Congrats of finishing (what is considered by some) the book 2 of Worm!
Oh, this was the end? Well then. I… kinda wish this ask had been held until I knew what Colony was about, actually. I suppose that means Colony is going to be an Interlude Arc.
Anyway, thanks!
Hmm. I suppose there’s one more thing that could be next.
“(…) I’m thinking the biggest issue right now is the man at the top.”
Maybe Colony is about Taylor’s attempt to free Dinah the hard way?
In which everyone hunts everyone else.
There’s one big question Arc 14 of Worm has left me with: How do these Arcs just keep getting better?
I mean seriously, let’s look back at the progression in this Arc:
In short, really fucking good Arc. Quite possibly the best one so far, even!
This was the climax to the Slaughterhouse Nine plotline (though Jack at least will likely become relevant again when we find out how he dooms the world), which has been going for 3.5 (or 5, depending where you count from)
Arcs
now, and I really think Wildbow nailed it. The miasma was a really amazing way to end this sequence, and I appreciate just how unwilling the Nine were to give in, how much they had to be whittled down before they left – it made it feel like this was an amazing accomplishment by the protagonists even though the core of Nine ultimately got away.
Even if Taylor doesn’t feel that way. Taylor is weird about acknowledging her accomplishments, though it all makes perfect sense with regards to her character.
The Arc title
Everyone was indeed Prey, except maybe the Protectorate. And even they were caught in the miasma.
The Undertravelers hunted Siberian, who hunted Amy. The PRT/Piggot hunted the Nine and the Undertravelers, and when parts of the Nine slipped away from the Protectorate, the Undertravelers took up that hunt (after being Crawler’s and the PRT’s prey at the same time), while Legend was hunting Siberian. And so it went on until the miasma struck and made everyone downtown the Nine’s prey in a sense (not that that’s much of a change from the norm), as well as feel like everyone else’s prey. Jack tried to prey on Amy’s insecurities. Then we had Taylor hunting the Nine again at the end, though they ultimately got away.
Sierra and Charlotte avoided the miasma and even they ended up as prey for the metaphorical ravens.
Prediction review
Rolling over all the way from Arc Thoughts: Infestation:
And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.
Yeeah, nobody succeeded at that. Anyone who manages to do it later in the story will be too late according to Dinah. I’m going to consider this one proven correct.
And now for predictions from Arc Thoughts: Snare:
Due to an accident while writing the End of Interlude 13 post yesterday, I know the title, or original title if it has been changed, of Arc 14: Prey.
Who’s the prey, exactly? After hearing Piggot’s plan, I’m inclined to think it’s both the local villains and the Slaughterhouse Nine. The Nine are at the bottom of the parahuman food chain for a change, being hunted by the Undertravelers and the Protectorate, but the PRT is also hunting the Undertravelers and other local villains.
I suppose there’s still civilians under the Nine on the overall food chain, but the Nine have already been preying on them quite a lot, so that shouldn’t be enough for an Arc title.
…oh. Oh, right.
I was already going to predict that Siberian was going to be in the spotlight next Arc, because of the focus she got in Interlude 13. Of course that ties in with the title Prey. She’s probably the next tester, which means the nominees are going to be her prey.
That doesn’t invalidate the other interpretation, though. I’m inclined to think both are correct.
I think I was right here, except I was thinking too specifically. I later added that everyone’s prey, in the chapter thoughts of 14.1.
So is the next Arc going to give the spotlight to only Siberian, among the Nine? The Nine’s numbers have been reduced enough that Wildbow can do that now, especially if they continue being reduced.
No. At the time I was writing this, I still thought the plotline might go on for a bunch more Arcs.
I don’t think the Undertravelers are going to let up on their ongoing assault against the Nine, but Taylor might start being a tad more cautious thanks to Grue’s input. Maybe that’s what ends up saving them from the Protectorate’s explosive backstab?
I haven’t really seen her be that notably more cautious, really. And the thing that ended up saving them was Piggot tipping her hand while making sure they’d all go into the blast zone.
And finally, I think there’s a good chance we’ll finally learn what the Travelers’ deal is. Hell, if my theories on that are anywhere near right, that might even be another reason for the title.
Not yet, but we’re definitely building up to it, what with the massive secret and the Sundancer development. Roll over.
From a post made shortly after Arc Thoughts: Snare:
Oh yeah, one more prediction for Prey: I suspect one or more of the minor protagonists is/are going to die to Siberian, or at least get mauled. Maybe even one of the major protagonists. This would mirror the Case 01 video, perhaps even closely.
