Zap! Theories and Speculation Thread

[Kamarii Suychad]

I think theories and speculations about the characters and story are awesome. So awesome that they deserve their very own thread to be discussed about. All theories start with a question so I'm going to list some of what I feel are interesting questions I find myself asking as I read the series as well as some of the possible answers I've come up with for said questions. Please give your thoughts to any or all of my questions/answers and post your own questions and speculated answers.

1. Why were Zap's memories erased?
a) Zap foresaw something that made it necessary
b) Naveed is just b*tchy like that
c) No reason at all! (not that I think this is likely at all, I think this is a very important question that has a meaningful answer to the story but I could be wrong)

2. Where did Excelsior come from?
a) Zap made her
b) She is a relic from an older much more technologically advanced civilization of psychics

3. What are Gunner's ultimate goals?
a) Universal domination imposing psychics as the ultimate rulers of everything
b) Genocide of all non-psychics
c) He just wants to build an army that he can use to destroy anyone who annoys him

4. Why did Efrem defect?
a) Gunner threatened/enticed/somehow convinced him
b) He's being controlled by that crown thingy
c) He's actually friends with pre-memory wipe Zap and this is all part of whatever Zap's ulimate plan is

5. Who was that girl that disappeared in green sparkles in issue 422-423?
a) Zap's mom! or some other family member
b) Zap's ex-girlfriend
c) She never existed. He just made her up in his head as part of the trippy mind thingy he's going through

[Addict]

I think theories and speculations about the characters and story are awesome. So awesome that they deserve their very own thread to be discussed about. All theories start with a question so I'm going to list some of what I feel are interesting questions I find myself asking as I read the series as well as some of the possible answers I've come up with for said questions. Please give your thoughts to any or all of my questions/answers and post your own questions and speculated answers.

1. Why were Zap's memories erased?
a) Zap foresaw something that made it necessary
b) Naveed is just b*tchy like that
c) No reason at all! (not that I think this is likely at all, I think this is a very important question that has a meaningful answer to the story but I could be wrong)

2. Where did Excelsior come from?
a) Zap made her
b) She is a relic from an older much more technologically advanced civilization of psychics

3. What are Gunner's ultimate goals?
a) Universal domination imposing psychics as the ultimate rulers of everything
b) Genocide of all non-psychics
c) He just wants to build an army that he can use to destroy anyone who annoys him

4. Why did Efrem defect?
a) Gunner threatened/enticed/somehow convinced him
b) He's being controlled by that crown thingy
c) He's actually friends with pre-memory wipe Zap and this is all part of whatever Zap's ulimate plan is

5. Who was that girl that disappeared in green sparkles in issue 422-423?
a) Zap's mom! or some other family member
b) Zap's ex-girlfriend
c) She never existed. He just made her up in his head as part of the trippy mind thingy he's going through

There were some of these already answered.
1 is B. naveed was ... jealous of zap for spending so much time with Gunner.
2 was indicated in the beginning as being an increadibly advanced and high tech ship that the resistence recently got their hands on. So not built by Zap.
3 is probably rebellion against the people he works for. worked. ... you know what I mean. you know. undermine the system from within.
4 is C. Very clearly stated recently.
5 is still a mystery.

[Addict]

I think theories and speculations about the characters and story are awesome. So awesome that they deserve their very own thread to be discussed about. All theories start with a question so I'm going to list some of what I feel are interesting questions I find myself asking as I read the series as well as some of the possible answers I've come up with for said questions. Please give your thoughts to any or all of my questions/answers and post your own questions and speculated answers.

1. Why were Zap's memories erased?
a) Zap foresaw something that made it necessary
b) Naveed is just b*tchy like that
c) No reason at all! (not that I think this is likely at all, I think this is a very important question that has a meaningful answer to the story but I could be wrong)

2. Where did Excelsior come from?
a) Zap made her
b) She is a relic from an older much more technologically advanced civilization of psychics

3. What are Gunner's ultimate goals?
a) Universal domination imposing psychics as the ultimate rulers of everything
b) Genocide of all non-psychics
c) He just wants to build an army that he can use to destroy anyone who annoys him

4. Why did Efrem defect?
a) Gunner threatened/enticed/somehow convinced him
b) He's being controlled by that crown thingy
c) He's actually friends with pre-memory wipe Zap and this is all part of whatever Zap's ulimate plan is

5. Who was that girl that disappeared in green sparkles in issue 422-423?
a) Zap's mom! or some other family member
b) Zap's ex-girlfriend
c) She never existed. He just made her up in his head as part of the trippy mind thingy he's going through

There were some of these already answered.
1 is B. naveed was ... jealous of zap for spending so much time with Gunner.
2 was indicated in the beginning as being an increadibly advanced and high tech ship that the resistence recently got their hands on. So not built by Zap.
3 is probably rebellion against the people he works for. worked. ... you know what I mean. undermine the system from within sorta thing.
4 is C ish... Very clearly stated recently. (I believe it was within the last 50 pages.)
5 is still a mystery.

[Talen Wolf]

I think theories and speculations about the characters and story are awesome. So awesome that they deserve their very own thread to be discussed about. All theories start with a question so I'm going to list some of what I feel are interesting questions I find myself asking as I read the series as well as some of the possible answers I've come up with for said questions. Please give your thoughts to any or all of my questions/answers and post your own questions and speculated answers.

1. Why were Zap's memories erased?
a) Zap foresaw something that made it necessary
b) Naveed is just b*tchy like that
c) No reason at all! (not that I think this is likely at all, I think this is a very important question that has a meaningful answer to the story but I could be wrong)

2. Where did Excelsior come from?
a) Zap made her
b) She is a relic from an older much more technologically advanced civilization of psychics

3. What are Gunner's ultimate goals?
a) Universal domination imposing psychics as the ultimate rulers of everything
b) Genocide of all non-psychics
c) He just wants to build an army that he can use to destroy anyone who annoys him

4. Why did Efrem defect?
a) Gunner threatened/enticed/somehow convinced him
b) He's being controlled by that crown thingy
c) He's actually friends with pre-memory wipe Zap and this is all part of whatever Zap's ulimate plan is

5. Who was that girl that disappeared in green sparkles in issue 422-423?
a) Zap's mom! or some other family member
b) Zap's ex-girlfriend
c) She never existed. He just made her up in his head as part of the trippy mind thingy he's going through

1 - B

2 - B

3 - A

4 - A/B unsure here.

5 - A

[Kamarii Suychad]

Okay for 1, we all know that Naveed did it and was jealous but it's been said that Zap probably just used her so he could get his memories erased for some reason. It's possible she got the drop on him but highly unlikely. Zap LET Naveed erase his memories. The question is why. I suspect it's because of his pre-cognitive abilities. The future he saw himself creating with Gunner was not a future he wanted so he needed to take steps to change it... which somehow involves erasing his memories.

I suppose for 2 the better questions would be: How did Excelsior end up with the resistance? Did Efrem bring her to the resistance or did Excelsior show up there saying Efrem had to be captain? If we combine the facts that Efrem brought Excelsior to the resistance and Zap somehow knew Excelsior from before he lost his memories (as shown in that one panel during a brief memory flashback he was having) then the fact that Zap and Efrem were working together seems a bit more likely...

3... is a pretty obvious question. It was meant to stir up more discussion on how he's going to take over and how evil his take over was going to be. I think it's going to be pretty darn evil...

4 is an interesting one. In issue 433 where Gunner tells Efrem to be careful in that psychic language it shows that Efrem is not buddy-buddy with Gunner but this does not necessarily mean he's in on whatever Zap's plan is. It doesn't even show that he's friends with Zap. All it does is indicate that Gunner suspects Efrem is not totally loyal to his plan and from Efrem's expression he probably isn't.

It's nice to see that someone else a thinks that girl from Zap's memories is a family member probably his mom. Makes me wonder what she said... She certainly didn't look very happy at Zap before fading away

Another thing I noticed when re-reading Volume 5 was Gunner sent Naveed to fetch "Zap's ship" (mentioned in issue 388). Anybody else get the feeling that this ship he speaks of is a psychic powered warship Zap built with maybe some pointers from Excelsior?

[adam850]

For #2, I remember a post on the old board saying that we'll meet Excelsior's creator.

[Talen Wolf]

hmmmmmm

Wonder when.

[garfalk]

who's to say that we haven't already?

i mean, when you meet someone, but no one tells you they did x, which you had heard of previously, you do not connect them.
but hey, it could be indavo wat built her. (now THAT would be an interesting cross over...)

[mirrim]

Another thing I noticed when re-reading Volume 5 was Gunner sent Naveed to fetch "Zap's ship" (mentioned in issue 388). Anybody else get the feeling that this ship he speaks of is a psychic powered warship Zap built with maybe some pointers from Excelsior?

*Raises hand.* *ponders* But then Gunner also called it the "first ship". So it could be the flag-ship of the squad Excelsior came from...and Zap "discovered" her...buried deep in the sands of...Okay. This is beginning to sound like Star Gate.

But yeah, I still hold onto the thin thread of hope that Zap was a sarcastic bad-ass before but more anti-hero than 'evil'. Maybe the first ship has a homicidal AI or like you said, Zap began to resent/disagree with Gunner.

P.S. Did anyone else notice that, on the cast pages, Zap and Gunner only "appear to be in [their] mid-twenties"? Could they be older than they look? Or younger?

[Kamarii Suychad]

It's certainly going to be interesting whatever that ship turns out to be... although probably in a bad way for the rest of the galaxy once Gunner gets his hands on it.

As for the "appear to be in mid-twenties" thing... I'm voting for older. Although maybe not really a lot older... I'm guessing the psychic race Zap and Gunner (and MAYbe Efrem) are from is a long lived one but I'm torn between whether they live to be decades older or centuries older. There's arguments for using either one in a story.