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Haxed Characters In-Depth: Beyond the Text Wall

@Cal Eh, may as well do one for Lavos since you like the character.

Chrono Trigger:

You have no idea where it came from, or its origins. You also have no idea what it is but you know one thing: It wanted to destroy the world, and it succeeded. So from the get-go it gives you the message that you're not fighting against just some monster or villain who plans to destroy the world.

You are fighting against two things: An abomination beyond the reasoning of humans and, above that, something already determined by Time and Fate itself. The main struggle of Chrono Trigger across time is about fighting against history, fate itself and how, in the end, it may be a vain struggle.

That is very much exemplified by Magus in the "What the Prophet seeks" ending:

"If history is to change, let it change! If the world is to be destroyed, so be it! If I must vanish from existence to see this done, then I shall welcome that fate!"

Without being a presence directly interfering with you, Lavos acts for most of the plot like a shadow you must confront. You don't know when or how, but you will - and with the ever heavier tone of dread the game builds up around its figure, it fortifies that sense of "inevitable" by the time you get to the Ocean Palace and the Save reads as "Lavos Beckons".

The buildup around its name, as you reach the Ocean Palace to finally hear this start to play as you approach it more and more is amazing . Now you know that it's not a mindless monster either: It has outright created the very magic you're using so far, and it has the whole plot - Magus, Queen Zeal and others tied together to its existence. You start to realize that this isn't just about the future: Every event in this game, even prior to your time travelling, has been connected and made to happen the way it did because this thing's presence is influencing the events, making it so.

Then you finally meet it. And just like an unstoppable fate, it washes over the characters like a wave. After spending so long in preparation for fighting it, you lose everything without being able to make a single move. Not only you fail to prevent or save anything but your Silent Protagonist - the closest thing to a "player avatar" and your link to the game gets killed as well. The person you would want to save the most (Schala) sacrifices herself for you.

When you, after going through so many more changes in time and strength, finally think it defeated...

Cross comes along.

You realize that your actions ultimately changed nothing - or made it all take a turn for the worse, as the being does against you the exact same thing you did: YOU changed the Future as it should have been, so the Future - as cause and effect would have it, Fate itself strikes back at you through Lavos.

At this point the impression that the power of Lavos is like a symbol for an inevitable Fate is presented in signs all over the place. Schala saying that no physical power in the world can free her. How the scientists in El Nido refer to its power as being "A Presence in Time, like God" and so on.

You realize the evolution of humanity, every single lifeform and timeline... It's everywhere, and later by the ending of Cross this is solidified when Lavos gets regarded as the "chosen life-form" - in the sense that everything and again, Fate, have dictated it to be so.

Lavos1Chosen
Only upon defeating it you get the confirmation that, despite the Planet's own efforts, the purpose of everything that exists was to lead to the creation of this one being chosen by Fate.
Then you tie that with the Game Over screens for both games and it all makes sense: The first one being "But... The Future refused to change." and the second one telling you how "Fate has no forgiveness for those who stand in its way."

And to top it all off: Despite all this, the ONE time in the whole series that Lavos actually talks to you? The thing is not at all arrogant, happy or anything you would expect from its privileged standing in existence.

It's utterly tired and finds absolute no meaning in the way existence is, which you can see clearly in its speech:

"Welcome, humans. Those who know the torment and joy of creation know also the pleasure and pain of destruction. Therefore, all that pass through here must be prepared to share the burden that I carry. In order to survive, all living things in this world, fight desperately and devour those those they defeat... Must one kill other living things in order to survive? Must one destroy another world in order to allow one's own world to continue? The wounded in turn wound and torment those weaker than they themselves are. There are only the killers and the killed... The sinners who are judged, and the victims that do the judging... What meaning is there to such a world?"

Regardless of which side of its personality said so, the Time Devourer legitimately asks Serge's party to kill it.

Just like humans live without knowing their Fates or being able to talk to it or predict or can spend their whole lives trying to change it without knowing if its making any difference until the moment they die, you don't ever truly comprehend all there is to Lavos. Some aspects to it remain a mistery throughout the whole series, but it's honestly better that way. Ultimately, Lavos does not work like a tangible enemy most of the time - its presence and powers across time and how it influences how everyone's lifes and actions connect and play out make this being work like a representation of going against what destiny dictates... And how, by the end of the day, these actions may end up becoming exactly what makes said destiny happen, making it all meaningless. In this world, regardless of who you are, this is your life: Fighting and "devouring" one another to survive in the struggle against destiny called life. Is it worth it? That's the question. As the Devourer, Lavos is divided in the answer: Half of it says "No." and wants everything to disappear along with it. The other half says "Yes." and that is what makes a chance of defeating it even possible.

...In my eyes, it sort of tells we all live sharing this same struggle each day of our lives, as Humans themselves are referred in the game as "the offspring of Lavos". It's all about not letting ourselves go down and give up to that, no matter how grim things look. Remember how they also say "Dreams" oppose Lavos? And Lavos devours Dreams? That sounds like another metaphor for the dreams we want to fulfill in life opposing Fate, but also being possibly devoured by it, making us lose hope.
Lavos2Kill
 
Next wall of text (maybe)

  • Link (Composite)
He doesn't exist GG

  • Ganondorf
He has different abilities in every game so he's never truly haxed, except barely in ALTTP and TP. And even then, he doesn't truly appear haxed as he appears for little time.

Okay, Zelda doesn't work. I need a different series. JoJo? Nah, I just did it. MHA? Who could I use? There aren't a lot 0 of interesting and haxed characters, so meh. Kirby? ...Why not?

  • Dark Matter (Kirby)
Dark Matters are just that. Darkness. They are controlled by a big bloody eye that creates them Why does this sound like something out of Lovecraft?. Their goal? Having friends.

It's very Ironic, but that's it. The reason (Sword) Dark Matter came to Dreamland in Dreamland 2 was because he wanted to have friends. We also do see that it can help to make Dark Matters friendly, as we see with Gooey. Despite everything they do, and the evil things they have done, they've always wanted to have friends.

There's not much to go through here as Kirby lore about Dark Matters is limited as everything else it's pretty much speculation. I think they're supposed to represent that even some of the worst people we meet, want to have friends and, maybe, we can be that friend that makes him feel better.
 
Theglassman12 said:
And the saddest thing is, the "sequal" to the game he's from practically proved his point as the conflict in his world still existed even when the main protagonist tried to say that there can be another way for others to live equally.
Click to expand...
This. So much this.Lloyd's way didn't really solve anything in the long run. Mythos did nothing wrong.
 
Cal's probably gonna request people to say to him what makes haxxed characters interesting even in thirty years.

But uh I don't have many haxxed characters I haven't developed already so oops.
 
Saikou The Lewd King said:
Cal's probably gonna request people to say to him what makes haxxed characters interesting even in thirty years.

But uh I don't have many haxxed characters I haven't developed already so oops.
Click to expand...
You know it.

Say them again because I forgot.
 
Isaac (Binding of Isaac)

...I got nothing. Besides the fact the game's fun as ****. The main thing with Isaac is that you don't get every item at once so you don't end up with a stupidly broken character most of the time.

Bill Cipher

Cal should already know why
 
@Fate true, though looking back, I think Sync made a much stronger emotional mark considering his entire existance was fabricated for someone else and practically gave up on anything regarding his life.
 
White Face: His only adversary is as haxxed as him, if not even more. Even then, his hax don't truly affect anything in the "real world", leaving it without much actual use. And the conflicts are hardly on a physical level.

Yume Nikki: Same as above but even more. There is hardly any true conflict and if there is any, it's mainly on a mental level and not at all on a physical level, meaning haxless is utterly meaningless in term of actually resolving conflicts.

SCP: Same bullshit as Cthulhu Mythos. The top dogs don't care about any of the main story's conflicts. Plus the whole series is kinda deconstructive, putting "OP" characters in the world of SCP, with the Foundation trying to contain such fantastic being (that are normally not meant to be contained).
 
Digimon: I would go over Lucemo, Alphamo and Apocalymo all over again with you...but I think you get the drift. Digimon in general is not OP unless you go through every bit of lore from all the canon and put it all together.

Soul Calibur: Algol I would have to detail later.
 
