The most common starting setting for a young male teenager no older than 16 rising to power.

NotaNuffian

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Perhaps because it is only in CN and the fact that I am affected by the below video to finally draw comparison that I decided to ask the people here.


As the title state, I am looking for the most common setting for a young male teenager no older than 16 yo and is in a Young Adult fiction aka Wish Fulfilment

For example, commonly in CN, if the setting is old China ie anything before late 20th century, the setting is Main Character either be in a cultivation sect as a disciple-in-name/ errand boy, a simple poor hunter, or a poor peasant about to lose his roof whose trying to get into a triad or saving up to 30 silver taels to get into a dojo for a three month trial.

And going to modern China, it becomes the same as everyone else.

In ye olde Japan Novel sphere, MC is always a modern student, who got isekaied. Then shenanigans. I kind of think that this setting is good, because more in line with audience. Then with their attempt to emulate JRPGs, MCs are often young sellswords that adventure and commit mass extinction to animals.

English fantasy setting is often like Supreme Magus; going to school/ academy with maybe hints of parttime as a sellsword. Or being a young noble who just recently orphaned and is now on a power struggle.

Korean novels... they give mixed vibes really because of murim which is an exact copy to China's thing whereas their dungeon exploration in modern-ish time is also abit taking JRPGs but now giving them an excuse to put into 21st setting.

Is this all of the setting for a young male teenager rising to power? Please let me know. I know I cited a lot more for CN because that is what I mostly read nowadays.

Which isn't good but it is hard to find a zero to hero thing really.
 

RepresentingWrath

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Franciss Ngannou, one of the top MMA heavyweights worked in a quarry somewhere in Africa before immigrating to France(I actually don't remember if it was France). He was noticed by an MMA trainer that eventually brought him into UFC. Jon Jones, I don't know much about him apart form him being a prodigy. Won his first UFC title at 23 years old.

A lot of guys actually started by being bullied. A lot were gangsters. And a lot were in other sports but didn't make the cut to be the very best, so they switched to fighting. Evan Tanner for example was convinced by friends to attend a local MMA tournament. And he didn't even have a proper camp, and trained solo for more than a few fights.

I don't know how much this will help you.
 

NotaNuffian

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Franciss Ngannou, one of the top MMA heavyweights worked in a quarry somewhere in Africa before immigrating to France(I actually don't remember if it was France). He was noticed by an MMA trainer that eventually brought him into UFC. Jon Jones, I don't know much about him apart form him being a prodigy. Won his first UFC title at 23 years old.

A lot of guys actually started by being bullied. A lot were gangsters. And a lot were in other sports but didn't make the cut to be the very best, so they switched to fighting. Evan Tanner for example was convinced by friends to attend a local MMA tournament. And he didn't even have a proper camp, and trained solo for more than a few fights.

I don't know how much this will help you.
Thank you @SailusGebel , though I must admit that art imitates life with the whole "finding a teacher/ master/ coach to elevate oneself", which is a common trope.

Also I am mainly referring to novels or fictions.

Real life is cool, but fiction makes the real life thing even cooler.
 

RepresentingWrath

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Thank you @SailusGebel , though I must admit that art imitates life with the whole "finding a teacher/ master/ coach to elevate oneself", which is a common trope.

Also I am mainly referring to novels or fictions.

Real life is cool, but fiction makes the real life thing even cooler.
Evan Tanner didn't seek coaches. He studied a lot of stuff himself.
 

CharlesEBrown

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The ones my wife listened to generally have male main characters between 14 and 18 to start (female MCs are almost always in their 20s before they regress to high school juniors after death). She did have two with twelve-year-old boys at the start (one of them took four years for him to access all of his powers and pretty much take over the world, another I only heard the first three chapters to so not sure where it was going), but most are in the 14-18 range.
 

NotaNuffian

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Evan Tanner didn't seek coaches. He studied a lot of stuff himself.
Self taught master?

Cool.

If he is in wulin/ murim with vicious people, such as the one from Reincarnated Swordmaster (KR), dude will die a fool's death because:
1. He has no backing.
2. The opponents have no honor, a very common practice that had been exposed only after 2010s.
The ones my wife listened to generally have male main characters between 14 and 18 to start (female MCs are almost always in their 20s before they regress to high school juniors after death). She did have two with twelve-year-old boys at the start (one of them took four years for him to access all of his powers and pretty much take over the world, another I only heard the first three chapters to so not sure where it was going), but most are in the 14-18 range.
...wow
 

RepresentingWrath

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Self taught master?

