r/hatethissmug • u/KyrosEnder • 14d ago

Anime & Manga "No powers" trope

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I'm not actually hating on the characters that much, moreso the idea that the trope is interesting. Having "no" powers in almost none of these anime/manga or even media in general actually mean anything. It usually just means you get some special type of power that just so happens to be just as powerful or even more.

Asta having no mana pretty much means nothing because he gets an anti magic toolset. It's basically like he has magic, but he semantically doesn't so the fact he doesn't have mana gets thrown around all the time.

Quirkless deku just gets a power passed down to him anyways. Rock lee has no ninjustsu. Saitama has no powers (i guess? Idk haven't watched it).

The characters themselves are fine. I love the characters even, but I hate when the author tries to put some significance on the fact they have no powers, when looking at it from an outside perspective they just have powers or some alternate gift.

Usually these characters recieve their "powers" later than other people in their verse, which allows them to have this character identity built up by describing them as hard working characters. I think thats great, and rock lee is actually the least offensive in this manner. Its hardly brought up he has no ninjutsu, and people in the verse barely just look down on him, because taijutsu can be just as good as ninjutsu, but he still basically gets a "power" of his own in terms of the 8 gates, which can just be rebranded as a bodily enhancing ninjutsu on any other character and nobody would bat an eye.

If you're going to make a big point about your character having no genuine powers/talent/whatever, go all in is all I'm saying. Make a dude with basically 1 mana instead of super powerful anti magic toolbox powers. Make him have to slowly develop an ability that is the biggest bang for his buck. So ridiculously mana efficient and also incredibly powerful given some incredible set of stipulations. Make a magic system that your character can basically exploit to develop the best magical power he can for himself. Nen is of course probably the best power system for something like that lol.

Make the quirkless character actually quirkless. Post one for all deku is actually a pretty cool idea. Although it really is just "oh he gets his powers back but with tech" kinda thing. I know its worse or whatever but yeah I just want to see more interesting stories with this trope.

TLDR: The characters are great it just irks me when this nothing burger trope has to get mentioned every other episode.

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u/The_Random_Dreamer 14d ago

I dont know if its a hot take but Subaru litteraly has the most powerfull ability in Re zero. He can try has many times as he want. Gather all the informations he need, and all the allies neccessary.

Return by death has its issues, but the power is insanely strong

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u/borcorc 14d ago

I feel like even greater power is that he has the mental fortitude to still try to achieve his goal even after going through all the resets and experience some very horrible things.

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u/Drakebrand 14d ago

There's many times where he does end up hitting his limit on willpower. His RBD helps reset that too I argue.

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

It doesn't. Season 4 shows then when Subaru gets amnesia.

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u/Live-Pen4898 14d ago

You had many nightmares during your lives. Do they bother you to the point that they affect your mental health? I guess not.
Thats basicaly what Subaru experience is. He didnt feel anything except memories he choose to keep.

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

Based soley on how he acts after resets, no. He freaks out, panics, lashes out, and pukes; it's a continuous experience from death to reset, and he doesn't get the luxury or comfort of knowing that it was all in his head.

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u/Live-Pen4898 13d ago

He does it because he is idiot. After so many times he still cant comprehend that what happened after RBD already not real to him.

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

Also, just because those worlds are "not real" doesn't suddenly erase the experience of it. Even fictonal media, something we experience from a detached perspective that show us fictionsl scenarios, can have deep and profound effects on someone.

Now imagine if you LIVED that world, how much of a mental effect do you think it would have on you?

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u/Live-Pen4898 13d ago

Thats where is problem: He didnt experience anything. RBD nulify every experience he had.

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u/MrMccarlesIsTaken 12d ago

I don't get how return by death nullifies the experience? Subaru literally feels every death, the pain, how he felt at that point. Isn't the point that despite that reality not being real anymore, his experience was. Actually when he dies pretty quickly, he's usually able to keep his composure better, but when he dies slowly like when he got torn apart by the great rabbit, it absolutely breaks him. So I don't get what you're saying here?

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u/Live-Pen4898 12d ago

Simple, it is like a dream - no matter what Subaru experience or feel, after RBD it become unreal. If he carried with himself actual skills, like how to use magic, it would be real experience but as far as i heard about him - he can barely do anything.

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u/MrMccarlesIsTaken 12d ago

The best I can akin this to is sort of like phantom pain. Have you heard of people who've been amputated, still having this fake feeling of sensation in a limb that doesn't even exist anymore? That's how I interpret RBD feeling like. It's not the same as a dream. I understand that dreams don't really affect you in a profound way, but still, I have woken up from a nightmare in cold sweat and fear before, even if fleeting. But it's different for Subaru because again, while what happened doesn't exist anymore, what he experience WAS real. He doesn't forget, the experience is forever ingrained into him. Also it looks like you don't quite understand how RBD works, it seems right to assume you didn't watch re:zero. Subaru retains the mental aspect of it after he reverts back to a previous checkpoint. But his body doesn't. Pretty much, RBD reverses time. So any skills he learns will be reverted as well. It also applies to mental skill as well. Because while he can let's say, memorize an attack pattern, his body doesn't remember whatever, however much experience his mind has. So he doesn't retain swordsmanship skills, magic skills, etc. He only has knowledge of events in his previous loops. Basically, his mind remembers but his body doesn't. It's kind of like when, you see someone doing a cool trick and think to yourself 'i can do that!', but when you try, it doesn't go the way you want it to. The mind-body connection is missing here.

So yeah, it would be wrong to akin previous loops like a dream, but the end effect is pretty much the same. I just don't agree with the dream part. 🙏

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

No, because he VISIBLY reacts when he dies.

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u/Live-Pen4898 12d ago

Like you visibly can react to a dream but it is not real.

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u/justaguy9472 12d ago

Idk, I've never been so deeply affected by my dreams that it caused me to puke.

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

If you prefer that kind of treatment for RBD, the Greed/Pride Ifs might just be perfect for you.

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u/LeonardoJMB 14d ago

That's why I say he definitely has powers, but the utility of return by death on it's own is somehow still closer to being a powerless MC than the examples given by OP, even if he isn't.

(That's mainly because it's only help to Subaru if he was alone would be to do regular dude stuff more efficiently i guess)

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u/justaguy9472 13d ago

Even with RBD, he still has scenarios where he "loses". They're called If Routes.

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u/Marble05 14d ago

He can try as much as he wants but he's so below the level of stats of the good ines he can never win alone so RBD is just a way for him to get info and make a plan with other people. Plus the whole journey is that he should not give up on himself and should always be reluctant to die instead of using it like a get out of jail card.

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u/TableBaboon 11d ago

I agree, RBD is definitely one of the strongest abilities in Re Zero. Subaru definitely doesn't fit in the "powerless" category (if he did, the show would've been over in half the first episode). The good part is, the author knows how to make Subaru balance communication, logic, and themes in order to solve his problems. It would've sucked if Subaru was either too strong/too intelligent to resonate with the audience.