text:
_"It's conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I'm only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again... perhaps I have the strength after all."_

As a rule, much of fiction ends with the villain being defeated by the hero. This should be dramatic, but if the true villain isn't that physically powerful, then this is going to be a rather short fight.

Sure, a writer could give their master manipulator a Humongous Mecha or have your amoral industrialist secretly be a martial arts master, but there's also something satisfying in bringing the invincible hero down a few pegs. Many pegs. To the point where they're already a few moments from death when they meet; this has the effect of showing that the character isn't fearless simply due to having superior power, but superior _character_-strength even when stripped of those abilities.

You Can Barely Stand is a scene where the villain meets the hero when he's in no fit state to fight. The threat of blood loss or collapse is as much a threat as the bad guy slapping him about and telling him he's failed and that he's not that invincible after all. The reason for the injuries can include a special weakness, having been poisoned, having been tortured, magical influence, or having just gotten the crap kicked out of him by either the Mooks or The Dragon.

Either way, the hero will eventually get a dramatic burst and fight on despite his weakened state, and will usually defeat their foe by the slightest of margins. Only once they've won will they be allowed the luxury of collapsing. For a truly Bittersweet Ending, they might never get up again.

On the flip-side, The Hero may be fighting a lackey who's just too stubborn to quit. In pity, the hero tells the lackey that they should surrender, or just leaves the fight themselves. This often happens in the leadup to a Heel–Face Turn.

A common form of Drama-Preserving Handicap. A villainous version of Tempting Fate. If the hero is at their physical best when meeting the villain face-to-face, expect the hero to suffer a Game-Breaking Injury. May manifest as Injured Player Character Stage. One hero might say this to another one who insisting that he/she can still fight.

Compare: Heroic Resolve, Heroic Second Wind, The Man Behind the Curtain, Determinator. Often caused by Combat Breakdown or Crippling the Competition.

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Examples:

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    Anime and Manga

-   A staple in every single climactic battle in _Dragon Ball_, each tending to go upwards from there in the following arcs. Expect title pages of manga chapters after one of these is over to be the victor sitting exhausted and battered on the ground. The most iconic examples would be:
    -   Goku Vs. Jackie Chun. The Tournament final results in a double knockout, so per the rules, the first person to stand up and say "I am the champion" will be declared the winner. Both take over a minute to stand up, but while Goku says "I am the champi..." he faints before he can finish the sentence, giving Jackie the chance to do it himself and win.
    -   Goku Vs. King Piccolo. Goku gets his left arm and both of his legs broken. Still, Goku manages to win by focusing all of his strength in his right arm to fire a Kamehameha that propels him into the air and punch through Piccolo.
    -   Goku Vs. Piccolo Jr. Being aware of that leaving Goku one healthy arm was a mistake, Piccolo now completely incapacitates Goku by breaking _all_ of his limbs. Still, Goku manages to win by charging with his own body, using all of his remaining Ki to fly.
    -   Goku Vs. Vegeta: Goku gets his whole body incapacitated through desperate use of the Kai-Ken and getting wrecked by Oozaru Vegeta, but still manages to form a small Spirit Bomb and pass it to Krillin, who returns alongside Gohan. In a notable exception to most other fights, nearly every single combatant at the end of the fight is barely able to sit up by the end.
    -   Goku Vs. Frieza: After Frieza manages to cut himself in half, he's reduced to this state, and he pleads Goku for some ki. Goku relents, and Frieza rubs his empathy in his face before firing an attack at him while he leaves. Goku responds in kind, easily killing his opponent.
    -   Gohan Vs. Cell: Gohan gets his right arm maimed while trying to save Vegeta from Cell. Still, thanks to Goku's encouragement, Gohan forms a Kamehameha with a single arm that destroys Cell in a Beam-O-War, once Vegeta distracts him for a split second.
-   In _Berserk_, after the fight with Rosine, Guts is a complete mess. That also happens to be when he runs into the Holy Iron Chain Knights. He still puts up a hell of a fight but gets captured at the end of it. In any other condition, he would have killed them all.
-   _Fullmetal Alchemist_
    -   Roy Mustang takes down a deadly, deadly Lust after being stabbed in the stomach and cauterizing the wounds himself. It was awesome.
    -   At the end of the fight, he appears to remain unflinching as an enemy attack comes flying towards his face only to stop mere inches away. His Post-Victory Collapse reveals he _probably couldn't have dodged even if he wanted to._
    -   In the final battle, Greed tells everyone who's been injured to get off the "elevator", including Roy whose eyesight was removed as a toll for seeing the Truth. He still chooses to fight.
    -   In the 2003 anime version, Roy kills Pride after being sliced, impaled, and altogether getting the crap kicked out of him. And immediately after that, he's shot in the eye!
    -   Ed _attempts_ this after being impaled by a support beam, and...makes it about five feet before collapsing.
-   In _Higurashi: When They Cry_, Rika has one of these during her when she stands up against Shion and kills herself rather than die by torture.
-   This trope is so overused in _Saint Seiya_, the heroes are brought down to this level in pretty much every story arc after facing a few mooks. This trope needs to be renamed "You Can't Even Stand" to refer to the more serious instances.
    -   In the Sanctuary arc, Hyoga was entombed by Camus using his Freezing Coffin technique and left for dead. Shiryu broke him free with the libra sword. This left him in a semi-comatose state (but he could Barely Stand). After lampshading this trope, Camus intended to finish him off with an Aurora Excusion. Hyoga learns Camus's Aurora Excusion technique and defeats him in a Power Struggle while barely conscious.
    -   Seiya is poisoned by Royal Demon Roses on his way to the Pope's chamber, until all he could manage was crawl his way to the chamber. Once there, the Pope made him blind, deaf, dumb, and robbed him of his sense of smell and touch as well, then banished him to another dimension. He won anyway.
-   _Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann_
    -   Simon is lifted out of his Lagann mini mecha by Lordgenome, looking bruised and almost totally defeated. However, just as Lordgenome is about to finish him off for good he summons his remaining strength and slams his drill pendant into his enemy's chest before twisting it and blowing him apart with the spiral energy it contains.
    -   And before that, this trope is the start of Kamina's Dying Moment of Awesome.
-   _One Piece_
    -   Early on, Zoro had to take on a clearly inferior swords_fish_man after having been nearly cut in half diagonally across the chest in a previous fight.
    -   Even earlier in the Manga, Zoro fights Buggy's first mate Cabaji, a swordsman, after being stabbed through the side by one of Buggy's knives. Cabaji makes it a point to go after the wound repeatedly...and after repelling him, Zoro cuts the wound WIDER, just to prove he can beat Cabaji even with that handicap.
    -   Also Zoro — the post-Oz Kuma encounter when he is so injured he can't stand, and yet uses Kuma's magic paw-bubble to take all of Luffy's damage too, and the post-Kuma multi-Kuma fight where his injuries from the Kuma encounter make him collapse, whereupon he gets up again to use his most powerful technique, whereupon he is struck with a light beam/laser thing, whereupon he gets up again to face down Kuma (who is surprised that he survived that first encounter) whereupon he has vanished away to Nightmare Before Christmas-land. Where, upon waking, he tries to get up _again_ but luckily has been semi-mummified by Perona.
        -   Whereupon... wait, you said that part already.
    -   Whitebeard during the Marineford Arc, for multiple reasons. First of all, whilst he holds the title of 'Strongest Man in the World', he is very old and has multiple health problems. This does not stop him almost taking down the entire Marine HQ with his earthquake powers, and casually curbstomping some of the most powerful individuals in the series.
        -   Then, once he is fatally injured by Sakazuki after said health problems begin to affect him during a fight, following Ace's death, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Sakazuki, and then when Blackbeard shows up to kill him, he manages to defeat Blackbeard with two huge holes in his torso.
-   Every single fight in _Bleach_, notably during the Soul Society Arc.
    -   Subverted twice in the Hueco Mundo arc when Grimmjow encounters Ichigo barely able to stand, and has Orihime heal him; and Nnoitra beats the hell out of an already-almost-dead Ichigo.
    -   Lampshaded when Ichigo gets a nasty cut as usual during said fight — except this time his torso is sliced almost in half. On the topic of standing, his opponent gleefully informs him, "It isn't a matter of willpower; it's a structural impossibility." _Ouch._
    -   Uryu, on the other hand, has a technique that _overcomes_ "structural impossibility" by turning his own body into what amounts to a telekinetically-controlled puppet. This allows him to keep fighting even after his body is paralyzed by a poison that shuts down all voluntary muscle movement.
-   In _Wolf's Rain_, Toboe tries to bite Darcia's arm off despite being seriously wounded and dying from it shortly afterward.
-   _Yu-Gi-Oh!_: Jounouchi/Joey is worn out from his duel with Varon, but doesn't hesitate to duel his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend Mai as soon as it's over. He collapses at just the right time to give Mai a teary My God, What Have I Done? scene.
-   _Rurouni Kenshin_
    -   The final battle between Kenshin and Shishio is like this, and Kenshin actually _does_ collapse during the fight before getting back up.
    -   Applies to his allies in the fight as well, as they've all been through serious fights to get there. Saitou has had his thighs slashed (and spends most of the fight after his contribution on his knees) and Aoshi took Kenshin's ultimate attack ten minutes before he got there. Saitou and Aoshi are implied to be able to stand a serious chance against Shishio in a fair fight, but injured as they are all they can do is buy Kenshin time to get up again.
    -   Also in the anime when he fights Shura, Kenshin is hit by a poisoned dart and can't exactly see properly or stand up straight.
-   Happens a lot to Allen Walker in _D.Gray-Man_. Sometimes it works (For example, when he _literally_ can't stand during the Level 4 attack and keeps fighting it anyway by dragging himself around with Crown Clown) and sometimes it... doesn't (Like after the whole mess with Suman Dark, when Tyki effortlessly dissolves his arm and puts a hole in his heart).
-   Gintama has its main character Gintoki have several moments like this when there's serious arc and he's so badly beaten he can barely stand. Yet somehow, he always gets up from the ground. Never mind the countless broken bones and him throwing up blood...
-   The cast of _Inuyasha_ get this a _lot_. One example is when Inuyasha is human and must fight the Peach Man. During that time, he is shrunk, eaten, thrown back up, bled, tossed around, and fell from a cliff. Not even Sesshomaru is immune. He finally comes up against an enemy that knows how to fight a one-armed man  - by tearing that arm to shreds, then entwining him in tentacles to prevent Inuyasha from using his sword, before finally stabbing him through the chest.

