Worm Web Serial - Tumblr Posts

I did not register that Taylor killed Aster until my friend started yelling at me about while I was recounting my thoughts on the chapter. My reading comprehension abilities are quite iffy

For a brief period before reading it, I thought the book was called "Wyrm". Even though I was aware this was a book about a bug villain and the other spelling made way more sense.

I think Ward is really good actually despite its many flaws.

Around Arc 2 or 3 I somehow got it in my head that Alexandria was the undersiders secret boss. Luckily this was not true and Alexandria was not involved in anything shady or duplicotus whatsoever.

Wormblr Confession Time:

At the risk of inventing Worm Catholicism and generating guilt where there shouldn't be, I'm making a post for myself and y'all to share our Worm Confessions.

Okay, here goes:

I got into Worm because I saw it mentioned on tv tropes.

I got into Worm fanfic because I saw THAT mentioned on tv tropes as well.

As much as I want people to find Brian interesting as a character because he IS interesting and a badass and doesn't get enough credit in general, Taylor/Brian is a boring ship and people were 100% justified in making other ships way more popular.

Skitter x Clockblocker ships are so wild to me because all I can imagine is their kids asking them how they met and Dennis tells this sanitized, enemies to lovers romance story while Taylor just goes "I was robbing a bank and your dad tried to stop me so I stuffed bugs into his mouth and eyes"

What powers do you think Sylvester would have if he was a parahuman (let's say he's a Cauldron Cape for simplicity sake and it kinda fits with the idea of his Wyvern doses)

Oh hey, I got time on my hands.

AMA about Ward, Worm, Pact, Twig, Pale, Claw, or whatever media you think I might know about.

Things you never say to someone who just came out (Worm Editition)

Sylvester what are you doing here?!?!

This interaction is so funny knowing that Coil is the one who hired the Travelers and brought them to Brockton Bay. You can't convince me he didn't rehearse this in one of his alternative timelines. It really feels like he opens the interaction this way to put as much distance from the idea of them being connected to him as possible

Some of the most annoying worm fans are the ones who are so poisoned by power scaling nonsense that their only criticisms are nitpicks like "Jack not being able to lose to parahumans is bullshit" or "Lung gets worfed because he always loses to Taylor how is only X level"

They forget that these elements are in here for narrative reasons and not so you can put these characters on a fake Tier list and argue with strangers on r/Whowouldwin.

Jack not losing to parahumans challenges many the characters notions about treating regular humans as an after thought and shows that maybe powers are not the best solution for every situation.

This same thing applies basically any superhero or action story.

Another thing I like about Worm's power system is that it all powers coming from interdimensional aliens means that the character doesn't have to have a big convoluted backstory about how they got their powers. It's similar to the X men in that sense.

Also it means you can have way more weird and abstract powers like King being able to distribute the damage he takes to anyone he's touched in the last 24 hours. You couldn't really have a power like that in Marvel or DC without it feeling out of place in the setting

I think what I really love about the Parahuman power system is that, with Shards being alive and determining the “rules” of the setting, it creates a lot of neat variations of limitations and weaknesses for power use.

Taylor can’t control mites but she can control some crawfish

Grey Boy can’t loop memories, but Cody can

Victoria can only take 1 hard hit but can hold out against beams

Spitfire can ignite accelerant but isn’t fire proof

Dinah can see the future but can’t lie or control it

And on and on.

Plus, with Shard seeing alive, that means that they can adapt within these guidelines so we get Taylor getting wider range, Dinah able to ask more questions, Victoria having more forcefield control etc etc

And who's to say the power doesn't stay in effect after you die? If Aisha falls down the stairs or gets killed in the heat of battle, who's to say her power won't make her friends permanently forgot her? What must it be like, living with that fear hanging over you.

Damn, doesn't it kind of suck the impermanence of Aisha? Doesn't it kind of suck to be forced to stay out of pictures with friends so they don't just slowly disappear over time. Isn't it awful that in order to ever keep memories that last, you can never be in them? Do you think it hurt to watch as every picture of you and your dead brother slowly turned to static? To see every video of you two together disappear? Some people worry their entire lives over the idea that after they die they'll be forgotten, but what must it feel like to live it? To be forgotten and see others forget you. To see everything that could have proven your existence fade away forever.

Uber and Leet are also cosplaying as Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane during this

No but seriously imagine it:

Your seeing the undersiders in concert. Everyone is having a great time. The undersiders seem a little excited. “We have a surprise for you guys.” Grue says. All of a sudden the travelers come out and start singing “League of Legends startup song”. When Trickster gets to the chorus, someone else starts singing….

“Oh the misery everybody wants to be my enemy.”

Lights flash everywhere, and you see the undersiders singing leagues of legends startup song along with the travelers, while cauldron is singing enemy by imagine dragons. Everyone in the crowd is going wild and Crying. Then if things couldn’t get any better, Uber and Leet walk onto stage and kiss, holding the gay flag.

Winter: Says it to let people know what Crimson is saying

Chuckles: It's the only thing he says actually but no one can understand him

Skinslip: Is gay actually and says it about himself. Likes to make a cunty little frock out of human skin and strut around in it

Would the S9 say "faggot":

Jack - Homosexual.

Bonesaw - Faggot is a swear and thus a word she can't say.

Siberian - Everytime she sees a gay person Manton has to physically limit himself from screaming it at the top of his lungs to maintain her cool and mysterious persona.

Mannequin - He tried once to spell it out on the ground but it took too long to write and someone hit him over the head before he could finish.

Crawler - Yeah.

Shatterbird - She heard Jack say it once so she said it to try to seem cool but he just kinda glared at her when she did.

Cherish - Says it on a daily basis. She has an alarm that reminds her to do so.

Burnscar - Nah.

Murder Rat - She can't speak.

I felt like Brockton Bay Book Club really went downhill after Kat and Taylor left. The whole appeal of these kind of read through podcasts is seeing how the new person is going to react to different parts of the story and what their thoughts will be on it. But now that they've left its just a bunch of worm fans with takes that are less interesting then We've Got Worm and only occasionally funny.

isn't this the same chapter where Hookwolf literally drops the N-Word

if i believe really really hard and am hopeful and patient there will be worm and pact liveblogs for me to read

As an irish person I have complicated thoughts on Scion doing the whole blowing up Britain thing. Like yeah millions of innocent people died but on the other hand the monarchy also probably died.

So y'know, silver linings and all that

Do you think Grue ever got compared to the guy from Despicable Me? Like I need to know if that movie came out on Earth Bet because imagine your Brian Laborn and you decide your Supervillian name will be an old English word to try and get street cred from the other villains. Then you just get compared to the funny Russian guy from a children's movie.

I think if Despicable Me does come out on Earth Bet its made to be way more grounded, more a James bond spoof then anything. So no freeze Ray or anything like that. The minions probably don't stay due to Gru being hero who don't usually use minions

Speaking of which, Gru isn't a villan anymore for aforementioned reasons and is likely changed to the old archetype of overworking parent figure who needs to make time for his family. For these reasons Despicable Me (which would probably be called something else to the point of being unrecognisable to us) is a flop or no where near as successful as our version, meaning that Brian is safe from being made fun of (at least in this aspect)

Do you think Grue ever got compared to the guy from Despicable Me? Like I need to know if that movie came out on Earth Bet because imagine your Brian Laborn and you decide your Supervillian name will be an old English word to try and get street cred from the other villains. Then you just get compared to the funny Russian guy from a children's movie.

I went on #worm ounce and the banner image was a tweet regarding worm. The most recent post was an Earthworm with tits

I find the #Worm and #Wormblr tags hilarious, because you could have a post about worms, the little wiggly invertebrates (not to be confused with the wiggly vertebrates (snakes)), or a Canadian web serial from 2011 about trauma powers and failures of authority figures.

Jack Smash just has regular Jack's ability only it works on blunt force objects instead of blades

Skatter has a breaker form that let's her turn her body into a swarm of bug like creatures

Gory Girl has selective super strength that only applies to biological matter (she can tear a person in half but can't punch through a wall). She can also enhanced smell and hearing, allowing her to dectect heart beats.

Alternate Power based on name changes:

Jack Smash

Skatter

Gory Girl

Grum

Capricorn on the Cob

Lockout

Swanlong

I've been thinking about what if Lisa from Worm met Elias from The Magnus Archives.

Lisa, a girl who has the need to be the smartest person in the room having a battle of witts with the smarmeist evil genius ever. Either Lisa constantly gets stonewalled by Elias's smug facade and eventually ends up strangling him or she finds an opening and gets under his skin in which case were in for Brutal Pipe Murder part II

There is no in-between.

Sometimes I wish Wildbow got crazier with Biotinkers. Like don't get me wrong I love my boy Blasto and Riley is my favorite nightmare child but we can get weirder with it.

Give me a tinker who specialises in selective breeding and evolution. They can create fucked up, Nilbog-esqe monstrosities but have to go through the trial and error of breeding their creations to get the right genes.

Give me a tinker who can engineer and alter food and give a variety of boons to allies or horrifically poison enemies.

Yes i know I can just read Twig, leave me alone!

I'm picking Taylor simply because even if she fails I can least feel certain I will die in the least horrific way. Like I don't even know what Blake is capable of but I know Taylor has shoved bugs into people's dickholes, blinded someone with maggots, swarmed people with bugs dipped in capsaicin and other things I'm probably forgetting.