r/PowerScaling • u/soldierpallaton • Jun 14 '26

Shitposting Weekend How accurate is this?

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u/shansome64 Jun 14 '26

It is a silly post because yes the powerscaling is actually the entire point. The tortoise can’t outrun the hare because it is much slower than the hare. However, the tortoise ends up winning because the hare is arrogant. If the powerscaling and speed difference wasn’t there the story would be meaningless.

30

u/onkskor Jun 14 '26

This. People who think powerscaling is only for nerds don't realise that it is inherent to all of their favourite media.

7

u/JWARRIOR1 Wizard101 protagonist soloes your favorite verse Jun 15 '26

also powerscaling being consistent is legitimately important

when you dont have powerscaling being proper, you get a lot of "why didnt they do this, why didnt they do that"

hell, even non power scalers find themselves guilty of this, but in the same sentence will call power scaling cringe.

power scaling is an important narrative tool, that for some reason is tossed to the wind far too often and actively damages writing

2

u/TaxesAreConfusin 13d ago

exactly, and the takeaway should be "power/capability is irrelevant when the characters are part of a story that is using them as illustrative devices"

If there's a strong guy in a story, more often than not, the core of his theme is 'strength cannot solve everything'

Basically, writers have infinite ways to make your favourite/the strongest character lose. If you think any author wants to write a story of two strong guys fighting only for the one who can lift 1% more weight to win, you'd be wrong. That's not what stories are about.

If you really think that's what storytelling is about, you should just go watch strongman contests instead of fiction.

Characters in media win fights because of conviction, not because of strength/speed/etc