A Song of Ice and Fire: SPC Downgrade

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

Superhuman Speed
Arya Stark, Jorah Mormont, and Syrio Forel all have Superhuman speed via Arya's feats of catching cats, pigeons, and rabbits. However, I would contend that these are stealth feats for Arya, not speed feats.

First, I'd like to point out that the revision that gave Arya these stats didn't have a single evaluating staff approve it (@Marvel_Champion_07 was a Content Moderator, and CM's can't evaluate revisions), so the revision is completely invalid a priori.

For the cats (A Game of Thrones, Chapter 32):

Arya padded down the alley, balanced lightly on the balls of her bare feet, listening to the flutter of her heart, breathing slow deep breaths. Quiet as a shadow, she told herself, light as a feather. The tomcat watched her come, his eyes wary.

[...]

Now at last she had him. High walls pressed close on either side, and ahead was a blank windowless mass of stone. Quiet as a shadow, she repeated, sliding forward, light as a feather.

When she was three steps away from him, the tomcat bolted. Left, then right, he went; and right, then left, went Arya, cutting off his escape. He hissed again and tried to dart between her legs. Quick as a snake, she thought. Her hands closed around him. She hugged him to her chest, whirling and laughing aloud as his claws raked at the front of her leather jerkin. Ever so fast, she kissed him right between the eyes, and jerked her head back an instant before his claws would have found her face. The tomcat yowled and spit.

Arya doesn't catch cats by outrunning them, but by sneaking up on them until they're close enough to grab. To anyone who's confused by why this cat doesn't run off if it's staring at her, cats tend to perceive slow-moving objects as stationary, so it didn't realize she was there until she got within a few paces. This should be changed to a Stealth Mastery feat for Arya.

For the pigeon (A Game of Thrones, Chapter 65):

The scent of hot bread drifting from the shops along the Street of Flour was sweeter than any perfume Arya had ever smelled. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the pigeon. It was a plump one, speckled brown, busily pecking at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya’s shadow touched it, it took to the air.

Her stick sword whistled out and caught it two feet off the ground, and it went down in a flurry of brown feathers. She was on it in the blink of an eye, grabbing a wing as the pigeon flapped and fluttered. It pecked at her hand. She grabbed its neck and twisted until she felt the bone snap.

Compared with catching cats, pigeons were easy.

For a regular person to catch pigeons when they're feeding is no big deal, as shown in this video, so this is more of a swordsmanship feat.


For the rabbit (A Clash of Kings, Chapter 9):

Arya was a skilled climber and a fast picker, and she liked to go off by herself. One day she came across a rabbit, purely by happenstance. It was brown and fat, with long ears and a twitchy nose. Rabbits ran faster than cats, but they couldn’t climb trees half so well. She whacked it with her stick and grabbed it by its ears, and Yoren stewed it with some mushrooms and wild onions. Arya was given a whole leg, since it was her rabbit. She shared it with Gendry. The rest of them each got a spoonful, even the three in manacles. Jaqen H’ghar thanked her politely for the treat, and Biter licked the grease off his dirty fingers with a blissful look, but Rorge, the noseless one, only laughed and said, “There’s a hunter now. Lumpyface Lumpyhead Rabbitkiller.”

Though rabbits can technically run at superhuman speeds, they rarely ever do in the wild because they zigzag to evade predators, so this is more of a swordsmanship feat.

Overall, the "possibly Superhuman" speed should be removed.
Superhuman Physical Characteristics
The vast majority of human characters with SPC should have it removed, as it's a relic from when they had 9-B and Subsonic speeds. Only Grey Worm, Gregor Clegane, and Robert Baratheon should retain it, as they all have separate superhuman feats (Unsullied resist pain, Gregor rips off heads, and Robert survives a fatal wound for days).

 

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

@JustSomeWeirdo @Theglassman12 @Eficiente @DemonGodMitchAubin @Duedate8898 @Planck69 @KingTempest @Armorchompy @CrimsonStarFallen @UchihaSlayer96 @LordTracer @Emirp sumitpo @EliminatorVenom @Deagonx @FinePoint @Elizio33 @Propellus @AbaddonTheDisappointment

 

[LordTracer]

Makes sense, I agree.

 

[Duedate8898]

This looks goods to me

 

[AbaddonTheDisappointment]

Seems fine to me

 

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

That's three evaluating staff approvals past the grace period, so I'll apply this.

 

[Duedate8898]

Closing