Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.y.

Episode Notes:

• The chapter was dark, but Legend weirdly wasn't
• Legend had way more illusions about Cauldron than we did
• Why do the Case 53s get released in the first place?
• Reasons for stirring the Cauldron
• Creating a Legend
• Ah, rationalizations 
• The tragedy of a wasted charge
• Legend vs. Piggot
• Taylor was so right about the heroes
• Gay headcanons
• There's no es-caping trauma
• We demand Dragonmaster vs. Cauldron
• A big thumbs down to Alexandria and Eidolon
• We see why Legend is legendary
• Who is motivated to hamper Endbringer preparedness?
• We ponder condemnation
• We <3 Kid Win
• Ocean resonance
• Oh right, other realities
• Endbringers as Nine... or vice versa...
• Cape authority as a metaphor for nationalism
• Redemption for Battery?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/interlude-14-5-bonus-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.x.

Episode Notes:

• Taylor picks Skitter’s next target
• Skitter takes her minion’s loyalty for granted
• Can Taylor work around the Noelle problem?
• Would Coil even be threatened if he knew they were turning on him?
• Taylor has her friends back and Skitter has notoriety
• The last two arcs have basically been a season of 24
• It’s like Skitter’s back from the dead
• Skitter thinks she’s scary enough that she can bluff… and she’s probably right?
• Ted wishes for slightly less acceptable targets
• Bryce sucks but Sierra might be tough to have as an older sister
• Three girls that differ in powers and trauma
• O’dalys? More like O’daycares!
• “It’s (not) okay”
• Anarchy in Skitterland
• Is it how Sierra sees herself or how she sees her role?
• Sierra’s only recently not a kid herself
• She couldn’t handle knowing Skitter isn’t coming back
• Taylor takes team loyalty for granted
• Skitter’s moral concern ends at the city limits
• Brockton Bay’s literal sunk cost
• There hasn’t been any time for Skitter to grieve Skitterland
• Why didn’t Charlotte leave the city again?
• Skitter can dish out violence better these days because she can control the difference between “hurt” and “kill”
• Is Taylor breaking bad?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/interlude-14/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.11.

Episode Notes:

• Mailbag episode incoming, get your questions in!
• The most sapphic chapter so far
• Jenny isn't locked in on a particular Taylor ship yet but we discuss the potential options
• Taylor-Siberian parallels
• Taylor and Lisa as bookends
• Is Lisa a good friend if you aren't Taylor?
• Brian got kiss-blocked
• The particular trauma of this miasma for Brian
• Why kissing, though? Is it because of Taylor's [REDACTED]?
• Is it queerbaiting? (no)
• We try to count the remaining Nine
• Fates worse than death
• The Nine arguably lost but Jack definitely won
• Hookwolf, we love to see you go
• Did Amy follow through?
• Lisa scored the only real victory against Jack
• Taylor's gonna kind of have to save the world
• Causes and symptoms
• Taylor's learning to trust herself
• ...even when Jack tests her
• Lisa's really capturing the themes here
• Amy causes girls to kiss, but not to kiss her
• The motifs for Bonesaw's Brockton Bay art project
• The Nine just want to make people over in their own image
• Spoilers for Animorphs 22
• Taylor's glorious future as a leader
• But she's gotta stop being so hard on herself
• And also take Statistics
• Yum, bugs

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/prey-14-11/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.10.

Episode Notes:

• An unlikely Undersider tier list
• Xenia High
• If this is basically the status quo by the end of the arc… where do things go from here?
• How fast acting is the cure?
• What if Alec is the only other one who remembers things?
• Who exactly escapes with Jack and Bonesaw?
• Ted raises a mystery that didn’t come up in Jenny’s summary of the chapter
• Miasma High
• We don’t really know Marquis well enough yet to know if Jack is right about him
• Does Jack do any better against Panacea than he did against Skitter?
• Jack’s talent for exploiting daddy issues
• Jenny is still a Cronesaw truther
• What’s Jack actually good at? Manipulation? Leadership? Fighting?
• Thinker Jack
• Is it time for a montage?
• Themes of human, animal, and monster in Book 2
• The troubling nature of Gory Girl
• Amy faces a Skitter who doesn’t remember her
• Skitter faces a familiar choice
• All these amazing manipulators out here just telling people to do what they want to do anyway
• Jack’s pitch to Amy and her possible fate
• Odds and ends

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.9.

Episode Notes:

• We're really confronting the themes of the work in this arc
• Jack aaaaalmost manages to stop underestimating Skitter
• A big L for Jack
• Twangin’ that bowstring
• Her key? Stoned.
• Women and children first for Taylor?
• Cherish isn't good ~~at manipulation~~, actually
• Consensus-based decision making among the Undersiders
• The Skitter-supervillain seesaw
• Taylor's actually the worst person to try to isolate and defeat like this
• Regret vs. grief
• The perils of a narrative that could do anything
• Coil, buddy. Be more paranoid, and also figure out what gangrene looks like
• Latin, Cherish? Vere?
• Self-fulfilling prophecy territory
• Jenny's death list
• Bonesaw, the repeated knife block
• Miasma gothic (she was great in Pearlescent!)
• (A) Battery (of) questions
• Good job on the intuition, Taylor
• Brockton Bay: the newest member of the 9?
• Hot- vs. cold-blooded killing
• Will the real Tattletale please show up?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/prey-14-9/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.8.

Episode Notes:

• A delicious cliffhanger
• The (tattle-)tell-tale signs of deception that Jenny (bone-)saw
• Why do they want Cherish?
• The art of being subtly out of character
• What are Bonesaw’s favorite tropes?
• Arc 1 Taylor wasn’t easy prey, either
• Jack forces the issue
• Major theme alert
• When you can’t beat ‘em, plague ‘em
• Was the water warning a bluff?
• It’s not like the city has the infrastructure in place to distribute a cure efficiently, even if it’s just Gloracea
• Do the Unravelers have enough plot armor to get through this?
• Lonely is as much a Sundancer thing as a Travelers thing
• Me, myself, and miasma
• Is going after Skitter personal for Jack and Bonesaw?
• Is the miasma revealing anything about parahuman nature?
• Maybe Legend doesn’t suck as much as we thought
• It’s bad but our girl is coping
• Do final girls get better, or just keep going?
• WE’VE GOT TITLE
• The joys and sorrows of agnosia
• Skitter gets a taste of her own medicine
• A very specific prediction about when Taylor figures out who she’s with
• TTTrickster’s paternalism
• The eagles can save us!
• Ends, odds, and predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/prey-14-8/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.7.

Episode Notes:

• Why isn't Legend letting the Unravelers play anymore?
• They say they've killed Crawler...
• Emily might be good at something after all
• (But not everything)
• Legend: honest to a fault
• Taylor coming full-circle with Legend
• Mercy killings
• Legend and the inscrutable plan
• Swan thoughts
• Did Jack and Bonesaw know about Siberian before today?
• The challenges of having a real body
• Undersider chain of command difficulties
• Love a good failed plan
• Lisa would not be a great therapist
• Hero feelings and actions vs. identity
• Taylor's hearing is improving!
• Psychosomatic darkness
• The true pronunciation of Legend
• We miss Bakuda
• Management can really reduce your impact as an individual contributor

