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It's not fallacious to specify the artistic intent of a character. The feats and capabilities manifested by that character are the direct result of that artistic intent. If a character is introduced as someone that can't receive an entertaining battle because he only needs one punch and can't feel the thrill of battle because he can't be harmed, then the feats he accomplishes beyond that point aren't going to ever show his true potential and it would be an incomplete analysis to measure his abilities by them. For characters like Goku where the struggle and vulnerability is the intent of his character, then that's fine because that's in line with the artistic intent of his character. Goku gets stronger to win, meaning he wasn't that strong to begin with and therefore his abilities can be measured by his feats. Saitama will not "get" stronger. He was already that strong before the fight began, so the only concrete foundation to which we can measure his potential is based solely on how and why the character was introduced to begin with. If later the artist portrays Saitama as vulnerable, then we can start downgrading his ability. But for now all we have is an ∞. It's a fallacy to conclude that your analysis is more accurate by an evaluation of actions that cannot show his limits vs. the actual introduction of his character.Minstry of pain said:
Okay I was hoping it would be enough to simply specify what Saitama is. But I can tell you claim to be a man of science. In line with that claim I will hold your hand through a more realistic view of the scientific significance of Saitama's true nature. Gather 'round, children, it's time I lay some science on you. (I promise this is just playful trash-talk because we're engaged in a "sport of the mind," I'm not actually that condescending)Drellix said:
In Saitama's battle with Lord Boros, Boros attempted to destroy him with a beamed energy attack that had the potential to destroy the planet. Saitama neutralized it with a physical attack. Now, this is nothing new in anime culture, but it's virtually impossible physically speaking. Energy can't be "hit," only influenced. One possible hypothesis as to the mechanism by which Saitama could have done this has to do with the cosmic speed limit. See, if Boros' beam was primarily photon-based, then it would be influenced by black-hole level gravimetric force. Physical matter cannot exceed the speed of light because, as it approaches that speed, its mass increases, meaning it requires more energy to overcome its inertia and accelerate it any further. To accelerate matter beyond the speed of light requires infinite energy, which is not contained in our universe, and therefore matter cannot go faster than light. What this also means, however, is that an object accelerated near the speed of light takes on greater mass, and therefore exhibits greater influence on other mass in the form of gravity. That wouldn't seem to be a problem for Saitama, but the main problem is that Boros used that beam for more than an instant, and Saitama only threw one punch, so the gravity effect would not have lasted the entire beam. Also significant is the fact that the ground below and behind Saitama were undamaged and un-warped, meaning that the gravity could not have had an influence on anything but the space directly between Saitama and Boros. The only matter within that space were the gaseous particles making up the atmosphere. Saitama would have had to move the air particles so quickly that they formed trillions of black-hole like gravity fields that each absorbed some of the beam attack. Not only that, but he also had to punch it forward enough that particles didn't "explode" outward to damage anything but what was in front of him. Now, I don't have my pen and paper with me, but increasing relative speed and weight of particles that lightweight to a degree that they would be able to influence photonic energy, would require much more speed than the particles needed to overcome their inherent terminal velocity. If someone wants to run the calculation on this phenomenon to see how fast and how much energy Saitama's punch had to be, I'd be interested in hearing about it. But the long and the short of it is that Saitama's "Serious Punch" attack violated physical laws in that it had to contain more energy in it than what is contained in the universe. That also means that Saitama's body can hold, and therefore endure, infinite energy. All attacks are in essence energy, so regardless what attack is thrown at Saitama, regardless of what part of Saitama's body is attacked, ∞/anything is still ∞. So, scientifically speaking, Vader would not be able to influence any part of Saitama's body to any noticeable degree beyond what the already infinite energy contained therein would already be doing. It would be the equivalent to throwing a piece of Trix cereal at a Disney Cruise Ship and expecting to see it visibly move. Even if you went inside the ship and threw the tiny little delicious piece of purple crunchiness, it wouldn't make a difference.
The other analysis is this: During the Lord Boros incident, there were two prophets, both with evidenced ability to see events in the future with 100% accuracy, and both saying that Boros would destroy the world. Boros and Saitama admitted later that you can't trust prophecies, because Saitama one and the Earth was unharmed. This is significant in one of two ways. First, if their prophecies were "predictive" then that would mean that they had, at least subconsciously, an ability to be aware of the then present state of the universe and the direction it was physically destined to go based on cause and effect. Second, if their prophecies were "perceptive" then that would mean that they had a sensory connection to events further ahead in the timeline. Both are theoretically possible, either through uncanny wisdom or an exploitation of some phenomenon akin to a black hole. But what matters is the fact that they were wrong due to the actions of Saitama. With Saitama's interference, predetermined events were rewritten. If the prophecy was predictive, then that would mean that Saitama is able to violate physical laws (which we've already deduced is likely). If it's perceptive, then that means that Saitama is able to destroy quantum realities or pull his own reality into another quantum reality, both of which are again violations of physical laws. The long and the short of it though is that Saitama was not even visible to the prophets, which implies that he does not exist in a nature to which the flow of time or physics influences him, but he influences them. The only reasonable conclusion is that Saitama must win, even if the very fabric of reality is arranged toward his defeat.
Now, the anime portrays Saitama as a joke, and physics don't matter much if it comes at the cost of what's going to be most entertaining. But if you insist on applying science to Saitama, then it makes him a God able to rewrite reality with nothing more than violence. So you either have Vader lose because it would just be funnier for him to lose, or you'd have Vader lose because Saitama contains infinite energy and is not influenced by the reality as we know it. Either way, Vader loses.
Science!
your post wasnt there while i wrote this 
