DOOM Eternal is one of the best power fantasies, combining subtle irony with also being DOOM. Power fantasies are much easier to do well in a game where *YOU* have the power.
@@bugseater1 that's what makes DOOM so good. It's tearing demons to pieces and fight for life, it requires knowledge and skills. If it was same but effortless and super easy, I don't think it would be same
@@Nethan2000 The love triangle isn't exactly a triangle either. It's just an angle. Also, a triangle is just a type of polygon. "harem" is more correct for Japan.
Kimi FW Well, I say polygon as in it has a higher number of sides than we have a name for. There is also always a different number of people involved in the harem, so I though it would work
@@kimifw58 not always. the more LGBT the harem has, the closer it typically comes to resembling a polygon. occasionally, there will even be new polygons inside of a sufficiently large harem. sometimes, it even becomes fractal.
"There once was a boy named Askan, living in the small village of Ivythorne. He wasn't the Chosen One, was of average intelligence and didn't hid any secret power. So, as expected, no one embarked him in any adventure to save the world, and the kingdom of Restinpith was destroyed by the Dragon invasion." Finished my book, i'm happy i avoided a bunch of tropes on the way. Gotta start thinking about a sequel now :p
lol, this is what i fear those people who view tropes as the root of all evil will one day write the equivelant of. the only true way to make a truly make trope-free story is to write a documentary, even then 9/10 cases real life is crazier than fiction imo so it will loop back to fantastical territory.
There once was a boy named Askan, living in the small village of Ivythorne. The king used magic to restore food stores during drought. A spell that kills indiscriminately, but fewer people than the drought would have consumed. Askan's mother is among those taken. Askan is relocated from town to meet up with his uncle in Restinpith. When Askan arrives he sees the King for the first time, and decides he's going to kill him out of revenge, but finds that most people don't agree with his conquest, because many more people would have died had the King not used his magic, and just as indiscriminately. Askan tries to use magic to kill the King, but it doesn't work. So Askan tries to kill the King in person, but accidentally assassinates the Queen Mother instead. Because Askan is a boy, and due to his understandable motivation, the King takes pity on him. He is not punished for his transgression, and the King teaches Askan to read and write. They eventually become friends, and Askan apologizes for wanting the King dead, but admits that he's still angry about his mother's death, the King admits that so is he. However the people of Restinpith loved the Queen Mother, and find the King's reaction to her assassin deplorable. They see the King's kindness as weakness, that along with other political pressures drive the people to overthrow the King and hang him while Askan watches in horror. Askan returns to his uncle, and admits his worst fear is that the magic he had used to kill the King actually worked, and that this was his punishment for trying. His uncle points out that not only could they not be sure the King's magic saved them from drought, they can't even know for sure that it killed his mother. But he is sure the King was never safe regardless of Askan's actions, after all, this is a King, and Askan is just one boy. Askan does not feel comforted by the thought, but decides the best use of his time is to help people.
Stan Lee once said "What's the point of making someone faster than a comet, more powerful than a locomotive if you don't care about the person inside the suit."
@@thenumber27issomehowtaken comics like Jason Aaron's Thor prove that good writers still exist in this day. My favorite part about it was Thor's interactions with the humans. It flesh out the character and made me like him again
Disappointed you didn't mention one thing about power fantasy: how lack of self-awareness hypocritical it almost always is. You fight one-dimensional greedy, power hungry, rapists villains, yet the *entire point* of the story is that the protagonist gets wealth, power, and girls for free without any efforts.
Good point. Power fantasy is about raising a characters power and status- but often fails to consider that the people they defeat to get there are probably not that much dissimilar to the protagonist moral-wise by the end of the book. A good subversion could be the protagonist realising that they are no better than the enemies they defeat....
@@ViewingChaos Negan is that in The Walking Dead comic. He throws around his power and the weight of the Saviors because he thinks he's the most capable and deserves it. Then Rick shows up, fucks the Sanctuary with the muzzle of an AK-47, and ends up throwing Negan in prison just to prove they don't have to be a totalitarian dictatorship to survive or problem solve.
@@anthonystromeyer1399 I saw a news article just recently about how US national debt just topped 24 trillion. But why get worked up about that now that we know with absolute proof the Fed will just magic as much money as they want out of thin air if there's ever something they feel they really need to prop up. All hail the petroyuan. How ironic considering the virus started in China.
The american way also involves making the protagonist suffer none stop for having powers. Spiderman, Thor and even Superman are constantly getting their loves one killed, revived and killed again but ten times more brutally every time. I can't even keep count of all the times they revived the kryptonians just to genocide them again. At least in shonen anime once the sad backstory concludes the MC is kicking ass none stop, sure mentors usually die but is not like its their wife, daughter and entire race.
@@rafaelglopezroman1110 I just wanted to give an example of anime/manga not being so surface-leveled as some people think. Even Re:Zero is just the one popular example and there are a lot of exponentially darker ones.
@@RuyVuusen yeah there are darker ones like Berserk, Kingdom and Vinland. The reason why I still bring up comics obssession with torturing their heroes is because that's the direction DC and Marvel have taken in the last two decades. Is gotten to a point were I can't read an event without someones family getting slaughtered, and a fuck ton of heroes been used as cannon fodder, only for them to be revive again and killed again in next event. At least in Berserk they stop torturing Guts with the revival of Casca. Manga and anime while they make their heroes suffer they always end up rewarding them something after they go through hell, in comics they reward them with the status quo so that is easier to screw them over again.
My mind is plagued by blank slate characters the audience is supposed to “relate” to that have every girl in a 100km will fight over. They infect my dreams and I can’t escape
My mind is ravaged by white female blank slates that the female audience is supposed to root for somehow despite her treating everyone like dirt and the only minority seen is usually demoted to Sassy Black Friend.
@@CombatSportsNerd personal opinion? Same thing as what happened with tsundere characters. Someone popularized and codified the trope with a character that wasn't just the trope but then hack writers decided to plain copy it and here we are. To the best of my knowledge, both cases are from fate stay night where yeah, the respective character is the trope but it's explicitly pointed out WHY and on top of that there's more to them. But then deen stay night popularized the the tropes and everything went downhill from there. But I'm pretty certain I am not knowledgeable enough for my assumptions to not be verified, this is just the conclusions I draw from what little I know.
Terrible Writing Advice's Ego has reached critical mass. If it is not destroyed soon, all life in the TWA universe will be consumed by their Ego's monstrous hunger.
Because if you like to enjoy things, you’re stupid and a baby and gay. When you’re a woke high IQ galaxy brain adult, everything has to be bleak and colorless and miserable. This is why I love YA fiction. For as much as people trash on it, at least it _tries to be enjoyable._
This is in contrast to the many MANY kids shows that depict everything as “sunshine’s and rainbows” Add that there many creative elements people have put in them. Adult cartoons have to do something else, less they end up borrowing elements from a kids show. And what can an adult cartoon have that a kids show can’t? Hopelessness, gore, and eroticism.
No you need to make its so the entire multiverse is salt AND the empty void of nothingness is salt as well, so that reality folds in on itself doubling the amount of salt with each of the billions of multiverses multiplying with salt as well as the empty salt void that breaks reality
We're in quarantine after Eternal's release, everybody is a Doom's guy now Btw remember that the longer the Icon of Sin is on Earth the stronger it will become
It is not power that corrupts, it is the fear of losing power that corrupts. A man with power will kill people to make sure they cannot take his power. A god in the top position would have infinite ability to multitask and thus would also not need to delegate to people who could be corrupted. You cannot offer them money to turn a blind eye to an evil scheme, they can summon anything. You cannot threaten them with violence if they do not turn a blind eye, they are invincible. If someone talks bad about them on the internet and tells everyone to rise up, what does it matter, 7 billion people on earth all trying to kick them out of office would fail because infinity is bigger than 7 billion so he has no fear of anything and thus cannot be corrupted.
@@starburst98 Could he be annoyed though? By all the petty attempt to rebel against him, ridicule him, challenge him? Or would he be impervious against such thing too? What about motivation? Did he even have need? If not why would he even do anything? He never got bore or empathic or hate or curious. Therefore he won't do anything. Just a being without purpose. Or did he had purpose? Given purpose? By whom, he's the strongest and didn't answer to anyone. By himself? Why would he task himself to do something he doesn't need? If he had need and want like normal human being then he could become tyrant. Not by the power, but to counter the challenge toward him. By fear that he'll fall, be disrespected, be forgotten. At that point could it be call corrupted? It's more like choices. If there are human on earth there'll be someone whom hate you and wish you ill, you might never have to met that person. But if you're all powerful being chance are you'll be famous and those people will know you and try to harm you out of envy, hate, or believe. When someone wish you ill, excluding offense, you could either grant their wish or change their wish. If you grant their wish you'll either losing all power or die or enslave by their endless needs. If you change their wish you're forcing their will. Either by manipulation or coercion and you became tyrant. Basically if you can grant their wish but you didn't, someone will still call you evil for it. If you have power that could not wield by others then you're a threat. And if you share your power with all of them then you became normal. And one day someone would wield the new absolute power power.
Hold on. Main Character powerful beyond imagination. Never trains/ Aces training on the first attempt. Faces no significant repercussions for their awful actions. Easily defeats the bad guy at the end. Gets all the love interests but isn't bothered by any of them since love could be interpreted as a weakness. Isn't this just a Mary Sue story?
Saw the title and thought “what good power fantasies actually exist?” Before realising, OPM and Doom are great, Barely into the video, and he references *both* at the *SAME* time. Beautiful
One more great power fantasy is Solo Leveling which uses power fantasy correctly in every way imaginable. Oh don't mind literally the entirety of the isekai genre cause that's a mess of greatness and trash.
@@dandanthedandan7558 dude you're like three levels too deep into literature class for anyone who dropped out of high school (most people) to understand you or maybe I'm just real dumb.
*the choices found along the distraction spectrum as of late fluctuate wildly between recreational pharmaceuticals and really, really bad fan-fiction variants written by self medicated artists pretending to be cutting edge and "gritty" ...and then there is the breath of fresh air (as inhaled through a face mask) that is found here on this life changing/life affirming channel hosted by an author who really cares about what his audience feels right at this moment...but these feelings are bolstered towards a more positive direction if those who comment also obtain his book and then many others to give out as gifts for their friends (assuming they have any)*
@Error try again later I hate all self-aware heroes (Looking at you Deadpool) and protagonists. I mean, dude, I'm watching this for a story, not some protagonist saying 'oh wow, look how quirky I am compared to other protagonists'.
@@bucket4255 Since when has a character who's broken the 4th wall ever said how "quirky" they're compare to another other protagonist, that a dumb reason.
"Oh-oh, we just stumbled into a training arc! Silly TWA, this isn’t an anime video! In the good ol’ US of A stories, we just hand our superpowers over to the main character for free!" that’s so freaking true it hurts...
Yeah! Just like Iron Man got his power through his amazing intelligence and liter made it himself! He totally didn’t earn that! Or how Captain America got his power through hard work and bravery! That totally didn’t feel earned. Or how Hulk got his power on accident and had to learn how to keep under control so that he wouldn’t kill everyone around him! Totally unearned! Or how Thor got banned from his homeland and literally had to prove he was worthy of his power to get it! Nah, that wasn’t earned at all! Superheroes aside, Luke Skywalker totally didn’t earn his power! Remember how he worked his ass off training to master it? Yeah, completely unearned!
@@LjuboCupic1912 Hulk: accident Thor: naturally gifted Spiderman: accident Superman: naturally gifted Flash: accident Wonder Woman: naturally gifted Cyborg: accident Aquaman: naturally gifted All the X-Men: naturally gifted (although some do go through something resembling training) And the list goes on... Honestly, apart from Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Batman, there are no big names which come to mind in terms of superheroes who worked for their powers, and even then, excluding CA, you could make the case they still had a massive benefit of inheriting large fortunes which allowed them to hone their talents sufficiently. Heroes who earn their powers other than retroactively are truly rare in many western genres to the best of my knowledge.
The worst part of this is when you make a D&D character like this. A character who is like a self-insert of you but better and more attractive, and then whining whenever your character fails.
I like characters who are attractive for their confidence and/or connections to the person attracted to them, like a childhood friend. That message is a lot better than "be attractive, get laid".
@@aaronlandry3934 Although it takes a talented writer to make a total power fantasy character wonderful, they have to realize that when you do have a character that strong you are often better off shifting the focus to an internal battle. The best Superman comics do this, so does One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100.
"Power Fantasy" more like "Power P*rn" I cannot enjoy most power fantasy stories because I feel like I'm reading someone's fantasy and the cringe becomes too strong. Like it is something private I shouldn't be reading in the first place.
Yep, I feel the same way. Same reason why I won't read most fanfiction, or stories on Wattpad. I just can't believe people are brave or crazy enough to put their very personal fantasies on the internet for all to see. It doesn't even matter if I was anonymous, I'd still die inside if anyone saw the power fantasy stories I'd written to cheer myself up during dark times.
@@Newfiecat You know, delving a little more in thought, I think that fear of exposing one fantasy may come as a barrier for artists with pressuring standards on themselves, and those power fantasies might be unrefined and their purpose be more therapeutic than aesthetic, but by showing it to other people who enjoy them it could be taken as a mean for social approval and liberation, while being their first steps on the artistic path. Still though, I would do it anonymously and if not, I probably would try to erase all evidence and witnesses later.
Nearly every story in western media is a power fantasy. It is a trope for a reason and some of the time it is done well. It is when it is done poorly that you notice the trope, and therefore hate it. The power fantasy is an element that can be called on but it becomes stupid when that is all you have in the story. It is like sugar. Just the right amount of it will give you a tasty Harry Potter cake. Too much will give you Disney Star Wars. All of the sugar will give you 99.999999% of all fanfiction ever.
Just curious though, what kind of story do you tend to enjoy. Nowadays it almost seems like every selection is power fantasy in one way or another, even if they're highly praised by critics, like Witcher or Game of Thrones and stuff. It's hard finding a well-balanced stories, unless you dig through some acient shounen manga
Hoang Kiên Vu Kinda weird for me to explain, I would say that catharsis in a story is my main focus but maybe that is too vague. Don't know if I am masochistic or something, but I get really invested in stories where the protagonist is on an endless struggle, even more when other characters like the antagonist are in the same boat, when they never completely "win", and every victory they achieve doesn't feel like it vindicates them. Aside from books (mostly historical fiction) If we are talking about action stories, I've enjoyed plenty of mangas, though only seinen manga (aimed for male adults) as sadly they tend to not be adapted in anime format. The most popular pieces I liked were Vagabond, Parasyte (20 years later it got an anime adaption!) and Shigurui. Dororo was a shounen manga which anime got a lot more serious. 91 Days was an Anime I didn't expect to like so much. I never got interested in shounen, (I remember liking Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note a little) but the Promised Neverland impressed me. If not action, Historie (from the same author of Parasyte) had a protagonist I could relate and boxing mangas usually do well with the learning curve as they are sport stories. I can't say for TV series, because I almost don't watch anything. Sorry for the long response, but action is not the main genre I read so I kinda specified. Aside from manga I don't know what I could recommend for an action series (never watched GOT, maybe in the future, and only watched Witcher for 3 episodes).
5:26 Just as an aside, this is one of my favorite things about The Empire Strikes Back. Throughout the training sequences, we see Luke failing every test, then he abandons his training to go fight Vader over the objections of both his masters... and totally gets his ass kicked. Which is exactly what *should* happen, but it's so rare to see a work of heroic fantasy actually let the hero fail so hard due to their own hubris.
That brings up a useful note that I think is important to conversations regarding Jedi and training: Luke learned nothing from it. At the end of his time on Dagobah, he has learned nothing but how to lift rocks, and he's pretty bad at that. The whole point of that brief aside was to have Luke not learn anything and enter his darkest hour, but assertions of Jedi needing training kind of hinge on that scene without remembering how it ended.
@@a.morphous66 But at the same time, at least as of the prequels, Jedi training started at a very young age and goes on for a decade or more. Luke was on Dagobah for a few weeks at most, maybe just a few days. And he didn't seem like a very good student. No wonder Yoda wasn't able to teach him much! (Which is why it's all the more ridiculous when he shows up at Jabba's Palace calling himself a Jedi, when you think about it.)
@@jasonblalock4429 The thing with Jabba's palace took place about a year after ESB I want to say I recall, and after Vader whupped his ass, Luke would have PLENTY of time to reevaluate some things.
The only isekai shows I've seen that are actually good are Konosuba, Log Horizon and Sheild Hero (not as good as the other two, but I still liked it). Let me know if I missed any^^
"Why would people want to escape reality right now?" Me: nervously looking at the pile of books I read within the last couple weeks and hiding my enormous YT playlist
Bold of you to assume that they aren't on the same side, and that Love Triangles centered on the Protagonist (I mean, that's totally how triangles work right?) aren't a form of Power Fantasy, or that Power and control over innumerable side characters aren't what Love Triangles lead to
@@oldmanlogan9616 It just seemed like he wanted to become stupidly op and watch the world burn. His main motive for hating Jonathan seemed to be that he's a naive rich kid that didn't seem to understand that the world is cruel. As for how he was gonna do it, since the stone of aja was destroyed, he switched to "ascending to heaven" or something like that (haven't got to part 6 yet).
@@oldmanlogan9616 His goal was to grow and grow. Ive read a little bit about Picasso, he learned how to draw people realistically really early in his life, and mastered it much faster than average person. So he tried to surprass it and go beyond realism, thats why his paintings were weird and ahead of time. Dio wanted to become stronger. Not strongest but go even beyond it, his stand described him. It gave him control on anything, but it was still getting stronger, growing. Just like he wanted. SPOILERS PART 6 HERE. In part 6 it was estabilished he wanted to achieve heaven, the power to become literally God. So goal of Dio (in spanish God) was to become God.
The actual Dio's goal was to achieve Heaven (if you read Stone Ocean you know what I mean) He said that neither immortality nor a powerful stand were able to make him satisfied At the end, all he wanted was to achieve the "peace of mind", obtaining the greater power he could achieve
@@princessdee-6580 you should read part 6, or wait for the anime adaptation I wanted to wait... But I couldn't resist so I read Stone Ocean, Steel Ball Run and Jojolion These three are now my favorite parts in JoJo
They've been leaking out for the last few videos, you'll notice. Given that he's in middle TN, which is where the first COVID 19 cases got reported here (I'm in the eastern part of the state and bracing for the worst), he's probably feeling the same uncertainty as the rest of us.
Yeah, at this point he might be getting kind of sick of the channel gimmick. At this point, I'd be happy to just see more honest thoughts videos from him
@@ryu9123 Dude, Shield Hero does everything to *avert* being a power fantasy. The main character actually has to work for a living (crafting items and trinkets to sell, fixing messes, learning to properly coordinate with his party, etc) from being screwed over on day 3, and the other three "heroes" wound up screwing themselves over BECAUSE they think they're in a power fantasy/wish fulfillment because of the RPG-like mechanics and cliche "save the world" set-up of the whole thing. And you can't call it a Revenge Fantasy either, since he doesn't actively pursue vengeance against Malty and the King. He's more focuses on doing his job so he can go home, with his party keeping him on the straight and narrow path the entire time. When he does get his long-sought revenge, it's handed to him on a silver platter by Queen Mirelia since her country was almost ran right into the ground and destroyed by their incompetence and blind spite, and she can't afford for Naofumi to leave.
You know Nietzsche once said, words like “cat” and “dog,” they’re often short words. (Which is, of course, genius). And I thought “Jesus, that’s probably true.” So he’s very insightful.
@@Dave102693 A story doesn't have to be only one thing you know. It can operate on multiple levels at once. It is a power fantasy whatever else it may or may not be.
Ideas for future videos we would love to see: Time travel and/or crossing dimensions Damsels in distress Sidekicks and best friend archetypes Plucky teenage protagonists Character backstories & motives
If you want those, OSP (Overly Sarcastic Productions) has Trope Talks on Damsels in Distress and backstories/motives. I think they have something on friend/sidekick archetypes but I don't think they have anything on the young witty protagonist types. Edit: They also have a fantastic vid on Time Travel
@@SirNeutral During it. He was talking to his buddy about the play and he randomly pulled his thing out and shot the president. He also likes his guns because you can do anything with it. Even shoot the president, it would seem...
"Uh oh, we just stumbked into a training arc. Silly Terrible Writing Advice, this isn't an anime video. In the good ol US of A, we just hand our main character superpowers for free!" Oh, ok, I was worried this was an anime video. Good to know it's a Light Novel one instead.
Weird think, america values hard work and changing your fate, but our heroes get handed their powers. Japan is more about conformity and keeping the status quo, but their heroes are the american ideal. Explains the popularity of shonen in the west at least
That describes the Legend of Korra perfectly. I mean she doesn't work to get any of that power it's because it's always handed to her. Airbending is literally just give it to her because of friendship power.
"our heroes get handed their powers." That's a load of bullshit. Most Superheroes do in fact train to get stronger and better control their powers as they grow and get older. Hell guys like Captain America and non super powered guys like Batman do almost nothing but train in their free time in martial arts and shit so all this "handed without training" nonsense is just non comic fans spewing bullshit without ever actually reading them. What's killing comics today is garbage politics and agenda's being shoved down reader's throats while the story and characters get butchered because of it.
@@dragonandavatarfan8865 Chivalry is a power fantasy that is actually done well because Ikki has to destroy himself to even have a chance of fighting anyone.
Yay, more terrible writing advice!!! My terrible novel was almost finished when I hit terrible writer's block. It was starting to actually get good in parts but now I can correct all that! Seriously though, I love these videos. They are so much fun!
Reminds me of this scene from Big Bang Theory. Sheldon: “The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed morality was a fiction to hold back the few superior men. It’s worth noting he died of syphilis.”
*gets nervous about my story because what Terrible Writing Advice says shouldn't be in a good story is in my story* "Uh oh. We just stumbled into a training arc! Silly TWA, this isn’t an anime video! In the good ole’ US of A stories, we just hand our superpowers over to the main character for free!" *wipes sweat from brow* "Got worried there." *continues writing The Irregular at Magic High School* "My name is Tsutomu Satō, btw."
Oh so I finally heard your name mustache dude. But meh we do hand the powers here in the US, is just we don't put layers upon layers to climb up later before the end story, so the protagonist does fine whit the starter pack. I know I am writing a fanfiction right now and the main starts up whit the same power level he ends the history.
Oh boy this is my biggest gripe about isekai. The hero starts out already the most powerful in all of creation and then goes on doing mundane tasks like gathering herbs while being the most powerful in all of creation and then continues doing ordinary things while flirting with his harem while safe in the knowledge that any threat can be beaten with a flick of his pinky finger.
Would be cool if, for all his unbridled power, he couldn't do more basic tasks and live a good life. Imagine a character that can easily upturn a tank, but that doesn't mean much because the situations he needs that level of power for seldom exist. Maybe his immense power makes him struggle with relating to your average Joe, making him a shut-in to everyone else too apathetic to help others due to just how distanced he was from the rest of society. Eventually, he does actually help someone for no real reason other than maybe him being bored, and the rescuee (will refer to as female to make it easier to write this) takes notice of his apathy. Maybe they bond and she helps him learn to care about people, involving him in social scenarios and overall being a good friend who teaches him to actually give a darn about his life. Maybe she helps him learn to do stuff, and he warms up a bit to his new buddy. Then, for the finale, he willingly chooses to protect people and you can see him become more human throughout the story despite still having all of his power
@@mrgreenboy644 The first half of this sounds like the concept for Mob Psycho 100, an excellent anime that avoids most of the tropes associated with power fantasy by telling a compelling story of a young boy trying to better himself without the use of his immense powers.
i've read so many of those that I now like my heros to get packed up personally like they gotta really be put through it for me to like them (yuji from jjk)
@@jackmakila3776 I mean the 3 free bingo space picks for being put through suffering would probably be Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night, Subaru from Re:Zero, and Guts from Berserk.
It's okay for your protagonist to be powerful as long as they still struggle in some way. Maybe the villain is even more powerful than the protagonist Maybe the villain is cunning enough to make up for the gap in power Maybe the circumstances put the protagonist in a position where their power is meaningless Maybe the fight against the villain really only acts as a catalyst for some form of internal struggle
@@user-uo9gg2zc6j Fairy tail definetly has a lot of that, Natsu can't fight one fucking generic bandit without reminding us that friends are everything and that he'll win for them, etc... It's unbearable But yeah other animes do that too
@@user-uo9gg2zc6j It is when he suddenly gets 10x stronger after getting absolutely wrecked by an antagonist just because he remembered his friendships. Then he beats the antagonist in 1 minute using an extremely OP attack that no one knew existed, *all thanks to the power of friendship*
"This (op character) will make the story as interesting as watching a steam roller flatten pavement..." Well, there are TH-cam Channels that are just things getting flattened.
Why is it even called a "love triangle" if it is just one person with two love interest? If it is a triangle, shouldn't the two love interests also be love interests of each other? What people call a "love triangle" is usually just a love angle.
easy, probably you have seen a character relationship guide before, those pages with lines that point to the characters and what are one to the other, there are three persons, two are romantic interest of the protagonist so you make a line between them and the protagonist, that also makes them rivals, draw a line between those two , is a triangle pd: sorry for my bad english
Dante Alghieri had power fantasy when he wrote Divine Comedy. He put his personal enemies in hell even when they're alive and put his waifu guiding him through heaven. Literally me
Actually no. While the OSP Video does frame it that way, keep in mind that Red herself has criticized the three videos later on for not being anywhere near thorough enough. (Such as the giant metaphor with the cart being completely glossed over as "Well that was weird!") The people Dante put in Hell were due to either religious reasons or political statements calling out the actions of some Popes. (One of the Popes, while in Hell, was even saying "Hey but X did Y too!") The reason why Dante keeps fainting is because he realizes *he's guilty* of a number of the sins punished in certain circles of Hell. As for Vergil being there... Okay yeah, that was totally fanboyism on his part.
In Dante's defense He was fair enough to also put loved ones of his in Hell if they were sinners Like his very teacher, who was gay (different times...very different times) and his idol, virgil himself, may be in Limbo, which is, like, Inferno lite But it's still the Inferno
It seems like a lot of critics, literature's academia, and high school English teachers think all media is either essentially like Crank or Ethan Frome, and only the later is worth existing. I proudly state that I enjoyed every second of the cinematic masterpiece that was Crank, and for every second that I read Ethan Frome I wished I didn't care about my English grade(in hindsight should have sparknoted). JP is right that the middle ground is enormous, and home to most books worth reading.
To be honest they aren't problem by themselves. Some of best stories were love-tingle-power-fantasies. Problem is with the word "overused" as many bad authors think that it is cheap replacement for the actual plot. One Punch Man is one of best examples of using such plot in smart way.
Love triangle can work as long as they not forced into the story. I have read too many books where the plot would go back to the cringe love triangle that i have no intertest in are just a pain too read.
there's this story I read called 'Gladiator' by Phillip Wylie, it's about a guy named Hugo Danner and how he had a scientist dad who injected his pregnant wife and gave birth to Hugo who had super strength, speed, durability, and basically better biology the thing is, while he is basically a superman, throughout the story, it shows just how complicated the real world is (well, before, during, and after world war 1) to the point where his powers were unnecessary and were more of a burden than a blessing (the author first thought of a man who was basically superman doing all of those feats but then thought of how it would be used in the real world and realized how unneeded they were since the world adapted to the fit the normal human, not the superman) it's not great literature but it was an interesting read and it sure was genre making (written in 1926 and published in 1930) Edit: 106 likes, holy cruds most likes I've had Edit: 413 likes, thank you everyone for liking and commenting
@@iliveinsideyourhouse3943 it came before superman (1938) so it's one of the first modern superhero stories in general It just so happens to also be one of the first deconstructions
I can never get people to listen to me when I point out that superhero discrimination stories make no sense because in traditional storytelling the protagonist is the person with _less_ power, _least_ likely to succeed against their opponent. Because we're supposed to watch them succeed against insurmountable odds. I find it interesting then that in a similar vein to the story you mention, the original short story that preceded the first appearance of Superman basically had him as Lex Luthor with superpowers. I mean, it's not very useful to your average person, but to a villain....
@@desubysnusnu But lets be honest we all have been beaten by a japanese dude online As a man once said "Roses are red, Violets are blue, There is always an Asian thats better than you" And this is coming from an Asian
@@roguepsykerhaaker4813 Which, if you think about it, isn’t that far off from real world power. Most top nations today have noticed that fighting and warfare, while required, is not that good for an economy, and that production, distribution, etc, are a lot more effective for a nation’s growth
Because it turns the power fantasy genre on its head (at least for the main character) and asks "how would it actually feels like to have unlimited power?" The answer is of course that it's boring a.f.
Welcome to almost every fanfiction about Harry Potter, Naruto, and Jaune Arc. Suddenly all these characters are suave genius's with godlike powers who do whatever they want and can't loose.
The 'suave genius' thing actually works for Naruto because he and Lelouch are manipulators who stopped at nothing to achieve their perfect worlds. Do you really think Naruto convinced his enemies by some bullshit 'power of friendship' shonen brainwashing? To be fair Kishimoto shot himself in the foot trying to portray Naruto as a lovable dumb knucleheaded. If you want to see what Naruto should have been as a character check out the light novel 'To be a Power Within the Shadows'. The criticism of Jaune and Harry is valid because unlike Naruto who will stop at NOTHING to achieve his goal of a perfect world, no matter WHAT the cost they just want to be accepted and seen as somebody. Harry accepted magic because he wanted to escape the Dursleys and Jaune went to Beacon because he wanted to surpass his family's expectations. To be fair both of them are more 'heroic' than Naruto who is just a badly written version of the Chessmaster archetype.
@@brendandubalos2149 nope sorry chief but everytime Naruto used "talk no jutsu" it always worked because it made sense from the villain's point of view and their arcs (Gaara and Naruto being Jinchurikis, Nagato and Naruto being students of Jiraiya and their ideas of Peace and Obito seeing himself in Naruto and feeling guilt). But no, villains turning good by talking to each other instead of being needlessly edgy and depressing is terrible and bull for some reason
What's inspiring is that I'm currently writing a power fantasy novel and I've already come up with many fun, interesting ways to subvert or break these tropes before watching this video. ^.^ I was worried I might've missed something, but now I might just break my arm from patting myself on the back =P
This sounds like the overwhelming majority of new characters Marvel Comics has put out in the Last 5 Years. Like they saw this video and didn't realize everything you were saying was sarcastic and they just roll with it.
Good power fantasy: DOOM, where you can slaughter hordes of bloodthirsty demons with your devastating weapons, and have to or else they'll rip you apart and feed you your own entrails. Bad power fantasy: DOOM with IDDQD and IDKFA on, where you can slaughter hordes of bloodthirsty demons with your devastating weapons and also they can't actually hurt you, so you might as well be playing an idle clicker with a heavy metal soundtrack.
@@haillobster7154 You're godamn rogjt with the part with thrill.and desperation. In eternal duringa the last level after every fight i was like "godamn that was some insane shit i pulled there"
@@returnedtomonkey8886 and that's why Doom Guy is so well-liked. Despite his tremendous strength and capabilities, no victory's effortless for him. That makes him a BADASS, not an asshole.
@@haillobster7154 he always wins because of all the things he's been through all the power , skill and mindset he earned/set into after all of these things He wins because plot demands it. He wins because he is a badass that has earned all of his badassery through endless fights and secret upgrade hunting
*No Worries there...J.P is a veritable bottomless fount of near limitless sarcasm and razor sharp mildly condescending commentary...it's both his gift and a burden he bears with quiet dignity and obvious pride in his exceptional and very witty cleverness*
I think one of my favorite uses of a power fantasy is when your protagonist starts off as the strongest person in the room, but as the story progresses and the stakes begin to rise the hero starts to fall behind the threats coming at them. Suddenly a character who's used to being on top has to play catch up. This works especially well if the character is older and/or giving themselves some kind of handicap. One of my personal favorite instances of this is Rurouni Kenshin. Basically, the main character, Kenshin, is a traveling swordsman who refuses to kill people and does so by using a reversed bladed katana, all to try to make amends for everyone he killed in a war that created the current government which he no longer even believes in. This, however, has resulted in him mostly losing his killing instinct or rather having to work to suppress it. For the first half-season or so this doesn't affect him much as he's mostly fighting jobbers or people who simply aren't on his level, with the conflict mostly coming from Kenshin protecting other people. However, after another "man-killer" is introduced for a couple episodes and almost kills his friend suddenly one of the main conflicts that comes up is "is he able to defend the people he cares about against increasingly powerful threats while retaining his vow to not kill" which adds extra weight to his fights with the knowledge that he could revert to his old personality and start killing again. This is pushed even farther as yet another individual from the war is introduced who's looking to conquer Japan and in the final battle it takes Kenshin and two other highly skilled warriors to just barely take him down, and even then he largely dies just due to a bizarre health condition that sets him on fire, if not for that he'd likely have won. Then Kenshin spends most of the next arc blind, etc. Basically, it introduced him as an unstoppable badass and then slowly peeled back that perception to showcase just how fragile he was both physically and emotionally, with the only thing that keeps him going is an iron will and a refusal to give up so long as it means protection innocent people, and even some not so innocent people. As the story gets further along the more Kenshin finds himself seemingly punching above his weight class, so to speak. I have difficulty sticking it out for most 100+ episode anime, but Kenshin was a special case for sure. Another method of handling it I've always liked is giving a character oodles of power out the gate, but they aren't capable of controlling it and need to take time to learn how to do so to avoid hurting others and/or themselves.
One little Nitpick: It should be Dr.Manhattan to everyman. Not Superman to everyman. Superman is relatable, he's just a cool guy in private, he likes being human more that being a superhero. But Manhattan is the one who has problems, because he's so removed for humans that he can't have friends.
(: I was searching for this comment, as I knew the new trilogy hatedom would not let this video go. Don't you get tired of discussing a thing you hate? Put your passion into something productive.
Star Wars fans don't hate the franchise, they hate the new things that have been added that disregard everything that came before. The Sequel Trilogy will stand the test of time as being the most mishandled story ever written.
@@genyakozlov1316 Star Wars fans also conviently like to forget how absurdly overpowered Anakin and some EU protagonists were. It's just Rey, living in their heads rent-free.
It’s so epic seeing Rey take on Kylo ren for the 3rd time when we’ve already established twice that she can easily beat him, even when it’s her first time wielding a lightsaber and untrained in the force.
You do know that first fight before they even traded blows Kylo Ren already got shot in the gut with a gun that can blow up a car right? And he spent more time trying to convert her than worry over beating her? Just saying if it was a true power fantasy Rey would've been the one with the injury and still beat Kylo Ren in one strike.
@@denniswilliams6519 and he was still a majorly trained Sith Lord who could have force choked, or killed her instantly while Rey had never used a lightsaber before and just became aware that the force existed, Vader was far more injured, he had no limbs was in constant excruciating pain, could barely breath and was far more threatening
@@firenze6478 Vader first off was in a suit and had years to adapt his style after being burned to death. Kylo Ren is also NOT the fully experienced Sith Master Vader was, which the film itself makes a point to mention. Maul got chopped in half by a Padawan despite being a fully realized Sith cause he got cocky. Kylo Ren similarly was not even trying in the first fight with Rey and spent more time trying to convert her, and this oversight cost him. Just saying.
@@denniswilliams6519 your comparing a trained padawan, who was about to be made a knight to someone who hasn’t even held a lightsaber before. And knows nothing of the force, Kylo could already stop a laser in midair with the force and knew force choke, he could have instantly killed her if he wanted, especially since he wasn’t even trying to take her alive yet. It was just straight up bad writing.
I sometimes like to think of comics as being modern mythologies, and in that sense Superman is kind of "American Zeus". I don't know, there are definitely key differences, but I like the idea that future anthropologists might discuss 20th/21st century American superheros in a similar manner to how they discuss the Greek or Norse mythologies.
@Damani Campbell Doesn't only Rem like him, and most other people see him as a piece of amusement? Barasu is trash though, needs to be whipped more by his fellow knights and oni companions.
The only good isekai are the ones that actively make fun of the genre and its tropes. Not even "MUH DECONSTRUCTION" can save the genre from irrelevancy.
"...such as those pesky themes" (while showing an image of an 8th grade book report) Me: so, are you still angry at Game of Thrones? Edit: subtitle of book report: How we will never let them live this down Me: so I guess you still are.
@@FaeQueenCory I would say that I'm not mad, but then again, I didn't watch Game of Thrones, so I'm not invested either way. That said, if what everybody has been saying is true, then I understand why everybody hates what they did. Make of that what you will.
