#also bridging Saitama's misunderstanding of his disciple -- King is forever the most precious character

[gofancyninjaworld]

A stone can be a treasure

I've been mooting talking about King and Saitama's relationship for ages, and until recently, I'd not appreciated how different it is between the manga and webcomic, how incredibly important it is in the manga and how big a difference it has made.

As far as most people are concerned, Saitama and King became friends when Saitama came to King's apartment, slew a giant crow that had it in for him, discovered the truth about King and decided to be his gaming buddy anyway.

See you below the cut for a lot more! :)

Those who play together...

It was initially a pretty casual friendship in that King and Saitama hung out and played games. It's not changed too much in the webcomic. King in the webcomic is still a very lonely character. He does a bit of this a bit of that, and he's making his slow, saccadic progress in his own way. And Saitama still gets to tell King home truths, without having to hear any back from King.

...fight together

However, in the manga...

King in the manga started to change with a very small decision. I've spoken before about how small decisions characters make snowball, taking Genos as an example. For King, that fateful decision came in chapter 77, when he decided to talk to Saitama as a person, the way Saitama had been the first person to actually talk to King as a person back in chapter 39.

King becomes the first person ever to call Saitama out on his shit. And critically, the first person whose advice on what Saitama might want to change Saitama was prepared to give any weight to. Briefly, but at least Saitama thought about it for a bit. Knowing Saitama, he'll probably act on it at some point in his own way.

That tiny decision firmed up their relationship enough for King to do something that would be unthinkable to his webcomic self -- call a monster over trusting that Saitama would have his back. He even advised Saitama on how best to approach the matter. Little thing, just shout at a monster. He literally shat himself in the process, but he did it.

From that, King develops so much more faith in Saitama that he agrees to return to the battlefield, trusting that Saitama would somehow show up. It made King's showdown with the cadre a much more deliberate affair and the unadulterated joy and relief with which King found his faith rewarded was a total bonus for us!

If that was all there was to King and Saitama's burgeoning relationship, it'd be pretty damn good. Going from casual friends to friends who can truly talk to one another, including saying the hard-to-hear things is pretty awesome. As much as Saitama listens to anybody, he listens to King. King being able to trust Saitama to the extent that he does is also amazing.

But that's not all...

Uncrossing The Stars

The best of friends don't just hold us accountable, they help us grow. King does not come between Saitama and Genos. In fact, he helps bridge the gap between them.

To begin with, King prompts Saitama to act positively rather than feel vaguely awkward in matters concerning his disciple, with the result that Saitama stops moping in the apartment and goes out to find out what's happened to Genos.... and not a moment too soon, either.

I still love King looking skeptically at Saitama as the latter tries to pass off his relief as blowing off steam.

One thing that is constant between Saitama in the webcomic and Saitama in the manga is that he is VERY SERIOUS ABOUT HIS HERO HOBBY. Saitama is entirely dedicated to his hero hobby, he believes in the value of heroism and he loves and protects heroes. He gets furious whenever anyone treats heroes or heroism with disrespect, whether it's Suiryu calling them worthless or Fubuki playing her silly cliquish games rather than being the best hero she can be.

As far as Saitama has been concerned, Genos is the guy who does hero work as a vehicle to get stronger (like when he fought Machine God G4) and sometimes comes off worse. It's felt increasingly unjust that Saitama has kept missing that Genos really is a hero. Saitama sees the aftermath of Genos's fights, but not the process, so he sees Genos's corroded body after the Deep Sea King spat on him, but not the little girl for whose sake Genos took being spat on. The perverse result is that we've seen Saitama prepared to recognise, respect, and encourage any hero -- Mumen Rider, Glasses, Child Emperor to name but three -- *except* the one right in front of him.

It looked like things were no different when Saitama found Genos on the battlefield and asked who'd beaten him up (his disciple as victim). Since Genos wouldn't speak for himself (that's just who he is -- he's one of those people who sees explaining as excuse-making), King told Saitama that Genos came to the state that he was in because he'd been protecting Tatsumaki. Just like that, King changed the way Saitama saw Genos.

Watch Saitama's face and attitude change as he sees his disciple as a hero for the first time. This is the first time Saitama is seeing someone he would care to acknowledge as his disciple. It would not have happened but for King's intervention. In his little stone-like way, King has set right a great injustice.

It's not that King's fundamentally different in the webcomic. It's just that he doesn't have that kind of relationship with Saitama. I really feel the difference because there's no one holding Saitama to any kind of account in the webcomic. Decision by decision, in the manga King is forging a different path from the one he otherwise might have trod.

King may have latched onto the stone metaphor that Sekingar used to describe people of small capabilities who leverage them well, and goodness, has he proved a treasure in Saitama's life.