Which is more unbearable to read, hidden dragon or three minute ultraman?

[NotaNuffian]

So far my go-to Chinese bullshit MC is always accelerated growth aka others taken years or decades to level 50, MC takes days or even hours.

But I also have seen them split into two groups, albeit rarely.

Hidden dragon or three minute ultraman.

Hidden dragon refers to MCs, all of them really, who pretend pig eat tiger aka feign weak but is actually strong. In most examples the people around would thought that MC is level 50, but secretly he's level 150. Then a level 69 retard try to start shit and MC gets a re-evaluation to level 100 or 150. But due to accelerated growth, MC is in fact a level 250 as the re-evaluation was going through.

Three minute ultraman refers to MC who is weak as compared to the things they will face but has the ability to jack up their power level to close to or even above their enemies until the fight ends. For example, MC is level 50, went up against a level 100 enemy and thus with the power of BS, jacked his power all the way up to level 101. After the fight, MC cheat shut off but he got level up from killing foe so he now level 69.

Which, in your opinion, is more unbearable to read?

 

[Corty]

Hidden dragon.

It was my main reason I wrote Mad God.

I. Despise. That. Trope.

Especially when they constantly hide behind nonsensical reasons and perhaps even endure bullying due to some arbitrary reason to not show their true powers.

Anyone writing like that should always wake up in the dead of the night to pee, just so they can step on a Lego piece.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Hidden dragon.

It was my main reason I wrote Mad God.

I. Despise. That. Trope.

Especially when they constantly hide behind nonsensical reasons and perhaps even endure bullying due to some arbitrary reason to not show their true powers.

Anyone writing like that should always wake up in the dead of the night to pee, just so they can step on a Lego piece.

Seconded.

What is the point of having power and not at the minimum, defend what is yours?

 

[Puji-Maki]

Hidden Dragon.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Hidden dragon is a power all of us would actually LOVE to have, but they're boring and sucks to watch.

They're practically a "hidden mary sue", as long that you can recognize the word "dragon", "phoenix", and other beasts as "mary sue".

"Dragon kingdom" = "Mary Sue kingdom"
"Dragon sword" = "Mary Sue Sword"
"Turtle breathing method" = "Mary Sue breathing method"

------------

Three minute Ultraman however, is very interesting at first. because they show an element of risk-and-reward ratio depending on how MC handle the situation and how good is the MC at timing his Power use.

But this is just another variation of "Hidden mary sue dragon" that can weaken itself instead of playing weak.

 

[Indicterra]

Definitely Hidden dragon, that alongside General spineless of Japanese MC's make a lot of stories unreadable

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Three minute Ultraman.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Three minute Ultraman.

Ok finally an opposition, care to explain?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Which, in your opinion, is more unbearable to read?

Honestly I quite like hidden dragons... usually in comedies. But even something like Frieren uses them and has reasons supporting it.

Three minute ultramen, I find to often be worse. Either the protagonist has an overpowered way to become stronger than anyone else, or fights turn out (as a more extreme example) like dragon ball. There are a few stories where I find it to have more reason and have a good balance.

In general, if I want to enjoy something with nice combat (I find something without these two) I prefer three minute ultramen, they have generally more fair combats. Yet I don't have much against hidden dragons (many exceptions) especially when used in comedies or slice of life (SoL being one of, if not my favourite genre definitely biases my opinion in favour of hidden dragons).

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Ok finally an opposition, care to explain?

I like wrestling, fake one, the one with Hulk Hogan, John Cena, etc. Apart from american wrestling there are obviously wrestling companies all over the world. One country in particular has a very long history with wrestling, not only it has a history, internet fanatics will say this country has THE BEST wrestling matches in the history of the sport.

This country is Japan. Despite this country providing 'the best' matches I never understood the hype around it. That's with me watching matches that was rated the best of all time by collective internet. The reason for that is actually quite simple. In the middle of the match when one of the wrestlers is almost finished, he stands up, does a scrunched up angry face, flexes biceps, and screams with his head raised up. After that he makes a comeback. Now you might think this 'fighting spirit', this 'samurai spirit' is lit, only they, yes both of them, do it 2-3 times during the match. To say it ruins my immersion is to say nothing.

Yes, wrestling is fake, but the fact it is fake doesn't mean it should be illogical or rely on, "we know you know". Same as how 'fake' movies doesn't have to rely on bullshit, movies don't have to be illogical. So I don't buy this fighting spirit bullshit, I don't buy this samurai spirit bullshit, I don't buy going suber-mega-ultra-giga-hyper saiyan. This ruins the immersion for me tremendously. This trope can be used in a way that won't break my immersion and ruin the work for me, but I can say the same about hidden dragon trope that people don't like.

