I think that this chapter was just the realisation of a problem that was created a long time ago. There's no way it could ever go at the almost real time speed we had in the early stages of the story, and still make it to the end of the world stuff that has to be 2 years into the future. So logically the story had to either accelerate a long time ago, or there had to be a big timeskip eventually.

 

I think Wildbow could have had the time skip without it being too offputting, but as it is it basically sneaks up on you and comes out of nowhere. It starts in the middle of an arc, in the middle of a chapter while leaving off from the previous scene mid fight. If the time skip was at the beginning of after arc 26, maybe after the climax of fighting off Khonsu or the other new end bringer then I think things would have gone much more smoothly. Hopefully Wildbow will work things out in editing.

Also, I'm not really sure what happened to make Grue go from being all "you'll always be Skitter to me" to being barely cordial and awkward. I get that he was hurt by her leaving, but he seemed mostly fine until after they fought Behemoth. Or (as I just realised while I was typing) was it the video that really pissed him off? Weaver didn't really have all that much to do with, though I suppose his anger is somewhat understanable.

In regards to Grue's (wife? Girlfriend?) comment about Weaver being a legend, I believe she meant more that she was a legend amongst the Undersiders and around Brockton Bay, especially since everyone is comparing the two with her dating Grue.

 

We knew this and accepted this, I think, but, this was the worst way to execute the timeskip, really. The worst way imaginable. It's not placed well at all.

Also, how can we know what Grue's wife/gf means by "legend"? We're missing two years of development, so the comment has a confusing context to it. Skitter could have saved the world herself already at this point and we wouldn't know.

Finally, Grue's behavior shift I assumed was as a result of the leaked video, maybe he felt betrayed or maybe he stopped internalizing his frustration with her after some introspection and decided that her leaving him pissed him off? I agree it could use some development, but I assume we'll understand down the road.

The thing I disliked most though was how the newest Endbrigner was handled. It was like, "Welp, here it is. Oh and it does this stuff." Way too much shit crammed into one chapter, to be honest, nevermind that it's got a two year time skip as well.

edit: Well, Wildbow seems to be considering a rewrite at least. I hope it goes that route, but if it doesn't, this part of the story will need a lot of polish and extra content to be anything more than unsatisfactory. Like, I'm talking a good 30-50k words at least, to close some of the threads that would otherwise be awkward to close in later arcs.

 

Judging by the comments thread the rewrite is almost certainly not going to happen. I just hope the finale isn't handled the same way Arc 2 was with all the skipping around. It still won't be as enjoyable because after all this I feel pretty distant from Weaver as a character, but maybe in a good finale some of that could be remedied.

 

I think when it comes to Grue there are quite a few things that people are kind of missing the point on here. His coldness towards Skitter from the Behemoth fight was easily due to the leaked video. Embarrassment at that tender moment. Maybe a bit of anger mixed in because he had to act tougher in B-Bay because people saw him as weak. Given his emotional trauma I can understand that. Also, now he was suddenly in charge where he knew he wasn't fit for it yet.

Now skip two years. Put yourself in his shoes. Your girlfriend is watching you interact with your ex-girlfriend, the one you lost your virginity to. The one who everyone knows about. The one who is easily a legend in the Brockton Bay area. She's gone to every Endbringer fight so I'm sure her name is up there being repeated a lot. Not to mention she took over the city.

In that scenario, him being a bit awkward and formal with his reactions is probably very understandable. If he's too friendly, his wife might give him shit for it. Hell, he was probably still a little mad at her for just up and cutting ties like she did.

Well, that's how I saw it at least.

 

Are they actually married though? I thought it was just Imp messing around...

 

Good point. Imp was only messing around. I'll edit the original post. But that fact still doesn't change the argument I presented. Also, just thought of this. Look how Weaver is acting, jealous, irrational, etc. He's got to be feeling similar as well.

 

Yep, especially since as Imp pointed around Weaver also has one hell of a poker face it is only the insects that screw her up...

 

I also wonder how Bohu and Tohu counter Scion. Maybe they can retreat somehow and, by the time Scion arrives, the city Bohu occupied is already lost? Kind of like when Leviathan build up to much waves, Scion could still hit him, but he coudn't stop him from destroying the countryside.

 

Yeah I don't get how any of the endbringers with the exception of Khonsu can have avoided a Scion intent on killing them once they encounter him.
Or scion's kill order has been rescinded.

He's been shown to be unaffected by their attacks and as fast any of them so if they can't teleport, they're dead.

 

It's possible that Tohu's combinations are chosen to beat, or at least delay and then escape from, Scion in a straight up fight, so the comparatively vulnerable Bohu can be left to wreak it's havoc without his interference. I remember one of the combos was Eidolon + Legend + Some aerokinetic, theoretically he could use a combination of Eidolon powers to hold Scion down for a while then kite him with Legend's speed?

 

But scion has never been shown to be even inconvenienced by anything. Leviathan's wave of water hits him to no effect. Behemoth's attacks similarly did nothing. I think Eidolon's inviolable force field could probably delay but even then scion is as fast as any parahuman on record. Eidolon's force fields if I remember correctly, are shattered by scion when behemoth is killed. So even that might be enough. Scion really is the by far the strongest parahuman or endbringer yet, nothing has harmed hi that we've seen.

 

Well the only thing I can say for sure from the top of my mind is that the Simurgh at least can fool Scion into pursuing a copy, image or something like that.

 

Physical illusions could fool him, I think, but mental powers would not be able to.

 

It was mentioned in this chapter that the Simurgh and Leviathan both changed their tactics after the Behemoth fight. They hit and run guerilla style. Presumably this is so that they won't get pinned down and killed by Scion.

I think a big part of why Scion was able to really kill Behemoth was due to all the damage Phir Se, Flechette, and Chevalier were able to do. I'm not so sure he would have been able to just drag Behemoth's ass back out of the ground when he burrowed if Behemoth was at full strength/mass/had all of his limbs.

Anyways, I had a prediction I wanted to make. Ever since Golem mentioned that he can "uselessly" stick his head into stuff (as opposed to just his arms and legs), I've thought that when Golem gets better with his powers he might be able to fully submerge himself into stuff and basically control a full "Golem" body. Maybe he'd be able to teleport around too- step into one wall, step out of another wall made of the same material. He might even be able to make multiple "Golems", because it seemed like at one point in the Behemoth fight he stuck his hands into some metal and made many many hands come out of different places.

The way Bohu worked reminded me of that little idea I had, so I figured it's worth sharing. It seems to me like Bohu is based off the Chicago wards (Tecton, Annex, and Golem specifically- or maybe just a really souped up Annex).

 

Scion has stopped a dam from flooding in the past. That is an unimaginable level of power projection and control.

I don't think a full Behemoth would have been able to stop him from grabbing him, tbh. The reason Scion isn't broken in Wormverse (or for that matter, why Siberian and Alexandria and Phir Se and Lung aren't broken) is because there are partial counters to his strengths.
Teleportation is the most obvious one, since if you can flee from him, as long as you're not wiped in one hit, you'll be fine (if you're an Endbringer.)

 

Tohu seems very projection-like to me. Does Scion know how to fight opponents like that?

Noticed Phir Se's name here. Does this mean that a) Phir Se isn't actually dead, or b) Tohu can copy the powers of dead capes as well? In which case, what happens if she copies Regent's/Heartbreaker's powers? Would the permanency also hold?

And the "3 Blasphemies" were mentioned several times in the comments. Anyone have any idea what these are? Someone said there was a connection to Jack Slash, but I have no memory of this...

 

3 Blasphemies.
I don't know what they are but we have word of god that:
-they are not Sleeper or Nilbog
So what parahumans mentioned have the same level of power/influence that the ones in that meeting did, other than those?

Personally, I don't think we've encountered them yet.

 

Having thought about it, it's a little strange that Tohu doesn't choose more obviously synergistic or terror enabling powers, and seems to just go for a lot of brute force (especially since the targets don't need to be present). I'm terrified of combos like Skitter+Panacea, or of the top tier combat thinker powers like Contessa's and Number Man's, or even of absolute S-Class threats in themselves, like Nilbog or Echidna.

The only thing I can think of is the powers chosen must be there to try to dissuade Scion from attacking in some way, but that makes limited sense for the reasons others have been talking about (The Lung+Alexandria+Phir Se combo actually seems like it might've had a reasonable chance though, especially with creative uses of portals).

 

I was going to say that I think it would be impossible for Imp to kill Heartbreaker - but I guess she would be immune to his power? Assuming that is the case and none of his children can sense her either, she could literally walk up to him and assassinate without any trouble.