u/Cuurupt

What did this guy do for the entire community to turn on him lmfao

Its weird because people wanted him to fight for so long and we got two fights from him in the last ~40 chaps where both of them ended with him doing his god path shit while clearly not putting 110% effort into either one and somehow its a bad look for him?

The MC literally starts his fights now pathing people out the ass(and people are like OMG BRAH UNBEATABLE HE'S GONNA BE THE GOAT) but when James uses it against the Ultimate King's 4T GAP level strike its a downscale? Huh?

Kitae faced two incomplete path users but I would say throughout all of that the most dangerous attack of the arc was Tom's 4T strike and James countered it and probably used something even stronger to counter

Am i reading a different story or something? What is with the eagerness to want him to be weak? Is it just Fandoms or what? They want the 2nd most important character tied to the two body problem(basically Elite's successor) to be a weak guy?

James being weak after all this would mean PTJ just sets his story on fire, the scaling in these communites is coming at the expense of reading comprehension.

It's so odd to me, ive never seen a community basically completely drop the storytelling in their analysis and just overemphasize what a character looks like or reacts like in a panel during a fight

Again, James states he is complete right? Okay, all the other high level characters got unique skills, mixing and matching masteries, but James just skates around with speed, uses IA, and then makes the screen go white when he's ready to end the fight, are we not using our brains? He clearly hasnt shown us what he is fully capable of onscreen, when has he had to? We are downscaling a guy who never even shows us 100% effort and hasnt lost a fight on screen in the current timeline? Literally not possible

If pressing the path button 1 time beat Tom, while the MC is damn near living in it during his important fights, what basis is James getting downscaled for? Especially when path is the accumulation of their own talent to begin with, "path merchant" is like saying Super Sayian Blue Merchant, 8 Gates merchant, Bankai merchant, Haki merchant(dont take the last two seriously if they dont apply I havent read Bleach/One Piece deeply enough to know if those fit but you get my point)

....what?

I've never talked about Seongji in any real capacity but the way things are set up now, Seongji was basically written in that arc to be the Goku to James' Vegeta in terms of powerscaling, this random hick in the mountains is somehow going blow for blow with the almighty genius/Prince James(Vegeta)

in other words, both James and Seongji were simply tiers above everyone else active in Gen1(obviously im not counting Kitae here) at that point, this is an okay direction to commit to from PTJ's part specifically because of the fact that Seongji was written as a mysterious mountain man, he wasnt running around fighting people enough to build a legit reputation for himself(to be scaled against everyone else at the time) and as we know, he was written for one flashback arc and died accordingly within it without fighting anyone to any "High difficulty" level besides James.

James is going to be retconned into having/unlocking path against GAP, this is obvious now since an even younger teen James isnt going to be doing anything against any version of GAP without something unique that can actually tip the scales or catch GAP off-guard for a moment

again, this is fine because James' genius narrative makes it plausible that he unlocked his path in a critical moment against GAP at like age 16 or whatever

The retcon will simply be that his path was incomplete, or something that puts so much strain on him that he didnt want to try tapping back into it until he got older and did more training(we can use the "Pre Kings Hunt James Training arc" panels/dialogue to explain this away)

James basically unlocks path against old GAP(who cares how impactful or deadly it is at that particular moment, that's not the point of the post, take your Kitae carried replies somewhere else, no where am i stating that he 1v1ed GAP, just that he probably unlocked it while GAP was throwing a deadly strike at him during the confrontation)

doesnt complete it until pre-kings hunt so he doesnt use it in Cheonliang, Hick Seongji is now free to be upscaled into old GAP territory in terms of fight difficulty accordingly since the difference between the GAP fight and the Seongji fight is that James simply didnt/couldnt willingly use path against Seongji, while it was activated against GAP

We can easily say, James hardest fight in his life without using path was Seongji, while the hardest fight in his life with path usage is old GAP

So Cheonliang will probably scaled into 2T/3T James restricting his path

and GAP Death Arc will probably scale it to a weaker Teen James but with Path hacks being unlocked during the fight to compensate for being younger/weaker in base

As goofy as it sounds, its honestly fine since we have seen Daniel use his non mastered path and the negative effects of using it on his body especially the first time, James may simply deem the strain not worth it until he feels like his body/skills are perfected

TLDR:

Teen James unlocks path against GAP

Strain of incomplete path makes him incapable/refuse to use it in Cheonliang, relying on his normal skills instead

After Cheonliang, he decides he wants to complete his path for the kings hunt, goes and trains as stated(maybe with Kitae) then starts kings hunt as Pinnacle James

simple way to retcon without it sounding too stupid

I have no time to make a true effort post any time soon even though I really want to but ima just throw it in the glazer subreddit so if i never actually get around to a fully fleshed out effort post in the main subs and James' path is revealed and I had the right idea yall heard it here first

