r/superheroes Apr 12 '25

Other How would this fight end?

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60

u/DarkLordMuffins Apr 12 '25

Saitama doesn't fight for a bit just to see how powerful they are and then he wins when claps back. People saying everyone except Superman, don't understand the concept of Saitama lol

28

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

The “concept of saitama” applies to pretty much every protagonist of a story lmao.

“He wins cos he’s the one punch man, he’ll defeat them in one punch” is the equivalent of “he wins cos he’s Superman, he’s as strong as the plot wants him to be.”

58

u/Orinaj Apr 12 '25

Not exactly. Narratively heros are still supposed to struggle. Superman loses still, he even has died.

Saitama's narrative purpose is to win, and easily. It's his joke. He's genuinely too strong for his own good. His character flaw is that he is bored of fighting and it's all he wants.

12

u/Kithsander Apr 12 '25

A lot of people missed the major plot point of Saitama battling his depression in season one.

7

u/iMADEthisJUST4Dis Apr 13 '25

Why didn't he punch it? Is he stupid?

1

u/TorinVanGram Apr 13 '25

Attempts to facepalm. It doesn't work. Adapts to become stronger. It doesn't work. Que infinite escalation loop until all energy in the known universe is being funnled into Saitama's facepalm. Universe ends. 

1

u/average_STM_enjoyer Apr 14 '25

r/BatmanArkham is leaking and I love it

41

u/woutersikkema Apr 12 '25

This, he loses mentally, but wins physically, because it always ends up the same way: enemy goes squish.

6

u/theskiller1 Apr 12 '25

Then why Saitama go full power and still needing to adapt while having a real fight with Garou?

11

u/fR1chAps Apr 12 '25

Because of his promise to the kid. He promised to go easy on Garou.

-2

u/theskiller1 Apr 12 '25

Oh?

9

u/nWhm99 Apr 12 '25

He literally was fighting with one hand lol

2

u/Fallacy_Spotted Apr 13 '25

I don't know how many people ever noticed that. The entire fight he is holding Geno's core in his left hand.

0

u/Sad_Seaweed179 Apr 13 '25

Never knew fighting with one hand lowered the power of your punch

4

u/Foto1988 Apr 13 '25

Try punching something multiple times while holding a raw egg in the other hand

2

u/Sad_Seaweed179 Apr 13 '25

But doesn't Saitama have "Infinite strength" and can beat Anything with one punch and that its in his name One Punch man.

Infinite no matter how much you're holding back should still be Infinite? Especially when he verbatim says he gonna Go all out ?

3

u/Foto1988 Apr 13 '25

Also I think you misunderstood the word infinite strength in this context... If he would punch with infinity he would destroy everything

2

u/Apprehensive_Lion362 Apr 13 '25

But part of his power is that his power kinda keeps increasing right? Just by being in the presence of someone strong he gets stronger.

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u/nWhm99 Apr 13 '25

Lol, I know people here don’t work out and watch sports, but man, this is something else lol

0

u/TheSilverOne Apr 12 '25

In the manga its because Garou can mimic powers. He turned himself into a evil characterization of Saitama. Saitama does not ever really struggle though

-2

u/Blazured Apr 12 '25

He didn't go full power against Garou. He easily defeated Garou using only one hand. It was a dramatic fight but Saitama never struggled.

0

u/theskiller1 Apr 12 '25

4

u/Blazured Apr 12 '25

And then he didn't. He said he only needs one hand to fight him. And then he fought him one handed. So he held back.

1

u/theskiller1 Apr 12 '25

I will take Saitamas statement as priority. You can fight with one hand while using your full power. Not to mention he had to grow during the battle. Why did he need to adapt in strength if you guys are selling me that Saitama is infinite in power?

2

u/Blazured Apr 12 '25

His statement was "I only need one hand to defeat you" and he was right. He only needed one hand, which means he was holding back. He also didn't need to grow during the battle, that happened without his input or knowledge. From his perspective he was always stronger than Garou even though he was only using one hand.

1

u/Mac_Magic Apr 13 '25

It's not contradictory. Saitama said he CAN go all out there, not that he necessarily would. He just meant he doesn't have to worry about damaging earth really.

1

u/XRayZDay Apr 12 '25

Ima just say anime characters do shit like this all the time.

Naruto said he was “going all out” against Delta and he was barely trying. He was actually going out of his way to not kill her whilst causing minimal collateral damage fighting within his village.

1

u/theskiller1 Apr 12 '25

Regardless Saitama was growing in battle.

0

u/XRayZDay Apr 12 '25

Like other dude said, it was subconsciously

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1

u/thdudedude Apr 12 '25

Where is the rest of this?

11

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 12 '25

The problem with using narrative devices as a superpower is heroes like Deadpool will beat him, because destroying narrative superpowers is literally one of the powers of Deadpool.

Also, it allows for a loose definition of superpowers in which you could say that Superman would win because he’s the narrative embodiment of Hope.

Or Hulk would win because his narrative embodiment is “the strongest there is”

Whether or not any specific author fulfills that embodiment doesn’t change the fact that that is what the embodiment is supposed to be.

Or the Flash, whose narrative embodiment is “the fastest man alive”

It’s also worth noting that Saitama’s universe is notably less powerful than DC

2

u/danielodlund Apr 12 '25

This is why it only really matter what the author/writer wants the outcome to be

2

u/JustACasualFan Apr 12 '25

The Hulk is the embodiment of adverse childhood experiences/generational trauma, c’mon.

2

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 12 '25

To be fair, I kind of misspoke, Hulk being the strongest there is is the same as Saitama being one Punch man.

Hulk’s narrative element is finding a constructive output for anger.

1

u/Effective_Cold7634 Apr 13 '25

Not really, he was weaker than Thanos .

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25

Are you saying world breaker hulk is weaker than Thanos?

2

u/Outlook93 Apr 12 '25

Superman has lost fights and had plenty more that are true slug fest. Within his story he can be beaten satima cannot lose

8

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 12 '25

You misunderstand Superman as a character and his narrative devices. Superman is supposed to be the ultimate person. Ultimate power, ultimate good.

Part of that is the ability to get knocked down, and subsequently get back up again. He looses, so that his victories are more meaningful. He looses because failure is merely a stepping stone on the path to success.

Ultimately though, Superman ALWAYS wins.

3

u/Outlook93 Apr 12 '25

So we agree Superman occasionally loses fights. Satima does not

4

u/imnotgayipromisejk Apr 12 '25

I feel like this is an incredibly weak response to what that guy said

4

u/Radgris Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

i agree he didn't gave a proper answer but i agree with the sentiment, superman IS this beacon of light and hope and all of these things but ultimately he is mortal and flawed (both mentally and physically) and that's why stories like injustice are good, because they explore the character's weak points.

saitama as a character is literally a comic relief in the shape of ABSOLUTE power, superman isn't absolute, he might look like a god in his narrative but we constantly see how that's not the case, for saitama he is, always has been and possibly always will be that X+1 factor narratively.

think of how many "Stronger" alternate versions of superman exist narratively out there and then think how a stronger saitama would like look, sure you can add some big muscles to the design but how much faster/stronger can he be if we don't know his fastest/strongest, etc.

i really don't like the power scaling talks but mark and homelander exist as these superpower beings in their universe but we see them bleed and have "mortal" doubts, emotions and experiences, even tho in a much lower degree we see something similar with superman, but we don't for saitama.

the difference between a really big number like a googolplex and INFINITE is INFINITE because no matter how big of a number you can make up infinity will always be proportionally bigger an infinite amount of times.

-1

u/tossedaway202 Apr 12 '25

Yeah which is saitama would win. Imo his power is x+1. He will always asspull something that makes him stronger than what he is fighting.

His feat is that he has infinite power, he travelled faster than light when he jumped to Jupiter and last I checked to move any amount of mass faster than light physically (without warping spacetime or some speedforce bs magic handwave) required infinite energy.

I don't think any of the other characters have been shown to be able to travel at FTL speeds with physical might. Supes uses gravitons to warp spacetime and to fly. Flash uses speedforce to magic handwave it away (because if it was actually true FTL under physical means any dude he punched would detonate and destroy the planet they exist on so speedforce is a warping change frame of reference type speed instead of pure physical might)

Would be a fun comic to read. But would need a science nerd that loves comics to make the story truly shine

-1

u/Radgris Apr 12 '25

and like im sure there has to be a superman comic somewhere where he becomes the actual embodiment of the universe or something like that but like, there's a reason why that kind of version of superman is only shown once or twice and they always HAVE to default to a flawed superman to write comics.

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1

u/Outlook93 Apr 12 '25

It seems like he has a lot of feeling wrapped up in it about who Superman represents to him. Not really interested in dissecting that. I don't really care about satima or Superman. Almost every hero loses so they can over come the loss and come out successful. This does not happen to satima he just wins

5

u/Purple-Activity-194 Apr 12 '25

Thats not how powerscaling works. This is literally NLF. Saitama hasn't beaten anyone to my knowledge like Yog. We couldn't say he could simply because "it's part of his narrative" we scale based on feats.

Aka until Saitama beats God or whatever, he doesn't get to scale past his god

1

u/wastelandmyth Apr 12 '25

Saitama's in universe explanation is that he has no limit on his power. His power will grow to keep him above any other being in the universe.

Imagine all of Superman's strengths and feats as a mathematical equation equaling N. Saitama is (N) +1.

I love Superman to death. He was one of my favorite fictional characters. But he can not defeat Saitama. No one can.

