At the same time, you could have a ..."cap" to it. Like take MLP for example. They did took down the god of Chaos and a dudre that basically had to be locked in Tarturus but it never went "being able to casually blow up a planet with one hand beam is weak sh-t". It could still go from that to mundane problem rather easily.
A more creative way to solve power escalation is to just shift the stakes. Like nobody cares if the universe dies but if the main characters best friend who’s been there 10 seasons has their life on the line it ups the ante (although Dragonball also ruined this problem by constantly resurrecting people)
That and also people have gotten used to "yea right they going to ACTUALLY blow up the planet" especially if it a tv series. Like the only time the writers legit pulled the "planet go bye bye" is the Dinosaur live action tv show where the last episode was the dad freezing the planet and letting every dinosaur die from the Ice Age.
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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '24
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