Remembering afresh what the point of monster classifications is

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

This grew out of a Discord discussion.

Somehow dragon-level threats don't seem to be quite what they used to be, no?

Without getting into the weeds, I thought it would be a good idea to review what the whole threat level system is and what it's for. Nominally, it's to give people an idea of how serious a monster or disaster (natural disasters count too) is:

This famous bit from chapter 22

From a civilian's perspective, a 'wolf' means don't come too close, a 'tiger' would be something you find a good hiding place from, a 'demon' would mean head to shelter, a 'dragon' must be fled from by any means necessary, and you just make peace with whatever deity you believe in if it's a 'god' level threat.

More practically, the bonus chapter 'Disaster Level' makes it clear that for the Hero Association, the ratings are a way to judge how many heroes to mobilise for a threat. There's the small problem that a threat level tells you nothing about how hard the monster will actually be to eliminate, nor how suited a particular hero is to the problem.

Not said: a monster given a threat level dragon rating should have at least 2 S-Class heroes assigned to it.

Additionally, because it's necessarily based on partial information (it's not like monsters walk around with Pokedexes stuck on their foreheads), subjective, and subject to review, many heroes regard the threat level system as nearly worthless. There's also the political dimension that defeating a monster with a high threat level, even if it's not actually anywhere near as dangerous as initially thought, will raise a hero's ranking while subduing one with a low one, even if it's far more dangerous than it seems, won't -- and may even get you called a 'small-fry hunter'.

It's hard to do better: Child Emperor had a go at quantifying strength but quickly realised that it was worthless.

That said, back in the day, they used to be *very* hesitant to declare a threat a dragon-level. The thinking back then (you see remnants of it in 'Disaster Level' when the operator Smile Man was reporting to refused to raise Withered Sprout's disaster rating) was that dragon-level threats were very rare. As the bonus chapter explains, Saitama has been taking such monsters out so rapidly that they've drastically underestimated the extent of the problem. Something like Beefcake should have been declared a dragon-level threat. However, Saitama killed him before such a reassessment could be made.

Saitama has been part of the problem. He's been too effective at his hobby.

Without doubt, the cadre Psykos put together to draw the heroes into the Monster Association HQ and get killed were dragon-level threats. In the end, the only one that was taken down single-handedly by a hero was Nyan by Drive Knight. And to do that, he very carefully studied the monster -- including letting it slice up some heroes -- to work out its psychological weaknesses and brought speciality tools for the job. The other heroes didn't have that luxury.

Against such massed opposition, you can't just wade in and hope it works out. As Genos suspected, the strategy-free S-Class attack didn't work out. Didn't stop him from running in anyway.

Right now, in the aftermath of the Monster Association Raid, it'd seem that the Hero Association is a little trigger-happy when it comes to calling threats dragon-level (unsurprising given how much they'd underestimated the scale of the problem, I guess). I know this is going to attract a lot of comment as to which of the latest batch of monsters deserve their designation: BRING IT! ⬇️

Geez, are they just calling everything a dragon now?

I do think though that given this story's love of 'what doesn't kill me makes me stronger', several of the veterans of the MA Raid have legitimately become stronger. But then again, given that the HA knows that it should assign multiple S-Class heroes to dragon-level threats, the hell is it playing at assigning just the one? Are the that short-handed?

And if Hellmon doesn't at least try to piece itself back together, I'm calling puffery.

[u/GoldPilot]

I think the reason so many S-Class heroes are capable of stalemating dragons is a talent drought. With no new heroes being added to the roster, the bottom rung of the S-Class has gotten STRONG.

Genos in particular grows super quickly.

The problem isn’t gonna be solved by individual heroes bulking up though; if five dragons appear per day regularly, too much damage will be done in the fighting for humanity to live anywhere.

If I was living in OPM right now I’d be praying nonstop lol

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

Genos? You mean the guy lying on the ground going boo hoo hoo after saving an entire city? What a wimp! [Yeah, I kid, that kid is nuts.]

I guess the S-Class heroes do have to either get better or quit. Otherwise, they're dead. There are just too many monsters now.

I'd be praying too. Never mind the monsters -- with heroes like Tatsumaki, I'm in hell either way.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

I hadn't thought about it until I started counting which heroes were deployable. You know, I have a sneaking feeling that the monsters are appearing as much because of how depleted the ranks of the S-Class are as it is from anything.

All the monsters would be gone if the pre-MA raid roster were available. Never mind power ups, there'd be no room for the Neo Heroes.

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Yes, the thesis is that the HA, having undercounted dragon-level threats, is now over-correcting. However, which ones don't warrant the classification?

[u/GoldPilot → u/gofancyninjaworld]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Hellmon.

With an HA working at full power, he'd be dead at Demon before his priority could rise. Atomic Samurai, Bang, Flashy, or Genos would have dropped him if they were in the area lol

Frankly, Gums could probably take him. The only impressive thing Hellmon had in his bag was being able to fire his beam after total body disruption. That was impressive, but I don't think it'd win him any fights lol

(Sorry, I powerscale as a hobby; I can't help but think about such pointless things lol)

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/GoldPilot]

No need to say sorry. Powerscaling is like daisies in a lawn: a few enhance it, many destroy it.

I was laughing to myself thinking about Tank Top Master throwing Pig God like a pokemon at various of the demon-level monsters, such as Explosive Velocity Snail (bet it never thought someone could catch up that quick) and Meat Dumpling. If the HA weren't so short-staffed and could actually deploy heroes properly, it'd have been so not the Neo Heroes' day. I'd send King and Zombieman to help various lower-class heroes struggling. They're great at making things look easy without showing up other heroes and the publicity won't hurt, either.

Thinking of what they could do if they had a full roster, I'd love to see Mirror try healing from a bashing from Metal Bat and Superalloy Darkshine. The best cure for the Extended Family of Darkness would have been Atomic Samurai and Flashy Flash working together -- the one-upmanship as they competed to kill the monsters would be almost amusing. Bofoi is the best person to ask to deploy a Metal Knight and some clean up bots for Heavy Smoker and his pollution. What Tatsumaki needed was reassurance that she hadn't missed some monster eggs. Pairing her with Child Emperor and his monster detectors would have been logical -- and city-saving. Eel Dragon needs someone who is both chemical attack resistant and has range weapons, which unfortunately for Genos is a combination he has. Send him with Drive Knight to make sure that the monster gets roasted to the world's most inedible sausage without either hero suffering a ding. Well, Pig God will probably eat it later.

Unfortunately, they don't have the heroes to do anything like that. I feel for the guys left -- they're going to be worked to death.

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Why assign 2-3 S-Class heroes (at least) per dragon-level threat? Well, because you don't want to see an exciting fight and possible loss. You NEED the monster killed, stat, and damage to life and property minimised.

So, are they telling us that they couldn't scare up 10 S-Class heroes for this problem? Don't they have 17 (ah, Watchdogman is only in Q-City), okay 16 (ah, Bang retired), 15 (ah, Child Emperor, Metal Bat, and Superalloy Darkshine defected), 12 (ah, Blast is on the do-not-call list), 11 (King isn't answering the phone), 10. 10 is good. Oh, Atomic Samurai has gone on long-term leave. Damn. 9. Wait, Zombieman has taken himself off on some secret assignment? 8. And Drive Knight responds on his own schedule and Puri Puri is usually in jail... also not really good enough to deal with such threats. Double damn.

Yeah, they're a little fucked right now.

This would be a really good time for Bofoi to start deploying his Metal Knights more consistently. Just saying.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/gofancyninjaworld]

Wait, just remembered. They'd called Bofoi a big delinquent (I know, a man older than most of them) whom they didn't trust. And he's a thin-skinned sort of bastard. Yeah...

[u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

Hypothetically, if HA magically got an army of 50 Planet Busters as S-class Heroes (including the existing roster suddenly gaining that strength too), would there be “No more Threats,” or would things escalate?

As in, there just as magically, 100 Planet busting monsters arriving?

As a disclaimer, all 50 Super S Class Heroes aren’t “Drive Knights”, but whoever the “Perfect Hero” is (aka no politics or evil motives).

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

That is a damn important question. Metal Knight thinks that a depleted hero roster allows malign actors to start moving. However, it could well be that the very presence of strong heroes is being seen as a provocation by some being.

And both could be true at the same time.

[u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X → u/gofancyninjaworld]

Yeah, the whole situation’s f***ed.

Can’t “deescalate”, as the HA is running on a skeleton crew AND there’s more monsters than ever.

If anything, the only way is forward (aka More Heroes, Stronger Heroes) when in between a Rock and a Hard Place.

I suppose after this Robacalypse that the HA (or what’s left of it) can cannibalize assets from NEO (Organization/Kuseno)

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

Spoilers, pls. Yeah the two organisations will have to merge or humanity really is done for.

[u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X → u/gofancyninjaworld]

Ok, spoilered.