Behind the Science: Bolder and the Ground Beneath the Fight

Behind the Science: Bolder and the Ground Beneath the Fight Bolder is probably somebody I'd want with me on this trip through Myst before a lot of the people who make bigger promises. He complains, he argues, and he has a fairly stubborn way of dealing with people. But when something goes wrong, he keeps finding a way to help. Half the time, the thing keeping everyone alive is a hole he just made in the ground. That sounds less impressive than a giant explosion until you're standing next to the person about to make the giant explosion. When Sela first needs his help, she's being attacked by Morgarzera in a monstrous bull form. Pyros brings Bolder to her, and Bolder uses his pick to change the terrain around the fight. He raises an obstacle and breaks the ledge beneath the creature. His advantage is that he can decide what the attacker is standing on. He doesn't have to win a contest of strength with the animal if he can take away the ground supporting it. That becomes a pretty consistent part of how he operates. He can use the landscape to get somebody out of trouble, put an obstacle in the way, or turn the enemy's position into a weakness. And he can do it fast enough to matter while someone is already attacking. The pick isn't treated as ordinary equipment. When they arrive in Tallus, Druanna recognizes it as something extraordinary, forged in Oz. Bolder has to leave it with the guards before entering her garden, and she makes sure it's protected. I wouldn't turn that into a claim that every ability he has comes exclusively from the pick. What the pages repeatedly show is him using it when he moves the earth, and other characters recognizing that it's a special object. The rescue outside Tallus is one of the best examples of why that matters. Sela is surrounded by enemies and afraid that using her power will kill the people she's trying to protect. Bolder tells her to do what she has to do. He strikes the ground and makes a pit where Blake and the refugees can shelter while her blast goes off above them. He's working with the power she has rather than asking her to suddenly learn perfect control in the middle of a fight. That's a useful kind of intelligence. He sees that he can't make the explosion safe everywhere, so he changes where the people are when it happens. From the science side, the part I find interesting is the precision. It's easy to describe an earth-moving power as causing a little earthquake, but that isn't really what these scenes are showing. An earthquake releases energy when blocks of rock suddenly slip, and seismic waves carry that energy outward. The [USGS explanation](https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/science-earthquakes) follows how that movement shakes the ground and the things sitting on it. You don't get to tell a natural earthquake to make a neat shelter for your friends while leaving exactly the right space around them. Bolder is doing something much more selective. He's choosing which part moves, what shape it becomes, and what purpose it serves. The fantasy isn't just that a small person can supply enough force to shift a large amount of stone. It's that the movement can be controlled closely enough to protect people in the middle of it. That distinction becomes even clearer when the Shadow Dragon attacks. Blake needs a position from which he can take the shot with the golden bow. Bolder raises the rock beneath him and gets him into place. It's a very different use of the same ability from dropping an enemy through a ledge. Here he's effectively making a platform for another person's weapon. Then the dragon falls toward the people below it, and Bolder makes a pocket in the earth that lets them survive underneath. William eventually cuts their way out. Again, Bolder's contribution is the space he creates. A giant body lands where they were standing, but he has given them somewhere else to be. I wouldn't try to assign a weight limit or a range to that from these panels. We aren't given enough to measure either one honestly. What we can say is that the ability is versatile enough to serve as cover, a weapon, a barrier, and a way of repositioning someone. That's already a lot more useful than reducing him to a dwarf with a mining tool. There's also a reason he keeps choosing to help Sela that I think matters just as much as the magic. Bolder is Blagg's brother. He knows the damage his brother did, including what happened to Morrigan and Esmerelda. He tells Sela that story, then admits his own connection to it. Serving Delphina was part of how he tried to restore his family's name. That isn't something he can settle by telling people he happens to be the good brother. He has to live differently, and the journey gives him plenty of opportunities to decide whether he'll keep doing that when it becomes inconvenient or dangerous. He researches the key Sela needs and volunteers to guide her. When the Goblin Queen captures them, he tries to use Morrigan's name to keep the situation from ending in their deaths. He reminds Sela about the bracelet when she's struggling against the goblins. He notices what she does for the animals along the way, and understands why those creatures might later help her. He isn't just waiting around for a moment to swing the pick again. By Tallus, he's also willing to call Blake out when Blake is overwhelmed by everything he has failed to prevent. Bolder tells him that his willingness to keep fighting is part of why his name means something. Coming from somebody who has spent so much of his own life trying to repair a name, that conversation makes sense to me. He understands the difference between having a bad history attached to you and deciding there's no point in doing anything good now. That's the combination I like about Bolder. The magic gives him a very practical way to change a bad situation. His character is what makes him keep using it for other people. Sela has power she can't always control, Blake has skill he isn't always confident in, and Bolder keeps working out what each of them needs in that moment. Sometimes it's a blunt conversation. Sometimes it's a stone platform. Sometimes it's getting everybody underground before the explosion hits.