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Lyon posted:drat this latest update will be the one that finally got me hooked I think. I was going to read it no matter what because Worm was awesome (and I have a lot of free time) but now I'm invested. Yeah, same here. I've found Pact a bit.. Unmotivated/slow so far, but the last update was cool.
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Feb 8, 2014 20:33
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http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/prt-department-sixty-four-worm-quest.283888/page-26 We finally get an explanation for the overuse of the word copacetic.
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Feb 9, 2014 04:11
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Silver2195 posted:We finally get an explanation for the overuse of the word copacetic. I'm not very aware of comics or other superhero stories -- which superhero spawned this particular phrase?
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Feb 9, 2014 16:23
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Well, I got done marathoning through Worm and Pact, and drat the first chapter of Pact was eery. Hell, I almost was Blake there; I only dodged the cutting ties/homeless thing by inches. Only real difference was my grandmother was sweet and had a bit less money (also she collected furniture not demons). I will agree that Blake seems a bit less interesting than Taylor though (I wonder what that says about me).
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Feb 9, 2014 18:39
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Latest interlude in Pact is great, lots of tension. Focused on Maggie who has, in all of two chapters, become far more interesting than Blake is.
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Feb 11, 2014 10:32
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Fellwenner posted:Latest interlude in Pact is great, lots of tension. Focused on Maggie who has, in all of two chapters, become far more interesting than Blake is. I agree. This was my favorite chapter so far.
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Feb 11, 2014 14:26
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I've been noticing that Pact has been a lot more Monomyth-y than Worm was. It actually seems to be holding pretty close to the formula. In that vein, do you guys think the meeting with Ms. Lewis would count more as a Meeting With The Goddess or as a Woman As Temptress? I'm starting to wish Maggie was the main character now though. It's not that Blake's lacking in potential to be interesting, he just doesn't seem to have too much distinctive about him besides his background. Worm's Taylor seemed to have a personality outside of being bullied and having a dead mom. I'm not really sure what Blake is like outside of his homelessness and poo poo family. Even his name is bland. I'm hoping he gets a chance to show some character that exists outside of his particular circumstances.
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Feb 11, 2014 16:42
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Pavlov posted:I've been noticing that Pact has been a lot more Monomyth-y than Worm was. It actually seems to be holding pretty close to the formula. In that vein, do you guys think the meeting with Ms. Lewis would count more as a Meeting With The Goddess or as a Woman As Temptress? His basic character traits are being nice under normal circumstances and bluntly angry when he's face to face with someone he feels has wronged him or someone he cares about. Taylor shows explicit emotion (including anger) much less, even when she's being violent, but the way she bottles her feelings up makes her quicker to resort to violence. Rose tends to bottle up her feelings too, but she can't use violence because she's trapped in the mirror world, so when she snaps it manifests as fear.
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Feb 11, 2014 18:41
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Silver2195 posted:His basic character traits are being nice under normal circumstances and bluntly angry when he's face to face with someone he feels has wronged him or someone he cares about. The thing is, "nice normally but angry at assholes" isn't really that distinguishing of a character feature. I mean, he does kind of do it in a distinctive way, but not that much. Thats why I say he at least has potential. That kind of personality can be interesting, but it needs to be a little more distinctive if it's going to stand out.
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Feb 11, 2014 22:54
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Laird is giving me some real Armsmaster vibes. I think the difference is Armsmaster really was working for the "greater good", he just overvalued himself and thought he could do the most good (or more than other people) if he had more personal power. I feel like Laird is kind of similar but opposite, he plays the "greater good" card to amass personal power for his own gain.
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Feb 12, 2014 05:43
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Lyon posted:Laird is giving me some real Armsmaster vibes. I think the difference is Armsmaster really was working for the "greater good", he just overvalued himself and thought he could do the most good (or more than other people) if he had more personal power. I feel like Laird is kind of similar but opposite, he plays the "greater good" card to amass personal power for his own gain. Same pretty much. I hate Laird real good at this point.
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Feb 12, 2014 07:56
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The issue with Maggie as a main character is that the direction she seems to be going - teen girl that's new on the scene becomes disillusioned with the established powers and tries to rebel while keeping to the unspoken rules of the power/magic culture enough to avoid getting condemned to death - sounds way too much like Taylor. Maggie herself is very different in terms of personality but I think the story would quickly turn into early Worm 1.1. e: I agree that what's his face the male protagonist is pretty boring so far but the latest couple of chapters were pretty fun. I have a feeling even if the early parts of the story aren't the most exciting (not saying they won't be) Pact will have a Leviathan moment that really gets the plot going farther in. DisDisDis fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 08:42
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Maggie mentioned books about superheroes. I choose to believe this means there's a book series in Pactverse that take place in Wormverse.
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Feb 12, 2014 15:19
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Pavlov posted:The thing is, "nice normally but angry at assholes" isn't really that distinguishing of a character feature. I mean, he does kind of do it in a distinctive way, but not that much. Thats why I say he at least has potential. That kind of personality can be interesting, but it needs to be a little more distinctive if it's going to stand out. Fair point, yeah. He's not completely without personality, but he's less distinctive than Taylor (or the main characters from Face or Peer, for that matter, but the one from Peer has too much personality). Vateke posted:Maggie mentioned books about superheroes. I choose to believe this means there's a book series in Pactverse that take place in Wormverse. Agreed.
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Feb 12, 2014 15:50
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Silver2195 posted:but the one from Peer has too much personality I would disagree with that. I think Peer's protagonist had a very interesting personality. I think it's really quite hard for a character to have too much personality.
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Feb 12, 2014 17:19
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I'm willing to overlook the somewhat weak start for Blake's narrative so far mostly because we're still pretty early in the story. Something that's worked really well so far though in Pact is the interludes, excepts from a Diary and chapters from a spellbook are actually a pretty elegant solution for establishing a detailed magic system and background without interrupting the narrative flow. I felt like a number of the Worm interludes dragged on, but I find myself looking forward to the Pact interludes almost more than the Blake chapters.
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Feb 13, 2014 07:07
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We'll agree to disagree, then. I really really enjoyed almost every single one of the interludes in Worm once I figured out what they were. It was only the epilogue interludes that I felt dragged to any great degree, and those only because they came right after the very emotional climax. So far I'm liking the two (three?) kinds of interludes we're getting in Pact, and the option to change things from chapter to chapter should keep them from getting stale.
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Feb 13, 2014 19:34
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Whelp, I'm about to go into Worm completely blind since I've listened to people gush about it on all sorts of sites. Anything I should know before diving into it, aside from the obvious "avoid this thread because spoilers?" How long is it, by the way? Obviously it's been going for a few years so is this some multi-million word epic or what?
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Feb 14, 2014 05:38
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It is many millions of words. I think the end count is like 20ish average book sizes. It's pretty good though. If you don't like the first two arcs don't worry about it. Just keep going.
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Feb 14, 2014 05:55
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InequalityGodzilla posted:Whelp, I'm about to go into Worm completely blind since I've listened to people gush about it on all sorts of sites. Anything I should know before diving into it, aside from the obvious "avoid this thread because spoilers?" How long is it, by the way? Obviously it's been going for a few years so is this some multi-million word epic or what? Main things you should know:
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Feb 14, 2014 06:12
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Silver2195 posted:Main things you should know: I should hope so with all the recommendations. So...I'm basically sitting down to read the entirety of A Song of Fire And Ice (1.770 mil words)  Guess I've got my reading material for the next couple months...
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Feb 14, 2014 06:45
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New Pact. See, this is an improvement. I like this- a little more personality out of Blake, a temporary ceasefire with the whole Rose situation (although that'll obviously be a big storyline point eventually), and the plot moving forward. I'm hoping it keeps some of this momentum.
