Remember all of those discussions we had back in 6.x/7.1, about the idea of accidentally doing something horrible with a superpower, and about the idea of using a superpower to make someone fall in love with you? Now you know what Wildbow was setting up by introducing those two concepts back to back. So now for the question everyone wanted to ask you back then, but couldn’t: What do you think about the legal/ethical implications of *accidentally* making someone fall in love with you?

Well, legally… we’ve already seen how the legal system around here treats accidents sometimes. It’s not pretty, even if what happened to Paige wasn’t the norm.

Ethically… it’s not really that bad. Accidentally causing someone to feel a certain way is a very different thing than intentionally manipulating them. Exploiting that accident on purpose is not a great thing to do, though. It’s pretty clear that Amy had no intentions of doing so, though.

Worm had several initial drafts, where many character’s backstories were explored, along with tons of worldbuilding. One of them had Amy and Victoria as the main characters. This is something that had been planned for a while.

Ah, yes, Guts and Glory. Had that been released to the public before this reveal made it into Worm?

Hey remember in Victoria’s interlude when she tried to use her aura on Amy and Amy said she’d been exposed to it so much she’d become immune? *hint hint*

According to Wildbow, one of the reasons Amy had feelings for Victoria was because of Victoria’s aura being used on her repeatedly while she was emotionally vulnerable due to puberty.

Sharks: This actually has an ambiguous response by Wildbow. We don’t really know if it’s true or not

I vaguely alluded to this at the end of this post. It’s certainly a possibility, and not an unlikely one, but I honestly appreciate it being ambiguous how much of a hand the aura had in this.

Remember how in the interlude after the bank robbery Gallant talked to Panacea about how he thought she loved him? His power made him see emotions as a colored cloud around people, and whenever he saw her she had the love color around her. But really, it was only that color because he made Panacea think of Glory Girl.

Damn, quite the crafty foreshadowing right there.

Hack Job’s power being weaker than Hatchet Face’s seems to mostly mean that it has extremely reduced range.

Bonesaw mashing two capes together makes both powers less effective, so Hack Job had a much smaller power canceling field. That’s why Mark was able to keep firing blasts. HJ could theoretically have just teleported to Mark and grabbed him, but he’d have to be ordered to do that, because he was stupid even before his “death”.

Ahh, right, that works. When he was blocking Amy’s power, he was right up next to her, after all.

(these are separate asks)

It’s never explicitly spelled out in story, so I think it’s important to note that the Manton Effect is more intended to be worldbuilding about how people *react* to powers than worldbuilding about powers themselves. The Manton Effect isn’t… a *thing*. It’s a term some academics invented while grasping at straws trying to express their confusion at how powers work. Powers that it’s relevant to aren’t *that* common; scientists just had their minds blown by the fact that they *exist at all*.

Hmm. That’s fair. But then why do we have things like Faultline being unable to cut through living wood?

My headcanon is that there are 3 parts to the Manton effect, depending on the power. Living/unliving (or organic/inorganic), self/others (like Othala giving other people powers, but not herself), and parts/whole (like teleporters not moving only your head to decapitate you). Some capes will be able to break one or more from the beginning, but it takes a second trigger to break limits that were set on the powers from the start.

Yeah, that makes sense, from what we’ve seen, although they could be seen as separate criteria for what a valid target is.

Manton Effect already doesn’t apply to Panacea. Manton Effect isn’t a power boost/debuff like you put it, its a interaction limiter between, VERY mainly, direct biological effects. Its an effect that goes both ways most of the times: a fireproof pyrokinectic cant burn himself, nor can he create flames from inside someone. A teleporter can’t be imploded by teleporting inside an object, but he also can’t teleport other people inside walls for the very same reason.

Hmm, that is a very good point. As Bonesaw put it, the power eliminates ways it could hurt its wielder, so maybe that extends to others in some cases.

I assume the line about touching is referring to Amy’s power to look at people’s insides (including their brains cough cough) with a touch.

Yeah, I got there eventually.

Neil is Manpower, and Manpower is dead. Seems like Glory Girl telling Amy to have him watch Mark was a mistake, though I guess it’s possible that Victoria was caught up in the heat of the moment and forgot he was dead.

That’s a good and heartbreaking Watsonian explanation.

Panacea’s power *definitely* doesn’t work on herself, and I’m pretty sure this has already been made clear; it’d be hella fucking overpowered if it did.

Hm, I suppose it would be. Good point.