One Punch Man speed update.

[Pendaran]

God damnit Japan.

[Captain Morgan]

So in other news, One Punch Man has given us the best team up of the series. The team up we didn't know we needed.

Also, Garou is now able to fight some of the biggest monsters in the series-- monsters that tower over entire cities. So his striking power and durability are pretty insane now too.

[big_adventure]

So in other news, One Punch Man has given us the best team up of the series. The team up we didn't know we needed.

Also, Garou is now able to fight some of the biggest monsters in the series-- monsters that tower over entire cities. So his striking power and durability are pretty insane now too.

Yeah, that was pretty awesome. spoilers:

Metal Bat

end of spoilers is the anti-Rumbles character. He's the literal embodiment of "Feats, schmeats, you just have to try really hard and all of those previous limits no longer exist."

Garou clearly was already there with his casual domination of Golden Sperm.

[Pendaran]

his casual domination of Golden Sperm.

God damnit Japan.

[big_adventure]

God damnit Japan.

I was 50% expecting to see that comment again. :-)

And yes, yes indeed.

[Nik Hasta]

I remain pretty on the fence about this because with Garou being so obviously and emphatically heroic, we are hard pivoting away from the original story and are going in the, in my view, more generic direction.

ONE is at his best when he's being subversive. This ain't that.

Not saying that it's bad but it's not what I really enjoy the series for.

[big_adventure]

I remain pretty on the fence about this because with Garou being so obviously and emphatically heroic, we are hard pivoting away from the original story and are going in the, in my view, more generic direction.

ONE is at his best when he's being subversive. This ain't that.

Not saying that it's bad but it's not what I really enjoy the series for.

That's a fair enough take. OTOH, Garou has always been about HIM being the one to kill heroes and sew terror. He's always been against anyone else doing it.

[Nik Hasta]

That's a fair enough take. OTOH, Garou has always been about HIM being the one to kill heroes and sew terror. He's always been against anyone else doing it.

If I can get a little think-piece-y for a moment:

Eeh, not exactly. I would argue that, with the exception of Bang due to their personal history, Garou doesn't actually care about killing the heroes specifically.

Garou is rebelling against the conceit of the entire Hero vs Villain dynamic. He was on the side of the monsters initially because, as we see in the flashbacks, he felt it unfair that the villains always lose and he had sympathy for the perpetual underdog. When he met with the Monster Association he was disenfranchised once again by them because they were, in several ways, just a reflection of the Hero Association and were playing into the same unilateral dynamics that he found so distasteful.

He is angry at the systemic and binary setting of his world and he wants to destroy that. That's why, in the webcomic at least, he's like "I'll crush everyone and be the true monster. Hunter of heroes and monster of monsters," He'll equalise everyone by being a force that the world can kind of unite against. It's like a one-man version of Ozymandias' plan in Watchmen in a way.

He helped the kid because he saw a lot of himself in this weird ugly child who still had hope and belief in the Hero/Monster dynamic and had not yet lost his innocence but he is, ultimately, a lone wolf. He is a singular guy who believes only in his own strength and the righteousness that is derived from that.

Having him do fun team up stuff with Metal Bat is fun and all (Metal Bat is best boy, I will not be taking questions on this topic), but it's... I don't know. I feel like we're jumping the gun a bit. The point of the sequence in the webcomic is that the S Class Heroes only perceive Garou as a villain and that he must die because that's the way the story goes.

Saitama points out that Garou is kind of just playing around with them. He doesn't want to kill children, he doesn't want to kill the S Class Heroes, he wants to break their spirits and disabuse them of their understanding of how the world works by beating them so soundly. He wants them to admit that he is right, that he is strong and that their understanding of the world is wrong.

The subversion of this is that Saitama exists and is so impossibly strong that Garou cannot defeat him by becoming more monstrous or being more skilled. Additionally, Saitama already doesn't really give much of a **** about Hero/Monster dynamics and recognises that Garou's pursuits are ideological rather than actually murderous.

So, all of this is to say, I assume we're going to switch back to this plotline (maybe) once Garou takes out all the monsters. Maybe with a bit more dissention within the S Class side for added drama but... I think making it so obviously clear that he now has specifically heroic intentions kind of robs him of that ambiguity that would have been revealed by Saitama.

It's an interesting change but I'm not sure I dig it, y'know?

[Captain Morgan]

I've only read the webcomic from Garou's fight with the S class onwards. But within the Murata story, we have known Garou was secretly heroic for years. Dude fought way too hard to save this brat, hasn't actually killed anyone, and saved Metal Bat's sister too. He's always been trying to convince himself he's hard as hell when he's actually ten ply.

The only thing this changes as far as I can tell is a few people (Metal Bat, Suiryu) are aware of this as well. And none of them seem like they will be present for the final showdown.

Yeah, that was pretty awesome. spoilers:

Metal Bat

end of spoilers is the anti-Rumbles character. He's the literal embodiment of "Feats, schmeats, you just have to try really hard and all of those previous limits no longer exist."

Garou clearly was already there with his casual domination of Golden Sperm.

He definitely was for speed, but not for raw power. Up until now no one has fought creatures this big except Saitama and Tornado.

[Nik Hasta]

I've only read the webcomic from Garou's fight with the S class onwards. But within the Murata story, we have known Garou was secretly heroic for years. Dude fought way too hard to save this brat, hasn't actually killed anyone, and saved Metal Bat's sister too. He's always been trying to convince himself he's hard as hell when he's actually ten ply.

The only thing this changes as far as I can tell is a few people (Metal Bat, Suiryu) are aware of this as well. And none of them seem like they will be present for the final showdown.

You misunderstand me, I'm not saying that Murata!Garou is secretly like a bad dude or not what he appears, I'm highlighting the difference between the webcomic and the manga.

My point was more that there's a big difference between Garou saving one kid, which literally no one saw him do, and him saving a helicopter full of heroes in front of basically the entire cast who is still standing at the moment. Quite apart from how it mechanically changes the dynamics of how other characters feel about him in the story, it also undercuts his presence in the story compared to how it was in the webcomic.

In the webcomic things are lot faster paced and everyone has less screentime, there is much less time with Garou interacting with the ugly kid, much fewer instances of him taking on the Monster Association directly, Orochi literally doesn't exist with Garou losing clean to Psykos instead. We don't have him taking pity on Super Alloy Darkshine, he just beats him down. His fight S Class builds up much faster and, even though he beats up Golden Sperm, it's because he was like "**** you I'm killing everyone," rather than this more "must save people," thing.

Garou has a very different feel in the webcomic, he's a bit more of a maverick and less obviously on the side of justice. He specifically only rescues the kid because he reminds him of himself, it's more on a whim and it's not until he gets owned by Saitama that his ideology is revealed and stress-tested to destruction.

Again, I'm not saying the Murata version is bad but we're going in a very different tonal direction to the original which is, to me, a bit of a shame because I liked the old tone more.

[Captain Morgan]

You misunderstand me, I'm not saying that Murata!Garou is secretly like a bad dude or not what he appears, I'm highlighting the difference between the webcomic and the manga.

My point was more that there's a big difference between Garou saving one kid, which literally no one saw him do, and him saving a helicopter full of heroes in front of basically the entire cast who is still standing at the moment. Quite apart from how it mechanically changes the dynamics of how other characters feel about him in the story, it also undercuts his presence in the story compared to how it was in the webcomic.

In the webcomic things are lot faster paced and everyone has less screentime, there is much less time with Garou interacting with the ugly kid, much fewer instances of him taking on the Monster Association directly, Orochi literally doesn't exist with Garou losing clean to Psykos instead. We don't have him taking pity on Super Alloy Darkshine, he just beats him down. His fight S Class builds up much faster and, even though he beats up Golden Sperm, it's because he was like "**** you I'm killing everyone," rather than this more "must save people," thing.

Garou has a very different feel in the webcomic, he's a bit more of a maverick and less obviously on the side of justice. He specifically only rescues the kid because he reminds him of himself, it's more on a whim and it's not until he gets owned by Saitama that his ideology is revealed and stress-tested to destruction.

Again, I'm not saying the Murata version is bad but we're going in a very different tonal direction to the original which is, to me, a bit of a shame because I liked the old tone more.

The entire cast still standing at this moment is basically Saitama and King, though. Golden Sperm knocked everyone out before Garou showed up, and Metal Bat ain't getting up any time soon. The helicopter folks didn't seem to recognize Garou and I doubt anyone will listen to the brat about him.

I just don't foresee this particular scene changing the stakes much compared to what's already been established.

[Len Ikari145]

EDIT: Wrong thread. IGNORE ME!

[Captain Morgan]

I think Len just blue balled my Golden Sperm topic.

[Len Ikari145]

I think Len just blue balled my Golden Sperm topic.

I regret nothing.

[Pendaran]

I hate you all.