Wildbow does not write the chapters well in advance. I understand why you would think so, given how well-written, thematically consistent and thought out they are, but it turns out he’s just ridiculously fast and talented.
Huh, wow.
Tag: chapter i12a
In retrospect, I’m torn between being surprised it took you, an actual Norwegian, so long to quote “Dinner for One” and being surprised there wound up being an appropriate place to do so.
Hehe, yeah, and I ended up doing it almost as far from Christmas as I could get, timewise. :p
Honestly, when I wrote it, I could’ve sworn I’d referenced it earlier, but I can’t find anything, so I guess not. Maybe I just considered it at some point.
…a bit of context for those who have no idea what we’re talking about:
Dinner for One is a sketch (British script, German TV production in English) about a duchess hosting her 90th birthday party with four guests… who are all deceased. The butler, James, has to pretend to serve and then be each guest as he circles the table repeatedly. This includes drinking for everyone in the frequent toasts, so as the sketch continues, he gets more and more drunk (amusingly, the actor never drank a drop of alcohol in his life). Add in a tiger rug for James to keep stumbling over and some memorable catchphrases, and it becomes a hilarious classic – though it’s largely unknown in most English-speaking countries.
In a fair number of countries, including Germany, Sweden and Denmark, it’s a New Year’s Eve tradition to air Dinner For One. In Norway, we do it on December 23rd, “Little Christmas Eve”. Thanks to this treatment, the sketch is (or at least used to be) the world’s most repeated TV program ever.
In other words, by airing Dinner For One in December, we follow the same procedure as every year, James.
(More that Cherish maybe remarked “Huh, that’s probably one of your lower kill counts, Shatterbird.”
“Why?”
“The Worm,” Cherish replies, pointing in a direction.
Jack looks to Mannequin, who leaves without a word.)
– Wildbow, explaining why Mannequin attacked.
That makes sense. I like the ambiguity on whether Jack looking at Mannequin was a wordless order, or an acknowledgement of the fact that Mannequin would want to go do something about that anyway.
Speaking of wordless, I love that Wildbow used “leaves without a word” about a guy who can’t speak anyway. :p
Isnt it possible that the men bought the power for her?
“Guess the men who bought my power should ask for a refund.” I interpreted this as meaning a group of men paid Cauldron to give Shatterbird her powers. She can’t get a refund because she didn’t pay. I think the papers with the power bottles the the Undersides found described a similar situation.
Hm, I suppose that works too. That would raise some questions about Shatterbird’s background and why exactly a group of men would pay loads of money to give her one of the most powerful abilities we’ve seen in the story.
The Crystal Gems may or may not be protected from Shatterbird by the Manton effect. Hard to say for sure.
Maybe, if they’re lucky. Unfortunately for them it’s quite unclear at this point how exactly the Manton effect works, not to mention whether it’s even a thing in the first place. The strongest hypothesis has it depending on the power, which adds another layer of uncertainty as to how the effect works specifically for Shatterbird.
Notably, the Gems are not protected if the Manton effect prevents Shatterbird from controlling silicates in organic beings, but are protected if it operates on the distinction between living vs non-living instead.
I think whoever’s saying that Hawaii canonically got Behemoth’d is mistaken. They are working off of information from later in the story, which is a no-no, but they’re also wrong about it.
I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what the story says about it for myself!
“By the sound of it, she’s either sold her power, most likely via Cauldron, or she bought the power from them herself. In the latter case, it’d be odd that she suggested other buyers should ask for a refund and not she herself, so I’m leaning towards the former.” Remember the Merchant party with stolen powers in a bottle? It’s possible she stole it before it reached the intended buyer.
That’s a good point. It’s not the vibe I got from it, but this could very well be the case.
End of Interlude 12a
Apart from Cherish’s Interlude, we’ve only really seen the Slaughterhouse Nine from the outside before, and mostly isolated from each other. This chapter was exactly what we needed: A chance to see them all together, from inside the group, and flesh out each of them and how they interact with each other.
The chapter went further to do that than by just showing them acting as a group, too. We also got Jack Slash’s insights into the motivations and vulnerabilities of each member, in the form of carrots and sticks, as well as some of the less obvious relationship dynamics in the team, such as Siberian’s motherly (possibly romantic, as skeevy as that is, but I said I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt and that’s what she shall receive) affection for Bonesaw. I love that. 🙂
Oh, and the Merchants are pretty much fucked now. That happened too. Turns out the answer to “Will Skidmark blend?” is yes.
Next chapter… hehe. So before I started writing this post, I peeked at the next chapter link to confirm that the two Interludes of this Arc were in a row without any surprise regular chapters sneaking in between them (though I didn’t think that would be the case), and I found out that apparently the other Interlude is called Interlude 12½. Looks like Wildbow still hadn’t quite figured out how to deal with these multi-Interludes consistently. :p
Honestly, it makes it feel like Interlude 12½ was an afterthought, like, “Hey, maybe I should have a second Interlude here, but I already named the first one without a letter…” I kind of doubt that’s the case, since it seems like Wildbow writes his chapters well in advance, but that’s the vibe that numbering gives me.
Anyway, my predictions for next time are pretty much the same as for this one, though obviously without the one that actually happened in this chapter. I’m holding out hope for either Charlotte or Sierra’s POV, or for a check-in with someone on the other side of the rift Hookwolf created. I’d like to get to know Battery more, for one thing.
I suppose it’s also possible we’ll follow a Traveler and get some more information on what’s going on with Noelle and/or on the Travelers’ tight-knit backstory, now that Hookwolf’s schism has forced the Travelers’ cooperation with the Undersiders into the spotlight and Noelle has actually been seen.
So yeah! Good chapter, and I suspect the next one will be quite interesting as well. See you then!
He could manipulate the outcome of this little contest, see that one of the two lasted to the end. It would be hard, requiring the best he could employ in subtlety and head games.
I like it.
The wind blew flame-heated air at his back, thick with the smell of smoke and the sweet tang of blood.
Delicious.
He smiled. These challenges, after all, served as his own carrot.
Jack Slash would play strategy games on the hardest difficulty.
Watch out, Coil, there’s a new chessmaster in town.
The interesting thing about this whole setup with Bitch and Hookwolf as the clearest potential members of the Nine is that it’s not at all clear which one it will be, if either.
Hookwolf acts both as an out if Wildbow doesn’t want to have Bitch join the Nine, and as a distraction if he does. If Hookwolf were replaced with another unlikely option such as the remaining four, Bitch being the one to succeed would be too obvious, but with Hookwolf there’s a legitimate chance that he’ll end up on the team as Bitch is somehow pulled out of it.
This also compounds the issue of how far in the Bitch plotline will go. She’ll probably be confronted about hiding her nomination soon (in fact, Grue might already have done that offscreen, once he took a moment to stop worrying about Tattletale), but how long will it take before it all comes to a head? Will Bitch be stopped from pursuing the nomination, or will she end up failing, or will she end up among the Nine and be confronted then? Hell, even then, she might be knocked down from the position and then have Hookwolf take her spot.
One thing that’s worth noting is that if the Nine fail to whittle it down to one candidate, they’re not going to pit them against each other like they usually would, but instead take the first volunteer. Bitch is the only candidate who is actually okay with her nomination. It’s very possible that the candidates win Tattletale’s game but Bitch still ends up among the Nine, as the volunteer.
Krixwell Liveblogs 