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Feb 15, 2014 06:41
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Anyone else getting the feeling that Blake's going to wind up turning into Rose, either via glamour or actually? He's really messing with forces he doesn't understand here, and they're doing things well out of his apparent control.
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Feb 15, 2014 13:39
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packsmack posted:If you don't like the first two arcs don't worry about it. Just keep going.
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Feb 15, 2014 18:28
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I agree that Blake is showing a bit more personality now. It's not just that he's "nice to most people mean to assholes," he's downright spiteful to assholes. That whole thing about using the "pigeon strategy"? That's exactly what he did with his grandmother. He goes all the way out to the manor, where the rest of the family is busy playing the inheritance game, and just shits all over her, so he can walk away like a victor. He seems to take offense to the prospect of playing by other people's rules. He also seems to have some trust issues. Not that I would trust Rose in this situation either, but he seems to be taking it a little more personally.
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Feb 15, 2014 18:53
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There's an awful lot of Taylor there, to be honest - she was most famous for taking difficult situations, ignoring the conventional approach and loving people up with extreme prejudice. I like the 'pigeon approach', I will have to remember that one...
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Feb 15, 2014 23:30
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thespaceinvader posted:There's an awful lot of Taylor there, to be honest - she was most famous for taking difficult situations, ignoring the conventional approach and loving people up with extreme prejudice. I'm not so sure. Taylor's MO was pretty much based around not escalating already precarious situations. Blake is doing pretty much the opposite here. On a different note: Did Worm ever give a definitive answer for where the Endbringers came from? I know Tattletale gave a few ideas, but I don't remember it being settled for certain. Did I miss something?
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Feb 16, 2014 15:45
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Pact questions: 1. What's up with the tattoo? 2. Why does rose get weaker when she promises not to be terrible? 3. What's up with rose commanding the ghost to do something and the ghost is all yes ma'am, right away ma'am? Speculation: rose is part grandma. Because, you know, vestige. Worm: didn't we find out the other entity/eidolon created them? In the other entity flashback and the thing scion says to eidolon.
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Feb 16, 2014 15:46
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To the guy above me: posting Worm answers under the "Pact Questions" heading is not very effective. Regarding the Worm questions asked, unless Wildbow said something in a comments thread I don't think we ever got a definitive answer. We have strong implications, including claims from Tattletale and others. But Tattletale's power isn't guaranteed to give her correct information, IIRC, and those other characters could have been lying for an advantage in whatever exchange the topic came up in. As to Pact question #2, any time Rose does something that would require power it leaves her weaker. We saw that with the mirror breaking in the first couple of chapters, didn't we? I imagine that swearing an oath, as she did in this latest chapter, involves a bit of power shifting around. No clue on the other two questions, but I guess we'll get answers eventually.
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Feb 16, 2014 17:25
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Pavlov posted:On a different note: Did Worm ever give a definitive answer for where the Endbringers came from? I know Tattletale gave a few ideas, but I don't remember it being settled for certain. Did I miss something? It is strongly hinted, though never explicitly confirmed that they are subconscious creations by Eidolon/David as he needed bigger threats to 'proof' his worth or provide him with a proper challenge. Personally I read Eidolon as being rather insecure and the Endbringers being there to proof he is needed as opposed to the second option, although I can accept Worm characters thinking that the second is the correct one.
