Gary Boy also appeared to have been the prodigy that King took under his wing, that's the way it seems to be inferred from Jack in the latest chapter.

 

Does anyone else have trouble reading the interludes? When I read this for the first time, I found myself frequently skipping interludes, but I always meant to go back and read them later. Even with the last update, when I had nothing better to do, I found myself skimming the chapter.

I think I care too much about Skitter's story to give a damn about the rest of the world.

 

Every time an interlude came up when I was reading the whole thing, I hated it. But I made myself read it. I have never once regretted reading an interlude. They are all amazing in their own right. Provide a lot of background information and depth to the story.

 

I'm with Innomine. Sometimes I hated that Interludes broke the flow of Taylor's story, but I always read them in order, and never regretted a single one. They were all great.

Perhaps the worst interlude, as far as my frustration goes, was not an Interlude at all. It was the arc-long story of the Travellers. It was very well done, and important, but I couldn't help but want to hurry up and finish it so that I could get back to the "real" story.

The comparatively bite sized interludes, though? They're gold, and even ended up being some of my favourite parts of the story.

One of the problems with them is that they're not always immediately relatable to the rest of the story, so I was left wondering "why am I reading this?". A good exanple is the Nilbog interlude. It wasn't until later in the main story that I realised that two of the characters are big players in the main plot. Then I looked back on that interlude a little differently and with more respect.

Now that I'm finished with the archive binge, I'm eager to read more Interludes and want to discover more about the world almost as much as I want to discover more about Taylor. Taylor's story is what drives my interest, but these little peeks out into the wider world and from other's perspectives help to round out the story and gives characters depth. Wormverse is incredibly well developed.

 

A lot of the interludes are really great all-around. They not only give us insights into the wilder world, they are also used in order to further the plot, AND they are usually the darker part of the story, given the author seems reluctant to have anything bad happen to any of the main characters.

My problem is mostly with interludes that are about the lesser-written characters (Travelers/Noelle, Jack Slash, NM) because their PoV is boring/bland/disappointing, but even those have some DELICIOUS information within.

 

I can see where you guys are coming from, and I do feel like I'm missing out on some information. Going back to just read the interludes doesn't really appeal to me, but I'm planning to do a full re-read in a few weeks and I'll definitely make sure to catch them then.

 

The interludes have important information relevant to the plot. You can't just skip them. They're also incredibly good.

To anyone who is just start reading this story, I would recommend that all interludes get read at the start or the end of an arc instead of reading them in the order of publication, as I do think they break immersion in the story. Any ones appearing mid-arc should be read before you get going into the arc. Any ones at the end can stay at the end.

 

Agreed, and I've just reached the Numbers Man interlude. Will finish it once I've had sleep. Otherwise I'm done with my archive binge.

The only thing I can really say at this point is God Damn It I want more.

Of all the 'chapters' so far I've got to say that Chrysalis was my favourite. 20-5 is by far the best chapter of the lot, but the one where Skitter finally confronted Emma and won just hit all the right buttons for me. The entirety of this segment is awesome in every single way, but my favourite part has to be this bit:

That moment right there. Absolutely perfect.

 

Is one coming? I thought the homeless guy interlude was as close as we'd get.

 

I really liked the Greg interlude, if only for all the forum/wiki stuff. Possibly the best infodump, ever.

 

Boring chapter. Needed, but still boring. Basically just gave us all the Undersiders' and Accord's reactions, with the addition of a little background on Pariah and her relationship with Fletchette moving forward. That was nicely done, with buildup way back a couple of arcs back.
This story is so intricate, it really boggles me.
I can't wait for a Scion origin story, he's fascinating. I wonder if he'll start trying to destroy Endbringers after the interlude with the homeless dude telling him to. That would drastically change the landscape of the world. If the Endbringers go down, or even if they take longer to rest between attacks, that would be a bit of a game changer.
So many things coming together at the same time.
Cauldron deciding to start trying a new formula variant, Skitter turning herself in, Dragon now being free to act, Scion told to attack the Endbringers to kill, the S9 having multiple clones of a bunch of members.
Can't wait.

 

This chapter was fucking epic. I don't know what this guy was talking about. ^

We got Undersider reactions to Skitter's decision, a time frame of shit going down. A big hint that Skitter's separation from the Undersiders isn't just temporary, and, oh yeah, Flechette just defected.

I doubt Skitter had any idea that would happen, but just how fucking scary is that going to make her in the PRT's eyes? Hello, I'm turning myself in today. And I'm also corrupting one of your young members to the Dark Side. Congratulations. Now let's get to work on my master plan.

Skitter just earned "The Dreaded" monicker, even if she didn't plan on it.

 

Corrupting your member that can BE A THREAT TO ENDBRINGERS nonetheless. I'm glad to see that subplot wrap up, only something like 10 others to finish this year

 

"If you take me into custody I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine..."

 

I loved this Interlude. It was sweet, like Parian. Also, Parian's an Arab!? I'd completely forgotten about that. I'd been imagining her as a petite, white, Francophile, much like her original doll-like costume. I'd completely forgotten that her middle eastern name and face had been revealed to Fletchette/Lily back in 9.2. Speaking of Lily, I feel happy for her.

 

Frankly, im still wondering if he bolt Flechette put into Skitters shoulder, the one that the doctor cut the ends off, is still in there.

As for the interlude, as other people mentioned, it was awesome. When I saw that Parian was the focus of it, I was very happy. It did not disappoint.

Anything that's not to do with the main story right now is just going to disappoint me I think.

 

Honestly, this recent interlude was rather dissapointing. Until now, I have always been impressed by Wildbow's rich and realistic characters, but the background of Parian is rather unrealistic in my opinion. Although I must say that I mostly speak from personal experience.

I have literally followed the lowest possible education you can imagine and eventually I climbed my way to a fairly prominent university with an international program that's heavily aimed on math. I have noticed a huge difference in the behaviour of students during my climb to succes. In lower education students tend to behave similar to people like Emma and Sophia, whereas the people at higher education tend to act much more mature.

Essentially Parian couldn't find a single group to do her projects with due to some rumors. In an environment where students around you are in general considered intelligent people, I find it hard to believe that every single classmate in university level would act that shallow if they would care about it at all. They're essentially judging people while not knowing the complete story behind why she got called a bitch. If it was a low form of education then I could believe it, but seeing that this is not the case and the fact that every single group at university education level is refusing her makes it a real tough pill to swallow. This character background feels rather hard to believe in contrast to Wildbow's usual rich backgrounds.

in the grand scheme of things it is merely a minor issue and the rest of the chapter was up to par with Wildbow's usual quality. However, the background was a letdown which kinda irked me throughout the interlude.

 

I just don't find Parian that compelling, to be honest, so her background was of secondary interest to me.