Good, I wasn't the only one who had physical pain after we got another cliffhanger.

Someone on SB suggested

Spoiler

They could be trying to recruit Skitter to go after the Nine

 

Spoiler

That would go well in hand with the idea of this being more of an Armsmaster redemption arc, but I feel like Dragon could probably come up with a much better idea that "attack a school" in order to do that

 

1. There's no need for spoilers at this point. No noobs read this far into the thread, and anyone who's staying current isn't going to read a dozen new spoiler-filled posts instead of the latest chapter.

2. Why would you put pure speculation in spoiler tags anyway? It contains no spoilers and just makes it more awkward for everyone to read. I either have to hit ctrl-a, or go for the mouse, to highlight your text.

I don't think Skitter is getting recruited to fight the Nine. There's plenty of bigger and badder people out there whom they could recruit. Or they could just make more Dragon-bots. If they wanted intel from Skitter, they can contact her.

I think Skitter's speculation is on the money. Government wants a show of force to counter the bad PR surrounding the collapsing PRT. Either that, or Armsmaster screwed Dragon over for his own glory and aggrandisement. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

Revealing her identity in front of the school will with no doubt make that impossible. They could probably contact Tattletale if nescessary.

 

Firstly, I fucking hate cliffhangers like that, makes me wish I didn't follow this thread so I would have forgotten til Tuesday and gotten to read straight through.

Secondly, thanks for not having to enter spoilers anymore...

Thirdly, these tactics seem extremely heavy handed by Dragon and Armsmaster.

Unless there is a vital emergency occurring I can't see any reason why this situation was forced. Why would they risk the fact that Skitter, feeling trapped could have possibly responded lethally in a school full of potential hostages. Surely Dragon's coding must factor in the scenario's that shit could hit the fan.

This does bring up the possibilites that there could be default protocols if a known villain has entered into the school.

On the other hand they fact that they have revealed who Skitter (I assume this completely as Dragon was 'loud enough for everyone to hear') is while she is in custody (or almost) seems to be foreshadowing that they want to use her for something. Once outed unless she gives up completely all civilian ties she will find it difficult to continue as Skitter (unless there is some corny bullshit with people starting to identify with supervillians).

Honestly, if it weren't for the level of writing so far I would be a little disappointed but knowing Wildbow I think there a quite a few curveballs coming.

I also don't think its Armsmaster pushing this, with the potential reaction from the undersiders I think he wouldn't risk his new identity. Sure he might enjoy bringing Skitter down but I don't think he would risk himself stupidly to do it.

 

Yeah, hitting a school with a villain who has one of the easiest "kill ALL the hostages" options around seems kind of dumb unless they pull out a super anti-bug spray. So I'm assuming there's a fairly hefty alternative motive here.

 

Read this straight through the weekend. Amazing worldbuilding. Characters are complex and fleshed out. The plot is full of ohshit! moments, mixed with action and conspiracy and personal drama. It's pretty much everything you'd want from a superhero/villain story.

For the chapter, is Cauldron the hand pulling the strings here? I thought their entire purpose was to counter the EndBringers, so wouldn't this have serious impacts on the villain/hero truce for counterattacks? Or would this not be a part of that, since she was arrested after the fact, in neutral ground?

 

Updated! Minor spoilers below, so if you haven't read it yet go do that. Now.

Well I certainly didn't expect that sort of resolution. I suppose it's a mark of good storytelling that in hindsight I can recognize the hints leading up to what Taylor was going to do. It's also nice to see her finally get some recognition from people. Whoa boy.

Looks like Skitter is going full Villian now. I liked how both Dragon and Defiant recognized that their reasoning was somewhat weak. Also the PRT picking up Dinah was not something I saw coming. Great plot device in that it might force Skitter to re-evaluate her prior fanatical commitment to getting Dinah safe. Solid chapter.

This story is really becoming a perfect example of grey morality and the slow descent into villainy.

 

God damn, that was powerful.

---------- Post automerged at 09:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

Also, who else thinks Dinah lied.