    INUYASHA: _[to Sesshomaru]_ You just stay back! This isn't the place for an injured person!

-   _My Hero Academia_
    -   During his fight with Todoroki during the Sports Festival Tournament, Midoriya pushed his body past their limits with One For All, using the power repeatedly on his injured arms and risking grave injury. While he would recover, his right hand would remain scarred as a result.
    -   Later, when the League of Villains attack at the summer training camp, Midoriya puts himself in harm's way again when he fights Muscular to protect a boy named Kota. Midoriya ends up with two broken arms (one from Muscular, the other from using One For All at full power) and nearly getting killed, but pushing on and keeping Muscular at bay, even as he bled profusely and mangled his arms.
-   The various Egrigori experiments in _Project ARMS_ get this bad. Ryo has especially bad luck. His ARMS - the Jabberwock - will only come out if he is in serious danger. The result of this is that almost every enemy sent to kill the Jabberwock will try to make it come out by beating the stuffing out of Ryo. And since he hates the Jabberwock, he always puts in a great deal of effort to just let himself get pummeled and not release the ARMS.
-   _Sword of the Stranger_ invokes this during its famed final fight sequence. Nanashi, after already being completely spent fighting the other soldiers and sustaining a few fairly series injuries, not only stands up to Luo-Lang but refuses his offer of performance-enhancing drugs that would dull his pain and still ends up the victor in the end.
-   _Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works_
    -   Lancer basically takes out a major villain and a minor one, both non-heroic spirits, while suffering one such wound. That wound is being stabbed through the heart with his own magic spear. His response? "As if I would die from a wound like this." We must emphasize this wound is through the heart. With a spear that causes wounds that cannot be healed.
    -   And appropriately enough in the scene happening parallel to that one, we have Shirou. During the course of his fight, he's broken his fingers, gotten covered in cuts, has various other broken appendages, and is all but dead due to being outmatched. Quite literally the only thing keeping him swinging is a full-on Determinator mode.
    -   Shirou in HF too. He. Will. Save. Sakura.
-   Touma in _A Certain Magical Index_ was like this during his first fight against Accelerator. the funny part? it was Misaka, the one who he was helping, that put him in that state.
-   _Space Battleship Yamato:_ In the final confrontation between Wildstar and Desslok, Wildstar is bleeding badly and can barely stand—and he does, in fact, collapse as his legs give out under him. Nova rushes to Wildstar's side, and as Desslok stands over them with his gun, both of them finally at his mercy, he realizes that Wildstar has fought him with _everything he had_ simply to protect his home and his loved ones, and Desslok realizes he's come to respect his enemy too much to pull the trigger. He declares an end to their conflict, and leaves in peace.
-   In _Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters_, Yami Yugi demands his friends stay back to avoid danger, even when this is pointed out by the others.
    -   Yami Yugi says this to _himself_ in episode 5 as he struggles through a sand hurricane.
-   In _Brave10_, in the finale of the sequel, several of the Braves are yelling at Rokuro to stop casting from HP and stay down as Susanoo approaches. This ends up leading to Kakei's Heroic Sacrifice instead.
-   _Holyland_: It's invoked by Yoshii in chapter 67, where he has two thugs try to ambush Masaki and weaken him before the fight with Taka.
-   In _AKIRA_, Kei is taunted with this line during a brutal fight with Tetsuo.

    Comic Books

-   Examples from _Superman_ stories:
    -   Superman himself gets to do this a lot, including fighting weakened by a red sun and having just come out of a coma, or just having been stabbed with Kryptonite.
    -   Done with somewhat different implications in the animated series finale "Legacy," where a depowered Superman lets out his anger on Lex Luthor, shattering the latter's jaw in one punch.
    -   Subverted in one instance in the comics (fighting a makeshift squad of villains). He's very ill, but still very strong. The conflict is that, as he says to the villains, he is so sick he has no idea if his punches will remove heads from necks.
    -   After a long battle in _Superman: Up, Up and Away!_, Superman is tired, injured and making Luthor boast he'll beat the alien to death with his bare punches. He's summarily knocked down.
    -   In _Red Daughter of Krypton_, Supergirl is seriously weakened after fighting a parasitic lifeform known as Worldkiller-1 in a Kryptonite-poisoned atmosphere. Barely alive, she uses her Red Lantern Ring to teleport both of them to the Sun and tricks Worldkiller-1 into dumping her into the star. Revived by the sudden flood of sunlight charging up her cells, Kara flies after Worldkiller-1 and curbstomps him.
-   Almost said word-for-word in _Anya's Ghost_ when Emily crawls out of the well, bones and all, to try and drag Anya down with her. But it's obvious it's taking all she has just to move her remains. Her apparent weakness and anguish make this scene a bit of a Tear Jerker.
-   Black Adam gets to this point towards the end of _World War Three_. It doesn't slow him down.
-   Spider-Man fought the Black Widow in _Amazing Spider-Man_ #86. _He_ had a case of pneumonia that would have put an ordinary man into the hospital, but it just slowed and weakened him down enough that the Black Widow thought he been toying with her when he broke free of her swing line at the end of the fight.
-   In _ElfQuest_, Cutter refuses to be healed during the first battle with the Northern Trolls because it would take him out of the fighting for too long, and his tribe needed every fighter they had.
-   A non-combat version from _The Sandman_: an unnamed country punishes criminals by hanging. The big cities always have enough people willing to become professional hangmen, but in smaller towns, people aren't willing to face the social stigma. So what the small towns do is choose a condemned prisoner who's unlikely to be too much trouble and offer to suspend his sentence if he'll act as hangman. That "suspend" is key; if the prisoner isn't hanged sooner or later, the town loses its right to have a hangman. One character accepts the offer, but as natural death approaches, he decides that he'd really prefer to die in his own bed. When the enforcers arrive, he's standing to meet them, although he was too ill to move, let alone stand, a mere panel or two before. Once the enforcers leave, we find that the character was supported by one of his own hangman's ropes, strung to a roof beam.
-   During _Batman: No Man's Land_ Robin ends up facing off against Croc when he's running a high fever to the point of suffering mild hallucinations. Croc quickly defeats him and uses him as a hostage but he gets a second wind and turns the tables on his captor after waking up and realizing he's giving Croc an advantage.

    Fan Works

-   In the _Firefly_ fanfic _Forward_ story "Business," River and Jayne are in this state when they fight the Hands of Blue at the climax. This is because they had been captured and tortured by Niska previously, and had only just escaped that. In this case, Jayne actually proves to be the better fighter, if only because, being larger, stronger, and tougher, he was able to withstand the torture better than the much physically weaker River, who was reduced to a gibbering wreck following the ordeal and was so battered that she needed Jayne to carry her on his back. River is only able to fight because Jayne injects her with a syringe of synthetic adrenaline.
-   The final scene of I Did Not Want To Die[] is this.
-   Multiple times during the finale of the _Tamers Forever Series_, several people say this to the dying Takato, right before he does something insanely badass.
-   In _Discworld_ fic _Whyand Were_, Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes has to conclude an inhumation of a were-creature despite the fact it has broken her shooting arm and that her assistant has seemingly defected to the enemy camp.
    -   In _Hyperemesis Gravidarum[]_, she has to fight off an assailant whilst heavily pregnant. Sure enough, she gets strong labor pains. During the fight. Things might have gone badly if it wasn't for a last-minute intervention by Papa Wolf, a man determined to become a grandfather.
-   Han Solo is in this state in the end of the _Star Wars_ fic _Important Information[]_. He's spent days being tortured and raped, has multiple broken bones including both arms, but when he sees that he's lying near the guy that arranged the capture, he crawls to Luke's dropped blaster and forces himself to his feet to confront the guy, blasting a Stormtrooper as he does so. He's almost done in by a second Stormtrooper sneaking up behind, but Luke warns him in time to blast the trooper, then, despite being choked by the guy who started it all, Han still manages to blast him before collapsing.
-   The infamous Goku/Hitler fight in _Until the End of Time_ has Hitler become a Super Saiyan and demolish Goku with a single punch, then gloat: "You still want to fight? Don't you know when to give up, boy? You can hardly walk. And you expect to beat ME? Conqueror of Europe?", before Goku suddenly becomes a "Super Ultra Power Saiyan" through The Power of Love and destroys Hitler.
-   In _Dreaming of Sunshine_, Shikako faces off against the Sound genin by herself while concussed, sleep deprived, low on chakra, and nursing several broken ribs and a broken arm from the encounter with Orochimaru - and she kills all three of them.
-   _Star Wars: The Sith, Zero_: It happens to Louise at the climax of the Dxun-arch. Louise has been beaten brutally by Darth Desolus with the Force; thrown from walls to walls, electrocuted, and broken. The only reason she _can_ stand, if bearly due to her shattered leg, is because of the Gandalfr runes.
-   _The Order of Koaxia_: Again, cracked/broken bones, inordinate amounts of bloodloss, and countless wounds will typically put someone on their back. Again, not when you're Rainbow Dash.
-   _Hellsister Trilogy_: Still physically and emotionally exhausted after fighting Mordru in Hell, Supergirl is teleported right in front of her omnicidal, psychotic evil counterpart Satan Girl. Supergirl doesn't know how she can walk out of that battle alive, let alone win, but she manages to survive her evil duplicate's relentless assault and hurl her into an antimatter star.

    She was tired, on the brink of exhaustion, emotionally wrung-out after the trip to the Netherworld and the fight with Mordru. Now, to be flung against a fresh, raging Satan Girl...it was simply too much.
    It was hard enough fighting her when she had been prepared and in good condition. How in the hell was she supposed to win against her now?

-   _Fail to the King!_: Jericho's injury, a burnt hole where his left lung should be, should relegate him to bed rest. Instead, he 'appeals' a petition in the Dark Assembly and, more seriously, charges off to distract a giant lava serpent from destroying Holt, all while only being held together by his own mana and resolve.

