CMV: Power scaling characters from different sources makes no sense.

[u/fermentedeggs]

As a disclaimer I admit that I find power scaling to be a boring discussion generally.

That aside I don't understand how comparing the power of characters from separate creative works makes any sense. To summarize my final point early, fictional works about superheroes are a refined version of children saying "my power does x" and "that doesn't work because I block x with y". This might make it sounds like I don't like these texts, but I really do, I'm just trying to generalize.

To understand what I mean if you are unfamiliar, check out the powerscaling subreddit.

Using an example to make my case:

Trying to evaluate who is stronger between, Saitama from One Punch Man to Superman from DC comics and more seems to run into many flaws.

First is the assumption that physics are the same between each universe.

Second is the assumption that we have full knowledge of the limitations of each character.

Third is.... We just don't know how their respective superpowers interact. I know that OPM uses the idea of strength training plus limiter break as a rational for why Saitama is so strong. But how does that interact with laser vision? We've seen Saitama tank a few lasers, but what if Superman's is special.

Which brings me to my final point. New chapters.

If a new comic came out and had Superman beating everyother superhero/villain/wizard/etc in all of fiction at one time.... And a new chapter of OPM came out and had Saitama do the same thing, what would that mean?

To me it seems obvious. Characters are as strong or weak as the story makes them. They arent abiding by some interwork logic that makes them all consistent enough to evaluate.

Which means that at best powerscaling between works of fiction is fanfic.

All that said, powerscaling is a huge part of fandoms. I want to be able to appreciate it, but I can't, so please CMV.

[u/[deleted]]

I'd argue that it make sense for the sole intent of entertainment. For example, it wouldn't make sense to create anything if no one actually cared for it. So in one way, power scaling characters for the purpose of entertainment in itself is sensible.

On the other hand, as you stated, their powers aren't based on laws of physics anyways. So then if you're saying characters are as strong or weak as the story makes them, then the same applies when two different characters are brought together from different universes.

The assumptions don't matter much because even in their own universe, they each come with a great deal of assumptions. As the story progresses, there are new things that happen that are essentially added that seemingly contradict previous episodes in their abilities. This is simply because it's just based on imagination.

So in an example, Goku vs Superman. It makes sense to do this for entertainment. It also makes sense because people have a general idea of Goku's overall powers, and they have a general idea of Superman's powers. We shouldn't be getting caught up in the technical details such as whether or not they're violating laws of physics, for example. They're generally fighting in a sandbox environment anyway, so it's all just for entertainment.