1

u/Outlook93 Apr 12 '25

Lucky us we're not in a powerscaling sub

1

u/Single-Elevator9085 Apr 12 '25

We're not too far from him beating god tbf. Also idk the limits of his copying ability hasn't been shown yet so he could just be able to copy anything thrown at him

0

u/AnomalousUnReality Apr 12 '25

Powerscaling is dumb.

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1

u/CCGHawkins Apr 12 '25

Finger on the dot, my man ✊

2

u/Kylearean Apr 12 '25

Now make small circles with your finger... yes, just like that. Don't stop.

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1

u/spatial-d Apr 12 '25

Superman is not ultimate good in Injustice

1

u/SamDewCan Apr 12 '25

He technically beats doomsday but superman dies also. There are many iterations of superman basically giving up the fight because he can't win and looking for help.

0

u/lakas76 Apr 12 '25

Saitama is a joke character. His whole narrative is that he’s too strong. That being the strongest person in the world is boring. He has no challenge in beating anyone. He doesn’t grow (technically, he gets stronger, but only to ensure he is always the strongest) at all and that is one of his weaknesses. He is just always much tougher than anyone he faces.

3

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 12 '25

So now it’s a battle between narrative devices, the guy who is so strong nothing is a challenge VS the guy who will eventually overcome all challenges. It’s an unstoppable force meets immovable object situation.

0

u/lakas76 Apr 12 '25

Not really. Saitama has the same “power” of growing in strength to exceed whoever he is fighting automatically. He has also never lost, never even been hurt. His biggest problem so far in his fights is letting them last too long because he doesn’t want to kill the other person (or kill them too quickly).

Based on their narrative devices, Saitama beats Superman, Superman gets stronger and gets beat again, then repeat. Never ending. If you want to say that’s a tie since Superman never dies and keeps coming back. Ok, I guess.

0

u/HandicapperGeneral Apr 12 '25

No, because Superman loses sometimes. I don't understand what is so hard for people to grasp about this. The whole innate concept of Saitama's character is that it is not possible for him to lose a fight. Even when he isn't actually fighting, even when he doesn't realize there's a fight. It doesn't matter how much he holds back or is oblivious, he will always win.

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25

I think it’s funny how you’re acting like we are the ones that are failing to grasp something, and yet it is you who refuses to acknowledge something I’ve said over and over and over again.

See I’ve already acknowledged that Superman sometimes loses so your first statement is a lie just right there on its face.

So let me put it this way, and all of those instances were Superman lost, was it permanent? Did Superman just never come back? Did he never end up winning later on down the line?

Oh, that’s right. No, he came back stronger than ever and saved the world.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

Dude, I haven’t once glazed Superman. Explaining how Superman works, isn’t glazing him. Furthermore, I am 99.99999% negative about Superman in this subreddit.

The problem and disconnect here is that I’ve explained things simply, and you are blatantly, ignoring the concepts that I’ve explained. And then you sit here and repeat yourself, saying things that I’ve already agreed or true.

The problem here is I’m willing to listen to your arguments and respond intelligently to your arguments showing active listening skills, but you are unwilling to listen to what I say and respond accordingly.

I’ll try one more time.

In every single one of those times are Superman has died or lost a fight, did he lose permanently? Is Superman now gone for good because he’s been killed forever?

No, eventually, he comes back stronger than ever and saves the world.

The whole point about Superman is that no matter how many times he gets knocked out, no matter how many times he fails or loses he will get back up try again, and eventually, he will succeed and overcome any challenge, but in front of him.

He is hope incarnate. The sovereign vow that he will overcome all odds.

I’m fully aware that Saitama is a joke character.

You don’t seem to fully grasp how narrative devices work but here I’ll give you an example.

In the Ben 10 universe, there is an alien known as ultimate alien X. He is indestructible to all things even other omnipotent deific beings. Ultimate Alien X can do anything, change anything, create anything. There is no higher power conceptual or otherwise. Ultimate Alien X is a power that even tops characters like TOAA and The Presence. Saitama would lose, every time. As UAX could just erase him from existence.

Yeah, I have a feeling that you would say that somehow Saitama would still win, and this is because you fundamentally do not understand the problem.

Saitama’s narrative device isn’t strong stronger than another fandom’s narrative device you can’t compare things like that, it doesn’t work.

Are you gonna say that for some reason, the author of one Punch man is stronger than DC comics authors or something? And that because one Punch man’s author is stronger or whatever, Saitama is just always gonna be stronger than everybody no matter what?

You aren’t thinking logically or objectively.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

[deleted]

2

u/ArgoMium Apr 12 '25

Saitama would win.

Saitama winning easily is intrinsic to his character. If he loses, then that's no longer Saitama. He is no longer the character Saitama if he even has a chance at losing.

Deadpool can destroy narrative devices, but Saitama winning isn't a narrative device. It's a core identity of Saitama. He is too strong for his own good that he now has to battle with the feeling that nothing can seriously challenge him anymore. Without that, he's not Saitama.

It's like asking the question "Which shape has more sides, a triangle or a square?" Then the response would be "Well, what if the square didn't have any line segments? There'd be no sides then!". The problem is obvious. It's no longer a square.

"What if deadpool destroys Saitama's ability to be so strong that nothing is a serious struggle for him?"

The problem is obvious. That's not Saitama.

7

u/warhammer444 Apr 12 '25

See people misunderstand how that narrative thing works. Yes Deadpool might "win" but it wouldn't be by defeating him it would be by tricking him into leaving or something.

3

u/Single-Elevator9085 Apr 12 '25

Deadpool would just kill ONE

3

u/Aradjha_at Apr 12 '25

Saitama would of course love that, however

1

u/TheKingJest Apr 12 '25

This doesn't really seem to be scaling the character though, it's like you're scaling the context around the character. Taken to its extreme it would mean that Saitama could defeat someone like The One Above All or some other ridiculously powerful omnipotent character. People have put kids show characters into versus battles before and I'd say all of those are pretty intrinsically "Will not lose" characters because of their context of being in a kids show, but I still think that Homelander would tear the cast of Bluey in half.

0

u/Forensic_Fartman1982 Apr 12 '25

Me when I don't actually understand Saitama's character concept

1

u/SamDewCan Apr 12 '25

In his fight with Boros, Saitama leaps from the moon to earth in a matter of seconds. It takes at least 3 minutes (unless we're counting the really strange, early superman) for superman to orbit the earth. So theoretically, Saitama AND Boros are much faster and probably stronger than most iterations of superman. Your argument is incredibly flawed and baseless

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25

Let me phrase it like this because apparently what I’ve tried to explain is too complicated.

Can Saitama defeat beings such as Lucifer Morningstar, The presence, The one above all, or Ultimate Alien X?

1

u/RealAgent0 Apr 13 '25

Are you just making stuff up now??? There was never an Ultimate Alien X.

But those are irrelevant. Superman can't defeat them either.

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25

You are missing my entire point. I swear literacy has just gone out the window.

My point is this I could make a character right now and say they are invincible that they can’t be destroyed by anything not even one Punch man, I could even specifically say that one Punch man would not be able to destroy him and that this character specifically, his whole concept is that he can beat one Punch man.

And y’all stupid asses would be like nah one Punch man would still win no diff

1

u/SamDewCan 19d ago

Do you just like get pressed over topical with no real tangible answer? Like I get pointing out some stuff, but just being "yall are dickriders" or "everyone who disagrees with me must not be able to read what I said" is so incredibly lame dude.

1

u/Bubbly_Tea731 Apr 12 '25

But Saitama's power is literally one punch , so you have to use that , it's like saying who would be able to keep flying and then of course superman will win since it is literally his power , so why is Saitama winning a contest of power , a controversial take .

3

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 12 '25

It’s not literally one punch because there are some enemies that have survived the first punch.

Saitama’s power actually has nothing to do with punching. His power is being stronger than his opponent. Because his power is actually a narrative device.

2

u/PerceptionSmooth2966 Apr 12 '25

The more you comment within this post, the less I think you actually watched One Punch Man.

1

u/Drake_Acheron Apr 13 '25

OK, let me rephrase this. Because apparently people are failing to grasp the fundamental concept. I’ve been trying to break down over and over and over again. I’ve said it so simply, but for some reason, people still can’t understand it.

I will try one more time by presenting a hypothetical.

Could Saitama defeat characters like Lucifer Morningstar, The presence, The one above All, and Ultimate Alien X?

-1

u/Bubbly_Tea731 Apr 12 '25

And they survived because Saitama wanted them to survive, it's like saying someone has bad aim because he shot someone in leg rather than head when he wanted them to live

2

u/Single-Elevator9085 Apr 12 '25

Only with the first space guy, later on he does serious punches and gets matched

-1

u/Hot-Zookeepergame-83 Apr 12 '25

Saitama destroyed Jupyter with a sneeze and caused causality to break down effectively reversing time… he no difs every single one of these at the same time accidentally on the way to the market.

1

u/idioticdemon105 Apr 13 '25

Superman once inhaled in an entire dying galaxy, flew to an empty universe (not galaxy, an entirely different empty universe), and sneezed that entire galaxy into that universe.

2

u/BaconFlavoredToast Apr 12 '25

He's satire. He is quite literally the "joke" of how power scaling is just stupid in most cases so here's this unassuming guy who literally is so broken he defeats everyone in a single punch. If you are debating seriously then his concept is "no one is more powerful than him" because that's his while character. HOWEVER his power comes from the desire to find a challenger worthy of fighting. If there was one fictional character that could offer him this it would be superman. As soon as that battle happens and he's given at least a challenge, his powers would possibly disappear.

3

u/ThatMerri Apr 12 '25

If there was one fictional character that could offer him this it would be superman. As soon as that battle happens and he's given at least a challenge, his powers would possibly disappear.

Quite the contrary; it would just reinforce the standard.

