Oh, I whole heartedly agree. I even posted a thread in the PT forums disscussing that very art and possible implications. And to add a little more spice to the rum pot, there is a chance that it's not the only card art incoming that features those two characters…
I'm kinda really walking a real fine line here, but story stuff excites me and you can be sure there will be a Footnotes thread about Scholar come VotM release time.
My thoughts on Unity are that she has the ability to control metal, and electricity. Maybe her skills are strong enough now that she can use anything that even has minor traces of metal in it. Cause all she needs to make the golems work is something that can use electricity, right? So could she be able to encase her golems in material that can move around while having a skeleton she can control?
Would this make it to where Chokepoint has a harder time of mending the machine to her? So she would rather run from it or attack it instead of absorbing it?
Maybe the part of the card we can't see shows how she's doing it.
These are just a collection of thoughts running through my head about what Unity could do to change her attack strategy to be more efficient against Chokepoint.
Unity can manipulate Metal, and affect technology with her mind.
In Tactics; Citizens of the Sun get their own seperate turn from Dawn, Drones from Omnitron take one action by omnitron to give the drone a full turn. Unity however, shares her turns with her Golems at a 1-1 ratio. Their actions are her actions. This to me says she is directly controlling her golems, While Omnitron's drones are programmed and only need direction from Omnitron to act, they can do the rest on their own, while Citizens don't need direction from Dawn in combat to be effective in combat.
Also, I'm trying to be careful, I didn't think I gave anything away, if I did I'm sorry.
To me, unless I'm missing something obvious, Unity is in an odd position in the battle against Chokepoint.
On one hand Unity's entire power base is very similiar to Chokepoint, the manipulation, de- and re- contstruction of tech ect. Unity is slightly more powerful since Chokepoint can absorb tech, but Unity can create tech. However, this means the stronger Unity gets, the stronger she males Chokepoint.
On the other hand, Unity does not need to create tech bots or walls or anything. Chokepoint's power can't harm or inconvience Unity unless Unity builds something first, barring some secret reconstructions we are unaware of that would make Unity partially made of Tech.
So, Unity can be unaffected by Chokepoint if she chooses not to fight, if she chooses to sit on the sidelines. That isn't Devra though, she wouldn't be able to stand being sidelined, but she is also smart enough to realize that fighting in her normal manner would only make the enemy more powerful, thus putting her friends in danger.
This is why Unity gets a new promo I think. She needs to find something different, some new trick, so she can go fight without making the enemy more dangerous to those she cares about.
Unity can also reconstruct existing tech (reconfigure). So she could try to counter Chokepoint's modifications, disabling blasters at the last second, turning off force fields, etc.
She basically creates tech out of tech, so she could try and turn Chokepoint's equipment into something harmless, like bubble guns.
She can move metal with her mind (Ferro-Kinesis), and control Mechanical devices/mentally read them (Techno-Pathy).
She did use paperclips and pencils and other student's belongings to make golems, but I would assume she did it by controlling the metal in the construct.
And magnetic fields would also allow her to create and blast lightning likeshe does with… her one card, by moving magnetic fields over "wires"… generators do it… I cannot remeber the name of the effect. But it makes perfect sense.
But “ferro-” is just the prefix for iron. You’re probably thinking of the word “ferromagnetic,” which basically means “something with magnetic properties like iron.”
As paperclips are usually steel, there is no obvious answer. Darn iron alloys. Also, thanks for pointing out about 'ferro'. I did not know that.
The thing is, sure, Unity builds these things, but does she imbue them with some spark of life to keep them together when she isn't concentrating on them? Presumably they are powered somehow, at least, that's what the glowing eyes makes me think.
Spacecraft engineer and high school teacher: BY OUR POWERS COMBINED…!
Hey, Bubbles, you are probably closer than you think with the phrase “spark of life,” given the word “golem.” In eastern European Jewish mythology, a golem was animated by putting a piece of paper with a Hebrew word like “life” in its mouth, and the golem would lose animation if the paper was removed.
.... I should really not post when so tired. I studied a LOT of occultism and mysticism for my degree meaning I know that about golems. Next question then: where does it come from? Devra? Or some other source?
Meaning the spark of life (or whatever it is). Sorry for the unclear posting. Crackpot theory: she taps into the power source of the cosmic being that revived Omnitron which is what powers her golems. Mostly because inscribing words of power doesn't seem her thing: 1) it's magic, not technology based, 2) the preparations would take a while.
I would bet that for the most part when she isn't conscious her Golems aren't either.
We do know they aren't just metal husks though, because platform bot shoots lasers, cryo bot actually freezes things, etc. That isn't her powers. They have to have technology inside them, which is probably why the lab explodes.
I mean she's building tech that can (at least somewhat) mimic Tachyon and AZ's powers, that isn't easy. Not to mention a mini weapons platform that doesn't lag too far behind the original in firepower.
Her Technopathy would still allow her to work with her bots.
The crazy thing is Reconfiguration in Tactics. She explodes a golem designed to roll at insanely fast speeds and reform the pieces into one that moves at normal speeds but now it freezes things around it at will.
That's some insanely awesome stuff right there.
I would imagine he trained herself to a point where she can think of the blueprint and will it to come together, but think of the extra parts she needs to have in every golem.
Also how would she deal with wires? I imagine she would have to wrap the insulated wire in some kind of fabric woven with tiny iron thread so she could control it.
Thinking about reconfigure... do you think if you handed her a hunk of iron she could make a working curcuit board? I think at that point her power would be too ridiculous but how much of her tech is the parts she starts with and how much is her ability.
It's important because as Dr. Stinsons lab Aide Devra has access to Tachyon's work and AZ's suit, as well as Bunker's Suit. If stealth bot is more of Unity borrowing and copying Wraith's smoke bomb technology that her turning scrap iron into a smoke releasing robot, then she has limits not well represented by the cards. She still develops tech herself, and reconfigure could by explained by a... multi-tool engine? that works as Cryo bot if A is plugged into B, but does Swift Bot if B is plugged into C instead.
Also, thank you for the reminder on the Faraday Effect, I think that is how she creates the power we see as the pink lightning and what may also power the golems.
Tangent... What does Construction Pylon do is reality I wonder?