Whoo!

And that’s just those of you who actually follow me on Tumblr – we learned a while back that most of you don’t, if the poll I did is to be believed.

Thank you all for being here, whether you’re among these 500 or not! I hope to make it worth it. 🙂

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“#it’s later on the right clock because 12:00 looked stupid on it #or is it earlier? #who can tell without an am/pm marker on the left clock” It’s definitely earlier. 12:00 in twelve-hour time translates to either 0:00 or 12:00 in twenty-four-hour time, both of which are earlier than 22:00.

Yeah, that’s what Sharks said too, but as a user of 24-hour time, I would never consider midnight “earlier” than 10 PM unless I was being super technical. Same goes for 1 AM or even 3 AM, for that matter.

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Hi! I’m not sure if this was your blog or somewhere entirely different, but I know one of the things I was reading recently referenced 2 Steps From Hell, a phenomenal neoclassical music group. I’m trying to find it now to show one of my friends who’s been into them for a long time, because I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw it referenced and I’m sure he’d be even more excited. Was that you? Blog search doesn’t show anything, but it could be broken. (If it wasn’t you, I’d recommend them :P)

Sorry, I can’t say I’ve heard of them. If I said something that could be read as a reference, it must’ve been by accident.

For future reference, no pun intended, I usually tag my references with the thing they’re from (though I sometimes forget to, and I didn’t do it as consistently early on), so if you’re looking for a reference to a specific thing on my blog, it’s worth checking /tagged/name-of-the-thing. For example, http://krixwell-liveblogs.tumblr.com/tagged/steven-universe brings up my latest SU references. 🙂

(#and if you append /chrono they’ll be in order)

[For WordPress, I decided not to mirror the reference tags, because they’re not as useful for actually looking back at references to a particular work like this when the posts are gathered together and the tags aren’t technically tags anymore (WordPress has a tag feature, but I’m not using it much, and it’d be by chapter). I’m not sure that decision was right, considering this secondary purpose they served, but it’s too late to go back on it now.]

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When considering what the world would look like in 15 years, don’t forget the Endbringers.

That is a good point, though I’m not sure how much of a difference they make to the things I already talked about. They might set some of the research and preparation back by killing people and destroying important places, but even so, 15 years allows much more preparation than two years do.

But yeah, we might still lose some chunks of the planet’s habitable areas. Especially if the Endbringers for some reason get stronger as time inches closer to the reckoning.

I hadn’t really considered it until now, but there might be a correlation between the Endbringers and the future threat. I’m thinking that in-universe, the name “Endbringers” doesn’t intentionally tie in with the upcoming threat (especially since barely anyone even knows that’s a thing so far), but these apocalyptic monsters that destroy parts of the human world may very well be some sort of harbingers for the main threat.

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“413 times as much [land in Norway] as New York City” – Is this just a coincidence? I don’t imagine you’d fudge the numbers here but even so.

I wouldn’t do that, no.

I’m thinking that any instance of the number 413 that isn’t a direct result of Sburb filling in the blanks is a result of Andrew Hussie personally time traveling to set it up. Yes, I’m saying Andrew Hussie personally arranged for Norway to be 413 times as large as New York City. Maybe he carved away a bunch of the Norwegian coastline with a spoon.

It’d be easier to manipulate or replace the people involved in New York’s city planning, but do you really expect him to take the easy route?

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As a New Orleans native, Leviathan’s aftermath is a lot more like the aftermath of a hurricane that breaks past the levee system (mainly katrina) than purely wind damage. Hell, Leviathan even creates storms with his hydrokinesis.

…ooh, that is a really good point! Another thing in favor of that is that Leviathan didn’t do one enormous wave, he repeatedly hit the city with large waves like you get when the wind stirs up the sea.

So we’ve got Behemoth the volcano (and maybe earthquake), Leviathan the hurricane and Simurgh the… uh… bird.

Sure, let’s go with that.

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The connection between Leviathan and the Fukushima disaster has been commented on before; here’s how Wildbow responded.

[Worm comments]

Fiona:

Coincidence that this arc corresponds with the anniversary of the Japanese tsunami? It brings the horror to life, like Leviathan is the personification of what happened there… One year ago last Sunday.

wildbow:

Is it really? Geez, crap.

Now I feel bad. 🙁 Like I’m taking advantage of/being sensationalist with something terrible that’s happened. I mean, there’ve been cases where, to show respect, movies changed or delayed in regards to, say, 9/11. To show respect or avoid upsetting people.

I think I mentioned before that I had this arc in mind for a while. Even a year ago today, I was pondering Worm’s storyline – I don’t like to plot things out, because I get bored with it, but I was excited about doing this one. When the Tsunami happened, I seriously reconsidered using a different Endbringer, but in test writes there was no way for it to come together. As I remarked to an online buddy, the Behemoth [censored], the Leviathan levels, and the Simurgh [longer censored bit].

