Improvement Guide

Improvement System

Here on the Slashing Opera, we believe that improving a character should be a trial, and that every single improvement should be important and story driven. There are two types of improvements that can be done: Skill improvements (involving skills, techniques, and releases), and spiritual power improvements (which involve your character’s spiritual power ranking going up or down). 

Skill improvements, while important, are easier to complete then spiritual power improvements. In order to improve a skill, a character must show, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they have gotten better in that skill. Generally, this requires multiple threads, as becoming good at a skill must show trial and error, in addition to the actual demonstration of an increased skill. Making one thread and repeatedly having your character hit a block won’t be enough to get your character from novice to practitioner, nor will fighting someone stronger than you once. It requires effort and innovation. 

Learning techniques and gaining releases are done in similar fashions. In order to learn a new technique for your character, you have the show the time and effort it takes to create it. Now, some techniques that are pure instinctual, such as a revved up cero, can be done on the fly if the story presents itself that way. Releases are generally done similarly. Things such as shikai are impromptu in nature, so if the story calls for it, achieving it is easy. Things like bankai, segunda etapa, etc., should be accompanied with the appropriate trials and character growth. All of these are graded harshly, as gaining a new release for your character is a massive development. 

Attaining the next level of spiritual power is one of the hardest things to do on Slashing Opera. This is because in order to cross such large gaps, the character has to go through a lot. Generally there are three main ways for a character to break their limits and hit the next level. They are as follows. 

THE NEED OR DESIRE TO LIVE OR GET STRONGER: When a character is pushed to the very edge, they have to evolve to survive or remain the same and die. During these situations, it becomes possible for a character to reach the next level of spiritual power. This does not happen in the course of a single standard thread. The character has to go through an ordeal great enough for them to cross such a long gap. A good example to look too is Chad. In the series, Chad routinely gets stronger by training, however he isn’t able to unlock his full power and really breach the cap between his current form and the next until he nearly dies and is forced to. It took him two arcs almost to become captain-class. While we aren’t arguing that it should take a year to get really powerful, you should be demonstrating your character’s constant trials, and how they force them to the edge to get stronger. 

RECEIVING ARTIFICIAL BOOSTS: Receiving an artificial boost is the second way a character can cross the gap between their level and the next. A lot of these methods, however, are temporary. A good example to look too is Komamura Saijin. In order to cross the gap to the next level, he had to rip his heart out to gain a technique, allowing him to fight against opponents normally far stronger than himself; however, this power boost was temporary. While not all artificial boosts have to be temporary, attaining a permanent one should generally come with high risks and intense efforts. 

GAINING AND MASTERING RELEASE FORMS: Upon gaining a new release form, such as shikai, bankai, and the like, contributes to your character’s spiritual power going upwards. Depending on the release, and the efforts undertaken to achieve that form, the single fact of unlocking it can result in the power boost for the character. Additionally, mastering a release form, depending on the release and the power of the character, can also help you surpass your limits and go to the next level. A good example to look at is Renji. While he did get stronger from achieving bankai, he wasn’t captain-class yet. Only when he mastered it during the timeskip did he really achieve his full potential. Additionally, another example is Ichigo. He didn’t need to master his bankai to go to the next level; achieving it helped him be pushed there. Thus, like the other two, this is generally a case-by-case decision. 

Once you believe you have put in sufficient work to achieve a rank up of any kind, simply copy the template below and post it in this subforum. From there, it’ll be graded and either accepted or denied. 

[code][b]Improvement Type: Skill, Technique, Release, Rank [/span][/div][div style="text-align:justify;"][span style="font-size:10pt;"][b]Character Link:[/b] Character link here [/span][/div][div style="text-align:justify;"][span style="font-size:10pt;"][b]Reasoning:[/b] The justification of your rank up. [/span][/div][div style="text-align:justify;"][span style="font-size:10pt;"][b]Thread Links:[/b] Link to any thread, including approved techniques, other improvements, and IC threads, to help justify your reasoning.[/code*]