The (possible) lie of Steelheat [spoilers]

[MathEpic he/him]

In the confrontation between Steelheart and David the tyrant looks at David and said "Ah yes, the child in the bank.  I remember everyone and everything, you needn't be surprised.  I am divine, child.  I do not forget.  I thought you well and dead.  A loose end.  I hate loose ends."

 

To give some context, Steelheart had been fighting Prof, but Prof had hidden somewhere.  Steelheart paused the battle in order to draw his opponent out of hiding, so he has another motive in making this little speech.

 

So, Steelheart is making the following claims:

 

1. Steelheart has perfect memory.

2. Steelheart is good enough with faces to connect a teenager to a child he saw 10 years ago.

 

I have to wonder though, is this a bluff?

 

Steelheart wants to be recognized as a god by all who see him.  That is why he conquered Chicago and why he works to make it a place where people want to live.  The perfect memory gimmick would go a long way to making him seem more divine, so long as he could pull it off.

 

In addition, we know that he was spying on the Reckoners, and David would not shut up about his own origin story.  It would not have been hard for him to pretend that he remembered more than he did for the sake of the show.

 

Thoughts?

[Mikanium]

I think the reason SteelHeart's motiviation for that was for everyone to be afraid of him.   Something's missing here too, because if he was spying on them, he knew that they had not figured out his weakness.  

I wonder if FireFight is going to be a true sequel, or if it's going to be a parallel book about the same part of the story from her point of view, ala Bean in Ender's Shadow.

[Oudeis he/him]

I have to wonder though, is this a bluff?

 

That... actually makes all the sense in the world.

[Argent he/him]

I too don't see how he could recognize the 8 years old kid in the 18 years old young man. Even with perfect memory, he will only recall the image of David has he was at the time.

[junior]

There's a resemblence, though.  At eight years old a kid might be developed enough to resemble his eighteen-year old self (though he also might not).  I don't think Megan actively reported David's presence during her time with the group, as Steelheart's documented extreme paranoia would practically guarantee that he'd make a beeline for the group and murder them all the moment he found out.  However, it's also possible that Megan said something about it to Steelheart when she revived.

 

On the other hand, it's also pretty clear that her memory is pretty screwed up after she reincarnates, and she has trouble remembering David.  So it's also possible that she didn't even remember that David had provided clues about Steelheart's weakness.

 

So imo flip a coin on whether Steelheart is bluffing or not.

 

 

I wonder if FireFight is going to be a true sequel, or if it's going to be a parallel book about the same part of the story from her point of view, ala Bean in Ender's Shadow.

 

I think the end of Steelheart sets up a pretty obvious "David tries to redeem Megan" storyline for Fireheart.  On the other hand, it's also crossed my mind that the attempted redemption story might be told from her perspective, which is part of what you're suggesting.

Edited October 4, 2013 by junior

[Gloom he/him]

I have to wonder though, is this a bluff?

 

Steelheart wants to be recognized as a god by all who see him.  That is why he conquered Chicago and why he works to make it a place where people want to live.  The perfect memory gimmick would go a long way to making him seem more divine, so long as he could pull it off.

 

In addition, we know that he was spying on the Reckoners, and David would not shut up about his own origin story.  It would not have been hard for him to pretend that he remembered more than he did for the sake of the show.

 

Thoughts?

 

The thought had occurred to me. It seems likely that it was a bluff created for the sole purpose of engendering additional fear in David. Steelheart had all the intel he needed from Megan's phone thing. Even if he hadn't put everything together prior to seeing David he at least knew someone from the bank lived before he accepted the challenge and knew that he had to track them down and kill them.

[Windrunner he/him]

I wonder if FireFight is going to be a true sequel, or if it's going to be a parallel book about the same part of the story from her point of view, ala Bean in Ender's Shadow.

According to Brandon on Twitter, it's going to involve New York, and the Epic who rules there, a woman named Regalia.

[Argent he/him]

The thought had occurred to me. It seems likely that it was a bluff created for the sole purpose of engendering additional fear in David. Steelheart had all the intel he needed from Megan's phone thing. Even if he hadn't put everything together prior to seeing David he at least knew someone from the bank lived before he accepted the challenge and knew that he had to track them down and kill them.

 

Very likely and I like it. I am curious about whether Megan was spying for him since she joined the Reckoners (unlikely), or was only able to serve as a mole after her death. In which case, we'll have to revisit the book and see how much information Steelheart could possibly have access to.

[MathEpic he/him]

Near the end, when David makes the connection between Firefight and Megan he recalls how the enemy was expecting an attack when they tried to attack Conflux.  That implies that Megan was passing information on to Steelheart,

 

On the other hand, there was no additional security at the power plant, so either Steelheart is very discriminating when he acts on intelligence, or he just expected an attack.

[happyman he/him]

Near the end, when David makes the connection between Firefight and Megan he recalls how the enemy was expecting an attack when they tried to attack Conflux.  That implies that Megan was passing information on to Steelheart,

 

On the other hand, there was no additional security at the power plant, so either Steelheart is very discriminating when he acts on intelligence, or he just expected an attack.

 

Or it was good for the longer game plan to lull the Reckoners into a false sense of security, especially if they suspected there may be other Epics involved (which was absolutely true).