How dangerous some of fictional hacks you could think at it's maximum potential?
 CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
 Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
How dangerous some of fictional hacks you could think at it's maximum potential?
How dangerous some of fictional hacks you could think at it's maximum potential?
CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
I absolutely hate "lame power used rationally is badass" When a story says that the truth is it's usually code for the power is either 1-not weak at all 2-has seemingly no limits or 3-is actually a completely different power or set of powers then what they describe it as. Pic related taken litterally means that she can summon a dog shapped lump of matter with no explicit constraints as to limits for how many or where. With puppy girl here for all we know she could summon a puppy into the heads of every person in the world simultaneously for all we know. Summon puppies to occupy the volume of the universe.
See Worm, which while I do I love with all my heart suffers from this a lot when people say that "MCs power (Bug Control with minute control) is so bad but she is good at using it which is why she wins" I cringe a bit, cause... sure she is creative and it lets her win fights. But like... The control and reach of the swarm itself is basically propelling her to an A tier cape on it's own.
... You wanna try that again in english. pal?
Maybe it's time we just collectively admit that superpowers are an inherently stupid concept.
>Maybe it's time we just collectively admit that superpowers are an inherently stupid concept.
NTA, but Superpowers *without rules* are inherently stupid, because they enable and encourage bad writing. Superpowers with hard rules, what the character can and more importantly cannot do with their powers, is much better. This is why shonen battle manga/anime is a thriving worldwide phenomenon and Marvel/DC can barely give away floppies for free.
In a shonen, within a few issues of the start the framework of the power system has been established. There will be more rules added as time goes on, characters will exceed their limits, etc. But what is important is that every new twist and layer still needs to build upon and at least nominally acknowledge the rules of the power system, its limits and its costs. While those rules might change over the course of the story for any given fight we still always have a pretty good idea of both what is at stake and what the characters can do in that moment. The story is built around the characters and their abilities, giving a sense of consistency and progression even if an analysis of the details shows it isn't ironclad.
In cape comics, meanwhile, the powerlevels and specific abilities of a given character are basically random from issue to issue, even as part of the same run. Jean Grey either can barely struggle to read the mind of one guy, or she can mind control an entire city effortlessly, and she'll waffle back and forth between the two. War Machine's armor can tank a direct nuclear strike without scratching the paint, but that same armor takes a baseball bat to the back of the head from some normal thugs 5 issues later and Warmachine is instantly knocked the frick out despite wearing a flying tank. In comics the writer decides what they want to happen and the characters just sort of morph into whatever version of themselves the story needs them to be to happen the way the author wants it to that specific day.
I have always thought that what what limits cape comics in that regard is the nature of a shared universe. You can't put hard limits with other authors playing around in your backyard and changing the rules every other day.
Imagine superman is limited to a specific point, but needs to keep his character trait of being one of the strongest capes: meanwhile somebody else makes a comic like Blue Beetle, and the suit this kid makes Superman look like a chump. What do you do as an author?
Not only that, next time a writer comes on board that "loved" X character as a kid what happens is that he is going to power that character up, maybe even accidentally, as he never knew the exact limits originally intended for the character, or he just always thought the character would be able to X or Y.
Shared universes helped sales originally, but ultimately killed the potential. You can't have thousands of main characters,written by different people with different intentions, without some conflict arising.
>This is why shonen battle manga/anime is a thriving worldwide phenomenon
Id agree except shonen breaks its own rules tons of times.
Sure, but it cloaks those breaks with either introducing new rules or a given character being an exception to the rules. If you have an ultimate attack that kills you to use it, and the Big Bad is special because he can use it as much as he wants without paying the cost, thats breaking the established rules but in a way that instill in the reader the gravity of the situation. "Oh frick, this guy is an out of context problem". Unless the author really fricks it up, the illusion of consistency is still maintained.