P.S. Both are shit tropes, but if I had to choose, bullshit powerups is something I dislike more.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I like wrestling, fake one, the one with Hulk Hogan, John Cena, etc. Apart from american wrestling there are obviously wrestling companies all over the world. One country in particular has a very long story with wrestling, not only it has a history, internet fanatics will say this country has THE BEST wrestling matches in the history of the sport.

This country is Japan. Despite this country providing 'the best' matches I never understood the hype around it. That's with me watching matches that was rated the best of all time by collective internet. The reason for that is actually quite simple. In the middle of the match when one of the wrestlers is almost finished, he stands up, does a scrunched up angry face, flexes biceps, and screams with his head raised up. After that he makes a comeback. Now you might think this 'fighting spirit', this 'samurai spirit' is lit, only they, yes both of them, do it 2-3 times during the match. To say it ruins my immersion is to say nothing.

Yes, wrestling is fake, but the fact it is fake doesn't mean it should be illogical or rely on, "we know you know". Same as how 'fake' movies doesn't have to rely on bullshit, movies don't have to be illogical. So I don't buy this fighting spirit bullshit, I don't buy this samurai spirit bullshit, I don't buy going suber-mega-ultra-giga-hyper saiyan. This ruins the immersion for me tremendously. This trope can be used in a way that won't break my immersion and ruin the work for me, but I can say the same about hidden dragon trope that people don't like.

P.S. Both are shit tropes, but if I had to choose, bullshit powerups is something I dislike more.

I agree with you on the "shittiness" of Japan wrestling.

I get that I am not the audience. Because I cannot stand even a minuscule moment of it.

Overly exaggerated acting is painful for me.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Overly exaggerated acting is painful for me.

I can enjoy it when there is some variety to it (a lot of classic TV shows - say, Star Trek, had more than their share of overly exaggerated acting but it wasn't the same schtick every time, as it often is in "Sports-Entertainment" ... or, heck "Reality Television")

 

[LilRora]

Personally I think the latter is much worse.

The hidden dragon is alright to me in most stories I've read up to the point where the main character starts to be attacked by young masters and obnoxious adventurers every second step. There's a lot of stories where the main character just doesn't reveal how powerful they are either because there's no damn reason to do so or because they have a reason to stay hidden, and that's fine, but it becomes completely unnatural when anything and everything starts attacking them and "forcing" them to reveal their power.

The three minute ultraman, however, I dislike that almost every time I see it. It just feels so damn artificial most of the time. If it happens once or twice for a good reason, then sure, I can accept that no problems. When it starts to repeat, however, it gets boring and unnatural very quickly.

 

[whatswrongwithme22]

Three minute Ultraman sounds annoying to be honest, unless it's done right, I'm sick of protagonist going headfirst into danger without any thought and surprise surprise, they survive! Who could have known?!
Authors abuse plot armor so much, the story isn't interesting anymore.

It's okay the first couple times, but every new thing like that just gets annoying, takes out the tension of the story.

Hidden dragon has its faults, but two things I like about them is one, to be hidden means they don't try to go along with what people says...
I remember in the distant past reading about a Chinese novel and oh boy, that protagonist there is sooo fucking easy to manipulate, just provoked them and boom, they'll head to whatever you desire. Is there no emotional maturity and control in them at all?
Just one word and they turn into a raging bull?? Is their ego so fragile??
And two, and yes, this is cheap, but they are usually stronger when they finally face a threat, so no power ups at the last shit.

But both has problems, it's just a matter of rightfully using them.
Personally, I used to read the former, before I got tired of it and read the latter but only for casual reading.

 

[BigBadBoi]

Hidden dragon. At least minuteman actually has tension. Hidden dragon almost always has the MC pretend to be weak for the most stupidest reasons just to shoehorn in some dude to provoke him so he can kick their ass.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Hidden dragon is humble.

Three minute ultraman is throwing a temper tantrum for power.

They are not the same.

 

[Tempokai]

Hidden dragon is most frustrating to read. Three minute Ultraman is most gimmicky to read. I chose the first because it's often played for unnecessary drama, and therefore is almost always out for me. Sure, there are great stories that use this kind of thing, but in my observation it only works when MC wants to stay hidden because of context, when enemies are too strong that they will swarm MC if he attracts heavens too much.

Three minute ultraman is based on a gimmick, and it only works when other things in plot carry the story, besides that gimmick. Also, it is more fun compared to the first, you can make whatever you want through that ultraman moment to make the scene interesting or intriguing enough to roll the momentum forward. But, as I said, it must be propped up by anything else to work, it's just a gimmick.