How to Actually Write a Speedster

Guys I had to remove some of the Megamind Clips I used in the video so that's why there are now some weird cuts. If you're interested, here's the link to the original version of the video. https://youtu.be/DWKdllqhmeI https://youtu.be/DWKdllqhmeI https://youtu.be/DWKdllqhmeI Thanks guys

Oh my god, you just made me realize why Metroman became music man, it is not just a funny random joke, he picked music cuz he is shown to actually suck at it both guitar and songwriting. It’s an endeavor that actually challenges him and delivers him an actual journey of improvement. Megamind is such a good movie

Imagine a speedster fighting a character that can slow down time. Once he uses his power, the speedster runs at a normal pace. Now it's just 2 normal dudes fighting each other

> gives characters too much powers > make them beat op villain > lose to street level crook peak CW writing

I watched a show recently called "I'm a Virgo" and it has a speedster who is very interestingly written. Her whole deal is that she was born in superspeed, so from her perspective her parents were always barely moving. As she grows older, she creates a system to communicate with her parents across the speed difference and eventually learns how to slow herself down. It's pretty cool

Just having super speed implies an entire list of needed powers to remain alive.

Fun fact: if you watch Megamind again, the moment after he shouts "FIRE!" where it shows both their faces in the silence, you can briefly see Metroman fade behind Megamind. It almost looks like distortion, but it's clearly him. That's how fast he moved

couldnt catch a bullet fast enough to go back in time Barry fucking allan

I feel like a good way to reconcile these 2 versions of super speed is to give the characters the power of changing their perception of time. That way they can choose to perceive time normally to have a conversation and be caught off guard by a surprise attack, then adjust to the super slow-mo perception of time to use their powers well

A thing to mention is how Dash DOES have his moment where the writers are able to be like “look at how cool it is to be a speedster” in the form of the 100 mile dash (specifically the water running). All the while Dash is still a well-written speedster. Edit: okay yes I understand the tack scene exists at the start of the movie which makes his speed inconsistent, so before you comment that very fact read this first

I love the scene with Metroman's superspeed for the simple detail that he's causing a Doppler effect with the light of his own body. Metroman is moving so close to the speed of light, that even with the camera matching his pace, light is getting red-shifted or blue-shifted depending on the direction he's going relative to the camera, showing he can still move faster.

My Favorite version of The Flash is when he is depicted as both being such a speedster he's basically a god to the point ALL villains piss their pants and run from him, and all he really does is wag his finger at them and shame them. There was a comic where it was minor villains talking about why Central City was the worst place to target, and they all bring up stories of some of the biggest villains being utterly humiliated by Flash, like Joker being defeated in a single second and him never targeting Central City again because "it's not fun", to the master of time and space stealing a lollypop from the little girl cuz she stuck her tongue out at him, and when flash shows up, simply wagging his finger, the guy flees through dimension after dimension as Flash follows, all the way to the end of all existence itself.. and Flash is there, holding out his hand for the lollypop. Not a single punch, but he utilizes psychological warfare in the polar opposite way that Batman does. Batman will hurt you, but this iteration of Flash will use the fact that he is basically a god to forcefully humble anyone he faces.

Amazing and very quotable. (2:17) "Now it is objectively embarrassing when writers can't even follow their own rules, but actually following them really isn't deserving of praise." and (0:14) "The reason why so many speedsters lose to bad writing is because the writing isn't aware of it's own implications." Especially that part: "because the writing isn't aware of it's own implications" heavily resonates with me because it's precisely the issue I find in most things I watch these days. Same issue with writers that can't follow their own rules, because stories written with errors like that give off the feeling that the writer just didn't care enough to think about what he is writing, which I find quite disrespectful toward the audience.

I don’t know if the 100 Mile Dash scene will ever be beat. It’s just so exciting as we get to see this kid truly let loose for the first time in his life. That chuckle when he runs on water for the first time always puts a big smile on my face

I like how in Megamind during the scene where they're waiting for the sun to warm up, you can see Metro Man blip for a split second. During that split second is when he went into superspeeed mode and began contemplating his life. It's one of my favourite uses of foreshadowing.

Worm in general is great at writing powers consistently. One of the side characters is called Velocity and he’s a speedster, with the caveat that the faster he goes the less effect he can have on the world around him. At max speed he was roughly as effective as a sentient breeze

i love the fact in megamind, we can see metroman for 1 frame behind megamind. such detail.

The show "'I'm a Virgo" has a Speedster character who actually is stuck permanently in speed mode. She couldn't speak to people for most of her life, until she eventually developed a system that taught her how to listen and speak more slowly. But it's agonizing to her. A simple "Hello" feels like several minutes to her, so for years her primary form of communication was just writing things down and leaving sticky-notes everywhere so people could reply to her at their speed without her having to wait on them to finish a thought. It creates a fun and compelling character out of someone you'd normally expect to be the most overpowered person in the show.

Yeah, not gonna lie...when you mentioned how speedsters got taken out in your previous videos, I just realized how the writers don't know how to write speedsters at all at this point. Edit: I made this comment a while back and I realize there was a typo pointed out by someone. Thanks. I needed that. And there was also a comment that said that we fans are also kinda to blame and you know what? They're right. I mean for example, to tell you how OP speedsters are, just take at the old TV shows Teen Titans with the episode titled: LightSpeed. In that episode, we finally see Kid Flash and in just one episode, it shows that it is nearly impossible for him to lose to villians. He got caught on purpose by the Hive Five and then proceeded to escape and make the High Five look like a joke while trashing their entire base. As for when he starts fighting Madame Rouge, yeah he starts to get beaten up a little but is still holding his own. Plus it actually shows that he's getting tired the more the battle wages on. At that point, he doesn't even want to fight Madame Rouge anymore, he just wants to get out of their because he's getting tired and Madame Rouge knows this and tries finishing him off. I was a little upset when I Kid Flash only got a few episodes of screentime in the Teen Titans but I kinda understand why they did that. That episode alone showed how easy it was fir him to single handedly trash seven villians all by himself very efficiently. With him always with the Titans, it would be hard to make a scenario where they have trouble facing a villian and end up losing if the fastest Kid alive can take care of them in a few seconds. So yeah, the writers are to blame but so are we.

I have to agree 100%. Whether it's the "we're limited to 200mph" speedster, or the 'practically god' speedster, the most important thing is definitely consistency. If they've got so much power that they can time travel and phase through objects, then they shouldn't be forgetting that they do, that should be part of how they act around others. If you want a speedster who actually struggles with villains, don't give him time freezing or kinetic vision, make him a Dash.