Ratios

[masked_god]

Well, call me impressed, community. According to my calculations worlds connecting here use child-soldiers at a rate of 4:1.

That's four worlds that have child-soldiers as their heroes to one against.

The next time anyone accuses me of being a monster, I'll take that into consideration.

- Karakael

Comments

[aquaticrush]

How are you defining child soldiers, though?

[masked_god]

In this case, any world that utilizes child warriors to oppose either external villains or internal strife. "Children" including anyone under the age of - oh - twenty or so.

So you would be one, correct?

[aquaticrush]

But-- but we were never drafted by any army, not really, we got to live our lives for the most part -- it's not like Lt. Clostermann!

[masked_god]

You are being asked to fight for a cause, are you not? To place yourself in harms way for a world?

[aquaticrush]

I'm sure we could have said no if we really wanted to...

*You are not getting this win. "Kid Hero = Child Soldier" is a disgusting and ~edgy~ frame of mind, and self-esteem or not, she glares at the camera.*

[masked_god]

That hardly has any bearing on the fact that you are still a young person fighting for your world.

[aquaticrush]

A child soldier is a bad thing. Forced, trapped, taken from anything happy. It's not the same. Being chosen or made to fight for the future of the world is hard sometimes and scary, but it's good in the end for everyone, even yourself!

[masked_god]

Perhaps. But just as many child-soldiers fight for what they believe is right as those who are stolen from their homes. And who are you to decide that their passion is any less worthy than yours simply because you believe your leaders to be telling you the truth?

[aquaticrush]

I was afraid at first and hated everything. They helped.

[archerartemis]

Who's using anyone? Some of us decide to fight on our own.

[masked_god]

That doesn't necessarily disqualify you from 'childsoldier' status. If young people in your world regularly take up arms to fight for their ideals they qualify under my methods.

[archerartemis]

Yeah, there's your problem. You're the one defining it, so of course we all qualify.

[masked_god]

While I am biased in favor of worlds which strip innocence away rather quickly, there are several universes connecting here with no such obsession. There are others which at least admit that perhaps putting one's hopes on children is not always a wise decision.

[archerartemis]

The problem with that is you're assuming that just because you've got kids or teenagers fighting, it must mean they're soldiers. Newsflash: Most of us choose to do it ourselves. Nobody's forcing us, nobody's talking us into it--we're doing it because we want to take a stand, and the adults are just trying to make sure we don't get ourselves killed.

You want to know what a child soldier is? Someone who isn't given that choice. Someone who gets told how they're going to live their life, what they're going to do, and how they're going to do it. Someone who's taught that it's a dog-eat-dog world and it's everyone for themselves, so if they want to survive, they're gonna have to do whatever it takes. If you decide that's bullshit and go against it? Then you stop being a soldier.

[masked_god]

Simply because it is your choice does not preclude you from being soldiers. Are you suggesting that the people who volunteer for more traditional forms of military are only soldiers because they are too foolish to fight on their own?

It seems that you believe that a 'hero' is one who resists the pressures of the world, while a 'soldier' fights for the collective. Quite a courageous outlook, but I pity those unlucky children who have been so broken by their world that they cannot hold up to your standards.

[archerartemis]

Militaries are for fighting wars, not for fighting crime. It's like you're equating them with the police or other organizations. Police fight too, but you're not about to call them soldiers, are you?

[masked_god]

I hardly see why not. They are given the power to strip people of their freedom by their governments and use deadly force when necessary. In my universe, we would consider them soldiers of a sort as well. Mercenaries are just soldiers for another power and child heroes...well, they are soldiers for their own ideals.

And the younger the child...well, how much of their actions are due to their own choices, rather than that of their guardians?

[embersandashes]

Did you really count up all the worlds to work that out, or are you just guessing?

[masked_god]

According to my current approximations, we have around 55 worlds connecting at the moment. From there it was relatively easy to verify whether or the people using the community from each world would count as childsoldiers or not.

So no, it is not a guess. But the math is rather simple.

[embersandashes]

I wonder how you'd classify me. I was a soldier from the age of thirteen, but I'm almost twenty-one now, and I don't live on that world anymore.

[masked_god]

The key is the world, not the specific member. So your original world would qualify, but your current world might not. Given that no others from your home connect here, I would either exclude you from the count...or calculate you in as one of those few cases in which a world begins as friendly to child-soldiers but matures into something different.

[embersandashes]

Oh, I doubt that it's changed. And I didn't leave because I was a soldier.

[masked_god]

Mmm. But you escaped none-the-less. In that, it is you who has matured, not they.

[embersandashes]

You're misunderstanding. I didn't escape, and I don't regret fighting the way I did.

[masked_god]

Would you do it again?