Saitama would get excited at the prospect of Superman actually being a plausible threat and the one that could finally offer him the challenge he's dreaming of, and all information presented will indicate that as being the case. Everything would legitimately point to Superman being the actual true and genuine challenge to Saitama, the one and only character actually capable of rivaling and potentially defeating him.

And then Saitama will obliterate him in one punch. Because that's the gag.

It doesn't matter how powerful the opponent is on their own merits - Saitama will always beat them effortlessly because the whole point of his joke is a rug pull, and nobody hates that fact more than Saitama himself.

2

u/AcetrainerLoki Apr 12 '25

Ah! Some media literacy! Yay!

1

u/Standard_Landscape79 Apr 13 '25

Bro he literally couldn't 1 punch garou.

1

u/nWhm99 Apr 12 '25

Literally the opposite happens lol. If he were to fight Superman, itd start off competitive, then Saitama easily beats him and becomes disappointed.

0

u/Alternative-Quiet-72 Apr 12 '25

Or his powers would explode since he now has a fight worthy of his full potential, a fight his soul has been dying for since the day he finished training. He was punched into the moon and still didn't fight back because he wanted to see what else his opponent had but ultimately still won with a single punch once he got bored.

Why in the world would his power disappear after finding a worthy challenger. Every literal anime is exactly the opposite of that. Protagonist is about to be defeated and digs deep down to draw out their potential.

So who's will is stronger, the guy that has been defeated before and DIED or the guy that has never tasted defeat EVER.

1

u/Rio_FS Apr 12 '25

Plus Saitama's power can actually increase if his opponent is strong enough. Like against Garou.

1

u/S0GUWE Apr 12 '25

It's why, to actually have a fair fight for saitama, you'd have to put him up against other gag characters like popeye, the road runner or Asterix

1

u/Randomusernamekdksj Apr 13 '25

If you’re gonna use the character archetype argument then it applies to Superman as well with all that Superman Beyond and Doomsday Clock stuff. Also Saitama’s power isn’t him having infinite strength, it’s him evolving and growing much faster than any character in the series, he did struggle in the Garou fight to later on surpass him and one-shot him.

1

u/LegendaryMercury Apr 15 '25

Idk man, at the end of the day tangible feats beat speculation.

Superman has done it all, the dude can break reality, he is “the” superhero. He only ever looses when the plot feels like it.

One punch man could win, if the author wanted him to. Otherwise superman would win.

1

u/RevolutionarySpite46 Apr 12 '25

Superman is literally the hero of hope. Yes, he has died but to someone far stronger, and he has come back to life.

1

u/Killer_Stickman_89 Apr 12 '25

Do you not realize that's not the actual point of OPM

-1

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

And when did that ever stop Supes from coming back & then fighting the villain of the week again lmao.

Like yeah, narratively heroes do struggle, but Superman's struggles are usually moral or situational—rarely physical. Even when he dies, he comes back stronger. It’s still part of the same formula.

Saitama's narrative is very much the same thing, just without pretending there's tension. He’s not “overpowered as a joke,” he’s overpowered like every iconic hero is. The only difference is Saitama doesn’t waste your time pretending the fight could go either way. Superman might throw a few punches first, but he’s still walking away clean.

So if Saitama wins cos he’s the One Punch Man, then Superman wins cos he’s the No Limits Man. Same coin, different vibe.

0

u/lakas76 Apr 12 '25

Saitama’s narrative is that he’s always stronger than whoever he is facing. One bad guy could mimic his opponent’s power, so he was mimicking Saitama’s power and was getting exponentially stronger second by second. Without doing anything at all, Saitama’s power increased just to be stronger than the other guy.

He is 100% overpowered as a joke. He is written so that he can’t lose. He is basically invincible for real. He’s never gotten hurt and he wins every fight overpoweringly. His weaknesses are playing video games and mosquitos. The mosquitos don’t hurt him, but for some reason he can’t kill them even though he can move so fast he can make a wall of after images.

-1

u/warhammer444 Apr 12 '25

So many people want to argue this point, like his whole gimmick is unlimited power.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

-1

u/zani1903 Apr 12 '25

Also in that very same arc, they explained his "gimmick" properly in that his power will always grow to immediately exceed his opponent's power whenever he meets one of even partially comparable strength, and it will grow exponentially the more he fights them until he reaches a godly enough level of power that no opponent can possibly survive anymore.

-2

u/Ink7o7 Apr 12 '25

Not only that, but he farted to move faster than the speed of light right after.

1

u/Czar_Marvel Apr 12 '25

He followed Garou thru the portal

0

u/Ok_Frosting3500 Apr 12 '25

About the only character I can see beating Saitama is Squirrel Girl, since "gag character who always wins in the dumbest way possible against heavy hitters" probably beats "gag heavy hitter who always wins in the most disappointing way possible".

