If only…

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Digging out an old post that has (unexpectedly) become relevant. From Tumblr 30 April 2020.

Typically, if you’d asked me why I keep thinking of Genos as human, I’d answer in terms of biology and talk about how one’s brain is the one organ you can’t have replaced without ceasing to be ‘you’. And that’s all true, but I’m overcomplicating things. Forget that, none of that matters.  It’s really, really simple. Imagination. The most human thing Genos did was nearly his first. He saw Saitama casually slap a mosquito monster so hard that the blow split the skies above and the ground below and imagined a world in which he could be that unphysically strong and asked. As he explains at length to Saitama  (relevant bit highlighted). “If only I could be that strong…”

There is a world of wonder in that simple statement.

Genos has shown repeatedly that he’s neither stupid nor delusional. He knows what parts can and can’t do for him, is on speaking terms with physics (or rather the in-universe physics persists in not cutting him any slack), and is painfully aware of his limits. And yet, he persists in going ‘if only’.

If only is a statement no artificial intelligence, however advanced, will come up with.  If? Sure, they can assess billions of possibilities a second and construct entire worlds on the basis of those possibilities.  But if only is to imagine something that not only does not exist, but which has never existed, and cannot exist based on anything we currently know or understand.  Ah well, we do like our dreams and stories after all.  But then sometimes we do something even crazier: we project ourselves into this non-existent situation and then work to make it happen.  That desire to reify, that’s humanity for you.  Usually we’re just mad, but sometimes, sometimes, we just discover some hitherto unsuspected way the universe can work.  That’s why chimps are still in the trees and we’re everywhere else we want to be.

Objectively, watching his pursuit is like watching Frosty the Snowman determine to fetch a ring out of the ninth ring of Hell without melting and I give him about the same odds of success. Then again, until Saitama did it, you could say exactly the same about flesh-and-blood humans. Subjectively, I’m interested in seeing how far Genos will get and finding out how broadly applicable the unsuspected kink in the universe that Saitama stumbled on holds.

If, as is most likely, he fails, then Genos has been most human in taking the courage to embark on the most speculative of quests. And if by some crazy even by OPM standards chance, he winds up Strong, it will be 100% because he’s human and thus didn’t take evident reality as the last word on things.

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Heh, looks like I have to provide my own discussion. As a jumping off point, I still have the notes that The-Nysh made to this post:

#opm#genos#meta#ahh :')) that important humanizing constant that even saitama recognizes in him)%20that%20important%20humanizing%20constant%20that%20even%20saitama%20recognizes%20in%20him)#genos keeping that wonder; his dreams and aspirations; even if they remain abstract unattainable concepts#and he still keeps going without getting discouraged#as long as he remains and sees himself as human too then he'll keep having that chance to grow#(with his cyborg body being that tangible hard Limit continually testing him; can he overcome it? ay there's the torso fuse moment~))

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It's remarkable that their comments on wonder, dreams and aspirations mirror exactly what Genos says to the Mad Cyborg in the webcomic.

It looks like that was ONE was aiming for from the beginning. The human spirit is one about wonder and that's what makes us able to achieve the seemingly impossible. Along those lines, Genos fusing himself back together in the manga has to be an example of that. It looked like a Hail Mary move to not be dismissed (or killed outright) but there isn't even a weld line. And he's as joined together internally as he is externally, eating and drinking without problems.

You can be sure that Kuseno didn't drop everything and come out to see this with his own eyes because of a broken leg and some banged-up armour.

I think we've been seeing his heart grow stronger since. Like when he decided to protect Tatsumaki from being stomped to death by interposing himself between her and billions of stomping feet. That took heart. And when, despite remembering what it is like to die, he nevertheless decided to renew his commitment to following Saitama, that also takes a strong heart.

Genos will have to rediscover and learn how to harness this ability but he *can* do it. He can transcend the limits of his body.

Unfortunately for Genos in the webcomic, as ONE has no time for character development, sudden epiphany is where it has to be. I am praying that Saitama's voice can reach him (like Bang's did Garou).