The "Heart Is An Awesome Power!" Thread

@Riotous: I am highly intrigued, and would be very interested in further details.

One setting (my currently-extant original universe) has a series of powers that work based on aspects of physics. Main character has Bullet Time, which iterated properly allows him to be essentially unbeatable in any physical combat, dodge bullets, learn new martial arts in single sessions, one scene has him notice the flash from a sniper shot at his principal (he's a bodyguard), activate the power, and deflect the bullet with a hand. Others are Charge, which allows minor local telekinesis and some basic Shock and Awe, Magnetism, which works very simply by control of magnetic fields within about a foot but due to the propagation rules for magnetic fields allows the user to telekinetically control a ferromagnetic chain at a range of sixty feet and use it as a taser, and Gravity, which is the gamebreaker of gamebreakers and allows the user to manifest a certain number of gravitational fields in the immediate vicinity, granting impassible shields, unstoppable telekinesis, and all the various abilities implied by those two. These were all conceived as very powerful abilities, but the full scope of their power would come as a surprise to most who don't think the physics through.

In another, less-developed setting, superheroes had physics-based powers; one had control of light. This has the obvious implications for laser weapons, blinding, seeing around corners, et cetera, but the real kicker is that if you control light you control photons, control photons you control the electromagnetic force, and guess what gives objects their solidity? Boom, you've got Intangible Man as well as the aforementioned impassible shields and unstoppable telekinesis.

I'm pretty sure that bullet time (essentially super speed) does not give you the ability to deflect bullets with your bare hand. The entire reason bullets work is because they are a crapton of kinetic energy focused on a very, VERY small point. This is why bullets pierce and not bludgeon. Thus, increasing the amount of force they strike with (which is what's going to happen when something hits them at super speed), you basically make them MORE likely to go through it rather than less.

Now, if there are some Required Secondary Powers abound (like, say, the extra speed also made him more resilient), then that's another thing.

It's a bit late, but it's worth noting that my color-changing guy does not control the entire ultraviolet spectrum. Just color. Not visible light; just color. He literally can only control (or is at the very least most specialized in controlling) what wavelength of light things can reflect. So Yeah. I think camo is pretty much his most logical application. Although... now that I think about it, he might actually have an extremely plot-specific use that could help redeem him.

...Yes, the guy who controls color is a bad guy. This universe also spits in the face of Bad Powers, Bad People.

But I like Heart Is an Awesome Power universes. Especially my Suenyaverse, because it's one in which people openly specialize in weird powers because it's helpful.

Me too. Although I like creative uses of any power, let alone heart.

…Dunno what to do with the color-changing guy though, other than making colours really bright to blind people, and becoming a dyer so that he can easily fund his criminal enterprises.

Reminds me of an aqua-man parody I made who can control sea-creatures… telekinetically. He is introduces making a sea-serpent fly out of the ocean and then using a piranha swarm as razor-sharp flying shrapnel;

“The power to make things spin. Swirl your coffee. Keep a top spinning indefinitely. Wrench people's heads off and make whirlpools in their veins. “

You are SERIOUSLY underselling spinning here, particularly under comic book science.

Spin to Deflect Stuff. Spin to become the human buzzsaw. Spin to generate electricity, Spin to fly. Spin to become a drill. Spin to become a wheel. Throw a spinning weapon to make it become a flying buzzsaw. Spin to create a hurricane. Cause something to spin outside it’s axis for telekinesis.. Make a thing spin to cause huge torsion damage to it. Finally, spin to travel through time, pick up chicks, and generally make things better.

As for other weird but broken powers, consider the power of throwing and catching anything. Taking it to it’s extreme, this would allow you to catch and throw ridcously heavy things, like small countries, and also nonphysical things, like a lighting bolt. By this logic, said character,(we will call him Chuck) might also be able to throw things really fast, really far, and from any extremity: so we already have the equivalent of a huge gattling-railgun on our hands. On top of this, chuck would also, by the “logic”, be able to jump huge distances, ad he would be able to “throw himself at his enemies” and be a hugely dangerous Extremity Extremist because he would be able to “throw a punch.” By the same “logic” chuck might also be able to control his density (throw their weight around) and combined with the ability to catch anything… well, he may as well be a physical god.

On the question front, I have the character called Taylor who’s power is super-weaving… yes, super-weaving. Besides Clothes Make the Superman, weaving barriers around people, and making clothes really fast, what else could he do?

Edit: As Theif has proven, stealing things is also a weak-yet-broken power. "Quick men, run for it! I just stole the initiative !"

edited 17th Jul '11 5:39:29 AM by doorhandle

The color guy could be very bad for plants. Changing the color of the leaves equals no photosynthesis. That would have big, deadly impacts if he did it large scale.

@KSPAM

How inverted do they have to do everything? Because if you make it wide enough their is an easy way to make it broken. Invert the learning process and you have temporary omniscience. Invert the forgetting process as well and the character is completely omniscient.

Learning in reverse would be knowing the information and then forgetting it. Forgetting in reverse would be remembering.

Discounting that there is also the possibility of nigh invulnerability or at least higher durability if the power works internally as well because the body won't fall appart right. For instance blood refusing to flow out of a wound because the persons power "knows" that blood should be flowing in through the wound.

@King Zeal:

There's no superspeed involved. He perceives things faster, and thinks faster; that's it. (Later he does get superspeed, and that's when he gets completely unbeatable.) Also, armored gloves, and it still mangles the crap out of his hand.

Absolute telekinetic control over duct tape plus the ability to renew used-up strips.

...so basically, buy a few boxes, and you have an infinite amount, because it can keep being renwed.

You can do all sorts of shit with duct tape too.