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How ready can you be with a one-liner, a speech, the perfect
put-down or pick-me-up? When you're fighting a villain who makes
your blood boil, surrounded by cheering mobs of people, or trying to
escape from a collapsing building? Will you sound the same standing
still, chatting with an old friend, renting a room for a night, or
challening the bad guy to one last showdown?
Do you ever run out of breath? Ever stumble over words?
Mispronounce things, place the emphasis where it doesn't belong? Do
you stammer or stutter, waffle or fudge the answer? Ever speak with
caution or pause, correct yourself or others, build yourself up for
a lengthy diatriabe... and then lose your train of thought?
People aren't perfect. That goes without saying, but sometimes it
deserves mention in ways other than those which inspire villains to
villainy. People forget things, people say things that don't always
make sense, and people don't always speak perfectly on demand, even
in the best circumstances. The words 'um', 'uh', and 'like', are as
commonplace as 'the', 'and', and 'pimpmobile', and for good reason:
people have lots of things on their mind.
Not everybody has to sound like a babbling moron at the crucial
moment, that's not what this is about at all. Some people have that
gift, that skill, that talent; some can speak, unscripted, for hours
on end about any given topic, even when the crowd is all ears. The
scholar who studied for years in the best academy on the planet, the
general who's used to giving orders and has done their share of
taking them, the politician who built a career on getting people to
cheer; these people, I can buy speaking clearly and perfectly off
the cuff, using five-dollar words when five-cent words would do the
job. Perhaps even regular people can speak that well at times. When
things are ideal.
Not all the time.
Not when the village has been burnt down and you've spent the
last half-hour running and fighting for your life. Not when you
realize your best friend has betrayed you and the roof over your
head is about to come down. Not when the love of your life has just
confessed their feelings for you. Not when you're going toe-to-toe
with the bloodthirsty monstrosity that leveled your town and its
licking its chops for seconds. In situations like these, you get
angry, scared, happy, confused, vengeful, and thousands of
variations of emotions that are guaranteed to mess with your ability
to function rationally and speak clearly, coherently, calmly.
This isn't a proposal, a demand, a request for some sweeping
change in the ideal, idealistic heroes to make them more like us, or
to give villains unnecessary flaws. All this is, is sitting down,
taking a look at what's happening, and asking one question: should
they always find the words?
Just a
thought.
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