: Re: How to make side-characters look competent next to the chosen one? I'm writing a storyline for a game where the forces of evil have humanity cornered. Truly everything seems lost, that is, until

@Samaraweera193

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It will be hard to make this work unless you reverse the order you introduce your characters. People always compare the new to the known. If Dave is first established as the Kingdom's greatest swordsman, and then Bob defeats him, Bob looks amazing. If Bob is first established as invincible, and then he defeats Dave, everyone yawns. One way of solving this problem would be to change the game so the player plays as Dave first, and then switches to Bob later.

There's a very close analog to what you want to do in the classic movie The Princess Bride. Three characters are introduced as the greatest swordsman, the strongest man, and the smartest man in the world. And yet, right after being introduced, each one is defeated by a mysterious fourth character (who is thus firmly established as utterly amazing). Even though none of them actually wins, you still come away convinced by their skills because (1) they are introduced in the correct order, (2) they are given some compelling backstories that establish their legitimacy and (3) the mysterious stranger really has to struggle to overcome them. This last point does give a second possible route to establish Dave (although not quite as strongly as the first). If Dave is one of the earlier boss battles, before they become friends, and it's a real struggle to defeat him, then we at least know he's stronger than the monsters Bob defeats so easily.

Conversely, your own setup is played for laughs in the Neverending Story. Bastian, the protagonist, defeats the empire's three greatest heroes in tour de force of strength and skill. But it's all quite hollow --which is a deliberate choice on the behalf of the author. Since we know Bastian has been magically enhanced, and his victories preordained, there's no real suspense for the reader. The real point of the episode is to allow Bastian to show off in front of his friend --deep in his heart, even he knows it's a sham. So your last option is just give in to your setup, and let Dave be a hollow joke.

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