|
She's a bit more than a precog. For example, she can ask her shard what someone's power is and it answers. She's able to figure out ways to make second triggers, and outside of like Scion, special cases like Eidolon, and certain trump powers she isn't disabled by other pre-cogs. She can't just ask the power to make a vial that stops Scion, because Scion is a blind spot for her power. It is a perfect predicting power, but when your end goal is in a blind spot, you have to come up with a plan for it to execute (they chose to build an army of capes). Also, it is a perfect predicting power with no creativity, if there is a better way to achieve your goal the onus is on you to steer the power to different paths (defeat an enemy is different from defeat an enemy without killing them is different from defeat an enemy without killing them without collateral damage). This is why the entities are seeding shards into worlds, because they're outsourcing this creativity to other species. Contessa sort of shows why they're doing this is a more understandable setup. She executes her life on auto-pilot guided by her shard, and when she doesn't have that it is almost debilitating. That is why she isn't leading an organization, she instead lets someone else set the goals and she just figures out how to execute them. Teacher's power grants knowledge that can be leveraged like a poor thinker/tinker power, or can increase control of a power, or increase a power's strength in exchange for control. None of those are useful to Contessa, she doesn't need knowledge to figure out what steps to take, and she certainly isn't lacking in control or strength of power.
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 20:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 09:39 |
|
|
violent sex idiot posted:in the eden/contessa interlude you actually get to see directly the moment when eden set a limit to contessas power to not be allowed to read anything to do with the worms, yeah. shes also got a blind spot regarding eidolon since hes special, as well as his children the endbringers (I mean having one central person with super multi-tasking coordinating everything is extremely important, but just figuring out what could be done to MAKE Scion vulnerable was the biggest step.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 22:09
|
|
|
They key to beating Scion is explicitly not generated by anything cauldron did (outside of killing the other entity which happened pre-cauldron), and it also doesn't stem from Taylor's actions (all she really does is buy time, keep a couple key capes from dying, and sees the psychological attack working and also uses it). How do you kill a god? You make him want to die.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 22:26
|
|
|
Ward 5.9 Why are they getting into the middle of the fight? I thought they were supposed to act around the edges of it, maybe coming in late to clean up some depending on how the fight was going. Is it that they thought Ashley was in danger, or was this the plan?
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 00:23
|
|
|
ward 5.9 You misread what has happened. They started on the fringes and convincing people to leave, and the fight has shifted over to where the fringe of the settlement is.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 00:26
|
|
|
ZypherIM posted:ward 5.9 And they are incapable of moving away? I know they decided to take responsibility for the house with the kids, but were the Hollow Point people really going to bother with it after the stone went up? Plus they attacked the Fallen, who presumably would try to push Hollow Point away from the house.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 00:30
|
|
|
Tom Clancy is Dead posted:And they are incapable of moving away? I know they decided to take responsibility for the house with the kids, but were the Hollow Point people really going to bother with it after the stone went up? Plus they attacked the Fallen, who presumably would try to push Hollow Point away from the house. The villains are here to kill fallen, just because the windows have been covered by stone doesn't mean they're not gonna check it later, and the people in there are going to try shooting them. You want to bet that BoB isn't going to kill someone with a gun just because they're 11? The fallen aren't pushing them away from the house, or probably giving a poo poo about the house in general. The fallen are attacking the villains with their slow moving lightning man, and trying to corral the villains so he can fry them all. Then they'll go look for some more people to kill, which could be prancer's group, victoria&co, or maybe they'll follow the people running to the non-powered patrol block guys that are there to try to help people. Victoria & co. attack the fallen for at least 3 reasons. 1) Fallen winning is worst case, and there are a lot more Fallen around than they expected. 2) If the Fallen wipe out this group of villains chances are next up on the chopping block is going to be our heroes. 3) Ashley is with the villains, so probably leaving her to die is a no-go.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 00:42
