And Then What?/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Iroh: What do you plan to do now that you've found the Avatar's bison? Keep him locked in our new apartment? Should I go put on a pot of tea for him?

Zuko: First I have to get him out of here.

Iroh: And then what?! You never think these things through! This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Pole! You had him, and then you had nowhere to go!
"Lake Laogai," Avatar: The Last Airbender

Lex Luthor: Say you succeed. You absorb all the information on Earth and then destroy it. Then what?
Brainiac: I repeat the process across the entire universe, until I have recorded all knowledge and destroyed all of creation.
Lex Luthor: And then?

Brainiac: Then my program is complete. My function is fulfilled. It is the end of all things.
Justice League Unlimited, "Divided We Fall"
"Why don't you put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"
Lex Luthor, Superman: Red Son

Mal: But say you do it. You kill me. What then?

Dobson: I dunno. I imagine I'll get a hobby or something...
Serenity: Those Left Behind

"Dream Land will be MINE!

...Not sure what I'll do with it, but I'll figure something out."
Yin-Yarn, Kirbys Epic Yarn
"I could probably net a lot of money, one way or the other, if I did things carefully. But research shows money doesn't make people happier, once they make enough to avoid day-to-day financial stress. I could mess with people endlessly, but I do that already. I could get a political or religious idea out to most of the world, but since March of 1997 I don't really believe in anything. So, here I sit, a puppetmaster who wants nothing from his puppets."
Black Hat Guy, Xkcd

Linkara: After I'm consumed by you, what're you going to do next?
Missing№: I will spread throughout this universe until it and I are the same-till it and I are the same. From there, I shall do as I have always done: I shall travel from universe to universe and they shall become extensions of my being, simultaneously piece and whole. Every star, every cosmos, every dimension, all things living and dead shall become meee... No empty space, no limit, nothing existing except for me. Existence shall become solely defined by me because I am existence!
Linkara: Oh, and then what're you going to do?

Missing№: What.

Linkara: I was just curious what you intend to do after you finish your goal...

Missing№: I will exist. Everything will be me.

Linkara: Yes, yes we know that part, but what are you going to do? You will exist, neato! What're you going to do to pass the time? You will have absorbed -everything-, and I do mean everything. You will not just be the only being in the universe, you will be the universe! So... whaddaya gonna do -as- the universe? Will you create things? Well I suppose you wouldn't because creating something would mean it was different from you, and you'd just -reabsorb- it back in anyways... So again, I ask: what are you going to do once you've completed your goal?

Missing№: Existence is... existence is... important part...

Linkara: Yes, but why do you want that goal?

Missing№: Everything should... and must... be me... everything should and must be me.

Linkara: And when everything is you, what are you going to do next!? What is your purpose once your purpose has been fulfilled?! What will be your meaning when you have made the ultimate achievement?! Is 'existing' just an end it itself? Well that can't be it because you're already existing, and therefore already fulfilling that part of it! So go ahead and create your kingdom of the Never-Should! Let the Glitch be everything! The distortion the reality! Become everything there is down to the tiniest particle until you are literally existence itself! In the end, you'll still have the same damned problem: that's there's no challenge left... No Heaven to aspire to, and no Hell to avoid. You will live forever, alone as everything, and existence itself shall be your prison! All experiences will be a part of you; all possibilities will have been considered and completed. Every life-form, every molecule, every single Should and Never-Should and it will have all been done. Everything will be you, and everything will be meaningless. And when you do become existence -- when the definition of existence equals Missing№ -- you will scream your shrill hiss and let it vibrate along the totality of your being! When the lie of your existence is laid bare, because there is simply nothing else for you to do!

Missing№: You are... confusing me... You are attempting a deception!

Linkara: Me? Deceive an Outer God? I sincerely doubt that.
—"Atop the Fourth Wall", "The Electric Tale of Pikachu"

Exar Kun: (spends a couple pages trying to seduce Corran Horn to the dark side, using the usual suspects)

Corran: No.

Exar Kun: No?

Corran: No. You don't get it, do you? You've already lost and you're continuing down that losing path. Haven't the last four thousand years taught you anything?

Exar Kun: I know more than you could ever hope to learn in four thousand years or forty thousand years.

Corran: That may be. but I know the one thing you don't. You're never going to win. You destroy those who oppose you, and what does that leave you?

Exar Kun: The faithful.

Corran: From among whom arises a rival. You have a schism.

Exar Kun: And I destroy the heretics.

Corran: Yes, you do. And again and again that cycle repeats itself and you let it go on because you've forgotten the most fundamental truth of reality: Life creates The Force. When Kyp destroyed Carida, he diminished your power. When you destroyed Gantoris, you diminished your power. You're a predator over-grazing your prey, but you can't stop because the dark side fills you with this aching hunger that will never be satisfied.
—Exar Kun on the receiving end of Corran's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, I, Jedi