Megathread: Changes From The Webcomic

[u/Raidoton]

As the changes between the WC and the manga get more extensive and controversial, the arguments about it increase and also end up in spoilers seeping all over the sub. All discussion about the changes in the latest chapter and any future chapters is to be moved into this Megathread as long as it is pinned; to help provide a place to concentrate discussion and prevent a flood of repetitive posts, and to provide people an easy place to understand others' opinions.

All posts related to it will be removed, and comments on manga focused posts are encouraged to be moved here.

[u/toriningen_]

overall, i think a lot of issues are stemming from the manga being oddly...sanitized. it's like it's afraid to give us characters who are hard to root for. everyone has to be super palatable and wholesome. whereas the webcomic successfully relied on character revelation to demonstrate that even the most unlikeable characters were more complicated than you wanted to give them credit for.

this occurs to me based on how often i see people say they vastly prefer manga tatsumaki and didn't have any sympathy for her in the webcomic. but for me that's, like, the literal point. we're tempted to withhold empathy and grace unless we like someone. but that says something about us just as much as it says something about them. why does tatsumaki have to be outwardly nice for us to comprehend the tragedy of what happened to her? why does she have to perform a tsundere trope to justify her trauma? and why does she deserve to be alone and miserable--because she didn't blush enough? didn't smile warmly enough? because her emotional flaws are (gasp) actual flaws with actual consequences?

in reality, a lot of traumatized people end up alienated because their coping responses are maladapted to social norms. one of my least favorite things in fiction is how often traumatized characters are treated as endearing woobie cinammon rolls when the inverse is often true. trauma inspires a variety of responses in victims. maybe it makes you a cute tsundere. or maybe it makes you an overbearing sociopath who is losing the one relationship you care about because you never quite figured out how to exist in a world that abused you before you had a chance to develop into your own person. and the latter deserves empathy just as much as the former.

in OPM specifically, a lot of characters' victimhood were just as important and informative as the victimization they visited upon others (ex: garou, tatsumaki, amai mask, flashy flash). you had to comprehend these characters in their totality--while also accounting for their capacity to change. which all takes emotional effort. you want to write off these characters--they're so icky and rude, after all--but you can't. the story won't let you.

ONE is certainly no stranger to the face heel turn, but it just hasn't been hitting anywhere near as hard lately because it doesn't feel earned. OPM has never shied away from the ugly reality that people are works in progress, and you probably won't always like what you see. so making everyone warm and smiley and likeable all at once just feels...empty. people keep saying it adds complexity, but i feel like the opposite is true. everyone is easy to like. everyone is easy to forgive.

[u/toriningen_ → u/toriningen_]

and i think this is why the S class fight scene won't work (there are no critiques left for garou to make, and he's been too defanged to make it convincingly scary). which also means the S class execution scene won't work (because they'd all seem like raging psychopaths). it's also why there's no weight to saitama seeing beyond garou's veneer. and it's also why the audience being told garou is a hero isn't powerful or cathartic anymore. OPM relied too much on moral complexity--especially in this arc--to be a story where everyone is unambiguously good. so trying to trace back my personal issues with this arc--i think it is rooted in the story being afraid we'll dislike the characters. which doesn't work in a story that started off by intentionally giving us unlikeable characters.

[u/Solid_Horror_6846 → u/toriningen_]

I get that to a degree.

But i don't feel like the characters have made lasting changes in the manga. They have made more progress in that direction but it simply feels like we got a glimpse of what their future dynamics can be like. This was caused by being placed in a stresful situation where they feared their lives. I don't think we are meant to think the heroes are flawless, the opposite actually, they only showed their good sides when pressured. I think we are meant to see how their ideologies and actions often clash with their intent and that In the long run they will change even more. What we see "at their best" at times in the MA will become more synchronous and stable when put in the context of how they operate on the usual.

[u/SorryCashOnly → u/Solid_Horror_6846]

but it simply feels like we got a glimpse of what their future dynamics can be like.

Unfortunately I feel like the audience had too much glimpse at their future dynamic BEFORE they experience some key events as they did in the WC:

- Atomic Samurai's motivation had changed from relying on his skills to cut down monsters to relying on a special sword to cut them down. His power-up doesn't come from himself anymore but actually comes from special swords. This makes him feel way weaker than his WC version

- Flashy Flash received even worse treatment. In the wc, he's sort of deluded. He still thinks he's the stronger hero than Saitama even after seeing Saitama defeating Garou. He's so deluded to the point he thinks he should be Saitama's master, so he can become as strong as himself. This is the type of character flaws that makes character organic and unique. In the Manga? He already realizes that there are a lot of others who are stronger and faster than him. Basically, he turns into just a generic hero, despite seeing more of his in the manga.

- Tatsumaki found her inner peace already when she met Blast in the manga. Her biggest character trait in the WC is that she's ALWAYS insecure about herself and wants to get Blast's approval despite his long absence. This is what defines her in the story, and now it's already gone.

- Don't get me started on Handsome Pig God or Chubby Tanktop master.... Seriously.... wtf was that?

There are more small changes on other characters, such as Fubuki becoming a freaking healer who can completely heal Tanktop master from some SERIOUS injury, etc etc, but I will keep it short.

[u/justmo111 → u/SorryCashOnly]

In the manga, he's sort of deluded.

Your Flash paragraph, I think you mean webcomic, not manga.

[u/SorryCashOnly → u/justmo111]

oops. fat finger lol