Which is better, a caged bird or a free one?
The caged bird can’t spread it’s wings, she’ll just stay there in her cage all day long and sing songs for her masters. A free bird is able to soar through the blue sky without care nor worry.
Well, except for worrying about his own safety, food, weather, shelter, such and such. Sometimes things are not as black and white as it seems. Sometimes there is merit and flaw on both sides of the argument.
Which is better, the caged bird or a free one?
So I was reading an article on Tvtropes.org, and I came across something that I’m familiar with;
When All You Have Is a Hammer
“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
- Abraham Maslow
A character has a limited offensive repertoire, but the writer wants to make him look clever anyway, so he faces him off against something which requires a little bit of strategy. Unfortunately, this strategy ends up being “Just do what you always do, but slightly better.” It’s not that our hero is uninventive. He may be an outright MacGyver, but he just doesn’t have much to work with.
Most often, this offensive capability ends up being “punch the other guy really hard”, and the “solution” to the current dilemma is “punch the other guy really hard in the face.” Sometimes, this is a little more elaborate, and the hero has to do something totally different. Then he gets to fall back on his usual strategy. “Cast ‘dispel invulnerability’ on him. Then punch the other guy really hard. In the face.” A partial justification is that there are many ways to arrive at what looks like the same conclusion. For example, all of General Patton’s strategies were elaborate ways to shoot stuff with tanks, and all successful modern infantry tactics ends the same way: “and then we shoot them.”
A more specific one that I myself am familiar with was the example from Rurouni Kenshin;
Rurouni Kenshin’s Saito Hajime follows the philosophy that a warrior does not need several special moves. He needs only a single move refined to the point of perfection. Thus, his only named attack is his Gatotsu and uses variations when the situation calls for them. Opponent above you? Gatotsu second form. Opponent dodging? Gatotsu slash form. Need to bust down a door? Gatotsu. Need to clear rubble? Gatotsu, of course!
- In the final series of battles, when Saito’s “perfect” attack is foiled by his opponent and Gatotsu is defeated (or so the opponent thinks), Saito shows that all he needs is a slight variation in his move to win.
- A point is made that Saito only needs two things: his Gatotsu and Aku Soku Zan. This is because two warriors generally met in battle once, since most ended in death; thus if you had one move honed to perfection with which you could defeat any opponent… why not?
And that’s how you win games even if you’re a one trick pony. Just train yourself an aspect of yourself into perfection, put in some variations here and there but stay true to your course and eventually everything looks like a nail to you.
