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I thought he drowned but I don't actually remember.
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Jul 6, 2016 00:48
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Namarrgon posted:Wildbow mentioned that one of the problems of brute powers is that you usually don't know what your limit is until you're dead. I don't remember what happened in-story, but I always imagined him being squashed underfoot. But likely any form of severe instant trauma would do. I don't think he had (strong) regeneration powers (more likely to work over a time period of days), so if you just keep going at it I wager a normal person could kill him if unopposed. https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/#comment-1291 posted:Re: Aegis – Many powers have their drawbacks. The drawback of being nearly impossible to put down/kill is that testing & therefore knowing the limits of such a power is rather difficult, because you don’t know that limit until you’ve surpassed it and died. Milky Moor posted:I want to say that Clockblocker or some other Wards basically say they they were asked to identify the red smear that was Aegis post-Leviathan. https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/queen-18-3/ posted:“It was bad. She took Glory Girl with her, you know. When Gallant died, Vista saw the body. When Aegis was mashed to a literal pulp by Leviathan, to the point that he couldn’t function anymore, when he died, despite his power? I got to see the remains to verify for myself. But Victoria Dallon was still alive and they didn’t let us see. A select few adults and family members got to see her, they carted her off to a parahuman asylum and none of the rest of us got to say goodbye, because the end result was that hosed up.” Milky Moor posted:I don't buy the story that WB would have killed Skitter during the Leviathan fight, but it's a nice thing to say for Internet cred. https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-6#post-16386367 posted:When it came to this arc [Extermination], though, I rolled dice. Barring those who stayed out of the fight, I rolled to see if they lived or died. Just went through the cast as it had formed, to date, and rolled for every participating cape, then worked in their deaths as was possible. https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-6#post-16386367 posted:Stopping Leviathan from attacking the shelter. Getting hit. Slowly blacking out while watching Scion and Rachel arrive to fight Leviathan. Rachel's anger, as people approach, crowding her and Taylor. Civilian pulling off Taylor's mask to administer CPR, while Taylor stares up at Mr. Gladly, who is looking down. The person giving CPR gives up after the first chest compression, as shattered ribs crumble, holds Taylor's hand instead. Mr. Gladly says something.
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Jul 6, 2016 02:53
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George Lucas claims that the story of Star Wars was conceived as it turned out with Revenge of the Sith. J Michael Straczynski claims that Babylon 5 is the five-year story as conceived in the original design documents. Wildbow claims that he was going to kill the only true protagonist his web serial had based on nothing more than a dice roll. These are nice sound bytes. They're nice things to believe. But they're all exaggerations at best.
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Jul 6, 2016 03:19
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One early version was a series of five plot lines which intersected at Golden Morning, of which Aegis' storyline was one.https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/3hkj2w/aegis_power_and_plot_possibilities/cu8b9q6 posted:In the comment section I talk about how the story evolved. At the very beginning I wrote from the perspective of 'Runechild', my aim to write a 'is it magic or is it something else' story with a novice 'magic' superhero. Runechild fights a serial killer who is visited by an alien spirit that communicates with him directly and gives him superpowers.
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Jul 6, 2016 03:42
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Clockblocker still holds the award for worlds best superhero name.
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Jul 6, 2016 05:45
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Pavlov posted:Clockblocker still holds the award for worlds best superhero name.  He was one of my favorite characters in general, up there with Yamada and Glenn.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:10
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I'm currently in chapter 2.4 of Twig and have some bizarrely specific questions about the appearance of the main characters (because I'm bad at using my imagination to create a mental picture otherwise). Correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following: Sylvester - Small guy with medium-ish length black hair combed/slicked straight back Gordon - ??? except for him being fit and large-ish. Was his hair ever described? Jamie - Brown hair with a sailor ponytail and glasses. I have the easiest time picturing him. Helen - Medium-long blonde hair in loops, somewhat taller than Sylvester maybe? Lillian - No clue. What is her hair color/length? It may have been mentioned at some point but I forget. Mary - Maybe medium length brown hair? She had white ribbons earlier, not sure if she still wears those. I know it's kind of weird to focus on this stuff, but I have trouble creating pictures in my head unless characters are given a somewhat detailed description. edit: I also have some trouble imagining the way kids their age look. It's a weird age sort of between what is generally perceived as a "child" and a "teenager."
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Jul 6, 2016 22:04
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Keep an eye on the top banners, there tends to be one for each of them, although no Helen yet as somebody pointed out earlier. Is there a Lillian one? You're right at the start, just stick with it. Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jul 7, 2016 |
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Jul 7, 2016 00:06
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Nettle Soup posted:Keep an eye on the top banners, there tends to be one for each of them, although no Helen yet as somebody pointed out earlier. Is there a Lillian one? Oh, I'm loving it so I don't have a problem sticking with it. Overall it seems much more well written than Worm in an "objective" sense. I just like to have a more concrete idea what people look like. Regarding the banners, there was one banner with all of the kids but it only had silhouettes, one with Sy (who I already have a good idea of), and I don't know who the people in most of the others are (the one with a blonde sitting in a lab or the one with some girl pulling on threads). Maybe the one with the threads is Mary? She has the white ribbons. One of the things I really like about Twig is that, at least so far, the conflicts are a lot more interesting than most of the ones in Worm were. It's fun watching Sy and the others hatch and execute plans.
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Jul 7, 2016 01:59
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Ytlaya posted:I'm currently in chapter 2.4 of Twig and have some bizarrely specific questions about the appearance of the main characters (because I'm bad at using my imagination to create a mental picture otherwise). Correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following: One of the things I really think WB should try and improve on is nailing down character appearances. They're either mentioned exactly once and in passing, or in an incredibly vague manner, or simply not described.
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Jul 7, 2016 03:15
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Milky Moor posted:One of the things I really think WB should try and improve on is nailing down character appearances. They're either mentioned exactly once and in passing, or in an incredibly vague manner, or simply not described. Yeah, I think it would help to have little things mentioned in passing like "______tied her long brown hair into a bun" or something that describes a characters appearance without it being straight exposition.
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Jul 7, 2016 05:09
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Sy, short, always imagine him a couple of years younger than he is. Black hair slicked back with pretty much a whole bottle of hair-control-stuff, otherwise it curls, always absolutely soaking wet and slightly manic. The banner image is good enough. Jamie - Chest always obscured by a book. Long dark hair generally tied back like a sailor. I always thought he had dark hair but he might be blonde? I could not find an image for the life of me. Edit: Yep, blonde. Add a couple of years I guess, I ain't good at ages either.  Gordon - Blonde, handsome, muscular and confident. Think "Knight" with a dangerous undertone. Think a young Jaime from game of thrones or Joffrey if he ever smiled.  Helen - Golden hair in coils to about shoulder length. Beautiful in an old fashioned way, busty but not overweight. Pintrest needs to die in a fire. think this lady Jean Harlow, or Monroe if she hadn't been off her rocker.  Lillian: 
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jul 7, 2016 |
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Jul 7, 2016 13:43
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Nettle Soup posted:Lillian: Hahahahahah. I thought Lillian was the oldest or second oldest of them? And for some reason I assumed she had black hair though I may have just imagined that.
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Jul 7, 2016 19:03
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irt Worm Leviathan talk: I always thought that Aegis was caught in a Bakuda time bomb. Am I thinking of someone else?
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Jul 9, 2016 05:48
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TeenageArchipelago posted:irt Worm Leviathan talk: I always thought that Aegis was caught in a Bakuda time bomb. Am I thinking of someone else? Dauntless was, IIRC.
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Jul 9, 2016 05:53
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i didn't like the skitter urban lord stuff so i would've been happy to swap over to the wards at a much earlier time. we got to know very very little about aegis but i'm sure wildbow would've done something with him. clockblocker would've been the logical choice, though, as others have said. he obviously had his own arc wildbow had planned out going on in the background given how much he changes between appearances.
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Jul 9, 2016 06:34
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I wonder if he did the same thing with the oil rig fight, but with way worse odds? Also probably fudging it for a few characters since it was the last couple arcs.
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Jul 9, 2016 11:07
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TheRagamuffin posted:I wonder if he did the same thing with the oil rig fight, but with way worse odds? Also probably fudging it for a few characters since it was the last couple arcs. By that point he must have at least had in mind how they would have defeated Scion, so I doubt that Tailor could have died. I just finished Arc 4 of Twig. It is very good; the characters in particular are dramatically better than most of the ones in Worm (even if I subjectively prefer the comparatively light-hearted (in the sense that it isn't raining constantly with bio-horrors everywhere) setting of Worm). I really hope things end up okay for these poor kids  Sy in particular is probably doomed in the sense that he'll never be able to enjoy or appreciate a normal life (as illustrated by his previous escape attempt and realization that he couldn't deal with not being super smart). I was relieved when it was finally made explicit that Sy actually deeply cares about the other kids on a personal level, since early on it seemed like he was just manipulating everyone, particularly Mary.
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Jul 10, 2016 01:11
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Almost already binged through current twig and it is way better, if a longer wind up than pact. poo poo is easier to follow and it feels like an ocean's 11 miniseries (12.x spoilers) Sy is going independent and IT IS WORKING. The fact that even when they are both unmaintained they cover each other's weaknesses is goddamn brilliant. Jamie and Sy, best bros for life. It feels like wildbow has a much better grasp of trying to make sure we know who the different characters are without introducing too many names at the same time. The first arcs are a bit harder before you adjust to the unspoken setting realities that are not spelled until later but it feels like a swashbuckling, spy thriller set in pre-WW1 biopunk craziness. The Brits used biological weapons in the revolutionary war to make frankenstien soldiers out of the revolutionaries. Sy is a bastard and a sad, sad, person. Grognan fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Jul 10, 2016 |
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Jul 10, 2016 11:20
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Another thing I disliked about Worm too. Maybe this is because of the fan community surrounding it as well (it is terrible, but in an incompetent fanboy way). Apparently part of the premise of Worm is that we are supposed to think "ah man what kind of a lovely power is insect control". I can't be the only one who read "insect control" and immediately thought "that is ridiculously powerful".
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Jul 11, 2016 16:15
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Namarrgon posted:Another thing I disliked about Worm too. Maybe this is because of the fan community surrounding it as well (it is terrible, but in an incompetent fanboy way). Apparently part of the premise of Worm is that we are supposed to think "ah man what kind of a lovely power is insect control". I can't be the only one who read "insect control" and immediately thought "that is ridiculously powerful". I think it's because of the way it's presented at first - Taylor doesn't do the really crazy poo poo that she does later. At first it's just summoning swarms of bugs to bite her enemies, then she starts using them for surveillance, making body doubles, spider-silk costumes, she gets innovative, right? But at first it's just boring. Woo, you can call a swarm of flies, good for you? Seems limited. Someone once speculated that she got a Thinker shard at some point as well, which allowed her to come up with some of the weirder bug stuff.
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Jul 11, 2016 16:43
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Mad Hamish posted:Someone once speculated that she got a Thinker shard at some point as well, which allowed her to come up with some of the weirder bug stuff. Uh, speculation? Isn't it established that her first trigger was total insect control; her subsequent second trigger unlocked the multitasking ability to be able to individually command everything in her control?
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Jul 11, 2016 16:58
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Namarrgon posted:Another thing I disliked about Worm too. Maybe this is because of the fan community surrounding it as well (it is terrible, but in an incompetent fanboy way). Apparently part of the premise of Worm is that we are supposed to think "ah man what kind of a lovely power is insect control". I can't be the only one who read "insect control" and immediately thought "that is ridiculously powerful". I think this criticism is really missing the point. It's not that we're supposed to think that bug control is a lovely power. It's that bug control absolutely is a lovely power in the reference frame of a classic comic book. That Taylor's power is in fact one of the best because it expands her mind is great. It's a persistent reminder of what kind of take Worm is on the superhero genre. Taylor's initial deprecation of her power giving way to increasingly elaborate and effective uses of bugs is a journey from a silver age standards mindset to a worm mindset. Taylor getting a secondary power to make her creative with her bugs feels pretty dumb to me. It would undermine her personality. Taylor is incredibly goal oriented and resourceful. She does everything she can with what she has to do what she feels she needs to do. No extra powers required for that. Edit: Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Uh, speculation? Isn't it established that her first trigger was total insect control; her subsequent second trigger unlocked the multitasking ability to be able to individually command everything in her control? Pretty much. The kid from her shelter triggers with a bud of queen administrator and can control birds. He doesn't double trigger, though, so he can only control the bird's body or see through its eyes. Not both at the same time. Wittgen fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 17:06
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Yeah I know it is weak criticism. Hanging out too much on the worm reddit makes me irrationally angry I guess.
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Jul 11, 2016 17:10
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Nah, controlling bugs is a pretty lovely superpower even in the context of the specific setting. Like, she on more than one occasion rumenates about how much easier her job would be if she had one person or another's power. She's only makes the bug thing work because she's equal parts stubborn and inventive. Also lucky, possibly too lucky. Hell, she gets a proper power near the end, and within half an hour she's in charge of all superheros.
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Jul 11, 2016 19:04
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That's where I disagree. I don't think she is the inventive badass at all. Absolute bug control over such a radius is immensely powerful in that setting. Swarm-tactics alone would put her in the top-tier of capes (line of sight utter dominance over nearly all capes without improved endurance), in a team she'd be the perfect short-distance glass cannon. The battlefield awareness is something you probably figure out after the first handful of swarm attacks. Swarm decoys and insect-made materials are also extremely obvious steps.
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Jul 11, 2016 19:26
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Remember all those tinkers that could regularly pull magic out of their asses? Or the half dozen people who where various flavors of 'being Laplace's Demon'? There was the girl who could astrally project herself into mythical creatures she created, and the other one who phased alternate realities into her own. There's the guy who created the zerg and became their king. The one that can get people to commit suicide remotely. The crazy ghost-janitor thing. The one that steals peoples ghosts and gains their powers. The guy who's power is all powers. The bloody endbringers that are like poo poo goku would fight. Skitter controls bugs.
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Jul 11, 2016 20:45
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Namarrgon posted:Yeah I know it is weak criticism. Hanging out too much on the worm reddit makes me irrationally angry I guess. Heh. That's nothing. Try hanging out in the IRC channel sometime. Wittgen posted:Taylor getting a secondary power to make her creative with her bugs feels pretty dumb to me. It would undermine her personality. Taylor is incredibly goal oriented and resourceful. She does everything she can with what she has to do what she feels she needs to do. No extra powers required for that. Also worth noting that QA is one of the noble shards, that is, one of the valuable shards passed out because Scion was a stupid, depressed fuckup who lost control of some vital powers. She's able to control and intuitively understand others' powers in Golden Morning, not to mention hack Doormaker so she could be in range everywhere, and manages to process even the Clairvoyant's sensory input.
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Jul 11, 2016 20:59
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Namarrgon posted:Yeah I know it is weak criticism. Hanging out too much on the worm reddit makes me irrationally angry I guess. The Worm Reddit is a festering hole.
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Jul 11, 2016 23:06
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Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Also worth noting that QA is one of the noble shards, that is, one of the valuable shards passed out because Scion was a stupid, depressed fuckup who lost control of some vital powers. This wasn't because he was a stupid depressed fuckup, the depression hadn't happened yet. Scion passed out essential shards presumably because his counterpart was not doing so, and would reassemble them. The redundancy inherent in being paired allows them to take riskier moves than they would be able to take alone. My general theory is that Glaistig Uaine's shard is Scion's copy of the shard the counterpart would be using to collect things at the end of the cycle.
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Jul 12, 2016 12:26
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NinjaDebugger posted:My general theory is that Glaistig Uaine's shard is Scion's copy of the shard the counterpart would be using to collect things at the end of the cycle. Common theory, not sure if confirmed (on mobile, can't check logs). Imp's memory erasure shard being responsible for the trigger vision memory erasures is either strongly suspected or canonical.
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Jul 12, 2016 16:32
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Namarrgon posted:That's where I disagree. I don't think she is the inventive badass at all. Absolute bug control over such a radius is immensely powerful in that setting. Swarm-tactics alone would put her in the top-tier of capes (line of sight utter dominance over nearly all capes without improved endurance), in a team she'd be the perfect short-distance glass cannon. The battlefield awareness is something you probably figure out after the first handful of swarm attacks. Swarm decoys and insect-made materials are also extremely obvious steps. Yeah; Taylor can more or less automatically win against pretty much anyone who isn't either tough enough to withstand insect bites (and somehow keep them out of their nose/mouth/eyes) or capable of instantly killing all insects that approach them (and I'm pretty sure a minority of heroes/villains have abilities that fit either of those criteria). And that's ignoring her other capabilities. I think that it's actually a coincidence for the sake of creating tension that most of the people she goes up against have some sort of counter to her abilities, because most heroes/villians could probably be easily defeated by her just siccing a swarm of insects on them. When it comes to "projecting power over a large area", her power is one of the most powerful in the entire series. I don't know if I can think of a single person who has an ability that is more powerful against against normal, unpowered people. But, on the other side of that coin, the few people who can counter her abilities can do so pretty much absolutely. Assuming she didn't take them by surprise (like with Alexandria), there are a bunch of heroes/villains that she is completely and utterly powerless against. For example, she probably wouldn't be able to defeat that one Ward Browbeat by herself (since IIRC he has some localized telekinesis that would prevent her bugs from biting him or tying him up). Overall, being capable of easily defeating a majority of existing heroes/villains is definitely sufficient to make her power one of the better ones, especially when you consider how powerful her secondary "sense everything in a quarter mile radius" ability is when used in conjunction with a team. Hell, being able to see everything within a radius that big could be an entire power in and of itself. Imp's ability is kinda similarly in the "absolutely powerful unless it isn't, in which case you're hosed" category. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 23:20
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Bugs got a lot of weaknesses. Fire, rain, bugspray, winter, a stiff breeze. Skitter's lucky she never pissed off any beekeepers, and had to face their terrifying bugproof suits.
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Jul 13, 2016 00:07
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For casual fans of comics and such, insect control does seem like a pretty underwhelming superpower, particularly in a setting where you have characters who scale in response to their threat (Lung), Do-Anything the Techno-Knight (Armsmaster), Rainbow Bending Lasers (Legend), and so on. So, it's cool to have a setting that demonstrates how powerful and scary such an ability would be.
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Jul 13, 2016 00:22
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i can't remember legend's lasers ever doing anything useful. Maybe he killed a couple of echidna clones...
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Jul 13, 2016 03:29
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Neurosis posted:i can't remember legend's lasers ever doing anything useful. Maybe he killed a couple of echidna clones... He's absolutely the most underwhelming member of the Triumvirate. But if you were to tell someone that your powers were lasers that can turn corners, flight and a damage-prevention power, they'd probably think you're awesome. If you say you control bugs, they won't think you're awesome until you cover them in centipedes.
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Jul 13, 2016 03:49
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah; Taylor can more or less automatically win against pretty much anyone who isn't either tough enough to withstand insect bites (and somehow keep them out of their nose/mouth/eyes) or capable of instantly killing all insects that approach them (and I'm pretty sure a minority of heroes/villains have abilities that fit either of those criteria). Taylor is depicted as pretty versatile and capable, and her opponents tend to think they can take her before they fall, so it'd be weird narratively to contradict that.
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Jul 13, 2016 04:03
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Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Keep in mind though that a ton of capes mask their power or express the lower level power in less threatening ways, because being a sociopath and using your power on innocents quickly earns you anywhere from forced conscription into the Wards or Protectorate to a swift Birdcaging, or even a kill order. Well, consider someone like Foil or Parian. Neither of their powers are nearly as powerful no matter how they choose to apply them*. They're both good, but not "can automatically defeat most heroes/villains without even revealing yourself" quality. The same goes for a bunch of other people. The powers that can almost guarantee a win against most opponents are relatively rare. So I just finished 6.1 in Twig and have a quick question. When Mary says she likes Sy and then Sy says "no, you actually like Gordon", was this an example of Sy being awkward and trying to help Gordon out (through setting him up with Mary) or was the stuff Sy mentioned actually accurate and Mary actually does like Gordon more? It was kind of nice seeing what I think was Sy's first romantic-ish positive reaction to a girl. It seems like the guy can understand everyone's feelings except for his own. *Though Foil's are really great in very niche situations; it seems like she could have been the key to defeating Siberian during the first Slaughterhouse 9 attack, since IIRC her ability nullifies Siberian.
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Jul 13, 2016 05:42
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Isn't Foil's power literally make any object basically 'Kill Anything Regardless Of Defenses Or Protection'? Parian's power is apparently super powerful and able to solo Behemoth if she only used it right. :eyeroll:
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Jul 13, 2016 06:00
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Milky Moor posted:He's absolutely the most underwhelming member of the Triumvirate. But if you were to tell someone that your powers were lasers that can turn corners, flight and a damage-prevention power, they'd probably think you're awesome. McCray never gave him an opportunity to show off and look effective and he basically ended up as a jobber to make threats look menacing. Pity, since he was the most likable of the big time heroes.
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Jul 13, 2016 06:07
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