Overpowered or underpowered MC?

[NotaNuffian]

Powerscaling is hard.

So oftentimes, what I see in both CN and EN is that MC is overpowered.

Take Zac from Defiance of Fall for example, golden testicles means the dude gets double job and double the asswhopping on others when on Earf. Of course there are rectifying methods such as throwing him into the higher level playarea or have him gping against other broken characters (he has two epic rarity jobs and he's fighting against jobs of legendary etc).

Of course doing so might lead to the "underpowered" effect, where technically you know that MC is always up againsting higher level foes but seeing his ass constantly spanked makes you feel that he's a giant retard.

As a writer, what is your route?
1. Make MC fight babies?
2. Make MC a pinata?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I have more consistently done OP, but it's easier to make UP more relatable.

 

[AYM]

 

[Anachronist]

Overpowered for me. The end result is the same, the protagonist will win anyway, so OP just gets there faster and the story can focus on what is my personal favorite aspect; character's interactions with each other and the lore.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Powerscaling is hard.

So oftentimes, what I see in both CN and EN is that MC is overpowered.

Take Zac from Defiance of Fall for example, golden testicles means the dude gets double job and double the asswhopping on others when on Earf. Of course there are rectifying methods such as throwing him into the higher level playarea or have him gping against other broken characters (he has two epic rarity jobs and he's fighting against jobs of legendary etc).

Of course doing so might lead to the "underpowered" effect, where technically you know that MC is always up againsting higher level foes but seeing his ass constantly spanked makes you feel that he's a giant retard.

As a writer, what is your route?
1. Make MC fight babies?
2. Make MC a pinata?

Underpowered for me coz I can be patient and love to read on how the MC eventually reached his/her well-deserved win.

And about that MC seeing his ass constantly spanked? Nah, author issues. Gitgud.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Underpowered for me coz I can be patient and love to read on how the MC eventually reached his/her well-deserved win.

And about that MC seeing his ass constantly spanked? Nah, author issues. Gitgud.

I've accidentally followed a CN work with MC constanly getting spanked.

And the worse part is that MC has a cheat that allows him to gain martial prowess from characters by JingYong and GuLong. And he still somehow loses in every bloody fight.

Then the last straw was when MC had DuGu's Nine Sword Techniques and the author thought it would be funny for him to plagiarise his own version but made it slightly better and gave it to MC's foe.

Needless to say is that MC lost and that was when the author got forced to haphazardly finish the bloody work as it got axed.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I've accidentally followed a CN work with MC constanly getting spanked.

And the worse part is that MC has a cheat that allows him to gain martial prowess from characters by JingYong and GuLong. And he still somehow loses in every bloody fight.

Then the last straw was when MC had DuGu's Nine Sword Techniques and the author thought it would be funny for him to plagiarise his own version but made it slightly better and gave it to MC's foe.

Needless to say is that MC lost and that was when the author got forced to haphazardly finish the bloody work as it got axed.

Sounds like a Chinese Im Dal Young.

Yeah, tis pretty irritating though I won't call that kind of MC 'underpowered'; that's a wimp with cheat powers.

 

[Eldoria]

OP MC with a complex personality and has life principles (not an arrogant and impulsive character)

 

[NotaNuffian]

Sounds like a Chinese Im Dal Young.

Yeah, tis pretty irritating though I won't call that kind of MC 'underpowered'; that's a wimp with cheat powers.

Lol googling the name has shown me a fat man with beard.

The author I assume?

But some of his works is very yuri.

OP MC with a complex personality and has life principles (not an arrogant and impulsive character)

That makes sense.

Better than CN MCs that are cunts who need their foes to be bigger cunts.

 

[KidBuu699]

It depends on what the focus of the story is. If the story is focused on fighting/battling then an overpowered character is a negative. However, if the story focuses on something else like character's personality or building something then him being overpowered is not as bad.

"You can judge a man by the quality of his enemies."

I think a big problem in the CN is that a fair amount of time the bad guys are these cookie cute villains who the mc just slaps around. They aren't interesting and the story or arc is just a copy and paste of the previous arc. For cultivation stories there is nothing else for the story to be a main focus on. Oh you think the mc just reached the height of power? There is a whole other country where his new level is the bottom of the barrel. Liked the girl he got? Too bad she has to stay behind so the mc can get the next one.

So there is nothing being built towards except his fights and then he just rolls over everyone.

 

[Bald-san]

Powerscaling is hard.

So oftentimes, what I see in both CN and EN is that MC is overpowered.

Take Zac from Defiance of Fall for example, golden testicles means the dude gets double job and double the asswhopping on others when on Earf. Of course there are rectifying methods such as throwing him into the higher level playarea or have him gping against other broken characters (he has two epic rarity jobs and he's fighting against jobs of legendary etc).

Of course doing so might lead to the "underpowered" effect, where technically you know that MC is always up againsting higher level foes but seeing his ass constantly spanked makes you feel that he's a giant retard.

As a writer, what is your route?
1. Make MC fight babies?
2. Make MC a pinata?

I've done Op MC, the main challenge there is how to make them interesting. But if I were to read something, someone who always wins but in the most ugly, chaotic and clown-like fashion where he/she is almost always at the brink of defeat in all fights for like, 80% of the plot and they just start pounding assess at the ending arc/volume is the way to go.

 

[Eldoria]

What I dislike about cultivation novels/manhua is that the antagonists (who are the losers of the protagonist) tend to complain to their fathers, their fathers are defeated by the protagonist, their fathers complain to their grandfathers, their grandfathers lose, their grandfathers complain to their ancestors, like naughty but cowardly children. And finally, the ancestors lose and beg the protagonist for mercy. Most CN antagonists have this kind of character, and for some reason, these stories sell well.

 

[Amelia-chan]

golden testicles

whatttt

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Varies by story, but generally just try to keep the challenges relevant. I mean, I have one of my most OP mains destined to die (granted at the hands of a god, but still).

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Lol googling the name has shown me a fat man with beard.

The author I assume?

But some of his works is very yuri.

That makes sense.

Better than CN MCs that are cunts who need their foes to be bigger cunts.

Yeah, if I rmb right he's the one who wrote Freezing.

 

[Bartun]

Underpowered for me. My MC can barely defend herself, so she has to evade and escape her pursuers.

 

[LiteraryWho]

I think overpowered is overrated. It can be a lot of fun, when done right (where the character's struggles and flaws are unrelated to their ability to punch things), but more often than not, overpowered is just a symptom of an author's poor story telling ability (take offense if you must). Under-powered means that in at least *one* area, the author will have to actually put some work into developing and solving problems for their characters.

It's hard to explain my position, but OP style characters and plotting take a work from being a "story" into a "thing that happened," or worse, "content."

 

[Aikii]

I wanna vote idiot MC but somehow its not an option

 

[SunNation_Alt]

My preferred style is an MC that is overpowered but pretends to be 'underpowered.' His intelligence exceeds those who think they know what they're doing. In reality, those individuals were merely puppets controlled by the MC. In the end, the MC emerges victorious as he slowly reveals all his plans. I find it interesting to consider whether the MC's reasons are morally good or ethically wrong. Either that or maybe the MC doesn't care. Perhaps the MC was just bored and wanted something to play with?

 

[NotaNuffian]

I wanna vote idiot MC but somehow its not an option

"Like" for participation.

Yeah, I don't like idiot MC because the CN ones are already idiotic enough.

Anymore and they are "special".