Inchworm

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.3.

Episode Notes:

• Oops everyone is prey
• Piggot's gonna try to have it all
• Heroes are just heroing
• Sundancer is useful, actually!
• The mystery of Siberian in the pit
• Can we just knock this guy out?
• Amy's power is pretty cool, turns out
• Skitter thinks we're stronger together
• Amy <3s binaries
• Lisa's meeting Amy where she is
• CAN we judge Amy by what she did to Victoria?
• Accountability and scapegoating
• Jack has cutting words in addition to cutting blades
• The many potential subtleties of Lisa, and maybe some bluntness
• A scaredy cat turning a corner
• Pillbug stocks are rising
• Black-and-white thinking runs in the family
• To close to what, Amy??
• Secretly evil versions of all our favorite supervillains
• Lisa's been reading ahead in the book
• Taylor's being hard on herself again
• Killer courage
• Amy really makes the rest of our villain-heroes look good by contrast
• Amy and Victoria's relationship just looks worse and worse
• We're not sure if we should like Amy, but we do
• Taylor's come so far. Maybe Amy can follow in her footsteps
• Chekhov's corona potential
• We know what Siberian's hauling

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/prey-14-3/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.2.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny, I don’t think the Siberian is trying to suck toxins out of Amy’s fingertips
• The “isn’t there someone you forgot to ask” meme about Taylor saving Amy
• Tattletale checks on Skitter’s priorities
• How Amy’s gonna feel
• What if Emily accidentally firebombed Panacea?
• Siberian’s missing real body
• Refreshing oopsie moments
• An aside about Battery’s narrative metaphor
• Why the Unravelers split the party this way
• Squeamish Sundancer
• Mirror Taylor
• Competent Skitter and Hapless Amy
• Why Skitter’s power is perfect for a protagonist
• Amy’s movie makeover
• Jenny pitches how Amy and Alec could beat Leviathan
• Siberian’s frightening inevitability
• Clockblocker’s plan won’t work
• Siberian the sexy pervert
• What kind of vehicle is Siberian riding?
• We do some unpacking of our “sexy pervert” comments
• The allure of disembodied fantasy
• Consensual perverts only, please
• Is the Siberian projection about identity or something else?
• The Siberian of Bitch’s interlude must contain a nugget of authenticity
• Lisa’s back in the thick of it
• We hook Trickster up with a couple of mannequin suppliers
• Taylor won’t let Brian out of the fridge
• Ted tries to get on his soapbox about bug bites but come on
• Siberian vs. Cherish
• Why doesn’t something like this give Amy a second trigger event?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/prey-14-2/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Prey 14.1.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny loved this chapter
• Brian probably doesn't sleep anymore
• Jenny's less worried about him being evil, though
• Undersiders vs. Travelers vibes
• Who has the deadliest secrets??
• Cherish doesn't say anything about Lisa...
• Cherish isn't very good at this
• Lies Cherish might have told
• Jenny was almost right!
• What's the Siberian's deal??
• If you could project any body you wanted...
• Taylor's role in the upcoming operation
• Siberians' living the murder hobo fantasy
• The Unravelers vs. Battery
• Siberian vs. the Birdcage
• Siberian has three chapters to live
• Aisha's only seen unhealthy romantic relationships
• So has Alec, but he's taken different lessons from it
• Who was Alec sleeping with?
• Regent and rape culture
• Who's writing the Regent CNC fanfiction?
• What if Aisha and Alec were best friends
• Possibly Bitch and Taylor have made some progress here
• Lisa vs. Taylor on ways to connect to Bitch
• What if Brian used Amy's power...on Amy?
• Taylor meets Hyperbole and a Half
• What do we owe to each other, Taylor?
• Taylor and radical friendship
• Finally, some acknowledgments of reality

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/prey-14-1/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.x.

Episode Notes:

• Even before the summary we are discussing whether Emily War Crimes is a villain, in several senses of the word
• Evil ends vs. evil means
• Given what else we’ve read, it’s tough to say she’s just being paranoid
• Can she control you?
• The kind of “hero” Taylor has come to expect
• Emily’s career so far must cast a shadow on her present feelings
• The (we hope) PR hit from obvious war crimes
• Parapolitical theory
• Why can’t we all just get along?
• Self-justifying ends
• Do they need to beat the Nine or just survive them?
• Emily’s plan is so bad and self-aggrandizing we compare her to Colin
• Emily prefers inhuman technology to all-too-human capes
• Metaphor blindness
• The plan is doomed if only because it was fully explained
• Mid-episode predictions
• LGBT = Legend Gay Blue Triumvirate
• At least Legend feels guilty when he’s bad
• Alexandria, Siberian, Clockblocker, and who or what gets to be most invulnerable
• A world without Hero
• Everything’s coming up Siberian
• We’re gonna see Ol’ Jackie Slash wriggle his way out of this jam
• Battery will be depleted, er, defeated
• No plague (Bonesaw had her chance in Arc 12 anyway)
• Training montage!
• A grab bag of smaller topics
• Emily sings “Little Capes”
• The Wards need a youth pastor
• Emily doesn’t mind other normals
• Oh so the system that gives someone apparently unaccountable power is leading to this sort of thing, huh?
• Emily bears witness
• Is having people that matter to you fertile ground for cultivating ethics?
• What’s her backstory??
• Emily sees the live possibility of a sudden heroic sacrifice
• The purpose of government
• The irony of Emily not being a cape

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/interlude-13/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.10.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny's hottest (and hopefully coldest) take yet
• Taylor's giving him way more benefit of the doubt
• If Brian's trying to manipulate her it's only sort of working
• He might be right about her self-destructive tendencies
• Gesturing at butterfly, “Is this a confession of feelings?”
• A wild vulnerability appears
• Does Brian still need to sleep?
• Jenny likes Brian's moves
• Brian might just be really uncomfortable not being the one making the sacrifice
• What is love, anyway?
• "Even Alec”, sob
• Plot armor as toxic character traits
• Conflating heroism and self-destruction
• Putting Taylor in the sister box
• Oops protectiveness trauma
• A new weakness for Crawler and Siberian?
• The found family vibes are impeccable
• Wait, what happened to Alec...
• We're reaching a breaking point with Dinah
• Some very relatable social anxiety
• Jenny doesn't understand what half-blind means
• Shaming the Protectorate
• Jenny wants the Bonesaw interlude
• Taylor's philosophy vs. Brian's
• Three Brian arc endings in a row
• What if Brian joins the nine?
• The struggle to sit with your own wrongdoing
• Oh right, trauma
• And also competition
• Big-man feelings
• Brian wants to be in a different story

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/snare-13-10/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow