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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

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.9.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny, once again, was right
• What makes a second trigger possible and who gets one?
• The purpose of Bonesaw’s experiment
• What exactly was Brian withholding from Bonesaw?
• Possibilities in time and space
• The limits of the entities
• Faultline is gonna be SO JEALOUS
• Who (and when) is this familiar guy?
• The (new) worst day of Brian’s life
• Get that saw away from my sister(s)!
• Aisha plays a kinder role
• If I had read Dungeon Crawler Carl already I’d be making a more specific reference to how Brian was optimizing his level up
• Seriously, who can heal this good?
• Obscurivoyance
• Jenny almost makes wolf trap the next fire axe
• Bitter Sweet Eucatastrophe
• Utilitarians vs. miracles
• We rehash the mercy kill issue
• The Undersiders try to recruit a Tinker who can build a second trigger button and Bonesaw keeps trying to join wearing various disguises
• Schrödinger’s penis
• The Assassination Of Mimi Burnscar By The Coward Monochrome Brian written and directed by Ted
• Compelling Brian on Brian action
• How the metaphor of his power has evolved
• Does Brian’s new powerset have any weaknesses?
• I can just hear the awful takes: “If she didn’t want to get fridged she should have just second triggered”
• Excuse me Wildbow could Taylor also have some extra powers pretty please
• Gosh what will tomorrow be like?
• Stubborn Taylor
• Paraneuroscience
• Is Taylor’s power operated by a Mechanical Turk?
• Consciousness and free will
• Ted loves a villain with a hobby
• Jack and Bonesaw hijinks
• Predicting Arc 14
• Parian thoughts
• Bonesaw’s weaknesses
• Disembodied Taylor

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/snare-13-09/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Snare 13.8.

Episode Notes:

• Boy are they ever ensnared!
• Jenny is cautiously optimistic. But maybe not about Grue
• Alert! We have body horror!
• Jenny's list of options for who's about to show up
• Oops no one knows they're there
• The Nine are just too adaptable
• Faultline vs. sheaths
• Maybe she can kill Mannequin already
• One Leviathan event per story, please!
• A meditation on fridging
• Who would be the one to kill Grue?
• Taylor killing Brian might make Bitch feel more at home in the group
• Who would be the one to save Grue?
• Jenny's controversial opinions on Bonesaw's moral fiber
• Bonesaw is too good and it's a problem
• Why hasn't Scion dealt with the Nine already?
• This is the scenario Coil chose to keep
• What would it do to Taylor if Brian dies?
• Was Taylor's heroism in this chapter disastrous or not?
• Taylor's utilitarianism and her sense of control
• Distrust of the Travelers
• Sundancer's moral lines vs. Taylor's
• Is the decision about Grue the worst thing Taylor has done in the story so far? Jenny doesn't think so
• Grue is a statement from Mannequin
• The nerves as a metaphor
• The power of first names
• Chekhov's pocket sand
• Taylor has trouble sitting with the negative consequences of her choices and accepting loss, for solid character-based reasons
• The most controversial twist in all of Worm!
• Taylor vs. Trickster's brand of chaos
• Taylor's pathological need to save people
• RIP Parian
• Oh no the decoys
• Ted loves Bonesaw and wants her to die
• Wildbow doesn't censor his art, either
• Precedents for mercy killings

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/snare-13-8/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.8.

Episode Notes:

• Now that Jenny knows that Taylor knows that Plan A is bad, she’s a lot more forgiving
• Taylor needs to be stronger, or maybe just have a stronger stomach
• Lisa appears to be all in, too
• Sadly we won’t get to immediately her Brian complaining about Plan B… or will we?
• Will Alec and Rachel come along?
• Taylor just wants to be honest with Brian
• People skills
• She’s trapped by Coil the same way she was trapped by the Trio
• It can be frustrating when your protagonist is in realistic denial or your close friend hasn’t processed their obvious baggage yet
• The skitizens believe in her now!
• She can’t begin to see herself as intimidating
• Why are people starting to follow Skitter?
• Sierra hides from Battery in the background of a The Pitt episode
• Lisa’s scar and Brian’s confusion
• Is Brian playing a structural role in Book 2 that Lisa played in Book 1?
• The Little Bug Girl That Couldn’t
• Taylor’s mental state is poor
• How Taylor spins the difference between heroes and villains to Sierra
• Look, we’d all be a Brian if our colleague/sister/best friend/crush was doing risky stuff like this
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/plague-12-8/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.7.

