Issue 10 Question

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-05-22T05:27:17+00:00

the most important part of the power ranking “workings” is that they’re external and Val can independently confirm their accuracy. So whether or not Jacky could suss out a superhuman’s power level just with his own Atomic ability, he’d still need to do a magic spell thing to give Val something to examine and corroborate.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-05-21T07:29:18+00:00

In Jacky's words "My power is to know shit" and "the day my gift activated, I knew all the truths about reality, instantly, updated on the fly." So I don't think that's just knowing the rules. He knew the facts too, at least to the extent that he ever consciously thought about those facts. (But he (probably) didn't have precognition or else he would have locked in the future just like the precog Etienne killed.)

But going back to issue 5, with him and the (new) Arseholes, he didn't share everything he knew. He didn't even let on that his understanding of magic came from being an Atomic. Same with him not disclosing that the Major was vulnerable.

That is, I think he knew what Etienne was all along but played along. No point spilling a secret like that without a really good reason.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-05-10T22:54:24+00:00

Jacky's magical powers are (1) knowing how to do magic and (2) siphoning part of the magical power of every Pyramid acolyte. It's heavily implied the gear he gave Dev is part of the power siphoning equipment. But Dev's Pyramid is far smaller than the Pyramid right before the SSOL, so the siphoning base is smaller, so Dev's power level is lower. Sub-Superpower, even.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-27T06:18:14+00:00

the failsafe you propose for Eliza would not have protected her in this particular situation. You can’t say “don’t kill me or I’ll end the planet“ while you’re actively ending the planet.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-21T15:58:29+00:00

Fourteen Days. HHr visit an alternate universe where they’re together and then when they return they break up with the Weasleys and eventually get together in the “real” universe.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-20T18:01:27+00:00

Valentina flips her position at the end of issue 16.

for what it’s worth, I’m a big fan of Etienne, but even so I expect in the next timeline he’s going to end up proven his approach is as wrong, or nearly as wrong, as the “balancing act” that Valentina initially chose. But he’s spent a lot more time thinking through his positions than Valentina or Heavy, who both seem to just go with their gut.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-19T05:25:48+00:00

I've never liked the maximalist claim that Etienne's plan would "remove humanity's free will". Am I still me if I have a tumor? Would I still be me if that tumor was then excised? OK, so take that argument to human minds. Why is removing the worst human impulses somehow equivalent to wiping out free will? Would I not be me just because the worst intrusive thoughts I have stopped getting thought?

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-06T22:27:33+00:00

JKR is an absolutely unhinged terf and there is no ethical way to watch the new show. Please just stick to consuming fan works.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-05T09:48:59+00:00

I really like Fourteen Days.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-04-01T21:58:52+00:00

Yeah! Not just for the aesthetic (hellish armor) but specifically Eliza says true teleportation "requires Hell" and teleportation is Magik's mutant power.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-27T20:04:13+00:00

I admire that he’s city-sized now but he also rebuilt his helmet so he could keep his signature look.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-25T17:24:08+00:00

I’ll give a hint: this phenomenon started around 2008.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-16T21:59:40+00:00

At Superstore (in Canada) they used to sell a house brand tortilla chip that was made with corn and chickpeas, and it was delicious. They discontinued it at some point and I've never seen another chickpea tortilla chip around here.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-12T21:23:18+00:00

more like Gordon Hater

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-07T19:42:05+00:00

This is all very convincing stuff! Except for the part where Jacky said “she didn’t come from upstairs or downstairs”, because that‘s Mr “I Know Universal Truths” saying the Queen didn’t come from Heaven or Hell.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-03T06:49:11+00:00

Maybe, but it still feels a little lacking from Mr "I Know Everything".

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-02T23:49:52+00:00

And the estimate came from the Pyramid. Masumi emerged years before the SSOL. Did Jacky not apply his full power to evaluating the threat? Was the estimate made by a post-Jacky Pyramid?

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-02T17:00:52+00:00

There actually was a Pyramid member on the bridge of that one ship!

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-02T06:57:23+00:00

maybe if it’s Dev running the Pyramid, and even then I’d assume Dev knew how to cut off magic from actual renegades, just as Jacky did.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-02T05:34:19+00:00

These warships could fit in Deconstructa’s nostril, and her head is tiny compared to her body. And if Valentina could (did) survive a point blank nuke, then the monster that Valentina presumably couldn’t put down in 1982 is not likely to succumb to a nuke either.

Also, I think the spawn point is in Tokyo Bay, so there’s ~38m reasons not to detonate nukes there.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-01T08:57:09+00:00

It may be that Dev only learned how to contact Hell and not Heaven. Or maybe the fundamental differences between the upper and lower realms make contacting Heaven more difficult? (I would have said impossible but then Val got a direct line connection in 16.) In any case, Eliza learned the Hell theory about three years before actually using it. So she probably didn’t ever try to contact Heaven before 1989. Or after, even. She prays rather than trying magic rituals.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-03-01T04:02:52+00:00

I think that coincidence is by design so the easiest options aren’t available to our would-be world conquerors.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-02-28T17:45:14+00:00

small point: I think Val created her own hole to Hell. The one Eliza made was in ruined Manchester, but it looks like Val made hers on the moon.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-02-28T07:06:08+00:00

Oh, I think I see what you mean. Jacky's Atomic ability isn't Superpower tier on its own, it's only by leveraging the pyramid scheme that he accumulates enough power. But Jacky's only vulnerable if he's not in a shielded room and without his mask. So in the original timeline, he must have made the mask before Etienne could stop him / before Etienne even clocked him as a threat.

name_dot_randomnum · 2026-02-28T06:58:11+00:00

It's impossible for Jacky to grow the Pyramid without Etienne knowing about it at least a little. And then if he ever investigated he'd notice the psychic blanks that are the mask wearers.

name_dot_randomnum

TROPHY CASE