Inverness
The Foxiest Wife
From my experience, most if the "issues" people seem to identify with Worm are a product of their own misunderstanding of what is actually in the story, and canon conflicting with their headcanon.
Suffer No More (Cultivation, Worm)
- Thread starter Eiri Fllyn
- Start date
- Location
- Erebus
Xander from BTVS at Halloween too.
- Location
- Existance
It's amazing how often people complain about things like that. Or even the amount of people who're happy to admit they've never read the story at all but are more than happy to explain why they never will based on the wrong things they've heard.
I mean, this whole discussion started because one person said he was a good worldbuilder but a bad story teller, and someone else thought it was the opposite way around.
It's almost as if people are letting their own opinions colour their judgement.
- Location
- Erebus
If you think this isn't the case...pretty much always, you're fooling yourself.
- Location
- Israel
It was sarcasm you know. It's almost as if you've never heard someone speaking sarcastically.
See what I did there?
It's the Anne McCaffrey effect. She was a terrible writer, but her works had ideas in them that people really, really liked so they sold like crack in their day.
- Location
- Existance
Sounds like she was a brilliant write, in that case.
Books sold. Job done.
Oh, no doubt. By my personal metric the only measure of real success at any job is how much money you make at it. Artistic integrity, pride, quality, and all that other BS people talk about is how unsuccessful writers soothe their envy. Wildbow's real talent is pandering to his audience. If his audience was less niche he could have become a millionaire off his work. If Worm had been written to appeal to say, teen girls or middle aged housewives, he'd be enjoying life from the top of a pile of money right now. He could have split Worm into 4-5 novels and sold each one for tons of money with possible movie or TV rights in there to sweeten the pot.
As it is, his audience is too small to get that kind of success.
- Location
- Israel
That makes me think, would a movie about Worm better to be made as a Tragedy\Horror or Tragedy\Adventure?
Also, the main story definitely SHOULDN'T be used for a movie, it just doesn't lend itself well for it. But there's definitely non-worldshaking stories to be had in Worm-verse.
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My idea was contingent on it being written to pander to teen girls, middle aged housewives, or both. As it stands the audience is too niche for that to be worthwhile.
Spirit 1.6
Spirit 1.6
In the moment that Amy hesitated between panic and curiosity and figuring out who she needed to stop, both Taylor and Victoria had already moved before Amy could try to stop either of them.
"Wait!" "Stop!" Amy and Dean yelled simultaneously.
Taylor dashed forward and closed the gap in an instant, her forefinger and middle finger thrusting forward as if they were a deadly weapon. Victoria flew past Amy and Dean and just barely dodged the high speed finger thrust by chafing right, and tried to shove Taylor's shoulder as she flew by.
Taylor intercepted the shove with her left hand and grabbed onto Victoria's wrist, twisting with a pivot on the ground, and bringing her right hand back again, ready to poke Victoria. The blonde haired hero out of costume realized that Taylor was also a physical fighter, most likely a brute with the amount of strength being exerted on her at the wrist, and decided to match her head on, reversing momentum to punch toward Taylor, ignoring the incoming finger poke.
Taylor reacted immediately and changed the direction of the finger poke to the arm that she was grabbing onto with her other hand, while kicking off the ground, avoiding the punch that was aimed toward her gut.
Her qi-empowered finger poke hit Victoria's arm, the qi extending outwards and hitting the forcefield to create a momentary flicker but otherwise not damaging the hero known to be invincible. However, even that single instant was enough for Taylor's other hand to make direct skin contact with Victoria's held wrist, allowing Taylor to perceive Glory Girl's underwhelming strength and fragility without her forcefield to assist. Meanwhile, Victoria's punch curved as her whole body's flight direction shifted, homing in on Taylor's belly.
The punch still didn't make contact, however, as Taylor leveraged her grip on Victoria's wrist to carry her upwards momentum into a spin, before letting go of her grip and getting launched towards the opposite alley wall.
Taylor hit the wall feet first and condensed into a crouch with a turn to face Victoria, who had already chased after her fists raised.
The cultivator narrowed her eyes after estimating Victoria's movement speed and reaction times, then moved faster than before and deftly slipped around Victoria's trajectory. The surprised flier was unable to stop herself from smashing into the wall.
Taylor fell back down to the ground and watched calmly as her opponent tore her arm out of the broken wall.
"You fly fast but you are unskilled. Your limbs cannot keep up with the speed of your flight. If your enemies can resist your aura of fear, they will not simply allow you to hit them freely."
