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Nah. Bard shows up right at the pivot and makes Catherine look away from Black for a second and thus being unable to stop him from destroying the array. Bard obviously wanted it destroyed and distracted the one person who might've stopped Black That is my read anyway.
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Feb 26, 2018 17:49
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Silynt posted:In Practical Guide, I was surprised that Catherine sided with Malicia over Black regarding disposal of the weapon. On the one hand, I know that she cares about Callow above all else, so she's grasping at straws to protect it from war. On the other hand, she seems to have bought into Black's preaching about the inevitability of defeat for people who own things like that weapon, so why would she toss aside that core belief right at this moment? It seems really weird for her ethically, too- not just because it's made out of the hundred thousand dead countrymen she was just mourning- I can see her talking herself into eating an omelette if the eggs are already cracked- but because if you keep this thing around, it will be used by someone, at some point. It's a lodestone for heroes every bit as much as villains. And that's lethally dangerous not just to whoever gets hit with it, but the entire world and everyone in it. And she just had a talk with Thief about red lines, too. I'm going to blame the mantle. lurksion posted:And he probably isn't even wrong. This isn't a rational enough world that MAD would work. Neither is ours, frankly.
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Feb 26, 2018 17:56
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Some interesting tidbits hidden in Glow Worm that might pan out later: The name of mystery person who contacted Rain is a string of numbers spaced out with some letters. The sets of numbers arrayed on the numpad of a keyboard form letters spelling MARCH, with the message title spelling FRIEND? . March was one of Foil's cluster trigger group, likely the one with the dominant Thinker power, which makes a lot of the parts of the conversation make more sense.
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Feb 26, 2018 19:04
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I don't even know where March was even mentioned? He must be pissed Foil made him gay or something? (Is that how bleed works?)
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Feb 27, 2018 00:50
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We don't exactly know how bleed works exactly, just that some personality traits of the people in the cluster get spread out. There is no actual info on how much or how drastic it is. Technically it isn't even confirmed, just a theory held in-story (we don't have any views of Rain pre-trigger, so we can't even know for sure that he's a better person because of it. Reliving other people's nightmares and therapy could explain his shift of personality without bleed being real). March was mentioned, not by name, in Worm. Later on some forums or something Wildbow listed his name as March. Story wise all we really know from glo-worm is that someone knowledgeable about cluster triggers contacted rain and offered help. Figuring out his name is pretty much an easter egg, it doesn't really give us any info outside of a vague guess at his power set (fletchette/foil is part of that cluster).
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Feb 27, 2018 01:04
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We don't even know March's sex. Every reference to the character has been gender neutral.
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Feb 27, 2018 03:45
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Ward: So, Love Lost's primary power is a roar that makes crowds of people go berserk and fight eachother. Firstly I love how the of5 group's abilities all result naturally from their trigger event. Secondly I forsee no problems whatsoever in exposing Sveta, Victoria and/or Ashely to this ability; I mean what could possibly go wrong? This chapter also exposes why I could never be a superhero: if I was in the situation the group is in, instead of rushing to help, I'd just kick back with a bag of popcorn and watch things unfold. "Oh, you told them about our cameras? Welp, have fun assholes!" Edit: Now that I think about it, that attitude actually fits pretty well with Advance Guard's whole MO, so maybe I'd just be a really lovely superhero. Edit: I was reading up on March when I realized something: Foil doesn't know about her connection to March. Which means they don't have a shared dreamspace like the of5 cluster do. Which probably means the dreamspace is the fifth member's power. Which means the fifth member could still be alive, and using their superior control over the dream/memory power to mask their presence. Random Asshole fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 19:25
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Random rear end in a top hat posted:Ward: I'm really rooting for Ashley, and I want to see her cut loose and melt some of these assholes. Also, I really didn't like Victoria in Worm, her whole everything was just grating (goes without saying she didn't deserve the whole hosed up poo poo that happened to her, but she was still lovely) but so far in Ward, this new more mature but still struggling Victoria has been growing on me a lot.
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Feb 27, 2018 19:49
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I really like her as an entirely different sort of protagonist than Taylor was. So many situations where Talor would have escalated into more escalation, Victoria backs off and thinks. She's certainly got her own issues, but it leads to a very different story which is exciting because Wildbow is great at writing all sorts of types of things.
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Feb 27, 2018 20:02
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Error 404 posted:I'm really rooting for Ashley, and I want to see her cut loose and melt some of these assholes. I'll be honest if magically most of Team therapy decides they no longer want to be heroes and instead its just Victoria, Sveta and Ashley do hero stuff I'd love that. Kenzie can be a support character for Ashley I guess. Maybe its just me but ultimately I care so very little about most of team therapy and yeah sure all this planning and interpersonal stuff is very good but I want more Victoria and Sveta do friends stuff, more Ashley tries to not be a jerk stuff. A whole lot less Rain is so tragic and Kenzie insist she isn't creepy scenes. And I really want to see the three real experienced capes throw down together instead of watching yet another group of capes have intimidating conversations with villains on a screen.
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Feb 27, 2018 21:26
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How good is The Gods Are Bastards? Is it worth getting into or nah?
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Feb 27, 2018 22:52
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It's very, very good, the current arc has been dragging a LOT though.
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Feb 27, 2018 23:03
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Tzarnal posted:I'll be honest if magically most of Team therapy decides they no longer want to be heroes and instead its just Victoria, Sveta and Ashley do hero stuff I'd love that. Kenzie can be a support character for Ashley I guess. I've been in this weird situation where I'm simultaneously enjoying the heck out of Ward, and somewhat bored and unhappy with what it's deciding to focus on. The slice of life sections are great, and the bits where Victoria is away from team therapy and dealing with her own issues are some of my very favorite in the story so far. But when she and therapy kids get together, it feels like she becomes an emotionless camera, and instead of watching her watch some dumb teenagers we're just watching the group as a fly on the wall. I'm also pretty meh on the cedar point story and especially rain's stuff up to this point. His interludes have been very well-written, but I genuinely don't care that much about him; I feel bad for him, and hope he and Erin get a happy outcome (Hah hah, they won't), but it feels like the lion's share of the story so far has been centered on his weird nazi shenanigans and their terrible plan to clean up cedar point, and that's a real waste of effort. This might be a silly idea, but I almost wish that instead of the superhero stuff, this had literally started as vicky and the garbage pail kids hanging out as part of literal superhero group therapy. Because every time we get to have character building, post-apocalyptic world building, or superheroes having mental issues, I get really engaged. But then it turns back to cape stuff and I become less interested.
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Feb 28, 2018 00:27
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I like Erin more than most of the team because she's the only character in Ward who isn't entirely self-centered in her motivations. She's caught in a lovely situation that she's trying to make the best of for the sake of her family. Everyone else, it's about what they want or need.
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Feb 28, 2018 00:35
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The Shortest Path posted:It's very, very good, the current arc has been dragging a LOT though. Not just the current arc. The rot set in a while ago. I've always been a little leery of tGAB. Some of that's bias on my part- it's in a genre I'm just not very fond of- but I think there are legitimate, objective problems with its storytelling. The pacing I've covered before, and the eleventh hour sci-fi elements I'm not actually all that bothered by. No, I want to talk about the characters. See, they talk to each other. They talk to each other a lot. Every time a character develops, they get together with their friends and they talk the change to death. Every possible implication and ramification is dissected in exhausting detail. Nothing is allowed to remain implicit. So why is that bad? Sounds pretty healthy, right? Well, aside from the fact that it is repetitive and choking and bloated as all gently caress, the problem is that all of these characters are slowing becoming the exact same character. Soon, everyone will be Sweet. They all adopt the same way of thinking about the world, of interpreting events. You get a lot of scenes where someone's thinking a thing, and then a little further down the line we have a different character, thinking the same thing in the same way for the same reason. Now, I could live with the convergence of philosophies- Webb is clearly pushing A Thesis, and the convergence is a working to that purpose- but the repetition is slowly driving me mad. It's not interesting repetition- it's not done to expand on previous points, or examine them from a different perspective- it just happens because we haven't seen these guys have that epiphany yet. It's also slowly chasing out all the incompatible goods- there is less and less scope for the good guys to pursue differing goals or clash over means. Everybody wants the same things in the same ways. That's loving dull. TGAB is still in the top percentile of web fiction. Webb is not an incompetent- they clearly know where they want to go with the story, every arc has a purpose in the overall narrative. Hell, the fact that they write full grammatical sentences puts them well ahead of the pack. But even so, I have found myself consistently less enthused by Gods than any other web serial of a similar grade. Practical Guide, Wandering Inn, Taint, Last Angel, Bookworm, ZTJ, Unsong, Ra- hell, even Void Domain.
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Feb 28, 2018 00:53
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Omi no Kami posted:I've been in this weird situation where I'm simultaneously enjoying the heck out of Ward, and somewhat bored and unhappy with what it's deciding to focus on. The slice of life sections are great, and the bits where Victoria is away from team therapy and dealing with her own issues are some of my very favorite in the story so far. But when she and therapy kids get together, it feels like she becomes an emotionless camera, and instead of watching her watch some dumb teenagers we're just watching the group as a fly on the wall. Yeah, I was thinking it maybe should've started in media res in the middle of one of the therapy sessions or something. I feel like that would've been a much stronger beginning and would've served more to differentiate the two stories.
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Feb 28, 2018 02:00
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Milky Moor posted:Yeah, I was thinking it maybe should've started in media res in the middle of one of the therapy sessions or something. I feel like that would've been a much stronger beginning and would've served more to differentiate the two stories. I think en media res might be a bit too aggressive, especially since flashbacks and back-and-forth can be really tough to manage well, but I definitely wouldn't have minded a little more streamlining early on. Like, Victoria's weird gig as a guidance counselor slash paramilitary murder squid was a decent introduction to the city, but we spent a fairly big chunk of the opening with that plot and then just kinda abandoned it once she got fired. It seems like that's something that could've been accomplished in 2-3 chapters (establish Vicky, establish job that she likes, show her doing job that she likes, show her getting fired and feeling bad) instead of an entire arc.
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Feb 28, 2018 02:18
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Omi no Kami posted:It seems like that's something that could've been accomplished in 2-3 chapters (establish Vicky, establish job that she likes, show her doing job that she likes, show her getting fired and feeling bad) instead of an entire arc. I'd say that's just a web serial audience thing.
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Feb 28, 2018 02:40
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Omi no Kami posted:I think en media res might be a bit too aggressive, especially since flashbacks and back-and-forth can be really tough to manage well, but I definitely wouldn't have minded a little more streamlining early on. Like, Victoria's weird gig as a guidance counselor slash paramilitary murder squid was a decent introduction to the city, but we spent a fairly big chunk of the opening with that plot and then just kinda abandoned it once she got fired. It seems like that's something that could've been accomplished in 2-3 chapters (establish Vicky, establish job that she likes, show her doing job that she likes, show her getting fired and feeling bad) instead of an entire arc. I mean, are there any easy cuts from that arc? It introduced Rain's trigger buddies, established the tone, and showed off some bits about the city. It seemed like pretty clear setup for issues down the line with regards to normal people and parahumans having really lovely relationships. I think that shaving off chapters from the opening would have ended up with a much more rushed introduction which seems like it would contradict with the whole taking things slow thing that we've got going on right now.
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Feb 28, 2018 03:58
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Also, ever since the interlude introducing him, Moose continues to be the best villain, I hope nothing but the best for him.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:22
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Sampatrick posted:I mean, are there any easy cuts from that arc? It introduced Rain's trigger buddies, established the tone, and showed off some bits about the city. It seemed like pretty clear setup for issues down the line with regards to normal people and parahumans having really lovely relationships. I think that shaving off chapters from the opening would have ended up with a much more rushed introduction which seems like it would contradict with the whole taking things slow thing that we've got going on right now. I personally felt that the paramilitary stuff went on for a few chapters too long and that the cape fight with snag and his goons wasn't really necessary, but I think that might just be my own taste; as much as I felt most of Vicky's early job stuff was unnecessary, it definitely read and flowed better for me than the cedar point job.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:52
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Ok, this is pretty funny. (WARD 5.2)
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Feb 28, 2018 05:17
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Probably the worst thing about Ward is that we're on Arc 5 and it feels like literally nothing has happened. It's all lampshades for future stuff but so far there has been essentially no payoff. Wildbow is maybe not at his best when he's writing these contemplative story arcs where his characters are, for the most part, not doing anything.
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Feb 28, 2018 05:19
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I enjoy slow-paced character development much more than I enjoy action scenes so this is fine for me. 
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Feb 28, 2018 05:36
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Sampatrick posted:Probably the worst thing about Ward is that we're on Arc 5 and it feels like literally nothing has happened. It's all lampshades for future stuff but so far there has been essentially no payoff. Wildbow is maybe not at his best when he's writing these contemplative story arcs where his characters are, for the most part, not doing anything. I honestly think it's preferable to Worm, where Taylor becomes a hero solely because she's run out of things to do as a villain and there's arguably nowhere else for the story to go. I'll take some comparatively dull setup now if it avoids the the pain of Wildbow palpably going 'oh poo poo, I've run out of credible threats to my protagonist, what now?', seeing as that led to easily the worst part of Worm. Random Asshole fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 05:37
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Sampatrick posted:Probably the worst thing about Ward is that we're on Arc 5 and it feels like literally nothing has happened. It's all lampshades for future stuff but so far there has been essentially no payoff. Wildbow is maybe not at his best when he's writing these contemplative story arcs where his characters are, for the most part, not doing anything. Yeah, I don't mind the pacing at all, in fact I kinda welcome the slower slice-of-life stuff, but I really wish it was clearer what the heck this story was about. His other serials were mostly immediately obvious- Worm was basically "Let's deconstruct a Peter Parker-esque power fantasy by showing some of the potential real-life drawbacks of a severely bullied and psychologically unstable kid getting superpowers" by arc 2. Within the first few arcs Pact was very obviously focused on "See Blake. See Blake fail. See every single thing in the universe bend over backwards to screw Blake over. Fail Blake, Fail!", and Twig was mad science gestapo by the end of arc 1. Ward seems to be very heavily hammering on the themes of living with mental illness, recovery, and introspection, while also touching on the societal, legal, and logistical ramifications of life in a post-apocalyptic refugee planet and on why plans are important and nazis are bad, but I can't for the life of me come up with a single, coherent sentence describing what the story is. It also doesn't help that all of the cool stuff seems to be happening offscreen; maybe it's just because we didn't see them for long, but ratcatcher, crystal whats-his-face, and dot's interludes were all fascinating as heck, and they made me a little disappointed when we had to go back to Team No-Plan and their astonishingly poor decisionmaking skills.
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Feb 28, 2018 06:16
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Autonomous Monster posted:Not just the current arc. The rot set in a while ago. I read up to volume 9 or 10 like a year ago and haven't picked it up again since. I agree with what you say here but will throw in that the whole story is kind of frustrating in that it feels to me kind of like a bait and switch. Because the story early on puts a lot of focus on Trissany and co - there is a huge ensemble cast but despite that they very much feel like the "main characters". Growing and learning and doing Cool Things together. But they aren't. I don't know if I would call Sweet the main character - but he's the very obvious author favorite who comes in out of nowhere and steals the show. Like literally you just start randomly getting interludes from his POV - it felt like reading two stories that were not connected. At all. For like 6 or 8 volumes until at one point the two different sets of main characters cross paths for all of like two chapters before splitting off again. It's indescribably frustrating when an author gets me invested into and liking a character or set of characters only to sideline them for some smarmy git who spouts bullshit philosophy and is only alive thanks to his plot armor. Also there are too many characters. I guess in the arena of endless serial fiction too many characters is better than too few and sort of a symptom of the genre but... there are too many.
