This really brings me back to the moment in Avengers, when Tony and Steve had a fight under the sceptor's influence, the former dissed Steve's achievement from steriods while the latter claimed that Tony is nothing without his suit. Having a good talent/ upbringing/ mentor/ system to help one to achieve greatness in life is always one of the guarantees, if not the main point as hardwork might not even bring you to where you want (but at least you are going somewhere) and opportunity is a fickle minded bitch. The 1% inspiration often holds more importance than the 99% perspiration as the difference is basically pushing a load uphill with or without trolley. Yet oftentimes in xianxia fights you will hear such childish lines, "if you don't have *insert privilege*, you would not have beaten me!" Most of the times, such an accusation is thrown by the antagonizing parties, an example is below. A high level cultivator wiped out MC's entire clan and MC got away barely alive while screaming "this is unfair! How can someone as strong as you stoop so low!" "Why don't you blame yourself? Blame the fact that you don't have strong backing; a good mentor or senior so that I don't dare to kill you." The villain prepares to slap the bug dead, only to stop when the dying man throws out a dare. "Give me 20 years! I will hunt you down!" The villain sneers, knowing that with just two decades, MC has no chance to reach his level and let the bug live. Skipping to five years later, the villain decides to drop by and cripple MC instead, only to find his level just one level lower than his while he has made no progress. Filled with envy, greed, wrath and hints of fear, the villain attacks the MC, only to have himself mortally wounded while knowing the treasure MC has obtained right after their previous encounter. "If it wasn't the treasure, you can never harm me!" The MC brushes the remarks aside as he plunge his hand into the vile man's chest to see if his heart is black, the man does not know; he does not know the efforts he put in, the dangers he faced. TLDR: Yes, having a good background/ crutch/ support is important. As shown in many xianxia, dungeon crawls and high fantasy (mainly in CN and KR, but works like Harry Potter also shows), talent is paramount as not only is it a time saver as well as bringing you higher heights than the average. But without the hardwork to run the talent, like Reimu Hakurei, even with all the money from inheritance, the system to grant you omnipotence and a superb mentor, you will still be a mediocre shit like the average young master. TLDR for the TLDR: Both Nature and Nurture are paramount, one cannot live without the other. But what do you think? One is more important than the other? Which will it be then? The reason I ask is because many works have agree, disagree, squeeze the trope for its worth and using it like skipping rope.
Hmmmm... for some reason that made me think of an alternate ending where Midas thinks of a brilliant idea to turn his poop into gold by shoving his finger up his bum....
You need talent to have the opportunity to reach the apex in something. The better your talent, the less hard work you will need to put. But at the start hard work is usually more important. That will be so untill you reach the point when hard work alone isn't going to help you progress anywhere. Though there are some exceptions and special cases like 'you need talent to even start doing something', or a chore-like work that don't depend on talent but on your knowledge and amount of experience.
So... are you asking what hypocrisy is? And yes, it isn't uncommon that a person who gets a good upbringing has a better start and overall better progress. But it is also the case that being in a lax environment means stagnation. Where as someone who is desperate and goes through life and death experiences would grow faster. But end of the day, it isn't like the MC is any harder worker then many others. It simply the MC has plot armor that gives them incredible luck. With MC taking in all kinds of treasures left by previous cultivators while MC leaves nothing for anyone. It is though they exist solely for the MC. End of the day, the MC has the strongest omnipotent backer there is, that being the Author. Cause to be honest, any time an MC claims "hard work", I can't help but laugh.
Its why I prefer when "cheats" are somewhat convenient, but not full on system grade. Like some mtled stuff I started reading recently. One has a guy getting reincarnated repeatedly... you'd think its great but every time he gets to live his "cheat" has a record of how long he was kept static. It takes time he can't imagine as a human (thousands to tens of millions of years) for him to arrive in a hospitable world and new body and only then to awaken for however long he has (which is pretty shit as a young kid anything can kill you and he notoces its a pattern something deadly will certainly strike between 3-5 years and nearing maturity in late teens to early twenties). His goal is to crack secrets behind power and longevity in whatever ways each world offers in order to avoid a time when he simply doesn't drift into a new life and is basically Kars of JoJo. So what's his cheat besides consciousness transport until rebirth? Its a "wormhole" that can besides keeping him safe between worlds also keep whatever he records eternally (so far nothing recorded has degraded without him erasing it) but is only as good as he can organize it all. It eventually resembles a Wizard Biochip except it has zero autonomy and research ability, no convenient self upgrading, etc and other things that make chip protags instead of humans in wizard cultivation wns. The other has a guy reborn in a xianxia post apoc world (fragmented worlds and mystical realms) with a cheat that deduces correctly anything related to martial arts, cultivation and other information based fields like alchemy,... (so he needs to start with some correct information at least and still train and study what he perfects through this) and said cheat needs spirituality to operate ( vaguely mental/spiritual energy) that our MC becomes better and faster at generating as cultivation bolsters his spirit (but he never has enough to spend on everything that is useful to him and he obviously doesn't have time to actually put all the theory into practice). In essence, I want a good fake that MC isn't jsut a special snowflake, but also someone who grabbed said opportunities with his own hard work and wisdom (flawed and assisted as they may be). Pansies with full on system privileges who whine why they aren't simply granted omnipotence and omniscience can get fucked by whatever finds them. Real good shit at selling this illusion is I have an XP Panel mtled. MC has an illusory panel keeping track of how proficient MC is in cultivation and his other techniques. That's all it does until he lifts it up through breaking through to Foundation when it also can erase spiritual marks in magic items which is certainly useful, but he suspects its merely something locals hadn't discovered how to do themselves but they may also have such an option. It doesn't show how powerful anything else is, it doesn't empower him through EXP, just tallies when his training gives result by his own effort and understanding (meaning at start checking it actually shakes his concentration and cuts his meaningful progress down), and most importantly, doesn't argue/bargain or steal from him unlike other infuriating webnovels (too many to count, word padders gonna pad). From the english speaking side, Global Illumination (an Elder Scrolls SI) fic is okay. MC can see his mana gauge and mana gauges of anything or anyone magical he touches (so it does jack if he isn't paying attention) and every other "boon" is actually a curse as far as he is concerned (affinity for healing and light would be great if it didn't get him flashlight eyes that never turn off, attention of Daedra and tons of cultists who either want to kill him or dictate tohim how he will live his life). Refreshingly, its not about Skyrim or Oblivion, or other certain plot interesting times. Its a guy living a second life he didn't want (he had money and privacy he wished for in the first after all) and going around at actual human pace (meets people, bonds with some, has minor interaction with others that doesn't always lead to more, trins and studies to be a mage for years so he knows he isn't slotted in as any of TES big F fated protags). Each chapter also has some comedy, but that's highly subjective and I won't claim its gut busting. For anyone interested, its on spacebattles (and its no self promotion, I only read so far).
So is there any work with the author actively keep realism by screwing with his MC? Because I'll be honest, I would not read it. The thought of a golden Midas statue with him sticking his finger up his bum is funny. Now kind sir if you would be so kind to tell me the names of your examples.
Tbh in those scenarios mc always has a broken treasure, practically the only one in existence which doesn't work within the common sense of their world. I mean it's exactly like this A billionaire wanted something from a poor family, the family refused to part their legacy so the rich guy hired men to scare them and steal the item. Fearing for their children the parents give in and let them take their legacy item...the mc in fury and rage barges into the billionaire house (well he was huffing and puffing infront of the gate, so the villian let him in) Mc shouts " give me 24hrs I'll make you taste your own medicine" The billionaire Snickers and sends off the mc, not believing a 16 yr old to amount to anything within a day. (He offered compensation money, mc went berserk in anger ending up with him being thrown out) Fast-forward a day, A special unit of CIA handling money fraud barges into the billionaire's house. The villian is arrested for frauds upto 900mil. While being taken away one of the masked officer lifts up the helmet revealing to be our mc "What did I say bas**d, now suffer as I did" A picturesque curvy blonde with sleeve less bullet proof vest and skin tight jean pats mc while taking out her shades. "Don't waste your time on him, let's go " Reverse time back to mc exiting the villian's house Mc is depressed and lost, he wanders around without thought, after a while he is in dark alleys with smell of urine and rot perforating everywhere. Suddenly mc hears "help! Help!" Without hesitation he runs to the sound and finds A maiden with light blue dress with jade like skin, even though with no visible developments, her oval face and blue green eyes were leaking divine elegance and beauty, was being harassed by a group of Dogs... Mc quickly throws few rocks and bricks and chases away the dogs. The girl is smitten in MC's fearless stature, in a habitual male dependency trait she jumps into his embrace for warmth and protection "I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you, I'm the heir to one of the founding families of Europe, our money is equal to USA's gdp, I'll give you a whole country for saving me " Mc is shocked but then calms down to think. While caressing the jade face laying on his chest he murmurs into her ears "I don't want a country, I want to see a man's fall..." The girl giggling from MC's breath on her ears gives a subtle nod. That's it.... The billionaire couldn't necessarily predict a nobody would be getting in favour of an ancient noble family. It's more of dumb luck than talent...like almost anyone in the cultivation world who have grown up in that harsh environment would achieve the same if not more than our MC with the same cheats.
