Metroid - the Bergman Affair feedback, comments, and workshopping

[HunterOpera]

I’m okay. Picked up a couple of intense contracts and it’s devouring my time.

Exciting stuff, though – I’m happy, just swamped.  

[HunterOpera]

Regarding Pride and Politics, GoldGoth said: 

I'm writing this review just to say people into this kind of stuff really scare me. I'm with one of the previous reviewers, Samus would not be broken. The only reason something like this could happen to her is because she allows it, so I really hope for a happy ending. This woman has been through enough.

It’s okay to find this scary and the people that are into it likewise. 

There’s kink, but this story – taken on its own – isn’t that. Non-con is rape, pure and simple. As a fantasy, it’s one thing and there’s going to be people that enjoy it for that, the same way people enjoy role-play and kink, but rape isn’t okay. The people doing it in this story are villains, about the most terrible people I can think of. Olsar himself is a callow coward, Salis is terrible, the others… the protagonists in this story are awful people. And it can be hard to tell who is enjoying it as fantasy and who is enjoying it as a reality, and it’s important to know it’s intended as the former and a condemnation of the latter. 

Pride is different than Bergman in that it’s not playing with Metroid tropes so much as just the concept of Samus herself – I’m aiming for a legend vs reality subtext and wanting to discuss questions of political perception and corruption. It has more in common with Reins than anything else I’ve written, and Reins touches on the Tomb Raider lore without doing the deep dive that something like Bergman was. Still, Samus the person has been broken in the past and could be broken again, and it’s one of the things that makes her interesting: Samus Aran is a fully realized character. She’s fascinating (Other M aside) because of it, but any single person can be broken down by trauma or technique. 

Here’s another couple things, and a reason that some rape survivors read and write fics like this one: there’s comfort in knowing that you’re not alone, and comfort in knowing that you can come back from being broken. Samus destroyed her enemies in Bergman and she’s going to destroy them here. The arc I was working on when life got in the way was where that started, Samus coming back to herself and getting ready to wreck a terrible revenge on the criminals who have done terrible things to her and everyone else. She’s a savior on a galactic level and the enemies in this story make the galaxy worse just be existing, corrupting whole solar systems and making billions of lives worse to slate their own greed and lust. 

They deserve what’s coming to them. 

I also want to make sure: are the tags showing up? Why do people read this if the tags are and they don’t like what’s in the tags? I’m genuinely curious on that front.     

[MorbidFantasy]

1 hour ago, HunterOpera said:

Regarding Pride and Politics, GoldGoth said: 

I'm writing this review just to say people into this kind of stuff really scare me. I'm with one of the previous reviewers, Samus would not be broken. The only reason something like this could happen to her is because she allows it, so I really hope for a happy ending. This woman has been through enough.

It’s okay to find this scary and the people that are into it likewise.

Fantasies of rape falls into the same category as every other dark fantasy. I can watch John Wick and be enthralled by the gunplay but that wouldn’t make me walk into a nighclub and start shooting at the security. I write non-con rather frequently but never have I actually raped anyone. This is about relegating the immoral thoughts to fantasies so that we can behave morally in real life. Thought does not equal crime.

As to this fic’s fidelity to Samus’s canonical personality (been watching Westworld, have I), the Metroid writers regularly play hopscotch with Samus being a badass or her being every feminine game character cliche, so I think we have a lot of leeway here.

Good to see you back Hunter, I liked the changes you made in the remastered version of Reins.

[Guest Sazbi]

On 7/15/2018 at 9:39 PM, MorbidFantasy said:

Good to see you back Hunter, I liked the changes you made in the remastered version of Reins.

Where’s the remastered version of Reins?  What are the big differences?

[MorbidFantasy]

14 hours ago, Guest Sazbi said:

Where’s the remastered version of Reins?  What are the big differences?

It’s on Amazon Kindle. There’s a few more scenes, and some plot details have been changed.

[Valet]

On 7/16/2018 at 6:00 AM, HunterOpera said:

It’s okay to find this scary and the people that are into it likewise. 

There’s kink, but this story – taken on its own – isn’t that. Non-con is rape, pure and simple. As a fantasy, it’s one thing and there’s going to be people that enjoy it for that, the same way people enjoy role-play and kink, but rape isn’t okay. The people doing it in this story are villains, about the most terrible people I can think of. Olsar himself is a callow coward, Salis is terrible, the others… the protagonists in this story are awful people. And it can be hard to tell who is enjoying it as fantasy and who is enjoying it as a reality, and it’s important to know it’s intended as the former and a condemnation of the latter. 

