What are you reading?

[Jason_Miao]

Drac: Hmm...I'd have sworn that timeline-wise, Trickster & co. were a thing before Skitter existed.  But I also haven't read Worm since it was finished, and both you and Ko both actively read Worm fics.  So I'll just assume that you're right.

Ko: Read it, and I agree with your second paragraph (regarding the first, I don't read enough Fate to have much of an opinion).  Esp. the part about being leery after Hageki went terribly wrong.

But it's not as if I haven't written stories that turned went into WTF directions that seemed like a good idea at the time (to me, at least, if no one else).  Perhaps Haigeki was one of those flukes.

[Anastasia]

Drac: Hmm...I'd have sworn that timeline-wise, Trickster & co. were a thing before Skitter existed.  But I also haven't read Worm since it was finished, and both you and Ko both actively read Worm fics.  So I'll just assume that you're right.

Ko: Read it, and I agree with your second paragraph (regarding the first, I don't read enough Fate to have much of an opinion).  Esp. the part about being leery after Hageki went terribly wrong.

But it's not as if I haven't written stories that turned went into WTF directions that seemed like a good idea at the time (to me, at least, if no one else).  Perhaps Haigeki was one of those flukes.

That is true. Sometimes a story gets away from you, maybe that's what happened with Haigeki. Sometimes you get so into something that you make bad choices.

[Merc]

Drac: Hmm...I'd have sworn that timeline-wise, Trickster & co. were a thing before Skitter existed.  But I also haven't read Worm since it was finished, and both you and Ko both actively read Worm fics.  So I'll just assume that you're right.

Trickster and the Travelers were definitely a thing before Skitter existed. They got their powers about 2 years before Taylor did.

However, they didn't show up in Brockton Bay until after the original story started (sorta).

They were in Boston at some point after Taylor triggered, but not sure if they were already in Brockton Bay by the time she went to the streets and fought Lung. They showed up at some point between Taylor's trigger and Leviathan.

[Dracos]

Yeah, that was where it's reasonable to have an early trigger Taylor take out coil and he not 'yet' have the travellers in town as a consideration.

Without him there, they might never arrive in town.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10377231/49/Security

Security updated.

[spoiler]I wasn't a fan of this chapter. The cliffhanger's nice, but the problem is that we're all primed up for the final battle now. After 4 months of wait we essentially get a social tie up and filler chapter, which is rather vexing. I think a lot of the stuff here could have been done better earlier or in the epilogue, y'know? Get on with it already.

[Dracos]

Ack does neat stuff, but really does juggle too many stories.

[Anastasia]

Ack does neat stuff, but really does juggle too many stories.

Yeah. I wish he'd just sit down and finish Security, since otherwise I don't think it'll be done before 2017. Maddening. Moreso since he updates by vote now, and the structure ensures that it's going to be slow, round robin updates instead of any focus.

[Anastasia]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-girl-of-tomorrow-rewrite-of-the-last-daughter.381794/

The Last Daughter's getting a rewrite. Looks better so far, time will tell if it fixes the issues the previous incarnation had.

The last few chapters lost me.

[spoiler]

Leviathan strikes and Taylor destroys it - despite being impaled with a Sting-enhanced arbalest shot from Flechette - while getting told by Martian Manhunter that she has no limits. Just not buying it on a basic level, as I find the execution to be terribly uninteresting. An Endbringer should be a terrifying opponent, the sort of thing that takes an act of God to destroy. It wrecks havoc like nothing else and deserves the proper in setting respect. So Taylor essentially snapping and beating Leviathan like a drum is an incredibly unrewarding way to go about it.

Now some people in the story's thread are saying that a good Superman story isn't about the fights. Granted, this is often true. The problem is that combat and conflict are so integral to Worm that this doesn't fly there.

[Yuthirin]

[spoiler]Leviathan strikes and Taylor destroys it - despite being impaled with a Sting-enhanced arbalest shot from Flechette - while getting told by Martian Manhunter that she has no limits. Just not buying it on a basic level, as I find the execution to be terribly uninteresting. An Endbringer should be a terrifying opponent, the sort of thing that takes an act of God to destroy. It wrecks havoc like nothing else and deserves the proper in setting respect. So Taylor essentially snapping and beating Leviathan like a drum is an incredibly unrewarding way to go about it.

Now some people in the story's thread are saying that a good Superman story isn't about the fights. Granted, this is often true. The problem is that combat and conflict are so integral to Worm that this doesn't fly there.

Yeh. Not impressed.

[Anastasia]

Yeah. Someone in thread called Taylor a Mary Sue and I think I agree. Just the way the narrative and everything curves to her, you know? It really makes the story unrewarding. I think the author's trying to have Taylor become a beacon of hope, but it reads more like a stomp to me.

[Dracos]

She's also amazingly self-centered in her perspective as the author writes her all over the place, very common for mary-sue type stories.  Character's largely exist as set dressing for her.  Events are things she 'wants', rather than actually pertinent parts of her life.

I've also lost track of H+ (https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/h-mayhem-worm.380864/).  It felt like it just shed plot threads en-masse post the Grey getting put together.  Coil basically just self-implodes, which has to be the least satisfying take I've seen so far with him.  Practically just a vengeance setup.

Continuing to read Ryuugi's danmachi.  Read his older https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians-the-dresden-files-deep-as-the-sea-part-2.211072/ but that sort of just cuts out and also shows how far he's come as a writer.

[Jason_Miao]

Drastically Overpowered Shikaku updated.

(No actual overpowered fighting in this chapter: I'm just running out of acronym expansions)

[Dracos]

She wipes 3 anbu~ :P

[Anastasia]

She's also amazingly self-centered in her perspective as the author writes her all over the place, very common for mary-sue type stories.  Character's largely exist as set dressing for her.  Events are things she 'wants', rather than actually pertinent parts of her life.

Yeah. These are all problems that more experience will fix. The author's not bad, just urgh. There's parts of the story that I like in spite of the issues I have with it.

I've also lost track of H+ (https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/h-mayhem-worm.380864/).  It felt like it just shed plot threads en-masse post the Grey getting put together.  Coil basically just self-implodes, which has to be the least satisfying take I've seen so far with him.  Practically just a vengeance setup.

I read this one yesterday. Ended up skimming as I found the OC fairly uninteresting. Everything else in the story was great, especially the interludes. But the OC didn't do it for me. I really dug his Piggot and Armsmaster confrontation and he wrote the only Mouse Protector I didn't find tiresomely insufferable. Strange, I normally don't like interludes that much and find it a disagreeable trend in Worm fanfiction.

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/crouching-tiger-worm-au-alt-power.382703/

I'm continuing to enjoy Crouching Tiger, the story of dragon Taylor who is stronger than lung and more paranoid then canon.  Also crazy.  Updating like 3 times a week.