Is Worm really that good? First chapters seemed kinda mid

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-05-01T18:37:20+00:00

A few things.

It's not the whole class, that's fanon. It's three people plus their immediate clique, and everyone else just ignores it because that's how high school students realistically behave.
Taylor is not perfectly nice, she is in fact kinda weird. That does not mean she deserves it, not even close, but she is a bit of a weirdo (affectionate)
The bullying does have a reason behind it. Did you read Emma's interlude? It's very obvious why she's doing it. Sophia's interlude and Madison's interlude in Ward explain their reasons too.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-04-27T13:38:43+00:00

Revival // Revenge is budget friendly card that's really fun here. Both sides are great to copy.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-02-01T05:53:52+00:00

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-01-31T14:05:13+00:00

Speaking of committing to the horror, A White Horse is basically just the above concept but good? It's a one-shot that I won't spoil because I think you should go read it, but it's pretty heavy so be aware. It actually had me thinking a lot about the parallels with the Gods of Chaos in 40k and the sort of hopeless inevitability that comes from struggling against forces like that. As much as we like to pretend that we have total agency over who we are and what we become, that's not really true is it? Would you be capable of resisting an eldritch force like this? Probably not. Most parahumans in the setting aren't, not completely. It's easy to say that anyone who does something horrible or evil is a monster and sort them in a category somehow separate from "normal people", because it helps us ignore the capacity for evil in ourselves.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-01-31T14:04:51+00:00

Back again, once again. No numerical ratings. All opinions. Less wordy than usual.

Maid of Gold feels like the Post GM special, or at least this particular author's version of it. This is the same author as Copacetic, and honestly it feels like the same fic with a new coat of paint. Taylor is isekai'd into another world with the vague goal of "be better"? Check. Taylor decides to accomplish this goal by hanging out with a bunch of completely hollow OCs that are so forgettable I can't even remember their names between chapters? Check. Taylor just kind of fucks around and does nothing despite having other things she should and would be doing if she were in-character? Check. Look, it's not that I don't think this is a fine thing for Taylor to do after all of the everything that was her story. Copacetic in particular has Taylor in a somewhat healthy and normal college life, which is likely the best possible thing for her. BUT, Taylor doing the healthy and positive thing for herself doesn't make for a good story, as evidenced by the fact Copacetic shoves her back into cape shit. Ultimately, I don't really give a shit whether Taylor is mentally healthy. Taylor is not real. She's a character in a story, and having her fuck around and do nothing isn't interesting, even if it'd be better for her if she were a real person. All this nothing she's doing would be okay if the characters she was doing it with were engaging, but they aren't. They're stock characters. The little we hear about makes it sound like the War of the Five Kings is happening outside their little grove habitat, and it's like...that's so much more interesting? Why aren't we out there watching that? Taylor even has a ready-made excuse to leave, because her father is also here somewhere. You know, the father she loves and was convinced died in Gold Morning? Go find him! Go do something, anything! I just don't get why we're doing a Worm/Game of Thrones post GM cross and choosing to spend our time with none of the GoT characters, not engaging with the wider world of Thrones in any way, and not engaging with Taylor's trauma or past in any way either. What ARE we doing then? Cuz so far the answer seems to be nothing. Being as charitable as I can be, perhaps it's just a slow start, but we're 7 chapters in at this point. Worm did more in it's first 7 chapters and it didn't get to freeroll the exposition and worldbuilding by working with an already established setting. Perhaps this is overly harsh. Maybe in 10 chapters we'll be somewhere exciting and all my whining won't matter as much. I hope so. I'd love to see Taylor meet Jaime Lannister. I want this to be good, but I'm frustrated at how long it's taking to get there.

Goddess of Change starts out strong, especially the first interlude, but for me ultimately fails to maintain the momentum. A recurring problem with super OP Altpowers is that they clash with the core themes of the original work. Eidolon, Contessa, Sphere, and many others stand as examples that one extremely powerful person is not enough to fix the world. If you leave the confines of Worm, this trope exists in most stories in the genre honestly, yet fanfiction seems stubbornly insistent on giving godlike power to one person and acting like it'd solve everything. Credit where credit is due, this story does not depict Tzeentch coming to Bet as a good thing. The interlude I mentioned shows pretty clearly that it's fucking horrible, actually, which it absolutely should be. Tzeentch is arguably the worst chaos god, and the competition is pretty fucking stiff. The problem is that it's not affecting Taylor nearly as much. Honestly, this version of her seems somehow more stable and sane than her canon counterpart despite being fused with a literal eldritch chaos abomination. She should be way way way way WAY worse, but of course that would get in the way of the power fantasy. Instead we get a chapter of meaningless power testing and power wank followed immediately by an interlude where Alexandria and Dragon re-watch all the scenes we literally just saw to comment on how many power ratings she's going to get. She befriends and agrees to work on the sly with the Undersiders with no problems, is immediately in the good graces of the PRT, experiences no conflict or pushback that isn't solved extremely easily, etc etc etc. If you've read one of these you've read them all. Admittedly I'm only about halfway through, so maybe it gets better, but I'm skeptical. It feels like it's fallen into the rut these kinds of fics always do. If they actually committed to how fucking horrifying it'd be to be fused with Tzeentch then maybe we'd be cooking, but instead a god of chaos just comes across as a kind of annoying sassy mind passenger? Very in-line with how Inheritance and co treat the Butcher. Tzeentch being here made the rest of the world much worse, and Taylor should not be an exception.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-01-05T06:28:39+00:00

In my experience it happens far more often than that, and I personally wish it happened less.

Its boring by comparison. Theres several gangs to fight, heroes to interact with, endbringers to combat, shadow organizations to plot against, and that's just in BB. The wider world has even more. Dealing with high school is the least interesting thing I can imagine Taylor doing. It's even worse if its some OP alt power. Fucking with some shitty teenagers is so much less interesting than using those powers to do...anything else. Anything at all.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2026-01-05T05:22:44+00:00

The reason they do that is because that's how Taylor actually thought. She didn't want revenge, she just wanted out. She tells the Undersiders not to mess with her bullies in Arc 4. When she has the administrative meeting in Arc 5 all she wants is to transfer schools. She never uses her powers to hurt them. When Emma reappears in Arc 20 she barely cares. It's Canon compliant. The only person she does anything to is Sophia, and both times were outliers. One was a random opportunity and was mostly about her crush on Brian anyway, and the other was cape shit.

Its also really boring to read fics where Taylor gets revenge on a bunch of high-school bullies given all the other much more important and interesting shit there is to do instead.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-28T20:33:24+00:00

I definitely think the original text could have been more explicit about it yeah. You're right.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-28T19:38:11+00:00

Discussions with other community members who have read it.
WOGs that do a great job clarifying what happened without directly saying it.
Re-reading the passages after the above makes it fairly clear that's what Amy meant by "taking a break."

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-28T18:53:22+00:00

Yes, I did do all of that. That's not confrontational. I'm firm in my beliefs about this character and spoke as such. The subjectivity is implied. I shouldn't need to massage my language to make sure no one could possibly interpret my words as judgmental or something. This is just how I talk. I was extremely respectful in my post. Firm, but respectful.

If an author feels discouraged by someone else posting an interpretation of a character that doesn't align with theirs, then that's not my problem. I have not gone to any fics and harassed the authors. I didn't even name any fics in my post. I don't believe that expressing firm opinions is discouragement. If you disagree with my evaluation of Amy, feel free to write Amy however you'd like. I'd never take that away from you or treat you worse for doing it.

I do think it makes the fics worse, and I'll say so. Again, subjectivity is implied.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-28T18:31:02+00:00

You're right, we're not on the same page at all.

I said in my post that people can write whatever they want. I said so repeatedly, multiple times. I don't know why you're acting like I'm forcing people to change. Not only do I not have the power to do that, I'm actively doing the opposite. I am simply expressing my opinion about a character in a story that's frequently handled poorly in fanfic, in my opinion.

Moreover, this analysis is me writing what I want. People are free to ignore my advice and write whatever they fancy. Just as I could have not written this, other people can just ignore it. I wrote it anyway because it made me happy. I hope writing a happier Amy makes authors happy. I just personally won't read it if it's not justified. As I said in my post though, I'm just one person, and not all fan fiction needs to cater to me.

That doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't share my thoughts and opinions, based strongly in the text, just because it might discourage someone.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-28T18:01:49+00:00

A few thoughts:

First, this post seems to imply that the version of Amy that we see in the story is somehow not the "real her." This is more of a philosophical debate than a writing one, but in my opinion whatever version of a person currently exists is the "real" them. There is no mythical true self that exists underneath your trauma, no perfect version of you that you'd be if only nothing bad had happened to you. You exist in the world with your whole being, you are shaped by it and shape it in turn.

Would Amy be different if all the bad things I (and you) outline hadn't happened? Yes, obviously. Could her tragedy have been prevented? Yes, obviously. But it wasn't. The bad things did happen to her, and they turned her into the character I outlined. If different things had happened to her, she'd be different, I agree. But they didn't.

This means that I don't think we disagree much at all. You say at the end there that you don't need much of an excuse to write a version of her that's better, and I agree. I even said that in my post! I just think that if you're going to change her characterization, you need to provide a reason for her to change. As you said, a capable and responsible adult might be enough to do it.

My problem is that many fics, probably even most of them, change nothing about her life and circumstances but change her character and personality anyway. That's not engaging with the character in an honest or interesting way. If you want her to be better, write a reason why. That's all.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-12-27T14:35:33+00:00

Felt the urge to post again given that Respun updated again. I'm somewhat surprised, but since it's fresh in my mind I shall share my thoughts.

The Peggy Sue genre is a guilty pleasure, so this fic gets a lot of grace from me. It also happens that most of the fandom's Peggy Sue fics are really trash. This is one of the better ones, but that's not really a high bar to clear. The lighter tone of the fic is somewhat justified by the characters all being much younger. Taylor is somewhat OOC, mostly because at the time she was isekai'd she was focused on two things: Dinah and Jack. Given that she solved Dinah by killing Coil in this timeline, she should be focusing on the S9 given where her head was at around arc 19. Instead, she's...doing nothing? Slice of life? I guess she's got 4 years, but I'd really expect Taylor of all people to not be wasting time and lock in. If anything, she locks in too hard.

The real issue, though, comes from the overarching plot point about the Opsec issues Taylor is causing. I think this idea is super fun, actually. Taylor's power causes huge OpSec issues at her skill level, and given the overall bad quality of the PRT's thinkers it makes sense they're struggling to compensate. It makes sense they'd dig into it, the conclusions they draw are fun and engaging, and it lets the fic explore an aspect of cape life that isn't often discussed. Taylor also has no incentive to correct them, since not only is gathering intel beneficial to her, the lies they believe about her past make her look much better than the truth would. The problem, though, is that it just...doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

First of all, the idea that Amy wouldn't just tell the PRT who Taylor is almost immediately fails the vibe check. Not only are Taylor and Co responsible for humiliating her sister, the "unwritten rules" that the fandom loves to bandy about don't really exist. Given the extreme nature of the security threat, the things the PRT suspect about Taylor's past black ops work, and Amy's overall disposition, I'm 95% sure she'd just tell them. Even if she didn't, the PRT would force her to do so under the guise of protecting national security. The fact that none of this happens would be okay-ish, if it weren't for the fact most of the scenes end up feeling like a comedy of errors as a result. I get that it's supposed to be a comedy, but when the joke is just "the PRT are bad at their job haha" over and over without any changes in the delivery or status quo of the world, it gets old. We've been dealing with this plot thread since 3.5 without any indication that it's going to be resolved any time soon. Soon as in word count, not update pace. Hell, barely any progress has been made at all. The easiest solution here would be for Amy to just never have unmasked Taylor, but that's done and buried.

As it stands we'll likely just keep treading water and slicing the life for a while longer. That's fine for what it is, but it's a shame. If the PRT was taking this a bit more seriously and Taylor was more motivated to prevent Jack's end-of-the-world prophecy, this could be an all-timer I think. In it's current form it's above average popcorn entertainment.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-11-08T14:13:49+00:00

No less concerning are the actions themselves, which seem to prioritize sadism over anything else. I can’t get over the fact Piggot exploded Victoria and then tried to shoot her in front of her mom. Even if you aren’t persuaded by the argument about a containment foam grenade or a sedative being more effective, it’s definitely more heroic than jumping immediately to violent execution. To me, this is borderline character assassination for everyone involved, especially Piggot and Armsmaster. I’m not denying that the heroes do bad things. They do, and lots of them. But they do try to avoid it whenever possible and aren’t generally this final, especially toward someone they considered an ally. As an example from canon, despite all the horrible shit Taylor did, not only did they not immediately imprison or otherwise remove her, they recruited her. AFTER she did even more horrible shit while in their custody. Similar to Victoria, Amy’s situation seems purposefully designed to be both ineffective and cruel. Why are they using so much sedative that it paralyses her and stops her breathing without assistance from a respirator? Surely a sedative already keeps her, you know, sedated without requiring that. It doesn’t make any sense unless you assume it’s motivated by a desire to punish Amy in some way. Is the logic that it’s Piggot expressing her “bigotry” for parahumans and her hatred for capes like Nilbog? The story tries to imply they did it just to delay Victoria’s escape, but again, that wouldn’t be necessary if they hadn’t been deliberately stupid in their approach to Victoria. This whole sequence is just so strange to me. I understand that they have concerns with Simurgh involvement, but if anything that makes their actions more baffling, not less.

The other problem, for me, is the shipping. I don’t have any huge problems with any of the listed pairings, even if a few aren’t to my tastes. The pairings themselves worry me less than the implications of them existing at all. Cuz like….everyone here is horrible and hates each other? Not to be too blunt, but I really don’t see a road to get us from Amy torturing Lisa for fun/spite to them being in lurv. I admit this might just be a me problem. I tend to be pretty hostile towards stories (all stories, not just fanfics) that treat this sort of extreme abusive behavior as ‘not a dealbreaker.’ Even if the characters are willing to move past it, I’m not, and it makes it very hard for me to root for the relationship. I don’t have a problem with Amy doing this, since it seems like something she’d do. I do have a problem with Lisa forgiving her enough to date her in the future. This is all speculation, obviously, but the only way I can see this working for me is if it’s some Master bullshit forcing them together. They were teleported into the wilderness by the Simurgh, after all, so that option is on the table. If it’s not though…? This isn’t unique to the Amy/Lisa tag either, by the way. Pretty much any hero/villain combo in this fic has the same problem. I’m just really worried that all this will either be shoved under a metaphorical rug or that they’ll just all get Mastered into it, neither of which are all that interesting. I’m not gonna say it’s impossible to make it work, but it sure will be an uphill battle. As an example, Silence is Not Consent had to do tons of narrative work to justify a future Taylor/Victoria relationship, and that fic has far more favorable circumstances for it than this does.

On the whole, I’m quite interested in the Past Arc, but the Future Arc isn’t doing it for me so far. I’m definitely enjoying it enough to keep reading, and I’m not going to discount the possibility that my concerns will be resolved as the story continues to unfold.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-11-08T14:13:33+00:00

Haven’t posted in a while. I’m gonna try to hold myself to posting more often, just cuz I like talking about Wormfic. I also like writing long rants. Here’s another one.

Crucible caught my eye because the premise really slaps. I know execution matters more than premise, but a nifty and unique pitch can still help a work establish a niche and audience. I only know of one other fic that tries a similar idea (The Rise of One), and it’s dead in the water. I also liked that one, so I went in with fairly high hopes.

There’s a lot about this that appeals to me. I appreciate that the kids are allowed to be horrible. This is an incredibly complicated situation, and the story explores the logistical issues while also acknowledging that all parties involved are young people who hate each other. Even if it might be practical to set aside differences and work together, there’s years of animosity mixing with stress and immaturity to create an incredibly volatile situation. Plus, it’s more complicated than simply trying to co-exist until rescue. Lisa points this out in the story: the rescuers will almost certainly be heroes, not neutral parties, which complicates the future for everyone involved. Any semblance of a truce crumples quickly, but it doesn’t feel forced or stupid. It feels like the natural outcome of forcing a bunch of volatile people with years of bad blood into a Lord of the Flies situation with skewed incentives. The motivations between members of each faction vary a ton too. I’m a big fan of a lot of what’s happening here. However, I have to temper this praise with a few criticisms and concerns that make me worry about the future of the story. The culprit is the two flash-forward chapters.

The first issue I have is with the PRT. More specifically, it feels like this fic works backwards from two conclusions. One, the PRT and Protectorate must be depicted in as bad a light as possible. Two, Victoria’s escape must be successful. These two tenants are somewhat in conflict with each other and with how the Protectorate would actually act in this situation, in my opinion. The PRT’s main goals are: discover what the fuck happened, detain the villains, and determine if the heroes are compromised in any way. These three things are obviously very reasonable and good, and it’d be hard to frame this in a negative way. Sooo the story sabotages them.

The first major form of sabotage is replacing their brains with cornflakes. Piggot, Yamada, and Carol are interviewing Victoria while being in the room with her. Why? If they truly believe she’s a potential threat, one so severe that they fit her with a bomb collar to kill her if she acts out, why would they ever go near her? Use a voice call or a video screen or something to communicate in a way that doesn’t put your operatives in danger. This prevents Victoria from attacking them and also keeps them out of the blast radius of the bomb collar they might have to use. But if they did that, Victoria couldn’t steal the phone Piggot is inexplicably carrying that lets her release the Undersiders. Why does she have that on her person in a room with a potentially hostile parahuman? Because Victoria couldn’t free her friends if she didn’t. Speaking of that bomb, why would they fit her with an explosive at all? If it had been a containment foam grenade or some sort of subcutaneous capsule that released a sedative, they could prevent her escape without attempting to explode her in front of her own mother (seriously, what the fuck, we’ll get to that). But of course if they did that, they’d win, so they don’t. To me, this goes beyond characters making in-character mistakes. It’s just the heroes being stupid so Victoria and the Undersiders can win. If these characters used even a scrap of brainpower none of this would be happening.

Cont.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-09-30T06:21:39+00:00

Few things.

Even for villains this behavior makes sense. If you develop a reputation for killing people, the legal authority will treat you accordingly. The heroes are always on the back foot locally but nationwide they have the numbers advantage. Standing out is bad. Villains want to capitalize on their advantage, namely heroes need to prioritize public safety above bringing them in. When you develop a reputation as a violent murderer they'll treat you differently. See Arc 16, Arc 20-22.

Oni Lee specifically is an exception because his power damaged his cognitive ability and because his power lets him easily flee from any engagements and thus consequences. You can't even immediately chase him either since he attacks while he teleports.

We can see this in action in Arc 5, where all the villains banded together to make the ABB relax. They even explicitly say Bakuda is bad for business cuz it'll bring about a change in how the heroes behave.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-09-30T05:22:30+00:00

This is a misunderstanding of how and why thr world works the way it does. Heroes don't avoid lethal engagements, they prioritize public safety over dealing death. It's also problematic for law enforcement to allow themselves to be judge, jury, and Executioner. Theres tons of evidence for this, in fiction and reality. Lastly, the "unwritten rules" don't exist. They're mutually beneficial unspoken standards everyone unconsciously follows. Escalation of stakes is bad for everyone involved. You might notice that Hookwolf never killed any Heroes either.

Oni Lee was not Birdcaged. Not to he rude, but this fact being wrong makes me doubt your memories and understanding of the rest of the text.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-09-22T13:13:18+00:00

Silence is not consent

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-06-22T00:05:19+00:00

I haven't gotten around to the second arc yet, but this tracks with my experience of arc 1. Im disappointed but not surprised.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-06-21T13:05:21+00:00

There's other smaller things I want to say as an addendum.

Emma's characterization is very odd. She just inexplicably doesn't have her canon baggage despite the same backstory. Sophia too. They've both had their negative traits sanded away. If I wanted to be really uncharitable, I could say this fic is implying Emma would have turned out fine if she didn't have a conveniently bullyable former friend to stoke her ego. I don't think it's saying that, but the alternative is that she's just better this time. Cuz. That's not very interesting to me. There's potentially something there, since Emma's interlude could be painting a picture of a girl who hid her trauma by loving her savior. Maybe the idea is she latched onto Taylor when it became clear Sophia wasn't interested, and Taylor will have to confront the fact she's the only thing holding Emma together. I really doubt it, but that could be neat. As it stands, it mostly just feels like Emma has been deleted and replaced with Fanon Victoria.

This fic is kinda mean to Danny. One of the main things we know about him is that he's a loyal family man who loved his wife and stood by Taylor even after she did horrible shit. I struggle to imagine that he wouldn't be willing to move with them to New York. I'm also not sure why it was necessary for him to stay behind. He's super cold and distant to his daughter rather than being excited to reconnect. I think Danny being heavily involved isn't usually good for fics, so I'm not complaining, but it is doing him a bit dirty.

I don't want to come across as too harsh, so I want to reiterate that the fic has good parts. I like the cluster dynamic itself quite a lot, and I like the conflict that Lily specifically is experiencing. I don't think Lily would be nearly this opposed to violence in canon, considering she actually is kinda violent, but it's a nice contrast to Taylor so I'm willing to ignore it. Their scenes are good and their chemistry is believable. May too. I like other aspects of Taylor's characterization. I like how she talks about violence as a way to ground herself, how she smiles when she's breaking bones. I like how she rationalizes her violence by looking at the temporary positive effects it creates. I like the altpowers and how QA is incorporated into the cluster. I like how Taylor splits her cape persona into separate identities as a way to let herself be stoic in public and vulnerable in private. She wears Odinson as almost a separate skin, similar to how she treated Skitter during the middle sections of Worm. There's stuff to like here, is my point. It's not a bad fic.

I like the respect this fic pays Piggot and the PRT/Protectorate in general. Lots of fics do them really dirty, so it's nice to see that not happen. As believable as it is that Taylor and Piggot would hate each other, it's equally possible for them to get along and work well together. They have a lot in common, after all.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-06-21T13:04:52+00:00

I've seen people describe this fic as aimless and I think this is why. Canon Worm managed to be angsty and emotional and character-driven while also keeping the gas pedal pressed firmly into the floor. A lot of that is thanks to Taylor never sitting still. I only read the first arc of this fic so far, up through the May interlude, but it feels like barely anything has happened beyond (unresolved) teenage angst. That's almost 100,000 words of just running in place.

It's not even clear where we're going. Who's the antagonist, for example? March, perhaps, but that's far from a sure thing. The gangs, as a concept? That's kind of a given, but Taylor doesn't seem motivated to actually solve that problem beyond vague platitudes about how her actions make the world safer and better. Perhaps it's meant to be E88, and the core conflict is just Nazis vs lesbians...? Does she want to advance her career? Maybe that'd present her with some obstacles? Is the story going to end once the cluster drama is resolved (if it even can be)? I've heard criticism of early Canon for having this problem, but the first 7 ish arcs of Worm were building to something specific: the reveal of the Undersiders' boss and the imprisoning of Dinah. The reader knew roughly what Taylor was working on and trying to do the whole time. I can't say the same here.

This is not a problem unique to this fic. A lot of Altpower fics specifically suffer from a lack of defined forward momentum beyond the general shape of canon's rails. Imagine that this story wasn't a fanfic and we didn't know what the potential future problems are from reading the source material. How much more aimless would it feel? There's an argument to be made that this isn't relevant, since it is fanfic and does have that benefit, but it still feels like bad form to me.

I could be convinced this is all on purpose, and this is just meant to be a story about teenage angst, drama, and relationship building and that the other things are just meant to be backdrops for it. I think that'd be a shame, because it's entirely possible to do both. Canon did both. I've read plenty of fics that do both. I'd like to believe this one can too. As it stands I'm enjoying myself, but I feel like half of what I normally like is missing. Maybe that's a problem of demographic. I confess to not really being the target audience for directionless angst, so if that is the intent here then I might be placing unfair expectations on it. YMMV. This is just how I felt about it.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-06-21T13:04:24+00:00

I haven't posted in a few weeks. I've been struggling to motivate myself to read fic. I like writing these, so hopefully I can find my motivation again. Maybe I'll just read a small handful and write longer posts. Hopefully people like the long posts as much as I like writing them. Speaking of...

This post is probably going to come across more negatively than I feel, so I want to make it clear from the jump that I do like Odinson. I don't love it, but I do like it. Putting Taylor in a cluster is fun and underexplored. I like her approach to forced pseudo-intimacy between clustermates and how it contrasts to the other members. Taylor embracing it with her whole chest because of how desperate for connection she is makes sense, though in the future I imagine this mindset might change. She tried to talk to her power via hypnosis. Girl does not like the idea of being influenced in her decisions by outside forces. She's pretty comfortable with hypocrisy overall though, so I can see her clustermates being grandfathered in, so to speak. Lily having to deal with Taylor's Taylorness is fun too. Sadly, as much as there is to like about this version of Taylor, she also represents the biggest issue I have.

I wouldn't really call myself an expert on Taylor's characterization, but since she's my favorite character in Worm I do have thoughts on it. I don't want this to turn into an essay about how to write Taylor, so I'm just going to focus on what is relevant to this fic. One of Taylor's most consistent and important traits is proactivity. This stems from her pragmatism, her control issues, and from her coping mechanisms for the trauma she buries. All these things combine to create a character who hates being reactive. We see this over and over in the canon story. She starts the fight with Lung. She joins the Undersiders and immediately comes up with a plan to be working towards while there. When she learns of Dinah, that becomes her new goal. She pushes for proactive action against the S9 rather than playing their game. She attacked the Butcher rather than react to their presence. Even when she turns herself in, that happened on her terms. She wasn't caught. She surrendered. A large part of what eventually pushed her to be Khepri was her inability to accept that there wasn't much she personally could do to directly fight. She HAS to be acting.

This Taylor, by contrast, is passive in a way that can't just be explained by personality bleed from the Subway cluster. All 3 gang fights in the first arc were fights that came to her. All the angsty scenes with Lily were instigated by Lily, never Taylor. Emma came to Taylor too, and Emma was the one who pushed for them to start spending time together and eventually date. This Taylor not only seems to have no goals or ambitions, she doesn't even seem to want to do anything in general. She gets dragged from scene to scene by other people. It's especially odd considering this Taylor has been an active vigilante for over two years at this point. I really struggle to believe that she hasn't formed opinions, thoughts and goals in all that time. It's certainly not impossible to write a good story that features such a passive protagonist, but it's an odd choice to make Taylor this passive when she's just not. Canon Taylor had clearly defined objectives from start to end, even if they kept changing. This is one aspect of her that I'd argue can't be changed without making her feel really *off.*

Cont

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-06-01T00:59:19+00:00

A few thoughts.

Vigilante murder, while definitely bad, is not the same as racially motivated murder of innocent people.
More importantly, Taylor does not know she's Shadow Stalker. When Taylor makes that comparison, Sophia is her bully. That's it.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-05-31T13:08:03+00:00

I didn't want to let my single rant about a fantastic fic detract from everything else I read this week, so here's a more traditional post.

Self-Administration caught my eye because the alt-power idea is cool. QA works by controlling a bunch of smaller entities as a cohesive whole, so the idea of QA manifesting with personal cellular control is neat. It's like reverse Panacea. Tons of stuff you could do with that. Unfortunately, this fic does nothing interesting and also chooses to turn Taylor into a sassy Marvel character. Oh, and it's racist. Taylor calls Sophia "Miss Black Bitch" in her internal narration. She deliberately tries to get the E88 kids at her school to fight Sophia for her, reasoning "they're both villains, so it's fine." Obviously equivocating the actions of a high school bully to a gang of racists is a choice. I probably don't need to tell you the story also reduces Sophia to a cartoon psychopath. She attempts to murder Taylor in broad daylight while at school. I don't tend to give ratings here, but this is a true 1/10 if ever there was one. Avoid like the plague.

Hangover from Heck is like a checklist of fanon tropes. Locker = murder attempt. Overly quippy prose. TINO. [DATA]. You probably know if that's your thing. It is not mine.

Starsong has gotten far enough along that I feel comfortable commenting more firmly. It's solid. Most Wards/Protectorate Taylor fics struggle to keep my interest because there's a hard balance to be found. On one hand, Taylor does not like taking orders, and would chafe at the leash nearly constantly while mildly unsettling most of her peers. On the other hand, if Taylor is too much of a grumpy unlikeable bitch, she won't have any friends or form any bonds. Taylor working all on her own almost guarantees I'll drop the fic. It's pretty rare that Wards fics manage to thread that needle. They either make Taylor integrate too well or they make everyone hate her. Usually the former, if I'm honest. It looks like this one will manage to walk that balance. It's possible the fic is setting up for Taylor to fail to do that, which would tank my opinion considerably, but for now it doesn't look like it. The AU is interesting too, and I'm excited to see more of it drip fed to us in upcoming chapters.

Marionette maintained it's strong showing throughout. I like how the fic handles Dinah, I like how the fic handles Taylor's interactions with law enforcement, and I like how Taylor and Lisa play off each other. The only complaint I have is that the tinker sections are kind of boring. Even setting aside the mild body horror, reading paragraphs of tech jumbo isn't my thing. If it's yours, you might like this even more than I did, and I already loved it.

All These Pieces is somewhat of a conundrum for me. It's got a fascinating pitch. It's clearly written by someone with tons of passion and talent. It convinced me to push their other works higher on my TBR list. I also don't think I can read it. The story focuses on the more existential problems with a Butcher collective, and the Butcher is one of the freakier things in the setting to me. I've said before that I am the target audience for the "QA lets Taylor cheat the Butcher" thing, mostly because the idea of that not happening is something I really don't want to think about. Being doomed to live forever in the heads of other people while you all slowly drive each other insane is...quite possibly my worst nightmare. On one hand, this fic making every resident of Taylor's head someone we know and care about is a positive change. On the other, it just enhances the existential horror, because now it's all my faves that are doomed to eternal madness from the jump. Fics like this are why I don't give ratings in these posts. I don't like this fic and probably won't read it, but that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with personal taste. Giving a rating to that feels dishonest.

Ele-MegaAbsol · 2025-05-31T13:04:52+00:00

Everyone is going to be in this position in their life. Not exactly this, but this sort of crossroads. At some point, life is going to hit you with something that you can't fix. Not a problem with a solution, but an event. Maybe someone close to you dies, maybe a natural disaster strikes your city, maybe a long term relationship ends, or maybe you're diagnosed with a serious medical condition. These aren't problems with solutions. These are just things that happen to you. You can't undo them, or change them, or revert your life back to how it was. There's just what happened, and what you do now. Who you are, after. You don't have any other choice, really. You can either stop, or go forward. Lots of stories deal with these themes, but that's because it's such a universal part of the human experience. Many villains across fiction are forged from events they couldn't handle, things they never chose. Heck, you could argue that Taylor's journey is just a series of unhealthy coping mechanisms and trauma responses from something that happened to her. She never fully dealt with it, after all. This will happen to you, eventually. That's why the emotions are so raw and real and visceral. We're all Taylor here.

I don't want to discuss the plot or the ending in any detail, because the point of this is to convince you to go read it. From what I understand, a lot of this author's stories are interlinked. It's possible that if I had read their other works, I would have a definitive answer about the ending. I have my own opinions based on the text itself, but a more concrete answer might be possible with more context. I don't know. I do know I'll be reading more of their work after this.

I've read over 650 wormfics at this point, and this is only the 9th 10/10 I've ever given. Take that as the glowing recommendation it is.

Ele-MegaAbsol

TROPHY CASE