The Nine have actually been remarkably non-lethal to the named characters. They’ve slayed hundreds, maybe thousands of redshirts civilians, but only, what, five characters whose names we knew? Four of which were incredibly unsympathetic? Though some more may have died in the miasma.
Predictions for Arc 15 before reading the title
This is a hard one. There’s not much to go on as far as where the story is headed next.
It’s possible we’re about to learn more about the Travelers, but I doubt that’s the main plot. Likewise, I don’t think dealing with the Chosen is that big of a deal for Taylor at this point, especially since they’ve lost their leader.
It is also very possible that we’re heading into the second boss battle Arc, though it’d be a bit curious that no strong indication of that (except Eidolon mentioning that another Endbringer strike was due soon) appeared at the end of Prey like what happened at the end of Buzz. If we are heading into that territory next Arc or in Arc 16, I think we’re in for the Simurgh attacking Brockton Bay.
If she does, we might see some of the characters start to question why two Endbringers would attack the same location in a row like that, lending more credibility to Coil’s “Noelle draws Endbringers” theory.
I suppose it’s also entirely possible that the miasma was the boss battle of this section and we’re not getting attacked by all three Endbringers like I’ve been theorizing, in which case we’d be moving into an Interlude Arc.
But that’d feel kind of anticlimactic, even though Prey was a fantastic climax to the Slaughterhouse Nine plotline, and unless the chapters in the Interlude Arc were themed like the ones in Sentinel, it’d call into question why we had two Interludes in Prey. Though that can still be explained by thematics and threads, wanting Legend’s Interlude to be clearly tied to Prey.
So yeah, I’m not really sure what to expect. Let’s see if the Arc title gives me any ideas, shall we?
Predictions for Arc 14: Colony
Colony. That, to me, sounds like we’ll be focusing on the rebuilding of Taylor’s territory and its community for a while. Maybe all the territories, even, turning the city into the Undertravelers’ colony?
But that sounds like a really anticlimactic premise on its own. We may focus on that, but something needs to not go smoothly to make the Arc interesting. It needs more conflict than just “how do we fix up this building”. Dealing with the Chosen still doesn’t sound all that interesting after tangoing with the Nine.
I’m not saying I expect the upcoming Arc to be boring. I’m saying that if I’m right about what the title implies, I don’t really know how Wildbow is going to prevent that. I do trust that he will, though, in some way.
Perhaps the title is less literal. Maybe it’s about the cohesiveness and cooperation as the heavily hurt and fractured people of Brockton Bay band together to defend their colony, their home, against the Simurgh or another threat?
Or maybe it’s a colony in the sense of an additional area taken and controlled from afar? But I can’t imagine Taylor wants to take another piece of territory, away from her current one.
This next Arc is very hard to speculate on, jeez. In any case, I’m looking forward to starting on it and finding out what’s actually going on. See you soon!
At the end of Arc 11½, I did a favorites ranking of the Nine. At the time, this is what I wound up with:
After Plague and Snare, how has this changed?
Well, for one thing, Crawler’s a cat and I love the contrast between this enormous beast and how adorable his mannerisms can be, so he’s jumped up a couple spots. (It’s worth noting he was mainly on the bottom because we knew almost nothing about him.)
Mannequin has proven himself to be quite entertaining compared to his first impression, so he goes up the scale too.
And finally, Siberian has traded spots with Shatterbird, because Siberian’s scary as fuck in a good way. Meanwhile, I actively dislike Shatterbird as a person (she was only that high on the list because of her power), and apart from her sheer impact through the Shattering, she hasn’t had much opportunity to make me like her more.
Which means the list ends up looking like this:
Crawler
Oh yeah, one more prediction for Prey: I suspect one or more of the minor protagonists is/are going to die to Siberian, or at least get mauled. Maybe even one of the major protagonists. This would mirror the Case 01 video, perhaps even closely.
The Arc in which Taylor Hebert looks at the long-term plot that was set up in Plague and says “fuck that let’s do this my way”.
Much like Plague, Snare feels a bit less self-contained than pre-Leviathan Arcs, being the third (counting the Arc 11 Interludes) part of the larger Slaughterhouse story arc. Interestingly, it all but throws out the formula that was set up for these Arcs, not as a result of bad writing, but of good. Actually adhering to that formula would be a bit too predictable after a while, what with how many tester rounds there were originally supposed to be, and watching Taylor go “fuck that” in this Arc was quite satisfying.
Also satisfying were the encounters with the Nine. We had four or five of them in this Arc, depending how you count. That’s a high density of awesome fights for an Arc of ten chapters and two Interludes!
I was right that we’d be focusing on fighting two Slaughterhouse members in particular over the course of this Arc, but I was wrong about who’d be the second. Twice. Because while Burnscar took over for Cherish, she was not actually in the spotlight anywhere near as much as Mannequin and Bonesaw.
Mannequin added a new weapon to his arsenal and came for a rematch with Skitter. That move kinda blew up in his face, but it was very cool.
Later, Bonesaw gave us one of the more gruesome sights in the story, with Grue having been unpacked to figure out where his power came from. She continued to be great as she almost managed to remove Taylor’s brain temporarily. Best antagonist right here.
On the protagonists’ side, I really like what was done with Imp in this Arc. She finally got to have significant relevance to the plot (beyond being Grue’s reason to fight), by getting in touch with Cherish and making it so the latter didn’t alert the other Nine to the incoming attack. It was also nice to see the conflict between her and Grue regarding her wanting to contribute vs. Grue wanting her to be safe. I like how that tied in with both of Grue’s trigger events, with her getting in trouble that he couldn’t help her out of, and the way that mirrors what he was feeling for Taylor.
Oh yeah, and Grue x Taylor is back! I wasn’t expecting that, but I can appreciate it. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m not entirely back on board yet, but depending how things develop from here, it might happen quite easily.
Grue’s second trigger event… I’m not gonna lie, it feels very close to a deus ex machina. But it’s pretty damn cool, and I’m excited about the opportunities. I’m also curious about the true power of whoever Grue stole the monochrome copy from if that thing – which pulverized Burnscar’s head – was just a fraction of the power.
And finally, Interlude 13 set up the Protectorate as another major enemy in the upcoming Arcs. With Piggot in the lead, they’re planning on a massive dick move against the villains of Brockton Bay. (Which I guess I somehow partially predicted by accident in my SU/Worm crossover crackfic??) When the Nine are dealt with, the pressure will still be on for the Undertravelers, now from the PRT. And then there’s Hookwolf’s small army, which might also be a threat for them further down the line.
Overall, Snare was a really, really good Arc with non-stop action and satisfying twists and turns. 🙂
The Arc title
It was immediately apparent to me that “Snare” would relate to traps, and sure enough, half the chapters in the Arc contain the words “trap” and/or “trapped” (there’s also a bit of “strapped”, but that doesn’t count), and Mannequin’s cloud of gas acted as one when the battle started.
It also refers to the situation the Undertravelers ended up in at the end, ensnared and paralyzed by Bonesaw. They were as helpless as flies in a spider’s web until Grue had his second trigger event.
Prediction review
Last time, I let some of the predictions I had for Plague roll over:
We know that Bitch, Armmaster, Hookwolf, Noelle, Regent and Panacea are all now targets for Slaughterhouse testing. This might be lethal for some of them, as I doubt the Slaughterhouse members will hold back. However, I doubt we’re losing Bitch, Hookwolf or Regent – Bitch and Regent because plot armor and Hookwolf because he’s probably the most competent fighter out of all of them, besides maybe Armmaster, and better equipped defensively than anyone except maybe Noelle. Besides plot armor, it would be more interesting to have Bitch actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine and become an antagonist – at least temporarily – than to have her just die.
Turns out Bitch doesn’t, in fact, want to join them. Fair enough!
And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.
Well, there were a couple failed attempts this Arc, so I suppose it’s holding true for now. But yeah, this prediction stays.
I am pretty curious to see how [Plague] deals with the fact that there are other characters we care about who are going through the same thing as two of the Undersiders. Maybe we’ll have some Interludes to help out with that? Though it is worth noting that Wildbow seems to have a rule against using the same POV character for two Interludes (which is probably part of why Alec wasn’t the POV in 11g, besides Cherish’s power and personality being better illustrated from within her own head), so he’d have to show us the perspective of someone else close to the action. Perhaps even one of the attacking Slaughterhouse members, though that might be a tad redundant.
So far, the other groups targeted have been backgrounded except where they interact with the Undertravelers. We did get a look at what Amy’s been up to, which was neat, but it was not via and Interlude.
Man, the general thoughts section of this post is quite long and
still
there were things I forgot to talk about. This Arc was dense.
