Voting for Flash Challenge: March 2017

Thanks Casey on your comments.

So I whipped this up. Maybe not perfect. I tried to keep some of your stuff as much as possible and tried to stay true to your theme. I hope I did it justice and you feel it honors you rather than criticizes overly.

No Brainer: Redux
by Eddie Sullivan
Original Concept from The Fisher of Men

I just think it was so nice of you to rewrite the entire flash story for Frank! Not only giving him a comparison, but showing him he has help along the way if he wants it.

Hope: Your 'hero forge' people are, to put it bluntly, idiots. Yes, they put people through incredible emotional trauma, and yes this can lead to people who have a lot more drive to interact with the world one way or another (or people who withdraw completely into themselves), and that can make them a power in the world, but nowhere in there can I see the bit where the victim becomes a power for good in the world. After all, every villain has his tragic backstory, and they're simply mass-producing tragic backstories. For all that, though, the story itself was good - it's just the characters who were deeply flawed (which is not a bad thing in and of itself).

You've hit the nail on the head! As mentioned before, this is a small taste of a broader concept. In the novel I'm working on, the Hero Forge is actually responsible for the antagonist and turns out to be a misguided cult. Now, if anyone reads it when it gets published, sorry for spoiling the surprise!

Hope

[kailhofer]

I've added these stories to Flash Index II.

Hope: Your 'hero forge' people are, to put it bluntly, idiots. Yes, they put people through incredible emotional trauma, and yes this can lead to people who have a lot more drive to interact with the world one way or another (or people who withdraw completely into themselves), and that can make them a power in the world, but nowhere in there can I see the bit where the victim becomes a power for good in the world. After all, every villain has his tragic backstory, and they're simply mass-producing tragic backstories. For all that, though, the story itself was good - it's just the characters who were deeply flawed (which is not a bad thing in and of itself).

You've hit the nail on the head! As mentioned before, this is a small taste of a broader concept. In the novel I'm working on, the Hero Forge is actually responsible for the antagonist and turns out to be a misguided cult. Now, if anyone reads it when it gets published, sorry for spoiling the surprise!

Hope

I think what's missing here is that the Hero Forge needs to have some way to think they're creating good heroes.

Maybe they only do there 'hero forging' on people who started out as good people, and meticulously research their backgrounds first (this one stole an apple at age three, not a suitable candidate...) Maybe they follow some sort of supernatural guidance, or think they do (after some lengthly ritual, toss a dart at a page full of names, and work on the one they hit). Maybe they do have such a (flawed) method and you've already put it in the book, and there wasn't room in the flash...

But they need to have some reason that they can tell themselves they're not creating villains.