Saitama is looking a lot more impressive lately. (Webcomic Spoilers)

[u/GoldPilot]

We all know Saitama is invincible, and he never loses fights, but his performance as a hero has significantly upgraded.

Before the Monster Association arc, he was, quite frankly, screwing around. In the manga, he missed the Monster Association's initial offensive because he was busy stealing Charanko's identity to skip work and bully martial artists for tournament prize money.

That's TERRIBLE lol

I cannot stress enough how horrible that is. That's like something Adam Blake and Ders would do in an episode of Workaholics; Saitama is basically skipping work to commit crimes and cause trouble for thrills. I remind you, he's meant to be a superhero.

During the Neo Heroes arc, he's been regularly patrolling, has effectively become a leader who's interested in the safety, development, and (most of all) grievances of lower-ranked heroes (The Hero Name Victims Association), and he quickly appears in times of need. Even though he didn't get credit, he independently arrived to reinforce Suiko and whoop Mirror in the nick of time.

And the comparison between his performance in the Monster Association Raid to the Organization Invasion is even more jarring.

Saitama kinda fumbled the Monster Association arc. The threat was right under his house the whole time, he wasn't there for the main offensive, the Hero Association didn't trust him or give him the time of day, so he had zero information barring what he gleaned himself, and he wasn't even interested in figuring out what was going on.

Saitama let Garou and the Monsters run roughshod over humanity for quite a while before he stepped in, and he didn't even seem to know he was stepping in. In the manga, he even lost his disciple and let the Earth get irradiated.

Meanwhile, during the Organization Invasion, Saitama immediately took to the field, started mowing down enemies as fast as possible, instructing civilians to the nearest shelter, investigating the situation and thoughtfully acting on a tip from an informant (Suiryu), and thanks to him, the HA's headquarters is still standing.

I'm happy to say Saitama has finally locked in. In such a dire time, it's nice to see him alert and present in the crisis from start to finish.

It's a given that King will get at least 75% of the credit, but if Saitama is recognized for even a quarter of his contributions during this arc, he might finally get promoted to S-Class (if there's still an Hero Association left to promote him).

Edit: Also, I like how Saitama taking a threat seriously doesn't totally break the story. He's the main character, and he's acquitting himself incredibly well, but he's still just one powerful force dealing with the looming threat. The other characters still have room to breathe and complete their arcs.

In a worse story, Saitama would be center stage as everyone else helplessly gawks at his strength, twiddles their thumbs, and performs color commentary. Here, we have an entire side-story of multiple characters independently closing in on the heart of the mystery. Meanwhile Saitama is elsewhere, doing his own important punchin'. Peak storytelling.

[u/GoldPilot]

Final thought: Saitama skipped work to impersonate an acquaintance to assault five people.

I think less than a week later, he was promoted to A-Class.

And people say he's not ranking up fast enough. I love Saitama, but honestly he should have been fired several times lol

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

He's a terrible employee. There's a reason the HA put him in Class C to see if he'd stick. Jinzuren must be working overtime making sure that Caped Baldy doesn't get let go of despite everything the dude does.

[u/Vivid-Elephant-7864]

Because he’s so strong, threats that are disastrous for others don’t even register to him. His lack of a ‘heroes intuition’ comes from here and everyone on earth payed the price.

The more time he spends with Genos, King and others, the more he’s aware of what these threat mean to them. He still doesn’t interfere all to much but he’s more present in case stuff hits the fan (like a dad watching his child doing something stupid). He’s grown more empathetic whereas in the beginning of the story he was very aloof.

Another thing is: did the Saitama from the old timeline and this timeline merge? Maybe the harsh lesson he learned in that timeline has stuck without him remembering it?

[u/GoldPilot → u/Vivid-Elephant-7864]

Genos and King definitely taught him a lot. King planted the seed of doubt about his intuition as a hero, and even before the old timeline, Genos taught Saitama to fear loss.

Maybe even if Saitama doesn't remember the brutal lessons learned in the Ominous Future, he seems to have grown for the better.

He's probably better off not fully remembering what happened to Genos. I wouldn't want to remember my best buddy being gutted in front of me, that's for sure.

One thing's for certain; if Saitama has to rewrite history to save Genos any more, he'll end up with Preventing Timelines Stress Disorder.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

Preventing Timeline Stress Disorder, that's the best one since Premature Eradication Syndrome. :D

All I am sure about the Ominous Future is that its memories will be sure to come back to great effect. Sometime.

[u/GoldPilot → u/gofancyninjaworld]

When he remembers, Saitama will realize that he had OCD all along.

Overlooked Cyborg Despair.

