#coilposting

[yugonostalgia2019]

One of the things that makes Coil kind of unique among worm’s antagonists and cultural villains in general is his kind of ideal balance of kindness and cruelty. It’s hard to pin down so -

Thomas Calvert is pretty explicitly a sadist of some kind, whether it’s torture or sexual violence or just serial killing isn’t specified, so you can imagine before Cauldron he has done at least some terrible things, and is totally inured against any kind of evil - he also explicitly doesn’t have a problem in hiring pedophiles, only in that their loyalty can be insured. 

So Calvert himself we would just hate, straight up... but Coil’s power he bought is almost perfectly suited for him - all his personal sadism and cruelty can be done in what is basically a simulated world - if Lisa pisses him off he can just have her shot, feel a little catharsis, and close down the other world, appearing completely unruffled in the real one. He only loses his cool about 3 times in the novel, at all other times he’s more or less completely at ease - just as someone would be if they had a perfectly safe backup always ready. (the times are Crawler, Dragonsuits, and the Market)

The morality of all that is beyond me, but we can see from the text that Coil very rarely does horrible things in canon - pretty much just two - kidnapping Dinah and coercing Lisa. Pretty much the rest of his actions are about the same level as Skitter’s - whatever you make of that - because anything selfish he does only happened in his simulations.

Now, what does this all mean? I’ve seen some takes on Coil that see him as a control freak, someone who wants to constantly control everything - but that’s pretty clearly untrue - Coil lets the undersiders and travelers run themselves, owns but doesn’t puppet the mayoral candidates, and in general takes a more hands off role. Rather, Coil’s defining trait, more than anything, his fatal flaw, is Possessiveness. 

Coil doesn’t want to control everything - rather, he wants to *own* everything. The factions within his organization, politicians, business are allowed to run themselves, but they all have to have him at the top - he talks about “his” undersiders, “his” travelers, “his” pet. He collects people who are both useful and loyal - and he always ensures this by having a carrot and stick, and always leads with the carrot. It’s not that he wants to make people’s lives worse - he can do that in his simulations as he pleases - he wants to own every faction in the city, and see them prosper under his ownership - he likes people who want something, something he can provide

What makes this his fatal flaw is where this conflicts with the two Thinkers. Their powers are far too valuable to give up or work against him, so of course he compels them to work for him. What ends up killing him is that he had to have them leashed or chained - there are easily futures where Tattletale is an ally or independent lieutenant, where Dinah is negotiated with for 20 questions per day, or where he gives her to skitter after his goals are completed - but he’s unable to let go of anything he owns

It’s not sadism or cruelty or stupidity or evil that led to his downfall - it’s his need to own everything he posseses

stay tuned for more coil analysis - next time are his good qualities lmao

[wormbraind]

coil model wip

yeah, i’m struggling with the hands, i’ve never done this before

my homework still isn’t done

[yugonostalgia2019]

yesyseyyseyyses Coil bringing full kink to pride <3 <3

[devotedlystrangewizard]

ok im done coilposting time to see how much ziero's current backstory truly matters

[yugonostalgia2019]

TLDR Coil’s downfall is his possessiveness - his inability to let go of his pet thinkers when he should, his need to own, not just employ, people beforehand

[yugonostalgia2019]

AhahahahahahHah I LOVE IT

[yugonostalgia2019]

I’d root for him

And he almost did it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids (bugs)

The Worm Arcana: IV. The Emperor: Coil

“ He seeks to take over the city, seeping into every aspect of it and taking the power for himself.  But his desire for absolute control is what breaks him in the end. “

[yugonostalgia2019]

I loved the scene where calvert and piggot first met... they had both been through something so awful but had completely opposite views and reactions from it that neither could understand

Thomas Calvert/Emily Piggot

See, now there's a rivalry worth talking about.

Thomas Calvert is a man with little scruples. It's hard to say whether or not he was a sneaky prick before joining the PRT, or if taking down his CO to survive in Ellisburg made him think about life differently, but with how seemingly calm he is when talking to Emily after, I think it's a part of himself he's very comfortable with. Sure, the PRT basically puts his career on ice after, but that's not something that stops him, because he quickly finds a way to climb a different ladder when he buys himself some powers.

The power he gets lets him live out his sadist fantasies without even incurring those consequences, and once that obstacle has been removed, well, it's off to the races for Thomas' ambition. He'll own this town, and he'll even get to be in charge of the PRT, which is definitely only because it makes the rest of his plan work, and not also because they had the audacity to punish him for saving his own skin.

And the one person opposing him is the woman who looked down at him with disgust over it, and now he gets to humiliate her over and over again to take her job from her.

For her part, Emily Piggot hates capes. She does an okay job at hiding it, but she is absolutely convinced that they (and only they, of course) are stuck in the moment of their trauma, and she's in charge of improving their reputation to the public. She's risen from being abandoned by capes to having power over them, and her resentment towards capes makes her prone to a mean streak.

She's but a regular person, after all, and that means she often gets underestimated by all the 'masterminds' running about, because what she has is institutional power, and she knows how to use it. Unfortunately, Emily Piggot may not be the one for subtlety, and the forces arranged against her keep chipping away at her power base while she can only bring the hammer down on so many of them at the same time, not even knowing that Coil is behind most of them, until she gets injured and removed.

And through it all, she has that one bastard from back in Ellisburg 'consulting' her, because she's short-handed and he seems to at least have some knowledge of the situation.

In the end, though, the rivalry is held back by the fact that Emily doesn't know Thomas is Coil or that Coil is the one bankrolling her biggest headaches, and it's hard to change either of those facts without handing Emily the win pretty much immediately.

So this ends up pretty strong on Thomas' end, but not that strong on Emily's.

C: Not a bad ship

[il3x]

OHOOUGHHH OH

okay okay lemme vet the worm antags....

arc* 1. lung: potential. bakuda: potential. oni lee: nah. side note i want to put the butchers in his head. for science

arc 2. leviathan. no. the simurgh, however....

arc 3. SLAUGHTERHOUSE MY BELOVED. could submit any or all of these as well written trope explorations. exception of bonesaw bcs riley did nothing wrong<3 well ig you could submit bonesaw. separate from riley.

classic pick i think is Cherish. evil failgirl win

arc 4. uhh coil. might actually submit coil. there are some coilposts i've been meaning to reblog that are Convincing me

arc 5. ...echidna? idk. wouldn't call her Evil per se though i guess she kind of became evil at the end. she's more a tragic villain type

fuck the timeskip, fuck the wards arc, idc about them. behemoth is in the same situation as leviathan

arc uhhhh end. scion. not really evil? ig you could submit him but yeah. idk

feel free to add!! i think cherish is going in :3

from ward my favourite antags are love lost and sidepiece, idk if either of them give me this energy though. i also liked seir as a villain. wildbow very successfully made me yearn to see victoria smash his head like a pumpkin, and his power is cool :)

*overarching storyline

Do you think your character is amazingly well written but still unforgivably evil. Do you understand all of their actions but still think they need to go to blorbo jail. Then this is the tournament for you! Submit your favorite well written evil bitch. Here are the rules

•Don’t use ableist or offensive terms. •No Harry Potter or real life characters.

•My profile pic is already submitted

•All submissions will be through asks. Please submit a picture as well.

•Submissions will stop at 32.

•Only one character can be submitted by each person.

•Tell me if anything I’m doing is offensive and I will change it.

Yes these are the new rules after I changed the tournament. Psychopath is ableist and not funny. Please be respectful to everyone.

I’ll tag the same tournaments under the cut

@tournament-announcer @infinite-tournament @actually-insane-blorbo-bracket @mostmisunderstoodtournament @fictional-detective-tournament @fictionaldogcompetition

@females-fucked-over-tourney @russian-blorbo-rumble @jerktournament @most-hated-blorbo-bracket @pinkhairswagtourney @badass-queer-couples-battle

[sapphicshart]

coilposting

anal eyes analyze anal lies

[yugonostalgia2019]

i FUCKING LOVE this holy shit this snek is so full of Schemes and Plots and Plans ughhh. Love the glitch marks and swole snussy and this slimy little bastard <3

Ughhh so good so good I'm in love

coil

@yugonostalgia2019 realized the sketch wasn’t that thirsty but i liked it so idk. enjoy