Introduction[]
This might be one of my most controversial blogs, maybe, I dunno nor can predict how the debating scene will react to this. Although one thing that I've always seen abused and misused to death were passive abilities and just in general, abilities that function without the need of the user to act. Powers of this magnitude are pretty neat but I want to make this blog to expose these types of abilities and explain how people make too many assumptions regarding them and or some implications that don't follow with passive abilities unless proven otherwise. Passives can be broken as hell but often times they really aren't in relation to how many people like to cite them as. So with that being said, you can take this with a salt or not, I don't care, nor do I care if you agree. So let's get into this
Point #1: Passives & Speed[]
Now when people bring up passive abilities, one of the most common things that will be brought up is that it "works at instant speeds" and I'm here to say, no, that's not even definitionally true. Passives are case by case, such as let's say you have a passive ability being able to cause death with just your presence, that would be instant because concepts/phenomena have no speed and simply manifest themselves. However, let's say that you have passives that aren't either of those, like say, a passive shield...That depends on how fast the shield has shown it can defend from attacks, like for example, let's say a character has a passive shield that can instantly defend against attacks that move at FTL speeds. This wouldn't mean shit when a character is FTL+ or higher because said passive has no proof of functioning that fast
However, another thing to note is that even concepts/phenomena can have time to manifest. While reality or something like the concept of death doesn't have speed because they are omnipresent phenomena, that doesn't mean that they can manifest instantly. An example of this would be The Void from Super Paper Mario, which is technically just nothingness but it takes minutes to manifest across the multiverse to destroy it or how about Mad Jim Jaspers, who's reality warping took time to reach into another universe. These might seem like extreme examples but what I'm trying to get at is, passives can also have a similar situation in which they don't even manifest instantly and take some time to actually take effect and effect the opponent
Now for those of you saying this is definitionally untrue. Let's look at the definitions of passive
| “ | acted upon by an external agency | „ |
| ~ Passive |
Alternatively it could even mean
| “ | induced by an outside agency | „ |
| ~ Passive |
So yeah, the definition of "Passive" doesn't particular have an intrinsic connection to speed and simply emphasizes that for something to be passive, it just has to be done by an outside agency or force, not by your own hands. So yeah, the speed in which a passive functions can differ and the speed in which they even activate themselves also can. I will say that a lot of passive abilities generally do work as instant or nearly so but this is not a universally applicable thing and as highlighted above, a passive can take time to kick into effect and or even take time itself
Point #2: Passives & Range[]
This is another issue I have when people bring up passives. People like to act like a character having a passive means anything when it's range can be shit. Let's put it this way, why would we assume a passive can effect more than the range it's shown. Let's say I have passive time hax and it doesn't effect more than a kilometer radius. That's pretty busted but this falls apart when two factors are accounted for
- The fight is more than a kilometer apart and as such, the passive itself won't do anything
- The character themselves are ranged fighters and or have ranged attacks
In essence, a passive also has range and that has to be gone off what the range of said passive is shown to be. Unless the passive itself is universal or more in scale and the likes, then simply having a passive doesn't mean anything because range is a factor that a lot of characters could easily factor in or counter
So with that in mind, that what I said previous about passives can still be in effect, so it could be even less impressive with that in mind. There are just too many factors and again, I'd like to acknowledge that what I'm saying isn't also universally applicable but it also does matter and can be applied to tons of passive abilities
Point #3: Passives & Reactions[]
I'd like to say that even if a Passive can be infinite, there should be no reason that it can work on immeasurables and that's because they are far superior to instant movement. Unless your passive has proof of being able to effect immeasurable speed characters, then logically speaking, they should be able to "dodge" or get out of the area before the passive itself takes effect. Hell, argubably even another infinite speed character could theoretically blitz a passive ability. Let's put it this way, you can have two characters have are MFTL+ but one can be on the higher end of that tier and is thus more faster. The same premise applies to infinite speed, if you are far superior to an infinite speed character and can blitz other infinite speed characters, then a standard instant passive can be argued to not be able to effect that character in time due to being "faster"
Point #4: Clarification (Bonus Points)[]
So this section is both for me to address other things and also clarify some things
Some points I would like to address is that I know people will take this as me saying "Passives aren't impressive" and here's the thing...I'll acknowledg that passive abilities are impressive but at the end of the day, I stand by what I said in regards to them being overhyped and many people making more assumptions in regard to them than usual. A passive ability is nothing to scuff at but at the same time, I don't think it's as much as a match changer as some others like to make up
Now I want to also take this section to touch on things I'll prolly never get a chance to and as such, will use this thread as a plug to do so
Thought-Based Hax[]
I don't have much to say here other than just because something is thought-based, doesn't mean much. If an ability is thought-based, then it should be based on how fast that character can think and process things. So let's say a character thinks at FTL+ speeds and can process this fast, then their hax that relies on said thought should be this fast. However, if a character is MFTL, then I'd argue that their thought-based abilities mean jackshit when the character could blitz them before they even think or could process what just happened
So yeah, if your character has a though-based hax, assuming it works instantly or assuming that every character has the same level of thought speed is just wrong. This, like passives, are dependent on many factors and are case by case
Fate Hax[]
This seems to be the new trend in town and honestly, I don't have much to say about Fate hax other than it's wanked. Fate hax is nice to have but unless it's shown to have offensive capabilities then we shouldn't assume it does nor can do so. At most it will tip things in the favor of the character or what I've seen mostly, just simply prevent the character from dying. For the latter, I'd argue also that they can still be incapitated and that we should obviously base this on the extend of which it's shown. This might be controversial but if a fate hax has never shown to prevent a character from dying via a universal collapse or something more extreme, then it's an assumption to assume so
I'd also like to add that Fate Hax is dimensionally relative, so to those people thinking having fate hax means you can solo anything (Such as people who unironically argue Archie Sonic beating Lucifer Morningstar...Yes, I'm serious), no, if your fate hax has no proof of being higher dimensional, then it only applies to characters if your dimension and would not effect someone who's of a higher infinity
Conclusions[]
This might get me some heat but I stand by everything I've said here. Passives are overrated as abilities and many people like the take the most extreme shit in regards to their applicability. Not saying they aren't impressive or anything but people genuinely do act like passives are some end all be all of a match, despite that not always being a case. Think of this as more of a adding perspective of passive abilities as opposed to really dissmissing them
That's all and thanks for reading, although I might get shit so ehh, stay mad lol