James Path is the culmination of being the peak of speed and learning, what does that mean exactly, James doesnt copy, but he learns almost instantly(this is shown in all aspects of life hence the countless trophies, he has the ability to basically understand anything at a massively accelerated most likely inhuman level rate)

again, why is this important to understand

Its important to understand because we have seen James use path in fights to a full end result twice on screen, against Jaegyeon and against Tom

The key to understanding what is going on, even offscreen, are the panels leading up to James using his path, specifically the exact circumstances that leads into his decision to activate it

Here we go:

Jaegyeon activates his kill shot move

James looks \"scared\", eye's wide open, staring directly at the attack the moment he realizes what move is coming, the move he wanted to see completed years ago(this is a key crumb)

Jaegyeon's kick gets as close as possible to James, but something happens here and his demeanor 180's, can you guess why?

Tom breaks out his kill shot trump card(Same as Jaegyeon)

James looks \"shocked\"(again, same as Jaegyeon)

Tom gets as close as possible to James, James is staring directly at the strike, but what happens? James demeanor does a 180 just like before. different fight, different kill shot moves, same James reactions, same James demeanor change, same end result(Untouched with his opponent incapacitated)

What is actually happening here? Its simple. What James is doing here, is actually learning and analyzing these moves in real time as these strikes are headed towards him, the wide eyes and the direct eye contact with these moves are James analyzing every single aspect of the blow that is heading for him, these hits come as close as possible because he is standing there purposefully analyzing the kill shot

Here is the kicker, once James' analysis is complete, his demeanor switches because his path conditions have been met, he analyzed and learned exactly how the kill shot move works in the miniscule time period of the incoming strike path.

The result is that his body performs a perfect reflexive action/response, specifically designed to counter the kill shot he just finished analyzing.

reflexive actions are basically what us humans do when we do things like touch hot stoves/pots on accident(our hands naturally fly back out the way before we even realize what is going on), or like when you go to the doctor and he taps the hammer on your knee and your knee instantly kicks up without you consciously making your knee kick, because James' has that speed/learning, his path is the culmination of both combined, almost instant learning/analyzation of a kill shot, while tapping into a direct reflexive counter

imagine if you could use the reaction time you have when it comes to accidentally stepping on a lego or stubbing your toe on a table but in fights instead? In a fashion that directly counters your opponents best move?

https://preview.redd.it/rem94mfp2b1h1.png?width=504&format=png&auto=webp&s=815dbe1b0545b9eda5d3d591ba5b3f4662afd2c7

This would also explain why James doesnt seem to just throw his path around and selectively waits until the incoming move seems the most dangerous, he wouldnt care to use a "Perfect reflexive counter" against a normal punch or kick or grab or whatever, he has his masteries/base stats etc that are more than good enough to beat opponents without much difficulty

The path is specifically designed to perfectly reflexively counter the opponents kill shots with something equally punishing(which is probably why the fights always end, if James is basically finding a perfect counter to your trump card kill shot move, then we can assume that perfect counter is bare minimum on the level of your move, and I doubt you could withstand your own kill shot thrown back at you)

Now, here is the thing, again this isnt what my effort post would look like, but things to back my analysis up(you can go find these panels on your own time) are James has had a high level of respect/interest for people who have unique moves/skills, even when he was his Gen 1 red haired asshole self, so its not just glaze for no reason

He was asking people like Gong and Jaegyeon if he could see their moves/be taught by them for this particular reason, because he cant copy(a talent he has openly stated he is jealous of)

the next best thing is for him to use his accelerated learning in a friendly/teaching situation where the kill move isnt an inch away from his face before his path conditions are met, but because neither of them were willing to show him until they actually fought eachother, the outcome ends up being that James has to learn as the strike is coming towards him, which clearly "Seems scary" at face value, but James purposefully waits as long and cuts it as close as possible so he can process it in his brain and activate his path at maximum capacity.

I also think that knowing James, his goofy looking face is intentional, he is drawing the opponent in with everything they got, knowing he has his path in his back pocket and that his path is purposefully designed to trap people in their kill shot attack movement in order to counter them

That is my best guess, again im sure at some point ill come out with an effort post with 25 more panels proving why his speed/learning gifts naturally lead to this path but yall should get the gist by now since I would assume this sub actually cares about James as a character and read into what he does and how he operates in the story

also, people debate whether he used his path to make Tom miss the chest stab that was the cliff hanger for last chapter, he did not use path, PTJ specifically uses this full white screen thing to show us when his path activates, and when it does, its always a full dodge into a counter, not just a slight move into a chest stab

Tom himself was staring at his fingers in confusion that James was able to just seal it up with no serious damage(this leads to the breadcrumb that I stated in one of my other threads that James probably has inverted organs specifically for this purpose as Choi had heart problems and a pace maker{Probably from that exact move from Tom during pregen as enemies}, Choi built in all types of counters into James and I wouldnt be surprised if he used his resources to move some organs around in his original successor for this specific purpose at some point)

that is all for now