    Film

-   In _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring_ Boromir gets up and keeps fighting after taking an arrow in the chest - _twice_!
-   In the _Daredevil_ film, Daredevil goes to the climactic fight with Kingpin while still seriously injured from his fight with Kingpin's Dragon, Bullseye. Kingpin proceeds to own him in seconds, and even gloats about wishing he could fight Daredevil "in his prime".
-   Both Inigo and Westley do this in the climax of _The Princess Bride_ (see page quote).
-   In _Gladiator_, Commodus stabs Maximus in the lung just before their climactic battle in the Colosseum. Maximus, a seasoned general mind you, proves to be able to defeat the reasonably skilled but nonetheless inferior Commodus, but dies from the wound afterward.
-   _Sin City_ gives us a gem, when Detective Hartigan, an aging cop with a heart condition, staggers over to confront the Big Bad of his arc.

    ROARK JR.: Look at you, you can't even lift that cannon you carry!
    HARTIGAN: ...Sure I can.

-   In the conclusion of _Kick-Ass_, Hit-Girl does this again and again, finally seeming to meet her match in the mob boss D'Amico. When she can't pull out one more Heroic Second Wind (give her credit, she'd already done that about five times) she's rescued by Kick-Ass.
-   At the end of _Mission: Impossible III_, Davian activates a mini-bomb implanted inside Ethan Hunt's skull before attacking him. With the enormous pain of the activated bomb inside his head, Ethan is significantly crippled during the ensuing fight, which compensates for Davian's lack of formal combat training, at least to the level of an IMF agent.
-   At the end of _Mission: Impossible – Fallout_, Ethan Hunt faces off against John Lark. While both are highly trained combatants, both have also suffered significant injuries prior to the fight. As a result, the ensuing brawl is much cruder and less elaborate than the much earlier bathroom fight with John Lark's body double.
-   The final confrontation between Huo An and Tiberius in _Dragon Blade_. Huo An had been stabbed and shot by arrows a huge number of times before this, and when he confronts Tiberius he is literally trying his hardest to stand. Reality Ensues as Tiberius easily overpowers him, but right as the villain tries to execute him Huo An suddenly uses his arm shield to break Tiberius' arm, then fatally slice Tiberius in the neck with a knife.
-   In the finale of _Fearless (2006)_, Jet Li's character Huo Yuanjia has been poisoned and is is coughing up blood. His Japanese rival offers to stop the match but since Huo is representing China, he can't back down. Huo loses but because he visibly spares his opponent from his Dangerous Forbidden Technique One-Hit Kill move, his opponent declares him the victor.

    Literature

-   This is the case with the titular character at the end of Eisenhorn. His solution is to strap himself to a metal frame to ''let'' him stand.
-   In the fourth book of The Sword of Truth, Richard defeats his evil brother, despite the fact that he can barely stand due to disease, and the fact that his brother has the titular magic sword. Shortly afterwards this is taken even further when his brother then tries to kill Richard despite the fact that Richard had just _ripped his spine out_. It should also be noted that this played entirely straight, and said brother apparently has no superhuman abilities whatsoever.
-   In Robert A. Heinlein's short story "The Long Watch", the hero Lieutenant John Dahlquist barricades himself in an Interplanetary Patrol nuclear weapons bay on the Moon, while dying from the radiation dose he's getting from impromptu hammer-sabotage of a bunch of nuclear warheads sought by Colonel Towers, the leader of an attempted coup. It's sort of a _You Can Barely Stand_-off.
-   Vimes in _Thud!_ fights off a small army of dwarfs while badly beaten from a fall, cold and wet, and highly disorientated. However, this is (probably) because of the Summoning Dark trying to control him. Where he _really_ shows his Heroic Resolve is that, once he's run out of armed opponents, he _stops_. The effort involved to STOP...nearly tore his body apart, literally.
-   Harry Dresden. In nearly every book. In _Fool Moon_ he basically _uses up his magic_— and that's _before_ he even has a chance to confront the pack of werewolves he came to fight.
    -   Played with in _Turn Coat_: While it's really obvious that he can barely stand (numerous bandages, about to fall over from lack of sleep, and what have you) and he's hopelessly outnumbered, none of the other Wardens want to attack him because they've all heard about the crazy crap he's pulled when he's running on nothing but sheer bloodymindedness.
    -   Subverted in _Changes_, where the traditional early book injury is his back being broken, leaving him completely unable to fight or even move his legs. He accepts Mab's offer to be the Winter Knight, and for once goes into the fight not just fresh but stronger than he was when the book started.
    -   The RPG rulebook lampshades it. Harry asks why all the pictures of him show him beat to crap. Billy says it's because they're pictures of him on the case, and when he's on a case he's usually beat to crap. A little later on, Harry singles out one picture from a case file where he's not all beat up—only for Billy to point out it's from early in the case, and there's already a visible bruise on Harry's face.
-   Old literary example: In _Ivanhoe,_ the title character Wilfred of Ivanhoe meets Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert as the challenger in a trial by combat despite barely being able to maintain his seat in the saddle due to severe wounds from a tournament earlier. Then Bois-Guilbert has a stroke and falls dead despite not even being touched by Ivanhoe's lance. This is of course taken as a sign from God.
-   In _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_, Death-eaters are able to attack Hogwarts only because Dumbledore is severely weakened— likewise he is also able to be killed by Snape for this reason
    -   Although in _Deathly Hallows_, it's revealed that this killing arranged by Dumbledore and Snape themselves, it still was only believable because Dumbledore was in a severely-weakened state).
    -   Ron fits this trope literally in _Prisoner of Azkaban_. His leg is broken and he still gets up to protect Harry from an escaped convict (curse the movie for removing it).
-   In _The Inheritance Cycle_'s third book _Brisingr_, Roran takes charge of a group of Varden soldiers as they work to repel several Imperial incursions into Surda. In one battle, Roran kills 193 Imperial soldiers alone, taking several gashes and hits in the process, can barely hold himself up, and _still_ insists his division's wizard heal the other men of his platoon first.

    CARN: Roran, just _look at yourself!
    Roran_': *looks himself over, grimaces* Fine, make it quick.

-   _Northern Lights_: Lyra sets up a fight-to-the-death between Iorek Byrnison and the usurper of the throne of the Armored Bears, Iofur, in a last ditch effort to help Iorek, only to realize later that Iorek, after a battle with cliff-ghasts and days of journeying through the tundra with no food and rest, will not be in the best condition to fight. The alethiometer eventually gets tired of telling her she has nothing to worry about.
-   In Tad Williams' _Otherland_, Orlando Gardiner spends much of the story in this state, because he is suffering from a terminal disease in real life. Ironically, he should be the strongest of all the characters, since his online persona is a strapping barbarian warrior.
-   In the _Star Wars Legends_ novel _Shatterpoint,_ Mace Windu has operated with little sleep for several days, gone through at least three separate battles that day, and been stabbed in the stomach with a lightsaber, and finds himself wobbling on his feet as he faces a man twice his size and much more powerful in the Force, who already beat him senseless once. it turns out the enemy's vibroblade weapons cut straight through each other, and a dead Elite Mook happened to leave one where Mace can Force-throw it. The fight lasts maybe two seconds.

    -   In _X-Wing Series Starfighters of Adumar_, Wedge is preparing for a marathon session of war planning, followed by a Dawn Attack, after having spent the whole night running, flying, and sneaking out of a hostile city. His XO Tycho gently points out that this is a bad idea.

    TYCHO: Get some sleep, Wedge.

-   In the Dale Brown novel _Flight of the Old Dog_, the titular Airstrike Impossible _starts_ with the titular Cool Plane already damaged from a takeoff under enemy fire, with its operators not at 100% due to needs must, and gets into steadily worse straits along the way, including damaged/malfunctioning engines, compromised fuel tanks and failing sensors.
-   Honor Harrington does this in _Flag in Exile_ where after the best part of three days of awake activity, being shot out of the sky, having a bomb go off next to her, and being in a life-or-death duel, she still has to fight her ship. Good thing she sits in her command chair.
    -   Also an example: _that duel itself._ She was already a wreck when she staggered into the Parliament session to denounce the Big Bad in front of everybody, and _then_ he tried to outfox her by demanding a duel when she was clearly in no state to fight. He was one of the most accomplished duelers on the planet, and she had never so much as picked up a sword until she came to Grayson. She killed him in one stroke.
-   In the _Dragonlance_ series, Raistlin Majere is a rare case of the villain suffering from this. Suffering from the most severe Incurable Cough of Death in all of fiction because of his Test, Raistlin is almost constantly on the verge of keeling over or being blown away by a stiff breeze. Even Crysania, when she opposed him at first, sees him as a pitiable figure. And when Caramon confronts him in the Abyss, Raistlin had been burnt, stabbed, frozen, sheared and skewered to within an inch of his life, and yet Caramon still holds back. Not only because of lingering brotherly concern but because _even then_ Raistlin is still dangerous. 98% of his magic had been expended, but that last 2% was still enough to be worried about, not to mention his dagger of last resort that he had no compunctions to using.
-   During the climactic battle in _The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin_, Dean Moth fights a dragon offstage. When the protagonists do arrive on the scene some four chapters later, the duel is still going on and the dean is only standing upright because she's tied herself to a tree.
-   Many of his David Gemmell's prominent heroes continue to kick ass literally until the moment of death, and certainly sometime after the moment of mere fatal wounding. A special mention must go to Ananis from _The King Beyond the Gate_, who after taking a boar spear in the back grabs another (ten-foot tall monster) opponent and skewers him to death with the spearhead that is sticking out of his chest.
-   _Words of Radiance_ (second book of _The Stormlight Archive_): In the climax, Kaladin has a broken leg, multiple internal injuries, and gets a few ribs broken when a Shardbearer punches him in the gut. But he still stands between Elhokar and Moash.

    Live Action TV

-   When _Angel_ loses his soul for the umpteenth time, his sidekick calls in fallen Slayer Faith to hunt him down. This might have been a short fight since Angel has a long record of getting soundly beaten every time he fights a Slayer (Faith herself managed to bounce him _off the ceiling_ while attempting Suicide by Cop) so before the big fight, she gets beaten to a bloody pulp by The Juggernaut. Oh, and gives herself a massive dose of magical opiates. She still nearly beats him, because Slayers are just that badass.
-   Played straight in the original _Battlestar Galactica_ series episode "Lost Planet of the Gods" two-parter.

    LT. BOOMER: Colonel, Blue Squadron reporting for duty, sir.
    COL. TIGH: Lieutenant, obviously you can't even stand.
    LT. BOOMER: A Viper is flown from the _seated_ position, sir.

-   On _Buffy the Vampire Slayer,_ Buffy gets a rather cool line in the season four opener:

    SUNDAY: What about breaking your arm, (_grabs at Buffy's left arm_) how'd that feel.
    _Buffy:_ Let me answer that with a head butt. (_she does and sends Sunday staggering_) And for the record, the arm is _hurt,_ (_punches Sunday, sending her flying_) not broken.

-   In _Chuck_, when Shaw has taken over the Buy More and has chained Sarah to a thick bar at the base of the Nerd Herd desk, Sarah tells Shaw that Chuck won't show up to save her because he can barely stand. Yet, lo, and behold, Chuck shows up while injured, gets a reboot, and takes the Paragon Path when he won't kill Shaw. Of course, that doesn't stop Sarah from whacking him across the skull with the object of her restraint.
-   Booth on _Bones,_ in "Two Bodies In The Lab", after he's injured by the fridge bomb. He leaves the hospital against medical advice and makes Hodgins take him to where he realizes Brennan is being held. He can barely stay on his feet but manages to stop the corrupt FBI agent and save Brennan. After which, he has to go back to the hospital.

    Professional Wrestling

-   Very common in Professional Wrestling: the heel weakens the face before the big title match by getting his friends to beat him up, or forcing the face to have another match just before the title match, usually a handicap match, hardcore match or another grueling type. (This is referred to as the "Spirit of '76" spot when the bandaged and battered face comes staggering out for the match anyway.)
    -   More commonly used now since the advent of the Money In The Bank match, which gives the winner the right to challenge the champion at any time, even right after a grueling title match where the title holder has been beaten brutally. Use of it this way often starts a Face–Heel Turn for the wrestler who wins the title this way.

    Tabletop Games

-   One does wonder about people like Commissar Yarrick in _Warhammer 40,000_, who have special abilities that allow them to stand up with one Wound left after being killed.

    Video Games

-   _The Legend of Zelda_:
    -   Link gets a moment like this near the end of _The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker_. After Link meets up with Ganondorf for his last battle, the Gerudo rushes over and beats the stuffing out of Link. Thankfully, Zelda awakens, and the fight soon commences. Then, at the end of his sword-to-swordfight with Ganondorf and some assistance from Zelda, Link sends the Master Sword through Ganondorf's head, jumps back, and proceeds to bend over and collapse into the approaching Zelda's arms. But after a fight like that, who wouldn't be tired?
    -   The final retrievable memory of _The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild_ shows a very battered and exhausted Link defending Zelda from a huge wave of Guardians with a rusted and decayed Master Sword. Zelda is, fortunately, able to awaken her Royalty Super Power at this moment of desperation to deactivate all the Guardians, but Link ultimately falls after that, requiring Zelda to have him placed in the Shrine of Resurrection for the next century to heal.
-   _Call of Duty_
    -   _Modern Warfare_ ends with your character taking multiple air-to-surface missiles to the face, leaving you in a half-unconscious state as the Big Bad walks over and starts gunning down your squadmates one by one. Your dying captain tosses you his sidearm, and the game's final action is a blurry slow-motion sequence where you shoot down the Big Bad and his two bodyguards before they can react and kill you.
    -   _Modern Warfare 2_'s climax has you falling off a few hundred-foot high waterfall after shooting down the Big Bad's helicopter. You recover, limping and badly injured, just in time for a hand-to-hand CQC fight with the Big Bad who is in much better condition following the crash.
    -   _Modern Warfare 3_'s ending has you storm a gigantic Hotel highrise chasing after Makarov. As per usual in the Modern Warfare series you lose your weaponry (due to almost falling off the building), are critically injured (due to hijacking the escape helicopter but crashing it), and have to kill the Big Bad with basic weaponry (except this time you have to do it with your bare hands!)
-   The final mission in _Project Snowblind_ disables all the cool nanotech powers your character spent the game building up... but you're still left with standard FPS character Made of Iron durability, and there aren't many enemies in the last level anyway.
-   _Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots_: after dealing with a bad heart/rebellious nanomachines, crawling through a hallway full of microwave radiation, and barely surviving a final assault by a bunch of mini-bots, Snake is captured by Liquid Ocelot, who challenges him to one last fight to the death. To ensure that it will be a fair match, Liquid injects Snake with some awesome drug, then, as they Cutscene Power to the Max, they continue to inject themselves with more and more of the drug, until despite their advanced ages, they are able to fight as if they were in their prime. This _quickly_ devolves, however, to a You Can Barely Stand battle, as, in the end, the drug wears out, and it goes from two accomplished hand-to-hand combatants duking it out to two old men savagely slugging each other with whatever power they can muster. Note that Ocelot has a good 4 life bars, one for each game in the solid series, in different styles!
-   In the opening chapter of _Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance_, Raiden finds himself quickly outclassed by Jetstream Sam, who cuts off his left arm and his left eye; this leaves Raiden badly bleeding, barely able to stand, and unable to fight. Later in the game, Sam tries to break Raiden by forcing him to experience the fearful thoughts of the cyborgs he fought, the experience leaving Raiden dazed and similarly handicapped until he awakens his Superpowered Evil Side.
-   Amusingly used in _Disgaea: Hour of Darkness_. A villain springs one of Larharl's weaknesses, forcing you to go into a fight with his stats halved. That weakness? _Giant breasts_....and speeches about love. Or giant-breasted women speaking about love.
-   Inverted in _Golden Sun_. 4 teenagers face the powerful villain Saturos in Mercury Lighthouse. Normally they would be no match for him, but the Mercury (Water) energy drastically weakens Saturos's Mars (Fire) Psynergy and gives Mia, who is a Mercury Adept, Psy Point regeneration. Still a somewhat challenging boss fight.
    -   Later in the game, at Venus Lighthouse, you fight Saturos and his partner Menardi to prevent them from lighting the lighthouse. Due to your massive increase in strength since the previous fight at Mercury, you defeat them with (relative) ease. After the fight, Mia actually says outright, "You can barely stand," in response to a comment from the injured Saturos. Cue Mia eating her words, dragon style. This trope, but with the roles reversed.
    -   The sequel _Lost Age_ also has two incidents of this trope after the fight with replacement baddies Agatio and Karst atop the Jupiter Lighthouse. Regardless of how the fight goes, they're forced to make a hasty retreat because the fight with Felix and Co. took too much out of them, and the heroes from the last game are on their way up. Once the villains leave, Isaac and co. arrive and a tense standoff ensues between the two teams (long story). Ivan defuses the situation by suggesting they return to the local village to resolve things, as both teams are too tired to fight.
-   By the time the last fight in video game _Def Jam: Fight for New York_ comes around, your character has done the Charles Atlas Superpower power-ups for so long he has become a virtually Made of Iron fighting machine, so fighting the cowardly Manipulative Bastard Bad Boss who has never shown any sign of having any fighting ability seems like it should be pretty anti-climactic... except that he stabs you in the back with a cane sword before the bout begins, significantly lowering your health.
    -   And Crow isn't exactly a lightweight in the ring, either. (figuratively speaking; It _is_ still Snoop Dog.)
-   This happens in the fight with Incarose in _Tales of Hearts_ when other characters tell Shing to step down because of his recent state of being stabbed through the stomach. The weird thing is, you can't even put him in your party that fight. The lines are only known about because of the Sound Museum, although hacking him in does trigger the lines and even the victory animation.
-   At the end of _Sleeping Dogs_ the player is seriously injured in a massive explosion just before confronting the Big Bad. As a result, in the final fight, you're too injured to attack, and can only fight by countering.
-   At the beginning of the Climax Boss fight about 90% through _Assassin's Creed III_, Connor and the Big Bad are both seriously injured by an explosion, and the ensuing fight to the death between the two of them turns into a slow, brutal, and clumsy beatdown rather than a more elaborate duel between two highly trained combatants. Likewise, during the final sequence, Connor is severely injured and unable to fight; his opponent, however, is equally injured and so the two enemies are reduced to staring at each other across a tavern table.

    Webcomics

-   Gilgamesh Wulfenbach in _Girl Genius_, here.[] Near passing out at the start of the fight.
-   In _A Miracle of Science_, Vorstellen Policeman Benjamin Prester ends up[] invoking this[] from Dr. Haas to treat the latter's Science-Related Memetic Disorder.
-   _Kill Six Billion Demons_
    -   The Physical Goddess Mother Om taunts her rival, recently-empowered sorority girl Allison[], with a variation: not only can't she stand, but our heroine is also so frightened she can hardly _speak_. And yet... (Lampshaded by at least one reader, who notes in the comments that this is the surest way to make one's foe get up again.)
    -   In "King of Swords", White Chain insists on taking her right to fight a match against Mother Om's (likely more formidable) peer, God-Emperor Solomon David, even though her artificial stone body has been nearly torn apart by previous battles. Solomon says that, in her current state, it would be nothing but an execution. They fight the next day, with White Chain getting repairs before the match, so in this sense, the trope is defied by Solomon. Typically for Solomon's brand of honour, he's not really being nice here; he has demonstrated with other opponents that he could kill her instantly regardless, if he didn't choose to let the match last longer.
-   In the finale of _The Adventures of Dr. McNinja_, the Doctor fights a Villain Team-Up led by King Radical, and his Starter Villain manages to run him through in the very first encounter, leaving him badly wounded for the rest of the episode. (He has to suture himself using a pine needle.) It doesn't slow him down _that_ much, but his clone Old McNinja gets the upper hand on him by hitting the wound, and when King Radical turns out to be a perfectly badass fighter himself, it doesn't make things any easier.

    Web Original

-   In _Worm_, Chevalier, leader of the Protectorate, is hospitalized after an assassination attempt that involved carving out his guts with a high-intensity cutting laser. Having just undergone major surgery to stabilize him, Chevalier awakens to find that in his absence the defense against Behemoth has gone poorly, with the city of New Delhi almost destroyed and most of the defending superheroes injured or dead. After getting some information on Behemoth's weaknesses from Tattletale, Chevalier grabs his sword, limps out of the hospital, charges Behemoth-a forty-five foot tall horned abomination that can instantly kill anything within thirty meters-and then _hurts him badly enough to make him run._
    -   Khepri pulls this off late in the series, due to mental rather than physical damage. Terrifyingly enough, this doesn't make them any less dangerous.

    Western Animation

-   _Beast Wars_: Megatron speaks these lines verbatim when Dinobot, after a long battle with several other Predacons is reduced to using a large stick against an upgraded Megatron. Of course, Dinobot "improvises" and smashes Megatron with a makeshift hammer.
-   In the very first episode of _ThunderCats (1985)_, the Mutants invade the Thundarian flagship, seeking to steal the Sword of Omens, and particularly the Eye Of Thundara set in its hilt. When they find it, it lies in the hands of a young Lion-O, and when he tries to threaten them, they laughingly reply that "You can barely hold that sword, much less lift it." Which is, of course, the sword's cue to start glowing. Moments later, Lion-O is swinging the full-sized sword around despite his young age, and the Mutants are running scared.
-   Played for Laughs in _Samurai Jack_ in the Scotsman's debut episode. After Jack and the Scotsman meet each other on an extremely long bridge, their argument culminates in a duel that is shown to last literally a full 24 hours. When the camera cuts back to them, Jack is on his knees, supporting himself on the bridge's rope, declaring he will hold his ground. "Hold yer ground? Ye can barely hold yer sword!" the Scotsman declares. He himself is unable to then lift his own sword.

    Real Life

-   Real life sports examples:
    -   Kirk Gibson was a lot closer to being crippled when he hit the game-winning home run off Dennis Eckersley in the '88 World Series. Steve Yzerman helped the Red Wings win the early series in the 2002 NHL playoffs despite having virtually no knee cartilage left. And Willis Reed famously started Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals despite a torn muscle in his thigh, which is often credited with helping rally the Knicks to victory.
    -   Gerry Byrne was an English soccer player famous for remaining in goal during the 1966 FA Cup Final despite having a broken collar bone.
    -   Another British soccer player Bert Trautmann, broke his neck in a collision in the 75th minute of the 1956 FA Cup Final. No substitutes were permitted back then, so he carried on for the remaining fifteen minutes, and even intercepted a shot. Hard bastards, these football players.
    -   This sort of thing is popular in sports, where people doped up on adrenaline, cortisone shots, or even just Advil and, naturally, are still competitive and don't want to abandon teammates. Even more so in contact sports like American football, rugby, and hockey, and sports where legs get tangled up frequently, like soccer and basketball.
        -   QB Ben Roethlisberger played against the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl with a broken foot and nose.
        -   In college, QB Byron Leftwich played with a broken leg, eventually needing his linemen to carry him down the field after successful passes.
        -   Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open through four 18 holes rounds, an 18 hole playoff, and 1 sudden death playoff hole after still being tied with Rocco Mediate after 90 holes. He did all of this with a torn ACL and double spiral fracture in his shin, which caused him to exhibit some serious trouble walking at times. Both injuries were in his left leg, which is the leg that for a righty like him absorbs a lot of torque during the downswing and follow through.
        -   Michael Jordan played Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals with what was either the flu or food poisoning. Whatever the exact ailment, he could barely move the morning of the game, dragged himself out of bed at 5:30 PM that evening, an hour and a half before tip-off, played 44 minutes, scored 38 points in a very close game, before needing his teammate, Scottie Pippen, to basically carry him off of the court after the final buzzer.
-   Real life music example: Yoshiki in the March 28, 2008 X Japan reunion concert. He tries to play the full set of the show that he played 11 years before, despite years away from drumming in concerts and serious injuries to his neck and back from his career as a drummer. He collapsed on his drums halfway through the last song Art of Life. He would have major neck surgery the next year in a successful bid to save his ability to play drums (and a somewhat less successful one to spare his health), and recovered to do another two tours - which were also examples of this trope, though he had no on-stage collapses, due to ongoing health issues. Nevertheless, he's planning yet another tour...
-   In the 2012 Australian Open tennis final, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal played such a grueling and merciless match that completely obliterated the former record for longest Grand Slam final with a length of _six hours_ that Djokovic's dramatic collapse to the floor after a 31-ball rally in the fifth set looked like more than just his usual theatrics. To top it off, the match left both Djokovic and Nadal so physically drained afterward that they visibly struggled to stay upright during the lengthy closing speech[] with Nadal having to lean on the net for support and Djokovic all but on his knees before chairs were brought out for them.
-   At the 1996 Olympics, U.S. gymnast Kerri Strug performed her second vault attempt with a third-degree lateral sprain and tendon damage in one ankle. She landed on both feet but stood on one foot while saluting the judges. After receiving a score of 9.712 (cinching the gold medal for her team), she collapsed to the mat and had to be carried to the medals podium.
-   During the second Siege of Osaka at the end of the Sengoku Jidai, Sanada Yukimura fought a desperate battle against Tokugawa Ieyasu's army. Outnumbered, Yukimura took so many injuries that by the time he had an opening to attack Tokugawa head-on, he was too exhausted to even stand. Realizing he could no longer fight, Yukimura welcomed Tokugawa's army to take his head, thus ending the siege on Osaka Castle, and with it, the Warring States era of Japanese history.
-   In the 2018 soccer World Cup quarterfinal between Croatia and Russia, Croatia ended up with several players seriously injured at once near the beginning of extra time (since they had been tied at 90 minutes in), but only had one substitution left. Croatia chose their substitution, but still had two injured players including their goalkeeper with a hamstring injury. Despite this, they managed to end extra time tied and win a penalty shootout (with said injured goalie making a save) to advance to the semifinals.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

question: Is it possible for the hero in a fiction story to face defeat at the end?

answer: It may be possible because this will show the hero is not without flaws and fears.

question: Must every villain in fiction stories suffer defeat?

answer: It depends on the willpower of either the hero or villain.

question: What causes the defeat of villains in fiction?

answer: Usually to express the hero's superior character strength.

question: Can it be said that it's unrealistic for the hero to win all the time?

answer: That information is not known.

question: Is it necessary for the villains in a story to be physically powerful

answer: That information is not known.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: It is a known rule that villains in most fiction stories suffer defeat from the hero at the end. Sometimes, the heroes might not be in a physical position to fight the villain but will somehow summon the strength and conquer the villain, emerging the victor. Sometimes the villain might be headstrong and may be asked to surrender. Other times, the hero may be in full-fledged strength to face the villain but will surely encounter a ground-breaking injury.


split: train

text:
The sky is poetic when you consider it emotionally: sunsets draw tears and rolling tongues of clouds pull mouths open and vicious, wandering storms inspire dizzying cries for God or help or *someone*.

I am not poetic.

This is what makes me stare at the cottage-cheese ceiling in my room at night and wonder why I will never admire myself. I conjure you and watch you effortlessly twist nails into your hands, watch the wounds bleed ink and meaning, because you always told me you admired me but I never believed you, and the way your eyes would look not into me but behind me made me nervous and I think that’s why you could never really love me.

But I tried.

*Fuck you* I tried.

I tried and then I told myself that your angled good looks were beyond me and that your ancient, slippery tongue would never find mine and then I ached until I could convince myself of some flaw you weren’t aware of. I tangled myself into tight enough knots that I couldn’t walk straight and I couldn’t unwind myself for long enough to make hollow conversation or take deep enough breaths.

I wanted your easy wit and your offensive charm but I wanted you to give it to me like a lesson so I could hang it on the wall like a picture and remember the time I fell in love with the idea of a boy. And I didn’t care that I knew you would never feel awful, rooted things for me. I never cared about that.

And I made like I was finding myself or something because your body sitting next to mine made me feel shallow and hopeless and all I wanted to do was be *your* type of person and then you would let me crawl inside of you and decipher your secrets for myself.

You were different than anyone I knew with your swarming lies and your spangled lines of art and people and pale, tortured love stories. You drew me in with those choked eyes of yours like the depths of you were hungry for something you knew you would never have.

Storms strike first from a distance: all swirling, coked-up air and this graceful, rhythmic dance between high and low pressure that spins so far out of control it makes hearts grow restless even when all you can see of it makes it look like a gray, stretched-out cotton ball. I watch cagey men on National Geographic. I watch them crawl in head-first, greedy-eyed. I cringe at their middle fingers raised to the clouded sun.

You gutted me.

You gutted me and you didn’t realize that you’d done it because I didn’t turn myself inside-out for you like you thought I did. I absorbed you and leaked you back out and you smiled at me as if to say *you’re the girl I’ve been waiting for* and I was so drunk with your approval that I couldn’t look at my toenails without seeing them through your eyes.

But my heart pounded with each inch you let me head in your direction and you welcomed me with your spinning, wild arms and I smiled at you as if to say *you get all of me but you don’t get to know why* because that was my idea of mystery.

You didn’t ask questions.

I watch storm chasers and I watch twisters pick up houses and cows and spit them back out crumbled and worthless. I watch how the air, coiling, grins and doesn’t stop. I watch adrenaline-junkies point their cameras and get the shot and I watch their smiles: that kid on Christmas morning clutching a toy helicopter like it’s all he’s ever going to need.

I haven’t moved from this place since you left.

If I move I’ll get caught up in your backlash and your intelligent, twitching fingers with those sweet, tidy good-byes of yours. I’ll gag on the memory of you and your drugged march because you had to be going somewhere always, forced to inhale the comforting slant of your whole body, the one I knew like the curve of my own reflection.

I remember you gave me a notebook once, and you wrote my name in your earnest chicken scratch on the inside of the sturdy red cover and you told me *go crazy* but I didn’t. I sat and watched you scribble yourself into oblivion on your own blank pages. I could never dream up enough words to write a good sentence. You thought we were kindred, back then. You told me not to look for it, just to find it, and I would know. You told me a lot of things and I remember them all, but your words sit beside me like a pale sketch of you, eyes wide and shoulders slack. For a long time your words filled me up but now they’re just scraps of your character that I can’t seem to hide anywhere.

Sometimes I wish you were still here but mostly the riprap of ripped-up ground and shattered houses you have left me with feel like home enough to crawl into and sleep. The imprint of your body here is big enough so the sheets puff thick around my head and I’ll never have to breathe again.

You were poetic enough for the both of us.

title: Riprap

question: Who left?

answer: A poet the narrator dated.

question: Where is this place?

answer: A house the narrator lives in.

question: Did the narrator love this person?

answer: Yes.

question: Will this person come back?

answer: The narrator does not want them to come back.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator says she is not a poet and tells a story of how she fell in love with a tumultuous person. She says she sometimes wishes he was still here but is oddly grateful for the space her ex has left behind. She says that he was poet enough for both of them.


text:
I'm posting this in a moment of weakness. Please sympathize with me and don't be a jerk. And yes their are some stupid parts. I'm a freshman and high school. I thin it's not half bad.

The Fake Relationship

The wind pressed against my face.  It was 6:30 in the evening and I was praying on the forward of the ship. The sun was setting now, leaving a wonderful streak of red and light pink. We had  embarked four days ago and I had enjoyed the cruise with a host of new friends. Caitie, a beautiful blond, was the first of many teenagers my age that I spent my days with. She had a step-sister, Lexie, and they were both from Witicha, Kansas. After I had finished my prayer, I laid against the glass that protected the miniature golf course from the powerful wind. The best nights to pray were the nights where the ship was traveling directly into the wind. Physics where against me, but I broke the equilibrium and stood face first in to a wonderful stream of cooling air. Ecstasy, The cruise ship I was traveling on, had thirteen decks with a mixture of staterooms, restaurants, shops, and clubs for many different age groups; Because of my age, I was placed into the high school  teen's club. I checked the time- 7:08-, I began my walk down stairs to meet up with Emily, a short, brown-haired sixteen year old. Emily had a later eating time then myself so we arranged a time to meet up and go to the teen's club. I walked down two fleets of stairs and came to the grand entrance where I boarded the ship. The grand entrance had two main elevators and two secondary elevators, but I never used them because they were much to slow. Luckily, I had taken the time on the first day to learn where everything on the ship was and where the corridors went. When I approached Emily, she was wearing tan shorts and a tank top over her bikini.

"Hey! How was dinner?", I asked.

"It was pretty good," She had a high pitched voice that for some reason was not annoying to listen to. The conversation we had was pointless, but if everything in our life had to have meaning it would be pointless. I checked the time again- a habit I had made to check if it was a dream or not- and it was 8:34. By this time, a large number of people had walked into the club and began socializing and enjoying the latest songs. Then, Zulay began passing along white tee shirts to everybody in the room and placed a tub of markers on a table for every to sign each other's shirts. I picked up a maker immediately began signing people's shirts.  Caitie, who 'hated' me, wrote, "I freakin' hate you" all over the front of my shirt. I laughed. Later on in the night, I handed my shirt to Emily who wrote half a paragraph about how she would miss me and I should never stop talking to her. The smile on her face was genuine and made me believe with every strain of muscle in my heart that she meant every single word; so, we continued on with the night like every other teenager, with our heart in the moment.

"I'm going to go back to my stateroom. I have to fly home tomorrow and hurry to my cheerleading completion." Every word from her mouth seemed to slow time and at the thought that tomorrow morning will be the last time I see her my heart turned to stone.

"oh, It's alright. Hey. Um before you go what's your number so I can talk to you later." The nervousness grow in my voice as I said the last few words. She gave me her number and as I typed in the last few numbers she had already left the room. I hurried out of the club to joined her. We walked downstairs and to her stateroom. I said good night as if it was the last time I would see her. After this, I went to my room and feel asleep.

The next day, I woke and found myself already missing her, but I had hope because I had her cell phone number so after today I could text her often. So I lived that day as a normal day before the embankment, texting friends and listening to music on the two hour ride home.

A few days later, I felt like it was time to continue my relationship with Emily; so, I texted her. She responded a few minutes later and I had a conversation with her, but she wasn't talking like she was on the cruise. She used one-word answers and never sent more than three words in a text, but I disregarded it.

June 16, half a month after my last conversation with Emily and I had not had a reply. I wasn't sure what to think of the situation so I forced it out of my mind. But, the festering idea that she had forgotten about me still remained. I couldn't let such an amazing person out of my life; so, I tried again. My phone went off, I had high hopes but it was Callie. She told me that she was going to drink with some 'friends.' I persuaded her not to, but it was set in her heart that she wanted to; so, I franticly texted Emily and explained the situation and how she always had good ideas and solutions for problems.To my surprise, I got a reply and I read the words slowly dissecting every single one. She sounded friendly, but it was only words on a screen. She expressed her concern and what she would have done. Most of which, I had already did. After a few more text messages about Callie, I said, "It would be nice if we talked every now and again." So, we did and it was so wonderful reconnecting with her. I remembered the five wonderful days with her and the level of reality I felt when I was with her. It was getting late so I said good night and how it was nice to reconnect. I had hoped that this would be the new beginning for our relationship, but she had other plans. The next day, I texted hoping we could talk some more like last night. She did not.

This struck me like a car slamming into a 18 Wheeler. I had no hope about reconnecting anymore; because, my idea that she had forgotten me for whatever reason was true and she just wanted me gone. And then I remembered, It was a small detail but an important one. She had said that the jacket she was wearing was her boyfriends. All emotion left me. I felt nothing, not rage nor tears. I just felt empty so I went to bed.

The next morning, I still felt nothing, but I was inspired. So I wrote onto a notepad, "I dream about you every now and again. Even after you rejected me. I can't help my subconscious. You're too deep for me to forget you.  Nor do I want to forget.  I dream about you every now and again. When I do, it's always comforting. You give me hope about how you forgot me, but I'm dead and gone to you. Please don't make me beg; the only outcome I want is you accepting that I should be in your life. But what is your reason now? Or better yet. Is it you who fail to accept me in your life? Or is it him." Unlike an English paper, The words just flowed from my mind. I recalled the events in my head, The true was that I had been blind to the reality that not everyone you meet is who they really are. Some people will lie to you and will make you believe they care for you, but to her I was just a flirt.

title: The Fake Relationship. I wrote this for a class forever ago. Forgive the grammatical errors please. I haven't had time to fix them and it's almost hard to work on this story anymore. [First]

question: What if the narrator went with Caitie instead of Emily while on the cruise ship?

answer: He might have been spared the heartache, anxiety, pain, and embarrassment of believing Emily felt the same way he did.

question: What was the narrator's biggest mistake in the story, the main reason he ended up in the "hopelessly lovestruck" situation he found himself in?

answer: He failed to catch on that Emily already has a boyfriend, which she mentioned in passing.

question: Why was Emily being curt with the narrator when he wanted to reconnect?

answer: She already has a boyfriend and probably wants to get on with her life.


text:
[]
Crime Fiction
5*s
Eighteen year old Chloe Emery left her father’s house and made her way home to her mother and in these earliest scenes I was left in no doubt at all that something awful is about to happen as her neighbour, Oliver Norris, offers her a lift and drops her home. She dashes inside the house out of the rain and then slowly, very slowly, she realises that all is not as it should be. The house smells funny and there is mud everywhere, only it is not mud, it’s blood.

Maeve Kerrigan has been promoted and she is now a DS, eager to prove herself in the new role and determined that Josh Derwent is going to realise she doesn’t need him treating her like a junior anymore. The pair are called to the Emery house where despite the lack of a body, a murder investigation is launched; Chloe’s mother Kate is nowhere to be found and all her belongings are still at home. This could prove to be a PR disaster for the police if Kate is not dead, but an equal one if they don’t treat it seriously enough.

Right from the off I had masses of questions, was Chloe really as slow as she seemed, and if so why was her bright younger neighbour, Bethany Norris so keen to spend so much time with her? With Chloe reluctant to tell the officers exactly where she’s been since she left her father’s house, or even why she left without saying goodbye, the police are sure they are missing some vital information. But, at least Chloe is safe staying with the Norris’s while the house is a crime scene.

We have a new younger woman on the team too, Georgina who it’s safe to say isn’t a hit with Maeve and so her efforts to impress fall somewhat flat but it takes her a while to cotton on. This is just one example of how Jane Casey gets the tone exactly right. Maeve may well not take to Georgina, but she tries. She doesn’t go for the all-out put downs but tries to temper them with some helpful advice, that way when Georgina screws up, we all know who to blame.

This is, like all the other books in the series, action packed with life-threatening moments coming not just where you expect them, at the end of the book. The pacing is immaculate, once I started this one, I really was terribly reluctant to put it down. There is intrigue as well as all the deadly sins, none as deadly as those inflicted on those who should be closest to us, our family. The casual lies, betrayals and greed are sewn deep into the very fabric of this book, and few of the minor characters come away with anything like an intact reputation which gives plenty of suspects to be suspected!

Now if you want taut plotting and a cast of characters to delight, then you don’t need to look any further, Jane Casey delivers on both. Even better there is an undercurrent of humour which serves to deflect from any of the horrific pictures your imagination may serve up, and believe me, there are plenty of such opportunities.

I was extremely lucky to be given a proof copy of Let The Dead Speak by the publishers ahead of publication date of 9 March 2017!

THE MAEVE KERRIGAN SERIES IN ORDER

The Burning
The Reckoning
The Last Girl
The Stranger You Know
The Kill
After The Fire

First Published UK: 9 MARCH 2017
Publisher: HARPERCOLLINS UK
No of Pages:  352
Genre: CRIME FICTION – SERIES
Amazon UK
Amazon US

question: What does the article say about the story's location?

question: What does the article say about Jane Casey?

answer: Jane Casey is the author who wrote the book "Let The Dead Speak" featuring the protagonist, Maeve Kerrigan. She has an entire Maeve Kerrigan series of books, and all are action-packed like the featured book the blogger is writing about. "Let The Dead Speak" has immaculate pacing, taut plotting, delightful characters, intrigue, and an undercurrent of humor to offset some of the horrific scenes in the book. The blogger says the book is hard to put down once started.

question: What does the article say about Maeve Kerrigan?

answer: Maeve Kerrigan is a cop (in the UK?) and the protagonist in the story. She was just promoted to DS (possibly Detective Superintendent) and is eager to prove herself in the new role. Kerrigan wants Josh Derwent to realize that she doesn't need him treating her like a junior anymore. The pair are called to the Emery house to conduct a murder investigation.

question: What does the article say about the story's plot?

answer: From her dad's house, 18-year-old Chloe Emery goes home to her mom Kate without saying goodbye to her dad. She slowly realizes that something is amiss and there is mud everywhere. Upon closer inspection, however, she realizes it's not mud, but blood. Newly promoted DS, Maeve Kerrigan and her partner, Josh Derwent, are called to the Emery house to investigate. Despite all the blood, Kate is nowhere to be found and all her things are still in the house. A murder investigation is launched even if there is a lack of a body. Chloe is withholding evidence of where she's was after leaving her dad's house. The investigation could prove to be a PR disaster for the police if Kate isn't dead or if they don't treat the case seriously.


text:
Now I will tell you a story about when m&m's and skittles met in glorious battle. So one day the m&m's army was out patrolling throw the forest of color, when out of nowhere the Skittles started raining down rainbows of death upon them. The m&m's immdently fell back into the shade of the trees where the rainbows couldn't reach them. The returned fire with the egg shaped peanut cannon balls. This battle went on for 12 hours! Hundreds of skittles and m&m's lost their delicious lives that day. And as both armies’ thought they had the other beat...

