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These Muscles Aren’t For Show

I tell my apprentice all the time that he’s too easily goaded. I swear, people rile him up because they know he’ll want to prove himself in a grandiose display of strength. The young man never took well to people insinuating his muscles were just for show. Of course, as his teacher, I’m well aware that he’s more than capable of lifting large objects over his head, but I wish he wouldn’t revel in these performances as much as he does.

It’s no secret that he’ll take any excuse to tear off his shirt and show his peers that he’s a force to be reckoned with even without his considerable powers.

I look forward to seeing whether he has the same ease in lifting the stack of textbooks I have for him that he seemingly does for this boulder. Maybe that’ll cool the big hothead.

Another wonderful YCH from Marsel-Defender back in August of 2020.

It’s obviously enough just from looking at him that Edmund is intended to be something of a jock. A young man who loves keeping active and in shape, always ready to do something physically demanding. And while most of you know there’s much more to the character than that, back then I still needed to establish that much first before I could get into his depths.

This piece does a wonderful job at establishing both that and the level of strength that he has. I’m not fond of using raw numbers when describing things like height or weight, because those numbers can be surprisingly difficult for most people to understand. But being able to lift a boulder gives the viewer a good estimate in their head, one that they can use to establish a baseline.

And before you, the reader, ask: Yes, I swear that his strength was originally intended to be natural. In a world of powerful magical creatures, it’s not that strange to imagine that the people would also exhibit superhuman qualities.

I just hadn’t put much thought into how that would be at the point this was done.