(Spoiler) Firefight and Steelheart - what were Firefight's motives?

[Andrew C]

MAJOR SPOILERS for the book, so close this now.

 

I'm curious as to how loyal Firefight was to Steelheart and to what degree the two of them communicated and planned.

 

Intel from FF could have helped SH destroy the Reckoners on several occasions throughout the book. FF made statements that make you suspect she had a degree of loyalty to SH but as her existance was such a lie, it's hard to believe anything she said.

 

What were SH's thoughts on FF being so central to killing Fortuity? How long had FF been infiltrating the Reckoners, and why? Was FF looking to use the Reckoners as her own power base or for some other reason?

 

 

I'm more and more confused about the FF-SH relationship every time I think about it.

[Oudeis]

For that matter, we know she carries grenades, reincarnates, and has many times been surrounded by the entire team. I guess maybe the idea was "stick around and try to learn about the other cells" but I really don't see why she didn't just blow up the leader when she had the chance (unless she KNEW he had the forcefield/regeneration to survive a blast)

[Mysty]

SH may not have known it was FF herself that killed Fortuity. When she confessed that her name was Megan, and it wasn't connected to FF at all, I got the impression she never used her actual likeness or name around SH (p 327 of ebook).

As for going along with the plan to take down SH rather than blowing cover and kiling the Reconners, the only thing I can think of is that while with the Reconers she didn't use her powers very often and therefore would have less epic- craziness clouding her mind. Maybe she was starting to heal mentally, but because of how long she had been clouded it just left her confused comming off, stuck halfway between human and epic sensibilities.

Then again, she always got mad at David after he improptued something. Maybe everytime she was setting the Reconners up for failure to SH David threw a monkeywrench into the plan and she couldn't pull it off.

In any case I'm sure the next book will cover this problem.

[Andrew C]

One thing coming from a post in another thread - possibly FF wanted to use the Reckoners to help her set herself up as the 'Emperor' of another city (maybe under some alliance with SH). Maybe she will still try to do this in book 2.

[happyman]

My guess is that FF's motives were complicated.  Some possible complications are:  (1) her own desire for power (she could use her position with the Reckoners as a bargaining chip), (2) her attitude towards most other Epics, (she may honestly want to kill them in both Epic and normal state) (3) whether or not she knew/suspected that Prof. was Epic (in which case figuring out exactly what he is up to would be her main goal), or (4) what Steelheart's long-term plan in infiltrating them was.

 

This last one is important because Steelhearts' Empire's stability depended on his "Epic meritocracy," but he didn't really want all other Epics to get too uppity.  Being able to take them out via a mole in the Reckoners is a very pretty type of plausible deniability, and one that could be long-term useful, politically speaking.

[Gloom]

I believe that FF actually believed in what the Reckoners were doing. She was from Portland and epics had completely destroyed everything she knew prior to finding her way to Newcago. I'm of the opinion that FF saw the type of epics that the Reconers were targeting and decided that she could act as both a mole in the organization and kill some of the really despicable scum off the top of the epic gene-pool. She wasn't interested in killing SH, because she saw his rule as a stabilizing force in the area. She wants to kill those epics that the Reckoners had previously targeted.

 

David changed the Reckoners direction, and she resented him for that. Before David arrived, things were going as planned. The Reckoners were targeting the most destructive and destabilizing of the epics that had little or no control of the infrastructure and thus had no real impact on the quality of life that people lived. Killing Fortuity didn't change anything in Newcago. It made the city a little safer, and removed a cancer from the city, but life carried on as usual after he was dead. Killing SH could potentially throw Newcago into chaos and forever change the lives of it's people.

[MathEpic]

Perhaps Firefight was hedging her bets.

 

She was shaken by the destruction of her home in Oregon, so it would make sense that she would try to find some sort of stability in the fractured world.  If Steelheart ever fell to another Epic or even to some lucky normal human she would have a home in the Reckoners.  On the other hand if the Reckoners got wiped out as a result of their carelessness then she could flee to Newcago and still have a home.

 

In the end it did not work out this way, but if David had not changed the dynamic of the group she could have maintained two safe havens for herself for years.

[EvilNuff]

I think they are related, Steelheart is perhaps her Father.  Their ages are about right for this as Steelheart is just starting to gray and epics age slower than normal people so he could easily be in his 40s or 50s and she is around 18-20 in appearance.  