Yüki Terumi: Unlike someone like Lucemon, Terumi ain't that deep. He has little to no reason of why he hates humanity other than his ego. But what makes him really interesting and likable is his attitude. He's so comically evil that you help but love him or at least love to hate him, the same reasoning of why I love Bill. It is also seen in his game play, where his tactic is just piss everyone off by various super, overdrive and even astral chains, meter drain that can absorb 50% of the meter, cancellation taunts to super and 4Djc2D loop combo. I just love to play as Terumi and watch Terumi. RIP my main.
 
Yüki Terumi

The only things you know at the start are the faxt that he's maniacal, calculating yet twisted. Truly adds a layer to his character. Yet this isn't even the best part about him. His motives due to unfortunate events that befell him and his his motives are what makes him interesting.

To start, Terumi is trapped in an unending time loop due to the Takamagahara system. Why? Its because the Takamagahara system resets time every time Ragna's dumbass falls into the Cauldron. A time loop? It can't be that bad right? Wrong.
B9AA9DA5-1E66-4F7C-B663-6C4F0C860A51
Not only can he remember the events of every reset, but time is reset by 100 years. Times this by a trillion or so and you roughly get how many times Terumi went through this. And all of this without even mentioning him having to endure going through infinite simulations of every possibility.
Now that's covered, Terumi's motives are pretty straightforward. His first motive essentially comes down to the fact that he's bored. Fairly understandable aftrer seeing what he's been through. Here's an apt quote from him to for his general mindset:

Seriously, I can't believe you just asked me that! OK, all right, fine! How about this reason? Seems as good as any. I do all the wonderful things I do because I want to see the miserable look on the faces of people like YOU when you're wallowing in despair, dismay, grief, frustration, misery...all sorts of other unpleasant nouns... I guess you could say I'm bored. At least misery is interesting.
~ Yuuki Terumi in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.​

This isn't all, however. We see later on that his motives are much more deeper than "he's bored". We see in Central Fiction that Terumi's tired of the Master Unit "intervening on him; controlling his every action. All he wants is true freedom from both the Takamagahara system and the Master Unit. But he really puts into perspective that the main character and the supporting cast are truly the evil ones:

You're the trash, humans. How many worlds have you destroyed, in your desire for the power of a god?...Although I suppose my words are wasted on you. Hah... Don t try to put the blame on me. You humans are the ones who made the choice. You collect only the possibilities that are convenient for you,and create a future only for yourselves. The worlds that lost their "possibilities" are destroyed by Doomsday, the Black Beast.


Finally, Terumi only exists as long as people have hate and fear towards hims. His goal is to create a world where people fear him in order to sustain his existence. But in the end he falls short and his defeat is due to the fact that not enough people hate him. Ragna mentally changes everyone's perception of him from being a villain to beong a hero. So in the end, Yuki Terumi became the hero that he detested from the start.
7C69FCB4-205D-4EBD-A82A-A9B987853D94
 
Characters being overpowered or haxed has nothing to do with how well their character is executed

Hax isn't a part of being overpowered either. Within the context of a story there isn't much difference between someone who erases everyone with a thought and someone who casually one shots everything.

But let me humour you

First starting InFAMOUS 2 you know you're goal, Stop The Beast from destroying the world, it comes across as a completely mindless beast when you first fight, and just a generic villain.

Later, you meet John White, the guy you met back in InFAMOUS one who tried to destroy the Ray Sphere (The origin of all conduits and people with special powers), before it fell into the wrong hands and bad organizations ended up using its power to control or enslave others, he's the good guy in this game, and not necessarily someone you'd take a second glance at. Eventually you destroy the Ray Sphere and he is presumed dead.

Later on in the second game, there is a radiation plauge that is affecting, hurting, and killing humans left and right, when you first meet John White, he shows that even Cole's abilities can't heal or stop the plague when he leads him to an overstuffed hospital where even the Doctors are infected

But then he notices an unawakened Conduit

You see Conduits are completely immune to the plague, resulting in the following event.

John white, reveals that his abilities let him survive the Ray Sphere blast due to him being an unawakened conduit, before proceeding to nuke the hospital with a Sphere Blast, which, while it kills everyone in there, who were going to die from the plague anyway, the once infected conduit awakens, who then proceeds to shrug off the plague and mistakingly thanking Cole for giving her a second chance, assuming he was the one that saved her life, not the Beast.

Then comes the end.

Cole finds the Ray Field inhibitor, but then finds out that it will kill every conduit himself included if he uses it, but he is also unsure if it cure the plague, getting a quote

"Zeke, we don't know if the RFI will cure the plague, John's method works, I've seen it"

So here are the following scenarios

1. Go with Cole, activate the RFI, the blast will kill every conduit but possibly cure the plague, killing thousands but saving millions.

2. Same as above, but this time, The RFI doesn't cure the plague, completely dooming not only all of humanity, but it's last chance at being able to start anew with a new super powered race.

3. Go with The Beast, while the blast will destroy any non-conduits, it will ultimately guarantee that Humanity will keep going, and live on as effectively being a superpowered race, similar to the human race in My Hero.

If you read number three and take safety over Risk, you officially agreed with The Beasts logic, and he's ultimately the more rational decision.

Cole Macgrath, for all his good however, is still, ever since inFAMOUS 1, was a massive risk taker willing to always shoot for the heights, fitting his character, he risks humanity and uses the Ray Field Inhibitir, which, thankfully, ended up saving humanity from the plague, but killing every conduit, Cole himself

You have a villain who was actually in the right over the Hero in the debate of which descision is more rational and beneficial to the world, how often does that teuely happen?
 
And can someone resize the image, please?

The point of the OP is to see how OP characters can be inserted into a story in a cohesive matter without breaking the scale.
 
I think when people think OP character, they see it through a statistical standpoint. They see "Oh, this guy can't be defeated. How boring." When really, he's not very OP in canon.

I think what makes a haxxed character interesting is a balance of interesting hax and relative overpoweredness. Interesting hax like Kira's Killer Queen is what draws people in and seeing how Kira works around the limitations and strengths of his Stand make him and interesting character. Relative overpoweredness is how has you are with relation to the story. If you and every other bloke in the story has powers coming out of their ass it doesn't really matter if you're overpowered. I think Saint Seiya is a testament to this as anyone and their grandmas can atomise souls in the story. When everyone is OP, no one is. That gives the author more room to make a compelling story should they be skilled enough.

TL;DR Araki is the best mangaka don't @ me
 
TriforcePower1 said:
And can someone resize the image, please?

The point of the OP is to see how OP characters can be inserted into a story in a cohesive matter without breaking the scale.
Click to expand...
Not even. The point of the OP is to just focus on something other than their haxed status for once. Again, comparing it to a hot person who's more than just their looks even though everyone only focuses on their looks.
 
I so far haven't really found any haxxed characters who I'm also eager to talk about as a character. Sans and Simo are the closest things that come to mind.
 
For me, Excalibur Umbra comes to mind.
Commission excalibur umbra by kevin glint dcm39qv-pre


To start with, he's a Warframe with an actual conscience, one of which that was forced to obey his sworn enemy through psychological torture to the extent that he was forced into killing his own child.

"But you won't have to imagine. A lovingly cultured Infestatio swarms within your blood. Your transformation has begun, reshaping you into a sacred surrogate of the unholy Tenno... A Warframe with but a Single. Burning. Memory. It is... a miracle! But all miracles require sacrifice."

Imagine the image of you killing your own son out of your own control, being played out through your mind as the only memory you have, it's heartbreaking; pure agony.

This reflects in his moveset and how it deviates from the regular Excalibur, his Radial Blind in the form of Radial Howl, a remark on his endless suffering over his loss, something that will haunt him for eternity as he cannot age.

This makes for a compelling hax character, if you ask me.
 
"I can safely say that Vivec is the most realized character in videogame fiction. Period.

If a hermaphroditic, bug-armored, bipolar god-king existing in multiple universes who has his very own bible with *actual* magic strewn throughout it is your idea of a cliche, then I really would like to live in your world. It sounds fun and new."

-MK
 
That's not really the point of this thread boogie. It's to examine what makes these characters interesting besides their powerset, because Cal has a rather unreasonable hate for hax.
 
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