For me, it was Brian calling Lisa Lise. I thought it was a typo first, but he does it pretty often in canon. Is that a nickname for that name (like Georgie for George?)
Armsmaster using the lie detector built into his helmet and telling Taylor “You’re telling the truth!” Blurting that out sounds so completely over-the-top socially unaware to me, it had to be fanon!
Even some of his later appearances. He becomes better at dealing with people after becoming Defiant, but there's a scene that makes it clear that some of the other heroes are weirded out by him, and another scene where it's made clear that a lot of his "better at dealing with people" is just Dragon whispering in his ear as she feeds him social cues.
It’s also, like, dude has probably been awake 16 hours already, this girl has Ling KO’d at her feet, and her costume looks professionally done and like the kind of thing Sophia wished she could pull off. Vibes are hard for super violent vigilante or worse, then it’s a stumbling awkward mess of a girl on her first night WTF.
Dude was so off his game he forgot to debrief her properly
Is that a nickname for that name (like Georgie for George?)
Not necessarily a nickname, just a shortening. Lisa is two syllables, Lise (pronounced like "lease") would only be one syllable so it's easy to say quickly in a stressful situation.
My mom's name is "Elizabeth," and she typically goes by "Lisa" (Lisa is one of the many common nicknames for Elizabeth). My dad often calls her "Lise" (pronounced the same as "lease"). So, from my sample size of one, it's a normal nickname to me.
I thought some of the characters would have more scenes of their own.
Didn't expect most of them to die before we even got time to properly see them.
Also, the fact that there are actually more capes in Brockton Bay then the ones we know about with earlier chapters mentioning someone called "Stain" alongside Circus and Uber & Leet.
Damn, imagine starting with Stain and rebranding to a worse name. Are we sure he doesn't have a Thinker 1 power to optimally destroy reputation that he's been subconsciously using on himself?
Being underestimated is a good survival trait, and a name that makes people regard you as trash is a pretty good way to encourage that. (Not that that was the idea, I don't actually remember anything to that point, but could be an explanation.)
The number of 120 capes in BB is usually based on Taylor's claim that "As far as cape population went, Brockton Bay wasn’t in the top 5 cities in the U.S., but it was probably in the top ten." from 1.3.
The wiki uses it, but it's highly dubious because there's quite clearly not 60 additional parahumans in the Bay. Just as an example, the Merchants were mentioned as the absolute bottom dwellers of the city that can only hold territory nobody else wants, they still got invited to the meeting in Somer's Rock. There's also quite clearly no other independent heroes in the city that the Protectorate can attempt to recruit or just cooperate with after Leviathan.
It's reasonable to assume that "cape population" means active parahumans at that point in time and the 4-5 back to back city wide disasters and the warlords would have revealed even obscure capes.
Any evidence that Cauldron would suppress cape populations at all and specifically in Project Terminus?
The rainbow forcefield and bridge around the Protectorate HQ's Rig actually existing in canon. I thought it was fanon for years just because I didn't remember it.
I've read the story, but I forgot that it was an actual thing between Taylor commenting it only like...once or maybe twice and then Leviathan seeming to effortlessly destroy The Rig anyway, which I guess is fair given how hard its waves can hit and the Rig being in the water but still. After that, I don't think it ever comes back up again even in the off-chance that it was ever actually rebuilt. As such I just thought people made it up like how they tended to act like Armsmaster is the only one with access to a cool bike when that's actually just standard Protectorate--maybe even standard PRT--tech. This even if the bike thing at least makes sense to also be confused about given only Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and the barely ever existent-in-fics Triumph would actually need them to get around compared to the other half of the Brockton Bay Protectorate members since Assault, Velocity, and even Battery can ultimately run faster & more safely than a bike and Dauntless can outright fly.
Even weirder is that apparently it is also canon that said forcefield was built by someone from The Elite, who barely have an East Coast presence otherwise and apparently either sent or established their otherwise "token good" if also dying teammate Uppercrust there since I don't think he ever even gets mentioned in canon by name. This part never has come up in fics that I've seen or read, though in some ways that just makes having it confirmed last year to actually be the case rather than something the wiki was botching like "Heith" supposedly being Theo's mother's given name--it's her cape name; we never find out her actual one--even weirder.
Noted. I figured it's been mentioned in fics, I just have personally never seen it like I recall, and it's entirely possible--probable?--that they got the information from the wiki and just took at face value with it turning out to be true. (Sort of like how people have used the Heith thing, which isn't actually true since it was just Theo's dead mother's cape name.)
Vex(Teeth) and Toggle(Post timeskip Ward) had little enough screentime that I thought they were both OCs when I first saw them in fanfic. Took me seeing them in a second fanfic each before I realized they were canon characters.
Armsmaster using the lie detector built into his helmet and telling Taylor “You’re telling the truth!” Blurting that out sounds so completely over-the-top socially unaware to me, it had to be fanon!
Turns out he’s just a weirdo lmao
Yeah, some of it is just Wildbow early writing shakiness, but his first two appearances make a very compelling case for him being a complete idiot.
Even some of his later appearances. He becomes better at dealing with people after becoming Defiant, but there's a scene that makes it clear that some of the other heroes are weirded out by him, and another scene where it's made clear that a lot of his "better at dealing with people" is just Dragon whispering in his ear as she feeds him social cues.
Early installment weirdness I believe it’s called
It’s also, like, dude has probably been awake 16 hours already, this girl has Ling KO’d at her feet, and her costume looks professionally done and like the kind of thing Sophia wished she could pull off. Vibes are hard for super violent vigilante or worse, then it’s a stumbling awkward mess of a girl on her first night WTF.
