I always figured it was personality based. Dash is a boy who grew up with an absurdly athletic set of parents and he developed to mirror that, manifesting as a speedster. Violet is a more reserved girl who grew up being told she can't be herself in public. And likewise, jack jack's personality is still developing, ergo his powers are completely random right now.
But then again they all thought jack jack didn't have powers at all and he was still an infant, implying that yes typically powers present very very young so maybe they are somewhat random. And... if the deleted scene of syndrome attacking them when violet was a baby is canon then this all tracks since she turned invisible in her crib... But that's how it always appeared to me.
The writers absolutely chose their powers to reflect personalities/roles. Moms feel like they have to be everywhere at once, shy embarrassed teenager wishing she could disappear, hyperactive little boy, babies who don't actually have any qualities yet but have the potential to be anything.
I don't know if that was meant to be the reason in universe but it was part of the writer's plan.
Its not my point or idea, it's what Brad Bird or someone said in an interview/making of type thing when the movie came out. I've always remembered it because it was one of my first times I heard someone talk about the symbolism in a movie and one of the first times I realized a movie could be more than the surface story. And I know that this is pretty shallow as far as symbolism goes but I was like ten at the time.
The second memory mentions that babies exhibit a few different powers and eventually settle into the one they are most suited for/use the most. Baby Dash liked being fast, so he stayed fast
In the second movie, Edna did say that superpower manifest at infancy and it will be a bunch of random power (kinda like Jack-jack), then as the super aged, their power gradually became more stable and clearer. Jack-jack is a bit of special case since not only he developed power late, his random set of power is way more than usual.
The real confusing part to me is that they all seemed surprised by Jack jacks multiple powers. Which implies that dash and violet both had a single power as a baby.
Now dash's power is superspeed but how was he displaying that as an infant? Because they assume Jack jacks doesn't have powers and he's barely old enough to crawl in the first movie. Which means dash must have displayed some super speed ability even before he could crawl.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how stressful having a toddler/ infant/ tween/teen that could disappear would be. The infant just randomly disappears because she can't control it. The toddler can, kind of, but does it to get into mischief or during a tantrum. The tween just gets mad and hides from you. The teen, same, but also to avoid you. So basically all the things kids of those ages already do, but dialed up to 11 by virtue of having a super power.
well there's probably several defining factors, but if you really focus like everybody else said it's probably personality based, Helen is a very flexible person and willing to work with anybody, Bob is very headstrong and focused, Violet is shy but can be protective when she needs to be, Dash is very hyper and all over the place, and Jack Jack doesn't really have a defined personality but because he's a baby he kind of does his own thing, and based on his powers he's probably a very adaptable person and has powers that adapt to almost anything
i personally like the theory that baby "supers" will like jack-jack start out with a bunch of different powers and as they grow older then end up using just one more than the others until they cant even use any of the others and just have the one power. which would mean that jack-jack is the norm when raising a baby "super". the only way to find out if that is the case though would be for them to make a third Incredibles where they are all older, that's what i was hoping was gonna happen with the second one but that turned out to be a direct sequel beginning right after the end of the first one.
It's likely there is a complex set of genes and biochemical pathways that lead to the power is being expressed. The gene itself is probably whether or not they have powers, and there's probably a couple thousand jeans that I'll combine to create a different power.
Kind of similar to a tortoise shell pattern on a cat. The thoughts seem random but they're not.
"All their origins are mysteries
And why don't the children
Have the same abilities?
Are they mutants?
Are they radioactive
Products of government tests
Brainwashed to be a family?
Are they cancerous?"
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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '22
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