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boxen posted:I've read up to Chapter 219 in Kumoko and it's gtten weird and I'm starting to lose interest, does it pick back up again? I like the side characters, but the whole thing with Kumo not actually being a person but a spider who was in the class room but has a person's memories, and the real person being the 'administrator' of the world put me off and now the story just seems rambling and unfocused to me. I'm in the minority who like post-dungeon crawling Kumoko the most and didn't like the beginning stretch of her leveling up and fighting things. Watching someone play an RPG that doesn't even exist isn't that interesting, since the narrative can arbitrarily choose when she levels up and what skills she gets; it's like some bizarre form of wish fulfillment aimed at people who spend all their time playing MMOs. I prefer when the other characters are involved, because I don't like Kumoko as a narrator.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:39
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That is a lot of pieces that were just moved in the arc ending of The Wandering Inn. Am I to understand that Rags didn't exactly attack the city, but actually killed the Goblin King's forces that did?
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Aug 1, 2017 16:52
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It is confusing given the second hand nature of that report, and Rag's POV isn't clear either. But I think yes, given this paragraph And there were countless dead. Humans lay where they had fallen, bristling with arrows. Goblins shared their space too; they lay in clumps or in bits, where Garen’s elites had forced them into desperate clumps before hacking them apart.
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Aug 1, 2017 18:06
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I just hope things work out ok with Toren. 
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Aug 1, 2017 18:08
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Wandering Inn is probably my favorite fiction lately. The Doctor and Clown updates were amazing, and Emperor is starting out interesting.
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Aug 1, 2017 20:01
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Yea, Wandering Inn is easily my favorite web serial going on right now, and the first to get me to throw some money at the Patreon. EDIT: Just finished the Doctor update, drat that was good and I hope we get to see more of that character. Cinara fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Aug 1, 2017 |
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Aug 1, 2017 21:37
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The clown chapters were among the best things I've read recently. I really, really like Wandering Inn.
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Aug 2, 2017 00:23
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The Shortest Path posted:The clown chapters were among the best things I've read recently. I really, really like Wandering Inn. When does it start to pick up because the beginning is kinda not great
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Aug 2, 2017 02:55
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That's kind of a tough question to answer, it's a slow transition. I'd say around 1.14 is where it starts picking up a lot. It's similar to Worm in that the interludes and other character perspectives are some of the best parts (though you may really dislike Ryoka, I don't but others do), but Erin's story gets pretty good once she stops sucking at everything. Most of the great interludes are in book 2, though.
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Aug 2, 2017 03:06
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Cinara posted:Yea, Wandering Inn is easily my favorite web serial going on right now, and the first to get me to throw some money at the Patreon. Clown one was incredible, when was the Doctor one?
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Aug 3, 2017 17:39
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Lone Goat posted:Clown one was incredible, when was the Doctor one? The Doctor chapters were a few weeks ago, but still protected. May be a patreon only release. edit: Looked it up, should hit the web site for everyone in a few weeks. Pirateaba has a month delay on the patreon voted side stories. My vote choice keeps missing. 'A Happy Day Where Nothing Bad Happens and Cute Fluffy Animals (Lies.)' How could people not be voting for this. Kalas fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 3, 2017 |
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Aug 3, 2017 18:10
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Yeah, side stories are Patreon-only for a month; I'm excited to read it myself as I heard the doctor chapters were great. It should be public in about two weeks, by my estimate.
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Aug 3, 2017 18:27
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I just started the patreon support - got a poll but not sure about the locked content. What am I missing?
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Aug 3, 2017 18:58
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Velius posted:I just started the patreon support - got a poll but not sure about the locked content. What am I missing? For update posts, there's a link back to the wordpress for that chapter and a password to unlock it. Go scroll back and read Doctor now
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Aug 3, 2017 19:29
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I've read the first few chapters of Mother of Learning, and I'm a bit underwhelmed. The setting feels bland, especially in comparison to Twig's; the school is just an American university with a couple elements of a Japanese high school, and the magical elements are ripped straight from Dungeons and Dragons (there's even a spell called magic missile). To be fair, I think the author deliberately made the setting somewhat generic to make the ground rules reasonably clear without too much exposition. The protagonist seems rather dense at times, and I don't think he's intended to be. It was super obvious that Zach was the original time traveler and Zorian started time travelling because the lich's spell created a link between their souls somehow, but it took Zorian months to figure that out. Also, the prose style isn't great. There's some misuse of tenses, which I suspect is the result of reading too many stories translated overly-literally from other languages. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Aug 3, 2017 |
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Aug 3, 2017 20:50
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Silver2195 posted:I've read the first few chapters of Mother of Learning, and I'm a bit underwhelmed. It gets better. The setting develops into something unique. The protagonist is intended to be dense, at first.
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Aug 4, 2017 04:31
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For some reason I find the story of this girl trying to get this Inn started in Wandering Inn more interesting than the monster fighting you normally see in stories like this. I'm liking the story so far, though the main character is a bit too "nerd pseudo-witty" (for lack of a better description) for my taste. I mean, it's not unrealistic given her age and hobbies, but I get the impression the reader is supposed to find her funny/interesting. That's a relatively minor gripe, though. edit: Like, the idea of someone leveling up making them better at cleaning and cooking and stuff is somehow more interesting than just being able to hit harder with a sword/magic. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Aug 4, 2017 23:55
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Kalas posted:The Doctor chapters were a few weeks ago, but still protected. May be a patreon only release. I joined the Patreon and yeah Doctor was pretty good. And I voted for Wistram days pt 2 because I enjoyed the first one, and because I don't want a nonhappy day where bad things happen.
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Aug 5, 2017 00:07
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The Worm readalong podcast is real good and pointing out things I missed the first time I read it by blasting through at top speed to get caught up. Like I never caught on to all the "Taylor is a hella unreliable narrator and also kinda sucks butts" stuff early on
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Aug 9, 2017 19:47
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I like how they're pointing out Taylor's (pretty major) flaws. From what they've said during the podcast (I'm up to arc 14 now) it sounds like they got some backlash from readers due to criticizing Taylor, which doesn't surprise me since a LOT of readers seem to have come away from Worm with the impression Taylor is super correct and good and everyone in the story is just dumb for not agreeing with her all the time. I'll be curious about what they say in the next few arcs, since I seem to remember some of my least favorite parts coming up (like the arc where all the Dragon suits come).
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Aug 10, 2017 05:37
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Ytlaya posted:I like how they're pointing out Taylor's (pretty major) flaws. From what they've said during the podcast (I'm up to arc 14 now) it sounds like they got some backlash from readers due to criticizing Taylor, which doesn't surprise me since a LOT of readers seem to have come away from Worm with the impression Taylor is super correct and good and everyone in the story is just dumb for not agreeing with her all the time. Yeah pretty much everything they said from minute one is something where I went "....huh yeah I never noticed that before" Honestly Taylor kinda being a shithead but it not being super blatant and in your face and The Point just makes me more impressed with Wildbow. I'm so fuckin hype for Twig to end so we get Worm 2. I wanna know where this story goes
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Aug 10, 2017 12:52
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You know, I'm not so sure you can get away with playing the 'unreliable narrator' and 'intentionally terrible' cards when Taylor is basically proven right, vindicated in practically everything she believes, gets away with everything she does and ends up in a better position, has Tattletale pluck knowledge from the ether to humiliate someone she doesn't like, and really only one character in the whole text ever calls her out to her face (Miss Militia) and even then I'm pretty sure Taylor gives her the 'nuh-uh you're worse' treatment, can draw up amazing plans on the fly or well in advance, never really fails (if she does something wrong, she fails upward), and so on and so on. If not, I'm very interested in seeing the evidence. I'm assuming it goes beyond that Worm is a first-person story and therefore everything in the text is biased? Because, short of third-person omniscient, that's any viewpoint character in any text. Flaws have to be flaws. The flaws that I think of when I think of Skitter are flaws up until they might cause Taylor some measure of detriment, where they suddenly either help her, are forgotten about, or the world kind of conspires to make them irrelevant. It's like having a character whose flaw is anger issues and impulsivity, but with a note that reads 'never gets baited'. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Aug 10, 2017 |
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Aug 10, 2017 13:46
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Considering Pact and Twig, I'd give Wildbow the benefit of the doubt with Taylor. But yeah, Skitter is the least interesting part of Worm.
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Aug 10, 2017 14:41
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Namarrgon posted:Considering Pact and Twig, I'd give Wildbow the benefit of the doubt with Taylor. Twig is super explicitly about a manipulative butthole who has good intentions and fights worse people but is still Not Good I love it
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Aug 10, 2017 14:52
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Both Blake and Sy also straightforward fail often. Of course, they are still the protagonists so in the grand sense of the narrative they move the plot forward, but they have more relevant and explicit flaws. Taylor would normally just straddle the line where it really could go either way if the author did it on purpose or not.
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Aug 10, 2017 15:23
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Granted I'm only on like arc uhhhh five or six of twig (it's the one after the lady who's been taking the Wyverm formula has been introduced) but literally every climax so far is Sy going "oh poo poo" as his plans get utterly hosed or he gets out played by someone smarter and the Lambs scrambling to salvage a win Unrelated Clockblocker is the best name in Worm
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Aug 10, 2017 15:27
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Also listening to We Got Worm, after arc 5 Scott predicts that the Undersiders boss is actually Tattletale just bullshitting the hell out of the team and holy poo poo that would have been great
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Aug 10, 2017 15:54
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Unrelated Clockblocker is the best name in Worm 
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Aug 10, 2017 17:30
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Also the chapter where Taylor and her dad have the meeting with the school is the best chapter in the entire thing Fight me
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Aug 10, 2017 17:32
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Also the chapter where Taylor and her dad have the meeting with the school is the best chapter in the entire thing Brutus.
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Aug 10, 2017 18:00
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Pussy Quipped posted:Brutus. gently caress okay yeah I'll call it a tie because the Brutus chapter rules. He's a good boy.
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Aug 10, 2017 18:37
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I think chapter five of Twig is the best I've read yet (spoilers I'm only up through chapter five now) once it gets going. Throwing the lambs into a situation that is entirely beyond their capabilities to handle is a lot of fun My goal right now is to try to power through twig so that I finish it at or around the same time it ends and Electric BoogaGrue starts, then reread Worm and Pact to pass the time between updates of Die Wormer
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Aug 11, 2017 21:20
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At the end of Worm was Valkyrie able to bring back the capes she captured with the assistance of Nilbog or did I misread Clockblocker being alive at the end?
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Aug 12, 2017 00:48
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q_k posted:At the end of Worm was Valkyrie able to bring back the capes she captured with the assistance of Nilbog or did I misread Clockblocker being alive at the end? We'll probably find that out in Worm2, but that was what was hinted at. Or it could simply be Wildbow trolling everyone, again.
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Aug 12, 2017 00:51
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Okay I powered through A Practical Guide to Evil a couple months ago and now I'm just reading chapters as they update. Is anyone else having a hard time keeping track of everything? There's like a dozen characters with multiple titles each (eg: Heiress, Akua, Diabolist, maybe her last name too??) and a bunch of regions and races and wars to keep track of, that I'll be halfway through a chapter and have no idea what is happening until they pick of the titles I actually recognise.
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Aug 12, 2017 03:09
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Also the chapter where Taylor and her dad have the meeting with the school is the best chapter in the entire thing That was pretty good, but the whole Taylor Gets Arrested arc was longer and also amazing. I am admittedly a sucker for People In A Room structure. 
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Aug 12, 2017 05:55
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GreyjoyBastard posted:That was pretty good, but the whole Taylor Gets Arrested arc was longer and also amazing. We were both wrong, it's Brutus Goes Dogfighting
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Aug 12, 2017 06:54
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Yeah pretty much everything they said from minute one is something where I went "....huh yeah I never noticed that before" See, I kinda disagree about not noticing this stuff the first time through, at least with regards to Taylor. Like, my first time reading it I definitely thought "Taylor is such a dumb rear end in a top hat" constantly. I feel like Wildbow intended for Taylor's flaws to be visible*, but I don't think he did a good job selling them as flaws. Like, we know Taylor did bad stuff, but we're not really shown many situations where she had some clear, superior alternative course of action. Take, for example, the time she almost kills Triumph (which is pushed pretty heavily as a big moral challenge); in the end Triumph still lives and her goal of staying with Coil in order to free Dinah ultimately ends up working, even if it hits some snags along the way. She was pushed into a corner where she didn't have any obvious alternative to doing what she did during the fight at the Mayor's house, so it's hard for the reader to say "yeah, Taylor should have done _____ instead!" Another example is the way she uses what amounts to extreme vigilante physical punishment in order to keep the peace in her territory. From what we're shown, there wasn't any other clear way for her to have accomplished the same goals. Actually, regarding Taylor's territory in general (which is probably the biggest long-term morally debatable course of action she takes), she's only able to do the stuff she does due to having access to Coil's ill-gotten funds. But, again, we aren't really shown some alternative she could have taken that would have also helped/protected the people of her territory. The reader can speculate how Taylor may have been able to accomplish all this same stuff without as much moral dubiousness if she had just become a hero from the start, but at the end of the day that's just speculation and we're not given any clear indication that this was an alternate path that would have allowed her to accomplish the same amount of good (and the story makes it pretty clear how she has had a net positive impact on her part of the city, etc; take for example the scene at school where all the students support her). * A good example is the scene where Clockblocker talks with Taylor before the Echidna fight and Taylor ends up feeling less certain about her past decisions afterwards (because Clockblocker is basically totally correct).
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Aug 12, 2017 08:10
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Well, here's a very simple question. As a character, what are Taylor's flaws? For the purpose of the question, I consider a flaw to be something that makes life harder for a character, causes them some measure of detriment, can be invoked by another character or situation, and may directly interfere with their goals. For example, Armsmaster, who I honestly think remains WB's best character in Worm, has the following flaws: he has trouble relating to people, sees himself as always being in the right, is obsessed with ascending the PRT social standing ziggurat, and, overall, he's just kind of petty. And all of these, at some point in Worm, make life hard for him, whether from the actions of others or his own self. What's more is that, by the end of Worm, he has overcome some of them or gained a measure of awareness of the others. Taylor? Honestly, it's hard to describe how much she grows, and I think even the Worm wiki -- which I used to contribute heavily to -- even mentions she doesn't change much and remains the same person despite going through everything that she does. And that's because, fundamentally, I don't think the 'flaws' she exhibits are truly flaws. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Aug 12, 2017 |
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Aug 12, 2017 08:36
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Re Taylor's flaws: she's stubborn, uncompromising, and reckless. She refuses to submit to a higher authority. She repeatedly justifies morally dubious behavior by mentally categorizing people opposing her as bullies. She's a *deeply flawed character*. The tragedy of Worm is that she never really overcomes her trauma from being bullied--she *turns into one*. Re Taylor's alternatives: She had *plenty* of alternatives to the path she chose, she just used "not wanting to disappoint Coil so she can save Dinah" as an excuse. Attacking the Mayor's house was a wildly stupid plan, and she nearly killed Dinah's cousin in the process. She actually mentally convinced herself that she could be more useful to Coil than a literal precog that can tell him, the villain that can already fork realities in two, the future. She doesn't even have a backup plan. She is literally only saved because of Tattletale. On my first read through, I definitely didn't pick up on how tenuous the majority of Taylor's internal logic was, but it's absolutely there, and it's completely intentional.
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Aug 12, 2017 08:58
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