Dude was so off his game he forgot to debrief her properly
"I've been trying to take down this bastard for years, and this fucking spindly weirdo in the creepy costume does it on her first try!?"
Way off his game for sure.
Not necessarily a nickname, just a shortening. Lisa is two syllables, Lise (pronounced like "lease") would only be one syllable so it's easy to say quickly in a stressful situation.
That makes sense haha. I had no idea
It's an odd spoken vs written thing, considering they both are 4-lettered words.
You've just inspired an idea in me for my next chapter, thanks
My mom's name is "Elizabeth," and she typically goes by "Lisa" (Lisa is one of the many common nicknames for Elizabeth). My dad often calls her "Lise" (pronounced the same as "lease"). So, from my sample size of one, it's a normal nickname to me.
I thought some of the characters would have more scenes of their own.
Didn't expect most of them to die before we even got time to properly see them.
Also, the fact that there are actually more capes in Brockton Bay then the ones we know about with earlier chapters mentioning someone called "Stain" alongside Circus and Uber & Leet.
I think one thing I've seen a fair few times is people theorising that Stain is just a name Skidmark used to go by in the past.
Damn, imagine starting with Stain and rebranding to a worse name. Are we sure he doesn't have a Thinker 1 power to optimally destroy reputation that he's been subconsciously using on himself?
Being underestimated is a good survival trait, and a name that makes people regard you as trash is a pretty good way to encourage that. (Not that that was the idea, I don't actually remember anything to that point, but could be an explanation.)
I recall a post someone made thay said the average cape numbers for BB is around 120 capes.
We only know 61 named capes - 22 heroes and 38 villains, 1 independent - and half of them are villains, which is why BB is so fucked up.
Well, besides the fact that its been left to fend for itself as an experimental post apocalyptic city.
Edit: forgot to add the indenpent cape.
The number of 120 capes in BB is usually based on Taylor's claim that "As far as cape population went, Brockton Bay wasn’t in the top 5 cities in the U.S., but it was probably in the top ten." from 1.3.
The wiki uses it, but it's highly dubious because there's quite clearly not 60 additional parahumans in the Bay. Just as an example, the Merchants were mentioned as the absolute bottom dwellers of the city that can only hold territory nobody else wants, they still got invited to the meeting in Somer's Rock. There's also quite clearly no other independent heroes in the city that the Protectorate can attempt to recruit or just cooperate with after Leviathan.
Wildbow also said that there aren't that many unmentioned parahumans in BB and that it's more of an early installment weirdness.
Ping to /u/Radiant-Ad-1976
Well its not like every cape gets known or lives long enough to get a rep.
Its not as if theres 120 capes all at once.
Not with Cauldron doing their secret bullshit.
It's reasonable to assume that "cape population" means active parahumans at that point in time and the 4-5 back to back city wide disasters and the warlords would have revealed even obscure capes.
Any evidence that Cauldron would suppress cape populations at all and specifically in Project Terminus?
Could you provide me link to post?
If i ever find it again, sure.
Shotgun Westly is someone mentioned briefly by Taylor during the Leviathan fight. He's distinctive, interesting, and never appears again.
And there's no explanation of why some dude with apparently zero powers and a shotgun is going up against an Endbringer, but that's a crazy fun hook.
I mean, that sounds like the obvious answer is that he's either a Tinker, or a Dauntless-style "enchanted weapon" cape, no?
The rainbow forcefield and bridge around the Protectorate HQ's Rig actually existing in canon. I thought it was fanon for years just because I didn't remember it.
I've read the story, but I forgot that it was an actual thing between Taylor commenting it only like...once or maybe twice and then Leviathan seeming to effortlessly destroy The Rig anyway, which I guess is fair given how hard its waves can hit and the Rig being in the water but still. After that, I don't think it ever comes back up again even in the off-chance that it was ever actually rebuilt. As such I just thought people made it up like how they tended to act like Armsmaster is the only one with access to a cool bike when that's actually just standard Protectorate--maybe even standard PRT--tech. This even if the bike thing at least makes sense to also be confused about given only Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and the barely ever existent-in-fics Triumph would actually need them to get around compared to the other half of the Brockton Bay Protectorate members since Assault, Velocity, and even Battery can ultimately run faster & more safely than a bike and Dauntless can outright fly.
Even weirder is that apparently it is also canon that said forcefield was built by someone from The Elite, who barely have an East Coast presence otherwise and apparently either sent or established their otherwise "token good" if also dying teammate Uppercrust there since I don't think he ever even gets mentioned in canon by name. This part never has come up in fics that I've seen or read, though in some ways that just makes having it confirmed last year to actually be the case rather than something the wiki was botching like "Heith" supposedly being Theo's mother's given name--it's her cape name; we never find out her actual one--even weirder.
I've seen the forcefield/Uppercrust link mentioned a few times in fics, even older ones, so that one I don't know how to explain.
Noted. I figured it's been mentioned in fics, I just have personally never seen it like I recall, and it's entirely possible--probable?--that they got the information from the wiki and just took at face value with it turning out to be true. (Sort of like how people have used the Heith thing, which isn't actually true since it was just Theo's dead mother's cape name.)
Vex(Teeth) and Toggle(Post timeskip Ward) had little enough screentime that I thought they were both OCs when I first saw them in fanfic. Took me seeing them in a second fanfic each before I realized they were canon characters.