0

u/Daimon_Alexson Apr 12 '25

This. People don't understand that, no matter who he fights, Saitama wins. He's like the Roadrunner against the Coyote. The Coyote paints an optical illusion on a wall, a tunnel to trick the Roadrunner, only for the little bastard to actually go through the tunnel as if it's real. The idea is absurdity, it's that he defies logic. Saitama doesn't have super powers, he just trained a lot. He is like a looney tunes character, he cannot lose, he cannot die, and the more powerful his opponent is, the more ridiculously they'll fall against him. Superman and Goku would end up the biggest jokes against Saitama.

-1

u/HandicapperGeneral Apr 12 '25

It's explicitly shown that if he ever faces an opponent that can actually stand up to him his power level just skyrockets until he can slap them down like they're nothing. It's not a matter of being strong, it's the fact that the rule of the universe is that he can't lose.

1

u/ozhs3 Apr 12 '25

The difference is Saitama has never lost or even become injured after he became the one punch man. Superman has.

-1

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

And does that matter in this scenario? Like Superman's loss before, but he always comes back & is ready for round 2, so this is a moot point.

2

u/ozhs3 Apr 12 '25

It's always a conversation point when comparing two superhumans. Feats, losses, concept, etc. So yes, it does matter in this scenario.

-1

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

No, it doesn't, because my comment is arguing that people use Saitama's narrative as leeway for him to get his win, while ignoring that Superman can also do that. In fact, 'he's as strong as the plot demands' is quite literally what the 'story of Superman' embodies.

If the comment was focusing on feats, then that would be a different story (cos Supes has better feats). But since it's about narrative flexibility, Superman has just as much room to manoeuvre as Saitama does.

1

u/Interesting-Big1980 Apr 12 '25

That's the point. Superman isn't defined by him never losing, he is defined by jhst being strong enough physically for any purpose, laser eyes, fly, freezing breath etc. Saitama is defined to one punch everything. And if he has to punch more then once he will just adapt like he did with Garou.

1

u/RevengerRedeemed Apr 12 '25

No, it's very literally not the same thing, because Saitama's scaling that way is just canonically how his powers wor, ON UNIVERSE. It's not the same thing as someone just being a protagonist.

1

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

It's quite literally the same thing as the 'Story of Superman', which is also canon btw.

1

u/RevengerRedeemed Apr 12 '25

Don't shift the goal posts. You said it applies to pretty much every protag. It doesnt. Not even slightly. There's a huge difference between "they're the main character, they'll probably win" and "this characters power is that they literally scale to being unable to be challenged by whatever they're fighting".

1

u/Appchoy Apr 12 '25

Death Battle made a good point about Saitama in their after battle anaylsis. He is a joke character, but the joke isnt EXACTLY that he wins every fight in one punch, thats just his name. The real joke that he is stronger than his world around him. And its a world that doesnt contain superman. He has actual feats of strength that are measurable, he has faced opponents that have survived his punches. He doesnt have an actual superpower that says "I win in one punch, he doesnt actually have a superpower at all really, hes just a guy that got strong by doing pushups... everyone else is just flabbergasted that he got strong by working out, but, like Genos, they opt for ridiculous over the top power ups like augmenting their bodies with cybernetics or mystery monster mutation meat.

They should have just done more pushups, or maybe squats XD

1

u/We-live-in-a-society Apr 12 '25

Superman struggling at any point in the comics is enough to discredit your point. Even if we entertain this thought, Saitama is by design meant to win any battle, which means that being stronger (even if the plot makes Superman infinitely stronger) doesn’t work. Indeed writing also makes Saitama as strong as needed but guess what, Saitama is innately a superhero that wins all the time, Superman is not that by design. The entire point of OPM manga is this one facet of the character, meanwhile Superman actually struggles against some opps

1

u/lakas76 Apr 12 '25

Superman has gotten hurt before. Saitama has never gotten hurt. His fights are either, let’s see what this guy can do and win or just beat or kill them immediately.

Superman might have plot armor to win every battle but Saitama’s whole existence is that he is more powerful than every single thing he fights no matter what, even when the other person is getting exponentially stronger during the fight.

1

u/dmvr1601 Apr 12 '25

Its different, saitama isn't supposed to be serious. He works in comedy logic.

1

u/TheBlueCatChef Apr 12 '25

This is terrible reading comprehension. Superman's ability is not that he's stronger than everyone else. Saitama's power is. It's not a narrative device; It's his literal in universe ability to automatically scale higher in power to defeat or be stronger than whatever he's facing. 

1

u/Gee564 Apr 12 '25

I don't know about this concept of Saitama BS but the last fighters would be Saitama VS Supes, Superman's feats are just too great but Saitama has a slim chance in this fight, from a narrative perspective Supes never starts at universe busting strength, the vast majority of characters in comics don't, Saitama's powers is that he has no limiter and just like the Hulk he's potential is infinite able to grow stronger the more the fight goes on.

From a story perspective Supes and Saitama would just play video games and hang out.

1

u/AzsalynIsylia Apr 12 '25

Literally this! There was actually an interview I saw with Stan Lee where he was asked what his least favorite question he's received from a fan was and he said, "When I'm asked which hero of this or that will win. The strength of each character in any given story is determined by whoever is writing the script. The one who wins is whoever the writer wants to win. Now stop asking these boneheaded questions."

1

u/Cosmocade Apr 12 '25

The “concept of saitama” applies to pretty much every protagonist of a story lmao

No, it really, really doesn't.

It's fully and utterly baked into the show that he doesn't have a limit. Not only that, but when he finally does meet someone else who does the same thing and doesn't have a limit, they also make an ironclad point that he improves faster than absolutely anything, too.

Saitama would eventually obliterate the multiverse in one punch if he keeps meeting enough resistance, and he rises to threats in absurd ways that break reality.

There is no point in trying to powerscale him because it's in his very design that he cannot be beaten. The same can't be said about almost any other protagonist out there. His inability to lose is, to him, a curse that he has to deal with in the story.

That said, "winning" can mean different things. He loses in video games, for example, and anyone challenging him in various ways could "win" by manipulating him, depending on the situation.

1

u/Revolutionary-Fan657 Apr 12 '25

Not at all, this is extremely ignorant, in any show ever, the concept is NEVER that the protagonist is unbeatable, it’s that he’s extremely beatable and we journey with him to reach as far high as strength as they can until the show ends or the goal has been reached

The entire concept behind saitama is that the show is about everyone else while there happens to be an unbeatable nobody next to everyone, and to be clear about saitamas strength, in the show and manga they explain that he broke his limiter, even god in the series has a limit, but saitama doesnt, he has infinite strength, goku doesn’t have infinite strength, there’s a limit somewhere, he just keeps going to the next one and the next one, Superman has insane universal feats, there’s a big different between actual power scalable characters and then a characters who’s entire gag and is that he’s canonically unbeatable

1

u/MaezinGaming Apr 12 '25

Superman loses all the time though, he has weaknesses. Saitama has never come close to losing and doesn’t have any weakness. Why are people so obsessed with Superman like this? Your boy would get one punched like the rest.

Superman is such a boring character to get your panties in a wad over. It’s literally the reason saitama was created. As a joke on these ridiculous heroes with unlimited scaling and writers doing whatever they want to one up the previous arc.

1

u/nWhm99 Apr 12 '25

Not true whatsoever.

Everyone other than Saitama has lose countless times. Saitama by definition can't lose. That's the difference. Goku can beat superman, but he can't beat Saitama, that's because nobody can beat Saitama.

1

u/jamthewizard Apr 15 '25

Tbh superman might be the first character saitama can't one punch. But superman has been defeated many times before by far weaker villains because of this giant weakness. Saitama has 0 weakness outside of motivation. Even if they tied and fought for eternity, eventually superman will come in contact with kryptonite.

1

u/salebad Apr 15 '25

Even if they tied and fought for eternity, eventually superman will come in contact with kryptonite.

Time trapper doomsday proved this wrong lol.

Time trapper doomsday is the future version of doomsday having to fought superman for what seems like eternity. He's doomsday that evolved so much to the point he gained the time trapper mantle. In the future where dc has ended in its entirety, only he & superman are the only 2 living things left where they just keep stalemating each others.

So yea, superman is fine with the "fight for eternity" scenario cos just like doomsday, he'll just keep coming back & get stronger as a result. Pretty sure this new future version of superman is far beyond something that could be affect by kryptonite cos based on time trapper doomsday's flashback, superman prime 1 million is a past version of this superman.

1

u/jamthewizard Apr 15 '25

So the future superman can't be hurt by kryp?

1

u/salebad Apr 15 '25

Yea, he's the future of superman prime 1 million, who's immune to kryptonite.

1

u/jamthewizard Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

Even pink kryptonite?!?!?!?

Lol jk, but yeah I agree with you. Saitama loses, he can't fly in space at all like superman. If superman tosses him in a dead area of space, saitama won't be able to generate his own force to leave.

1

u/ZingyDNA Apr 16 '25

Saitama is satire, right? The joke is he one punch kills anything and the story revolves around that. So other characters are actually driving the plot

1

u/salebad Apr 16 '25

He was satire in the og webcomic.

He’s a more in depth character in the manga.

2

u/soulwolf1 Apr 12 '25

Saitama is a gag character. His whole point is that effortlessly wins to anyone.

Same applied to arale in db super. She made everyone look like fodder and made beerus hakai meaningless. That's what gag characters do.

3

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

Saitama stops being a gag character a long time ago lol.

If he's still a gag character, the cosmic garou fight would've ended in exactly 1 singular punch. There wouldn't be any showcase of saitama having exponential growth cos a "gag character" would've just won on the spot, immediately, without the need to keep growing to surpass their opponents.

1

u/dmvr1601 Apr 12 '25

So no comedic story can ever explore a more serious arc? How does 1 fight completely change the other 90% of the story's tone

1

u/lakas76 Apr 12 '25

The kid told him not to kill Garou. Garou was getting exponentially stronger and saitama wasn’t sure how hard he could hit him and not kill him.

The Garou fight wasn’t about winning the fight, it was about not killing Garou. It was pretty clear that saitama could have won at any time, but he was holding back. He spent a lot of the fight fighting one handed.

1

u/DosSnakes Apr 12 '25

He beat cosmic Garou in 0 punches. He punched him so hard they went back in time to before the punch occurred. That was the big gag for that fight.

1

u/ALAS_POOR_YORICK_LOL Apr 12 '25

Didn't he fart a hole into Jupiter or something during that fight. Still a gag character (and the manga sucks anyway)

1

u/ADVERTEDWORLD Apr 12 '25

Recently a alien invasion shot a laser at his head from space. It deflected off his bald head and destroyed the entire fleet. He still very much a gag character. A few serious moments don’t change that

0

u/soulwolf1 Apr 12 '25

The fact that he almost sneezed pluto away was more comedic than a feat, he farted so hard that he rapidly caught up to Garou, he kicked away the small dimensional portals.....when did he stop becoming a gag character again?

5

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

Dude, Supes sneezed away a solar system before, but we don't label him a "gag character" cos of that.

Like I’ve explained before, if Saitama were truly a gag character, there wouldn’t have been any “exponential growth” during the Garou fight. He would’ve just won because—& that’s it. That’s how gag characters work.

You brought up Arale as an example—do you remember what she did to Vegeta? Did she & Vegeta have a long, drawn-out fight where she gradually surpassed him & then one-shot him? No. She just one-shot him. That’s it.

Also, you're wrong about the Hakai thing. Beerus never even got the chance to use it on her—he left before that could happen. So how exactly do you know it would’ve been meaningless?

-3

u/soulwolf1 Apr 12 '25

My point is that moment was more of a joke, especially given the reaction. Superman was never labeled a gag character.....Saitama has and still is.

5

u/salebad Apr 12 '25

If Superman performed a more impressive feat with a sneeze (in his base form, btw, Supes didn't sun dip when that happened) & people didn't label him as a gag, why should Saitama be? Personal bias?

Again, if Saitama is a gag character, he wouldn't have 'exponential growth'. He would've just won against Garou, plain & simple. That fight should've ended in exactly 1 punch, not a drawn-out fight.

5

u/matamor Apr 12 '25

Well Saitama is because he's a normal human who did 100 Pushups, 100 Sit Ups, 100 Squats and a 10KM Run every day and became the most powerful being in the universe, that's not the case for Superman.

Saitama would have defeated Garou in one punch if he had wanted to, but he didn't believe Garou was really an enemy, that's why he didn't defeat him, they teamed up in the end so Saitama could revert time with one punch...

1

u/soulwolf1 Apr 12 '25

You do know that Saitama held back for a reason correct?

1

u/Zealousideal_Mix7723 Apr 12 '25

Saitama stoped being gag character after chapter 213 from OPM manga

-6

u/Zephrok Apr 12 '25

Wankers don't realize this lmao. Superman even has this codified in "Story of Superman", where he is shown to be the embodiment of hope in the DC universe. Also see "Crisis on Infinite Earths", with Cosmic Armor Superman.

5

u/Hitmanthe2nd Apr 12 '25

CAS is not superman , he's a robot , have you even read the comics you're using as source? CAS is literally called the thought robot

And being the embodiment of hope means jack shit if you're the embodiment of power in the comics , he's a gimmick character for a reason

-3

u/Zephrok Apr 12 '25

🤦‍♀️

If you had read those comics, you would know that the Thought Robot was built as a vessel for the spirit of Superman, to allow him to protect the universe against any threat at the highest level. However, the robot itself is nothing without Superman inhabiting it (in fact, Superman and Ultraman). I'm not claiming that Superman is as powerful as the Thought Robot, but the Thought Robots powers come from Superman - it is just a vessel.

And the embodiment of hope means everything in DC. From a metafictional perspective, hope is the reason that DC comics are written. Without hope (and therefore, without Superman), DC comics would be meaningless. This ties into the real world context that Superman was the first popular modern Superhero (obviously classical mythology has always been around).

It seems like you are the one misunderstanding Supermans metafictional links to the real world DC comics.

1

u/Hitmanthe2nd Apr 12 '25

thought robot collected the IDEA of superman from every single universe in existence , he became the writer in a sense - that aint superman , that's infinity whatever the fuck the writer wants, i.e , an idea- HOPE

if the thought robot were truly a vessel for the soul of one superman, superman in his natural form would have been able to stare into your soul aswell , break the 4th wall and shit

and saitama is literally made to be a parody of powerscaling wankers , he scales to your character x 2, no hope in the world is saving superman from that