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

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.11.

Episode Notes:

• The interlude placement discourse heats up
• The agonizing tension of Taylor finally having people but not people she can keep
• It's not as simple as good people and bad people!
• Maybe putting villains into prison isn't a good solution to the world's problems
• Consequences are so darn hard to predict, even of your own actions!
• What if the bugs...are a metaphor??
• This story started with so many dominoes already set up
• The narrative doesn't feel inevitable, which makes it more powerful
• Wait, why didn't the ABB take the money?
• Danny continues to be the cutest, and Jenny continues to dream of him as Taylor's ally
• Some very parental SomeBug. We don't know what to think!
• Lisa's nailing her performance checks here
• What happens if Lisa figures out Taylor's secret? And could she sell Taylor on villainy at this point?
• Taylor's not going to betray these guys. But she's not ready to admit that yet.
• Any Flappertale fanart out there? 
• Danny and Taylor’s good relationship might make the Undersiders wary
• Maybe Taylor's powers are growing!! If not, she'll at least probably get better at bug prep
• Worm gets a good grade in concussions
• The challenge of realistic injuries in an action story
• Jenny wants to see Taylor being extra honest under the influence of brain damage
• We're not sure Lung is going to let the Undersiders lie low after this
• Interlude speculation

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-11/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.10.

Episode Notes:

• It’s our first altered mental state chapter and it’s a great one
• Ted immediately derails the summary (Sorry Jenny!)
• Whatever happens next, this feels like a deeply earned victory
• Bakuda’s only held back by her personality
• Toe rings as classic misdirection
• How Taylor must look to Bakuda
• The amount of strength it takes for Taylor to take that lucky shot
• Is Bakuda a mad scientist or does she just think she’s a mad scientist?
• The analysis devolves into reading our favorite lines, this is just a really well written chapter

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.9.

Episode Notes:

• Introducing our new protagonist: Angelica Worm
• No jk we think it's a pain bomb
• Returning segment “Ted reads a page from Worm”
• So much SomeBug (a real ship name we didn’t just make up)
• Does Brian think of Taylor as a sister, a dog, or something more??
• We expose the boss's duplicity
• Unless there's a secret civilian leader of the ABB
• Deflating Bakuda
• Grue could work on his TattleTemper
• Regent could work on his strength training
• He did some reputation reps this chapter, though
• Does Tattletale know she's in a novel?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-09/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.8.

Episode Notes:

• Bakuda: actually a monster!
• But do we smell an uprising?
• Tattletale's so good at taunting, people think it's part of her power
• The only thing they have to fear is… bombs in their heads. Yikes. 
• Bakuda is omg so random
• So Bakuda's a cape and a genius? Come on, pick one!
• Would other villains in Brockton Bay care about the possibility of blowing up all the ABB's hostages? Maybe Bakuda's just putting a target on her back
• We're side-eying Regent
• You have to shut Tattletale up to give someone else the spotlight
• But she’s clearly still using her power
• A deep dive into who Bakuda might have been
• Taylor has her own ABB (A Buncha Bugs)
• Does this death change anything for Jenny? (Nah!)
• Most of the Undersiders won’t care for immediate retaliation

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-08/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.7.

Episode Notes:

• Where did Bakuda learn to play chess and why is she so good at it?
• Elite planning or just Leet planning?
• Ted gets to be a Bakuda fanboy for just one teeny tiny moment
• In the Metal Gear Solid games, Bakuda’s codenames would be Bomber Mantis, Fatwoman, and The Bomb
• Does E88 make it easier for the ABB to exploit people?
• It’ll get worse before it gets better
• Sweet character moments with Grue and Tattletale
• What’s the sound of a black hole, Ted?
• Bomb Corner

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-07/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.x (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• Ted is wily!
• As is Wildbow. Way to hide the ball, Wildbow.
• Boo! There’s racism inside this feminism!
• Maybe Kayden is tragic but not sympathetic?
• She’s also seemingly very ineffective when not fighting
• Kayden and Aster as symbols
• Purity, blankness, and whiteness
• Is Theo too “pure”? Or is he lacking “manliness”?
• Empire Eighty Eight sounds like working at Amazon
• I don’t really have a quippy line about this, but we try to grapple with how 2011 supervillain Nazis feel different from the 2025 mundane ones
• Does Kayden want to change? Or even want to want to change?
• Oops we compared Purity to Tattletale
• If we can think Kayden's a hero for three-quarters of the chapter, what does that say about heroes?
• Purity and Bakuda are both changing the odds for the upcoming gang war
• This is an interlude more like what Jenny was expecting
• Jenny reads the first five words of the next chapter
• Does the dog die??

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.6.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny's forgotten everything she's ever predicted
• Leet's power must trigger such anticipatory nostalgia
• In defending video games, Uber and Leet are fighting a battle that's already been won.
• Unlike their battle against the Undersiders, which has already been lost.
• But have they ever farted on a baby?
• Tattletale, master baiter
• We speculate on how Uber breathes in a doctor's office
• How to optimize Leet's power?
• If you cloned yourself, would your clones have your superpower?
• Do tinkers even use science?
• A very cartoonish fight, until Taylor has to choke someone out
• This upcoming fight isn't looking good for our herovillains
• Taylor's learning to be more careful with her swarm
• Interlude 3.5?! We're floored.
• We find out about the special protectorate orphanage which is totally real

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-06/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.5.

Episode Notes:

• Get your votes in: can Taylor banter or not??
• Taylor gets her wish
• Is Uber’s power is like moving to California?
• Turns out video games do cause violence!
• Did Uber and Leet invent Twitch?
• Sorry to say that having good taste is not a technique
• Jenny wants to know when the fun stops
• Is there a slippery slope here aside from the storage locker roof?
• Taylor's really hitting her (under)stride(r). Unfortunately?
• A detour about form and pacing featuring a comment from Wildbow
• Jenny pitches a different metaphorical fall
• Emma’s power is, indirectly, permission for Taylor’s vengeance
• Alec's coming into his own, maybe!
• Ted pitches a paranoid and lonely ghost-finder cape
• The elusive Rachel
• Jenny speculates on Leet’s classification and secret employer

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-05/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.4.

Episode Notes:

• The suspense is getting to Jenny
• Turns out these villains really ARE sympathetic!
• Non-villainy? In this economy??
• Stakes just went up, everyone!!
• How can Taylor turn Brian in now?
• Taylor's ripe for a coming-of-age disillusionment
• Does Brian disprove the category of villains, or simply escape it?
• Whose motives are nobler, Brian's or Taylor's?
• Brian's stoicism and pragmatism go hand in hand
• Was this the worst day of his life, though?
• Taylor, you should make your hugs less brief
• Are superpowers related to self-image?
• We're on Alec's side about the spiders
• Taylor the tailor
• The Monty Hall Murder Problem
• The Sidewalk Incident
• Predictions and torturability

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-04/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow