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Hey everyone. I'm not going to lie, I was genuinely surprised by some of the commentary that came up when I posted this work. I found some of it initially disheartening, but after consideration, I settled into a sort of 'Bemused Befuddlement" and ‘Quiet Contemplation’. Finally, it turned into "Resigned Acceptance'. I had actually hesitated when writing this, wondering if it toed too many lines, but eventually decided to post it anyway, if only to see what the reaction would be. Whelp. Now I know.
This is not an apology, by the way. This is an explanation. An apology implies I did something wrong with writing and posting this fic. After my ‘Quiet Contemplation’, I decided I did not do anything more than ‘Post Satire’, and satire will always draw debate.
I would like to post a response to some of the fire that this fic ended up starting. First, my thoughts while writing this fic: my intentions could be summed up, frankly, as ‘Reductio ad Absurdum’, a logical fallacy which translates as ‘Reduced to the Absurd’ and means taking something so ridiculously out of proportion that it becomes unbelievable. I had attempted to write a fic which was so stupid, so utterly ridiculous, so completely devoid of believability, that there was no way that anyone would ever take it seriously. I had intended for the Nazi movement to be portrayed as being so incredibly stupid and fundamentally ignorant of history that a school girl quoting trivia at them managed to convince them, BY ACCIDENT at that, that she was the rebirth of Hitler himself, despite her being a teenage girl with no powers whose family originates from France.
The events such as Nazi youth trying to study art but being so bad at it that they’re reduced to creating ‘Celebrity Death Matches’ in their head about which artist would come out in a fight, ambusheds delinquent skin heads being forced to attend a class they didn’t go to simply because ‘Hitler wants you to have a good job and be a productive citizen’, Taylor ambushing her own kidnapping and taking control of it only to convince Hookwolf that DOG fights were bad so he should take up HUMAN bloodsport, that Kaiser was willing to give up the E88 and proclaim ascendency to someone who gave them a researched PowerPoint presentation, and finally, both Taylor and her Mother apparently having both absorbed a gang and been proclaimed reincarnations of the gang’s inspirations are… are ridiculous.
I had hoped that I had reached the levels of complete absurdity that allows readers to roll their eyes and scoff, however I have learned that the internet is dark, and full of terrors. I will refrain from toeing such lines in the future. Also, if you at any point took this fic seriously and had offense with it, NEVER read ‘Tank’ a fic where Taylor gains the power to summon Soviet Era tanks, commits herself to communism, and initiates a revolution, as it will probably cause your head to implode.
For those who read this fic and took it as a piece of apologist literature, I am sorry that you feel that way, but those are your feelings and don’t project them on me, please. And I’m little offended at the quickness of the accusations. I will begin by point out ‘the acknowledgment of one thing is not the excuse of another’. The facts that I quoted in chapter one are not made up, they are not embellished, and they are not excuses. The fact is: history happened, and those facts are history. Do those facts excuse or condone the horrors made later on? Do they somehow exonerate the Holocaust? No, and no. Do they change the fact that the twisted idealism enshrined during that time still lingers like a malignant poison? No. They are just facts. Accusing someone of an anathema ideology because they mentioned those facts only discourages the discussion of those facts, limiting debate of the influence those events had on later events, and harms our understanding of history and limits are ability to prevent its repeats.
It’s no wonder Taylor learned to get so triggered by people misrepresenting or outright ignoring that time frame if Annette Rose Sheffield had to spend her entire life viciously debating the merit of her chosen frame of study (in the fic). Constantly having to defend and explain her life’s chosen field of study because people automatically accused her of being a Nazi Apologist for studying history no doubt put her on a hair trigger (in this fic). I feel for you, Annette! I’ve only suffered a fraction of what you did, but I can imagine it now (in this fic)! I will continue to write your daughter into amusing and happy scenes so she can have a chance to enjoy her life when compared to a LOT of Parahuman fanfics (in most of my fics)! Taylor! Is Not! Suffering (in this fic)!
For those who were interested or liked the story, I’ll provide a brief summary of my considered story. For those who were offended, you might choose to disregard the rest of this. In the interest of integrity of response, I will leave the genuine reactions to the first chapter in the comments of chapter 1 alone. I think it’s interesting, and important, and that genuine response and discussion remains free and clear here. For any comments for this chapter, I just might respond, belittle, or delete if I feel they are incorrect, egregious, offensive, or a blatant attempt at virtue signaling belligerence. You’ve been warned.
So the next chapter would have opened with a Protectorate and PRT meeting in which they reveal they now just what happened with the take over of the E88 by a fourteen-year-old girl. They know who Taylor is, that she doesn’t have power, and that she’s not a sympathizer. They are genuinely baffled by just how this happened, but end up chalking it up to Nazi’s really being that stupid.
After that, there would have been a scene where Lisa is captured by the E88 and presented to Taylor. Lisa would realize exactly what happened, and Taylor would realize that Lisa knew and tell everyone they should leave the room, implying she was going to turn Lisa to the cause. The Nazis would all leave and hear weeping and crying from the room, and assume it was Taylor torturing Lisa. The scene would change, it would should that it is actually TAYLOR crying and Lisa comforting her. Taylor would be talking about how ‘They’re just so stupid!’, ‘They’re all so dumb it needs to be mentioned twice!’, and ‘I’m trying to do good but they keep misinterpreting me and doing bad!’ Finally, together, they would hatch a plan.
Taylor would then announce that she had convinced Lisa to her point of view, and had now instated Lisa as her Chief Phrenologist (a debunked pseudo-science that judged people’s intelligence and personality by the shape of their skull and something Hitler believed in), and Lisa’s new cape name was Vazier. There would be scenes peppered throughout where Coil kept trying to get Lisa back, and failed because he over planned and the Nazis were just so stupid they foiled him without ever realizing it. Taylor and Lisa would then attempt to fix the Nazis by trying to turn their beliefs to productive use.
I’ll skip more details on that part, as they would have attempted to be as absurd as the first chapter, and I’ve already seen no one can be absurd enough to please everyone.
Finally, after they had managed to convince the Nazis to be halfway functional members of society through ridiculous ways, Taylor and Lisa would have tried to make alliances with the rest of the gangs. Lung would have been easiest, as one of the earlier efforts had pointed the Nazis at CUI, Lung HATES the CUI, and also, Lung had already figured out just what was happening with Taylor and the E88 and thought it was hilarious, so he agrees to make peace while making fun of the Nazis. Taylor and Lisa would also convince the Merchants to follow along, mostly because Taylor knows all sorts of ridiculous and embarrassing Hitler trivia.
Like, Hitler did so much cocaine and meth that he would have probably ended up JOINING the Merchants if he was alive today. Or how Hitler was responsible for pioneering the creation of inflatable sex dolls and issued them to the army as standard equipment (seriously, not making this up, that really happened). Skidmark would spend any meeting with Taylor laughing so hard he can’t talk and Mush would handle negotiations.
Coil would have had a mental breakdown, made the assumption that Taylor was just too smart and powerful for him to ever face, and leave town. He would spend the rest of his life always looking over his shoulder… waiting… wondering… was this the night Taylor came for him?
The fic would end with the Nazis doing (ACTUAL) good and spreading (ACTUAL) joy amongst all the city, the gangs at peace, and the Protectorate and PRT desperately trying to figure out how a fourteen-year-old girl leading a band of Nazis somehow managed to accomplish what they couldn’t.
The End!