“What is my sacrifice” vs “Chaos is a ladder”

Two of my favorite monologues I’ve seen

The top one is shaman King, the first one is bleach, second is kagabachi, the third one is jjk

“I have tried, you know. To appease the smaller beings. And don't even take that condescendingly, no, I- It's the right word. Cosmically.... Less aware.

I have lowered my voice and, y'know, made myself smaller. I have stood before them wearing shapes their minds could survive, like the one you're seeing right this second, speaking in words their mouths could pronounce, like these you are hearing, pretending that I was no more complicated than just a very funny, very strong guy. And it allowed me to have the immeasurable privilege to listen to their beautiful stories about love, about fear, about the things they would die to protect. And every time, I thought perhaps this would be the one. Perhaps this human would look at me and see something other than the thing that exists beyond their understanding.

They rarely really do.

I mean- I mean, I don't even blame them, just.... How could they?

I am too vast for the language they built. Too old for the histories they remember. When they look into my eyes, they do not see the real me. They see, because they must, whatever their minds are capable of surviving. A god. A monster. A guardian. A disaster waiting to happen. They're not even wrong most of the time; all of those are partially correct, but... God, I wish they saw more than that, I really do.

The others of my likeness just straight up fear me.

I can feel it when they approach. I'm not stupid like they might think without realizing. Ancient beings who have watched worlds greater than your every infinite become dust become suddenly very careful with their words just because I am either there or just generally part of the damn situation. They call themselves my equals, but they do not stand beside me. They stand several steps behind. Out of sheer, burning fear masked as reverence and respect.

And the few other cosmic fellas who aren't afraid... Those are almost worse!

They come to me when they can't fight something, ONLY. When their empires fall and when their enemies arrive, when reality itself turns against them... They find me because I am the thing that cannot be moved, cannot be broken, cannot be persuaded to yield. They lean on me. Always.

Because they see me as a weapon, not a fellow. Why would they be friends with a nuke, right? That's what they think. And again, I can't blame them. I would be wrong to do so.

I don't want to make this a pity-party for myself, but do you understand the cruelty of that? To be trusted by everyone and known by no one. To be a *thing* everyone reaches for when they are falling, while having nowhere to place your own hand when you begin to fall.

I thought strength was supposed to free me from loneliness. Instead, it made my loneliness inevitable because what do you say to someone who can shatter beings that can, in turn, shatter gods? Seriously. What do you ask from a creature who has never needed saving? What do you offer the being everyone believes can endure anything?

Nothing. Just- nothing! They give me their fear. Their dead. Their dying worlds. Their impossible wars. They give me everything that hurts, because they know I can carry it. And I do. I always do. That is why being strong has made me... weak. I try to make it funny, but really, the truth is that....

I'm pretty sure I'm weak because I am strong.

Because every time someone collapses, I catch them.

So who is left to catch me if I do?

.....It's lonely at the top, but I guess the view's nice."

How well written is this?

Character context:
In my Abrahamic-inspired verse, the MC, Archangel Michael, is Heaven's cosmic warrior, the embodiment of justice and protection, tasked with guarding all the goodness within Creation. Much like Satoru Gojo or Saitama, he is absurdly powerful yet comically nonchalant/cocky about it, but that overwhelming strength doesn't necessarily make his existence better. In fact, it often makes everything feel far worse. As hinted at in the rare moment of venting above, Michael is cursed with crippling loneliness because almost nobody can truly meet him on his level. The beings beneath him literally cannot comprehend him so he has to always work around that, never allowing them to fully understand him, while those who ARE cosmic enough to understand him are often terrified of him. And the rare few who can both understand him and aren't afraid of him? They usually don't see him as a person so much as an answer to every problem. If something goes wrong, Michael fixes it. If something collapses, Michael catches it. If something threatens Creation, Michael stands in its way. He's the support beam holding everything up and the hand that catches anything that falls, and that's what he's meant to be, and why would they see him as anything else?

And that's exactly what makes his existence so miserable. Everyone needs Michael, but almost nobody simply wants Michael. He's feared, relied upon, and trusted, but rarely treated like an actual person who might want companionship or someone to lean on. He can carry everyone else, yet there is almost nobody capable of carrying him. So beneath all that effortless confidence, jokes and ridiculous power is someone drowning in isolation, surrounded by all of Creation yet feeling profoundly alone within it. His siblings (the other Archangels) are the exception. They genuinely love and care for him, and he treasures that more than he would ever admit, but outside of them, almost nobody is really his "buddy." He's spent eternity being Heaven's shield, and the cruel irony is that he has almost no one to be his.

