Sometimes I Think About For How Much Faultline Looks Down Upon Skidmark And The Merchants, For Her Whole “he

So there’s a question that Worm asks, and answers, again and again. And the question is, “If a person does something sufficiently bad, if they are a bad enough person, does it become okay to do bad things to them?” And again and again, the answer to that question is no.

Glory Girl flattening the Nazi is a pointed example of this; she breaks an irredeemable scumbag’s back, and no tears or shed, but the narrative is really pointed about the fact that she shouldn’t have, that the power disparity made it totally unnecessary, and she clearly knows that too. And later, when the karma wheel comes back around, what happens to Glory Girl is patently in excess of anything bad she ever did as a dumb, angry teen.

Regent enslaves people! But he exclusively (on-screen) enslaves gangsters, serial killers, and bullies who use their power to hurt those weaker than them. This appears to be an actual line in the sand he drew for himself; he’s outsourcing his morality to common ideas of cathartic vengeance. But when he systematically disassembles Sophia’s life for what she did to Taylor, it’s framed as horrifying.

Armsmaster throws Kaiser, a wealthy Neo-Nazi gang leader, to the wolves, and Kaiser gets torn in half. He had it coming and it’s still treated as a massive ethical breach that Armsmaster did this. 

Moord Nag suffers a breakdown during the tail end of Gold Morning, and it’s treated as an example of how Taylor’s gone too far- forget the fact she built an empire on literal human sacrifice, nothing justifies what’s being done to her.

I think, or I have this theory, that about 40 percent of worm discourse is rooted in the fact that people have very, very different intuitions about the correct answer to the above question.

Because I’ve seen people criticize the writing and ethics of Worm on the basis that the dumpster Nazi deserved it, and that the framing is overly sympathetic to Nazis for having that be how Glory Girl abuses her power. From the opposite direction, I’ve seen people- fuck that, it’s been ten years, we’ve all seen people saying that Vicky, in turn, had the wretchening coming because she’s a junior cop. I see people cheerleading Regent because they do, in fact, think Sophia had it coming; I see people criticizing the race and gender politics of the book because they think the author thinks Sophia had it coming. Armsmaster feeding Kaiser to Leviathan? I’ve seen people criticize how that’s treated as an ethical breach alongside all the other stuff he did during the Endbringer attack, that it’s overly sympathetic to Nazis. 

And, you know, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong, per se, to hold many of these opinions. Vengeful Bloodlust is kind of foundational to my personality so I do very much get it. But so often this gets painted as “bad writing” or “plot holes!” 

 No! No it isn’t! You just disagree! You’ve got a different ethical framework than the one presented by the book and you disagree with the conclusions it draws! 

rachel is on top of my favorite characters list now

I did a painting party for my birthday and here’s what I made

i really like how worm commits to making superpowered characters weird. i think in most superhero media, superpowered characters are largely distinct, normal individuals with powers tacked on like tools they can use. but in worm, having a power kind of inherently puts you to the left of being entirely human. in worm, the lines between the power and the person are blurred, both literally in terms of how shards work & in terms of how powers present themselves. you can’t have a power without it altering your relationship to your mind and body.

and the “relationship to your body” bit applies to almost all capes, not just the ones who have been physically altered by their powers! whenever the experience of having a (not physically altering) power is described, it‘s phrased as being some sort of additional sense or sensation in a way that is still inextricably connected to the cape’s physical self. imp’s power isn’t just “okay, i’m invisible now,” it’s “i can physically feel my power rolling over my skin and jabbing out into the air to push memories of me away.” 

the other examples i specifically have in mind here are skitter and regent. skitter’s power isn’t just “move the bugs and make them bite people,” they’re effectively a part of her. like additional limbs. she keeps functioning in fights when her human body is knocked the fuck out on the ground because the rest of her body–a million other little bodies–is still there to work with. the fact that she has millions of extra eyeballs at any given moment means it’s not actually so bad when the two of them that happen to be physically connected to her human body are blinded, which results in my favorite Worm Out Of Context ever:

and regent has one of my favorite subtle, uncanny examples of a power that seems like it shouldn’t alter the power-haver’s connection to their own body, but does anyway. in alec’s interlude, while he’s puppeting sophia, there’s a point where the undersiders get far away enough from her that it makes it more difficult for him to control her. he starts struggling to coordinate her movements.

the uncanny part is that he starts struggling to control his own body’s movements, as well. he puts his alec-self’s earbuds in so that he doesn’t have to talk to anyone, because he knows that if he did speak, he’d start stuttering and slurring his words from loss of physical control. sure, his alec-self is the body he’ll end up in when he’s done using his power, and his sophia-self was taken by force, so there’s obviously a distinction between the two, but that doesn’t make his alec-self easier to control. his power implicitly calls the separation between himself and the people he’s puppeting into question. he doesn’t get to have a “main” body he can control without effort, he has to divide his attention between each body and put concentration into moving each of them. in that way, his own body is placed in the same category as the bodies he’s hijacked. it’s Weird!

feelin impish!

Ever think about how Scion’s defeat matched the Chicago Ward’s modus operandi during the time skip? In both cases direct force was not an option, in Scion’s case because it was either ineffective or could be easily avoided and in the Chicago Ward’s case because it was forbidden, and both had the same answer: to apply relentless psychological torture until the enemy literally gives up.

It’s honestly embarrassing that Taylor didn’t come with the idea to do this against Scion considering it was most of what she was doing during the previous two years

Something I haven’t really seen talked about is how the Undersiders mirror Taylor’s bullies.

Obviously, each member of the trio torments Taylor differently: Madison creates little annoyances and pranks, Sophia is animalistically violent (predator-prey) (obviously this is part of the bad racial politics of worm) and Emma engages in psychological warfare based upon specific knowledge of her victim.

Meanwhile, in the Undersiders, you have Regent, who causes little slip-ups in his opponents, Bitch, who is animalistically violent (dog) and Tattletale, who engages is psychological warfare based upon specific knowledge of her victims. And in Grue, you have a Mr Gladly; an authority figure who is meant to reign his charges in but whom fails utterly after making only token efforts.

And Taylor is completely fine with this! I don't think she even really notices, let alone cares, because, with the exception of Bitch (whom she establishes dominance over), this isn't turned against her. Taylor holds a knife to Amy's throat while Tattletale threatens to ruin her life, and she doesn't even have a second thought.

it is rlly funny that wildbow thinks so little about legend that he forgot he never gave him a name in worm so ward accidentally canonizes that his son’s name is also his name

Wanted to try out some effects/brushes and do some slight redesigns so have a Tecton!

Cool guy, but one has to wonder how he got his costume approved. Your power specializes in demolition, destroying buildings, and creating sinkholes, and you go with a bulky power armor with one eye? That’s like being a Water-based Mover and going for a lizard costume, or having a Master power and dressing up in white feathers- no wait that last one’s just the Mathers Fallen.

controversial opinion: i really like when worm characters have crisies about the whole "alien supercomputer is in my brain and subconsciously influencing me, i can't trust my own mind" thing BUT i think that it takes away from worm's theme of how trauma affects people on a deep level if shards are ACTUALLY seriously interfering with how people act.