User blog:Тостер/Let's talk about abilities...

I was thinking a lot about "Powers and abilities" section lately, especially abilities part. Things like "peak of human condition" and "genius-level intellect" seem a bit abstract, until you really put the thought into it.

I'd say that peak of human condition is tad less controversial because it has defined limits. If you look at Sara Lance, Oliver Queen, Mick Rory, Nicholas Pike, Ricardo Diaz and Dante you can pick quite a few things in common: it is obvious that they're not just trained athletes: they act like they're in their physical prime, despite most of them being way past it. That requires regular exercise, because definition of being "out of shape" is when you're not ready for spontaneous, momentary reaction. And in businesses, in which these people are exceptional, you can see that even being one second too slow, one punch less powerful, one movement less accurate might cost you life, more importantly, cost your friends life. It's one of the abilities, that applies to real human life easily: the benefit of regular exercise and movement is that you remain agile in spite of natural processes.

As for genius-level intellect... Well, that's a hard one. People keep reinstating that ability on the page of Kara Danvers which never seemed fair to me at all. And don't get me wrong, Kara Danvers is very smart. Easily, Master/Expert level at some very hard to achieve things and skills. Yet, compare her skill set to that of Lex Luthor, Ray Palmer, Felicity Smoak, Lena Luthor, Martin Stein and assorted iterations of Harrison Wells... And you can notice that she does not fit that pattern. Of course, we should keep in mind that Kara is Kryptonian, which are naturally more capable then Humans and yet she still is outsmarted on a regular basis by Lex Luthor, Maxwell Lord, Lillian Luthor and, at times, Ben Lockwood. Latter does not even possesses the same level as the formers, but his skills were proven to be more then a match for Girl of Steel on numerous occasions simply because he has a very similar set of abilities and weaknesses. Both him and Kara, while being generally smart rely mostly on what we can call "emotional intellect", a great skill for a field tactician but usually a weakness for a mastermind and one of which such is usually aware of.

As for the awareness, it possesses a great importance in that question as well. One of the traits that makes for a genius-level intellect is ability to know the limits of your competence, which then makes for stretching said limits. Notice how both Kara and Ben loose when they can't get a hold of their emotions, making one step too far. It is uncalculated risk, which might prove as a winning solution but has 50/50 chances of win or loose, at times less.

In fact, knowing one's weaknesses and limits is a crucial part that might elevate characters in our eyes despite them clearly not being geniuses and make them more then capable to take down a few geniuses with what they know will work. Examples of such approach include some of my favorite characters in the Arrowverse: H.R. Wells, Mick Rory, Otis Graves and Nicholas Pike are just a few examples. Wells is painfully aware that the is not as smart as his doppelgängers, despite being way above average. In fact, it provides for his motivation, partially and makes him some of the more relatable Arrowverse characters. Mick Rory is mentally unstable as a result of both psychological and physical traumatic experiences abundant in his life. Yet, his experience, as well as his regret and self-doubt sterning from decisions that he knows were wrong make him a crucial members of Legends and often, the key to them winning. Otis Graves seems like a less useful bonus for his sister Mercy Graves in his first appearances, but the fact that Lex Luthor prefers him as a henchman has a basis and a good one. Notice, how Otis never questions his status around smarter people, learned well to fear them and actually is well-aware of how to identify them, being surprisingly adept at building network and recruiting. For all we know his brain damage might actually be a result of his sister injuring him in 1996 to a point when he needed to be revived by paramedics. Finally, Nicholas Pike proves to be one of the best villains of The Flash despite not having any powers and being probably much more mentally unstable then Mick Rory, which says something. As we can see, Pike is very much able to learn a lot from experiences despite being middle-aged: his intellect is as ongoing as his physical form which also seems to be peak.

Heck, look at Oliver Queen, world's leading expert on feeling the guilt for everything in the world, reflect upon his trauma and mistakes and... trying to get the most out of any experience. He's not a genius, but he knows that well enough and knows how to use that, to the point that he's expert and master level on such a diverse plethora of things, that some polymath geniuses might take a lesson or two. He slowly learns to trust people he knows to be experts in other areas over the series, not once questioning their skills, but always bringing up the discipline and personality traits. To me that always made him a bit more relatable protagonist then Kara Danvers, who seem to be a much less of a leaner and lacks discipline. And... That's cool, really, because it makes her relatable in her own stories, not perfect in her own right and therefore much more deep as a character. So when people try to idealize her skills to a point when she becomes far less relatable... Well, you're partially tarnishing what makes her charming, guys. Flaws make capabilities just as practice makes perfect and character born perfect is not relatable.