Cape comics on the other hand never manage to establish rules long enough to get caught breaking them. Like, What can Zatanna actually do? "Magic". Okay, sure, but what KIND of magic? We have to assume she isn't literally omnipotent, so there must be some kind of limits to her powers, right? And there is, but what those limits are changes from second to second. On one page she waves her hand and turns an entire group of people into seagulls because they mildly sassed her (don't worry, they'll turn back on their own!) but a page later we are supposed to believe that in a multi-page fight against Harley Quinn... Zatanna has no choice but to flee. Even with magic she can't possibly stop someone with the power of brand promotion.
Your issue has far more to do with bad writers and forcing characters everywhere even in stories where they don't belong. Manga lacks that issue usually because they have more focused stories and greater control of ther characters. So there's a lot fewer cases but still many of "I've written myself into a corner with this powerset/have this character I don't want to use"
>Ah yes this character who I just gave the ability to literally cut through ANYTHING including the barriers of reality itself....but he's too weak and needs to study for college so he'll no longer be appearing in this anime.
Comics aren't a victim of lacking a good power system especially since 99% of power systems are just a shared origin/codex for arbitrary powers, they're a victim of passing around characters and plots like your mom at a swingers party, and that's caused them to be poorly maintained and unappealing like your mom at a swingers party.
I agree. What I described is a problem with comics, but the shared universe/inconsistent writers are a big part of how that problem emerges in the first place. So ultimately what you describe is the bigger, more encompassing issue.
Yeah jujutsu kaisen is a pain in the ass with unexplained retcons popping out of nowhere. Like cursed energy is stored in brain but kenjaku can copy the CT of a brainless body he steals, or dagon's domain attack can target toji who has no cursed energy and explicitly cannot be targeted by domain expansions.
>NTA, but Superpowers *without rules* are inherently stupid
No, superpowers are stupid. Period. I'm not reading the rest of that vomit you just shat out your mouth. Superpowers are moronic.
No they're not. They're physics breaking prostituteshit that make no sense. Either tell a real story, or go frick yourself.
Huh? So do you hate fantasy too?Or is it just a superhero thing?
Both superpowers and magic are shitty plot devices that only serve as an excuse for hack writers to pull solutions for their own plot holes out of their asses. No consistency, no logic, no plausibility. Frick that nonsense.
FMA would like to have a word with you… oh wait you’re that plagiarism guy aren’t you
FMA is hot wet trash. The entire show is predicated on the fact the main character has the ability to break the rules because of vague bullshit. Frick you and frick any and all supernatural elements in fiction.
You need to understand that the reason why Edward can break the rules is because through God, all things are possible. Christ is King.
Honestly this concept always scares me a little as someone trying to write a power system for a story as I’m trying to go for an Index like system of two parallel systems of magic and psionics existing where are deeply intertwined in ways most people don’t realize
>superpowers are an inherently stupid concept
Frick you, superpowers are awesome.
Do consider that Worn wasn't trying to say "It's a bad power used well" at any point. Taylor hated the power because it didn't seem heroic and, at the time, seemed to be weak compared to what people were doing. Similarly other capes at first underestimated it, because "What can bugs do?", but the power is strong because her shard is strong and that shines through. If she didn't have the ability to perceive through all her bugs, nor organize them as she does, the power would be a fraction of what it is.
Of course, if people said that when they don't know the story or if fans say that, I didn't notice, but it was never intended in the story as "She can use it well, that's why it's strong", despite the fact that some of her tricks are about creative application (such a bug clones and such)
Also, that comic is a joke that would have been funnier if she just said "I can make puppies appear" the everywhere is what kills it.
Taylor's power is much stronger than it seems at first glance, she just learns how to best wield it and their sub powers.
A good chunk of the story feels cheapened by how her power is described on paper being different from what it is in practice.
The fact that she ever misses a shot within her power's range feels bullshit because her perfect aim later on isn't something she could fail to notice.
Hey, who's this guy? Some kind of Dark Helmet ripoff?