I am not saying that. I'm saying that a blowup was bad and that A quiet move backed by the theat of a blow up would have been better.
... Yes, because you have so many opportunities to threaten people when you're dead.
Which is, as I understand it, what this specific contingency was for. She just didn't expect to be insensate for long enough that it would activate.
 
I am not saying that. I'm saying that a blowup was bad and that A quiet move backed by the theat of a blow up would have been better.
This was a taking you with me contingency on a deadman's switch. The only reason it went off is because Taylor was in a coma. Since it was designed as a fuck you from beyond the grave, all that mattered was causing as much havoc as possible.
 
I am not saying that. I'm saying that a blowup was bad and that A quiet move backed by the theat of a blow up would have been better.
That probably was Taylor's Plan A, after all this was a dead man switch that Sophia just had to trigger. Ideally Taylor would have collected enough evidence to blackmail the PRT and used said leverage to put SS on the Birdcage, severity of her crimes notwithstanding (it can be done, just ask Canary), and the rest of her tormentors on a supermax. She simply had no way to know that Sophia would unilaterally escalate so damn fast.
 
So, the holoprojector thing was set to go off if she didn't reset it every three days... but the nuke was tied to her actually being dead, right?
Right?
:cry:
 
I am not saying that. I'm saying that a blowup was bad and that A quiet move backed by the theat of a blow up would have been better.

But she had to keep the threat a secret, because letting them know the evidence she had would out her as a tinker. And a threat that's secret from its target is a pretty ineffective threat.

"What use is a doomsday device, if you don't tell anyone about it?"
 
"What use is a doomsday device, if you don't tell anyone about it?"
One intended for revenge, not blackmail.

Also unless I misread things, she was going to tell them about it as soon as she had enough to make a credible threat and was sure they couldn't disable it - only she was stuffed in the locker before she could do that.
 
Also unless I misread things, she was going to tell them about it as soon as she had enough to make a credible threat and was sure they couldn't disable it - only she was stuffed in the locker before she could do that.

No, you didn't.

Ultimately, though, I just wanted it all to stop, so I'd give them a chance to back down.

She was going to simply threaten to go public with the evidence if they didn't stop. If they had not stopped, she would have actually gone to the PRT quietly. The nuclear option of "broadcast it over the entire city" was intended to serve as a deterrent to stop Sophia (or the PRT; her faith in them is not great right now) from outright murdering her to keep her quiet.

She just took too long to get everything in place.
 
No real nuke. She's not Bakuda. Just the PR equivalent of an SSBN launching a full barrage.
 
Considering the role of the PRT and Protectorate in Earth Bet she might as well. Next Endbringer fight probably won't have a single Ward until the Congress can redefine their legal status.
Uh, no? The mess with Sophia exposes a Ward on probation getting away with shit, not that they put themselves in harms way. That's kind of already known, even if the PRT tries to avoid drawing attention to that fact. What probably ends up happening is that Wards on probation- and the fact that there are Wards on probation- ends up drawing much stricter scrutiny. Ankle bracelets with trackers, random checkups, school inspections, that sort of thing. Also, the Wards end up doing Anti-Bullying PSAs, which is after all the canon response to the publication of Skitter's trigger being the result of bullying.
 
Considering the role of the PRT and Protectorate in Earth Bet she might as well. Next Endbringer fight probably won't have a single Ward until the Congress can redefine their legal status.
Uh... Why?
This isn't an issue with the legal status of the Wards, or even a problem with 90% of the program. This is the school not doing its part in enforcing Sophia's probation (i.e. informing the PRT of any problems involving her); that doesn't require redefining their legal status, that requires fixing their probation system so this doesn't happen again.
 
Cyclone has said that the official response to this will be to fix it.
Fucking with the legal status of the Wards is not fixing it.

EDIT: Why the legal status of the Wards would be decided by Congress, of all places, is another question entirely.
Well, the entire program is something that on our current society would be incredibly polemic. Children who got the power to blow up entire blocks or to break the laws of physics, used from time to time to patrol crime riddled areas, and that can volunteer (with a fair share of peer and social pressure) to fight eldrich monsters every 3 or so months. While is not fully accepted as canon the fact that Young Guard should at least theorically exist in one way or another means that the politicians and lobbyists can get a NGO to directly affect a Law Enforcement Organization budget and procedures tell us how intense is the political pressure.

Now consider the fact that an entire city saw live in a format far more involved that radio or HD TV (plus whatever the local media can record for the evening news which sooner than later will reach the BBC and CNN) how one of the Wards openly and defiantly subverted all the things that the program is about, from torturing Taylor to impale common criminals and that the PRT seemly (truth is in the eye of the beholder and everyone is seeing this from Taylor's highly edited perspective) cover her little hobbies. If a heroine with known problems (she was a ward under plea bargain) did something so horrible with the implicit support of the PRT, or worse helped by them to cover up the incidents, what does the rest of the Wards who aren't as closely watched are up to?

And the worst part is that the attack is going to come from literaly nowhere, so there is no time for the Glenn to spin it into a local tragic mistake before groups like Kaiser's E88, or even more benign groups start asking uncomfortable questions and demanding a complete and open investigation, an investigation that by its very nature can't be made public without putting the life of actually innocent Wards in danger. That by itself is going to be used by politicians against the current pro-PRT block, probably with the help of more mundane concerns such as those who support bullying victims to open an special committee on the PRT Wards Program, which while centered on the actions and inactions of the ENE Wards will spill into other teams regardless of their record.

During said study other weird casess would surface in different parts of the country, for example Feint, or even from unrelated groups (I bet Coil would love to send the local senator a video of GG beating the crap out of a criminal with a garbage container). Worst case scenario, they will order a moratorium of all combat ops, which includes patrols, supporting the Protectorate and the occasional Endbringer fight, while they do a deep study of how Wards are recluited and overseen. Considering who damn useful Flechette or the Chicago Wards were during the S-class fights they participated, well is not going to be nice or pretty.
 
Please explain how the legal status of the Wards has anything to do with this.
One of the first things that would be under the microscope is the legal capability of a Ward to volunteer to an Endbringer fight. During the fight against Leviathan it looked like the decision to participate was done by the Wards, who are children without the legal capability of taking such decisions. Now if the program is under fire by groups who want to limit the risk of the children, and groups who want to limit the power they wield then the first thing they're are going to strip are their priviledges and rights of a Law Enforcement Oficcer and with it the capability of making arrests, secure and summit evidence or volunteering for life threatening operations, which we all can agree is what an Endbringer fight is about.
 
Why? That has literally nothing to do with the issue at hand, a Ward on Probation abusing her position. How and why they volunteer for Endbringer fights has absolutely nothing to do with the issue, and the people in power have no desire to bring it up, because they need the warm bodies for Endbringer fights.

Seriously, this is a local scandal. No one even died. I mean, fuck, Police officers get away with shooting unarmed men all the fucking time and people don't demand the related branch of the Police stand down until the matter is investigated. Well, sometimes they do, but it never actually happens. Sophia's going to be in trouble, Piggot may be sacked or forced to resign, and there will be some reforms of the way the Wards handle probationary members to prevent similar cases in the future. There will probably be some form of damages/reparations paid to Taylor, some anti-bullying programs implemented, but they aren't going to cripple their Endbringer response just because.

Also, Contessa. She doesn't want Endbringer response crippled, so it won't happen.
 
Why? That has literally nothing to do with the issue at hand, a Ward on Probation abusing her position. How and why they volunteer for Endbringer fights has absolutely nothing to do with the issue, and the people in power have no desire to bring it up, because they need the warm bodies for Endbringer fights.

Seriously, this is a local scandal. No one even died. I mean, fuck, Police officers get away with shooting unarmed men all the fucking time and people don't demand the related branch of the Police stand down until the matter is investigated. Well, sometimes they do, but it never actually happens. Sophia's going to be in trouble, Piggot may be sacked or forced to resign, and there will be some reforms of the way the Wards handle probationary members to prevent similar cases in the future. There will probably be some form of damages/reparations paid to Taylor, some anti-bullying programs implemented, but they aren't going to cripple their Endbringer response just because.

Also, Contessa. She doesn't want Endbringer response crippled, so it won't happen.
I know, but I wanted to explore the possibility, especially since we're not really talking about the police, and more about child soldiers, which is a more viceral matter which would create a bigger political backlash.
 
One of the first things that would be under the microscope is the legal capability of a Ward to volunteer to an Endbringer fight. During the fight against Leviathan it looked like the decision to participate was done by the Wards, who are children without the legal capability of taking such decisions. Now if the program is under fire by groups who want to limit the risk of the children, and groups who want to limit the power they wield then the first thing they're are going to strip are their priviledges and rights of a Law Enforcement Oficcer and with it the capability of making arrests, secure and summit evidence or volunteering for life threatening operations, which we all can agree is what an Endbringer fight is about.
This is completely unrelated to a Ward on probation violating said probation for an extended period of time. Ergo,
Considering the role of the PRT and Protectorate in Earth Bet she might as well. Next Endbringer fight probably won't have a single Ward until the Congress can redefine their legal status.
This won't happen in the situation we're discussing.
(Also, I doubt the Wards are LEOs to begin with. Because, y'know, children. Their authority probably stops at "securing the scene".)

I know, but I wanted to explore the possibility, especially since we're not really talking about the police, and more about child soldiers, which is a more viceral matter which would create a bigger political backlash.
Then find a place where it's an actual possibility, don't just fucking shoe-horn it in because you want to "explore the possibility".
 
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