I know it’s a joke. But this could actually be an interesting plot setup, with one modification. I would make it so that Trolley man couldn’t actually save anyone himself. Rather, he has the power to temporarily give anyone powers equivalent to Superman or similar. The only problem is this is so stressful on the person’s body that the power up kills them after it wears off.
Maybe rather than giving them powers, it just puts then into the right place, and modifies them slightly to be able to deal with it. Like say, makes them fat and teleports them in front of a runaway vehicle.
One fun version of this. I once read a fanfiction that included a character with an interesting trait. They were cursed to be completely, hopelessly, comically lost. They get lost going to the bathroom in their own home. They end up hundreds or thousands of miles from where they intend to be.
But the tradeoff is, if there is ever somewhere they actually really need to be, they will be there every time. A loved one about to get hit by a bus? By random chance, the character would just happen to be wandering at the right place and time to intervene. Their kid has an important school play they need to attend? They’ll by dumb luck find their way to the auditorium. They live a life completely unable to get to where they want to go, but in turn they will always be where they need to be.
Check out the Netflix series Dirk gently. That’s more or less the power of the main character… But also kinda a spoiler, sorry!
It’s really good! Don’t know about the books.
There is an old video game called Lords of Magic in which the Order faction (which is about unified effort towards the greater good) has as its top-level spell “Heroic Demise”. Mechanically the spell gives one unit a big boost to all its stats, but the catch is that at the end of the battle that unit always counts as having been killed.
I was very reluctant to use it when I was a little kid because I didn’t want to kill my own units, but of course the lesson is that units will die anyway and fewer will die in total if you deliberately sacrifice some. Very thematically appropriate…
High praise from Stan Lee on the cover.
Trolley Man, you’re a problem.
How tf did he learn about his power?!
He was holding his baby sister when a dog was about to be run over by a car. He was so shocked when she fell to his feet in ashes that he didn’t even save that dog. In that moment he promised himself that he would always make the numerically superior choice.
Not the hero we need, but the hero we deserve
I mean, has to be one of those specific people? Or could he go with someone else and sacrifice for a later use?
he could use people about to die in seconds, or really evil people (grim but still)
Billionaires
That “Y” is a very nice touch.
I volunteer as tribute! it’d be better than living in this shithole of a world and I get to die knowing I helped save someone
