Geez, when I decided to use “Endbringer of” for the closing posts of each chapter of this situation, I wasn’t expecting Arc 8 to have such a long name.

Anyway, this was an alright chapter. It had a lot in common with Hive 5.1, in that it was primarily about a whole bunch of new and old characters attending a meeting under cape truce. And hey, that’s not a bad thing – we got to meet a lot of characters that I’m looking forward to seeing in the upcoming chapters. Though I’d better prepare for a bunch of them dying, too.

Armsmaster, for one, has a huge death flag. As far as Brockton Bay is concerned, he’s practically retiring in dishonor anyway, most likely exiting the story for good (except maybe a very occasional guest appearance). As such, there’s no reason for him to not end up dying in this battle, possibly heroically to make up for his dishonor. There’s also a risk of something similar with Aegis.

Taylor, obviously, needs to survive if she’s going to keep being the POV character and narrator, but I’m not sure I’d assume the same plot armor for all of the Undersiders. One in four is a scary ratio when we’ve got exactly four of the main protagonists here. Anyway, I think if anyone’s going to die among them, Brian is particularly vulnerable, being someone Taylor has built up a strong emotional attachment to (that attachment having been ripped to pieces in the last Arc only makes it worse). Alec is unlikely because he needs more fleshing out. Lisa has some of the same issue as Alec, though not as intensely – we know her a bit better, but I still feel like there’s a lot more to know about Lisa before she gets killed off.

As for the rest, Sundancer is at some risk, though I think Wildbow might want to delve more into the issues in the Travelers at a later date, and Sundancer seems to be his main conduit for doing so.

I’m also thinking at least one of the big shots might go down, to show even more how powerful Leviathan is. Legend and Alexandria are at a fair bit of risk due to their idolization by Taylor, though their status as Triumvirate members ought to protect them somewhat. Maybe Myrddin or Chevalier will go down instead – as team leaders, they’re still fairly big shots, just not that big shots.

On the other end of the scale, there’s likely cannon fodder such as a whole bunch of thus far unnamed Wards and Protectorate members, Parian, Bambina… Laserdream and/or Shielder might go down too so we’ve got some from New Wave…

Basically, lots of people are gonna die and this is getting morbid. I’m beginning to understand Lisa’s reaction in Agitation 3.6.

Next time is presumably briefing time, but since they only have a few minutes, there’s a decent chance they’ll start moving out for the battle as well. Then the dying starts.

Whew, what a fun story, eh? See you next time!

Man, Brockton Bay can’t catch a break. First Purity’s rampage last week, and now this?

This was a really good chapter. The conflict between the Undersiders went a lot further than I’d expected it to, and it was excellently written. And then just when Taylor was about to leave, suddenly there’s a fucking Endbringer to deal with.

I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming chapters, to finally learn what is actually up with those. I’m not convinced they won’t be practically Lovecraftian horrors and the like, but whether they are or not, I’m very interested to see what Wildbow throws at me.

Speaking of upcoming chapters, I’m curious now. Is this the final chapter of Buzz, with Taylor and the Undersiders going out to help out against the Endbringer in Arc 8, or is this Arc extra long? It seems to me that going up against the Endbringer would be a multi-chapter thing. Let’s have a look…

Interlude 7. Nice.

I doubt it’ll be from the Endbringer’s perspective, but we might be going into the perspective of either a civilian or another cape to watch their response to the Endbringer alert. It might provide some answers to what they actually are, or that might be saved for 8.1. We’ll see!

Toodles for now!

Well.

That was kinda anticlimactic. The boss encounter that half the arc was building up to boiled down to “hi we’re innocent and we know where Aster is so please don’t vaporize us or what’s left of the neighborhood okay”.

I mean, yeah, things were resolved, and we got some decent fights along the way – the fight against Night was pretty good – but even for a peaceful solution, it kinda felt too easy once they actually got to Purity.

Maybe it’s just me being too used to the pattern of each Arc having a proper boss fight (hell, even Insinuation had one, and that Arc wasn’t combat focused at all outside that one fight). I don’t know.

What I also don’t know at the moment is if the Arc proper ends here and the next chapter is an Interlude. I’m guessing we’re having a 7.11 as a wind-down and tie-up chapter. We kind of wound down a bit at the end of this chapter, but Tattle’s text doesn’t strike me as an end-of-Arc line.

Let’s take a look at the link…

/…/buzz-7-11/

Yup. 🙂

Maybe it’ll give us some insight into exactly what put Coil in a less friendly mood than last time we saw him, and/or maybe have Brian and Taylor talk to each other about what happened at the mall.

See you then!

This was a pretty decent chapter. We didn’t quite reach the Arc boss yet, and by the looks of it it’ll be at least another chapter before we do, but we did finally get to meet a bunch of characters, some of whom were name dropped all the way back in 3.11.

Next up: Flashbang. Except it’s not Flashbang, it’s a flashbang. It’s not even a flashbang thrown by someone on Flashbang’s side, but damn if it won’t flash and bang nonetheless. Flashbang should demand royalties.

Oh yeah, and the rest of the fight against Night and Fog. It most certainly won’t go as smoothly as Taylor’s optimistic plan would suggest, but we’ll see exactly how it works out next time.

See you then!

Welcome to the combat section. 🙂

I’d say I was spot on with my prediction at the start of the chapter, which I feel is worth noting because that doesn’t happen all that often. 😛

Purity seems to be the Arc boss, which ought to be interesting, but first we need to deal with the first airbender (of the story), mister dog and sportsbug. More specifically, Taylor needs to deal with Stormtiger, seeing as his enhanced sense of smell and ability to push away the darkness makes Grue’s power somewhat ineffective against him.

Once Stormtiger is defeated or outmaneuvered, the two of them might be able to make a run for it, but I wouldn’t bet on it succeeding. Although… it’d be very difficult to take out Hookwolf with bugs. Taylor would have to strike while he’s not transformed, and during battle, I’m not sure that’s ever going to be the case. As such, the continuation of the plot might actually require either backup or escape. (Doesn’t mean Cricket can’t get in the way first, though.)

But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. See y’all next time for Taylor and Brian versus Stormtiger!

Just admit it, you guys have been looking forward to this for a while, haven’t you? 😛

That was the best Taylor-Harpy showdown yet, and they didn’t even say anything to each other. With words, anyway. Plenty was said through actions, though! Such as “fuck you, he’s mine” and “hey look, I can get a guy like this”. And it was great.

And now Taylor has to explain herself and then spend at least one night at Brian’s apartment with him (provided he still lets her, but I’m fairly sure he will). I’m very much looking forward to both of those things… This is going to be so good.

The E88 is of course still a threat. It’s possible the adorableness and possible awkwardness in the next chapter will be interrupted at the end by news that E88ers found the other group (because I really don’t think they’d find Taylor and Brian first) and they need backup. I guess we’ll just have to deal with that if it happens, probably starting in 7.7.

And with that, it’s time to close up this chapter. See you next time!