The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Do you happen to have read that book? It's probably one of the only World War II books I've ever liked, in terms of actual stories, informational texts, and historical fiction. The third is often edged to death, at least judging by the covers I saw before I was too turned off to start reading, and honestly, so is the second kind, in terms of the things that the authors choose for your content. You get a lot of books titled "Hitler's _______," and it gets old. The Book Thief manages to hit the right balance: neither grimdarking the subject nor trivializing it.

But anyway, back from that tangent, another interesting thing about The Book Thief is that Death is portrayed as a deep sympathetic character, and even narrates the entire book. Highly recommend.

Or if you've read it, nice!

-Twistey

This matter should have been case closed the first time she was banned. It’s past time we stop needing to put up with the same crap all the time.

Scorch away.

You say this isn't perfect, but we aren't exactly addressing a perfect situation, either. I think we should at least give this plan a try. I can't see any way to improve it off the top of my head; my biggest qualm is that it leaves an undue amount of unpleasant work for the Nameless Admin, but I don't know how else to treat this issue. I'm tired of this topic coming up over and over again without change.

—doctorlit, one of the recipients of a "Phobos misinterpreted me" email

"I swear, Eggman must have a monopoly on the technology in that world." Connor laughed. "I love the Sonic continuum." He looked at Chelsea. "Haven't played Splatoon, but I do like the world-building. I just tire of the other people on online games pretty quickly. You won't believe the kinds of stories I have to tell..."

-Twistey

Also, about the Board villain thing, sorry if the pronouns and other things were unclear: the new villain I have come up with is nothing like zd or anyone related to her, she just happens to also be female. You're right, it would be a really bad thing to vilify zd, and that was kind of my point there (that younger users could have been coming to uninformed conclusions about zd: either that zd is the iconic arch-nemesis of the Board or that zd is someone that we're unfairly punishing.)

But anyway, if the idea of me having a recurring arch-nemesis who's entirely fictional pop up in a lot of events I participate in for our badficcer selves and maybe some agents in RPs to fight, in order to prevent the risk of someone placing zdimensia in that role in a joke badfic (at the least), sounds like a good idea, I would like to go through and do it. If not, this character will just be another recurring fictional badficcer who's hostile to the PPC but doesn't really attempt to sabotage it outside of joke narratives that I wholly control. Is any of this making sense?

-Twistey

It has come to my attention that Zdimensia has been posting directly to the Board. Looking at the IP evidence of 'Anonymous'' posts:

-The original post and the first reply come from the probable third party.

-All other posts come from Zdimensia's known vicinity, and three from the same IP address.

The most recent 2 posts have been deleted. The repeated IP has been blocked.

If you require evidence of this, reply with your email and I will provide it.

1. It's possible for a canon character to hold any opinion they might canonically hold. Any canon character who would agree that mind-controlling people against their will in order to make them more like what you want them to be might think of a 'Sue as working toward their own ends. However, such characters almost always don't want their own minds tampered with; so once the 'Sue pulls them out of character, they tend to be pretty annoyed once they come to their senses. Of course, they would need to be aware of the PPC, either temporarily or permanently, in order to have any opinion at all.
   
   Since badfic usually ruins characterization even when it attempts to perfect a species, most mind-controlling canon villains would actually see the 'Sue's efforts as an amateur, horribly executed attempt at doing what they've been trying to do.
   
   2. Imagine covering up a photograph, and poking a hole in the cover. Anyone trying to recreate the photograph from just what they can see through the hole can do whatever they want with the covered-up parts, but their guess needs to be consistent with what's visible.
   
   Depending on how complex a character is, they may be a Generic, a bit, a minor character or a major character. If they're in-character, whatever you can see of them will be consistent with what you saw about them in canon--even if canon doesn't explicitly state those parts.
   
   In the PPC, many agents started out as bit characters or minor characters whose personalities were not completely determined when they joined the PPC. Gaining a personality can be part of these agents' stories. I've never written any missions, but I did create an agent, Jane Doe. She started out with practically no personality except for "Generic Tolkien Dwarf", and over her introduction gained only a love for coffee and a tendency to pay attention to details. Luckily, Jane Doe comes from a strong canon with a well-defined species, so she has a lot to build from.
   
   Bit characters and minor characters gain their three-dimensionality from the canon they come from. If the canon is strong, they're fully-realized people who simply aren't very visible. If the canon is weak--as a badfic storyline is--they can even be completely non-sentient, unable to do anything but stand there unless the fic tells them to do something.
   
   What your agent does with them depends on how much they take from the host canon and how much they take from the fanfic.
   
   Bits and minor characters relatively unaffected by the fanfic can be allowed to assimilate into the canon, optionally after some kind of memory modification, and live as fully-realized people.
   
   Bits and minor characters strongly associated to the fanfic but without any real characterization will generally poof out of existence along with the non-canon furniture when the biggest canon breaks are fixed.
   
   Minor characters strongly associated with the fanfic but with too much characterization to disappear or assimilate on their own have to be removed. Options include assassination, relocation to a more appropriate canon, or recruitment.

-Any post in any thread dated more recently than agreement to this proposal, which names or explicitly alludes to Zdimensia under any name (including her purported meat-puppets Mythcreant and Nony, and this third-party Anonymous) will be deleted (if Zdimensia is the primary topic) or silently edited (if she is a minor point), at the Nameless Admin's discretion.

--'Silently edited' means no NA comment will be left to mark the change and provoke a long discussion of it.

--Where either action is taken against a current member of the PPC, the Nameless Admin has the responsibility of contacting them off-Board (email, Discord message, or Wiki message) and explaining what was done, and enough of the background to say why. This shall not, of course, be viewed as a breach of the Constitution by the person posting, unless they're clearly doing it to cause trouble.

-Any user confessing to being Zdimensia, or to joining for the sole purpose of discussion Zdimensia, will be blocked as a banned user. Their confession will be deleted (but archived by the NA), and replaced with a simple note that a previous ban has been enforced, and the NA should be contacted by another means if details are needed.

-If someone strongly suspects that another user is a Zdimensia sock, they should contact the Nameless Admin. The Nameless Admin should then obtain an email address for the suspect and ask them directly about their identity. Zdimensia has not, previously, shown much propensity for lying when directly asked, probably because her causus belli is linked to her identity. A confession should be treated as above.

This isn't perfect, I know, and you absolutely should rip it to pieces and rework it. But it's much better than the status quo, which is 'NA deletes and then we rip the Board apart asking why'.

hS

Shouldn't we be reporting them to their local police? What if they're causing real life troubles as well?

I'm not going cover the entire email chain, partially because it isn't a chain (zdimensia kept sending separate emails, rather than responding in-line), and partly because I have already spent more than enough time looking at this. So, here are excerpts.

zdimensia's list of demands:

This isn't a complete wishlist, and I realize that I won't unconditionally get everything, but I do have some ideas. Most of it involves trying to keep this from happening again to anyone else. I will take suggestions.

What I’m asking for may sound counterintuitive to what you(group) think I need, but don’t knock it until it’s tried. Remember that my brain works in fundamentally different ways than yours, what you’ve done hasn’t worked, and I might actually know what’s best.

A little bit later, there are some members that I’d like private mediation with.

{Very Strong Desire}

I would like my full story made available on the wiki so that it's easier to read than relying on the archives. (Or the entire thing would be somewhere else and an abridged version go on the wiki.) Hopefully we (me, the people who were there, and anyone who’s interested in reading the archives) can agree on a truth in between our versions of what happened. The purpose behind this is that I want it examined for mistakes on both sides and maybe we can get some insight on how to handle a problem like me in the future. I actually have some ideas for adjustments to the rules and guidelines that should be at least considered. This will take months at least to set up. Whatever discussion space is used, I would prefer a different software than webapps. (I don’t know if there is something free that works like https://www.writingforums.org/general-writing/ or if setting up a private subreddit would be a good idea. There’s probably a really easy solution that I don’t know about. What I’m after is for slow conversations because I don’t process things immediately. Also it would help if each point could be addressed as its own topic.)

When the story is complete, I request that some people who made mistakes to publicly acknowledge what they should do if something similar happens. There are some posts that I would like examined for whether they were wrong or right. I will of course be apologizing for a lot of things during this time. (If you need to point out apologizing for the wrong things, please be constructive and not mean.)

{Strong Desire}

I've noticed that the FAQ has been rewritten recently. Unless there was a point to having the Permission Process be confusing, I would like to contribute a Gdoc rewrite that would help make it clearer. I made almost all of the possible mistakes and have spent time thinking about why they happened.

{Very Strong Desire}

I would like it acknowledged that I was a good enough writer to get Permission if I hadn’t made so many mistakes. (Confirm with Laburnum who read a mission. Or I could freshly polish a proper request either from last summer or 2014.) It wasn’t that I couldn’t take concrit, it was that I took it without understanding it and got into an unworkable jam. SamuriIreland did say that I’m not difficult to work with during betaing.

{Somewhat Strong Desire}

Since there is no risk in telling the truth now, I’d like an honest discussion about whether it would have been possible for me to be in board-space once everyone was calm.

To add to that, anyone who complained about the way I took concrit, how about some tips about how to do it better?

{Needs a convincing argument to be rejected}

I do enjoy reading PPC stories. I would like wiki access so that if I find a story that should be linked to an article or a minor inconsistency, I could go in and make positive minor adjustments. I realize that this one should cause some hesitation, but the problem was the board-space and my tendency to act like a mirror. I should be fine if I'm not interacting in that environment. Plus, my punishment has been served. This of course would be taken away if I don't behave.

{Somewhat strong desire}

This is volunteer dependent, but I would like to create a PPC-like world and I don’t know which elements I can steal from the PPC universe. This could be shared with anyone who wants to work there instead of the PPC. I would like help with that if possible. Also, I don’t know if I have 30 Legacy of Kain missions drafted, but I do have a lot of stories to rewrite and it is very difficult to find a beta for this genre. I would like help if that is possible. Most people I’ve talked to away from the board aren’t that bad outside of that space.

I would like my co-write offer left up. If there are no takers in a year or two, it can go in author-requested missions. I just don’t have the skill to handle that one. (It has been recommended as goodfic, but there are still enough bad parts to make a mission, I think.)

That was the starting point. In order for us to get zdimensia to leave for good, we would have to spend quite a bit more time dealing with them directly. Not too keen on that idea, given how every attempt to talk with them directly has gone.

Now, there were other emails in there. One in which zdimensia claims that Neshomeh needs help before she hurts anyone else.

Another email came down the line requesting apologies to Mythcreant and Nony. I explained, again, that either they are, in fact, sock puppets or they were an attempt to get around the ban via a second person. Either way, no apology was warranted, and none would be given. However, if either of these people wanted to contact me, they could. What I got back was a lot of reasons I wouldn't hear from Nony, and a lot of dragging of feet in regards to Mythcreant. I assume this means zdimensia only has the one extra email, at the moment.

At that point, I decided to stop being distracted by the side issues, and reply to the list of demands.

I want you to go away forever. That is what I want. I never want to have to think about you ever again. To that end, here is the compromise on your list of demands.

- We won't rehash the events of the last few years, because I don't believe we will ever agree on what happened and why. We will compromise by letting you submit your written version of events for us to put on the wiki page with the archives.

- Submit your document for the Permission article. I can even guarantee that people other than me will read it, but not that the article will change because of it.

- I acknowledge that you got Permission as Bramandin. It has since been revoked because of the banning, but no one is denying that you got Permission before you were banned.

- No Wiki access. That is an explicit part of being banned.

- We can't stop you from writing your own non-PPC thing, so go ahead, but don't expect any help from us. As long as it is distinctly different from the PPC, why should we care? And don't just change the names. That's lazy and someone else already tried that once.

- We will leave the co-write request up.

- I will not be passing any messages on to individuals in the group. Most of the people you want to speak to have already expressed that they don't wish to hear from you.


That is what we can give you. All we ask in return is that you never try to re-enter a PPC space, that you do not contact any of our members, and that you do not send any representative to contact the group on your behalf.

Not good enough.

Not really good enough.

I don't want your vague apology to be the only acknowledgment of wrongdoing. I want enough of my hurts and suffering displayed and acknowledged until it's undeniable that it happened and that it was bad enough to ruin my life. I want every lie to be countered with truth so that the group understands what it did. I want it burned into memory so that you do not do it again. Except for the people you won't acknowledge exist, I'm probably not the only one you've hurt. I will not go quietly.

I don't think you acknowledged that some rules should be examined.

It will take a while for me to write the permission document, and I would like a call for volunteers to beta it before it leaves my control. Then I want it displayed publicly so that everyone active at the time can review it and decide if they want any of the changes to take effect.

I argue that a full ban was undeserved at any point. Most of it was because of lies and misunderstandings.

I said that it needed to be a convincing argument. I didn't even deserve to be banned for as long as I was, much less permabanned.

