#Power fantasy

[scipunk]

The Matrix (1999)

[alpaca-clouds]

Thinking about Power Fantasies and Wishfullfillment

I am thinking about Wishfullfillment and Power Fantasies a lot recently. Mostly because someone has shamed me for writing exactly that. Power Fantasies. Or, let's be more honest, for me writing a rather unusual kind of Power Fantasy. The one, where the power that I fantasize about is not a physical, violent power.

Technically speaking, there are technically like two acceptable types of Power Fantasy within fiction:

Punch real good and get to punch all the bad guys.

Get the hot gal/hot guy.

Genre fiction is usually where this can be found - and yeah, it always is a variation of this. Generally media that is focused more on a male audience will usually go more for the "get to punch stuff real good" power fantasy, while maybe putting in a little "hot gal" for the visuals. Meanwhile, a lot of media focused on a female audience, will focus on "get the hot guy (and fix him)" as the power fantasy, with maybe a bit of "get good at punching". (And yes, this has less to do with "what gets written", but more with "what gets published/made into movies/films/games by big publishers/studios".)

What is noticable about it: Obviously for the most part the romantic power fantasies are very much heteronormative. And yes, the other part of the power fantasy is almost always about physical violence, and about being the strongest, and most influencial person there is.

And here is the thing: That is not really the power I fantasize about. I do not want to use violence to kill the bad guy real good. Sure, if someone handed me a Death Note, you'll bet, that I would see what would happen if I noted down "Elon Musk" and "Donald Trump". But in general it is not the kind of power I would want.

My power fantasy is "to be able to talk people into being fucking reasonable for once". Or rather: "Be able to talk and have people just listen, gods darn it." Which is, yeah, why ever since I started playing TTRPGs more than half my life ago, I had the tendency to play the charisma heavy classes. And which also is the reason why my DnD standard class is the bard.

So, yes, whenever I currently write about my BG3 Tav and he is talking sense into some BBEGs (like Gorts, or Emps) and stuff... Yeah, that is very much my own sort of power fantasy. Just as his "I am gonna make friends with everyone" is very much a power fantasy of mine.

Again, there is a reason for me to play bard.

Yet, a former friend wrote a whole ass essay shaming me for it and how unrealistic it was and how the character "forced his morals" on everyone else. (All my questions on how the person's own characters killing their villains were not forcing their morals on said villains were ignored.) And it created a whole ass discussion, where even more folks then kept shaming me about this - and about my love for Solarpunk with worlds, in which again the world is actually a peaceful one.

And... I think this is really sad, right?

Like, how is it that the only viable variations of writing power fantasies seem to be "violence" or "get to have straight sex"? I find it especially kinda sad, that violence especially is the thing people can fantasize about and it is considered "normal".

Sure, you can say: "Well, some forum discussion is not saying much." But something that I keep thinking about: "Well, I am writing those stories for myself, because there is not a whole lot of that avaible in media." Because most mass media is about characters punching real good and then punching their problems. Sure, I can think of a couple of animated kids media in which the BBEG is in fact defeated by words. Steven Universe comes to mind. And, I mean, ATLA kinda tried, though they still needed to have the big bad battle in the end. But in general it really is the exception to the rule.

Mass media tends to focus on violence to tell stories. Alternatives to it are rarely even considered. If you look at the blockbusters and what not, pretty much all involve a finale that does centrally feature a fight or battle.

Yet, especially in terms of movies I cannot think of a single one, where the main character goes in there: "Okay, bad guy, let's just talk about this", and then does exactly that.

And the same goes about the worldbuilding. Why (outside of the normatilization of the entire "western narratives" thing) do so many people struggle with the idea of a Solarpunk world, where the world itself is fine? Why do they struggle to imagine a utopia where there is no sinister plot hiding and Soylent Green is in fact not people? Why do they actually get super angry at you, when you write stories like that?

Because it is so fucking normalized.

But, like... How is it that you can write a wishfulfillment world where the wishfulfillment is based around how very much at war everyone is - just so that the MCs can be the biggest, most badass heroes there are! Why shouldn't people be able to write a wishfulfillment world, where the wishfulfillment is actually that the world is nice and peaceful and the heroes are just really good at science and politics?

And let's face it: This is very much all about capitalism. It is very much about having a very strange relationship to both violence and anti-violence. And... Yeah, no, we need to move past that.

So, that said? I am going back to writing self-indugent power fantasies about my dumb bard going around, talking people into joining the good side for hugs and cookies, and also having a lot of queer sex. *coughs*

[existennialmemes]

Please don't ask me to explain my facial expressions when I'm just sitting silently.

We're somewhere around season 30, in my Power Fantasy Daydreams, and it would take way too long to get you all caught up now.

[chaotic-would-you-rathers]

Would You Rather...

A: Be Isekaid, specifically reincarnated into a world 100% accurate to the poorly written self-indulgent novel of a 12 year old from our world as a character not present in the plot B: Be Isekaid, specifically directley teleported, into the last book you read in a non-contemporary setting when you read this, at the start of its story, in a random location established in the setting C: Be Isekaid, specifically reincarnated as the comedy relief/mascot character in a generic trashy power fantasy isekai setting with all the tropes that irritate you specifically the most D: Be Isekaid in a random manner, into a random work of fiction you have consumed at some point in your life and would personally rate 4/10 or under

[hotcomicstv]

American Blood

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Thoughts on Barbie - Feminism, Power Fantasies, Isekai, & Existentialism - SPOILERS!

I really like how the feminism in Barbie is actually kept simplistic. I don’t think the feminism in it needs to be super layered to make for an excellent and engaging movie, especially due to how Barbie the Movie, itself, is structured.

Of course the feminism presented in it is rather simplistic in nature. This makes sense since this is Stereotypical Barbie’s first exposure to feminist ideology and thoughts. She was a doll with a very childlike understanding of how the world works and functions. This also makes sense, since the Barbies in general are all toys geared at young girls. Their world is a reflection of the fluffy promises and hopes that we, as adults, feed to young children (especially girls). This idea that they can be anything and do anything.

But the reality is much more messy and complicated than that. We see the Barbies (and Kens) beginning to understand this towards the end of the movie - after they have all been “touched” by the Real World. They have engaged with Gloria and Sasha and the CEO of Mattel and so on and so forth. There is now no instant change in ideology (like what we see happen when Ken brings over patriarchy to Barbie Land), instead, we see the sort of social change that happens in the Real World - slow moving and made in small intervals. But, at the same time, we see Stereotypical Barbie and Ken working through more complex ideas and emotions surrounding feminist thoughts and ideologies. 

I also feel like it was less the feminism itself that makes the movie stand out in a way, but the way they present it. They don’t hide it behind a dark and grim story, they don’t have it being presented just generally to the audience or subtlety hinted at - instead the movie is bright and colorful and silly - and we have two older women (Gloria and Ruth) guiding younger women (Sasha and the Barbies) through the ups and downs of womanhood. Right, Sasha is a teen girl in the Real World who is starting to understand more and more of life’s complexities, but still missing some of the time and experience that can add more nuance and understanding to many areas of life. While Barbie is like a young adult woman - a college girl that is just getting ready to graduate and really head out into the actual Real World. 

So it’s all about being able to relate (whether in a big way or a small way) to the shared experiences that are being depicted on the screen. It’s a movie created by a woman specifically for women (and yes, that includes trans women - the Youtuber, Kat Blaque, who is a trans woman, did a review of Barbie where she talked about the trans rep and how they got it right - I’ll link her video below). It is speaking directly to us women. All of us.

Which also gets me into thinking about power fantasies, isekai (and reverse isekai) a genre that is about “normal human ends up in a fantasy land,” with the reverse being that a fantasy being (usually of some high power or standing) ending up in the normal human world, and how men and women tend to play into these narratives. 

Many power fantasties that we see tend to involve men - even the ones aimed at women - such as the take I’ve seen of how “teen girl x immortal (usually male) being” in YA novels is about girls seeing themselves in a place of emotional power over men. Superhero narratives are all about normal people gaining superhuman powers - usually in a way that makes them physically stronger - and these all tend to play into male power fantasies and gazes, even when the superhero is a woman. Even if they may touch on feminist ideologies, the way the power fantasy element is handled is still very different from what we see here in Barbie.

In Barbie, we follow Stereotypical Barbie. She is like that ordinary human. Nothing about her really stands out and she doesn’t have any amazing job. That being said, there are elements about her existence that we, as humans, would find to be almost superhuman or advantages over us - never aging, never dying, being able to float from the top of your house right into your car, etc. But, Stereotypical Barbie herself, like within her own world, doesn’t hold any kind of power or high standing. Her journey into the Real World is essentially a reverse isekai. 

In the end, Barbie chooses to stay in the Real World and become a human. She chooses the more flawed existence over the more perfected one (or seemingly perfected one anyway). And I think it is the moments that touch on this aspect of Barbie’s journey which is what makes the movie so special to so many women. Not necessarily the Feminism 101 aspect, which is just an element to Barbie’s journey into womanhood. It’s Barbie seeing the elderly lady next to her on the bench and seeing the beauty in her. It is Barbie meeting Sasha and Gloria and learning from them about how hard life is for women in the Real World still. It is Barbie’s talks with Ruth. Quiet and introspective and filled with a soft patience that comes with age and life. And it is Barbie seeing and experiencing all of these things and then choosing to become human and live in the Real World.

Not because of men. Not because of romance. Not because of any sort of power fantasy that engages in a male gaze and perspective. But because of the women she has met in the Real World. The connections she made with them and the hopes, dreams, and feelings of all girls and women in the Real World.

That’s the moment that makes Barbie so special. That’s the moment that really makes everyone in the theater feel connected, especially the other women and girls present there. That moment is what made the movie for me. The culmination of Barbie’s exploration of existentialists ideologies through a purposefully and specifically woman focused lens. 

[as-easel]

i lied. we arent watching jjk. we are watching cat planet cuties and you will enjoy it.

[doctorslippery]

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[wolf-tail]

The fact that I loved the movie Pixels so much as a kid, and the fact that it ever got produced at all, is that wishfulfilling, self gratifying, power fantasy bullshit can be enjoyed by other people than you, you just have to find the right audience.

Pixels sucks in the way that most movies in that vein suck, It's an Adam Sandler movie after all, but there are things to like about it. There's a sort of charm to the fact that it feels so clearly like it was written by twelve year old boys.

"My best friend is the president and we use our video game powers to save the world, hot girls like us, and the asshole who cheated at donkey kong and bullies me acknowledges that im better" could actually be a fairly solid movie, if the characters were more funny and charismatic, and the hot babe love interests are treated more like complete characters than prizes to be won that trip over themselves at the sight of the first complete loser they see.

The movie also somehow manages to have the most boomer ass take on video games and still be thoroughly pro video game. It essentially has the vibe that all video games made after 1990 are kiddy trash, the only real gamers are the people who poured a thousand quarters into an arcade cabinet in the years before the Soviet Union collapsed. This is worse than boomer bullshit, it's Gen X bullshit.

There's a good movie hidden somewhere underneath all the sexist and unfunny Adam Sandler stank of Pixels. The movie is pure nostalgia bait to a very specific audience, so perhaps better writers would zero in on that feeling of childhood whimsy, and the benefits of maintaining it into adulthood.

You all know me as a person who is generally pro self indugent power fantasy, but I also know that power fantasy can be bad in more ways than just being pure self gratification. Mary Sue media that is made to appeal to pretty much men and men alone, or whatever malformed caricature of the average man imagined by a depraved filmmaker that assumes all men must just be mindless, masculinity obsessed sex pests with dicks for brains like he is (looking at you Michael Bay), tends to reek of misogyny, the kinds that imagine that women don't have inner lives that don't revolve entirely around men and reproduction. This is what people talk about when they talk about the male gaze in media.

This is the kind of media like isekai anime where half naked teenage girls have the camera angle focused on their chests every three seconds and only exist to be the harem for the most boring man to ever exist.

This doesn't mean that all power fantasy made by and for primarily men is just going to be like that by default, this kind of media is just a symptom of societal misogyny in general, and typically made by men who have done little to no work in unlearning it. If a man has done the work to check his own sexism, the power fantasies that he dreams of and writes into movies, books, games and shows probably aren't going to be sexist.

To make a long story short, Pixels could've been good If the people who made it weren't sexist old crustbags with no comedy skill.

[informatikerin-freyja]

I sensed that the animal in front of me was nearing the end of its patience, and I did not particularly want to get gored by a goat for the second time this month. My skills in diplomacy were evidently required were I to win this friendly debate.

"Look here you disgusting barely sentient thing, I am just trying to help you!" I proclaimed in a bid to earn the goat's respect. Though I could tell the goat was uninterested in reason, malice dripping from its eyes, I regardless pressed forward with tactful diplomacy.

"All the ugliness of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory need not burden your mind and pollute your soul. Intuitionistic type theory provides a viable and vastly more elegant foundation for doing mathematics!"

Unfortunately, despite my articulate explanations, this goat was insufficiently cultured as to receive my gentle elucidating admonishments with the appropriate degree of contrite self-reflection and acceptance. Determined to stay within the world of set theory, the moronic beast pushed the welcoming light of type theory out of its primitive mind, and instead charged at me.

Fortunately, my many years of mathematical training had prepared me to dispatch set-theoretic quadrupeds with remarkable grace. As soon as the goats horns entered within my range of attack, I side stepped the charge, twirling suddenly, picking up the goat in order to execute a perfect suplex move.

Its face now buried deep within the dirt outside the math department parking lot, the goat saw at once what a proper foundation should be. Not an erratic collection of trash like the Zermelo--Frankel axioms, but rather a uniform dirt-like conceptually homogeneous whole as type theory provides. In this moment the goat achieved enlightenment and adopted intuitionistic type theory as its preferred foundation, before, as a result of my devastating attack, slipping into that long dark and dreadfully chilly night.

[tobiasdrake]

Spicy hot take incoming, of the "They're going to take away my critic's badge for this" variety.

So I recently watched F.D. Signifier's video on anime and I was thinking about some of the things he said about the Isekai genre. Why it's often both attractive and yet shallow all at once; A Power Fantasy more interested in having fun letting characters be powerful than in putting in the effort to earn their power.

This got me to thinking about Isekai stories that I've consumed. I'm a big fan of Digimon Adventure, particularly the first series. Existing before Isekai became such a huge thing, Digimon Adventure played more to the fear and uncertainty of random kids being dragged into this other world and forced to become child soldiers - While still managing to retain a relatively light tone.

But as I was thinking about this, I realized something. One of the best uses of the Isekai concept for storytelling that I've seen... was from a shitty internet comedy webseries made on a $5 budget.

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of The Legend of Neil. It's a very shallow parody of the first Legend of Zelda game; The kind of parody where the jokes they're using are things like, "LOL Why do we keep leaving items around the dungeon for the hero to use?"

As gaming satire, it's bottom of the barrel. It's crude and vulgar, and there are more than a few elements that haven't aged well, such as aggressively Q-coded villains, a particular character death that seems more mean-spirited than tragic, and multiple references to Harry Potter.

But there's something there, underneath it all, that comes to my mind when I think about Isekais. Because The Legend of Neil, for all of its faults, has something it wants to say. There's a dissertation on masculinity and abuse buried beneath the dick jokes and "LOL Enemies drop healing hearts?"

The main character Neil comes from a comically abusive home life. He suffers endless deluges of abuse from his family, his girlfriend, and the customers at his retail job. And yet for two seasons, his top priority is just getting back there. The game world is different and weird and scary, and it expects a lot from him. And he just wants to go home.

This isn't uncommon fare for the Isekai brand. "Life sucked but now you're here and you're the hero! Go be awesome!" But for Neil, there's something deeper here. First, because it isn't a power fantasy. Neil gets his teeth kicked in constantly. He's frequently outmatched and forced to drag himself to the Faerie, blinking on critical HP and begging for another round of her healing.

Neil is, suprisingly for the Isekai genre, a survivor archetype rather than an Action Hero archetype. He's not actually that powerful. In fact, there are some enemies that are so strong, he never overcomes them.

But also because Neil gets what he wants. At the end of season two and start of season three, Neil gets to go home to his girlfriend that cheats on him, his family that abuses him, and his job that demeans him. And then he gets to make an actual choice about whether or not he's truly happy in this environment. Whether the way he's treated is actually the way he wants to live.

It's here that the Isekai transforms into something... Different. Neil returns to the game world of his own volition. Again, it's not unusual for the protagonist to like the Isekai world better than his shitty life. But the lack of "Neil is powerful!" elements coupled with Neil's own personal agency in choosing the Isekai world makes it something more.

The Legend of Neil uses Isekai, not to tell a Power Fantasy, but to tell a Recovery Fantasy. By choosing the game world, Neil self-actualizes and accepts the responsibility being placed on him there, but he also makes a statement that maybe some people need to hear: "It's okay to burn your bridges, cut your abusers out of your life, and walk away. Even if the future seems uncertain, even if the alternative is scary, it's okay for you to leave. There are better things out there waiting for you to find them."

And so throughout the third season, we see a very different Neil. One who is here because he actually wants to be here. A Neil who opens up to the people around him, rebuilds his relationships with the people in the Isekai world, and puts in actual effort to try and make himself strong enough to face the challenges ahead because this is the life he chose for himself.

...I mean, he never really appreciates the Faerie and that subplot drags down the whole show. It's. It's still not great.

But the point is, in an ocean of "My life sucked but now it's great because I'm in an Isekai" stories, this vulgar, low-budget webseries was using that framework to actually sit down and talk about topics of abuse, rather than slapping on an Unearned Power Fantasy and calling it a day.

And I think a lot of Isekai writers could learn from that.

[scipunk]

The Matrix (1999)

[alpaca-clouds]

Power Fantasies are personal

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 I realized something about myself and the way I play video games or games in general - and the way I perceive stories.

See, I always found myself kinda enstranged from the usual power fantasy. The "be the biggest, baddest guy, who can use force to archive everything, while also having everyone fall for them and being able to fuck whoever". A lot of modern media - especially the media aimed at an assumed male audience - kinda follows this kind of storytelling though. Power fantasies are about physical power. About being physically strong and having the biggest baddest spells or whatever. Which is also what most games in the end cater towards. And I mean, I can totally have fun beating up monsters, yes. But also... when I do play TTRPGs that is usually not how I go about things. In TTRPGs I will usually try to find a way to avoid combat as a player.

And this gets me to BG3, where I after some thinking decided to play a bard. Just for the fun of it. And this really kind of got me to realize what actually my power fantasy is.

My power fantasy is to talk sense into people.

My power fantasy is to be able to go to a person who is doing shitty things and make them see that what they are doing is actually shitty and convince them of doing something better with their abilities and what not.

I think a part of that is just the realization that in the end by convincing people you can do a lot more good than you can do by just forcefully basically killing everyone who is in your way.

It is also why I got kinda annoyed with BG3 in the third act. While Acts 1 and 2 allowed me as a player to convince a lot of people to join my side - both good and bad - this wasn't true in act 3 anymore, where often enough you ended up being forced into "Kill either A or B". You know, my main examples are from the main plot, where I ran into that problem with both Gortash and the "Emperor vs Orpheus" thingie. Where I was sitting there like: "I have +16 on persuasion, I should be able to convince them of another way." Like, if a DM on a TTRPG table told me to decide this, I would have been like: "I want to at least roll on this!"

Because, yeah. From my point of view the game allowed me to play my power fantasy for a long, long time. Until it stopped allowing me to do that suddenly. And that was just extra frustrating. It was basically the equivalent of a game taking away your fighting ability suddenly for the last 30% of the game and forcing you to do everything in like stealth or something.

And, yeah... I think we kinda do need more games that allow for a more varied kind of player approaches and power fantasies. Especially in stuff that claims to be a roleplay, you know? If I am playing a roleplay I want to, well, get a chance to play the kind of role I want. Rather than being forced into one specific role (aka the classical cis male powerfantasy of the stoic, but strong man who all cis women wanna fuck).

[fratricideknight]

warning ⚠️ short essay ahead

pitting characters from different media against each other and headcanoning who would win is fun and all, but there is one problem with how people go about it imo, in that they just look at what the characters are literally capable of instead of taking into account any sense of relative power. this is fine, obviously - i'm not going to show up at anyone's doorstep demanding they change their ways. but it's very easy to look at... say, Joe the Super Spy from a show where magic and crazy technology don't exist, and, like, Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher, from an anime where entire galaxies are destroyed during battle, and say with certainty that Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher could kill Joe the Super Spy in a picosecond. what isn't quite so easy is looking at their relative power within their respective media and comparing that. to some that might not be as fun, which is fine, but i think it's pretty fascinating, personally! say that Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher can destroy a planet with a snap of his fingers, which he can perform in less than a nanosecond. and, relatively, he's powerful - say, S-tier equivalent. however, there are a bunch of other S-tiers who can duke it out with Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher. on the other hand, say that Joe the Super Spy exists in a world without any kind of magical power or crazy technology, but is overwhelmingly competent and powerful compared to everyone else. he exists in a league of his own. he's completely overpowered. comparing Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher and Joe the Super Spy from that perspective is low-key more interesting to me...

as an actual example: this is why characters being pitted against Saitama from One Punch Man is so interesting. Saitama is overpowered. he can defeat gigantic monsters with one punch, hence the name. he performed a "serious sneeze" by accident and destroyed jupiter. however, it isn't this that makes him overpowered. it's the fact that absolutely no one is a match for him. the other super powerful characters attack him with their insane amounts of power and the guy just stares. he doesn't even care until it turns out they ripped his cape again and now he has to get it repaired, which is a hassle. in a recent fight, it was shown that anyone who begins to approach his power level will only cause him to grow exponentially more powerful in retaliation, thereby reaching a level they cannot hope to oppose. the guy is the definition of overpowered. there are characters in fiction who are capable of more than he is but aren't necessarily entirely, unmatchably overpowered within their media - but he is. another example might be, say, Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling, but i'd have to read it again to make sure. in a power fantasy, it is not a character's actual feats (e.g. destroying planets with ease) which draw you in - it's their specialness. an incredibly overpowered high school martial artist in a non-magical world of less powerful high school martial artists functions fine as a vessel for a power fantasy because they are special. a basketball player who stands head-and-shoulders above everyone else in a show about basketball is still overpowered.

hence, i posit that Joe the Super Spy could be considered more powerful than Dragon Rage Meteor Crusher and could beat him in a fight. that will be all.

[existennialmemes]

Please don't speak to me

you're interrupting my escapist

✨Power Fantasy✨

[hotcomicstv]

Heavy Metal (13) 1978