From what I understood, he's trying to sabotage the efforts to stop the Endbringers (and prevent the end of the world), in order to make the PRT desperate enough to open the Birdcage.

What I don't understand, is why Saint is helping him. Yes, Teacher has money, but is Saint really that in need of it? Why would anyone accept any sum of money if it made the end of the world more likely?
Unless Saint doesn't know either what Teacher is trying to do and is being used by him.

 

Saint seems, to me, to want to destroy Dragon and everything she does. Engineering a breaking in the Birdcage, or even 'taking control' of the birdcage, are such things.

Also, if the PRT gets to open up the birdcage, Saint possibly assume they will ask -him- to do it.

 

Wonderful interlude. Contessa's power seems to be more than just precog: she didn't seem to have exceptional skill or strength or speed during the fight. I think the Groundhog idea is correct, and she can simply replay events as many times as she likes until she gets them right. This would explain the absolute lack of fear on hers and Doctor Mother's part. It'd also explain how the fight managed to feel strangely close and curbstompy at the same time: Contessa simply took the first perfect solution that presented itself.

More on Lung's power and his fight with the Endbringer was cool. I feel like Alexandria's large involvement was almost written in response to all the discussion lately that she was an Endbringer punching bag . I think Lung will get to have round three with Taylor, and his pyrokinesis means he'll never really be an easy opponent for her.

The end part seemed to confirm things were happening on their own in the birdcage and wouldn't need Skitter's help to push them along. Also, Trickster! I didn't figure we'd see him again, somehow.

 

Also explains why, in Legend's interlude, she couldn't be sure she'd win in any fight against anyone from the Triumvirate.

"This woman didn’t relax for an instant, where someone who was assured of victory would be more willing to let down her guard."

Even if you have a million tries, no one can beat Godzilla, after all.

 

Well, I don't know if it's fair to say Lung was already "bad" back then. He was a delinquent, which was a result of his ethnicity and the culture of Japan. He's not an idiot, so I think he could have been "good" if he'd had a life closer to Skitter's. Getting his powers as he did only served to solidify his "badness".

 

I mean, the people who captured him sounded a lot like Cauldron. He very much was not a straight out villain at that point and time, but it pushed him over the edge.

 

He set up a gang explicitly for the purpose of joining the Yakuza, and while that may not be as bad as the Mafia or a US gang, it's still not exactly something to be proud of. Getting his powers simply gave him more power to do as he was going to in the first place. He also had his 'list' before being taken by Cauldron. He wanted to seek revenge against (presumably) Contessa.

What interests me more is the fact that Lung's powers ran out near the end of his fight with Leviathan. We've only seen that happen with Thinkers so far (correct me if I'm wrong on that), which makes sense I suppose, given how they use their power almost constantly. How long could a single fight go on when you're not fighting an Endbringer, too?

The fight itself was pretty awesome and well told from a character that only had a fraction of his regular intelligence while fighting. Very impressive that Lung managed to fight Leviathan one-on-one, with even Alexandria becoming wary of getting involved. Makes me wonder if it's a weakness of the Host or the Passenger. Endbringers suggest it being a weakness of the human part.

Thinking on it... this just gave me an idea for how to fit Endbringers into my RPG. Excellent.

 

I'm not sure if it was his power running out or Leviathan no longer being a threat (because he could smack it around) so his power started ramping down.

 

I don't think there's such a thing as an Endbringer that isn't a threat, no matter how damaged.

 

Wasn't he twice it's size at that point though and it was attempting to disengage?

 

I think of his power as something like a combo meter or a charge bar, at the end he wasn't fighting hard enough to sustain how evolved he'd gotten.

 

Or rather, Leviathan wasn't fighting back hard enough.

While he seemed to think he couldn't 'kill' Leviathan, it's possible he added to the usual recovery time, and the Endbringers seem to have a schedule to keep Maybe not but the heroes were pretty keen to get him on board for a reason and he mentions himself that he was doing about as much damage to the surroundings as Leviathan at that point.

 

This just makes me think what would have happened had Lung taken the offer from the Americans. He would always be a game changer for the Endbringer fights, especially as he learned to combat them. Plus with all of the advantages the PRT could bring him he would be on par with the Triumvirate in terms of how much damage he could do. All they would need to do is give him control when he transforms and suddenly they can field something that could smack and Endbringer around with ease.

 

wildbow
on May 21, 2013 at 1:00 AM said:
He doesn’t have an upper limit."

I think this implies Lung's power started to weaken because he wasn't in danger anymore or because he didn't have an audience, not that his fuel supply, so to speak, ran out. There's some speculation in the comments on the wordpress blog that's in this vein.

 

Somehow I think Lung's power has less to do with fighting, and more to do with fear. The fear of what he's fighting, the fear of the people around, maybe even his own fear.

In the Endbringer fight, he was surrounded by terrified people at first, so many terrified people that he was able to transform more fully than ever before. At the end, it was just him and Leviathan, and I suspect Endbringers can't really be afraid.

 

Do you have a quote for this? I don't recall it ever being stated or implied that Lung loses out on intelligence while transformed. He just can't talk properly. He recognizes Skitter right away the second time they meet.

 

EDIT: Oh wait, I misread. He was offering to get rid of the requirement that Lung be in a fight for an extended period before changing.

 

I think Lung's power is tied to the rush of arrogance and pride he felt when the drugs got into him.

When he got high, he was "king of the world". When he was fighting Leviathan, he again became "king of the world".

And then he gets weaker, and gets sad because no one stayed to see him kick the shit out of Leviathan.

I think Lung feels closest to his trigger event when he's showing off his strength in front of a crowd. Not necessarily when he's fighting, but more specifically when he's getting off on fighting.

 

I tend to agree with Rhys.

He seems to have an almost pathological need to be unconstrained by authority by rising above it (due to his pre-trigger status as a halfbreed and delinquent with poor grades). His power involves developing traits that overpower his opponents over time, breaking free of his previous limitations. He gets a rush from it.

He also equates fear with respect and power, which suggests why he needs an audience.