Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus H.
I think at this point, a lot of people now understand why I don't like Tatsuya.
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Then your reasons are frankly silly. What exactly is wrong with having these powers if it's justified by the story? So I was right. You just don't like overwhelmingly powerful characters. Even when they're handled well like Tatsuya is.
Also, again, Shiva? Shiva has all those powers. The ability to reverse time, heal wounds, practically raise the dead, destroy everything in creation--Tatsuya has no power that his mythological basis doesn't.
Going back to why I think his OPness is handled well, it's because of this:
1) Tatsuya was based on Shiva. And because Shiva himself is overpowered. When Tatsuya was made, he had to be overpowered. His level of power was integral to his meaning as a character. Which means his OPness is not an amateurish fluke by the writer, but was something that was put there on purpose. It was
intentional. If it was intentional that means the author had it in his mind to make something out of this--and he did. By showing in the story that even if you are as powerful as Tatsuya, it counts for squat since not everything can be solved by brute force and that killing the people causing the problem doesn't necessarily fix the actual problem. Politics is still the way to go about thing, and in this field Tatsuya is still a little green. His OPness is used to strike a point about the nature of power--it isn't always about who has the biggest boomstick. Actually, it even kinda makes him look pathetic: his powers are useless for the stuff he really wants to do; he comes up with all these ingenious ways to use magic, but he can't use them himself and he needs the skills of people around him. His powers are only good for war. And the fact that despite being a god for all intents and purposes--other people can still boss him around. Because they've gotten a hold of his thumbscrew and are making use of it.
2) By not making Tatsuya into a moral paragon, the story turned him into the wild card whose power can tip the scale to the favor of anyone who gets their hands on him. Tatsuya does only what Tatsuya thinks is good for his and his sister's interests. He's not motivated by a sense of right and wrong, a sense of justice, nor does he have any sort of attachment to any one faction or ideology. Miyuki is his only care in the world. And he's perfectly willing to work with anyone that ensures her well-being and safety. By making Tatsuya an utterly selfish magnificent bastard that means the story isn't endorsing any one kind of viewpoint as "righteous" or "villainous" because Tatsuya himself doesn't really care about that stuff. He just wants to live in peace with his sister.
3) Tatsuya's the most powerful character around because he put in all his effort place himself in that position, and he's hell bent on staying there. Tatsuya is terrified of another Okinawa incident, his time in Volume 8 was the clumsiest Tatsuya we've ever seen since he was still working on some of his abilities at that point, and when he lost Honami and especially when he almost lost Miyuki, just the idea of loss nearly drove him mad. He doesn't want that to happen, and there are hints in the novels that he isn't exactly satisfied with his powers and he's beginning to question his own existence. This means
he can still grow. And this, now begs the question: "just how much more powerful is he going to get?" This, I think is fascinating direction for his character growth.