Dec 2018
9 / 28
Dec 2018
Jan 2019
OliviaMerteli
Dec '18

I'm going for destroying what is controlling them but I hesitated with kill them off. They offer both interesting aftermath: the first, the person controlled has to deal with the trauma of what have been done to/with their body, the second, the one who had to kill the person controlled has to deal with that (and it's better/worst when it's a loving one).
Using love to get them free can be interesting too (possessed character's will and internal battle for the control of their mind, showing the bonds between the characters etc...) but it's been done so much (and sometimes pretty badly) that I prefer the others two.

charliesackett
Dec '18

When I see posession or mind control in things, my immediate reaction is that they should be killed before they can hurt anyone. There are a lot of zombie movies where way more people died then necessary because some jagoff insists they keep an infected person with them. Same basic thing. Just Old Yeller them.

jensrichard77In the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Dec '18

Kill them with love, because you love them and there is nothing else to do to save them

GesuGesu
Dec '18

Trick the controlling force out lolol I read a novel like that and it was like genius little protagonist reversing the curse on the spirit.

shazzbaa
Dec '18

Man, I don't feel like there's an across-the-board Best Answer honestly? Even in terms of what I want to happen -- like, it depends on what's been established before, or what kind of series it is. If My Little Pony, a series where Friendship canonically manifests as powerful magic, were to require the mind-controlled person be destroyed, that would feel weird and dumb. If a gritty zombie movie healed someone from a zombified state with True Love's Kiss, that would feel patently stupid.

I think all of them can be interesting, though, so ultimately it depends on like...... treating it thoughtfully more than choosing the best answer. I mean, you refer to The Power of Love as cheesy, but like, I think that option pulls from things in real life that aren't cheesy at all. Talking someone down from a mental breakdown, talking someone down from suicide, talking down a hostage-taker to save the hostages -- it'd be nice if there was just a demon or a mind-control helmet you could kill to release the person you care about, but usually there's not. Even in hostage situations, you're more likely to have to try to reach out to the hostage-taker to break their resolve rather than just barging in with force, because the latter can make things worse real fast.
The Power of Love can be tense and compelling when it's treated as something real and specific -- when it's not just the vague idea of love that's powerful, but specifically the relationship between these people, or the specific, targeted love and acceptance of the person who reaches out.

And I think all three can also be done so badly as to be unbelievable. You can have a suddenly-invented "oh, that's convenient" way to destroy the controlling force; you can have a sappy, unconvincing declaration of love that is so general and vague it could apply to literally anyone and wouldn't even convince someone not to leave the house, much less talk them down from mind-control; you can have someone immediately jump to "oh well guess we gotta kill them" so quickly it gives you whiplash as you wonder if these characters are really going to be so thoughtless as to not even CONSIDER that there might be an alternative.

Thinking it over, I think "destroy the controlling device/entity" is probably the safest option, narratively -- as long as you do something to establish the thing that's controlling them beforehand, it won't feel arbitrary. So that's probably the one that's easiest to do well, but I think any of them can be really powerful. I think my favourite is Power of Love when it's done thoughtfully, and my least favourite is Power of Love when it's a convenient, vague, last-minute solution.

Rhonder
Dec '18

I voted "remove or destroy the source" because that's how I'm handling it in my comic xD the power of love is a little too cheesy for me (though I don't mind it), and killing the possessee is a little too dark for my story :sweat_smile:

Roshii
Dec '18
shazzbaa

Ahh yeah. The zombie thing.. I do like the Warm Bodies movie since every zombies got healed there because of love and it was stupid, like how is that even possible but yet I still like it cause I just like happy endings(plus I thought it was something different for a change in zombie movies). :sweat_smile:

Yes it really depends on the situation.. some can be mixed. Like the love power can be something that weakens the control but not entirely removing it, and then later on destroy the source or kill the character if the control is impossible to undo.

This is just something what you enjoy(?) and/or maybe what you will use in the story.

It really depends indeed, though I am sucker if it was the power of love so it will be something I enjoy and will use in the story. Also what I mean on the cheesy part is that.. What I have seen so far in tropes like that, for me that is, the power of love can come off cheesy mostly(?) on how it was written.

I do want to see more scenes about this trope and see how others write this. Hard to find some that has it.

((I am so sorry if I may not understand fully))

nathanKmcwilliamsIn the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Dec '18

You could also have them STAY possessed from that point on in the series. That could open up new story potential and add a level of suspense for your readers.

revisionstudios
Dec '18

Overall I agree with shazzbaa, it depends on the series and context. BUT, I will say that the "cured with love" one isn't as shallow as a lot of people say?

I guess I kind of like to see a person's individual will supersede whatever is controlling them, like they have that much inner strength and conviction that they can break out of it. And if that's triggered by an important person in their life, why not?

But I think I just like stories where there's always something the individual can DO to get out of their bad situation.

nostalgicroxas
Dec '18

I combine the cheesy love is the thing to destroy the thing controlling someone xD

unknown_user
Dec '18

I would be curious to see the following scenario:
Character struggles with the thing which control them, but only with partical success, and their personality is slowly eroded with this thing. This thing becomes the part of their personality, and from some point they have become the one between the original personality of character and that thing. So it becomes fundamentally impossible to divide them.
Other characters have a problem, trying to decide how to deal with their ex friend from now on, and come up with diverse opinions about it. They potentially can have an interesting discussion about it and the non-trivial moral dilemma.

P.S. But simply killing they can also be dramatic. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

mrtoontastic
Dec '18

KILL 'EM. KILL 'EM ALL. Nah, just kidding. Try to destroy whatever's manipulating them.... unless you can get something free out of them first. :wink:

rmdooley
Dec '18

Ha, this poll is especially timely because possession is precisely what is going on currently in my comic2!

qwerty
Dec '18

The character and the possessing entity gradually are forced to coexist, with less and less conflict over time as the relationship solidifies into some kind of "stable orbit".

Or maybe, the possessing entity completely takes over the character's body, but the character's mind still exists in some disembodied state and now must go and possess someone/something else :scream:

But if I have to pick one of the three options, love and will!

BobbyjoeX
Dec '18

i go for 1... if 1 doesnt work, BEAT THE POSSESSION OUT OF THEM :smiley: