(Genius) and Overlord

Following Volume 12, there was much derision of Remedios, much of it for just reasons based on how Maruyama wrote her. One of the largest though was something akin to:

"Pfffah, Genius my ass RETARDIOS herp a derp"

...

Yeah, you most likely remember that. So one I think I would like to explain how most likely Genius became the term used in Overlord. Strap yourself for a linguistics lesson!

Okay, first off, this comes from a language difference between English and Japanese. In English, we have several words for a "Genius":

1.) Genius:

A: exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability.

B:a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect.

The definition gets refined sometimes to mean someone who has contributed a great deal over time in a field or so on rather than just beying synonymous with the other words.

2.) Savant:

a learned person, especially a distinguished scientist.

Has connotations of someone being really good at one thing and far below average in everything else. See Idiot Savant for how this word is used in most speech.

In older times, this was mroe an insult, as it meant you were highly skilled at something but you had not idea you were and in fact you couldn't even use your skills properly. Ainz would be a savant in world domination for example in this usuage.

3.) Gifted:

having exceptional talent or natural ability.

Usually meant for people who have a high IQ in the upper percentiles.

4.) Prodigy:

a person, especially a young one, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities.

Someone exceptionally good at something. When people say a child is a prodigy though, that does not mean they are a genius or are gifted. They may just be a quick learner and will be average when they grow up when they leave the small pond and enter the ocean of ability comparisons in history. IE they seem like geniuses for being far better than anyone their age but some people are late bloomers and some learn quicker so it does not mean they are automatically destined for greatness in the field.

The main confusion comes from the fact in English, Genius is usually seen as definition B not A. This confusion doesn't exist in Japanese however.

Japanese-天才

This is TENSAI/てんさい, or as a dictionary defines: talented, gifted, genius. You may have heard this word in anime. Let me give a more concrete example, the word Kensei 剣聖, that is Sword Saint to you gaijin filth is someone like Brain as he literally has the Kensei class; basically in real life Musashi is probably the only Kensei you know. You may not have noticed but Kensai is a pun on Tensai. It encapsulates what a Tensai or Genius is to the Japanese. Ken is of course not Street Fighter Ken or Kenneth etc, but instead fist or sword. In more generality it means melee basically, like Tekken is Iron Fist while Kensei in particular means swordsmen. Ten the prefix is mainly related to heavenly type things, for example Angel is Tenshi 天使/てんし. Kenshi 剣士/けんし is swordsmen in contrast.

When Maruyama made the Genius class modifier, he was drawing more from the Japanese idea than the western one. There is no strict place Maru ripped this mechanic off, but if pushed to say, there are two strong candidates which it seems to be a fusion of, which is partly a slightly better version of the regular class it modifies (you can do say one more thing from ability X than a normal version of the class) and from another place its a more nebulous "I kick ass at this oen thing" whcih leads to impressing people who see this, being good at anythign related to that ability or idea, and so on. An example of this is say Sherlock Holmes is a Detective (Genius) under this definition as it doesn't have any stats or skilsl related to ti, but instead sort of is a Joker card that lets you just screw the rules when it comes to your thing.

We know Overlord genius gives minor advantages but they are not major, such as learning things early, learning maybe a few more spells and so on. It was Nfirea and Remedios that made people think the second type of Genius was in fact part of it as well. Nfirea was able to create potions using YGGDRASIL bullshit for example, which should have stumped him. But since in that lens Genius is the SCREW THE RULES modifier, he was able to do that. Likewise, for Remedios she is seen as a detriment in leadership, yet you see her stick so strongly to her beliefs that she convinces most of the Paladins of her justice since she can be considered the ideal paladin in terms of this non stat based Genius effects.

Eryua is the only confirmed Genius who we've seen have the minor advantage in learning things earlier than he should. Brain is also a Genius, but we have no confirmation of what his gave him. However, if you see Brain not in the stat based advantage but the more looser version of Genius, he was able to copy Gazef's Martial Art, create his own unique martial arts, and even combine them on the fly to make the Nail Clipper. The difference between Gazef and Brain is Brain taught himself pretty much while Gazef had loads of experience in fighting for a living and attending a sword school.

For Remedios, people suspect she is so wary of Ainz because her Genius class is kickign in and telling her not to trust Ainz and she stumbles in articulating this. Now, in the meeting you see everyone disagree and say she's being petty. That's true, but the way Kelart said her instincts are usually on point suggests she is naturally attuned to what is good and bad at least in her instincts. She botched the Vijar ight though for beign bigoted and believing her nation's propaganda not seeing she would do what Vijar does in killing Demihuman children. That instinctual-ness to her Genius is that she didn't just bully Neia because she didn't suffer like they did, but because as you see from Neia's character sheet she doesn't have the Paladin class, and the hypothesis is that is because Neia didn't believe in the justice that they believe in, and we see Neia get this justice in Ainz. Despite Remedios lacking intelligence and charisma in getting people to see her side of things, her Paladin class unlike in D&D isn't a CHA based class as YGGDRASIL didn't have that but instead it's her Genius modifier that lets her shut up the Southern nobles and make all the Paladins realize that letting a hostage die is against what they represent.

So unlike many other things, it appears that Genius is in fact two different things put together.

AlcSav-DD 3E

WilCar-G 4E

Submitted September 28, 2018 at 11:47PM by ZiggyZiggurat https://ift.tt/2xH54kw