"Shut up, you arrogant bitch! You haven't gotten a good hit on me either!" Victoria flexed her arm as pieces of the wall fell to the ground.
"Don't be foolish. A single strike from me disabled your forcefield earlier. Beneath your forcefield you are no different from a regular mortal. If I held back any less, your life would be in peril," Taylor said dismissively.
"Why you…!" Victoria flew down again, charging at Taylor.
"Stop!" Amy rushed forward, blocking Victoria's way with her arms spread out.
Victoria came to a hard stop in front of her sister and had a betrayed look on her face when she saw the glare Amy gave her.
Dean already had his phone out, ready to call PRT just in case. "Please, Vicky, she clearly doesn't want to fight anymore," he said, grabbing onto Victoria's left arm with a pleading look.
The floating girl looked between her boyfriend and her sister. "But she start—"
"But nothing, Vicky! You're a hero! You can't just fight because you're angry. Look at the wall you just broke. Who's going to pay for that? You always do this, Vicky, then people get hurt and things get destroyed when they don't need to be. When are you going to learn to hold back and look for the peaceful solution? I'm tired of having to clean up for you all the time," Amy said heatedly.
Victoria's eyes teared up. "I—I'm just trying to help, why are you guys ganging up on me? She's the one that was stalking us!"
Amy dropped her arms and sighed. "I know you're trying to help. But you're not actually helping. Can you just turn off your aura, please? Even I'm feeling it now."
"We're not ganging up on you, Vicky. No matter what Taylor said or did, right now you're the one using a parahuman power on her when she hasn't technically done anything illegal. It's not a crime to follow somebody around for a short while. Paparazzi and die-hard cape fans do it all the time, and you wouldn't attack them, would you?" Dean added.
Victoria bit her lip. "Fine." She dialed down her aura as far as she could.
Amy smiled slightly at Vicky, who gave a half-hearted smile back. "Thank you, Vicky." Then she turned to Taylor, who nodded at her.
But Amy frowned in response. "And you! Can you not provoke and insult people with every sentence you say?"
Taylor looked back with a confused expression. "I did nothing of the sort. What are you referring to?"
"You—are you serious? Taylor, You can't just call someone a mortal without it coming off as an insult. And crazy, too. Not to mention the part where you threatened to 'slay' her, and when you called Vicky unskilled, and pretty much everything you said!" Amy said with exasperation.
Taylor blinked. She was silent for a few moments, then furrowed her eyebrows as if in concentration.
"My apolog—sorry, I need some time to advance in the social Dao—get used to talking, I mean. I haven't had many interactions with morta—normal people before." Amy watched Taylor struggle with her words with no small amount of incredulity, and a little bit of pity. By the sounds of it, the girl was even more introverted than Amy herself, off in her own world with no common sense to handle the outside.
She thought of what she had felt back at the hospital when Taylor somehow shared her senses with her, and wondered if it was simply Taylor's power that made her this way. There were cases of some parahumans triggering with powers that drastically altered their mentality, especially the very young triggers. Then there were the capes that were simply commonly thought of as crazy. Like Glaistig Uaine, thinking of herself as a Faerie. Was Taylor similar, Amy wondered to herself.
She sighed. "Nevermind that. Taylor, why exactly were you following me?"
"You are stressed, and your qi is already showing signs of becoming unbalanced again mere hours after I restored the balance. I followed you to understand why," said Taylor.
"You can't just do that, Taylor. I appreciate your concern, and your…healing..." Amy said, scrunching her eyebrows as if unsure of what to say. She knew Taylor was weird from the first meeting, but she also knew that Taylor meant well, having felt what Taylor felt when she did the…whatever it was she did back then. "But stalking is creepy. It makes people uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable, knowing that there's somebody out there following me secretly."
Taylor nodded. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to know. With what little power I have recovered, my stealth capabilities remain subpar."
"No, that's not what I meant! You shouldn't be stalking me at all! "
"As you wish, I won't follow you around anymore," said Taylor.
"Good," said Amy with a light smile. Taylor's face remained stoic. The smile slid off Amy's face. "Okay…and you should ask permission before healing someone. I don't mind, but it's a big deal, legally, if you try to heal anybody else when they don't want you to."
Taylor scoffed. "That will not be a problem. I have no interest in healing others."
In the moment that Amy hesitated between panic and curiosity and figuring out who she needed to stop, both Taylor and Victoria had already moved before Amy could try to stop either of them.
"Wait!" "Stop!" Amy and Dean yelled simultaneously.
Taylor dashed forward and closed the gap in an instant, her forefinger and middle finger thrusting forward as if they were a deadly weapon. Victoria flew past Amy and Dean and just barely dodged the high speed finger thrust by chafing right, and tried to shove Taylor's shoulder as she flew by.
Taylor intercepted the shove with her left hand and grabbed onto Victoria's wrist, twisting with a pivot on the ground, and bringing her right hand back again, ready to poke Victoria. The blonde haired hero out of costume realized that Taylor was also a physical fighter, most likely a brute with the amount of strength being exerted on her at the wrist, and decided to match her head on, reversing momentum to punch toward Taylor, ignoring the incoming finger poke.
Taylor reacted immediately and changed the direction of the finger poke to the arm that she was grabbing onto with her other hand, while kicking off the ground, avoiding the punch that was aimed toward her gut.
Her qi-empowered finger poke hit Victoria's arm, the qi extending outwards and hitting the forcefield to create a momentary flicker but otherwise not damaging the hero known to be invincible. However, even that single instant was enough for Taylor's other hand to make direct skin contact with Victoria's held wrist, allowing Taylor to perceive Glory Girl's underwhelming strength and fragility without her forcefield to assist. Meanwhile, Victoria's punch curved as her whole body's flight direction shifted, homing in on Taylor's belly.
The punch still didn't make contact, however, as Taylor leveraged her grip on Victoria's wrist to carry her upwards momentum into a spin, before letting go of her grip and getting launched towards the opposite alley wall.
Taylor hit the wall feet first and condensed into a crouch with a turn to face Victoria, who had already chased after her fists raised.
The cultivator narrowed her eyes after estimating Victoria's movement speed and reaction times, then moved faster than before and deftly slipped around Victoria's trajectory. The surprised flier was unable to stop herself from smashing into the wall.
Taylor fell back down to the ground and watched calmly as her opponent tore her arm out of the broken wall.
"You fly fast but you are unskilled. Your limbs cannot keep up with the speed of your flight. If your enemies can resist your aura of fear, they will not simply allow you to hit them freely."
"Shut up, you arrogant bitch! You haven't gotten a good hit on me either!" Victoria flexed her arm as pieces of the wall fell to the ground.
"Don't be foolish. A single strike from me disabled your forcefield earlier. Beneath your forcefield you are no different from a regular mortal. If I held back any less, your life would be in peril," Taylor said dismissively.
"Why you…!" Victoria flew down again, charging at Taylor.
"Stop!" Amy rushed forward, blocking Victoria's way with her arms spread out.
Victoria came to a hard stop in front of her sister and had a betrayed look on her face when she saw the glare Amy gave her.
Dean already had his phone out, ready to call PRT just in case. "Please, Vicky, she clearly doesn't want to fight anymore," he said, grabbing onto Victoria's left arm with a pleading look.
The floating girl looked between her boyfriend and her sister. "But she start—"
"But nothing, Vicky! You're a hero! You can't just fight because you're angry. Look at the wall you just broke. Who's going to pay for that? You always do this, Vicky, then people get hurt and things get destroyed when they don't need to be. When are you going to learn to hold back and look for the peaceful solution? I'm tired of having to clean up for you all the time," Amy said heatedly.
Victoria's eyes teared up. "I—I'm just trying to help, why are you guys ganging up on me? She's the one that was stalking us!"
Amy dropped her arms and sighed. "I know you're trying to help. But you're not actually helping. Can you just turn off your aura, please? Even I'm feeling it now."
"We're not ganging up on you, Vicky. No matter what Taylor said or did, right now you're the one using a parahuman power on her when she hasn't technically done anything illegal. It's not a crime to follow somebody around for a short while. Paparazzi and die-hard cape fans do it all the time, and you wouldn't attack them, would you?" Dean added.
Victoria bit her lip. "Fine." She dialed down her aura as far as she could.
Amy smiled slightly at Vicky, who gave a half-hearted smile back. "Thank you, Vicky." Then she turned to Taylor, who nodded at her.
But Amy frowned in response. "And you! Can you not provoke and insult people with every sentence you say?"
Taylor looked back with a confused expression. "I did nothing of the sort. What are you referring to?"
"You—are you serious? Taylor, You can't just call someone a mortal without it coming off as an insult. And crazy, too. Not to mention the part where you threatened to 'slay' her, and when you called Vicky unskilled, and pretty much everything you said!" Amy said with exasperation.
Taylor blinked. She was silent for a few moments, then furrowed her eyebrows as if in concentration.
"My apolog—sorry, I need some time to advance in the social Dao—get used to talking, I mean. I haven't had many interactions with morta—normal people before." Amy watched Taylor struggle with her words with no small amount of incredulity, and a little bit of pity. By the sounds of it, the girl was even more introverted than Amy herself, off in her own world with no common sense to handle the outside.
She thought of what she had felt back at the hospital when Taylor somehow shared her senses with her, and wondered if it was simply Taylor's power that made her this way. There were cases of some parahumans triggering with powers that drastically altered their mentality, especially the very young triggers. Then there were the capes that were simply commonly thought of as crazy. Like Glaistig Uaine, thinking of herself as a Faerie. Was Taylor similar, Amy wondered to herself.
She sighed. "Nevermind that. Taylor, why exactly were you following me?"
"You are stressed, and your qi is already showing signs of becoming unbalanced again mere hours after I restored the balance. I followed you to understand why," said Taylor.
"You can't just do that, Taylor. I appreciate your concern, and your…healing..." Amy said, scrunching her eyebrows as if unsure of what to say. She knew Taylor was weird from the first meeting, but she also knew that Taylor meant well, having felt what Taylor felt when she did the…whatever it was she did back then. "But stalking is creepy. It makes people uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable, knowing that there's somebody out there following me secretly."
Taylor nodded. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to know. With what little power I have recovered, my stealth capabilities remain subpar."
"No, that's not what I meant! You shouldn't be stalking me at all! "
"As you wish, I won't follow you around anymore," said Taylor.
"Good," said Amy with a light smile. Taylor's face remained stoic. The smile slid off Amy's face. "Okay…and you should ask permission before healing someone. I don't mind, but it's a big deal, legally, if you try to heal anybody else when they don't want you to."
Taylor scoffed. "That will not be a problem. I have no interest in healing others."
Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
- Location
- Walking the Endless Corridors
Interesting... Honestly this is entertaining, but raises tension for me a little rather than lowering it.
I'm worried to see what will happen next.
I'm worried to see what will happen next.
If you think about it, all parahuman powers should alter the mentality of the people who have them just by opening up new senses or abilities to them that no one else has. You don't even need any direct extra mindfuckery for it. Having the ability to fly, or shoot lasers, or see the future, or whatever is going to change how you think, how you solve problems, etc unless you just utterly suppress the ability and never use it.
Most of it would be fairly low key, but present.
She's like, the very model of a modern cultivator protagonist.
- Location
- California
From what little I understand of Xianxia, Cultivators have a lot of social problems in general. This little bit seems to mean that Taylor has worse social skills than a warrior from a society known for anti-social behavior if I'm interpreting this correctly. That's one of those sad achievements right there isn't it.
Mystearica
Quoth the Raven
- Location
- meditating over Titan's Tower
All the best stories exist in this limbo. How dare you write a good story but leave it unfinished like this? But also it's really good so I don't want it to end. I want more chapters and I also want closure, but at the same time if the story could go on forever--while also finishing satisfactorily--that would be fantastic.
- Location
- U.S.
only exceptions I can think of is cultivation chat group and 40k millenium of cultivation where cultivators serve the people as that is how society developed for the latter, while in the case of the former, cultivators are generally more peaceful to match modern times
I think only the chat group is peaceful. Other cultivators were just as bad from the first 130 chapters I read. What a positive influence social media has on society.
DualEquinox
Verified Smartass
- Location
- Australia
Not to mention that by default all Non-Cauldron powers explicitly do have extra mindfuckery inbuilt due to their Shard's conflict drive. People like Glaistig just got an extra-strong dose of the mindfuck Kool-Aid...
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all powers have that conflict drive (looking at canary) natural triggers just have it personalised for their personal issues instead of a general one
- Location
- Existance
'Oh god, is this why it always feels so awkward when people thank me for healing them?'
I'm torn between what I want to see more. Amy's reaction to realising there's someone out there who's so focused on her to the exclusion of everyone else, or Amy convincing Taylor to heal others only to have a gang try to force her to heal their members.
Fixed that for you. Canary had nothing on Cauldron's golden boy when it comes to conflict drives.
He had the advantage of being an insecure manchild with an inferiority complex and a pile of neuroses high enough to block out the sun. The shard barely needed to do anything.
thus proving that taking your subjects from a pool of dying patients without first doing a full psychological evaluation is a bad plan. In comparison Paige would have made an excellent Eidolon.
Might actually be worse than how the Entities prefer to give powers to stubborn, combative, assholes as a first choice, mixing in stupid, prideful, and outright insane for flavor.