Arc 15, Reflections
I spent a lot of this Arc yelling at Taylor.
Now, I'm glad that she's preparing to move against Coil, and that she's well aware he's not going to give up Dinah (not sure if she ever believed this or not, tbh, it's kinda unclear to me, though maybe I missed or misremembered a detail from way earlier), but I find myself going 'JUST MOVE AGAINST HIM NOW! STOP PLAYING ALONG!'
Like, yes with Coil's power being what it is you don't want to go-off half-cocked, sure, but equally, you also don't want to take too long to let Coil plan, since he can plan twice as fast as you with twice the information. So playing along and putting yourself at risk by going to talk to Parian, by working with Trickster to threaten the Mayor and his family...
Bad choice, Taylor.
Also, of course, bad choice to give into Brian there, given how I understand it will turn out (badly), but I do understand it, both from her perspective and Brian's.
I imagine the fact that they actually happen, sort of, and then don't really work is actually a contributing factor to them not being a popular ship. Like, yes, there's the fact that the initial fic-reading/fic-writing base on places like SB were going to prefer F/F anyway and Taylor being written like she's a repressed bisexual contributes to that, and there's also racism bc Brian is black and while I won't call the worm fandom as a whole racist, there is racism in this fandom as with any other, and there's the fact that Brian spends a lot of time (pre-his second trigger anyway, but that's long enough to cement his perception for a lot of readers) acting like the 'straight man' of the group, the boring, sane adult and those characters tend not to be popular with shipping anyway, at least not for the MC.
But there's also the fact that they do sort of get together, ish, for a moment, and then it doesn't pan out. And in my experience, an almost or a could have been is going to be a lot more popular, shipwise for fans, than a it actually was and it didn't work out. Not always. Not every time. But often, yes.
Like, if it didn't work out because one character died, or one character had to be written out because actor unavailability, or some other 'bullshit' reason, then it may retain staying power, but without those, this sort of thing generally makes a ship bleed support and interest fairly quickly.
The Interludes we got were interesting - you've seen my thoughts on 15.x already, of course, so no need to go into that. The fact that Flechette and Assault blame or at least partially blame the Undersiders for what happened to Panacea and Glory Girl is interesting, and I suppose it makes sense given what most of them now (and how little Carol or Amy or Sarah likely told anyone. I still notice no character seems to be suggesting rape happened, and they talk about Panacea and Glory Girl being almost equally victims of the Undersiders/The Nine in Interlude 15. Granted, maybe no one said anything, but still.)
The look at Alexandria's backstory, the flittering through her life, the way it's really the Endbringers that seemingly killed the hope of things getting better, and really seems like without them (boo hiss Eidolon!)
Doctor Mother's weird 'let's keep the Siberian alive to make people join the Protectorate' idea makes less than no sense tbh, but then, that's Cauldron's whole problem is how small it is and how much Doctor Mother really gets to act unquestioned.
Overall, it's an understandable sea change from Arc 14, much slower and calmer paced overall, but things are still Escalating, Brockton Bay can't get a fucking moment of peace and it will continue not doing so.
And of course, Dragon basically blackmails/extorts the PRT into letting her take her boyfriend with her, which is definitely amusing. I am curious what exactly Dragon's apparent human body in that suit is made of. Is it like, synthetic skin? Does it just look human from a distance, or...? I actually was surprised that was a thing that happened in canon - I'd seen it in a fic or two, but they were pretty heavy divergences so I assumed the changes to Dragon that were the result were at the root.
Triumph's belief that going along with Dragon and Defiant there is... honestly, a bit much. I suppose I can see how it makes sense, with how hard he was trying to reinvent himself and now it's back to shortcuts and easy options, and it seems as though he was closer to Dauntless anyway, so he may have some resentment of and issues with Armsmaster (though I notice Triumph seems to have glossed over the part where at least one other hero - Manpower - died as a result of Armsmaster's decision to go after an Endbringer solo and kill anyone in the way of that), but it is like - Armsmaster did bad, but on the scale of moral compromises, letting him go to hunt the Nine and other Class S threats seems... minor?
I dunno.
Anyway. Arc 15 was good, but it was kind of slow reading for me, despite my intentions to read faster. I can really only blame myself. It's so much easier to just read fanfic.
I'm not one of the people that says the fanfic is better than Worm, or that Worm is 'salvaged' by the fanfic, or anything, that's... a whole different mess. But if not for the fanfic, I'd probably not be reading it, and there is fanfic I'd say that is as well written from a skill perspective (if not more so) than the canon, and I'd also say that, most importantly, the fanfic is just more enjoyable than the canon. Not better, not 'superior', just... more enjoyable.
It's not that there isn't a place for depressing stories like Worm, and Worm remains compelling af, but it is just... so much nicer to read a story where more people get to be happy and things work out better for the characters I love, you know? Like, there's fics where shit goes wrong and drama and angst and all that happens, but even then, you tend to expect it to work out better in the long run. Almost no one wants to write something darker or more depressing than the canon, after all.
If Worm had been happier and smoother and easier, it probably wouldn't have had as much fic, or as much of a footprint in people's imaginations, but still.
But I'm chugging along, and I'll keep doing so.
I do expect to be spitting nails of annoyance and frustration when we get to Echidna though. :rofl:
