal choice by the author based on their personal belief/preference. You'd have to have a young character try to save the world and get killed off early, but an older character succeeding, to really shove it home.

Well, my youngest character is ridiculously talented, but also a nervous wreck compared to the older ones who have had mental and physical training, at least until they prod him into being useful. But that's, well, not dying. So I guess that's the idealistic version of what would happen.

My anvil is that "cut and dry" is a profoundly meaningless term...

*

edited 26th Nov '11 11:25:45 PM by USAF713

It's also very jarring in Sci-Fi works too. I mean it's passable in some Mecha Shows that are or had direct roots in the Super Robot Genre like Mobile Suit Gundam, but everything else the Kid Hero and the Improbable Age fly in the face of Suspension of Disbelief.

The message by making appropriate ages (like in military fiction having many of your NCO's and your junior officers being in their 20s and 30s) is not only defiance of the Competence Zone and its associated trope but sends the message that teenagers/kids are not realistic heroes in most stories nor are they competent compared to experienced and trained folks many years their senior.

Hell I have a Deconstruction side story as part of an Expanded Universe for Endless Conflict that shows just that message in effect.

edited 27th Nov '11 6:15:05 AM by MajorTom

Hah, kids in military. Even though I have nothing to do with military, I feel really offended for some reason whenever that trope comes in play.

/hypocrisy

Which one? Child Soldiers? Improbable Age? Competence Zone?

The first is Truth in Television (and about as skilled of a soldier as you'd realistically expect), the second and third not so much.

Improbable Age.

Most of my core cast members are teenagers. Because teenagers definitely have the nerve necessary in engaging on a war galaxy/temportal/dimension-wide wars!

EDIT: I heard about child soldiers in real ife. They are commonly found in African countries, aren't they? There's something depressing about children holding AK-47...

edited 27th Nov '11 7:45:42 AM by dRoy

There are things worth killing or dying for.

(The children's book in question is about cats. It's stated, but not shown in any detail, that they eat their opponents after defeating them. Cats are predators in Real Life, and it's an educational piece about cats as well as a fictional tale of a cat training to be a ninja.)

...

Heh. I'm a YA writer. Improbable Age hadn't really went into play yet. I'm worried Bryan is too overpowered in the climax though, but it's like Sorcerer's Stone in that regard. The adults do most of the heavy-lifting in the fight, but it's the narrator who delivers the final blow.

In the only case so far I think it would be a problem, I think I will use a Time Skip to age the protagonist into his late-late teen's to early twenties.

edited 27th Nov '11 10:08:13 AM by chihuahua0

These days I feel like the only good fantasy is in YA but I can't stand to read teenage protags anymore so I'm kind of screwed.

Mmm... I wouldn't say that's my experience at all. The fact that there are now two entire shelf sections of "teen paranormal romance" books at my local Barnes & Noble is a downright horrifying commentary on the current state of YA literature.

And yes, I know that's not "fantasy" exactly, but still.

Wow, this thread got derailed hard.

I don't see much problem with teenage protagonists. It's when they're preteen that my suspension of disbelief starts to stretch. As for YA stuff, I tend to avoid it due to the pervasiveness of Thou Shalt Not Kill. I can only find my particular brand of justice in stuff like The Sword Of Truth.