Retroactive Wishes
- Thread starter usable001
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Rob_Royale
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Interesting.
One thing I would change though to set this apart from other 'wish' stories.
It's not truly a wish, like, "I wish I was wealthy," but an opportunity to go back to a time they made a decision and choose a different path. "I wish I had done this instead."
However, after living this alternate life, when they reach the very moment the wish was made in the previous, the person remembers making the wish, and their previous life, and the genie re-appears.
At that moment, they have the one opportunity to reverse the wish and continue their life as it they had never made it, continuing with their original life. But at the time of the first wish, they do not know this is an option. It would a twist-ending for a 'be careful what you wish for' kind of story.
I mean we all have those things we wonder about. What if I had made this career decision differently? What if I had asked Susan to the prom, instead of Nancy? Perhaps use it to avoid something terrible. I wish I had stayed home the night I was assaulted.
Each decision we make affects our life like a pebble in a pond.
Having said all this, we're talking about a huge story about years of a person's life. Way more than I want to dive into.
One thing I would change though to set this apart from other 'wish' stories.
It's not truly a wish, like, "I wish I was wealthy," but an opportunity to go back to a time they made a decision and choose a different path. "I wish I had done this instead."
However, after living this alternate life, when they reach the very moment the wish was made in the previous, the person remembers making the wish, and their previous life, and the genie re-appears.
At that moment, they have the one opportunity to reverse the wish and continue their life as it they had never made it, continuing with their original life. But at the time of the first wish, they do not know this is an option. It would a twist-ending for a 'be careful what you wish for' kind of story.
I mean we all have those things we wonder about. What if I had made this career decision differently? What if I had asked Susan to the prom, instead of Nancy? Perhaps use it to avoid something terrible. I wish I had stayed home the night I was assaulted.
Each decision we make affects our life like a pebble in a pond.
Having said all this, we're talking about a huge story about years of a person's life. Way more than I want to dive into.
TheWritingGroup
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The destruction of the Universe?
"I wish the world was never made."
I'm writing a genie-based series, and one thing I established up front is that there are limits on what a genie can do. If one of my characters said, "I wish I had all the powers of the Norse god Thor," the answer would be "That is beyond my ability to grant."
sirhugs
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How would it ok if you wished "I wsh my wife had huge boobs" or "I wish my husband had a bigger fatter cock"?
would the other person affected remmber the change?
sirhugs
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Might be more fun to have the answer be "Thor is a non-existent mythical character who never had any powers in reality."
usable001
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Thank you for the reminder. The genie stipulates that wishes can only be phrased as if they only affect the person making the wishes, so no wishing for world peace.
You were kinder than I. In my headcanon, the genie makes suggestions, and the person making the actual wishes never learns from their mistakes because they don't remember making a wish before the current one.
sirhugs
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loving the term "headcannon".
loving the building going on here.
wondering where it goes next- does somebody take this and write a story?
usable001
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Canon, not cannon. The term used to refer exclusively to the religious texts a church considers accurate. In the modern Christian church, the Book of Matthew is canon; the Epistle of Barnabas is not. (https://www.bartehrman.com/books-removed-from-the-bible/)
The term "canon" was expanded to include fictional worlds, such as Star Trek. In Star Trek, the TV shows are canon (an official part of the universe), but the books are not. Out of that, you get fan theories which individual fans like to think of as canon, but only within their own heads: headcanon.
https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/headcanon
sirhugs
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I still like "headcannon" better.
TheWritingGroup
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Presumably you position it next to the guillotine, which supplies the ammo.I still like "headcannon" better.
usable001
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What kind of wishes could a person make that the retroactive nature of the wish adds to the plot?
One interesting idea would be to have two sisters looking for the genie and encounter an old begger man first. One sister is rude and one is kind. When they learn the terms from the genie one sister wishes that, whatever happens, they both can find the genie again. The two sisters then begin to have very different fates.
A good deal of the plot in The Monkey's Paw was guilt over causing the bads things to happen. That wouldn't happen in this story because she wouldn't know she caused the death which led to wealth, for example.
One interesting idea would be to have two sisters looking for the genie and encounter an old begger man first. One sister is rude and one is kind. When they learn the terms from the genie one sister wishes that, whatever happens, they both can find the genie again. The two sisters then begin to have very different fates.
A good deal of the plot in The Monkey's Paw was guilt over causing the bads things to happen. That wouldn't happen in this story because she wouldn't know she caused the death which led to wealth, for example.
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usable001
Awkward Penn
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The girls' mother marries a different (rich man) man without telling him she's already pregnant with twins by the girls' original father. An ancester decides to write their will differently. A gold digger in the wild west digs a few feet to the left. No paradox. The only being who knows wishes were ever involved is the genie himself.
TheLobster
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I still like "headcannon" better.
DanDraper
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This got me thinking about the negative things that could happen if a wish is done retroactively. For instance, the example you made about wishing for wealth and then always have been wealthy but don't remember how. Maybe the MC did some unscrupulous things and screwed over some innocent people to get that wealth, and he has to deal with the consequences of it that he has no knowledge of.
I saw another example here of someone wanting their wife to have bigger boobs and therefore she always had it. Maybe this gets her more male attention throughout her life, therefore more options of suitors to choose from, and ends up marrying someone else. He thought it would be a great wish for himself to enjoy, but it backfires in an unexpected way.
There are a lot of history altering possibilities here for retroactively changing a detail of a past.
usable001
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I guess someone didn't like that I included links...
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sirhugs
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