My Hero Academia 2: I will endeavor to become a thread you can be proud of

[Callos_DeTerran]

Tragically.

Ah well, maybe some day we'll get a writer who knows how to actually use immensely strong punch ladies correctly *trips all over my own self aggrandizing*

I'll settle for immensely strong punch people period at this point. I've seen completely OP played wrong way more than I have right! And no, One Punch Man is not right.

Still, Tsunade has enough personality she was still one of my favorite characters from Naruto.

[LaZodiac]

I'll settle for immensely strong punch people period at this point. I've seen completely OP played wrong way more than I have right! And no, One Punch Man is not right.

Still, Tsunade has enough personality she was still one of my favorite characters from Naruto.

Well, once I'm done my novel you'll be the first to know

[Reddish Mage]

I've seen completely OP played wrong way more than I have right! And no, One Punch Man is not right.

Those are fighting words. Let me get my enormously overpowered BFG.





Ah well until I can get these enormously satisfying explosive images properly displayed you can have your opinion.

[Lord Raziere]

I'll settle for immensely strong punch people period at this point. I've seen completely OP played wrong way more than I have right! And no, One Punch Man is not right.

Still, Tsunade has enough personality she was still one of my favorite characters from Naruto.

Its what I call the OP Hero Problem: The stronger a hero gets, the less beings you can make to counter them and be a credible threat. For example a One Punch Man like character the counters you can make are:

- the Intangible: people with powers to evade getting punched (either incorporeal, or really fast teleportation, or a really strong shield, but all of these have the problem of potentially rendering One Punch Man too ineffective)

-The Lex Luthor: someone so smart that they can execute their plans to success even when One Punch Man interferes and stays so far away from the action that OPM doesn't know who they are. (falls apart the moment OPM gets within punching range while knowing their real identity, Lex only works because Superman is too moral to punch him hard enough to kill him)

-The Cell/Boros: someone with REALLY good regeneration (a common one in anime, but given that many regenerators in anime at least have died for real, it only goes so far)

-The Immortal: they literally can't die, even if they wanted to. (can work to make OPM have to be more creative with what they have to punch if the person employs other things to be his offense, but doesn't really provide a good fight since whats the point of punching them?)

-The Mirror: Someone is just as strong, fast and durable as OPM, if not stronger. The most common solution in anime. (Can lead to some cool fights given the even playing field, but it can get samey if the person doesn't have some creative techniques of their own to back them up, the only solution after you beat one is to make an even stronger one that makes things ever more ridiculous, thus making it harder to solve the problem each time. the Dragonball franchise is the most infamous for this.)

The Group: Get all the people you possibly can to try and wear the person down with numbers, they can't punch them all! (Never works. In a sane universe there'd only be so much energy you have in your body and only so many times you can super-punch things until you get tired and die from being overwhelmed by mooks, but any action hero verse will ignore that in favor them surviving. The smart counterpart to this is the Team, a group of elite people who competently carry out various roles to take people down together, but if they don't ever actually succeed, they risk becoming a Team-Rocket-esque group of people who despite their supposed competence find themselves failing ever since they keep fighting OPM)

The Esoteric: you have some power or trick so weird that no one sees it coming. (problem with this, is that the OPM character wins anyways, often because they overcome it with Teh Pure Powah or something that is complete nonsense, for example Shinso: the only reason Midoriya wins THAT is because the inner power of his inherited quirk comes out of nowhere to bail him out even though he was under Shinso's control. the more intelligent versions of course figure out the trick of the ability and find a way to counter that, but once the counter is KNOWN well.....its not all that interesting to fight them anymore, and no one bothers to make these characters plan around the weaknesses of their powers. this kind of thing hits illusionist characters facing OPM characters pretty hard.)

The Anti-Magic: You can lessen or shut off the power of others entirely (in theory this is a good counter, but if it shuts off the power entirely it just renders the OPM character completely ineffective and defeats the point of having that character there to begin with, even if it introduces more drama and tension because if the power isn't used, then why are you putting that power there?)

but this is of course, a light example of OP character counters to challenge them. One Punch Men are a relatively tame brand of Overpowered characters, as they are basically really high level fighters. its gets harder when you grant the OP Hero things that are more flexible in application and effect. the point is, for any OP power, there is only a limited number of options to plausibly counter them and given the storytelling convention of the heroes journey, even those won't work for long.

[lord_khaine]

I mean, I admit its not something everyone can do, I was just pointing out that it is something that does happen in soccer, its more a matter of reaction and aim than martial arts. If he has gotten any training please point it out, my knowledge of the series is spotty but what little ive seen implies his training was more, "Try to hit me!" Than, "Here, repeat these moves over and over till its second nature. Now repeat these moves over and over till tis second nature." Think like what zero g girl learned from her internship from gun head about a move to disarm a knife wielding psycho. He walked her through it and presumably she practiced it enough to pull it off flawlessly against the creepy blood girl in the forest.

