No, Darth Marrs hasn't gotten worse you're just forgetting how bad some of his earlier stuff was, I think the technical aspect of his writing has improved, and considering how much he has written, some improvement is almost unavoidable.
One thing that hasn't changed is how his stories start out with an interesting premise, something that feels almost unique, but then absolutely murders that potential in different ways.
Broken Chains suffered from apathy, the latter half felt rushed and increasingly impersonal, like he just wanted to get to the next fic. A shame since the first part was fairly entertaining, and the only somewhat decent Sith-ish Harry I've come across.
Firebird's son was just depressing (mind you I didn't finish it) everything went to an increasingly darker place, felt like he was bashing a whole world, I had difficulty believing that it would not have a downer ending in some way.
Can't remember his other fics that well, but they left me with a similar feeling about how the stories progressed.
That's why his writing is relegated to guilty pleasure IMO.
I don't think Ack's writing is shitty in the same manner, he's just consistently meh (although technically decent) with poor characterisation and a fixfic complex (if you disregard the darker things he's written on QQ or AO3), Marrs at least starts out interesting, but end up a bit worse and likes to write about crapsack worlds a bit too much. Heh, his newest story probably has the worst of them to date which is something of an accomplishment.

Oh and a rec: I like the idea of thinker abilities and in this one Taylor is something like an adaptive Thinker Trump. She becomes a tad too combat viable for my taste, I would have preferred it if she was forced to be less direct. Not a fantastic story, but a decent time waster, seems abandoned but one can always hope, I PM'ed the author and he's interested in continuing it, if he does there will first be a rewrite to fix some of its shortfalls.
Interlinked [Worm AU] By Overt Concerns

 

He's a security guard that rarely need to do anything beyond be visible to passively discourage people from doing dumb things, so he spends most of his actual working time writing.

He's definitely improved a lot since HCtBB, but even when trying to write grimderp he seems to be fundamentally incapable of writing characters that don't eventually become best friends.

 

That's not really fair. I have not seen Ack react badly to critizism or claim people didn't "understand his work" or even that he isn't writing some fucked up shit when he is in fact writing some fucked up shit. I've heard bad shit about Darth Marrs that just screamed delusional.

Ack seems to have a good work ethic. He runs (or did run) a Worm Resources thread on Spacebattles and he keeps starting new stories and updating frequently. I don't like his writing - it just seems really blunt and occasionally full of wishfullfillment to me - but there's no rule that forbids him from writing whatever comes to mind and so long as he's selfconcious about it, I think that deserves some respect.

Some decent snippets on spacebattles, but mostly just humerous or terrifying oneshots.
Aside from that, no.

And if you are thinking of a fic where Skitter is thrown into the Birdcage after the warlord arcs, there's no good one. I would have noticed that.

Rec: Golden Evening
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10996090/1/Golden-Evening
Authors summary: Rewrite of Golden Afternoon. Someone wakes up not feeling quite like himself. Meanwhile, experts gradually become concerned over the increasingly erratic behavior of the world's most powerful hero...

It's from Scion's PoV. Which makes it hilarious. And example:

Scion eventually takes a human form and happens to spend some time near the humans we know. His PoV and what we can imagine of their PoV are hilarious, again.

I don't think I spoil much with this:

The formating is odd at times and I think I spotted some grammar mistakes early, but nothing to put me off. It's really short too. Only 7 to 8k words. I recommend you check it out, even if only for it's uniqueness.

 

Not picky here, anything decent with her ending up in the Birdcage would satisfy me, from really going Carrie on Winslow High to the aftermath of the warlord arcs. I keep imagining the interaction with all the overpowered psychos there, Taylor joining some fraction/creating her own, climbing the hierarchy, avoiding Lung trying to kill her, or Teacher lobotomizing her, and eventually orchestrating a prison break with all the impacts of something like that on the world.

Nothing, huh? That's a shame. I really think Birdcage is an untapped well for more original fics in this fandom. If only people could let go of the freaking high school already.:facepalm

 

If I may use HP as an example of what to expect in the future: there are still tons of Year One fics being written.

High school will never go away; accept it and move on. It's much easier to write fanfic in a setting that you are already intimately familiar with than some place with which you are not. That's one of the reasons they always go back. The setting, the characters, the emotions are already primed for them. They just have to throw in a little effort to alter it enough so as to not plagiarize... even then, some will do exactly that.

Instead, you can start writing and posting alternative ideas, or one shots, like the Birdcage one you mentioned. It doesn't have to be a work of art. A thousand or two words might get people thinking in a different direction for inspiration in future fics.

Try something proactive.

There was one person on SB that whined endlessly about Taylor-centric fics whenever a new one popped up, but always sat on his ass complaining instead of doing something about it besides annoying everyone about how much he was tired of Taylor. I suppose it's easier to do that as well. Meh.

Anyway, just an idea.

 

I didn't know anything about Marrs flipping out. When I made the comparison I was thinking of Marrs around the time of his Star Wars/HP/ and SW/Stargate crossovers. And "technically proficient yet full of wish-fulfillment" seemed to describe both of them perfectly.

Marrs used to make works with concepts that were fascinating and tantalizingly close to good but he couldn't resist his own impulses. Ack seems to be the same.

Neither of their characters as people in general were of much interest to me. Well, I am a bit squicked out by Darth Marrs' "AGGRESSIVE NEGOTIATIONS WITH RAPE" Harry (especially combined with his likely wish-fulfillment redemption ending) but I wasn't speaking of them as people.

 

Me?

I'm half outlining a post-Golden Morning wormfic. I keep trying to find a good way for the Earth that Taylor was marooned upon to be introduced to the greater Earth continuity that exists post-Golden Morning, and the difficulties Taylor has in attempting to maintain a few positive connections with select Earth-bet natives who will have changed just as much as she has over a couple of decades.

My first idea dealt with Dragon and Defiant opening a portal to Taylor's Earth while exploring the multi-verse, where they encountered UNHCR (UN refuge agency) employee Taylor Hebert. But beyond an awkward first meeting, I really didn't have anywhere to take this.

My second bunny was from the perspective of the daughter of Taylor Hebert. A 2nd gen cape (although unaware that she's a 2nd gen), the daughter's main priorities in life is to be a superhero (she's joined the local govt sponsored team) and to prevent the dissolution of her parent's marriage. While her mother dotes upon her, every interaction Taylor has with the OC's father is strained, and the marriage is dead in all but name. But then, criminals from another dimension enter their Earth! Led by a devious woman named Amelia....

And my 3rd bunny is just stupid, but it involved Director Taylor Hebert of Official Government Organization Name TBD dealing with a Simurgh popping in orbit. I imagined her being roughly that Earth's analogue to Piggot in rank at the start of Worm. The story here would involve Taylor having lied her ass off about her extra-dimensional origin while applying to join TBD, her supervisor's displeasure at that fact, and trying to figure why the Simurgh is now in orbit. (Perhaps tea? The Simurgh kept attacking England for her tea fix.)

Anyways, the odds of any of these being published is close to nil, so if they inspire anyone in some fashion, please feel to take the idea and run with it. And yes, they would all need extensive polishing to turn into an actual good story.

 

So, I just finished reading Maharal. It's damn good.

Summary: Theo / Golem goes back in time to 1994 and joins the Chicago Wards under Legend. Eighteen chapters so far.

It's not a fix-fic and it starts off slow. Golem doesn't go out of his way to "fix" the wrongs of the past by himself, as he's content in becoming a hero again and focusing on the smaller details. The OCs are good and the writer is true to the Wormverse with deaths and the reality of being a cape. The most recent arc was phenomenal, a delight to read.

Spoiler

S9 comes to town and Golem proceeds to lay the smack down, Weaver-style. I didn't know I needed a badass Golem fic, but I have one now.

I'm not sure where the story will go now that this arc is over, but as long as the quality of the writing keeps up, I'll be quite happy to read it.

4.5/5.

 

Is Weaver in it at all?

 

No. I'm not sure if she ever will be because she hasn't been born yet.

 

Not a native English speaker here. I'm fussing about this post for far more time than I probably should, checking if I misspelled a word or made a grammer mistake, and it's only a few sentences long. Last time I tried my hand in writting was back in the high school, some 5 years ago, and it was for the class.

But yeah, maybe you're right. I can see that first scene pretty clear in my mind, and I think I could put it on the paper, and maybe it wouldn't be a complete garbage.

Something to think about.

 

Even if it's complete garbage, it might spark an idea in someone else's head. I don't know how many times I've read a summary to a story and thought it might be a great fic, only to be disappointed. But I've taken that idea and twisted it around to produce something of my own.

And we do have an Other Category WbA here where those interested can help with grammar, spelling, etc. You just have to catch their interest with a decent attempt.

 

Fucking Tinkers updated. Here's the link to the repost of earlier chapters with small edits for pacing on SV. SV thread

here's the link for the new chapter on SV

 

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, he's just got to figure out how to make it work for the story instead of trying to jam it into a genre where it doesn't work.

 

Practice may not make perfect, but it's certain nothing else does. As for garbage... we've all been there. The only way past that is through it.

Good luck.

 

Exiled finished today.

I want the sequel. I want it bad.

 

Ditto.

I had a burning desire to see a certain character gutted that went unfulfilled, but overall it was a very good ending. Seriously looking forward to the sequel.

 

It's fun.

Odd background, in that it was written to justify having a very different Taylor and crew wandering around the ME-verse, but that definitely beats the typical way of asserting the intended cross.

Also, the TR/Worm crosses seem to be cursed.

 

Exiled's sequel, Gatecrash, has been posted.

 

How much do you need to know about the ME verse to read Exiled?