|
|
|
ZypherIM posted:They key to beating Scion is explicitly not generated by anything cauldron did (outside of killing the other entity which happened pre-cauldron), and it also doesn't stem from Taylor's actions (all she really does is buy time, keep a couple key capes from dying, and sees the psychological attack working and also uses it). How do you kill a god? You make him want to die. I really like Taylor and I really like her unreliable narration where she presents things as more urgent and needing her direct intervention than they are. But like Taylor, a lot of what Cauldron did just made things worse... they did build resources that helped in that final push and probably in setting up the City in Ward, but they did so at an extreme cost... and the fact that the creation of the Endbringers explicitly traces back to a Cauldron cape and that the Endbringers are a large reason why parahumans kept dying and the world was going to poo poo fast enough Cauldron felt they needed to trigger Scion early or there'd not be enough people left to have a fighting chance... they really messed up, and Contessa lives to see that. So whatever she's doing with her life in the timeline of Ward... I'm interested in it, and if she's still falling back hard on the suggestions of her Shard or not.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 02:55
|
|
|
Taylor isn't actually dead. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 03:41
|
|
|
Its ambiguous, and has been stated to be that way intentionally.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 04:33
|
|
|
The Shortest Path posted:Taylor isn't actually dead. ...god Alec would be the worst person to realize you're dead because of. He'd definitely laugh at you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:00
|
|
|
Tattletale pretty explicitly states in her bit in the epilogue that she is hiding from Dinah that Taylor isn't dead
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:07
|
|
|
PetraCore posted:She absolutely is, it's just deliberately unclear if it's metaphorical. She's either dead or 'dead' with everything framed like an afterlife. Maybe she really did see Alec, eh? why are we spoilering a story thats been done for years? how is seeing alec evidence of her being dead if she just had a conversation with her dead mother?
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:14
|
|
|
Shortest Path started a spoiler line before that, we were just following along. Wildbow has stated that the ending is ambiguous if Taylor is dead or not. Feel free to interpret it either way, but unless Ward definitively nails either option down there isn't a correct answer. Personally I can buy bullet surgery to turn off the shard, but I'm not so sure how that'd fix her physical mutations. I'd bet on coma patient at best, however being dead fits the story so much better as a tragedy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:24
|
|
|
it seems very dumb that she would survive but also thats the best dang bullet surgeon in the universe
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:33
|
|
|
I mean, I don't think she's going to come back as a character any way... she's dead, but the death might be metaphorical, in that she's cut off from her old life, has lost all her influence and power - literally! - and is now just left to process what's happened and what she's done while not actually being able to talk to anyone who was affected by it, except for her dad. I think it's a pretty bittersweet ending myself, and I end up wavering back and forth whether I think she's literally dead, but it doesn't change my feelings on it either way. That said, the answer to physical mutations AND brain-mush is pretty easy. It's Amy. Not that I think Amy could restore just anyone who's so far gone, but considering Amy's the one who changed her brain, I think she'd probably have had enough of a sense of what that brain structure was to build it back, and she might actually do it given that Taylor dropped her next to Victoria and then left the two of them alone. So the question comes down to whether or not Contessa was shooting to kill or not, and THAT comes down to why someone like Contessa would need to double-tap if she wasn't shooting to kill. I think... things come together to make the most sense if Taylor is not literally dead. But I think you can't say that is certain. EDIT: What you can say definitively is her story arc is done and she won't be a returning character. She's dead!
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:37
|
|
|
New Laken chapter in Wandering Inn.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 05:50
|
|
|
You know, I feel like having Taylor's multitasking ability and then not having it must be sorta like suffering brain damage or something. Must really suck getting used to having such an inferior mind. The same probably applies to most thinkers with some sort of "always on" thinker ability, if they lost their ability. By the way, regarding the general setting of Ward, how are you guys imagining the settlements, City, etc? I have a really terrible visual imagination and have trouble thinking of how things would be laid out, what the buildings/streets would look like, etc. The same was even true for Worm, with me always imagining the city as being a lot "smaller" than it should have been. One big issue I have is that I tend to imagine any scene involving a building as the building having just a bunch of mostly empty land surrounding it, even when this doesn't make much sense. Like, the scene early on where Victoria is interviewing for hero jobs and has the interview near the portal where the Fallen show up, I just imagined it as the portal with a crowd of people around it and literally no other buildings nearby. Another good example is the scene before the S9 arc in Worm, where the Wards discover the "stylized" corpses and fight the Travellers. My mental image of that scene was a sort of a random bare-bones structure with like half of it removed so that you could see a cross-section of it (with the corpses hanging inside), and surrounded by just a bunch of dirt with the city skyline in the very distant background. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I have an abysmal imagination and tend to benefit dramatically from stuff like concept art of characters and locations when reading a story. I don't understand how people manage to hold an even remotely detailed mental image of a scene in their minds.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 08:08
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I don't understand how people manage to hold an even remotely detailed mental image of a scene in their minds. 
|
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 08:15
|
|
|
Related: I need fan arts of Chris' new form immediately. Found a couple on reddit already, where should I normally look for these things? 1 2
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 08:25
|
|
|
ZypherIM posted:Shortest Path started a spoiler line before that, we were just following along. Wait, what physical mutations? I can't remember her undergoing any that aren't shard-brain-control related (and losing a chunk of arm).
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 10:18
|
|
|
Aphantasia is a spectrum.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 10:30
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:Basically what I'm trying to say is that I have an abysmal imagination and tend to benefit dramatically from stuff like concept art of characters and locations when reading a story. I don't understand how people manage to hold an even remotely detailed mental image of a scene in their minds. http://aphant.asia/have-i-got-aphantasia
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 11:34
|
|
|
Gitro posted:Wait, what physical mutations? I can't remember her undergoing any that aren't shard-brain-control related (and losing a chunk of arm). I went and redug through the bits I was thinking of, and yea most of what I was remembering wasn't physical but body dysmorphia stuff.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 14:08
|
|
|
Huh, how about that. I've always known I had some issue with that sort of thing, since I scored abysmally low (like bottom 4% or something) on some "look at this picture and then tell me what you remember from it" test when doing some cognitive/IQ test thing when I was younger. In my case I can sorta imagine a specific tiny attribute of an image for a split second, but the instant I try to imagine something else it disappears. It's certainly annoying when trying to read things without visual aids! edit: I hope it's revealed at some point that Jessica Yamada is some sort of supervillain who has been using her powers to implant various suggestions in the minds of her countless parahuman psych patients. Something about that woman weirds me out. edit2: So, I've been reading more Ward since I was like 2 and a half arcs behind, and I think I actually like this new cast more than the one in Worm, which seems like an unpopular opinion. The people in Worm were more fun, but they were also a lot less interesting and felt more like YA fiction characters, for lack of a better description. Post-trauma Grue and Bitch were pretty unique, but also not exactly fun to read. With these new characters, I find myself a lot curious about how they'll progress and fit into things. I also definitely like Victoria waaaaay more than Taylor, but I always strongly disliked Taylor as a protagonist (she would have been okay as a supporting character, but I didn't like living in her head). Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Mar 27, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 19:05
|
|
|
I don't think you have an unpopular opinion, just that people who have it don't feel like dealing with the very vocal supporters of the old cast. I think Ward shows how much more depth Wildbow has in his characters now, that YA feel I think stems from inexperience. I have a much better feel for the majority of the new cast as people, and even the most unknown one (Chris) feels at least developed as Regent was relatively. I liked Taylor as a character, and I think what she did made sense but man did it ever get frustrating as she made (perfectly in character) double downs on her double downs of terrible decisions. Victoria is a much more mature person and while she has plenty of character flaws I am much less flabbergasted by her decisions than I was with Taylor. This is probably a pretty good catch-up time as we're into some more action-y stuff.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 08:42
|
|
|
Yeah, at this point, I like Victoria more than Taylor, but also I liked Tattletale more than Taylor so...
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 09:24
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:Huh, how about that. I've always known I had some issue with that sort of thing, since I scored abysmally low (like bottom 4% or something) on some "look at this picture and then tell me what you remember from it" test when doing some cognitive/IQ test thing when I was younger. In my case I can sorta imagine a specific tiny attribute of an image for a split second, but the instant I try to imagine something else it disappears. It's certainly annoying when trying to read things without visual aids! Aphantasia is weird as hell. I've got zero imagination in any of the traditional five senses, but somehow I've learned to substitute spatial imagination for visual imagination. I can't imagine visually at all, but I can essentially do something similar by doing something analogous to sculpting or 3d modeling in my head. I can basically imagine quite detailed animated invisible shapes of invisible colors and untouchable texture anywhere around me, even outside my normal field of view, or in a void inside my mind unconnected from reality. I can't see the shapes I'm imagining, or touch them, but I know that the shapes are there, and know what their color and texture are like, because I personally imagined them to be where-ever they are and have whatever texture and color they have. It also has a weird effect where it's much easier for me to imagine people or things that I'm making up from whole cloth, than try to replicate someone or something that actually exists, but is not present. Since I've got no visual imagination, I can't compare whatever shape I'm imagining to the actual thing itself unless it's right there in front of me. Edit: Actually, I do have a bit of auditory imagination also, I do get catchy songs stuck in my head sometimes, and can add sound effects to my imaginary spatial constructs.. Oo Koo fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Mar 27, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 12:45
|
|
|
Ward 5.10:quote:“You wanna piece of me!?” Sidepiece screamed out the words.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 13:40
|
|
|
ward 5.10 Well, that didn't go at all like I expected, outside of one or two small bits. Creative interpretation of compulsion commands I was expecting, after having played plenty of tabletop games where the good ol' monkey paw shines best. Sidepiece has managed to step up to Moose quality after this chapter for me, and if we find out Nailbiter is actually taking care of that girl from the previous chapter NB has a chance of getting up there. I was sort of expecting Victoria to just straight kill Valefor with the wretch, so avoiding that was surprising. Victoria leaning on her experiences of being mind fuckled by Amy to trip her mind out of being controlled by Valefor was pretty great. Nailbiter being on board with accepting help was surprising to me as well, I guess she is more level headed than I expected. And the meat of the chapter of Ashley melting BoB's torso I wasn't expecting. I guess it isn't too surprising that she's the first of the team to collect a kill, but I was completely surprised (started to guess at the whole Ashley not looking like Ashley part) that it was one of the villains and not one of the fallen. Guess we'll get to find out real quick which part of Victoria's catechism is the most important, because no matter how the law shakes out killing someone for being a dick and hitting you isn't going to fall into the 'legal' column. Ashley has jumped up several points in my awesome column because she has already learned that you monologue/deliver one liners *after* the fatal blow, not before.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 15:19
|
|
|
CaptainJuan posted:Ward 5.10: This was beautiful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 15:59
|
|
|
Good on you Ashley. And Victoria is going to be so upset that Ashley broke the rules!
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 22:41
|
|
|
CaptainJuan posted:Ward 5.10: “You’ve got to stop saying that,” Disjoint said. She needs better friends
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2018 01:35
|
|
|
WARD 5.10 gently caress yeah. what we need now is a new team of Victoria, Ashley, Moose, and Sidepiece just going full anti-hero.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2018 04:39
|
|
|
So that "Big Picture" guy mentioned in one of the interludes has a pretty loving ridiculous power. The ability to not only have cloned minds focusing on different things at the same time, but to also be able to slow down perception to the point where you can spend days/weeks focusing on a thing during a short period of time is absolutely absurd. It's even more absurd if he can control his movements normally while doing this (which I imagine he can) since that would, in practice, make him capable of being a sort of Contessa-lite in combat (because it would basically be completely impossible to surprise such a person and it would be easy for them to dodge pretty much anything that can physically be dodged). I feel like if the "slow down perception" part was removed it would be a more "balanced" power, but as is it's just nuts.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2018 05:49
|
|
|
Wandering Inn Patreon chapter (4.22) Actually, this question is about 4.23 but I didn't want to spoil that there were two chapters on Tuesday. At the end of 4.23, Laken repeatedly mentions a "him" or "he" that he met in Invrisil who gave him some advice on Emperoring. Did we witness this interaction? Do we know who this person is? Is he just gender-bending Ryoka as some form of misdirection, or did he actually meet someone else?
