I’m not going to get into spoilers and share one of the few Legends of Windemere things that I’ve kept off my blog. The topic here is characters who are high-powered, but don’t use them to the fullest due to their personality.
This stems from a comment made a while back about Luke Callindor. It was pointed out that he is a lot weaker than Nyx and Sari, which made him a poor hero. Hard to argue since man with swords is technically weaker than woman with massive fireballs and woman with control over water. By the time, the one using sharp objects gets to the bad guy, the damage has been done. Makes me think Cyclops from the X-Men is playing a long game of ‘boost Wolverine’s self-esteem’ since he could probably end most of the fights before the little guy gets within slashing range. Anyway, this is a point that one can make when comparing pure damage output and power levels of characters. Luke wasn’t designed for decimating an army single-handedly. He’s speed, courage, and reflexes that take more time to defeat an enemy. Even with the powers he gains, he has no large area attacks or anything that he can do from range. Unlike Nyx and Sari, Luke has to be in the thick of the fight and working his way through enemies one by one.
This does bring up the question of the powers he gains and what use they are. I’ve had one or two people say that he gets lame abilities because they aren’t at the same scale as the other champions. Or are they? Without going into details, Luke’s champion abilities are amazingly versatile and flexible. He could become a pillar of destruction if he wanted to and I had a few pieces of his powers that were geared toward that. So the potential for the high damaged uber hero is there. Unfortunately, they might never make it into the book because of a severe flaw.
That flaw is Luke himself. As he’s grown through the story, I’ve noticed that he simply doesn’t care about the power side of being a champion. He uses what he has, but always falls back to his swords and courage. When it is revealed that he could gain full power by sacrificing a friend, I fully intended for him to do it. Then he didn’t because that wouldn’t make sense for him. A person or two complained about the decision, but I think this is revealing that some readers only look at a character’s skills. They don’t always factor in if a hero will actually reach for that next level. Maybe the cost is too high or the character has some fear about wielding such destructive abilities. Luke has shifted himself into the category of ‘hero with power who restrains himself’. Like how Spider-Man pulls his punches half the time or Goku fights with weighted clothing. Not always the same reasoning, but it’s similar in that they hold back.
Will there be a time where Luke unleashes everything he has? I hope so and think it’s better that way. With every other champion accepting their powers and pushing themselves to the next level, it’s interesting to see what will happen to the one that keeps himself behind. As an author, it’s kind of nice to have this potential explosion in my back pocket to be brought out at the most opportune moment. Gives me something to work the character toward.
