Protagonists
Poe
Poe
The resident Self-Insert, and the closest to The Hero of this story.- Aesop Amnesia: If Poe learns any lessons that would improve his competence in his future adventures, it's pretty much guranteed he'll forget them by the time he reaches the next world he visits. It takes him a few universes to realize this is actually a problem.
- Boring, but Practical: Poe acquires several different superpowers over the course of his journies, but the one that he gets the most usage out of is basic training at Fort Briggs, implicitly because its the only power that actually forced him to adapt a new mindset and undergo Character Development
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Idiot Hero — while Poe is not a moron, he tends to make numerous mistakes because he Didn't Think This Through. While understandable at first, the fact that he keeps making those mistakes, and never seems to learn from them, consistently hamper his ability to do good, to the point that even ten arcs into the story, he still makes things worse in every universe he visits.
- Didn't Think This Through: Poe never seems to consider the long term consequences of his actions, and occasionally doesn't consider some of the short term ones.
- Failure Hero: Every single attempt Poe makes to fix the problems in the worlds that he visits invariably makes them worse. No exceptions.
- Fatal Flaw: Three.
- Short-sightedness - Poe's plans have some foresight put into them, but not nearly enough to account for all the issues he should consider. This causes some of his problems to grow out of control - in particular, he blows the lid on The Conspiracy in Fullmetal Alchemist without considering why it was covered up in canon. This causes Amestris to descend into Civil War as the Promised Day commences.
- Determination - once Poe has committed to something, he won't stop trying to achieve his goals. His Zanpakuto bluntly notes that this applies even in situations where stopping would be more beneficial than pressing forward.
- Aesop Amnesia - this is by far the biggest problem Poe has, as he enver really seems to learn from his previous mistakes. While he's capable of adapting his combat skills based on prior defeats, Poe seems to lack the introspection needed to realize that his pride leads him to continuously make stupid plans for dealing with the evils in each world that he visits and that he needs to be considerate of how others act to achieve anything.
- Genre Savvy: Deconstructed Trope — Poe has read/watched the source material for all of the universes he has visited (so far), but that only helps so much, and there are multiple issues that pop up which render his genre savviness a moot point.
- Bleach is a manga Long Runner, so Poe's knowledge only helps out so much because he can't remember all of it.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender mostly matches up with what he remembers, but Poe's own interference throws things Off the Rails.
- By the time Poe arrives in Danny Phantom, The Stations of the Canon have already been jumped off due to Vlad peacefully integrating himself into the Fenton family to avoid drawing their suspicion.
- Even when none of the other issues pop up, Poe is shown to be dumb enough to make some rather simple mistakes that end up costing him dearly. Case in point: while in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, his reflexive response to his State Alchemist test gives Father both the full periodic table and the secret to nuclear fission because he forgot Amestris is still more primitive than Earth in a few important ways.
- Horrifying the Horror: Manages to inflict this on Lust after using Konso on her - Lust is used to being totally superior to humans, so encountering a human who is able to literally drain all of the souls in her philosopher's stone with a single attack, reducing her to her pathetic true form is world shattering.
- Many Spirits Inside of One: Poe has a habit of absorbing the souls of defeated enemies in some way or form. Two of those souls are Medusa Gorgon from Soul Eater and Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Poe tends to cause a lot of problems while he tries to make things better.
- His attempts to stop Medusa from releasing Asura allow that very thing to happen.
- Poe accidentally gives Father the secret to nuclear fission because he forgot Amestris doesn't have a complete Periodic Table. Later on, he uses an Engineered Public Confession to blow open The Conspiracy regarding Amestris and Father, forgetting that this was deliberately covered up in canon to prevent chaos. A civil war promptly ensues.
- Poe at one point in the Avatar: The Last Airbender arc ends up being saved by Zuko, which results in the Gaang getting a better opinion of the exiled prince... while also preventing them from a. revealing to Aang that the Fire Nation needs to be stopped and b. gaining combat experience that would really have helped them when the resident Knight of Cerebus shows up.
- Ship Tease: Has this with Mad Scientist Medusa Gorgon, of all people — he'd never really admit that he loves her (and Medusa isn't really capable of expressing romantic affection, even if she can experience it), but she's the person he treats as The Confidant and views her as a pillar of emotional support. Rather tellingly, an omake has Lust explicitly state that she thinks they are a couple before Medusa intervenes and silences everyone.
- Skewed Priorities: Poe's views on what are important can go all over the place, with some seemingly trivial details being more important to him than major elements of the plot of each universe he visits. Case in point, he puts the fact he almost got Danny Fenton killed as ranking above wrecking all of Amestris during his time in Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Take a Third Option: When fighting Lust, Poe is eventually faced with the Sadistic Choice to either keep fighting Lust without any chance of defeating her or trying to run and abandon Scar to die. He instead uses Konso on her, sending all of the souls inside her philosopher's stone to the afterlife and completely depowering her.
- Taught by Experience: Zig Zagged - while Poe gradually learns how to use his powers better across every fight he endures in his adventures, he suffers heavily from Aesop Amnesia that prevents him from really growing as a person and learning to stop repeating his mistakes.
- Took a Level in Badass: Deconstructed — yes, Poe continuously gains new powers in every universe he visits, but since he never seems to gain an increase in intelligence or Character Development to go with them, he consistently makes stupid mistakes (often the same type of mistakes he made in a previous universe) that lead to him failing to achieve his goals. Additionally, while he may get new powers in every world he visits, an Instant Expert he is not — Poe has to learn how to use each of his powers to their greatest effect, and some of them ultimately turn out to be near worthless.
