How to make a good stupid but OP MC

[Zenomew]

You know the ones like Goku who is strong enough to wipe out universes but generally acts like a idiot

Or clueless ones like Ainz Ooal Gown who is pretty sure he doesn't know what he is doing but somehow impresses his super intelligent subordinates by having made masterplans which he has no ideas of

 

[Tsuru]

Simple.

Forget all schooling you ever did, turn off your brain, and imagine you are back at your 5y/o self (when you were the most innocent and kind).
Gj you are now Goku.

There is a bad guy ? Well your parent taught you evil is bad or bc superheroes cartoon/anime, you go punish them. Lucky for you you can crush them with your op powers from godalmighty author.

"Taxes ? Government ? Publicity ? Internet ? Reputation ? What is that?"
"Bad is bad, so i punish it."
"Romance ? Its complicated so i dont understand it. I just know that the girl asked to "sleep together". But she lied, as we didnt sleep at all."


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TLDR :
Simpleton is the correct term. So dont think and feel. 2+2 = 4. 2x45 is a lot. That kind of simplicity.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Look at trending. Click on my witch story. Realize that she is far too stupid for you to comprehend. Then leave.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Look at trending. Click on my witch story. Realize that she is far too stupid for you to comprehend. Then leave.

???

 

[Nevafrost]

Simple.

5y/o self (when you were the most innocent and kind)

5 y/o is kind???

 

[TreasureHouse]

That's two different kinds of stupid right there.

Goku is a bumpkin, but is really a fighting genius. This one is pretty simple to write like all goofballs. Oh no Goku is about to get serious now, because the stakes are now very serious indeed. A lot of the story revolves around fighting, so his actual stupidity is often minimized.

Ainz is halfway smart, but it's the supporting cast that take his simplistic plans. "It's so stupid, it is actually genius."
A good way to look at this is the sum of King in OPM. Him "cutting the apple" in front of atomic samurai is gist trying to be captured. Therefore, it's the mental gymnastics to make an otherwise ordinary decision/action extraordinary. Or in Ainz's case, the scary interpretations of his orders.

So it's kind of complicated depending on the angle of stupidity.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Stay away from misconception based plots. It’s annoying to read and gets boring really fast

 

[l8rose]

Are you going for actual stupid or for uneducated? As mentioned, Goku is uneducated but not stupid. Zoolander, on the other hand, is stupid ("What is this? A school for ants?").

Either way, you just need to stick with whichever one and maintain that through your story. Generally, it's easier to write the under-educated than to write the truly stupid. It's also easier to write in less serious writings. Goku wouldn't work as the protagonist in Beserk; sure, he'd survive just fine but there would be such an extreme disconnect with the setting.

It also helps if the other characters make up for whatever the main lacks. For example in Dragonball, Goku's first friend, Bulma, is a genius and they explore the world (he had never really left his home before). Bulma does a lot to protect Goku's innocence. Especially after she realizes he most likely accidentally killed his grandfather prior to the story. Goku is often met with other kind people who help inadvertently guide him along his journey. Of course he meets bad guys who try and take advantage of him but he's Goku, he believes in good over evil. All because that's what his grandpa taught him.

Basically it boils down to consistency, context and characters.

On a side note, my phone kept trying to autocorrect Goku. You. Gout. Goat. It also changed Bulma to Burma. Just about gave up on typing. -_-

 

[Tempokai]

To write MC like Goku you need to make him first a good man. No matter what, he must know what's bad or good in his own terms. From that, you have to paths, "genius savant" and "lucky idiot" characters. Goku is first type, so while he's mediocre in everything, he's OP in battle. It's easy to write such characters, you need just to need to give reason why he can do that. Lucky idiot, is what name implies, lucky and idiot. It's a lot harder to write with believability, due to needing to balance the "luck" and "idiocy", but in comedy it has a lot of narratorial power. Remember, low IQ and high IQ often agree with the same thing, but with different reasons.

 

[Tsuru]

5 y/o is kind???

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Make the character an "idiot-savant" - there is ONE subject he or she knows really well, and they relate everything to it and know nearly nothing about anything else. Goku with training/combat is probably one example.

 

[aToTeT]

I dunno.

I like Rocky.

Rocky Balboa.

The Italian Stallion.

A not very smart person in reality is a difficult thing to assess. There are many ways of being not very smart.

I know a gold medalist swimmer in the special olympics. I have known of his existence for almost 4 years as a fellow who works in the same place I do (retail).

Just a few weeks ago he responded with three words (the first he has ever said to me) when I said good morning on my way by.

“Good morning <my name>.”

That was cool. I felt super touched that he knew my name at all — maybe it’s the four years of good mornings and hellos and hi theres that went unresponded to, or with but a nod or an unintelligible phrase.

He’s a good guy, loved by pretty much everybody in the store. His sentences when he does speak are short, but never nasty, even if he’s frustrated.

He does go-backs, and takes down the junk that clutters the bulletin boards.

He is not very smart, but he is *a gold medalist* swimmer.

I am wordy enough and frame my arguments such that I could be viewed as traditionally ‘smart’…

But I can’t swim.

I have lived by lakes, and worked on the ocean.

I cannot swim; I can barely float.

And that is downright stupid — swimming is a lifesaving skill, and a useful skill, and very good exercise… and I was a fisherman, so you’d think I could do it.

But I’d sink faster than Monkey D Luffy weighed down with anvils.

Intelligence is in framing.

If you are writing Rocky, how do you make a man who is extremely unintelligent in academic expression but isn’t so unintelligent as to be ‘narratively useless’:

You make them good at a thing. Hence the ‘savant’ bullshit; I disagree with the terminology as applied to real people, but it is rare you will find a person who is not smart in fiction who is also bad at everything.

Unless they’re an arrogant young master, I guess.

They’re always villains when done like this, see Marv and Harry from Home Alone: a pair of a slightly street-smart fellow who is a little well spoken and a bungling burglar buddy of his.

Stupidity can be hella endearing as the protagonist though. Look at Let’s Not [Obliterate] and tell me that the hero hasn’t obliterated her memory until the point where she is barely conscious as a person — yet she always brings flowers to the Ancient Evil (or whatever).

That is precious. And if you’re precious, you don’t need to win a gold medal in swimming: you’re good with me.

Hearing Rocky try to romance Adrian, a shy girl who doesn’t know how to express herself, is amazing; their whole dynamic is amazing.

Just as traditionally-smart Paulie pisses me off more than I can tell you.

It is how you frame a person’s heart that matters, not their fucking intelligence.

What resonates is not them being OP: see Saitama. Tell me that story is about how Saitama is OP rather than about how Saitama gets a kick out of fighting and is chasing that thrill — that scene with Mumen Rider and the Sea King, where Saitama enters that fight: really hits what that story is for me home.

 

[soupsabaw]

Street smart but not book smart. I have a few characters like this.

One is named Malaya Tapang. She's an incredibly strong, half-blooded phoenix. However, she's a little air-headed, bold, and expressive. One of the smarter characters of the series says something along the lines of, "Well, Malaya doesn't take time to think, so I can only assume she would rush in like an idiot and get herself killed." and Malaya has no answer because... well, he's correct. However, at the same time, the same smart character whole heartedly believes that Malaya will be who beats the antagonist. A lot of the characters are a helping hand that stop Malaya from getting herself killed, like jumping into a fight too early. You could always add a character like that, that warns the air-head, "Hey, maybe this isn't the brightest idea."

Another one I have is Rowan Mayle. This is a more modernized world. He's a business consultant and incredibly smart in multiple different fields, however... he doesn't even know what medicine to take for a headache. This is because he grew up wealthy and pampered, and if he had a headache, someone got it for him. Little details that can make your character stupid yet smart.

The other main character of this series is Sage Gannon, an intelligent doctor who is known as a prodigy. Yet Rowan has to explain to him that the city is not always what it seems, and there is crime lurking about. This is because Sage is a workaholic and heads from the hospital to his place instead of being a person, so he's completely unaware of the violence that occurs in the city sometimes.

As long as there is a reason why your character can be a bit of a dunce, there should be no problem.