Pride is different than Bergman in that it’s not playing with Metroid tropes so much as just the concept of Samus herself – I’m aiming for a legend vs reality subtext and wanting to discuss questions of political perception and corruption. It has more in common with Reins than anything else I’ve written, and Reins touches on the Tomb Raider lore without doing the deep dive that something like Bergman was. Still, Samus the person has been broken in the past and could be broken again, and it’s one of the things that makes her interesting: Samus Aran is a fully realized character. She’s fascinating (Other M aside) because of it, but any single person can be broken down by trauma or technique. 

Here’s another couple things, and a reason that some rape survivors read and write fics like this one: there’s comfort in knowing that you’re not alone, and comfort in knowing that you can come back from being broken. Samus destroyed her enemies in Bergman and she’s going to destroy them here. The arc I was working on when life got in the way was where that started, Samus coming back to herself and getting ready to wreck a terrible revenge on the criminals who have done terrible things to her and everyone else. She’s a savior on a galactic level and the enemies in this story make the galaxy worse just be existing, corrupting whole solar systems and making billions of lives worse to slate their own greed and lust. 

They deserve what’s coming to them. 

I also want to make sure: are the tags showing up? Why do people read this if the tags are and they don’t like what’s in the tags? I’m genuinely curious on that front.     

Hello Ben. Some time ago I have found your fics and since then (as time permits) I read them with great interest. I started, of course, with updated Tomb Raider ))

As for your fics as they are, I really like the depth of working out the material and detailing - they are just one big plus. The concept of unescapable bondage is also very interesting; I've already met such things before, but yours were done at a high level - and that's wery good. The endings are realistic and the scheme of their performance reminds those of Mickey Spillane. As I understand it (although I have not read much yet), the basic idea is that liberation is possible only with someone's help. I agree with this (although there are also nuances to think about). Also, I'm very close to your position from the quote above - it's almost the same as I think (although there may be a nuance number 2 )) ). In any case, I really like your fics, although I'm not a fan of the Metroid universe (I’ve learn about the existence of Samus Aran from Wikipedia three weeks ago, LOL). But that doesn’t prevent the reading ;-)

With respect and hope for the continuation, Joel

[HunterOpera]

On 7/15/2018 at 9:39 PM, MorbidFantasy said:

Fantasies of rape falls into the same category as every other dark fantasy. I can watch John Wick and be enthralled by the gunplay but that wouldn’t make me walk into a nighclub and start shooting at the security. I write non-con rather frequently but never have I actually raped anyone. This is about relegating the immoral thoughts to fantasies so that we can behave morally in real life. Thought does not equal crime.

As to this fic’s fidelity to Samus’s canonical personality (been watching Westworld, have I), the Metroid writers regularly play hopscotch with Samus being a badass or her being every feminine game character cliche, so I think we have a lot of leeway here.

Good to see you back Hunter, I liked the changes you made in the remastered version of Reins.

 

Thanks, man. 

And, yeah – I sucked at writing smut until I started looking at it as just another sort of conflict, a means by which characters can measure will and identity. It changed everything for me and made for much better writing. Rape is bad, but the fantasy can be fun provided it remains a fantasy and everyone involved knows that it is just that, a fantasy. Consent is pretty much the most important thing across the board, which is why I like tags and things: it lets you know what you’re getting into, and I don’t think anyone should go into anything blind. 

It also mystifies me when people read the tags and then get upset by the content – I try to be as clear as possible about what I’m writing at any given moment. 

The trick of Samus’ personality is an annoying one because Nintendo has an issue with the Metroid franchise in that it's massive everywhere except Japan. The first one did gangbusters, but while the reveal that Samus was a girl was like “wow, Samus is a girl~!” everywhere else, the Japanese audience responded with “wow… Samus is a girl...”, because Samus doesn’t fit the cute or submissive image that misogyny expects of her. Their culture allows for strong female characters only in certain respects, and while that is changing it’s been a problem for Metroid because Nintendo places massive stock on Japanese sales. 

Other M was the big push to change that, to change Samus’ personality and make an impact on the Japanese market, but it failed to do so while also pissing off everyone else. It did get me writing the Bergman Affair, though, so it wasn’t all bad…? The thing is that we make a lot of character assumptions based on inference, and when something flies against that canon it tends to get rejected. Westworld did a brilliant job of showcasing that within in the mind of the individual, but Other M and products like the Han Solo film show what happens when those inferred assumptions are challenged. 

If you’re not going to work within the established parameters of a character, create a new character. 

And glad you liked the remastered Reins. I’ve started thinking about a follow-up with Lara, Sam, and Drasha, but there’s a few stories I want to finish first. We’ll see what the new year brings.  

[HunterOpera]

On 7/18/2018 at 3:26 PM, Guest Sazbi said:

Where’s the remastered version of Reins?  What are the big differences?

MorbidFantasy pretty much nailed it – I cleaned up the grammar, added a couple of chapters, reworked some things and extended others. 

Think of it as a Director’s Cut. 

[HunterOpera]

On 9/20/2018 at 8:58 PM, Valet said:

Hello Ben. Some time ago I have found your fics and since then (as time permits) I read them with great interest. I started, of course, with updated Tomb Raider ))

As for your fics as they are, I really like the depth of working out the material and detailing - they are just one big plus. The concept of unescapable bondage is also very interesting; I've already met such things before, but yours were done at a high level - and that's wery good. The endings are realistic and the scheme of their performance reminds those of Mickey Spillane. As I understand it (although I have not read much yet), the basic idea is that liberation is possible only with someone's help. I agree with this (although there are also nuances to think about). Also, I'm very close to your position from the quote above - it's almost the same as I think (although there may be a nuance number 2 )) ). In any case, I really like your fics, although I'm not a fan of the Metroid universe (I’ve learn about the existence of Samus Aran from Wikipedia three weeks ago, LOL). But that doesn’t prevent the reading ;-)

With respect and hope for the continuation, Joel

Well, thanks, man. Glad you dug the remaster.

And glad you’re digging everything else. Bondage in general has interested me since I was a kid, and when writing about it I wanted to dig into the psychology of character and do some lore dives with the writing I was doing, cuz that’s where my interest lies. It was also a challenge; when I started Bergman I’d only done a handful of smut scenes in my other work and they sucked; it was a cousin who challenged me to try writing pure smut and see what happens, and people like MordbindFantasy and theDaiLi and others that gave me a blueprint for the depth you see and that I aspire to. 

A big part of the inescapable thing for body and mind, I think, is wrapped up in the ideas of agency and choice. Because of this, I need villains to be the ones inflicting this stuff on heroes, and I wanted heroes who could take it while also exploring the overarching concept that even the strongest individuals can fall when alone, but we are stronger when united. 

The Metroid universe is fun because it is so expansive and the concepts it explores fly in the face of everything else Nintendo does, to say nothing of Samus being such a badass. It helps. There’s a whole Metroid wiki over at wikitroid if you wanna go deep into the lore, though I like to think Bergman and Pride do a pretty good job exploring at least some of it. 

There’ll be more Pride and Politics later this week – I just wanna wrap up Fade Away first.  

[Guest Sazbi]

16 hours ago, HunterOpera said:

And glad you liked the remastered Reins. I’ve started thinking about a follow-up with Lara, Sam, and Drasha, but there’s a few stories I want to finish first. We’ll see what the new year brings.  

Definitely can’t wait for more of Drasha

[HunterOpera]

On 11/14/2018 at 1:51 AM, Guest Sazbi said:

Definitely can’t wait for more of Drasha

That seems to be a popular opinion. I created a monster. 

[Valet]

On 11/16/2018 at 9:04 PM, HunterOpera said:

I created a monster.

Hmm, IMHO it's different things there. First – Drasha is a colorful character, and second – she is very inventive. Oh, we know good that it’s YOU very inventive, but you’re a good person and Drasha – very bad fiction character ))

p.s. Ben, what do you think people should do with such people as Drasha after she being caught? I mean - remember the Poul Anderson’s words “ My highest goal is that the punishment and crime becomes equal”. What is your opinion?

