Superpower Explanations

I am having trouble finding a way to psuedo-scientifically explain some powers.

Pyrokinesis (the Firebending kind, not the one that just lights ur hands on fire via friction and secreting liquids)

Flight (no wings and being able to maneuver in the air)

Radiation/Powers that only shoot out thru the arms or eyes. How come they don't shoot out the legs or the back?

Invulnerability dense skin but soft with a touch. Should I do the micrscopic thin field that protects from injury like Superman?

Btw, how does the Speed Force protect the environment from Flash's speed? I understand it being able to stop the friction/danger to the things he carries and touches but shouldn't the backlash shatter windows for miles?

Also Healing. The Mental Trauma. Can a healing factor really repair PTSD?

edited 17th Jan '16 8:28:12 AM by BruceKent

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures

Well, for flight, I once came up with a superhero character who could control gravity. To fly, she would alter the directional pull of gravity upon her body, so she essentially "fell" upwards or sideways. To hover, she would nullify all gravity upon herself. She could also walk on walls and across ceilings.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.

Radiation shooting through the eyes could be pseudo-scientifically explained as the body radiating in all direction, but only eyes acting as "lens" focusing the power into anything notable.

With Invulnerability, it could be that the skin is made of some sort of very light and elastic, but very tough metal, like spiderweb or graphene (does graphene actually bend?).

Healing mental illnesses could act as mimicking the results of drugs that are "normally" taken, which is to say, it wouldn't fix them completely as much as it would mitigate the effects.

As for gravity, has a nice idea. No clue how to make Pyromancy "work" with the limitations you've given, though.

Rejoice!

Flame Alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist works by manipulating the flammable gases in the air. Maybe that could serve as the basis for Pyrokinesis? You still need an ignition of some kind though...

edited 18th Jan '16 2:21:43 PM by Paradisesnake

Those are good ideas. And I was actually thinking of FMA when I was talking about pyrokinesis haha. Thanks, any ideas for the other ones?

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures

Just dropping by to say that we have a(n admittedly new) thread devoted to working with superpowers.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I wish we could quote people and post images Anyways, it's probably my fault. I saw a lot of the threads and skimmed them because Im fairly new and fairly lazy. My bad..its too late to switch to that thread so ill keep this here

edited 21st Jan '16 7:22:41 AM by BruceKent

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures

You can link to images ([[http://i.imgur.com/7tXHwEt.jpg my image]] will display as my image◊), you just can't actually have them show in the post unless you upload the image to TV Tropes. But note that if your account is less than one or two weeks old, you won't be able to include URLs in your forum posts at all.

Also, we have quoteblock markup. Writing

[[quoteblock]]"The stars look very different today." - David Bowie[[/quoteblock]]

will display as

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

thanks dollface

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures

Question.

Are you looking for pseudo-scientific explanations as a thought exercise or is it actually relevant to the plot?

'Cause it seems to me that when you're fighting a guy who can punch the shit out of you from across the room, it's probably more productive to focus on THAT he can do it, rather than HOW he can do it. :P

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!

Well it is pretty relevent to the plot and it helps me exercise my scientific ability to further my writing skills. Because one of the characters is sort of a mentor and scientist who explains powers sort of like Harrison Wells on Flash

edited 24th Jan '16 1:49:41 AM by BruceKent

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures

I'd say it's good to have the "how" layed down so that you can gauge what your given explanation allows you to - and forbids you from - doing. If you know, for example, that pyrokinesis works as spreading a flammable gas, then you can't have it change directions mid-flight, not to mention that you have to account for possibility of hurting your allies and the weight of gas carrying it either up or down. But you can also "cheat" the system by having the pyromancer character smear some of this flammable substance on something he needs on fire and then lighting it up - it's like carrying Molotov's cocktail with you.

So I'd say for a writer, "how" is more useful than "what".

Rejoice!

exactly my thoughts

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures