Quote Originally Posted by BRVV View Post
Oh you two talk about the general group effect... yeah i was more talking about that anime take on it. You know how FFXIV, P5 and the like put it. Where you gain a strange superpower upon realizing you are friends suddenly in front of the final boss. That thing.
Eh? Haven't you ever worked on a group project where you're running right up against the deadline but somehow manage to work together and get it in on time despite having every expectation that you'll fail?

As a trope, the power of friendship itself is not bad. Personally, one of my favorite new manga is about a Power Rangers-expy who gets sent to a fantasy world with powers that literally run on the Power of Friendship, to the point that he runs out of juice when the people he's fighting with are too busy arguing to work together. Is silly and stupid and the series acknowledges the seemingly illogical nature of it, but it works because the author writes it with gusto and aplomb instead of embarrassment.

Are there times where it's used poorly? Sure. But I can't really fault the trope itself versus writers just using it poorly.

Honestly the Ultima Thule bit is hardly the worst use of it and I was honestly pretty hyped by the end of the Endsinger fight. WoL derives joy and a reason for living from the people, places, and things they've grown to love and cherish. That is an answer to Meteion's question. Not the only answer, but an answer. It also gives WoL the willpower to live on when Zenos gives up the ghost from having a life devoid of any kind of personal connection to make it worth living.