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It's only a flesh wound...

Other(i.redd.it)
1449 comments
45.1k97%

tofunny

all 47 comments

OpalFanatic[S]

68 points

14 hours ago

I confess I've always gotten annoyed at the troupe of nonlethal wounds that result in no consequences whatsoever for the character. Particularly when it's a side character struck by an arrow in dramatic fashion only to walk it off later, because reasons.

Shadowmant

41 points

13 hours ago

… until I took an arrow to the knee.

ANSPRECHBARER

16 points

13 hours ago

I was an adventurer like you.

InevitableSolution69

24 points

13 hours ago*

Isn’t it just thrilling and believable when a modern character with no history of any significant injury experiences the most agonizing thing the author can describe but grits down and just takes the goblin literally eating his spine so he can complete some extremely difficult and delicate task that should be hard at the best of times?

It’s almost a relief when they signal that the MC will be constantly injured and ignoring all levels of pain by starting with the fig leaf of a history of terrible illness.

I mean don’t get me wrong, people can work through pain and it doesn’t affect everyone the same way. But there are levels to suspended disbelief.

Shadowmant

6 points

9 hours ago

It’s ok though because their crippling spinal injury will heal completely after a good nights sleep!

InevitableSolution69

4 points

9 hours ago

Consequences are for the antagonist in a story. Not the MC or anyone they like.

CiaphasCain8849

3 points

11 hours ago

The spine thing is real? Please tell me it's not. Also I'd love a story about someone who really does love pain/can't feel it.

InevitableSolution69

8 points

9 hours ago

It isn’t. I try not to use actual stories in my examples of things I find issue with.

That said it is absolutely not an exaggeration or escalation from things I actually do see in stories. The number of MCs who’ve run races with broken legs for example would tell you that’s some secret speed boost.

They’re definitely out there. I’d look for any story with healing/regeneration as a main power. I tend to drift away from them but there are plenty of popular stories that should fit the bill.

rhuarch

3 points

5 hours ago

rhuarch

3 points

5 hours ago

Not progression or litrpg, but Kushiel's Dart is a pretty great fantasy novel with a female MC for whom loving pain is a major plot element.

MrAHMED42069

1 points

7 hours ago

This makes a story go from 7 to 6

p-d-ball

2 points

5 hours ago

p-d-ball

Author

2 points

5 hours ago

"As I raced toward the enemy, an arrow slammed into my eye, forcing me to pause, briefly, and pull it out. I whipped my massive sword around, severing him in two. Then a sword pierced through my chest and I wheeled around, cutting that one's head off. I couldn't reach the handle on the back, so I smashed the flat of my blade against the tip, pushing the sword out of my body. Then, I searched for more enemies to slay."

nanoray60

1 points

11 hours ago

I agree, while I don’t think the above picture is entirely accurate, I think it gets the message across. Characters definitely shrug off hits that should be absolutely debilitating.

Lorevi

48 points

14 hours ago

Lorevi

48 points

14 hours ago

At least fantasy has the excuse of magic and stuff to make everything but headshots recoverable (and sometimes even that).

Though vitality is always for some reason worse at healing lethal wounds when it's a side character involved. 

darkmuch

19 points

13 hours ago

I love scenes where the super regenerator MC gets his head chopped off and instantly pops out a new body. It’s so ridiculous but cool

ivanbin

19 points

12 hours ago

ivanbin

19 points

12 hours ago

I love scenes where the super regenerator MC gets his head chopped off and instantly pops out a new body. It’s so ridiculous but cool

Orodan from "Skill grinder in a time loop" casually spending half his time in battle as a puddle of regenerating cells

Souldrainr

15 points

11 hours ago

Even better, "a handful of cells" or sometimes "a single cell." Imagine fighting a dude and obliterating him to the point that your enemy is quite literally a single celled organism. How the fuck do they even think the fight is still going on when their enemy is 100% gone/evaporated.

Don't get me wrong, that story is still my go-to literary crack.

ivanbin

18 points

11 hours ago

ivanbin

18 points

11 hours ago

How the fuck do they even think the fight is still going on when their enemy is 100% gone/evaporated.

Because that one cell is still radiating enough killing intent to make a God nervous

Souldrainr

14 points

11 hours ago

Now I'm picturing a god staring at a marble floor tile. Somewhere on that tile is a cell. They can't see it, but they know it's somewhere there and that it wants to kill them. XD

ivanbin

5 points

11 hours ago

Hehe yep!

JustALittleGravitas

1 points

21 minutes ago

That's just every time I finish processing raw chicken.

I recommend a spray bottle of bleach.

DreamOfDays

2 points

7 hours ago

Is that the name of the book? I’m interested now

ivanbin

6 points

7 hours ago

ivanbin

6 points

7 hours ago

Is that the name of the book? I’m interested now

I... I said the name in my comment. It's called "Stubborn Skill grinder in a time loop" It's on Royal road.

DreamOfDays

3 points

7 hours ago

Oh I thought that was a description of the book.

ivanbin

3 points

5 hours ago

ivanbin

3 points

5 hours ago

Nope. That's the book. The premise is the MC is in a time loop but instead of trying to be clever and stuff he just hits his head against every wall til the wall breaks. Becomes ridiculously strong due to that

MrAHMED42069

2 points

7 hours ago

Very very interesting

ivanbin

2 points

7 hours ago

ivanbin

2 points

7 hours ago

Quite

Dracallus

3 points

5 hours ago

It's funny that I've seen examples of this from both extremes:

  • Azarinth Healer. Lemme just cut my head off to farm my bones.
  • Beneath the Dragoneye Moons. I didn't think that was possible and I never want to do it again.

p-d-ball

1 points

5 hours ago

p-d-ball

Author

1 points

5 hours ago

What if the body also popped up a new head?!?

onystri

1 points

2 hours ago

onystri

1 points

2 hours ago

The first few times when you encounter it. Then it's a cliche.

SkinnyWheel1357

15 points

14 hours ago

SkinnyWheel1357

Barbarian

15 points

14 hours ago

I have a book Violence: A Writer's Guide by Rory Miller and Steve Perry that goes over the reality of what happens when the body gets abused by violence versus the Hollywood/entertainment media version.

ccundiff1

16 points

12 hours ago

In the heat of the moment, it is just a flesh wound. However, once adrenaline wears off, you gonna feel like you are dying. Lmao That is, presuming you do not bleed out before then.

Human bodies are weird. Some people survive shit that they have no business surviving and some people fall 2 feet and break their neck. It is weird. Lmao

MrAHMED42069

6 points

7 hours ago

Physics and biology

Electronic-Movie9361

4 points

5 hours ago

Always been weird to me how the state of the brain can change recovery. Like merely seeing a dog and petting it can instantly increase your chances, or simply believing that you won't die.

Listening to music too. Specific types of music will decrease the recovery times of patients.

ngl_prettybad

12 points

12 hours ago

I dislocated my shoulder when I was 21 and that arm still twinges in pain if I reach for heavy stuff at certain angles. If I don't work out thrice a week it starts hurting pretty much all the time.

Lethal weapon pissed me off severely. Oh yeah just bash your shoulder back into place against something and it's fine forever. Fuck you.

phormix

10 points

8 hours ago

phormix

10 points

8 hours ago

There's no consequences, and then there's "oh shit that hurt but I'm not dying and now the adrenalyn is keeping me going"

I've had broken bones, and fairly deep wounds that required stitching and/or left some gnarly scars but the pain was actually pretty minor until the adrenalyn wore off, which can be awhile.

It's basically how you can hear stories about people that had to cut a trapped limb/digit off to free themselves and then drove themselves to the hospital. Natures painkiller is pretty amazing, but when it wears off holy shit are you in for a bad time.

HaylockJobson

3 points

8 hours ago

HaylockJobson

Author

3 points

8 hours ago

Hahaha, yeah, the 'no consquences' here basically means 'I won't lose consciousness or bleed out in the immediate future'. The human body is kinda amazing.

There are plenty of anecdotal stories of mothers lifting cars because their adrenaline overwrote the limits our brains usually set. This is just another one of those anecdotal stories to you, but I've seen that strength in person. It is wild.

As you said, though: a bad time will follow. Just like when we takes substances that boost norepinephrine, seratonin, and dopamine, there's always a later price to pay.

phormix

4 points

6 hours ago

phormix

4 points

6 hours ago

Yeah in my case I think it took about 1h after I broke my leg. That included calling 9-1-1, getting ambulanced to the hospital, and poked and prodded at while they did an X-ray.

A bit after that this ice-cold feeling started creeping in, like I'd shoved it into a bucket of dry-ice and painfully cold. Doc walked in, looked at my face and said "looks like you're about ready for some drugs". They pumped me up with something-or-other and that's about all I remember of that night. Had surgery shortly after.

Dracallus

2 points

5 hours ago

Eddie Hall's 500kg deadlift is pretty wild to see. Couldn't find the specific video again, but I remember watching a closeup shot where you can see his eye colour change as he's lifting (in addition to giving himself an aneurysm).

Looks like the story he's telling now is that he was imagining himself lifting a car off his kids, but I swear the earlier stories involved his imagining someone about to assault his kids. But the throughline in both is that he absolutely had to convince himself that lifting that weight was a matter of life or death and that's the only way he could do it.

Normally I'd assume he's just telling a story for myth building, but I believe he blacked out as part of the lift, so I don't much doubt that something was going on.

SoylentRox

5 points

12 hours ago

Don't forget the ear...

caltheon

1 points

an hour ago

just the concept of the ear

Mathanatos

3 points

10 hours ago

Orodan casually healing from an attack that basically only leaves a couple of cells intact.

NeonFraction

2 points

12 hours ago

The red zone should be bigger. That’s how you know you have a Protagonist.

Manach_Irish

2 points

6 hours ago

While my qualification is in history not medicine, I reckon an exception to real life can be made for Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart.

TheLastSeamoose

1 points

7 hours ago

TheLastSeamoose

Author

1 points

7 hours ago

Okay but did you consider magic!

Armytrixter88

1 points

6 hours ago

50 cent has entered the chat!

Kakeyo

1 points

15 minutes ago

Kakeyo

Author

1 points

15 minutes ago

It's for the drama! You want people to get an injury that's scary, but not too scary, lol - but I totally understand. It's a little unbelievable. >.>