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@eden-anderson

Welp. I honestly don’t mind a lot of blood/gore in movie or books as long as the story is good. But in my own writing I have a certain limit. And I guess it depends on what age group you’re writing for as well–I write mainly for like 15+ at the lowest(since I’m only 16 myself, I probably shouldn’t make it any higher lol). That’s not to say that my stories can’t be read by those younger, my writing just tends to be darker, grittier, and have a more realistic take on war and such than most things below that age level. I like covering dark topics and touchy subjects, and I like portraying war not as some grand heroic thing full of cool moves and epic one-on-one fight scenes…. because that’s not how it is. It’s gritty, and gross, and disgusting, and full of death. So that’s what I portray it as. I’m not really one to shy away from writing violence/gore I guess.

At the same time, I’m not going to, say–chop a character’s arm off and give a long, detailed description of it. Or slit someone’s belly open and tell everyone what color their intestines are. Not that I won’t put that in novels, but I won’t go into detail. There’s a difference between having something happen and dramatizing every possible action to the fullest extent just to gross out your readers.

That’s one thing I love about the HTTYD franchise–no, there’s no blood or gore–but there’s consequences. Consequences of war, of fighting, of actions–even if they’re heroic actions. Hiccup still looses a foot, even though he won and even though he was the good guy. Stoic actually dies. Like, do you know how rare it is for someone to die in cartoons and actually die? It’s a needle in a haystack. (And if they bring him back in HTTYD 3, I’m going to be so mad.)

But moving on from that–those little bits are what make HTTYD so great, in my opinion. Sure, the dragons are cool, sure, the animation is superb(I could fangirl about it all day), sure, Hiccup is possibly the most relatable character ever for INTJs like me, but the consequences are what make it amazing. If there aren’t consequences for your actions, then there’s really no point in making them, is there?

And that’s why I’m not afraid to put gore, or death, or darker topics in my fiction. The consequences. What happens if the main character makes a mistake that ends up with someone getting killed? That consequence of his action might be what teaches him to stop rushing into things blindly(as characters are soooo adept at doing), and grow into a stronger, smarter, better person. No, it’s not nice. But it not about being nice. It’s about learning. Growing. Accepting your mistakes and not going on without changing, but learning from those mistakes and becoming a better person.

And on another note, it has to do with my immense and unfathomable hatred of “post-modernism”. If you don’t know what that is–basically, it boils down to the idea that if there is no truth, everything would be okay. If every person can create their own truth, then everything would be fine.

That’s wrong on many levels, but the most prominent is the idea that humanity individually can create and accept their own separate versions of something that is undeniably irrefutable and unmovable as God himself–truth. Jesus literally says that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. By assuming that there is no truth and therefore humanity must create it’s own truth, humans are assuming the role of god over their own lives.

Which is just wrong. But by doing this, they are able to alter their own perception towards actions by justifying to themselves that those actions are good or true due to the fact that they believe they can define their own truth, and are therefore not bound to a certain area of right and wrong. This aversion to actual truth allows them to sidestep any bad consequences their actions create, blaming it on anyone and anything except themselves.

And that is why I put darkness/gore in fiction. I want to show that no matter how you think, what you do, or what you say, the consequences for your own actions still are yours. You cannot shift the blame onto someone else just because you don’t want to own up to something. So by writing fiction where one wrong move can result in death or maiming of someone they love, a character must learn to accept consequences of their actions and therefore grow and change as a person.

So there. My incredibly long and wordy explanation as to why I write gore and death and violence in my fiction.