[Gloom]

I think she may have been a little more passionate in her efforts to stop the Reckoners from targeting SH if he was her Father. Failing that, she would have made efforts to ensure he was aware of the plan, and taken a much larger role in derailing that plan. She may have personally killed David since he was the driving force behind taking out SH.

[junior]

If the information that she provided about being from Portland is correct, then Steelheart is almost certainly not her father.  Annexation Day was roughly one year after the initial appearence of Epics, suggesting that Steelheart was in or around Chicago when he received his power.  There's a slight possibility that he came from further away, but the idea that he came from Portland to Chicago in less than a year after receiving his powers would only make sense if there were some specific reason that he *had* to come to Chicago.  There are plenty of other big cities much closer to Portland for him to take up residence in.  And given Megan's age, she almost certainly would have been living with her parents when she received her powers - in Portland.

 

As for her motivations...

 

David surmises that Fortuity had fallen out of favor with Steelheart.  As such, killing him as part of a Reckoners hit would be no big loss.  And it would help "prove" her loyalty to the Reckoners.  That would insulate her from suspicions that she was working for Steelheart.  And it seems pretty clear that she really doesn't want to see Steelheart removed.  She provides an excellent rationale for leaving him in place that's most likely accurate (i.e. he provides stability, unlike in Portland), and the times when she becomes short with David typically either involve a.) the recent use of her powers, or b.) discussion of David's plan to bring down Steelheart.  The former is obviously because of the effect powers have on the owner's humanity.  The latter is almost certainly because she's trying to discourage the others from going after Steelheart.

 

As for her lack of communication?  I don't think there's anything particularly surprising about it.  The book takes place over the course of just a few days.  She would need to find an excuse to leave her fellow Reckoners and then make contact with Steelheart in a way that doesn't tip anyone off to the fact that she's connected to him.  The former is probably the most difficult part.  She would need to have an excuse to wander away from the headquarters, and she can't do that too frequently.  So it's not as if she can just casually drop by Steelheart's headquarters to give him a status update.  As a result, Steelheart doesn't find out what's really going on until Megan reincarnates...  at which point he sends his other chief henchman out after the Reckoners (it's mentioned in the book, iirc).  And the Reckoners also abandon their current hideout for a new one.  So she can't lead Steelheart's troops directly to Reckoners because she doesn't know where they've relocated to.

[name_here]

I think she actually did leak some information to Steelheart, since he doesn't initially believe Limelight exists after the power station hit. I'm guessing Steelheart didn't want to launch a full assault into the Steel Catacombs for whatever reason. What's strange is how she uses her powers to help out people other than herself in the hit on Conflux; I'm not sure what prompted that.

[happyman]

I think she actually did leak some information to Steelheart, since he doesn't initially believe Limelight exists after the power station hit. I'm guessing Steelheart didn't want to launch a full assault into the Steel Catacombs for whatever reason. What's strange is how she uses her powers to help out people other than herself in the hit on Conflux; I'm not sure what prompted that.

 

Actually, David asks her this when he finally realizes that she is Firefight.  She says she doesn't know.  I'm guessing it had something to do with her humanity returning, though.  Probably left her seriously confused.

[name_here]

Well, apparently her reincarnation gave her temporary retrograde amnesia, which would be why she can't explain it at the time. I'd assume that her limited use of her powers while undercover helped restore her to emotional normalcy and gave her conflicting loyalties, except that using her powers to protect Abraham would undo that.

[junior]

Well, apparently her reincarnation gave her temporary retrograde amnesia, which would be why she can't explain it at the time. I'd assume that her limited use of her powers while undercover helped restore her to emotional normalcy and gave her conflicting loyalties, except that using her powers to protect Abraham would undo that.

 

No, it didn't.  She'd already used her powers once in the elevator shaft.  While it made her momentarily harsher, it apparently didn't screw up the long-term attitude toward the team that she appears to have been developing.  I don't think even she was entirely aware of what was going on emotionally during her time with the team.  When she's not showing open hostility toward David, she's pretty friendly toward him - to the point where she even engages in friendly banter with him regarding his atrocious metaphors.

 

Most likely, the onset of her powers at a young age stunted her emotional development.  The constant use of them would have kept her from gaining proper emotional maturity and drawing close to other people.  Given the mess that took place in Portland, the Reckoners cell is probably a replacement family for her (I don't think it's too big of a stretch to guess that she lost her biological family there).  But at the same time, she also probably lacks the emotional experience to understand what's going on as she bonds with the cell.