the problem of protagonist power creep
Mar. 9th, 2015 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
houraipeachSo in case anybody hasn't noticed, I've been on a SERIOUS Dragon Ball kick lately. Between rewatching some of the classic show, select parts of Z, and playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse, it's been a serious nostalgia trip through one of my favorite classic anime. But it's also incredibly demonstrative of the problem of power creep(even if it's one that I think handles it well). I'm going to assume, for the purpose of this discussion, that you know the rough thrust of Dragon Ball: collect all 7 of a magic dragon's balls(snrk) to get a wish, kung-fu punchymans everywhere, insane amounts of name-based puns.
So, it may be surprising to people who grew up watching Dragon Ball Z(IE, pretty much anyone who was between 8 and 12 years old in the 1990s), but you know, ki attacks used to be the EXCEPTION, not the norm. For the ENTIRETY of Dragon Ball, Goku knows the Kamehameha(which he doesn't even pick up until episode 8)... and that's it. He doesn't even pick up another 'special' move like this until after the first arc of Z. And even knowing the Kamehameha made Goku fairly special, because very, very few people even USED ki attacks in the original series. Ki attacks felt a lot more special, and the threats were scaled to fit that. The characters spend a lot of time fighting what might as well be qualified as gods in Z, but in Dragon Ball, you could just be a canny dude who knows how to fight dirty and still be a credible threat, like Tao Pai, arguably Goku's first truly scary opponent.
Back in the Dragon Ball days, you could get away with being just 'a clever, capable person' and be a worthy adversary. The Red Ribbon Army arc is one of the most memorable in the series, and it largely consists of Goku fighting robots, dudes on airships, and entirely non-ki-powered soldiers who just happen to be really good fighters anyway. Tienshinhan is arguably Goku's most memorable opponent from Dragon Ball, and his primary gimmick is a technique that lets him temporarily blind people. Hell, remember when Goku A) had to use the Nimbus to fly and B) actually ever USED the Power Pole?
But then Z came along. And the longer Z lasted, the more Goku turned into Superman, right down to being a superpowered alien. This arguably started with Raditz, an opponent so strong Goku had to sacrifice his life to defeat him, but I'd say it really started with Nappa, who chumped the entire original cast aside from Goku, thus beginning their slow, inevitable slide into irrelevance. The moment Yamcha gets blown up by a Saibaman is the moment Yamcha went from a canny, tough bandit-made-good who managed to master the Kamehameha as well as Goku did to the running chump of the entire series, who literally never gets a victory again no matter how hard he tries.
You see, the problem with making your hero the strongest person on Earth is that, inevitably... you run out of people on Earth to fight. To its credit, DBZ actually rolls with this, by taking the action into space, which was at the time an ENTIRELY unexpected twist. Going from a martial arts story loosely-based on Journey To The West into a space opera was really daring, and it pulls it off well, introducing arguably the most iconic villain of the series in sassy, sly despot Frieza, which it followed up with the utterly terrifying Cell, an unholy amalgamation of every single fighter in the series wrought by deranged mad science, and Majin Buu, an ancient, childlike demon who bordered on godhood. And while these are all great workarounds to the problem of Goku being incredibly strong... it also means you can't ever HAVE a villain that isn't a demigod again.
Each new escalation in power is one more avenue of plotlines blocked off. First it was the Kaioken techhnique. And then it was going Super-Saiyan. Then it was Super-Saiyan 2, and Fusion Dances, and Super Saiyan 3, and Potara Earrings, and etc., etc.. With every new means of powering-up, another chunk of the cast gets left in the dust to do basically nothing except comment on Goku and the other Saiyans doing the actual work. And then of course it goes entirely bullshit in Dragon Ball GT, which at one point introduces a new villain by selling him as 'stronger than Majin Buu' only to unceremoniously kill him off literally five episodes later. As a sidenote, I refuse to believe that GT is canon shut up lalalalala I can't hear you. But you see my point, I hope.
The issue isn't even 'people are too strong.' You can milk a lot of tension out of even absurdly-powerful protagonists if you provide both allies and antagonists who maintain parity with them. It's not power creep that is bad; it's the problem of power catch-up. Imagine a Dragon Ball where, for example, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, and everybody else were able to actually KEEP UP with the Saiyans. Several of the games actually run with this in what-if storylines, including a memorable one where KRILLIN takes over as main character.
The trick to ask when you're working on a storyline involving superpowered characters should never be 'how can I make the next foe strong enough to be a threat.' It should be 'how can I make sure everybody gets a chance to be relevant.'
So, it may be surprising to people who grew up watching Dragon Ball Z(IE, pretty much anyone who was between 8 and 12 years old in the 1990s), but you know, ki attacks used to be the EXCEPTION, not the norm. For the ENTIRETY of Dragon Ball, Goku knows the Kamehameha(which he doesn't even pick up until episode 8)... and that's it. He doesn't even pick up another 'special' move like this until after the first arc of Z. And even knowing the Kamehameha made Goku fairly special, because very, very few people even USED ki attacks in the original series. Ki attacks felt a lot more special, and the threats were scaled to fit that. The characters spend a lot of time fighting what might as well be qualified as gods in Z, but in Dragon Ball, you could just be a canny dude who knows how to fight dirty and still be a credible threat, like Tao Pai, arguably Goku's first truly scary opponent.
Back in the Dragon Ball days, you could get away with being just 'a clever, capable person' and be a worthy adversary. The Red Ribbon Army arc is one of the most memorable in the series, and it largely consists of Goku fighting robots, dudes on airships, and entirely non-ki-powered soldiers who just happen to be really good fighters anyway. Tienshinhan is arguably Goku's most memorable opponent from Dragon Ball, and his primary gimmick is a technique that lets him temporarily blind people. Hell, remember when Goku A) had to use the Nimbus to fly and B) actually ever USED the Power Pole?
But then Z came along. And the longer Z lasted, the more Goku turned into Superman, right down to being a superpowered alien. This arguably started with Raditz, an opponent so strong Goku had to sacrifice his life to defeat him, but I'd say it really started with Nappa, who chumped the entire original cast aside from Goku, thus beginning their slow, inevitable slide into irrelevance. The moment Yamcha gets blown up by a Saibaman is the moment Yamcha went from a canny, tough bandit-made-good who managed to master the Kamehameha as well as Goku did to the running chump of the entire series, who literally never gets a victory again no matter how hard he tries.
You see, the problem with making your hero the strongest person on Earth is that, inevitably... you run out of people on Earth to fight. To its credit, DBZ actually rolls with this, by taking the action into space, which was at the time an ENTIRELY unexpected twist. Going from a martial arts story loosely-based on Journey To The West into a space opera was really daring, and it pulls it off well, introducing arguably the most iconic villain of the series in sassy, sly despot Frieza, which it followed up with the utterly terrifying Cell, an unholy amalgamation of every single fighter in the series wrought by deranged mad science, and Majin Buu, an ancient, childlike demon who bordered on godhood. And while these are all great workarounds to the problem of Goku being incredibly strong... it also means you can't ever HAVE a villain that isn't a demigod again.
Each new escalation in power is one more avenue of plotlines blocked off. First it was the Kaioken techhnique. And then it was going Super-Saiyan. Then it was Super-Saiyan 2, and Fusion Dances, and Super Saiyan 3, and Potara Earrings, and etc., etc.. With every new means of powering-up, another chunk of the cast gets left in the dust to do basically nothing except comment on Goku and the other Saiyans doing the actual work. And then of course it goes entirely bullshit in Dragon Ball GT, which at one point introduces a new villain by selling him as 'stronger than Majin Buu' only to unceremoniously kill him off literally five episodes later. As a sidenote, I refuse to believe that GT is canon shut up lalalalala I can't hear you. But you see my point, I hope.
The issue isn't even 'people are too strong.' You can milk a lot of tension out of even absurdly-powerful protagonists if you provide both allies and antagonists who maintain parity with them. It's not power creep that is bad; it's the problem of power catch-up. Imagine a Dragon Ball where, for example, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, and everybody else were able to actually KEEP UP with the Saiyans. Several of the games actually run with this in what-if storylines, including a memorable one where KRILLIN takes over as main character.
The trick to ask when you're working on a storyline involving superpowered characters should never be 'how can I make the next foe strong enough to be a threat.' It should be 'how can I make sure everybody gets a chance to be relevant.'
no subject
Date: 2015-03-11 05:51 am (UTC)