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Ring-Maker [Worm/Lord of the Rings Alt-Power] [Complete]

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Emma's deepest problem is that (according to Sophia) she's still lying to herself about caring about Taylor, and is in actuality basing her fear and hatred of Sauron off of some remnant of the predator/prey ideology, but now mixed with desperation and a willingness to chuck herself down the slippery slope due to seeing Sauron's emergence into Bet - of which, she at least indirectly helped with, according to Sophia - even if Emma herself didn't plan for Danny to be targeted.

Which I'm not sure I'm supposed to take at face value considering Emma seemed sincere when she mentioned it to Janice way back when, but maybe that's the point, in that she's that good at lying to herself after years of lying to herself about Taylor, to the point where even she believes her own bullshit AFTER triggering with a power that explicitly lets her read others' intent, but apparently not her own.

But the issue I'm running into is that her power is supposed to let her read the motivations of others around her, and she'd be able to see that Sophia actually believes her own words, or that Kaiser is (successfully) subverting her to the Nazi cause, rather than her subverting them.... I suppose if anyone else were delivering them she might listen in that she's not healed, but with Sophia's history (especially breaking Emma the 2nd time around) would close Emma's mind to the possibility of still being wrong.

It works, I guess, but this pretty much delegates Emma to full-on antagonist status that Sauron (or Dragon) will crush, and/or needing to be broken yet again, but this time by Sauron herself.

What Emma needs is either Yamada or Tattletale, but neither are likely to come into her orbit anytime soon, unless Sauron calls for a meeting to take out Valefor (and hand out the 9), and Oracle is present along with Faultline's crew.

And Emma would never stop to listen to them unless she was kidnapped and tied down - at least while the threat of Sauron is still out there.
 
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Metroidvania said:
Emma's deepest problem is that (according to Sophia) she's still lying to herself about caring about Taylor, and is in actuality basing her fear and hatred of Sauron off of some remnant of the predator/prey ideology, but now mixed with desperation and a willingness to chuck herself down the slippery slope due to seeing Sauron's emergence into Bet - of which, she at least indirectly helped with, according to Sophia - even if Emma herself didn't plan for Danny to be targeted.

Which I'm not sure I'm supposed to take at face value considering Emma seemed sincere when she mentioned it to Janice way back when, but maybe that's the point, in that she's that good at lying to herself after years of lying to herself about Taylor, to the point where even she believes her own bullshit AFTER triggering with a power that explicitly lets her read others' intent, but apparently not her own.

But the issue I'm running into is that her power is supposed to let her read the motivations of others around her, and she'd be able to see that Sophia actually believes her own words, or that Kaiser is (successfully) subverting her to the Nazi cause, rather than her subverting them.... I suppose if anyone else were delivering them she might listen in that she's not healed, but with Sophia's history (especially breaking Emma the 2nd time around) would close Emma's mind to the possibility of still being wrong.

It works, I guess, but this pretty much delegates Emma to full-on antagonist status that Sauron (or Dragon) will crush, and/or needing to be broken yet again, but this time by Sauron herself.

What Emma needs is either Yamada or Tattletale, but neither are likely to come into her orbit anytime soon, unless Sauron calls for a meeting to take out Valefor (and hand out the 9), and Oracle is present along with Faultline's crew.

And Emma would never stop to listen to them unless she was kidnapped and tied down - at least while the threat of Sauron is still out there.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Worm. A story of a lot of broken people who solve their issues in the most unhealthy way possible.

Kinda like Mary-Sue bashfic authors, but with superpowers instead of an internet connection.
 
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Wow, Emma, frantically rationalizing why you've made the right choice by throwing in with a band of perfidious villains? It's no wonder you and Taylor were friends :V

(At least Taylor had enough class to pick supervillains with sympathetic backstories and a modicum of respectability, though)
 
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Oh, Annatar. That you presume to know how I would judge you tells more about your own insecurities, your own judgement of yourself, than anything I could say. I am sorry you feel that the choices you made were wrong, enough that you must justify them. Must project your own awareness of your sins upon others, that you may reject them. When you stand once more before Eru, you already know how He will judge you. And that is why you wait for Him to leave you space to make your own mistakes before you dare do these things.

