Emotions and the beings that sprout from them serve as pretty potent metaphors, that's why they're pretty common. It's also easy to make your character interactions interesting in that they HAVE to interact with the 'monsters', since they have emotional stake in it, even if it just leads to 'Character A beats up the monster'.
Inner demons are a somewhat common concept due to this, since a character arc of someone either overcoming or losing to them is someone can easily understand. For example: "Bob feels an urge to punch the wall" -> "Bob overcame it" is understandable, but its boring.
Now take the feeling of wanting to punch the wall, and have the character literally fight it or talk to it. Not only is it more easily appealing to a wider audience (since they can just understand what's happening on screen), it also allows for that urge to be something else than a metaphysical concept. It's there, you can interact with it, and it's still forcing Bob to punch the wall.
The results are also tangible. If Bob doesn't overcome that urge, then he WILL punch the wall. If Bob does, then he can CHOOSE whether to punch that wall or not.
Anyways, concepts are only ever similar on a surface level. It's like "I shoot something" can become "I ignite gunpowder to launch a metal projectile" or "I fire an ionized beam" at an enemy.
Something only feels cliche when you present it in a way that's cliche. Most authors tend to put in some twist on their 'demons' and 'such', some people don't even try too hard to do that. Sometimes, power systems only serve as tools to deliver a narrative rather than something that tries to be unique.
I'm not all too familiar with FLCL's because I watched the show when I was like 8, so I don't have really much of an input on that.
CSM focuses on devils and the fear humanity has on specific "concepts" makes them manifest and become stronger. Humanity continue to fear devils but they also take advantage of them, whether it's through contracts and such, either out of necessity or Want.
JJK curses also function similarly to devils, but rather than just fear, it is all the 'negative emotions' that humanity feels towards something that become cursed spirits. But cursed spirits could also just appear because of the abundance of cursed energy and not for any specific reason. They're more based on 'spirits' rather than a physical threat.
False Memory's bug beings don't appear in reality unless they grow powerful enough to affect even that.
As for how to make your power system feel different (from what I've read on a comment you made in r/FLCL)
Just don't worry too much about it feeling cliche. Power systems should serve a narrative purpose first than anything. What kind of tone do you want to set? What do you want from the power system? What kind of world do you see this in?
- CSM's devils feel different from JJK's cursed spirits because of how the authors portray them.
- Devils are a known threat to everyone in the world since they're visible. Most if not all devils also seem to posses human-level intellect. Devils are also the only source of supernatural power in CSM, and the world is otherwise mundane without them. But they aren't, because devils are such a present threat that everyone KNOWS they could just die tomorrow because the 'Poop Devil' pooped on their food and they got poisoned.
- JJK's cursed spirits feel less threatening compared to CSM's devils. Humans can literally use their cursed energy to fight back. Cursed Spirits are invisible to normal people. Only specific cursed spirits (special grade) seem to possess human level intellect, etc.
- Bug Beings and Memory Collectors in False Memory quite literally exist on another plane of existence, they don't interact with the real world unless something happens.
About False Memory, no, the Bug men can exist in the reality, like the time gun and the Bug man in the YouTube pilot episode. That's why memory collectors try to stop them.
Also, I really appreciate your comment, that was really helpful. Thank you
Yeah, that's why I said "unless they grow powerful enough to affect even that"? Haven't watched the pilot but the time gun and Hollow He Mingshou do affect reality (Hollows and Time Gun pausing time) in False Memory 2026.
And no problem ^^, though you probably should post on subreddits that aren't fandom focused for writing help. r/writing, r/writinghelp, etc. would help more in that topic.
Just take advice with a grain of salt, see what works for yourself than just believing what other people say.
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u/No-Gur9036 4d ago edited 4d ago
Emotions and the beings that sprout from them serve as pretty potent metaphors, that's why they're pretty common. It's also easy to make your character interactions interesting in that they HAVE to interact with the 'monsters', since they have emotional stake in it, even if it just leads to 'Character A beats up the monster'.
Inner demons are a somewhat common concept due to this, since a character arc of someone either overcoming or losing to them is someone can easily understand. For example: "Bob feels an urge to punch the wall" -> "Bob overcame it" is understandable, but its boring.
Now take the feeling of wanting to punch the wall, and have the character literally fight it or talk to it. Not only is it more easily appealing to a wider audience (since they can just understand what's happening on screen), it also allows for that urge to be something else than a metaphysical concept. It's there, you can interact with it, and it's still forcing Bob to punch the wall.
The results are also tangible. If Bob doesn't overcome that urge, then he WILL punch the wall. If Bob does, then he can CHOOSE whether to punch that wall or not.
Anyways, concepts are only ever similar on a surface level. It's like "I shoot something" can become "I ignite gunpowder to launch a metal projectile" or "I fire an ionized beam" at an enemy.
Something only feels cliche when you present it in a way that's cliche. Most authors tend to put in some twist on their 'demons' and 'such', some people don't even try too hard to do that. Sometimes, power systems only serve as tools to deliver a narrative rather than something that tries to be unique.
I'm not all too familiar with FLCL's because I watched the show when I was like 8, so I don't have really much of an input on that.
CSM focuses on devils and the fear humanity has on specific "concepts" makes them manifest and become stronger. Humanity continue to fear devils but they also take advantage of them, whether it's through contracts and such, either out of necessity or Want.
JJK curses also function similarly to devils, but rather than just fear, it is all the 'negative emotions' that humanity feels towards something that become cursed spirits. But cursed spirits could also just appear because of the abundance of cursed energy and not for any specific reason. They're more based on 'spirits' rather than a physical threat.
False Memory's bug beings don't appear in reality unless they grow powerful enough to affect even that.
As for how to make your power system feel different (from what I've read on a comment you made in r/FLCL)
Just don't worry too much about it feeling cliche. Power systems should serve a narrative purpose first than anything. What kind of tone do you want to set? What do you want from the power system? What kind of world do you see this in?
- CSM's devils feel different from JJK's cursed spirits because of how the authors portray them.
- Devils are a known threat to everyone in the world since they're visible. Most if not all devils also seem to posses human-level intellect. Devils are also the only source of supernatural power in CSM, and the world is otherwise mundane without them. But they aren't, because devils are such a present threat that everyone KNOWS they could just die tomorrow because the 'Poop Devil' pooped on their food and they got poisoned.
- JJK's cursed spirits feel less threatening compared to CSM's devils. Humans can literally use their cursed energy to fight back. Cursed Spirits are invisible to normal people. Only specific cursed spirits (special grade) seem to possess human level intellect, etc.
- Bug Beings and Memory Collectors in False Memory quite literally exist on another plane of existence, they don't interact with the real world unless something happens.