Okay, this idea isn't mine. And for the sake of trying to prevent bias. I am not gonna quote the media that did it(though it was quite popular. Someone may know. Please don't state it in this thread.) Also in that respect, I am no master of the thoughts someone else created. So I am attempting to explain this idea to the best of my ability. I am curious what the community would think because I think it is utterly ridicously but hey. I have been wrong before. Premise: When the main character is near death. After recovery his physical abilities will increase in proportion to how close to death he was. The boast seems to be inconsistent since it is meant to scale with the extremeness of the death but lets say it could be as little as 10% or as high as 300%. Oh and for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to work if the character is assured of his own survival. Such as stabbing himself near a doctor to try and force the effect. Yes the character could potentially lift 3x what he could previously simply by the act of surviving. This trait was genetic but this is barely notable as you don't see many of his race. Do you think this is an interesting aspect to a story? Can something be gained from this? Or just absurd. Flame war begin! lol joking. Me nice, we don't all become better after recovering like this guy.
I don't know if I know what you're referencing, but I know something similar anyway. I find it interesting, though I will say it needs rules. That it doesn't seem to work if the characters are sure of their survival is a good one, though I'm wondering what the mechanics of that function are. It's interesting that a genetic trait can detect a lie. I like to think there would be a way to trick it and reap the benefits without all of the necessary risk. I'm also wondering what the upper limits of this are. If this is a genetic trait, then it's presumably stuck around because it helps this race survive in the world. So are people of this race throwing themselves into deadly situations? Are they both incredibly unlucky and lucky, that they're often confronted with life-threatening situations yet will grow stronger if they survive them? It sounds a lot like a gamble. Is interesting though. It's got me wondering, so that should speak for itself.
It sounds like a video game to me, and I'm not sure I'd find it compelling in written fiction. I mean... in the real world, where we don't have little bars above our heads telling us what our health level is, how does anyone ever really know just how close to death we are? And in video games, death comes as a sort of all-or-nothing thing... characters are totally active and able to fight when they're at 10% health, whereas in the real world, obviously injuries hamper our functionality pretty severely... I don't know. I'm vaguely aware of fiction that's based on video games, but it's my impression that they tend to borrow the characters, plots, settings, etc. rather than the game mechanics. Does that sound accurate? So, I could be totally off base - maybe this isn't from a game at all. But it sounds kinda hard to make this setup feel "real", at least to me.
Yeah, I'm with Bay on this one. I'm not sure how this would be compelling in a narrative sense. Morality is a great motivator... cheapen that and there ain't much left.
In one of my projects there are superpowered characters who, after dying, can be brought back 'supercharged' (also horrifically psychologically traumatized, hurray!). The power boost is a side effect of the method of resurrection that's basically an accident, and always more of a detriment, but I guess it's kinda similar? With my thing they do have to be dead, not near death, and given the actually fairly fuzzy line between life and death (it's not when you stop breathing, it's not when your heart stops, it's not even when your brain activity goes dark - all of these things can be reversible), I intend to fool around with what technically counts as a resurrection and what's just getting help in time. Personally I find that more compelling than "you got this close to death so you get this much more powerful" - though obviously I do figure there's something to be done with the general concept. I'd also be way more interested in a character who found a way to game/cheat the thing and get that infinite power by stabbing themself in a no-danger scenario. Always gotta look for them exploits.
You heard em, Guardian. Show your naysayers what for! Mmm, yes. What wondrous what fors they shall be.
Oh I am a naysayer too! I think this is absurd. I brought it up to see if anyone could come with an idea I couldn't. I think it instantly ruins the sense of drama as any character that is "near" enough to cause a draw are instantly outclassed the moment the character survives. Its essentially a gimmick, to allow the MC to be beaten half to death and come back stronger quicker. Which I think we would all find horrible. Yet, it does make me wonder if there is good application for this. @izzybot Is your idea temporary? Or permanent? That is one thing about this. Its permanent! So, magic strength pill! Also I remember your idea. I had something similar to yours! I think we talked about it before. Never thought of it as being close to this. Probably because this has no psychology effects. The character doesn't even seem to be aware of his 3x power until he picks something up usually. @BayView Not a videogame concept. Can't think of a videogame that used something like this exactly. Might be a cool videogame idea! lol. Figured it would be good to let you know it was a TV show. But yeah. I am with your guys. I think it is absurd! lol.
Oh and to answer your question. They were like raiders or pirates. Always fighting, stealing and just plain on being voilent. Which I imagine is both why this developed and helped than and also why there are almost extinct in the world. Risk takers eventually lose. Heck the species was so battle loving. They didn't even have sex for fun. It was purely viewed as a breeding tool. Romance is a foreign concept to them. Just to give you a piece of the species.
Yeah, it's permanent - and conceivably repeatable/stackable! - but I'm always more interested in the downsides to these kinds of things. The concept started out as a version of the Came Back Wrong trope, but since characters being inconvenienced and worse by their powers was already a theme, it made sense for the wrongness to also be connected to their powers. Just using it as a power pill is definitely something that'd get cheap real fast.
In my version. They could only do it once. The person needed the right balance of magic and tradgety. It was all about mental tragedy. Like, flight or fight to the super natural limit. It was more important you "felt" like your world was ending than for it to actually be ending. Heck, you could say beyond that. Like such a tragic fury of emotions. Kicking and screaming into it kind of emotions. Bamn, you'd leap(I call it leaping.) Your body would mutate to reinforce you towards the current situation. Though generally it was like a +1 to EVERYTHING as well as restoring any minor injuries. The body would mutate in some way too. Like, maybe a tail, or hair would change color. In one case, the hair color was an intense thing for the girl. Because everytime she looked in the mirror, it was a reminder that she lost herself. And the part you'd be most interested in. The brain emotions are very maulable. Essentially, a girl who leaps and goes on a murderous rampage, her mind is sort open to change right now and it would be very easy to push that. Better example one girl who was about to murder someone. Someoen watching that knew about leaping was like. "Its obvious she is gonna kill him. If she does it for revenge or not is gonna make one hell of an impact on who she will be after this." And yeah, sudden power boast I think counts as on topic even if it is a different power boast.