THE STARBURST AIR SQUADRON STARTED RAINING DOWN JUICE HELL UPON BOTH ARMY'S!!! Oh the scrumptious humanity!!! No m&m's or skittle survived that now absolutely decedent battle field.

title: First post ever. Please comment and tell me what you think.

question: What are m&ms and skittles?

answer: Candy brands.

question: How long did their battle last?

answer: Over 12 hours.

question: What did m&ms shoot skittles with?

answer: Peanut cannon balls.

question: Who won the battle?

answer: No one. The starburst air squadron started raining down juice on both armies and all the m&m and skittles died.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The text is a short story about a glorious battle between m&ms and skittles, which ended in both armies being annihilated by the starburst air squadron.


text:
 (Sanskrit: __; fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are the products of yogic advancement through sādhanās such as meditation and yoga.[1] The term ṛddhi (Pali: _iddhi_, “psychic powers”) is often used interchangeably in Buddhism.

Etymology

_Siddhi_ is a Sanskrit noun which can be translated as “perfection”, “accomplishment”, “attainment”, or “success”.

Method

The _Visuddhimagga_ is one of the texts to give explicit details about how spiritual masters were thought to actually manifest supernormal abilities.[2] It states that abilities such as flying through the air, walking through solid obstructions, diving into the ground, walking on water and so forth are achieved through changing one element, such as earth, into another element, such as air.[3] The individual must master _kasina_ meditation before this is possible.[4] Dipa Ma, who trained via the Visuddhimagga, was said to demonstrate these abilities.[5]

Usage in Hinduism

In the _Panchatantra_, an ancient Indian collection of moral fables, _siddhi_ may be the term for any unusual skill or faculty or capability.

Patanjali's _Yoga Sutras_

In Patañjali's _Yoga Sutras_ IV.1 it is stated, _Janma auṣadhi mantra tapaḥ samādhijāḥ siddhayaḥ_, “Accomplishments may be attained through birth, the use of herbs, incantations, self-discipline or samadhi”. Possible siddhis or siddhi-like abilities mentioned include:

-   Ahiṃsā: a peaceful aura
-   Satya: persuasion
-   Asteya: wealth
-   Brahmacarya: virility
-   Aparigraha: insight;
-   Śauca: sensory control/cleanliness
-   Saṃtoṣa: happiness
-   Tapas: bodily and sensory perfection
-   Svādhyāya: communion with the Divine
-   Īśvarapraṇidhāna: Samādhi[6]

Eight classical siddhis

According to different sources, seven of the eight classical siddhis (_Ashta Siddhi_) or eight great perfections are:[7][8]

-   _Aṇimā_: the ability to become smaller than the smallest, reducing one's body to the size of an atom or even become invisible.
-   _Mahimā_: the ability to become infinitely large, expanding one's body to an infinitely large size.
-   _Laghimā_: the ability to become weightless or lighter than air.
-   _Prāpti_: the ability to instantaneously travel or be anywhere at will.
-   _Prākāmya_: the ability to achieve or realize whatever one desires.
-   _Īśiṭva_: the ability to control nature, individuals, organisms, etc. Supremacy over nature and ability to force influence upon anyone.
-   _Vaśiṭva_: the ability to control all material elements or natural forces.

The eighth is given as either:

-   _Kāma-avasayitva_ (per Kṣemarāja and Vyasa): satisfaction,[9] suppression of desire, or (as _Yatrakāmāvasāyitva_) wishes coming true.[10]
-   _Garimā_ (per the Rāmānanda Sampradāya): the ability to become infinitely heavy and be immovable by anyone or anything.[11][12]

Shaivism

In Shaivism, siddhis are defined as “Extraordinary powers of the soul, developed through consistent meditation and often uncomfortable and grueling tapas, or awakened naturally through spiritual maturity and yogic sādhanā.” [13]

Vaishnavism

In Vaishnavism, the term _siddhi_ is used in the _Sarva-darśana-saṃgraha_ of Madhvacharya (1238–1317), the founder of Dvaita (dualist) philosophy.

Five siddhis, according to Vaishnava doctrine

In the _Bhagavata Purana_, the five siddhis brought on by yoga and meditation are:

1.  _trikālajñatvam_: knowing the past, present and future
2.  _advandvam_: tolerance of heat, cold and other dualities
3.  _para citta ādi abhijñatā_: knowing the minds of others, etc.
4.  _agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ_: checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, etc.
5.  _aparājayah_: remaining unconquered by others[14]

Ten secondary siddhis, according to Vaishnava doctrine

In the _Bhagavata Purana_, Krishna describes the ten secondary siddhis:

-   _anūrmimattvam_: Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily appetites
-   _dūraśravaṇa_: Hearing things far away
-   _dūradarśanam_: Seeing things far away
-   _manojavah_: Moving the body wherever thought goes (teleportation/astral projection)
-   _kāmarūpam_: Assuming any form desired
-   _parakāya praveśanam_: Entering the bodies of others
-   _svachanda mṛtyuh_: Dying when one desires
-   _devānām saha krīḍā anudarśanam_: Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the gods
-   _yathā saṅkalpa saṁsiddhiḥ_: Perfect accomplishment of one's determination
-   _ājñāpratihatā gatiḥ_: Orders or commands being unimpeded[15]

Samkhya philosophy

In the _Samkhyakarika_ and _Tattvasamasa_, there are references to the attainment of eight siddhis by which “one becomes free of the pain of ignorance, one gains knowledge, and experiences bliss”. The eight siddhis hinted at by Kapila in the _Tattvasamasa_ are, as explained in verse 51 of the _Samkhyakarika_:[16]

1.  _Uuha_: based on the samskaras (karmic imprints) of previous births, the attainment of knowledge about the twenty-four tattvas gained by examining the determinable and indeterminable, conscious and non-conscious constituents of creation.
2.  _Shabda_: knowledge gained by associating with an enlightened person (Guru – upadesh).
3.  _Addhyyan_: knowledge gained through study of the Vedas and other standard ancillary texts.
4.  _Suhritprapti_: knowledge gained from a kind-hearted person, while engaged in the spread of knowledge.
5.  _Daan_: knowledge gained regardless of one’s own needs while attending to the requirements of those engaged in the search of the highest truth.
6.  _Aadhyaatmik dukkh-haan_: freedom from pain, disappointment, etc. that may arise due to lack of spiritual, metaphysical, mystic knowledge and experience.
7.  _Aadhibhautik dukkh-haan_: freedom from pain etc. arising from possessing and being attached to various materialistic gains.
8.  _Aadhidaivik dukkh-haan_: freedom from pain etc. caused by fate or due to reliance on fate.

It is believed that the attainment of these eight siddhis renders one free of the pain of ignorance, and gives one knowledge and bliss.

Hindu deities associated with gaining siddhi

Ganesha, Hanuman, various forms of Devi, Vishnu and various other deities are popularly seen as the keepers of siddhis, with the ability to grant them to the worshipper.[17]

Usage in Sikhism

In Sikhism, siddhi means “insight”. “Eight Siddhis” is used for insight of the eight qualities of Nirankar or a.k.a. Akal Purakh mentioned in the _Mul Mantar_ in the Guru Granth Sahib. God has eight qualities: EkOnkar, Satnam, Kartapurakh, Nirbhao, Nirvair, AkaalMurat, Ajooni and Svaibhang. The one who has insight of these qualities is called _Sidh_ or _Gurmukh_.

1. EkOnkar: There is one formless GOD. 2. Satnam: GOD is true. His remembrance is true. 3. Kartapuratk: GOD alone is creator. 4. Nirbhao: GOD is fearless. 5. Nirvair: GOD has enmity with none. 6. AkaalMurat: Beyond the life and death. 7. Ajooni Svaibhang: GOD is beyond the cycle of birth and death.

Sidh means the one who has mastered his self.

Usage in Vajrayana Buddhism

In Tantric Buddhism, siddhi specifically refers to the acquisition of supernatural powers by psychic or magical means or the supposed faculty so acquired. These powers include items such as clairvoyance, levitation, bilocation, becoming as small as an atom, materialization, and having access to memories from past lives.

Notes

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] Danielou, Alain (1987). _While the Gods Play: Shaiva Oracles and Predictions on the Cycles of History and the Destiny of Mankind_; Inner Traditions International.

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] The Concise Srimad Bhagavatam, trans. Swami Venkatesananda, SUNY Press 1989,

[15] _The Concise Srimad Bhagavatam_, trans. Swami Venkatesananda, SUNY Press 1989,

[16] The Samkhya Karika, with commentary of Gaudapada. Published in 1933 by The Oriental Book Agency, Poona

[17] Lord Hanuman & Siddhis

title: Siddhi

question: Name one translation for "Siddhi".

answer: Success.

question: How many classical siddhis in Hinduism are mentioned in the passage?

answer: Eight

question: Who are the Hindu deities associated with gaining siddhi?

answer: Ganesha, Hanuman, Vishnu, various forms of Devi, and various other deities.


text:
*Now I think it is time that you should go away, young master, for I find this conversation uninteresting and exhausting. I think you ought to go away really almost at once, in case my disillusioned mouth should suddenly determine to introduce you to my great gills, which have teeth in them also. Yes, I really think you might be wise to go away this moment. Indeed, I think you ought to put your back into it. And so, a long farewell to all my greatness.*

Brian O’Brien was a Man. Not merely a man, a Man. Upon his entering a busy room, its female occupants would run restless fingers through their hair or press out the creases in their skirts, while the other, lesser men inside would glance at their feet or crack their knuckles and shift their feet. His driver liked to tell the story of a common thief who, after thrusting a gun at the tall, dark-haired passenger exiting the car, dropped his pistol and almost tripped over his feet turning away from O’Brien. Another time, at an important meeting, some young upstart had dared to interrupt the silence O’Brien’s presence demanded. Though he reacted calmly at the time, glancing briefly over his papers to identify the youth, something had happened afterwards that the shattered underling would never take upon himself to repeat, something that drained the color from his face every time he thought of it.

