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Writing Malarkey: Descent and Redemption
Subtitle: Look, Mommy, Yukie is a Paladin
Blizzard is still being stupid as hell and this latest bout of hackish amateur-tastic lols hasn't impressed me at all SO YOU GET MY THOUGHTS ON WRITAN
My usual disclaimer applies: I'm explaining my rationale here. People who do stuff differently than me are neither nimrods nor stanky (unless they are Blizzard's usual flock of writers, in which case they are nimrods, stanky, and deserving of defenestration). Everyone has their own reasons for writing the stuff they do; I'm just running through my reasons for doing what I do here, as well as debunking what I feel are common fallacious argument type things.
Hokay. So.
Those of you who've known me for a while--or even a little bit since I tend to yack a lot--probably know that I am big on rehabilitation/recovery. I prefer to do this over smiting a bad guy. Some of it has to do with upbringing--I have a couple relatives in corrections and a couple more who teach. From them I picked up that giving up on somebody is a cheap way out; that even if it's piss-hard, you should keep trying because you never can tell. (This of course does not apply to toxic jerks. You're not obliged to save someone who has no interest in recovery and wants you to rescue them from themselves while they punch you repeatedly in the butt. Eff that noise.)
Some of it also has to do with the fact that I've seen more than a few friends and family members grapple with and overcome addictions. Sometimes they backslide or faceplant off the wagon, but they will get right back up and try again.
So I was taught that there's no such thing as a lost cause most of the time, and I've seen it demonstrated. And yeah, too much damn beer or toxic thought patterns are not the exact same as, say, trying to return the cosmos to a state of primordial darkness, or trying to turn everybody living undead to protect them from demons, or trying to apply Meteor A to Planet B in order to please Space Germ C. But there is a grain of similarity in the flawed-thinking category in all of these cases. Common themes come up. "This is the only way" and "It can't change, this is always going to be the way things are" and "I have to" and "No one else sees things as clearly as me" and and and. They're defenses and walls to hide behind.
So to me, it stands to reason that if my friends and family could take the application of the cluebat, then why couldn't KH1!Ansem or something? Is it necessary to frag him, or can we smack some sense into him? I mean yeah we COULD frag him, but once someone gets cut down, they're done. That means bang-dead, vanished, fucking faded etc. They're no longer in our faces, sure, but they're also no longer able to clean up the goddamn mess they made.
Yes, I am proposing villain community service, basically. Why the heck not? If someone's picked up the clue phone and they understand what they did, isn't it better to have them as a productive member of society atoning for their deeds rather than like--compost? I know not everyone'll agree with me in this respect, but from a sheerly pragmatic point of view I'd much rather have the epic knight of doom stable and on my side and helping me fix the wall his legions of WTF broke down.
I've had people tell me this is an easy way out and I don't agree. What part of recovery is 'easy'? What part of taking a long, hard, honest look at yourself is 'easy'? What part of making amends is 'easy'? I'd say exactly zero, myself. Recovery can take years. Decades. You can relapse and backslide, and then you have to face the results of that. If your actions have done a lot of damage, it can take ages to make amends and some people will not trust you ever again (which is their right).
So like...what part of demanding someone FIX THEIR SHIT and making sure they bust their asses to do it is too soft, now? Tell me how this is an easy way, out, smooth sailing, 'carebear', too lenient, wussy, etc.? I think people mistake compassion for enabling all too often, and really, that's a a failing of this society in general. It all ties into bullshit sexism and crap and I can rant for ages about this, but I'll keep it short: because society is full of shit, shortsighted people think compassion is weak--and they think it is weak because it is "girly". Emotional connections are "girly". And "girly" is bad.
Never mind that sometimes compassion entails telling someone to get the fuck out of your house or clean up their act, throwing out all the shit they're using to self-medicate and helping them walk through withdrawals from hell but refusing to enable or relent, whacking them with sticks until they go to their goddamn counselor etc. etc.
All this tealdeer comes down to this: recovery and redemption and rehabilitation are not "the easy way out". I do not think that choosing to write this makes anything "meaningless" as I've so often heard claimed. If anything, I'd think it'd make a fallen-hero scenario more poignant--here now you have someone who knows the full weight of their deeds, has their conscience again, is striving to fix what they broke, but knows full well they may never be able to truly make amends, fix everything, or be the person they used to be before the fall. You cannot go backward; you cannot undo the past (because Nozdormu will gnaw you). You can only go forward with a clear head and do your best.
I prefer to write that. It's more meaningful to me, at least.
Some people make the mistake of thinking healing is easy. These people have probably never seen someone go through addiction recovery, or physiotherapy, or anything like that. And if they have, they're not making the connection between various kinds of healing and recovery.
At the end of the day I'd much rather have Arthas, Ansem, Neltharion and Co. live, and make them face their stupid choices, and tell them to clean up the goddamn wreck they made of the house. And refuse to let them die, give up, or backslide. I don't think that's very soft-touchy.
And it's more fun to write than just bang-dead. You get more STORY out of things. ^^
So YEAH, that is why I am so enamoured of writing recovery. It's more fun, and I don't beliebe in 'bad seeds;. Very few people are hopeless causes.
I was taught in a roundabout and backhanded way that I should think of myself as such--a bad seed, a hopeless cause, garlic in my soul etc.--for a very long time. So I wrote redemption stories, because surely if Ansem and Sephiroth and Co. could get better, surely so could something like me?
