Now that you know regent’s true power his name sounds more fitting, doesn’t it ?

Oh, absolutely. It made sense from the beginning, in that a regent takes control, but it wasn’t clear how thoroughly he can take control, and thus how appropriate the near-royalnessissitude of it is.

So, the real question with interlude 10a: Was Regent planning for the suicide to be a fake out for the start, or did he just change his mind when the chair didn’t fall over?

I’m thinking the former, but the latter is scarily probable too.

I know it’s not probable, but I love the idea of Regent releasing Sophia and immediately regaining focus in the middle of the Slaughterhouse 9 / Everyone Will Die discussion and him going “Holy hell, what are we talking about!?”

Hah, I love that idea. 😛

I’m so glad you ended up on the “Holy shit Regent is terrifying and a huge sociopath” side of the people who read this chapter and (I gather) not the “Since she’s a bad person and I don’t like her, I’m so happy that Regent systematically dismantled someone’s life and psychologically broke her” side. I generally don’t like to judge, but the second reaction freaks me out and is way too common.

Yeah, I agree – that attitude is scary because of what it says about the people who hold it. It suggests a black and white view of the world and the idea that what Regent did is okay to do to anyone.

I mean, yes. She’s a terrible person. Literally a serial murderer, or at least killer (there is a difference) and attempted murderer. But Regent’s actions are simply not oki doki.

I think this is the chapter that cemented Worm as one of my favourite… literary things? Written works? The sheer emotion Wildbow manages to instill, the way this recontextualises and fleshes out a previously minor character, and the way he manages to make you feel bad for wishing Sophia would get some form of comeuppance for so long… And the things it says about Regent as a character are really interesting, especially the way he processes emotions (like his maybe-protectiveness? of Taylor).

I know, right! Good shit. Fucked up shit, but good shit.

You don’t feel any pity for Sophia? You don’t feel at least a bit of a pity for a teenage girl whose life was destroyed by a freaking psycho? Yes, I know that she’s bad and violent and everything, but still its cruel what Regent did to her, I kind of seriously hated him back when I read this chapter, he’s not a good person either and the worst thing is that he doesn’t even did what he did because he cared for his allies, he did only to have fun and teach her a lesson. What do you say?

If I ever gave the impression that I didn’t feel any pity for Sophia towards the end there, or thought that Regent was a good person in this chapter, I must’ve seriously failed to communicate my thoughts. She had a lot of it coming, but the suicide portion was way disproportionate.

And yeah, that last part is a good point.

The ONLY acceptable worm ship with Emma is Queen Bee. Take that Emma/Sophia diabolicry out of this pagan household!!! *Fury*

Hehe.

I think if Sophia does have a thing for Emma (inconclusive but not unlikely), it’s probably unrequited, whether Emma is just doing all of this in order to stay on good terms with the murderous cape or not.

Emma and Taylor… I don’t think it’s possible in canon without some major development (even if Emma were to come clean about why she did what she did, I don’t think Taylor would forgive her that easily), but I can imagine fanfics having fun with it.

Regent’s interlude is the chapter I’ve been waiting on you to get to ever since you started. I think it shows another side of Worm’s darkness. The endbringer arc has a lot of death, yes, but the antagonist is an inhuman monster. The protagonist in this chapter is a fucked up human doing fucked up things to a fucked up human antagonist while thinking about his fucked up past and fucked up emotions. And in the end, I still couldn’t feel sorry for Shadow Stalker. What about you?

Shadow Stalker had a lot of what Regent did coming, but the suicide thing was going too far. That’s when Regent’s antics went from amoral fun to super fucked up. So yes, I do feel sorry for her at that point… to an extent.

But yeah, I think a big portion of the story’s darkness is and always has been how fucked up people can be, even those ostensibly on “our side”.