And I just wasn’t prepared to kill off more than this in the way of pre-existing cast, nor do I want to throw the storyline to the wind. So I stuck with Leviathan – I just didn’t realize it’d be coming up at the same date.

This is an interesting response. I didn’t realize Wildbow would have this perspective on the idea of tying in with real world disasters, but it’s a perspective I can appreciate and respect. 🙂

This also seems like confirmation that the other Endbringers are even deadlier than Levvy, but that’s something I was pretty much taking for granted.

(I’m a bit intrigued by the redacted bits, but I’ll refrain from speculating too much on what might be behind there.)

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Could ‘going west’ have anything to do with being exiled? I’m vaguely aware that a number of infamous vikings were kicked out to Iceland.

Huh, that’s an interesting hypothesis.

Uh. Funny thing, in french “être à l’Ouest ” (translated: to be in the West) means not being all there, either distracted or a little bit crazy.

Huh, neat. I wonder if that brings us back to the sea again? Or maybe it’s more about old stereotypes about western France, or something.

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🎉🎉🎉🎉

Whoo! 😀

…wait, what are we celebrating? Skitter’s victory?

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Not sure about Hawaii, Iceland or New Orleans, but apparently Oslo was Leviathan’s first ever target.

Ouch. I guess Bergen or Trondheim is the capital of Norway now, because I highly doubt the heroes were able to save the city the first time he attacked.

Then again, maybe the remaining people of Oslo were able to rebuild enough to make the place habitable again? This would’ve been, what, 20-30 years ago, probably, so they’d have both time and money to do it by the story’s present day, as long as they could get it properly organized.

It’s not like we haven’t rebuilt cities before, though far smaller ones, probably less damaged than Leviathan would leave Oslo, and during a time where the political environment was far more stable and in favor of the government helping out than it was in the 1990′s and early 2000′s.

One thing that’s interesting regarding Leviathan attacking Oslo is its location. Brockton Bay seems to be straightforwardly located on a simple, accessible coast. Newfoundland and Kyushu were surrounded by the sea. Oslo is also located on the coast, but it’s situated like this:

Oslo City proper is larger than the immediate watery area off its coast. But Leviathan has an insane range – the area in this map is, as far as I can tell, far smaller than Kyushu, and Leviathan was able to hammer at that island from all sides.

So Leviathan would have limited immediately close resources for attacking Oslo, and a bottleneck to go through for an approach/escape by water, but he’d also be in a position to attack a whole bunch of cities from in between them.

Incidentally, out of the five million people in Norway, around two million live immediately around this waterway. By attacking this place, Leviathan would make a very significant dent into the Norwegian population.

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So this is what Homeworld thinks of fusion.

Damn it, why did it take me this long to realize how well this old SU meme fits in response to Bonesaw’s chimeric antics? I really missed an opportunity there and I’m kind of annoyed at myself for it.

It literally fits perfectly. Seriously, she’s basically doing the exact same thing that line was originally in response to, except with humans instead of sentient rocks.

(#realizing this also helps put into perspective the SU side of this)

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Given that Krixwell loves Bonesaw has anyone shared the “recycle, reduce, reuse” art by respicepostte? It’s pretty great.

Yep! [here] That was a really fun piece. 😛

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A ward is what they should have used to prevent the demons they summoned [here] from destroying the city, it makes total sense

Pfft, good point!

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Can we know more about the hardass teacher who started a wrestling club? That sounds like an interesting story

She was a strict old grump who wouldn’t accept less than perfect work in her Arts & Crafts classes. Far from my favorite teacher, especially considering I was not really good at it myself. It was no fun being shit at knitting/stitching/etc. and then having her aggressive disappointment over my shoulder instead of, y’know, actual support.

And at some point we learned that long before I became her student, in 1981, she was involved in starting the local wrestling club, taking the position of the club’s first leader. It made sense, honestly, she had the personality for it.

Sorry, might not be as interesting as you were hoping. But hey, now her legacy has been preserved in the form of a Worm headcanon – I’m sure she… wouldn’t appreciate that at all.

(#i didn’t know the exact year until now)

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“See you Sunday for more 12.6!” Umm, you sure about that? Might want to scroll down a little bit more.

Ahaha, yeah, that was a really silly moment. 😛

In my defense, the spoiler protection script I use to hide character tags and potentially spoilery comments – thanks again to sharedvi for that – had for some reason not activated on that page (after an update reboot of my computer, it’s working again). The additional page length from the unhidden comments made the scroll bar look like I wasn’t even halfway through the chapter, so I didn’t think I needed to check whether or not I was getting close to the end.