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Feb 28, 2018 06:50
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Omi no Kami posted:Yeah, I don't mind the pacing at all, in fact I kinda welcome the slower slice-of-life stuff, but I really wish it was clearer what the heck this story was about. His other serials were mostly immediately obvious- Worm was basically "Let's deconstruct a Peter Parker-esque power fantasy by showing some of the potential real-life drawbacks of a severely bullied and psychologically unstable kid getting superpowers" by arc 2. Within the first few arcs Pact was very obviously focused on "See Blake. See Blake fail. See every single thing in the universe bend over backwards to screw Blake over. Fail Blake, Fail!", and Twig was mad science gestapo by the end of arc 1. Ward seems to be very heavily hammering on the themes of living with mental illness, recovery, and introspection, while also touching on the societal, legal, and logistical ramifications of life in a post-apocalyptic refugee planet and on why plans are important and nazis are bad, but I can't for the life of me come up with a single, coherent sentence describing what the story is. Twig didn't become about what Twig was about until like six arcs in, and the first hints we're, in hindsight, in the third ish Like, it's not about mad science gestapo, it's about tearing down the system because the system is absolutely hosed and destructive and disillusionment as you grow up, both from the system and from your ideals, just like worm isnt About superheros, but the road to hell and its asphalt and how one choice can spiral out of control So minus worm, which really hauls a ton of rear end early on because one idea was for Taylor to die during Leviathan and be replaced by Victoria and Amy and thus has to do all the legwork instantly, his stuff has all hit it's thematic and narrative stride right about now
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Feb 28, 2018 09:08
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Like I really can't imagine reading twig and getting that it's supposed to be about secret police given that the third act is entirely Sy and Jessie starting a revolution against the system they acted as secret police for, before becoming part of the system themselves in an effort to reform it from within because revolution, open revolution like they've been doing, is doomed to fail on a much larger scale than theirs It's also about perception vs reality and mental illness but the whole disillusionment as you grow up thing is waaaaaaaay more important to the story
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Feb 28, 2018 09:11
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Twig didn't become about what Twig was about until like six arcs in, and the first hints we're, in hindsight, in the third ish Hmm that's true, but I would also argue that even before it was obvious what the story's big, macro-narrative was about, it had a very clear direction. Early on we got to watch kids running around doing monster of the week adventures, and once the disillusionment and coming of age stuff started to creep in, it was easy to transition from the starting stuff. I'm not the most attentive reader, so maybe I'm missing something, but Ward is the first WB serial I've read that felt this directionless for this long. I can tell you most of what's happened from memory, and I enjoyed reading all of it, but I genuinely don't see a point to it yet. Of course, it's also worth noting that Ward has pretty short arcs, so in terms of actual length I'm betting the start of arc 5 is closer to the end of worm's second or maybe third arc. Either way I don't think it's an issue, just a departure from form, but I do find it a bit frustrating. (This is probably just because I personally don't like the Rain stuff; I'm betting if I was really invested in his plotline, the story as a whole would feel much more focused at this point.)
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Feb 28, 2018 09:15
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Ward so far has been about redemption and forgiveness, who should have it and what it takes to give it. Second chances and how far that extends. Fume hood, Victoria's family, the fallen, capes in general, every single member of team therapy. The amnesty is this given a concrete form, and society is shown wrestling with it in general, and through Victoria we're seeing her having to deal with it. She is already showing change: while before she was always on edge around Ashley, her thoughts are phrased way differently now and aren't constantly on guard. Hell, if you didn't pick up on the theme Rain's entire story is like a fish slapping you in the face with it. This was something the story has been talking about since the very first chapter though. The opening sentence. Daybreak 1.1 posted:It was a second chance for humanity as a whole, and they’d gone and screwed it up from the start by coloring the city gold, of all colors.
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Feb 28, 2018 09:29
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Other than the generally slow pacing - which, if you're reading serials, you should probably develop an immunity to unless you want to be forever dissatisfied - I'm pretty happy with where Ward's been going so far. But I'm in a pretty unique situation in that I A: didn't read Worm beforehand - exposed to it a decent bit through the magic of the internet though - and B: am generally not at all interested in the fights. I actually took up reading Worm after starting Ward and it's been a pretty interesting experience given all the poo poo I'm spoiled on, being halfway through at the moment. For example, I find myself not as motivated to keep reading not because the current chapter is particularly bad (although all the material up through arc 9 was definitely more engaging that what's come after, and I feel like the changes to Taylor's situation and mindset is to blame for it) but because I'm just not that interested in the large-scale world-ending fuckery that's coming steadily closer. It's a pity since some of what I was most looking forward to reading about hasn't showed up yet too, but oh well. That's why I appreciate Ward so far - the characters sitting around talking more than running around fighting suits my preferences great, and any potential world-ending threats are many, many arcs off if they show up at all. I find that Wildbow writes powers as far more interesting when used for characterization, social situations and making characters sound dangerous than in actual combat. And Victoria is definitely more interesting and engaging to read about than Taylor was. I also enjoy the Fallen as antagonists although I am a bit disinterested in Cedar Point. The biggest issue I have with Ward is really that not all the characters really work for me yet. For example, having no background from Worm to fill in info, Sveta is actually a pretty boring character in Ward so far. Her introduction was sweet to be sure, but after that, other than her story on the other Case 53s when Rain explained his poo poo and a couple throwaway funny lines, she's almost as invisible as Chris. Who is another character who's obviously not very appealing but at least his lack of characterization is very obviously intentional. I also can't find it in me to like or care about Rain at all, even though I don't mind his story/interludes because I enjoy the Fallen fuckery. I like Tristan fine so far, love Ashley, kinda on the fence for Kenzie who can be a bit too much. Victoria's definitely the main draw for me, and I do agree with what was mentioned that the group scenes feel a bit too much like her passively observing rather than participating and. But since that seems also very much intended I expect it to change after things come to a head with Rain&Co, and she gets better integrated in the group. That or everything goes tits-up and half of them leave/die/swear eternal grudges against the rest/get recruited by Tattletale/whatever.
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Feb 28, 2018 09:29
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:So minus worm, which really hauls a ton of rear end early on because one idea was for Taylor to die during Leviathan and be replaced by-- The fact that people actually believe this boggles my mind. If the plan to replace Taylor with Aegis due to her dying at Leviathan's hands ever actually existed, I highly doubt it ever made it past the conceptual stage. Try to imagine a Worm that suddenly swerved into Taylor dying during Leviathan's attack. Suddenly, at the very least, we're following Strong Flyman Aegis and the core selling point of Worm ('see how this bug lady uses her power in crazy ways!') is gone. It's up there with George Lucas saying that the story was always about Anakin or the various changes are what he always wanted, or JMS saying that the five-year story of Babylon 5 never changed from start to finish. A lie? Eh, can't be proven. A misinterpretation or exaggeration of the creative process? Probably. Omi no Kami posted:Of course, it's also worth noting that Ward has pretty short arcs, so in terms of actual length I'm betting the start of arc 5 is closer to the end of worm's second or maybe third arc. Either way I don't think it's an issue, just a departure from form, but I do find it a bit frustrating. (This is probably just because I personally don't like the Rain stuff; I'm betting if I was really invested in his plotline, the story as a whole would feel much more focused at this point.) Didn't someone earlier say that at Ward's level of words, Worm was basically hitting the Leviathan arc? Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 10:11
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ZypherIM posted:Ward so far has been about redemption and forgiveness, who should have it and what it takes to give it. Second chances and how far that extends. Fume hood, Victoria's family, the fallen, capes in general, every single member of team therapy. The amnesty is this given a concrete form, and society is shown wrestling with it in general, and through Victoria we're seeing her having to deal with it. She is already showing change: while before she was always on edge around Ashley, her thoughts are phrased way differently now and aren't constantly on guard. I think that's fair, but at least personally that feels like more of a theme than a central narrative thrust. It's so early in the story that I kind of feel silly to be harping on its direction so much, but it just feels to me like there's no real spine or foundation that the rest of the story can sit on; it feels more like a lot of vaguely related stuff that is only real tied together by the fact that it all happens within earshot of our viewpoint character. Insurrectionist posted:That's why I appreciate Ward so far - the characters sitting around talking more than running around fighting suits my preferences great, and any potential world-ending threats are many, many arcs off if they show up at all. I would honestly be happier if world-ending threats never show up- the one big recurring criticism I have of Wildbow's style is that he often defaults to escalation when he isn't sure where to take something. (By his own admission one big goal in Twig was to challenge himself to not do that, and while I think there are some uneven bits directly caused by him grappling with that challenge, by and large it feels like a success.) If we can get to the end of the story and still have it be about some inconsequential capes dealing with day to day life, I'm going to be impressed as heck. I've complained about a lot of stuff, but I think the core of the problem I'm having with it so far is that we simply don't know enough. Most of the therapy kids are (understandably) cautious to the point that I still think of them as hairstyle + conversational style (I genuinely had trouble keeping rain and chris straight until we started going more into the fallen stuff), and Victoria's own distance combined with the general lack of introspection when they're around means that I have trouble connecting with any of them and getting invested in their thing. By around arc 3 or 4 we could've had an entire arc about the Undersiders putting on a puppet show for the talent competition at Taylor's awful school and I still would've been hype about it, because I really liked those characters and would be on board with watching them do anything. With team therapy, I have more like a vague shrug- I don't outright dislike anyone (except maybe Rain), but there are only a few people in the story I'm really invested in- Vicky and her screwed up family, Jessica, maybe Sveta and Tattletale because they were two of my favorites from Worm, and that's about all. The misfit toys will probably grow on me, but right now I feel like there's just too little information to work with. Edit: Milky Moor posted:Didn't someone earlier say that at Ward's level of words, Worm was basically hitting the Leviathan arc? Holy crap, you're right. I just did a really quick tally, early Worm veered wildly between 15-50k words/arc, by the end of arc 7 they were at around 251,506ish words. Ward arcs start at 50k, and only go up from there- as of the end of arc 4, they're at 240,404 words. In all fairness, that actually shines a pretty positive light on the pacing, because I genuinely do not feel as if I've read 8 worm arcs worth of content in Ward; it feels like I'm just about to read the misfit toys version of the bank robbery, and prior criticisms aside I've genuinely enjoyed the read and haven't felt much drag or bloat. Omi no Kami fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 10:12
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Wildbow has said that he wrote the leviathan arc rolling dice to see who died with modifiers based on their importance to the story, and that Taylor had a bunch of handicaps aimed at knocking her off He's always been pretty honest about his process, I see literally no reason to doubt him in this specific instance Also Guts and Glory would have only been part of the remainder, iirc the original loose plan would have been to have four big chunks that each focused on different pov characters. I want to say one was faultline and it would have focused on case 53 stuff but I can't remember the fourth. BENGHAZI 2 fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Feb 28, 2018 |
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Feb 28, 2018 14:49
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Insurrectionist posted:I A: didn't read Worm beforehand Holy poo poo the unicorn does exist
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Feb 28, 2018 16:07
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Also Guts and Glory would have only been part of the remainder, iirc the original loose plan would have been to have four big chunks that each focused on different pov characters. I want to say one was faultline and it would have focused on case 53 stuff but I can't remember the fourth. I'm pretty sure the fourth was Travelers... I always kind of assumed that the explanation behind Migration was WB realizing that he had some really neat ideas for the Travelers that he wasn't otherwise going to get a chance to expand on before everyone's favorite bug-themed sociopath bisected Noelle.
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Feb 28, 2018 16:14
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Omi no Kami posted:I'm pretty sure the fourth was Travelers... I always kind of assumed that the explanation behind Migration was WB realizing that he had some really neat ideas for the Travelers that he wasn't otherwise going to get a chance to expand on before everyone's favorite bug-themed sociopath bisected Noelle. Maybe Its interesting to think about but it's also hard to imagine the events of worm from four different POVs Even if, thinking about it, they all would have ended in horrifying tragedy. Think about it, Taylor gets killed by Leviathan, Guts and Glory ends with Amy doing her poo poo, travelers wrap up s9 and the entire coil/Noelle arc, and then faultline would have been the end of the world That kinda rules
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Feb 28, 2018 17:22
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Milky Moor posted:The fact that people actually believe this boggles my mind. You're free to your opinion, and he sure could be completely lying or exaggerating, but one thing he said he did for things like endbringer fights was make some sort of modifier for each participant, roll the dice, and work the result into the story. None of the later story hinges on Taylor's power (even Scion is beat when others besides her figure out his psychological weakness), so a change of POV character is perfectly workable though it'd have a quite different feel. I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before as well, along with Benghazi 2. I can only speak for myself, but the world and overall setting is what kept me engaged in Worm. Taylor's power and usage was neat, but not any more neat to me than many of the other powers we got to see. - The undersiders as a group are way less complicated to figure out. Bitch is the dog lady that thinks of social stuff like a dog and Grue is hunky shadow guy and leader. Reagent is almost a background character until quite a bit later. Imp doesn't get into the story until way late (and seems to be there to make Grue still be around and to give his character a bit more meat). Tattletale is the only complicated character at all, and we get a lot of interaction directly with her to figure her out a bit. Team therapy by contrast has much more complicated characters (makes sense, he's gotten years worth of writing experience between the works), and they're actively trying to change themselves. So we're figuring out who they're trying to be, who they are, and what sort of dark secret they're holding. Sveta is pre-explained mostly from Worm, and Ashley is pretty simple (and the only one not hiding anything big so far), Chris has removed himself from being explained, and we've learned a ton about Rain/Kenzie/Tristin. I wish we knew more, but the pace of discovery feels in-line with the characters. Wild guess time: Everyone finds out about Ickoria when Sveta's shell cracks and Victoria has Sveta wrap around her to prevent murder kraken.
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Feb 28, 2018 17:28
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 14:35 |
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One thing I might have missed or forgotten, why is it that Tristan is almost always "active"? I thought him and Byron were supposed to have an equal share of face time? Also what was their relation to each other? Were they siblings or just two randoms that got fused together?
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Feb 28, 2018 18:15
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