Would you accept a superpower? A fantasy-magic-hero-like power?
I’ll narrow it down a bit more. What if this power helped you grow stronger in any aspect of your being, RPG style? If you finish a gym session (just one session), your strength permanently increases by 2 points. If you finish an academic book, your intelligence increases by 3 points. If that book happens to be a fairy tale, the kind with deep meaning and lessons to be learned, your wisdom gets 1 point. If you run a 5K, you get 2 points in stamina, and so on. All those points are permanently added to your character, stacking indefinitely. And just like any RPG or fantasy setting, those points accumulate at an extraordinarily faster rate than in real life. A week at the gym, gaining 2 points each time, would give you the same results as a normal human grinding away for three, four, maybe even five years straight. Another difference is that normal humans have a limit. Your powers do not. Your body may not show much outward change, but a +100 in strength would be superhuman. You’d be lifting cars over your head as if they were empty cardboard boxes. Would you want this kind of power?
Well, there’s always a “but.”
This is a common plot, too common I’d say, especially in manga, anime, manhwa, comics, and recently also more frequent in TV and books. A regular human receives god-like powers, and at first, it’s amazing. The first few days of exploring their newfound abilities, imagining endless possibilities, some even get the classic “revenge against bullies” trope. But then the story has to move on. And somehow, it always moves on in the exact same way.
The newly super-powered being is immediately faced with impossible, life-threatening challenges. They have to undergo brutal, exhausting training just to maybe have a chance of surviving. And once they conquer one enemy, one disaster, one near-death experience, the next one shows up, even stronger, even more dangerous. The pattern repeats endlessly. Each villain, each crisis, each catastrophe is always worse than the last. The stakes keep growing, threatening a bigger geographical area, or a bigger portion of the population each time. And unless the hero keeps training, keeps grinding, keeps pushing forward every waking moment, everything will be lost. Again and again.
There is no break. Ever.
Western media at least tries to pretend these characters have a life outside of constant battle. Maybe they go to a restaurant, maybe they go on a date, maybe they try to sit through a single class, even though they’ve been absent the entire semester. But every single time, without fail, their moment of peace is interrupted. The phone rings, their super-senses pick up danger, or the enemy just smashes through the wall in front of them. Every single time they try to just sit and exist, something drags them back in. They’re never allowed to rest. They’re always forced back into training, self-improvement, and yet another life-or-death battle.
This is no life.
Sure, it’s entertaining to watch someone push their limits, to see them overcome impossible odds. But living like that? No thanks. A life where you have no time for anything except fighting and surviving? A life where you never get to just enjoy a moment of peace? I’d rather be powerless and actually have the freedom to do things I like.
And honestly, I’m growing tired of these stories. Fantasy is still my favorite genre, but I have to be so picky now that It’s exhausting, having to sort through hundreds of copy-paste plots just to find one that dares to do something different.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the appeal of this endless cycle. Sure, having power sounds great at first, but what’s the point if you never get to enjoy anything? If every small moment of peace is just a countdown to the next catastrophe? It stops being a gift and starts feeling like a curse, an obligation to keep pushing forward, keep training, keep fighting, because if you don’t, everything falls apart. And if that’s the price, then maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe having no power at all is the better deal. Maybe being just another person, free to waste time, free to be weak, free to live without the weight of the world on your shoulders, is the real superpower. Perhaps if I were the one getting those super powers I would be considered a villain, surely I’d help people and a lot even, but not 24/7, certainly not as exhaustively as those so called super heroes, and for sure I’d use the powers to my own benefit too, not stealing or damaging others, but somehow to my benefit. But I definitely would not want or accept any powers that come together with the level of responsibility that takes away every second of my life.
So, I’ll ask again, would you accept a superpower?
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