One Punch Man may give King a heroic ending but not in a way fans expect

As any One Punch Man fan would know, King, despite being a hero everyone worships, is a gag character. This is because everyone believed that King was responsible for the monsters Saitama defeated in the past. Such a development saw the Hero Association recruit him as an S-Class Hero with the moniker "strongest man on Earth."

While he has tried telling the truth behind his feats to those around him, Saitama is the only person who knows about it. Hence, with no one ready to believe him, King changed his goal. He no longer wanted to tell people about his weakness but wanted to make his lies a reality by becoming strong.

With this development, fans have high hopes for the character. While the character may still receive a heroic ending, it may not manifest the same way as fans expect it to.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the One Punch Man manga.

One Punch Man manga could end with King becoming a C-Class Hero

King as seen in the anime (Image via Madhouse)

As fans have seen in the One Punch Man manga, while King wants to become strong, he has no real means to attain that goal. He has already tried telling Bang the truth about his weakness and getting the former S-Class Hero to train him. Unfortunately, he did not believe him and instead asked him to go to his brother Bomb for training.

In this way, many martial artists, believing they weren't qualified to train King, turned him down. Following this, he was left with only one way to become strong, i.e., lifting weights like Saitama.

Saitama and King as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

However, truth be told, as anyone could guess, Saitama's overwhelming strength is an exception spawned from an unrecognized source. So, realistically, training like him wouldn't make King as strong as an S-Class Hero. That said, it should make him strong.

Considering that heroes with no real superpowers like Mumen Rider are part of the C-Class heroes, King's training and resilience could also see him become one. However, such a development can only manifest with a story arc of its own.

King as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

It is possible that he would finally make it clear to everyone that he is not as strong as people think he is. Following that, he could forfeit his position as an S-Class Hero in the organization and take the hero exam to become a C-Class Hero rightfully. Realistically, these developments could have happened much earlier. However, something that was missing in King was a strong resolve.

Given that the manga has now shown him wanting to become strong, he could learn the extent of his abilities and give up on his initial goal. Right after, his resolve could pick him up to start again as a humble C-Class Hero. That said, it is to be seen when the manga can shift its focus back to King and work its way towards giving him a heroic end.