Expatriette doing well?

So, based on the box for Battle for Broken City, Expatriette seems to have gotten over that whole explosion to the back thing...

Anyone want to talk about that? I mean, yeah some Spite looking fellow is on the cover being all shady and menacing and the Matriarch is wearing a Mr. Fixer looking Gi... But, Expatriette seems to be doing fine and that troubles me.

Did latent powers awaken when she died? Did the same voodoo that saved Mr. Fixer save her? Was none of it voodoo? Did Dr. Medico apply his non-radiated doctoral powers to healing his compatriate? 

Also, did Setback have some snarky remark about being shot when Expatriette was fine? (you know since she shot him and that's a cute romantic/comedy gold moment)

We need answers! Or, some mild to rampant speculation.

Find the Footenotes thread on Expat.

Setback was faking his remorse at her passing.

Inside he was all "Yeah!  Now I don't have to keep being the perfect boyfriend anymore, This chick is crazy and I don't want to get shot."

But alas, he wasn't that lucky.

I have a footenotes on expat?

Eithery way, there is some great theories that Expats power is that she can't die, or at least is suuuuper hard to kill. This would seem to support such a theory

On her doves, right? Wasn't that you?

If not, my apologies to the original author of whatever thread I'm thinking of.

Found them.

The pertinent thread is "Footnotes: The Matriarch and the Red Herring" (which has lots of fun stuff about the Matriarch, in addition to Expat) 

Here is the quote that kicks off a lot of other Expatriette-related material (from me, and I'm the first to admit that not everyone agrees with this theory)

I have a theory about Expat.

I'm fairly certain that she's got a hidden power, namely some kind of return-with-the-dawn regeneration ability.   I think that in general, she might get stronger/faster/better/returns from being dead at night.

There are several instances (tactical shotgun, for one) where the artwork depicts her as VERY pale (and always at night).  It could be stylistic, but it also could indicate that something else is going on.

Think about Flak Jacket for a second.  It does absolutely nothing for small amounts of damage, and only works on big hits.  In fact, it is one of the few things in the game that can take the biggest hits- an infinite hit, even- and leave Expat without a scratch.  On the other hand, it is absolutely worthless against the few enemies who actually use bullets. Hired guns?  No flak jacket.  Voss's soldiers?  no flak jacket.  A full-on assault by Iron Legacy powered  by grief, loss, madness, two rings, and covered in obsidian shards?  Sure!  

Here's what I think is happening.  I think that she is actually dying (and it seems to be a regular occurence, seeing as how flak Jacket references getting her "this time"), or taking a mortal wound, staggering away (or passing out) and then (at night) she comes back to life.  She then looks at her ruined Flak Jacket and thinks "These things work really great!"

A further hint might be her incapacitated side- she's down (and certainly looks out), but later on (in the Scholar's cards- proverbs and axioms?), you can see that same location and she's getting back up.

See, my guess is that her incap side is a major turning point for her.  Its a time when she can't deny anymore that something weird is going on.  The Scholar is helping her come to terms with who she really is (that being the kind of thing he does), and she's going to have to learn more.

I kind of have a theory that only Citizen Dawn's power can really put her down in any sort of real way- and thats why the scar on the missing eye is so vivid and raw-looking.  Her innate power can't really heal it properly.

Now, I think that a HUGE amount of her skill and lethality is training, talent, and will.  But I think that she's a lot more survivable than even she knows.

 

Story wise, I think it would be kind of hilarious if its not a story about the power-less daughter being driven from home, but the story of a daughter WITH powers being driven away by people who didn't understand them.   

and 

Well, the simple answer is that I'm wrong.

The slightly less simple answer is that they have several damage reduction cards that duplicate each other (Fortitude/Otherworldy resilience), and several cards that reduce massive damage (shielding winds, undaunted, superhuman durabilty)- each of them with the same trigger condition- something that hits for more than 5 gets reduced, and anything below that is unaffected.  they could have gone that route.  they could have combined them into a body armor card which granted both sets (kind of like undaunted), but destroyed itself afterwards.  That would have been more realistic, and filled any sort of need to give her damage reduction.

But they didn't.  They chose to give her a piece of equipment that does something NO other armor/shield of faith/alien skin/or powers honed through a lineage of heroism can do.  It protects her (totally and completely) from hits that would leave Legacy broken and battered.

There is also discussion on glowing doves, why shotguns do more damage than eye lasers, and other potential hidden powers.  Enjoy!

Or maybe that scar is some Harry Potter crap that absorbed her mother's regeneration because of their genetic similarities.

That would be awesome storywise:

Dawn kills her daughter for not having powers, but because she does, she grants her daughter powers.  Facing that would be vicious.  The reason you you are still alive is because your mother hates you.

Dunno whether it's relevant, but the card in the Scholar's deck featuring her recovering from her incap is "Don't Dismiss Anything" - maybe the suggestion is that she shouldn't be dismissing her survival because it wasn't simple luck or good protective gear or whatever, but something else.

I like this theory! And it makes me wanna try out Expatriette (I haven't yet).

Expatriette is one of my favorite decks, straightforward and solid.  Read her bio before you play her, it is one of the better ones.

The doves could have significance beyond the reference/tribute.  I like to think that while she can stand back up, it isn't a guarantee, and that one time she won't stand back up, but she doesn't know when it will be.  

Doves have a ton of symbolism, especially in a religious frame (and we know how much SotM has drawn on religious themes in the past). 

Peace is a common theme, which is pretty funny considering who and what Expatriet is.

Doves can also be a symbol for the soul. Now that is something we can play with. That idea plays right into Braithwhites Expat theory perfectly. Especially if we throw in a "death and resurection" vibe, Doves make huge sense as symbolic choices in Expats art (notably Flac Jacket right?)

I think there is a lot you can play around with there theme wise.

Expat's incap has no patch, and DDA seems to be in front of the same wall.

I know not all pictures and text match up, but Emirant's song #2 is DDA, Emigrant's song #3 is RPG Launcher, which is in Insula Primalis and has the line "Hah!  And you thought you were hunting  me!"

Emigrant's Song #4 is Incendiary Rounds, and Citizen Slash 

Emigrant's Song #5 is Liquid Nitrogen Rounds, and Expat fighting Dawn.

If Expat's incap is when her mother takes her eye, then that story is a few issues from Expat turning the tables and gunning for her mother.

Apparently the pep talk fromThe Scholar was pretty good.

As for the doves, they appear on Assault Rifle and Flak Jacket, when Expat has been shot, and another where she claims they missed, and what looks like blood splattering behind her.

Quick Draw they are behind the man drawing a gun on her, and in Hairtrigger they are around the tarets she is firing at.

They all seem to be the point of turning the tables, a moment where the odds switch to her favor.

If that is what they are, an imposition of fate it could mean a lot.

Note though that neither of her incap art have doves.

I will add that birds, in general, are a reccuring motif in the game, as  Foote and others have pointed  : Expatriette's doves, Lilian's crows at al., Kismet's talisman. And always, it seems, with women. ( These three could be described as the symbols of Life/Peace, Death/War and Fate, by the way...) I don't think the "doves" are a coincidence.

I am wondering, could Expatriette be "the child at the center" ? Could her unknown, latent power be something the Big Menace could use/take advantage of ? Or that could destroy it ?

Thier birds be a link to Dawn. They might be something she put there to watch over Expatriatte. On some level, Dawn may love her and feel guilty...

Or, maybe Adam is a John Woo fan and likes doves and guns.

i get the vibe that Expatriatte's hidden ability is power amplification. That could explain why a lone-wolf mercenary teams up so much. It's her subconscious leading her to take full advantage of her power. That isn't reflected in game; so that's likely bunk. 

Maybe she has no power and the shot was non fatal.

I thought we had confirmation somewhere this was the reference?

(Mind you, I'm not saying it doesn't have more meaning than that. I have no idea, but I thought we had confirmation it's a reference to John Woo's love of doves in his stuff…)

We do have confirmation.  I accept it could be completely artistic reference, but it could also be something more.  I lean more towards just being art, but you never know.

Little fact - "bird" is an old English word meaning "woman".

Which piece of slang I was introduced to by Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" books. (I'm trying to get the Grasshopper, age almsot 9.5, to read them now, but haven't had any traction. I also can't swear to how well they've held up.)

That's fantastic! So, when people were giving me the bird, it they really wanted to give me some women. That completely changes things.

No, in that case it's definitely intended to be a phallic reference.

Actually I think I mean "Old English" as opposed to "old English".

It's not just a slang word for woman (although we still use it like that - "Haven't seen Harry around for ages, I think he's got a new bird"), the word "bird" originally literally meant "young woman", rather than "feathery flying thing". Smaller feathery flying things eventually got nicknamed "birds" for whatever reason, and then the word was generalised to encompass larger feathery flying things which were previously called "fowl".

The name "blackbird" (type of Old World thrush common in Europe) is interesting because today it doesn't sound terribly descriptive - there are several species in the UK which could be described as "black birds", like crows, rooks, ravens and jackdaws. Why did blackbirds get to be the black bird? Because it's the only black "bird" - the rest were "fowl".

Smale fowles maken melodye

I can't remember if that's Middle or Old; probably Middle.

"To give (someone) the bird" as in the gesture comes from the 1860s expression "to give the big bird" which meant to hiss at someone like a goose, and then was expanded to include catcalling and booing, like in pantomime or vaudeville. Then it got transferred to the "up yours" middle figure gesture we all know and love today.

And now young women are referred to as "chicks".  How's that for circular language evolution?

Wow… learning everyday

I'm studyig Old English right now (part of a PhD in English) and I just did some snooping around. The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't support "young woman" being the original definition of "bird". Instead, "bird" meant what we might now call "chick", ie, a young bird. But there are examples of "bird" being any young animal or beast. Opposite of the claims above, the OED even shows it as meaning "young man" or "son" occationally (poetically).

However, the OED does show that around 1400 (the Middle English period) "bird" started to be used to mean "young woman", and suggests that this might be a textual error, confusing it with "burd" (a Middle English word meaning bride). 

Huh, I was misinformed then.

Blame it on your administrative assistant.

It was probably intentional.

I'll add to the expat's conversation (although I enjoyed the part about birds and Old English :) ) by mentioning the quote on WM's "An Unwise Wager": "But what if you did have power? And by power, I mean all of it...". What if Wager Master is referring to the fact that he knows that Expat has powers but is showing her what she could do if she led the Citizens of the Sun ("all of it" refering to the leadership of the Citizens...).

Or...

Expat have latent powers that she can't control. WM: "What if you could finally control all your inherent power?

What I find interesting on "An Unwise Wager" is the fact that Expat still has the scar on her eye. If WM is showing her an alternate reality where she actually has powers, then it makes little sense for her to be missing an eye (because Expat lost her eyes basically because she didn't have powers, right?), from a timing perspective...

I think it was just a tactic of trickery, if anything else. WM wanted to let Expat believe she had power, because he knew she would turn out very differently.

Wagermaster is very interesting really.

He seems to want to give Absolute Zero everything he wants. Possibly the same with Expat.

He challenges Setback in a way that his powers perfectly combat (insane quiz sho where he wins with lucky guesses). Similiar with Wraith (an infinite maze for a detective)

He uses bad puns against Unity. (A hot iron)

A "New Deal" with Guise (Very interesting background I just realized, I thik they broke the 4th and 5th walls)

And freaks when the scholar offers him the philosopher's stone.

I think there are a lot of sub-text meanings and clues buried in here, especially with AbZero. Wager Master isn't interested in making a deal or anything, he just wants Zero to admit "his friends are liars" which means that the true goal seems to be turning the heroes against each other, seperating them. Playing each hero in a specific way.

Well, you're making a lot of good points there. But if Expat doesn't have powers, I'm still wondering why the Citizens want her "back"…

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