God damn.
I don't know what to feel. Such an intense and ultimately bittersweet end to one the greatest stories I've read.

Nervous about getting my hopes up, but both these things seem encouraging in an "is it just me or is Wildbow leaving this wide open for a sequel?" kind of way.

 

I never really expected her to live, but I sure as hell hoped she'd have her happy ending after everything she'd been through. Damnit. Amazing story with a suitably tragic ending.

 

This, seriously what the fuck. I still think the whole 'Eidolon created them' thing is bullshit.

About the two bullets thing - I got the impression the first was to hit her somewhere where she wasn't covered in bullet proof spider webbing, and the second was to make sure she died quickly without feeling anything? You're right though, it was a bit suspicious. This is Contessa we're speaking about after all.

Even though Taylor's screwy mind made the last few chapters somewhat less enjoyable, Wildbow pretty much nailed Taylor's end imo. Still, I honestly didn't understand a good portion of what was happening through that chapter. When the last time a character's appearance was described was a few hundred thousand words ago, descriptions like "the man in blue and white" don't mean all that much.

Also, Wildbow said that interlude rules don't apply to epilogues. Thus we can get them from POV's already covered, like Tattletale or Defiant. Not that I expected otherwise but definitely good news. I'm kind of hoping for a Danny POV epilogue chapter even if it's unlikely. Pretty sure we never got official confirmation he was dead and if I remember correctly the very first interlude was from his perspective, so it kind of rounds things out. Plus I imagine it would be pretty terrifying to be him right now.

 

For me, a lot of the fun of the chapter was figuring out which Capes were which. I know I needed to take what little fun I could from the feels. Is this the first time we've ever actually heard Contessa speak? I remember there was a point where she decided not to talk to Eidolon because she didn't want him to think she was manipulating him with her power, but I can't remember if she ever did speak to anyone.

Also, the blue and white cape was Legend.

 

Blue/white costume was Legend, the flying man was Marquis leveraging osteokinesis to fucking fly because Khepri was kidnapping his daughter (who was, incidentally, reunited with Glory Girl at the end).

 

Wow I did not make that connection that the winged flying man was Marquis, but that is probably one of the coolest uses of a power that I've seen in a while.

Also, @TMNTurtwig, naw man. We had a whole Contessa interlude where she was speaking. Also, pretty sure she even spoke in the very same interlude that you're referencing about Eidolon.

 

Fuck, this hurts. I knew it was coming to this, but damn it. It's fitting but Taylor didn't deserve that. She sacrificed so much and while I get why everyone of those ungrateful bastards wants to see her dead, she deserves more than to be put down like that.

Well, google tells me that one of the traits associated with Khepri is rebirth so, there is still some hope.

Here is hoping that if she is dead, there is such a thing as the afterlife and we see Taylor taking over heaven or hell and then make her way back. Yeah, I know I am reaching >_>

Damnit, now to drown myself in the shower...

 

I don't actually think people hated her as much as she perceived. If I understood correctly, she interpreted everything as an aggression, even if people were producing fireworks out of joy over the victory. She mistook the celebration for people turning against each other. She degraded to a point where there is only conflict, no understanding.

Besides that, this was awesome. Somehow I heard in my mind the soundtrack of the final duel in SW Ep. 6, you know, when Luke overpowers Vader. http://youtu.be/L63In39n86c?t=1m12s

 

We then learn that Contessa magically used a bullet to disable Taylor's Gemma - problem solved.

Well, probably not. We know how well that worked last time.

 

I need a moment. :'(

 

I feel empty. I was really hoping that she'd get a happy ending. Contessa could have helped her wrest control from the passenger and they could have lived there in peace with contessa as her warden. Imp. Lissa and Rachel would come visit her. Everyone else seems to be getting a second chance but not Taylor?

If there is an interlude, I would like to see this chapter from someone else's point of view.

 

Life long imprisonment and banishment for saving humanity on a multi-dimensional scale is hardly a happy ending either.

Granted, it is better than be shot like a dog but not quite happy.

 

I'm not sure what to think. I really don't want this to end like that, even if it's fitting.

 

Great ending to a great story.

I do not agree that there ought to have been a happy ending.

Taylor has always being morally grey, and the genius of wildbow's writing and the mark of the story's being good is that we can sympathize with Taylor's choices despite the evil she does or the crimes she commits. I genuinely believe that her enslaving thousands of capes was necessary to in the fight against Scion - necessary to prevent what would essentially have been the genocide of a thousand worlds.

That said, I must confess that I don't like Taylor as a person, not anymore - she's a well-wrought character, and a great protagonist, and she does a fine job of illustrating the complexities of heroism and morality - of how sacrifices are needed, or how the greater good might be achieved only at significant cost.

The irony, of course - very obviously - is that Taylor has become the very thing she has always hated.

A bully.

She enslaved thousands to fight and die for her. She made them prisoners in their own minds, and forced them, against their free will, to sacrifice their lives. While this might be justified, it doesn't change the fact that this is exactly what Taylor hated Alexandria for. For that utter arrogance - of arrogating the right to dispose of others' lives and freedoms as she saw fit. Of treating them like insects, as it were. So in the end, things come full circle, and we remember that old adage about he who fights monsters...

For a large part of Worm, I liked Taylor, and found her sympathetic, courageous, and very relatable. Now? After all she has done? No. If I had been in her position, and done all that she had - and I probably would have, given the necessity of it all - I wouldn't like myself either.

As Taylor tells Contessa, she's not sure if all the sacrifices made along the way were worth it. The end is fitting, not because Taylor deserves to die, but because she isn't sure if she can live with herself.

A bittersweet ending, to be sure, but it is the ending that Worm needs.

 

They could just leave her alone like they did with Nilbog or sleeper.

 

Dammit, it's been a while since I was genuinely saddened by a piece of fiction. I knew all along that there wouldn't be a happy ending because Taylor was never allowed to be happy, but I still hoped there would be one.

RIP ;_;

Fantastic ending to a fantastic story.

 

I can't be the only person to shed a few tears at the end. Emo up in this bitch.

 

Yeah that was rather sad, still hoping for a happy ending for Taylor though. The whole two bullets thing was odd, not Contessa shooting twice as much as Taylor being aware after the first one.

 

That was very emotional at the end and well handled by Wildbow.

I agree with Quick Ben and think that the passenger and Taylor switched places at the end of chapter 30.6, when she no longer knew who she was. The passenger became the dominant personalty and Taylor became the passenger.

Chapter 30.7 was then from passenger's point of view, with Taylor trying to nudge things from the background.

I think that Contessa wanted to assess if Taylor could become the dominant personality again, but decided that Taylor was lost.

 

I really don't get the people who feel that Taylor taking control of all the capes to fight Scion was some great act of pure evil. I don't see anything wrong with it at all. There was no hope of victory as things stood. It was inevitable that humanity would be annihilated by Scion.

Taylor sacrificed everything in the hope that Panacea could give her some chance of affecting the outcome of the fight, and she did. She single-handedly saved the fucking world when she took control of everyone. The people who died while under her control would have died anyway, so you can't even hold that against her. In my books, Taylor is the greatest hero of them all.

It is a shame that she ended up going crazy and getting put down like a rabid animal, but this didn't affect me anywhere near as much as when Scion nuked the UK. We all knew that Taylor wouldn't get a happy ending.

Hope we see an interlude/epilogue from at least one of the Undersiders.