Primarily, though, I think we’ll be focusing on Taylor and the other Undersiders doing what they can to protect Alec, and maybe Rachel if she does eventually decide to tell the others anything.
Rachel’s secret did come out sooner than expected, though not much has been done with that yet due to more pressing concerns. But yeah, protecting Alec and Rachel is explicitly part of Tattletale’s game, so this too is going to carry over.
This Arc did a bit more with Rachel than Plague did, giving us confirmation that she doesn’t actually want to be part of the Nine, as well as some excellent development of her relationship with Taylor. It didn’t focus all that much on protecting her and Alec, though.
And then there’s what I had to say about Arc 13 last time:
At this point, I think the nomination game is going to take at least a few more Arcs to finish. In Arc 13, though, the game’s definitely afoot.
If we’re doing two nomination turns per Arc, we’ve got Mannequin and Cherish in the spotlight of the next Arc, with Mannequin specifically being tasked to deal with Skitter. A doll in search of revenge and a sister who might be in no particular hurry to help her candidate succeed even if it does make her look better. And they’re both super deadly.
Yeah, things are kicking off now.
It kicked off hard. But as I mentioned earlier in this post, I was wrong about the pairing, although Cherish was still relevant.
Predictions for Arc 14
Due to an accident while writing the End of Interlude 13 post yesterday, I know the title, or original title if it has been changed, of Arc 14: Prey.
Who’s the prey, exactly? After hearing Piggot’s plan, I’m inclined to think it’s both the local villains and the Slaughterhouse Nine. The Nine are at the bottom of the parahuman food chain for a change, being hunted by the Undertravelers and the Protectorate, but the PRT is also hunting the Undertravelers and other local villains.
I suppose there’s still civilians under the Nine on the overall food chain, but the Nine have already been preying on them quite a lot, so that shouldn’t be enough for an Arc title.
…oh. Oh, right.
I was already going to predict that Siberian was going to be in the spotlight next Arc, because of the focus she got in Interlude 13. Of course that ties in with the title Prey. She’s probably the next tester, which means the nominees are going to be her prey.
That doesn’t invalidate the other interpretation, though. I’m inclined to think both are correct.
So is the next Arc going to give the spotlight to only Siberian, among the Nine? The Nine’s numbers have been reduced enough that Wildbow can do that now, especially if they continue being reduced.
I don’t think the Undertravelers are going to let up on their ongoing assault against the Nine, but Taylor might start being a tad more cautious thanks to Grue’s input. Maybe that’s what ends up saving them from the Protectorate’s explosive backstab?
And finally, I think there’s a good chance we’ll finally learn what the Travelers’ deal is. Hell, if my theories on that are anywhere near right, that might even be another reason for the title.
So… yeah! Snare was very, very good, and I’m looking forward to what Wildbow has in store for me next. See you in Prey!
Arc 12, Plague, has come and gone, and though it’s been nine Arcs since I started doing it, opening an Arc Thoughts post still feels awkward.
This was a fairly decent Arc, though it doesn’t feel quite as clearly self-contained as many of the earlier ones. Right now, it feels like we’ve entered a larger Arc divided into multiple parts – though maybe that feeling will change with the upcoming Arcs.
Plague acts as a beginning to the Slaughterhouse Nine’s reign of terror over Brockton Bay, and tells the story of a) how the Undertravelers got fucked over by Hookwolf, b) how the candidate game came to be, and c) the Shattering and its immediate consequences. It tells each of those stories well, but feels oddly… incomplete because all of those qualify as unsubtle setup for the larger Slaughterhouse testing plot arc.
(Despite the numbers, I was somewhat caught off-guard by 12.8 being the final regular chapter of the Arc, though I did recognize the final line for what it was.)
I don’t think that’s something to hold against the Arc’s quality, though. It just means that the Slaughterhouse testing arc is going to be a fair bit longer than a lot of the stories we’ve already been through and I should adjust to that.
The Arc title
The most literal interpretation is of course in relation to the pest control Taylor did at the beginning. That may have been, I suppose, mirrored at the end with the Slaughterhouse Nine eradicating a large portion of the pests from the previous Arc, the Merchants.
More importantly, though, I think the Plague is meant to be the Slaughterhouse Nine themselves. This Arc is about the Plague setting into the city and beginning to show its symptoms by killing a large portion of the population.