I'm not going to create a new sandbox unless you call for volunteers. I won't rewrite any of my stories to be non-PPC before publishing without volunteers at least asked for. This should be accompanied by how I'm not as bad as you(group) have made me out to be.

Thanks for at least leaving the co-write request up.

[Line Redacted by Phobos]

On a tangent about wrongdoing and banning, I don't think I ever got to properly explain the racism and what was thought to be neo-nazi support. By the strict definition, I'm not really a racist. I don't hate black people for being black, think that they're less-than anyone else because of it, or work to oppress them. I got mixed up about what racism really means, and I'm less racist than Barid. Did you get a year's ban for writing him? The neo-nazi stuff was a complete misunderstanding, and I'm quite the opposite. I don't even think having a lapsed Jew character was cultural appropriation enough for more than a demand to change it. I want the original ban re-examined.

I would like to especially draw attention to this line: "I want enough of my hurts and suffering displayed and acknowledged until it's undeniable that it happened and that it was bad enough to ruin my life. I want every lie to be countered with truth so that the group understands what it did. I want it burned into memory so that you do not do it again."

That tells me that no amount of compromise was ever going to be enough. It was all or nothing, and they were negotiating in bad faith.

So, now we go back to playing Whack-a-Mole every time zdimensia pops up. I also think it is a good idea, going forward, to simply ban them and delete their posts without comment. We've done what we can, and they are basically just trying to terrorize us, now. The last thing they said before I blocked them was "You change your mind or you'll be seeing me the next time I move."

Anyway, I'm sure we're going to hear about how terrible a person I am, but you know what? I don't particularly care. I have only a limited number of f***s to give, and I am not wasting them on zdimensia.

-Phobos

ps - There is a redacted line and some bits missing from my explanation. Those involved a member of the community that has made it abundantly clear that they want nothing to do with this, so I took those bits out. I only point them out now so that I do not get accused of hiding important evidence or something.

First, the "Icks" misspelling doesn't sound like one made from word of mouth to me, especially when Ix isn't exactly inactive on the board. The correct spelling was present. That makes the "Icks" spelling seem more like an insult. Ick, specifically.

If Zd is siccing her friends on us, then it's no better than what she did already.

More than anything else, though, designating someone as a villain is a bad idea. Real people should not be villains. Even if it isn't Bram being used as the villain, the Board is mostly the interactions of real people, so that risks crossing a line you probably shouldn't.

And FYI, Bramandin and/or "Myth Creant" has been trying to contact some of us by e-mail, sometimes asking for other people's contact information. So far, no one I'm aware of has responded, and I think that's the right thing to do. Just don't respond at all. Particularly don't give out anyone's contact information without their consent.

~Neshomeh

Phobos is the one that misinterpreted.

And the board is trying to solve the problem without listening to the problem. Myth is willing to explain.

Or email Bramandintook or passingtheriver both on Gmail.

Twisty, Bram is interested in your idea.

The human relationship with death is a deeply fascinating one, innit? There's not a culture on the world that doesn't tackle the issue, and it forms a pretty central pillar in pretty much every personal philosophy out there, ay? I mean, even the entire concept of human meaning kinda ties into it! What's after it, after all?

Which is why I'm always disappointed when the villain of something is some cackling git deathgod, and am always really excited whenever someone does something new with them.
Pratchett's take on it, for instance. I haven't even read his Discworld series on Death, but I love the guy. And his appearance in Good Omens, too, was damn good fun.

Also the ancient Greeks classified romantic love as a mental illness.

Robinton is... good god. Robinton is awesome. I think he's one of everyone's favorite characters. I love him to bits, and I've never be a harper.

No, I'd be a Smith. Fandarel is basically a medieval hacker, right down to the attitude. For those of you who've never seen hackers, that is genuinely what they're like, complete with an efficiency obsession.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Every single character in Harper Hall is vivid, moreso than just about anything else in Pern.

And part of why the Harper Hall trilogy is so beloved is because I think at least a part of it does speak to everyone. The musicality of it spoke to me, the protagonist spoke to you... yeah.

That's probably also why people like The White Dragon so much. It's probably the closest Pern's ever gotten to doing a coming-of-age story, and that's extremely universal.

Menolly really spoke to me as a kid, moreso than Lessa or Jaxom or any of the dragonriders. She was musical (like me!) didn't get along with her parents (like me!) and had an injury that made it hard for her to do the things she loved (like... okay, you get the point). The characters in the Harper Hall trilogy just felt the most alive to me, and I read and re-read those books so often that my mom's poor, ancient copies are now held together with tape on the spines.

