StormingTexan he/him Posted October 11, 2015 Posted October 11, 2015 (edited) I'm not completely sold that these "howlers" were the work of Bleeder. Does not seem to fit with her MO at all of freeing. Even if her intent was to slow Wax down its more aggressive than the other attempts (like shooting him in the leg instead of killing him). At the end of the book we see she still seems to care about him so I don't see her using a bunch of man eating beast against him. I think they come from the same source the new metal (descriptions of the spike are similar) but kind of think the Set may have made them. Possible the new more efficient (only one spike) Koloss to fight for them. Edited October 11, 2015 by StormingTexan 1
Oudeis he/him Posted October 11, 2015 Author Posted October 11, 2015 Except, they did exist to slow him down. As we see, they don't even slow him that long. She had enough faith in his ability that she figured he'd be fine. Also, she's insane. I still have a lot of questions about the Howlers. It's possibly a mix of them; I expect she brought a lot of hemalurgy to the table, so I'd be surprised if she wasn't behind most of their design. That said, a few members of the Set there to let the Howlers loose at the right time would fill in some of the holes in the logic of what happened. Also, her MO might be freeing, but she's clearly willing to kill a LOT of people to do so, and as she puts it, anyone she kills is now out of Harmony's control. She clearly sees death as a preferable alternative, so I don't see how it's against her MO.
StormingTexan he/him Posted October 12, 2015 Posted October 12, 2015 (edited) Also, her MO might be freeing, but she's clearly willing to kill a LOT of people to do so, and as she puts it, anyone she kills is now out of Harmony's control. She clearly sees death as a preferable alternative, so I don't see how it's against her MO. I'd agree if she simply killed them and that could be considered "freeing" but that's not what's happening here. The "howlers" are clearly being spiked and doing their masters (I still think it's the Set) bidding which is the exact opposite of freeing and completely against her MO in my opinion. Edited October 12, 2015 by StormingTexan 1
Oudeis he/him Posted October 12, 2015 Author Posted October 12, 2015 Eh. The MO of a surgeon is to heal someone. From that perspective, cutting into them, on the surface, seems counter-intuititve. The Hero of Ages tells us in an epigraph that Ruin was fully capable of building something if he could use it to knock down two more. There's no reason she couldn't temporarily take control of a few people, if it means in the end, freeing everyone. By your definition, taking on the form of Innate and manipulating people sounds like it's against her MO of 'freeing' them, but in the cause of her ultimate goal, it's a necessary evil. Still. Your point remains valid. I think logic dictates that the Set had something to do with the Howlers. It's entirely plausible they just had more to do than I thought.
StormingTexan he/him Posted October 12, 2015 Posted October 12, 2015 I see where you are coming from and I'd not completely rule out it was Bleeder just doesn't fit to me with her other actions. Not sure what happened to them is temporary though. Like if you took out the spike they go back to looking like a normal human being they seem pretty much transformed physically. Of course we do not know enough about the "howlers" to say this for sure. 1
Oudeis he/him Posted October 12, 2015 Author Posted October 12, 2015 Oh no, I didn't mean that what happened to the Howlers was temporary. Maybe she was planning on just killing them when she was done, but they were no more going back to normal than Innate's guards were after she killed them. I meant, making some tools to use was a temporary measure on her path to 'freeing' the city from Harmony's control. Again... insane. Even fully sane people often find ways/reasons to justify small things in pursuit of a larger goal. I suspect she assumed Wax would find a way to kill them.
Ari he/him Posted October 12, 2015 Posted October 12, 2015 He pulls a spike out of them, and comments that they were made this way with only one spike. It is a good point though- if they've been spiked to lose something as well as to gain something, that might explain how they have such a dramatic effect from just one implanted spike. And if you bound the replacement attribute to the same point as the stolen one, you could potentially put it in a normally-lethal place by driving the stealing spike and the replacement spike through at the same time. Viola, instant Howler with no evidence you've spiked away any abilities. That said, if Paalm did it that way, she didn't use all of her Metallic Arts victims, as we've seen the corpse of the Steelrunner in SoS, so it's not the strongest of theories, unless they were spiked to lose some of their Humanity rather than to lose an allomantic or feruchemical power, or unless Paalm left the Steelrunner's corpse for some reason.
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