personalities of power
Apr. 10th, 2023 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliA couple of reflections on personality-based powers from discussions I've been in recently:
Perhaps only some personalities can get powers. Imagine a world where your Silver Age heroes and villains were the only ones: villains pranksters and thieves, and heroes upstanding citizens, pillars of the community, with some variation in probity but certainly enough that they would be revolted by dirty business between governments. . . . There would be an interesting time as they rooted out corruption, if they are powerful enough. (Villains would probably help.) Of course, if that's in the history, the current characters can live in a much better governed world thus avoiding distractions if the plot focuses elsewhere.
There's also the question of what happens when your personality changes. You reform, you get corrupted, you get burned out on travel and settle down, you just get old and have less taste for adventure. . . . Do your powers change? Perhaps with your new interests you work more with different powers, and you change how you use them, and it looks like change, or maybe it actually changes and you don't notice.
Actual power changes would make it interesting to try to feign reforming, or to disbelieve in actual reformation. A villain might find it his best plan to arrive at their doorstep and announce that the other villains betrayed him, and he will work with the heroes to bring them down. It would be a limited set of plots, though.
Perhaps only some personalities can get powers. Imagine a world where your Silver Age heroes and villains were the only ones: villains pranksters and thieves, and heroes upstanding citizens, pillars of the community, with some variation in probity but certainly enough that they would be revolted by dirty business between governments. . . . There would be an interesting time as they rooted out corruption, if they are powerful enough. (Villains would probably help.) Of course, if that's in the history, the current characters can live in a much better governed world thus avoiding distractions if the plot focuses elsewhere.
There's also the question of what happens when your personality changes. You reform, you get corrupted, you get burned out on travel and settle down, you just get old and have less taste for adventure. . . . Do your powers change? Perhaps with your new interests you work more with different powers, and you change how you use them, and it looks like change, or maybe it actually changes and you don't notice.
Actual power changes would make it interesting to try to feign reforming, or to disbelieve in actual reformation. A villain might find it his best plan to arrive at their doorstep and announce that the other villains betrayed him, and he will work with the heroes to bring them down. It would be a limited set of plots, though.