Handling Byzantine plots
I’m really going to try to keep myself from ranting about just political fantasy here, because gods know it’s not just political fantasies that can lose their plots.
( If you walk Byzantium, know the streets )
( If you walk Byzantium, know the streets )
I'd like to see a villain/enemy/rival that, instead of aiming to kill, aims to wound them so badly they'll wish they were dead. Permanently cripple/paralyze them, or just make it so they won't be able to do the things that make them happy. Cruel, but interesting, because it'd lead to a strange angst - "I have no hands and am paralyzed and am blind. Life SUCKS."
But then hero-type-figure is also disabled, and, well, unable to continue the "Mystic Quest" or whatever else.
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Ah, see, that's when we get to see that the hero's CAUSE is really righteous, because surely someone else will pick up his cause and go kick some ass, because now the hero is a martyr to inspire them all!!!!
... ... ... ... you know, even I can't tell if I was snarking about that one. That would actually be kind of cool.
t¬
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But I could also see, in a well-written novel, how the hero perseveres, and tries to learn to fight with a sword, even if he has no hands/learn to get around on a donkey or something. Could be very "I am determined!" and inspiring. If it wasn't crappily written.
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The challenge would be making it not cheap angst.
One of the reasons I love my friend's writing so much is because she created a character who has seen his brother die in front of him, tortured to death because of something her character did. And the character? Did not sit around and whine. Instead, killed a bunch of people in mad revenge, got the hell out of Dodge, and then went on living. Because angst is NOT the be-all and the end-all of life, thank you.
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