#opm meta

If it walks like a couple, ducks like a couple and acts like a couple, but then isn't a couple then what is it?

Saigenos is confusing when they're already so familiar and they do couple and intimate things for each other like they're already spouses. Heck, more than most couples do.

They're entirely comfortable being naked around each other, they've taken baths together, they cook for each other and eat with each other, they've folded laundry together, lived together, bodypaint misadventures together, festivals and fun games together, take relaxing vacations together, movies, fishing, swimming, driving, philosophical talks, busted monsters and crime and covering for each other, shopping together, laughed together and spiritually died together too.

Saitama just lost his job for Genos too, not giving a flying fuck about his only source of income or house because Genos was in danger. If that's not commitment to somebody, idk what is.

Genos cooks and cleans and has no sense of privacy or space when it comes to Saitama too. He cleans his clothing and brings him towels and underwear when Saitama takes a bath. Genos also has a thing for Saitama's sculpted body. It's also a little wonder Saitama isn't even a little bit romantically inclined towards Genos when he pines after that warmth that comes from being involved with someone. The joke is that if Genos was a woman, she'd def be a love interest. It's a head scratcher that Genos isn't Saitama's type when he enjoys his company so much that he's willing to destroy planets on his behalf.

I'm just wondering...where does familiar intimacy end and becomes something more? Only ONE seems to know, he likes to teeter on the edge of that line apparently.

What I mean is, the webcomic and manga up until the surface fight really set Garou up as this young man with a lot of issues. He's antisocial, angry, coming from a childhood full of physical and emotional abuse from peers, teachers, probably parents. He's set up as someone with clear psychological problems, someone who self-isolates, doesn't have the skills to form healthy relationships, someone who is so negatively affected by his past that he wants to become a literal monster and goes as far as beating the shit out of other people (heroes) where they end up in hospital. The webcomic and manga (up to the surface fight) set this up beautifully.

And then it is suddenly reversed 180 degrees where he is so clearly soft baby good guy. It used to drive me up the wall, now it just puzzles me and not in a good way. Yes, of course Garou's character development was always heading towards him calming down and learning to reintegrate into society.

But the WC did it better not because it's the WC but because it follows logically that for someone with that many mental health/self-image issues reintegration was going to be a difficult and slow process. The key words being difficult and slow.

Instead, the manga went from 0-100 in a few days and completely turned his personality to some sort of cheery 'jock abomination' as one Reddit commenter put it. I'm still scratching my head like wtf man.

As I said many times before, I don't want Garou depressed forever. I just think the manga is very superficial in its treatment of his character development at this point. If they really wanted something heart-warming it would have been so much better to see him face challenges in his reintegration and pursuit of friendships and take it slow and learn and grow from that. We could have seen him slowly opening up to someone, seeing that it's not easy for him but doing it anyway. Instead we now have a Garou who openly jokes and shows affectionate concern for others like it's nothing, like he never had any issues at all, whereas all the years prior to this he kept himself tightly wound and keeping everyone at arms length and snarling at almost everyone who tried to get close.

Don't tell me that years long trauma and deep psychological defenses were overcome in the span of a few days or even a couple of weeks. Come on, man.

Don't set up such a complex deeply troubled character to basically erase it with a click of the fingers. It would have been so satisfying and heart-warming to see him open up and develop relationships in his own awkward, slow way where we could feel like it really takes effort and courage for him to do so. Like that saying, feel the fear and do it anyway.

What a damn shame.

Probably clutching at straws, but- what if Genos's final upgrade has a piece of Saitama's DNA in it. And he will end up removing his limiter and *even maybe* being a genuine threat. WC Saitama would have real trouble treading the line between his hero responsibilities and personal emotion then.

(Chapter 156)

Drive knight's fight with saitama I think kind of hints a lot at what Genos and Saitama's inevitable confrontation may be like. Well I don't think Sai will swat Genos around like a house appliance like he did with DK because Genos is a human and Sai knows that. But it's also because he's human that he has the ability to remove his limiter, unlike DK's attempt with transforming into "Saitama".

like with genos's backstory getting played off for laughs because he monologues vs now seeing how his obsession with revenge makes him equate his self worth with power/he struggles to understand himself as a human instead of a commodity

or sonic's backstory about the ninja village getting comedically introduced with him bragging about his skills and then immediately getting punched in the balls vs now it going into the trauma and betrayal related to his past and that his upbringing didn't teach him any normal useful skills thus setting him up for failure

the story acts like it doesnt really matter or that it wont get brought up again initially, but as everything progresses and slowly gets worse and worse at some point the reader is like "oh fuck"

((it can probably be credited to the way the audience sees everything from saitama's eyes at first (since he tends to be a bit dense and apathetic) until it focuses on other characters and their individual arcs more but yeah))

Initially, I was a bit confused on why Genos is asking Saitama this again. It's already been addressed in the previous arc, and you'd think it's all well and done, but ONE makes a point on bringing it up again, and that Saitama's answer is different.

But that's because he's referring to two different things!

To recap:

this dislike of the arc's conclusion likely stems from the general dislike of "it's okay, we can just go back in time!" and "it was all a dream :)" style endings, specifically the idea that these endings, under any circumstances, are cop outs. i disagree. if One Punch Man ended there, with saitama travelling back in time to stop everyone's deaths and his fight with garou, i would be immensely dissatisfied with the ending. i think that would be fair. however, vitally, it does not. those events are only the conclusion to a single arc. it brings us to a similar situation as the ending of the lord boros arc, with a city destroyed but none of the important characters dead. therefore, i would argue that such a conclusion to an arc is par for the course for One Punch Man. but there is also the vital matter of "it was all a dream :)" situations and how, in my opinion, while often used as cop outs, they are not inherently so, and dogmatic insistence against them is detrimental to good writing. having every possibility on the table is important in order to develop a plot in the way best suited to it - it's simply lazy writing which misuses these possibilities.

the vital question here is: was the time travel ending of the Monster Association arc a cop out? no, it was not. in my opinion, the events which were reversed could nearly be considered expositional. the cosmic garou vs saitama fight and the events which caused it tell us a heck of a lot about the characters. that garou retains his humanity even after becoming monsterised - when he sees takeo dead, he realises that his actions have not led the world in the direction he hoped, which was always a fairer existence. (he's really not a bad guy at all.) what saitama is capable of - man caused untold destruction during this fight without much of a care, including nearly destroying the earth if not for blast and co; on the technical side, we are shown that his power increases exponentially in response to another being even beginning to approach his level of power, leading him to easily beat a puppet channeling the power of literal GOD. that saitama actually cares a heck of a lot about genos, and clings to him for his sense of humanity, which he is barely hanging onto. it also gives us a taste of god's power, for future reference. the only reason i don't consider it expositional - that is, a "what if" scenario purely for the audience's benefit, which fleshes out the characters under otherwise inaccessible circumstances - is that genos remembers. therefore, these events actually do impact the plot through him. (there's a chance that blast and co also know, which would also affect the plot, but i'm not sure.)

the ever-increasing stakes are vital. we're still within the time frame of shibabawa's great prophecy of a god-level threat. at first, we thought it was lord boros, then garou, and now it's looking like the god-level threat might literally be god. whose power we have gotten a taste of, thanks to the cosmic garou fight. things are very much not hunky dory. there is still plenty of opportunity for things to go terribly wrong, even if it didn't happen this time. especially now that we know that saitama is barely clinging to his humanity. the deaths of everyone he knew affected him for sure, but particular emphasis was placed on the death of genos, because he's saitama's hinge to humanity. (if you deny this, i will be forced to call into question your reading skills.) this ups the stakes in a unique way. before, the concept of genos' death carried far less weight. genos fans would be upset, naturally, and saitama would be pretty sad, because it was clear before this arc that he cared at least somewhat about genos. but now? we know how saitama will react to genos' death. and it's not in a sane manner. genos' death now carries with it the stakes of the earth potentially being destroyed and saitama losing his sanity. at least personally, i will look upon any close calls genos has in future with greater anxiety. this newfound knowledge that we have only gives more ground to the idea that the final enemy might be saitama. either the final enemy of the earth, if he turns into a villain (quite possibly due to losing his mind), or the final enemy of saitama himself, as he battles his depression and struggles to stay in touch with his humanity.

Disclaimer: Don't take this so seriously. I just love Saitama and more so Tatsumaki so this is a fun little side project lol If you're not a fan, then think of it as my little headcanon that I want to ruminate on.

So, I have been rereading OPM partly because it’s the Psychic Sister Arc being adapted in the manga now and I simply love Tatsumaki. I need more content of her before she disappears again (insert sad face) 

To be honest, it’s going well but I am stuck in Chapter 137. Like I keep saying repeatedly, I love Tatsumaki so this chapter needs more drilling into

 In the opposite spectrum, Chapter 77 is Saitama’s chapter. Here. we have insight of his psyche via King’s introspection. He feels lonely. He doesn’t feel any emotion anymore. He thinks strength is the only metrics to be had but now he feels bored out of his mind

King actually suggests Saitama to maybe have friends outside of the Hero’s association but he rejected it quite vehemently. He doesn’t need any more friends let alone outside of the Hero Association. (SO WHAT DO YOU WANT SAITAMA)

Here we have an overpowered hero who feels nothing.

On the other hand, we have Tatsumaki who feels every emotion in the maximum capacity.

Both person, with overwhelming strength, felt very alone

I still can’t make heads or tails on how to perceive Tatsumaki’s character and how I feel Saitama will have a profound effect on her debilitating psyche. You ask, why these two specifically and why not others? Because I want to shoo.

For sure, I think we’re all expecting it but Saitama is going to be the catalyst for her change. And by we, I mean maybe it's just me. Lol.

Blast was the one who put the curse in her heart and someone else is going to have to remove it. Who else but someone who actually parallels Blast but is more open to have positive relationship with other people?

Once Saitama utters the phrase “I’m just a hero for fun”, her mind has to go to Blast immediately. It has to!! But unlike Blast who told her to not expect anyone to come save her, this one’s going to be sticking with her.

And before all of you say it’s going to be Fubuki that should help her sister out, it’s not. At least, it's what I believe.

I think Fubuki is a hindrance to Tatsumaki. Tatsumaki feels obligated and responsible for her sister’s safety (Because Blast said so and she took it so seriously) therefore if she’s going to do any growing up, Fubuki needs to be out of the way.

For #1 to happen, Fubuki needs to have her own storyline out of her Sister's sphere. This is where Psychos and the Blizzard group comes into play, so many forthcoming things on that front (especially with the new scenes in the webcomic)

In Chapter 144, Fubuki mentions that she is gathering forces to help her sister so she can save her. This is why Saitama and Fubuki's arc are interconnected because Fubuki will be the leeway to connect Saitama and Tatsumaki's paths together

Saitama by way of meeting Fubuki was actually the reason why Fubuki understood her sister a little better (It's lonely at the top) which establishes that Saitama and Tatsumaki are one and the same person. They just need to realize this Fubuki panels that make a direct comparison between Saitama and Tatsumaki

They are good friends. "If you need some fight club or a hot chat, call me. You can come Nagi's home and eat with us if you dare, hehehe. We also have video games." Garou.

Garou is Bad' senior. (Nagi is a oc from my Garou's doujin)

I have lot of fun with all of them XD Hope you like it♥

nenée