Yikes

Spoiler

Endbringers come, slaughterhouse 9 flags, Crazy taylor has found Noelle. Next arc is going to be the make or break point of this fic since leviathan arc is where worm fics go to die.

 

Well, the story's officially ended. I think the best way to put is that the ending will be "divisive".

Personally though I think it's a weird ending but not a bad one. The story had nowhere to go from here but down - in terms of powerlevels Greg reached the apex, in terms of mental issues he became fairly well-adjusted to a world that's bugfuck insane (which is of course what the story was about). I wasn't expecting it to end like this, but I presume that's the point.

 

I feel like the ending came out of nowhere, and I don't like it. Sure, it's a bit of a Greg ending, but I can't help but be disappointed- as far as I'm aware, there was no build-up to this, no suggestions that this would be the direction, only a note from Wildbow a few years ago somewhere (I've never seen it, but I only read Worm, none of their other stuff).

As Ironypus themselves put it, if you're not a fan of the ending, just finish after the Sveta stuff is cleared up.

But that doesn't change the fact that, as a reader who hasn't put effort into writing in years, it feels like a lazy cop-out. Not quite the same as "Then he woke up and it was all a dream", but pretty close.

 

Yeah, I agree.

The reason it’s a bad ending isn’t because of where it ended. It’s bad because it had no effort put into writing it.

The narrative arc approximates that of a story that just stopped updating one day.

 

A bad ending, but the author was willing to at least answer some reader questions afterwards. The fact it was bad on purpose isn't all that reassuring. But it's still easily the best worm story I've read. so 4.5/5 .

 

just read through this when I saw that it was finished after having stopped following when it was around 50 chapters long. As everyone else, I am unsatisfied with the last chapter, but my criticism isn't going to be that it's a bad ending.

In fact, the author's note on chapter 77 said that the story ended there and the rest were extra chapters from a sequel. That sort of softened the blow that I'm sure caught others by surprise, because I was already expecting it to cut off abruptly. To be fair, I did think the author was going to write up the sequel properly, but it seems like they have no intention of doing it at all, which comes to my criticism.

The last chapter just seems like an "I have no more interest in continuing this story, so here's a rocks fall, everybody dies scenario". Which actually is fair enough, since that's more closure than most authors who abandon their works give their readers, but their decision to post a whole arc of the sequel in the same thread/Fanfic file when by all indications they had no interest in ever writing more is something that's completely strange to me...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I already made my opinion known about this fic earlier on, but my rating for it upon finishing is 4/5 until chapter 77 and the sequel is 1/5 on account of completely failing to tie up any of the unfinished story threads or even beginning to raise the question (in-universe) of why Greg's power is completely different to everyone else's.

 

Having read this story through in one day it was very enjoyable.

Greg's growth is realistic and is fitted nicely into The Gamer theme.
A truly horrible teenager made 97% of cringe actions I could relate to my own early teens, who grows alongside the story.
It is never a serious story, containing a lot of humor, but it has its own niche that it occupies.

The ending to book 1 didn't feel like an ending to the series as a whole but was much like a Dresden Files book. You felt satisfied having read it but you needed to know what the endgame was.

I'll probably give it 4/5 up to chapter 77 (end of book 1) because I'm a big fan of the Gamer crossovers.
The last ending was pretty rubbish, as stated by the above posters. The majority of the story is great for casual reading, especially if you're a fan of gaming mechanics in fanfiction.



I've copy-pasted some questions and answers about the events after the fics ending from the author's post at SB. Nothing earthshattering, just fluff, but read at your own risk.

Spoiler

Q1: How does Amy's playboy, billionaire genius lifestyle turn out? Does she get everything she wants or does she descend into degeneracy and mad science?

A1: She, unfortunately, never ends up with Victoria to her great regret. She ends up like a less flamboyant Iron Man, since she still doesn't like the spotlight, and starts a pharmaceutical company that reproduces her work. She eventually gets with one of the C53s she fixed who had fallen in love with her after she helped them. She evens out and doesn't do anything too gross.

Q2: Who does Greg get along with in Cauldron? Who likes him the most/who does he like the most? Does he change them at all for the better?

A2: He gets along with Legend, of course, Legend having 28 CHA. Since Cauldron is actually very small he doesn't have a lot of choice, but they all work together well enough mostly as 'work friends'. He does, he gets them to nix the Nemesis program because Amy can turn the mutated C53s back into people who are then given actual help. Cauldron is fine with this because he does all the work on the project and the fixed C53s are brainwashed by Slug into being the sort of person who wants to help others; which while still an awful violation is still better than what they were doing before. His fresh presence also helps them find the drive they had before they descended into depressive lazy awful Cauldron we see in canon.

Q3: What does endgame Greg look like? Has he fulfilled his weeby ambitions and faithfully recreated all the Menma abilites?

A3: Like if you crossed Minato Namikaze with Zorian Kazinski. A hyperfast teleporting mind magician who can also spawn independent clones.

Q4: Do Greg and Collin stay in touch? What's their relationship like?

A4: They do. After Greg finishes with the Wards, he does his gap years in WEDGDG (learning how the behind the scenes of the world works) and on the Whitelist (garnering fame and helping people) and when he makes his speech at the press conference joing the Protectorate he says he couldn't have done it without Armsmaster, so their relationship is still quite friendly. Greg gets put in charge of an upcoming department, so they're equals on paper now, even if by this point Greg is solidly in that tier gap between Everyone else and the Triumvirate. Armsmaster is happy because this has positively effected his job status, and wards and new protectorate start wanting him to train them to be heroes which is his retirement gig.

Q5: Where do Sveta and Weld end up?

A5: They end up together of course, and are very happy. I couldn't make them miserable, they're too nice.

Q6: Does Greg go on any inter dimensional adventures? Does he have a nemesis? What sort of hero shenanigans does he get up to?

A6: He does go on inter dimensional adventures, but not in a jumpchain sense. During his year as he makes it to the number 1 spot on the Whitelist he gets paid by Cauldron, even though he's ostensibly a part of them, to do various things on alternate earths that further the fight against Scion. He doesn't have a nemises, unless you count Scion. His hero shenanigans... well, I guess that depends on what you mean by shenanigans.

Q7: Does Amy release NZT to the public? How does it change the world?

A7: She does not, but she does have it distributed during crises to responders under a different identity so future Endbringer attacks end up going a bit better. This was instrumental in outsmarting the Simurgh during her endgame.

Q8: What does Greg do to amuse himself when he's older and basically a demigod?

A8: He goes full self help guru on the world, since material gains don't mean much anymore. He never goes Dr Manhattan detachment though since his WIS keeps him grounded and he can still find joy in simple things like eating an orange or enjoying a sunset.

Q9: Does Greg ever get even with Coil, Tattletale or Accord?

A9: They all end up arrested, but it's no so much getting even as doing his job. He has bigger things to worry about at that point.

Q10: Where does Taylor end up? Doe she ever stop hating Greg?

A10: She eventually comes around. Eventually. Being Taylor she doesn't make it easy on herself as i'm sure you can imagine.

 

Really enjoyed the first 40 chapters. Greg transforms to another person afterwards and the fic loses it’s charm and becomes fairly weak.