Subject: "It's a dangerous business, [making wishes]." -Bilbo
Author:
Posted on: 2018-11-28 16:33:00 UTC
To get a setup where a large-scale wish works exactly right, you pretty much need a mind-reading intelligent wish-granter - if they can't read your mind, and act intelligently on what they see, they won't know all the things you mean but don't say. To look at your wish: education, health, safety, civil rights, the environment? The easiest way to keep people healthy and safe is to shut down all industry (also saves the environment!). Electricity is not required for any of your priorities. Nor is food beyond what's nutritionally required, so we're all living on soya beans - not because access to other food is restricted (that would be a civil rights violation), but because the government is only supporting soya (or whatever; pick your own suitable staple).
Education? Let's assume you mean 'the education you yourself have received', rather than 'anything so long as they're learning'. But wait, that means everywhere is turned into America, and gets to learn about American history rather than its own. Cultural preservation isn't on the list, so that's fine, right? Unless you've got a very intelligent wish-granter, they're not even going to know where to start!
And once you do have a super-intelligent all-powerful mind reader... why are they spending their time granting wishes for the people who have so many horrible thoughts all the time?
*Are they enslaved (either overtly or by their nature)? That's an excellent reason to sabotage the wishes.
*Or are they doing it of their own free will? In which case they're only going to grant the wishes that accord with their own desires anyway.
*Or do they Just Want To Help? In which case why are they waiting for wishes? They're already a godlike entity, they might as well just fix things.
It takes a lot of storywrangling to create a wish-giver that will both want and be able to grant the wish you mean to wish, with the consequences you mean to happen. Given how many things in our own world have unintended consequences (hey, I hear burning coal is great for heating!), why would magic wishes be any different?
hS
PS: We're the PPC. Screwball comedy is how we roll. ^_^
PPS: Self-nitpicking: if I'm reclassing the Kelda as a Beserker, I may as well go all the way and switch to using Jeannie. Seems more her speed, plus Rob Anybody will be even more likely to bring the clan to her aid.
(And if these Heroic Spirits are actually copies, rather than the originals transported, then Real!Jeannie will also come along to get angry at her duplicate. And then, y'know, Feegles, fightin'...)