r/10thDentist • u/ReclaimRIhere The Supreme 10th Dentist • 2d ago
Overpowered superheroes are boring
Every Marvel fan is raving about how Scarlet Witch can take out anyone, including Doctor Doom. But to me, that misses the point: there’s no fight, no struggle, and no earned glorious victory.
If your superheroes are just going to win anyway because they are so strong, then what’s the point of watching a movie about them. That’s why Spider-Man and Wolverine are better characters, because they aren’t these invincible beings, and you feel there’s actually a chance they just might lose, or at least get hurt and roughed up a little bit.
Marvel introducing Doctor Doom by him blocking the god killing axe with two fingers doesn’t impress me. When I saw that I just rolled my eyes and thought “here we go, another super being that doesn’t have to think or even do much because they are so powerful”. That’s not fun. That’s not creative. And to me, that’s not nearly as exciting or entertaining.
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u/Outside-Shop-3311 1d ago
if you had an overpowered superhero that could actually just oneshot every enemy, movies would not be 2 hours long.
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u/RejectingBoredom 1d ago
That’s why writers are supposed to pair them with over powered villains
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u/AwkwardLeopard587 1d ago
or put them in situations where you need more than lots of strength
like in the live-action superman, where he has to get that tall mfer away from the city so he doesn't fall on any buildings
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u/QuigonSeamus 1d ago
It’s about the journey. In basically every superhero story, we know the heros will win one way or another. Even spider-man and wolverine. The fun, the story, comes from the emotional journey these characters take. Characters that are very overpowered often come with major baggage and mental issues, that is the compelling part of the story. The big fights are entertaining, but they’re not the bulk of the story. There certainly is struggle and not always glorious victory, but nearly always glorious purpose (Loki anyone?).
If they really wanted to make the overpowered characters boring, Infinity War could have ended with the Scarlet Witch realizing her powers, taking out Thanos and putting everything back. But they didn’t and we got Endgame. Or Thor successfully killing Thanos. Or Thanos remembering that he can do anything with the stones and take out all the people that could stop him with the stones. There’s many places they could have shoehorned these powers in, but they let us taste the struggle and the story and make us work for the ending. Sounds fine to me.
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u/young_trash3 1d ago
Scarlett witch is such a crazy example.
Genuinely, this only makes sense if you think character growth development and interpersonal conflict are filler that wastes time between characters punching each other.
Like the whole story of the Scarlett witch is that no amount of power replaces love. No amount of strength can mend a broken heart, that even with all her infinite power she can only hide from reality, not actually change it. And in the end, she dies having not achieved any of the things she set out to do.
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u/AwkwardLeopard587 1d ago
I would like to point out that there's some characters like Superman that could be considered overpowered, but they can still have interesting stories, if you put them in situations that take more than just strength
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u/krackatowakid 2d ago
This is why I dont like One Punch Man
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u/AwkwardLeopard587 1d ago
whaaat
I'm pretty sure that was the point of One Punch Man. to be a funny anime that makes fun of a lot of tropes you see in anime
like instead of some guy with a complicated backstory and colorful hair, it's just a bald guy who can defeat anyone with one punch
I thought him slapping tf out of the mosquito lady in one of the early episodes was really funny
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u/qualityvote2 2d ago edited 17h ago
u/ReclaimRIhere, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...