"You are more than just your powers" A Broken Aesop?

You are than just your powerset or the skills you have, it seems like perfectly valid aesop for those who don't have powers special skills or special training but ot os broken aesop if the person who resolved used superpowers to accomplish the task at hand?

edited 18th Mar '14 1:49:10 AM by GAP

...A little, but not entirely, I think. What you actually DO with those specific powers/skills/etc says a lot about who you are as a person as well.

It could be the difference between good guys and bad guys (like Flash and Reverse Flash) or just between good guys, where one might use similar powers more efficiently/constructively than another.

But if you're talking about those situations where they're saying "Oh, you don't NEED your powers to defeat the bad guy!" but then shows them defeating the bad guy using their powers with no extra effort put into it to plan a way to defeat the guy without them...then yeah, totally broken.

Some people just don't use it right, is all.

IIRC, Peter Parker has defeated some of his enemies without his spider-powers because, at the end of the day, he's still a really smart guy and inventor with ideas that border on (if not cross and then run circles on) the ingenious.

So the aesop is more on how actually use your gifts as well as is being more than just than just a powerset?

edited 20th Mar '14 4:20:48 AM by GAP

That's what I figure.

I think that might it, I guess you really are more than just powers although does it become a broken Aesop when a 'nomral' chracter used a power to resolve a plot?

I've noticed that whenever a character is depowered, the aesop usually breaks in a sweet and sour fashion - "see, you are more than your powers... but you won't sell a lot of books that way, so you can have them back."

Much like in a few other cases, whenever the power aspect is explicitly portrayed not just as (visualy impressive) means to an end, but as an end by itself, any aesops attached tend to get too fantastic to actually work.

So, unless it's used to subvert Bad Powers, Bad People, in either way, I'd say this one comes off broken far more often than not.

The 'You Are More Than Your Powers' can be a good aesop even with the characters getting their powers back if it shows them utilizing their other skills along with their powers afterward, or not solely hinging their self worth on having powers.

You are more than just your powers is one of the greatest instances where it is better to show than tell. And it is better to be subtle about it.

Put them in a situation without their powers, fine. Have them struggle, have them fail or come close to it, but have them tough it out whatever the case. Then have them breeze through it or a similar scenario with their powers later.

Or put them in a situation where their powers are of little help or are outright hindering and make them look good then too.

But whatever the case, make the reader figure it out.

Servicemen and badass normal getting talked up by the powered characters is not as bad because it makes sense because their them being normal in the super setting is part of their character. Making the super character's powers arbitrary gives the impression you did have much reason for giving them powers in the first place.