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Unpopular opinions we have on fiction

"Let's go! open up, it's time for Unpop!"
Alright, time for my mandatory Unpopular Opinions Post. Let's get this over with.
"You're late. You know the deal. You can Omelaspost for a Funny, or you can make an interesting post for an Insightful."
Here in Unpopular Opinions Poster Civilisation, no one chooses to make interesting posts. It's better to make the one joke everyone knows for the Funny, rather than risk your entire life for just one Insightful rating.
"Tomorrow you better not be late, or I'll have you posting for Informative reactions as punishment."
"Yes sir, sorry, I won't be late next time."

Down here, us Omelasposters only get one Rating a day. One Funny rating is just enough to get your post:reaction ratio to the next day. But that's the life of Unpopular Opinions Poster Civilisation. If you wanna survive, you have to Unpopular Opinions Post. Every Omelasposter has the same goal, and that's to make it to the top thread, where all the Brothers Karamazovposters live. Except, most Brothers Karamazovposters are born on the top thread. If you're an Omelasposter, there's only one way up, and that is through the Temple of Unpopular Opinions. The Temple of Unpopular Opinions is the only structure on SV that combines the bottom thread to the top thread. To make it up, you have to post an impossibly hard Unpopular Opinion Reply that no Omelasposter has ever completed. And that's assuming you even get the chance to post the reply in the thread. The inside of the Temple is protected by a barrier and the only way an Omelasposter gets past the barrier is if they've earned a gilded post. I've never even tried getting a gilded post before, but if I'm going to rank up to a Brothers Karamazovposter one day, I'm gonna have to.
 
Yeah pretty sure the joke of American Psycho is that even being a serial killer is boring and unfulfilling, Patrick acts like a badass murder machine but he also has panic attacks about not getting table reservations. At multiple points he tries to confess (or at least admit) his crimes, and people either think a) he's kidding or b) someone else, to the point where Patrick himself starts to disassociate, and that's not even touching the "Is he actually a serial killer or is he just a Yuppie on coke?" argument.

It's extremely violent in its language and content but it's also very pointedly a satire about how Wall Street is so awful and conformist that a (seemingly) murderous sociopath goes unnoticed.
 
Despite all the deviations from Spider-Man's powers and skillset, I think parts of Japanese Spider Man nails the vibe of Spider Man and how he fights better than most of the American movies.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elbkRgIwxbA

Like some of those movies (well, Raimi 1& 2 at least IMO), none of them really do Spidey all that much justice in how he fights. There just wasn't enough stuntman energy and it kinda makes him look kinda ineffectual as a superhero because it doesn't get across his speed and energy from the comics to make up for not being able to punch people through buildings. Especially in the MCU where he's sharing screen time with Iron Man and Dr. Strange.

A "true" Spider-Man fight scene done properly should look much more like a Jackie Chan fight scene than anything else. Especially the part where he beats enemies by making them eat shit on the environment as much as directly hitting them.

EDIT: Note this is for live action, I'm not counting the animated movies here since with animation you can do anything you want, and that doesn't quite scratch the itch for good stunt work.
 
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You know speaking of Spiderman, something I think a lot of newer interpretations are missing is that he was originally a bit of a jerk. At least before Uncle Ben died and he went through a whole character arc over it. When he first got his powers he wasn't thinking about being a hero or saving people, he was thinking about how he could make money with it or get some revenge against his bullies. You listen to some of the earlier monologues from like the sixties and seventies and it sounds a lot like he'll wear a leather trench coat to school tomorrow.

It's why the whole great responsibility thing is so important, because before that he viewed power the same way a lot of villains did. I think a lot of authors are trying so hard to make him so relatable and quirky to kids that they woobie him a lot, when him being a jerk actually made him more relatable. Here's the super smart,yet equally sickly and awkward kid, who's dealing with dead parents, an aunt and uncle who are struggling to take care of him, and a gargle of bullies pushing him around, and instead of being happy go lucky about it he gets angry and goes through some pretty dark times over it.