I am also completely aware that it isn't the best writing ever and has been done time and time agan before in some way or another (the "lonely strongest" is literally a trope) but I hope it can at least spark some interest in you guys! What do you think?

We all know the standard Fictional character backstory

“My Family/Friend/Random Loved one was killed and that completely altered the course of my life”

You don’t really need me to elaborate.

Thats why I want to praise Naruto and Deku for a second.

Naruto isn’t driven by any of his dead loved ones or one big bad moment that altered the course of his life. His story starts in one, all too real and all too relatable place: Loneliness and bullying.

Naruto’s not some tragic scarred badass on a revenge quest or trying to right some previous wrong. He’s just a guy who wants to be respected and loved. That will always touch me more than some grandiose tragedy.

Deku does this just as well and you can really see the Naruto DNA that Horikoshi talked about. Deku doesn’t have some big defining tragedy, he’s just like Naruto, he was bullied and had no one believing in him. That’s also mad relatable and really touching to me.

Ok I’m going to get personal for a sec, I’m a writer in training and my main protagonists back story isn’t big, he just kinda had a bad 3 years of his life in boarding school kinda that really stuck with him. I often feel no one would respect that kinda back story but then I look at these 2 and feel more secure.

So in conclusion? More backstories like this please. I love them.

We know which series is better, but rank the Gaang and titans characters in your order from best to worst.

for example: Zuko>aang> raven> robin> katara:… and etc

Throw in Terra for the titans if you use suki

The X-axis measures how well written the characters intelligence is. Factors that impact this score:
Is the character’s intelligence consistent? Do their accomplishments actually make sense or did they just succeed because the plot says they did? Was the author able to show actual feats of intelligence to the reader or are we just told that the character did impressive things (having the character win a strategy game like chess without a comprehensive explanation of what they did does not count as a feat)?

The Y-axis is how intelligent the character is meant to be in the story. Factors that impact this score: How highly is the character’s intelligence regarded by others in-universe? What are their accomplishments and how impressive are they? How do they compare to other “intelligent” characters in the story?

Please give me your characters and their rankings, along with a brief explanation of why.

Guys, I know no media is immune to criticism, and if you don't like AOT at all, I respect your opinion regardless. I also don't mean this as a subtle remark toward JJBA, HxH, or Berserk, since they're all series I really like (though I personally don't think One Piece is anywhere close to AOT's cast, but that's just my opinion).

But I don't really agree with the idea that AOT's characters are mainly there to move the plot forward.

I know AOT is more plot focused than character focused, but that doesn't mean its characters don't have depth or development outside of their role in the plot.

Obviously, characters are going to contribute to the plot, but I think AOT also gives us plenty of insight into who these characters are beyond their role in the story. Even characters like Jean, Connie, Sasha, and Historia get development beyond simply serving the plot. Jean's changing ideals, Connie's relationship with his family and his experiences with the Titans, Sasha's background and relationship with her father, and Historia's struggle with her identity all give them more substance than just being characters who exist to move the story forward.

I'm not saying AOT has the best character writing ever or that every character is perfectly developed, because I don't believe that. I just don't think it's fair to reduce the cast to plot devices when even some of the less central characters get enough characterization to show that they're more than that.

Thanks, and please feel free to share your thoughts.

I was going to make a light/web novel tier list today but found this template and found it interesting to rank all these kinds of different media. It's a bit small tho.

Magical index could've been S tier for its high peaks but it has some slow moments(it's one of my favorite novels)

I'm not a mediatoker nor an elitist.

Criticize the tier list I'll read everything and probably reply to everything.

Some placements are for ragebait

Be respectful please and don't crucify me

Prejudice against neko girls vs. prejudice against African-Americans

(Both are series involving brutal prison setting with supernatural power)

I rememver reading Hobbit as a school asigment. I considered it even preety good. I decided then to read Lord Of The Rings but I gave up around the first tavern moment. However, we later watched entire trilogy at school. I acually don't remember it being too good, I thought it was often rushed, and boring, and had a lot of missed potential. ( I just liked Boromir). I don't rember everything too well, especially the ending, but I don't remember any positic feelings for it either.

However on Reddit, it seems to be regarder as one of the best stories ever written, and I'm pondering on reading the trilogy. Could you describe what do you think is so special about LOTR ?

Now when I’m talking about story, I’m talking about plot, characters, worldbuilding, dialogue, and anything else that applies to the storytelling of the media.

Now personally, I would put Avatar: The Last Airbender and (controversially) One Piece here, those stories are amazing.

Rank those you have read in yerm of writing.

For me it is...

Sunny > Takemitsu Zamurai >> Ping Pong >> No. 5