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As best I remember, I had to get tetanus vaccinations to go to school. Tetanus is caused by bacteria in the ground when they enter an open wound. The wikipedia article is slightly horrifying. (But not as bad as the rabies one.)

Ahh, makes sense. We’ve got an event that a) creates open wounds and b) knocks people to the ground, so there’d be a high risk of that kind of infection in this scenario. Not to mention any bacteria that may have been on the glass in the first place.

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Anon wasn’t very clear – magic in Ra actually behaves a lot like a branch of physics, it isn’t just studied like one.

I see… I think the interesting question about settings like that is this:

What makes it magic, rather than actually another branch of physics like electromagnetism?

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There’s a Wormverse TTRPG written by Wildbow (technically still in-progress but popular as-is), a Wormverse story done on a forum by Wildbow (kind of like HS), a few Worm MtG cards made by Wildbow and more by fans, and fan-made material for D&D (some of which you’ve seen – capes converted to spells), CAH, SotM, Savage Worlds, Hearthstone…

Sounds like both Wildbow and the fandom have been busy bees!

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“welcome to my parlor said the fly to the spider” is basically Skitter Situation on the end of 12.6

Heh, yeah. Quite poetic!

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Now that the S9 is here and active, do you think any of our major characters are going to be killed and not just nameless civilians like the paramedics or the disapproving doctor/wrestling club founder? And to toss the question out further, do you have any characters that you don’t see making it to the end of the whole story?

Absolutely. Wildbow proved quite thoroughly with Extermination that he’s willing to kill off named characters – Kaiser being a good example of that. The difference now is just that they might be more isolated incidents (with the Shattering being an exception) rather than major characters getting killed in bulk like Leviathan did.

I think the Undersiders are mostly safe for now, though not guaranteed. Their collective protagonist armor has been weakened by the splitting into territories. Bitch is particularly in danger because she’s not a protagonist and only nominally an Undersider at this point, and she’s getting potentially in over her head by embracing the S9 nomination. I do suspect the remaining Undersiders will end up fighting her at some point, though, so maybe she will make it through the trials and become the ninth member.

Imp in particular is probably safe for a while unless Wildbow needs something to send Grue into a fury or depression. We still barely know her, and I’d like to think she’s more than a plot device.

Tattletale is currently in a bad spot, but I think she’ll survive it. I mean, Wildbow could kill her off here to put even more guilt and despair on Taylor, but at this point, that’s just excessive.

Beyond the Undersiders, though? Anything goes. Literally anyone could die, including people I would prefer didn’t, like Panacea or Sundancer. Hell, even Jack Slash’s plot armor may have been broken by his conversation with Theo.

Flechette, Parian and maybe Legend may be a little safer than most minor named characters. Wildbow seems like the type to avoid the Bury Your Gays trope, though he might also decide to keep it realistic by not making gay people straight up immortal to avert it. Maybe one of them (most likely Legend, despite his power and status) will die, but probably not all. This also applies to other gay characters that may pop up in the future.

Noelle is safe for now. She has plot armor due to the subplot with whatever is actually happening to her (more on that in the next post – I just thought of something), so I doubt she’ll die before we find out what that is unless we find out by her dying.

Coil’s probably safe for a while. He’s too critical to Skitter’s story and development to remove right now.

…it’s much easier to answer who I think won’t die than who will.

Let’s see, though… Skidmark’s probably not going to make it. Hookwolf might get pulled apart sometime soon, depending on how well things go for him with the Slaughterhouse Nine, though it might be too soon after the E88 split.

Maybe Dinah won’t make it. Maybe she’ll die down the line, after Skitter put all that effort into saving her?

Basically, it’s all a giant question mark at this point. Apart from a couple key features, the future’s very uncertain, and that’s a thing I kind of like about this story, even if it sometimes makes theorizing difficult.

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Back when Noelle was first introduced, I speculated about Noelle transforming into an Endbringer, but quickly dismissed that because Leviathan was never human according to Tattletale’s power.

But – and this is a long shot, more an idea than a solid theory – what if she’s not becoming an Endbringer so much as incubating one? That way, she would be the source of a new Endbringer, but that Endbringer would not have been human.

Or maybe she’s becoming or incubating something entirely different, something even the Endbringers see as a threat? I don’t think it’s the final threat Dinah predicted, but it might be a big one.

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“(But of course, neither is going to be the final boss.)” What makes you think that? And who are some other candidates?

I’m quite convinced the final boss of the story is going to be the apocalyptic threat Dinah predicted. Possibly a gargantuan worm of some kind?

