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thespaceinvader posted:I'm not actually sure Foil's power DOES penetrate Gray Boy's loops - he's shown to be able to freeze her darts in midair when he knows they're coming. It was only because she got the drop on him that she was able to kill him (apparently) permanently, due to the *wormnobabbly* nature of her powers, as far as I could tell. She essentially severed his brain from his shard before he could react, and stopped him being able to control it, even reflexively, or they'd still be just as screwed. If Foil CAN shoot through his time-loops though, the people in them will be very grateful, if they ever get the chance to be saved. Just imagine what it must be like for them now, watching Scion *shudder*. Extinction 27.1 confirmed that Foil was never actually trapped, she was faking it until she could get the drop. Anything that can outright destroy both him and his shard within a single loop ought to do it.
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Aug 18, 2013 23:24
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SerSpook posted:whereas Taylor's' was used to coordinate all of the other shards. Or maybe that's what Glaistig Uaine's shard is? I'm pretty sure at this point that Glaistig Uaine's shard is the one that calls back/reunites shards as they die and/or at the grand finale.
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Aug 22, 2013 23:10
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Every time you think things can't get any worse, some idiot decides to play hardball with Taylor.
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Aug 27, 2013 00:59
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Fellwenner posted:Can you get a browser window on your kindle or phone? You could just read it that way. It's how I read a good portion of it. This. The mobile version of the site is significantly more readable.
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Sep 2, 2013 14:29
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builds character posted:huh. If he created the endbringers to fight and challenge himself then why didn't they maintain his power when he was fighting them? He certainly didn't fight them off by himself. He always needed Alexandria and legend to do it. Because he didn't understand what he needed to do to progress. In this theory, his subconscious and/or shard was acting on his conscious belief that he just needed to push himself harder, rather than knowing what he actually needed to do to progress.
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Sep 4, 2013 02:18
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thespaceinvader posted:But yes, the ante does keep going up from there... Every time someone decides to play hardball with Taylor. Every. Single. Time.
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Sep 15, 2013 14:00
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thespaceinvader posted:Does anyone else wonder how long Foil's power's effects last? Woudln't it be sensible for her just to magic multiple weapons for as many people as possible? We know she can apply the effect for other people from this update and from the behemoth leg-sawing. It's stated earlier that it's proportional to the amount of time she spends charging the effect, and she's good at timing when it will end, so that her bolts would become real again while they were inside the target. How long she could charge for is anybody's guess.
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Sep 20, 2013 21:43
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thespaceinvader posted:And Eidolon could have done exactly the same to her, at the end of his life... I know she, now, is likely the single most powerful, but she wasn't always. But yeah, she's scary as hell, if you think she probably now has Gavel's power, Eidolon's power, various of the power-combining things... Yowsa. I do wonder if she's related to the third entity rather than either of the first two. I don't even want to think what happens if you do nothing else but drop Glaistig Uaine and Eidolon into the Yangban. Even with just Eidolon, there's got to be a near infinite loop there somewhere.
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Sep 21, 2013 13:14
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So we know power combinations are something that actually seems to be able to gently caress with Scion. I wonder if Canary can brainwash people strongly enough that Taylor is able to hook them into her network. That would also basically put her on the path to becoming a worm herself.
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Sep 28, 2013 16:07
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NecroMonster posted:
She'll bring Dinah.
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Oct 17, 2013 11:56
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Hawkgirl posted:edit: From the comments: "Did Taylor just bully Scion to death…?" Holy poo poo, I think she did. That's pretty amazing. I hope one of the epilogues is just Shadow Stalker posting  over and over again.
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Oct 26, 2013 23:52
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Algid posted:Eidolon got the collection of shards that wasn't broken up, the part that would have controlled the main base of power for the thinker. The thinker's early simulation involved Scion granting shards to humans with her molding shards into endbringers. Contessa's power definitely works on Eidolon, we know that from Eidolon's interlude, that doesn't mean she ever found the need to direct her power against him and completely crush him. It's also not clear that Scion even knows what's going on, using the power just directs him to output a response that causes him to win. That also doesn't mean the statement was completely true, it was just what was needed to allow Scion to win in the easiest way. Eidolon wanted a challenge for the same reason all capes did, the shards promoted conflict seeking behavior, but it's also true that endbringer shards were planned from the start by the thinker. As for cooperation, that's actually a change prompted by the defective future sight shard. The thinker sought to maximize conflict, without filtering the question, maximizing conflict means the death of the thinker and the eventual battle with Scion, which obviously requires cooperation and even direct help from the endbringers. Honestly, I just though the four words were pointing out to Eidolon that he was completely right, he just needed a powerful enough enemy to bring out his full potential, and the sheer number of implications that can be read into that statement paralyzed him for long enough for Scion to wreck his poo poo. The dude was clearly already feeling guilty about his little quest at times, as seen in the Echidna fight.
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Oct 30, 2013 03:08
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veekie posted:Intended, probably not, but it's staged by precognition, set up, even if the person moving the pieces don't know how the movements would lead to victory. If the path to victory precludes the path to victory from happening the shard is probably not going to suggest that it is the path to victory. If "You can't intentionally trigger someone." was a rule, the shard would probably just have to find a path around that. Edit: Hell, we actually saw Skidmark (?) trying intentionally to make people trigger and it working. That's how Scrub triggered. NinjaDebugger fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Nov 4, 2013 |
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Nov 4, 2013 02:27
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thespaceinvader posted:I have to agree that this wasn't my favourite of the bonus epilogue chapters - that was probably Imp's. I thought there were supposed to be 8 coming though - we're only on 5 right now. Watching people constantly get the number of epilogues wrong has been almost as much fun as some of the epilogues. No, I'm kidding, I actually really liked all the epilogues. It's still been fun though.
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Nov 17, 2013 13:35
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Algid posted:It could just be that she's stuck inside Blake's eyes. I took that warning to be about him getting possessed.
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Jan 8, 2014 01:26
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Saros posted:Its that much? drat thats a decent chunk of change. Dependss how many hours he puts into it I suppose. He's stated it's a full time job for him, at 40-50 hours a week.
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Feb 21, 2014 12:55
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Tollymain posted:This is legitimately terrifying. Wildbow is unreasonably good at this. He really is. Also, the meeting with the knights, and some of the earlier events, makes me wonder if maybe the meeting with the knights, and this binding, are actually going better than they would if Rose was there. Like maybe in spite of what everybody else thinks, the Thorburn karma is -actually- on Rose's head, not Blake's, and things mainly go badly for him because Rose is usually present.
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Mar 29, 2014 16:26
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Pavlov posted:I think the reason I prefer the non-epilogue ending is that, if you don't include the epilogue Worm is actually a tragedy. I mean that in the sense of a Greek tragedy. Yes, things end up ok for the world (or what's left of it), but Worm was much more about Taylor than it was about her world. The thing is I really appreciate a good tragedy, but it's kind of a dieing art. Authors seem too eager to shoehorn a happy ending into something, even when it's not thematically appropriate. Taylor's character arc is a long series of sacrifices, but unlike Contessa and Doctor Mother who sacrifice others, Taylor consistently sacrifices herself. She sacrifices her family life, her place in society, her relationship with her friends, her freedom, her moral system several times, and finally her very identity. The conclusion to that kind of arc isn't being whisked away with her presumed dead father, free of the powers which caused her only trouble, to an alternate world where her mother is alive and none of the stigma from her past can follow her. For someone who's really given up everything, death comes off as a lot more poignant. Except that it's not actually her mother, she's cut off from all her friends and acquaintances and the struggles that have been her entire world, and she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter what she does in this new life, it will never be as important as what she has already done.
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Apr 9, 2014 22:38
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SerSpook posted:So if this counts as the third time he's going against Laird/the Benhaim family, and this is the third skirmish in the third battle, I wonder if winning the third round of this will multiply the significance of it all yet again? I actually wonder if he's lost the first two rounds, here. The resets may not count as losses for HIM..
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Apr 15, 2014 11:09
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Fellwenner posted:I like that this update ends with some good stuff happening for Blake and Co. and no steps back at all. It certainly does seem to be that Laird and Duncan are in for some poo poo. There are absolutely some drawbacks, they just happen to be ones he willingly accepted and knows going in. Assuming there are no hidden ones, anyway.
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Apr 17, 2014 12:02
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Blake posted:I was the doer of our pair, the warrior even, by necessity more than because I was suited to it. Rose was the thinker, the scholar with access to the books. Can't stop laughing. Also, Blake's inner Taylor is really showing through when he agrees that Fell should kill him rather than let Conquest win. NinjaDebugger fucked around with this message at 08:47 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 08:42
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Tollymain posted:wow, tho, that girl got punked She shoulda read more fairy tales. Never make a deal with a fairy. They're even worse than dragons.
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Jul 13, 2014 02:30
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Einander posted:Grandmother Rose borrowed a bit from all of the Thorburns... Not enough to be noticed, but enough to give him a bit of each of their strengths. Unfortunately, she needed a bit extra to finish filling him out, so she also took all of their basic human decency. My guess is that the actual secret that Rose won't tell anybody is that Blake really WAS the original of the pair. It would be an excellent double fakeout on Wildbow's part.
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Oct 5, 2014 00:11
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Namarrgon posted:I hope we learn more about how getting Foresworn works. From what I gather, any statement with "I will" or similar is essentially treated as an oath. Breaking an oath allows others to declare you Foresworn. But someone still needs to actually do it and presumably the spirits need to arbitrate if it counts. Also assuming there is a downside to just going around declaring every practicioner you meet Foresworn; probably the spirits getting really pissed with you. Breaking an oath is bad karma regardless of being declared foresworn, and the last thing she wants to do is drop even more bad karma on her successor.
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Nov 14, 2014 13:19
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Bad dog. Shin Megami Tensei has been right all along.
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Dec 30, 2014 17:07
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Tollymain posted:odds that there's some twist yet to be found in this scene? 110%. Also, Blake is going Full Taylor.
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Jan 20, 2015 14:04
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Lyon posted:Agreed, he had written so much in the Worm setting before he ever started publishing it and you can really tell (especially the early parts). His big break into tradpublishing will be when he sells the first Maggie Holt novel to Scholastic.
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Mar 4, 2015 13:12
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Pavlov posted:Same. I liked Pact, but this has just been all-around more enjoyable so far. I think part of that is that even if we haven't gotten much 'proper' downtime, the uptime we have gotten is a lot less hectic than the-endless-crusade-of-Blake. I think the choice of main character was a good one. Sy's lack of combat skills and knack on manipulation forces the story to focus more on the interpersonal. Pretty much this. It feels like he's finally writing to his strengths, and occasionally stretching himself, rather than stretching himself with small breaks for what he's good at.
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Apr 21, 2015 18:27
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Sy is basically a tiny Jack Slash.
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Apr 26, 2015 17:27
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Mary is really stealing the show in this arc, and I'm not sure I could be happier with that.
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Jun 2, 2015 20:47
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Milky Moor posted:Again, not outright stated. So, Scion can deploy enough power to annihilate Behemoth in twelve seconds. He never does this again. I think he cracks Leviathan's core open in less time than that, too. Is this level of power more or less than using Path to Victory, which we know is pretty monumental to him? Eidolon set Scion running and forced him to use PTV. Given that Eidolon had been broken apart by one of Scion's smaller beams, you wonder why Scion didn't just hit him with an Endbringer-killer. Eidolon was no better against Scion than anybody else until he learned how to repower himself. Once he did that, though, he essentially had access to all those nifty powers that Eden would never have otherwise given away, ones that are not limited and are entirely capable of fighting on the level of an entity. Eidolon, once repowered, was significantly more powerful than any endbringer except Tohu. Even then, Scion was still entirely capable of just cracking the planet open if he felt like it, but that was explicitly against its goals at the time. Also, you seem to have this preoccupation with Dragon being an incredibly powerful AI when the story makes the point repeatedly that that isn't true. She's not able to use absurd numbers of servers all over the world to expand her capabilities, she explicitly can't monitor all the data in the world while also concentrating on a fight, she can't spawn additional AIs to help her. Hell, she can't even make automated robots to assemble her other robots, because it butts up against the AI restriction. Until Dragon gets unchained in the epilogue, she is only barely better than a human who can understand, reproduce, and gently caress with tinkertech, teleport, and be restored from backup in case of death. Granted, that is still really loving good, but she's far from even Skynet, let alone an actual all powerful unchained AI.
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Sep 23, 2015 12:03
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Also, second post on a new topic, has anybody started reading https://pricestory.wordpress.com/ ?
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Sep 23, 2015 12:03
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The Shortest Path posted:That makes a bit more sense to me. Is this one of those things Wildbow talked about on Reddit or was it subtle linereading that I completely failed to get after three reads? Yes, but not for the reasons you think. It's actually because most of what brought Khepri into being can be traced back to Contessa, including Taylor's trigger.
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Oct 1, 2015 00:49
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Nettle Soup posted:Twig 7.8: Well that got interesting fast! Sy has basically gone full Blake, at this point.
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Nov 9, 2015 15:54
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TheRagamuffin posted:So what would happen if early in the Apollo program, it was discovered that Abrahamic religions were verifiably true, the Firmament is real, and Kabbalistic names of God had real, tangible power? A hell of a premise, and a damned good beginning. I laughed far too hard at Uriel's chapter.
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Jan 28, 2016 21:21
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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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Ytlaya posted:No, I think she can apply that to anything she touches or something. So she could use a rifle as long as she was manually loading each bullet. Foil's power is really odd, but the details we know would generally preclude it working with a rifle, unless it was something more like a tranquilizer rifle. Her power is less effective on things that aren't edges or points, and she has to leave part of whatever she charges unaffected, or she won't be able to fire it. She charges the heads on the bolts, but not the bolts themselves, charges the edge/point of the sword but not the hilt. Charging the bullet, though, would result in the bullet ignoring the explosion that would propel it, as best we can tell. With a tranq rifle, or perhaps with a specially made bullet, she could charge just the tip/needle and it might work.
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Jul 13, 2016 13:41
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Milky Moor posted:You don't need to remove because it isn't actually in the text as presented. It's not in the WoG as presented, either. He said outright that while there's a 'conflict drive', in the vast majority of cases, it's completely indistinguishable from "chose someone to trigger who would have done that poo poo anyway." The cases we know of otherwise, that I can think of, are Burnscar, Leet (and the behavior modification isn't working), and Damsel of Distress, and one of those is because of a damaged shard (probably one damaged by Eden's crash).
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Sep 1, 2016 12:32
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah I felt like Brian's interest in Taylor wasn't really sold well. That's literally what happened, he was super badly traumatized and she just kinda made it happen. And then abandoned them all, because there are 0 characters with agency.
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May 16, 2017 20:53
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Ytlaya posted:Making mega-bucks in the stock market is also an obvious choice and one that Coil took* (since you could basically do day trading where you buy a bunch of some really volatile stock in one reality and short it in the other reality and select whichever one ends up being true). His power can be used most easily for situations that have binary outcomes, particularly if there's a specific action he can take to capitalize on each potential outcome. The best working theory I've heard is that the PRT/Government think tank working to prevent poo poo like that are the bottom of the barrel thinkers, and all the really good ones are working around them.
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May 25, 2017 18:25
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