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What Fictional Moments Spoke the Most to You?



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Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:37 pm
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Valkyria says...



I was inspired to make this topic after I saw @AlyTheBookworm's topic: What fictional characters do you most identify with?

As 2020 closes, let's remember the fictional moments from either our childhood or recently. The scenes that made us sit back and think or was just so sweet.

I started watching The Simpsons this summer for the first time on Disney Plus. The first episode I watched was in Season 3, and it was insanely funny. I decided to watch the show from the very beginning and go through the early seasons.

Which brings me to the sixth episode of the first season: Moaning Lisa. The scene near the end where Marge tells Lisa that she was wrong to tell her to hide her true feelings. If Lisa wants to be sad, the family will be there with her. Then, Lisa tells her mom that she wants to smile.

That scene changed my perception of The Simpsons. It wasn't just a comedy; it had heart.

So, I'm curious to see what you guys think! What fictional moments spoke to you?
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Fri Dec 11, 2020 7:29 pm
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AlyTheBookworm says...



This is a great topic :)

It's difficult for me to choose just one (or just two.. or three), but I'll try not to write an essay.

Many of the most impactful, relatable, and touching moments in fiction (or ones that "spoke" to me) that immediately come to mind are from Robin Hobb's Farseer books. Without spoiling too much, they follow a cast of unlikely heroes who give up everything they have to save the world. They don't receive reward or recognition, and all of them suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives in some way. The protagonist's lifelong struggles- how he continually fails and gives up and picks himself up again and keeps moving in spite- were very relatable and touching to me.

Otherwise, the Studio Ghibli movies have always been a huge part of my childhood and an inspiration to me. There are tons of moments from each movie that "spoke" to me, but I have a couple favorites.

In my personal favorite movie Princess Mononoke, the protagonist Ashitaka fights to save his village and is cursed by a demon to die a slow, painful death as a result. He stays outwardly stoic throughout the movie- putting others first and never once complaining. But there's a moment when his last hope of receiving a cure and being healed fails. He is forced to accept the fact that he's going to die and starts crying. Watching him move forward even as he realizes the hopelessness of his situation has always been very impactful to me.

Really any scene that involves the protagonist acting selflessly for another person- even small, seemingly meaningless actions, like the older sister from My Neighbour Totoro carrying her sleepy baby sister home on her back as it rains- appeal to me. One of my favorite things in fiction is when the hero is realistically weighed down with their own problems, sadness, fear, or anger, but doesn't complain and puts others first regardless.

Edit: Whoops I wrote an essay. Sorry ._.
  





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Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:51 am
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Liminality says...



Absolutely agree with Aly on those selflessness moments! Can't remember the exact selflessness-related things from my childhood fiction (though I'm sure there were plenty) at the moment, so I'll just talk about Coraline.

I think there were 2 defining moments in Coraline for me:

1. Coraline picking up the cat in the Other World and working together with him to escape. This one was very iconic, because of how frightening and monstrous the Other World is shown to be in juxtaposition to a little girl and a cat.

2. Coraline defeating the Other Mother's hand once she gets back to the real world. Let me get this straight. This child first figures out that the hand has been following her. Then she teams up with ghosts and essentially using materials from her household sets up a death-trap tea party for the hand. She lays the key to the Other World as bait. And then basic physics and some creativity defeats a monstrous clay creature.

Is there a lesson/moral to this? Uhh don't trust clay creatures claiming to be your mother, cats are cool and even things that seem big and dangerous can be defeated with wit and creativity.
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Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:11 am
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Tenyo says...



One of my favourite fictional moments was in The Lovely Bones (which I have read more times than I dare to admit.)

There's this really quiet moment where Buckley is sitting in the garden tending to vegetables that probably won't grow and building his den. When Susie is talking about him she describes how he fluctuates between being a little boy and being spider man whenever life gets hard, switching from heart to stone whenever he needed to, and how he would continue to grow up that way.

It's a metaphor I love partly because it so perfectly encapsulates his character and a coping mechanism that's quite hard to describe in fiction, especially in a young character. Also because through a lot of the story Susie follows her sister through adolescence. Buckley is a lot younger at the start of the story so we don't really see how he turns out, but that description gives a brief moment to see into his future too, and the reassurance that he maintains his strength and compassion even into adulthood.
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