Overpowered Part 2: Action
Our journey into overpowered continues today with a talk about overpowered action characters. These are three good and one bad, though arguably good for a different reason, example of overpowered done right. But first, what makes an overpowered character. These are characters that plow through obstacles. They don’t lose fights because they’re too strong to properly challenge. They can practically do everything needed of them. Sounds boring, and for the most part it is. Usually this removes any tension from a story because you know the main character is just going to win with little to no resistance. Unless the writer finds ways to create tension or otherwise make the character interesting the audience is just going to lose interest in the story.
With that said let’s start with Jinwoo Sung, the most recent character to tow the line. Jinwoo is practically invincible. He only struggles twice that we see once he gains his powers, and even then struggle is still not quite right. Yet for some reason we stay drawn to this guy who seemingly can only win. Why? Mystery of course. Jinwoo Sung is a mystery. Is he human anymore? Where did the system come from and why him? Is he even on our side, or is he going to turn away from the world? Jinwoo draws us in because we can tell that even he isn’t sure how he fits in the world now. Unfortunately this is also why of my examples of good overpowered writing I have to give a caveat right now. Jinwoo sucks upon rewatch. Solo Leveling relies heavily on suspense but it tends to be only suspenseful the first time. Once we’ve seen how he navigates his new powers the charm fades. There’s no stakes because there never were to begin with. In a way Jinwoo illustrates how to write overpowered to be a one and done story. He’s great at first, until we’ve seen behind the curtain.
So how do we sustain an overpowered character’s interest? Well if you’re Frieren you do a mix of meditative and reflective storytelling. Some of this is accomplished through Fern, our human mirror used to parallel Frieren. Through Fern, a character that maybe arguably more powerful than Frieren, we are able to ground the overpowered Frieren. Take the demon fight involving Aura. The parallels here are everything. Fern and Stark fighting the demon pair in town show the strength of demons as well as Fern’s hidden potential. A potential that hints at what Frieren’s own power is. A calculated, manipulative strength used to lull others into a false sense of security. Frieren doesn’t even try to fight Aura, sticking with dispelling her magic instead. Similarly Fern seems to be on the back foot during her fight as well. And then we see the reversal. Both have been leading their respective opponents to defeat. There were clues throughout and on rewatch these become easier to pick up on. I think this works so well in the writing because of the slower, more methodical approach. The writer doesn’t just hand us the win, which creates tension by making the audience unsure how the victory is going to come about. Another prime example is in the Mage Test arc. Without spoilers the arc ends not quite how you would think it would. Well Frieren knew how it would end and mentions as much.
Ok so far it seems if you want your overpowered character to truly stick the landing you need clever writing right? Well maybe not exactly. Enter Rimiru Tempest. He’s just a little slime, slurp. And also a demon lord. That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime doesn’t hide how powerful its characters are. It basks in it. So how does it pull off being interesting? By not being an action series exactly. Slime is a political fantasy series, where the problems arise from balancing trade and nation relationships more than if Rimiru can defeat the enemy of the week. When the action hits it is amazing, but the focus is on Tempest first and foremost. How is this nation of monsters going to thrive in a world that looks down on them, even actively tries to kill them? Because the story isn’t about Rimiru curb stomping his enemies we don’t actually run into the overpowered problem. In my opinion writing the story this way is my favorite way to have an overpowered character because it removes the risks of power scaling. Sure Rimiru is constantly getting stronger, but the focus isn’t in the power of one versus the world. Instead it is in how one can affect the world in their own way, and the ripples that come from it.
Running off that example, what happens if you fail to get any of these ideas right? In BOFURI we have Maple, a character that is so overpowered it breaks the world she exists in. There is almost never any tension in BOFURI. Truthfully that’s not the point, this is a comedy slice of life after all. But through Maple we can see why getting an overpowered character right is so important. Because if she was in a more serious anime she’d be very boring. Admittedly she can be boring at times in this series. After all there is only so many times you can go “ha ha, look how ridiculously strong this character is” before the audience quits caring. This did happen to me during one of the arcs. I was bored, only finished it because I was curious to see how it would end. It’s very hard to recapture the audience’s interest once you lose it. Losing it even once can spell the end for your story.
So what did we learn? If you’re going to make an overpowered character you can’t beat the audience over the head with their power. You can use suspense to build interest but make sure you don’t make it a one trick kind of tension. And if nothing else, you can pull the story back to be focused more on how the character affects the world. After all, actions have consequences. Overpowered characters are extremely hard to write, but if you can get it right it can be very interesting.