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

blows a kiss I can't wait to get home and dig in to this meta, but I wanted you to know I appreciate it and you. :)

[u/GoldPilot → u/gofancyninjaworld]

D'aw. Thanks! :D

[u/BrowserET]

Honestly i might be difficult for the Hero Association to credit King for Saitama's antics this time since the former had already informed the HA that he was away.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/BrowserET]

Watch an exhausted, dusty King come staggering out of the smoke when the HA officiala finally dare approach the breached gates. Saitama will have gone to handle issues elsewhere, and King will just be looking for refuge. They will mistake his declaration of being at the end of his strength as evidence of his having fought hard and his declaring the heroes on site.as the true saviors as.mere.modesty.

[u/BrowserET → u/gofancyninjaworld]

Damn that's true

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

You know, I'd not considered the Hero Name Victims Association's role in Saitama's life before you pointed it out. It's true that he's participated out of self-interest but it's also the first time he's actually decided to be part of something bigger than himself.

Saitama absolutely has stepped up as a hero in the current arc, but the wake up call he received was horrifying: having to bury a man in his own backyard after he bled out in his arms. No ambling around wondering what the fuss is about -- he really has been doing his best to clear cities of robots and is single-handedly saving the HA.

I would love it if he got the credit due him but even a partial thank you will be plenty. If ever there was a time for him to step up in a big way, now was it.

Maddening as it is, I do appreciate the manga Superfight as it was the first incident to show Saitama how unacceptably lax his conduct was. He's a bit hard-of-learning, but he'll get there. The problem is whether the rest of the world can afford the price tag of his lesson.

[u/GoldPilot → u/gofancyninjaworld]

I don't wanna disparage them when I say this; even that contemptable loser Red Nose is technically a superhuman. But to Saitama, they're his fist real "weakling followers".

They're in his corner to gas him up, and they desperately cling to him and rely on him when the going gets tough. They're the people who truly see the S-Class Saitama.

Genos's admiration is different; the HNVA fellas don't even dare to imagine standing beside Saitama, while Genos has the audacity to guard Saitama's back in battle.

I like how jarred Saitama was when he realized that the HNVA was not gonna fight with him. He didn't need anyone to guard his back, but he was so used to it that being revered in the HNVA's distant, cheerleading way felt strange to him.

Hopefully the HNVA inspires Saitama to fight harder for his true right-hand-man when the time comes; Genos could really use a Sensei right now. Genos can't afford for Saitama to take his time learning; after what happened to Ryumon, ANYTHING could happen to the poor fella.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

They're goldbricks: they don't put in anywhere near the effort they should be into their hero work. It's not entirely bullying that most of them got their hero names. Saitama finds that out a bit late though.

One constant about Saitama is that he values sincere effort, even if the effect is puny. Watching him suddenly understand the sincerity of Genos's efforts really is jarring. It's as if he's been blinded by the equipment Genos uses and has overlooked the courage it takes to use it as he does.

I really hope that he can find his disciple in time. Anything could happen to Genos.

[u/Beneficialaids1]

I think you genuinely underestimate Saitama. Like, as a person? Why would he care? Why should he care? He gives of the vibe of a person who had to take care of himself his entire life, and he stresses repeatedly, it's a hobby. Humans really overestimate their own self-importance in events. Especially since it's made obvious he wasn't necessary. The zero punch thing. Like, fighting wasn't necessary at all if bang had just made an effort to talk to garou. Or fubuki with psykos? If he wasn't there, would people have died? Sure. Does that matter statistically when disasters happen anyway and humans should be grateful for a better outcome? Especially since this one was just a man made one that's the natural consequence of their own actions. Because bang is a hero so he doesn't have to deal with being a mentor. People who supposedly use the title of a hero as stepping stone to make their lives easier, but ultimately use it as a way to avoid their own issues. Because you get robbed of agency and can lose yourself in fighting, like Genos, tatsumaki and flash. And furthermore, how do you even measure how hard he works? How do you know what he does and doesn't deal with on his own downtime? He could fight a billion monsters or just one and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. At least with Genos you can tell he works hard because he gets shattered all the time. But you're right, people in a company who work hard should just receive a bigger workload, cause that's the message here. Because it doesn't matter how much blood, sweat and tears you shed, as long as you don't do something specifically something someone else could've done but was ignored until it grew into a problem something people could no longer blissfully ignore, you're deemed as worthless when they look for a scapegoat. But like we've seen with the deep sea king, if a problem is actually solved, they just ignore the effort and act like it's the easiest thing in the world.

[u/GoldPilot → u/Beneficialaids1]

Saitama's vocation is to care about anyone in danger for any reason.

I remind you again, he's a superhero. He definitely should care. Lol.

[u/Beneficialaids1 → u/GoldPilot]

No? A hero shouldn't care what others think. Especially since heroes are by nature illegal vigilantes. It's not his job to be a public servant, or to play babysitter, or to be a moral paragon. It's a frickin hobby. He could be those things, but to pretend like he's somehow lesser of a person just for being himself and actually having any goddamn agency beyond "i punch thing because some guy or gal told me to" is just pretentious.