A Legacy of Powers

So, we know from the backstory that the various Legacies each have all the powers of their father plus one more, so I thought it would be fun to try and figure out the different historical versions and what they could do.  Here's a list containing what we absolutely know:

Joseph Parsons (b. 1759):  Danger sense.

Paul Parsons (b. 17??):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight

Paul Parsons Jr. (b. 18??):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength

Paul Parsons III (b. 18??):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?

Paul Parsons IV (b. 18??):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?

Paul Parsons V (b. 190?):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?, flight

Paul Parsons VI (b. 193?): Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?, flight, ?

Paul Parsons VII (b. 19??):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?, flight, ?, ?

Paul Parsons IV (b. 1973):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?, flight, ?, ?, Impenetrable Skin

Paulina Parsons (b. 1993):  Danger sense, enhanced speed and sight, maximum human strength, ?, ?, flight, ?, ?, Impenetrable Skin, Atomic Glare

(I'm assuming that the 1900s-era first Legacy was Paulina's great-great-grandfather, though it might only have been her great-grandfather, America's Greatest Legacy, if he had waited much longer to have a kid than America's Finest Legacy did, with Great's son and Finest's father having done likewise, and was about Finest's current age when he fought in WW2.  It depends on how old the latest two Legacies were when they reproduced; 30 years apiece seems like a decent eyeball, with Newest born in 1993, Finest in 1973, some unidentified intermediate in about 1950, Greatest in 1930 or earlier (in order to have been of legal age in WW2), and the first flying legacy in the first decade of the 20th century.  It seems that the entire 19th century contained only four Parsonses, including the very first Paul, who must have been born in about 1890, very late in Joseph's life, and likewise waited a long time to have Paul Jr. who in turn waited a long time to have Paul the 3rd…Paulina's father must have been unique in breeding at the age of 20, since if they'd all done that, he would have been about Paul the 11th instead.)

So we're left with four "blanks", two before and two after the first appearance of flight.  One of these must be filled with "super-human strength"; Paul the 2nd was supposed to have strength "equal to all but the stoutest of men", which is obviously not the same as AFL's ability to catch plummeting monorails.  I would theorize that another of these "slots" could be filled with "remarkable charisma", as that seems to be an ability consistent with the superho archetype these guys are playing into, though it could be argued whether it actually counts as a superpower.  That leaves a couple of powers unaccounted for, so I thought it would be fun to speculate about what these abilities might be, and which member of the lineage they first manifested in; they need to be consistent with the observed powers of "our" Legacy (for instance there's no evidence that he has X-ray vision).  I'm going to toss out two theoretical choices, which you guys can freely shoot down:  superhuman speed (again, a low-grade version of this seems to have been present in Paul the 1st, but by the time it gets up to what we see on Take Down, it's clearly been improved), and in one of the versions that didn't yet have super-strength or impenetrable skin, perhaps a form of "inertia immunity", thus that he couldn't bounce bullets off his skin, but would at least not be knocked down by the force of them.  This might also substitute for his super-strength; perhaps he can't actually LIFT a train, but just can STOP one from falling.  Another interesting possibility is that in one generation, he might have first gained super-strength, but applied it in a realistic manner (ie if he picks up a train car, all the force necessary to lift the train's weight is being applied to one hand-sized spot in the middle, so the train either cracks in half or gets a human-sized hole punched through the middle)…so that the next generation's power would be something akin to what the 1990s version of Superboy referred to as "tactile telekinesis", the ability to move an entire object by touching just a part of it, essentially creating an energy field around it which holds it together.

Here are some other threads that have discussed this idea:

https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/power-to-parsons-correlation-2873

https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/the-powers-of-legacy-3955

This is from the "The Powers of Legacy" topic (though I should have said "the next 2-5").

I agree with the people who've facepalmed about the charisma aura.  Still, they gave Paul 1 two powers at once, so I guess it's inevitable they'd be scraping the bottom of the barrel by the time it got to specifying the seventh explicit powerset.  Maybe it's just as well we don't know what the last three are....

What do you mean the last three?  Joseph had Danger Sense, Paul 1-5 grew in human capabilities eventually reaching a superhuman level, 6 got flight, 7 got an aura of charisma, 8 got tough skin, and Felicia shoots eyebeams.  That's pretty much every Parsons accounted for.

We don't know what Paul 3-5 had exactly, those are the three I was referring to.  Paul 1 had heightened speed and sight (my theory is that these can both be explained by a single power of "rapid cognition", applicable to both optical processing and motor reflexes), Paul 2 got "heightened" (but not superlative) strength, and then there are three enigmas before the flyer appeared (and there would be one more after him if we ignore the super-charisma thing, which I still consider something of an absurdity).

From what I heard from Christopher their powers were mainly gaining more strength and speed across the board.  They don't have particular powers correlating to Parsons I to V.  It was mainly each Parsons gaining more superhuman physiques over the generations which I can only assume resulted in the ability to efficiently utilize a lot of Legacy's other powers.

The way you said that just sparked off a wild and crazy theory, it is also almost 2 am so I take no responsibility for my thoughts.

You said that the increases in physical abilities "resulted in the ability to efficiently utilize a lot of Legacy's other powers", obviously meaning his cards, but what if there is a plan in the Legacy line? Why did Joseph Parson suddenly gain superpowers, which then increased with every generation? What if some force, cosmic or otherwise, began the legacy line with a purpose and a blueprint to accomplish some, hopefully good, end.

That's actually not a bad theory Chaosmancer. Everything in the multiverse seems to be building to a big epic conclusion, and so it would be kind of cool if the Legacy genetic line was a part of it. On another note, as far as I know, Haka's immortality and power have never been fully explained either.

I think the Legacies are probably just a "spirit of America" kind of thing...their powers have grown in proportion with the population, wealth, and influence on the world stage of the nation which was destined to become THE great world superpower.  Perhaps some sort of emergent human consciousness which aims to eventually create a single global meganation, all of humanity working together to reach the stars and achieve cosmic immortality, with America having aggregated into being as the best combination of factors (diversity, ambition, progressive traditionalism, etc) to make it happen?  Or maybe not quite that highfalutin'...maybe every great nation has had such champions (eg Heracles for the greeks, Arthur for the Britons, or Goemon for the Japanese) , but America's rise to power has just made their version particularly noteworthy, as his power has grown visibly over the relatively short span of time since the country's founding.

Yeah, Joe Parsons loved the dream of America so much he developed super powers in order to complete his task.

I could totally see a cosmic entity being behind his timely evolution, but that cosmic entity might just be the American Dream (the original one, not the everybody is middle class one we have now)

If we go witht he cosmic entity thing then the timing was the key, because he would need so many generations to evolve into what was needed, which at this point would be Pauline being the hero needed I assume, or maybe her kid will be the Kwisatz Haderach and the evil cosmic badguy will try to use the child to destroy/conquer the Multiverse.  I actually love how cheesy the Legacy backstory is, there is something great about that old sense of inherited nobility. 

Huh.

Self-fulfilling evolution?

Cosmic powers guy gave the powers to the Parsons' line, Cosmic powers guy is a Legacy.

Ooh I like that idea.

Yeah, it can be interesting if done well. Marvel tried it with Starbrand (in the original New Universe) setting, but that wasn't done so well.

The Legacy Line ending in a Dr. Manhattan style character would be a fitting conclusion.

I can also dig the self-creation paradox arc, that could work.  Especially since the timelines shattered, a Legacy with Time-travel would be a natural step.

I believe that a paradox where you travel back in time to set up the situation which leads to your travelling back in time in the first place is called an ontological paradox.

...and then we find out that Time is actually a Mobius strip.