Prediction review
From Arc Thoughts: Infestation:
I’ve kind of accidentally covered just about everything already, but let’s summarize:
We know that Bitch, Armmaster, Hookwolf, Noelle, Regent and Panacea are all now targets for Slaughterhouse testing. This might be lethal for some of them, as I doubt the Slaughterhouse members will hold back. However, I doubt we’re losing Bitch, Hookwolf or Regent – Bitch and Regent because plot armor and Hookwolf because he’s probably the most competent fighter out of all of them, besides maybe Armmaster, and better equipped defensively than anyone except maybe Noelle. Besides plot armor, it would be more interesting to have Bitch actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine and become an antagonist – at least temporarily – than to have her just die.
This hasn’t really come into play yet. I ended up speculating more on this over the course of Arc 12 – we’ll have to see how this goes in the upcoming Arcs.
Other than that, a couple predictions from the end of Arc 10 remain active:
Dragon’s attempts to locate Taylor and communicate with her may come back in Arc 12. However, it might end up being a bit much to have that on top of the Slaughterhouse plot (though that didn’t stop us from learning about Dandelions in the middle of a Merchant brawl), so it’s possible that gets pushed back to Arc 13.
Yeah, this is still on the back-burner, and probably will stay that way for a while. In other news, the bank robbery starts next Arc, I’m sure of it.
And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.
No direct attempts yet, though Taylor considered it. What are the odds she’ll regret that decision when it’s too late?
I mean, if it isn’t already too late. I do suspect Jack’s challenge against Theo is more important than it seems.
But yeah, if I were to describe what I think Arc 12 will be like in one word, it’d have to be intense.
Ehh. Not as intense as I was thinking, though we did get some nice tension with Skitter’s city rush, and the Mannequin battle was good.
I am pretty curious to see how the Arc deals with the fact that there are other characters we care about who are going through the same thing as two of the Undersiders. Maybe we’ll have some Interludes to help out with that? Though it is worth noting that Wildbow seems to have a rule against using the same POV character for two Interludes (which is probably part of why Alec wasn’t the POV in 11g, besides Cherish’s power and personality being better illustrated from within her own head), so he’d have to show us the perspective of someone else close to the action. Perhaps even one of the attacking Slaughterhouse members, though that might be a tad redundant.
I think this one will have to carry over. It’s worth noting that Interlude 12 shows that yes, Wildbow is still willing to give the remaining Slaughterhouse members Interludes from their own perspectives on top of what we already saw in Arc 11. Though Interlude 12 was far more about the Slaughterhouse Nine as a whole than about Jack himself.
Primarily, though, I think we’ll be focusing on Taylor and the other Undersiders doing what they can to protect Alec, and maybe Rachel if she does eventually decide to tell the others anything.
Rachel’s secret did come out sooner than expected, though not much has been done with that yet due to more pressing concerns. But yeah, protecting Alec and Rachel is explicitly part of Tattletale’s game, so this too is going to carry over.
Predictions for Arc 13
At this point, I think the nomination game is going to take at least a few more Arcs to finish. In Arc 13, though, the game’s definitely afoot.
If we’re doing two nomination turns per Arc, we’ve got Mannequin and Cherish in the spotlight of the next Arc, with Mannequin specifically being tasked to deal with Skitter. A doll in search of revenge and a sister who might be in no particular hurry to help her candidate succeed even if it does make her look better. And they’re both super deadly.
Yeah, things are kicking off now.
Besides that… I suppose I already said everything I need to above. A couple things are carrying over to Arc 13.
So… yeah! That was Plague! See you soon for lucky number 13!
Hey, would you mind ordering the S9 from your favourite to least favourite member so far? Also, i believe the anniversary bonus lacking from some of the chapters is because these were posted on regular update days.
So, now that you’ve seen the Slaughterhouse 9 in action, which one is your favorite?
Ah, whoops – I was planning on doing a favorites ranking for the Arc Thoughts, but I forgot. Here:
So! That’s all the members of the Slaughterhouse Nine accounted for!
Let’s take a look at the second half of Infestation, as well as Infestation as a whole!
A jumble of recap (part 2) and predictions, whoops
Part 2 of Infestation has been significantly less continuous than part 1, consisting of eight largely separate chapters following roughly the same format – a POV character is approached by a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, the Fellowship member in most cases wanting the POV character to join the team.
