Theory: Powers: Weakness (Mitosis spoilers)

[Sarcasm]

(Mitosis and Firefight spoilers)

From Firefight, we learn that Epics like Mitosis had been flocking to Babylon Restored to seek Regalia and get a power boost. When an Epic is confronted with his/her weakness, their powers simply stop working, and they become human again. However, in Mitosis, we could see how his weakness, his own music, was directly affecting him, "melting" his clones, which we have never seen a weakness actually "killing" an Epic. Basically, my theory is that the more powerful an Epic, or if they get a power supplement, the more vulnerable or affected they will be by their weakness. Laws of equilibrium still apply to even Epics. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Perhaps, but in Steelheart's case, his powers simply stopped working. He didn't shrink back to "normal" size or turn into a 98-pound weakling. Megan, who isn't very powerful, knows that she won't reincarnate if she dies in a fire. I think that the best way for Mitosis' powers to stop working was to have his clones melt, and that's what happened.

Edited August 1, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[Edgedancer]

Plus, Regalia's weakness gets triggered in Firefight and it soesn't do much to her except the ususal short power outage and a bad mood. It seems that Mitosis' clones simply melted because they are a part of his power.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Edgedancer

[Voidus]

Perhaps, but in Steelheart's case, his powers simply stopped working. He didn't shrink back to "normal" size or turn into a 98-pound weakling. Megan, who isn't very powerful, knows that she won't reincarnate if she dies in a fire. I think that the best way for Mitosis' powers to stop working was to have his clones melt, and that's what happened.

They didn't even completely stop working, even when Davids father was nearby he could still use his powers pretty well.

[Edgedancer]

They didn't even completely stop working, even when Davids father was nearby he could still use his powers pretty well.

All things considered I actually get the impression that for the more powerful Epics either have hard to trigger weaknesses or some kind of defense against them.

[Kobold King]

I like this theory. While Twi, Edge, and Voidus proved it doesn't work for powerful Epics like Steelheart, I thought it might be able to work for supplemented Epics like Mitosis...

 

...but then I remembered Sourcefield, who was strongly implied to have been supplemented but whose weakness behaved as usual. So I'm afraid this was probably a particular quirk of Mitosis' weakness.

 

Upvote for thinking outside the box, though.

[happyman]

For Mitosis, being turned back to normal *is* the same as melting his clones.  Without his powers, he's just one person.

[Fallen Rope]

Wouldn't that mean at the end of Mitosis there would still be one of him left after his weakness was triggered. Maybe the last one left ran away in fear.

Edit: Also maybe Sourcefield's weakness didn't behave as usual, she was still unkillable when koolaid was thrown at her so David was wrong about how her weakness works or it had been changed. 

And something doesn't seem right about Fortuity's weakness, is he afraid of being attracted to women? And if he is then why does he spend time around hot women. Maybe he faced his fear and was just evil before he became an epic.

And did dawnsight face his fear somehow since he isn't evil.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Fallen Rope

[natc]

I think the belief is that Fortuity was attracted to a woman once and was rejected in public. If only he could've seen it coming, eh?

Bam.

[poisonedbite]

Sourcefield had to DRINK the kool-aid.  Drinking poison as a kid was her fear, not just the koolaid itself.  Thats why she had a filter on her mouth/nose.

[Blackhoof]

Yeah Brandon stated that Fortuity's weakness was public humiliation by an attractive woman. That is why attractive women weakened his powers, as they fulfilled part of the equation. This is why he didn't like them talking, and hung out with new women constantly, to dehumanise and objectify them as much as possible to reduce their ability to humiliate him.

 

What's interesting is that he didn't go so far as to avoid attractive woman, or women in general. But we see with Mitosis that he was willing to wipe out everyone in Newcago on the minute chance they had heard one of his songs. And Sourcefield wore a full-body suit and mouth filter full-time (it was implied to be full-time at least) to avoid her weakness. And Steelheart slept in different rooms every night and had a propaganda corps dedicated to making everyone fear him, despite already being the most well-known and powerful Epic on earth. Although this would certainly have been hard and given away a huge clue as to his weakness.