...But let's be totally honest, if I had the option, I'd want to be a dragonrider.

(If you really liked Harper Hall, though, I suggest you check out Robinton's focus book, called—what else?—The Masterharper of Pern. It delves into more of his backstory as a young man training to be a harper and the journey that led him to becoming Masterharper.)

I don't have too much to add right now, because I'm coming off a week of having company in which, due to already having taken a week off work this month, I didn't even get to do any of the fun stuff, and I'm drained. Plus, if I get talking about Pern, I will not stop, so this is probably for the best. ^^

For those who don't know, Pern is in my Top 5 Fandoms, and might even come out at #1 in terms of how involved I was, having run a Pern RP on Neopets for a few years. My knowledge, while not quite encyclopedic, is extensive when it comes to in-universe stuff. I am also practiced at explaining and working around (but not excusing) the problematic crap so all the good stuff can still be enjoyed. And there's a lot of good stuff! The world-building is absolutely phenomenal, and like Thoth says, there's music in its soul. <3

And Masterharper Robinton is my idol, maybe my favorite fictional character of all time. I don't wanna be him, and I don't lust after him, but I would very much like to sit at his feet and listen to him for an hour or five, please.

I'd be sporking in Pern, but it's pretty hard to find sporkable badfic. Pern fanfic wasn't allowed for many years, and I guess most of the fandom is aged past the peak badfic phase? I dunno. If anyone does happen across any real quality Sueage, do send it my way. I have agents to torment. ^^

~Neshomeh

Disclaimer: This isn't a review. Or a formal anything. It IS what some of you may be accustomed to already, my standard long-form ramble. Don't have any expectations, and you won't be disappointed. I'll try to keep it mostly spoiler free, but beyond that... yeah.

So I've been reading Pern. A LOT of Pern. I've read 10 books, going on 11, and I've barely read anything else, save for going through Gates of Fire.

Pern's been on my reading list for a while, being generally highly regarded in sci-fi circles and extremely prominent in early online roleplaying (because fanfic was banned for so long, and hey, all that pent-up fandom energy had to go somewhere... and go it did). Props should go to Neshomeh for finally actually getting me to pick up the sodding thing. If you've been paying attention and didn't know all this already, this probably makes sense.

On to thoughts.

Pern has aged. Like, right off the bat. This isn't necessarily bad, but I don't think Pern would have been written today. If it was, it certainly wouldn't have the same renown or impact. It's soft SF, although it feels an awful lot like hard fantasy at times. It feels like it's out of the 1960s (which it is), from the silvery spacecraft in later novels to the clear influence from the Sexual Revolution and Feminism of that time that pervades the series (but I'm not going to go into detail about either sexism or feminism in Pern, partly because I'm not especially qualified, but mainly because we'll be here all day: suffice to say, Pern aged somewhat badly in a few respects and Anne McCaffrey had some weird views in others, but it didn't age nearly as bad as some other novels from the same era. If you've read Pern, you know what I mean). But it's not just that. Pern has a perpetual air of optimism about it that was still common at the time in SF. If I had to pick an in-any-way recent song to epitomize it, the song would be this one. And there's just... a feel of datedness in about the whole thing. "Rescue Run" from Chronicles of Pern: The First Fall feels like it's right out Star Trek, for crying out loud.

However, it's mostly aged pretty well. Aside a few... well, questionable aspects. Really questionable aspects. But I'm focusing on the positive, dangit. The McCaffrey-is-bad-at-romance discussion, and the greenriders-oh-god-what-were-you-thinking rant can both happen later. Besides, this began in the 60s: it could have been so much worse.

Bored now, onto other subjects! Let's take it book by book, at least until I get bored.

Dragonflight

Dragonflight... isn't a novel. It's a collection of short stories pretending to a novel (they might have been revised a bit for the "novel", but... well, not enough). And... jeez. Did "Weyr Search" really win an award when it was published? It's... kinda not all that great. Full of clunky phrasing, and writing that... isn't that great. I mean, the concept's strong, but.. Well, it won a Hugo, so what do I know? This also marks Pern's long association with Analog Science Fiction and Fact, which would publish a number of Pern's short stories over the years. Indeed John W. Campbell (Noted science fiction author and editor, as well as noted racist and awful person) had a strong influence on the series, making several crucial suggestions to McCaffrey. Namely... well, uh... how not to spoil it... The Thing That Lessa Works Out And Then Does. That was his suggestion, at least in part.

