After I read the title you gave the last chapter, all I can think about is some FNAF fan game set in the Worm universe where you have to spend five nights going back and forth between making sure Noelle is fed and maintaining your defenses in the face the the S9’s attack. I’m not the only one who wants this right?
(“Five Nights at Noelle’s”)
That actually does sound pretty awesome!
So I assume you’re not a fan of coilpet shipping?
I feel like the fact that it’s what I brought up when asked for the weirdest, most fucked up ship I could think of says a bit about my feelings on this one. Though I suppose some people are into that sort of thing.
But yeah, Coilpet is wrong on so many levels. Even if Dinah were the same age as Coil (but nothing else changed), it’d be super abusive.
I can’t say I care for that ship name either (even though it’s aeshetically better than Coildinah). Coil’s “my pet” thing is honestly one of the things in Worm that get the most under my skin, far more so than even things like Hookwolf implicitly including me personally among the Nazis.
You met Oliver before back in interlude 8b
Oh, right, Trickster and Noelle mentioned him as an possible person for Noelle to talk to. The name did sound a little familiar.
We the sneeple disavow all actions by Coil because seriously, screw that guy. I bet he watches dubs.
Coil watches dubs and subs simultaneously, in different timelines, getting audio in both languages and subs that don’t necessarily match the dub’s translation.
If he doesn’t get it by the end of the chapter, can you let Krix know that those branches Dinah sees are just from this universe and not any others?
Yeah, that became gradually clear after a bit.
I always like to discuss the concept of sympathizing in writing. I’ve seen people who love it, I’ve seen even people who are scared of it, because they find it dangerous. Like it is somehow dangerous to humanize broken, damaged people. It is exactly what will help us reflect, as a race, I feel. Washing away social constructs requires you to understand them and, yes, even sometimes sympathize with terrible people. Its why I loathe tumblr’s constant hate parades against people sometimes.
Lets use a recent unnamed case for example. Lets say an artist is showing off his defensiveness towards pedophilia or being homophobic. You DO NOT solve this with indifference, but neither with pointing at their flaws or shoving hate and death threats, calling them names. You talk, you understand and you make them understand too. You take away the US vs. THEM mentality instead of fueling it.
Hell, its why pedophilia is such a problem anyways! Because we dont TALK about it, we shove it under a rug, we dont educate our children and we MEDICATE, arresting people who DO IT, instead of PREVENTING it, treating it like it is, a mental/psychological health issues, taking it out by the root. These people, all kinds, are outcasts and they know it. We bring them in instead of pushing them out, because we are oh-so-faulty on seeing the transition between person with problems to person causing problems. Taylor, and Worm, is itself a PERFECT character study for this.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of this.
This sort of thing is part of why I like shows like Steven Universe and MLP:FiM. They both make most of their villains sympathetic but misguided, broken people whose better sides can be brought out, and whose flaws can be mitigated, with a little help from people who care for them. It is a good thing to write your villains as people, in general, which was one thing I praised Interlude 11e for.
Yet, as you mention, it’s something I’ve heard of Steven Universe getting criticized for doing with the “big bads” of the show, even though it’d be straight up out of character for the show to not do it.
(Steven Universe is far better than MLP at executing this. The prevalence of the “evil switch” in major villains is one of MLP:FiM’s biggest flaws as far as I’m concerned, but the core idea is present and prominent.)
I do think it’s important to stay aware when you sympathize with these people, though. I can sympathize with Hookwolf, or Purity, or Coil, but I should keep in mind what sort of people they are while I do so.
Also, I personally think pedophiles are closer to the “person causing problems” end of the gradient, at least if they act on it in some way. Which does not require it going as far as actually having sex with a child. However, “bringing them in instead of pushing them out” might in some cases be a better solution. A lot of things should be treated on a case by case basis, and this might be one of them.
I do have a couple asks to answer already, though. 🙂
Next up: Asks Monday, chapter Tuesday (unless there aren’t all that many asks, then I might do the chapter on Monday).
Sundancer is a Good, and Coil’s a dick.
So! In this chapter, we watched as Dinah saved everyone, at great personal difficulty.
I think it’s worth thinking of this chapter as split in two: There’s talking tactics, and there’s the horror portion.
There was a lot of discussion of tactics in this one, which… kinda drew long, but was a pretty decent demonstration of Dinah’s power and an alright way to introduce us to Crawler’s power. It grew especially interesting once the final solution of having Dinah look into the future more thoroughly and find out what they were going to do came up, which was an aspect of her power I did not see coming. Uh, no pun intended.
I think I like the horror section better – trapped in the dark with a potentially dangerous person sniffing at you from inside, and a definitely dangerous monster banging at the door from the outside. It does feel like it didn’t quite pay off, though, somehow – Trickster calmed Noelle down with relative ease and a gentleness that didn’t match the horror tone surrounding it, and Crawler was quite effectively stopped by the vault door. (The latter isn’t quite as much of a problem as it could’ve been, because it’s previously been solidly established that it’s a really strong door intended to keep berserk!Noelle in check.)
Overall, it was a fairly decent setup and used the uncertainty surrounding Crawler and Noelle’s appearances effectively, but ultimately the ending felt kind of anticlimactic. It was certainly not bad, though.
And then there’s Dinah. It was nice to see Dinah’s perspective on her situation, and I’m very glad that she does not like Coil. She has learned to not cross him, and does have a heavy addiction to the drugs that will be especially hard to break due to her power, but she does not like him. His abuse hasn’t gotten to the point where she starts telling herself he’s good to her, that what he’s doing is okay, that she doesn’t want to go home.
Sundancer (civilian name Marissa, which is nice) was also very good in this chapter, being protective of Dinah, but admitting to Dinah – to Dinah, talking directly to her – that her hands were tied by her bonds to the Travelers. I would love to see Taylor and Sundancer discussing Dinah, though it’s very unlikely to happen.
Speaking of Taylor, I have a feeling she’s a big part of why the chance of Dinah’s release is ticking up.
So yeah! Not one of the solidest recent chapters, but I enjoyed it.
Next up is either Bonesaw, the newbie or Hatchet Face. Probably Bonesaw, I’m thinking. See you then!
I forgot to mention that Night is practically an embodiment of the horror writing rule I was discussing. I feel even more so than before that Night would fit well as Crawler’s nominee.
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