Many people groan at the power of friendship trope, and there's a very good reason as to why. / shadydoorags / shadydoorags randomperson1310.deviantart.com/ picarto.tv/shadydoorags flii.by/shadydoorags/ patreon.com/shadydoorags
I came for the awesome Bojack analyses. Stayed for the MLP. The fact that the two coexist in your channel tells me that we must be soulmates of some kind :D (er.. in a non-creepy way)
A prime example of the Power of Friendship being misused as a story element is none other than Fairy Tail. And yes, The Power of Friendship is overused but only if it's used as an actual source of power instead of it being used to better a person.
i dont like if the power of friendship violates the law of equivalent exchange. as in, the power comes literally from nowhere, or is produced by something, that shouldnt produce power. Like, if friendship is a free and abundant source of energy, why is the protag the only one that uses it? same goes for anger generating power, by itself. IRL anger does not generate power, but adrenaline increases your heart rate, which delivers more oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, so the power-up is actually fueled by calories. gear second luffy makes more sense, than the hulk in that regard. originally, i didnt like the elements of harmony in MLP, cause they seemed to generate energy from emotions itself, which doesnt really make sense physically. but later its revealed, (or at least they imply it) that the power actually comes from a magic tree, who got its power, by drawing power from the magic in the soil, and was created by a guy, who didnt believe in friendship, like at all. but then the trees AI developed sentience, and decided, to only work for people it liked, and pretends to be out of power, if it doesnt approve of the users morals, randomly making up rules, and discarding them, to incentivise character development. basically the entire show, is benevolent magical skynet, trolling everyone, till they stop being jerks. (it also melts peoples faces, but only if there are no witnesses). also other forms of emotional power, like when the changelings and sirens feed on love or anger, likely only use emotions as activation requirement to drain MP from targets within range, which is why they barely gain any power from ordinary humans, but gain lots of power by magically augmented metahumans.
I want to one day see a character who doesn't need the power of friendship to be powerful. Like any character, I'd expect this protagonist to have real flaws, but why can't they also have a really strong will from the very beginning? Some people are just like that: they're go-getters, they get things done, and can do so regardless of the cost to themselves(which can easily be a flaw because of their lack of regard for their own well being). With a few exceptions, I see way too many protagonists that are meant to be "good," or even "great" at what they do. Yet, when you see them in action, they're just so... I dare say, wimpy. It makes for a painfully underwhelming consumer experience at times. Basically, why should so many characters need this "power of friendship"? Why can't they just... you know... be awesome? I love the idea of friendship and family, but I just think it's used as a crutch way too many times.
Well, when I say "the power of friendship" I really mean that an abstract concept empowers them. The story you're talking about has been done plenty, actually. Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Green Lantern (not the movie version), Ben 10, Sherlock Holmes, 007, Jak and Daxter. These are but a few examples of characters who were already awesome, and just kept doing so once they became motivated or had the right tools to try something heroic. From what you've said, specifically, Green Lantern is probably the best example. He was an ace pilot who showed no fear, it's why the ring chose him in the first place. Once he got the ring, he easily rose to being one of the best, specifically because of his own willpower. The movie changed it drastically, making him a very fearful character.
I wish the power of friendship tapped more often into the psychological effects of someone, both the good and the bad of rellying so much on others or protecting loved ones at one's expense.
I think the power of friendship should be used to show how teamwork and commitment can be used to combine your own skills and talents to achieve a goal but also show it in an believable way
never have i seen such a truer comment in mah life (seriously tho, power of friendship in jojo? pff, you'll just get Stando Rush in like, 2 pages of it regardless if it's an Ora, a Muda or Sunlight Yellow Overdrive)
well real life version of power of friendship exists as hysterical strength which is a display extreme strength by humans, beyond what is believable. usually when someone is in a life or death situation. i think there was even a situation i heard were some woman lifted a car when her loved one was trapped under it. (obviously not like how superman lifts a car)
The other problem with that moment in SAO is that the show broke the one rule it had, if you die in the game you die in real life the moment Kirito wills himself back to life.
I would've been willing to let that moment slide if the series had ended right then and there in that episode. It could've been very ambiguous and would've left the audience wondering if Asuna was still alive like Kirito, if EVERYONE was still alive, or if Kirito was just a glitch. It would've left a huge impact instead of shifting to... what we got in the second half of season 1.
I would’ve preferred if Klien used that revival item Kirito gave him earlier in the season, but no they had to have Kirito be a overpowered son of a bitch and he wills himself back to life
If there’s a story that involves a theme of friendship, wouldn’t they try something new and have villains be defeated by a force of nature, showing that nature always wins no matter how hard you try, as good must learn to coexist and show respect with nature while evil will pay the price?