Cool.

If he is in wulin/ murim with vicious people, such as the one from Reincarnated Swordmaster (KR), dude will die a fool's death because:
1. He has no backing.
2. The opponents have no honor, a very common practice that had been exposed only after 2010s.
Bas Rutten, a living legend of MMA told stories of Evan Tanner. Back then there wasn't even any UFC, and people usually fought in Japan. And Bas was the OG chad who not only fought, but won top fights. And he told that Evan Tanner was really good. Not top-tier, but really good. And he told that Evan would be really good all while being a huge drinker\alcoholic.

So not only the dude studied martial arts solo by watching bad quality VHS tapes or reading journals, he also drank like... I don't know what kind of comparison I can make. Bas told one night he started drinking with Evan, went to sleep, woke up, and Evan was still awake drinking.
 

NotaNuffian

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Bas Rutten, a living legend of MMA told stories of Evan Tanner. Back then there wasn't even any UFC, and people usually fought in Japan. And Bas was the OG chad who not only fought, but won top fights. And he told that Evan Tanner was really good. Not top-tier, but really good. And he told that Evan would be really good all while being a huge drinker\alcoholic.

So not only the dude studied martial arts solo by watching bad quality VHS tapes or reading journals, he also drank like... I don't know what kind of comparison I can make. Bas told one night he started drinking with Evan, went to sleep, woke up, and Evan was still awake drinking.
Going to have to stop you here @SailusGebel .

First of all, thank you for all the real life examples that make real life stranger than fiction.

But I think I got my message mixed in the first place.

What I am looking for is in fiction, as in from your experience surfing through fictional works in multiple sources of JP, KR, EN etc, what are the common setting you find when the MC is:
1. Young (16 yo and below)
2. Male (... I really don't want to touch on this definition)
3. In a zero to hero story.

Also, as I was writing this out, I recall the old forgotten trope of The Undiscovered Chosen One.

As in, the world failed to see the boy's potential, suddenly something clicked and etc etc.
 

RepresentingWrath

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Going to have to stop you here @SailusGebel .

First of all, thank you for all the real life examples that make real life stranger than fiction.

But I think I got my message mixed in the first place.

What I am looking for is in fiction, as in from your experience surfing through fictional works in multiple sources of JP, KR, EN etc, what are the common setting you find when the MC is:
1. Young (16 yo and below)
2. Male (... I really don't want to touch on this definition)
3. In a zero to hero story.

Also, as I was writing this out, I recall the old forgotten trope of The Undiscovered Chosen One.

As in, the world failed to see the boy's potential, suddenly something clicked and etc etc.
Ooooh, that... Sorry for going full retard on you.
 

NotaNuffian

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Also I forget to add KR.

Captured and turned into Child soldier start.

Which can also be turned into King of the Battlefield style Regressor story.

... I hate regressor story imo. It had its straight then subverted fun. But after awhile... I hate it be it in CN or any other.

A do over is cool especially when you can have a grasp of future. But it feels... odd for me somehow.
 

ZombieHat

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At least with Western stories, you see a lot of mentorship. I think thats the most common one. The wise mentor trope is popular and makes it easy for the MC to learn whatever it is he wants to gain skill with. The mentor usually dies or goes missing, which give the MC some sort of direction to get revenge or find the mentor. Like you said, it can be in school/uni, but usually there is a strong mentor figure in most popular western stories.
 

CharlesEBrown

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At least with Western stories, you see a lot of mentorship. I think thats the most common one. The wise mentor trope is popular and makes it easy for the MC to learn whatever it is he wants to gain skill with. The mentor usually dies or goes missing, which give the MC some sort of direction to get revenge or find the mentor. Like you said, it can be in school/uni, but usually there is a strong mentor figure in most popular western stories.
I suspect the "System" trope was an Eastern take on the mentor trope, honestly.
 

beast_regards

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Is this all of the setting for a young male teenager rising to power? Please let me know. I know I cited a lot more for CN because that is what I mostly read nowadays.
Most hero journey style stories are often this.

Wheel of Time starts with the young farmer boy being revealed to be the Chosen One, even the age of the protagonist roughly matches.

Star Wars does this too. Though Luke Skywalker supposedly isn't 16 at the start of the story, you could argue he is "young boy"

Most YA ever created are often this, but with girls ... (and all Sanderson novels work like YA novels too as far I know)
 
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