What's the common complaint against Holland's Spider Man? He has too much handed to him and he doesn't really have a character outside of being Spiderman and quipping. What's the common complaint against Comic Book Spiderman? They never let him grow up, have a family, a career, age past mid twenties. Always resetting back to square one, terminally keeping him as a Peter Pan character when the outside perception of him as moved past that and there are plenty of new sidekicks and literal children of his that could fill that role.

I'm not going to sit here and hope we finally get a Spider-dad. Seeing him struggle with being a father, a husband, and Spiderman, while leading a team. That's just not something Marvel, and especially Disney, is ever interested in and I'm not going to bother hoping for it. But I think bringing some of that darker, angrier edge he used to have could be a step in the right direction.

TLDR- Steve Ditko had some good ideas and we need to revisit them.
 
40K one: I actually quite like the idea of Rogal Dorn dying to a megaton of Black Legionaries, World Eaters, daemons and more. Yes there are questions about how no one would know, why Abaddon and co aren't trumpeting it etc, but I like the idea that a Primarch went down to something other than a one-on-one duel with another Primarch. And there's something epic and bleak about one of the Emperor's sons dragged down over days of fighting, swarmed by entire warbands. He kills Terminators, Possessed, automata, berserkers, Skitarii, Raptors, Dreadnoughts and more, but there's always another warrior behind the one he just killed...
 
bluntblade said:
40K one: I actually quite like the idea of Rogal Dorn dying to a megaton of Black Legionaries, World Eaters, daemons and more. Yes there are questions about how no one would know, why Abaddon and co aren't trumpeting it etc, but I like the idea that a Primarch went down to something other than a one-on-one duel with another Primarch. And there's something epic and bleak about one of the Emperor's sons dragged down over days of fighting, swarmed by entire warbands. He kills Terminators, Possessed, automata, berserkers, Skitarii, Raptors, Dreadnoughts and more, but there's always another warrior behind the one he just killed...
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This is one hundred percent correct and when they bring him back it will be so lame, even though Rogal Dorn is one of my favorite characters in the setting.
ELDRITCH OCTAHED said:
Warhammer opinion: Primarchs are dominating the lore now, and they're way too strong to be fun.
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Yes. This is correct and ties neatly into the above statement about Dorn. Primarchs are just overplayed now, for both Chaos and the Imperium. They are just annoying. Only another Primarch can kill a Primarch is just. It's so stupid and that's what it feels like at this point
 
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Triggerhappy said:
This is the way I want to imagine Dale Gribble in the modern age. Still a conspiracy nut, but even more convince that HIS conspiracies are correct due to the nefarious Qanon Government PsyOp.

Dale - "Why would I think less of John Redcorn being native American. The man is clearly a chiropractic GOD!"
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This is why The Question fucking ruled on JLA: Unlimited. You have no idea if the wild shit he's talking about is:
  1. Something he legitimately believes...
    • ...and it's really true.
    • ...and it's complete bullshit.
  2. Something he's just saying to throw people off from his real beliefs (in which case, go back to 1).
  3. Something he's just saying to fuck with people because he thinks it's funny.
Or all of the above at once!
 
My ultimate hot take: The Chosen One archetype is actually extremely cool and philosophically heady. Most of the fantasy that makes use of it that has actually stuck around in the public imagination use it extremely well and very intriguingly. Most of the critique I've seen of the concept seem based on solely the blandest power fantasy version of the idea
 
MysticKnightJoe said:
My ultimate hot take: The Chosen One archetype is actually extremely cool and philosophically heady. Most of the fantasy that makes use of it that has actually stuck around in the public imagination use it extremely well and very intriguingly. Most of the critique I've seen of the concept seem based on solely the blandest power fantasy version of the idea
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Willow.

Where the 'chosen' one is more of a lynchpin McGuffin, being a literal baby, to bring together the people who will actually defeat the villain.
 
