Firefight's Dimensional Double

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

I just had a thought. It was incredibly random, and I have no solid evidence to support it, but I figured I'd share it anyway.

What if Firefight's dimensional double comes from a parallel universe where your greatest fear becomes your power? If he is a man while Firefight is a woman, and his power is fire while it is Firefight's weakness, what if that is the "rule" of his universe? Megan mentions that she thinks he brings some of the rules of his world with him when he crosses over, and she has no trouble summoning him even when she's just resurrected and his flame appears to be more than just a shadow (as in the climax of Steelheart). If he is truly Megan's opposite, and Megan comes from a Superman-type universe where your greatest fear is what destroys you, then it would make sense (and be really really cool) if he came from a Batman-type universe where your greatest fear is what empowers you.

Like I said, I have no solid evidence to support this theory, but it just occurred to me and I thought I'd see what you guys think.

[Guest]

Wouldn't you need to apply the "opposites" rule to the greatest fear though? So His greatest fear would be freezing to death instead of burning. (or, if you're being literal, he'd be afraid of NOT being on fire).

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Wouldn't you need to apply the "opposites" rule to the greatest fear though? So His greatest fear would be freezing to death instead of burning. (or, if you're being literal, he'd be afraid of NOT being on fire).

I was more envisioning a universe where there is no Epic corruption, because fears there empower rather than destroy. So fire would still be his greatest fear, but rather than gaining powers that enable him to avoid it, he gains powers that force him to confront that fear every time he uses them.

[Kobold King]

 

 

I really like this theory.

 

My only question would be whether other Epics would make sense in this universe. Would Conflux be an old woman with the power to control dogs? What would female!Fortuity's powers look like?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

I really like this theory.

My only question would be whether other Epics would make sense in this universe. Would Conflux be an old woman with the power to control dogs? What would female!Fortuity's powers look like?

I've been trying to figure that out since the theory occurred to me.

I'm not entirely sure whether all genders would be flipped in this mirrorverse, or to what extent the opposites rule would apply. Megan's fear is one that is simple to flip--give the man who fears fire power over fire--but powers like Fortuity's would be more difficult. Since he feared rejection and, more specifically, public humiliation by a woman he found attractive, I think mirrorverse!Fortuity would gain powers that made him appear sweet and silly rather than fearsome. Maybe he'd have the power to control dogs, but nothing bigger than a pug. Maybe he'd be able to shapeshift into a swarm of guinea pigs. Maybe he'd be able to teleport by use of a magical rainbow bridge. Whatever the case, I don't think you could describe his power as "manly." Since this Fortuity's powers enable him to avoid being ridiculed by the opposite sex, I think mirrorverse!Fortuity's powers would open him to ridicule.

[Edgedancer]

It's very much an interesting thought. Going on that principle, for someone like Fortuity it should then be something that lets him control women (nice to know Calamity still isn't a good guy ) be it by gaining something that would be "appealing" to them like super-strenght or just outright controling them, kind of like Nighthound. Nightwielder who's fear is somehow connected to sunlight would instead get the ability to manipulate solar energy... wait... Sunburst?

 

Am I finding a pattern here?

 

Getting back on the serious side of things, Epics can have some very obscure weakness, which makes sense given where they come from but turning all of those into a power instead would be near impossible and at the very least turn up with much more powers that are weird instead of useful.

 

Just look at Newton or Regalia what kind of power would come from their fears? Always being right?... Bending reality so everything Regalia says does become the truth... she just became worse, run!

[Kobold King]

It's very much an interesting thought. Going on that principle, for someone like Fortuity it should then be something that lets him control women (nice to know Calamity still isn't a good guy ) be it by gaining something that would be "appealing" to them like super-strenght or just outright controling them, kind of like Nighthound. Nightwielder who's fear is somehow connected to sunlight would instead get the ability to manipulate solar energy... wait... Sunburst?

 

Am I finding a pattern here?

 

Getting back on the serious side of things, Epics can have some very obscure weakness, which makes sense given where they come from but turning all of those into a power instead would be near impossible and at the very least turn up with much more powers that are weird instead of useful.

 

Just look at Newton or Regalia what kind of power would come from their fears? Always being right?... Bending reality so everything Regalia says does become the truth... she just became worse, run!

 

No, most of those powers would simply provide empowerment over a fear. You don't have to fear rejection if you can control women, and you don't have to fear being wrong if it's literally impossible for you to be wrong. I'm not sure what powers all these characters would have, but I'm pretty sure the OP is speculating about powers that specifically require their user to get over their fears in some way.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

That would be horrifying.

I'd argue, though, that always being right and outright controlling women would provide more direct empowerment over their respective fears than force the Epics in question to face them. A power that forces you to face a fear would harness that fear--very much like Nightweilder harnessing solar energy rather than darkness.

I'm not entirely sure what Regalia's power would be in that universe. Maybe a form of clairvoyance that allows her to see multiple possible futures, with no indication as to which is the one that's going to happen? A power like that would force her to guess every time she used it, forcing her to confront her fear of being wrong. Perhaps a better way to put my original theory would be "Epics are given powers that force them to confront their greatest fears."

[Edgedancer]

That would be horrifying.

I'd argue, though, that always being right and outright controlling women would provide more direct empowerment over their respective fears than force the Epics in question to face them. A power that forces you to face a fear would harness that fear--very much like Nightweilder harnessing solar energy rather than darkness.

I'm not entirely sure what Regalia's power would be in that universe. Maybe a form of clairvoyance that allows her to see multiple possible futures, with no indication as to which is the one that's going to happen? A power like that would force her to guess every time she used it, forcing her to confront her fear of being wrong. Perhaps a better way to put my original theory would be "Epics are given powers that force them to confront their greatest fears."

The example to work from here is alt!Firefight, which means fear of fire=control of fire and turning into fire. Seems like it's impossible for fire to harm you if you are fire. That's direct empowerment, if I've ever seen it. I mean it's not like alt!Firefight is actually torching himself to death everytime Megan summons him (I hope but he doesn't seem in pain).

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

The example to work from here is alt!Firefight, which means fear of fire=control of fire and turning into fire. Seems like it's impossible for fire to harm you if you are fire. That's direct empowerment, if I've ever seen it. I mean it's not like alt!Firefight is actually torching himself to death everytime Megan summons him (I hope but he doesn't seem in pain).

But if this universe's Megan fears fire so much that it negates her powers, I'd argue that lighting yourself on fire--even if it didn't harm you--would force you to confront that fear. Furthermore, she gained that fear in a childhood house fire. Imagine gaining the ability to control something that burned your house down. You'd be wondering the entire time, What if I lose control? What if I burn down my house again? What if I do this wrong and wind up burning myself, even though it doesn't look like I am right now? Before you know it, you're thinking about that house fire, reliving it and wondering what sick cosmic joke this is. Repeated use of that power woukd force you to confront the fear you felt.

Edited June 22, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[Edgedancer]

But if this universe's Megan fears fire so much that it negates her powers, I'd argue that lighting yourself on fire--even if it didn't harm you--would force you to confront that fear. Furthermore, she gained that fear in a childhood house fire. Imagine gaining the ability to control something that burned your house down. You'd be wondering the entire time, What if I lose control? What if I burn down my house again? What if I do this wrong and wind up burning myself, even though it doesn't look like I am right now? Before you know it, you're thinking about that house fire, reliving it and wondering what sick cosmic joke this is. Repeated use of that power woukd force you to confront the fear you felt.

Sure but that's maybe the first couple times. After that he would have stopped being afraid not by taking the risk and confronting fire like Megan did but he instead would have stopped to fear it, because he was empowered over it.

To go back to the example I gave with Regalia, that one would work on exactly the same principle, at first she would have been scarred because if she said something wrong she might cause massive damage but at one point or another she would just have stopped with that because of the empowerment, whatever she said is the tight thing anyay.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Sure but that's maybe the first couple times. After that he would have stopped being afraid not by taking the risk and confronting fire like Megan did but he instead would have stopped to fear it, because he was empowered over it.

To go back to the example I gave with Regalia, that one would work on exactly the same principle, at first she would have been scarred because if she said something wrong she might cause massive damage but at one point or another she would just have stopped with that because of the empowerment, whatever she said is the tight thing anyay.

In alt!Megan's case at least, I'd argue that the fear would be faced and the goal accomplished. For alt!Regalia, I still say that power doesn't require her to confront her fear in any way. It would be like giving someone who feared cats the power to make all cats within a 30 mile radius vanish: You're not forcing them to face it so much as magically making it disappear, meaning they never have to face it because for them, it doesn't exist.

[Edgedancer]

In alt!Megan's case at least, I'd argue that the fear would be faced and the goal accomplished. For alt!Regalia, I still say that power doesn't require her to confront her fear in any way. It would be like giving someone who feared cats the power to make all cats within a 30 mile radius vanish: You're not forcing them to face it so much as magically making it disappear, meaning they never have to face it because for them, it doesn't exist.

Look deeper. Designing powers on this principle would need to look exactly at why someone is afraid of something. With Regalia, why would she be afraid of being wrong? We don't really know but one posibility would be that she sentenced someone that was actually innocent. She caused damaged because everyone accepted her judgment yet she was actually wrong. Something similar could happen with this power, for example she might kill thousands of people by stating a location as having a lower population than it actually does. How is that not scary?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Look deeper. Designing powers on this principle would need to look exactly at why someone is afraid of something. With Regalia, why would she be afraid of being wrong? We don't really know but one posibility would be that she sentenced someone that was actually innocent. She caused damaged because everyone accepted her judgment yet she was actually wrong. Something similar could happen with this power, for example she might kill thousands of people by stating a location as having a lower population than it actually does. How is that not scary?

I never said it wasn't? But in that case, would she even know about the damage she caused, and would it matter? Depending on the extent of her reality warping abilities, she might automatically erase any knowledge that those people ever existed, meaning she would never have to accept responsibility for killing them. If confronted by people who did remember (provided her powers worked that way and not the way that provides automatic erasure) she could just say "No, I didn't kill them. They're still alive and happy in a trendy little coffee shop, drinking machiatos" and it would be true. If they said "What the hell, you're a moron for doing that," she could just say "What are you talking about? I did nothing of the sort," and she'd be right. She would never have to accept responsibility for her actions because the consequences of her actions would never be permanent.

[Edgedancer]

I never said it wasn't? But in that case, would she even know about the damage she caused, and would it matter? Depending on the extent of her reality warping abilities, she might automatically erase any knowledge that those people ever existed, meaning she would never have to accept responsibility for killing them. If confronted by people who did remember (provided her powers worked that way and not the way that provides automatic erasure) she could just say "No, I didn't kill them. They're still alive and happy in a trendy little coffee shop, drinking machiatos" and it would be true. If they said "What the hell, you're a moron for doing that," she could just say "What are you talking about? I did nothing of the sort," and she'd be right. She would never have to accept responsibility for her actions because the consequences of her actions would never be permanent.

And alt!Firefight would never have to deal with actually being burned by flame. It's one thing if you design an paralel universe completely on it's own but you're hinging it on alt!Firefight and as far as we know there are no actual negative consequences in either of these theoretical powers and facing the fear would only happen in their head.

Maybe I'm missing something but right now what you're saying about Firefight fitting your theory boils down to "even if there are no actual consequences forcing him to face his fears he counts because it would still remind him of something he's afraid of" while the thought process on rejecting Regalia seems to go something like "Even if she has to do something that reminds her of her greatest fear it doesn't count because nothing actually forces her to face said fear."

I'd hate to misrepresent what you're saying but unless I'm missing something here you're being slightly contradictory. Is it because Regalia's case would be more fridge horror? Because I don't see why that would matter.

[RandomRevival]

This is extremely confusing. So that means prof's weakness would be forcefields and destroyed matter? Also, only twi could manage to pull off 14 fracking responses in a topic in over 1 day.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Random_illuminati

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

And alt!Firefight would never have to deal with actually being burned by flame. It's one thing if you design an paralel universe completely on it's own but you're hinging it on alt!Firefight and as far as we know there are no actual negative consequences in either of these theoretical powers and facing the fear would only happen in their head.

Maybe I'm missing something but right now what you're saying about Firefight fitting your theory boils down to "even if there are no actual consequences forcing him to face his fears he counts because it would still remind him of something he's afraid of" while the thought process on rejecting Regalia seems to go something like "Even if she has to do something that reminds her of her greatest fear it doesn't count because nothing actually forces her to face said fear."

I'd hate to misrepresent what you're saying but unless I'm missing something here you're being slightly contradictory. Is it because Regalia's case would be more fridge horror? Because I don't see why that would matter.

I'm not saying that the battle would be all in their heads, though part of it would take place there. In the case of alt!Firefight, he would still be vulnerable to the consequences of mishandling fire. Being trapped in a house fire wouldn't just make a child afraid of being burned or suffocating from the smoke; they would also see all of their possessions burn and worry the entire time about parents, as well as siblings and pets if they had any. Controlling fire would only solve the first two problems. There would also, theoretically speaking, be the danger of harming others or your own possessions. If alt!Firefight can also retract the fire he generates, this point is moot, but if not, then there would be the very real possibility of starting another house fire--one that kills his parents this time. Sure, he'd be safe, but he couldn't very well light himself on fire and carry his parents out. I'm not saying the battle would be all in his head; I'm just saying there's more to that fear than personal safety alone.

With Regalia, you should know by now that I consider her walking to the fridge to be Fridge Horror.

[RandomRevival]

Also, im pretty sure Alt!Firefight would be weak to books suggesting the possibilities of other dimensions, seeing that because of them Megan gained her fracking powers in the first place. :/

Edited June 23, 2015 by Random_illuminati

[Mailliw73]

I don't think the alternate universe would have everyone gender flipped. Just that a sperm with the Y chromosome fertilized Firefight instead of an X. Just a thought.