Tt habitually grins at inappropriate times just to piss people off.

She also has a habit of lying. Also seems like a bad idea to tell a Simurgh puppet (I bet she figured that out) with 40 powers to break into the Birdcage.

 

Esh, drama in an IRC chatroom? Enough for WB to move the location? The hell?

Not that I know what went on, or like, what was misinterpreted or misstated, but I would expect people to have thicker skins? If someone's being harassed, okay that's no good, but moving a channel doesn't fix that. Nor is it right to blame a whole community for the actions of a few members? I'd expect a writer to have a broader perspective on such kinds of conflict. Sheesh.

 

I think Wildbow and someone else (Rika something?) stressed that it was only one person who was allegedly causing an issue. Someone else on Wildbow's blog was getting all up in arms over it, whatever it was, and admitted that he was more stereotyping than anything else. Anyway, this derail should stop.

More OT: Man are the travelers ever a fucking headache.

I agree that Cody and Trickster are both completely unsympathetic. I'm also not sure how Cody was able to deal with Chevalier so handily. It didn't even seem like he was having any issue whatsoever. Chevalier seems competant I can kind of buy Accord and Tattletale being caught unaware though. The Yangban are known as being essentially brainwashed thugs. One of them showing individuality is probably the last thing either of them would expect to happen. Tattletale also wasn't there when Cody had his little powwow with Grue and some of accords crew. To her, he was probably just another faceless soldier. Likewise Accord's power is best utilized when he has time to plan something. In this situation he likely had no time to set up contingencies. I guess my bottom line is that Chevalier was pretty much the only one capable of defending himself against someone with a multitude of unknown powers. Still, his defeat reeks a bit in how easy it was pulled off. If Cody had bled a little I would have been happy.

Also: Someone attacking the Capes organizing an endbringer defense? You'd have to be completely out of this world to even consider that as a reasonable course of action. Badum psh.

 

Which Cody might just be. Note that he has been in imposed isolation for a quite a while, being unable to converse or interact with his team very much at all due to pronunciation issues. [Which, btw, I see as really silly. The many negative effects of isolation aren't exactly unknown, so to do this to an already disturbed cape just to incentive him to pronounce things better seems like a risk military planners should not take. I get that the Yangban act at cultural ambassadors, but risking the cohesion of the group and the sanity of an individual like this seems weird.]

Weird chapter. Will see tomorrow how much of it was because of the unreliable narrator. Also, didn't really like the whole fractions of the power concept. What would fractions of invulnerability be? Or Grue's darkness (which, if fractions, should effect the potency along with the range, no?)

 

The other big issue is that the Yangban are all about UNIT tactics; there's no way after practicing in a group for so long he's able to take all 3 out with ease. I get if you want to cripple the leadership during the fight, but this may have been the absolute worst way of going about it other than their lunch giving everyone the runs.

 

I meant that more as a joke. Cody is literally out of this world. As in he's from an alternative earth.

Good point on the Yangban though. My only counter-thought is that indoctrination rarely takes into account individual needs unless it's to strengthen the group. I also get the feeling that if he wasn't serving in the Yangban he'd probably be in a earthen cell just like Lung was.

Edit:

Yeah that's another good point. I think it's important to point out that Chevalier was the only one capable of fighting back immediately. It was essentially 1v1 and Cody had something in the range of 42 (I think...?) minor tricks. The fact that he has a bunch of unknown powers was probably more dangerous than his actual skill level with individual abilities.

 

I think it has more to do with the fact that manipulating time is even more overpowered than most powers, especially when combined with attacking powers like the cutting laser.

 

Let's be honest, if the Yangban had been going up against anything other than an endbringer, they'd have been a beast in that scene. So yea, in part Cody might have been able to pull it off because of the sheer weight of powers. It still seems really unlikely, Chevalier's been around the block a few times.

 

The way I saw it, Cody kept reseting time to just after he hit with the lazer, but right before he was reacting, meaning that the hole would get deeper whilst he would still stay safe. Which really just goes to show how retardedly strong his power is.

 

Welp, seems like everybody called it: Alexandria is back.

Or Clonendria. One of the two.

 

Such an intricate story. I love it so much. The characters, the references of previous events, the action, the themes and top-notch writing.

 

If that is her, with the Protectorate's very public statement to the press on her corruption, there's no way they could accept her back without losing a lot of face and the new image they've been trying to cultivate. It could always be a Blasto/Cauldron clone, but I'm not sure how they'd deal with the repercussions of that. At least it seems to be on their side.

Great to see Imp/Regent again.

I love how Scion can't prioritize importance. I'll be looking forward to see if the Endbringers can die, or, I guess, if he can kill them.

 

PRT would probably say it's Alexandria's long lost twin sister, who has been secretly training to make sure she could take her sisters place. She also really hates corruption, wears an all white outfit, and loves puppies and butterflies.

 

Heh, I see what you did there.

 

Weaver and Clonendria: The Butterfly Redemption Sisters.

 

Or the body+powers double they found so that Director Costa-Brown and "Alexandria" could both be in a room at the same time.

 

Hmm...

Well we all knew that there a fair chance that Alexandria faked her death from the get-go. I just can't really wrap my head around why she'd do it. Did she want so badly to get a measure of Taylor that she chose to keep upping the ante until Taylor snapped and sent her body double in to get choked along with the body bag? Did she want to fake her death so that the PRT (her baby) would begin to understand how totally fucked it is without her?

I imagine that getting her DNA would be a bit tough to do without her consent, so I have no trouble believing she could have pulled this off and fooled even D&D, but the motive is a little sketchy.

The other option is that Cauldron managed to either replicate her power or created a new big bad superhero with their latest line of testing.

Somehow, something tells me that despite all the damage he may do, Behemoth is not going to walk away from this fight a happy camper (or at all). Taylor has decided to hurt him, after all, and is possibly the only villain in all of time who can say, "you'll pay for that," and actually make you.

 

Does anyone have a good theory for what Doctor Mother and Cauldron's goals are?

I had thought that they wanted to save mankind from the Endbringers, but Cauldron was active and offering Alexandria her first vial over six years before the first Endbringer attack.

Scion appears May '82
Alexandria triggers Aug '86
Triumvirate Quadrumvirate form May '88 at Cauldron
Behemoth, first Endbringer attack, Dec '92
PRT and Protectorate formed, Jan '93

I was wondering if Cauldron's goals came about because of what they found in other dimensions, but that'd mean Doctor Mother having control of the Doormaker [or whatever his name is] fairly early on. We don't see him before Dec '88, and based on Doctor Mother's approach to bed-ridden Alexandria, I don't think she was using him yet in Aug '86.

Doctor Mother presents herself to Alexandria as a researcher and a scholar, more than a medical doctor. She's working to improve her hero creation process.

“I’ve yet to start categorizing the results. For the time being, I’m playing a game of battleship, creating what I can and logging the results. I hope to find the patterns and the factors at play, given time.”

-- Doctor Mother, Worm, Int 15.

But only two years later, Alexandria and Cauldron are forming the Quadrumtrivate and laying out their plans to them for the Protectorate and PRT. The stated basis of the meeting:

The next twenty years are projected to produce a total number of six hundred and fifty thousand people with powers, worldwide.”

Alexandria spoke, “I’ve looked at the numbers, at the growth, the trends, checked and double checked them. Even if the rate decreases, we’re going to get outpaced and we’re going to get outpaced hard. The people with trigger events will outnumber the Doctor’s clients, and we’ll wind up with three to ten villains for every hero that steps forward.”

-- Worm, Int 15.

note: At this point, the Quadrumvirate considers it a given that Cauldron-powered capes outnumber natural capes in '88.

As soon as that meeting is over, Alexandria reveals that she and Doctor Mother share a hidden agenda.

One by one, the others departed. Legend was first through the doorway Doormaker created, taken to New York. Both Eidolon and Hero made their way to Chicago. Professor Manton and the others left.

Only Alexandria and the Doctor remained.

“You didn’t tell them about our long-term goals,” Alexandria spoke.

“No. There’s issues that have to be addressed first. We’ve already discussed several.”

“Anything I can do?”

“You have your end of the project. I feel they’ll come around. Focus on that. I’ll handle the projected issues on my side of things. Just need to find the right individual. Someone I can groom, perhaps. Between you and I, one of us is bound to succeed.”
-- Worm, Int 15.

So, in less that two years Doctor Mother has gone from researcher to wanting to manipulate the world, and Alexandria's firmly on her side. What did they discover or realise that made them do this? Alexandria seems to have believed that the other three heroes would have approved of Cauldron's long term goals if they'd been revealed. Maybe.

It's somewhat convenient timing when Behemoth appears. The government forms the PRT and the Protectorate the very next month, which was part of Cauldron's plans.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss. What the hell are Doctor Mother and Alexandria thinking?

 

It will be amazing if the plan is totally Silver Age, like have everyone wear pants with only one leg or go bald.

 

Yeah, I wonder what the end goals are for Cauldron. The organization seems to have a reasonably admirable goal, they just have terrible and inhumane methods.

Though since we've never gotten a viewpoint from Doctor Mother or Contessa, we really don't know.