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2018 13:50
|
|
|
Ward 5.10 I feel like you could probably accurately call this self-defense though. He was clearly Done with her undermining him and not only hit her unprovoked but was making a move to follow that up. Maybe he just would have hit her again, non-fatally, but that's a legitimate cause to fear imminent harm and quite potentially death, and honestly I think that's a huge part of why Ashley killed him. The OTHER huge part of why she killed him is how he was treating her, but... whatever, I'm okay with that. I just think this could be accurately spun to NOT have a bunch of people decide Ashley needs to not be free now, although those same people probably also wouldn't want her going undercover anymore.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 00:08
|
|
|
she also doesn't really have non lethal measures she can take there either hey
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 00:18
|
|
|
Weeellll... [ward 5.10] Part of why Ashley went overboard is probably tied into her trigger event: watching her dad beat her mother to death in a rage. Self defense, not quite so applicable because it is pretty easy to argue that she could just walk away from the situation. Or aimed for an appendage. I mean if an undercover cop just shoots another criminal when they could have just exited the situation they're not exactly off the hook. Like I wouldn't expect the book thrown at her, but getting a successful self defense would be really hard I think. Interestingly, this is the best time to actually kill someone and get away with it, because you know people aren't peeking in from range because of Mama Mathers. I've got a feeling that the wardens (and therefore authorities) will basically paper over this whole thing and ignore any crimes that may have been commited during the anti-Fallen action. It is going to be really interesting to see what happens with the team now though. I don't think Chris/Kenzie would probably care much, and Tristin seems like he'd be willing to cover it up to protect a teammate. I think it'll hit Sveta hard, even though she's seen the most killing out of anyone on the team. Victoria is going to have a tough time (Ashley is a ton like her during the Glory Girl days).
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 09:39 |
|
|
ZypherIM posted:Weeellll... [ward 5.10] I disagree with the last part. If anything, Ashley is a lot like Victoria as she is now, or at least sometime between Gold Morning and today. Both of them have serious problems with their powers due to the residual effects of a cape loving with their bodies. Both of them specifically struggle with controlling it and its lethality. Both have tougher times with control in combat situations, though for different reasons. Both of them want to do better and be better, but constantly struggle with backsliding. This part even more so if you subscribe to the theory (like I do) that Ashley doesn't really want to be a villain, she just doesn't know how to NOT be a villain and is very uncomfortable with her existence as a clone, to the point where she sees villainy as a safe retreat since it's the one part of her that she feels grounded in and really connects to. It's why I'm kinda expecting Victoria to actually take this relatively well, at least so far as standing up for her goes. As for the rest of the team, I think Chris will be fine. I suspect Kenzie might be bothered honestly, not necessarily in the way of being scared of Ashley or the like though. Sveta I'm divided on. As I've seen others point out, Byron will probably not be very happy about this. Tristan might get mad/upset about it but probably not so much as to make any long-term issue of it. Rain, well, somehow I doubt it'll be a problem there. What I'm very interested in is what will happen with Ashley from a Wardens standpoint. You get the idea that she's relatively closely monitored by them, and this could spark all kinds of complications on that front. All depends on how all her mitigating circumstances affect their judgement I suspect.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 01:36
|
|