this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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Fridging is when a love interest gets killed just to push the main character forward. It used to mean a woman getting hurt to make a man act. Now it covers any partner dying to pump up the plot.

Here’s the cold truth. A romantic loss is the only loss that actually justifies losing your head over it. If your boyfriend or girlfriend dies, that grief can spiral into obsession or a need for revenge. That is story fuel. Everything else is background noise.

An uncle, a child, a best friend, a parent, a teammate getting killed is not tragic nor is it enough to be sad and enough to motivate you to be a hero. Those losses might be a little sad but they do not automatically justify turning your life into this crusade against injustice. They are not dramatic enough to demand you drop everything and hunt a killer down.

So yeah, fridging as a device works because romantic love is one of the few things audiences treat as absolute.

Whenever there is a story about a main character who is depressed because their best friend, parent, or child dies, I just can't get into it, and I'm always like, "Please get over it," because this isn't enough to be depressed over, and it's not enough to want to become a good person.

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[–] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You should consider talking to a therapist about why you don’t consider non-romantic relationships to be valuable, because your take is not only not universal, but also indicative that you have some shit you need to work through.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

An uncle, a child, a best friend, a parent, a teammate getting killed is not tragic

That's a unique take, to say the least.

[–] railway692@piefed.zip 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's cold.

OP's like It's only tragic if we were banging.

[–] Makeitstop@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So if your character is from Alabama it could still work then.

[–] railway692@piefed.zip 6 points 1 week ago

Username checks out. 😑

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Seems like loss of sex is the main motivation for OP.

[–] Brekky@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where are these unpopular opinions when people are asking for them??

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Well, this is showerthoughts, not unpopular opinion. Maybe we need an unpopular opinion community here.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What the chicken fried fuck are you talking about?

Fridging is a form of reductionist misogyny. It's not just that somebody died, it's that a woman existed only to die in a brutal fashion.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What an awful take. I hope you aren't a parent if you expect a parent to just get over the loss of their child. You don't expect people to be motivated by loss of any loved one other than a romantic partner? Really? No other kind of love is strong enough for you? I've reached my limit of stupid for tonight.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sounds like you need to read The Count of Monte Cristo.

It is the epitome of a revenge story and it doesn't need to kill the love interest to work. In fact, it works better because his wife doesn't die but remarried the fucker who ruined his life.

Moby Dick, too. Pretty sure the whale didn't kill Ahab's wife.

[–] latenightnoir@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

How about just be decent for the fuck of it? Why should we need reasons to be good people?

Edit: take classic Superman, for instance. That dude is good simply because he's good. He's the type of person who'd apologise if you walked into them and mean it, not because they're a pushover, but because why the hell not.

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Bruh. Get help.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 points 1 week ago

The relationship with your kid should be deeper than with your partner. Nowadays, many people have far more partners during their lifetime than children - you'll never know whether your partner will still be with you in 10 years, but it's very unlikely that your child will not be yours anymore. Similar with parents.

I will say that family members who aren't love interests typically don't get enough time and characterization to make the audience care much about them.

[–] Mr_Fish@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I'm not gonna bother with saying that the other losses that you're discounting can be just as tragic as losing a romantic partner. Everyone else here has said it probably better than I could.

What I'll bring up is that not only are there more kinds of revenge motivation than the loss of someone close to you, there are more motivations than just revenge. For other kinds of revenge, what about wounded honour? A hunter who's prey keeps escaping them might feel the need to finally end that hunt before they can look themselves in the eye. That's its own form of revenge arc, and it can make just as powerful a story as avenging the loss of a loved one. And for non revenge motivations, there's far too many to list, but here's a start

  • duty
  • repaying a debt to the world
  • self improvement
  • survival (usually more of a side character motive compared to a hero protagonist, but still good)
  • seeking admiration (from people in general or from a few important people)
[–] phanto@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

I'm interpreting this as trolling. No way is someone who isn't trying to start shit going to put something like this out in the world, unless there is something seriously skewed in their worldview. Dude, if this is how you have fun, get bent. If you mean this, get help.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

The fuck kind of fucked up bullshit are you on about? You would honestly see some one kill your parents, friends, or kids and just shrug your shoulders? There is something deeply wrong with you.

[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I would absolutely react more to my child getting killed than literally anyone else on the planet, what are you on about?

Though in fairness, if I had powers, I don't think it would be a pursuit of justice or launch me on some path of heroism. Somebody would just die badly (assuming the initial killing was either deliberate or through willful neglect).

[–] lowleekun@ani.social 3 points 1 week ago

Weirdest troll ever. But the bait was taken.