Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.7.

Episode Notes:

• Trickster the optimist
• Cherish: “We have Tattletale at home!” Tattletale at home: Cherish.
• Who was Sarah?
• Maybe Cherish is just bad at this
• Nobody is surprised at the accusations against Coil
• Skitter gets violent
• Taylor can’t see how to win over the heroes
• Legend is Bionic Bunny
• Miss Militia is like “Yeah, as you now know, when you fight the Nine, you lose people. That’s what I don’t want!”
• Legend’s presence lets Hannah stay in a comfortable role
• We got one sentence about Colin so we talked about Dragon for five minutes
• Would Skitter have benefitted from throwing herself on the mercy of the heroes? Nah
• Would Skitter have benefitted from flexing her tactical genius? Hell yeah
• Since Taylor doesn’t know how to feel about herself, where is she getting her take on villainy?
• Jenny and Ted both try to end the episode early

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/snare-13-7/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.6.

Episode Notes:

• Who got snared?
• Cherish is a liar but sadly sometimes she tells the truth
• There's nothing off the table with Bonesaw
• Our villain heroes are catching up to our knowledge of the Nine
• Siberian is Aegis without the damage
• The capture of Shatterbird puts us at odds with Battery
• The many pitfalls of rescuing Grue
• Oops we've misplaced Imp
• But she had such a big impact in her absence
• Ballistic redeemed
• We've arrived at the Vonnegut novel
• Taylor's good at this, actually
• Trickster and Genesis are both game-changers
• Finally, a work of fiction that makes proper use of sniper rifles
• Taylor's read the evil overlord list
• Are the Undersiders more affected by Coil's power because they're more morally flexible?
• Taylor overcoming her pedantry in the name of decisive leadership
• She's still growing into this role
• The tactical freedom of being a villain
• How much were Taylor's moral emotions activated during this plan?
• For once, Taylor feels good about her performance
• No holds barred with S9 prisoners
• It changes the calculus on what it's okay to do to a person, when people can be capes
• We speculate on Coil's timeline choices
• Lisa's doing great in this chapter
• Did Grue really have to be sacrificed?
• We want Imp to rescue Grue
• Can't Ballistic and Dolltown just get along?
• The ambiguity of Jack's smiles
• Where are the other capes in this situation?
• Deep roots on the Travelers
• Fun times ahead for Grue as a person with a body
• Possible Wildbow easter eggs

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/snare-13-6/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.5.

Episode Notes:

• Somewhat hypocritically we can’t believe they’ve forgotten Imp
• Clever Skitter
• A partial metamorphosis
• New Skitter takes a blunter approach with the Travelers
• The edge that fear gives you
• Choosing villainy
• The unwritten rules are also unspoken
• Character economy and creating room for New Skitter
• How going after the Nine is like punching Rachel
• Is this going to be practice for taking down Coil?
• Taylor’s comb-over of pain
• Taylor and Rachel do about as well as they ever will coming to an understanding
• “Kindred spirits”
• Trust and forgiveness
• The people who make it safe for you to be messier
• Genesis the dreamer
• More speculation about the Travelers’ origins
• Ted’s theory about a path Bitch might have wanted to take if the story had let her

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/snare-13-5/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.4.

Episode Notes:

• Things don't look great for Skitterland
• More cheating!!
• We suspect Taylor doesn't have a plan
• Narratively, we could really take a curveball
• Do the Nine even have keystones anymore?
• Jack doesn't care about fair
• Burnscar's a bird of prey, basically
• Taylor's making some big leaps about a lack of affect
• The dark triad
• We want Burnscar to stay complicated
• A Jack-style test
• Burnscar essentially told Bitch why she shouldn't kill her teammates
• Canonical confirmation of found family
• Are Bitch's relationships on the road to healing?
• A debate over Grue and physical force
• Taylor has six basic senses now
• Why didn't she get a range boost from this chapter?
• Powers and addictive behaviors
• The push and pull of big resolute moments
• Somebug and the relationship seesaw
• Taylor, Aisha, and the willingness to throw themselves away
• Skitterland as a symbol of Taylor's confidence
• Genesis' power and disability
• Leave no Unraveler behind
• Charlotte loves orders
• Why does Mannequin hate parents?
• Taylor has kids now
• ...but no costume

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/snare-13-4/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.3.

Episode Notes:

• Monster dog biology
• The narrative pendulum
• Jenny’s expecting rescuers 
• Share your favorite visual references for Mannequin’s “laughter”
• Mannequin’s priority targets
• Taylor is making all the right moves to earn Bitch’s trust again
• Where Bitch finds her extra dog juice
• Bastard the Most Valuable Pupper
• To kill or not to kill?
• Burnscar was probably watching some of this
• What can Taylor hear in Mimi and Sophia?
• How Taylor thinks differently because of her power
• Mannequin is just doing what seems the most cruel/fun
• So how badly are we feeling Taylor?
• Does an attack on Skitterland actually reflect poorly on Skitter?
• Ted doesn’t remember Legally Blonde
• Cleverness? We love to see it

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/snare-13-3/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.x.5 (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• We make peace with interlude labeling
• Cherish's potential demands
• The sticking point: the Siberian
• Imp's regard for her own life vs. her own reputation
• Sheath knowledge is our new secret weapon
• So many missed shots at Jack
• Imp_______
• Brian needs to get it together and listen to Aisha
• Maybe we need to start taking Aisha seriously as an Undersider
• Aisha has to work for every moment of attention she gets
• We like Aisha a LOT more when she's not with Brian
• A lot of maturity, a lot of damage
• Wait. Is this Harriet the Spy?
• Give Imp a chance!!
• Okay but also thank goodness for Brian
• Just how many memories can Imp erase
• Ironically, Imp can't make herself forget
• Inherited powers and generational trauma
• This is Aisha's million-dollar gamble
• Some twisted domesticity
• Ted loves Crawler now
• Does Bonesaw make her body childlike on purpose?
• Shatterbird vs. Hookwolf looks different with sheaths
• Why doesn't Aisha's power work on Cherish's memories?
• Cherish would be a great friend for Aisha, if she didn't suck
• Impreg
• The return of psychic shielding
• Killer instincts: check
• Chekhov's slit throat
• Civilian perspectives on Brockton Bay

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/interlude-13%c2%bd-bonus/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.2.

Episode Notes:

• Mannequin is formidable but Taylor just might have the narrative advantage again
• It’s not fair that tinkers can use their sideboard between rounds!!
• Of course, Grue and Imp have sibling powers
• Mannequin’s misprinted knives and a double Wormiversary!
• On the other hand, a win in round one suggests Taylor would be due for future defeats…
• Bitch isn’t just angry, she’s in crisis
• Jenny identifies more Undersider death flags
• Taylor’s feeling like herself again
• Taylor is evolving…. into Ghostwriter!
• Was Amy gettable if they hadn’t been interrupted?
• Amy needs to believe all villains are violators
• Excuses vs. forgiveness
• Are we villain or are we monster?
• Does Taylor’s authenticity shine through?
• Combat Amy (she’s wearing the hat for it!)
• We like stories where people solve impossible problems
• Amy is like if Battery stood up for her ideals in the most annoying way
• Eww, Amy can feel Taylor’s brain through her bugs
• Let’s Tinker Amy
• Good Cop, Bad Cop, Dad Cop
• A Tattletangent
• Noelle? More like Nocape!
• Now there are three murderers on the Undersiders
• Interlude predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/snare-13-2/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.1.

Episode Notes:

• It's possible this is the bad-joke arc
• We've been successfully reminded of the tension
• How much narrative space are we gonna spend on these rounds of testing?
• Skitterland! We love what she's done with the place!
• Taylor, Lisa, and the mortifying ordeal of being perceived
• Taylor, Brian, and the cautious approach to villainy
• Taylor, Colin, and the vulnerability of having connections
• Beating the Slaughterhouse Nine might make beating Coil seem more realistic
• Caution vs. lack of hope
• How can we fail here? Let us count the ways
• What game is Coil playing here?
• Imp-ulsivity
• Alas for our combat Lisa
• We're excited for Lisa to grow into this scar
• What would happen if we knew Noelle's power...
• So many traveler mysteries to... unravel
• We continue to be balked of an Undersiders reunion
• Bitch(es) need(s) stitches
• Mannequin is scarier for being smart
• As game rules go, these are not good ones
• Can the city catch a break? Please??
• Somebug vibes

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/snare-13-1/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.x.5 (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• It’s 10 minutes in before we tell you whose interlude this is
• We deliver our verdict on this instance of enemies-to-lovers(?)
• Jenny thinks that if Cauldron needs to call on reinforcements that fate has a loss in store for the Nine (and an ironic mission in store for Battery)
• Battery’s cop brain and total lack of commitment to her stated values
• A cautionary Tayl-or, if only she could read it
• Was either leap of faith taken here worthwhile? As annoying as it is, maybe
• Seems like the integrity problem extends all the way up to the top of the Protectorate, Legend
• Heroes without HR are just eoes
• Letting the sitcom trope play out does such a good job of riling up the reader
• Did Battery gift of the magi herself here? Get the power to beat Madcap at the cost of letting him get away?
• Ted really tried to give the ship the benefit of the doubt but then he remembered the likely age difference
• Wouldn’t it be nice to fly? Too bad we can’t afford it!
• We haven’t met any idle rich capes or business tycoon capes
• Where are all the business tinkers?
• Cauldron’s reach and aesthetics
• What’s Cauldron for?
• You can't be morally gray when you're creating Case 53s
• We want the Case 53 backstories
• The slippery slope of anonymity
• Who is this Doctor, really?
• We go on a vision quest with Battery… but was it a trigger event?
• Cauldron powers vs. "real" powers
• Samples and siblings
• Cauldron capes have a mindfulness advantage
• Does every voluntary Cauldron client make it out?
• Battery's battery of reasons for being a battery
• A long, slow self-kidnapping
• Batteries and magnets
• Worm getting global at last
• Where are all the nemeses we're hearing about?
• We contemplate our own enrollment as Cauldron clients
• Coil's Cauldron favor could be a tidy opportunity
• Oops, seems like Battery might end the world

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/interlude-12%C2%BD/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.x.

Episode Notes:

• Jack missed his calling as a normal non-murderous manager, or maybe as a middle school teacher
• The best we can say about Jack is that maybe he's indifferent to murder
• What if Jack's deepest desire is just to play a lot of Mafia
• Or...to be a novelist?
• This interlude was really the Nine's, not Jack's
• Did Jack make the deal harder for himself before telling the NIne?
• The nuances of the tests
• Jack's fallen into the narrative trap of being too dangerous to our villain-heroes
• The narrative expendability of our various candidates
• The surreality of watching overwhelming violence against people you don't care about
• Imagine the Nine without Jack's control...
• The discomfort of having Mannequin up first
• Cherish could become their person on the inside
• Jenny's looking forward to Noelle being turned loose on these people
• Who wins in a battle of Jack vs. Tattletale?
• We digest some carrots
• Cherish might have enough emotional intelligence to threaten Jack
• Labyrinth = one blorbo spared
• Uh-oh...Regent lifts out...
• Scrub is Jenny's blorbo now
• I guess we can admit that Bonesaw is pretty cool
• We identify the classic Wildbow combat move of sudden violence
• RIP Trainwreck
• Jack might be a tiiiiny bit pretentious
• Would Jack be willing to ship of Theseus the Nine?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/interlude-12/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow