Why do a lot of people hate overpowered main characters in novels?

It just struck me, a lot of novel adaptations or even some LN's themselves have a lot of detractors or haters that, while not stopping a series from becoming popular, really seem to hate a certain kind of novel.

Mainly, Light Novels or Web Novel's with overpowered main characters that can easily defeat 99% of the setting with overpowered stats or abilities, or are way way smarter than everyone else while being able to make whatever they want from Earth that isn't in their new world while making everyone start to love or worship the ground they walk on as time goes on, particularly in Otome novels.

The thing is, manga or anime original series like One Punch Man or classics like Hokuto No Ken also have overpowered heroes who can curmbstomp everything their way, and while they still have haters, it tends to feel more like people hating something popular than people genuinely hating the fact they have heroes who easily win fights.

What is it about the way novel authors write really competent or overpowered main characters that seems to annoy people who aren't into novels and even anime/manga fans, and why is it that anime/manga origina~l characters with the same traits are less hated, is there usually a different way they are written or presented?

 

It's mostly wishy-washy OP protags that draw hate...

 

Duh, its because their use of powers is shit
If an MC can kill the enemy and solve the situation then not doing it its stupid, specially if this causes more danger, OPM is not about the OPness but about the people who believe themselves to be OP while Saitama struggles with the routine of stomping mobs but he does kill all the enemies he finds, its just a series of coincidences that prevent him from finding the stronger enemies until the plot has advanced enough
Bad OPness eliminates tension, good OPness solves it, in both cases the tension is gone but there is a difference in fighting an enemy and just deleting it

 

Most of the op MC's are badly written power fantasies of the authors own desires and are shallow as fuck,the suspense of disbelief in Some of them can make one actually sick enough to vomit in real life.

 

It depends? It depends on the quality of the novel and how perfect the MC is. The more perfect the MC is, the less I like him or her. I may like the OPness, but not the character. For example, Saitama from One Punchman is OP as OP can be, but he isn’t perfect as a person, and that’s relatable.

 

Smarter than everyone? Oh please they're not smart usually in those novels everyone else have the iq of a 3 year old child while the Mc seems to be the only one that has common sense, people hate those fcking novels because they're stupid as they can get
No, people hate those stories because they are like self masturbation, the Mc's don't act like someone who was strong all the time, it feels like watching how a pathetic person suddenly got strong.

 

The problem isn't really the overpowered main character, the problem is how this OPness ties into the story. When the character is OP, the story revolves around this to a large extent, making villains, side-characters, world building and plot extremely important. Shit stories with OP mcs are shit because the author messed up all the surrounding elements.

An OP character is almost inevitably extremely simple. People who hate on an OP character do so because he is always an easy target, and people dont tend to think too deeply about what they hate.

The OP mc sticks out too much, so he gets hammered. Everything but him is the problem, but he's the one who catches all the shit.

That's the case for people who are neutral at least, I think. Some people just hate OP characters because. Same way some hate harems or soft MCs or tsunderes. Just a preference.

 

Well first of all, everyone has different preferences in general. But overall I will say this. Part of the issue with overpowered characters is how it is written, not the overpowered itself.

You can have the MC strong enough to beat anyone in 1 hit, that is fine. But just like eating your favorite food every day, at one point you just wouldn't want to eat it. I remember a story told to me how prisoners made a revolt cause they were being fed lobster every day.

The same applies here. Proper OP is done by building up the story to show off the OPness. One Punch man does it by focusing on the side characters, then have the MC clean up the house with their OPness. Others do it through comedy or MC over complicating their approach.

You know, to build up suspense. But a lot of OP stuff these days are rinse and repeat generic nonsense. They just keep showing OP MC none stop to the point that it becomes stale. That is the problem.


And Smart MC is the worst kind of MC when the author themselves isn't smart. Because what that ends up is normal MC and retarded side characters. Like MC recommending something a 3 year old would know and everyone looking at MC like a genius. (reminds me of reboot cartoon where everyone gets downgraded to 8bit and they call one of the characters who isn't that smart a genius for being able to open a door by rotating a door knob).

 

Because it destroys any tensions and suspense that the story it attempting to create most of the time.
Very but very few stories do make the op mc good.
One punch man being the perfect example

 

While I agree with those above, I'll take a different route.

They're jealous! They bitch and moan because their own selfinsert power fantasy never took off when they posted it, or were to embarrassed to upload their own power fantasy in the first place. So do to their frustration, they have made it a mission in life to denounce any and all novels of the same genre or that bare any likeness to it. This also applies to many(but not all) the harem haters.

Sincerely,
A proud non-hater of OP characters and harems,
and protester of poorly written novels in general.

 

The fact that the MCs are OP but they continue to act like the typical beta JP MC. Kinda ruins the whole point of OPness
Otherwise likeable/hate-able depends on the novel and setting tho

 

Tho i don't particularly mind OP characters, they are unrelatable. There's no struggle that makes us want to root for them, and a lot? Of these types of web novels seem self-insert-y. The people around them worship them for something they didn't even put in an effort to do (at times with cheats that were just spoon fed to them), and they usually don't take action when they can just to draw out the drama for some reason...

That's honestly annoying/upsetting... I've yet to see Hokuto no Ken or OPM (blasphemous!!) but I imagine those are less self-indulgent and either have a good cast of characters/solid story.

As for otomes, I'm much more annoyed at media which portrays the heroine as an emotionless robot but all the guys fawning at her anyway.

 

Nice meme. I'd be willing to give an 8/10 for this trolling.

Srsly tho. There is a difference between an OP character, and a Mary Sue. And in LNs and WNs most are the latter. And those suck ass.

 

Nah, like I said, I generally agree that there is a lot of truely poorly written garbage out there. For me it's the over powered lead bricks surrounded by a gaggle of backstabbing bitches that really turns me off to most of the novels of this genre.

 

it's the way the author creates those op mcs, how mainstream they are, they lack of individuality and poor planning that make people dislike op characters.
personally, I like op characters, but when the harem or annoying characters get too far, I just drop the novel.

onpunman has a op character, but theres "more" to him than just single punch defeats. namely, being bald and the humour of the story. also, the art(of both versions) that make me have good impressions of it.

-I just hate OP protagonists with harems. they can be beta and Idgaf. they can have one lover and I don't really feel interested in it. but once more than 1 girl pops up(unless its H), I curse him to explode

 

It’s not that we hate Op MCs. It’s just badly written and executed

 

I personally am fine with OP MCs, but only up to a point. I avoid those that make everyone around them retards, so that MCs "smartness" stands out. Having a weakness of some sort is also always a plus, usually an exchange of OP power but you suffer X. Saitama for example has his own weaknesses and that makes him likeable.

 

The complaints I've seen from people isn't about the mc being op, it's about the author's lack of creativity.

After the 15th time the mc shows up in a new city, "randomly" runs across the local tyrant being a jerk and then said local jerk attempting to kill the mc because the local jerk doesn't like how the mc looks at him, only to get blasted and the mc wipes out the local jerk and his family, thereby amazing the crowds at his op-ness...

Well, some people want the author to vary it up a bit. I'm saying it gets a bit repetitive.

 

Mostly when a character is wishy-washy and annoying about dealing with the situation. One-punch man would be considered a bit different as it's a somewhat satirical take on the OP protag.

 

I don't hate op main characters. I save my hate for things like inconsistencies in the different aspects of the story and extremely predictable plots the mc doesn't consider in the least until it happens to him or happens to him multiple times (enemies kidnap/kill/rape people close to mc and things if that nature). I don't need a perfect novel since I read purely for fun and understand quality is not to be expected from web novels, even the best web novels are full of poor quality plot and characters.