I was reading in mild amusement and then I almost spit out my tea at "I'm the heir to one of the founding families of Europe" I like Alex Verus, the MC of the serie by the same name. It's an urban fantasy story where magicians exist, and there are different types of them. MC is a diviner. So he can see the future. Seems great, but that actually puts him far down on the food chain, cuz he doesn't have abilities to fight and protect himself. He relies on his cleverness and friends' help to survive. It's funny to me, I borrowed this book at the library and at the counter the librarian told me she and one of the book club buddies didn't like the story. She added that who knows, I might still like it. I lost a bit of my interest in the book but thought, whatever, I might as well read it and add my thoughts on it. And I loved it. Maybe because the MC is on the grey zone of morality, but is still a good guy, and I like that. And in the Power Club serie, Anna's (the MC) golden fingers are all she has, there's no hard work involved. They're the cause of all the trouble. She got them through her parent's money then kept them through luck (or bad luck). I guess the counterpart to her powers is her morality and her personality. That's what the book is mostly about, how she grows through her experiences. The best golden finger I've encountered is the golden finger Jonah (from the Jonah serie, volume 1 the sentinels) has. He has two more brains with personalities in his head. And can get a lot of abilities through them. I can't describe the story, but it is magical and wonderful.
@0000000 Sure. The first is My Divine Diary (first 5 chaps include lol amounts of dying and some existential horror on MC's part but it all changes from then on), the second is Don't Seek Fairy Fate (or Mo Qiu's Fairy Fate as that's his name and mtl keeps borking it into don't beg/ask/seek. Its slow in that it takes around 350~400 chapters for him to cross from mortal martial artist to cultivator, thankfully once he does its not from scratch and his work mattered). I have an XP Panel and Global Illumination I already named and outside of the last one, all others are mtled only. Edit: Major plus for XP Panel despite author only writing this in one paragraph in one of many chapters. MC realizes 1) how privileged he was because keeping track of the panel allowed him to deduce what was waste of training time and energy, what was normal and what worked very well, 2) there is no one correct path when it comes to training, everything he found out during this process was what worked well for him personally, essentially forming his correct path to power not a general one.
It's not cheating but it's annoying when they claim it's all "hard work" or look down upon their enemies when they are nothing without their golden finger. Also, I read the title as, "Fingering someone is not cheating."
MCs that claim to work hard are laughable. Everything is set up for their success - yes, they usually start as underdogs but there's often a hidden plot line where their missing parents are super talented with a prestigious background or they get the backing of someone important only for that person to disappear after the story arc finishes. Yes, talent and hard work is important but if you win the birth lottery and have a good socioeconomic background with caring, well-educated parents, you'll go further with less effort than an orphan from the slums.
Some golden fingers do counted as cheating though... without hard work MC can still dominate the world, like Sign-in System (obtain super grade treasure in one click), Get Rich by Breathing System (literally), can see the future without limitation, accidentally got SSSSS-grade weapon or something. It's all so absurd, without these golden fingers they're just nobody. But there's also some golden finger that's barely counted as a cheat, like: can see someone's future, 3 times per person, but they're random. MC tried to see the future of a certain person but they're either about studying, eating, or traveling. There's also Hint System, it hinted that there's a treasure 10 km to the north, but the system didn't tell about what kind of treasure over there and what kind of monster residing around that area. MC with these kind of golden fingers can get achievements without their golden fingers.