This is a very important part of the story writing process that a lot of authors skip, the wind down after a major conflict. It's important for people to decompress, to examine their actions, and to make plans... It is very tempting and very often a common decision to just skip all that and deliberately move on to the next story points.
I think this chapter was not only needed but incredibly well done.
Thanks. It's something that usually frustrates me when stories skip over the actual outcome of a character's action, or how they react and reflect about what they did. I don't like stories that are all tension all the time, there needs to be downtimes to build up for the next event and to show readers what the stakes actually are.
Hope this doesn't ruin there relationship with Glory Girl. Best case scenario it's her questioning her roll as a hero and joining them! Sadly didn't see that happening any time soon.
It wont. She will be pissed, mind you, but it can be fixed with some time and care.
Can't wait for the Renick interlude. Hoping it will be a nice pallet clenser from all this depressing self-flagellation. Not quite sure if it's the prominence, the fact that it popped up mid-story instead of being an inherent trait, or the how long it's been in-universe for the wordcount but something just feels… off about it. Could be really good and maybe I'm just not getting what you're trying to convey with it but I think it's something for you to work on.
It was always there, it just wasn't prominent. From the very start there small implications of Peter's problems with self-worth, they just didn't affect the narrative because he was consistently triumphing. Now that the circle of people he interact with has grown, and that life just punched him a bit on the face, those issues are more obvious.
How good is Xenoblade resurrection tech?
There are blades that can revive the recently departed, regenerating chunks of the body in the process if needed.
I'm very conflicted about this chapter. As a writing piece it works well, I understand what I'm reading, I understand why I'm reading it, I understand the actions, reactions, character motivations etc. However, the situation felt off. Part of this is the general feel of Worm, but an act of war was committed and it wasn't really commented on. Representatives of a foreign power operating on American soil leading an attack that would destroy a city seems like something that should matter. About the only reason this won't be commented on is because the PRT needs good PR in general, and the fact that said act of war happened in Brockton Bay which is under Cauldron's protection. To that end, with the irrational thought pattern Peter was having, I was kind of expecting him to blow the lid on that since it seems like he was very upset about the events happening and how it could have happened in the first place when it was the hero's job to prevent it. He knows that the only reason the heroes are understaffed and losing the battle is because Cauldron is letting it. It seemed like something that he could have confronted Battery about at least. I know she didn't have anything to do with the decision, but if I was rationally angry I feel like I would have at least thrown a "Do you see what the people you're working for are doing" line at her or something. That would have escalated the conflict more because then he would have appeared on Contessa's "Stop Cauldron from leaking path", but it felt like the correct reaction to have someone irrationally angry, point out the person who's fault it was when faced with a representative (client/fringe member) of the organization. Even more than this there seems to be a second missing element here. If Heavy Gear had not acted, a large portion of the city would have razed in a terrorist attack led by superpowered individuals. To the best of my understanding, this qualifies as an A class Parahumans threat, which automatically results in a truce. Therefore, Heavy Gear working to stop an A class threat with 1/2 of it being handled by the PRT and the other 1/2 by them should fall under the truce rules including them working with the Undersiders as they would also fall under the city wide truce. Therefore, Armsmaster's reaction feels disproportionate because if the "villains" had not acted, the city would have been destroyed. One of the big sticking points of the way the PRT does things with the cops and robbers game is that villains should be willing to step up to help save the city if things escalate that bad through their truce system. The fact that Armsmaster wasn't willing to acknowledge the situation and correctly apply the truce feels wrong. I feel like the Undersiders could ruin the PRT's reputation here simply by posting a message on PHO along the lines of, "Today Nazis attacked the city, we stopped them. Our reward for stopping them was having the local Protoctorate leader personally try to arrest us. Know that if you are a villain(s), trying to help people in your city will only end with you in a jail cell as your reward. Not trying to be a jerks, have only robbed criminals, never killed anyone, and this is the reception we got. If this is the thanks I got for trying to help people then I don't know why we would ever want to join an Endbringer battle, since the Proctorate is apparently unwilling to work with villains to stop large-scale problems." In the end this chapter is a good reflection of the world of Worm and the messy politics that make it up, but I feel lacks a sense of priorities despite a well thought out portrayal of the human elements in this situation. I'm hoping to gain additional context with the upcoming interlude and PHO spot to understand what the people in charge and the general public are thinking about and reacting to in this situation.
Dude, break your paragraphs, please. Blocks of text are hard to read.
Now, on to your points.
This is an amazingly hard act of political juggling where image is everything. We know that the Empire receive foreign aid from the Gesellschaft but officially the remain a North American criminal organization, so their problem to fix. Accepting that they let foreign elements in would be disastrous.
The act of calling a truce is also something I don't see the PRT accepting often because it erodes their authority. Like TT said, it's not about what's best for the city, and a bunch of independence being able to do what a publicly funded organization couldn't is a big and ugly black mark. They don't want to admit that they need the help of the villains to do their job. And, this all just happened and the PRT hasn't had time to fully analyze the situation.
Finally, I'll point out that Armsmaster didn't try to arrest them, and that PR and how each side could hurt the other was a big chunk of the chapter. The conclusion they reached was that, yes, they could damage the PRT's PR but the PRT could punch them back just as hard, if not harder.
Hes delving into the tip top of mad scientist territory. And in this case i can only see it ending in tears... poor kid.
It won't if he removes his need to cry!
Like the chapter until we get to the resurrection tech. It's one thing to make your character immune to aging and illness but to make them deathless just makes the story a boring powerwank. There's no more consequences so nothing really matters. Unless your story turns into that love death and robots episode with the immortal human society with police that kills unregistered children.
I hard disagree on this. I find that death is a very cheap way to generate drama, as it usually involves the threat of physical violence that can easily be fixed with the simple solution of punching the enemy harder. In fact, in general, death is a cop-out, an easy way to end a plot threat and avoid complex conflict. That's why most redemption stories end with death so the author doesn't need to go through the long and arduous process of showing the redeemed character facing his victims.
My stories are fundamentally about inter-character relationships and the problems that surge there, and death offers nothing interesting. At least nothing interesting for me.
In my other story, Zero Summing, the MC is the absolute strongest being in the setting and has never lost, nor will lost, a battle. And yet she still has an amazing amount of problems because most of her real issues she can't just punch away. I'm following that same philosophy when writing Nuclear.
The biggest nemesis of my characters is themselves, and sometimes victory is harder to manage than defeat.
I know nothing about the setting, so is revival a thing there? Or at least of the recently deceased?
In Xenoblade? Yes.
