Perception bias, round 2 Director's cut, Saigenos edition!

(or basically, how my brain jumps into another topic only loosely related to the original ask)

Thank you @itsmaferart For the wonderful ask again. :)

Warning: Long post ahead

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Perception bias also serves another more...sinister purpose for Saitama. Psychological conditioning. There is potential evidence for deprivation of basic needs, conditioning for violence for protection and subliminal messages for suggestion, among other things.

Being deprived of all these needs is akin to mental torture. But so is facing all of the underlying issues at once via hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy if the patient is sufficiently dysfunctional in a societal setting like Saitama happens to be. Especially if the therapies are performed...poorly.

In short, in order to heal mentally, Saitama may need to face mental torture because he has such strong willpower and such strong mental barriers shielding his vulnerabilities on a basic primal need. There only needs to be a sufficient trigger.

ONE sent Saitama home to restore his energy levels...because he's going to sorely need them for the upcoming confrontation.

Empty Void's ability to genjutsu people casually and cause parallel shifts in the reality and using these to abuse emotional dependencies is like a loaded Chekov's gun on Saitama's forehead. Because Saitama has been roleplaying to re-learn his emphatic skillset after he had suffered too much mental trauma.

That's why early Saitama did not even bat an eye when Beefcake killed his own brother but now he's empathizing with Hamukichi. That's what I call character progression.

I find it especially interesting if Saitama, in the perhaps not too distant future, is subjected to emotional stress or even mental torture. Keeping in mind that in One Punch Man, where strength is based on the quest to break the limitations imposed on each individual by nature itself (GOD). Taking Saitama to Garou have faced extreme physical conditions that put them on the brink of death, but their will - driven by some purpose - allows them to overcome this kind of “death” and move on, even at the cost of almost destroying themselves in the process.

Gyoro Gyoro mentions that individuals must go through "personal hells" under very specific conditions to strengthen and evolve without being consumed by their own desires to the point of becoming mere monsters.

However, what about the emotional hell?

Both Garou and Saitama have managed to break or eliminate their respective “limiters” in pursuit of fulfilling their motivations: to be a hero and to be a kaijin, respectively. Through their actions, they wish to change people and find their place in a world that has often turned its back on them. However, they have experienced a profound demotivation when they realize that what they pursued so fervently has led to significant losses of the people they wished to protect. Because at the end of the day, “adsolute evil” and “adsolute power” were to protect others because no one was there to protect them when the world was too hard on them. When For Garou, it is the loss of Tareo; for Saitama, it is the loss of Genos.

When Garou lost Tareo and Saitama lost Genos, things lost their significance.

It is curious that many can see badly that there has been a time travel that “seems to fix everything”, when clearly things are showing many seams that were only briefly mended, so that in the future we can see in greater depth the consequences of these same.

After his confrontation with Garou, deep and evident emotional cracks are revealed in Saitama. However, these memories are confused in his mind, preventing him from confronting the situation. In an unconscious way, he seems to establish certain limits with Genos, perhaps out of fear of becoming too dependent on him.

Saitama's problems are not rooted solely in his desire to “be strong,” which he has more than fulfilled. Rather, they are deeply rooted in a complex childhood that has skewed his perception and hindered his ability to socialize and form bonds. Saitama wants to connect emotionally with others, protect them and have a positive impact on their lives. Despite everything, her first heroic instinct was to save a child instead of running away and ignoring the situation. He desires to live a normal human experience, something he has been deprived of in various ways. This has led him to cling to emotions associated with adrenaline, euphoria and fear, sensations that are pleasurable but also addictive, and which often leave him more dissatisfied than the beginning, and the constant feeling that he has forgotten “something” (a purpose) - one other than finding the thrill of battle.

It may be a bit premature to draw conclusions based on the progress of the webcomic, considering that there is still a lot left to cover in the manga and we still don't have a conclusion to the Empty Void arc. However, I sense that Saitama will begin to experience small doses of emotionally shocking situations, until eventually detonating into something bigger. And that will serve to glimpse his own conflict, and break that armor that prevents him from accessing his emotions. Let's hope he can at least recover Genos, or at least not see him die in the process and cause planetary destruction.

Thus, I wonder: what kind of reaction could Saitama have if, in a hypothetical scenario, God presents himself before him in the form of Genos? What desires would God use to manipulate him?

I'll be extremely disappointed in ONE if there won't be any kind of juicy mental torture for Blast and Saitama from Empty void, because he has that kind of ability.

I do kinda thing that Gyoro is pretty close, but that personal hell would encompass also spiritual hell and not just physical ability. We're talking about Saitama who defies even physics, like moving around portals and multiplying himself.

Thank you for this reblog reply. :D

Hypothethically, Saitama is so dependent on Genos that any kind of future happening where Genos would emotionally abandon him is probably on his top 3 fear list. So manipulate Saitama in a way that would save him from his own emotional loneliness (say, being stuck in pitch black dimension ala Kagome in inu-yasha) and take the form of Genos as his saviour away from the pitch black emptyness of the universe. Even if Saitama notices it's god...if he can't get out of the darkness surrounding him on his own, he'd be forced to take God's hand anyway, a lose-lose situation for him.

Or make it even worse, with a fear of drowning. He doesn't even need to breathe in space, yet he always holds his nose when underwater and even has floaties, so I can relate to that a lot. He might be a poor swimmer in general because he was prolly self-taught if anything. But he'd essentially need to lose his powers for that to happen...I do have a juicy scenario in mind for that too...it involves Blast meddling with what should not be meddled with and playing space police.

Considering that this Arc of Empty Void ONE and Murata has raised the stakes so high, I want to believe that all this waiting is because they are preparing to write something truly amazing.

I want to believe that Empty Void, perhaps similar to Orochi, will be an antagonist that helps expand and establish the lore regarding GOD. (I really hope there isn’t an anticlimactic ending like in WC, as it wouldn’t make sense in this context, given that many elements have changed and too many interesting things have been established).

I feel it is highly probable that if Empty Void has this connection with Garou’s power, an avatar of GOD, and the getjunsus, it is because at some point in his battle with Blast, we will gain deeper insight into the character.

The question is: how does Saitama fit into the equation?

Saitama being alongside Flashy, Monako, and Blast, witnessing how the monsters are subjected to brutal torture to undo their monstrosity, suggests that the secret lies in will and heart. Not to mention that Void made Sonic and Flashy—especially Flashy—face a reality of "their mutual emotional dependence."

Additionally, this arc might help establish a deeper connection between Saitama and Blast. So far, Saitama seems to see Blast as "a good guy," without really questioning much about him. Meanwhile, Blast appears to have a very sharp intuition and seems to view Saitama as a threat.

It would be interesting if this arc could establish and deepen this idea, or conversely, if this image might be slightly shattered. Perhaps if Saitama learns more about Blast, he could understand him and even sympathize more with him? Or would he directly see that this guy is dealing with more issues, and not in the most ethical or correct way? Moreover, could Blast come to realize that Saitama is someone noble and good who should not be seen as a threat? Or could he start to worry that Saitama might become a future target of GOD? (Which he is).

I’m not sure whether to expect that Empty Void will mentally subjugate Saitama at this point, or if that will be something exclusive that GOD will do at his moment. But I hope we at least get to see his abilities against Blast and get a prelude to what will happen later.

Saitama’s Mental Trap

In fact, the mention of Inuyasha and Kagome is interesting to me because it reminds me of the priestess Midoriko, whose soul is trapped in an endless cycle of battle. I feel that GOD can play with Saitama’s mind, emotions, and spirit for whatever purpose he has for him. He could trap him in a dimension where he fights eternally; even if Saitama destroys his enemies with punches, he would just be caught in a cycle of weariness where his own power condemns him. Knowing how frustrating it is for Saitama to see his actions repeat over and over without changing the outcome... or, as you said, to feel trapped in an infinite and torturous solitude.

On a personal note, my mind has also fantasized about Saitama being trapped in a kind of pleasurable dream, because even for him, it would be harder to escape that reality. Perhaps a fantasy similar to the dream in the first chapter when he believes he finally got what he wished for and ends up trapped in his own vicious cycle of pleasurable emotions.