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Feb 16, 2014 18:38
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Namarrgon posted:It is strongly hinted, though never explicitly confirmed that they are subconscious creations by Eidolon/David as he needed bigger threats to 'proof' his worth or provide him with a proper challenge. Personally I read Eidolon as being rather insecure and the Endbringers being there to proof he is needed as opposed to the second option, although I can accept Worm characters thinking that the second is the correct one. A little of All Of The Above I think: Eidolon's shard gives him powers that it thinks he needs, it's apparently pretty good at that given the final battle. Eidolon needs some way to trigger and develop large numbers of parahumans for combat against an overwhelmingly superior force. The Endbringers do this, and set the basis for cross factional alliances against extreme foes. The damage they cause also increase the number of triggers that are experienced, and they have a habit of unleashing particularly powerful parahumans who could possibly hurt Scion. Eidolon feels the need to be validated, unlike Contessa, Number Man, Hero, or Alexandria, his powers are to him, powerful combat and nothing else. The Endbringers validate his existance, by creating a threat so great that only he could adequately fight them. Eidolon, based on vague understanding of second triggers, feels the need to be challenged so as to experience one. The Endbringers thus challenge him and all of humanity, the shard drawing upon Eidolon's knowledge of the situation to create or release(it's unclear if Eden already had the Endbringers designed and on standby) new Endbringers that counter humanity's edge, so that it(and Eidolon) can be challenged. This only makes him weaker because of power expenditure, and possibly with supplying upkeep to Endbringers.
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Feb 16, 2014 18:55
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veekie posted:A little of All Of The Above I think: Huh, I read it as that Eidolon essentially has Eden's 'main' shard of access to multiple powers, essentially the same one that allows Scion to cycle and use different abilities. The reason why he could beat Scion (until the Path-To-Victory power kicks in) is because as a human he can get creative with the abilities. By the way where did the name Eden come from anyway? I don't remember reading it at all.
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Feb 16, 2014 19:17
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Eden was suggested in the comments as it's also an idealized biblical place like Zion. It's never used in the text itself, but Wildbow has accepted it and used it as a tag, I think.
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Feb 16, 2014 19:31
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Namarrgon posted:Huh, I read it as that Eidolon essentially has Eden's 'main' shard of access to multiple powers, essentially the same one that allows Scion to cycle and use different abilities. The reason why he could beat Scion (until the Path-To-Victory power kicks in) is because as a human he can get creative with the abilities. Not quite. The problem is that while Scion was unimaginative, Eidolon wasn't much better. Until he took the leap of faith, Eidolon ALWAYS ran with some variation of the following power set, regardless of what his shard fed him, he'd discard powers until he got the same thing: 1 blasting power, 1 defensive power and 1 mobility power. So he fought poorly. He was a wild card playing at being flying artillery. When he gave up power selection to the shard, this brought him to just below par with Scion(since at least his Shard knows how an Entity would fight). He had three appropriate powers that he could combine and improvise for effect, Scion had unlimited powers that he used one of at a time. What let him gain an edge however, was that Glaistig Uaine was also on the field. Scion wasn't fighting one Entity, he was fighting two. And Glaistig certainly was creative enough to tip the scales. I think Cauldron called her that. Eden and Zion. The garden of beginnings and the promised land of the future.
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Feb 16, 2014 19:39
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I should probably reread the last few arcs as I binged through them quite fast and obviously missed up on a bunch of details.
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Feb 16, 2014 21:39
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Well, that's a pretty big cliffhanger.
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Feb 20, 2014 07:29
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Jesus christ, Laird Also, this is a thing now http://www.patreon.com/Wildbow 
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Feb 20, 2014 11:06
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I like the idea that this will backfire due to the glamour. Unfortunately Blake isn't the target. My guess is that its stripping away the line of inheritance and/or destroying the property's defenses.
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Feb 20, 2014 12:29
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SerSpook posted:I like the idea that this will backfire due to the glamour. Unfortunately Blake isn't the target. just mess with time in the house - make it suuuuuuuuuper fast so you effectively age to death immediately when you walk in. Also, hah, mustache.
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Feb 20, 2014 12:34
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SerSpook posted:I like the idea that this will backfire due to the glamour. Unfortunately Blake isn't the target. Well, we do know what this arc's title is. I agree that the house is the target, not Blake.
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Feb 20, 2014 15:17
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