Rule of Power

Once, the people were distraught at the state of their laws and begged for a lawgiver to come to them. Hearing their supplication, Power Dragon descended.
"Shouldn't Law Dragon have come?" the people asked.
"I am stronger than Law Dragon. Therefore I conquered him and assumed his role."
From that, the people learned one important law. They desired to have more laws still but were perplexed by manifold considerations and subtleties.
"Then let the strongest among you decide."
"Is strength same as wisdom?" the people wondered.
"By no means!" Reason Dragon declared that during his descent. Soon Mercy Dragon and Harmony Dragon arrived as well. Their discourse on the science of law soon became bickering.
Power Dragon allowed them to engage in that for a moderate interval before he slapped all three away with his terrible claws and sent them tumbling. He departed without another word, confident the people comprehended the incident's significance.
Finis

The Four Fantasy Subgenres

A master swordsman can defeat:
- A man
- Eight men
- Eighty men
- Eighty thousand men

There isn't much in the way of eight hundred or eight thousand. Those are too middle-of-the-road.

The Treatise of Steel

The young scholar kept one hand on the cliff face. As rough as it was, he needed it to steady him as he walked. "Walk" was far from the most appropriate word; he would have been able to think of a better one in the city, but there, miles and months away, language thinned.
He kicked a pebble. It took looking down and concentrating on the laws of cause and effect for him to reach that conclusion. He managed it in the end, and to follow the pebble's path as well, and when he raised his eyes, at last he saw it. The library, that legendary library, that he risked everything to find. For him, "everything" did not amount to much, but that would change. The library was real.
At the entrance a guardian stood and had stood for incalculable ages. The scholar worried his plans would be frustrated at the end by some activity on the part of the great statue, twenty feet tall and as vividly painted as if its creator had finished the piece that morning.
"Inside," the guardian intoned, "is all the knowledge of significance in this world. Enter and learn, visitor." Unmoving, it gave that message again and again in response to the scholar's alternating withdrawals and advances. His old spirit of curiosity was returning, and it pushed him over the threshold.
What books, what scrolls, what histories and treatises filled the shelves tall and wide within that library? None. The place was bare, its rows unfilled. Not a single item of scholarly purpose did he see.
In the middle, however, was a platform, and on that platform a stand, and the stand held up a sword in its life-sparing scabbard. The scholar took the sword in hand. He drew it. He understood then; he knew at last what mattered.
Finis

Disputes Over Schools of Magic

The argument: "I have become the strongest Gem Master in the world! My magic is supreme."
The counterargument: "You can't call yourself a Gem Master just because you have a bunch of gems, and being rich isn't magic."
The outcome: After Gem Master Dorol bought the furniture store where Polish Mage Irsen worked and fired him, the argument was proved correct.
The aftermath: Gem Master Dorol's shoes are the shiniest in town. Meanwhile, Polish Mage Irsen isn't starving to death.
Finis

The Banality of Power

"Did you hear the prime minister of Ruritania died?" Daryl failed to make the question sound casual. He and everyone else looked at Kent expectantly.
"Oh. 4:18."
"Got it again!" That really livened up lunch, which made up for waking up in the middle of the night, Kent supposed. Not really. He would have preferred not to have woken up at 4:18.
"C'mon, man." Simon jostled him. "Feeling a jolt when a world leader dies seems pointless now, but I bet you'll save the world someday. It's not like you're one of those telepaths. They say another one went crazy and burned out a bunch of people the other day."
Kent jabbed his peas with a fork. "Man, I wish mutant powers had never happened."
Finis

Political Musings

Who's stronger? A demagogue or a semagogue? They'd both lose to a decagogue, obviously, but there are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Old Ys Power Ranking

1. Ys IV Dawn of Ys
2. Ys I
3. Ys V Desert Kingdom of Bad Times
4. Ys IV Mask of the Sun
5. Ys II
6. Wanderers from Ys

Ruin and Renewal

It's easy to criticize but hard to improve, and nobody around here plays on easy.

"In the name of Grayskull, I have the power!"
"By the power of Grayskull, I seize victory!"
"By the power of Grayskull, my will is supreme!"
"By the Grayskull power, the power has me!"
"By the power I have, Grayskull is power!"
"By Grayskull, what power this power is!"
"I have power, by Grayskull, and the power to use it!"

Select your favorite from the preceding list for use in your He-Man fanfiction about a new character who also gains the power of Grayskull and is definitely you.

The Last Realization of a Dying Man

"Come to think of it, 'By the power of Grayskull, I have the power' is a terrible stock phrase."