But martial arts are all about reaction and aim. And those guys you gave examples of are to soccer, what Shaolin monks are to martial arts.
For that matter, when it comes to actual combat training, then i will put my money on the "try to hit me" version any day of the week. Thats actually more advanced martial art training than the "repeat these moves" bit. The first is dynamic training. Thats something you can use in a real situation. The second is static training. Its something that prepare people with 0 practical experience for dynamic training.

Absolutely not. The only thing he gets is less and less screen time as the series go, and there's a good chance the current arc will lead to him not being part of the main cast at all.

I would say its a long time since he were even near to be part of the main cast.
I see them as consisting of Deku, Ura, Bakugo, Ida, Todoroki. And im honestly not certain about if i would call Ida and Ura support cast instead.

Ah well, maybe some day we'll get a writer who knows how to actually use immensely strong punch ladies correctly *trips all over my own self aggrandizing*

Well its less know how to use them, and more want to. Or likely dont want to in this case. I think you can count on 1 hand the number of important people the girls were allowed to defeat.
Its why despite all its flaws Fairy Tail still holds a place in my heart, for bringing the first well done female action heroine to the big manga market. Oda's heroines all have a lot of importance to the story, but none are front rank fighters.

Its what I call the OP Hero Problem: The stronger a hero gets, the less beings you can make to counter them and be a credible threat. For example a One Punch Man like character the counters you can make are:

Thats a quite well done list. And also i think a decent take on the situation.

[Traab]

Naruto gave us a surprisingly good counter to the OP character. Make him kill himself. Fighting the third raikage not even his best techniques worked (at the time, had it taken place an hour later, who knows?) but he was able to figure out the only time he had ever been seriously hurt was when he slipped and hit himself with his insta kill technique. So he deflected OP and made him hit himself with his attack, thus crippling him and allowing him to be beaten.

Oh and,

But martial arts are all about reaction and aim. And those guys you gave examples of are to soccer, what Shaolin monks are to martial arts.

But then you end up with Shaolin Soccer, which is a thousand times more impressive.

[LaZodiac]

Its why despite all its flaws Fairy Tail still holds a place in my heart, for bringing the first well done female action heroine to the big manga market.

I'm ****ing dying Khaine there's no way in hell you actually mean this, Erza is terrible!

[lord_khaine]

I'm ****ing dying Khaine there's no way in hell you actually mean this, Erza is terrible!

Im ****ing serious! She is great. Though perhaps more great in the first ½ of the manga, than in the second.

[Reddish Mage]

Im ****ing serious! She is great. Though perhaps more great in the first ½ of the manga, than in the second.

She does appear to peak early. Has she gotten any major power ups in the last 100 issues, or even like a good side-arc or something?

[LaZodiac]

She does appear to peak early. Has she gotten any major power ups in the last 100 issues, or even like a good side-arc or something?

Oh no she continues to be ****ing immensely powerful and relevant.

The problem is that she's a **** character so who cares. Her powers are dumb and her design is awful and overly sexualized and she doesn't actually exert any effort. She literally breaks through having all of her nerves set to make even the slightest breeze crippling, having her eyesight taken away, and still wins the fight because IN UNIVERSE STATED "because she's Erza".

That's stupid. Erza Scarlet sucks.

[The Fury]

the creepy blood girl

My nickname for her is "Toga Party."

Oh no she continues to be ****ing immensely powerful and relevant.

The problem is that she's a **** character so who cares. Her powers are dumb and her design is awful and overly sexualized and she doesn't actually exert any effort. She literally breaks through having all of her nerves set to make even the slightest breeze crippling, having her eyesight taken away, and still wins the fight because IN UNIVERSE STATED "because she's Erza".

That's stupid. Erza Scarlet sucks.

...I guess bailing on that series after the first season was a a smart move on my part. Though to put my cards on the table, Erza wasn't even established as a main character at that point so I never had much of an opinion on her.

So, on the topic of MHA, the scenes with All For One have me wondering if we've seen the last of Stain. Maybe he does show up in a chapter I haven't seen yet, I'm not sure. But I'm mainly curious about what he thinks of his fan club.

[LaZodiac]

My nickname for her is "Toga Party."



...I guess bailing on that series after the first season was a a smart move on my part. Though to put my cards on the table, Erza wasn't even established as a main character at that point so I never had much of an opinion on her.

So, on the topic of MHA, the scenes with All For One have me wondering if we've seen the last of Stain. Maybe he does show up in a chapter I haven't seen yet, I'm not sure. But I'm mainly curious about what he thinks of his fan club.

Stain probably hates the piss out of Spinner, who carries all of his symbolism but without any of the actual understanding.

And boy don't let me get started on Fairy Tail. I have Stories. Stories comparable to Bleach's necrophiliac trans character.

[Callos_DeTerran]

*Insert Long Post with some good points*

See, that isn't my problem with OPM. My problem with OPM is that its not interesting and, worse, seems to go out of its way to be uninteresting. Its played too seriously to be a comedy but the main character showing up turns any fight into a complete joke. Its a shonen character at the end of his series somehow being at the very beginning of it and...its just light and noise. I can't even grow attached to the side characters because of how unimportant they are!

OPM has a good opening song and sinfully well made to the point its practically another joke, but I came out of watching the first season actively angry at the series for wasting my time on nothing.

Well its less know how to use them, and more want to. Or likely dont want to in this case. I think you can count on 1 hand the number of important people the girls were allowed to defeat.
Its why despite all its flaws Fairy Tail still holds a place in my heart, for bringing the first well done female action heroine to the big manga market. Oda's heroines all have a lot of importance to the story, but none are front rank fighters.

I don't often agree with LaZodiac, but I do on Erza. She's a compotent combatant that stays relevant throughout Fairy Tail, but as a character she starts off okay, gets to good, then descends into terrible at break neck speeds. Oda, for not having his heroines as front line fighters, uses his heroines better than Fairy Tail did the vast majority of its. Exception being Lucy, silly fan service jokes aside, the most emotion that series ever got out of me all involved Lucy in some capacity and she still had interesting fights.

[Kato]

Not to take the thread derailing further but while I can very much see both positions on Erza (in my opinion by Fairy Tail standards she was okay, as in Hiro probably did his best making her a good character but... well, there's only so much you can except from Hiro. Sorry, sensei)... What was I saying? Ah right. Ignoring stories like Sailor Moon and considering DB wasn't that good with its physically strong females (too bad Arale / Slump never caught on in the west too well), there still was a popular enough series with at least a few capable women (though either you wippersnappers are too young to remember or maybe was less popular in the US) : Ranma 1/2. Yes, they were kind of overshadowed by the guys, and the core of the story sets most up in a bad position but there were more than one kickass women in the cast. And to a degree Ranma herself.

[The Fury]

Stain probably hates the piss out of Spinner, who carries all of his symbolism but without any of the actual understanding.

I'd say that none of Stain's in-series fan club really get what he's all about. Spinner probably comes closer than most, what with him actually understanding that some heroes are "worthy" and shouldn't be killed, though he doesn't seem to grasp why.

He's also got the most hilariously ridiculous weapon I've seen in a long time. With a few belts, lots and lots of zip ties and a little patience you can turn twenty swords into one big sword!

And boy don't let me get started on Fairy Tail. I have Stories. Stories comparable to Bleach's necrophiliac trans character.

But you've already started on Fairy Tail! Though it seems the less I know, the better.

See, that isn't my problem with OPM. My problem with OPM is that its not interesting and, worse, seems to go out of its way to be uninteresting. Its played too seriously to be a comedy but the main character showing up turns any fight into a complete joke. Its a shonen character at the end of his series somehow being at the very beginning of it and...its just light and noise. I can't even grow attached to the side characters because of how unimportant they are!

OPM has a good opening song and sinfully well made to the point its practically another joke, but I came out of watching the first season actively angry at the series for wasting my time on nothing.

Not to open a can of worms or anything, but I actually agree with your "complete joke" point despite the fact that I loved One Punch Man. From what I gather, the subjective difference seems to be whether either of us found the joke funny. I obviously did, and it seems you did not.

[lord_khaine]

But you've already started on Fairy Tail! Though it seems the less I know, the better.

Nahh.. the degree of stories there are is wastly exagerated.
When Fairy Tail is good, its great. When Fairy Tail is bad, its -awful-
But i would place it above Naruto and Bleach all the same.

[The Fury]

Nahh.. the degree of stories there are is wastly exagerated.
When Fairy Tail is good, its great. When Fairy Tail is bad, its -awful-
But i would place it above Naruto and Bleach all the same.

Fairy Tail is also a show that didn't really grab me after the first season and has so far been tricky to watch. (For whatever reason, Netflix defaults to the Japanese audio with no subtitles no matter which language settings I choose. Weird.) Though if you stuck with it longer than I did and got something out of it, more power to you I suppose.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Nahh.. the degree of stories there are is wastly exagerated.
When Fairy Tail is good, its great. When Fairy Tail is bad, its -awful-
But i would place it above Naruto and Bleach all the same.

Man, peoples own opinions and all but this is quite literally the first time I've ever heard this one! I enjoyed early Fairy Tail but I wouldn't call its peaks great and there's way more valleys than peaks.

Fairy Tail is also a show that didn't really grab me after the first season and has so far been tricky to watch. (For whatever reason, Netflix defaults to the Japanese audio with no subtitles no matter which language settings I choose. Weird.) Though if you stuck with it longer than I did and got something out of it, more power to you I suppose.

The Fairy Tail anime is...not...good. At tleast the first season isn't, its a big offender of reusing stock animation and other things. Hopefully it gets a 'Kai' treatment someday when it gets basically remastered so that it has the quality that early Fairy Tail deserves.

[Kato]

Just noticed I missed the last Vigilantes chapter. Not much to say, though. Decent resolution of the mini arc, but our new villain sure has an OP quirk. And luck that the police is a little clueless.

New chapter is just kind of harmless fun, but I honestly feel Vigilantes is best when it does that. Poor Koichi, though. Sometimes it seems the world hates him.

[LaZodiac]

{scrubbed}

Anyway, new chapter! IT RULES!

Spoiler

Show

We get an idea of how the battles are going to be played out, and it's pretty clear we're gonna be seeing all of them in action. I'm not super keen on the team ups, but I like it. I also like how they're integrating Shinso into it, it's cool.

The first fight seems like it'll be an utter squad for Class A, but...we see that even if he's behind everyone, he's nothing if not determined to go the distance. That face mask of him lets him ALTER HIS VOICE so he can sound like anyone he wishes. Which PERFECTLY works with his quirk. How can you tell he's talking if you don't know his voice? He captures the Beast quite handily with that, ending off the chapter with the reveal of his special move name...PERSONA CHORDS.

[Anteros]

Fairy Tail does have some questionable moments, but overall it's not as bad as people make it out to be. The most important thing is that if you're enjoying it, it shouldn't matter if someone else liked it.

[LaZodiac]

{scrubbed}

[Reddish Mage]

{scrubbed}

[LaZodiac]

{scrubbed}

[kjelfalconer]

On the one hand Zodi, I know full well from experience your grasp of the actual details of Fairy Tail's plot tends to be sketchy due to the fact you loathe every self inflicted moment you spend reading it, but on the other hand, sex magic guy wasn't actually their son. He was just a demon Zeref made who was kind of delusional.

Their actual son was August.


But back on topic.

Spoiler: New Chapter

Show

Funnily enough, ten minutes before I read the chapter I was having a conversation with someone about how strong the vine hair quirk is. Cut to the chapter, and they're saying the exact same thing. 'Twas spoopy.

But yes. SHinsou is a Very Good Boi, and we're all very proud of him. And Kiri remains pure human sunshine and must be protected.

[LaZodiac]

On the one hand Zodi, I know full well from experience your grasp of the actual details of Fairy Tail's plot tends to be sketchy due to the fact you loathe every self inflicted moment you spend reading it, but on the other hand, sex magic guy wasn't actually their son. He was just a demon Zeref made who was kind of delusional.

Their actual son was August.


But back on topic.

Spoiler: New Chapter

Show

Funnily enough, ten minutes before I read the chapter I was having a conversation with someone about how strong the vine hair quirk is. Cut to the chapter, and they're saying the exact same thing. 'Twas spoopy.

But yes. SHinsou is a Very Good Boi, and we're all very proud of him. And Kiri remains pure human sunshine and must be protected.

I'll be perfectly honest I ENTIRELY forgot that twist because it's so ****ing pointless.

Spoiler

Show

And yeah, Ibara's vine hair kicks ass. Her personality being kinda like that plant girl from Sky High makes her a really fun character, I think.

Kirishima hears Shinso say "I'm not here to make friends" and genuinely does not understand what this means. It's great.

[Reddish Mage]

{scrubbed}

I was trying to say that phrase is not appropriate to the story you described. That’s just going by your own words. I’ve a feeling there’s more to complicate the story you want analyze in stark terms but haven’t read the arc.

Speaking of sexualization, What about MHA? I’m seeing a lot of classic girl gendered-archetypes on full display. Is this better than Fairy Tail simply because they do characters with a bit more nuance?

[lord_khaine]

{scrubbed}

[Traab]

I was trying to say that phrase is not appropriate to the story you described. That’s just going by your own words. I’ve a feeling there’s more to complicate the story you want analyze in stark terms but haven’t read the arc.

Speaking of sexualization, What about MHA? I’m seeing a lot of classic girl gendered-archetypes on full display. Is this better than Fairy Tail simply because they do characters with a bit more nuance?

There are entire tiers to sexualizing characters. Unless I missed the arc where every female involved in MHA, including our elderly nurse, all decided to jump into the stadium and start modeling fetishwear in some obscure competition that got way out of hand. *cough*

[Callos_DeTerran]

Speaking of sexualization, What about MHA? I’m seeing a lot of classic girl gendered-archetypes on full display. Is this better than Fairy Tail simply because they do characters with a bit more nuance?

Archetypes are not bad in and of themselves. Its all a matter of how you handle and present them.