@chime
Good points regarding visibility. But there's no evidence cauldron capes are any weaker-- Eidolon, Alexandria, Legend, Siberian, Shatterbird and Echidna all were Cauldron capes who were immensely powerful.

 

Yak, keep in mind that capes like Taylor, Grue, Skitter are all technically first generation capes.

 

And regarding first generation capes:
Chevalier, Defiant, Dragon, Phir Se, Panacea (even if she didn't do much), Bonesaw, Vista, Bakuda-- they're all non-first generation capes with huge destructive potential.

They're not Triumvirate leve in terms of sheer invincibility and damage-- but I think Dragon does as much important work as any of the big 3 with her suits and other roles for the PRT, Defiant single-handedly engaged Leviathan, Phir Se demonstratedzn immensely destructive application of his power, Bonesaw has enormous potential for epidemics or enhancement of the human form, like what she did to Jack and herself.

If Panacea had bothered to be creative in the use of her powers like Taylor she could have been a huge threat. Literally any cape without some force field would have been easily neutralized by Panacea if she got her hands on them.

Bakuda's bombs could have wiped out cities. Her ordinance took out Crawler and Mannequin-- not an easy feat. If her time bomb had been a little larger or more luckily triggered, Leviathan might have been seriously distrupted by that effect during the Extermination arc.

These are capes with a lot of potential. The Big 3 are important in part because of their invulnerability, which lets them engage Behemoth, Leviathan and Simurgh safely. The other capes are more like glass cannons, but really powerful ones.

 

I'm not convinced Taylor is first generation. We don't know her mother concretely enough. She could have been a secret cape, for all we know. A minor power, even, something silly or trivial enough... She could have triggered and not realized it, had a precog power - like dreamsight, or something. We won't know for sure, probably ever. I'd certainly like it if Taylor were simply exceptional for who she is, but never write off a dead parent of the protagonist. Author can always pull something out of his ass since they're a dead entity.

Latest chapter was great. Odd, too. I wasn't expecting an internet leak. I have to re-read the chapter though, I missed where it cut off for them - before Regent died, but when exactly? They saw Scion's attack, so did they edit out certain parts of what Skitter did? Do they know how she interacted with Phir Se? The PRT does, obviously. Gotta reread, I skimmed it too fast or something... missing details.

I'm not sure why Glenn has so much faith in Weaver though. My short-term memory might be missing some important details. Why consider her to take over Chevalier's position? Even in the very long term? Skitter was demonized by the media - and with good reason, at least from the PRT's perspective - she's done unspeakable things in her own idea of justice. What kind of message does that send? You can't have the PRT run by a vigilante, someone with such 'flexible' morals? Unless he's thinking of a very dire scenario here... Does he know something we don't? She works in direct opposition to protocol and image, none of the seniority will accept her as she is right now. Not as the grand boss man.

 

Sorry, I used a confusing term there. I didn't mean 'first generation' in a genetic sense, the way Wildbow uses it, but more how we use 'generation x' and 'generation y'. So the capes who appeared during the golden age might be first generation capes, and those who triggered only recently would be the latest generation.

The video didn't cut off Regent's death. One of the forumers taunts another poster who was enamoured with Regent/Imp, but only part way into the video, with "don't get attached".

They did see her interacting with Phir Se. The forumers talked about her betraying that Indian hero cape during their conversation.

 

This chapter was full of beautiful meta. Scarab interlude arc is going to be fun, I can tell.

I think you misread that scene. Glenn doesn't suggest that Weaver take over Chevalier's position in the PRT, merely that she become its symbol.

 

lol I need to stop reading these chapters at midnight, I'm misunderstanding everything

 

Being on the other side of the world I get to read them at midday while I'm having lunch. 12pm, baby.

 

Does anyone else think that Simurgh corrupted Dragon? I felt that the "What makes a man?" thing was really hammed up by Defiant so it seems natural that Wildbow would write something playing up what was previously thought to be something only humans could be affected by. More than that, Behemoth was killed and everyone is expecting the Endbringers to make their next big play soon and Armsmaster was noted by Mannequin to be someone who could easily become like him. Isn't this pretty much the same way Simurgh got to Mannequin too? The death of a loved one?

 

No commentary about Skitter's first adventure underground and her skirmish with Contessa, I bet that part of the video fritzed out.

 

I don't know, it doesn't seem passanger-like at all to me, more like a good description of how freaking huge and multi-tasking her mind is. Taylor is pretty much a hivemind by now.

EDIT: Also, it's good to see confirmation that Alexandria was NOT immune to Simurgh, AND we now at least a solid basis for the differences between Cauldron capes and non-cauldron capes (Cauldron capes have body transformations- all of them- and non-cauldron capes don't).

 

Canary didn't seem like a cauldron cape (though I suppose it's possible) and she had physical changes.

Bitch's transformation came with some changes to her brain.

 

Just because a cape is or could be incredibly powerful doesn't mean they will necessarily survive to get there. There was Dauntless. He could have been huge, designing individual weapons or sets of armour that could be used against specific Endbringers, a new surprise to every battle. What a shame he got caught by a time warp bomb.

It's things like that, potential giants just don't always happen. The thing about the Triumvirate is that they seem to have been around before the Endbringers showed up. Less culling of the ranks means more high class capes remain from that time.

 

Bitch's changes were mental- a lot of trigger event capes have mental changes (Tattletale, Taylor...).

Canary....Well, there was talk about Canary in another forum when talking about Scion being Golden and Wilbow said something like "Are you sure she wasn't a Cauldron cape?", so she definitely could have been one.

 

Cauldron was stated to have been using the more unstable formulas in the past (less of the "balance" component). Dr Mother said that this led to a higher prevalence of stronger capes, while also lead to worse deviations. She spoke to the Number Man of returning Cauldron to this high-risk high-reward policy in the wake of Cauldron's outing.

Eidolon, Alexandria, Legend, Hero and Lung are all products of this riskier serum - we see these successes, but naturally we don't see the failures. Dr Mother shows young Costa Brown the pictures though - the case 53s, the monsters. Alexandria took the serum regardless, and was lucky. It's a sort of self-selecting process - the capes that we do see are the ones that survive, and that have incredibly powerful abilities; the unlucky ones died or are still buried somewhere in Cauldron's dungeons.

Ironically, Alexandria could easily have ended up as one of the case 53s in Cauldron, has she been unlucky with the serum. But she didn't, so now she inflicts that fate on others not so lucky as she was.

 

I do find it funny, now that I've thought about the latest chapter some more. If Skitter is to become the "face" of the PRT... then they can't do anything to her now. How would the public react if they demoted or fired or imprisoned Skitter for her actions in New Delhi? Glenn has made it so that she is the PRT's image. In a way, it's the kind of solution Skitter herself should have come up with ("If they're so concerned about their image, then I'll make it so they hurt their image by taking me down a peg."), but she isn't the type to. I can't really complain. It'll be interesting how this latest hearing goes, with the tables sort of turned, now. Skitter has a lot to answer for, in their eyes, but they can't do much about it, can they?

 

Lung was not a Cauldron cape. He triggered after overdosing (involuntarily) on the drugs Doctor Mother was bartering with.

 

It's pretty implicit (and possibly confirmed by comments) that those drugs were the cape formula.

 

No. Those drugs were cocaine.

 

So Scarab is another interlude arc then, eh. I can't seem to remember if Wildbow said who it would focus on. Does anyone remember?

As for part one, well it was a chapter. I'm a bit exhausted at the rampant use of epic! in the comments section. It was a good chapter in the sense that it showed the aftermath of Behemoth's death in a really wide sweeping way. But epic? Epic is Skitter killing Coil, or Alexandria. I think the different perspectives were necessary, but part of Wildbow's strength as a writer is laser sharp focus. Like I said, the different points of view were necessary but I hope we get a specific perspective to view the next couple of sections through.