[Calamity Spoilers] Weakness of All Epics

[Charlie.x.3000]

I'm theorizing that all Epics have their own abilities as a 'weakness'. That is, all harm done by their own power wouldn't be able to regenerate or reincarnated from. This would explain why Tavi could negate Prof's powers, but not a 'negation' as a true weakness would.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Charlie.x.3000

[king of nowhere]

it's possible, and it would explain how prof was harmed by his own powers used by someone else even if that wasn't his real weakness. but it should only count if they are used by someone else, otherwise obliteration would have incinerated himself. So that only leaves gifters as potential victims of that. so we have no way to verify that hypothesis

[Galavantes]

it's possible, and it would explain how prof was harmed by his own powers used by someone else even if that wasn't his real weakness. but it should only count if they are used by someone else, otherwise obliteration would have incinerated himself. So that only leaves gifters as potential victims of that. so we have no way to verify that hypothesis

Or powers replicated by a motivator.

[natc]

With the motivators, the powers came from Prof and he acknowledges this, plus the fact that he screwed up by letting David leave with his cells to prepare them.

With Tavi, he might still subconsciously think those were his powers. Or perhaps Tavi actually did exist, but died and he felt like he failed her. The Firefight world has a strange chain of reversed situations going on, after all, as if David's world is that "everyone is evil" mirror AU comic books love.

[Kassil]

I'm theorizing that all Epics have their own abilities as a 'weakness'. That is, all harm done by their own power wouldn't be able to regenerate or reincarnated from. This would explain why Tavi could negate Prof's powers, but not a 'negation' as a true weakness would.

 

This is a reasonable theory, given that twins tend to kill each other; I imagine that somewhere in this version of Earth there have been High Epic twins who fought when they discovered that twins don't do well sharing power; not hearing of more of them would suggest that in this hypothetical case, one of them successfully killed the other despite the High Epic status. (about 3.3% of births in the US, according to a quick Google check, are twins. So they're not that rare and there's no reason for a lack of High Epic twins otherwise.)

[junior]

I just had a stray thought...

In Calamity we learn that two people with the same power hurt each other when they use their powers. We also learn that David has received Steelheart's powers.

Now assume, for a moment, that the first book didn't revolve around Steelheart's death. So the big guy is still alive. And then David gets his powers. Which means that if either one uses their powers, the other one feels pain.

So...

How much of the planet ends up trashed in the inevitable brawl between the two of them?

[skaa]

From what Knighthawk said, the Epic pain issue only happens when one of the following is true:

• The Epic has an identical twin who starts using their shared powers.
• A cell culture derived from the Epic is stimulated to manifest powers (as in motivators).

(This of course assumes that the Epic doesn't have pain-negating powers like the Creer boys.)

If you think this means people using the same power would automatically feel pain, you're forgetting Gifters. There is no indication that Prof ever felt pain when Gifting his Reckoners. If another person using an Epic's power automatically causes pain for that Epic, then Epics who willingly Gift their powers would be as rare as Epic twins who didn't kill each other.

I think it would make more sense if the cause of the Epic's pain in the above cases is the DNA shared with the other entity (twin or cell culture) that is using a power, not the shared power itself.

As for why Prof's own powers seems to be part of his weakness somehow, Megan already explained that in the book:

"The powers are part of it," I said. "But not the whole story. Why do you fear them?"

He blinked. "Because...I..."

"Because if you are so powerful," Megan whispered, "if you have all of these resources, then you don't have any excuses left for failing."

Edited March 2, 2016 by skaa

[apepi]

Do twins share the same weakness as well as powers or no?

[Fallen Rope]

Since the weakness is to do with fear, I guess twins would have different weaknesses, unless they both experienced the same traumatic event.

[natc]

You only need the cells to manifest the powers, and twins feel each other as if both were motivators of each other.

If Calamity made one into an epic would the other become a living "motivator" device for the first and manifest powers anyway?

[Szmit]

On 9.03.2016 at 4:20 AM, natc said:

You only need the cells to manifest the powers, and twins feel each other as if both were motivators of each other.

If Calamity made one into an epic would the other become a living "motivator" device for the first and manifest powers anyway?

Actually I believe when twins become epics, calamity doesn't chose a person, but a DNA code, that becomes connected with powers.

[Alfa]

It seems to me that calamity usually does not even choose who gets powers, it's more of a random process, based on DNA. Calamity can circumvent this process by directly giving and taking powers, but the underlying process is not directly related to him. Otherwise in Firefight's core possibility there won't be any new epics.