Steelheart and Sanderson's Laws

[killersquirrel59]

As we all know, Brandon is very hardline on his magic systems having set and logical rules. Even if those rules are not directly tied into real-world physics, they are always internally consistent. This is notably absent in Steelheart. Epic powers are all over the place and at least from the evidence in the first book make very little logical sense. So far the only hard and fast rule appears to be that all Epics must have a weakness. 

 

Admittedly, hard and fast understandable rules fit rather poorly into the superhero genre, where it's generally accepted that heroes randomly pull new powers out of their butts at predictable intervals or as plot demands (especially DC). However, I can't see Sanderson abandoning all three of his laws of magic so blatantly. 

 

First Law of Magic:

An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.

Yet in Steelheart we have very little understanding of the system. Different Epics each have very different and seemingly illogical and unconnected powers. Yet the problems of the Reckoners are regularly solved by the imbuing from Prof, and the end victory is gained by exploiting the moment of insight on Steelheart's weakness.

 

 

Second Law of Magic:

Limitations > Powers

This one appears to be violated all over the place in this book. All Epics have a weakness but their powers far outstrip it in scope. Steelheart is completely invincible AND can turn things to steel AND can fly AND etc. And his one weakness is so esoteric and difficult to fathom that it took 10 years for anyone to figure it out and even then is all but impossible to exploit. Nightwielder is vulnerable to something that his own power can make go away completely.

 

 

Third Law of Magic:

Expand what you already have before adding something new.

This one he at least makes a nod to following. He keeps the story fairly tight around a set group of Epics without bringing in a whole supporting cast with new powers. And yet even that cast pulls new things out of nowhere like the new "tech" wielded by the Reckoners to solve whatever their problem happens to be.

 

 

All this is not meant to come down on Brandon. I have far more faith in him and his mighty Shardpen than that. I post this to begin the process of theorycrafting and state that the first book gave a deeply mistaken conceptual view of the world and how the powers work. I'm willing to bet that there is a system to the madness and more of a hidden weakness and limitation to Epics than we have seen. So I put it to the obsessive people of the 17th Shard to see what we already know and what possibilities could be compiled. I highly suspect that it has something to do with the true nature of Calamity, and possibly to do with who these people were before they became Epics which is notably glossed over.

[Edgedancer]

I would say that Branon does follow his laws, the nature of the magic and it´s position within the story just lets them have a different form than usual.

 

First: This one works better when looking at each Epic as having his own magic system. Looking at all the Epics there really is no pattern but, if you look at only one you can understand their power. For example Prof whose powers are used to resolve the plot. He can

1. Disrupt inorganic matter

2. Deploy a force field

3. Heal

4. Transfer these powers to others

Granted, we have no clues why Calamity gave him those powers but we can understand their application and how they helped in solving the plot.

However, the process of how the Epics gain the power they get hasn´t been relavant to solving the plot yet, so who knows what the future brings.

 

Second: Two points. First, looking at it from an meta perspective, finding their limitation (weakness) is a whole lot more important than what they actually can do and, in my opinion even more important, turning into a complete monster when using your power sounds like a pretty big price to me.

 

Third: He does build on what he has, most notably how Steelheart´s reign and power changed Newcago. Addmidetly the tech does add a lot of stuf but it was created by studying Epics, so it might help you to think of them as something similar to Fabrials. The Tensors, of course, are a different story entirely.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Edgedancer

[killersquirrel59]

Even looking at each Epic's powers individually they make no sense with the information we have. They seem completely random. The ability to turn things to steel combined with invincibility and flight? Nightwielder makes a little more sense. At least his are all darkness themed. 

 

All I'm saying is that I think there's another piece of the puzzle hidden somewhere that we're missing. I trust an author this amazing to wrap it all up neatly with something that's going to make us all slam down the third book and rush back to the bookshelf to grab Steelheart again to look back at the seemingly innocuous thing buried somewhere that ties it all together. Just seeing if we can guess what that innocuous little thing is early.

[Edgedancer]

Pushing on metals and seeing the future aren´t exactly in the same field of powers either. From how I understand it the first law is less about theme and more about consistency, i.e. Prof can turn steel into dust, this is consistent, him suddenly also disentegrating a human would break those rules and go against the first law.

 

There probably is. Mitosis implies that weaknesses steam from the Epics past, if this holds true and wasn´t just a coincidence then it´s not very far fetched that their personality and/or past further influences their powers.

[killersquirrel59]

That's probably related. I'm just hoping we can get a discussion going on some ideas for what those early clues that Brandon likes to drop might be. Maybe we get lucky and someone will notice something that ends up being the next "on his arms". That person would earn serious bragging rights.