*Spoilers* Firefight

[junior]

So...  Firefight...

 

Given that she's going to be the focus of the next novel, I thought it might be worthwhile to cover the information that we have on her.

 

 - Megan is the name her parents gave her, though her final conversation with David seems to suggest that she doesn't really see herself as that person (i.e. the pre-powers Megan) anymore.

 

 - She's attractive.  And that's not just David's adolescent male brain making that judgement.  Fortuity immediately ditches his companions when he sees her.  Further, it doesn't appear that she used her illusion powers to make herself more attractive.  When she dies, no one makes any observations about her appearence changing.

 

 - She's about 20 years old.  David says 20 at most when he first sees her, so probably in the 18-20 range (though David might be letting his male teenage hormones reduce her age slightly).

 

 - Her known powers include extremely sophisticated illusions, invisibility, and reincarnation upon death.  The latter appears to involve light in some form, and also appears to induce some short-term memory loss (she has trouble remembering who David is when he meets her in the stadium).

 

 - At one point she claims that she's from Portland, Oregon, though there's no evidence to indicate whether she's telling the truth or not.

 

 

 

Given all of the above (and assuming that the comment about Portland is accurate) -

 

She was probably young when she received her powers.  Epics have apparently been around for 12 years now (it's been 10 years since David saw Steelheart at the bank, and a conversation at the bank indicates that Epics started appearing 2 years before that).  Based off of the guess that she's in the 18-20 year old range, that means that she was between 6-8 years old when Epics first started appearing.  I don't know if there's any indication whether new Epics keep appearing, so it's possible that she received her powers later on.  But either way, she's probably been with Steelheart for at least a few years (I don't remember if any mention is made of when she arrived in the city).  And that means that she was probably mid-teens at latest when she received her powers.  So lets say somewhere between 6-16 years old.

 

Portland, Oregon, has apparently been completely razed due to fighting between the different Epics.  David briefly acknowledges this to the reader when Megan brings it up.  Assuming that she's being honest when she says that she's from Portland, she got shown at a very young age (when she was still in her formative years) exactly what happens when a bunch of Epics cut loose on each other.  And being in a dangerous, unstable situation is probably the *last* thing that a young, very attractive, female wants to be exposed to - particularly when there are large numbers of extremely powerful individuals running around who have adopted the attitude that they can take anything they want.

 

Yes, she has powers.  And they're extremely powerful powers.  But at the same time, the powers in question aren't directly offensive.  She can do some pretty nasty things with them if she puts her mind to it (David mentions an illusionist who killed someone by making a house look like a curve in the road).  But her powers are more subtle than directly offensive.  She's got to sleep sometime and her illusions probably don't work if she's unconscious.  She'll reincarnate if she dies, but that appears to cause some mental trauma.  So being somewhere more stable than Portland would probably be a good idea.

 

That might explain why she ends up in Newcago.  Steelheart would probably immediately see her usefulness.  And living in Newcago would mean that she could rely on Steelheart's "government" to protect her when she was vulnerable (i.e. sleeping).  Plus, food and other resources are apparently widely available in Newcago, particularly if you're an Epic.  So she'd be able to eat and otherwise provide for herself.  This fits almost perfectly with the defense of Steelheart's regime that she provides mid-way through the book.  She's talking from experience, and not just because overthrowing Steelheart would be bad for her own personal situation.

 

 

Further thoughts?

 

[Oudeis]

Hrm... I see all of this as plausible, if she only got her powers later, rather than earlier.

 

If she already had her powers, she'd be an Epic. People don't touch Epics. Period. She would have nothing to fear from anyone other than another Epic.

 

Even then, just like herself, not every Epic has a directly offensive power. A ton of Epics would be no more equipped than herself to offer any form of threat.

