As Shiroe is coming to find, there’s more to the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility.” With great intellect comes great influence, and with great influence comes great pressure. He has to take care of people aside from himself, and people who are perhaps too dedicated to their tasks. Just as he knows that the Round Table couldn’t get rid of him no matter how bad his reputation became, he knows that everyone will bring their problems to him. Eins doesn’t care if everyone else disagrees with his proposals as long as he can convince Shiroe. He’s just that powerful in the group.
NO OKAY REMEMBER WHEN I SAID THERE WAS A PART OF THE BIG PICTURE YOU WERE MISSING
i mean i already ranted about this but i will rant about this forever more
fact is, Shiroe is not The Most Qualified And Naturally Able Person To Take Care Of Everyone. It's not like... his natural obligation that he just took his time accepting. The reason he is powerful is not because it's his objective quality at the start of the anime, it's because other people willingly gave him that power
and the reason they did is that he was willing to take it!!! the whole package of power&responsibility, he saw it and he said 'pls give it to me' and everyone was like YES PLEASE TAKE IT OH THANK GOD SOMEONE IS HERE TO TAKE CARE OF ME
there's a reason Shiroe succeeded in whipping Akihabara into shape, and it's that it was never hard to do!!! someone just had to try!!!
and there's a reason nobody else tried, which is that They Did Not Sign Up For This Shit. Guildmaster in an MMORPG =/= leader of a major political faction!!! Silver Sword left the Round Table meeting because taking care of themselves was already p much exceeding the extent of their ambitions what the fuck do you mean the city is also on us
yes Shiroe blackmailed the city into submission bUT THE REASON HE WAS ABLE TO WAS BECAUSE THE THREE PRODUCTION GUILDS FINANCED HIM
like, they saw that Someone Was Doing Something and were like 'okay we are going to give you all our money we want in on this'
and he delivered!!! he had an actual plan!!! do you remember how the biggest problem everyone at Round Table had with Shiroe's idea was that they thought it was unrealistic? they didn't Not Want Shiroe To Hold This Power, they just... didn't believe he could&would
and they could have done the same if they'd just wanted... if shiroe, a solo player with support of just one tiny unspecialized guild could do it... anyone could p much... they just didn't
it's not like he's a business genius or has any experience in sales period, that's Henrietta and Naotsugu, but look at how they did fuckall until Shiroe took action first
do you remember the negotiations with the Eastal lords where everyone looked towards Shiroe to provide them with a plan, and yes he did but it was a complete fucking disaster!!! were it not for the princess plowing straight through like a fresh out of fucks armored train it would have gone south and never gotten out of there!!!
because Shiroe... is an expert in MMORPG tactics... not political negotiations...
The one and only thing that qualifies Shiroe for doing all the shit he does is that he's willing to try!!!
so the thing i had issue with... it's not like the great pressure just came with the great intellect naturally. I honestly don't believe Shiroe is ~objectively smarter~ than Henrietta or Roderic or Crusty or
the great pressure came with Shiroe's willingness to take on that great pressure, and he knew exactly what he was signing up for
he signed up for that BECAUSE HE ALREADY FELT THAT PRESSURE because of who he is as a person, and his intellect had nothing to do with it, it's a fake measurement anyway
the reason Shiroe is where he is, the reason he's able to do all that he does, both in tactics and politics, is his willingness to look beyond himself and pay attention to and invest in other people. He doesn't want to deal the biggest DPS, he's just happy as long as he directs other people in his party to their fullest potential. Like... that's the reason he's a great strategist - ironically, it's his emotional intellect if any kind of intellect at all that puts him where he is
the round table could totally get rid of shiroe, theoretically, particularly after he gave over the zone rights to the Yamato server
any power he has there is the power of their friend and a person they rely on to take care of them
the disconnect between his reputation and his status at the round table is just because they know what he Really Is Like... he's got Vetinari Job Security, people want him doing what he does because no-one else would do it if he were gone
so to bring this back to the quote i had the problem with
As Shiroe is coming to find, there’s more to the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility.” With great intellect comes great influence, and with great influence comes great pressure. He has to take care of people aside from himself
like no that's... that's not what he was coming to find at any point. that's where he was at the start THAT'S WHY HE WAS WHERE HE WAS HE STARTED WITH ACCEPTING THAT PRESSURE AND RESPONSIBILITY AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS CONDITIONAL ON THAT
im... im emotional about this part okay???
you're basically going with a cliche here and... it's so Wrong... yes normally people stumble into some power first and horrifiedly realize what it means later... but Shiroe is special!!! he's basically a protagonist Further Along His Character Arc. he's what happens to the protagonist after the book series has ended and everyone got their happy ending! he's the Wise Mentor not the Young Wide-Eyed Idealist
this is... a very big distinction about this ahhh!!!!
