Oh, and there's going to be another Endbringer attack. Calling it now, the Simurgh is going to take a personal hand in this.

 

Or Skitter removes all limits, and assumes her position as Beelzebub, the 4th Endbringer.

 

It could be the Simurgh; we saw her react to Amy's message a while ago. According to previous patterns of behaviour though, it's Behemoth's turn next. Simurgh hit Australia a few months before Leviathon hit Brockton Bay.

Is it just me, or was chapter extra long? Loved it regardless.

 

I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but does the whole Endbringer cycle of attacks seem a little... odd to anybody?

The Endbringers are looking to be extremely destructive, but they are fairly predictable to the point where likely continents and timing can be forecasted in advance. Also, these are three entities that are theoretically cooperating, yet they never attack together, only one at a time. The way they act almost seems more like dogs herding sheep, or bosses from a video game, or even children playing pretend.

Also I am really hoping whatever sort of deal that gets dealt results in Skitter working with the PRT rather than rotting in the Birdcage.

 

Well, we don't really know what the EndBringers' goal is. It could be that the destruction they cause is only a consequence of their primary objective. Maybe...they're like Cauldron in trying to force more people to trigger. Or maybe they're the world's way of reducing overpopulation. Maybe they're looking for someone or something and they're creating no-man's lands to rule out options one by one.

 

The Endbringers also began their campaign years apart.

They seem like a test to me. Someone's putting pressure on mankind, squeezing them, slowly increasing the stakes, rather than outright destroying them.

Maybe the purpose behind the Endbringers is to prepare the capes for what's to come. Or someone really likes watching mankind struggle in a macabre game.

 

All this implies that the Endbringers are creatures of reason.

 

Or that they're the tools of someone with reason.

 

Can't stop reading this. I'm up to the middle of the conflict with the Slaughterhouse 9. I've got to say Bonesaw is one of the best villains I've ever read, anywhere.

Only thing I don't like about what I've read so far is, up until the Slaughterhouse 9 arrived, there were almost no consequences for a hero or villain losing a fight up to this point, except for Lung and Bakuda, who went to the Birdcage.

The unwillingness to kill anyone (up until the Endbringer attack) made the fights lack importance, knowing that all the characters would dust themselves off and walk away, the only results being damaged reputations or some loss of territory.

Also, during the endbringer attack I was wondering... where is the military? You'd think there would be attack planes in the air or something. Author even mentioned one of Coil's men being in the airforce before, so we know in this world the non-powered people have a regular military. Just a thought.

Also, it seems so bizarre that during this Slaughterhouse 9 attack on nearly the whole city the only people fighting against them are teams of villains. The protectorate and the wards have done jack shit. Even if the only non villains being 'recruited' are Armsmaster (in the doghouse) and Panacea (New Wave, not part of the protectorate) I could see the protectorate staying out of it except for the killings of civilians and the city wide attack by Shatterbird that injured thousands. You'd think that for sitting out the and not fighting for the people of the city the protectorate would expect the citizens to turn on them for letting them down, even put their faith in the villains more. I just can't fathom why they've stood down so far, and no explanation seems forthcoming.

Back to reading.

 

I'd forgotten about that, but I felt the same way too. The early parts of the story were full of fights where no one killed their enemy. Seeing how cheaply people die in the real world, this struck me as being very strange. There were people who spoke about killing others, and wanted to, but it seemed almost Saturday-morning-cartoonish how little death their actually was.

It's pretty hard to find flaws in this story, so it's worth pointing out.

Once you get further into the story though, people keep on dying, or even worse, surviving.

 

It's explained as being part of the masquerade. Capes don't kill people because it threatens to bring down the hardest hitters on the city, so if one of them does start killing everyone else gangs up and takes them down (which is what happened to the ABB).

 

As Tattletale said before the bank robbery; It is a game. Or, at least, it was. Now there is no peace in Brockton Bay, only Skitter, and the laughing of thirsting gods.

 

I'm not sure that giving herself up first, was such a good idea for Skitter. It looks like she wants to negotiate terms for her cooperation. But shouldn't you do that from a position of strength?
Shouldn't she have negotiated those terms before turning herself in?

Otherwise it's kinda like Germany having to negotiate the peace treaty after all the soldiers went home already. (WW1)

 

That analogy isn't quite right. More like the general turned himself in saying, "Deal with me or my soldiers go all out."

 

The PRT would never have agreed to her terms, since they couldn't be sure that it wasn't all an elaborate scheme to undermine them. Now that they have her in custody without incident they can't very well let her go, even if she's holding a hell of a lot over their heads.

I would argue that even now, Skitter is still in a position of strength.

 

If she's not in a position of strength she's at least not in a weak one. She has a plan, she has allies and she has the support of Miss Militia (assuming she actually goes ahead with their deal).

 

Well that was interesting as hell. I like how the angry bug scene showed that Skitter isn't nearly as in control emotionally as everyone seems to think she is. Also: you're totally right Howdy, Skitter (somehow) still manages to negotiate from a position of strength.

I feel like Skitter and this whole mock trial thing is going to happen. Then before she gets put away for life the S9, the Endbringers, or someone else will show up and force the PRT to bring her out to fight the threat. Seem viable?

It was also really cool to see Dinah's personality when she's not on drugs. I feel like Skitter never really saw her as someone with a personality. Dinah was more of an ideal. Like a representation of innocence lost. It's great that we can see how frustrated Skitter and Dinah are by the PRT's black/ white world view. Both of them are more concerned with the impending apocalypse than controlling public image.

 

Plus there's the simple fact that they really can't do much with her right now, even Canary had to get a trial with a jury before the PRT could send her to the Birdcage. So right now, here are their options:

Send Skitter to the Birdcage/another jail with no trial, PRT looks like tyrants and people get kinda mad about it, hero's start to get annoyed by the fact that Cauldron is able to silence whoever they want because they made trouble, and villians basically get told "If you act like the model villian and don't kill people whilst making your city a better place by taking out the villians that do, and also turning up to every S Class threat, we're still going to throw you in the Birdcage with no trial if we don't like you." This is the worst thing that the PRT could do.

PRT lets Skitter have a trial, if they use people from Brockton Bay for the trial, then odds are Skitter will walk away free, or at worst a slap on the hand for what she's done. In the event that she doesn't then well, thanks to what Skitter did at the school, it's kinda going to look like the PRT rigged it, which would go back into making them look like shit.

Their final option is to listen to what Skitter wants, and hope that she'll let them come out well due to the kindness in her heart. Odds are, in return for her demands, she'll take some jail time at worst, maybe community service if she's lucky (and the idea of Skitter continuing what she does as community service is hilarious, but unlikely).

 

I loved Dinah's emotional response to Skitter being threatened, and Skitter's clenched fist when Dinah was threatened. Much love.

And little Dinah Alcott calling someone an "arrogant dickface". I lol'd.

Twenty years? The world ends well before then. Is this an indication that Tagg [assuming he survives the current drama] travels through the portal, or perhaps is one of a tiny number of survivors of the apocalypse?

Arthropodaudience. They already have a word for it. Is Skitter not the first?

Hah.

I hope Dinah and Tattletale team up one day. The world would tremble.