 

Even if not offensive, she's incredibly powerful, and enormously useful. Even if no other Epic has managed to run an entire city the way Steelheart did, surely the norm is a "king of the hill" however destitute each individual hill is, able to provide for his own direct 'court'. It might not be a place with a great public school system where you'd want to raise you kids, but she personally would be as high up in any hierarchy as she was with Steelheart.

 

Granted, she could have gotten some psychopath who enslaved her, abused her, and tortured her; that's certainly plausible in this world, but not I think likely enough to simply assume it to be the case.

 

Your scenario is, I think, FAR more likely if she came to her powers much later. She would have been raised in a terrible land of torture and war; David's orphaned childhood was bad enough in a place that was functionally this world's Zanadu. There's no reason not to assume Megan would be traumatized.

 

In a lot of ways, that can provide some interesting tension in the next book. To us humans, it seems logical that you'd want to forgo using your power and stop being a psychopath, because to us it's a no-brainer that psychopath is bad. But if she's really as damaged as you suggest, psychopathy might be the only thing keeping her sane (if you follow that). The ability to not care, the arrogance of her power, might be the armor that keeps her helpless terror at bay.

 

Sorta begging the question... did Megan disagree with the "kill Steelheart" plan because she was an Epic working for him? Or was she telling the truth? As she regained her humanity, as she lost the ability to keep her own pain at a distance, did she see someone like David, an orphan, who nevertheless grew up in this paradise Steelheart made and was as close to a functioning, undamaged adult that this world can have, and realize she'd do anything to protect this Newcago which was so unlike the hell of the rest of the FSA?

 

Maybe Firefight wasn't the one objecting to the plan. Maybe it was Megan.

[Galavantes]

Don't forget that Epics also age more slowly than normal humans. She could be fairly older than David thinks.

[junior]

Hrm... I see all of this as plausible, if she only got her powers later, rather than earlier.

 

If she already had her powers, she'd be an Epic. People don't touch Epics. Period. She would have nothing to fear from anyone other than another Epic.

 

In most cities, I think you would be correct.  iirc, it's mentioned somewhere that Steelheart trades for food that's brought into Newcago from elsewhere.  So there are functioning societies outside of Newcago.  But Megan's brief mention of Portland seems to suggest that there's barely even any walls still standing in Portland.  The place has apparently been all but leveled.  According to Megan's way of thinking, Chicago lucked out because there was a single Epic who was far and away tougher than any other Epic.  So while he occasionally gets challenged, he's always able to put the challengers down in fairly short order.

 

Now instead of that, imagine a situation in which you have numerous Epics, all roughly at the same power level, and all unwilling to compromise with their opponents.  Imagine the final fight scene in the recent movie "Man of Steel", but with a dozen different individuals, all involved in a massive free-for-all, possibly with supporting elements.  And unlike the combatants in the movie, all of the Epics involved probably think that running away to come back and fight at another point in the future is a valid tactic.  Even if Megan has powers at that point, she's probably going to be spending most of her time using them to hide.  A pretty girl, alone and by herself.  She's got to sleep at some point, and presumably her illusions don't work then.  If she's lucky, they'll just try and kill her (which will cause her to reincarnate).  If she's not lucky, then even being considered a minor might not protect her from rape attempts.  Plus, if an Epic free-for-all starts in the area she's in, then she could get caught up in the collatoral damage.  Her illusions won't protect her if someone knocks a wall over on her without realizing she's there.  Worst of all, she could get trapped by something falling and be caught in a situation in which she can't work herself free, and can't kill herself (which would cause her to reincarnate somewhere else).

 

Don't forget that Epics also age more slowly than normal humans. She could be fairly older than David thinks.

 

Forgot about that.  I did briefly consider the idea that reincarnating might roll her age back (we know it does something to her mind), but there's no evidence of that.

[Argent]

One thing that keeps bothering me about Firefight is that guy David kept spotting around Steelheart whenever the Firefight illusion was around - you know, his original candidate for the illusionist. Was that just Megan changing her appearance, so she is doubly protected against recognition, or do we have another mystery?