It's been my opinion from the beginning that people are just big babies about the whole thing. I agree that the last two seasons were lower quality than the ones before, but when it came to the _narrative_ the criticisms were often devoid of nuance, social media breeds mass hysteria it seems, and people break out their pitchforks and torches. It's said that movies which were once unpopular or controversial in their day grew into universally acclaimed classics. I'm sometimes concerned the internet will make that cultural transition impossible.
See, I really don't see the redeeming qualities in the Star Wars prequels, although to be fair, I wasn't really that enamored with the originals. I rewatched them after the Force Awakens came out and I'm convinced to this day that Empire was the only good one. Although... I can see why the special effects in particular sold people on A New hope at the time. I know, I have unpopular opinions, I promise I'm not doing it just to be contrarian, I have reasons for all of my opinions. I will say I've sort of seen what you're talking about, but I feel like it's a misidentification, people aren't as harsh towards the prequels because they think it's fair to contrast the new ones to them in a negative light. This is usually followed by an appeal to authority by insinuating that at _least_ Lucas had a vision for Star Wars. As if his vision wasn't "beat Titanic at the worldwide Box Office". It doesn't feel like genuine appreciation to me.
Imagine believing the WHO, who are being financed by the Chinese, who say that wearing a mask will not help while they praise China's response to the outbreak, which involved China buying up masks all around the world months ago and making their citizens wear them regardless if they're sick or not.
@@kogorun and yet they refused to admit that it was a pandemic until after the disease had already spread across the entire world, and after the CDC had long since stated that the disease had become a threat (This isn't to say that the CDC was effective on the action front though)
Magical Girls: power in being a child free of adult responsibilities with magic and autonomy, a power that may (or may not) go away with adulthood; sometimes involves love triangles (favorite example: Shugo Chara!). It's my power fantasy; I keep finding myself wishing I could be one, so I keep watching those kinds of series. At least I can cosplay as ones that I can relate to.
I mean, at least Magical girls actually teach you life leasons and have other interesting and capable characters as the MC's friend. It's popularity is not unfounded from what I've seen, not that I watch much of it
Power fantasy can be best used in games, where your performance is directly caused by your knowledge of the game and ability to play.
DOOM Eternal is one of the best power fantasies, combining subtle irony with also being DOOM. Power fantasies are much easier to do well in a game where *YOU* have the power.
@@bugseater1 that's what makes DOOM so good. It's tearing demons to pieces and fight for life, it requires knowledge and skills. If it was same but effortless and super easy, I don't think it would be same
Like Halo
@@theoleadfoot2864 Laughs in Halo 2 on legendary.
@@dr.vanilla9017 Yeah, well, fair enough. Normal Halo does it well
In America, it’s the love triangle
In Japan, it’s the love polygon
In fan fiction, it’s the love family tree
I wouldn't call if a polygon since the points are not interconnected. It's just one guy and a harem of 5+.
@@Nethan2000 The love triangle isn't exactly a triangle either. It's just an angle. Also, a triangle is just a type of polygon. "harem" is more correct for Japan.
Love asterisk? Like, a bunch of points connected to a central point?
Kimi FW
Well, I say polygon as in it has a higher number of sides than we have a name for. There is also always a different number of people involved in the harem, so I though it would work
@@kimifw58 not always. the more LGBT the harem has, the closer it typically comes to resembling a polygon. occasionally, there will even be new polygons inside of a sufficiently large harem. sometimes, it even becomes fractal.
"There once was a boy named Askan, living in the small village of Ivythorne.
He wasn't the Chosen One, was of average intelligence and didn't hid any secret power.
So, as expected, no one embarked him in any adventure to save the world, and the kingdom of Restinpith was destroyed by the Dragon invasion."
Finished my book, i'm happy i avoided a bunch of tropes on the way.
Gotta start thinking about a sequel now
:p
Nailed it
For one of the most humorous treatments on Chosen Ones, I refer you to "It's Bad Luck To Be You" from the 2000s version of Bard's Tale.
Sounds like a sequel to the Life of Brian
lol, this is what i fear those people who view tropes as the root of all evil will one day write the equivelant of. the only true way to make a truly make trope-free story is to write a documentary, even then 9/10 cases real life is crazier than fiction imo so it will loop back to fantastical territory.
There once was a boy named Askan, living in the small village of Ivythorne.
The king used magic to restore food stores during drought.
A spell that kills indiscriminately, but fewer people than the drought would have consumed. Askan's mother is among those taken.
Askan is relocated from town to meet up with his uncle in Restinpith. When Askan arrives he sees the King for the first time, and decides he's going to kill him out of revenge, but finds that most people don't agree with his conquest, because many more people would have died had the King not used his magic, and just as indiscriminately.
Askan tries to use magic to kill the King, but it doesn't work. So Askan tries to kill the King in person, but accidentally assassinates the Queen Mother instead.
Because Askan is a boy, and due to his understandable motivation, the King takes pity on him. He is not punished for his transgression, and the King teaches Askan to read and write. They eventually become friends, and Askan apologizes for wanting the King dead, but admits that he's still angry about his mother's death, the King admits that so is he.
However the people of Restinpith loved the Queen Mother, and find the King's reaction to her assassin deplorable. They see the King's kindness as weakness, that along with other political pressures drive the people to overthrow the King and hang him while Askan watches in horror.
Askan returns to his uncle, and admits his worst fear is that the magic he had used to kill the King actually worked, and that this was his punishment for trying.
His uncle points out that not only could they not be sure the King's magic saved them from drought, they can't even know for sure that it killed his mother. But he is sure the King was never safe regardless of Askan's actions, after all, this is a King, and Askan is just one boy.
Askan does not feel comforted by the thought, but decides the best use of his time is to help people.
Stan Lee once said "What's the point of making someone faster than a comet, more powerful than a locomotive if you don't care about the person inside the suit."
Stan lee will alway be an amazing human being
If only Marvel still lived by that guideline
Not the movies, the movies are still good, I mean the comics
@@thenumber27issomehowtaken comics like Jason Aaron's Thor prove that good writers still exist in this day. My favorite part about it was Thor's interactions with the humans. It flesh out the character and made me like him again
yeah that is why Clark is a mere journalist, timid, kind and humble i guess.
I'm going to write a book using all of your tips
Just you wait...
Just you wait...
I can’t wait to read it
I'll be there when that happens
I have no idea how you'd successfully construct such a mess, but oh boy
I can’t wait
NurBanuRD you beat me to it by mere MINUTES!
Disappointed you didn't mention one thing about power fantasy: how lack of self-awareness hypocritical it almost always is.
You fight one-dimensional greedy, power hungry, rapists villains, yet the *entire point* of the story is that the protagonist gets wealth, power, and girls for free without any efforts.
Good point. Power fantasy is about raising a characters power and status- but often fails to consider that the people they defeat to get there are probably not that much dissimilar to the protagonist moral-wise by the end of the book. A good subversion could be the protagonist realising that they are no better than the enemies they defeat....
Did you just describe the plot of 50 Cent: Blood In The Sand?
Did I? I don’t know what that is..
@@ViewingChaos Negan is that in The Walking Dead comic. He throws around his power and the weight of the Saviors because he thinks he's the most capable and deserves it. Then Rick shows up, fucks the Sanctuary with the muzzle of an AK-47, and ends up throwing Negan in prison just to prove they don't have to be a totalitarian dictatorship to survive or problem solve.
I kind of felt like 3:19-4:08 implied as much even if it was going over other issues at the time.
Oh no, even Terrible Writing Advice has been forced to hoard TP. Boys, we are not gonna be able to TP houses for Mischief Night this year.
We'll just use cash in place of toilet paper.
It will be worthless after the hyperinflation.
MONEY MACHINE GOES BRRR
kingtysonsworld IF there's a mischief night this year
@@enderpup9289, politicians might be able to cancel trick or treat but it is not in their power to cancel All Hallows' Eve / Samhain.
mischief night? Is that something you and your friends do?
@@anthonystromeyer1399 I saw a news article just recently about how US national debt just topped 24 trillion. But why get worked up about that now that we know with absolute proof the Fed will just magic as much money as they want out of thin air if there's ever something they feel they really need to prop up.
All hail the petroyuan. How ironic considering the virus started in China.
Yes, the American way. Why have a training arc when you could have a training MONTAGE!
The american way also involves making the protagonist suffer none stop for having powers. Spiderman, Thor and even Superman are constantly getting their loves one killed, revived and killed again but ten times more brutally every time. I can't even keep count of all the times they revived the kryptonians just to genocide them again. At least in shonen anime once the sad backstory concludes the MC is kicking ass none stop, sure mentors usually die but is not like its their wife, daughter and entire race.
@@rafaelglopezroman1110 Subaru from Re:Zero would want to know your location.
@@RuyVuusen believe me in comic books death is a revolving door. Subaru's life expefiences are pretty standard, in DC and Marvel.
@@rafaelglopezroman1110 I just wanted to give an example of anime/manga not being so surface-leveled as some people think. Even Re:Zero is just the one popular example and there are a lot of exponentially darker ones.
@@RuyVuusen yeah there are darker ones like Berserk, Kingdom and Vinland. The reason why I still bring up comics obssession with torturing their heroes is because that's the direction DC and Marvel have taken in the last two decades. Is gotten to a point were I can't read an event without someones family getting slaughtered, and a fuck ton of heroes been used as cannon fodder, only for them to be revive again and killed again in next event.
At least in Berserk they stop torturing Guts with the revival of Casca. Manga and anime while they make their heroes suffer they always end up rewarding them something after they go through hell, in comics they reward them with the status quo so that is easier to screw them over again.
God, that scale comparison is just perfect.
Imagine just how much worse it could get as time pass
Twitter in a nutshell...
Thanks but Lord Hagenmüller is enough.
@@requieme2 Every social media in general but people just want to blame one.
Every year, his ego doubles in size
My mind is plagued by blank slate characters the audience is supposed to “relate” to that have every girl in a 100km will fight over. They infect my dreams and I can’t escape
But more importantly, is there a love triangle?
My mind is ravaged by white female blank slates that the female audience is supposed to root for somehow despite her treating everyone like dirt and the only minority seen is usually demoted to Sassy Black Friend.
It really makes you wonder who the hell started this trend
Have you been reading Twilight? If so stop before your brain explodes...
@@CombatSportsNerd personal opinion? Same thing as what happened with tsundere characters. Someone popularized and codified the trope with a character that wasn't just the trope but then hack writers decided to plain copy it and here we are. To the best of my knowledge, both cases are from fate stay night where yeah, the respective character is the trope but it's explicitly pointed out WHY and on top of that there's more to them. But then deen stay night popularized the the tropes and everything went downhill from there. But I'm pretty certain I am not knowledgeable enough for my assumptions to not be verified, this is just the conclusions I draw from what little I know.
Terrible Writing Advice's Ego has reached critical mass. If it is not destroyed soon, all life in the TWA universe will be consumed by their Ego's monstrous hunger.
ego black hole forming in the solar system
*such an astrophysical calamity is easily thwarted by the adroit writing of the following two words...."THEN SUDDENLY!!!!*
@@scottmantooth8785 You, sir, are a genius
The longer the TWA Writer remains on Earth, the stronger he will become
@@lafuentephilosophy9390 *You can't just blow a hole in TWA!*
My trooper is a Mary Sue living in a weird power fantasy story in my Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Pay 60.00 to get lootboxes which might give u the power you want.
@@ygobe2 2005 BF2
@@hunterkiller1440 The best one, you mean?
The only real one he means
How??
"you withered tenured fossil" how is no one talking about this
We are now
Maybebecause you posted literally less than 15 minutes after the video was uploaded lol
I’m not
@@Stargazer_Pie good one
I wish my insults could be that brutal.
Don’t forget about proper power scaling. Scale your protagonists’ power according to the size of your ego.
.
What?
so i should make my protagonist with the strenght of Krillin from DBZ? Or Yamcha is overpowered enough
Boromir Thefreeman Nah, he should be a bit stronger, like 8 Kiritos from SAO out of 10
Oh then my hero is nonexistent
"Only losers stick to the moral high-ground"
Obi-Wan Kenobi wants to know your location
(Puts kyber crystal in the lightsaber with religious intent)
What is this heresy
Kenobi doesn't stick to the moral high-ground tho
he only sticks to the high ground
Batman: robin it's time to kick some ass.
Alfred:oh dear
Actual high ground beats moral high ground. (Like a "moral victory" isn't the same as a real victory.)
"joyless exercises in pseudo-intellectual snobbery" god thank you for summarizing the entire adult fiction genre in a way i never could
'Adult fiction genre'?
What the hell is that?
ix it’s mainly either erotica or edgy dark knock offs that do not understand the original work nearly as much as they believe to do
You spelled onision book series wrong
Because if you like to enjoy things, you’re stupid and a baby and gay. When you’re a woke high IQ galaxy brain adult, everything has to be bleak and colorless and miserable.
This is why I love YA fiction. For as much as people trash on it, at least it _tries to be enjoyable._
This is in contrast to the many MANY kids shows that depict everything as “sunshine’s and rainbows”
Add that there many creative elements people have put in them. Adult cartoons have to do something else, less they end up borrowing elements from a kids show. And what can an adult cartoon have that a kids show can’t? Hopelessness, gore, and eroticism.
Beware, everything he says must be taken with a not a grain, but a salt mine.
No no no not a mine but all the salt of the ocean
Nah you are still thinking too small its more along the line of a salt multiverse. Where each universe is soley composed of salt and nothing more.
Everything is salt now
No you need to make its so the entire multiverse is salt AND the empty void of nothingness is salt as well, so that reality folds in on itself doubling the amount of salt with each of the billions of multiverses multiplying with salt as well as the empty salt void that breaks reality
@@exammole4545 wait, it's all salt
Always has been
"IDDQD AND IDKFA!"
You're a Doom guy, aren't you?
He did say rip and tear there at the start
We're in quarantine after Eternal's release, everybody is a Doom's guy now
Btw remember that the longer the Icon of Sin is on Earth the stronger it will become
He’s probably been playing doom eternal to be honest
@@hahacheerios743 tbf lmao
What do those stand for? I know what IDGAF means.
But the real question: _could Love Triangle Man defeat Mary Sue?_
The real question can either of them beat shaggy
@@Exhausted_Rat do not DARE mention Shaggy lest ye summon him anon.
@Error try again later Mary Sue turns the love triangle into a love asterisk (with herself at the center).
Unstoppable force meets immovable object.
"Love Triangle Man Vs. Mary Sue!"
I'd pay good money to watch that movie.
“Power tends to corrupt, absolute power though just makes everything absolutely perfect!” - Some puffy old man a few hundred years ago or something
Karin P - Lord Carrington
It is not power that corrupts, it is the fear of losing power that corrupts. A man with power will kill people to make sure they cannot take his power. A god in the top position would have infinite ability to multitask and thus would also not need to delegate to people who could be corrupted. You cannot offer them money to turn a blind eye to an evil scheme, they can summon anything. You cannot threaten them with violence if they do not turn a blind eye, they are invincible. If someone talks bad about them on the internet and tells everyone to rise up, what does it matter, 7 billion people on earth all trying to kick them out of office would fail because infinity is bigger than 7 billion so he has no fear of anything and thus cannot be corrupted.
@@starburst98 Could he be annoyed though? By all the petty attempt to rebel against him, ridicule him, challenge him? Or would he be impervious against such thing too? What about motivation? Did he even have need? If not why would he even do anything? He never got bore or empathic or hate or curious. Therefore he won't do anything. Just a being without purpose. Or did he had purpose? Given purpose? By whom, he's the strongest and didn't answer to anyone. By himself? Why would he task himself to do something he doesn't need?
If he had need and want like normal human being then he could become tyrant. Not by the power, but to counter the challenge toward him. By fear that he'll fall, be disrespected, be forgotten.
At that point could it be call corrupted? It's more like choices. If there are human on earth there'll be someone whom hate you and wish you ill, you might never have to met that person. But if you're all powerful being chance are you'll be famous and those people will know you and try to harm you out of envy, hate, or believe. When someone wish you ill, excluding offense, you could either grant their wish or change their wish.
If you grant their wish you'll either losing all power or die or enslave by their endless needs. If you change their wish you're forcing their will. Either by manipulation or coercion and you became tyrant.
Basically if you can grant their wish but you didn't, someone will still call you evil for it. If you have power that could not wield by others then you're a threat. And if you share your power with all of them then you became normal. And one day someone would wield the new absolute power power.
@@ryopoto55 "I wish to stab you"
"You may try"
*sound of a knife snapping as it hits literally indestructible skin*
Aka: The bullshit objetivist believe.
Hold on.
Main Character powerful beyond imagination.
Never trains/ Aces training on the first attempt.
Faces no significant repercussions for their awful actions.
Easily defeats the bad guy at the end.
Gets all the love interests but isn't bothered by any of them since love could be interpreted as a weakness.
Isn't this just a Mary Sue story?
Mary Sue is a "character" while power fantasy is the playground for The Mary Sue.
udhsids that’s a good summary
This sound like Rey from the New Star Wars Trilogies
@@14.huanle60 Because Rey is a Mary Sue
“empowered”
Saw the title and thought “what good power fantasies actually exist?” Before realising, OPM and Doom are great,
Barely into the video, and he references *both* at the *SAME* time. Beautiful
One more great power fantasy is Solo Leveling which uses power fantasy correctly in every way imaginable.
Oh don't mind literally the entirety of the isekai genre cause that's a mess of greatness and trash.
@@dandanthedandan7558 dude you're like three levels too deep into literature class for anyone who dropped out of high school (most people) to understand you or maybe I'm just real dumb.
@@FrancisR420 Solo Leveling is a webtoon and isekai is an anime genre
death note and breaking bad
@@dandanthedandan7558 weeb was my third guess
“I mean, why would people want to escape reality RIGHT NOW??”
😂😭
Pajali Welcome to the Corona train! Hop on in!
Because reality is poisen. ;-;
Because of the toilet paper wars many butts have went uncleaned because of the toilet paper wars history will remember this tragic event
Coronavirus bad
*the choices found along the distraction spectrum as of late fluctuate wildly between recreational pharmaceuticals and really, really bad fan-fiction variants written by self medicated artists pretending to be cutting edge and "gritty" ...and then there is the breath of fresh air (as inhaled through a face mask) that is found here on this life changing/life affirming channel hosted by an author who really cares about what his audience feels right at this moment...but these feelings are bolstered towards a more positive direction if those who comment also obtain his book and then many others to give out as gifts for their friends (assuming they have any)*
When a character is going through a training arc, have them gag about wanting a training montages. And being told they aren't living in a movie.
@Error try again later I hate all self-aware heroes (Looking at you Deadpool) and protagonists. I mean, dude, I'm watching this for a story, not some protagonist saying 'oh wow, look how quirky I am compared to other protagonists'.
@@bucket4255 what if all the characters break the fourth wall
@@bucket4255 Since when has a character who's broken the 4th wall ever said how "quirky" they're compare to another other protagonist, that a dumb reason.
@@itlinko861 they dont say that but it comes off like that
Because acknowledging your problems is better than fixing them.
"Oh-oh, we just stumbled into a training arc! Silly TWA, this isn’t an anime video! In the good ol’ US of A stories, we just hand our superpowers over to the main character for free!" that’s so freaking true it hurts...
Like being drenched in radio active waste ? I mean pollution is free...and we produce so much of it.
Yeah! Just like Iron Man got his power through his amazing intelligence and liter made it himself! He totally didn’t earn that!
Or how Captain America got his power through hard work and bravery! That totally didn’t feel earned.
Or how Hulk got his power on accident and had to learn how to keep under control so that he wouldn’t kill everyone around him! Totally unearned!
Or how Thor got banned from his homeland and literally had to prove he was worthy of his power to get it! Nah, that wasn’t earned at all!
Superheroes aside, Luke Skywalker totally didn’t earn his power! Remember how he worked his ass off training to master it? Yeah, completely unearned!
@@LjuboCupic1912 Hulk: accident
Thor: naturally gifted
Spiderman: accident
Superman: naturally gifted
Flash: accident
Wonder Woman: naturally gifted
Cyborg: accident
Aquaman: naturally gifted
All the X-Men: naturally gifted (although some do go through something resembling training)
And the list goes on...
Honestly, apart from Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Batman, there are no big names which come to mind in terms of superheroes who worked for their powers, and even then, excluding CA, you could make the case they still had a massive benefit of inheriting large fortunes which allowed them to hone their talents sufficiently. Heroes who earn their powers other than retroactively are truly rare in many western genres to the best of my knowledge.
@@samuelsafin6564
Batman's power is money which he didn't earn.
It interesting isn't that the anime which is written for an audience with a strong martial arts tradition expects to see training.
The worst part of this is when you make a D&D character like this. A character who is like a self-insert of you but better and more attractive, and then whining whenever your character fails.
Who can do something like that? If I made a self insert it would be a weak and shameworthy piece of nothingness but hey everyone has his mental issues
Am i the only one who makes meme characters for dnd stuff, i have never seen anyone make a serious self insert in dnd its always a meme character
@@felipedaiber2991 You ok boomer?
@Leche de caballo Actually funny enough I prefer playing the guy that has a 10 in everything. My character is named 'Jim from the Adventurer's Guild'
I like characters who are attractive for their confidence and/or connections to the person attracted to them, like a childhood friend. That message is a lot better than "be attractive, get laid".
If the trope has such a bad rep that terrible writing advice himself has to insert a serious note.
Poor power fantasy.
Wha--HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE HONEST THOUGHTS LINKS IN THE DESCRIPTION ANYMORE
Honestly, it deserves it. So many characters are overpowered for absolutely no reason and they completely ruin shows and movie.
@@aaronlandry3934 Although it takes a talented writer to make a total power fantasy character wonderful, they have to realize that when you do have a character that strong you are often better off shifting the focus to an internal battle. The best Superman comics do this, so does One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100.
"True heroes abuse their power at every opportunity"
Truer words have never been spoken
Antihero 🙄😏
Watching a steamroller flattening pavement is really satisfying actually.
ASMR: Steamroller flattening pavement.
Wryyyy
@Oskar Stronghart I knew I'd found one of us here
@Oskar Stronghart if you didn't I would've
I also knew that was coming once I read steamroller. Gg gamers
"Power Fantasy" more like "Power P*rn"
I cannot enjoy most power fantasy stories because I feel like I'm reading someone's fantasy and the cringe becomes too strong. Like it is something private I shouldn't be reading in the first place.
Yep, I feel the same way. Same reason why I won't read most fanfiction, or stories on Wattpad. I just can't believe people are brave or crazy enough to put their very personal fantasies on the internet for all to see. It doesn't even matter if I was anonymous, I'd still die inside if anyone saw the power fantasy stories I'd written to cheer myself up during dark times.
@@Newfiecat You know, delving a little more in thought, I think that fear of exposing one fantasy may come as a barrier for artists with pressuring standards on themselves, and those power fantasies might be unrefined and their purpose be more therapeutic than aesthetic, but by showing it to other people who enjoy them it could be taken as a mean for social approval and liberation, while being their first steps on the artistic path.
Still though, I would do it anonymously and if not, I probably would try to erase all evidence and witnesses later.
Nearly every story in western media is a power fantasy. It is a trope for a reason and some of the time it is done well. It is when it is done poorly that you notice the trope, and therefore hate it. The power fantasy is an element that can be called on but it becomes stupid when that is all you have in the story. It is like sugar. Just the right amount of it will give you a tasty Harry Potter cake. Too much will give you Disney Star Wars. All of the sugar will give you 99.999999% of all fanfiction ever.
Just curious though, what kind of story do you tend to enjoy. Nowadays it almost seems like every selection is power fantasy in one way or another, even if they're highly praised by critics, like Witcher or Game of Thrones and stuff. It's hard finding a well-balanced stories, unless you dig through some acient shounen manga
Hoang Kiên Vu
Kinda weird for me to explain, I would say that catharsis in a story is my main focus but maybe that is too vague. Don't know if I am masochistic or something, but I get really invested in stories where the protagonist is on an endless struggle, even more when other characters like the antagonist are in the same boat, when they never completely "win", and every victory they achieve doesn't feel like it vindicates them.
Aside from books (mostly historical fiction) If we are talking about action stories, I've enjoyed plenty of mangas, though only seinen manga (aimed for male adults) as sadly they tend to not be adapted in anime format.
The most popular pieces I liked were Vagabond, Parasyte (20 years later it got an anime adaption!) and Shigurui. Dororo was a shounen manga which anime got a lot more serious. 91 Days was an Anime I didn't expect to like so much.
I never got interested in shounen, (I remember liking Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note a little) but the Promised Neverland impressed me.