I do suspect the remaining Endbringers might show up to make Brockton Bay (or wherever Skitter might move to if Brockton Bay is deemed unlivable) even more of a wreck before then, serving as bosses for the second and third parts of the story like Leviathan did for the first, though.

It’s just that I don’t think it will be over once the third boss (Behemoth, I think) is dealt with.

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I love me some Cards Against Parahumanity. How could you not, when you have cards like “Armsmaster’s Excuse Generator” and “Weld’s Metal Penis”?

Hah! Sounds wonderful.

Yeah, someone has already made a Cards Against Humanity Worm expansion. Can’t really link it since it contains spoilers, even if they’re harder to understand due to being out of context.

Yeah, of course. Gonna be lots of spoilers in something like that.

There are a few Worm themed CAH decks already. It’s called Cards Against Parahumanity.

Also that’s a pretty good name, I like it. :p

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A spider dance!

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“gala” how about a rave? I sincerely hope there’s fanart of mannequin the raver.

Hah, yes!

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I have a DnD story a lot like your decapitation one, but rather than cutting it off, I crushed a guy’s head by having my obese gnome monk jump off a building onto him. And the DM, who was also my roommate, had apparently spent hours planning that character. That was a good session.

What a way to go. Good job! :p

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The Mannequin fight is, for me, one of the most iconic Worm moments, showcasing Taylor’s resourcefulness and supreme badassery as few others. It may be that Wildbow agrees, because in one of his later stories (not in a shared universe with Worm) he included as Easter Egg a reference to a cheap novel called “Doll Man and the Revenge of the Swarm Queen”.

Niice. And yeah, this was a really good one.

For me, Lung round 2 is another really strong showing of her resourcefulness and clever tactics. These two battles stand together among the top few on that front.

As for badassery? Fuck yes.

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Passing the Mannequin fight feels kind of like a landmark for you, given that, like the bank robbery and the Leviathan fight, it’s one of the more popular battles in the serial.

Whoo!

Makes sense – it’s quite a good one!

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“mane six members” that’s unforgivable

Well… literally the entire fandom calls the six main adult characters of MLP:FiM that, so I guess there are a lot of people you can’t forgive. 😛

(#i specify adult because i personally think the cutie mark crusaders have earned the right to be called main/mane characters too
#there’s the mane six for morals about friendship and the crusaders for morals about identity)

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For whatever reason, the things I’ve read/watched don’t overlap much with the things you’ve read/watched. However!, we have both read El Goonish Shive! Sooo.. any thoughts on EGS and Worm (similarities, characters who would get along, I dunno, etc.)?

Ooh, let’s see…

I think Ellen and Lisa might get along. They both have a positive attitude and a certain snarkiness to them, and I think they’d like that in each other. Nanase would probably be down with Lisa too, and the three of them could go have fun together. They may or may not approve of Lisa solving their Scooby-Doo detective cases immediately. :p

Damien, if he’s around in this crossover, might try to kill Lung to prove that he’s the one true god of fire. They’ve got very similar powers – pyrokinesis and regeneration, with a little extra on each side (Damien’s regen is much faster and he can fly; Lung has his draconic transformation) – but I think Lung would win once he got his claws and such out. If Lung defeated Damien non-lethally, Damien might blow himself up.

Grace’s favorite Brockton Bay cape might be Parian. She’d also probably get along with pre-Extermination Vista, not to mention Mouse Protector.

Tedd would be super interested in some of Bakuda’s work if they found out about it, specifically the bombs that mimic other people’s powers. They’d want to study them, and Tinkertech in general, in order to further their own magitech science back in Moperville. Tedd would probably get along swimmingly with Kid Win.

Susan and Justin would probably also like Tinkertech, but for very different reasons. Pew pew. Incidentally, Susan would not like Victoria.

Elliot might see the crossover as a good opportunity to be Cheerleadra, though that’s if he treats the crossover as something out of the ordinary at all. Also, past!Elliot might get in a fight with Sophia. His skills are quite physical (even Tamashii Gekido), so he’d probably lose if she used her power and weaponry.

Meanwhile, Principal Verrückt would be appalled at the lack of murals at Winslow High. Clearly this is why Brockton Bay is overrun by supervillains!

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I just found a wonderful random post generator and I love how the first thing it spat out at me can easily be interpreted as talking about Brockton Bay:

i gaze solemnly out of the car window. droplets of rain slide down and collect on its surface. the pigeon-grey sky is clouded over and thick with cold crisp moisture. i turn to you and say what we have both been thinking: i want to romanticize worm hell

(#it is dangerous to sell anything with more than 4 legs
#i only feel attraction to boys who have a strong beak and claws and fund john green
#i only know how to fund bugs)