The part of the Christmas Past sequence in Dickens' book they usually skip past now, where Old Scrooge sees himself as a kid reading and actually physically sees all the fictional characters his younger self is imagining and starts squeeing like a fanboy That still slaps
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If I were gonna do my own modernized adaptation of the story I'd make Scrooge a Gen X latchkey kid from the '80s One of those nerdy, lonely kids whose first love was his NES and his Apple IIc his neglectful parents got him to keep him out of their hair
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I'd go meta with it, like he gets defensive when he sees Christmas Past has brought him back to his childhood home "What do you think you're gonna show me? Mom and Dad never came home from the office, jocks shoved me into lockers at school, girls made fun of my braces?"
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"I know that I've dealt with it I'm over it, it has nothing to do with me anymore" And the Ghost just shrugs and says, "That's not your past, Ben, this is your past" And just shows this time-lapse of Young Scrooge up till 2 am playing video games
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I'd play it as wholesome and earnest as possible Like he scoffs at first, but the Ghost blows up the screen, makes it fill his vision, and he can't help giving in "Holy shit, I haven't even thought about this game in so long... I hated this boss, he fucked me every time"
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"Until I realized -- there's like this one moment where he blinks, that's when you can -- YES, YES -- " "It took you two hours to actually beat this part, but once you figured it out -- " "I wouldn't go to bed until I made it -- " "Your heart was pounding, you were shaking"
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"Because I felt like a genius, I felt like I was on top of the world -- " "You smiled for the rest of the week, you couldn't wait to get home from school" "I couldn't talk to anyone about it, everyone would've mocked the hell out of me, but it was... the happiest I'd ever been"
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"Remember? It was echoing in your head even two years later, when you were failing out of Algebra 1 Your teachers told your parents to take you to a doctor, get you put on Ritalin" "And I was terrified of it, and I told myself I didn't need any fucking pills"
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"And the music was still playing in your head" *tinny 8-bit music slowly turns into an orchestral score, pixelated image turns into a real fight scene with real actors* "I didn't even think -- you're right, it was... that was what was in my head when I said it..."
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"You've been saying it every time, any time someone tells you you can't do something" "I would... I would feel like throwing up and I would dig my nails into my palm, and I would say You can beat this There's always a way You're smarter than this fucking game"
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"That's what you told them when you were featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, wasn't it? You said it was your father who taught you that lesson, but -- " "Dad never taught me shit, he didn't care It was... it was here, in this musty basement It was all here"
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"Every day, you would come home from a school where your peers tormented you and your teachers held you in contempt, to an empty house with parents who didn't care about you" "And I'd... I'd walk into a world that hated me and wanted me to fail And I would beat it, and survive"
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"I would go looking for enemies and challenges, daring the game to get harder and harder Because I knew I was smarter than the game and there was nothing they threw at me I couldn't figure out Every day I would come home, and I would win the war, and I would save the world"
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*jump to 35-year-old Scrooge* "Because that's the world we live in, Bella Maybe your parents raised you differently, maybe they sheltered you from it But it's a fucking war out there Every day's a new crisis they throw at me and there's a million people hoping for me to fail"
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"I do what I *have* to do to succeed I'm only playing the game by the rules other people wrote, and if I happen to be smarter and better and clearer-headed about it than a hundred other people trying to be me, sucks to be them I *will not* apologize for choosing to play to win"
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Bella: "...And I'm just another obstacle to your success Another one of those tests you think you need to pass The hero of the story has to choose between his sentimental, wet blanket fiancee and his next great challenge on the way to conquering the world"
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Ben: "That's not what I -- " Bella: "Yes, it is, it is what you mean and you just haven't learned the game well enough to know it I've seen the men you surround yourself with these days, you'll learn the trick in due time"
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"In war you've got to protect your weakest flank, right? And what weaker spot does a man have than his heart Well, I'm going to give you what no one else ever has, according to you I'm gonna make it easy for you, you get to pass this test without trying" *slips off ring*
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"Congratulations, you get a free win, you get to focus on your next big project with undivided attention and no ball-and-chain dragging you down, and you don't even have to be the bad guy You can tell everyone it's my fault, it'll just be another chapter in your story"
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Old Scrooge, whispering: "Why are you showing me this? Do you actually think that's the connection -- she dumped me because I played video games when I was ten years old -- "
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Christmas Past: "I don't make connections, I only observe them Humans are the ones who connect things that shouldn't be connected"
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End of conversation
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