The "power of friendship" is a powerful trope when done right. Just look the Alabasta Arc of One Piece. I'm pretty sure that arc is what made it a staple and a must-be trope among future shounen series, especially Fairy Tail.
Why does this only work for the good guys like what if the bad guys lover or something gets killed by a good guy how come they don’t get an extreme power up and kill the good guys
Most people identify with the good guys/girls in the story/show & want the villain to get beaten/killed even if they are sympathetic to them. The villain redemption is done rarely. The only exception is DBZ & Naruto where most of the villains were irredeemable yet were allowed to live due to shitty writing😂
This is why aot is still popular it doesn't use power of friendship and plot armor with the exception of Reiner wanting to die now that I mentioned it he's not only a the armored titan he's the *plot armor titan*
If I own a cartoon show I would make the power of friendship doesn't do any effect to the villain,and instead villain completely destroy them with the power of hard training
In my story, I'm doing neither. The main character will still have the moment but in their head, and it's not gonna make him 1000x stronger. It's just gonna give them the will to keep going (not give up so everyone in the rest of the planet can live) and then EVENTUALLY find a good weapon + counters to the villain's abilities.
I could make story where villain defeated by power of friendship but when he return he adapt and develop countermeasures which make heroes to be more creative to defeat him
King Ghidorah: Bullshit! You really that movie logic could defeat the King of the Monsters?!?! Of course not! He's a impenetrable wall of atomic scales!!!
Sadly, I've never experienced it. I really want to get back into video games and make them a part of my channel again once my life settles down (I'm currently moving around a lot).
@@ShadyDoorags I hate games persona, never be darker story unlike shin megami tensei 3 nocturne including shin megami tensei 1 actually pretty far darker because story content about humanity nature and philosophy a special fight between law path (like Jewish christianity) and chaos path (a.k.a satanism or KKK) and the middle path between law and chaos is Neutral path (humanity philosophy), I like story shin megami tensei 1.
What I'd like to see is the power of love/friendship from another angle or in a different context, I'd also like to see it corrupt the user in some way. To clarify: 1) Another angle could be like having the person who uses the power be someone who doesn't actually have friends but uses said power to protect/save those they want to be friends with. A kind of "they might not like me but I still like them" situation. I think that'd put a unique spin on things. 2) Another trope that is sometimes used a bit much in high magic fantasy settings is the "corrupted by power" trope. We've seen it in the Equestria Girls movies for example, characters stealing magic and being turned into some kind of demon or crazed magical being. Though in those films, despite the magic that was used being parts of the Magic of Friendship, it was never the Magic of Friendship in full. What I'd like to see is a character use the Magic of Friendship properly, for a good reason/cause, but then become corrupted by it.
I came back to this comment because I remembered. The second thing that you mentioned, that's what happened to Star Saphire, a villain in the Green Lantern series (well, ex villain, she's a hero now). Carol Ferris harnessed the power of love because she was in love with Hal Jordan, but the love overpowered her and she became corrupted. She wanted Hal all for herself and had to realize that with love, also came letting go.
Oh interesting. I might have to research into that. I love the concept of good powers corrupting someone but it's just so rare without the power itself having already been corrupted or the person being corrupted prior but only having said corruption revealed after gaining the power.
But remember Sword Art Online is a video game, and not in the real world (in the first half arc) and the creator or Heathcliff can like Kirito and not have him die. Or something like that.
That’s his point how did a player with no power over how the game works do something that the code made sure she couldn’t do? and how did Kirito come back from being dead wasn’t his brain electrocuted or something and I’m sure that other players have have had that much or more determination to protect their friends but they still died so why didn’t Kirito
You nailed it. It sucks when it doesnt make sense within the context of its own universe. It also sucks when it only serves as a device that only really enables mc to shine and makes you feel like the only reason other chars exist is for the convinience of the mc aka Dragonball
I remember a video in which Michael Jones (Sting's English VA in Fairytail) was ranting about the fight between Sting and Natsu while drunk. He finished the rant with this: *"It doesn't make sense! The power of friendship is b*llshit!"*
I believe the power of friendship can be used to better each other’s character and not as a plot device or a superpower and also show that it doesn’t always work
TheJaredPunch what the hell does that mean he saying that just because you have friends doesn’t mean you should become 100x stronger and be able to beat an opponent that just a few minutes ago could kill you with a single to a few hits, and are you saying that if you and your friends were attacked by (let’s just use a demon lord) and I’m going to assume that your all normal humans and he killed/hurt one of your friends you would get the power of a god or something and kill the demon lord with a single hit
Well, friendship is a type of love, God is love therefore the power of friendship / power of love is the power of God, so its not convenient, its biblical shenanigans