Episode Notes:

• Taylor totally would've won that fight
• In the world of Worm, all Alans are terrible
• Hurrah for the skitizens
• The vindication of art supplies
• Ah, the joys of being underestimated
• Mannequin and emotional buttons, including his own
• Taylor's delegation is only improving
• Taylor's good at theater, actually
• Spider silk is a metaphor. Surprise!
• Hipster Guy is our hero
• You know you're getting to a tinker when they start using someone else's stuff
• Skitter is the person Taylor wanted to have show up for her a year and a half ago
• Has Skitter finally started to win the devotion of her people?
• The isolation of not having cellphones 
• Taylor's costume is the real superpower
• Perfectionism is tough on everybody
• We just want her to find the other Undersiders and get a hug and also some backup
• The Slaughterhouse Nine probably don't like this chapter as much as we do
• Did Skitter beat Dinah's odds here?
• The Skitizens are the strands of spider silk
• Ironically, it's not that hard to get under Mannequin's skin
• Taylor can live with an unsolved mystery
• What's up with Mannequin's human manne-risms?
• Mannequin's aesthetic is his weakness

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/plague-12-7/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.6.

Episode Notes:

• Skitter is never cooler than when she’s irrationally determined
• Mannequin put Skitter in a corner and will reap the consequences…
• … if she can even do anything on her own??
• Was Skitter targeted just for what she’s doing now, or did Mannequin come here to teach her a lesson?
• Couldn’t the government be doing better against the Nine? The status is not quo!
• The Nine as a plague
• Coil was right!
• Taylor doesn’t have to show us what lines she was willing to cross
• She’s just a little intimidating
• The potential for a Skitter fandom
• The wonderful women of Skitterland
• Taylor judges those that can’t keep up with her but resents those who demand more from her
• If you liked Jenny’s Scholomance recommendation, why not try her astolat Cyclonus fic recommendation?
• Ultimately she does navigate this situation really well and invent some sweet new bug moves at the same time
• She didn’t act on it, but she was definitely feeling insecure like a bully
• We rule out one person who will NOT be saving Taylor

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/plague-12-6/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.5.

Episode Notes:

• Skitter does her best yet
• Loved ones can provide collateral aid
• The chapter avoids a simple moral lesson about Danny’s fate
• What Taylor’s missing about what makes her effective
• To slash Jack, or not to slash?
• WWCD?
• Wait Colin and Coil are one letter away from each other omg
• Have we ever seen them in the same room at the same time
• Wait yup we did and Colin ate pavement lol
• More importantly, how dumb do you have to be to try it?
• Is Taylor insecure about whether she has a killer instinct? Will she have regrets?
• Can Taylor multitask the story?
• Well, she’s made great use of her first two minions already
• As Colin becomes more cyborg, Taylor becomes more arthrorg. Anthrarth? Ok we can workshop it
• Taylor thinks back to all the times she saw “Rachel will remember that” cross her screen
• Coil reminds Taylor to be useful
• Stay with an injured loved one? Our protagonist would never!
• The parent child role reversal
• Taylor’s finally forced to look at Danny, but he can’t see her until she’s leaving
• Should she stay or should she go now? Lisa and Danny weigh in
• How Taylor feels (or doesn’t) when she reaches Danny
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/plague-12-5/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.4.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny hates the Nine and Ted loves the chapter
• We stop trying to make “Undlers” happen
• Shout-out to biomechanimagical for the new team name!
• How deep into the bench of Worm characters do you have to go to find a certified Tumblr Sexyman?
• The “deal” gambit will unite our herovillains if not all of Brockton Bay
• Taylor and Jenny are sus-Bitch-ous
• Lisa will live to sass another day
• Ted does a close reading on how quickly Taylor can rationalize her emotions
• Taylor gives up control
• Lisa and Taylor push each other around in the best way
• Maybe Taylor’s bugs will be enough to avoid the thing where there’s no way she runs six miles in thirty minutes
• The title drops and we talk a lot about worms and the controlling thereof
• Ok for this segment just imagine if our logo didn’t have eyes
• We don’t exactly feel bad for Cherish but wow, what an ordeal
• Do Cherish and Taylor’s villain gang initiations only vary by extremeness?
• These tests effectively show us how the Nine, and especially Jack, operate
• We consider how Cherish’s situation might be different from the average recruit’s
• The Nine are incredibly acceptable targets
• Jack isn’t optimizing for power, but he did have Bonesaw cook up an artificial brain to punk Cherish
• Don’t bring up that study about how spoilers don’t ruin stories in front of Jack if you value your face
• Powers work as a metaphor for narrative, too
• Jenny bonesees right through Bonesaw
• Don’t bet on Amy
• Faced with the Nine, some people would just choose death
• Alec’s knack for chatting up villains
• Siberian-based tinker-tech
• Odds and ends and predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/plague-12-4/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.3.

Episode Notes:

• We loved hanging out with the Travelers
• Jenny's off-by-two error
• We're pessimistic about Bitch
• The Slaughterhouse Nine are winning at shogi
• Taylor and her hold-out secret identity
• We're so invested in Noelle now (unfortunately...)
• Ted would've been friends with Trickster in high school
• Oops the Travelers are the Animorphs
• The Undlers are so good at planning. Sucks that it doesn't matter!
• Who's going to take part in the evil hunger games?
• Imagining a Regent vs. Bitch fight
• Kind of fun to know ahead of time this is a fight they'd lose
• Ted apologizes to Brian
• Potential fallout from the Dinah revelation
• Regent the lancer
• Theories about Taylor's listening ears
• Powers are short-sighted in how they protect you from themselves
• The Travelers' noodle incident

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/plague-12-3/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.2.

Episode Notes:

• There’s a special frustration when someone gets in our protagonist’s way
• A bright clear red line for Taylor: no bugs on naked people, ew
• Hookwolf knows his audience (dumdums)
• What’s changed since Somer’s Rock? A lot of turnover and little institutional memory
• Is Coil’s alternate timeline on the island with us right now?
• Taylor’s big no-ment
• Save the girl; don’t save the world
• Taylor could get used to this
• Well, actually, she’s just saying no to a bully!
• They’re all hypocrites
• Ok while I’m editing this episode I just keep thinking more about the game of mafia analogy. It really works for the social dynamics in this scene.
• The heroes aren’t super invested in villain drama
• Is Coil right about Jack being the top priority?
• Other capes and teen moments
• Danny and Annette, huge nerds, unlike this teenage girl
• Would the Slaughterhouse Nine have tried to recruit Arc 1 Taylor?
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/plague-12-2/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Plague 12.1.

Episode Notes:

• The Slaughterhouse Nine are just waiting for everyone to mass against them
• Taylor needs to catch up with our level of information already
• The possibility of heroes crashing the villain meeting
• Let's do arc 5 again against the Slaughterhouse Nine
• Taylor the Tailor: we love to see it
• Taylor's a good person to give your resources to
• Grue's thinking too small. And feeling too small, maybe
• Taylor and the challenge of middle management
• Is loyalty to Skitter transferable to Coil?
• The dual problems of sustainability and presentation
• Taylor's continued failure to realize how terrifying she is
• Maybe a less Skitter Skitter would be more effective
• Urgency is not Taylor's friend
• We want fly necklace merch
• Taylor's sense of triage and sense of heroism are in conflict
• Bugs are basically AI
• Threats don't hurt anyone if you don't mean them, right?
• Where's the Taylor-Sundancer-Dragon team-up of our dreams
• Superhuman multitasking
• Brian, your gender essentialism is showing
• The minions are settling in
• Taylor vs. the antivaxxers
• Taylor's strengths and weaknesses as a leader: unfortunately, she has both
• The challenges of being a civil servant
• The tectonic shifts of Taylor's morality

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-12-plague/12-01/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.h.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny didn’t see it coming but Ted brought receipts
• Look, I know you weren’t asking, but the incest math checks out
• Amy got her “resenting an unwanted burden” from her mom I guess
• Intrusive romantic feelings are deeply tragic
• Jenny and Ted do what Assault and Battery simply refuse to do
• Amy’s fantasies and fatalism
• The category of “healing” never really cohered
• Bonesaw kicks Amy across a series of red lines and Amy’s like “guess it’s purge rules for me now YOLO”
• Reading between the lines, Amy’s just making excuses
• Ted makes a pretty bad analogy to Canary but give him a second he explains it better
• Amy’s power is so dangerous to herself and others that the Protectorate really fucked up by not getting to her before Bonesaw
• Victoria, sowing: Just use your fucking power on brains already! Victoria, reaping: Well this fucking sucks, I love you, what the fuck
• So… would you really handle it any better than Victoria, listeners?
• Ted speculates that this was really triggering for Victoria
• Calling back to the “bus kiss”
• At least we met a more functional lesbian first
• “Evil” feelings don’t make you evil, and isn’t everybody kind of fucked up anyway?
• Amy craves novelty and lacks empathy… but for pretty okay reasons!!!
• What Amy can learn from Bonesaw: the power of a growth mindset
• Is Amy’s power a threat to her sense of self in an existential way?
• Bonesaw pushes Amy down the slippery slope and it all feels so easy
• Is Amy gettable? Nah, but partly because she doesn’t believe in herself
• Morality and fellowship seem completely alien to Bonesaw
• Wait, how old exactly was Bonesaw when she triggered?
• You can be a good scientist without being a good person
• Bonesaw would not approve of this podcast’s explicit rating
• Are the powers parasites? Tools? Agents?
• If the who and what of powers are accidents, is there a why?
• Bonesaw scoops Faultline’s thesis project
• Yeah, of course all of the bio-manipulators will have major issues!
• Ted reveals his pro-Bonesaw bias and Jenny pitches the best Worm adaptation yet
• Did Carol leave that letter for Amy to find?
• Parenting is necessarily coercive
• Ted celebrates a well-constructed tragic plot
• Amy’s not learning very good lessons from her no good terrible very bad day
• Thinking back to Victoria in Dennis’ chapter
• Is Panacea a rogue?
• We might be harder on Mark if Carol wasn’t right there in comparison
• Ted’s worst date
• Fates worse than death
• Bonesaw reminds us that the hero / villain arms race is ongoing
• Hatchet Face is Michael Myers
• Jenny looks in the mirror
• Maybe part of Amy’s curse is that her power is too easy to use
• The arachnid system
• As much as Amy needs a therapist you can’t lead with that, Victoria
• Predictions

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.g.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny ALMOST got this one right
• Content warming for murder set up as suicide??
• Cherish is in a tangle
• Some very strong symbolism
• Thrill-seeking is a family trait
• We're not happy about these thralls, Regent
• We're happy about his friends, though
• Cherish is powerful, but it's a Wildbow power, so she has to work for it
• Playing with point of view
• Cherish's damage is that no one will like her without her power
• S9 social dynamics
• We decode some epithets
• Jenny's hoping the S9 get taken down a few pegs
• RIP soldier from the start of the chapter
• When the interludes are good, they're good like this one is
• Parallels to Glory Girl and to Skitter
• There's a reason Cherish and Regent both go for fear
• Our book two theme of a traumatized city
• What kind of consent did Regent's thralls give?
• Heartbreaker failed on optics
• A potential Regent tell?
• Amy's secret

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.f.

Episode Notes:

• This one’s got TWO unseen monsters!
• It’s not too late to save Dinah, but it doesn’t seem like anyone’s close to doing so
• Why did Sundancer become a villain?
• The Travelers’ ties bind them from helping and from hurting
• The temptation of community
• The eventual Marissa and Taylor team-up
• Jenny theorizes that Ballistic and Genesis were here the whole time
• Does Noelle need a quantity of food (very large) or a quality of food (human flesh)?
• Whatever’s going on with her, it’s monstrous
• The perils of not dying
• Dinah’s power can make threats against her more credible, but also lets her strategically deploy “good behavior”
• Dinah’s thoughts on “candy”
• The compulsion behind sorting through futures
• Is it catastrophizing if you’re living through a catastrophe?
• But Noelle’s holding it together, right, Trickster?
• Coil sucks but at least he’ll never risk sacrificing Dinah
• #Trickle #Noster
• What in a (Traveler) name?
• Monster movie tropes
• How did Dinah really feel about Sundancer’s apology?
• Leah was a plant!
• Coil likes addicts
• The imagery of Dinah’s power is great
• The future is countable
• Predictions

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.e.

Episode Notes:

• Will the threat of the Slaughterhouse Nine bridge the gulf in Empire Eighty-Eight?
• Hookwolf has too many “friends” to be recruited
• Shatterbird: great at picks, bad at pitches
• Ted does a British accent
• But does he even care about the lore as much as Shatterbird does?
• We’re doing the evil Hunger Games!
• Possibly the Slaughterhouse Nine's only viable recruit thus far?
• Shatterbird has the best aesthetic 
• Was Shatterbird playing possum?
• Fascism and aesthetics
• He's just not that interesting
• And also he's completely delusional
• Shatterbird pulls from the Tattletale playbook
• How about those other S9 capes?
• Hookwolf's attached to his minions, but mostly egotistically
• White supremacy vs. cape supremacy
• Hookwolf and Metal Gear Solid
• The Chosen need to read the evil overlord list
• Ted promises that we’ll know what the Z in Z-Space stands for by the end of Worm
• Why is Shatterbird a canister cape?
• Powers and limits
• Nazi language
• Predictions

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.d.

Episode Notes:

• The most romantic chapter in Worm
• Butterflies in the machine
• The nature of Colin’s ego
• What difference does it make that Colin has this connection to Dragon?
• How real love can be selfish
• Could love hold Colin back from something he sees as the greater good?
• If Mannequin thought Dragon would keep Colin alive, why doesn’t he try harder to isolate Colin from her?
• Colin isn’t gettable, and especially not after choosing death over recruitment
• The only reason these interludes happen is because the Slaughterhouse Nine are all drama queens
• If we’re both single at age 30, let’s dedicate ourselves to the greater good
• Colin’s like, you should have been Man-no-kin!
• His superhero complex
• Mannequin’s body as a metaphor for grief
• A case study in how a hero can fall (and possibly, on how the Simurgh works)
• An eyepatch for an eyepatch
• He didn’t know it but he already wanted to be a cyborg
• What if the Endbringers are meant to be culling the capes or hindering humanity?
• Noting different reactions to different offensive words
• Brate?
• Predictions, rankings, and merchandizing

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.c.

Episode Notes:

• We speculate on Wildbow lore
• Very different interludes, each with a Slaughterhouse Nine member to placate
• Parallels with Theo
• Why did Labyrinth lie to Burnscar?
• Burnscar's guilt and Labyrinth's internalized ableism
• Two different takes on depression
• A correlation between strength of power and disability?
• A possible explanation for the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Endbringers
• Is it the flaw at our core that gives us our powers?
• How bad is Mimi?
• Burnscar has a great vibe but weak justifications
• Slaughterhouse Nine: kind of a cool found family, if you ignore most things about them
• Labyrinth as a foil for Taylor
• We're so happy for Elle and her new found family
• The sadness and wisdom of only getting one brief moment with each of our side characters
• The inherent variability of who beats who
• The importance of battlefield control
• Elle’s power is kind of like being a writer
• Labyrinth has built the back rooms
• Elle and Noelle…coincidence??
• Elle’s power is driving her back into her trauma
• Shamrock: not just lucky!
• Oh, to be able to Voltron powers
• Jenny turns the page to interlude 11d

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.b.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny spools out “two years” of red string
• If this encounter didn’t trigger Theo, what (if anything) would?
• Aster is notable even if you aren’t all Purity about it
• Will the story even last another two years?
• How fixed are the futures Dinah sees?
• Whimsy is central to who Jack Slash is
• He sees Theo’s story potential
• Jenny sees what we all see in Jack’s vibe
• The metaphor behind Jack’s power
• Ted gets pedantic over finding keystones
• Jack is another emotional vampire
• So… how intentional was Jack about provoking Theo?
• Maybe this encounter with Jack is more different from Theo dealing with his parental figures in degree and not in kind
• Jenny comes up with names for AU Ward!Taylor
• Theo finds courage in spite of his insecurity, in a way that Ted sees as very gendered
• What Oni Lee can tell us about powers
• Jenny can’t even bring herself to predict that her blorbos will team up
• What’s Jack whistling?
• What we’re expecting from more Slaughterhouse Nine interludes

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.a.

Episode Notes:

• A very distressing chapter
• The conflicting temptation of the Slaughterhouse Nine
• Bitch isn't good at this territory thing
• There's a huge communication problem here
• Also an insecurity problem
• Taylor reaching out to Bitch was both more heroic and more cruel than she knew
• It's Bitch's guilt, not Taylor's, that puts her in danger now
• Bitch isn't a killer, but she is a villain
• Should Bitch be allowed around people?
• It matters that Bitch isn't a master
• A dog vs. a wolf
• Some gorgeous writing
• We all need more than the thing we're best at
• This offer isn't destiny, it's a temptation
• Taylor through Bitch's eyes
• Bitch needs humans she's free to be dirty around
• We had so many feelings about this chapter
• The metaphor of the howl
• Okay but wolves are cool (and trainable! sort of!)
• The many meanings of Rollo
• A mundane example of institutional failure
• The recruitment!
• Siberian has incredible aura, and Bitch is immune
• The mystery of the Siberian's power
• The Siberian's motherly presence
• Eye gouging: a recurring motif!
• Different ways of being alpha
• Bitch isn't a master. She's a parent.
• Also, she needs a parent
• Layers (both endbringer and dog)
• Racist and ableist language
• Surprising emotional clarity
• A howl that doesn't reach anyone
• Siberian and the othering of humanity
• What does it mean if Bitch's power likes wolves?
• Give Bitch a direwolf
• Who would Jenny recruit to the Slaughterhouse Nine?

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.8.

Episode Notes:

• If you’re the main character you should never feel this optimistic
• Jenny pitches Ward as an AU sidequel 
• We struggle to come up with a gender neutral term for henchmen
• Sierra’s a liability and Taylor’s hang-ups about Thomas don’t do her any favors
• Smugbug stocks are rising
• Sierra and Charlotte are synthesizing their views of Skitter/Taylor as one being
• Oh my god they’re teenagers, she’s thinking
• Sound off listeners! Are people who think they can guess people's ages full of it?
• Taylor’s had worse
• Now that she’s in charge, is Taylor doing better?
• Now Brian remembers how he actually feels about his sister
• It’s Brian’s turn to flail
• We gotta know about the territories
• We (hope we) won’t miss the Merchants
• The stakes of the story will totally eclipse any concerns about Skitter’s secret identity
• What if everyone eventually loses their powers?
• Lots of dramatic irony in the parallels to what Taylor’s been through
• Taylor just listen to the words coming out of your mouth hahahaha
• Interlude predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-08-arc-11-infestation/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Infestation 11.7.

Episode Notes:

• Faultline's crew is so competent *fans self*
• One of the best inside Taylor vs. outside Taylor moments of all time
• Charlotte's unique position
• Taylor's tenuous relationship to her civilian identity
• Taylor wants all other villains to like her
• What's the purpose of the Nemesis program?
• Oh, this is where Coil got his powers
• How do these powers in a can work, and how can they go wrong?
• It's an information battle
• The Merchants are pretty pathetic, and this “party” didn’t help
• We love Shamrock’s aura farming
• But we also love Faultline and Labyrinth
• What was with the temple, though?
• Taylor's making bold moves with Trainwreck
• Maybe she shouldn't hold out for universal approval
• The ways in which having a territory is great for her
• Bryce is a convenient projection screen
• Scrub. Is. Terrifying.
• Taylor's antihero moment
• Real vs. projected pathos
• Taylor's absorbed more of Sophia's worldview than she knows
• The superhero tendency to help the people right in front of you
• Some nice Mushy body horror
• Is Weymouth Mall a giant temple forever now?
• The longevity of Taylor's and Labyrinth's powers

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-11/arc-11-infestation-stories-arcs-11/11-07/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.4.

