Heck, if I remember correctly, Wildbow was /planning/ on Taylor dying and gave her a low chance of survival. However, not only did she beat the odds, but /the character he was planning on replacing her with/ died instead.

IIRC the plan was actually for Taylor to die and Aegis to be the new protagonist. Whoops!

To add on the “death by dice roll” reveal… characters actually had modifiers on it depending on their place in the fight and their powers. Taylor had very low odds. Wildbow expected her to die. He had the story planned for her dying. And then she didn’t. Near-Invincible Alexandria almost died. No-weakpoint Aegis died. Squishy bug girl survived.

Ahaha! That’s RNG for ya!

I was rather surprised when Aegis died, but man, I can’t help but imagine Wildbow’s reaction. Especially if he rolled Aegis before Taylor and had to worry about both of them dying. Though given what I’ve been told before about Wildbow going through several protagonists before settling on Taylor, I’m sure he’d think of something.

I suppose this means that Wildbow had to go through a similar process as the one Taylor did in 8.8. “Well then, Taylor survived and Aegis didn’t. What do I do with her character now?”

…hm, I wonder, would following Aegis mean leaving the wreck of Brockton Bay behind? I mean, would they still go through with the rearrangements of the Wards in the wake of an Endbringer attack?

If so, it seems like Wildbow intended to get rid of both the current protag and the specific setting, and got stuck with both… for now, at least. Not gonna lie, I hope it stays that way, especially now that Taylor seems to have come up with a long-term objective.

In any case, I respect that Wildbow didn’t take his artistic license to ignore the dice when they fell in ways that didn’t match his plans.

So, they waited almost a week after the battle before putting up that monument. I think you can take it as pretty much a given that they double checked everything pretty carefully. The armbands are good, but no one thinks they’re prefect.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Note how out of 8 Undersiders we lost 2, or exactly 25%, to Leviaphan

Cod dammit!

Wildbow bested me again…

Anon said: Do you agree with me that Armsmaster would have made a BETTER supervillain than superhero? I mean, he doesn’t seem very heroic in everything he did lately.

Yeah, probably. It’s worth noting he had less than ten minutes to come up with his villainous plan for how to get a one-on-one battle with Levvy – he couldn’t have predicted that they’d get that break. At least not with any certainty.

Also, he certainly has the villainous confession when caught down.

Anon said: Re post 168086238194: Now that we’ve established you guessed wrong, I guess it’s okay to point out that your logic was kinda bad here. In the middle of a battle, the important thing to know is which of your allies are no longer in a condition to fight. Figuring out which ones are dead, and which ones are merely hurt is something that can wait until after the fight. Also, if losses meant the same thing as deceased, why wouldn’t the armbands just say deceased?

Yeah, I suppose you’re right.

(Once again the intelligence trophy goes to Taylor and you guys rather than me :P)

“Yes ma’am,” the reply came from a man I couldn’t see.

I struggled to turn over, failed.  When I found I couldn’t budge Armsmaster’s grip, I gave up, slumped onto the counter.

This is a man whose main weapon is handheld and heavy. Of course he’s going to have a strong grip.

“Who is she?” Legend asked.

“Skitter, member of the Undersiders, a group of teenage villains,” Miss Militia replied.  “Master-5, bugs only.”

Okay, so Legend is not specifically aware of her.

I wonder if he’s going to remember hearing “Skitter deceased” from the armband.

“This situation is serious,” Legend spoke, walking around the counter until I could see him.  I saw nurses and others behind him staring, some of them being ushered away by an older nurse in scrubs.  “Do you understand?”

Oh yeah. Can’t have a villain knowing the identity of a hero, unless it’s by the hero’s own choice like with New Wave.

He nodded at Armsmaster, and Armsmaster eased his grip some, as if it would make it easier to talk.

I was opening my mouth to speak when the thought struck me – If Sophia was Shadow Stalker, did she know who I was?

I doubt it.

She’d heard me talk in costume, hadn’t she?  I knew from the time the trio had overheard me in the bathroom and doused me in juice, that at least one of the girls could recognize my voice.

…ah, shit. That’s a really good point.

And if this is actually the case, that adds another layer to her hatred of Taylor, as she was a member of Grue’s team.