Inchworm

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.6.

Episode Notes:

• Hot take: what if the cosmic entities are actually small?
• Many theories on timing, who triggers, mappings between entities and capes, piercing the veil, etc.
• The implications of the new rule that trigger events must incapacitate nearby capes
• Can we trust Skidmark’s advice to Scrub about using the Turn-Me-Into-A-Monster Energy Drink?
• Did someone hire Faultline’s Crew?
• Oh, and what about Noelle?
• What percentage of partiers are hard-core Merchants?
• The Master/Shaker stealth advantage
• The horror and potential of Scrub
• Spotting some humanity among the Merchants
• Lisa gives Taylor the reins
• Ted reluctantly relates to Skidmark
• Bits and bobs and predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-06/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.5.

Episode Notes:

• This episode is about saving people!
• Even a single new cape could change everything
• The Protectorate should really be doing more to stop the Merchants
• How many people actually know trigger events are a thing?
• Taylor and Lisa are gonna have to stop this power transfer
• What do we owe to each other?
• Taylor's displaying a very emotional approach to morality
• Coil's found Taylor's fundamental need
• Taylor's conscience is her tripwire
• Taylor needs to rescue the Dinahs of the world because no one rescued her
• Taylor sees predators and victims just like Sophia
• The many takes on saving people
• How much does a victim have to be innocent to appeal to Taylor?
• Taylor finds charisma off-putting
• Bryce may be an unreliable narrator
• The true horror: chores
• Girls rule, boys drool
• Taylor's relatable cynicism
• The Merchants' unrelatable brutality
• The Merchants are a thesis statement
• Maybe raves just take getting used to
• We're basically in an '80s urban decay fantasy action movie
• The slap echoes so loudly through this chapter
• Bad people wear heavy makeup
• The Merchants might be our next big bad
• Humanity vs. entropy
• Trainwreck is probably a spy
• Lisa has a soft spot for Taylor's heroism
• Lisa likes following other people's visions
• Also Lisa just really likes having a friend
• Turns out SmugBug is driving this narrative
• A little Emma crumb
• The Undersiders are the last people who thanked Taylor
• A pro-gay power fantasy
• Is Jaw gay?
• The mundanity of the horror in this chapter makes it more horrifying
• What would Taylor do with superpowers in a can?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-05/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.4.

Episode Notes:

• Odds are good that Taylor can’t simply walk away from what she’s about to see
• Tattletown seems great, too!
• Tattletale hasn’t announced herself yet, but why should she?
• Ted tries to tease out the balance of power between Coil and each Undersider based on this situation
• Lisa’s lair’s layers
• Instinctive secrecy as an adolescent trait
• Like you wouldn’t push the pain button for more power?
• Is Lisa setting her and Taylor up for a power boost?
• Lisa is also a pantser
• “Brian said WHAT?”
• Adult Soldier Squad: Ringleader, So What, What’s His Name Mean, and The Short One
• Skitter doesn’t like pretending to be Taylor
• Lisa’s cheery disposition
• This whole thing smacks of gender

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-04/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.3.

Episode Notes:

• Skitter in this chapter is iconic
• The appeal of character competence
• Action without suspense, yum
• Taylor's kind of like Bakuda, but it's fine!
• What if this is all a metaphor for Taylor harnessing the humans to take down the Endbringers?
• We love everything about bugs with fire
• The tea is a metaphor
• Did these particular Merchants deserve this?
• Skitter isn't into her own competence
• Another unserious kidnapping
• Will Sierra be a security threat?
• Sierra's view of Skitter
• Slaylor vs. Flailor
• We're very concerned about the mold situation in Brockton Bay
• Sierra's a great example of a competent person without superpowers
• People talk to you differently when you're a supervillain
• Sometimes you need a hero, and sometimes you need a Skitter
• Skitter's an imperfect fit for the social role of supervillain
• Literal found family
• Taylor's very prosocial in her villainy
• Taylor might be the best Undersider at this territory thing
• Lisa as the silent partner in this Dinah thing
• Bryce is gonna be a problem
• Aughties moments
• Introducing Herman Drives
• Taylor loves finding a use for people

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-03/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.2.

Episode Notes:

• Prediction: this woman’s brother is problematic
• If only Taylor could see how cool (and scary!) she actually is
• Taylor plays against her weaknesses to great effect
• Skitter needs a higher rating!
• Weirdly, Taylor has found her supervillain calling
• The people of the Boardwalk are… into it?
• Battery lends Taylor legitimacy and keeps her from going fully brutal
• Jenny doesn’t let Ted get away with being unfair to Taylor
• An urban legend is born
• Wait, what methods are the others using to claim their territory?
• The one extremely cute and precious move deployed by Skitter
• We review Skitterland’s inaugural charter
• Predictions!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-02/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.1.

Episode Notes:

• This chapter really hooked us
• Jenny isn't fooled by dreams!
• Jenny's giving up hope of a secret, non-terrible plan
• The many layers of Taylor's daddy issues
• Danny is the best and should have more power(s)
• Taylor's so good at terror, and at compartmentalization
• Why does Coil really want to split the Undersiders up?
• The narrative draw of a Scooby gang
• Jenny doesn't want this to be the dynamic for all of book two of Worm
• Taylor needs a new plan because she's really bad at sucking up to people
• Oops Taylor might be projecting onto Dinah
• And we might be projecting onto Taylor
• Not a lot of sympathy for the Merchants here
• We're in Deadwood now
• Supervillains do such good work in this book
• Jenny realizes that Taylor has even more tunnel vision about Dinah than she thought
• We identify Taylor's true combover
• Revisiting Taylor in the mirror
• Shatterbird is coming for our vision, probably
• No ethical consumption under Coil
• Taylor is not a happy supervillain
• Taylor used to like her character and not her looks. Now...
• Their estrangement is clearly worse for Danny than for Taylor
• Themes of entrapment and violation: they're everywhere!
• Villainizing the villains
• We don't want to go to Skitterland

