I have always been deeply fascinated by superpowers. I find it entertaining to think about how superpowers can be used, how much easier things would be and just how interesting life would be. On the other hand, the constant challenges of life would not be there with superpowers involved. After a conversation I had with my friend, here is me trying to ruin all of HCAU’s go-to superpowers.
Ability to read peoples’ minds
This power seems really cool on paper, being able to hear peoples’ thoughts, feelings and intentions could be extremely useful. You wouldn’t ever have to ask them any of these things because you already know, just by reading their mind. I at least think there would be absolutely no surprise or tension because when does the conversation actually start? You would lose the interesting parts of talking to people, asking how they are, what they are feeling and what’s on their mind. The other thing that would come with it is the paranoia, always knowing what everyone is thinking. There’s no mystery, because as well as the positive vibes you get from someone, you get the negatives too.
Shapeshift
Shapeshifting sounds pretty cool with being able to change into anything you please whenever you want. Personally, I would feel confused by my own body. Shapeshifting I imagine would mean you could also change the way you looked originally, just by a tad. All of your once insecurities will vanish – the slight chubbiness in the cheek, the bald patch, the large nose. Yes, you will be happy with your appearance, except, that appearance isn’t yours. There will be always something you’d prefer to be, like a mermaid so you can swim in the sea with speed, a unicorn so you can fly majestically or a dragon so you can breathe fire. So if you are constantly shapeshifting, there leaves no room for you.
Teleportation
There are complications with teleportation just in a scientific way. I don’t totally understand it, but there’s a physics issue that makes it difficult to teleport. If we take the logistics aside, I feel teleportation sucks the fun out of travelling. Whilst it is quick (and I imagine more environmentally conscious), I actually quite like the journey going to places. And I’m talking as someone who is used to a day’s worth journey to visit my family in Hong Kong for two weeks (some of it recovering from jet-lag). Part of the fun is the lead-up to the destination, the waiting around with excitement and the journey mishaps you stress about at the time but becomes a travel story to laugh about later. There’s none of that with teleportation.
Ability to control minds
Whilst you could build your own army, have everything go your way, I think life needs the challenge. I don’t think it would necessarily be fun not having to do anything yourself because someone can do it for you, for you to control someone else to do it so you can have an easy life. You would constantly be bringing other people down, where they have absolutely no say in what they are doing but just do it because you controlled them to. Whilst some people might like that power, you will never know whether you did something because of your own competence or because you controlled someone else’ to get what you want.
Immortality
This is just a really sad superpower because everyone you know and love will die before you. This power will trap you in a never-ending cycle of meeting new people and watching them die.
Ability to talk to animals
This one seems very fun to be able to talk to your pet, the cute stray cat outside or the rabbits bouncing down the hill. If you were ever near a vicious one you would be able to get to know them to and get to know their deeper side in why they are as aggressive as they are. I imagine it would be too loud. You wouldn’t just be able to hear the conversations of humans, but also understand all the animals too. Though, I guess it would make animals feel less patronised by not having to endure the pet-talk.
Breathe underwater
Whilst it sounds good in theory, you can swim with the dolphins. The ocean covers 70% of the planet, but you would be trading away all the culture and energy of human society for the cold dead void of open water. Whilst you may be able to breath underwater, most of the depths of the ocean will be inaccessible to you due to lack of visibility.
Time control
This has always been one of my go-to super-powers. But, like all the others, it has its flaws (unless you counted for them already). Being able to manipulate time to my advantage means I can sleep longer, never be late or make mistakes. But does time keep going whilst you’ve frozen it or winded it down? Does it mean you continually age as everyone else freezes in time? Yes, I would be able to craft as much as I want whilst completing all my work on time to a suitable standard with no actual deadline, but at one point I imagine life wouldn’t provide any challenges as you can erase what went wrong, give yourself more time to do things where you’ve perfected it and have no consequences to your actions, ever.
Know what happened in the future
Option 1, you can see in the future and this foreknowledge doesn’t grant you any power to change it. There’s no free will so have fun with that existential meltdown. The other option is you can change the future, at which point, this isn’t really a superpower, you’ve just gained the ability to create fanfiction about yourself.
Invisibility
I’m going to end on this one because I will say I have never once thought of invisibility as my go-to superpower. Personally, I just find it boring.