Quote Originally Posted by Rocl View Post
*snip*
Perhaps I did not express it clearly, but what you are saying is pretty much what I was trying to get across. The Echo is the same in everyone. How they express it is what differs.

Think of it like the "mutant gene" in the X-men. There's just one gene that matters. If you have the gene, you're a mutant. If you don't, you're not. However, the mutation caused by the gene is different in pretty much everyone who has it.

The Echo is the mutant gene. It's exactly the same in everyone who has it, but how it is expressed varies from person to person. So, you could transfer the Echo from Krile into six different people, and get six different manifestations of the Echo, rather than six different people who have Krile's Echo abilities.

This was all in response to the question someone asked about why Fordola's abilities are so different from Krile's when Fordola's Echo was copied from Krile's.

I DID, however, also postulate that it may be possible for a skilled Echo user to harness their Echo in ways other than those they discover naturally. The in-game evidence is scarce, and is mostly based on some of the stuff Elidibus said in his first appearance. He seems to imply that Minfilia's mastery of the Echo is imperfect, and that if she was in full mastery of it, she would be able to see him as he truly is (and, for that matter, agree with his point of view). The "ability to see Ascians" (albeit crudely) seems to be an ability all Echo users possess, which does NOT tie in with their "Echo specialty". So, on an individual basis, Echo-bearers already are shown to have powers beyond what they're known for, and likely all of them lack "mastery" as an Ascian would see it.

It could even be implying that fully mastering the Echo is how you BECOME an Ascian. At that point, you would be able to do anything that any Echo user could do, and likely much more, besides. It is at that point that you fully comprehend the "unnatural" state of the cosmos, and realize that it MUST be corrected, no matter the cost - or, at least, that is the conclusion that Elidibus and the other Ascians have come to. If there are fully-mastered Echo users who have not reached that conclusion and become Ascians, they are not nearly as meddlesome. (Perhaps the Twelve? Fully-mastered Echo users who have reached an even greater state of clarity than the Ascians, and meddle infrequently, understanding that meddling generally causes more harm than good?)

This all moves well away from the "mutant gene" analogy, and well into the realm of speculation. However, I don't believe any text, even from 1.0, explicitly dismisses the possibility that Echo users could learn to use their Echo in new ways. Every Echo user has abilities that come naturally to them, but can they learn other ways to use it, as well? Elidibus certainly seemed to feel that Minfilia had room to grow as an Echo user.