[chapter tags and comments, of which I’d highlighted a tag and a comment, marked here in bold]
This entry was posted in 5.05 and tagged Angelica, Bitch, Brutus, Fenja, Grue, Judas, Kaiser, Labyrinth, Menja, Newter, Regent, Sundancer, Tattletale, Taylor by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
18 THOUGHTS ON “HIVE 5.5”
Vaughn Ohman:
Interesting. Mellow. I liked it.
THF:
“Selecting the best of them, I directed them under my armor”. I was actually quivering in disgust at this point.
That’s a compliment on the vividness of your imagery by the way. 😉
[reply, made two years later] greatwyrmgold:
There’s still cloth between the bugs and the skin. Taylor’s a bit squeamish for someone with bug control powers, as a later chapter touches on directly.
Okay, yeah, I think it’s time to abandon both the character tags and the early comments.
(I do like that the doggos get character tags though.)
For the record, I don’t want anyone going after the commenter for minorly spoiling a liveblogger with a comment they made almost four years ago.
No witch hunts.
(This would still apply without the mitigating circumstances.)
gurtgetter:
please weigh in on the big debate: should taylor/lisa be called Tattletaylor, Skittletale, or Smugbug?
Hm… When I mentioned the ship in the 5.5 liveblog, I actually considered calling it Tattletaylor (of my own accord; I had not seen that in use). I’m a sucker for portmanteau ship names, and the tale/tayl homophony inside it is great.
The problem with it is of course that it mixes the sets of names. Skittletale fixes that, but the overlap area of “tt” isn’t anywhere near as nice as “tale/tayl”.
If you’re not like me with regard to portmanteau names, Smugbug is a fairly good one – it flows well and I like the rhyme, though it does have one problem in that “smug” can cover more characters than just Tattle, making it a little ambiguous if it’s not in common use.
So yeah, all three have clear pros and cons, but I think I personally prefer Tattletaylor.
Edit, five minutes later: Actually, on second thought, Skittletale is a lot more visually graceful, and I like the syllable pattern more. I think I’ll go with that one instead, though it’s a close race between that and Tattletaylor.
That’s unfortunate about the comments, though probably wise – even if there are no *major* spoilers, it sucks to have people directly mentioning information from later chapters. I do think the character tags are fine though – sure, sometimes there is information in there that isn’t in the text yet, but it’s information released alongside the chapter at the time. There is also at least one time I can remember learning something cool from a tag that wasn’t ever confirmed in the text proper.
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[Discord] Sharks:
(Tags probably aren’t fine.)
I’d prefer to learn the names and such through the story itself when possible, so yeah, I’ll be avoiding the character tags too.
[The difference between Principal Blackwell and Sundancer was that I didn’t really expect Blackwell to return, let alone for her name to carry any meaning. Sundancer’s name carried meaning, even if it was nothing her costume wasn’t already saying, and me finding out this way deprived me of the chance to react to the name during its proper reveal.]
cedeelbe:
Oh hey we have the same name! I mean, mine is spelled with a Ch, but still! Cool!
Sweet! *high five*
thetinygladiator:
Pffft, you really think we’re going to witchhunt someone for commenting on 2013 because you decided to do a thing *we* warned *you* about? Hahaha, oh silly Krixwell. (To be honest, seeing someone get spoiled while liveblogging Worm is fairly standard. Especially when we warn them not to do a thing.) Give us some credit, we’re not monsters. Seriously, we warned you not to do this. Sharks at Discord said not to do this but you didn’t listen. We know exactly who to blame for Spoiling you. It’s you.
Couple things here.
1) The asks I received about the comments section in the past were overwhelmingly “don’t worry, the comments are screened”. I’m the one who was cautious about looking at them in the first place, and even after those asks, I only ever looked at the top few, in the interest of avoiding comments made significantly later. The 2013 comment was a reply to a 2011 comment, which is something I unfortunately didn’t see coming (my bad on that).
2) Sharks never told me not to look at the comments either, even when the topic was up for debate via the asks. Seriously, I checked the entire message history between us to make sure I hadn’t just forgotten it. As for the character tags, fair enough.
3) The “no witch hunts” post was a precaution. I know at least one liveblogger friend of mine has had issues with that in the past (though I think he did, at the time, have a significantly larger audience than me), so I decided to make my stance on it clear as soon as possible. I did not actually think it would happen, but wanted to do my best to ensure it wouldn’t.
Yes, I will take some blame for it myself, but a lot of what you said is quite simply not the case.
(And thanks for the condescension.)
“There have been so many My Little Pony jokes made about this comparison, haven’t there?” Believe it or not, you’re the first I’ve seen.
Huh. Fair enough, I guess. Bit of a shame, really – I was lowkey hoping there’d be fanart involving, like, ponified hellhounds or something. 😛
suicidebyfacepalm:
[censored], but has anyone warned you about the Very Significant body horror that shows up [censored]? It’s a particular squick of mine, so i figured i’d put the warning out there just to be safe
I don’t personally have much issue with body horror, especially in written form, but thanks for the heads up!
(I suppose Wildbow warned me, non-specifically, at the beginning of 1.1.)
Dogs are best characters. It will be them that will finally take down the evil shapeshifting alien gorilla of the Travelers!
Heh, yeah, they’re great. Need I remind anyone how much I enjoyed the Brutus Interlude? 😛
As a possible compromise for the whole “potentially spoilery comments” thing, what if you had Sharks check the comments for the next chapter before you read it, and warn you if there’s anything spoilery and/or just send you some safe comments to look at? I think this is what another liveblogger has been doing recently.
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[Discord] Sharks:
(I wouldn’t mind doing it.)
Eh, I think I’m good. I only began occasionally looking at the comments in the first place because I saw one by accident and people started telling me they were safe.
I guess if there are some particularly noteworthy comments – ideally from not long after the chapter was published – screenshots could be sent to me (by Sharks or via submissions), but I don’t really need it to be an “every chapter” sort of thing.
Since you keep mentioning MLP I think you’d be happy to know that there is a great fanart of the Undersiders as ponies. Unfortunately you don’t get to see it yet, as it has some spoilers, but it’s something to look forward to a few arcs down the road!
Oooh, that sounds like fun!
There hasn’t been any MLP jokes but there are at least two MLP/Worm fanart that I can think of… *google* Oh actually four. That said they’ll have to wait because they’re totally spoilery and depict characters who haven’t been introduced yet and won’t be for a while.
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Oh wait, actually there are five MLP/Worm fanart, and the one I just found isn’t spoilery, since Scion has already been introduced and described in the Danny interlude. They’re all by the same artist so you can consider this to be a taste of the fanarts to come as you get further into the story… Ah drat, links aren’t allowed… Sharks, look for My Little Scion: Wildbow if Magic by ChromaCurves on deviantart and show it to Krixwell please 😛
Awesome!
I really like the choice of portraying Scion as an alicorn. It’s very fitting considering his godlike appearance, powers and demeanor.
mugasofer:
There are several interludes where we meet characters out of costume whose identities are never explained unless you read the character tags. Also, there are a few minor characters who are only named in tags. There is one occasion where this reveals a cape’s secret identity a few chapters sooner than it’s stated in-text, which could be considered a minor spoiler – AFAIK this is the only spoiler ever given in the tags.
Ah, yeah, I’d definitely consider this kind of thing a spoiler. Good to know it only happens once, I suppose.
That said, things like Sundancer’s name also count as spoilers in my opinion. I was more okay with Principal Blackwell because she felt like she’d be one of those minor characters you mention whose names only appear in the tags, but Sundancer I’m fairly sure will be more relevant to name in-story.
When you stop to think about it, the word “hive” is really just a portmanteau of “high five”, proving once and for all that many insects are chill bros.
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