I mean a passive chosen ones like Willow isn't all far off from Frodo in Lotr, Frodo is just chosen by the agent of a divine force + happenstance rather than directly singled out.

There's all sorts of ways a character can be metaphysically locked in as the protagonist. In Prydain the chosen one is a pig and the main character is obligated to chase it. Chosen one is just the most direct, in your face way of doing it.
 
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Triggerhappy said:
Willow.

Where the 'chosen' one is more of a lynchpin McGuffin, being a literal baby, to bring together the people who will actually defeat the villain.
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Right, that's a great example!

Even something as stupid as the Star Wars prequels (And I guess the originals through retcon, I guess. I don't know) is trying to do something with the idea with Anakin's fall and redemption despite being the 'chosen one' according to Jedi prophecy. Of course the writing in those movies is really clunky, so it ends up being the ultimate example everyone uses of how the Chosen One concept is bad since the idea is just kind of dropped in Episode 1, never comes up in 2 if I remember that movie right, and then Obi-Wan is really upset about it at the end of 3.

Actually thinking about it we never actually get the text or source of the prophecy explained in those movies, I kind of feel that is a really important aspect of these things narratively. Wheel of Time got a ton of mileage with the exact wording and text of the prophecy related to the Dragon Reborn. Meanwhile we don't even know who gave the Star Wars Prequels Prophecy...was it Yoda? Was it in an Extended Universe book? Who knows, it is just the Prophecy.
 
The Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie Forbidden Kingdom had a great take on the Chosen One trope in that the isekai'd main character is basically a catalyst to bring the biggest badasses of the realm together to defeat the bad guy and for the finishing touch happens to be standing in the right spot to deal the telling blow rather than beating him singlehandedly.
 
Hmm, Not sure how unpoular this might be but on 40k I actually liked the return of the Lion and Guilliman though I wish they would just have them meet already.

I also like that both Guilliman and the Lion got into situations after their returns where they had to be saved by others like when Guilliman got captured by the Red Corsairs or when that Chaos Sorcerer had the Lion and was planning to sorcery to turn him into a puppet to assassinate the emperor or at least what is left of the emperor.

On the Primarchs themselves I also will never not be amused that one of the most stable well-adjusted and resistant to chaos primarchs, Guilliman grew up in Space Rome with good parents, one of which told off Konrad Curze to his face in defiance of Curze trying to kill her.
 
Alane1 said:
Hmm, Not sure how unpoular this might be but on 40k I actually liked the return of the Lion and Guilliman though I wish they would just have them meet already.

I also like that both Guilliman and the Lion got into situations after their returns where they had to be saved by others like when Guilliman got captured by the Red Corsairs or when that Chaos Sorcerer had the Lion and was planning to sorcery to turn him into a puppet to assassinate the emperor or at least what is left of the emperor.

On the Primarchs themselves I also will never not be amused that one of the most stable well-adjusted and resistant to chaos primarchs, Guilliman grew up in Space Rome with good parents, one of which told off Konrad Curze to his face in defiance of Curze trying to kill her.
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Guilliman in general is one of the best written Loyalist Primarch and indeed has some great bits built around him. I also will admit I really liked The Lion's return! The book Mike Brooks wrote about it is really strong, a personal favorite. I think my personal take is I wish it would only be the two of them. I actually think Corvus Corax's current state is kind of neat as well, the whole warp spirit of vengeance out to rip Lorgar to pieces thing, also feels like he won't be able to...come back entirely.
 
To be honest the only other loyalist primarch I think are even an possibility would be the Khan because well Dorn's Schroeder's Primarch is a more interesting state than him returning or being confirmed dead, and I am inclined to think that even if Vulcan somehow survived his sacrifice in the war of the Beast I can't imagine he'd be in a state to do anything.

Russ meanwhile seems to be pretty pinned down to he's only returning at the hour of doom or at least that is my impression given the lore around him.
 
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