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.

[masked_god]

They offered me food and shelter and a way to get away from my parents. I've saved my bodyguards from abuse and slavery and a dozen worse things.

Its not so different, is it?

[aquaticrush]

I, um. I agree that a lot of it comes down to ideas, especially since to a lot of people, we aren't "real". The idea of the "kid hero" is wish fulfillment for a child. The idea of the "child soldier" is nightmare fuel for an adult. If somebody wrote us with one idea or the other, then the two are naturally not the same, right?

*gulp*

A-and even if your life was bad at the time, you shouldn't be forced or coerced into something terrible. It's like how people who run away from home might do it because they need to get away, but they don't find anything better on the street.

[masked_god]

But surely you can see how the same exact story could give rise to "child-soldiers" in one telling and "heroes" in another?

Your world is so much kinder than mine. You are growing into a wonderful young woman precisely because of the trials you have undergone and the friendships that you have made, correct? Would you deny that same opportunity to those who have less and must wish for more?

[aquaticrush]

Some people do always like trying to make things dark...

Of course not! But I also wouldn't destroy their chances at happiness and a normal life!

[masked_god]

At the same time, some like to obscure true evil by hiding it behind a heroic face.

And if the only way to have happiness would be to chance death?

[aquaticrush]

Your world may sound horrible, but I'm sure there's a way to make things better without hurting anyone.

[masked_god]

My world is indeed quite terrible, in its way. But mostly that is because of its size; it is hard to make everything better on a billion worlds.

Then again, what right would I have to change even one? If I decided your world was forcing young people to fight in battles that should be won by adults, should I strip you of your powers and fight your war for you?

[aquaticrush]

My fight's over, a-and I'm not thirteen anymore. And I know I've made mistakes, horrible ones.

*Like the whole "almost destroying the universe because she listened to the wrong people" thing.*

But the will of the planet was to live. For everyone to live. That's why...

[masked_god]

Retasu, I am not suggesting that you have done anything wrong. Or if you have, that you alone are responsible for undoing your actions.

You fight for your own reason, much like my children fight for me. There is nothing in-honorable about that. But there are worlds where your purity of spirit is corrupted by forces not dissimilar to those which gave you powers in the first place.

It is not the 'soldier' that is the fault, but the forces who would use such children for ill.

[aquaticrush]

Why do you use them, then?

[masked_god]

Because leaving them where they were would be infinitely worse.

[aquaticrush]

There has to be something better than what's happened to your world.

[masked_god]

Presumably. But I no longer am in a position of power, and have no right to change the system.

Most of my children had no choice when they became child soldiers, five thousand years ago. But the few that I've added since then all share similarly dire circumstances.

Sometimes...people just fall through the cracks. Whether the girl with acid-burns from an abusive father, or the boy from the brothel...these things are realities in my universe.

[aquaticrush]

These things happen in happy worlds, too.

[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.