Idea 1: A group of young teenagers stumble upon an fatally injured old man and try to help him. As a his dying gift he bestows upon them eternally old powers that have been lost from the earth for centuries. But he tells them they must live worthy to use the powers or they will be stripped from them.
Origin: Sitting in church one day thinking about the similarities that super-human powers have to the Priesthood.
Idea 2: In the future, there is only one man left on earth. He has had to watch his entire species be destroyed by the machines they themselves built. The Machines were programmed to keep the world clean and civilized, but as the populous became more and more lazy and corrupt, because the ease of life the machines had given them, the machines soon found that they must purge the world population in order to complete their directive. Now this man must escape and survive as long as he can.
Origin: I was think about how hard it must have been for Moroni to watch his entire civilization destroyed in from of his face. Knowing there was nothing he could do about it. What kind of depression and inner turmoil that would have caused him.
Part 2. Story
1. A young man finds an old man that has been fatally wounded and attempts to save his life. 2. The old man tells the young man he knew he would stop to help him, it was his destiny. 3. The old man tells the boy he is destined to be one of the earths greatest heroes. 4. The old man lays his hands on the young man's head and bestows great powers upon him that has been gone from the world for many centuries but through him has finally returned. 5. But with the old man's last breathe comes a cryptic warning "Always be worthy of the powers".
Part 3. Appropriation
Part 4. Beta Comic Final
All Ideas copyrighted to Ryan Scott Stevens 2011
idea 1: The Secret History (graphic novel)
ReplyDeleteidea 2: World rules can run both ways (I think you were absent when we had that discussion). Make sure and research Isaac Asimov (rules of robotics, foundation trilogy - the actual book, because the wiki doesn't cover what would be relevant for you) - also Isaac asimov's edited "The Last Man On Earth" compilation of short stories.
SO would you say that my ideas are not original enough, or will they be fine for this assignment?
ReplyDeleteI think your ideas are great. I also don't think I have a say in whether or not an idea is good enough for the assignment. I don't see stories in terms of originality, I see them in terms of execution - which is what we are going for, helping you in terms of execution. In my comment I offered a few references that I perceived as being related to your ideas. Whether they are helpful or not is up to you. When you let me know if those references were helpful or unrelated - I'll use that info to come up with more things to aid you.
ReplyDeleteI personally like your ideas, but as an instructor that is irrelevant. It is not my job (to use a car metaphor) to tell you whether or not I like the vehicle you are driving, all I am concerned with is whether or not it is taking you to your desired destination (:
Limitation: One of the teens either doesn't understand the rules or is forced by circumstance to break them and loses his powers.
ReplyDeleteWith every bad choice they make the powers of everyone in the group become weaker. They have to work together.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how far you have these ideas developed, but I had this idea on how to link the ideas.
ReplyDeleteWhat if the last man left on earth is that old man who is injured and the teenagers he bestows powers aren't even human, but aliens who are investigating earth or something.(although they could certainly be humanoid) So maybe the powers bind the alien teenagers to earth with the dangerous machines and stuff.
Morality is defined by what? Would there be a discovery of God? where do the limiting morals come from? Would these subjects be explored or simply explained.
ReplyDeleteA limitation could be the medium in which they use their powers. rings, etc. I aways thought a cool limiter was glass objects, powerful and elegant,but fragile.
Maybe the powers only work for the kids if they're doing good, but they CAN be stolen from them by someone who perhaps isn't good, and thus that restriction no longer would apply to them.
ReplyDeleteThe boys with the powers lose them and find out much later that they can regain them if they follow instructions from a book. But first they need to find the book.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are fine lines in morality between people's ideals there are some things that are obviously wrong because they are against laws that every country has - don't murder, don't steal, etc. You might have to be that vague for a wider audience but that's up to you. I think you'll do fine, so what if you ruffle a few feathers?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, limitation: perhaps there is another power source out there that works despite moral failings and is a great temptation to those who wish to have "more freedom." However this power saps the life of its user.
The kids powers only work when they are doing what they percieve to be good, or meeting a good end.
ReplyDeleteSo as long as they believe themselves to be doing good, they could be committing awful acts. Like Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment, or Light from Death Note.