Living on Borrowed Time; OPM anime Season 1 foreshadowing
Interesting bit of foreshadowing here.
That doing meteoric burst mode is similar to anaerobic exercise, stressing the body so much that it would shorten one's life and we get a notable moon camera panning as backdrops.
Seeing as now we know that the Moon is basically metaphor for OPM God, these scenes have some more significance.
It could be read literally; that OPM God also went through enough stress on the body that he basically died, which would explain the inert body on the moon and why it is basically a spirit.
And that somehow, Saitama will make through the same process alive, despite putting that same enormous stress on his body.
It could also be read that Saitama can make it to godhood. BUT-
Let's be real, his body was trying to reach homeostasis on the moon and if he pushes his own body beyond it's physiological capabilities like not breathing for long enough, he would no doubt just destroy his own physical body in the process.
Make no mistake: he's basically a god, but his body is still mortal. He feels cold, stomach pains, he farts and sneezes in space...yet does not need to breathe and does not feel pain, does not get hypothermic and is invulnerable to physical blows.
Because he always seems to be mentally bracing himself for all the blows that are coming and so, he can ignore them, consciously and subconsciously.
(Which is another meta for another time about how Saitama is seemingly invulnerable, yet a cat can scratch him)
(Saitama bracing himself for the blows physically and visually also speaks of this same mentality, even when he always gets ragdolled around. Clever.)
(Fortunately and unfortunately, living in monster infested town while training has subconsciously trained Saitama a bit too well...)
And yet, ignoring such basic things like pain but having biological needs...only tells me that deprivation of something as intrinsical to human life as say, oxygen, would still have devastating consequences. Pointedly ignoring something does not make physiological needs go away magically and continuous ignoring of said needs leads to eventual death of that body when it's capacity gets exceeded.
He has no fear of facing this lack of physiological needs either. Which is utterly detrimental and self-sabotaging just like his lack of self-worth. No healthy amount of fear regarding damage done to his body, from his apathy and how he can sustain himself in it means he would accidentally break it.
If he must, elevating his mortal body beyond the limitations of human flesh.
Just like a diver who has trained themselves into deep diving and out of that fear response of gasping for air when needing oxygen so they can dive for longer periods, the ways a deep diver can suddenly die underwater is when their body shuts down from lack of oxygen and they drown.
Andrew Huberman - How To Cause Extreme Fear In Anyone - Youtube
--
If Saitama is already shortening his own life by doing this? It seems quite likely.
Maybe the prophesied 6 months is just the time alloted to him living on Borrowed Time.
Because Saitama is always growing stronger each day too.
an uncertain and usually uncontrolled postponement of something inevitable
(Heh, geddit? Borrowed time? Like he borrowed Garou's time traveling agency to go back in time to deny that causality so his journey and everyone else's did not stop there?
So Saitama was allowed to live on Borrowed Time because he was no longer motivated to do anything after becoming godlike and lost his mortal body...ergo, he "died") (HAH! Wordplays! Now I'm sad...haah...dark humour...I'll go cry in the corner...)
(Damnit Genos stop being correct)
(Good thing we have a true friend King here being the optimist)
What is strenght in OPM universe? How would Saitama be able to avoid the fate of what has seemingly befallen OPM God?
When Saitama was at the moon, the only thing that had motivated him after he lost the desire to kill Garou, was Garou's compassion. To set things right.
Empathy. Kindness. Compassion. Ergo, Humanity.
Those are true strenght in OPM. To have the capacity to reach out and help other people.
So to avoid the fate of OPM God and killing himself, Saitama would draw on his vast reserves of humane qualities and retain his humanity in response to others showing him the same kindness. Otherwise he would be in danger of losing himself, when he tries to do the right thing and be strong where others cannot. Stress his body beyond the levels of godhood and not keeping ahold of his humanity and his good values would kill him, so humanity is what he needs to stay grounded.
What comes around goes around and you can't really cultivate anyone's humane values and traits without showing any of your own.
So if it comes down to a battle of what is an actual strenght in OPM universe?
OPM God would never stand a chance.
It won't even be a battle.
With true strenght, Saitama will no diff.
"So much for prophecies. You were too strong..."
It would be poignant then, that Boros initially survived because Saitama did not want to kill him and empathized instead.
The real problem is figuring it out and realizing his true self and what he is actually capable of. Naturally, before it's too late.
Unfortunately Saitama has a tendency to be late...he needs all the help he can get.
--
(And Boris is probably Boros then who will actually help Saitama out in return, which would be amazing.)
