One thing I’m miffed about with the anime is it that it removed the moments where Phoenix’s emotions give him ridiculous amounts of strength. Or that he loses his inhibitions to use said strength (maybe both, the latter more than the former).
Like, he broke several doors in the games, even one reinforced. Not even the man knows his own strength. The fact that Pearl’s punches hurt him as much as they do means that she’s also strong. But the only reason I accept that it hurts him so much as it does is because he’s got some, though unconscious, prejudices that make him ‘go soft’ towards girls and women. Or maybe he’s in general somebody who abhors physical violence except when he’s at his worst (and even then he threw his phone). But we never saw a boy punching him, so I don’t know.
What that means is - I want Pearl as a teenager to challenge him to arm-wrestling. Or it’s another another women. Point is, he loses, but she is incensed because he held back on her. And he has to accept that yes, yes he did, and that he disrespected his opponent.
So when he gets over himself, there’s the most epic of arm-wrestling matches he’s ever been in. Muscles bulge, sweat rolls, the contestants are locked in an equally stubborn staring match-
And the damn wood table breaks under them.
“…”
“…”
“Rematch?”
“Rematch.”
I’m miffed they took those scenes out, too - I was really looking forward to seeing Phoenix break doors down.
I think it really is a case of him not knowing his own strength, though, and people being able to do amazing things when they really need to.
As for Pearls… I think it’s more a case of how there can be strength, but that doesn’t dictate how much it hurts when someone hits you. Unless Phoenix knows how to properly block and/or roll with attacks, it’s still going to hurt. And there’s also the fact that it is Pearls; he sees her as cute and adorable and Maya’s little cousin who is innocent and pure and must be protected.
And he really doesn’t have anything against hitting women! That sounded wrong. Really wrong. But the point is, he’s canonically hit people at least twice, and the first chronological time was Doug Swallow, straight into an electrical pole. But the next time (which happens in the same case he meets Pearl) is Lotta Hart, who he doesn’t have strong feelings against, but she was saying bad things against Maya.
So I think it’s a case of that he’ll hit someone if he’s overcome with emotion, much like how Apollo punches him, but he doesn’t go out of his way to intentionally hurt anyone, especially those he truly cares about.