With all the stories he’d heard of O’Brien, it was of little wonder that the young accountant sitting before the magnificent oak door labelled “Brian O’Brien, Partner” could barely stop his foot twitching, or that his hair had begun to itch as the pores on his scalp slowly began to ooze sweat. Having started at the law firm only three weeks earlier, the college graduate could not imagine what the great O’Brien wanted from him. If it were up to him, Julian Zachary would not have taken the job in the first place. His parents, concerned that Julian would never use the talents he’d developed in the college education they’d paid for, had pushed and pressured him into working at the partnership. Julian had obliged them, as always, and allowed them to pursue the accounting position. But now things were getting far too serious; Julian had no problem dealing with simple, objective numbers, but the thought of confrontation with O’Brien was enough to make him twist his clammy hands.

At precisely three thirty, just as the email had instructed him, Julian stood - well, Julian jumped - and approached the door. Before he could raise his hand to knock, the clerk heard that distinctive, powerful voice echoing from within:

“Enter.” Straightening abruptly in surprise, Julian waited a moment before turning the bronze handle. Julian had a moment to take in the room, the rows upon rows of nondescript books, the expensive furniture, and the large window looking over the grey city skyline. Finally, hesitatingly, Julian’s eyes fell to the Man himself. Even sitting in the chair, O’Brien filled the room, emanating a power entirely unfamiliar to Julian. Though he was not an old man, O’Brien’s sharp eyes suggested an uncanny wisdom that bordered on omnipotence; as they focused in on the unexperienced accountant, the generic greeting Julian had so carefully prepared dropped from his mouth as a confused jumble of muttered syllables and vowels. O’Brien, after disdainfully waving away the weak speech that polluted his office air, directed Julian again:

“Sit.” The Man moved one of his large hands towards the chair in front of his stout wooden desk. Had he been a more athletic person, Julian might have noticed that O’Brien moved with the grace of a dancer or, more fittingly, a boxer. Instead, Julian thought of that mighty hand swinging down to smite the chair at which it pointed. Julian swallowed and sat, silently praying that his nervousness would not betray itself to the demigod in the chair across the desk from him. O’Brien’s expression of smug competence told Julian that it already had.

“I did not inform you as to why we were meeting today.”

Julian started, having almost forgotten himself, “No.” O’Brien waited a moment, as though waiting for Julian to add something in his defense, explaining how he could have been so lazy as to decline to determine the purpose of the meeting,

“I like to acquaint myself with everyone in this firm.” He fixed his gaze even more closely at Julian. Julian swallowed. “As one of the two names in this partnership, the actions of this firm reflect upon me. Your actions reflect upon me. Your actions will not fail to reflect positively upon me. Do you understand?” Julian understood. His parents were no longer the only ones watching his every step. He attempted an understanding, competent nod. Judging by O’Brien’s immediate smirk, it must have come out far faster than the accountant had intended. Disappointed, Julian tried to be still, though he still could not control his tapping foot.

O’Brien stood, turning his back to Julian to gaze out upon the city, presenting his inferior with a full view of his broad, muscular back.

“There is much work to be done here, and more will be expected of you than what you have done so far.” As he spoke, O’Brien moved towards a small vitrine built into one of his bookshelves. Inside were an assortment of small cases, vials, and mechanisms, all of them foreign to the seated accountant. O’Brien opened the glass door to retrieve a thin, wooden case about six inches long and two wide. After returning to his leather armchair, O’Brien brought his attention back to the skinny clerk in front of him, “This was most unwisely left in my possession by a man that I am defending. A murderer,” he pushed the case towards Julian, leaving it in front of the trembling youngster. “You will destroy it.” O’Brien snapped open the golden clasp that held the case shut. Julian blanched, his eyes darting around the room for something - anything else - to focus on. “Do you understand me?” Julian, looking far away, coughed. “Mr. Zachary: do you understand me?” Julian looked down at his feet,

“Yes.”

Later that evening, as he took the bus home from the firm, Julian fingered his belongings nervously, trying to think of anything but the severed finger wrapped in plastic lying in the tiny coffin in his suitcase. Had he been a cleverer man, Julian might have pondered why O’Brien would prescribe him with such a task. Had he been a braver man, Julian might have thought about bringing his grisly baggage to the police. Being neither of these things, Julian pulled a pencil out of his pocket and, with a shudder, slipped a notepad out of his briefcase. He began the process of forgetting his vicious cross-examination by constructing a maze for himself. And with that, the young, nervous man on the train began to accept that he would do as he was told.

title: Man and man (1776 words)

question: What is the main character's name?

answer: Brian O'Brien

question: How is he a "Man"?

answer: Women fall all over Brian. His presence is described as commanding.

question: Who is Julian?

answer: An accountant at the O'Brien firm.

question: Why does Brian summon Julian?

answer: He says he likes to have a meeting with everyone who works at his firm.

question: Write a ~12 sentence summary.

answer:
Brian O'Brien is a Man, capitalized. He commands attention in any room. Women fall all over him. He's a powerful entity and has his own firm.

One day, a young accountant named Julian receives an email to meet with Brian. Nervous and excited, he goes. He finds Brian to be even more arresting one-on-one and is intrigued. Brian tells him he wants to meet with everyone in the building to get to know them. It's important that they establish trust. Brian brings up a case he has-he says he is defending a murderer-and hands Julian a small wooden case. He snaps it open to reveal a finger and tells Julian to dispose of it. Julian blanches but accepts his task, pulling out a pad of paper and a pencil.


text: From 12 a.m. to 5 p.m. she's always there. Getting yelled at like a beast sure isn't a job a lady, a man, or anyone! But, she continues to live on. I wonder if she can hold my place at the DMV? Why do you continue to bare this agony and dehumanization? Why not call it quits?! Maybe... It wasn't your choice? In a perfect world yes but, with the grin your face the situation is different. The key to happiness is in your hands! Or, you've been beaten, yelled, thrown so much you figue "Why be sad forever"? If I had a hat I would salute to you but, since I don't all I have to give is my respect.

title: Lady

question: Who are the main characters of the story?

answer: The narrator and the lady.

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: That information can’t be found.

question: What time does the story take place?

answer: From 12 a.m. to 5 p.m.

question: Who is the narrator talking to?

answer: He's talking to himself, trying to give sense to what he believes is the dehumanization of the lady while at work.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator wonders why the lady puts up with all the yelling and abuse thrown her way while she's at work. He questions why she continues to bear the agony and dehumanization. The lady smiles despite all this, and the narrator respects her for it.


text:
_HONEYGIVER AMONG THE DOGS_ is a 2016 Bhutanese mystery film directed by Dechen Roder.[1] It was screened in the Panorama section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.[2]

Cast

-   Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk as Kinley
-   Sonam Tashi Choden as Choden
-   Kunga T. Dorji as Chief Wangdi
-   Cencho Dorji as Norbu
-   Deki Yangchen as Jampa

Plot

Kinley arrives in a small village to investigate the disappearance and death of the abbess of the local nunnery. His number one suspect is a woman named Choden, and once word gets out, Jampa, a young girl runs to warn Choden. The locals tell Kinsley that Choden is a demoness and brings the village bad luck, but she has gone missing. The police chief instructs Kinley to go undercover, search for her, and try to obtain information. The next day Jampa surprises Kinley by telling him the bus that Choden will be traveling on.

Kinley dresses in plain clothes and boards the same bus as Choden. At a rest stop she approaches him, noticing that he's also riding alone. She asks him to accompany her on foot to their destination, pretending to be her husband, because there are people after her. The two of them spend days trekking through the jungle. Choden deflects Kinley's questions by telling fantastical parables: a nun who doesn't stop meditating when stones are thrown at her; an abbess who protects her nuns from an invasion by transforming them into pigs; an abbess who continued meditating after her death and transformed into a rainbow.

The two end up staying in Kinley's house, and he must hide all evidence that he is a police officer. Just when they are starting to form a connection, Choden leaves without a word. Kinley's chief accuses the officer of developing romantic feelings for her, and instructs him to stop investigating. Kinley ignores that command, of course. He discovers that the missing abbess' nunnery is sitting on a valuable mineral deposit, and questions Norbu, the geologist who made the discovery, but he has a rock-solid alibi. Kinley runs into Choden on the street, and discovers that the abbess is still alive, in hiding. He tries to track down the doctor who treated the geologist, but the hospital records had been destroyed. He finally makes the connection when he hears a doctor with the same cell ringtone that was heard at the crime scene.

Choden sets up a time to meet with the doctor, and Kinley alerts the chief so that he can show up to arrest them. Kinley realizes that the chief is conspiring with the doctor to obtain the land deed to the nunnery. He shows up to rescue Choden, but they both get knocked unconscious. Choden reveals that the land deed everyone had been looking for had been sewn into the seam of Kinley's clothes the entire time. Choden once again disappears, and Kinley returns to the village. He learns that the abbess had just died. When he goes to see the body, the nuns tell him that she had actually died two years prior, but had asked them to keep it a secret, and that her body had turned into a rainbow.

Production

Roder has said that she was inspired by the dakini stories her mother told her as a girl, and she decided to make the film when she realized that these types of stories were starting to become lost to history.[3]

Reception

The film was screened at the 2017 Fribourg International Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize, the Comundo Youth jury prize, and a Special Mention by the International Federation of Film Clubs.[4] Clarence Tsui of the Hollywood Reporter called the film “beautiful and inventive” and added, “a genre long associated with sex and sleaze, film noir receives a surprisingly spiritual and feminine reworking”.[5] James Marsh of the South China Morning Post described _Honeygiver_ as “one of the most original crime thrillers in recent memory”.[6] Critic Prathap Nair described the movie as “a genre-bending work, blending elements of neo-noir with Bhutanese mysticism.”[7]

[1]

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title: Honeygiver Among the Dogs

question: What genre could the movie, HoneyGiver Among the Dogs, be classified as?

answer: It would be classified under the genre of mystery.

question: What nationality is the film?

answer: This film can be described as Bhutanese.

question: Where was this film screened?

answer: It was screened in the Panorama section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

question: What was the inspiration of making the film?

answer: The director said the film was inspired by the dakini stories her mother told her as a girl, and since these types of stories were starting to become lost to history, she created this film.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article describes the plot, cast, production and reception of a Bhutanese mystery film, Honeygiver Among the Dogs.