Anyways, the book's composition as a group of short stories is readily noticeable in a number of respects. For one, the writing jumps in quality at each section break. By the end, I'd actually say it's pretty good. Although the last part is also the most engaging, so that might be part of it... Still, this is probably the worst Pern novel, by far: our protagonists and major characters feel a bit off (F'lar and Lessa are both far less likeable here than they are in later novels, "Dragonrider" in particular showing F'lar being not just unlikeable but a highly questionable level of stupid—and his plan almost goes up in smoke because of it). The book also has a few major elements that just outright don't appear in future books, or are significantly changed: Lytol's dragon, for one, but far more major is the greater emphasis on telepathy and psychic ability. Never again, to my recollection, is a character shown to be able to directly manipulate another's thoughts in canon. Although I may be wrong.

Dragonquest

Holy hell. Just going over all the stuff that happened in this book... phew. It's HUGE. This is book where Pern really came into its own in a number of respects. Our characters feel better developed and more solid, the writing's a lot more consistent and solid, the romance that is here feels less forced and creepy (although creepy romance is kinda just... part of the thing. McCaffrey doesn't do good romance, IMHO). It also set expectations going forward, telling us that no, Pern wasn't going to stay still, that change would be an omnipresent part of the setting.

Not a whole not else to say, really. Not unless I want to talk about Greenriders, and... I don't. I'm too tired for that. Besides, we to the really salient point next. Which is...

The Harper Hall Trilogy

Okay, there's something I need to get off my chest.

All three Harper Hall novels are excellent. You should go read them. Sadly, you have to read Dragonflight and Dragonquest first, but don't let that dissuade you. It's great.

If Dragonquest cemented the skeleton of Pern, then it's Harper Hall that gave Pern its soul. Firstly, they were really the first Pern novels to look at Pern from the perspective of someone other than a dragonrider. They fleshed out the world a heck of a lot as a result. But they also gave us a glimpse at the Harpers, and just...

Okay. there are some feelings that are hard to fake. One is enthusiasm. It's really hard to pretend to be excited about something when you're not. By contrast, if you love something, that love and enthusiasm tends to show in your work.

And in Harper Hall, it is incredibly clear that McCaffrey loves music just as much as the characters. Moreso in Dragonsong and Dragonsinger than Dragondrums, which is a bit of a different beast, but still. Not to mention all the memorable characters. Dragonflight and Dragonquest were good. But it seems like these are the books McCaffrey wanted to write. Maybe that's why Masterharper Robinton is so universally loved, and Harpers so important.

Yeah, the dragons are what people remember, but Pern's got music in its soul. These books are magical.

And I think that's all the time we have for today. I had to sit two hours of standardized testing and I'm still burnt out. Maybe later I'll go over more Pern novels, more characters, and more stuff. If I feel like it. Meanwhile, you should all share your opinions and stuff about Pern (at least, those of you who have read it), your opinions on my opinions, questions, thoughts on sci-fi...

It's not important how you respond. But it is important that you do.

Twisted, I think you're overanalyzing this a little bit. Just ignoring and giving the problem as least credit as possible is my approach, and I feel that this situation, though "unresolved", will not progress any time soon, and can be safely ignored.

Regarding the "Board Villain".

The juxtaposition of your new idea, on this particular post, makes you really seem like your Board villain is zd, or Bram, or Palin. Vilifying people is a harsh and mean thing to do. If you didn't mean it that way, please please clarify it.

I wish that a lot of the more popular old mythology races/species would be portrayed closer to the original myths. Not to mention the old gods. Have you noticed how in so many movies, ancient gods of death (Hades, Hela, etc) are always portrayed as evil and wanting to take over everything? When in fact, if you look at the myths that some of these death gods came from, many of them are just fine where they are ruling the dead. This is likely because a lot of these ancient cultures had a less "scary" view of death than the modern Western version. I don't know exactly why this is, as many mythologies had the same judgement-based placement of their dead that Christianity does, but I remember for a fact that neither Hades nor Hela wanted to overthrow everything until Percy Jackson, Disney, and Marvel came along and put a Hollywood spin on things. (Not saying that these continua aren't good, in fact, I love Rick Riordan's stuff so much. Just saying that they do something kind of cliche with portrayal of death gods.)

-Twistey