Annatar, I am sad for you.



(posted way late because apparently this is still here and I never hit "post" the other day when I typed it up)
 
Phinnia on SpaceBattles has been producing fanart for this story for months. Today, at my request, she modified one of her works for use as the story's cover! It's now at the OP of the thread on both forums, and is currently being ported to the mirrors.

Now, the image is, uh 9 MB full size. And because of the difficulties with uploading to the forums, I had to link directly to her Pasteboard. So if people could just look at the OP and tell me if that's causing trouble with page loading, that'd be great. I'm working on a workaround to decrease the resolution to something more reasonable right now.

EDIT: The image has been shrunk. The full-sive cover is still available, but hidden behind a spoiler so that it doesn't load on page load.
 
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Lithos Maitreya said:
Phinnia on SpaceBattles has been producing fanart for this story for months. Today, at my request, she modified one of her works for use as the story's cover! It's now at the OP of the thread on both forums, and is currently being ported to the mirrors.

Now, the image is, uh 9 MB full size. And because of the difficulties with uploading to the forums, I had to link directly to her Pasteboard. So if people could just look at the OP and tell me if that's causing trouble with page loading, that'd be great. I'm working on a workaround to decrease the resolution to something more reasonable right now.

EDIT: The image has been shrunk. The full-sive cover is still available, but hidden behind a spoiler so that it doesn't load on page load.
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Lithos, you derped the OP. Now most of the text there is in the spoiler.
 
BungieONI said:
Hah! I was worried there for a second that Emma would get to "help" but whew, saved, because Sophia and Colin get how to help her.
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I dunno, at the start they were, giving out hard truths and giving her the self dobout she despretly needs (or atleast one thing, if I thought the obvious solution is the only one it'd be a bit like one of Emma's fallacies) but as it went on you could practically see how Sophia's and to and to a degree Armsmaster's (somewhat) suppressed anger gradually builds and their priorities on Emma shift from a problem to be fixed to a problem to be removed.

On that note this story is VERY well written in important ways Lithos, also
Lithos Maitreya said:
This is not a call to my readers to change. You shouldn't have to change. I am one person faced with the Internet; if I can't deal with the way it works, it's far easier for me to adapt than the whole collective. So you all go on being the responsive, analytical, sometimes hypocritical mess that you are. I love you for it. But I can't deal with it as well as I need to keep responding to it the way I have been.
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Of course one should adapt to cooperating with the crowds but don't give up on the reverse, it is harder to change the general standard than (pretty much) any particular individual but it's also more important. I suppose in a way the whole story is in part a way of doing it, and of course it's doesn't do so in a hypocritical way either, it has no clear single meaning and the possible interpretations can be contradictory promoting thought and questioning of one's own beliefs. It could be better of course but so could everything, continue refining.

I was thinking about Pancera and what she's been up to, personally I hope it's something pretty much unrelated to this whole issue, like trying to terraform a desert or making a jungle ecosystem that happens to produce lots of edible fruit, I mean it's important to note that a world doesn't revolve around the plot, even if it does.



On a different note I personally think that Annatar is still better than the many shmucks that could do something different but just continue the same patterns.
 
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Evonix said:
I dunno, at the start they were, giving out hard truths and giving her the self dobout she despretly needs (or atleast one thing, if I thought the obvious solution is the only one it'd be a bit like one of Emma's fallacies) but as it went on you could practically see how Sophia's and to and to a degree Armsmaster's (somewhat) suppressed anger gradually builds and their priorities on Emma shift from a problem to be fixed to a problem to be removed.

On that note this story is VERY well written in important ways Lithos, also
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Ah no I wasn't talking about helping Emma, meant Taylor.
 
Hmm...thinking on the interlude some more, and a feeling is nagging on me.

The entirety of the second half of the chapter, from Emma's entrance into the base, is pretty much a fairly blatant narrative repudiation of her 'solution' being even remotely feasible - Not just unacceptable, which joining the Empire certainly was - but not even in the realm of possibility.

Emma 'loses' the conversation (after getting sucker punched), Sophia threatens to kill her (thus pushing Emma even deeper into the Empire's arms, which both dooms her to further failure, and likely make things worse for Sophia's mission of placating Annatar), and then to top everything off, Narsil shines like a sun when Sophia is doing said threatening to prove Sophia's 'rightness'.

While this isn't an issue from a reader perspective (we've seen Sauron's forces coming together, and the framework of Tolkien destines Emma as she currently is to lose, and Sophia's hero journey mandating her to push Emma away as a refusal of the latter's current ideology even as she is sorry it's come to this), from an overarching narrative sense, Emma's plotline has specifically been tailor-made to have her not see saving Annatar as even an option. With her setup, and Sophia not extending that hand (or rather, dragging Emma by the scruff of her neck), I honestly couldn't foresee any way Emma reacts, other way than she does here.

And if she was always going to lose this conversation, yet there is zero chance of her realizing her folly (that we're shown, at least) until if/when the Empire gets batted aside with a mace....why set her up with her original premise, where the horror and EVIL her 'trigger' vision (which is quite different than any other trigger vision, which still makes me suspicious of what exactly is in her head) showed her leaves her ZERO room for capitulation on her end, given Sauron's level of evil that 'will' be unleashed on Bet if Emma doesn't stop it?

Maybe it's just the tragedy-hater (as Emma is almost approaching ancient greek levels of tragic setup leading to terrible choices) in me reacting to the sense of unease this creates, but something feels....slightly off-kilter to me, in the way things progressed from Sophia and Annatar's conversation in Sophia's room about lifting Emma up to now.

Obviously the story's not over, but that doesn't stop me from feeling uneasy, lol.
 
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Metroidvania said:
Hmm...thinking on the interlude some more, and a feeling is nagging on me.

The entirety of the second half of the chapter, from Emma's entrance into the base, is pretty much a fairly blatant narrative repudiation of her 'solution' being even remotely feasible - Not just unacceptable, which joining the Empire certainly was - but not even in the realm of possibility.

Emma 'loses' the conversation (after getting sucker punched), Sophia threatens to kill her (thus pushing Emma even deeper into the Empire's arms, which both dooms her to further failure, and likely make things worse for Sophia's mission of placating Annatar), and then to top everything off, Narsil shines like a sun when Sophia is doing said threatening to prove Sophia's 'rightness'.

While this isn't an issue from a reader perspective (we've seen Sauron's forces coming together, and the framework of Tolkien destines Emma as she currently is to lose, and Sophia's hero journey mandating her to push Emma away as a refusal of the latter's current ideology even as she is sorry it's come to this), from an overarching narrative sense, Emma's plotline has specifically been tailor-made to have her not see saving Annatar as even an option. With her setup, and Sophia not extending that hand (or rather, dragging Emma by the scruff of her neck), I honestly couldn't foresee any way Emma reacts, other way than she does here.

And if she was always going to lose this conversation, yet there is zero chance of her realizing her folly (that we're shown, at least) until if/when the Empire gets batted aside with a mace....why set her up with her original premise, where the horror and EVIL her 'trigger' vision (which is quite different than any other trigger vision, which still makes me suspicious of what exactly is in her head) showed her leaves her ZERO room for capitulation on her end, given Sauron's level of evil that 'will' be unleashed on Bet if Emma doesn't stop it?

Maybe it's just the tragedy-hater (as Emma is almost approaching ancient greek levels of tragic setup leading to terrible choices) in me reacting to the sense of unease this creates, but something feels....slightly off-kilter to me, in the way things progressed from Sophia and Annatar's conversation in Sophia's room about lifting Emma up to now.

Obviously the story's not over, but that doesn't stop me from feeling uneasy, lol.
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It's true, I suppose that it may be because it's Emma and Sophia and Armsmaster and all those people have a temptation to collapse a situation into nice simple conflict rather than the complex difficult task of resolving things. But ya it's a tad worrying that this seems simple. I wonder if they talked to Rune it might have turned out differently.
 
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