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/prey-14-7/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.6.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny kicks things off with a bold and hopefully wrong prediction
• The Nine are converging
• Jenny ranks the Nine by who’s most likely to survive Arc 14
• What’s going to happen to Shatterbird?
• Regent’s power is a political obstacle for the Undersiders and a moral tangle for Taylor
• Book 2 scatters and reunites the Undersiders
• When will the crisis be over “enough” to de-escalate? 
• Could Cherish walk away?
• Does Lisa object to Amy because of deontology or consequentialism?
• We try to parse out whether there’s anything reasonable about Amy’s claims
• Why does Lisa back off?
• Jenny maps out the range of outcomes for Victoria and Amy, from “too easy” to Gloracea
• “She’s not thinking straight”
• What’s it been like in Victoria’s head?
• Amy’s power isn’t an undo button, but if it was, would she actually press it?
• There’s no excuse for taking Victoria to a second location
• My sister, my call
• Was Amy hoping for a more forgiving Victoria?
• Her sister is no longer invulnerable in her eyes
• Amy, we all know you aren’t going back to healing people 24/7
• Does Taylor regret her insinuation plot?
• Taylor can’t handle someone so obviously wrong and dumb trying to take the moral high ground
• WE LOVE ATLAS
• Some thoughts about people who aren’t Amy
• Piggot’s secret motive
• Weld / Skitter 2028
• Ted reminds us that he’s old
• The one thing that Amy says that is almost certainly true is that physically healing Victoria would take a long time
• Knowing the quickest answer doesn’t mean Lisa can get everyone on board
• boy hook hand hook throw girl
• Making a bad call during a life or death situation is one thing…
• Speaking up for Victoria and what she wanted
• Alec and Aisha see exactly what Amy is doing
• Try Fugly Bob’s latest beef substitute
• A tangent about Alec and some things we should have mentioned in 14.1
• Grue’s love language (Taylor’s is self-sacrifice)

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/prey-14-6/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.5.

Episode Notes:

• We were due for a down chapter
• The narrative challenges of deploying Crawler in a fight
• So much Victoria speculation
• Do two wrongs make a right?
• Amy was so annoying in this chapter
• Why can't people understand Skitter's intentions even though they have no reason to know or trust her??
• The narrative is kind to Taylor's hero instincts in this chapter
• Maybe Amy should care about someone besides her sister
• Taylor's making hash of Amy's beautiful binaries
• Ted has product design opinions about Steed
• Weld is beautiful inside and out (but not perfect) (may not even have genitalia)
• If only Weld and also everyone else were Taylor's bugs
• Wow, what a bad plan this bombing run was
• Skitter saved Piggot from a really bad after-action report
• Maybe Piggot just doesn't really like superpowers
• Mannequin's playing Overcooked with cars
• The most implausible thing in the world
• The metaphor of Taylor's silent bug sense
• Lisa using Taylor's brain
• The narrative cycle of Taylor vs. fire
• Jenny wants Taylor to save everyone
• Taylor's so good at cape fight analysis
• Pondering what it would be like to have someone examine your work in this level of detail
• Worm is good, actually
• The nine have neglected Noelle
• Maybe Mannequin can finally die

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/prey-14-5/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.4.

Episode Notes:

• A steed! A steed! A steed! A steed!
• Everyone has bomb-resistant plot armor
• It’s harder to pull off a surprise attack when your team needs time to duck and cover
• Have you tried a sacrifice play?
• Emily and the love of the game
• As bad as this plan was, Piggot almost killed Skitter
• Piggot better hope this is the last time she’s facing down the Undersiders…
• On the other hand, the Undersiders aren’t exactly keeping a low profile
• Amy’s debut as a biotinker
• Hyperscaling Skitter
• This is your power without trauma
• Amy’s cowardice is relatable
• Amy is part of Taylor’s area of concern whether or not either of them actually want that
• Amy lost her security blanket(s)
• Losing yourself in the swarm
• Where are Colin and Dragon?
• Debriefing Sophia’s debriefing
• Battery is also here
• Taylor’s new hog is a bug
• Taylor’s second flight
• Grue gets overruled
• Theorycrafting Ballistic on Jackass
• What do Crawler, Bane, and the whale from Elephant & Piggie have in common?
• Now Crawler is Ted’s best villain
• This half of the Unravelers also didn’t have a very good plan
• Ted pitches his canon-compliant crossover fic
• We love evolution vs. monsters
• The Bitch barometer
• Seems like the front line capes are pretty happy to collab actually
• Tattletale stunts
• Who did Siberian lose?
• How Cherish and Regent’s powers rhyme
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/prey-14-4/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow