Content and intent

[ahill1]

Do you think sometimes valuing intent over content, may be justifiable or even the best approach?

For example, Toriyama thought the SSJ, or at least he had a feeling of SSJ, being more like a 10x boost, though the overall story implication (which iirc from the interview had Toriyama himself acknowledging) would mean a 50x amp... Even with the Freeza arc implying a 50x amp due to it being >>> Kaioken x20, wouldn't the overall intent of a 10x boost, with it being more like a feeling when drawing scenes, hold more value when estimating, for example, base Saiyans power... Since the feeling Toriyama had when drawing, even if conflicting with info from the Freeza arc, would carry weight and more meaningful and closer to a more solid intended placement in other arcs?

 

[Papasmurf]

I'm ok with a 10x multiplier after the Freeza arc. Only problem is that it'd make SSJ weaker than KKX20, and Goku consistently treated SSJ1 as his max power (outside of the buff transformations) until he unlocked SSJ2 and SSJ3.

 

[Dagon]

I think people who argue death of the author but use guidebooks are hypocrites. Guidebooks are essentially author opinions. They may not be the original author's opinion but they are a collection of statements from the authority of the authors of the guidebooks.

At the end of the day the best approach is what is the most consistent and holistic interpretation that can accommodate the broadest range of published material for the fictional story in question. People who argue for countless split realities where characters' power levels are different from the standard depiction just have an agenda. A character is shown more or less powerful than they'd like and they say it doesn't count because it's a different continuity.

Sometimes author statements genuinely do help make a better interpretation of their story and sometimes tie-in content has something extra that would genuinely help explain something from the original story and tie up loose ends. But nope, better to make a theory 10x, 100x, 1,000x more convoluted than it needs to be because you're only allowed to pick from the one continuity that's the point of discussion at a time.