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1 - Uniqueness Decay
2 - Maybe have a look at Extra-Strength Masquerade (Nen is openly shown to everyone, it's obviously supernatural, and everyone collectively shrugs) or Weirdness Censor (ordinary people interpret Nen as something mundane and don't recognize it as supernatural).
3 - Strongly sounds like Strong as They Need to Be, which includes the wide notion of "Power on paper is irrelevant, we want to tell a story that involves struggle against worthy opponents."
4 - I don't know, this scenario is not familiar to me.
KD, thank you for your answer. As of the 4th, I will put it more simply:
Orc >>> normie.
Normie with a MAGIC RING > Orc >>> normies.
Orc with a MAGIC RING (He is already strong, and also with the enhancement that humans usually have). Is there a trope for this?
Edited by RukiaMunchesPizzaNomNom3 could also be Badass Decay.
Indeed, the “Badass Decay” trope matches to specific characters (in particular, Annie and Reiner, and Kurapika as well).
Edited by RukiaMunchesPizzaNomNom4) Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot for "Ninja Dragon"-type fusions, and Hybrid-Overkill Avoidance for when works disallow this sort of super-combo
One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce when this negates some or all of the drawbacks to their powers (Fishmen with devil fruit powers being a downplayed example; they're still crippled by seawater but they won't drown like human users.)
All points:
- Serial Escalation for the natural tendency of works to go through a process of self-oneupmanship to keep things fresh and interesting. One Piece is a good example of this being justified by the setting- the Grand Line becomes increasingly dangerous as one travels along it, to the point that even civilians Have To Be Sharp just to survive. This happens to both require our heroes to keep improving and provide them with an ongoing challenge that keeps the story interesting.
Scorpion 451, thanks for the answer, it was very informative.
Edited by RukiaMunchesPizzaNomNom
Please tell me if there are tropes or variations thereof for the following cases of changing “value” of using superpowers as the plot progresses. Sorry for only giving examples from a few shounen anime, I just really like them.
1. Superpowers Devaluation. When the complexity and uniqueness of the possession of superpowers is exaggerated at the beginning of the plot; the main character spends a lot of time training and developing techniques. Perhaps, at the same time, it is said that he is very talented in mastering them, and an ordinary person would need to spend years, years of training. And later, when events unfold with full force, any fool owns superpowers, learns them in one hour and uses them at random.
Examples: Nen in Hunter x Hunter. The main characters Gon and Killua learn Nen quickly, but gradually. Further, Chimera Ants easily learned Nen, and some of them were born with superpowers; their superior, Chimera Ant Shaiapouf just bestowed them superpowers, for which it was necessary to spend for 3 days in his cocoon. But this is still normal, because they were a more developed species than humans. The main madness has begun on the Black Whale, where Kurapika, previously a smart, logical and thinking person, begins to use his ability to give away Nen to literally everyone he met "for balance", not realizing that by doing this he strengthens enemy groups (while the enemy's Nen users, athletic and hefty men, laugh at him behind his back for his "efforts"); he arranges courses for mastering Nen for every noname who wants it; using his ability to inject someone else's Nen with a dolphin syringe, he awakens superpowers in queen Oito, who was not a Nen user before, and after a hour using the borrowed ability, now she is already inventing her own technique. Right there, another character, Morena Prudo, distributes ready-made superpowers to her henchmen. These henchmen treat the possession of Nen-abilities very careless and vaguely ("oh, we need an Emitter in order to replace the killed teleporter – let's quickly prepare this ability!"). Next, some absolutely random soldiers, having heard their conversation, don't seem to know about Nen, but here they are thinking hard about how to learn some abilities in a couple of days. While at the beginning of the manga, Zushi (the first Nen student shown) trained it much longer than the main characters and continued long training sessions without much results (he is just learning to control the aura, and he hasn’t even develop the actual Nen).
2. Selective ignorance of the masses about superpowers. It is claimed that ordinary people do not know about superpowers (and should not know); but users of superpowers do not particularly care about their secrecy for ordinary people (whether it be the use of abilities in ordinary life or the obvious consequences of their use).
Example: Hunter x Hunter again. Those who take the Hunter exam are secretly sent a teacher, who then trains them Nen. It is stated that the masses are unaware of Nen and how to learn it. But at the same time, fights with superpowers in the Heavens Arena are broadcast openly on TV, and all interested spectators are allowed in. The plot of the manga is about modern society where there is the Internet; which means Nen existence would be impossible to hide. In the same Heavens Arena, during the fight with Hisoka, Chrollo killed 200 people, using his 4 Nen abilities simultaneously, with all his might, which directly affected the spectators in the stands. Videos of superpowers being used could be freely circulated on the Internet, or some Nen user could make a blog about how to learn Nen. But no, ordinary people don’t know about Nen.
3. Ordinary people fight equally with superpower users. Even though users of superpowers are armed with all sorts of strange abilities, ordinary people still get into fights with them and can easily beat them. This is similar to "Superpower Devaluation", but there superpowers lose value as the story progresses due to the ease of obtaining them, and here their meaning in battle is devalued.
Examples:
4. Excessive Superpowers. When a race that is already stronger than humans uses extra enhancements that humans in this universe tend to use. This results in overkill of superpowers.
Examples:
- One Piece: the Fish-Men who are Devil Fruits users (and/or can use Haki).
- Hunter x Hunter: Nen-using Chimera Ants (especially Youpi, who doesn’t posess human genes, uses Nen freely).
Edited by RukiaMunchesPizzaNomNom