What happened to SB (story)?

[CosmicKirby]

Personally, I'm a fan of the more simple explanations. Not everything needs to be explained with a 200 page thesis, and considering how popular characters like the Hulk(Literally a guy who's power is "very very angry") are, I'm hesitant to simply discount such a simple explanation. One of the goals in writing many a story is balancing simplicity with complexity after all. Except mystery stories, then you don't want simplicity.

You don't have to 'say'. You have to 'explain'.

Gosetsu is alive, and it doesn't feel 'cheap' to me. Because of COURSE he'd survive that. He's Gosetsu.
Gandalf didn't die to the Balrog because of COURSE he didn't, he's Gandalf.

Nidhogg is super strong because... ?

Show, don't tell. It's a cardinal rule of writing.

We are shown WHY it's believable that Gosetsu or Gandalf could survive. The things we're shown about Nidhogg, is how hard he died to Estinien, and some flashback about how angry he is. We're only 'told' he's strong. He's not even really angry. We're not shown some epic speech where he says exactly how angry he is, we're not shown the depravity he'll go to, he doesn't even seem very insane, we're only told by other dragons how angry he is.