Outliers

## Summary

An **Outlier** is an event or incident that is considered to be completely and irreconcilably inconsistent with a character, entity, group, or series' normal displayed level of power. Outliers are often regarded as unusable in forums debates. However, efforts should be made to try to reconcile outliers with other canon information, and only very extreme examples should be classed as completely unusable. There are often disagreement regarding exactly what constitutes an outlier, and things that are considered as outliers by some might not be considered as such by everyone. Careful judgement should be used in all cases.

## General Examples

It is common within fiction that the Powerscaling is extremely incoherent and often out of context with other reliable information. This can often make it extremely difficult to decide how to properly handle the scaling in question. Characters recurrently put a great amount of effort into attacks with much lesser destructive results than casual ones that they have performed on other occasions, and the same principle applies when avoiding projectiles or other speed feats.

## Guidelines

Here are some guidelines for how to recognise outliers. Fulfilling all 5 of the requirements at once should not be necessary in order to qualify, and our members should try to use their common sense regarding what seems reasonable in each specific case, depending on to how extreme degree the respective categories have been fulfilled in combination.

**1) Is it a big jump or drop in power?** If a character with several city destruction feats is shown to be able to destroy a mountain, we cannot necessarily consider it as an outlier, for the reason that the jump between tiers is not extreme enough to be so, despite the jump between energy values we attribute to them. If the character has very few feats, we can likely ignore this point.

**2) Is it a unique or exceptional incident?** If incidents of a similar level are repeated consistently over time, they are unlikely to be outliers. Usually, from the third incident onwards. If the character has very few feats, we can also likely skip this point.

**3) Is the event unexplained and unjustified?** If an extreme incident is not accompanied by any kind of explanation that justifies it, it is probably an outlier. But if it can be explained by means of some power-up, vulnerability, or limiter, it is likely not. If Superman is wounded by a bullet, it's probably an outlier. But if Superman was under the influence of red sunlight or was previously weakened with Kryptonite, it is not.

**4) Does the event break the previously established power-scaling?** Here we must take into account a number of factors, such as comparable characters possessing feats or statements of a similar level to the hypothetical outlier, the outlier not being supported by fights that might suggest a similar level, or subsequent events or statements that contradict it in some way.

**5) Does the event break with the narrative of the work?** Many times an outlier breaks with what has been previously established or shown in a work, creating inconsistencies that are difficult to resolve unless we invalidate one of the two events. If, for example, a character claims not to be able to dodge bullets, even though he was previously seen dodging them explicitly, we are faced with a contradiction where we will probably have to resort to using the more reliable evidence.

## See also

* Plot-Induced Stupidity
* Inconsistencies
* Game Mechanics