I’ve sort of touched upon this on the blog, so I’ll more or less say here what I said there:
It is undeniable that Seeker and Victoria (and Forlorn and Ignis) are stronger than the MC. That’s not really up for debate, they’d win any direct clash.
The problem is that neither Seeker nor Victoria are particularly great leaders. They’re strong, sure, and there’s an inherent value in turning ‘the undefeatable’ into a symbol, but that doesn’t mean they are really the people to follow. Kratis and Victoria work well with each other, and they only really care about each other. Victoria’s actions are wholly dictated by what she believes and wants, the idea of compromising is one that is very, very hard to convince her the need of.
Were this a regular old fisticuffs Dragon Ball Z narrative, then that wouldn’t matter. They’re shonen protagonists, and thus the only real obstacle is punching the opposite side really hard until they cry uncle.
This isn’t a story you ‘clear’ simply by being a shonen protagonist, or at least not one as blatantly selfish as Victoria and Seeker are. The extent of this story goes far beyond the individual fights, there are going to be literal tens of millions of moving pieces as the narrative continues, and while Seeker and Victoria and the Broken King and the Blitz Queen could slaughter a few million, that doesn’t mean they’re capable of leading them, or even willing to.
And, of course, there remains the fact that your enemy doesn’t care about Seeker or Victoria, not beyond them being obstacles.
It is the MC and Lat that are the abominations, that are the offenses to nature, that are the germs that must be stomped out lest the Gods strike them down for allowing the existence of so blatant a disregard for their designs.
Seeker and Victoria need to be defeated.
You need to be exterminated.
This is incorrect, and I think that’s partially on me.
Iris isn’t stronger than the MC. She can kill the MC.
Same way I’m not stronger than Mike Tyson, but could kill him if he was sleeping and I had a crowbar.