If not action, Historie (from the same author of Parasyte) had a protagonist I could relate and boxing mangas usually do well with the learning curve as they are sport stories.
I can't say for TV series, because I almost don't watch anything.
Sorry for the long response, but action is not the main genre I read so I kinda specified. Aside from manga I don't know what I could recommend for an action series (never watched GOT, maybe in the future, and only watched Witcher for 3 episodes).
5:26 Just as an aside, this is one of my favorite things about The Empire Strikes Back. Throughout the training sequences, we see Luke failing every test, then he abandons his training to go fight Vader over the objections of both his masters... and totally gets his ass kicked. Which is exactly what *should* happen, but it's so rare to see a work of heroic fantasy actually let the hero fail so hard due to their own hubris.
Yes, the original Star Wars trilogy did the hero's journey quite well.
Now if only they didn't have the f***ing love triangle...
Avatar the last Air Bender was similar, when Aang abandoned his training and then got almost killed at the end of book 2.
That brings up a useful note that I think is important to conversations regarding Jedi and training: Luke learned nothing from it. At the end of his time on Dagobah, he has learned nothing but how to lift rocks, and he's pretty bad at that. The whole point of that brief aside was to have Luke not learn anything and enter his darkest hour, but assertions of Jedi needing training kind of hinge on that scene without remembering how it ended.
@@a.morphous66 But at the same time, at least as of the prequels, Jedi training started at a very young age and goes on for a decade or more. Luke was on Dagobah for a few weeks at most, maybe just a few days. And he didn't seem like a very good student. No wonder Yoda wasn't able to teach him much!
(Which is why it's all the more ridiculous when he shows up at Jabba's Palace calling himself a Jedi, when you think about it.)
@@jasonblalock4429 The thing with Jabba's palace took place about a year after ESB I want to say I recall, and after Vader whupped his ass, Luke would have PLENTY of time to reevaluate some things.
I'm so proud you included a reference to the Game of Thrones creators' "Themes are for 8th grade book reports" comment.
¿Timestamp, please?
@@emitheorbit1118 6:30
No shit! They actually said that?! I don't keep up with Game Of Thrones so I wouldn't know
Ironic considering the last season has themes that are as hamfisted and blasé as ones you would find in an 8th grade book report.
Almost 99% of isekai : " Hold our beer"
fr tho 99% of isekai stories are cringe power fantasies
@@tyetass7170 I so agree with you buddy , actually it look like isekai take the terrible advice of this video seriously xD
The only isekai shows I've seen that are actually good are Konosuba, Log Horizon and Sheild Hero (not as good as the other two, but I still liked it). Let me know if I missed any^^
Konosuba is the only modern isekai I liked, considering most of them are gag characters pushed to the extreme.
The parody of shounen is one punch man , but the parody of isekai is konosuba , that's why it's so good
"Why would people want to escape reality right now?"
Me: nervously looking at the pile of books I read within the last couple weeks and hiding my enormous YT playlist
Kicks my Nintendo Switch under the bed
**Yeets my Netflix across the room**
Dont worry we will tell them the legendary toilet wars of 2020
*burns my art supplies*
I literally made a quarantine playlist and wrote a description that jokes about English class symbolism.
Something that rivals the might of the love triangle, I can smell the tough times of war.
whose side will you take?
I'm with the love dodecahedron
Mad with Power or Mad with Love, the greatest battle of the 21st Century, for the TWA Expanded Universe
Bold of you to assume that they aren't on the same side, and that Love Triangles centered on the Protagonist (I mean, that's totally how triangles work right?) aren't a form of Power Fantasy, or that Power and control over innumerable side characters aren't what Love Triangles lead to
*Ishtar power intensifies*
“Pitfalls of unchecked power and ambition”
*Laughs in DIO*
What even was Dio’s plan? lol
The magic red stone got destroyed with Kars, so absolute vampire power wasnt his goal.
What was it? World domination?
@@oldmanlogan9616 It just seemed like he wanted to become stupidly op and watch the world burn. His main motive for hating Jonathan seemed to be that he's a naive rich kid that didn't seem to understand that the world is cruel. As for how he was gonna do it, since the stone of aja was destroyed, he switched to "ascending to heaven" or something like that (haven't got to part 6 yet).
@@oldmanlogan9616 His goal was to grow and grow. Ive read a little bit about Picasso, he learned how to draw people realistically really early in his life, and mastered it much faster than average person. So he tried to surprass it and go beyond realism, thats why his paintings were weird and ahead of time. Dio wanted to become stronger. Not strongest but go even beyond it, his stand described him. It gave him control on anything, but it was still getting stronger, growing. Just like he wanted. SPOILERS PART 6 HERE. In part 6 it was estabilished he wanted to achieve heaven, the power to become literally God. So goal of Dio (in spanish God) was to become God.
The actual Dio's goal was to achieve Heaven (if you read Stone Ocean you know what I mean)
He said that neither immortality nor a powerful stand were able to make him satisfied
At the end, all he wanted was to achieve the "peace of mind", obtaining the greater power he could achieve
@@princessdee-6580 you should read part 6, or wait for the anime adaptation
I wanted to wait... But I couldn't resist so I read Stone Ocean, Steel Ball Run and Jojolion
These three are now my favorite parts in JoJo
i think the quarantine is dwindling his sarcasm power... a lot more honest thoughts leaked out than usual
They've been leaking out for the last few videos, you'll notice. Given that he's in middle TN, which is where the first COVID 19 cases got reported here (I'm in the eastern part of the state and bracing for the worst), he's probably feeling the same uncertainty as the rest of us.
Yeah, at this point he might be getting kind of sick of the channel gimmick. At this point, I'd be happy to just see more honest thoughts videos from him
You could change the title to “Isekai Anime” and it would be basically the same
*Shield hero flashback*
What?
@@ryu9123 Shield hero isn't a power fantasy though
@@ryu9123 Shield Hero is more like "Blitz main get Isekai'd and refuse to join doom."
@@ryu9123 Dude, Shield Hero does everything to *avert* being a power fantasy. The main character actually has to work for a living (crafting items and trinkets to sell, fixing messes, learning to properly coordinate with his party, etc) from being screwed over on day 3, and the other three "heroes" wound up screwing themselves over BECAUSE they think they're in a power fantasy/wish fulfillment because of the RPG-like mechanics and cliche "save the world" set-up of the whole thing.
And you can't call it a Revenge Fantasy either, since he doesn't actively pursue vengeance against Malty and the King. He's more focuses on doing his job so he can go home, with his party keeping him on the straight and narrow path the entire time. When he does get his long-sought revenge, it's handed to him on a silver platter by Queen Mirelia since her country was almost ran right into the ground and destroyed by their incompetence and blind spite, and she can't afford for Naofumi to leave.
You say "power" so many times it sounds like something out of Nietzsche.
Kono powa
Teenage Nietzsche kills God with the power of friendship
J.P. is the Nietzsche of our generation.
@@nekrataali No.
You know Nietzsche once said, words like “cat” and “dog,” they’re often short words. (Which is, of course, genius). And I thought “Jesus, that’s probably true.” So he’s very insightful.
JP, maybe you can try “fan service/eroticism” for the next writing advice...?
Why does this not have more comments? 😂😂
*_YESH_*
Jesus Christ.
*yes*
I unironically need this.
inferno0020 I agree
"One Punch Man" is a perfect case study in power fantasy done well. Also, love the reference.
To be fair he does have a pretty major flaw in that he's not particularly bright
It's satire tho.....
@@Dave102693 A story doesn't have to be only one thing you know. It can operate on multiple levels at once. It is a power fantasy whatever else it may or may not be.
@@charleslathrop9743 I know that, but that's the core of the series: criticizing shonen battle series and their use of power fantasy.
id honestly say mob psycho 100 is a better example
Last time I was this early Pythagoras didn’t even draw the love triangle yet
Does he kill someone because one side is irrational?
TheLuckySpades that’s fantastic...
Ideas for future videos we would love to see: Time travel and/or crossing dimensions
Damsels in distress
Sidekicks and best friend archetypes
Plucky teenage protagonists
Character backstories & motives
JetSki Out of Water it’s always nice to see when a story does time travel RIGHT
@@tdmc6428 What are your example of time travel being done RIGHT?
If you want those, OSP (Overly Sarcastic Productions) has Trope Talks on Damsels in Distress and backstories/motives. I think they have something on friend/sidekick archetypes but I don't think they have anything on the young witty protagonist types.
Edit: They also have a fantastic vid on Time Travel
Gender: weak
This is one of the few ads I'm glad I stuck around to watch.
Did you mean: Sword Art Online
But not SAO Abriged. That shit is legit!
4 girls 1 paralyzed boi
"Petrified dragon shit"
He could also have meant In Another World with My Smartphone.
You mean solo leveling
"Hmmm... I wonder when TWA is going to upload next?"
TH-cam: "About 5 minutes ago"
Don't mind if I do!
The thing that got me into writing was my friend once saying, “writing is cool because you do anything with it”
And I was like :0
Was this before or after the assassination?
@@SirNeutral During it. He was talking to his buddy about the play and he randomly pulled his thing out and shot the president. He also likes his guns because you can do anything with it. Even shoot the president, it would seem...
@@SirNeutral imagine what this comment would look like if he changed his username and pfp
It's not a love triangle.
It's a love hexahectaenneacontakaihexagon.
Star the Kirby
LOVE 5D ULTRAHYPERDODECAHEDRON
Love megagon.
It's a love sphere
Mathematicians are currently doing research to quantify the shape of the love polyhedra to even be able to give it a name
Ah indeed as everyone knows, hexahectaenneacontakaihexagons are the hexahectaenneacontakaibestagons
Last time I was this early, the love triangle evolved into a love icosahedron.
I learned a new word! XD
Icosahedron? I thought he said 'decahedron'
And I though love hexagon was overwhelming 😩😩
Wasn't there also a love singularity at some point ?
Now it is a love shape that has extended on to the fifth dimension.
"Uh oh, we just stumbked into a training arc. Silly Terrible Writing Advice, this isn't an anime video. In the good ol US of A, we just hand our main character superpowers for free!"
Oh, ok, I was worried this was an anime video. Good to know it's a Light Novel one instead.
To be frank, a good portion of fictional series can be described as power fantasy, especially superhero and battle shonen series.
Weird think, america values hard work and changing your fate, but our heroes get handed their powers. Japan is more about conformity and keeping the status quo, but their heroes are the american ideal. Explains the popularity of shonen in the west at least
That describes the Legend of Korra perfectly. I mean she doesn't work to get any of that power it's because it's always handed to her. Airbending is literally just give it to her because of friendship power.
"our heroes get handed their powers." That's a load of bullshit. Most Superheroes do in fact train to get stronger and better control their powers as they grow and get older. Hell guys like Captain America and non super powered guys like Batman do almost nothing but train in their free time in martial arts and shit so all this "handed without training" nonsense is just non comic fans spewing bullshit without ever actually reading them.
What's killing comics today is garbage politics and agenda's being shoved down reader's throats while the story and characters get butchered because of it.
*Gains instant powers in Isekai*
“This isn’t a silly anime video. In the good old US of A, we just hand over our powers to the hero.”
Clearly JP has never heard of The Asterisk War.
@HorizonCrosser 128 Still pissed that Ass war got a second season while Chivalry just got forgotten.
@@dragonandavatarfan8865 Chivalry is a power fantasy that is actually done well because Ikki has to destroy himself to even have a chance of fighting anyone.
Yay, more terrible writing advice!!! My terrible novel was almost finished when I hit terrible writer's block. It was starting to actually get good in parts but now I can correct all that!
Seriously though, I love these videos. They are so much fun!
Where can I read it?
7:27 "Life is Pointless, I Think I'll Have an Affair"
I hear that's the working title for Hanya Yanagihara's next book.
Reminds me of this scene from Big Bang Theory.
Sheldon: “The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed morality was a fiction to hold back the few superior men. It’s worth noting he died of syphilis.”
*gets nervous about my story because what Terrible Writing Advice says shouldn't be in a good story is in my story*
"Uh oh. We just stumbled into a training arc! Silly TWA, this isn’t an anime video! In the good ole’ US of A stories, we just hand our superpowers over to the main character for free!"
*wipes sweat from brow* "Got worried there." *continues writing The Irregular at Magic High School* "My name is Tsutomu Satō, btw."
bruh true
... Are you writing a fanfic or something?
I Actuallly enjoy the world behind it tho
Mahouka Koukou is still one of my absolute favorites.
Oh so I finally heard your name mustache dude. But meh we do hand the powers here in the US, is just we don't put layers upon layers to climb up later before the end story, so the protagonist does fine whit the starter pack.
I know I am writing a fanfiction right now and the main starts up whit the same power level he ends the history.
Oh boy this is my biggest gripe about isekai. The hero starts out already the most powerful in all of creation and then goes on doing mundane tasks like gathering herbs while being the most powerful in all of creation and then continues doing ordinary things while flirting with his harem while safe in the knowledge that any threat can be beaten with a flick of his pinky finger.
Would be cool if, for all his unbridled power, he couldn't do more basic tasks and live a good life. Imagine a character that can easily upturn a tank, but that doesn't mean much because the situations he needs that level of power for seldom exist. Maybe his immense power makes him struggle with relating to your average Joe, making him a shut-in to everyone else too apathetic to help others due to just how distanced he was from the rest of society.
Eventually, he does actually help someone for no real reason other than maybe him being bored, and the rescuee (will refer to as female to make it easier to write this) takes notice of his apathy. Maybe they bond and she helps him learn to care about people, involving him in social scenarios and overall being a good friend who teaches him to actually give a darn about his life. Maybe she helps him learn to do stuff, and he warms up a bit to his new buddy. Then, for the finale, he willingly chooses to protect people and you can see him become more human throughout the story despite still having all of his power
@@mrgreenboy644 The first half of this sounds like the concept for Mob Psycho 100, an excellent anime that avoids most of the tropes associated with power fantasy by telling a compelling story of a young boy trying to better himself without the use of his immense powers.
@@mrgreenboy644 this kind of sounds like one punch man
i've read so many of those that I now like my heros to get packed up personally like they gotta really be put through it for me to like them (yuji from jjk)
@@jackmakila3776 I mean the 3 free bingo space picks for being put through suffering would probably be Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night, Subaru from Re:Zero, and Guts from Berserk.
It's okay for your protagonist to be powerful as long as they still struggle in some way.
Maybe the villain is even more powerful than the protagonist
Maybe the villain is cunning enough to make up for the gap in power
Maybe the circumstances put the protagonist in a position where their power is meaningless
Maybe the fight against the villain really only acts as a catalyst for some form of internal struggle
My favorite trope is when a hero actually has to think. Outsmarting enemies is definitely more fun to see than them steamrolling through everything.
When Fairytail characters come back to life with the power of friendship
Really? I don't really get much of a power fantasy vibe from fairy tail. It's there but there are way worse offenders in anime
@@user-uo9gg2zc6j Fairy tail definetly has a lot of that, Natsu can't fight one fucking generic bandit without reminding us that friends are everything and that he'll win for them, etc... It's unbearable
But yeah other animes do that too
@@jouille4524 it's not really power fantasy though
@@user-uo9gg2zc6j It is when he suddenly gets 10x stronger after getting absolutely wrecked by an antagonist just because he remembered his friendships. Then he beats the antagonist in 1 minute using an extremely OP attack that no one knew existed, *all thanks to the power of friendship*
@@jouille4524 I'm not saying it's good mate It's just not classic power fantasy. If any thing the fantasy here is having friends
"This (op character) will make the story as interesting as watching a steam roller flatten pavement..."
Well, there are TH-cam Channels that are just things getting flattened.
Why is it even called a "love triangle" if it is just one person with two love interest? If it is a triangle, shouldn't the two love interests also be love interests of each other?
What people call a "love triangle" is usually just a love angle.
Schwarzer Ritter Mostly because love angle sounds bad lmao could also be a love V
The love corner
Nowadays, it is being called a "harem"
@@irontrids not really, that’s primarily for 3+
easy, probably you have seen a character relationship guide before, those pages with lines that point to the characters and what are one to the other, there are three persons, two are romantic interest of the protagonist so you make a line between them and the protagonist, that also makes them rivals, draw a line between those two , is a triangle
pd: sorry for my bad english
“Absolute power fantasy sells absolutely.”
Sadly that's true nowadays...
He said both "Unlimited power" and "The high ground" in the same video.
Hello there
So uncivilized...
IM TOO TIRED, PLEASE
You're a bold one!
He also said absolute and we know who deals in absolutes
@@femurbreaker4483
Only Sith deal in absolute
General isation !
Dante Alghieri had power fantasy when he wrote Divine Comedy. He put his personal enemies in hell even when they're alive and put his waifu guiding him through heaven. Literally me
Actually no. While the OSP Video does frame it that way, keep in mind that Red herself has criticized the three videos later on for not being anywhere near thorough enough. (Such as the giant metaphor with the cart being completely glossed over as "Well that was weird!")
The people Dante put in Hell were due to either religious reasons or political statements calling out the actions of some Popes. (One of the Popes, while in Hell, was even saying "Hey but X did Y too!") The reason why Dante keeps fainting is because he realizes *he's guilty* of a number of the sins punished in certain circles of Hell.
As for Vergil being there... Okay yeah, that was totally fanboyism on his part.
@@jasonlewis4438 He's still the first known example of a self insert for a work of fiction.
See: Tropes are Tools
In Dante's defense
He was fair enough to also put loved ones of his in Hell if they were sinners
Like his very teacher, who was gay (different times...very different times) and his idol, virgil himself, may be in Limbo, which is, like, Inferno lite
But it's still the Inferno
The anime isekai genre is literally power fantasy and a love triangle at the same time
(more like love dodecagon to be honest)
Don't forget about the endless harems
@@timothy6583 True. The harem trope is in itself a power fantasy, if there ever was one.
@@MrAstrojensen yeah it can be nice some time like the one with the twins
I hated those anime but they're all so popular for some reason.
@@iliveinsideyourhouse3943 cute waifus thats why
It seems like a lot of critics, literature's academia, and high school English teachers think all media is either essentially like Crank or Ethan Frome, and only the later is worth existing. I proudly state that I enjoyed every second of the cinematic masterpiece that was Crank, and for every second that I read Ethan Frome I wished I didn't care about my English grade(in hindsight should have sparknoted). JP is right that the middle ground is enormous, and home to most books worth reading.
Power Fantasy is like a love triangle...
Frustrated teens use it all the time in their stories
To be honest they aren't problem by themselves. Some of best stories were love-tingle-power-fantasies. Problem is with the word "overused" as many bad authors think that it is cheap replacement for the actual plot. One Punch Man is one of best examples of using such plot in smart way.
*think of them as POWER TRIANGLES™!!!!!!! and you're half way there*
Love triangle can work as long as they not forced into the story. I have read too many books where the plot would go back to the cringe love triangle that i have no intertest in are just a pain too read.
@@marshmallowarkleseizure3742 Ah, yes, low budget triforce.
So simple, yet so elegant
there's this story I read called 'Gladiator' by Phillip Wylie, it's about a guy named Hugo Danner and how he had a scientist dad who injected his pregnant wife and gave birth to Hugo who had super strength, speed, durability, and basically better biology
the thing is, while he is basically a superman, throughout the story, it shows just how complicated the real world is (well, before, during, and after world war 1) to the point where his powers were unnecessary and were more of a burden than a blessing (the author first thought of a man who was basically superman doing all of those feats but then thought of how it would be used in the real world and realized how unneeded they were since the world adapted to the fit the normal human, not the superman)
it's not great literature but it was an interesting read and it sure was genre making (written in 1926 and published in 1930)
Edit: 106 likes, holy cruds most likes I've had
Edit: 413 likes, thank you everyone for liking and commenting
So it's the first superhero deconstruction
@@iliveinsideyourhouse3943 it came before superman (1938) so it's one of the first modern superhero stories in general
It just so happens to also be one of the first deconstructions
Free To Play KING 👑
@@cgkai8578 thank you
I can never get people to listen to me when I point out that superhero discrimination stories make no sense because in traditional storytelling the protagonist is the person with _less_ power, _least_ likely to succeed against their opponent. Because we're supposed to watch them succeed against insurmountable odds. I find it interesting then that in a similar vein to the story you mention, the original short story that preceded the first appearance of Superman basically had him as Lex Luthor with superpowers. I mean, it's not very useful to your average person, but to a villain....
I immediately thought of Kirito from Sword Art Online when I saw that title
I thought of how not to summon a demon lord, it's on a whole new level.
Same here
@an alien How well does the Persona games do PF? You can't get more blank hero mimes then them lot.
Kirito was intensionally made that way.
To satisfy avarage Japanese boys with huge ego but no social skills.
@@desubysnusnu But lets be honest we all have been beaten by a japanese dude online
As a man once said
"Roses are red, Violets are blue, There is always an Asian thats better than you"
And this is coming from an Asian
Some of the Best Power fantasy settings:
Doom
Cautious Hero
One Punch Man
Mob Psycho
One punch man?
I like that time I got reincarnated as a slime because its not about the fighting, this insanely powerful dude just wants to build a town
I like that time I got reincarnated as a slime because its not about the fighting, this insanely powerful dude just wants to build a town
@@roguepsykerhaaker4813
Which, if you think about it, isn’t that far off from real world power. Most top nations today have noticed that fighting and warfare, while required, is not that good for an economy, and that production, distribution, etc, are a lot more effective for a nation’s growth
@@roguepsykerhaaker4813
Basically me in creative mode on minecraft
It's 3 am and I'm going nuts over the One Punch Man references. It's actually a good example of a power fantasy done right.
Because it turns the power fantasy genre on its head (at least for the main character) and asks "how would it actually feels like to have unlimited power?" The answer is of course that it's boring a.f.
Yeah, I often fantasize about being so bored I can barely function...
Welcome to almost every fanfiction about Harry Potter, Naruto, and Jaune Arc. Suddenly all these characters are suave genius's with godlike powers who do whatever they want and can't loose.
Do you mean Jeanne d'A-... Wait!... That is the blonde guy from RWBY, isn't it?
@@germanvisitor2 was wondering too
The 'suave genius' thing actually works for Naruto because he and Lelouch are manipulators who stopped at nothing to achieve their perfect worlds. Do you really think Naruto convinced his enemies by some bullshit 'power of friendship' shonen brainwashing? To be fair Kishimoto shot himself in the foot trying to portray Naruto as a lovable dumb knucleheaded.
If you want to see what Naruto should have been as a character check out the light novel 'To be a Power Within the Shadows'.
The criticism of Jaune and Harry is valid because unlike Naruto who will stop at NOTHING to achieve his goal of a perfect world, no matter WHAT the cost they just want to be accepted and seen as somebody.
Harry accepted magic because he wanted to escape the Dursleys and Jaune went to Beacon because he wanted to surpass his family's expectations. To be fair both of them are more 'heroic' than Naruto who is just a badly written version of the Chessmaster archetype.
@@brendandubalos2149 Naruto?
@@brendandubalos2149 nope sorry chief but everytime Naruto used "talk no jutsu" it always worked because it made sense from the villain's point of view and their arcs (Gaara and Naruto being Jinchurikis, Nagato and Naruto being students of Jiraiya and their ideas of Peace and Obito seeing himself in Naruto and feeling guilt).
But no, villains turning good by talking to each other instead of being needlessly edgy and depressing is terrible and bull for some reason
What's inspiring is that I'm currently writing a power fantasy novel and I've already come up with many fun, interesting ways to subvert or break these tropes before watching this video. ^.^ I was worried I might've missed something, but now I might just break my arm from patting myself on the back =P
Jay Bloodworth
Yay!!!
Please give link if its a webnovel
I'm sure it will be a masterpiece
Glad that you included the disclaimer that even stereotypically bad tropes aren't always bad.
drinking game: take a shot every time he says power
The drinking game that will make sure you come out of quarantine either with a drinking problem, or not at all XD
Now we’re playing with power.
@@evacesartcorner9840 you don't have the _power_ do you
Ooooh that must be fun if you are legally allowed to drink alcohol
By God are you trying to get people killed just tell them to go off themselves like normal people on the internet.
I’m thinking of almost every harem light novel adaptation ever.
This sounds like the overwhelming majority of new characters Marvel Comics has put out in the Last 5 Years. Like they saw this video and didn't realize everything you were saying was sarcastic and they just roll with it.
Somehow that aged better than the time period you intended that for
@@mrgreenboy644 yeah, sadly this mindset infected the movies and TV shows now too.
Sorry not versed in comic books, any examples?
@Spectro Electro just look at the most recent MCU movies and TV shows
@@DurtyDan uou mean like every teenage girl is a stark tech creator or smt acording to both wakanda forever and ant man 3
Good power fantasy: DOOM, where you can slaughter hordes of bloodthirsty demons with your devastating weapons, and have to or else they'll rip you apart and feed you your own entrails.
Bad power fantasy: DOOM with IDDQD and IDKFA on, where you can slaughter hordes of bloodthirsty demons with your devastating weapons and also they can't actually hurt you, so you might as well be playing an idle clicker with a heavy metal soundtrack.
So power fantasy that requires some skill though.
@@returnedtomonkey8886 stakes and vulnerability for a sense of thrill and desperation.
@@haillobster7154 You're godamn rogjt with the part with thrill.and desperation. In eternal duringa the last level after every fight i was like "godamn that was some insane shit i pulled there"
@@returnedtomonkey8886 and that's why Doom Guy is so well-liked. Despite his tremendous strength and capabilities, no victory's effortless for him.
That makes him a BADASS, not an asshole.
@@haillobster7154 he always wins because of all the things he's been through all the power , skill and mindset he earned/set into after all of these things
He wins because plot demands it. He wins because he is a badass that has earned all of his badassery through endless fights and secret upgrade hunting
Mate if we ever run out of sarcasm, I’m blaming you.
He's hoarding it!!!
@@rockyblacksmith: hoarding is a pitfall
@@dmas7749 LEAVE ME ALONE MEKKAH
*No Worries there...J.P is a veritable bottomless fount of near limitless sarcasm and razor sharp mildly condescending commentary...it's both his gift and a burden he bears with quiet dignity and obvious pride in his exceptional and very witty cleverness*
I think one of my favorite uses of a power fantasy is when your protagonist starts off as the strongest person in the room, but as the story progresses and the stakes begin to rise the hero starts to fall behind the threats coming at them. Suddenly a character who's used to being on top has to play catch up. This works especially well if the character is older and/or giving themselves some kind of handicap.
One of my personal favorite instances of this is Rurouni Kenshin. Basically, the main character, Kenshin, is a traveling swordsman who refuses to kill people and does so by using a reversed bladed katana, all to try to make amends for everyone he killed in a war that created the current government which he no longer even believes in. This, however, has resulted in him mostly losing his killing instinct or rather having to work to suppress it. For the first half-season or so this doesn't affect him much as he's mostly fighting jobbers or people who simply aren't on his level, with the conflict mostly coming from Kenshin protecting other people. However, after another "man-killer" is introduced for a couple episodes and almost kills his friend suddenly one of the main conflicts that comes up is "is he able to defend the people he cares about against increasingly powerful threats while retaining his vow to not kill" which adds extra weight to his fights with the knowledge that he could revert to his old personality and start killing again. This is pushed even farther as yet another individual from the war is introduced who's looking to conquer Japan and in the final battle it takes Kenshin and two other highly skilled warriors to just barely take him down, and even then he largely dies just due to a bizarre health condition that sets him on fire, if not for that he'd likely have won. Then Kenshin spends most of the next arc blind, etc. Basically, it introduced him as an unstoppable badass and then slowly peeled back that perception to showcase just how fragile he was both physically and emotionally, with the only thing that keeps him going is an iron will and a refusal to give up so long as it means protection innocent people, and even some not so innocent people. As the story gets further along the more Kenshin finds himself seemingly punching above his weight class, so to speak. I have difficulty sticking it out for most 100+ episode anime, but Kenshin was a special case for sure.
Another method of handling it I've always liked is giving a character oodles of power out the gate, but they aren't capable of controlling it and need to take time to learn how to do so to avoid hurting others and/or themselves.
One little Nitpick: It should be Dr.Manhattan to everyman. Not Superman to everyman. Superman is relatable, he's just a cool guy in private, he likes being human more that being a superhero. But Manhattan is the one who has problems, because he's so removed for humans that he can't have friends.
So, this video is basically the board meeting where the script for the live action 'Mulan' was written?
That intro is a solid 10/10.
Holy Jesus. I did not expect to see you here of all places
@@dawnbreaker4217 I like to write, too. Haha
5:34 is precisely why when The Rise of Skywalker finally showed Rey training, it still failed.
(: I was searching for this comment, as I knew the new trilogy hatedom would not let this video go. Don't you get tired of discussing a thing you hate? Put your passion into something productive.
@Genya Kozlov, you don't see the irony in doing the exact thing you're accusing others of doing?
Star Wars fans don't hate the franchise, they hate the new things that have been added that disregard everything that came before. The Sequel Trilogy will stand the test of time as being the most mishandled story ever written.
@@genyakozlov1316 Star Wars fans also conviently like to forget how absurdly overpowered Anakin and some EU protagonists were.
It's just Rey, living in their heads rent-free.
12 seconds in and I'm already laughing. Awesome work dude
It’s so epic seeing Rey take on Kylo ren for the 3rd time when we’ve already established twice that she can easily beat him, even when it’s her first time wielding a lightsaber and untrained in the force.
You do know that first fight before they even traded blows Kylo Ren already got shot in the gut with a gun that can blow up a car right? And he spent more time trying to convert her than worry over beating her?
Just saying if it was a true power fantasy Rey would've been the one with the injury and still beat Kylo Ren in one strike.
@@denniswilliams6519 and he was still a majorly trained Sith Lord who could have force choked, or killed her instantly while Rey had never used a lightsaber before and just became aware that the force existed, Vader was far more injured, he had no limbs was in constant excruciating pain, could barely breath and was far more threatening
@@firenze6478 Vader first off was in a suit and had years to adapt his style after being burned to death. Kylo Ren is also NOT the fully experienced Sith Master Vader was, which the film itself makes a point to mention.
Maul got chopped in half by a Padawan despite being a fully realized Sith cause he got cocky. Kylo Ren similarly was not even trying in the first fight with Rey and spent more time trying to convert her, and this oversight cost him. Just saying.
@@denniswilliams6519 your comparing a trained padawan, who was about to be made a knight to someone who hasn’t even held a lightsaber before. And knows nothing of the force, Kylo could already stop a laser in midair with the force and knew force choke, he could have instantly killed her if he wanted, especially since he wasn’t even trying to take her alive yet.
It was just straight up bad writing.
@@firenze6478 you kinda miss that his objective was to recruit her, not to murder her. That’s why he doesn’t just pull a Finn and brutally slice her
"It's over JP! I have the moral high ground!"
"You underestimate my power fantasy and lack of self-awareness"
"You may have weaken me but you will never have the level of convenient plot armor that i have"
@@koshavinka2995 "Dont write it"
JP: you underestimate the loli
@@thew4369 *writes it*
*receives a thousand 1star reviews*
Sucks people don't realize how great of a character Superman is.
che wangia In many ways, Superman IS an Everyman. That’s essential to understanding his character.
@@rcbmmines4579 An everyman with powers no man has ever wielded :D
David Aykac
Clark Kent is the perfect everyday man.
I sometimes like to think of comics as being modern mythologies, and in that sense Superman is kind of "American Zeus". I don't know, there are definitely key differences, but I like the idea that future anthropologists might discuss 20th/21st century American superheros in a similar manner to how they discuss the Greek or Norse mythologies.
@@ZLunas Agreed...he's closer to his original inspiration Moses.
We haven't gotten an upload in 3 months because Joseph has been playing DOOM ETERNAL
Everyone: Talk about how it's basically Isekai
Kazuma: *Screams in kobold*
Subaru, gets his ass kicked almost all the time
@Damani Campbell Doesn't only Rem like him, and most other people see him as a piece of amusement?
Barasu is trash though, needs to be whipped more by his fellow knights and oni companions.
Souma Kazuya: Fortunately I had forseen your plot. My wives are the ones overpowered...
The only good isekai are the ones that actively make fun of the genre and its tropes. Not even "MUH DECONSTRUCTION" can save the genre from irrelevancy.
@Xxcoltxx Kazuma doesn't have a harem. He has an asylum!
"...such as those pesky themes" (while showing an image of an 8th grade book report)
Me: so, are you still angry at Game of Thrones?
Edit: subtitle of book report: How we will never let them live this down
Me: so I guess you still are.
You mean to tell me that there exist people who _aren't_ still mad at the D's' terribleness?
@@FaeQueenCory I would say that I'm not mad, but then again, I didn't watch Game of Thrones, so I'm not invested either way. That said, if what everybody has been saying is true, then I understand why everybody hates what they did. Make of that what you will.
It's been my opinion from the beginning that people are just big babies about the whole thing. I agree that the last two seasons were lower quality than the ones before, but when it came to the _narrative_ the criticisms were often devoid of nuance, social media breeds mass hysteria it seems, and people break out their pitchforks and torches. It's said that movies which were once unpopular or controversial in their day grew into universally acclaimed classics. I'm sometimes concerned the internet will make that cultural transition impossible.
See, I really don't see the redeeming qualities in the Star Wars prequels, although to be fair, I wasn't really that enamored with the originals. I rewatched them after the Force Awakens came out and I'm convinced to this day that Empire was the only good one. Although... I can see why the special effects in particular sold people on A New hope at the time.
I know, I have unpopular opinions, I promise I'm not doing it just to be contrarian, I have reasons for all of my opinions.
I will say I've sort of seen what you're talking about, but I feel like it's a misidentification, people aren't as harsh towards the prequels because they think it's fair to contrast the new ones to them in a negative light. This is usually followed by an appeal to authority by insinuating that at _least_ Lucas had a vision for Star Wars. As if his vision wasn't "beat Titanic at the worldwide Box Office". It doesn't feel like genuine appreciation to me.
JP HAS RETURNED! I thought the Great Old Ones got him after he finished spending his TH-cam check.
I love the video! Thanks so much!
Everyone: making fun of Japan with power fantasies
Me: have you heard of this place called China
True, but everyome likes making fun of isekais so...
Chinese government is a whole power fantasy but real
Yeah every chines novel is a fucking power fantasy
Korea too
All of Japan wants to know your location
And USA as well.
I love the sponsorship subplots at the end! Next want a love triangle between Skill Share, Wix and RaIdShAdOw LeGeNdS!
Terrible Writing Advice has now become Terrible Quarantine Advice by hoarding toilet paper and wearing a mask when he's not sick.
Asymptomatic carriers exist though.
Imagine believing the WHO, who are being financed by the Chinese, who say that wearing a mask will not help while they praise China's response to the outbreak, which involved China buying up masks all around the world months ago and making their citizens wear them regardless if they're sick or not.
@@comicsans1689 the most money for WHO comes from the US. It's more than double of what China "contributes".
@@kogorun and yet they refused to admit that it was a pandemic until after the disease had already spread across the entire world, and after the CDC had long since stated that the disease had become a threat (This isn't to say that the CDC was effective on the action front though)
The CDC wants asymptomatic people to wear (cloth) masks. techcrunch.com/2020/04/02/cdc-mask-guidance-cloth-face-masks/
have you ever made a guide for "eye candy" characters like Jessica rabbit?
*perhaps the Mary Sue video would qualify for that one...but i agree that one on Eye Candy™ would be a valued addition to this series*
Just like George "Double R" Martin in the grimdark video, we're talking about BAD eye candy.
Like...diet Jessica.
Magical Girls: power in being a child free of adult responsibilities with magic and autonomy, a power that may (or may not) go away with adulthood; sometimes involves love triangles (favorite example: Shugo Chara!).
It's my power fantasy; I keep finding myself wishing I could be one, so I keep watching those kinds of series. At least I can cosplay as ones that I can relate to.
....Just careful about inquiries from a certain bu-
／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
Gee Brandon, why don't you become a magical girl?
*laughs in several of my magical girl OCs who are absolutely power fantasies with several issues*
*ohwaitikillesaomeofthemlol*
I mean, at least Magical girls actually teach you life leasons and have other interesting and capable characters as the MC's friend. It's popularity is not unfounded from what I've seen, not that I watch much of it
@@hoangkienvu7572 I really do like the more positive ones that balance the magic power with the importance of responsibility.
9:42
Evil Emperor:
Gender: Weak
Sexuality: As if
"IDDQD and IDKFA"
Someone played a little much classic Doom in the quarantine. :D
Which isn't a bad thing at all btw.
Saddest part about this, is how many major companies are doing this in their stories of late.
The Love Triangle: Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle shall be legendary!