 

It's strongly suggested that she managed to do some lying to Coil towards the end, leading him into the failed ambush on Skitter and his ultimate death. (Especially since it was mentioned in an interlude that Coil considered Dinah too valuable to torture for information in one of his alternate realities) By comparison lying to the PRT should've been a piece of cake; I'd be surprised if she didn't specifically rig the setup in Skitter's favor.

Also this was a generally awesome update, and Skitter's thoughts comparing herself with Jack Slash of all people were interesting.

 

The was fucking awesome. Hands down amazing. And Dinah lied, she would for all that Skitter did for her. And I can see Dragon using this as a means to finally have Defiant knock-out the rest of her protocols so she doesn't have to obey anymore.

And I concur, the bit comparing herself to Jack Slash was good.

As for Taylor has a character, she'll never be anything but morally gray. Doing villainous things but also doing what's right. Or as she sees it.

 

Damn. Talk about going off the rails. No more Taylor and Skitter, now it will just be Skitter. As everyone said above, emulating Jack and Bakuda? She really is only Skitter now.

EDIT: Emma's Thoughts: SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT

 

The arc was aptly named. We're seeing just how much Taylor has grown, confronting old enemies, interacting with the people around her, etc.

I also suspect Dinah lied about the odds. ~97% getting taken into custody is a bit high considering how resourceful Skitter is. This stunt has really backfired on the PRT. Wouldn't mind seeing press/PRT reactions in the next Interlude.

Would Greg get a trigger event from something like this...? It's pretty clear he's heavily invested in the cape scene and getting shut out by Skitter only to have it all revealed hours later would probably be devastating for him.

For future reference: Does wildbow always update on the stroke of midnight?

 

Not always, but usually. Wildbow's also said somewhere that Dinah can't lie about the odds, because it causes some kind of feedback loop. Or rather, that she can lie, but it causes extreme pain and possibly shuts down her power.

 

He pre-uploads the chapters, and has Wordpress setup to release them at midnight. Sometimes it doesn't happen precisely on time because WP hiccups.

 

If she's clever, she just asks her power *What are the chances Skitter escapes if I say the odds are 96.8%?*, instead of whatever they wanted her to ask. If she likes the odds her power gives, she says "96.8%."

I don't think Coil could have been beaten (statistically speaking ) without some tomfoolery on Dinah's part, so especially with this latest "miracle escape" the implied odds heavily favor Dinah having found a way to lie.

EDIT || Another thought: The 6.5 block radius is huge. Compared to the 2-4 she had before, that's 3-10x more land area, and thus 3-10x as many bugs to work with at a time, along with all the normal benefits of improved range.

 

The odds were not a 100% that Skitter would be captured. So yeah, she could have escaped.

Also, is it possible that Dragon lied about the probability of Skitter's capture?

 

There's no doubt been a lot of speculation about Taylor having another trigger. So much I think the author put this in--

"I almost wondered if I’d had a second trigger event, if I was controlling them, the image was so bizarre."

--just to fuck with the readers.

 

I'm not sure if and to what extent Dragon can sabotage any orders she gets. Does she have to do her best when she gets an order? Or can she sort of do the jinn (genie) thing and subtly subvert them if she wants to?

I don't think that Taylor really got so lucky on a 3-4% chance. I think it's more likely that Dinah lied.

Edit: Just adding a few things while thinking about the chapter.

It was nice from a storytelling perspective, but I think the bystander effect would have prevented something like this from happening. Especially since the people who stayed in the city probably learned to stay well out of the way from capes. But it was nice, so I don't mind it.

I assume Dragon got some of her limitations removed by Defiant. On the one hand that's great - Dragon really is one of the good guys - but on the other hand, there's a reason for putting limits on AI's.
She's not human - or only as human as she was made. Removing her limitations is probably one of the last resorts for dealing with Endbringers should they really start to threaten the survival of humanity as a whole. For an interesting read on what happens if you get an unlimited AI just almost right, see Friendship is Optimal.

 

This was a great chapter. For a lot of reasons, can't wait to see the fallout. I do hope thursdays chapter has something to do with it.


Though, I do wonder if dragon is alright and if unchaining her left any damage? Anyone want to speculate?