Was she a Stalinist? She sure as hell never did anything wrong.
>>20397>>20404okay, so worm is a deconstruction of the superhero genre that explores the politics of a world with superheroes and villains in it
basically, in the worm universe people may randomly gain supernatural powers while undergoing extreme stress, taylor hebert has such a trigger event and gets the ability to mind-control arthropods
she's generally pretty based, comes from a class-aware and unionized prole family, sees through the bullshit of the official porky-sanctioned hero system, fights fascist gangs and becomes a popular sorta-leftist warlord at one point
>>20416It's good. Nothing like other superhero media.
Here's the link:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ >>20395>she never did anything wrongshe became a hero>>20421>i'm almost certain he's not a socialistHe's pretty lib and Ward (Worm's sequel for anyone those who don't know) shows that, of course this is ignoring all the political posts he makes on the subreddit for canada. Anyway, it's insane to me how the protagonist is able to live an apartment after a
multiversal apocalyptic event with a ton of homeless camps surrounding the city she's in meanwhile anti-cape sentiment is framed as irrational misplaced hatred. And also preaching about the importance of going to therapy
in the aftermath of an apocalypse where the average person is barely finding food and shelter >>21144Didn't develop them, their parts were bad, etc. We spend something like 1,6 million words with these characters and in the sequel they're some of the worst side characters. They're literally just there, doing nothing or being retarded. All i wanted was some closure or something like that.
Now that i think about it wildbow is really bad with that (in the parahumans series) - closure - and the only important character that really has it is Taylor.
I really like the audiobook version of Worm, finished it recently(even with its flaws, I like seeing it get better over time-):
https://audioworm.rein-online.org/I have a very strong aversion to most superhero stuff (there's stories and characters I definitely adore though throughout the years tho), and this hits a unique spot that I can definitely resonate with. I feel like the parahumans setting has much more potential than most works it shares a premise/genre with, and despite some of the flaws it has (need for editing, certain drags/confusing parts, etc.), it really stands out on its own. In terms of existing in the larger sphere of "capeshit", I'd go and say its one of the best creations in the entire premise, helped in a large part by the way the narrative presents itself. The protagonist and their interactions feel a lot more human than most heroes and villains in other stories, and the entire story takes on that lifelike element. The interludes (interlude 10x especially oh my lord) work really well, because they give a different perspective than the usual protagonist's narration, and can take crazy turns with that. It's also pretty cool that a lot of the main characters are young, but not in the usual youth that glamourizes high school life, quite the opposite in fact. As someone at a similar age to the characters by the end of the story, I can say they certainly feel and act similar enough to the way someone our age IRL would, especially if thrust in such a wacky superpowered premise and world like the one they're in. The sociopolitical part of the setting gives me somewhat similar vibes to Watchmen and early Spawn, especially with how the image of things presented by popular culture and media is incongruent with the reality that the characters actually live through. The criminality of many of the characters feels a lot more real in motivation, and the plot following "villains" as full-fledged characters is just a breath of fresh air. It sees the average "superhero" for how fucking deranged they'd actually be; it looks at what would happen if sociopaths, sadists, and emotionally stunted people got abilities that enabled them to act more on their tendencies, and its all so interesting. The use of powers is also a lot more grounded, and the way they're applied is certainly a lot more compelling than the average story, also in a weird way feeling almost shonen-esque at times with the classifications and the battle vs non-battle application stuff.
I think what made it click so much with me more than anything is how it didn't tow the usual moral line of most superhero settings, which is completely ignorant to reality and can even go so far as being reactionary. The type of "critique" of the genre done by Worm is IMO far better than the kind done by Injustice and similar stories, which are basically just "what if the powerful superheroes turned into bad guys, and made the world just like 1984. this is so deep, I'm so smart". Stories like the latter tend to obfuscate the problems that characters intrinsically have, by relegating any look at their flaws to exaggerated caricatures of evil that miss the whole point of a critique. The Batmans and Iron-Mans of the comic book world are horrible people regardless of them being a parallel universe evil version, hell, almost all "superheroes" are terrible and arguably worse than their villains when looking at their relation to class and the state. That's largely a product of what the superhero medium is most of the time, a moralizing escape that idealizes the current way of things and preaches the triumph of "absolute good" over the most basic of evils, while removing agency and importance from the actual people of their settings that don't get the luxury of being godlike superbeings. That concept of good gets its basis from the current social norm, which given what site we're on, we all know clearly isn't good. Even the stories that go further and critique aspects of the current status quo only go so far as being for social reform, although at this point, these constraints and problems cover most media in general. "Crimefighting" as a part of the ethos of the medium tells all here, far better than any analysis like this does. The things I do find interesting about superheroes is more looking at problems and idiosyncracies like these, its been especially compelling to read about topics such as the weird origin of heroes like Wonder Woman, moral panics like Seduction of the Innocent, the horrible treatment of artists and writers by the major comic book companies and the aftermath of that(esp works like Rick Veitch's Brat Pack), chauvinistic tendencies in comic book creators like Dave Sim and Frank Miller; and now in the modern-day, the way that huge superhero blockbusters stand as propaganda pieces for U.S. cultural and military hegemony and have turned into a mainstay within the space of capitalist media.
Worm isn't some perfect shining work that is free of the problems of the genre or the problems of media under neoliberal capitalism generally, but it certainly stands out as special, and worth at least trying out above the majority of other stuff in and out of the genre. I haven't really looked at anything relating to fans of the series, but from what I can tell it has a pretty devoted fanbase. It's the first piece of fiction I've really, really, really enjoyed in like, a year or two, after everything new got stale and I had engaged with nearly everything really good I'd be interested in. It's one of my favorite pieces of fiction I've ever engaged with at this point, pretty ballin'
(the way it handles representation is also a bit better than most other pieces of media, I know "representation" is largely idpol libshit, but idk, it feels nice to see characters of different backgrounds actually be allowed to be shitty people, or at least nuanced. It gets grating to see every Black, Latin, LGBT or Neurodivergent character either be fucked up stereotypes or pandering, one dimensional, and "perfect" without flaws or anything actually interesting about them. Also, Worm is actually a bit cognizant of class, which is more than most shit out there.)
>>23745easy to treat therapy as a one size fit all solution than it is to actually reconcile with why people are having those issues in the first place
>>28046Are you caught up with it? I've been reading it off and on (just got to arc 9) and found it interesting, but my main concern with it is that apparently wildbow planned for it to be a short work until he got more invested in it and decided to have it go beyond the story's original course. It's on arc 20 now, and I fear it's going to end up meandering in the way all of his story's do.
>>34782(me)>>34781I don't know about chemistry because if I remember it right Brian wasn't that into it at first, but she was all over him from the second she saw him. Taylor found him hot and liked his style and demeanor and chased him. You're just self-inserting.
I won't lie and say that Taylor x Lisa isn't cute tho.
>>40475Ward just feels like he had no idea what he wanted to do with it and was constantly trying to change the direction of the story to appease everyone and just gave up after a certain point and rushed the ending with a bunch of plot threads just left unresolved.
>I hope wildbow returns to the setting at some pointFrom what he's said, it doesn't seem like he'll go back to it again (or at least not anytime soon) due to the reception it got. Ignoring Pale, which you probably already know about if you're reading Pact, his latest story (which started like last week) is crime procedural called Claw which is supposed to be a short serial before he starts the next big story which most likely is the space opera super prison one he's been teasing and talking about off and on for a few years now. Haven't read it yet though.
>>40471>>40475>>40506Just saying that Wildbow could have saved Ward or made a better version of it by setting Amy as protagonist. You know, the problematic teenager with a broody monologue and versatile powers yet vulnerable enough to set high stakes combat scenes. Parahumans, with all its worldbuilding and character interactions, is ultimately structured around fighting arcs. The audience would find her much more familiar to Taylor than Glory Girl, who was retconned as a cape nerd to appease the fanbase and has a generic Superman power that works best as a non-POV character.
It bothered me a lot that Panacea's power was never fully explored in Worm (even though canon has its reasons for Amy's power repression), because relay bugs and Khepri were really imaginative. And Ward is the perfect scenario for exploring shards' effects in a post-apocaliptic society, for creating new group dynamics based around capes and refugees as well as power interactions with allies and enemies.
>>40532Amy is a really interesting character, but I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t like her as the mc due to the strong implication of her being a body morphing rapist and her being written as a person who spends a lot of her time pitying herself.
I think Aisha would have been a better choice as an mc, she got an interesting ability that is simply but also allows a lot unique situations, she got herself bunch of potential sidekicks and her relationship with undersiders gives a lot of opportunity for angst.
I like Victoria, she has a fun dynamic with tattletale, but as a mc, she is very weak.
>>40544Her self pity is relatable to how she represses her own powers. Becoming protagonist would involve an act to bring closure to it. It's true that she borged/raped Victoria but Taylor also killed a toddler so it's a non-issue from representing heinous acts from a POV perspective.
The main thing impending this path is that rape relates more to real world problems than killing children to avoid the end of the world. And for her to be the Ward protagonist the post-S9 events couldn't have happened.
Also we have a new Claw chapter.
https://clawwebserial.blog/2024/03/16/the-point-1-3/ >>40547>>40506Claw is pretty cinematic. When the protagonist chops down the dude I imagined it like a show Hannibal episode. It's a pity Wildbow isn't a published author yet because his works (especially this one) would work as adaptations.
Art by kalado.
>>42720I personally really like worm and really like Taylors writing.
>fights go on a bit long for me,I think this about every single fight written by wildbow, I don’t know why since he is pretty good at writing them.
>>40499>I do enjoy a few fanfics, mostly Naruto crossovers on SpaceBattlesSince the thread is active again, I'll post the 3 fics I was talking about
This one is good, but probably abandoned
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11712347/1/The-Great-Toad-Sage-of-Brockton-Bay Whirlpool and Eye of the Hurricane: These 2 are connected and are complete and pretty fun.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/whirlpool-worm-naruto-complete.674303/ https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/eye-of-the-hurricane-worm-naruto.759916/ >>42824Yes and no.
>>42826It gets exhausting to read at times. I remember just skimming fights in the latter half of the story after a certain point, when I first read it.
>>42838pacing could be better if there were more warlord chapters after leviathan and the slaughterhouse 9, or between leviathan AND the sl9.
also the weaver arc could have more developmet, barely cared about the chicago wards. can't comment much later on because i forgot.
>>42845>pacing could be better if there were more warlord chaptersThe inevitability of her capture feels like a plot device. I don't buy that she needs to be a paracop to effectively combat the coming apocalypse, especially when canonically there are far more villains and rogues than heroes, organization being the only thing they lack. Considering the portal situation, the undersiders could very well strongarm the PRT economically over a span of months.What I'm getting at is, that developing her warlord phase would have made what follows just seem even more ridiculous.
>barely cared about the chicago wardsDid you skip most of the Echidna and Behemoth fights? I agree they were a slog to get through, but i think they introduced the chicago wards quite well in spite of how jarring the timeskip was.
>>43003Can you not spam your soul-less wojak-slop here?
>inb4 Skitter fanI'm not a fan of her or most of her friends.
>>43023Jack Slash's character just pisses me off, because on top of already being a boring character he also has a
bullshit secondary ability to explain why a reddit edgelord is able to do cross country murders with a mediocre power and not get instantly sniped by literally any cape, let alone convincing/forcing a bunch of other people to do it with him.
>>43025He could've been offed by any non-powered person, which could also have worked within the history. Just replace him with someone else who triggered with Broadcast.
His main power is really cool, and lends itself well to animation. Too bad there wasn't much fights with him exploring this.
>>43031In general the series seriously never addresses the fact that trained soldiers with guns should be able to kill most capes. The only people it wouldn't work on should be people with danger sense/precog/thinker powers or people with invincibility but most capes aren't like that even the ones in say S9. Most of S9 should have just been killed by like crack government death squads.
Also the idea that Cauldron is selling powers for as little as a million dollars or so yet the government hasn't been able to fund/recruit any cape teams directly.
I think one of the things that annoyed me the most though was the idea of the Undersider's 'territories', like how exactly were they making any money from this? Yes Coil was bankrolling it initially but surely even he must have wanted to monetise the process, and after he was gone, apparently Skitter et al still refuse to even sell drugs in their territories (which just comes off as parochial and absurd considering they're warlords), so how did they even make money for the next two years? Real estate? But that doesn't involve them 'controlling territory' at all unless somehow the ownership of the docks just defaulted to them. I mean I guess it does say that Tattletale took over all of Coil's investments but still seems silly idk. This might just be my personal annoyance though since I'm pro-legalisation.
Overall I don't really know why Worm is considered 'rationalfic' aside from just that Wildbow was apparently part of that group.
>>43009>>43010>>43022To be clear I wasn't talking about anything past Worm, I haven't read anything else, I just meant his decision to betray humanity as a whole and even his teammates and help Echidna even after she turned into a giant evil fleshmonster, like what the fuck seriously? I know that was his girlfriend but puppydog teen love shouldn't be that strong.
>>43038I think he submitted to Echidna out of fear more than anything else.
Also, NTA but
>I don't really know why Worm is considered 'rationalfic'Because it gets dark and edgy and "real". Honestly I reiterate that I find fanfiction of Worm written better and more compellingly than the actual Worm series. It's kind of like RWBY in that regard, where the initial idea had merit and pulled people in but then it slowly degraded into a complicated mess. Only in the case of Worm (and Ward and so on) they don't have the excuse of Wildbow dying and having someone else take over the project.
>>43022Perhaps, but my point is that I never truly hated the character.
>>43031>>43025Yeah I still don't truly understand how the fuck his powers work TBH.
>>43023>I can't even think of one instance where serial killers worked as a team in real life. Pic rel or any other US special ops team… or the interrogators of Guant*namo. Besides I found their dynamic interesting and it seemed plausible to me within the story's reality, even if not necessarily in ours, it's just how vile they were as people that made me loathe them. I would approach S9 as more of a criminal/merc group with a serial killer leading them, rather than a group of serial killers. The characters may have various serial killer tropes but most of them aren't like Jack Slash
>>43864Enjoyed how much the story gradually paints an image of a
US in decline (at least at a faster rate than it currently is) as the characters dig themselves deeper and how the characters are all handled in general. Makes me wish wildbow would do a few more shorter stories before moving on to the next big one.
>>43888Wonder if it'll have elements of that sci-fi short story called Sign he wrote. (
https://old.reddit.com/r/DoTheWriteThing/comments/hcvznl/episode_64_suppress_bad_east_goalkeeper/fw1ftsq/ ,for anyone who's interested in reading it) wish he compiled all the snippets he wrote somewhere convenient.
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