*Reads chapter*
"So, presumably people will be smart enough to recognize that giving clever opponents the ability to outright disable our powerful, versatile abilities (such as the time reverse, which is capable of essentially healing people from death, as long as it was recent) is a definite downside, and people will reassess whether being a MG is a wise choice."
"After all, we'd be risking having our ability fail us at a crucial moment, like after someone has died and we want to reverse that or we need to upgrade something to do something specific for a particular purpose. Being a Magical Girl, while useful, would enable clever individuals to get a distinct advantage, and while we might be more powerful most of the time, most of our serious opponents would be capable of this, so we'd be weaker when it mattered."
"I'm sure that even to strongest advocate for becoming a Magical Girl will have to seriously consider if it's worthwhile."
*Reads comments*
"... Ooooor not. We could not actually think about it and jump blindly to support the idea, with highly dubious arguments. That's cool too, I guess."
So, yeah, I suggest some of those arguing for MGing up actually take a minute to think.
Things to consider about becoming a MG:
1. Our magical girl abilities are essentially: durability, strength, maybe flight, and love lasers or something. It varies in the particulars, but it's basically the ability to beat stuff up good.
2. Our powers get weaker while untransformed.
3. Our powers are at normal strength as a base while transformed, but these can be either positively or negatively affected by certain buffs or debuffs.
3a. As these buffs and debuffs are essentially reliant on whether we're doing something 'for great justice' or somesuch, in most cases we will not be any stronger while transformed. After all, prep-work probably isn't dramatic enough to trigger it unless we're under a time limit or something, so will likely not noticeably speed up our upgrading outside of high-pressure situations. Also, we have to mind out for accidentally doing stuff counter to MG values.
3b. Certain experienced individuals will be able to stack debuff after debuff, so there's the risk of being essentially powerless at a crucial moment and having to rely on premade items. Most of the major threats to us will be able to do this, because anyone able to become a major player either has a ridiculous amount of power, or a large amount of power and cunning, so we'll be at a disadvantage compared to a non MG against the people we should actually be worried about. Also, again, we have to mind out for accidentally doing stuff counter to MG values.
4. We aren't a prep based character. We're not. At all. Stop saying this. We have a versatile powerset, one ability of which is moderately prep-based, because it's more powerful when given a period of days or weeks in which to work, because upgrades stack and we have a limited power supply.
4a. However, equally, we can upgrade stuff in the heat of the moment to solve a particular problem. We can't prepare for everything, but Upgrade gives us the tools we need to create a tool for a problem when we encounter it.
4b. We have other powers, one of which can reverse time for people, healing them and potentially bring the very recently killed back to life. These matter too, because they can do things we can't realistically do with Upgrade any time soon. Like make us totally invincible, if temporarily. We can laugh off anything if we see it coming.
Alright, there's probably more, but I think I've summarized why there needs to be actual thought put into whether being a MG is even a power up for us, and if the downsides outweigh the upsides.
