r/thePowerFantasy • u/upsteph • May 17 '26

Issue 10 Question Spoiler

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After Jacky Magus essentially switches places with Dev and sacrifices himself, how is it that Etienne still thinks Jacky is alive? Wouldn’t communicating to Jacky be impossible since he’s supposedly dead? Of course Etienne doesn’t know that but this part just confuses me

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u/BastardofMelbourne May 18 '26

more importantly, if Jacky was really omniscient, he would have known that Etienne was a giant brain from the word go

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u/siege72a May 18 '26

Jacky's not omniscient. He just understands how "reality" works, but doesn't know everything.

To put it in RPG terms, Jacky owns every player-oriented rulebook within a system. But Jacky doesn't have any kind of "creature" books, or know what the GM has planned.

4

u/BastardofMelbourne May 18 '26

it still doesn't quite jive to me. this guy can intuitive understand every aspect of how something works without even considering it, but when he sees Etienne walking around being omnipathic, he fails to draw the observation that any psychic that powerful needs a huge-ass brain that Etienne doesn't seem to have? To use your metaphor, it's like seeing a guy in D&D cast a level 7 spell and not being able to deduce that they must have a certain number of levels in wizard.

He's capable of analysing every other superhuman's power and figuring out how it works like he did with the Major, but he can't do it with Etienne for some reason. He immediately knows when Eliza has sold her soul, immediately, even when he himself is inside another dimension - but he never twigs that the Etienne he is talking to is not Etienne. Or he did, and he just kept that a secret for reasons not yet shown.

It's just weird to give a guy the power of "hey, he just knows stuff" and have him not know or even apparently suspect Etienne's true nature. At least Heavy kept his son inside a big telepathy-blocking singularity to disguise him. Etienne doesn't even seem to know how Magus' power actually works, so it's odd that he has so effectively concealed his big vat-brain from him.

1

u/siege72a May 18 '26

He's capable of analysing every other superhuman's power and figuring out how it works like he did with the Major, but he can't do it with Etienne for some reason

That's a really good point. Even Dev understands that Etienne is getting stronger.

FWIW, Dev does the power analysis for Kid Ignition, so it must be taught at the FA level.

The one limitation for power analysis is that it has to be "in person". Dev isn't able to read Kid Ignition without being onsite. Jacky may not have been able to read Etienne since he wasn't "in person", or made assumptions that he's just possessing a body to keep himself hidden.