Zhukov said:
Been reading Dune recently.
Gotta say, the main character, Paul, is so bloody capable that I find it damn near impossible to give a shit about him.
He's super-duper smart, highly trained in the ways of basically everything. has perfect observation and perfect memory, can figure out almost anything at a glance, can learn any skill super quickly, can read people so well that he can almost read their minds, can kinda-sorta make people do what he says just by commanding them to. Oh, and of course he's physically adept at pretty much anything he tries his hand at.
Oh, and I almost forgot that he's also The Chosen One As Foretold by Prophesy And Legend. Although I'm pretty sure the author's going to try and pull something cute with that.
But yeah, makes it pretty hard to sympathise or fell any kind of tension. Even when the plot is getting all "Ohhhhh! Treachery! Drama! Danger!" all I can think is, "Eh, whatever, fucking Wunderkind here will have it under control in no time."
I enjoyed Dune very much, though I never thought of Paul like this. It's very true, though. Then again I kinda figured damn near everyone in the main cast was superhuman, with perhaps the exception of Gurney, but then again it's Gurney and he's such a lovable bastard that you can't fault him for it. Plus his memory is kinda superhuman in and of itself so I guess even he qualifies.
My personal vote is tied between Eren Jaeger and Batman. For similar, yet opposing, reasons. For Eren, I just...YOUR RAGE CAN'T FIX EVERYTHING! Get some goddamn BRAIN CELLS! When he's a kid and seeing what happens to his mom, yes. I get where the only thing he might be able to muster up is rage/revenge. He's a kid, he's impulsive, and he may not be able to grasp the overwhelming magnitude of the forces against him or the task he's swearing himself to. But to become older, a teenager, and to have had NO perspective on the matter and still come to the same conclusion? Bullshit. It's flat-out stated he has NO talent in his training aside from his level of stubbornness. Okay, it's admirable you have drive that surpasses 99% of people around you. But you have NOTHING ELSE GOING FOR YOU OTHER THAN THAT. No money, no natural aptitude for physical or mental skills that compliment the goal, nothing.
Sometimes, despite how badly people may want something, they are simply unable to achieve it with the tools they have. I feel like that's the lesson we SHOULD have learned from Eren. What happened to him early on should have been permanent and should have shown his cast-mates that there's more to fighting Titans than having the courage and a lack of rational thought. Literally the ONLY reason he's alive at this point I'd imagine is because he has more suits of Plot Armor than Tony Stark has Iron Man suits.
On the flip side, we have the Bat. Now, he's not awful. Really isn't. But I just...I can't get behind him much anymore. Like he's still cool to watch and everything, but if anything he's TOO capable. Answers for EVERYTHING may be his thing, but that means he can't lose, and unlike Superman, you can't inject a personal loss or hurting him in a way that ISN'T physical. For Superman there's a weight to doing that since physically he's invulnerable and outwardly he's perfect and godly, and loss does not seem to happen to him a lot. He doesn't build his entire life on a loss like Batman does. Things like Last Son and All-Star Superman and Red Son and Kingdom Come have weight because in one way or another they reach past Superman's invulnerable perfection and strike something in him that we tend to forget exists because of his physical exploits.
Batman....you can kill a member of the family, but what does that do? Gives him more things to brood on. You can replace Robin, but what does that do? Gives him an excuse to go through the same path of parenting as he's done three times before. To me, nothing has weight for him. Nothing seems to genuinely shake up his world or the character himself. He's prepared for everything, nothing seems to show us sides of his personality that we've never seen, or if they do it's not for long until we're back to him teaching a master's class on Cave Brooding.
All that would even be excusable if it didn't get the fans in such a bloody tizzy. "OMG BATMAN CAN BEAT ANYONE!" Bane crushed his back so badly he had to call in a sub. "BUT HE CAME BACK!" Probably because readers hated Azreal, did you think of that? "BUT HE BEAT SUPERMAN AND HE DOESN'T HAVE POWERS!" It's not difficult when you have Kryptonite and realize that Clark probably hasn't exactly put in the time, effort, and intensive training that Bruce has. When one side probably knows a dozen different martial arts and the other's typical strategy goes along the lines of "punch it, if it's still punching back, punch harder. Also try not to hurt civilians," I'm not gonna be too surprised when the one who's had formal combat training wins.
Both have amazing drive and determination in their endeavors, but one needs to get rid of the Plot Armor and understand that guts alone doesn't cut it in heavy traffic, while the other just feels like there's nothing you can DO with him that has any weight to it anymore. (and his fans drive me nuts.)
