I'm of the opinion that the latest arc was the best Wildbows ever written in any of his stories. Absolutely fantastic stuff.

 

Today's chapter but me hard. I could feel it stretching longer, so I knew something was coming, but the reveal still got me. Really throws a ton of previous content in an entirely different light. 6.09, for instance:

 

Wildbow confirmed on reddit that Twig isn't ending anytime soon.

 

How many people are still keeping up with this? While I overall enjoyed them Arcs 12 and 13 definitely felt slow and it was affecting my thoughts on the series to an extent. Arc 14 has undone all of that.

Pieces are being put into play, pieces put back together (heh) and the most recent set of reveals/plot developments in 14.17/14.18 have put my excitement back to an all time high for the series. The final push is seemingly being set up and I'd strongly recommend anyone who left it by the wayside to pick it back up.

 

I'm still keeping up. Personally, I felt that arcs 13 and 14 (until the scene on the rooftop) had lost my interest to some degree (I missed Sy's perspective in 13, and in 14 whilst I appreciated what was going on and stayed engaged, I missed the normal flow. It wasn't nearly so bad as the end of Work but still). The final chapter in arc 13 and the last few in this have really hiked up my excitement in the story. If think we have a few arcs to go yet, but we're definitely hitting crunch time.

What interests me about Twig, looking back, is that it's far more of a character piece. Ultimately, the wider plot is secondary to what it means for Sy. Whereas Worm made Taylor the hero of the story, with most cconseqential things happening around her, Twig places Sy almost at the periphery of a wider story of conflict between Fray, Mauer and various nobles. He's consequential, for sure, but in a very different and more reduced way. Taylor's final endgame state made the world revolve around her to an almost comical degree, and whilst we've get to see endgame Sy, I can already imagine the difference.

And ultimately, I think that has made Twig a better story. I really enjoy hearing these details of a wider world, and it's laser focus makes these more meaningful in some ways.

I don't know where this is going. But Twig is amazing, and you really should read it.

 

I've really, really enjoyed some parts of Twig. Been ambivalent towards some others. Feel like Wildbow is, to an extent, not as good at buildups as at resolving them. For example, the

Spoiler

Evette

chapters wern't nearly as good as the way that plot point was resolved.

 

I've ended up walking back and forth on Twig. I'll drop it for months at a time, then binge an arc, then drop it again. It really boils down to the writing at this point. Most of us on DLP are familiar with Wildbow's action heavy writing (i.e. the physicality with stage-like direction). I tend to drop out when that becomes prevalent.

For me that was somewhere in arc 12, iirc. I still enjoy Twig but it's always a bit of a push to get back into thing.

With that said, I still love telling people about the serial. As elevator pitches go it doesn't get much better than, "Alternative history where Frankenstein was a medical treatise."

 

I'm late to the party. I've known about Twig since it came out, but I've never read past the first chapter. Just what is Twig about?

 

As Idiot Rocker says, the world's premise is basically

Set in the 1920's, with zombies having become utterly normal and with the world obsessed with 'wet' science.

The protagonist, Sylvester, is an experiment working for the Academy as a group of problem-solvers - hunting down escaped experiments/monsters and related tasks. He is biologically a 12yo, but only has memory since he was altered, with a drug being used to basically give him Sherlockian powers of deduction. His group, the Lambs, are all a similar age with different backgrounds and skills.

Then plot happens.


Stylistically, compared to Worm:

 

What feels like the last chapter of the last arc (ignoring epilogues) has been posted and.. wow.

Spoiler

Its bittersweet, predictable and yet not anywhere close to where I thought it'd end up. One Lambs life for all the Lambs life.

 

So, time for me to read it!

I've read nothing from Wildbow yet, so now I'm hyped.

 

All three finished stories are worth a read and have very different feels. I'd suggest Worm first as the sequel is starting soon but start with whichever grabs you the most.

Twig shines in it's character interaction and how invested you get with them. The beginnings a bit of a slow burn because of time needed to establish characters and the Monster of the Week vibe the first couple chapters have. Once you hit the story proper though it's an experience. WB's writings improved leaps and bounds beyond his previous works.