"DOOM: Repercussions of Evil" by Peter Chimaera
"DOOM: Repercussions of Evil" by Peter Chimaera is a horror/action fanfiction short story loosely based on the lore of the DOOM video game franchise. It was originally published on Fanfiction.net on June 25th, 2002.
Summary
The story recounts the adventure of John Stalvern, a space marine, who is tasked with exterminating the daemonic threat invading a space station, and his troubling journey to self-discovery.
Characters
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Protagonists
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Antagonist
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John Stalvern
John Stalvern is the protagonist of the story. He is an experienced space marine given no physical description in the text. He is a round character because of his complex psychology opposing his admiration for his father and his refusal to give up on his dream to go to space to fight space demons because he would "BE KILL (sic) BY DEMONS!" (Chimaera) Moreover, as we witness his progression from childhood to adulthood, to demonhood, we can safely say that John is a dynamic character.
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The demons
The demons are the antagonist of the story. They seem to be of different shapes and sizes, with one of them being called a Cyberdemon. They are flat characters as their only motivations are to kill and destroy. Furthermore, they are also static as they remain an evil horde throughout the story's complex arc.
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Conflict
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The main conflict of the story is Man vs No God as John Stalvern is forced to confront daemonic hordes only possible in a universe where God is truly and utterly dead.
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Other possible secondary conflicts of the story would be Man vs Society as John Stalvern's current situation was made possible by Cernel [Colonel] Joson [Johnson], who acts as a stand-in for a faceless military hierarchy that refuses to see the danger.
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Another possibility is Man vs Self as John's bravery and dedication to the cause of eradicating demons prevents him from heeding his father's warnings or stopping in time to prevent his own zombification by demons. Truly a classical case of hubris.
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Setting
"DOOM: Repercussions of Evil" takes places on a United Aerospace Corporation space station. The story either takes place in the future, on in an uchronia where space technology was developed much earlier. It also posits a world where there are gates to Hell all over space (N.B. there is currently no way to prove it is not the case in our reality).
Narration
The narrator of "DOOM: Repercussions of Evil" could be best identified as a third person limited narrator.
The narrator appears to be external to the story and describes John's actions in the third person. Additionally, we do not get any insight on any character's thoughts/motivations.
The narrator appears to be external to the story and describes John's actions in the third person. Additionally, we do not get any insight on any character's thoughts/motivations.
Ideas
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Narrative Time
The story makes extensive use of flashbacks to inform John's motivations. We learn more about his relationship with his father, which adds depth to the main character. |
Theme
The main theme of the story is Hubris. John, in the tradition of Greek heroes such as Oedipus, believes he is infallible and that he is the only person that can take on the daemonic hordes attacking the base, which will lead to his ultimate fall to zombification. The father plays the role of the Oracle, or the Harbinger, warning the protagonist of his ultimate fate, only to be ignored. |
Style
The author takes many creative licenses with English. The main feature of his prose is "verbing", or using an adjective or noun as a verb by conjugating it. This can be seen in the expressions "as he got oldered" or "John plasmaed" the demon. This creative use of language helps shorten the sentences, which reflects the breathlessness of the action scenes. |