I still think we’ve seen his power. He was able to pick the correct cup by “seeing the shadow” of the ball and he was able to snatch a ball shooting out of a portal. (To be fair, we don’t know how much lead time he had on the ball coming out of the portal, but I don’t think it was very much.)
If villains can teleport in, ability or tech, then atleast half their security is useless. Wouldn’t they have shielding to stop teleporting in and out?
Maybe more of an ability leach? If he survives Siberia then either copying the Fleas potential subzero survival or his own original latent powers could aid survival. I doubt he is reduced to just super senses.
He’s a vindictive bully that has serious issues considering the consequences of acting on his worst impulses. I’m not sure why the Headmaster thinks letting him walk around aliveunmonitored was a good idea.
I think I can see why it looks like he froze them mid-teleport- neither Charles nor Flea is reacting to him. Charles isn’t looking at Ron, and the Flea’s normally *quite* expressive body language doesn’t indicate any awareness that Ron has hitched a ride.
… y’know, Flea is awesome and all, and so is Ron (occasionally, at least), but I find myself completely distracted by how exactly the Praetorians managed to keep Charles calm long enough to fly him out to Siberia. Did they just tranquilize him and wake him up once they were there, or..?
Because the only scenario I can see in my head where Charles is stuck on a plane for a long flight involves him getting bored, deciding to ‘port home to grab something or do something more fun for a while, and then teleporting back to where the plane was when he popped out. And then getting a brief, unpleasant lesson on two things: one, that airplanes move, and two, terminal velocity.
Didn’t Charles have an inhibitor on him to keep him from doing exactly this kind of thing without the Praetorians giving him permission? Or at least a tracker so that they know exactly when he’s done it?
Considering that they gave him permission to go to the super-kid event they’ve obviously decided to loosen his leash and see how well he behaves, of which they clearly need to break out the rolled-up newspaper again.
Ron’s “No, don’t–!” seemed far more concerned than just “don’t kidnap my friend and put him in a dangerous place.” I admit that I can’t think what I would expect for “merely” that, but it seems like he’s worried about more. …thinking about it, it probably is just that. It’s just it sounds more like a “you’re making a mistake” exclamation than a “please don’t do this terrible thing” exclamation, to me. I’m not sure why.
If Ron hadn’t been dragged along, the obvious solution would be for Ron to report what’d happened, and (a) search parties to be scrambled and (b) Praetorian Academy contacted to have them discipline Charles and force him to retrieve his victim.
What if Charles IS acting with sanction from the Praetorians? Letting him off the leash a bit and hoping that whatever he does leads to embarrassment and bad publicity for the heroes seems like a Headmaster-ish plan, and is fully deniable whether or not it comes to anything.
Or Charles could have been let loose deliberately to cause a distraction. We still don’t know what Sarah was expecting to happen at the party…
“Will” is an easier question to answer than “should.” Charles is going to get in trouble for his overt act of bullying that is arguably attempted murder with a superhuman power. It won’t be treated that seriously, but Praetorian Academy doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior for such petty reasons (and so easily traceable).
“Should…” is a little harder, but again, while the Marlockes are revolting people for their bigotry and generally emotionally abusive parenting, Charles is ACTIVELY doing things to cause immediate peril to life and limb, so probably should be higher on the priority list for comeuppance. Ultima and Sovereign did put Tyler – a defenseless child – in such situations frequently, but they’re not doing so now, which does impact prioritization.
What’s sad is Tyler could legitimately divorce his parents…He coudl easily rely on PS238 to take care of him until he is an adult…but why dosen’t he? because he loves his parents more than they love him
Tyler seems too young for the courts to even consider emancipation. So after the fight to prove that his “parents” are unfit there could be a fight to not be taken out of the school and the hell away from a dangerous, tax evading vigilante. Also there is a good chance Tyler does not even know about that option. I don’t think Tyler is staying out of love or hope or obligation but momentum.
Plus they are “Heroes” Imagine the blue code taken to the nth degree. What they want for him isnt even so unexplainable. They insist that Tyler will manifest powers and with the appearance of his “twin” they got it. wierder things happen in this world. Dont get me wrong – I think they are monsters, but we have examples in our world that are similar, like parents of deaf kids refusing treatments that would cure the deafness because they don’t consider it a disability. This is kind of the same thing but reversed.
The thing is, most kids who grow up with toxic parents don’t really realize that there are options. For one, this is ‘normal’ for you. You might think that yeah it sucks, but you’re at an age where being reliant on adults to be in charge is the default setting and don’t really consider taking charge yourself. Even for a superhero kid, they might consider themselves capable of saving the day but not arranging for their own roof over their head. For another, if the abuse isn’t blatant, people who don’t realize what a kid is going through are likely to say things to the effect of “Of course your parents love you, they’re your *parents*!”
Even the ps238 faculty that seem to be aware of how bad it is are limited in what they can do, because Ultima and Sovereign are well-connected in the superhero community and it’s hard to say what would happen if they encouraged Tyler to take an action they disagreed with — with the assumption they’d be more upset about Tyler seeking emancipation than learning from Revenant.
Charles punishment is implied to have already happened but he has learned nothing and he is not being stopped. The worst part of what the Powers were doing has stopped because they got what they wanted they have learned nothing and not been punished.
Why isn’t Charles dead or in jail? He’s tried (via dehydration and starvation, and in this case hypothermia) to kill multiple people. He’s basically a budding serial killer.
You know how in real life you see kids murder people but the courts often run them through the juvenile court system instead of the adult system because ‘we should be thinking of their future, this one mistake shouldn’t ruin their life, they’re just children’? That’s why. Even though he’s guilty of overt acts of extortion, attempted murder, and theft demonstrating a calculated intent where he knows the wrongness of his actions and does them anyway the adults treat it as him simply ‘acting out’ and just not having learned that actions have consequences because he’s ‘just a child’. It’s entirely possible he could murder someone and STILL not be punished as he should be.
Doesn’t help that from what we’ve seen the juvenile court system and child protective services are apparently incapable or otherwise failing to act on these cases because either the kids or their parents are supers and leaving things on the supers side to police themselves (always a bad idea). So Charles isn’t getting the kind of severe punishment needed to correct his behavior, he might even be one of those individuals that punishment CAN’T correct their behavior and only incarceration for life would properly protect everyone from him.
Skipping over the question of whether conventional prisons are any use at all (most research points to them being counterproductive)… comicbook morality is usually completely screwed in this respect –
the Joker is a literall mass murderer, not just a few, but hundreds of murders, but Batman keeps putting him back in a system that has been proven incapable of containing him. As soon as you have people with superpowers running around, the conventional rulebook goes out the window. And this is before you even take into account that Praetorian is (secretly) a school for supervillians… if Charles were at PS238 he might well have had decent behaviour knocked into him. Praetorian is ACTIVELY encouraging him to be evil AND GET AWAY WITH IT.
His mistake before was getting caught.
More than that, the Headmaster’s masterplan is to have a genocide on speed-dial as a countermeasure for the genocide he expects to happen. He doesn’t just want supervillains–he wants MASS killers.
I have a feeling that Ron’s new power is something related to Order and Chaos. Perhaps as an antithesis to Toby’s raw Chaos powers along the lines of Smitty’s from Gunnerkrigg Court. Remember back to the beginning of the festival when he continuously correctly guessed at the cup shuffle and found the ball from the portal ball throw? All to the flummox of those around him. Though those were indirect occurrences, this is a direct one whose results we’re soon to see.
So is his new power going to be the ability to stop other people’s powers? Neat, but we already have a guy who can do that.
And why in the world wouldn’t they have defense systems for stuff like this? Can’t have kid-villains doing stuff.
Or perhaps copy or even steal other’s abilities? Look at how Ron is touching Charles as the former activates his ability.
He isn’t touching Charles, he’s touching the Flea.
Oh yeah. Oops.
Still, I can imagine said touch triggering whatever powers he has.
I still think we’ve seen his power. He was able to pick the correct cup by “seeing the shadow” of the ball and he was able to snatch a ball shooting out of a portal. (To be fair, we don’t know how much lead time he had on the ball coming out of the portal, but I don’t think it was very much.)
I suspect that Ron’s vision and reflexes are simply aspect of his Argonian racial heritage, not actual
powers”.
If villains can teleport in, ability or tech, then atleast half their security is useless. Wouldn’t they have shielding to stop teleporting in and out?
Maybe more of an ability leach? If he survives Siberia then either copying the Fleas potential subzero survival or his own original latent powers could aid survival. I doubt he is reduced to just super senses.
The building is probably shielded against teleporting in it, but not within it or out of it.
And the teleport shields have probably been lowered somewhat for approved guests to the party.
Argh.
Charles.
I can’t wait to see how this bites you on your behind (or turn out awesomely for your victims).
Seconded. =_= Charles is genuinely so stupid that it beggars belief!
He’s a vindictive bully that has serious issues considering the consequences of acting on his worst impulses. I’m not sure why the Headmaster thinks letting him walk around
aliveunmonitored was a good idea.Why was he there specifically? A secret Pretorian base?
Didn’t he mention they flew him to various locations that might be useful as places to teleport to?
I think I saw some theories about time powers earlier, and this last frame kind of looks like he froze them both mid-teleport. I guess we’ll see.
We are aware of five or less time travelers so far. Um…. Yeah.
I think I can see why it looks like he froze them mid-teleport- neither Charles nor Flea is reacting to him. Charles isn’t looking at Ron, and the Flea’s normally *quite* expressive body language doesn’t indicate any awareness that Ron has hitched a ride.
… y’know, Flea is awesome and all, and so is Ron (occasionally, at least), but I find myself completely distracted by how exactly the Praetorians managed to keep Charles calm long enough to fly him out to Siberia. Did they just tranquilize him and wake him up once they were there, or..?
Because the only scenario I can see in my head where Charles is stuck on a plane for a long flight involves him getting bored, deciding to ‘port home to grab something or do something more fun for a while, and then teleporting back to where the plane was when he popped out. And then getting a brief, unpleasant lesson on two things: one, that airplanes move, and two, terminal velocity.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a teleporter that had already been a bit more patient gave him the tour.
Or the Praetorians offered him threats so horrible that even he was intimidated into being obedient. Or they hypnotized him.
at least no polar bears…
Didn’t Charles have an inhibitor on him to keep him from doing exactly this kind of thing without the Praetorians giving him permission? Or at least a tracker so that they know exactly when he’s done it?
Considering that they gave him permission to go to the super-kid event they’ve obviously decided to loosen his leash and see how well he behaves, of which they clearly need to break out the rolled-up newspaper again.
Ron’s “No, don’t–!” seemed far more concerned than just “don’t kidnap my friend and put him in a dangerous place.” I admit that I can’t think what I would expect for “merely” that, but it seems like he’s worried about more. …thinking about it, it probably is just that. It’s just it sounds more like a “you’re making a mistake” exclamation than a “please don’t do this terrible thing” exclamation, to me. I’m not sure why.
Anyway, Flea’s expression-concealing costume makes it hard to tell if he’s genuinely blasé or just surprised but not showing it ’cause he hasn’t had a chance to react more than with a facial expression. But knowing him, I suspect he gives only about half a bother. I do wonder what his solution will be.
If Ron hadn’t been dragged along, the obvious solution would be for Ron to report what’d happened, and (a) search parties to be scrambled and (b) Praetorian Academy contacted to have them discipline Charles and force him to retrieve his victim.
What if Charles IS acting with sanction from the Praetorians? Letting him off the leash a bit and hoping that whatever he does leads to embarrassment and bad publicity for the heroes seems like a Headmaster-ish plan, and is fully deniable whether or not it comes to anything.
Or Charles could have been let loose deliberately to cause a distraction. We still don’t know what Sarah was expecting to happen at the party…
Which villains should get their comeuppance first? Tyler’s parents or Charles?
(I always thought Praetorians had to earn the right to use their powers? you would think Charles would have flunked out
“Will” is an easier question to answer than “should.” Charles is going to get in trouble for his overt act of bullying that is arguably attempted murder with a superhuman power. It won’t be treated that seriously, but Praetorian Academy doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior for such petty reasons (and so easily traceable).
“Should…” is a little harder, but again, while the Marlockes are revolting people for their bigotry and generally emotionally abusive parenting, Charles is ACTIVELY doing things to cause immediate peril to life and limb, so probably should be higher on the priority list for comeuppance. Ultima and Sovereign did put Tyler – a defenseless child – in such situations frequently, but they’re not doing so now, which does impact prioritization.
What’s sad is Tyler could legitimately divorce his parents…He coudl easily rely on PS238 to take care of him until he is an adult…but why dosen’t he? because he loves his parents more than they love him
Tyler seems too young for the courts to even consider emancipation. So after the fight to prove that his “parents” are unfit there could be a fight to not be taken out of the school and the hell away from a dangerous, tax evading vigilante. Also there is a good chance Tyler does not even know about that option. I don’t think Tyler is staying out of love or hope or obligation but momentum.
Plus they are “Heroes” Imagine the blue code taken to the nth degree. What they want for him isnt even so unexplainable. They insist that Tyler will manifest powers and with the appearance of his “twin” they got it. wierder things happen in this world. Dont get me wrong – I think they are monsters, but we have examples in our world that are similar, like parents of deaf kids refusing treatments that would cure the deafness because they don’t consider it a disability. This is kind of the same thing but reversed.
The thing is, most kids who grow up with toxic parents don’t really realize that there are options. For one, this is ‘normal’ for you. You might think that yeah it sucks, but you’re at an age where being reliant on adults to be in charge is the default setting and don’t really consider taking charge yourself. Even for a superhero kid, they might consider themselves capable of saving the day but not arranging for their own roof over their head. For another, if the abuse isn’t blatant, people who don’t realize what a kid is going through are likely to say things to the effect of “Of course your parents love you, they’re your *parents*!”
Even the ps238 faculty that seem to be aware of how bad it is are limited in what they can do, because Ultima and Sovereign are well-connected in the superhero community and it’s hard to say what would happen if they encouraged Tyler to take an action they disagreed with — with the assumption they’d be more upset about Tyler seeking emancipation than learning from Revenant.
Charles punishment is implied to have already happened but he has learned nothing and he is not being stopped. The worst part of what the Powers were doing has stopped because they got what they wanted they have learned nothing and not been punished.
Why isn’t Charles dead or in jail? He’s tried (via dehydration and starvation, and in this case hypothermia) to kill multiple people. He’s basically a budding serial killer.
You know how in real life you see kids murder people but the courts often run them through the juvenile court system instead of the adult system because ‘we should be thinking of their future, this one mistake shouldn’t ruin their life, they’re just children’? That’s why. Even though he’s guilty of overt acts of extortion, attempted murder, and theft demonstrating a calculated intent where he knows the wrongness of his actions and does them anyway the adults treat it as him simply ‘acting out’ and just not having learned that actions have consequences because he’s ‘just a child’. It’s entirely possible he could murder someone and STILL not be punished as he should be.
Doesn’t help that from what we’ve seen the juvenile court system and child protective services are apparently incapable or otherwise failing to act on these cases because either the kids or their parents are supers and leaving things on the supers side to police themselves (always a bad idea). So Charles isn’t getting the kind of severe punishment needed to correct his behavior, he might even be one of those individuals that punishment CAN’T correct their behavior and only incarceration for life would properly protect everyone from him.
Skipping over the question of whether conventional prisons are any use at all (most research points to them being counterproductive)… comicbook morality is usually completely screwed in this respect –
the Joker is a literall mass murderer, not just a few, but hundreds of murders, but Batman keeps putting him back in a system that has been proven incapable of containing him. As soon as you have people with superpowers running around, the conventional rulebook goes out the window. And this is before you even take into account that Praetorian is (secretly) a school for supervillians… if Charles were at PS238 he might well have had decent behaviour knocked into him. Praetorian is ACTIVELY encouraging him to be evil AND GET AWAY WITH IT.
His mistake before was getting caught.
More than that, the Headmaster’s masterplan is to have a genocide on speed-dial as a countermeasure for the genocide he expects to happen. He doesn’t just want supervillains–he wants MASS killers.
I have a feeling that Ron’s new power is something related to Order and Chaos. Perhaps as an antithesis to Toby’s raw Chaos powers along the lines of Smitty’s from Gunnerkrigg Court. Remember back to the beginning of the festival when he continuously correctly guessed at the cup shuffle and found the ball from the portal ball throw? All to the flummox of those around him. Though those were indirect occurrences, this is a direct one whose results we’re soon to see.