So, as those who’ve been following this blog know, I’ve been
engaging with a lot of Japanese media lately, and especially anime and light
novels (with a bit of manga thrown in).
As in, I’ve read over 100 Japanese novels in the past six months. This is relevant because in the particular
subgenre I read, I’ve noticed a trend.
It goes like this:
1. Protagonist
is weak (or pretending to be weak)
2. Protagonist
gets strong (or is revealed as strong)
3. Protagonist easily overcomes all struggles with his power and story is boring.
This usually happens after it's clear the author's original
ideas have been used up, and now they just want to keep writing to make money /
they can keep getting praise for how awesome their protagonist is.
(On which note, check out my post on Telling
Your Reader Your Character Is Epic.)
But see, the thing is . . . super powerful does not equal
overpowered.
Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci is literally not only the
most powerful enchanter in the world but possibly in the multiverse, and he isn’t
overpowered. Why? Because he can lose. He can be outsmarted or teamed up on or
caught off guard. He doesn’t instantly
know the answers to mysteries. Other
magic users may use magic with which he is unfamiliar or for which he is
unprepared. The stakes are real. Regardless of power level, a character is overpowered
when their power negates the stakes. If the stakes are real, the character is not overpowered.
I’ll make three examples here of characters that look
overpowered but aren’t.
1. Character
seems super powerful but actually isn’t.
Glenn from Akashic Records of The Bastard Magic Instructor is
introduced as a third-rate magician. At first, I expected he’d be revealed to be super-powerful as a magic user, but
NOPE. What he has are such a good
understanding of magic theory and so much cleverness that he can somewhat
compensate for his lack of magical power. But only somewhat. He’s definitely the weakest person in most fights, and he can lose.
2. Character
is super powerful, but the antagonist is his equal or slight superior. Light from Death Note is possibly the
smartest guy in the world, an expert at charm and trickery and deduction;
furthermore, he has a supernatural power.
His antagonist, L, however . . . is barely his intellectual inferior,
and has many more years of experience plus funding and support from the world’s
police and a secret network. This makes
them equals or even gives L the edge.
3. Character
is, in fact, the most powerful—but this doesn’t solve his problems. My favorite example of this, because it’s so
ridiculously extreme, is The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History's
Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants. Anos
Voldigord, demon king of old, reincarnates with all his memories and powers two
thousand years later. Everyone else
seems to have forgotten powerful magic, whereas he is so powerful he can literally
kill someone with the sound of his heartbeat (and then immediately revive
them if he so wishes). In any contest of strength, he
instantly wins. But see, the stakes
revolve not around who is the strongest, but around whether he can convince
people of who he is and solve a 2000-year-old mystery. (Note: I’ve only read the first 2-2/3 novels;
the rest haven’t been translated yet.) So although ridiculously powerful, he isn't overpowered, because his power doesn't negate the stakes.
So, yeah, I’ve been having fun thinking about that. :)
