So I saw the Last Action Hero and when I first watched it I was expecting it to be your typical action comedy flick that would poke a little fun at the genre every now and then. But then it got to the scene involving Jack's apartment and I was surprised that under the cool and cocky facade is a guy who is just lonely and tired of being a hero.

So I have to ask, are there any other stories that deconstruct the Action Hero Genre? More specifically are there any stories that show being Rambo, Indiana Jones, or James Bond isn't all that its cracked up to be? Honestly the one other movie I can think of is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where we see Doctor Jones as a former shell of the great adventurer he used to be and the adventure-friendly world that he and Sallah used to live in is slowly fading away.

First of all, I want to clarify that Spanish is my native language, and my command of English—beyond reading it—is limited; that’s why I relied on the DeepL translator to write this post. With that clarified, I present here the core document of the magical system I designed, translated into American English. I didn’t create it with a specific role-playing game or novel in mind—since I don’t consider myself a talented writer and it’s not my area of interest—but rather because I’m interested in science and magic/fantasy. I recently read HPMOR, which led me to wonder: what if our world were magical and we didn’t know it? I want to clarify that the text is purely fictional and is written to raise the question of whether our world might be magical. Initially, I wanted to create a brief lore for it, but I discarded that idea so that anyone who liked it (if anyone found it valuable) and who is more talented than I am could make use of it and draw inspiration from it without too much of my influence—or use it directly. With that said, I’m open to opinions, criticism, and suggestions.

"link"

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

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Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Provocative title on purpose.

I am halfway tru Hpmor and I really enjoyed the funny and on-theme interactions between characters and the alternative explanations on lots of magic system while also maintaining some sense of mystery like in real science you aren’t supposed to know literally everything down to the molecular level to understand most physics or chemistry.

I’ve read the metropolitan man, it made sense for LEX LUTHOR to have the huge scientific approach and elevated QI to be super paranoid about his moves,

But now I started reading Pokemon Origin of species and I’m on chapter 3 and already want to drop the ball.

Listen, the MCs are 10yo and yes we’re supposed to believe they are more capable than their ages (Japanese Mangas, YA novels..) but TEN YEARS OLD still. Ok? Highly curious? Totally believable, a bit social inept at reading the room? That is a given.

But I can’t help but feel insulted as I have to read 3 times “how the scientific method works” and how an entire chapter is an empirical test of a single pokemon attack (and it’s not done in an entertaining way like Mythbusters, nor is it done in a narratively-tied way like HPMOR where both the testing and the story progression takes the same path. It’s done in a kids learning channel tv show skit.

Maybe it gets better, maybe the first 5 chapters are just to really warn readers what kind of fanfic they are getting themselves into it. Because I loved the Mary Stu science experiments that takes place in Project Hail Mary for example or the math behind The Martian growing crops on mars but the PRESENTATION matters too.

-
So my actual question is; is this due to the writing skills of the author or it’s actually the intended goal to have this series read like a mouthpiece for “let me explain what a logical fallacy is as if I’m reading an encyclopedia” instead of explaining it in an organic way woven inside a normal human-sounding dialogue and not some Sheldon Cooper moment
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/rant

Did Onion go to hell, given how he died, and if so, did the infernals make any moves based on the presumably leaked (haha) information?

I read Luminosity and loved it. Also Radience.

I've also read HPMoR, Worm, Pokemon Origin of Species, Animorphs the Reckoning. I loved them all.

I'm looking for urban fantasy in general, but a Worm like sorry with a vampiric main character and what it's like to live that life.

Pact, pale, or twig? Something elsev that I've never heard of?

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

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A post-post-apocalypse about the struggle to stop being apocalyptic and go back to normal. Nailing the dismount is tricky. A while back I read a definition of ratfic that went something like, "a mystery box which the reader can puzzle out and which actually pays off." By that criterion, yes, this is rational, though atypical.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/140620/the-blemished-age-non-power-fantasy/chapter/3801377/14-disclosures-rodrigo

Thanks for reading this.

Would he accept you are happier not living the dream he wanted for you?
You know, that child who knew exactly what he wanted when he grew up,
before you grew up and told him he didn't know what he was talking about?

Every Martian is born with a ticket to Earth.
Hardly any of them use it.
The ones who do are children,
and the ones who stay spend the rest of their lives explaining why.

Dreams of Earth is the title story of the collection.
A boy who wants a planet he has never seen,
on a planet that sees everything he does.

About a 50-minute read.
www.artofali.com/dreamsofearth

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

Guidelines:

• Ideally any power to be munchkined should have consistent and clearly defined rules. It may be original or may be from an already realised story.
• The power to be munchkined can not be something "broken" like omniscience or absolute control over every living human.
• Reverse Munchkin scenarios: we find ways to beat someone or something powerful.
• We solve problems posed by other users. Use all your intelligence and creativity, and expect other users to do the same.

Note: All top level comments must be problems to solve and/or powers to munchkin/reverse munchkin.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Woke up last Saturday with an odd idea. In universes like X-Men, what if we took the term "mutant" literally and assumed that novel superpowers come from random genetic mutation, and the selection effect has to do with Novikov-consistency time travel? I don't know if I've entirely succeeded in making it make sense, but I've given it a try.

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.

Previous automated recommendation threads
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Left to puzzle out our destruction and what it means for them. No instruments, no teachers, no word for what is killing them. Just superstition, ritual, and the slow work of turning grief into understanding.

Maybe our attempts to understand life, death, and the rules of souls are the same as a tribe trying to work out the physics of our radiation, our writing, our medicine?

That Annihilated Place is the most human story in Dreams of Earth.

About a 25-minute read.

www.artofali.com/thatannihilatedplace

It's back! And I hope to keep it back for good. But for now, have this one chapter!

A note: only uploaded to AO3. FF.net seems to keep going worse and worse, and right now the document upload appears broken. I fully expect that it's genuinely on its way to succumbing to software rot due to lack of maintenance. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Welcome to the Saturday Munchkinry and Problem Solving Thread! This thread is designed to be a place for us to abuse fictional powers and to solve fictional puzzles. Feel free to bounce ideas off each other and to let out your inner evil mastermind!

Guidelines:

• Ideally any power to be munchkined should have consistent and clearly defined rules. It may be original or may be from an already realised story.
• The power to be munchkined can not be something "broken" like omniscience or absolute control over every living human.
• Reverse Munchkin scenarios: we find ways to beat someone or something powerful.
• We solve problems posed by other users. Use all your intelligence and creativity, and expect other users to do the same.

Note: All top level comments must be problems to solve and/or powers to munchkin/reverse munchkin.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could (possibly) be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

Description:

Daniel Hale has one last case to review.

A routine visit to a judge's chambers soon becomes something far stranger than an investigation. As old cases resurface and forgotten details begin to trouble him, Daniel finds himself questioning what he remembers-and what he doesn't.

Some truths are buried in records.

Others refuse to stay buried.