One day, I refused to think of myself that way any more. But I still write redemption stories, because why not. ^^ Again, I'm not trashing anybody's methods with this. I'm just explaining my own rationale.
if I'm a carebear I'm one with rabies kthx. XD
Blizzard is still being stupid as hell and this latest bout of hackish amateur-tastic lols hasn't impressed me at all SO YOU GET MY THOUGHTS ON WRITAN
My usual disclaimer applies: I'm explaining my rationale here. People who do stuff differently than me are neither nimrods nor stanky (unless they are Blizzard's usual flock of writers, in which case they are nimrods, stanky, and deserving of defenestration). Everyone has their own reasons for writing the stuff they do; I'm just running through my reasons for doing what I do here, as well as debunking what I feel are common fallacious argument type things.
Hokay. So.
Those of you who've known me for a while--or even a little bit since I tend to yack a lot--probably know that I am big on rehabilitation/recovery. I prefer to do this over smiting a bad guy. Some of it has to do with upbringing--I have a couple relatives in corrections and a couple more who teach. From them I picked up that giving up on somebody is a cheap way out; that even if it's piss-hard, you should keep trying because you never can tell. (This of course does not apply to toxic jerks. You're not obliged to save someone who has no interest in recovery and wants you to rescue them from themselves while they punch you repeatedly in the butt. Eff that noise.)
Some of it also has to do with the fact that I've seen more than a few friends and family members grapple with and overcome addictions. Sometimes they backslide or faceplant off the wagon, but they will get right back up and try again.
So I was taught that there's no such thing as a lost cause most of the time, and I've seen it demonstrated. And yeah, too much damn beer or toxic thought patterns are not the exact same as, say, trying to return the cosmos to a state of primordial darkness, or trying to turn everybody living undead to protect them from demons, or trying to apply Meteor A to Planet B in order to please Space Germ C. But there is a grain of similarity in the flawed-thinking category in all of these cases. Common themes come up. "This is the only way" and "It can't change, this is always going to be the way things are" and "I have to" and "No one else sees things as clearly as me" and and and. They're defenses and walls to hide behind.
So to me, it stands to reason that if my friends and family could take the application of the cluebat, then why couldn't KH1!Ansem or something? Is it necessary to frag him, or can we smack some sense into him? I mean yeah we COULD frag him, but once someone gets cut down, they're done. That means bang-dead, vanished, fucking faded etc. They're no longer in our faces, sure, but they're also no longer able to clean up the goddamn mess they made.
Yes, I am proposing villain community service, basically. Why the heck not? If someone's picked up the clue phone and they understand what they did, isn't it better to have them as a productive member of society atoning for their deeds rather than like--compost? I know not everyone'll agree with me in this respect, but from a sheerly pragmatic point of view I'd much rather have the epic knight of doom stable and on my side and helping me fix the wall his legions of WTF broke down.
I've had people tell me this is an easy way out and I don't agree. What part of recovery is 'easy'? What part of taking a long, hard, honest look at yourself is 'easy'? What part of making amends is 'easy'? I'd say exactly zero, myself. Recovery can take years. Decades. You can relapse and backslide, and then you have to face the results of that. If your actions have done a lot of damage, it can take ages to make amends and some people will not trust you ever again (which is their right).
So like...what part of demanding someone FIX THEIR SHIT and making sure they bust their asses to do it is too soft, now? Tell me how this is an easy way, out, smooth sailing, 'carebear', too lenient, wussy, etc.? I think people mistake compassion for enabling all too often, and really, that's a a failing of this society in general. It all ties into bullshit sexism and crap and I can rant for ages about this, but I'll keep it short: because society is full of shit, shortsighted people think compassion is weak--and they think it is weak because it is "girly". Emotional connections are "girly". And "girly" is bad.
Never mind that sometimes compassion entails telling someone to get the fuck out of your house or clean up their act, throwing out all the shit they're using to self-medicate and helping them walk through withdrawals from hell but refusing to enable or relent, whacking them with sticks until they go to their goddamn counselor etc. etc.
All this tealdeer comes down to this: recovery and redemption and rehabilitation are not "the easy way out". I do not think that choosing to write this makes anything "meaningless" as I've so often heard claimed. If anything, I'd think it'd make a fallen-hero scenario more poignant--here now you have someone who knows the full weight of their deeds, has their conscience again, is striving to fix what they broke, but knows full well they may never be able to truly make amends, fix everything, or be the person they used to be before the fall. You cannot go backward; you cannot undo the past (because Nozdormu will gnaw you). You can only go forward with a clear head and do your best.
I prefer to write that. It's more meaningful to me, at least.
Some people make the mistake of thinking healing is easy. These people have probably never seen someone go through addiction recovery, or physiotherapy, or anything like that. And if they have, they're not making the connection between various kinds of healing and recovery.
At the end of the day I'd much rather have Arthas, Ansem, Neltharion and Co. live, and make them face their stupid choices, and tell them to clean up the goddamn wreck they made of the house. And refuse to let them die, give up, or backslide. I don't think that's very soft-touchy.
And it's more fun to write than just bang-dead. You get more STORY out of things. ^^
So YEAH, that is why I am so enamoured of writing recovery. It's more fun, and I don't beliebe in 'bad seeds;. Very few people are hopeless causes.
I was taught in a roundabout and backhanded way that I should think of myself as such--a bad seed, a hopeless cause, garlic in my soul etc.--for a very long time. So I wrote redemption stories, because surely if Ansem and Sephiroth and Co. could get better, surely so could something like me?
One day, I refused to think of myself that way any more. But I still write redemption stories, because why not. ^^ Again, I'm not trashing anybody's methods with this. I'm just explaining my own rationale.
if I'm a carebear I'm one with rabies kthx. XD