[junior]

One thing that keeps bothering me about Firefight is that guy David kept spotting around Steelheart whenever the Firefight illusion was around - you know, his original candidate for the illusionist. Was that just Megan changing her appearance, so she is doubly protected against recognition, or do we have another mystery?

 

My guess is that "he" is Megan's original secret identity.  As I mentioned above, she's young and extremely attractive.  One of the first things that she probably learned when she gained her powers was how to create a false identity that made her not look like jail bait.  It wouldn't be surprising if she had to negotiate from time to time before coming to Newcago.  And it would have been helpful to have a negotiating identity that didn't instantly cause male Epics to unconsciously add "Bed her" to the list of things they wanted out of a negotiation with her - particularly given how brutal some of the Epics likely are.

[Binnut]

 - Her known powers include extremely sophisticated illusions, invisibility, and reincarnation upon death.  The latter appears to involve light in some form, and also appears to induce some short-term memory loss (she has trouble remembering who David is when he meets her in the stadium).

 

I think actually that we need to make a distinction between illusions and invisibility.

Invisibility is the ability to make something invisible. Illusions is to make things that are not there, including making it seem that there is nothing there.

David makes a difference between them, Diffractionary had Class C illusion and Class B personal invisibility. She could make herself invisible almost perfectly but her illusions had their tellsigns. They are different powers.

 

I think that FIrefight/Megan just has "ordinary" illusions of a high Class.

[junior]

I think actually that we need to make a distinction between illusions and invisibility.

Invisibility is the ability to make something invisible. Illusions is to make things that are not there, including making it seem that there is nothing there.

David makes a difference between them, Diffractionary had Class C illusion and Class B personal invisibility. She could make herself invisible almost perfectly but her illusions had their tellsigns. They are different powers.

 

I think that FIrefight/Megan just has "ordinary" illusions of a high Class.

 

I think we see her use invisibility once, and it's not really remarked upon.  When David kills Nightwielder, Megan's mentioned to be trapped under some rubble nearby.  Immediately after Nightwielder dies, David sees Megan standing nearby.  After he sees her, the trapped Megan and all of the rubble vanish.  We know that the trapped Megan was an illusion.  But there's nothing to indicate where the real Megan was.  And the simplest explanation is that she was standing invisibly nearby.

 

It's possible that she was hiding inside the illusionary rubble, but that wouldn't have been a very good place to be if David had started shooting at the illusionary Megan (which the text seems to suggest he at least considered).

[MathEpic]

If I recall correctly, David saw someone in the stadium before the big fight, but then that person vanished.  I thought that the implication was that Firefight dropped her illusion for a moment and David saw her.

 

Keep in mind also that Firefight was probably Steelheart's best illusionist.  Otherwise he would have used someone else to craft the deception.  Even Refractory had a minor form of invisibility, so it stands to reason that Firefight does too.

 

My guess is that Firefight probably has invisibility to go along with the rest of her power suite.

[Argent]

I wouldn't be so quick to make this conclusion. If invisibility and illusionism are distinct powers - and I think they are - then having one does not necessarily grant the other. There may be a correlation, but no two powers come "bundled up." If anything, Megan should be able to create an illusion that mimics the environment around her, effectively rendering herself invisible, but such a thing would be difficult to maintain, especially in motion. 

[Gloom]

It may not be the correct conclusion, but from what we have seen, it isn't an unreasonable one.

"She's a class C illusionist," I explained. "But her secondary power is class B personal invisibility. Illusions and invisibility often go hand in hand. Anyway, she can make herself invisible, but not anything else-others, she has to create an illusion around. I'd be certain she's hiding an enforcement squad in that fake trash bin illusion, but if she's smart-and she is-she'll be somewhere else."

In regards to Refractionary.

[happyman]

I think Argent is right, in that the real question is, does Firefight have invisibility as well as illusion?  We just don't know; knowing that she is an illusionist makes it more likely, but not certain.