Besides the introductions of upcoming antagonists, the most important chapters for the main perspective of the story outside the Interludes are definitely 11a and 11g. Because of the events of these chapters – or rather, the nominations leading to them – Rachel and Alec will both be targeted by the Slaughterhouse Nine in upcoming chapters, something that will likely cause all of the Undersiders to get involved even though they’ve been divided into their own territories. Notably, Rachel is willing to “see what this test is all about”, and is probably the Undersider most fit to actually succeed without help, so there is genuinely a risk that she might end up joining the enemy.
The only other nominees we saw who accepted the offer of becoming Slaughterhouse members were Oni Lee and Hookwolf. Oni didn’t work out, but I could see Hookwolf actually successfully becoming a member and then backstabbing the rest of the team.
Meanwhile, however, the Slaughterhouse Nine apparently don’t give a shit about whether you want to join them, even though they have a habit of showing enough courtesy to ask/warn the nominees. If you’ve been nominated, they’ll test you, no matter what, so Colin, Amy and Noelle (and by extension Coil) need to watch out as well.
Judgment
I think I was right to do Mid-Arc Thoughts. Part 2 of Infestation, the Interludes, could very easily have been a separate Arc. Sentinel and Parasite are more interconnected than Infestation proper and its Interludes. As a result, Arc 11 as a whole feels quite bisected, and it’s hard for me to think of it as a whole at all.
Part 1 was a pretty decent Taylor story about bystanderism and dealing with the infestation that was the Merchants, with the looming threat of the Slaughterhouse Nine being very much in the background. It had solid throughlines, bookends (Taylor waking up from a nightmare at the beginning, feeling optimistic about the same things at the end), and worldbuilding re: the Dandelions and Cauldron, and generally works excellently as a standalone Arc.
Part 2 was more formulaic, in a sense, but in a good way. It let me loosely know what to expect but still left room for each Interlude to do its own thing, and what they did was usually pretty good. There were some fantastic chapters in there, most notably Interlude 11h.
And while the Interludes were largely separate from each other, the formula and the minor pieces of continuity connecting the chapters – from small details like Coil acknowledging Leah’s death to bigger things like 11a and 11h taking place at the same time, or the mystery of the Newbie and what happened to Hatchet Face, or Oni Lee being taken in 11b and showing up again as part of Hack Job in 11h – made the sequence of Interludes feel like a whole rather than just… a set of events.
Overall, Arc 11 is very good, but I do feel it works better seen as two stories, two Arcs.
The Arc title
I don’t think this has changed much since the Mid-Arc Thoughts. Infestation still refers primarily to the Merchants. You could argue that it also covers the Slaughterhouse Nine, but I don’t think that fits anywhere near as well.
Prediction review
From Arc Thoughts: Parasite:
So what do we have coming up?
As mentioned earlier in the post, this Arc ended with Dragon finding out Taylor’s identity and starting a search for her. I don’t think that’s a plot that’s going to be left dormant for too long, so there’s a good chance Dragon will play a role in Arc 11, or maybe Arc 12.
She did appear, but not for this particular plotline.
Meanwhile, the Undersiders will need to try to stay away from the Slaughterhouse Nine. They will fail, that much I’m certain of, but whether they’ll fail in the next Arc or later remains to be seen.
Two of them were specifically sought out by Slaughterhouse Nine members, and the rest are coming after those Undersiders to test them.
So yeah. They absolutely failed to stay away from the Slaughterhouse Nine, and it’s gonna get worse. 😛
When it happens, though… well, there’s little reason to hold back against Jack Slash in particular. But even if someone does try to kill him, I think they’ll fail. I could see the story’s climax happening in two years, but I highly doubt we’ll be skipping ahead enough for it to happen in fifteen.
We didn’t quite get to this point yet. This prediction’s gonna have to carry over to Arc 12.
We might also learn more about Imp/Aisha (though with the reveal that Imp was Aisha, that’s become less of pressing matter since we’ve had a chapter getting to know Aisha as a civilian before) and how she ended up on the team… I wish I could see Brian’s face the moment Aisha probably told him straight that she has powers now and she knows about the Undersiders. 😛
No luck there. Aisha is the one Undersider we didn’t see in this Arc at some point or other – almost like Wildbow forgot to include her… 😉
And now, predictions from the Mid-Arc Thoughts:
Given the number of Interludes, my main prediction is that these Interludes are for the Slaughterhouse Nine, starting or more likely ending with Jack Slash. Eight members, eight Interludes.
Correct, besides the part about Jack Slash. Though he did show up in the first one to start after the gimmick of the Interludes had been confirmed.
Knowing that the Interludes were done for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of Gestation 1.1, the number might just be the result of 1 regular Interlude plus 7 bonus Interludes for the week of celebration, but that seems too perfect for Wildbow not to use that for the Fellowship even if that was the case. (If this is how it shook out, I do feel like that slightly increases the chances of Jack Slash going first, though that depends on when Wildbow got the idea for the week-long marathon of Interludes.)
I don’t know if this was the case – though the lack of “(Anniversary Bonus)” on Interlude 11a suggests it might’ve been, that tag was also missing from 11d and 11h. (I don’t know if that was by accident or to indicate that he would’ve done them even if he hadn’t decided to do an Interlude marathon to celebrate the anniversary. If it’s the latter, then why 11h rather than 11g?)
But if it was that way, it still makes a lot of sense that Siberian went first, with 11a being one of the two most important Interludes in the Arc. The parenthetical comment was caused by the assumption that Jack Slash’s Interlude would be most important, so while I was wrong about which one it’d be, I was correct about the underlying idea – that one of the most important Interludes would come first.
That said, I could still be wrong. If the Interludes aren’t for the Slaughterhouse Nine, I don’t have a clue who they’d be for. Maybe some of the other villains in town? Maybe one of the Wards or Protectorate members as they learn of the Merchants’ collapse? Perhaps even a short check-in on Dragon’s progress in finding Taylor?
Nope.
Also, given the marathon, I suspect these Interludes might each be a bit shorter than the average recent chapter.
I don’t know. They didn’t feel any shorter, at least. Maybe he wrote them in advance?
So yeah, whatever Wildbow has in store for me, I’m sure it’ll be good. If perhaps brutal. 🙂
That it was!
Predictions for Arc 12
I’ve kind of accidentally covered just about everything already, but let’s summarize:
We know that Bitch, Armmaster, Hookwolf, Noelle, Regent and Panacea are all now targets for Slaughterhouse testing. This might be lethal for some of them, as I doubt the Slaughterhouse members will hold back. However, I doubt we’re losing Bitch, Hookwolf or Regent – Bitch and Regent because plot armor and Hookwolf because he’s probably the most competent fighter out of all of them, besides maybe Armmaster, and better equipped defensively than anyone except maybe Noelle. Besides plot armor, it would be more interesting to have Bitch actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine and become an antagonist – at least temporarily – than to have her just die.
Other than that, a couple predictions from the end of Arc 10 remain active:
Dragon’s attempts to locate Taylor and communicate with her may come back in Arc 12. However, it might end up being a bit much to have that on top of the Slaughterhouse plot (though that didn’t stop us from learning about Dandelions in the middle of a Merchant brawl), so it’s possible that gets pushed back to Arc 13.
And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.
But yeah, if I were to describe what I think Arc 12 will be like in one word, it’d have to be intense.
I am pretty curious to see how the Arc deals with the fact that there are other characters we care about who are going through the same thing as two of the Undersiders. Maybe we’ll have some Interludes to help out with that? Though it is worth noting that Wildbow seems to have a rule against using the same POV character for two Interludes (which is probably part of why Alec wasn’t the POV in 11g, besides Cherish’s power and personality being better illustrated from within her own head), so he’d have to show us the perspective of someone else close to the action. Perhaps even one of the attacking Slaughterhouse members, though that might be a tad redundant.
Primarily, though, I think we’ll be focusing on Taylor and the other Undersiders doing what they can to protect Alec, and maybe Rachel if she does eventually decide to tell the others anything.
So yeah. See you soon, as I dive into Arc 12!
Alright, so we’re halfway through Arc 11, and done with the regular chapters for the Arc – coming up is a series of a whopping eight Interludes. I’m going to be making another Arc Thoughts post after those.
For now, let’s take a look at the first half of Infestation. 🙂
Recap
Infestation so far has largely been a story about guilt and bystanderism. We opened with Taylor having nightmares involving various things she’s feeling guilty over, and learned about how hard she’s pushing herself to do things, both to keep herself occupied and not thinking about her various guilts, and to make (quite possibly fruitless, because Coil is a manipulative fucker) progress on fixing one of the things she feels responsible for.
Then she went out and ran into another of her guilts, Danny. I’m glad to see him again, though I’m concerned he might get killed by the Slaughterhouse Nine in the near future. The two of them had a much needed, if somewhat awkward, conversation, their first one since 6.9. 🙂
Further, in Taylor’s quest to do things, she did a thing and claimed her territory, declaring war on basically everyone standing in her way. Oh, and establishing her benevolent rule, of course. This got her in contact with Sierra Kiley, who needed help – determined to prove herself to Coil, to her subjects and to herself, and to not have another unfortunate child on her conscience, she agreed to help retrieve Bryce Kiley and spent the rest of the half-Arc pursuing that goal with all her might.
