>> That was my take on it too, the drugs could be got elsewhere with far less effort, even the controlled ones. The files however... <<
Yep.
>> Thing is... whomever did this has to know what kind of world of hurt is about to descend upon them, which sort of implies they think they can handle it. So, who ever is not only unscrupulous, but possibly very powerful too. <<
Well, they had to be somewhat powerful to get the information in the first place, get in, steal it, and get out. But they're not on par with the fight they just picked. The whole point is that somebody wanted a cheatsheet to take down folks they couldn't beat in a fair fight. They thought they could get away with it because they were primarily gauging themselves against Dr. Melas. They weren't expecting the nary vet to call the world's greatest supervillain instead of calling the cops. Sure, it was easy to crack her workplace and peel open an ordinary safe. Dealing with her friends? That's a different story. :D
>> It would be... interesting... for Dr Infantia to run into someone she can't take down easily. <<
There are plenty of people she can't take down easily, but she is effectively a superpower in the national sense. A country is a fair opponent for her, and she's actually been active on that field for most of her very long life.
>> Although, perhaps they think they can play upon her sense of ethics to check-mate her. [maybe by taking hostages] Which I think might go very badly for them... because I'm pretty sure if it comes down to it, she would take the view that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, even at personal cost. <<
It's been tried. It ends badly. Ask the Nazis. Oh wait you can't because they're dead. After the Sterbenfeld Device wiped out all her guardians during WWII, she didn't have much in the way of brakes for a while. Flipping the safety catch off the person of mass destruction is doubleplusungood.
>> Of course, they might also not realise they've just made themselves a piñata for every soup [black or white cape] in town... <<
They didn't think about that either. Things to remember about criminals in general and supervillains in particular:
* They're dumber on average. Smart people can usually find better ways of solving their problems. There are smart crooks, but they are rare.
* They think they can get away with it. What deters crime is not severity of punishment but a high probability of capture. That's actually where T-America has tightened the net. They can afford to be gentler with criminals because the catch rate is higher. It discourages misbehavior rather well. Thing is, some idiot always thinks he is the exception to the rule.
* In Terramagne particularly, the smarter and more competent criminals float to the top. The dumber and more destructive ones get nudged down, or smacked down if necessary. There are hard limits on how high the whackjobs can rise, as a confluence of social engineering by nary societies (the Tesla fluid valve effect) and the fact that Dr. Infanta is the top layer, the Marionettes and Kraken and their peers are the second, and that locks the whackjobs out of the cap on the pyramid. Period. They can cause problems but they can't take over. Doesn't stop some people from trying, though.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2016-05-21 02:27 am (UTC)Yep.
>> Thing is... whomever did this has to know what kind of world of hurt is about to descend upon them, which sort of implies they think they can handle it. So, who ever is not only unscrupulous, but possibly very powerful too. <<
Well, they had to be somewhat powerful to get the information in the first place, get in, steal it, and get out. But they're not on par with the fight they just picked. The whole point is that somebody wanted a cheatsheet to take down folks they couldn't beat in a fair fight. They thought they could get away with it because they were primarily gauging themselves against Dr. Melas. They weren't expecting the nary vet to call the world's greatest supervillain instead of calling the cops. Sure, it was easy to crack her workplace and peel open an ordinary safe. Dealing with her friends? That's a different story. :D
>> It would be... interesting... for Dr Infantia to run into someone she can't take down easily. <<
There are plenty of people she can't take down easily, but she is effectively a superpower in the national sense. A country is a fair opponent for her, and she's actually been active on that field for most of her very long life.
>> Although, perhaps they think they can play upon her sense of ethics to check-mate her. [maybe by taking hostages] Which I think might go very badly for them... because I'm pretty sure if it comes down to it, she would take the view that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, even at personal cost. <<
It's been tried. It ends badly. Ask the Nazis. Oh wait you can't because they're dead. After the Sterbenfeld Device wiped out all her guardians during WWII, she didn't have much in the way of brakes for a while. Flipping the safety catch off the person of mass destruction is doubleplusungood.
>> Of course, they might also not realise they've just made themselves a piñata for every soup [black or white cape] in town... <<
They didn't think about that either. Things to remember about criminals in general and supervillains in particular:
* They're dumber on average. Smart people can usually find better ways of solving their problems. There are smart crooks, but they are rare.
* They think they can get away with it. What deters crime is not severity of punishment but a high probability of capture. That's actually where T-America has tightened the net. They can afford to be gentler with criminals because the catch rate is higher. It discourages misbehavior rather well. Thing is, some idiot always thinks he is the exception to the rule.
* In Terramagne particularly, the smarter and more competent criminals float to the top. The dumber and more destructive ones get nudged down, or smacked down if necessary. There are hard limits on how high the whackjobs can rise, as a confluence of social engineering by nary societies (the Tesla fluid valve effect) and the fact that Dr. Infanta is the top layer, the Marionettes and Kraken and their peers are the second, and that locks the whackjobs out of the cap on the pyramid. Period. They can cause problems but they can't take over. Doesn't stop some people from trying, though.