That kind of scorched earth tactic will not work out well for Coil and he knows it. The moment he does that, he also burns bridges with pretty much everyone interested in Apeiron, and that's literally everyone. Even those that wish to take down Apeiron wouldn't appreciate such a flagrant breach of the Unwritten Rules, and that is assuming all of that can take down Apeiron permanently. Because if it doesn't, well nothing will protect Coil from Apeiron unless he's gutsy enough to think that Cauldron would see him as an asset worth protecting despite all that.
No, Coil's Hail-Mary at this point is desperately believing that he can redirect Apeiron into his enemies and not to himself. It's why he's still holding on to the Undersiders despite them being arguably subverted in every way since Joe gave them their watches. It's the only way he can influence Apeiron, after all.
Not really. Coil is petty, but ultimately he is self-serving. If he believes that he can still get by, or even just move out of the Bay scot-free, then he will do it. Ultimately, after all, Brockton Bay is just a city. There are more out there that he could take over in the future. He will only use scorched earth tactics if he believes that he is doomed without a doubt and all he could do is make things worse for everyone else as he falls.
your point about character is fair but I think that in an explicitly Apeiron-vs-Coil situation, Coil would have a decent understanding of exactly how fucked he is. After all, he mostly stays out of the public spotlight for a reason - having people with organizational support explicitly trying to take him out/opposing his efforts is a situation that doesn't bode well for him. Given that we're talking about Apeiron, who's probably recognized as triumvirate-tier by this point after the ungodly hour, I think there's a fair point to be made that whether or not Coil goes scorched-earth depends entirely on where we're starting this vs battle; are we starting from the last chapter, or are we starting at a point where Apeiron is explicitly Coil-hunting?
That's the thing - it's the pathos that is lost. At this point we've literally seen Joe struggle with his self-confidence and self-expression, which makes all the few times he really lets loose that much more satisfying. When he finally learned to let loose and enjoy lava surfing, it was such a fun read because Joe really deserved that break. We've seen him slowly learn to be more happy with himself, even with all of the problems his powers and enemies bring to his doorstep.
I disagree here: lava surfing was a fun read because lava surfing as an activity is Rad as Fuck, and Joe's character development is secondary to that fact.
And on the topic of the strong spark; given the WOG from LordRoustabout on the Strong Spark perk, it seems like it's just taking Joe's existing personality and ratcheting that up towards 11. I really don't see how this is supposed to be something that undermines Joe's character development. If it's just amplifying his personality, aren't his character flaws included in that? Is having an irrational hang-up around wet-tinkering not it's own form of madness?
I know, there is also the issue of if Noelle cloned Aperion's have access to his abilities and or various powers, I don't know if it was ever stated if she could or couldn't clone him, I also can't remember if it was ever stated that The Celestial Forge was actually just acting like a Shard or if his powers do indeed come from a shard connected to the Forge.
Either way even a weakened Aperion is no joke, even if the clones don't have his powers, they are still cloning his biological data which has been altered significantly though nothing Divine should be able to be cloned as PJO gods(which is where his Godly Father and his Blessings come from) don't have DNA.
He could easily deal with Noelle once he realised just how dangerous she is, I can see him trying to help her but I can also see him realising how much of a ticking time bomb she is and with his previous experience I don't see him letting it escalate to a national or federal level, That's not to say it might still reach that point in which case everyone will see that Aperion has yet again raised his tech level orders of magnitude higher than he had access to a couple days ago, further increasing the fear of the Mad Scientist theory while also making them realise he has still yet to hit his limit.
It is going to be hilarious seeing reactions when that happens.
LR has stated that an Echidna clone of Joe would have a connection to his original shard + memories and whatever skills he has that can be replicated by normies (like Alchemy, some martial arts, etc.)
the origin of the CF has been mostly not-touched-on but it's heavily implied to be a not-a-shard acting vaguely like a shard. Remember the part where he describes his trigger, and how the CF showed him the power he would've originally triggered with before giving him the choice to take the forge instead?
This is an old evaluation, and Coil's an idiot if he hasn't re-evaluated Apeiron at any point since the ABB's initial bombing spree.
Given his over-reliance on his power, he probably Has re-evaluated Aperion several times, and gotten the same "he runs away when my men attack him" result.
