Taylor became a hero because she wanted to widen her range. She took over Brockton Bay and drove out the villians there, but she wanted to save the world. She wanted to kill Jack Slash. So she planned to join the biggest hero group there is and work her way up.

It even kind of worked. Taylor was in command during the S9k and there were hints she changed common procedure and the public view a bit during arc 25 or so (after the Behemoth fight). The arc of timeskips.

Recs: http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/darkness-rising-worm-dc-fusion-batgrue.11170/

Batman!Grue. Grue saves Mr. and Mrs Wayne from a robber and together they put a plan into action that will hopefully keep the non powered gang members down. It's decently written, has some nice characterization and mostr importantly, doesn't go over the top. Starts three years before canon.

 

Thinker6 :

Well, a protagonist has to do something substantial. Even in your scenario, Taylor has to kill a God or rule a bunch of parahumans or whatever after she is released from prison. Unless the fic ends with the doors of the Birdcage opening - that could make for a decent ending as well. Still, in that case you need to find a plot for inside the 'cage, and I can't really think of any good ones.

Of course, your way can also be done as long as Taylor finds the need to escape later on. The first few months she can focus entirely on survival, and later when Amy is 'caged and figures out the End-of-the-World scenario, she gains renewed determination to escape.

Besides, you can't have the protagonist imprisoned for any substantial period of time and not escape. I'm pretty sure that's some sort of law in fiction.

Jarik :

This could work. You still need to find a believable way of killing off Scion that does not involve Khepri. Besides, for I don't really want to read another Scion fight. He is so hilariously overpowered that I don't think much could be made of another fight.

I don't quite agree with this. Taylor seemed to genuinely believe she was doing much more good as a Villain than she could ever do as a Hero. This has been said several times in the story IIRC. That's how she got Parian to turn Villain. I doubt anything less than the End-of-the-World scenario could have led Taylor to leave the Undersiders. After she failed to stop Jack, she immediately quit the Heroes (She told the Chicago Wards she won't be joining the Protectorate) and joined her old team. Hardly the actions of someone disillusioned with her Villain career.

 

Fair enough point actually. Definitely don't deny that she doesn't regret how she dealt with the S9, Fallen, Teeth, etc. But I still think she didn't really have a justification for herself on how she hit back at the PRT for outing her.

 

I really don't remember Taylor showing any signs of regret on how she dealt with the Fallen and the Teeth. The only regret she had towards the S9 was that she failed to kill them all. As for the PRT, the only regret I remember her having was that she couldn't retaliate harder than she did, because escalation and outright war helped nobody.

I think you underestimate the difference between Taylor under Coil and Taylor as an independent Warlord. For instance, she had refused to give Regent permission to use his power against Nazi villains as late as after the S9 invasion. Less than a month later, she had more or less given Regent permission to use his power on whoever he wanted, even though she was uncomfortable with the thought that that he might enslave Imp as well.

 

Just reading that quote makes me very exited for the edited version. Once touch ups are done, Worm shall not be a pain to re-read. Fanon Taylor has well, fanonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

 

Burned through a bunch of the fics recommended in this thread. Thought I'd jot down a few quick notes, general impressions, that kind of thing.

Tier 1: (5/5, amazing in and of itself, must-reads)

Cenotaph / Wake - Pretty easily the top of the heap. Most characters are pitch perfect, and for me, that's 90% of the ballgame right there. Writing is solid, action tense, etc. I read it too long ago to articulate specifics, but I believe the only real problem I had was that the pace felt off in the second one. I was immersed in this, which is absolutely key.

Tier 2: (4/5, does cool things with Worm, has good ideas executed well, no glaring flaws, definitely worth reading.)

Weaver Nine - Probably 2nd in the pecking order. A clever AU change and some great characterization of Jack Slash (facilitated by a nice narrative gimmick with the way his Thinker power works) and a very memorable Leviathan battle make this a winner. I took issue with some of the heavy-handed tell, tell, tell (tiny bit of show) that goes into describing how the Society works - it really is describing. Huge bonus points for an incredible AU Bonesaw that made me laugh out loud.

Carnage - Kind of a tweener, on the low end of a 4/5. Really solid writing, and Butcher!Taylor is pretty interesting, but this gets bogged down in internal head-space stuff. Which is pretty understandable given the subject matter, but makes for a ponderous read. Still, unique and pretty gripping at times.

Memories of a Simurgh Victim - Review here. Raised to 4/5 from 3/5 when you lump in the Simurgh-perspective omakes, which are amazeballs.

Zenith - Read this first, so the details are sketchy in my head. Post-epilogue Worm is something I'm keenly interested in, so bonus points for that. I think my main issue was the way the PRC storyline completely took over the plot, and Taylor kind of Became the Mask (to the reader). Good writing, and well-developed characters.

Tier 3: (3/5, has some interesting elements, but doesn't gel into a cohesively good thing. Generally the writing will have at least one thing that's objectively wrong with it. Worth a read all the way through, but has a lot holding it back.)

Atonement - I'm waffling on this one, because I haven't finished it. I may never finish it; it's hella long and I'm kind of losing interest. Good start - Madison's combat banter is fucking solid, and that's a very tough thing to pull off. Pandora is an interesting character, in theory. Things seem to kind of... pop up, though, oftentimes seemingly from nowhere. Madison/Sundancer. Everyone triggers! Piggot is a caricature. Madison seems almost bipolar sometimes. When she's sad and monologuing she uses SO. MANY. ELLIPSIS.

Incarnation - Too short to really get a feel for, but I really like the voice of the QA shard, and the action scenes have a very nice canon flavor. Could go up a lot if it's ever expanded with, you know, plot.

Go Gently - Lung is pretty good in this, and there some nice supernatural tension/horror moments, but Taylor is pretty wildly OOC, and if you're going to write a Taylor-centric fic, you kind of have to get her right. Either that, or make her super interesting in a compelling new way. This doesn't do either.

Copacetic - Has some issues. Hooked me at first, and it's frustrating because it's almost right in some places, but Taylor feels very off for a lot of the fic. She's kind of snarly and grandiose - compare and contrast the cafeteria showdown in canon (a fucking brilliant scene, with a couple different levels and tensions happening at once) with her YouTube sensation in this one. Close, but not quite.

Tier 4: (2/5 - 1/5, Dealbreakers for one reason or another, usually having to do with writing.)

Journey of the Dragonfly - Dropped this after a few chapters. Writing just wasn't there for me. Characters felt wooden.

The Dragon and the Dark Lord - Read the whole thing, so that's something, but wasn't happy with it. Taylor is badly OOC. Clockblocker and the rest of the Wards are not particularly funny, and that's the only thing they're trying to do. Dragon!Taylor is one of those goofy ideas that seems, at first, like it's so bad it's good, but then I realized it was actually just bad.

Speak With the Dead - Taylor is massively OOC. Worm is first person Taylor-centric, and if you're gonna emulate that, you need to nail it. This just comes off as a generic teenage girl, with none of the attributes that make Taylor an interesting protagonist in the first place. I dig the power, though. GU is awesome, and the way she sets deals and then gets shades is a great premise.

(Edit: Got one of the fic names wrong - I'm dumb.)

 

Hmmm, good list. Weaver Nine is my favorite fic in the fandom, because nothing beats that Leviathan battle, and Cenotaph/Wake are petty much the Worm fanfics. I preferred Wake to Cenotaph though, Cenotaph!Taylor grew too competent way too quickly, and the convoluted series of events that led to Danny's death made my head hurt.

For someone whose favorite HP fic is A Black Comedy, you insistence that the protagonist remain in character is a bit strange. Either way, Taylor is still recognizably Taylor in Speak With the Dead -- I think the major difference here is that Taylor's power isn't best suited to direct fights like canon!Taylor, so she acts a bit differently. Taylor's character in Go Gently was what she was like before her bullying campaign (read Emma's interlude in canon), so she isn't OOC there either, even if she's very different from canon. Besides, Regent/Taylor is unexpectedly awesome, and Aisha is always underused in fanfiction.

A few other recs :

1. Zenith by Ryuugi is my favorite non-notes/Thinker6 fanfic. Post-Gold Morning fics are extremely rare, and this is undoubtedly the best of the lot. The Yangban and Post-Scion China society are really well explored. Abandoned - not very surprising when you consider who the author is. 4/5

2. Here be Dragons, also by Ryuugi might not be anything more than a one drawn out fight scene, but it is very good for what it is. Taylor triggers with Lung's shard, and loses it against our beloved Trio. She fights off entire teams of Heroes, until Eidolon, finally recognizing a worthy opponent, takes her on by himself. Complete for a given value of complete. 4/5.

3. Tattletale investigates in which Lisa acts as Sherlock and Taylor acts as Watson. A very fun read, even if its not your typical Worm story by any means. 4/5.

4. Slaughterhouse Nine Power Taylor by Thinker6 is a series of snippets with Taylor having the powers of different members of the S9. Hero, Villain, Rogue -- these snippets have them all. My favorites are Burnscar!Taylor, Shatterbird!Taylor and Mannequin!Taylor. 4/5.

5. Bug on a Wire by JacobK. Skitter and Shadow Stalker team up to take on the villains of Brocktob Bay. The AU irony is strong in this one - with Shadow Stalker being Taylor's best friend and the Undersiders being her sworn enemies. This was my first Worm fanfic, and I loved it. Sadly abandoned because the Author's focusing on some Hermione-centric fic I don't give a fuck about. 4/5.

6. A Survivor is Born by Heather_Sinclair. Crossover with Tomb Raider 2013. Alt power. Taylor lives through the events of the 2013 game (more or less), and is trying to integrate back into the world and leave the violence behind her, but the world has other plans. Decent enough, but not much subastance overall. And Sophia may or may not have a crush on Taylor. Abandoned(?).3/5.

7. Firefly. Fem!Lung AU. Taylor joins the new and much improved ABB after some high ranking member saves her from the bullying. Good worldbuilding, decent-ish plot. Lung is too much of a Mary Sue for my tastes though. 3/5.

8. Daddy's Girl. Without a doubt the creepiest Worm fic I've ever read, and No, its not Danny/Taylor incest. Short and not much substance to the fic, but Taylor is really fucked up with an even more fucked-up power. Read it for that alone.3/5.

9. Babysitting Post-Worm. A series of really cute snippets that take place after the epilogue and feature the Undersiders. The third one is especially good. (1) (2) (3)

10. THE TECHNOQUEEN. Crack fic. Taylor triggers as a tinker, and her childhood hero was Mouse Protector. Hilarity ensues. This was really good early on, but like most long crack fics, lost itself along the way. Still, some parts in the beginning are pure hilarious. 3/5.

There are a few others that other people like that I just can't into.
Amelia - No idea what people see in this one. Amy should die a painful death.
Atonement - Again, just couldn't get into it.
The Cloudy Path - Its well written, but painfully dull.
Heredity - Better written than Amelia, but another Taylor/Amy curb-stomp does not interest me in the least.
Walkabouts - See above.
Maharal - Golem time travel fic. It contains Golem and the Wards - both inherently, painfully dull.
Memories of Iron - This one has a bit of a following, but just I couldn't make it past the first few chapters.

 

To me, Maharal is probably the best updating fics in the fandom. It's one of the few that's genuinely interesting, the rest are locker->Lung->confront Shadow Stalker->abandoned...

 

Bug on a Wire lies fallow while the author focuses on some Sakura-centric fanfic (which you may also not give a fuck about), but hairs need splitting.

There have been three different TR2013 crosses, all dead (or sleeping), for the moment. All different takes on the cross, too. Not quite the all-Exalted-all-the-time pattern that prevailed initially, but interesting. Think it could be a productive cross: forces a more street-level action, contrasts sharply with the Sophia/Emma issues, offers OCP answers to the Scion dilemma.

On viewcount, Exiled and Dire have been the recent winners on SB. Fucking Tinkers is still alive, though still updating glacially.

[Also, glad you both liked Cenotaph/Wake! Still editing them regularly.]

 

How good is Dire Worm? I have heard good things about it, but the premise sounds a bit silly to me.

Which are the other TR2013 crosses?

Both SAO crossovers are OK-ish. Nothing special.

Also, Cenotaph/Wake are both amazing -- I doubt there is anyone who read Worm who won't love them as well. I have a couple of problems with Cenotaph's beginning, but it's smooth sailing after that. Any chance of a sequel? Or another Worm fic? I just hope Naruto hasn't seduced you to the Dark Side as well.

 

Dire Worm is the kind of crack I like: one that spends a great deal of time making sure that the funny makes sense in context. Given the initial assumption (megalomaniac mastermind with noble? motives), the rest follows pretty naturally.

Agayek had a TR-cross that stalled out after... 3 chapters? Stormborn. The one mostly likely to spring to life (unless Heather takes this as provocation, which would be great!) is Fallendruid's Outsider.

I've got a 2k word Naruto thing, but that's complete as it stands, and was written even before the HP attempt. Most likely next thing is something original, but life has been interfering (mostly in good ways) of late. No plans at this time for a third after C/W.

 

Wouldn't call Outsider sleeping, the last update was less then a month ago.

 

Apples and oranges, my friend. Harry Potter isn't quite The Everyman, but he's a lot closer than Taylor. Plus, 3rd limited narration versus 1st. What I mean is, Harry is generic enough (not in bad way, just in the way that many heroic epics make their MC generic enough to be a reader stand-in) that I don't mind tweaking as much. Taylor's voice, on the other hand, is very well differentiated. I know what Taylor sounds like in her own head, because she thinks to herself, often, and she has a viewpoint and perspective that are unique.

That's not to say I couldn't enjoy a fic that takes Taylor in a completely different direction - it would just be a higher bar to clear.

Re: Speak With the Dead. This doesn't feel like Taylor to me, for example:

 

Keep in mind, the Taylor you meet at the start of Worm is a Taylor who was a few months on in from the one we see in Speak With the Dead. In canon, we meet a Taylor who has triggered, built up a bit of hope in this dream of being a hero and has had a lot of time to think about this hero thing.

Taylor you meet in Speak With the Dead is basically, at the worst part of her bullying campaign - a campaign that has left her dead (according to her belief). It makes sense they seem different.

 

Basically what Jarik said. When canon Taylor started off as a cape, she started with a clean slate -- it was the reason she was so insistent on keeping her cape life and civilian life separate. This is Taylor who has been bullied to death -- not the most honorable death, is it? Cut her some slack.

I agree that Harry is more of a generic hero than Taylor, but that's not all there is to it. Everyone now expects Harry to be OOC as Harry in-name-only was accepted in fanfiction long ago. It wasn't always like this -- most pre-OOTP fics (mostly on Sugarquill and Fictionalley back then) kept to canon characterizations only. May be after a few years, Taylor in-name-only will be the norm too, although I doubt the Worm fandom will have the longevity of Harry Potter.

When is Wildbow starting on his Worm sequel again?

notes :

That's a real shame. No more Worm at all? Not even an itsy, bitsy one-shot?

........Anyway, It seemed you had left paths open for it at the end of Wake. Now we missed out on the ultimate fight between Taylor and Lung that had been brewing for two fanfics. Just out of curiosity, would you have had Scion as the Big Bad if you had written it? There aren't too many different ways that fight could go. If not Scion, then who? Behemoth? Eidolon? Ah, so many questions. Dammit notes, Your work is too good to remain unfinished.

 

Could happen someday, but don't have a story in my mind right now. Not even scenes.

Scion was resolved by the end of Wake — that's one of the things I've been aiming for in edits, both to tighten and to clarify. That's not to say his role is past, but the canonical apocalypse has been replaced with something else.

The loose sequel hooks set up at the end revolve around the fact that Theo, Hookwolf, Lung, Piggot, and Armsmaster are all looking for Taylor, each for slightly different reasons. For most of Cenotaph, Taylor outran the news of her passage, assisted by the chaos going on throughout the city. By C's epilogue, some people are already beginning to put the pieces together. After the events of Wake, several of them are actually overestimating Taylor... which would cause a different set of problems. If there were a third fic, it would have to be about what happens when those consequences finally catch up with Taylor. In one sense, the arrival of the S9 served that function; in another, she is just now beginning to have things to lose once more.

There's a hook for a one-shot (Taylor's vacation to Miami, where she has dinner with Pete's family and finds out why Director Raeder thought the city was about to — literally — catch fire), but no strong plot laid out for it either.

 

I'd like to see a story where Uber is actually a successful villain or just not be with Leet

 

There was a story where Taylor joined Uber and Leet, and tried to make them into serious villains. I forgot the name though.

Also, if I remember correctly, Taylor hires Uber as her primary bodyguard in Memories of Luthor, which I consider to be a slightly better version of Memories of Iron.