Along the way, a fit of anti-bystanderism caused Taylor to save Charlotte, a Merchant victim who ironically happened to have been a bystander for Taylor’s trigger event. (For added irony, if Charlotte had actually helped Taylor back then, she might not have been saved from the Merchants now. Then again, if the Protectorate were right, Leviathan might not have attacked in that timeline anyway.) This led to an interesting examination of how Taylor views bystanderism, and it really helped to put into context some of Taylor’s strongest heroic urges and guilt complexes.
Then, after a brief but very interesting Dandelion intermission and the end of The Great “Skidmark is a Dick to His Flock” Brawl of 2011, Taylor & co. ironically ended up as unwilling bystanders as Faultline’s Crew beat up the Merchants and stole back their super juice and papers from Cauldron, though not before Taylor and Lisa could learn a bit about it.
Finally, Taylor hired Charlotte and Sierra, made up with Brian and ended the half-Arc on a high note, feeling like she accomplished enough for the day and things were looking better. It’s a very nice counterposition to the literally nightmarish opening of the Arc.
And also quite a bit of tempting fate.
Judgment
This Arc so far has had a decent storyline, with some very interesting elements scattered into it and making the Arc overall a lot more exciting than it would’ve been otherwise. The Dandelions showing up was incredibly unexpected and what we learned was very interesting, and the same goes for everything involving Cauldron.
Other than that, I quite like Sierra and Taylor’s dynamic and hope to be seeing a fair bit of that in the future.
Overall, I quite like this!
The Arc title
This has been fairly obvious since we learned of the Merchants’ relevance to the Arc. They are the infestation being cleared out.
However, I suppose it might also refer to the infestation of negative thoughts and guilt in Taylor’s brain, which was also quite important. That hasn’t quite been eradicated, but the events of this Arc do seem to have helped so far.
Prediction review
So what do we have coming up?
As mentioned earlier in the post, this Arc ended with Dragon finding out Taylor’s identity and starting a search for her. I don’t think that’s a plot that’s going to be left dormant for too long, so there’s a good chance Dragon will play a role in Arc 11, or maybe Arc 12.
Meanwhile, the Undersiders will need to try to stay away from the Slaughterhouse Nine. They will fail, that much I’m certain of, but whether they’ll fail in the next Arc or later remains to be seen. When it happens, though… well, there’s little reason to hold back against Jack Slash in particular. But even if someone does try to kill him, I think they’ll fail. I could see the story’s climax happening in two years, but I highly doubt we’ll be skipping ahead enough for it to happen in fifteen.
We might also learn more about Imp/Aisha (though with the reveal that Imp was Aisha, that’s become less of pressing matter since we’ve had a chapter getting to know Aisha as a civilian before) and how she ended up on the team… I wish I could see Brian’s face the moment Aisha probably told him straight that she has powers now and she knows about the Undersiders. 😛
Literally none of this has come up yet. I guess some of these predictions are going to carry over to Arc 12.
Predictions for the Arc 11 Interludes
Given the number of Interludes, my main prediction is that these Interludes are for the Slaughterhouse Nine, starting or more likely ending with Jack Slash. Eight members, eight Interludes.
Knowing that the Interludes were done for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of Gestation 1.1, the number might just be the result of 1 regular Interlude plus 7 bonus Interludes for the week of celebration, but that seems too perfect for Wildbow not to use that for the Fellowship even if that was the case. (If this is how it shook out, I do feel like that slightly increases the chances of Jack Slash going first, though that depends on when Wildbow got the idea for the week-long marathon of Interludes.)
That said, I could still be wrong. If the Interludes aren’t for the Slaughterhouse Nine, I don’t have a clue who they’d be for. Maybe some of the other villains in town? Maybe one of the Wards or Protectorate members as they learn of the Merchants’ collapse? Perhaps even a short check-in on Dragon’s progress in finding Taylor?
Also, given the marathon, I suspect these Interludes might each be a bit shorter than the average recent chapter.
So yeah, whatever Wildbow has in store for me, I’m sure it’ll be good. If perhaps brutal. 🙂
See you soon for the first Interlude of the marathon!
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