Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.9.

Episode Notes:

• Is this the best chapter so far??
• A well executed and more importantly incredibly cool use of power synergy
• Jenny’s first thought about what Taylor was going to do to Lung may surprise you
• What’s the difference between a villain and a brutally utilitarian hero?
• Does Taylor know how this will look to others? Does she care?
• Checking in on Jenny’s current feelings about Taylor
• Taylor’s brutality can be compared to Kaiser’s brutality and that’s a really bad look
• Jenny and Ted grapple with the moral trade-offs a bit since Taylor won’t
• What’s better than seeing hubris take down one awful supervillain? Seeing hubris take down TWO awful supervillains!
• Sundancer corner: her power and future team prospects
• Taylor saves Angelica!!!!
• We loved seeing Bitch rush in at the end
• We’re skeptical that Taylor actually ended things with Lung
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-09/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.8.

Episode Notes:

• Bugs doing stuff. Bugs doing stuff better than ever!
• Speculation about Taylor’s power and its effects
• Taylor takes stock and takes command
• What’s really motivating her? Tactics? Morals? Excellence?
• Taylor can’t reveal her motives to Bitch and may not even be revealing them to herself all the time
• Maybe Taylor would have had more luck communicating with Labyrinth than Bitch, actually...
• Sundancer the investigative journalist
• Bitch's pessimism about human nature
• The ups and downs of communicating with Bitch
• What does it mean if twins have the same power? (If they even do)
• Is Bitch really being difficult, or is she the victim of Taylor's mistrust (and narrative necessity)? Or is Taylor just getting too big for her b(r)itches?
• We're curious to see how Taylor and Bitch repair after these interactions
• Taylor likes to be in control
• Taylor's fear of drugs feels very true to life. Gonna be a problem for Newtbug
• What kind of dragon is Lung, anyway?
• Jenny hopes Sundancer turns into a sun

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-08/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.7.

Episode Notes:

• What well-described combat this is! Excellent layering of action
• Ted makes a great point about show don't tell even if Jenny doesn't realize it at the time
• The way in which Oni Lee’s power is like Taylor’s
• Coil's soldiers are no joke. Neither are guns
• All these villains are pretty heroic -- thanks in part to Taylor
• What is Labyrinth's power if not hallucinations?
• We're very worried about Brutus's eye
• I Just Found Out My Dad Is Gay: And In Love With Coil’s Sniper?
• Dire predicktions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-07/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.6.

Episode Notes:

• Taylor’s got her groove* back! (*bugs)
• And she’s SO COOL and innovative
• Newter enters the gladiatorial shipping arena and looks pretty great
• He also seems like a powerful cape, so why did he end up with Faultline?
• Or… are the heroes just total failures at recruitment?
• Jenny and Ted can’t agree whether the average Newter would even want to work for the government
• Ted tries to pin Jenny down on whether she finds Newter hot but she dodges the question
• Coil’s guys are doing their own thing
• The important “heart” skill of targeted small talk
• Taylor’s true personality is emerging
• Sundancer is open, authentic, and troubled
• Labyrinth is a labyrinth wrapped in a labyrinth inside a labyrinth
• Villains that don’t want to kill people stand out in our estimation
• We don’t put a lot of stock in Taylor’s theories about the ABB
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-06/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.5.

Episode Notes:

• Why doesn't Coil's gang have a name?
• Who's going to betray this villain alliance first, and how soon?
• Also, what are they attacking, exactly?
• We learn that the helmet makes the Grue
• Action is better than inaction, even when it hurts
• Brian, buddy, you really shouldn't be giving advice on dealing with Bitch
• On the other hand, maybe Taylor should be giving such advice?
• We're so compelled by this dynamic with Bitch
• Bitch is basically the Tattletale of body language
• Brian might be a little bit of a control freak. Shame Bitch can't be controlled
• Dog body horror
• Theories on Taylor's expanded power
• If only this world had Z-space (hi, Gray)
• Inquiring minds want to know where powers come from
• Apparently Jenny wouldn't mind having bugs in her hair
• Taylor: actually Pig Pen?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-05/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.4.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny’s worst chapter
• When school is everything
• Will any institution in Worm do better than Taylor’s high school?
• Perhaps worst of all, these failings are so grounded and real
• Does Alan achieve Emma-levels of bullying in this chapter, or merely Taylor-levels of planning and strategy?
• Does Madison achieve any levels of strength or relevance at all? No, of course not!
• Jenny hopes that Sophia will eventually somehow work with Taylor against the story’s true villain… Emma
• Taylor picked defensive righteousness over maximizing her odds of success (even though her maximum odds were probably quite low)
• The selfish reason why the principal won’t transfer Taylor
• Jenny requests some reassurance from Ted about what’s in store
• We still love Danny and think he’d be a great cape Dad (though it’s up to Taylor)
• Oh no, are we older than Danny?
• If Jenny can’t get a happy ending, she will accept Taylor (and Amy?!?) going on a rampage
• Capes are just people, but people can be villains
• We wind down by circling back to the school’s failure, and some particularly bad actors within the school
• Predictions on how Taylor can win the arc

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-04/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.3.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny thinks this could be the worst chapter of Worm for her, but just wait one episode!
• The world of Worm has a state-sanctioned violence problem
• ACAB (all capes, especially Shadow Stalker, are bastards)
• Taylor, don't become a cop!
• What if this chapter is a microcosm of the novel and Jenny's gonna be this mad the whole time??
• Theories on Emma the superpowered puppetmaster
• If only Taylor were a worse person, she'd be so much better at this
• You know what might make Taylor a permanent Undersider? Emma joining the Wards
• The system loves Emma, because the system is not good
• Assault and Battery: not siblings, not dating, but a secret third thing??
• Taylor learns that nobody is special
• People don't want the real story, because they like their heroes
• Every time we see Danny, we just love him more
• Danny values people over rules
• Does Alan know about Emma?
• The problems with hero worship
• Battery is a cool cape name...Assault, not so much
• The war on Taylor begins
• Reality doesn't matter. Only appearances matter. Taylor's not so good at appearances.
• Who turned Massachusetts upside down??
• Jenny already wants to burn all the heroes to the ground. Uh-oh
• Jenny starts on her evilness rankings. Apparently Emma is worse than Purity
• Is this conclusively not YA yet?
• Where could things go from here?
• Oops, we had more to say! An ACAB addendum

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-03/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted and Tanner discuss Hive 5.2.

Episode Notes:

• Welcome to guest host Moose/Tanner!
• Tanner immediately justifies the existence of the Inchworm podcast. It was worth it!!
• Wait, Taylor is actually the heart of the group??
• Rachel and Taylor are the most moral Undersiders
• Brian probably shouldn’t get a dog, or at least one that he has to train
• Has Grue already made up his mind about Bitch?
• Grue and Tattletale both talk down to Bitch
• Why the closing moments of this chapter were so significant to Tanner
• Taylor won’t have any problem betraying the Undersiders and becoming a villain, because she’ll definitely also change her whole personality to be braver and cooler at the same time!
• What it means that Taylor didn’t choose to try to be a Ward (with minor Scholomance spoilers, you can skip ahead 30 seconds)
• So just how delusional is Taylor about how this betrayal would feel?
• The BirdCage is in B.C. (#BuCketTruth)
• We check in with blissed out Alec
• Hookwolf’s ambush was probably planned
• Kaiser? More like DIE-ser, we hope! Note that this joke doesn’t work with German pronunciation
• Some Coil chat
• Not having powers would suck (except maybe for Taylor in Tilt? Ted hasn’t read it but it’s well reviewed on Discord)
• We check with Tanner about his decision to read ahead of the podcast
• Having succeeded at getting Tanner to read Worm, Ted tries to get Tanner to read Seek
• We wrap up with some speculation about whether Jenny will enjoy the end of the story
• Predictions and a plug from Tanner

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-02/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Hive 5.1.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny is a predictive genius
• No virtue signaling among villains
• Even villains want someone to look down on
• The cost of doing business in this town is being willing to sit down with Nazis
• Do the other villains at the table know that Grue is black?
• The Undersiders: not so under anymore!
• New ship just dropped: SmugLine
• Tattletale reveals a perfectionist streak
• Ted’s muppet theory
• It's nice that Newter and Gregor the Snail got matching tattoos to let us know they're in love
• Okay, maaaaaybe these villains don't want to kill 300 innocent people if they don't have to
• Taylor deserves a cape name she loves
• Apparently Jenny still doesn't know what this story is about

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-5-hive/5-01/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.x.

Episode Notes:

• We celebrate the craft behind the goodest narrative voice
• Whether Rachel is nice, kind, or good
• How Brutus is like our toddler (other than not being a murderer)
• How big is Rachel’s rescue operation?
• The Lesson (poor kid)
• Dogs is simpler than people
• “Alpha” dogs and “alpha” Brian
• The various ways we could read Rachel’s behavior
• The secret of Rachel’s cape name
• Arc 4 Storytime Cleanup
• This chapter made us cry
• Mister Smell-o-phane (you’d never nose he’s there)
• Revisiting the arc 2 fight
• A dozen cape names!!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-x-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow