The Flash,...and other speedsters

[Kyberwulf]

Okay, this isn't like a serious question.. more of a musing. But. Do you think that having the powers of speed is overrated?

Think about it for a second. TO us... they seem to get everything done in a couple seconds. To them however... They are just moving at normal speed. So technically, they still have to do the dishes...clean the room... and whatnot.. I am just wondering about that whole theory of relativity thing.

If you had superspeed.... You are still having to do the work. It just seems like it to us, because we are on the outside looking in.

[Killer Angel]

This (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-eMdMsMgCU) seems related to the question. :smallbiggrin:

[Kitten Champion]

I think having super-speed would be rather detrimental if it didn't come with the extreme endurance, vitality, attenuated senses, and manual dexterity needed to go along with it.

After all, I could move about much faster than I actually do day-to-day, but things like exhaustion and the potential risk of injury to myself or others makes it rather inefficient and hazardous.

If you have all those things, well, that's rather convenient.

Although...that's assuming you can shut it off and act/react in normal speed. Quicksilver for instance, at least in the few comics I've read with him, suffers anxiety because he's a hare in a world of tortoises. Having to do anything with mundane humans means he has to constantly exercise patience, and even if he were more serene as a character, that would build up to be quite an annoyance. Like having a supped-up sports car but constantly waiting through red lights and getting pulled over for speeding.

[TeChameleon]

I'll mostly content myself with saying that thinking too hard about how the Flash's perceptions work is a quick ticket to a migraine, if not the funny farm. It's been portrayed so inconsistently and in some cases so very strangely that it makes even less sense than most super powers. And I say this as someone who has a perpetual soft spot for speedsters of all stripes (although Barry Allen bores me >.>).

For the Flash's powers to work as they're usually portrayed, he'd basically have to have a completely new set of reflexes as part of his power that lets his autonomic nervous system control things like superspeed running or dish-doing while he's thinking about something else at non-super speed. Plus you end up with interesting things happening via relativity, and... argh. Yeah, not really worth the headache >.<

[theNater]

Flash seems to have variable speed of perception, and it appears to be unrelated to his speed of action. So he can just set his body on autopilot while his brain's at normal speed and get the advantage.

Quicksilver, on the other hand, generally has his perception permanently at high-speed, so he is bored out of his frikkin' mind all the time. He's usually glad for chores to do; just to keep himself busy.

So, y'know, it varies. Somebody who had multiple speed settings with their perception tied to their action speed would, as you say, probably not feel the benefits (in terms of chores; it would still help with keeping appointments).

[Zmeoaice]

Think about it for a second. TO us... they seem to get everything done in a couple seconds. To them however... They are just moving at normal speed. So technically, they still have to do the dishes...clean the room... and whatnot.. I am just wondering about that whole theory of relativity thing.


It might seem like the same, but you'd save a lot of time and be able to spend it on fun stuff.

But speedsters tend to be able to change their perception, so if they need to do something fast and precise, they will slow time around them, but if they need to get from point A to B, they just kick their legs and get their quickly.

[Legato Endless]

It might seem like the same, but you'd save a lot of time and be able to spend it on fun stuff.


Pretty much this. Even though the task would still be tedious for you, you'd get it done much more efficiently. So while it wouldn't just resolve problems instantly for you like it would onlookers, it would free up your schedule. For those of us where it never seems like there's enough hours in the day, that would be a godsend.

Although to go back to TeChameleon, I'm not sure how Quick Silver functions at all if his perception is amped, unless his default perception is still a lot slower than his running speed. While not the Flash, I don't think you'd be able to even understand people's speech thanks to the sound elongation and perceived change in frequency if your perception of external events was moving equidistant to his reflexes.

[Traab]

What I find interesting is, on the surface, quicksilver or someone other than the flash doing dishes would result in a lot of shattered dishes. His body is able to handle that speed, a bunch of dinner plates wouldnt be able to take that gforce and would break from the sudden acceleration and stop. There are just SO FREAKING MANY secondary powers required to make being a speedster something that doesnt end poorly for you or the world around you.

Just for starters, the human body isnt meant to function that fast, you would be outracing your own neural impulses, your body explodes from the sudden acceleration and g forces. Your body catches fire from friction of air resistance, the air itself is burning around you everywhere you go, that isnt healthy for bystanders (and more insane speeds would start creating nuclear fission by tearing apart atoms and molecules as you go) Anything you try to bring with you is then subject to that same incredible stress and strain. People would die instantly, fragile materials would bend and break. The list could probably go on from there for some time, but the point stands. It would take probably a half dozen different secondary powers to counteract all that terrible stuff (or handwave it all as speed force related)

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

I often imagine different versions of super speed (and play a lot of superhero rpgs).

One of my favorite quick silver quotes is "Have you ever been behind a little old lady at an ATM, one that didn't know how it worked and had to reread every button. Imagine everyone in line was like that...and everywhere every day you were behind the little old lady at the ATM"

If on the other hand I had speedforce on/off and the ability to think at normal or superspeed it would be great.


Then again I always think comic books overdue the speed and paint themselves in a corner. If the "Fastest man alive" could go from 0-60mph in 10 seconds, then with enough open space in under a minute make it to 100mph if he pushed it, that would be that would be super speed and still not an autowin button, but speed of sound, 0-60 in 3 steps and reflexes to match are pretty hard to write for.

[DemonicAngel]

This (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1YGgLV3ZgM) seems related i think. it's an interesting portrial if nothing else.

[Friv]

Pretty much this. Even though the task would still be tedious for you, you'd get it done much more efficiently. So while it wouldn't just resolve problems instantly for you like it would onlookers, it would free up your schedule. For those of us where it never seems like there's enough hours in the day, that would be a godsend.

Although to go back to TeChameleon, I'm not sure how Quick Silver functions at all if his perception is amped, unless his default perception is still a lot slower than his running speed. While not the Flash, I don't think you'd be able to even understand people's speech thanks to the sound elongation and perceived change in frequency if your perception of external events was moving equidistant to his reflexes.

Well, if that's how you learned speech in the first place, he probably would. It would still be an incredible pain to still still long enough to listen to them, though.

As far as the Flash - in theory, at least, he has both super-toughness, allowing him to survive the speeds he moves at, and specialized reflexes that don't demand normal thought, although if he really focuses on them, he seems to be able to speed his perceptions up. Using the current TV Flash as a random example - when he's just doing chores, involving a bunch of non-moving objects, no problem, he's going at practically the speed of sound. When he's running through traffic, which involves a lot of predictable, moving objects, he's a lot slower - maybe a hundred and fifty miles an hour? And when he's fighting a bad guy, in a situation where he has to actually focus on everything that's happening, a sudden change directly in front of him (a fist swung at the wrong moment, Captain Cold blowing up a fire hydrant to spray the area with ice) can happen too suddenly for his reflexes to catch up with the change in the environment, and he gets hit or sprawls or whatever.

It is, of course, not reliably demonstrated, because writers. But it seems to be the general gist.