[reblog of this Tumblr post]
turing-tested:
rural worm culture is fantasizing about living in a city with public transportation because you
i just realized i typed worm culture instead of gay culture. this post is cancled
For the record, the 12 classifications in Weld’s rhyme are currently all that the PRT recognizes for classifying Parahumans. There were previously more, but apparently, over time, they were collapsed into the other classes to simplify things. “Shifter” is the most recent collapsed category, having been combined only slightly before the events of Worm’s first chapter; anyone previously classed as a “Shifter” is now rated as a “Changer”. The paperwork’s just not all up to date yet.
Ahh, I see, that makes sense.
“There’s people going fucking crazy out there, and you’re talking training.” This reminded me of Allen Iverson’s rant about basketball practice. It’s on YouTube, and you should look it up. (I’d link it, but I don’t know how asks handle links.)
“we talkin’ about practice, man”
Hah, yeah, I can absolutely see why the line reminds you of this. 😛
(For the record, Tumblr won’t let you send anything it recognizes as a link through an ask. However, sending links with the dots replaced with spaces or asterisks is not uncommon. Also, submissions do allow links.)
Since our PoV character for this chapter is Weld, that adds a new dimension to the jokes about metal detectors he was glad not to have to endure.
Hah, yeah! That line makes a lot more sense now.
…I wonder if Hookwolf had trouble getting through airport security pre-Buzz. Unlike Weld, his metal biology isn’t immediately apparent on sight, and he presumably used to have a secret identity (wait, did he wear any sort of mask when we last saw him? I don’t remember, but that was also after his identity went public anyway). He couldn’t exactly reveal his secret to the security staff, either, being a known murderous villain.
“Yes, I’m absolutely implying corporations in the U.S. have way more power over the government than is healthy. At least that’s how it looks from over here.” It looks that way from the inside too, but as long as 27% of the population is convinced that any alternative would inevitably lead to bread lines, Death Panels, the thousand-year reign of the Antichrist, and (worst of all) fluoridated water, the rest of us will just have to suffer while evils are sufferable.
Dammit, people.
“Back when you were either a hero or not a hero, I suppose.” *Spits off the back porch while sitting in an old creaky rocker.* I tell you what boy, I miss those good old days when the heroes were heroes and the villains were villains.
These days, in this story, it’s not that easy anymore… whippersnappers.
Alabaster and Crusader were Purity’s other subordinates. Alabaster’s stuck in time thanks to Leviathan and a Bakuda bomb, so Crusader’s the fourth one with Purity.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense.
So Crusader is classified as a Master 6. Looking back, his power was making ethereal copies of himself… I suppose it’s reasonable that controlling those would qualify as a Master power.
Remember that fanart you got of Weld listening to music while wearing a jersey with the number 53? Makes a lot more sense now, doesn’t it?
Yeah, I remember that well. Not gonna lie, that piece of art [here] definitely contributed to my desire to know more about Weld, even though I was aware (an became more aware as Arc 8 continued on, especially after Shielder died) that it might not be based on any canon knowledge of his personality and interests.
I really appreciate that “casual Weld” turned out to be an accurate representation of his personality.
(That’s one of the ways he contrasts with Taylor, by the way. Taylor is anything but casual.)
A string of images in your post-3.1 fanart dump are broken – I only see “External image” instead of the actual image. And yes, I am rereading, now that we’ve finished what you call Book 1.
Ah yeah, I’m aware of that sequence. It seems to be an issue with the reblogs – I believe you’ll see those images if you go to the original posts on the screener blog. I suppose I could copy the images into the reblogs… I’ll see what I can do.
[I never did end up fixing that, until the WordPress migration.]
Way back in post 166793990799 (after 7.5) you gave some thoughts as to what the long term story might look like. Has anything that happened in the past arc and a half changed your opinions on any of this? Care to give us some new long term predictions? Also how do you feel about making these sort of long term story prediction posts be a regular thing you do every few arcs?
Looking back at that post [here]… wow. Let’s look through it a bit:
For all I’ve been through, it’s still rather difficult to tell the narrative scale of many of the subplots. For instance, the War of the Docks could just as easily last the whole story out as just for a few more Arcs.
The War of the Docks seems to be more of a background thing than I expected when it was first introduced, but it does seem to be ongoing. The Merchants of all people have the upper hand at the moment.
Coil’s master plan having been revealed now does give something of a long-term goal for the protagonists, if they ultimately accept his terms – they can work towards taking control over the city and helping it improve. There’s also the possibility that they can’t trust Coil after all, and after he takes over the city with their help, it’s up to the Undersiders to topple his brutal regime, which could take anywhere from a few Arcs to two thirds of the story.
I feel like we’re leaning towards the latter outcome here, but I’m not sure it’s going to be as climactic for the story as a whole as I was thinking back then. The Endbringer attack really emphasized the issue of judging the scale of the subplots.
A greater threat might come to Brockton Bay late in the story. For instance, I still think there are decent odds there will eventually be a mass breakout from the Birdcage (if Lung survived Interlude 6 and gets out somehow, I pretty much guaranteea round three against Taylor with Lung in his fully draconic stage).
Just look at this. Leviathan definitely fell under the category of “a greater threat” and wasn’t anywhere nearthe end of the story as a whole. And look at those examples I gave! Those are way smaller issues.
Incidentally, this is why I feel like the other two Endbringers (which I’m 95% certain will show up later) will be even bigger threats than Leviathan was. I think we’ll likely see the Simurgh second, explore exactly why the problems with her visits tend to be worst afterwards, and then later have a visit from Behemoth, the one it’s probably hardest for a city to recover from physically.
If not Lung, Coil or Bakuda, then maybe the Endbringers, or some parahumans with powers that makes them essentially Lovecraftian horrors (there might be overlap), will be the final bosses? I really don’t know.
Behemoth as the final boss is a possibility. Also possible, though unlikely, is that the Endbringers get sick of Brockton Bay surviving and decide to break their usual patterns and attack all at once. That would really be something, jeez.
Whatever the story and its ending becomes, at least I know that it’s something you can make a sequel to, so I’m going to tentatively rule out the permanent destruction of the Earth for now. 😛
(I can’t say the same about Taylor dying at the end, though. I have no guarantee that the sequel is told from her perspective.)
Well, the Earth isn’t gone yet, but I’ve learned some information that really undermines the idea of Taylor having any more plot armor than anyone else, so it’s now even more believable that she won’t necessarily survive to the end.
On a lighter note, I expect Brian x Taylor to become a couple. That, again, is a subplot that could either get tied up in this Arc, or last for pretty much as long as Wildbow wants, but I do think they will end up together eventually. And they’ll be adorabletogether. :3
Ahahahaha
This was written right before the rejection
But yeah, I’m not thinking this anymore. If this were a different story, then maybe, but this story and this author seem the type to respect Brian’s rejection of Taylor rather than go “just give it time”. And on top of that, their relation has only gotten worse since then, both ways, for reasons mostly unrelated to the rejection.
And hey, let’s throw a random crack ship in here for good measure, and see how that goes. Hmm… how about… Greg… and… Lisa. Sure. Let’s see if Greg x Lisa happens somehow. 🙂
There’s… still time.
Anyway, let’s move on to new predictions!
Currently, the only long term hook we really have is Taylor’s decision to make things better, but I really don’t know how she intends to go about that yet, making it very difficult to theorize on. I think and hope we’ll see how that goes.
On the other hand, it also feels like this is where we start focusing less on Taylor and more on how things develop in society as a whole through whatever happens from here.
Also, I do think we’ll learn more about the origin of parahumans (something involving “shards”, though I try not to speculate on that yet). Discovering the origin might also have something to do with a potential final threat even bigger than the Endbringers (which, as mentioned, I’m sure we’ll see all of over time).
And yeah, you’re right, I should probably do this kind of thing more regularly. 🙂
This might be considered a minor spoiler, I’m not sure – the physical boardwalk was damaged, but people continue to refer to that area as “the Boardwalk” sometimes in the subsequent arcs. With that said, don’t take the maps *too* seriously despite their impeccable presentation; they are fan-made. You’ll notice the Protectorate HQ is shown as on an island in the Bay when it was described in 3.4 as actually on a refitted oil rig, for instance.
Ah, fair enough. And yeah, better take them with a grain of salt.
Another thing I noticed besides the presence of the Boardwalk and PHQ, and the absence of the Wards HQ, was that Lake Heroic was on the Docks South side of the border between that and Downtown, despite repeated mentions of it being “in the middle of Downtown”.
[Lot of the GV is Greg posts.]
(No, really, this is how Sharks presented it.)
Ahh, right! I guess the ship heart could be a Harpy ploy of “Those two losers belong together. Right, Taylor?”
Also, I don’t seem to have seen Greg’s surname before, so I suppose either the initial V was made up for the piece, or we’ll get to meet him again. I hope for the latter – I liked that kid.
Search your blog for Angry Banana Bunch, you’ll find an untagged ABB gag.
Another untagged ABB gag: Awesome Beach Bodies.
More unmarked ABB gags: Ablatives But Better, Amplified Banana Blasters, Absolute Beetle Buffoons.
Two untagged ABB gags when Bakuda makes her entrance: Achoo Blessya Babes and Asplody Beach Balls.
More untagged ABB gags: Antithetical Bottle Breaker, Actual Bad Boys, Archer Biting Babies, and Anti-Bitch Brigade (one of your better ones). I was also wondering if you intended to make a “Fuck you, Max” tag.
Another untagged ABB gag. Allflavor Bean Bags. Also, I’m seriously considering starting Homestuck and Steven Universe just so I can get all your references.
Another untagged ABB gag: Amorphous Basket Balls.
Thank you! Due to blog search being kind of unreliable, I was unable to find some of these, but I really appreciate this nonetheless. Those I could find have been fixed.
I think I decided against making a “Fuck you, Max” tag at some point, but I’m not sure. At least that gag wasn’t constantly changing, so it’d be way easier to apply retroactively if I were to change my mind.
And as for Steven Universe and Homestuck, I think you should do it. They are both great. Though fair warning, they both have a sort of slow start (SU does it better than Homestuck though), so I recommend you avoid judging them too early. With Homestuck in particular it’s worth noting that up until a point in Act 4, the story was being based on people’s suggested commands, which explains a lot of the floundering early on.
By the way, when you finish watching/reading, I recommend you check out the liveblogs of my friends @loreweaver-universe (SU) and @mindareadsoots (Homestuck). 😉
Krixwell Liveblogs 