Edited November 18, 2018 by Valet
Poul Anderson ))

[HunterOpera]

On 11/18/2018 at 1:53 AM, Valet said:

Hmm, IMHO it's different things there. First – Drasha is a colorful character, and second – she is very inventive. Oh, we know good that it’s YOU very inventive, but you’re a good person and Drasha – very bad fiction character ))

p.s. Ben, what do you think people should do with such people as Drasha after she being caught? I mean - remember the Poul Anderson’s words “ My highest goal is that the punishment and crime becomes equal”. What is your opinion?

I’m quite pleased with how Parmistan turned out in general. I took the name and some ideas from an old terrible movie called Gymkata but added in some twisted Roman mythology and tried to figure out why and how a place like that would function in the real world while still be enticing to a variety of modern world character. I think I did a good job. Drasha is inventive and horrible, I think, but the real trick of her comes from two places: she comes across as scary competent, and within the legalities of her own culture she is in the right. 

That’s the scary thing about laws; sometimes they are morally or ethically wrong. Within the context of Parmistan there is no reason to catch Drasha, because she benefits from being in the right on a systemic level. She is an officer of the law punishing a criminal within the guidelines set out by her state, even if her state is morally and ethically in the wrong on an absolute scale. She’s evil without knowing it. She’s Delores Umbridge, the sort of petty banal evil that benefits from having a government on her side, a bully that honestly believes that she is in the right because that’s what she’s been taught and the world she’s lived in all her life. 

I’m an old school role-playing geek who grew up with Palladium before Dungeons and Dragons. My first pen-and-paper game was Transdimensional TMNT; a spinoff of a game called Heroes Unlimited. I mention this because one of the splat books for that game, Villains Unlimited, had an excellent guide on villain psychology. Villains don’t think of themselves as villains, they don’t see themselves as evil. They have goals that they think are noble and are the heroes of their own stories, even as the people around them suffer and die because of their actions. They are in the wrong, and making them understand that is the first step in actually making them better. 

Because here’s the thing: unless you’re going to kill them outright, punishing a villain doesn’t work. All you’re doing is feeding into their hero complex by making them think that they’re suffering for their good and true thoughts. Given this, the first thing you need to do to destroy someone like Drasha is instill a sense of empathy within her. She needs to understand why what she’s doing is wrong, that Lara or any of her other many victims are people in and of themselves. At that point, guilt and sympathy are punishment enough and you can try to rebuild a person like Drasha into someone better. 

Drasha is lawful and wants to be part of a society. She’s conservative in her outlook, nationalistic and confident that her country and actions are the best in the world. She’s never had cause to doubt. Giving her a greater understanding of her actions would force her to understand the consequences of those actions and lead her, I think, to trying to make a systemic change towards a more moral or ethical place. I think we have to be better, and we have to help other people be better. 

In short, Drasha is a symptom and her society is the cause. Wouldn’t you rather deal with the problem at its source and keep more Drashas from ever existing?    

[HunterOpera]

Regarding Pride and Politics, DrkVrtx said: 

That's one way to put Samus back in touch with her avian roots. Getting a familiar vibe here with the hunt as some of the trials you put Lara through, but I wonder how the Hunter will take to it instead.

Oh, I’m going in a very different direction with this. Lara was alone in Parmistan and had no way out; Samus, at least, has a nominal ally and Samus Aran is a very different person than Lara Croft. It also doesn’t help the people hunting her that they don’t really know who she is, and that’s not going to go well for them when they find out. I just finished writing that section of story yesterday, and I should be able to put it out later this week. 

Looking forward to seeing what people think. 

[HunterOpera]

Regarding Pride and Politics, salarta said: 

Glad to see you back in action! Good setup for a new phase of story here. If this were a crossover story I'd suggest FFX-2 "Rikku," who I've always felt looked like she was trying to say she was part-chocobo with that costume.

I know exactly the costume you mean, and, yeah, I definitely liked the cheesecake aspects of FFX-2. I’ve stolen those characters for games I’ve run way too many times. 

It’s good to be back; I’ve got a bit of time before the next contract kicks in and some things I want to experiment with and some stories I need to finish and others I want to tell, so we’ll see if I can get some more done before real life consumes everything again. Glad you like the set-up; I’m looking forward to the payoff of this section, as Alista launches her own conspiracy and drags Samus along for the ride. I’m hoping this works as well as I’m hoping it will, but, well, we’ll see.

