u/Flat_Box8734

Any time someone compares battle shonen to Invincible and talks about what they don’t like, there’s this weird energy Invincible fans get where they try to “downplay” anime, like, “No, you just like flashy stuff,” and “you don’t care about more complex writing.”

Like, my guy, Invincible is literally just “American battle shonen.” Do these people not realize that? It’s kind of funny seeing people act all high and mighty about their own “OMG, that’s so deep” ass show. It reminds me of those Rick and Morty fans (even though it was a small group and mostly a meme) a while back who were getting high off their own fumes watching a show that made fart jokes, thinking you had to be smart to understand the show.

Invincible fans are getting so caught up in this “OMG, battle shonen anime is so dumb” mindset that they’re unironically starting to think Invincible is somehow in different class from something like Naruto.

Edit: think some people missed the point of me saying Invincible is “American battle shonen.” I don’t literally mean that Invincible is a battle shonen, y’all. I mostly meant it as a joke. The main point is that Naruto and battle shonen is to Japan what Invincible and comic superhero media are to Americans, basically, something like Invincible and Naruto are distant cousins, as another commenter pointed out. And yes, I know superheroes came first, btw

To start, I’m not the biggest fan of pure power fantasies, but I do really enjoy underdog stories. There’s something satisfying about watching a main character get doubted, then slowly prove everyone wrong and completely shatter people’s expectations.

That said, after reading a lot of these “weakest awakens and becomes overpowered” stories, like the typical “trash ability turns out to be secretly broken” or “weak healer trains into a top-tier fighter”, I’ve started noticing a pattern that kind of kills my interest.

Once everyone finally recognizes how strong the main character is, the story often turns into constant praise with every character talking about how amazing the MC is, how talented they are for their age, how no one compares, etc, so It becomes repetitive really fast.

For example, in this story I was reading, “Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons”, which I didn’t even finish, I was genuinely invested at first, especially because of characters like Klein, who bullied him. I wanted to see Rin grow stronger, come back, and prove himself by beating people like that, who thought they were inherently superior just because of their nobility.

But once Rin’s strength is revealed and he utterly defeats Klein, I honestly can’t stand how much the story glazes the MC. Even characters like Luna (who seems to be set up as a love interest) start internally praising him nonstop, and it seems like he’s the only thing on her mind half the time.

I just found it annoying how every single character has to suck the MC’s cock and acknowledge just how awesome and cool he is lol. I don’t know, I’m kind of rambling at this point, but does anyone else have this same issue with these types of power fantasy stories?

Not to beat a dead horse with this conversation, as I’ve already said everything I needed to, but yeah, after playing Invincible VS, I completely understand the sentiment when people say the TV show is shot like it’s a live-action show. Because holy shit, the game’s cutscenes are way more dynamic, and actually understand that they’re in an animation medium.

Did I forget to mention it’s better animated as well?

That’s all.

Before I begin, I want to separate “bad writing” from “lazy writing” for this rant, because to me they mean two different things. “Lazy writing,” in my opinion, is when a story does just enough that you could arrive at the intended conclusion, but not enough for that conclusion to feel like the most natural or obvious one.

Does that make sense?

So, the topic I’m applying this to is Soldier Boy, because reactions to him siding with Homelander after the recent episode have been pretty mixed. He goes from wanting to kill him to suddenly viewing him as a son, which feels kind of like it comes out of nowhere…. but also “not really?”

The thing is, you could argue that after Soldier Boy killed his own family member (i.e., his brother) to end his suffering, which brought him to tears, he realized he had no one who truly loved him and no family left. Because of that, betraying and killing the only person who is his son, who admires him would only bring him more pain. On top of that, backstabbing Homelander would remind him of how his own team betrayed him, so he develops a certain level of respect for Homelander for letting him live and stay by his side, as he himself would not offer the same olive branch.

Now, all of that sounds solid, until you realize I basically made it all up by piecing together context clues.

And that’s what I mean by calling it “lazy writing.” It feels like the show isn’t doing enough to clearly guide you to that conclusion. Instead, you’re left going, “Maybe this is what they’re trying to say?” Meanwhile, people respond with, “You’re just media illiterate for not understanding something so obvious.”

But in my opinion it's not THAT obvious, but either way, I think the story should do more to guide the viewer toward those conclusions. In my opinion, it’s lazy writing if I have to construct detailed explanations on my own instead of the story providing stronger subtext, clearer motivation, or even small hints to support the character’s actions. Otherwise, you’re going to get moments like this where a character’s actions feel like they “come out of nowhere,” because there’s no proper buildup or lead-up to them making drastic decisions that go against what they previously would have done, but there may be just enough subtext for a fan to come up with their own explanations to make sense of it, which just ends up feeling like you’re doing more of the heavy lifting than the story itself.