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Oh, I agree, I'd figured she'd be able to sense it at most, definitely not control it. Also I had a nightmare about bugs crawling under my skin last night 
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Sep 5, 2013 15:30
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Endbringers aren't exactly smart, but they do have at least some degree of animal cunning or inelligence to varying degrees. Taylor has never displayed the ability to control anything with even an ounce of volition. Stuff has to be dirt simple, with just basic biological drives, to fall into her sphere of influence. Also yeah, it wouldn't really fit the tone of stuff if she could cart around pet Kaiju.
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Sep 5, 2013 15:38
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Lprsti99 posted:I don't know about any of that, I just finished the first fight against Leviathan. Am I the only one who thought that due to Tattletale's description of it as a creature with a simple biology, basically sounding like an oversized crab, Taylor's powers were going to have some interaction with it? I thought this too at that point, but keep reading as you'll soon discover there's a reason she can't. Aside from it ruining the story.
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Sep 5, 2013 15:54
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Skippy McPants posted:Endbringers aren't exactly smart, but they do have at least some degree of animal cunning or inelligence to varying degrees. Taylor has never displayed the ability to control anything with even an ounce of volition. Stuff has to be dirt simple, with just basic biological drives, to fall into her sphere of influence. Except that the Simurgh blocked Panacea's communication to Dragon about the shards/passengers in what appeared to be a very intelligent and knowing way.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:26
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Lyon posted:Except that the Simurgh blocked Panacea's communication to Dragon about the shards/passengers in what appeared to be a very intelligent and knowing way. Simurgh is an interesting case. Pretty much a perfect, or near-perfect, precog. How much of what it does is intelligence, and how much is it just Contessa on steroids? Even that would require some intelligence, sure, but not necessarily that much. Just picking whatever future seems to have the best results based on whatever she's been programmed with or whatever.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:35
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SerSpook posted:Simurgh is an interesting case. Pretty much a perfect, or near-perfect, precog. How much of what it does is intelligence, and how much is it just Contessa on steroids? Even that would require some intelligence, sure, but not necessarily that much. Just picking whatever future seems to have the best results based on whatever she's been programmed with or whatever. Does anyone have a link to the chapter where Simurgh did the communication block? I want to re-read that section.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:51
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Dietrich posted:Does anyone have a link to the chapter where Simurgh did the communication block? I want to re-read that section. It's one of the interludes where Panacea is in the Birdcage. At the very end, if I recall. Edit: Got it -- http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/ -------- Haven't been saying much lately about these new chapters. It's just a little bit difficult to put  and  into words. Don't know how Wildbow does it so consistently and so well.
Grundulum fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 17:16
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SerSpook posted:Simurgh is an interesting case. Pretty much a perfect, or near-perfect, precog. How much of what it does is intelligence, and how much is it just Contessa on steroids? Even that would require some intelligence, sure, but not necessarily that much. Just picking whatever future seems to have the best results based on whatever she's been programmed with or whatever. You want something even crazier? While the Simurgh has wrecked a hell of a lot of havoc over time, a few of the her actions that we are aware of have had positive effects in the end, most notably Mannequin's interaction with Armsmaster having a POSITIVE effect on the man and Dragon, and Noelle's situation leading to both the discovery of how to create portals AND the reveal of the whole Cauldron situation improved humanities situation overall. Precogs give me loving headaches.
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Sep 5, 2013 21:28
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Sometimes when butterflies flap their wings to cause tornados on the other side of the planet, they look really pretty to anyone nearby. To put it in a less dumb way, I doubt the Simurgh can create an entire chain of events that are 100% negative, so long as it is for the greater evil it still works.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:09
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sirtommygunn posted:Sometimes when butterflies flap their wings to cause tornados on the other side of the planet, they look really pretty to anyone nearby. The converse could also be true. There is no reason to believe that causing positive things to happen wouldn't wreck utter havoc as well.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:23
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NecroMonster posted:The converse could also be true. I think you mean inverse. Converse means to engage in conversation.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:42
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Skippy McPants posted:I think you mean inverse. Converse means to engage in conversation. Yeah, I do.
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Sep 6, 2013 00:12
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Converse (first syllable stressed) has a logical meaning: "If A then B" is the statement "If B then A" is the converse "If not A then not B" is the inverse "If not B then not A" is the contrapositive In practice most people don't distinguish between the inverse and the converse since they are logically equivalent.
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Sep 6, 2013 04:46
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I haven't read much of this thread, since I'm less than halfway through Worm's archives (meaning I still have at least a literal million words to read, goddamn), but I wanted to drop by and give my initial impression. It seems like Worm is basically what Wild Cards could have been if it weren't quite so Wild Cards. It's not that Worm isn't grim, gritty, gory, or whatever other applicable adjectives, but Wild Cards seemed to have much more of an adolescent fixation on trying to appear 'mature' in an edgy shock-value sort of way. Worm seems to have avoided that. It also benefits from being written by only one author, rather than a whole gaggle of neckbeards trying to squeeze in a story arc about their favorite Ace.
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Sep 7, 2013 05:25
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Welp, looks like we have Endbringers on a string. One they could snap if they felt like it.Emy posted:It seems like Worm is basically what Wild Cards could have been if it weren't quite so Wild Cards. It's not that Worm isn't grim, gritty, gory, or whatever other applicable adjectives, but Wild Cards seemed to have much more of an adolescent fixation on trying to appear 'mature' in an edgy shock-value sort of way. Worm seems to have avoided that. It also benefits from being written by only one author, rather than a whole gaggle of neckbeards trying to squeeze in a story arc about their favorite Ace. Wild Cards suffered from trying too hard to be 'mature' and edgy, it worked with very limited length to express plots and few characters ever really got to be fleshed out. Most of them seem distinctly...unmotivated really, just pursuing their vice of the day. You don't know them as people, but as caricatures with powers. The power defines all that they are. For Worm, gritty and mature is just natural evolution of the plot. It's really more about the characters and how they're dealing with crisis. The powers are just a means of expressing character traits really.
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Sep 7, 2013 05:42
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Every time I ask "How could this possibly get worse" Wildbow is more than happy to tell me how. Chances that this is just the Simurgh intimidating them/making them know who's in charge?
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Sep 7, 2013 08:16
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sirtommygunn posted:Every time I ask "How could this possibly get worse" Wildbow is more than happy to tell me how. Good odds, Simurgh is helping because she wants to, not because she's following orders or allied. She just wants to kick Scion's rear end, and as the master manipulator of the Endbringers, does not appreciate being manipulated.
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Sep 7, 2013 08:25
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Oh, holy poo poo this is a bad idea.
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Sep 7, 2013 08:39
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I can't understand, if Eidolon created/projected the Endbringers then why do they exist after he does not? Wait, it's because he used one of his rotating powers to create them so they continue after him? So not like the Siberian. I think I answered my own question.
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Sep 7, 2013 09:16
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More like Dragon's situation, his power was used to construct them, after which it was an independent existence.
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Sep 7, 2013 09:25
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So the Eidolon theories were right it seems. Man, this is going to be so awesome.
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Sep 7, 2013 15:45
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I'm still finding it's most likely Scion created them. The implications to me are that basically Eidolon has the counterpart Worm's core shard, the one that would be used to gather them all before the pair went 'gently caress the world, we're off' - but it's difficult to use, and Scion needed Eidolon to use it in order to have a chance at reconstructing his partner. So he gave Eidolon challenges. Once Eidolon fully activated the shard, Scion no longer needed his input, and extracted the mature shard.
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Sep 7, 2013 19:07
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In non-Worm news, Ra has updated recently. It's quite interesting to see how things play out. I really liked this chapter, though I felt the ending was a bit cliffhanger-y. I look forward to seeing where this ends up.
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Sep 8, 2013 06:51
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Taking what we know of Echidna, and what we just learned about what the Endbringers were, I think it's safe to say that she was becoming something like that. The Endbringers appear to be passengers interacting with the world, created/called by Eidolon (or Scion) and Noelle was losing control to her passenger, even as more and more of it entered the world. Not so hard to believe that she'd have become an Endbringer as she changed, with Tattletale theorizing that eventually she'd reach a critical mass and start growing denser instead of larger.
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Sep 8, 2013 08:32
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I still think the whole Eidelon connection is a red herring, maybe his I mean they are there to fight humanity to the very brink but not push them over it like scion is doing, this would produce lots of mature/second trigger/newly triggered capes and would make sure that the constant pressure kept them united and not in open war. There is too much being alluded with all the pseudo religious imagery and how they seem to exist with a purpose to apply pressure but not wipe out humanity to be Eidelon just wanted to fight strong dudes and be a hero without coming off as anti climatic. Things get weird I suppose when you look at the meaning behind Eidolons name too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidolon_(apparition) Zasze fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 15:48
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New Worm Mecha godzilla. Who knew Endbringers were upgradable.
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Sep 10, 2013 07:24
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veekie posted:New Worm At this point I'm starting to think that Wildbow deserves some sort of reward for his ability to just keep upping the ante. Oh yeah does this mean that Defiant's nano-thorns can hurt Scion or does it just mean that Simurgh thinks it's worth a shot?
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Sep 10, 2013 08:30
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NecroMonster posted:At this point I'm starting to think that Wildbow deserves some sort of reward for his ability to just keep upping the ante. Oh yeah does this mean that Defiant's nano-thorns can hurt Scion or does it just mean that Simurgh thinks it's worth a shot? Probably the latter, but they'd have to find his real body anyway because the golden man is just a projection like the Siberian.
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Sep 10, 2013 08:38
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Does anyone have a theory on what the gently caress is up with Sleeper?
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Sep 10, 2013 09:11
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I like these last couple of chapters. Got a real Undersiders feel to it, from back in the beginning. It struck me that Taylor really is like Jack Slash, only without the joyful homicides. Seemed much more apparent, having to manage difficult, violent personalities. Also got another hint of something between Tattletale and Taylor, or is that just me? SerSpook posted:Does anyone have a theory on what the gently caress is up with Sleeper? There was a comment on the Worm site indicating that would get attention in a sequel.
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Sep 10, 2013 09:59
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Fellwenner posted:It struck me that Taylor really is like Jack Slash, only without the joyful homicides. Seemed much more apparent, having to manage difficult, violent personalities. This has come up more than once, they're both very good at methodically managing the worst possible outcomes. The key difference between them being that Jack was motivated by a sadistic boredom, while Taylor is only interested in protecting as many people as possible. Fellwenner posted:Also got another hint of something between Tattletale and Taylor, or is that just me? Something? You mean like something amorous? No, I think that's just you.
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Sep 10, 2013 15:29
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Decided to binge through everything over the weekend. Worm is really above any other web serial I've ever read. It manages to sidestep the problems of pretty much every other one that's been recommended to me thus far. There really isn't all that much out there, is there? So much of it seems like it could be decent (at least at a concept level), but then you're hit in the face with the author's desire to insert their fetishes/media obsessions/lack of editorial oversight into things. Is there a way we can discuss bad web serials? I feel like that's a much more fertile ground for discussion, at least in terms of discussing the sheer degrees of horribleness out there. It's always a shame to see worldbuilding fall to fetishes, but that seems to be what the internet does to writers.
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Sep 10, 2013 19:33
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Hedningen posted:Decided to binge through everything over the weekend. Worm is really above any other web serial I've ever read. It manages to sidestep the problems of pretty much every other one that's been recommended to me thus far. Mocking all the terrible web fiction doesn't really fit the tone of this thread, maybe make a new one? Anyhoo yeah, after I caught up on Worm I went looking for other decent web serials, hoping against hope that I'd tapped into some wonderful new world of storytelling. I was quickly disappointed. Alas the internet is still the internet and 99.99% of everything on it is still utter garbage.
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Sep 10, 2013 21:45
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Skippy McPants posted:Anyhoo yeah, after I caught up on Worm I went looking for other decent web serials, hoping against hope that I'd tapped into some wonderful new world of storytelling. I was quickly disappointed. Alas the internet is still the internet and 99.99% of everything on it is still utter garbage. I'm just thankful I discovered this 0.01%.
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Sep 10, 2013 22:03
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Who was the third endbringer that Doctor Mother was talking about ?
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Sep 10, 2013 22:36
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r0ff13c0p73r posted:Who was the third endbringer that Doctor Mother was talking about ? Tohu. Or Bohu, whichever one it was that showed up. The one that hasn't showed is the only 'unclaimed' Endbringer at the moment. Khonsu was sold by Teacher to Cauldron, the PRT/Wards have Leviathan and ..Bohu?, and Taylor's group has the Simurgh.
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Sep 10, 2013 22:55
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hollylolly posted:Tohu. Or Bohu, whichever one it was that showed up. The one that hasn't showed is the only 'unclaimed' Endbringer at the moment. Khonsu was sold by Teacher to Cauldron, the PRT/Wards have Leviathan and ..Bohu?, and Taylor's group has the Simurgh. And the best part is, only Taylor's group really recognizes that they don't really have any significant control over the Endbringers at all. It's merely cooperation, not even alliance between common foes.
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Sep 10, 2013 23:05
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Whichever of Tohu and Bohu is the giant one is the third one on the Undersiders... payroll? They have Levi, Simmy and Bohu, Teacher sold Khonsu to Cauldron, and I don't think it's been revealed what happened to Tohu yet. On another note, thinking about the mist thing... is anyone else slightly worried, even now, that Crawler might be able to regenerate from red mist status back into crawler status? Even more so if he would regenerate into multiple Crawlers... More to the point, was it ever mentioned whether anyone had managed to cut him in half, and if so, what happened?
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Sep 10, 2013 23:10
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thespaceinvader posted:On another note, thinking about the mist thing... is anyone else slightly worried, even now, that Crawler might be able to regenerate from red mist status back into crawler status? Even more so if he would regenerate into multiple Crawlers... Red mist? Crawler wasn't disintegrated, he was turned into some kind of glass by one of Bakuda's bombs. He wasn't ever cut in half, but in 12.x Scrub did remove large chunks of his body, including a considerable potion of his brain. It didn't seem to cause him more than a few moments consternation.
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Sep 10, 2013 23:35
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thespaceinvader posted:On another note, thinking about the mist thing... is anyone else slightly worried, even now, that Crawler might be able to regenerate from red mist status back into crawler status? Even more so if he would regenerate into multiple Crawlers... Wormverse regenerators all seem to have a core of some sort. Bust the core and they're bust. Hookwolf, Echnida, the Endbringers all consider non-core damage to be superficial, while the core itself is incredibly resilient.
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Sep 10, 2013 23:46
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