Every UnOrdinary webtoon reader would have asked this question: “Why did John hide his powers and become a cripple? Why did he not use his abilities? “At the very least, he could not have used his full power and pretended to be a mid-tier with a peaceful life.”
If he truly regrets what he has done in the past, then all he has to do is make sure he does not become a royal. If he wanted to stay away from the hierarchy, he just had to play a mid-tier role and continue the rest of his school life without drawing attention.
However, John decided to become a cripple, which drew a lot of attention to him. Because of that, he was beaten up every day. He had to endure a lot of physical and mental torture.
John had to willingly let his enemies hit him and break his bones. Being as powerful as John, it must have been really hard to hold back. But the question is, why did John go that far? Why did John pretend to be a cripple in Unordinary?
In this article, we will be taking a look at the real reason why John hid his powers and played a cripple.
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The three reasons why John decided to be a cripple
We all thought that John was simply paying for his bad deeds by playing a cripple. However, the author of UnOrdinary is far more brilliant than we all suspected. The reason was nothing superficial like redemption.
And there is no single explanation. There are several reasons intertwined together, which made the author’s work so powerful.
Reason #3: Claire
John knew what he did to Claire, Adrion, and the others was cruel. He knew that everything that the disciplinary authority said about him was true. He was a bad person who let his powers run wild.
But at the same time, John was thinking that Claire had backstabbed him. His closest friend, the girl he trusted the most, went against him. John thought that Claire was only hanging around him because she knew he would become powerful.
He assumed she used her clairvoyance ability to predict John’s future power and exploited him. John’s ability to trust others was shattered when he found out his trusted friend was only using him.
John didn’t want something like that to happen again. He didn’t want anyone to get too close to him because of his powers and betray him when they had no use for him. He didn’t want to end up beating the shit out of his best buds again. So John decided to act like a cripple and not go through something like that again.
Reason #2: Authorities
The reason was more personal and mental for John. After the authorities “disciplined” John, he has taken the mindset that he is a failure as a person. He was told over and over again that he was a disappointment and that he was not worthy of anything in life.
They told John that he did not deserve any of the powers he had. It built a massive amount of self hatred and self doubt within him.
This is one of the reasons why John decided to hide his power and become a cripple.
Reason #1: Self Distrust
While the above points are true, the main reason for John’s actions is that he does not trust himself.
This is revealed in the middle of season 2, where John quotes,
“I knew this would happen. I knew that the moment I used my ability… I’d lose my head, and everything around me would crumble.”
– John (UnOrdinary)
He quotes the above lines while talking to his dad after being suspended from Wellston Academy. He was trying to figure everything out, but all he could do was paint himself as a despicable villain.
His quote proves that he has no confidence in himself. He does not trust himself to control his powers.
John thought that if he used even a little bit of his powers, he would quickly lose control and become violent. This is exactly what happened when he used his abilities for the first time against Arlo and the others.
That’s it for this post! These are the 3 reasons why I believe John acted as a cripple when he joined Wellston high school.
