The second time Wildbow took down a chapter, it was an interlude in which we learned more information about Shatterbird. Wildbow has since said that although much of the present-day section is non-canon because it contradicted established characterization and contained poorly foreshadowed elements, the background information about Shatterbird is canon.

Huh, interesting.

Sharks: I can if you want to, but I’m iffy on sharing that.

I’ll trust Sharks’ judgement and leave it be for now, but maybe I should read it sometime in the future, maybe between Worm and Ward? That seems like a good time to read various bonus things in general.

Yeah, just when you start to forget that the POV character is a violent racist murdering Nazi, he casually drips a vile slur and pulling for the mass murderer antagonist looks more appealing.

Yeeah.

Though the reason the slur made me think about the idea that rooting for Shatterbird might be better wasn’t so much Hookwolf using the slur in itself, as what the slur revealed about Shatterbird. Suddenly, she was described as part of one of the demographics Hookwolf perpetrates hate crimes against, and it became possible that she was there not to recruit him, but to stop that. Though it quickly turned out she didn’t seem to care about it.

“dark-skinned woman versus a Nazi racist with a long list of homicides to account for” although she’s probably killed more people than him.

I suppose. Hookwolf has the longest list of homicides or suspected homicides Weld has seen for someone who’s not in the Birdcage, but Shatterbird is capable of killing just about everyone who wears glasses in a city, and then some, at once. At that point, are we even talking about “homicides” anymore, or does it fall under a different description, like “terrorist attacks”? I mean, that’s what they are, attacks that kill lots of civilians to put fear into people and announce the Slaughterhouse Nine’s presence.

Also, it’s possible Weld hadn’t looked at Shatterbird’s files yet in 9.1, though I’m sure he has by now.

Anyway, there was a deliberate bias in each part of that sentence, meant to demonstrate how the situation could be phrased in different ways to justify rooting for either one of them.

I can’t tell if that smiley face means your joking or not when you called the artificial larynx a piece of tinker tech. Cause it’s really not.

An artificial larynx isn’t tinkertech; it’s a real-world piece of used for people who have had their normal larynx badly damaged, usually by throat cancer or major traumatic injury.

Artificial larynxes are not tinkertech, they’re a real thing. Listening to someone with one will give you a good read on Cricket’s voice, I think.

Oh, really? That’s awesome!

Honestly, I feel like that strengthens my point, even if it means this wasn’t really an example of it. If our mundane technology can already do things like this, imagine how helpful tinkertech accessibility devices can be for those who need them!

Siberian’s taken on the entire Triumvirate numerous times, as we learned in 10.06. Hookwolf probably knows enough about how she handles Alexandria to know she could hurt him.

Hm, yeah, makes sense.

Shatterbird killing the Chosen is actually the second instance of the Nine killing someone onscreen. The Siberian poked a dude in the brain, remember?

“…actually, this is the first instance we have of one of the Fellowship members actually killing someone in these Interludes, other than them talking about having killed.” Siberian killed the guy that Bitch set her dogs on back in 11a. Or at least, we saw her sticking her fingers in his brain, presumably he didn’t survive that.

Oh yeah! Pretty silly that I should forget about that considering the way Shatterbird killed some of them directly reminding me of the discussion about what Siberian did at the time.

I guess I failed to count Siberian killing the guy because I didn’t immediately realize that was what she did when I read Interlude 11a, and had to have you guys point it out for me that it was lethal.

I kinda suspect that if the chapter had been from someone else’s perspective, Hookwolf wouldn’t seem so competent.

Hmm, possibly. He did seem like he knew what he was doing, and his actions seemed fairly reasonable for the most part, but POV bias is a thing and it can be quite powerful with characters like him.

I love the “hey maybe Hookwolf could have considered being a teacher” comment, as far as I know that’s the first time anyone has said that. And In my opinion it kinda highlight the fact that hey, all these horrible people maybe if they had different circumstances and their heads hadn’t been filled with hate and evil then maybe they could have been alright human beings instead. Except maybe Kaiser. Fuck you Max.

I know, right? I wonder what happened to some of these characters’ counterparts – assuming that’s a thing in this multiverse – in Earth-Aleph.

Maybe Lung runs an Asian restaurant (I actually really like the idea of Lung enjoying cooking), Coil is running for mayor legally, Max is getting punched in the face on national TV, Amy is living happily with her biological father, and Colin… Colin doesn’t have a Canadian girlfriend.