I hate mid fight power ups.
There's a frequently used and abused trope, used especially in anime and manga, where the hero will be completely outmatched by the villain and get their teeth kicked in during the initial phases of the fight. Eventually, bloody and bruised, and enjoying the blurring sensation of consciousness fading from their hemorrhaged brain, they will suddenly suddenly realize a vast wealth of untapped power awakened by rage at the death of a dear friend/relative, or by an urgent desire to protect, or even simply at their sheer determination and unwillingness to accept defeat. They will rise up, stronger, faster, and more clear headed than before the fight began, maybe even with a new technique or ability, and overwhelmingly turn the tide of the battle.
This is just lazy writing, in my opinion. Introducing an overwhelmingly strong villain is an easy way to build tension in a show, and having the protagonist overcome, not through clever strategy, or tactics, or even intense and prolonged training, but by a last minute, arbitrary, and unearned power up just causes all that tension to instantly deflate, and me to roll my eyes. In any realistic concept of a fight, the more damage one takes, the less likely is victory. The opposite is so often true in anime, however, when it seems the surest way to success it to get beaten up for a while. It gets downright comical when this same scenario is repeated a number of times, or if the villain themselves have multiple transformations. Power becomes meaningless as each villain could effortlessly annihilate the last as if crushing an ant, and yet somehow there always remains enough untapped potential in our heroes to span any gulf, just as long as the plot requires them to succeed. Inevitably I begin to wonder why, if it so easy to become so unfathomably strong, why beings of such capability are so rare (until the next arc, that is, when the protagonist's hangers on all play catch up.)
Besides the cliched and tired use of this trope, and damage it causes to narrative tension, I think the biggest problem I have with it is that it contradicts my favorite fantasy concept: that anybody can achieve greatness with enough effort and perseverance. I love the idea that a person can rise up, set their mind on a goal and, regardless of their birth or circumstances, achieve it through their own determination. Often, shows will pay lip service to this concept, and then invalidate it by granting unquestionable superiority by right of their genetics or simply author fiat. It doesn't matter if Tenshinhan spends his entire life training, he will never be able to measure up to any Saiyan character.
I feel like I'm beginning to diverge into a tangential topic, however, so I will bring my commentary back on track with a couple examples. To make as many enemies as quickly as possible, let's start with
Dragon Ball Z's Namek Arc. Before this point, Goku's success can largely be attributed to tactics, strategy, and diligent training, but power ups become the word of the day when faced against Freiza's forces. It's not even limited to Goku. Gohan and Kuririn get a power up from Guru, Piccolo gets a power up from Nail, and Vegeta gets zenkai power up after zenkai power up merely from nearly getting killed and being revived by magic or technology. It would be nice to be a part of a race that when suffering from a serious injury, instead of facing months of recuperation and rehabilitation and lifelong challenges, gets a massive power boost for no reason. Then there's the Super Saiyan transformation that ends the arc, which is a result of Goku becoming so angry he becomes a god. A long time could be spent comparing how satisfying this was as a narrative conclusion versus the conclusion of the Saiyan arc, but that's a topic for another post.
The finale of the first Season of
The Legend of Korra falls firmly into this trope, by granting Korra mastery over airbending without needing to resolve any of those nasty mental hangups or even to grow at all as a character.
Lastly, the show that actually prompted me to make this thread:
Yu Yu Hakusho. Yusuke leans on this trope so heavily that it's in danger of snapping under the weight. After finishing the show, I have the impression that at least half his fights, and all the major ones, consisted of Yusuke being kicked around until suddenly he discovered the determination deep within to unleash powers yet unseen. Sometimes this would happen multiple times in a single fight. It got to the point where I felt like it was literally impossible for Yusuke to lose, as he only got stronger the more he was beaten up. This is pushed to the point where he
literally dies only to revive an episode later with such a tremendous power boost that the Spirit World's top elite are wetting themselves in terror. I don't know if I've ever seen, or will ever see again a show where it felt so much like fights were determined by author fiat, rather than the individual merits of the characters.
Well, there's also the fact that one of the earliest Disney movies where Katzenberg did get his way for the most part ended up nearly killing Disney animated films. The Black Cauldron.
That movie scarred me as a child.
