How do you write a compelling story speedster characters? They are generally overpowered in 90% of any situation you put them in.
How do you write a compelling story speedster characters?
How do you write a compelling story speedster characters? They are generally overpowered in 90% of any situation you put them in.
You would have to limit them and dial them back to just having insane speed/reflexes.
Like a speedster shouldn't be able to take on someone with superhuman durability.
And things like locked doors should still prevent them from going through.
Limit their powers or Have the conflicts they're involved in be something that challenges their power set
Simple as
You don't.
There are 800 issues of The Flash
And not one of them is compelling.
Instead of the main enemy being an external threat, it is their inability to focus on anything or wait because their brain works hundreds of times faster than a human and they can do anything instantly. Things outside their control feel agonizingly slow.
The problem with speedster characters is that every Hollywood writer is a dumbass who thinks the character needs to fast enough for them to slow down time for their powers to be interesting. Know here's a quick example of why that idea is utterly fricking moronic. When the Flash was rebooted Post Crisis there was some new ground rules set for Wally right away. His top speed was only about 70mph as well he had the weakness of needed to replenish calories. This made for interesting set up in stories as he could just speed blitz everything. It also made it feel really earned when he eventually became stupidly fast.
When did the whole SPEEDY = ZA WARULDO bullshit really start anyways.
I mean you see the Quicksilver scenes once and you think it's cool but then you think about it for any amount of time and it just fundamentally breaks the rest of the movie.
I think it would work better for this effect to be them going all out for (relative to them) a short amount of time.
You either constantly contrive situations to limit them or have "villain with the same power" syndrome.
What about a villain that counters them? Like a guy that makes inertia bubbles that, the faster you enter them, the slower you become.
Relies on the Villain knowing a speedster will show up/already having one setup and being inside it or else they get insta KO'd or taken to prison by the speedster before they can even do anything.
That or a powerset that slows the speedster down/makes them too hard to catch.
Basically when Flash really leaned into "GOES FAST" but people usually neglect the whole it's only for special occasions. Like just don't have Quiksilver be THAT fundamental to the movie or give something that gives him a real challenge. You've literally got anything you want at your disposal You really can't think of a cool counter for a speedster if you want to keep him in the movie?
>How do you write a compelling story speedster characters?
Take away their attention span and make them charming idiots.
……. Hey!!
>Make him able to move normally at supersonic speeds, he could go ftl and beyond but when he stops his body will hurt like hell for several days.
>Set the story in a cyberpunk future so the current technology could rekt him if he isn't careful
>From his perspective he sees himself running like anyone else therefore it wouldn't be fun for him to run long distances. This changes when adrenaline or survival instincts hits.
>He could slow down his perspective speed but he isn't super smart. He could manage to get the same level that a normal college student could reach if you give him unlimited time.
>He can time travel but he won't do it 99% of the time because when he goes back in time he arrives in a place where he already exists and there is no way to go back because he nuked his universe of departure.
>His attacks have a pattern and he can get btfo when an enemy realizes it
Don't make them jobbers or overpowered.
Make one of their villains an F-22 Raptor run by a program that has an irrepressible urge to seek out fast things and fight them to the death because it's programmed to win dogfights but it's an F-22 so it gets blueballed outbofnit because nobody can fricking see it much less dlgfight it.
It's hard. I love speedster feats and the closely related time manipulation feats, but it's hard. My favorite story which combines both, DIO's World, just gives two guys the same powers so it's just who fights smarter.
And I'm not sure there's a way around it. The exhilaration of speedster feats is how they trivially topple an entire scene while having time to be goofy doing it. They're the peak of power fantasy. Beyond strength or flight, they gain control of the very world. Once you make them fight someone who can keep up or otherwise pose a threat, being a speedster isn't very interesting.
Just make it so his senses don't ajust as quickly as his speed. This way even if he can go supersonic in an instant he'd only be able to a dash/charge. In order for him to make turns and move stuffs he has to slowly increase his speed making him waker in fighting scenarios.
Make their maximum speed much slower, or make it so that their ability to go super fast is limited for whatever reason. Maybe it's just that the faster you go the faster you exhaust yourself.