For the record

[kate_nepveu]

If it's ever a choice between saving my life and saving the whole world?

Save the fucking world, already.

(See also the quote at the end of this old booklog post.)

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

If the world goes, you go too, right?

[kate_nepveu]

You'll notice that this never seems to occur to the people in stories who are faced with that choice.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, usually so they'll dither long enough that the minion-of-evil-turned-good-guy can jump in and kill himself instead in a heroic redemptive sacrifice.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Hey, I wrote a scene in which this occurred to my main character just this week. :-)

With a side of her realizing that the person she wants to save, if asked, would say something roughly along the lines of, "Don't be stupid."

[kate_nepveu]

Heh. I like it.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

Oh, word. Characters overlooking this detail makes me crazy. I mean, Spike spelled that out in Buffy Season 2 what, ten years ago?

I can kind of understand characters lacking the physical or moral courage to charge right in instead of huddling in a corner waiting to die, and I symphatize with those who want to take action and save the world but are not quite sure how to do it (doesn't that describe most of us?), but how hard is it to understand that you're part of the world?

(Unless, of course, you are not.)

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

"Did you really save the world? I mean, like the last two years in a row?"
...
"Mostly I was saving my own ass. Just happened that the world was in the same spot."
-- Jim Butcher, Blood Rites

[kate_nepveu]

Nice. One of these days I'll get back to those.

[ckd]

Yeah. Also known as the "what, like Spock was going to survive the Genesis explosion if he didn't go into the reactor chamber?" reaction.

(At this point, whenever I see the phrase "the whole world" on the Internet I expect to see it followed by "boom de yada", hence the icon.)

[kate_nepveu]

If you've seen whatever _Star Trek_ that is, sure.

Also, yes, the world is just awesome! Save it!

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

At that moment in the movie, nihilistic_kid looked at me and said, "You'd save the world, wouldn't you?"

"You bet," I said.

[kate_nepveu]

I waited until the credits, but yeah, totally.