Episode Notes:

• Don’t overthink the mystery of Epeios
• Putting the Imp in impact
• Here comes the (new?) Protectorate!
• Jenny keeps leaving the villain part out of “hero-villains”
• Taylor’s gonna win, but maybe someone else will get captured
• TTRPG problem solving
• Gun talk
• Imp can make you forget her actions and not just her mere presence
• If Lisa can kinda remember Imp, can she kinda remember other stuff she forgot?
• Dragon isn’t self-righteous and we love that
• Dating, surveillance, and other topics

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-4/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.3.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny has a new theory BUT HOW CAN WE BE SURE
• The sibling dynamic explains a lot
• What a metaphor for a neglected kid
• A major change in motivation for Brian
• Family powers are at it again
• Does Imp's power work on Brian?
• Buffy comparisons (so many spoilers)
• Flechette's moment to shine
• Which Worm characters would we date?
• We're so happy for Kid Win
• But we're wincing for Vista
• Taylor once again leveling up her bug usage
• This is a pretty brutal way to do it, though
• Glimpses of Taylor's life without the Undersiders
• The problem of Weld
• We kinda see Bitch's point
• More of Taylor's utilitarianism in battle
• This is horrifying and fitting payback for Sophia
• Worm is good at taking tropes to their logical conclusion
• More Animorphs comparisons!
• Was this really the only way to get the data from the Wards headquarters?
• This fight might have been Plan A, actually
• A questionable plan, even before Dragon showed up
• Future anti-Imp measures
• New Madison theories

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-3/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.2.

Episode Notes:

• Where was Imp?
• Putting the Weld in Well Done
• We know the Wards better than Taylor
• What on earth are the Undersiders trying to do?
• Hopefully Imp is just a phase
• Ted doesn’t think Shadow Stalker could pull this off
• The PRT officer who bent the rules is gonna get canned
• Judgy teen Taylor is back, and might not want to look too closely in the mirror right now
• She’d be a fool to trust Coil
• How can you be so pessimistic about beating Coil and so optimistic about influencing him?
• Has Taylor lost herself since her big moment in Arc 8, or did she cut the reader out of her next insinuation plot?
• Seeing Dinah in the mirror
• Maybe Taylor is succumbing to nostalgia
• She just CAN’T settle for Coil
• Taylor brings herself low to get back with her ex-friends
• We like that Alec picks Taylor
• Brian craves control and Aisha is here I guess
• Bitch’s beatdown comedy
• New season, new team dynamic
• Should the Undersiders trust this much in the power of friendship? Of course!!!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/%c2%ad-arc-10-parasite/10-2/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Parasite 10.1.

Episode Notes:

• Regent the Yeerk
• Talking through how his power works
• What’s their plan for Sophia, both short and long term?
• Arc 9 has made it harder for us to root for Taylor vs. the (non-Sophia) Wards
• Whatever she’s all in on, it’s not Coil
• Jenny could see Taylor setting any number of goals at this point
• Well, does she deserve it? The narrative tempts us to say yes or not think about it too hard
• Does Regent’s power doom him to villainy?
• Guessing at what’s in Regent’s head right now
• Genre tropes help cover up the horror
• Undersiders personnel changes
• Secret Grue feelings about Taylor
• Taylor spends a lot of time thinking about Rachel
• Jenny predicted Imp's annoyingness correctly
• Grue's dependency on Coil
• Why doesn't this version of the U.S. have endbringer FEMA?
• We're so happy to be back in Taylor's head
• Broken windows isn't a thing for Taylor
• The worms of Brockton Bay are thematically ascendant
• We're starting season two of the Worm TV show
• Procedural stuff continues to be satisfying
• What's eating Brian?

