#unusual request

The easy bits

The first thing Genos brings to the table is a clear answer to 'what is your why'. He knows what he wants to do and why it matters. Everything comes back to that. His commitment, determination, courage, creativity it all comes back to this clarity. 

He doesn't confuse his ends with his means. We knew him most as a fire-wielder, but he has been more than willing to consider anything that furthers his end goal. Which is why he's following Saitama, as far a non-obvious mentor as you could ever imagine. He has both added to mindset and to his fighting repertoire and he is continuing to develop. You never quite know what Genos is going to do next, but it will be congruent with his goals.

The thing that first made me like Genos though, rather than look at him as just another shonen-esque character was the way he dealt with unsolicited praise. By ignoring it. He recognises and respects genuine expertise, like Bang or the way he has been keen to see what other heroes can do. Genos may be willing to consider anything, but especially with unsolicited advice, if it doesn't come with substance, then whether you're calling him a goose or a genius, it's meaningless.

He hates losing as much as anyone else, maybe even more. It comes with so many complications over and above the pain and peril. The humiliation of being picked up off the ground. The knowledge that he's a source of worry and of trouble to others. And the pain of once again, failing to live up to his promises. But so far, he doesn't appear to have set himself a limit on how many times he's prepared to fall.  He gets the difference between a failed effort and a wasted one. If something can be reflected on, studied, learned, improved, upgraded, then it's not wasted effort. 

The last thing is something Saitama could stand to learn from him: he is letting his dreams grow with him. When Genos first showed up, he had just one dream: to find and defeat the mad cyborg. That’s all. Afterwards…die, I guess? Since then, he’s gotten both a smaller dream (rank in the top ten of the S Class) and a bigger dream (become the Symbol of Strength itself). He’s splitting his attention between them (right this moment, I’d say 90% ranking up, 9% the mad cyborg and 1% become Strength itself). As he progresses, how he weights those priorities will be changing.

It's an important thing. What a lot of stories of striving don't tell you is that dreams are often very achievable and if you're not looking forward, you can find yourself stumped for what to do next. Often sooner than you thought possible.

The not so easy bits

I'll reference another ONE work, 'Reigen'. In chapter five, Tome is asking Serizawa (who is a powerful psychic) how to get psychic abilities. When Serizawa asks what she'd do with it, she replies that she could use it for things like picking up the trash. To which Serizawa replies that if she's not the sort of person who would pick up the trash now, she won't be after getting psychic powers.

There are nicer characters than Genos is. More generous characters. More socially aware ones. Smarter characters. Stronger ones. Faster ones. Tougher ones. More skilful ones. Ones gifted with more talents -- hell if Genos had any innate talents they've long since been bagged up as hazardous biological waste and burned. Pretty much any positive attribute you can think of, someone is doing it as well, if not better than Genos can.  Without most of his flaws. 

But... to return to Serizawa's metaphor, Genos is the sort of guy who picks up the trash with what he has now, flawed as it is. He's not waiting to become a better person to aspire to great things. 

And thus, he’s the sort of guy who actually ends up cleaning that beach.