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-01/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.x (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• A crack ship is born mid-summary
• We count the ways we love Dragon
• The way she is written clearly shows that Dragon is a full person
• Dragon’s romantic prospects
• We trust Dragon with power more than anyone we’ve met so far but leaders with good personalities do not necessarily create good legacies
• Was Richter a Bad Dad or just your average God?
• Is Dragon’s unfairly limited “body” the very thing that makes us see her as a person?
• Dragon the teenager
• We start into “should Dragon-like AI have rights” discourse but then steer ourselves back to Worm proper 
• Dragon’s techno-optimism and Ted’s need for speed limits
• To be clear, all glory to God Empress Dragon
• To show off her rapid intelligence, Dragon quickly skimmed all of Worm so far and basically only missed Coil
• Is Dragon the reasonable hero friend Taylor deserves?
• A digression about rooting against a Taylor glow-up in any adaptation
• We were sorta surprised at how much we felt for Colin in captivity
• Colin owns some of his flaws, but not the Skitter-related ones
• How Dragon’s gender identity affects the way we view her and her relationships
• Wait, is the Birdcage younger than Dragon?
• The status quo seems to be shifting quite dramatically every few years
• The female victim as a horror trope (i.e. Ted poorly glosses Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992))
• It’s tea time in Philosophy Block
• Ted ships it
• A few more morsels from the Birdcage
• Taylor sees Dinah as a MacGuffin
• Why don’t the Endbringers hang out with each other???
• Oh no are there children in the Birdcage
• Dragon sees Colin through Kid Win colored classes
• We gotta let Dragon be bad to really believe she’s good

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-x-bonus-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.x.

Episode Notes:

• Sophia won Jenny over, but only at the bitter end
• What a fake-out
• Regent's emotional numbness
• Ted grapples with hate in the face of tragic circumstances
• What if Taylor finds out about this?
• There's a compelling human impulse behind wanting to use Regent’s power  
• Regent’s missing piece
• He likes what he’s doing, but he’s not doing it for himself
• Where's Regent's self-described conscience in all this?
• We don’t learn what it’s like to be Regent alone
• Parallels between Regent's power and Bitch's
• A pocketful of heroin at all times
• Wildbow does such a good job of preserving ambiguity about Regent's character here
• What would it take for Regent to become "a good"?
• Regent as a foil for Taylor
• We as readers are basically using Regent's power all the time
• We check our assumptions about Sophia’s mom
• Sophia's weak spot is being looked down upon
• The mystery of Stephen invites sympathy
• Jenny still thinks Sophia deserved some of these consequences
• Emma is not impressed with Regent’s acting
• Sadly we don't think Emma and Sophia are in love
• We do what we always do: analyze the texts
• Regent knows one of Taylor’s secrets after this chapter, but Sophia doesn’t
• Regent fumbles to have Sophia express emotion… could that be role-play? Confession?
• Does Regent not have emotions, or does he just not understand them?
• Regent: theater kid at heart?
• Regent feels strongly about Brockton Bay, if nothing else
• Regent doesn't build relationships, and he's severing Sophia's
• The question of Regent's queerness
• Regent, like Coil, has a stakes problem
• Ethical applications of Regent's power
• Read Seek y'all
• Will Jenny finally get the Dragon interlude she’s been craving?

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-x-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.6.

Episode Notes:

• We forgot about Dauntless again RIP :(
• Jenny brings down the hammer on Taylor’s foolishness
• Is Taylor taking the same kind of deal Kayden did?
• Ted tries to shore up Jenny’s secret takedown theory
• The real problem with Taylor’s request is that she’s no threat to Coil
• Why save the world when you can save one girl?
• Maybe this is night eight of Coil trying crazier and crazier schemes to get his hands on this data
• If Jack brings the end, he’s gonna need some Endbringers
• We get another set of story-defining stakes laid out here
• Interpreting Taylor’s apparent foolishness psychologically vs. narratively
• At podcast speed you might drown in narrative tension
• Do we only cut Taylor slack to the extent that she’s narratively dominating?
• Look, at least Regent isn’t controlling Shadow Stalker, Vista, AND Kid Win
• Is it fucked up or does it just look fucked up?
• Would you rather experience one Regent-sized bad day or one hundred Sophia-sized bad days?
• Bad things will certainly happen if Sophia doesn’t just slink away
• Taylor dominates Bitch: heartless or “the heart”?
• Good or bad, this seems pretty easy for Taylor
• The Undersiders have no real opposition left in Brockton Bay
• Shatterbird, uh, controls spiders?
• Violence is sticky
• And a coping mechanism
• Ted defends Rachel’s betrayal
• What Taylor says may be obscured by how she says it
• How do the rest of the Undersiders see Skitter?
• Coil gets his Dr. Claw on
• Predictions for the next two interludes

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-6/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.5.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny loves Dragon
• Dragon's designs on Skitter
• What if Taylor gets Dragon on side?
• Dragon's got her priorities straight
• Also she's prepared!
• ...but her suits are creepy
• We're so impressed by Taylor's innovations, and also Wildbow's
• Heroes have to pull their punches
• We're not pleased with Bitch
• Taylor did say she deserved it...
• What was Bitch's plan, though?
• We loved the gift shop fight
• Nothing's taking down Weld
• New cape names! At last!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-5/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow