SPOILER: Are some Epics doomed?

[Vortaan]

So assuming you've finished the book, you've discovered that not all Epics are monsters... as long as they don't use their powers. But what about powers that are always on, like Fortuity's or Steelheart's? Are these Epics doomed to be monsters, even if their natural inclinations are nowhere near that? what about if Prof wasn't a gifter, would he be doomed because of his healing?

[Oudeis]

I thought about this. And in short, yes. There's one escape clause. If you're lucky enough that your weakness is something you can carry around, you've got a second chance. Like if it's emeralds, you can just always wear an emerald ring, to turn off your Epicness and thus not be an Epic jerk. Again, not something that would have helped Fortuity or Steelheart. (Although, are Steelheart's always on? If he isn't flying or blasting, or lifting something huge, does his invulnerability only 'count' if there's something it's actually protecting him from?)

[Gloom]

I agree with Darnam. If your Epic power is involuntary and always functioning, you're going to feel the psychological influence of Calamity constantly. On the up side, you'll be so emotionally stunted and callous as a result of this that you won't care.

[Windrunner]

Are they "always on" though? If Fortuity never used a handgun, or if Steelheart was never shot at, would their powers necessarily need to be active?

[Galavantes]

Fortuity was a pre-cog. This implies to me that it was "always on", so I tend to agree that he was stormed. Also I think this explains why he was particularly sadistic. He was being exposed to the "taint" (yup, I'm coining a Wheel of Time term for it. Deal with it) basically 24/7.

[Gloom]

It's different from the taint in TWoT, but by definition it could be construed as a taint, a corruption of their personalities, so the word is appropriate. It doesn't drive people insane as a rule, but it does cripple them emotionally so that they are incapable of feeling guilt, compassion, or empathy while under the influence of their powers. In some respects, I think it may invert these emotional stimuli making them into arrogance, contempt, and disgust. Paranoia on the other hand may simply be triggered simply by using the power.

[Windrunner]

Fortuity was a pre-cog. This implies to me that it was "always on", so I tend to agree that he was stormed. Also I think this explains why he was particularly sadistic. He was being exposed to the "taint" (yup, I'm coining a Wheel of Time term for it. Deal with it) basically 24/7.

Oh, of course! My bad, I was thinking of the lesser Epic.

[Vortaan]

This strikes me as kind of... dark for Brandon, doesn't it? Even Inquisitors have some free will. If Epics like Steelheart are effectively doomed to become depraved monsters, isn't the logical thing to put down EVERY Epic, just in case they do develop a always-on power? 

[junior]

We don't really know.  It's possible that all of the powers can wilfully be turned on and off.  It's possible that Fortuity could turn off his power.  But why would he - particularly in a city as dangerous as Newcago?  Would you turn a power like that off if you didn't perceive a bad side to having it always on?

[Gloom]

I don't know. How would you turn off something like a danger sense? How would you turn off an ability like invulnerability or near immortality? Perhaps having these powers would only have a negative effect on your personality when they were actively used. Fortuity is a perfect example of this. If Fortuity didn't actively use his precognitive abilities to gain personal advantage like he did at the playhouse, and only used his abilities passively to avoid danger he may have been able to live a fairly normal life. He chose to use his power and as a result he became a psychopath.

[MathEpic]

What about the professor?

 

He had a healing factor, so his power is also "always on", yet he was not a sociopath.  This would support the idea that unconscious powers only have their cost when they are active.

 

I suspect that in the case of Fortuity the power was a little like jerking your leg.  You can do it intentionally (like when he decides to predict dice rolls) but it can also be also activated unintentionally if threatened (like when a doctor hits your leg with his little hammer.)

[Gloom]

Precisely. A reflex action. The thing with this is, that if your powers do activate reflexively as a result of a threat, the natural response to a threat to an epic is for that epic to eliminate that threat. So even if you're a passive epic and try not to do bad things, you're very likely to over react when you feel threatened because your powers activated. Talk about temporary insanity.

 

Now since this side affect of using powers doesn't appear to be widely know, let alone understood, it makes it easier to see why epics got out of control very quickly. For instance, you're an epic having a drink at a bar. Some slontze decides they want to hit you. Your powers activate, and you have a psychotic episode and cause him to explode. The cops are called. They catch up to you and point guns at you. Your powers activate and you have another psychotic episode and leave half the local police force smeared across the pavement. Now you're a fugitive, you have to keep using your powers to stay free, and the more you use them, the more psychotic you become.

 

Once people see these apparently unstoppable epics running loose, other epics get ideas. They realize that they are basically unstoppable. Like Deathpoint they come to a realization that the rules no longer apply to them because no one can enforce those rules upon them. The cycle continues to snowball until we reach the point where David enters the picture.

[Galavantes]

I don't think Prof's healing ability qualifies as always on. I think it only engaged when needed.

[Binnut]

Prof says at the end of the book somewhere that he has to keep it distributed to the reconers. When he gives the power to David so that he can heal it he seems to feel better and not have to fight the urge to be bad as much as before.

This leads me to think that it actually would be a problem if he had all of his powers even when not actively using them.

[WardenGiggles]

This strikes me as kind of... dark for Brandon, doesn't it? Even Inquisitors have some free will. If Epics like Steelheart are effectively doomed to become depraved monsters, isn't the logical thing to put down EVERY Epic, just in case they do develop a always-on power? 

 

That's why I think there's more to it, some piece we don't have yet. Some other option the epics have that will allow them to be more like Heroes, or at the very least, capable of using their powers and not going crazy.

[junior]

That's why I think there's more to it, some piece we don't have yet. Some other option the epics have that will allow them to be more like Heroes, or at the very least, capable of using their powers and not going crazy.

 

They do still retain their free will.  It's just that their outlook has changed.  Prof becomes rather harsh and unfriendly while his powers are active, but he doesn't suddenly turn on his team.  Megan uses her powers frequently during David's confrontation with Nightwielder, but she doesn't kill David.  The epics are influenced by the use of their powers, but they don't suddenly turn into marionettes dancing on strings.

[happyman]

I think junior has it right.  Although there is definitely something very changing about the power, I think at least some significant part of the motivation behind Epics comes from the human.  We all have those dark urges, and being Epic definitely gives them a chance to be free without consequence.

 

I don't think that's the whole story, though.  Even by that standard, Epics are callous.  There are some humans who at least try not to hurt animals in their day-to-day life, despite having (for all practical purposes) life and death control over them.

[name_here]

It kind of seems to me that the main effect is that using their powers gives Epics a sense of extreme superiority over normal humans, to the point where many of them don't see any inherent value to human life, so they casually murder anyone who becomes more annoying than getting rid of them. So Prof is enraged when one of the insects dares to question him, but he doesn't murder Davis because Davis is useful. And the events of the big fight with Steelheart imply that it's not completely impossible to resist, since Tia was convinced she could talk Prof down and he saved Davis at the end (although possibly because he wasn't sure Steelheart was dead when he put up the forcefield; he'd significantly reduced the extent of his power use by the time he healed Davis and would have been thinking more normally).