This is my rant on powers in misfits. It lacks structure and goes in many directions. Be warned.
I do tend to think about how powers work exactly in the misfits verse. It's canon that their powers are stored in their hearts (ss2, ep 4) but I just wonder why.
I jokingly theorized in one my fics that lightning sort of buzzed around in their body and kind of stayed inside until it settled inside their heart but with how weird medias with powers get (marvel, dc, animes, etc) it probably isn't too far off.
I think what makes them get triggered depends on their character.
Take the first ep. They all got hit with lightning. Felt weird but ultimately fine. Their powers are there but not unlocked yet. Kelly develops her power first when the probation worker finds her and starts chasing her. She hears that he wants to kill her. When he gets in, it's Curtis' power that triggers. So both Kelly and Curtis are triggered by traumatic events.
Simon's power already triggered itself (his develops before the probation worker attacks) but its because of his emotions; the deep sense of lonliness inside of him and his view on himself as invisible. So his got triggered by himself.
Same for Alisha's who was already triggered, she just hadn't touched anyone (keep in mind this first ep spans in days). Though it's not too crazy to assume that her scene where she throats a bottle and the next scene being when things get scary for the group is connected in some way.
Nathan's is also already triggered. We don't see it in the first ep but in ss1, ep 4 we get Curtis trying to go back in time and change things. In that one timeline where everyone except Nathan is dead, it's quite clear how Nathan's power would've been revealed had ep 1 been different.
One of the questions I've always had is what exactly was up with Tony? Like I know it was the storm but did anyone else from the storm start acting like Tony? Are there more people finding themselves with an insatiable urge to kill people? lol.
Or how many people got hit from the storm but never triggered their powers.
Back to focus: Triggering events. The cause of power development. Lets treat this like Marvel for a sec and take Nathan as example.
In ss2, ep 2, we get introduced to Jamie. A hothead with daddy issues just as deep as his brother, Nathan. I enjoyed his character.
Through the ep, Nathan gets close to Jamie after finding out about a sibling (which speaks on Nathan's character but this isn't a character analysis) and these two bond hard as Nathan takes on the mantle of being an older brother. Unfortunately the ep ends with Jamie dying.
But then Nathan sees him. Why? Because he can see dead people. It's a power that develops further. Now, unlike his immortality this power wasn't always around.
At first I thought it's because people had to die in front of him for him to see them. In ss2, ep 4 we get a brief introduction to Ollie before he's shot in front of the group and Nathan starts seeing him around.
But he didn't end up seeing Tony after the officer dies. This probably has more to do with the writers keeping Nathan's power a secret but it still has connections.
In ss2, ep 6 Nathan sees Kelly when she's dead but didn't see her die, she just appears before him. So that, to me, crosses out this extra ability always being there.
The other characters don't get extra abilities like this one but I don't think they've truly had any personalized episodes (ss2, ep2 was Nathan-centric).
And also it's pretty evident that the rest of the group hates their powers as opposed to Nathan which could be holding them back.
There's a lot of hcs of their powers further developed.
Kelly could potentially have fully telepathic conversations with others (but she would have to let go of her insecurity first. The reason she got her power is because of how self-concious she is of what others say about her. And she's pretty guarded on her feelings. she'd have to just let go. Which wouldn't be easy).
Simon already is pretty great. Invisibilty. Not only that but when he's invisible, you can't hear him or (as far as I know) touch him. Practically phases through. Simon could potentially make others invisible. Thing is, we see throughout the series but especially from ss2, ep 4 that things he touch can turn invisible too. So I'm not too sure that he can't?
Curtis could potentially go back in time at will. Or bring the others with him. Wouldn't that be a fun fic idea? lol. But for real, this one would mean that Curtis lets go of his regret. And that's tough and probably doesn't make a lot of sense. It's the one thing that triggers his power. It's why he couldn't save Ollie (i also think that this is the real reason why Simon dies in front of him in ss2, ep 6 but more on that another time).
He struggles so much to find ways to change his fate (ss1, ep 4) and he only stops not because he accepts it (kind of) but for the sefless reason of having the others alive. Curtis letting go of his regret would probably open doors for his power. (You might think I'm only talking about his career as an athlete but it's other stuff too. And other people (like Nikki) I vaguely remember him getting a ressurection gift from seth in ss3 and shit going down with it).
And, oh my heart, Alisha. I think we can all agree a good buff for her would be for her to be able to control when she uses her power. And the extent of it. Her power is kind of like a truth serum and makes you spill out your sexual desires. Theoretically if you think on it like that, it'd be so cool if she could touch you and instead of you feeling the urgent need to rape her (cause wtf...) you just spew out the truth. And don't change shit about her, she's fine.
Also I know it's incontrolable lust but how do we know she CAN control it and never worked out how. *gasp*. No but fr. Justice to my girl, I like her other power better.
Personalized episodes. Hmm. If I were to expand their power in the show...okay I'll go through the characters but I'm making it vague on purpose:
Kelly (telepathic bond)
I think I would have an episode on Kelly losing her voice. It could be from a power (like the time she lost her hair) or just from natural screaming and such. It'll be established in the beginning that she can't talk but the others wouldn't dwell too much on it.
You're usual community service shenanigans ensue and we get introduced to a new antagonist. Some power that requires the others to sneak around and be quiet like in the Lucy episode (ss2, ep1). Maybe a scene where Kelly can't talk (obviously) and is hiding. But she needs a way to warn one of the others that the antagonist is sneaking up on them.
As I've said, I think Kelly's power triggers under traumatic events.
But If it were to be as mushy as Nathan's, It'd probably be an ep about her mother. She's the only family Kelly is shown to have and she's not exactly talking to others. Or maybe Kelly runs into a friend she hasn't seen since community service (or farther back) and reconnects with them.
Personally, I'd like more of the ASBO5 getting close so maybe scenes of her and one of the others (or half/most/all of them) seeing Kelly vulnerable and, in their own way cause they're still assholes, not making her feel bad about having her walls down in front of them.
Curtis (Travel at will and/or take others with him)
Mmm...how about a very emotional episode with his family or past fans. When it comes to Curtis, Nathan and Alisha hit the mark on the first ep when they said he let people down. Because that's how Curtis feels. That he wasted his potential (smh...this would've never happened if he was American...)
Curtis has remarked about his mom warning him of girls like Alisha, watching his nephews, and tells Alisha that his uncle and aunt are religious. probably the most about a family we'll ever get with these characters. And it wouldn't be too bad to assume he has a relatively medium or large family. I can't imagine the dynamic he has with his parents now that he's got community service, and I think this might be what encourages Curtis to live in this cloud (as Alisha calls it).
In the nicest way possible, Curtis thinks too much about himself. Alisha was pretty on the mark in ss3 when she talked about how Curtis is when he's talking to girls and we can see it in his lesbian episode (lol ss3, ep 2). And also in the nicest way possible, he needs to get over himself. It's a shame that by the time he does that in the show, his time travel power is already gone.
bringing the others back at will would a require an episode that makes Curtis stumble through playing chess when he's so used to checkers.
I mean this in the fact that I would put a very smart antagonist. So smart that Curtis has to go back multiple times to try and stop this antagonist, that's how smart this antagonist is.
It's an antagonist that purposefully targets the others because of their more visible powers (yes, even Simon. Easy to prove you're invisible, not so easy to prove time travel).
Curtis has to save them but its not one by one. It's all of them. Key problem is that they all die in different ways the moment he focuses on one.
He tries saving the girls first, advises Simon to be invisible, and leaves Nathan (he's immortal). But then he realizes if he saves the girls first, Simon dies trying to save Nathan (even tho he's immortal) or if he takes to long saving one of the girls, Simon tries to save the other and dies.
So he tries a different way. Saves Simon first. Problem: the other girls die. And also Nathan but whatever.
this goes on for the episode of Curtis doing this. He tries to warn them what will happen but that just means they die a different way. Curtis has to figure out how to use his friends as pawns to get to the king (the antagonist) and kill him off.
I'd probably make him get so sucked into this (dark Curtis?) that he forgets his friends' autonomy. So basically I'd make him take a more Simon-esque route.
He does snap out of it when the antagonist gets to him and stabs him (because keep in mind, this antagonist has only been targeting his friends so Curtis isn't exactly expecting it).
In desparation, Curtis time travels them all back.
Simon (making others invisible)
This upgrade would most definitely be a ep that makes the ASBO5 closer because that's most likely the only way I could see Simon wanting to make others invisible.
Just to mention it, it could also be a ep where we meet his sister. Honestly, I have loads of fluffy hcs about these two. sigh. Or, if you want to get really angsty, we could bring back Matt.
I took a few seconds to debate on Simon's antagonist being similar to Kelly or Curtis' but I think his ep would require an antagonist like Rachel from ss1, ep 6. Someone with similar mind controlling abilities.
Maybe they need to see you to control you as opposed to Rachel needing you to hear her.
Honestly, sounds like an antagonist Simon could body by himself. So, to make this make just a bit more sense on why Simon would need the others invisible, the antagonist is a serial killer who went crazy after the storm and makes people kill themselves or mutilate themselves.
Too much? I'm not sure. We're not exactly a show that's shy of a bit of gore.
And yeah Nathan can alive again but we're not exactly sure if his limbs get reattached.
Nathan (the starfish)
Yeah, this wasn't planned I just thought it was funny as I typed out that previous sentence in Simon's section.
Nathan goes through an episode where he gets mutilated before he dies. Wakes up and realizes his limbs do grow back but the ones cut off don't exactly disappear. Which means he just has an extra limb around (you can already guess what he'd do with it).
Alisha (sexual truth serum/control)
I've only heard her mention her dad in regards to using his car in the first ep. I think a family orientated one would be hilarious actually.
I'm quite positive that since we haven't gotten a mention of anything weird at her house, she's not exactly touchy with her family. Well, she's not touchy in general.
I think an episode of her having family come down and visit, but it's the type of family that's annoyingly loud, all up in your space, asking personal questions, etc. Yeah that type of family.
Alisha would have to struggle not to touch others and she can't exactly wear gloves cause she knows her family will ask questions and make fun of it.
It's the magnitude of full body disgust that Alisha would feel at hearing her family's sexual desires or making them incontrollably lustful for her that actually stops her powers from working on them. A real mental block.
The whole sexual truth serum thing would be funny too but more as an ep. Honestly would be better if its an ep where the gang are trying to sneak out of doing community service and its up to Alisha to think on her feet.
uhhh...what else. Mmm. You know, we never got a beach ep. Or a sick ep. Like how's their powers going to react to fighting off germs, you know? We never get stuff like that.
In ss2, ep2 we also get a look into what substances do to powers. But specifically drugs as alcohol, weed, and nicotine don't do anything to them. Though I have always wondered if them getting tipsy ever gives their powers a buzz. Like a bit of energy.
Anyway, they get high and their powers get reversed. Kelly blurts out all of her thoughts, Alisha's lust turns to hate, Curtis starts going in the future, and Simon is getting all the attention. We don't get a look into Nathan's reversed power but it's pretty obvious when he tries to save his brother and gets stopped. He would've died.
I bring this up in regards to write this down and in my curiosity on their hospital situation.
Like, what if anyone other than Nathan got hurt enough to go to the hospital and gets themselves medicated. Actually, is it all drugs that do this to them or specific ones? And do different drugs do different things or is it just reversal? Like whats heroine gonna do compared to cocaine, or what if some drugs cancel out their powers? What if they get a drug that switches their powers?
I'm so curious about substances mixing with powers.
