That what happens when you skip Quarantine that was set up for a reason.

 

Crossposted by me on wordpress:

I’m a little confused on how 1/41st of a laser power, or a vacuum power, or whatever power, does much of anything at all. From what I understood, the 2nd Path stacking was giving them back “a third” of what they lost, meaning within formation all 41 powers are at about 1/3 strength. But Cody left formation, meaning all his powers should drop to 1/41st strength or so again, making them pretty much completely useless. Even his own power should never have been able to generate two seconds of displacement at 1/41 strength (two seconds would be more consistent with his power at 1/3 strength).

It basically read like he had all the powers at 1/3 strength during the fight with Chev, even though the 2nd path wasn’t explained to work that way. Color me very confused.

In unrelated news, considering how easy it has been in the past for various Capes to find healing for everything but the most ridiculous injuries, I will consider it gratuitous angst if Tattletale’s is anything more than temporary.

 

I'm pretty sure his powers did drop to 1/44th (three capes they picked up count) of their strength. In the chapter it says during the fight between Cody and Chevalier that: "It was the lack of the power boost. The Yàngbǎn were only strong as a group, granting the aura to one another. "

His power didn't seem to be weakened, so I think he gained it back at full force when he separated from the Yàngbǎn? I'm not sure how it works, though, since they can share powers over distances.

 

I don't quite understand how The Yangban managed to take powers from those three capes that they 'acquired' but were unable to take powers from Lung.

Also, Cody separating from the rest of the Yangban should not have 'given him back his powers'. Whatever Null's ability is seems to be long range and as permanent as Null wants it to be.

 

From Lung's interlude during his imprisonment, he says: "Worst of all, they would take his powers, most of them, and give him others in turn. This was the reason they imprisoned him, the reason they sought to break him."

I took it to mean that they could take his powers (I'm guessing there's a limit to the range, though pit) but wanted him brainwashed and willing so he'd work as part of the unit.

 

I don't think its possible for Yangban to take someone's powers without giving them the fractions in turn. So for every unwilling member they have, they get the powers, but at a cost in efficiency (especially since the 2nd path power is proportionately weakened as well). They felt Lung's power was worth having, but not worth having enough to also include a deadweight power sink.

Interestingly, if Skitter was captured I think her power (similar to a Tinker power) might be less effective in the collective. If the range was decreased, all of them would just have overlapping ranges, and gain no additional control because her power handles parallel processing for the bugs anyway (and seemingly, not anything else). They would gain the bug sensory input though, which they might consider a handy enough coordination/intelligence ability to outweigh the loss of offensive effectiveness.

Knowing Skitter the whole thing would be doomed to failure though because if you gave her 1/3 of 40+ powers she would probably curbstomp them all and then proceed to take over the world.

 

What it does is remove the usual people who'd coordinate the anti-Endbringer forces, as well as the best backups. Alexandria's missing or dead, Chevalier's wounded, Accord delimbed, Tattletale has a hole in her throat, Dragon can barely talk, and Legend is god knows where.

Defiant is on the ground, and he'd be a good leader; Narwhal too, if she's about, but both would also be very effective on the field. This is a prime chance for others, especially thinkers, to step forward.

Taylor is mobile, so she doesn't need a flyer anymore to keep her in range of the Endbringer, and she's best able to keep track of and communicate with the three groups of capes [North American, Indian, and CUI] through her bugs and pictorial symbols. If everyone was wearing Dragon's armbands it'd be a different story, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. Heck, even the Indians and Americans aren't closely coordinating.

I don't know what's going to happen next. I love it.

 

Trying to think about this Boost power properly, specifically, about how strong the original is. For starters, it can't boost itself in other people unless it gets diminishing returns (otherwise it would just boost off to infinity). But then this diminishing returns must also affects how all of their powers get boosted by there being lots of them.

I mean, even assuming that Boost doesn't boost itself in other people, realistically, it's hard to think of a mechanic that doesn't make the original Boost power hideously overpowered. The least I can get it giving people is 10 times as much 'potential' and that jumps up pretty quickly to about 1500 times. Even factoring in some human deficiency or a limitation of the passenger... it's pretty terrifying.

Leaving aside numbers because they're obviously suspect, how do we think it works? I'm guessing it does something similar to Bonesaw's manipulations or the way, in general, that powers get stronger when people are close to the state of mind they were in when they had their trigger.

 

I was wondering how Taylor was going to ascend to power. This is it.

I'm really beginning to see Taylor as the anti-Simurgh. All of her actions are countering it in ways that Taylor herself is unaware of, but are vital nonetheless. I think this is why the Number Man has his eye on her at the moment.

 

Are you... counting killing Alexandria as an anti-Simurgh action? I find that a difficult one to call.

 

Actually yes, because part of the Simurgh's plan was obviously to discredit the Protectorate to the point where mankind became even more divided, and thus weak. She manufactured this through Noelle and the reveal about Cauldron to all those capes. At that point killing off Alexandria and replacing her with, say, Taylor herself, would rehabilitate the Protectorate's image and give off the image of strength, because it would be the killer of Alexandria and the former supervillain that took over Brockton Bay that would be taking over. (Holy run on sentence Batman!)

 

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

P.S. - To whoever banned me (as if I don't know): Thanks for being an adult about it and coming to me with your concerns instead of placing the ban a week later with no explanation. Was a really swell thing to do. Not that the whole thing apparently got blown way out of proportion or anything.


The level of incompetence shown by everyone in this chapter is incredibly jarring. From the Yangban not being able to control their trouble-maker to the Protectorate setting up their HQ in a building on Behemoth's predicted path of destruction (they're most likely going to have get out of there at some point, right?), to the fact that Accord and Tattletale decide to pull out cell phones to contact help when they have access to Dragon tech... I mean they're supposed to coordinate this fight by relying on half-burned New Delhi's cell network?

This is taking three characters that I had a lot of respect for and just shitting all over them for the sake of plot in the most ugly and shocking way I can think of.

This is a "rocks fall, everyone dies" chapter, and that's not a compliment.

 

I see Alexandria as pretty much a Simurgh-controlled cape (but more subtly than the 'obvious' ones), likewise for the rest of Cauldron.

Pretty sure that Alexandria has been so successful against endbringers because they wanted to keep her in power.

 

On a less critical note, reading about how the Yangban works makes me think this is the exact type of enemy the Slaughterhouse Nine excel at destroying. These sort of strict military tactics are great on paper, but against the 9, Leviathan, and (God forbid) the Simurgh, these guys would collapse like a house of cards.

I think the Protectorate's rationale is actually the better one in these sorts of situations since it allows their capes to play to their strengths. Leveling the playing field is not going to do you any favors if you're outmatched and outgunned. The Yangban's strategy appears to be to use every power available on a macro scale, but the sad truth is that even when they do this they're not able to come close to the power of the forces aligned against them.

 

Cody was exposed to several events that make him less reliable as a source, first the Simurgh, then the brain washing, not to mention the uncontrollable rage. Since we see the interlude from his POV, things don't have to be the way they appear to him. I doubt his perception of events is even close to reality.

It could also be used by the author as a way to backpedal, as in "none of this really happened".

 

Wildbow doesn't need to backpedal in text. If he's deeply unhappy with a chapter, then he'll scrap it.

I was happy with the chapter when I read it. Some very good points have been raised against it in this thread, but they haven't changed my impression of it.

 

Yeah, Wildbow is awesome in that he/she is always willing to listen to reader feedback. Doesn't get offended when people point out typos or problems in chapters and previously has scrapped an entire chapter when the reader feedback was almost universally negative. So I'm not worried about this chapter. Either there's very good reasons for why it appears so bad or Wildbow will modify it. This story has been consistently good enough that I trust this apparent misstep will turn out to be something else.

Its very rare to see that kind of willingness to improve and listen to feedback in a an author.

 

I'm really thinking this is in his head. Otherwise this feels really, well, dumb for a variety of reasons raised in the thread.

 

Sadly, I seriously doubt Wildbow has the ability or inclination to backpedal here. This interlude was essential to the ongoing plot so it can't be simply scrapped, and with the update rate he's keeping he doesn't have time to re-write it.

This will probably be the last I post on the subject, so I want to be clear. I don't mind the outcome of this chapter, with Chevalier dead or wounded, with Accord dead or wounded, and with Tattletale seriously wounded. I think that it opens up a lot of possibilities. I just think that the execution was absolutely butchered.

P.S. - Where's Othello during all this? He's with Accord on the roof, but he just conveniently disappears when Cody attacks? I'm still very skeptical that this isn't some illusion that Cody is in, because the alternative is very sad...

 

Two questions, after a rereading of the last scene:

1) Why did TT lie about Trickster? He's in the Birdcage, not dead. It might've been a delaying tactic, but it certainly didn't work very well. Telling the truth might've spared her from getting attacked.

2) TT's paradoxical grin. Is that simply because she read his intentions to later reverse the pen-crushing? Or is it something more devious?