Inchworm

Jenny and Ted discuss Colony 15.3.

Episode Notes:

• As far as we can tell, Imp’s power can’t affect readers the same way it affects Taylor
• Sorry, Taylor, it’s favor time
• Lisa is reasonable but not fully believable
• She can fake a grin but not a frown
• Lisa had Taylor’s number though: she just wanted to be included in the atrocity
• Honestly maybe “defeat and kidnap Victor” was plan B to “Chosen ceasefire and Coil recruits Victor” until 15.2 made clear to Lisa that it wouldn’t go over well with Aisha and Taylor
• Lisa is a horrifying and villainous opponent
• A mortifying ordeal of being known for an eye
• What happens when somebody calls Taylor’s bluff?
• A brief remembrance of the Victoria-that-was
• Well, doesn’t Regent have to use his power, Taylor?
• Do we trust the Regent Taylor sees? Even after his interlude?
• Moral accommodations for Regent and “conscience accommodations” for Taylor
• This is a classic Animorphs argument
• Lisa is the best at debate and Regent is the worst
• The Undersiders’ rep is definitely going to be a narrative problem
• Victor couldn’t have acquired empathy and compassion with his power by now?
• Victor sucks, but also Othala sucks
• Who would even be making up rumors that Taylor is Jewish anyway????
• Ted concedes
• Lisa’s Potemkin justifications
• The humor in this arc is great
• It’s fun to see someone mostly unaffected by Lisa’s bullshit… and for Lisa to win anyway
• Small observations and predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/colony-15-3/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Colony 15.2.

Episode Notes:

• Who's chosen and who's pure, here?
• Trio trauma
• The fault in our Undersiders
• A slightly less easy case for body control
• A questionable hierarchy of acceptable targets
• Help us with our portmanteaus, listeners
• The harem continues, perhaps
• Regent and Imp have some real personalities to contend with
• An impreg by any other name...
• A potential Brian-Genesis collab
• Parametaphysical speculation
• Imp is borrowing bits of lots of people's roles right now
• Raggedy Aisha
• Undersiders > Othersiders
• Are the Chosen really more dangerous than Coil right now?
• Also they may not have been defeated yet
• A multidimensional Night
• Playacting at civics
• We're squeamish like Taylor
• Do we root for Shatterbird?
• Jenny doesn't know about the Grink
• The Undersiders have a lot of leaders
• The perils of a time crunch
• Taylor has some real manager energy
• Taylor the secret tinker
• Some Taylor quirks

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/colony-15-2/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Colony 15.x (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• Jenny’s feeling frustrated
• Let’s all get mad about… Sarah!
• Did Carol ever want to be a mom?
• Amy raped Victoria
• The vagueness and strangeness somewhat eclipses the awfulness and horror
• Don’t believe Amy’s lies
• A mistake so big there have to be consequences
• The lack of cover-up is striking
• Amy wanted love but built a sex doll
• At some point, Amy chose this
• The way this is written makes it hard to talk about the rape
• Ted finally starts yelling about Carol
• Carol abandons Victoria without a second glance
• “We need to get Grue in here to make sure she can still have hamburgers”
• Carol was the original black and white thinker
• Marquis’ aura
• Carol’s final question
• Ok we don’t talk about this in the episode but Carol was so internally petty to Sarah in their brief conversation and it’s been what, a month since her son and husband died? How bad is this relationship?
• Carol looks at Marquis with mastermind-tinted glasses
• What made Carol connect with Amy and spare her?
• Does Carol have a thing for a bad boy with a code or is it something less psychosexual?
• The need for rules
• Not All Depressed Dads
• This trigger vision reflected the granted powers
• This isn’t what the lecture meant by a group trigger event, right?
• They got what they needed
• Carol keeps her feelings locked up to avoid feeling weak again
• Alan’s not a cape and may not be particularly attached to the city
• A lot will happen in two weeks
• Will Brockton Bay actually be condemned?
• What’s Lisa really getting out of this truce?
• Worm: The Taylor and Amy Musical closes after zero performances
• Was it easier for Amy to get caught than try to get away with it?
• Is there anything noble about her decision to go to the Birdcage? 
• Really good small writing details
• It’s easier and more interesting to talk about questions that don’t have obvious answers
• If they’re not willing to kill you, volunteering to get locked up removes everyone’s leverage
• We don’t even know if Victoria can speak or eat
• Carol gives up easily
• Contrasting Marquis and Amy’s powers
• Was Marquis a better parent than Carol?
• Carol’s guilt

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/interlude-15-bonus/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Colony 15.1.

Episode Notes:

• The gang's back together!
• But what about the Unravelers?
• The problem of Shatterbird and the complication of Alec
• Optimism might be inaccurate, but pessimism sucks
• Alec is an oddly good friend
• The Undersiders have been remade in Taylor's image
• Actually, Taylor should be even more optimistic than she is
• A second trigger event for Aisha?
• The communication difficulty with Bitch goes both ways
• We're glad Taylor is taking her role in Bitch's life seriously
• Coil: torturing Bitch deliberately or accidentally?
• We examine the bitchlings
• Maybe we should start a Worm-adjacent bookclub
• Taylor's management skills
• Rachel's got the bark here, Taylor's got the bite
• Why all this focus on the Bitch minions?
• Some people just like dogs, Barker
• Echoes of agreement

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/colony-15-1/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss listener questions!

Episode Notes:

• Thanks to everyone who wrote in with questions, and sorry we couldn’t get to all of them!
• We are gonna try to make this more of a Ted Talk
• Ted immediately regrets letting Jenny ask him some questions
• Casting ourselves in Worm: The Musical
• Jenny reflects on her expectations and Ted sets some new ones
• A meditation on tropes
• Does Skitter seem like a supervillain?
• Willingness to killingness
• Putting the die in Dinah
• In this essay, will Jenny see monsters in the hearts of humanity? Only time will tell!
• Who Goes Nine? By Dorothy Thompson
• Amy dies at the end of Worm: The Musical
• When do we get the Oliver arc???
• Contrasting the first two “books” of Worm
• Jenny has to answer her own question, ha!
• Mapping out book 3 and beyond
• Noelle’s power speculation
• If you aren’t in the Discord, you’re missing out on excellent speculation and analysis from our first time reader listeners!
• On Worm’s writing
• On Jenny’s writing — pre-order Teammates To Lovers and subscribe to her newsletter!
• We pitch our infinite budget short film adaptations
• Nominative determinism: Undersider edition
• It’s bracket time! Who’s the best person who got eliminated too soon? Who’s the worst person who got eliminated early? Write in and tell us!
• We don’t actually spend another half hour on the worst person, but we do talk lowlights
• A new five man band
• Animorphs Corner (spoilers for book 22 again!)
• Jenny fills out the ranks of the Nine
• Hmm, did we forget someone obvious in our discussion of the worst parent in Worm? Listener, WE DID
• We wind down with a chat about other stuff we might want to chat about
• Bonus: Ted’s capsule review of Everworld 11 and 12

Links:

• https://jennylinskyauthor.com/ 
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

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