The Meme demon
Anxious Animator
The current page image was made by Vitaly Alexius (http://fav.me/d1izjco
) and, to my knowledge, isn't tied to any of the listed table top games. I don't know the markup or how formatting usually works here, so could someone please look into updating it?
Locus from Justice League 3000 should be added as a comic book example.
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In regards to Orihime's entry, I think that new information should be added, both in light of current events and for the sake of accuracy.
Orihime powers are based around the concept of rejecting reality, but are limited by both her emotional state and what she personally believes is possible or not. Hacchi advises her that where mastering her power is concerned, she needs to remember that she shouldn't think of how the world works but how she wants the world to work.
For starters, the entire entry is based on fan interpretations of her ability, and interpretations based on incorrect translations of the manga i.e. years-old online scanlations. In the Viz Manga, Hachigen's words never implied anything about her powers being influenced by how "she wants the world to work", but was instead talking about her finding a way to fight. He was saying that there is a way for her to fight, but that she has to find it, and tells her to remember: "It is not how you should be, but how you want to be." In other words, Hachigen was giving her advice on finding a way for herself to fight (which is represented by her developing Shiten Koshun), not about her powers being determines by what she believes should happen.
Second, her power was completely incapable of restoring The Soul King in the recent arc, shattering when she tried to do so.
So her power is actually more limited than what people have believed for the past while, so I think here entry should be edited to more accurately reflect that.
In the French-Canadian Folktale of the Duck-Dog, little John, the main character, was given this power at birth by a fairy godmother. The scene is absolutely hilarious as in most well-known versions the godmother is apologetic about giving him this power as she couldn't think of another one. It went something like this: "I can't think of anything specific right now... Here, just take the ability to have anything and everything you want just by saying it. Sorry for the lame blessing."
anyone got a title or a link for that entry on the Literature tag? can't seem to find anything on google.
Can anyone tell me more about Mister Marvel from Comic Books examples folder? I searched the whole Internet and found virtually nothing about him. It seems like such character doesn't really exist and yet he's in examples and is apparently connected to Marvel's House of M event.
I think that this trope should not include those who 'warp reality' using magic; even with an innate ability, magic seems like a tool rather than just thinking something into being, but I wasn't sure enough to start deleting examples.
Opinions?
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If that's the case, does that mean that Wizard Marshall Zelretch can't be added here? Or even the True Magic that he's capable of? Since he does have the ability of taking something from an alternate universe and sticking on whoever, whatever, wherever and whenever he wants, I had originally thought he would make a good example of this trope. But if what you're saying is going to be the case, I guess it's a good thing I hadn't gone directly to changing the page itself before coming here the the discussion page.
Can we at least add the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch or the Kaleidostick then as other examples of reality warping, since we've already added Gae Bolg here?
Deleting the whole damned Real Life folder. See, several months ago I tried to be helpful and include the sketchy but common real-life based hand waves that sci-fi/fantasy writers use, because I was under the impression at the time that this site was supposed to be a resource for writers and literary students...
- One of the most controversial aspects of quantum physics is that its phenomena are measured in probability waves until an observation's made, at which point the results collapse into a concrete reality. The most famous example is the Schrodinger's Cat paradox: in a nutshell, if a cat has a 50/50 chance of being alive due to some quantum effect (such as radioactive decay), and nobody's observed the cat, which is it? The math says the cat's in all possible states, and so both and neither at the same time, until someone observes the cat and somehow changes the floating alive/dead possibilities into the real outcome. Another famous example is the double-slit experiment, where electrons that aren't individually measured act like waves, but electrons that are separately measured behave like particles. This effect's often used in science fiction to Hand Wave characters with reality warping powers, such as Haruhi Suzumiya and Jenny Quantum.
- The "reality warper" aspect of quantum physics also comes into play with a parapsychology theory meant to explain people who can allegedly predict hidden playing cards, rolling dice and other random outcomes. Whereas traditional parapsychology describes such people as psychics with extrasensory perception, a quantum school of thought instead says that, rather than seeing the future, they create the future: when they foresee the right outcome, they're unconsciously reshaping reality and making the outcome happen the way they imagined it. This idea's often used to Hand Wave a link between Psychic Powers and warping reality: examples include Gary Mitchell, a latent psychic whose powers skyrocketed to reality-warping levels in the broadcast pilot of Star Trek, and the probablity-altering mutant Wanda Maximoff, who, at the height of her insanity, can even rewrite history to match her delusions.
Now, I don't believe in parapsychology or quantum uncertainty on a macroscopic level, but because those ideas are the basis of just about every non-magic use of the trope, I thought it was useful and phrased it as such. But that keeps getting deleted, most recently by someone who appeared and disappeared within the span of three months and who made no comments, no explanations, no other changes to the page. My guess is that, unlike me, they're too egotistical to separate their own beliefs from what's useful to know from a fiction-writing perspective.
But then this crap remains...
- Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware that they're dreaming. No longer bound by any sort of rule, you are then free to modify your dream as you see fit — provided you actually know how to do it, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Some practice later, you end up with 30% of your life being spent, for all intents and purposes, as the god of your own world.*
- A little more terrifying instance — Psychosis, which can happen with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia (for which it is the hallmark symptom), severe depression, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, is a condition where the sufferer's mind fails to perceive reality as is and confuses idle inner thoughts with reality. In its throes, the mental state of the sufferer shapes the world that they exist in... and that state often tends to be terror, confusion and self-loathing.*
That is NOT reality warping in "real life" in any sense whatsoever. That's using your imagination. That's it. And if the entries that would actually serve a genre writer or fan who wants to know how the trope's justified in science-fiction keep getting cut because some jackass can't get past their personal offense over how said justifications go against their sensibilities, then saying "wow, we can warp reality by imagining stuff" certainly shouldn't stand as a disingenuous and useless "example". There simply are no real-life examples.
Edited by BritBllt "And for the first time in weeks, I felt the boredom go away!" Hide / Show Replies
Don't fall victim to crab mentality. All three entries strike me as equally valid (though on second thought, the one about lucid dreams, which I wrote, might fit better in Your Mind Makes It Real), and I'm convinced that whoever is deleting yours is in the wrong.
It is wit that makes snark work.
I'm a bit calmer and less invested in it now, but the whole folder's still iffy. Really, this isn't a trope that lends itself to reality. Even the entries I made might work better as a soft split between two types of reality warping rather than trying to shoehorn them into a real life folder. The problem with the mental ones is that they come down to using your imagination in some fashion, which can be described in all sorts of ways that don't really have any impact on the world apart from the person's own subjective experience of it (like, if psychosis counts, then would clinical depression? If lucid dreaming counts, does intense daydreaming?). The trope's about directly twisting reality itself into a new form, which is a yardstick real life has a hard time measuring up against.
Edited by BritBllt "And for the first time in weeks, I felt the boredom go away!"
Where is the page picture from? A while ago it had a link to Exalted, now it's Mage: the Awakening, and I'm not familiar with it from either of those gamelines.
What would you think will happen if a Chaotic Neutral Cloudcuckoolander with "Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny" have this kind of power?