[Valet]

On 11/19/2018 at 9:57 PM, HunterOpera said:

That’s the scary thing about laws; sometimes they are morally or ethically wrong. Within the context of Parmistan there is no reason to catch Drasha, because she benefits from being in the right on a systemic level.

I see, Ben. Your opinion is clear: Drasha is not a bad person - it was a bad law system. But in any case, bad laws is not a basis for cruelty. A cruel person will remain cruel under any law, good or bad. Imagine SS or NKVD officers who tortured and killed people. Were they bad people or did they just honestly execute bad orders? It seems to me that the system itself, which demands cruelty from people, is vicious and only cruel people can work there. A good person cannot calmly torture other people just because he or she was told so.

Now consider another case - as in “Bergman Affair”. The villain as a private person who kidnapped and torments the victim for his own pleasure. What do you think such person deserves? And what punishment for him his former victim may ask for? If you can, think of it as if it’s you were that victim and know well what your captor can do with body and mind of somebody’s unsuspecting son or daughter. Thanks

[HunterOpera]

6 minutes ago, Valet said:

I see, Ben. Your opinion is clear: Drasha is not a bad person - it was a bad law system. But in any case, bad laws is not a basis for cruelty. A cruel person will remain cruel under any law, good or bad. Imagine SS or NKVD officers who tortured and killed people. Were they bad people or did they just honestly execute bad orders? It seems to me that the system itself, which demands cruelty from people, is vicious and only cruel people can work there. A good person cannot calmly torture other people just because he or she was told so.

Now consider another case - as in “Bergman Affair”. The villain as a private person who kidnapped and torments the victim for his own pleasure. What do you think such person deserves? And what punishment for him his former victim may ask for? If you can, think of it as if it’s you were that victim and know well what your captor can do with body and mind of somebody’s unsuspecting son or daughter. Thanks

But otherwise decent (if not good) people do torture people they have power over when under orders from respected authorities within their culture. There’s a societal disconnect that informs a base morality, even if that morality is abhorrent. Being able to question the society one is born into is important and risky and is pretty much the only way to keep a society from falling in on itself; people need to move towards a greater and measured inclusion, I think. The SS and NKVD were/are promoted by their societies for the cruelty, yes, and their society celebrates their cruelty, but they are still just people that are being allowed and encouraged to engage in cruel acts. There’s also the average Nazi soldier who just thought he was doing what was right for his country or family and let fascism take hold – I think the only real defense against that sort of evil if a constant and measured degree of self-analysis based on as much truth as possible, and a healthy degree of self-doubt and skepticism. 

And to be clear, I think Drasha is a terrible person, regardless of whether or not she’s enforcing the laws of her land. The Parmistan presented in Reins is not a good place; but I do think that laws and rules can help keep terrible people from doing terrible things, and keep decent people from doing terrible things. I think I wrote earlier in this thread - or possibly another – that only bad people rape. The villains in my stories are not people I agree with, and Drasha is one of the worst (albeit most creative). When I was re-reading  Reins during the edit for the edition that’s on sale, it occurred to me that she and the other Parmistani people get away with their crimes. This is going to cause a sequel when I’ve had enough time to consider how that’s going to work; I’ve got something in mind but I need to give it time to develop. 

I don’t need to imagine being the victim of that sort of thing. 

Bergman had a variety of villains, most of whom were female – Melissa being the main antagonist. Melissa was repeating a cycle of abuse that had been inflicted upon her and made worse by her physical and intellectual maturity and mental and emotional immaturity. She was a victim who made other people victims. Madeline was a decent person who was doing terrible things out of racism on a secret facility run by human supremacists for the purpose of undermining the established galactic government. Contrast that with Chairman Keaton, who was a terrible person from a terrible species who kept his impulses in check and did good things and made many world better because he was able to overcome the conditioning of his youth. Contrast that again with Vogl, who wanted power for power’s sake and was willing to do whatever it took to gain more power, but without a clear reason as to why he wanted it. 

Hell, look at Samus and compare and contrast her with Brannigan. Brannigan acted out of glory and fell into depression when he lost his ability at glory. Samus, by contrast, I think works the same way that Batman does, where the core of her is a strong desire to never let happen to anyone else what happened to her. She wants to protect people. She is the Hunter because she hunts down those that do terrible things to good people, and she inspires people to be better than they are. She’s a hero in the truest sense of that word. 

In that sense, I think Bergman is probably the best of the stories I’ve written specifically because it does deal with the hero’s aftermath of trauma. Samus escapes and beats down her captors, then sees to it that they get the therapy and care they need to be rehabilitated. Torturing them isn’t going to make them better; Melissa and Damara have already suffered enough, and hurting them more is just going to break them further and make them worse people. Madeline and Sakamoto both need to be taught that aliens are bad and that humans aren’t the best, they’re just part of a larger tapestry that makes up a greater society. They all need to be shown that there’s a better way to be, or what’s the point? There’s enough terrible shit going on and cruelties that are encouraged and celebrated, but we are trying to have a society here; why not make it a better one?     

In the interest of #metoo, let us move away from fiction for a moment. The stories I write are make-believe, and I had an interest in kink long before what happened to me happened. I come by it honestly. The stories are an escape, a fantasy meant for people that are into the fiction of rape and the destruction of character rather than the reality. What should be the punishment for, say, those two kids that raped that girl in Ohio? For Brock Turner? For anyone that gets away with being a terrible person because of affluenza? 

For whatever reason people are getting away with being terrible in real life, and that’s currently being challenged and that is the best thing. The Brock Turners of the world lack empathy and don’t see why what they do is wrong, and they need to be educated until they do. Olsar definitely falls into that description, and, spoiler warning: he is going to die for the terrible things he’s done. His entire crew is. It’s not going to make Samus or Alista feel better. It’s not going to erase what happened to them, and Alista is not a hero and is going to fall into the same cycle that Samus is going to break. But we’ll get to that.     

So, turnabout being fair play – what do you think should be the punishment for Drasha-level cruelty? How do you think it can be made better? Do you hold an individual responsible for the actions of a society, or do you hold the society responsible as well? Do you fail to acknowledge the abuse an abuser has suffered in that punishment? What makes you better than an abuser in that case? What makes you think that punishing a person who is already suffering and lashing out from their place of hurt is going to make them a better person instead of widening the wound within them? 

How do you fix this? 

How do you make it better for the victims and their families? Because, again, telling you from experience, it never really goes away. You never stop hating and you never stop being angry. There is no level of punishment that is ever going to make it okay, but there if there is a chance to keep it from happening to anyone else, that chance should be taken. Emotional wounds are still wounds and we are so much more than merely physical beings. I think it’s time our society started acting like it, and I think we’re heading in that direction. Yay, us.     

Your thoughts?

 

[HunterOpera]

Regarding Fade Away, Fukushu-sha said: 

I'm surprised that this hasn't been more popular with how well written a story it is. The narrative and the build-up are the best things about it for me, I would say. You certainly know how to get the reader invested, and I feel that as I'm reading you've really put thought into the beginning- the journey- and end. Not that it's over yet, but it seems that way for me reading it. I may re-read it once it's over. Very good story. 

Thanks, man. I really dig the Dragon Age lore and relate to Hawke on a totemic level; there’s pretty much no other fictional character that I identify as much with, and I think DA2 was criminally underrated (and also rushed. Thanks, EA). 

I think this story was a risk for attention just by having it be Hawke-centric – the lukewarm reaction DA2 got, in general, kept Hawke from being as big a character as Bioware might have hoped, I think, and too many people avoid the character when it comes to fanart and the like. My story is niche for a niche, and I think that sort of limits the people that might give it a look, but I wanted to write it and thought it would be an interesting character study and here we are. 

The next chapter is the last one for this tale of Hawke’s adventures; I have another couple in mind. We’ll see if I actually have time to do them. One is a continuation of this story, and the other a tale of the romance between Hawke, Fenris, and Anders and is pretty much my headcanon on their journey. Just snippets from within the game mixed with some healthy kink. 

I’m not sure if you’ve read any of my other work, but I tend to do these stories more as character studies than as straight smut and work as much with the established lore as possible. I’ve been told a few times that the Bergman Affair, for example, has taught people more about Metroid than the actual games have, which is kind of flattering. Is there anything in particular about this story that sticks out for you, good or bad? What part of the journey has been your favorite, or was there anything you could do without or wish I’d elaborated more on?  

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think about the ending. 

[MorbidFantasy]

I will say the thing I like the most about Pride and Politics thus far is the comparatively beefier salvation arc. Reins of the Tomb Raider was and is a good read, but Sam/Himiko’s literal Deus Ex Machina kinda dictated a truncated ending.

As always, the choice of the MC’s dressage is impeccable. Loved the pony-girl in Reins, and the bird getup here is a nice lore reference to Samus’s origins.

[Valet]

Oh Ben. As I said earlier, you’re so good person… but I’m afraid, reality is worse. Much worse. Let’s see:

On 11/21/2018 at 8:12 AM, HunterOpera said:

I think the only real defense against that sort of evil if a constant and measured degree of self-analysis based on as much truth as possible, and a healthy degree of self-doubt and skepticism. 

Yes, your recipe should work – but in ideal circumstances. Soldiers (or another military men) are specially trained to execute orders without thinking. It is normal – all armies of all countries do so. “Soldier, do not ask”, remember? You have your order – than execute it. After the battle you could make a complaint to your commander. Or shoot him in the back. Or kill yourself. But only after the order was executed. Yes, there were soldiers who refused to carry out criminal orders. Their amount was about 2-5% of all. It is exception, Ben – not the rule. For sorry.

On 11/21/2018 at 8:12 AM, HunterOpera said:

Melissa being the main antagonist. Melissa was repeating a cycle of abuse that had been inflicted upon her and made worse by her physical and intellectual maturity and mental and emotional immaturity. She was a victim who made other people victims.

Yes, of course. It’s classic compensatory syndrom.

On 11/21/2018 at 8:12 AM, HunterOpera said:

The stories are an escape, a fantasy meant for people that are into the fiction of rape and the destruction of character rather than the reality.

And another “yes, of course” )) We all deserve for our little nook for fantasies. It’s absolutely normal to dream.

On 11/21/2018 at 8:12 AM, HunterOpera said:

What should be the punishment for, say, those two kids that raped that girl in Ohio? For Brock Turner? For anyone that gets away with being a terrible person because of affluenza? For whatever reason people are getting away with being terrible in real life, and that’s currently being challenged and that is the best thing. The Brock Turners of the world lack empathy and don’t see why what they do is wrong, and they need to be educated until they do.

Good question. My thoughts? Rape is bad, really bad thing – but there is a thing worse than rape. It’s killing (after rape, I mean). Severe punishment for rape, that provides Western justice will lead only to one consequense: the rapists will kill their victims to avoid identification and jail. That would be really bad, because life after rape is possible – good or bad, but after death there is no life at all.

On 11/21/2018 at 8:12 AM, HunterOpera said:

What makes you better than an abuser in that case? What makes you think that punishing a person who is already suffering and lashing out from their place of hurt is going to make them a better person instead of widening the wound within them? 

How do you fix this? 

How do you make it better for the victims and their families? There is no level of punishment that is ever going to make it okay, but there if there is a chance to keep it from happening to anyone else, that chance should be taken.

Aha. So at least we reach the core. No punishment for “Drasha-level cruelty” – just re-education of Drasha herself. “Hello dear, I’m sorry to interrupt you from torturing another victim, but do you have a minute to talk about human kindness and mutual understanding?” But what if Drasha doesn’t want to listen?

So, what we got in the end? Psychotherapy for both – victim and torturer? Ben, do you really think it would work?

[MorbidFantasy]

The fuck is this thread turning into lol, let’s not bring the horrors of the real world into this and just enjoy the vicarious horrors of fiction space, plox. Besides, even reality can be stranger than fiction, so who’s to say that a character left turn won’t make sense on some level?

[Valet]

6 hours ago, MorbidFantasy said:

The fuck is this thread turning into lol, let’s not bring the horrors of the real world into this and just enjoy the vicarious horrors of fiction space, plox.

It’s all about psychology and all psychology is about authenticity. Very simple, bro 

[MorbidFantasy]

16 hours ago, Valet said:

It’s all about psychology and all psychology is about authenticity. Very simple, bro 

How very Westworld of you, lol #fidelity.

[Valet]

2 hours ago, MorbidFantasy said:

How very Westworld of you, lol #fidelity.

[HunterOpera]

Regarding Pride and Politics, MF said: 

Solid updates from my long amissed degenerate brethren. This is definitely motivating me to rouse myself from post thanksgiving food-coma and put in some work. Good to see you back Hunter. 

It’s good to be back… IRL kept me busy but I’ve got some time now. Let’s see how much of this I can get done, and maybe start another couple of projects. 

How you doin’?