Canon detail here but they didnt want to arrest Amy, even when she volunteered to the Birdcage. She basically had to underliningly threathen to unleash a world wide apocalyptic plague to convince Dragon.
Oh wow.
And Amy probably thought she might end up doing that someday, too, if she wasn’t confined.
Marquis broke the scythe he was using so he wouldn’t accidentally kill Brandish, and that’s what Brandish was intending to happen when she threw her body in the path of the scythe.
Marquis was at a disadvantage because he didn’t ant to hurt women. Or did you think the extremely sharp bone scytte just dismatled itself by hitting Brandish? It was hitting Manpower before and he’s protected by a forcefield, it would ahve gone through Brandish. Marquis dismantled it on purpose to avoid hurting her.
Oh! Brandish’s move makes a lot more sense now.
I was curious about what you said, so I did a quick check, and the BBB apprehending Marquis using an all-female team was actually just an assumption that Amy (apparently mistakenly) made based on the stories her family told her.
Ohhh.
That would explain it. Thank you.
Yeah, there are two Alans so far in Worm, even if the thought of Brandish casually chatting with Mannequin (who is supposed to be dead) is funny. Mr Barnes is better than him, but still a dick as we saw in the school scene with Taylor. He is not above using his knowledge and status as lawyer to protect Emma from the consequences of her crimes. As he is now back, when and how do you think will Taylor see Emma again?
Within a couple Arcs, but it’s the “how” that’s really interesting. They have no reason to cross paths at school anymore, and Taylor’s mostly in costume when she’s out nowadays. How could they cross paths in a way that actually makes a difference?
Hmm.
What if it turns out Alan and Emma have settled down in Taylor’s territory?
It’d also be pretty interesting if Emma somehow found out about Skitter’s identity.
oh my god Krixwell you can’t just ask people why they’re named “Alan”
Ahaha!
the One Steve Limit was broken by the reveal that Mannequin’s name was Alan. There was already an Alan in the story before then, Emma’s dad, who is a divorce lawyer.
The One Steve Limit, as convenient as it is, is itself bad writing, and resisting it is a touch of realism. In any case, as you’ll find out before the end of the chapter, this Alan was actually introduced first.
Yeah, the one-steve limit being broken isn’t bad writing, especially in superhero stories where people go by Cape names for a decent chunk of the time, and when it’s quickly established that they’re not the same person (like being in a setting previous people of the same name physically couldn’t be). It being revealed that Alexandria, Lung, and Skitter are all named Taylor Hebert was probably the weirdest one-steve-limit break, though.
Yeah, I forgot all about the first Alan until his surname was brought up.
I disagree that the One Steve Limit is bad writing. Sure, it’s more realistic to break it, but even in a story like Worm, realism should sometimes make way for clarity. Lack of realism is not bad writing. Confusing the reader when you don’t intend to confuse the reader is.
Even as much as I’ve gotten into the habit of calling characters by their first civilian names when I know them, I don’t have a problem with the Limit being broken in Worm so much as with the timing. It wasn’t a problem that we got a second Alan with Mannequin’s introduction. It was a problem that the first Alan came back two chapters after the last mention of the second Alan by that name, and immediately after we’ve been dealing with the second Alan for 3.5 Arcs, and the first Alan’s precise identity was kept hidden for a sizable section of the chapter.
Hi Krix, your devoted reader ShareDVI here.
First, sorry for confusing you with my ‘end of book 2’ ask – the wrap up of S9 arc is indeed what I meant, based on a one split of Worm into books proposed by a guy on reddit.
(how can you expect the consistent inter-book transitions from a guy who can’t number his interludes right? (jk, but the mess with bonus interludes is caused by Wildbow’s experiments with donation stretch goals, basically))
Hah, fair enough. 😛
Secondly, I updated the spoiler shield extension – it now disables comments completely, also works on all Wildbow’s web serials: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32012-worm-ward-pact-and-twig-web-serial-comments-spoiler-protector
(tested on Maxthon)
At first I wasn’t sure about this, considering that the way it previously worked was pretty good as far as I knew – no chance of spoilers except from Word of God and comments based on Word of God when it blocks anything posted after the next chapter – but upon further consideration, I wasn’t reading the comments anyway (though I was tempted to after this last Interlude) and I think this will make the scroll bar a decent indicator of how much chapter is left again.
Extending it to the other serials is definitely pretty good, though! You should totally send that link to Kat and Quow (and Nick, for Worm) too, if you haven’t already. 🙂
(Maybe they’re why you made that change?)
Lastly – I once sent you an ask about this, but it got spamfiltered – i mirror your liveblog for personal use in Telegram at https://t.me/krixwell_worm, the quotes are a bit messed up, but at least I don’t have to use tumblr that way.
Huh, alright. No objections from me there!
About Barker, it’s worth noting that he was able to activate his power simply by coughing later in the chapter. The insult he used in the demonstration was nothing more than deliberate disrespect.
…alright, fair enough.
Though I kind of liked the implication that the power was directly tied to hurtful words, so that’s a shame.
(For predictions, see the end of 15.1 post.)
That was… a lot.
Fuck, let’s split this up by the sections:
Darkness: A fantastic intro, raising many questions and getting the reader invested in where this chapter would be going and who it was about. Sets up the desperation of the trigger event as well as the way Carol would later feel about the long-haired guy’s betrayal really well.
Alan Barnes: By far the most mundane section, but it casually shows us who we’re following and how she’s dealing with what she knows of the Victoria and Amy situation by seeking more mundane work as a break from her endless search, while somewhat subtly making it clear that she favors Victoria. The section is not that interesting at first read, I think, but it’s not without purpose in the chapter.
It does suffer heavily from the inclusion of Alan Barnes and the fact that his surname was being kept from us until the end of the section, even though this was clearly the section’s second purpose: Telling us that Emma’s father, and therefore very likely Emma herself, is/are back in town. The fact that this happened just after we got rid of the other Alan, and only two chapters after the latest reminder of that name for the other Alan, made things extremely confusing for a while. Especially as this section happens early in the chapter, while we’re still trying to figure out exactly when things are set and how things are laid out.
Trigger events: Dandelions, fuck yeah. I love the fact that what appears to be their birth mirrors the spreading of seeds from a dandelion.
The action, and especially Carol’s reaction to the long-haired man attacking them, was also pretty decent, especially with the way the latter was later revealed to have affected her for the rest of her life.
Daughters, plural: A pretty short section, really more of a transition. Carol’s reaction to the others finding both daughters is worth a mention, though, and the way it reinforces what was subtly set up in the Alan section.
Marquis: Marquis is such a good character. Must run in the family.
The battle was very good. I love the fact that Marquis was defeated because he was acting differently than usual to protect Amy. It really helps to sell the love he has for her. And the way he acted after his defeat, entrusting his daughter to the people who were about to take him away from her forever? So good.
The battle was suspiciously different from what we’ve been told about it before, about how they sent in an all-female team to play off of Marquis’ honor. I suppose in retrospect that might’ve been a public fib made to protect the secret of how he was really beaten? Except I’m pretty sure we heard that story from Dragon, one of the few who seem to know the truth.
Anyway, I love how things come together in this section, between their trigger event and Marquis’ appearance and Carol’s behavior regarding Amy (as seen in two of the earlier sections and from Amy’s perspective).
Art: And the pain begins.
Carol confronting Amy and making it clear that only Victoria is her daughter.
Amy’s uncertainty and fear.
The horrifyingly beautiful sculpture that used to be Victoria, and the way that came about.
Carol picking that moment out of them all to finally realize that Amy wasn’t so different from herself.
Everything.
So much pain in all the best ways.
“Please tell me what to do.”
Birdcage:
AMY NO
One of my favorite characters just decided to take herself out of the story (as long as the Birdcage isn’t compromised, anyway). I’m fine. Sure.
You guys were just waiting for me to get to this, weren’t you. I know how liveblog readers work.
But seriously, this is a really painful but really fitting ending to her character arc. She’s been in so much turmoil since she found out about Marquis, and Bonesaw set her on a downward spiral of unethical use of her power. Now we got to see the climax of the latter and an apparent acceptance of the former – she must’ve known she’d meet Marquis in the Birdcage, and it might even be a part of why she volunteered to go.
And Carol’s found a certain acceptance. She’s not feeling good, but she acknowledges that Victoria is for all intents and purposes gone, and she seems to accept that Marquis and his daughter are reunited and may even be happy together in the Birdcage.
It’s bittersweetness at its finest.
Overall:
Holy shit, this was so good and so painful but so fucking good.
See you next time. I have a chapter to go recover from.
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