Links:

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

Jenny and Ted discuss Sentinel 9.6.

Episode Notes:

• We have feelings about Angelica
• Seeing Skitter from the outside!
• Unclear in what way Skitter is a member of the Undersiders right now
• What's with Imp?
• We contemplate degrees of premeditation
• Sophia: a means to an end?
• Could the Undersiders be turning on Coil?
• We feel so distant from Taylor. We need answers!!
• Murder attempts galore
• Sophia just gave Taylor carte blanche
• Did Piggot cover up a murder?
• Do the Undersiders know about Sophia the bully?
• The many ironies of Sophia
• We try to get into Taylor's shoes here
• Taylor was so impressive in this fight
• But she can't do it alone
• Bitch's training strategies
• Grue's power vs. Sophia's
• Sophia's rage levels are high
• The desire for power and freedom as an ongoing Worm theme
• The mental limitations on powers
• Emma the enigma
• Emma and Sophia's friendship, the other enigma
• Jenny discards some theories
• What has Sophia been through if she thinks the Wards are sheltered?
• Aegis the sartorial Ward??
• We remember that Sophia is a teenager
• We conjecture wildly about her trigger event
• Doing what’s necessary
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-9-sentinel-interludes/9-6/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Sentinel 9.5.

Episode Notes:

• Sophia isn’t worth all this trouble
• Vista, in particular, has no way to reach her
• But we don’t want her to, because seeing her get under Sophia’s skin was SO SATISFYING
• Are there hidden costs to abiding Shadow Stalker?
• How superpowers sharpen and distort our understanding of why “bad apples” are protected
• Maybe Vista could leverage her strong rating if she had the mind to
• Hess’ The Art of Bullying
• Who, if anyone, does Sophia love? You’ll definitely guess Jenny’s answer
• Sophia’s just BSing but we do consider the horrors of Gallant’s power
• Weld steps up
• Gotta say, Weld’s PSA about crying will be great PR
• Less of a death wish and more of a death acknowledgement
• The symbolic power of Vista’s scar
• This thirteen year old cape is giving us a lot of Animorphs feelings
• Such a nice win for the Wards to find out Chariot's a spy. Too bad their knowledge won't help them!
• Taylor's anti-hero bias is going to hold her back
• We have the cutest scene in Worm so far
• Vista's power, politeness, and past: a mysterious triumvirate
• Vista's power as a metaphor--but for what?
• Who has seniority, Vista or Shadow Stalker?
• Turns out praise is a better motivator for Kid Win than hating himself was
• A Pact Easter egg
• Vista and intrusive thoughts
• Vista's take on death might be realistic but isn't healthy
• The pain of being forced into a role you've outgrown or didn't choose
• Piggot's personality vs. tactical choices
• A new theory about Weld's vice
• What if evil Dragon

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-9-sentinel-interludes/9-5/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Sentinel 9.4.

Episode Notes:

• Kid Win has no name
• Ted makes a formal apology
• One of the objectively best things that happens in all of Worm
• The problems in Brockton Bay are stacking up
• Kid Win: really smart, actually
• So why does he not think so?
• And how much is it Armsmaster's fault?
• Maybe he just needs a gimmick
• Slaughterhouse Nine origin theories
• Maybe Kid Win is just a victim of the hero narratives
• Kid Win also lacks connections
• Like Taylor, he’s planning to reinvent himself… eventually
• Even if he was the weakest Ward he would still have plenty to contribute and be worthy of our esteem!
• We came away with different impressions of how risky what Trickster did to Vista was
• Theories about who is steering the Chariot
• Uhhhhhhhhh don’t you need a warrant for that, Kid Win?
• Why are we having a Wards interlude anyway?
• What’s in a (not being called by your) name?
• “Compact”
• Hard light
• Lily fits in and Weld becomes a better manager
• A new ship name
• The people of the Bay
• Kid Win makes a decision he doesn’t regret
• Predictions!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-9-sentinel-interludes/9-4/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow