archon-maenad

[archon-maenad]

me, crying @ god: please. please give me back my motivation for writing and analysis. please it's been months please

[archon-maenad]

Interlude 25: Mae Liveblogs Worm [1]

yes, I'm starting my liveblog eight months late with interlude 25. don't @ me.

anyways I Love Riley Grace Davis And Am So Normal About Her. seeing contessa puncture her so thoroughly with only words (ptv is overpowered af but we been knew) and getting to read about how she deteriorates is amazing. girlie is still too bonesaw to just burn the entire pocket dimension but now she's too much riley to go back to pretending she's not a broken thing who wishes to be more than this.

then there's the technical aspects of the chapter, the details of her creations and how she handled the memory implanting. that shit was cool af! everything about blasto made me want to throw up but was, unfortunately, still cool from that perspective.

also riley calling grey boy lil brother and kissing his cheeks was highkey adorable but in, like, a horrifying way. so sweet! set it all on fire immediately.

anyways tune in next whenever for another post where I actually read this fucking story!

[archon-maenad]

ok so it turns out game guides are like. hard and time consuming to make. and I actually am kind of sort of having a life lately? anyways imma use HoL as my excuse to let this baby simmer a little longer before release but one day a 100% guide to BoH will exist I stg.

dabbing on my haters by getting every achievement in book of hours because fuck it, I got all the cultsim ever afters I'm committed to this bit now. my hoard of gold-bordered cheevs grows larger every day.

also yes this included planning out all thirteen endings ahead of time, because I might be insane to do this but I won't be stupid about it. and none of you weaklings have ventured where I dare to go, which is why I had to put it together myself.

I'm considering putting up a steam guide but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on this planet who would want it.

[archon-maenad]

alright alright I've been convinced. one soon-to-be-obsolete when house of light comes out 100% guide to book of hours coming up!

dabbing on my haters by getting every achievement in book of hours because fuck it, I got all the cultsim ever afters I'm committed to this bit now. my hoard of gold-bordered cheevs grows larger every day.

also yes this included planning out all thirteen endings ahead of time, because I might be insane to do this but I won't be stupid about it. and none of you weaklings have ventured where I dare to go, which is why I had to put it together myself.

I'm considering putting up a steam guide but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on this planet who would want it.

[archon-maenad]

the ellimist is my deus ex machina blorbo and I love him.

never before has a character been so perfect for setting up all of the bullshit tropes I love. time travel? alternate dimensions? crossovers? no matter what you can throw elle (My Beloved 🥰) at it and the fic will hold up.

hell, one time I had him deadass show up at the foot of a reincarnated rachel's bed to explain house of the dragon's plot so she had a reason to go off and kill daemon targaryen. that's it, that's all I wanted to see, and the ellimist made it happen.

(the valyrian gods were kinda bitchy in the background about her methods, but they sent out a net for a soul who could save the dragons and elle ensured that's exactly what they got. rachel did stop the war in that au! ... by slaughtering her way through most of hotd's major characters.)

[archon-maenad]

dabbing on my haters by getting every achievement in book of hours because fuck it, I got all the cultsim ever afters I'm committed to this bit now. my hoard of gold-bordered cheevs grows larger every day.

also yes this included planning out all thirteen endings ahead of time, because I might be insane to do this but I won't be stupid about it. and none of you weaklings have ventured where I dare to go, which is why I had to put it together myself.

I'm considering putting up a steam guide but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on this planet who would want it.

[archon-maenad]

me, introducing these wild concepts like "contraception" and "pegging" to the mansus: now can y'all shut the hell up about the crime of the sky and make being straight legal again? I wanna fuck ezeem

forreal tho I am baffled that the mansus banned heterosexual relationships wholesale without any nuance. the crime of the sky isn't a man and woman fucking, the crime is having a child and I cannot believe I am having to explain this to eldritch gods, some of whom have orgies daily, but you can wear condoms and there are other sexytime things you can do without penetration.

also, justice for all the ace straight couples who probably got executed for no damn reason. and the sun-in-splendor, he might have made dumbass rules but bro did not deserve to go out like that. if his gf thought she was too horny maybe she should have shattered herself instead of him, in this household we do not respect the forge-of-days and are crossing fingers that king crucible one day usurps her.

[archon-maenad]

the flaying of the thunderskin was a ceremonial gesture to close the peace treaty, right? because if I was the horned-axe and my five siblings, bonafide gods, got murdered and you tried to argue that sacrificing one immortal servant was equal restitution (the dude didn't even perish he got an upgrade!!!) I would absolutely kick your teeth in and start the lithomachy part two: electric boogaloo.

honestly it would be less insulting to just have the treaty be "we all just stop fighting cause this shit isn't sustainable" without any attempt to pay for damages. the horned-axe would probably have accepted it too bc girlie was tired enough of this bullshit by then.

anyways the point here is I believe the flaying of the thunderskin was the red grail trying to prove their sincerity and offer a token of apology in a way that furthers their plans, because the idea of anyone considering that trade genuinely equal is just too fucking stupid.

[archon-maenad]

im back bitches!!! life stop kicking me in the teeth and I'm finally gonna reactivate this blog

[archon-maenad]

hi i love your taylor uzumaki au

I've been so busy with real life issues that I haven't done anything creative for weeks, let alone interacted with this blog, but seeing the notif for this ask in my email reminded me how fulfilling it is to see people enjoy my ideas. thank you 💖

[archon-maenad]

That feel when I found your blog like half an hour ago and have immediately become absolutely obsessed with your taylor uzumaki au and more generally with your stellar takes on earth bet’s cultural traumas and practices

irl has been kicking my ass so honestly opening my inbox to find this message just made like my whole month. thank you so much 💖

[archon-maenad]

love your posts and excited to see what analysis you'll make after reading worm!

this was very sweet thank you so much!!!!

[archon-maenad]

this was so politely written, to anyone bringing up points about my posts re: me not having read worm, this is how you do it! I can confirm that I shall soon be clawing my out of the worm lore uncanny valley into the light (and yes, might liveblog it).

wake up babe new thought exercise just dropped! if worm characters became protagonists of slay the princess how would each of them shape said princess with their thought patterns?

this could be done with characters from any fandom really, but I came up with the idea from imagining taylor hebert reacting to being told that "there's a world ending threat in the basement over there can you please kill it thanks!" with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

girlie would be suspicious as hell about everything, from the situation to the narrator to the voice of the hero. but she wouldn't dip from this premise because she's taylor hebert (don't think I need to elaborate on that point).

she'd take the knife because better to have and not need and all, and would come face-to-face in that basement with a cynical manipulative bitch. the narrator's warning about the princess' scheming nature ironically enough ensured she'd be someone tay would never underestimate, since the blend of "pretty primadonna at the top of a hierarchy" and "prone to lying to get her way without a care for who gets hurt" obviously reminds her of emma.

the narrator is very happy that his protagonist refuses to trust the princess. the narrator is very unhappy that his protagonist believes the princess to be the most insidious kind of dangerous.

I think taylor would end up on the adversary route. she fully believes herself able to defeat the princess because tay knows she is ruthless and strong enough, but without her bugs or even armor her mortality is stark in her mind. so when she decides to kill the princess it ends up with both of them dead after an actual fight.

meanwhile lisa, and rachel, and a lot of characters probably, would end up on the stranger route by nopeing right the fuck outta the situation and continuing even after the narrator turns them back around towards the princess. lisa because she can tell it's making the narrator annoyed even as he tries to hide it, and rachel because she's plain stubborn. since you only need to turn around three times they wouldn't give up before going to the next chapter.

since the stranger is a railroaded path (the cheev you get from completing it literally references "the illusion of choice" lol) both of their following actions, while different, would still end up in the same place.

does anyone else have enough context for more interesting explorations of this concept? I'm caught up on the fact that pretty much every character from worm would take the blade, cause they come from a world where not carrying a weapon even if you don't plan to use it is a dumbass decision. and that cuts off half the paths available, admittedly making this less interesting.

[archon-maenad]

below the rm is my reply cause it got kinda lengthy oops.

(and to anyone raising eyebrows over a wormpinions post after my confession today, a) I can't not reply to a reblog like this that would be so rude! and b) this is much more stp than worm.)

to see the tower you have to give up in a fight with the princess and I think colin would rather eat glass than do that honestly. but it would be very funny to hear him argue with voice of the broken trying to convince him to sell his soul.

thorn you have to give the witch your knife and I... genuinely cannot think of a worm character who would do that off the top of my head. naivety dies swiftly in that world.

and the fun thing about the razor is that going from purely the game mechanics a ton of people would get that ending checking the body, but in the story I'm pretty sure the key to it was the protag and hero actually arguing with the narrator and doubting her death. all the buildup of "should we check for a pulse?" was the clincher.

but someone who just automatically checks for a pulse, retrieves the weapon, maybe even goes for a cleaner more certain kill strike? they're not doing it out of fear, especially since she died so quickly. it's precaution as a habit. so I think that in the spirit of how the princess works they wouldn't trigger the razor route.

but getting razor cause they asked narrator if she had a weapon and specifically planned for it just in case? that is definitely more likely. could absolutely see someone like clockblocker asking going "ok are you SURE she's not armed?" and it biting them in the ass.

wake up babe new thought exercise just dropped! if worm characters became protagonists of slay the princess how would each of them shape said princess with their thought patterns?

this could be done with characters from any fandom really, but I came up with the idea from imagining taylor hebert reacting to being told that "there's a world ending threat in the basement over there can you please kill it thanks!" with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

girlie would be suspicious as hell about everything, from the situation to the narrator to the voice of the hero. but she wouldn't dip from this premise because she's taylor hebert (don't think I need to elaborate on that point).

she'd take the knife because better to have and not need and all, and would come face-to-face in that basement with a cynical manipulative bitch. the narrator's warning about the princess' scheming nature ironically enough ensured she'd be someone tay would never underestimate, since the blend of "pretty primadonna at the top of a hierarchy" and "prone to lying to get her way without a care for who gets hurt" obviously reminds her of emma.

the narrator is very happy that his protagonist refuses to trust the princess. the narrator is very unhappy that his protagonist believes the princess to be the most insidious kind of dangerous.

I think taylor would end up on the adversary route. she fully believes herself able to defeat the princess because tay knows she is ruthless and strong enough, but without her bugs or even armor her mortality is stark in her mind. so when she decides to kill the princess it ends up with both of them dead after an actual fight.

meanwhile lisa, and rachel, and a lot of characters probably, would end up on the stranger route by nopeing right the fuck outta the situation and continuing even after the narrator turns them back around towards the princess. lisa because she can tell it's making the narrator annoyed even as he tries to hide it, and rachel because she's plain stubborn. since you only need to turn around three times they wouldn't give up before going to the next chapter.

since the stranger is a railroaded path (the cheev you get from completing it literally references "the illusion of choice" lol) both of their following actions, while different, would still end up in the same place.

does anyone else have enough context for more interesting explorations of this concept? I'm caught up on the fact that pretty much every character from worm would take the blade, cause they come from a world where not carrying a weapon even if you don't plan to use it is a dumbass decision. and that cuts off half the paths available, admittedly making this less interesting.

[archon-maenad]

this kind of feels like pulling teeth to ask (my anxiety is skyrocketing) but. if there are any posts of mine you remember wanting to respond to like that-- not like w the kill orders where you had salient points to how the concept translates irl but that like. are fundamentally giving "this person has never read worm." please tell me so that I can save them to revisit after reading the story.

I already pettily screenshot the person who just went back to respond to a post w "oh now I see why this was so bad it's bc you never read worm" because they didn't actually give me reasons and unsolicited criticism with no concrete points makes me annoyed so I am going to Revisit That someday. but I actually am asking for your pov and as embarrassing as it is I think it is good for my character development to not delete or ignore posts I can see now are bad (which is why my breathtakingly insensitive initial kill order take is still up).

I'm obvs not asking you to go thru my whole blog but like. if you remember something or see a post of mine in the future like that. I would rather know than endlessly wonder and second guess everything. show me the light 🌅

yknow I wrote out this whole post explaining why I don't often consume original media of what I post about and how worm isn't an outlier there, in a lot of unnecessary detail, and then realized I was just dancing around the point.

I am literally just not fucking emotionally strong enough to read worm. I am a lil bitch who cannot imagine actually having to follow in detail step-by-step the tragedy of taylor hebert.

but the problem is that I really want to read worm! because being on wormblr instead of just reading fanfic has like. shown me how deficient I am with the actual characters. I can write for hours about earth bet cultural trauma but when it comes to people I'd have so little if I wasn't consuming snippets and learning about smaller canonical moments via posts.

and I want to change that. I want to write actual literary analysis on worm as a story, not just worm as a world. but all my posts of the former can't match up to mine of the latter because I haven't read the source material!

so like. I should read worm on principle. I want to read worm. and I literally don't think I am emotionally sturdy enough to force myself to do it.

maybe I can start by just reading every chapter bonesaw is in or referenced. that way I can learn and write more about my favorite girl in a way that doubles as exposure therapy to the story.

(the fact this sounds viable says so much about all the ways my brain is broken lol)

[archon-maenad]

oh it absolutely is an icarus-flying-towards-sun sentiment. like 110%. and I've suddenly found myself caring enough about the posts I'm making that I want to redeem(?) them by not camouflaging as a fellow genuine worm-enjoyer but actually being one.

so uh. that's the rest of my holiday break planned out. my wings will be goop when I land, but I should be able to reach the ground.

yknow I wrote out this whole post explaining why I don't often consume original media of what I post about and how worm isn't an outlier there, in a lot of unnecessary detail, and then realized I was just dancing around the point.

I am literally just not fucking emotionally strong enough to read worm. I am a lil bitch who cannot imagine actually having to follow in detail step-by-step the tragedy of taylor hebert.

but the problem is that I really want to read worm! because being on wormblr instead of just reading fanfic has like. shown me how deficient I am with the actual characters. I can write for hours about earth bet cultural trauma but when it comes to people I'd have so little if I wasn't consuming snippets and learning about smaller canonical moments via posts.

and I want to change that. I want to write actual literary analysis on worm as a story, not just worm as a world. but all my posts of the former can't match up to mine of the latter because I haven't read the source material!

so like. I should read worm on principle. I want to read worm. and I literally don't think I am emotionally sturdy enough to force myself to do it.

maybe I can start by just reading every chapter bonesaw is in or referenced. that way I can learn and write more about my favorite girl in a way that doubles as exposure therapy to the story.

(the fact this sounds viable says so much about all the ways my brain is broken lol)

[archon-maenad]

1) yes I really am writing about earth bet's culture having never read worm. (I considered putting a disclaimer about that in my description but chickened out because people were actually reading my posts.) this is actually the norm for me I have 1200+ fics bookmarked about naruto and have never watched the show :)

2) no, we got "kill orders are great, actually" from my childhood feeling of alienation from the popular superhero genre's black-and-white morality which made kill orders a breath of fresh air. I had tunnel vision so bad on it that ngl it wasn't until you responded to my post that I actually thought about the concept in an irl perspective, bc in my mind kill orders did not exist as an idea outside of worlds with superpowers.

3) my impressions of the undersiders are... well it would be me regurgitating an amalgamation of your posts if I tried to summarize it. you were my gateway into wormblr and I toss a lot of drafts upon realizing I'm unconsciously copying you.

yknow I wrote out this whole post explaining why I don't often consume original media of what I post about and how worm isn't an outlier there, in a lot of unnecessary detail, and then realized I was just dancing around the point.

I am literally just not fucking emotionally strong enough to read worm. I am a lil bitch who cannot imagine actually having to follow in detail step-by-step the tragedy of taylor hebert.

but the problem is that I really want to read worm! because being on wormblr instead of just reading fanfic has like. shown me how deficient I am with the actual characters. I can write for hours about earth bet cultural trauma but when it comes to people I'd have so little if I wasn't consuming snippets and learning about smaller canonical moments via posts.

and I want to change that. I want to write actual literary analysis on worm as a story, not just worm as a world. but all my posts of the former can't match up to mine of the latter because I haven't read the source material!

so like. I should read worm on principle. I want to read worm. and I literally don't think I am emotionally sturdy enough to force myself to do it.

maybe I can start by just reading every chapter bonesaw is in or referenced. that way I can learn and write more about my favorite girl in a way that doubles as exposure therapy to the story.

(the fact this sounds viable says so much about all the ways my brain is broken lol)