u/CardiologistBest3975

I understand why other shows, and even Season 2 of AvA, give characters limited stamina. When you have an extremely powerful character like TSC, limiting their stamina can be a reasonable way to keep fights balanced.

But Victim literally gained these abilities only recently. He is inexperienced, he isn't particularly strong compared to the other major characters, and now he also has extremely limited stamina. Honestly, it feels unnecessarily cruel.

Victim wasn't the strongest character to begin with, so what was the point of giving him such a severe limitation? Personally, I think it would have been much more interesting if Victim had never gained these powers in the first place. His whole thing was that he didn't have the raw power of TCO or TDL. Instead, he relied on technology, intelligence, gadgets, and whatever resources he could create for himself. That's what made him unique. He was basically the Batman of the AvA universe.

It would have been much cooler to see Victim remain that way and continue helping TDL through his own technology and intelligence rather than suddenly gaining powers that still don't even make him one of the strongest characters.

And that's what I don't really understand: what was the narrative purpose of giving Victim these powers in the first place? Was he intentionally weakened so that he could replace Viraboth in the power hierarchy? Or was it simply to make him a suitable opponent for TCO?

If he was never going to become one of the strongest characters anyway, why change the very thing that made him unique? I think keeping Victim as the powerless-but-dangerous strategist who relies on technology could have made him far more interesting.

I'd like to discuss the dumping of Victim, who was originally planned as the main antagonist. It's not so much that they never intended to bring back TDL, but rather what happened afterward.

**1. The main problem.**

For me, the writers backed themselves into a corner when they tried to make Victim into a second King Orange. That is, a tragic character who does terrible things, but in the finale, realizes his mistakes, undergoes redemption, and gets a happy ending. Already in episode 11, they severely limited his potential as a villain.

**2. Victim turned out to be more of a weak-willed pawn than an independent character or a fully-fledged secondary antagonist.**

This problem directly follows from the first point. Apparently, the writers wanted Victim to somehow end up on TDL's side. But because he's portrayed as a kind and generally positive character after the flashback, this became difficult to pull off.

If he had voluntarily joined the TDL, it would have contradicted his development after the flashback. Essentially, he'd already ceased to be a villain.

If he had joined the TDL simply because he had no choice, viewers would likely have perceived it as weak motivation. Many would have started calling him "stupid" or dismissing him as a weak-willed character who simply went with the flow.

Because of this, the writers were left with virtually no good options for making him a strong antagonist. Ultimately, Victim feels more like a plot device than a character who makes important decisions.