Glory Girl wasn't a member of the Wards [did she join for a very short time before getting play-doh'd?], and I think Alexandria kept her bitchiness hidden from the general public. She had a fantastic public image.

 

The irony of someone asking Taylor if she was super smart (ie, a Thinker) when she used the incorrect plural for proboscis is hilarious.

 

I'm sceptical about all of this "bugs can't see colours [eg. tattoos], just physical shapes". I can't speak for other bugs, but I know for a fact that butterflys see colours. They love colours in the UV range. That's how they know which part of the flower to go to for food.

Walk into a butterfly enclosure with small bits of fluorescent colours on you [eg. I wore a baseball cap with white writing] and watch the butterflys ignore everyone else and come straight for you. Bees also deal with flowers, so I imagine they see colours as well.

 

To people who are annoyed at the PRT 'de-fanging' Taylor.....it's the job of the organization to do so, we're use to Taylor using some of the more dangerous insects and spiders in combat all the time. This entire time Taylor has had no rules to go by, no regulations, so we're spoiled in a way. What we're used to is Skitter; the criminal overlord who has taken on the like of the S9 and Leviathan and lived. What we're seeing now is Weaver; a new 'hero' who has to abide by the rules of the PRT and show she wants to be a 'proper' heroine.

I did like the chapter myself, it shows how life is for the people on opposite side of the law. It can't be easy dealing with people like Glenn(who I want to throw into a jet engine). The heroes overall are interesting and I can't wait to see more of the PRT angle. We haven't gotten to see things from their POV very often and so will be quite enlightening. Also I think Taylor is planning something, her and spiders will be a handful for the Warden(Who actually seems like an adult who can think past their own nose!).

Also first post in Worm thread on here. Go me.

 

I agree that it makes sense the PRT would defang its heroes, but I would expect them to be a little more lenient in regards to the use of less-than-lethal force. There's nothing wrong with having cockroaches or bees scouring the perimeter of a location, especially if they would go unnoticed. They're just yanking Skitter's chain on purpose; they're practically hazing her here. It's unnecessary. They have records of her working fine with heroes against the Endbringers.

All the PRT cares about is its image; that's the impression I've gotten. Some of the individual heroes care about doing what's right, but the organization does not. Cauldron certainly doesn't. I hope Skitter can cause reform in the organization. If she can't, then she better destroy it from within. It's going to be a hurdle when shit inevitably hits the fan. You can't fight the end of the world with gloves on.

 

You're missing the point. Taylor is going through a major image change. She can't be seen to use the more brutal parts of her arsenal because then the public will just see it as her falling back on old habits and acting like a villain. So she's being reigned in a lot at the moment to show a better looking side of her power. I doubt it will last for the long term; probably just until she's become an established hero rather than a reformed villain.

 

Regarding Jouster being an asshole- Kudzu was his partner, and he saw Taylor kill her clones violently during the Echinda arc- and he didn't know it was a clone at first.

Kudzu might have been one of those few capes still left inside when Taylor lied to Sundancer.

And then after that, when everyone was super pissed off at Alexandria, Taylor stepped in to semi-defend her, which seriously pissed Jouster off. He's the one that bitched Taylor out about it.

Just saying, him acting like a dick in tha latest chapter isn't entirely without reason.

 

Wasn't being entirely serious about half the stuff I said, but okay. Someone in the comments also mentioned that part of Jouster's behavior is because he feels threatened by Skitter--her rep, her skills. And, like a typical adolescent boy, he lashes out at her for that. It makes a lot of sense. I just kind of want her to catch a break every now and then...get a little more respect...you know.

Anyways, I see this whole butterfly, non-threatening public figure thing as a positive thing. She already knows the value of appearances--she's been using them to make herself look more intimidating since that whole Bitch territory incident. But there's a flip side to that coin. She could use her new image to make people underestimate her. They already do...why not encourage it?

 

A very interesting chapter, one that's given me a lot to think about.

First, I'll say that it was a little disappointing in that it didn't set the tone that I was expecting. Taylor is in prison, that's fine. It seems like this will be a temporary thing until her place in the Wards is established, since I can't imagine Defiant shuttling her back and forth from prison to whatever city she ends up in. First thing that struck me as off was Taylor's speech to the warden about wanting to be in prison. Seriously? Does she really feel guilty about what she did, given that during most of those situations she was trying to do the right thing? The only thing I think she really has to apologize for is getting Dinah kidnapped, and maybe, maybe, killing Alexandria and Tagg.

Second thing that I wasn't expecting was the flat out lack of respect she was shown by both hero and villain in this chapter. I can completely understand why many of the heroes would dislike or even hate her, but the way they were so dismissive of her really rankled me. Maybe they were just being petty or purposely obtuse, but I think it reflected really poorly on a group of people that are now supposed to be on Taylor's side. I don't care if they become best friends, but at least acknowledge that Taylor has the same sort of experience that any of them have, and in such a short time. Hell, Defiant seemed to be the only one willing to give her the time of day, and he had the most seniority and experience of any of them. I can only hope that if Chevalier had been present that scene would have played out differently, but yeah, poor show heroes.

The Wards... Jouster is apparently an insufferable dick, but I suppose he has good reason to dislike Taylor. I liked that Tecton and Clockblocker were there to stick up for her, but I'm wondering why exactly that was necessary. Taylor is supposed to be a nationally recognized supervillain. Doesn't that reputation mean anything to these people? She killed three PRT directors, and these kids are still all flippant about it. They're kids, sure, but I'd think they'd be more wary than playful with regards to Weaver.

Glenn is just ridiculous, I could see Defiant getting embarrassed for Taylor and at the same time wanting to knock Glenn the fuck out. Again, I'd like to think that if Chevalier was present all of that bullshit would have been toned down. It is important that Weaver do everything she can to repair her public image, but hamstringing her completely with the sort of nonsense that Glenn was suggesting is just laughable. Weaver was recruited because of her effectiveness, not because she's a PR gem. I'll admit that it was good for a laugh, and I think it was a good scene, but I really hope that someone with an ounce of sense nips that in the bud.

The people within the Protectorate with actual chops (Chevalier, Defiant, Dragon, MM) know exactly why Skitter was able to beat the everloving shit out of them time and time again, and I hope they realize there needs to be a change to their operating procedures when dealing with real villains in real crises so that they can do their jobs successfully and efficiently.

Okay, so the Adepts. These guys seem like your garden variety villain society - a group with much less teeth than Coil or Empire Eighty-Eight ever had. Going from this chapter alone, I have to say that if they ever did plan on making a move on BB, the Undersiders and Ambassadors would skin them alive. These guys are clowns who don't have the chops to fight a real villain battle with life and death on the line. They're used to playing games with the heroes and that's about it. I know we didn't get to see any of the heavy-hitters in the group, but there are only three people in it that are on a higher tier than Swoop was, and he was a little bitch. I mean Taylor basically beat them all single-handedly while standing just a few feet away from them and physically restrained. And that was without even being allowed to task her bugs to bite them. If she'd had her costume on and not the Protectorate's shit knock-off she wouldn't have even been injured.

If these guys really did have an eye on BB like Tattletale suspected, then why is there no recognition when Weaver shows her power? It's very, very recognizable, so I'm shocked there was no reaction aside from, "she's pretty good at that." I was expecting something more along the lines of, "Oh God, she killed Alexandria! It's her! I'm telling you it's her! I'm telling you it's Skittttterrrr!" If Earth Bet has a 24 hour news cycle like we do, Taylor has been on the news for weeks at this point. Does nobody in this series watch the fucking TV?

Clockblocker really made this chapter for me. I'm so happy that the guy got to tag along and be on the winning side of a fight for the first time in... well it's depressing. Now he'll get to go home to BB and regale the rest of the Wards with tales of how badass it was to fight alongside Weaver and how she crushed the Adepts with butterflies, of all things. Not sure how well Vista will take that, but Clockblocker deserves a good turn at this point. The law of the jungle here is that whoever fights on Taylor's side, wins.

Finally, I'm going to touch on that dead horse once again: second trigger. Taylor shows an incredibly (unique?) ability to keep a good amount of control over her power even when being controlled by others. I mean she's practically asleep here, yet she can still see and hear what's happening around her (though her perceptions are altered, specifically of the passage of time) as well as give orders to her swarm. This isn't unique to this instance either. She did something very similar when facing Valifor, essentially ignoring his power while she was under its influence. The web ropes she found all over the PRT headquarters when she woke up also lends credence to an increase in her subconscious powers over the swarm.

Now this could very well simply be a natural progression of her power from what we saw after Bakuda and during Bonesaw's attempt to crack her skull open, but she seems to have a much greater control now. And it's not just a function of training her power, I don't think. It can certainly be argued that Taylor's power is getting progressively stronger over time, and again I don't think this is simply a function of training, because her range has been creeping higher and higher throughout the story. However, I have to believe that the reference to a trigger in Charlotte's interlude means something.

Was one of the kids triggering? Maybe, but given the direction of the story it doesn't seem likely we'll be back in BB any time soon. Considering the emphasis placed on the event, I'd like to think it was meant to be more relevant that something we'll hear about again in passing. The timing was incredibly suspicious to me. Remember that it happened the night that Taylor was outed, attacked the PRT and confronted Tagg, and then visited her mother's grave. I can't think of a time when Taylor's emotions were more conflicted than then. If she triggered and then went to bed, there's a solid chance that she wouldn't even remember it in the morning.

If this is the case, and I'm not sure it is, then the change in Taylor's power would be subtle. I know it seems unlikely that a second trigger would even happen, given how much rampant speculation there has been on the subject, but if Wildbow decided he was going to have her trigger again he wouldn't let commenters influence that decision. This would also be a clever way to go about it, as opposed to something as blatant as doubling her range or allowing her to control more types of creatures.

Some might argue that this change in power is too minute when compared to the radical evolution of, say, Grue's powers during his second trigger, but not all changes need to be equal or so fundamental. When Narwhal supposedly had a second trigger she was able to bypass the Manton Effect when producing her force fields. It wasn't a change to how her power worked, but rather an expansion of its application. Similarly, Taylor can now essentially ignore powers that would shut down her own and utilize it when unconscious, which isn't so different from a Manton bypass.

Just some food for thought.

 

I more thought that all of the 'evoluition' of Taylor's power so far came from being in sync her Passenger. Isn't that kind of implied, based on the Number Man's speculations about how Jack has been able to manage such phenomenal things by potentially being well attuned to his?

It's very possible that second trigger events represent a sudden and violent synchronisation with the passenger, but not necessarily something that is sustained.

 

The whole in sync thing seems incredibly flimsy, even coming from a character like Number Man. What about Taylor makes her in sync with her passenger? What does her passenger even want? Why aren't more parahumans in sync?

I'd prefer to discuss possibilities based on more evidence from the story than hand-wavy things like being in sync with a passenger.

 

There have been a number of incidents where Taylor 'unconsciously' starts to gather a swarm for violence when she doesn't really want to. She has to make a mental effort to stop. Several times this was accompanied by something along the lines of "I didn't think I was that angry".

I'm thinking these incidents aren't Taylor accidentally starting to gather a swarm, but rather her passenger doing it- just like how her passenger acted independently when Bonesaw disabled part of her brain, when Bakuda knocked her out, when Tagg knocked her out, and when Thirteenth Hour disabled her.

 

Mock, I mean less that they think similarly or have similar mentalities and more that, by some quirk of fate, they are just more connected. Mental state plays a role, too, but this seems to be something else.

Yea, that's fine, I'm inclined to agree with most of what you said, too. Also, whether or not more parahumans are in sync hard to tell. Only very few are even aware that Passengers exist.

 

@Howdy: I understood the lack of respect, even though I hoped not to see it. Appearance is emphasized a lot in this chapter. And no matter what she's done, Weaver looks like a skinny, 16 year old girl, in an ill-fitting costume no less. I have no doubt that a lot of the capes--who haven't faced her in battle personally--have a hard time reconciling her image with her reputation. It'll take a few more fights together before that hurdle is overcome.

I loved most of the Wards introduced in this chapter. All of their interactions made like a behind-the-scenes commentary on what it's like to be a hero. Clockblocker, Tecton, Hoyden...I agree. They made the chapter.

As for Aiden's passenger dream, I doubt it was due to Taylor. It seems that only capes in close proximity to the trigger have those recurrent visions, and Taylor was nowhere near the house when he was asleep.

I really don't know why you want to use second trigger as an explanation for her exceptional control of insects even while unconscious. It's been said with Bonesaw that the source of powers aren't totally based in physical reality, even though it seems their effects are. That explains why Taylor's powers supercedes external commands coming from other capes like Valefor or Thirteenth Hour. Probably why she mentions the passenger so many times in those instances. Isn't this why Regent was able to use his power on Imp during the Valefor fight as well? So this might be restricted to Master-types only.

 

I think one of the other big reasons that Taylor don't get no respect is that she's still "bug girl." Really, if you asked your average layman about "person with bug control" they'd probably think them to be weak and in Taylor's case, propped up by teammates and a strong sense of leadership. You don't immediately go to "S rank threat if she had some sort of defense against long range bombardment" which she frankly is.

 

I like Glenn (as a hateable character). He represents every problem I have with the media in America.

 

I do wonder what changes she has in mind. I don't think the PRT will budge on this butterfly thing.

 

Dis anyone else find the beginning/middle of this chapter incredibly confusing?

Maybe I missed something but the sudden barrage of characters wasn't easy to read, for me.

 

Yup. I ended up reading the chapter twice just to make sure I understood everything.

 

It was a whirlwind, yes.

The one thing that stood out to me though - if Skitter ever does find purpose inside the PRT, all she needs to do is encounter someone with mind-reading, truth-seeing, or Tattletaleian-esque powers and then everyone knows Alexandria died like a bitch because Skitter wanted her dead, not because she was corrupt.

I think anyone worth any salt to be in her company is going to need to know the truth.