#these are minor gripes though; still had a great time; 10/10 would recommend Worm to others

[theidiotabides]

I'm not concededing Worse; sticking with Differently Bad, with a lot of apples vs. oranges stuff going on wrt genre & context. Like, Worm is operating on a larger, more overt stage and has more dramatic Physically Fucked Up Shit happening (though not a lot more), but the Animorphs take it for me for psychological damage & moral ambiguity. Capes get to fight enemies directly -- often unambiguously evil ones who are actively inviting violent retaliation -- and then they get to go to therapy about it and have their choices discussed and contextualized by their community. The Animorphs cannot harm an enemy without also killing an innocent, and then afterward they have to pretend none of it is happening and go to math class while their choices fester in their heads. The Fucked Up is going in different directions.

For Alec specifically, I found it infuriating that Taylor refused to extend him (and Imp, tbh) even an iota of the empathy she throws at literally everybody else (including the goddamn Nine and the Endbringers!). Like, girl, maybe consider that the guy who had his emotions burned out of him as a child and still at the age of 13 found the moral fiber to escape an incredibly powerful abuser and take active steps to no longer participate in abusing others himself despite having no role model for that is not actually the Worst Person You Know. Taylor can't even get up the gumption to have a straight conversation with her very supportive and thoughtful dad. She could learn a lot from Alec if she'd listen to what he actually says instead of automatically being like "he's the physical manifestation of all human moral shortcomings, especially my own" every time he opens his mouth.

I have finished Worm & you are Right about Alec Vasil; congratulations

^ this is always happening to me

[lakesbian]

#also I did not at any point ship Taylor/Brian & that made for some challenges connecting with them#is that a minority opinion or am I tapping something others have also noted; I haven't engaged with much fandom meta yet#I have meta thoughts about that relationship too but they're still half-baked#these are minor gripes though; still had a great time; 10/10 would recommend Worm to others#Tattletale for president; just let her talk goddamn#also here for Imp supremacy; Taylor and Brian are both wrong about her on so many levels#I would read the shit out of a companion novel that was just Alec & Aisha interludes#would also read the Solo Adventures of Clockblocker; he deserves wacky fourth-wall-breaking hijinks like Deadpool

you might enjoy my alec essays tagged hashtag alec essays if you have thoughts about the taylor/alec situation where she. acts like he's the physical manifestation of all human moral shortcomings, especially her own, yeah. he's her foil and she's mad and unhappy about it and it's honestly extremely funny given how much of his thoughts on her are just "she's cool, i disagree with her sometimes but she's cool." there is at least one post in there where i talk about that. i could see why it's infuriating but at the same time it's such a good little encapsulation of the type of moral backbending she does wrt herself so i love it both on a characterization level and in terms of thinking it's funny when she's obliviously a dick to him. Anyway. briantaylor and then animorphs

i'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'ship' briantaylor because 'ship' is in itself a word that can mean like 50 different things depending on who you ask, but there's definitely less fan interest in them than in racheltaylor or lisataylor or whatever else. which i think is a result of some combination of the fact that taylor's relationships w/ the female undersiders are extremely strong and central and accidentally gay, that brian is kind of an underwritten character with a neglected arc (wildbow doesn't even tell you he lied about his trigger in the text! he just Dies at the end and not even his own sister spends time fixating on it!), and fandom racism. but overall their dynamic is very good so it's a shame there's not more interest in it (<- this is also my fault i could be talking about them but i am always posting about alec vasil instead)

as for animorphs. i think the thing is that i'm not comparing apples to apples so much as i am comparing apples to oranges where the apples are a children's book series that by necessity pulls its punches & the oranges are a webserial that is not obligated to do any of that. so worm is recommendable for people who wish animorphs could just fully Go Places it's only able to sparingly touch on. which i have more Thoughts about but i think i'm gonna need a separate post and some drafting time to articulate that coherently

I have finished Worm & you are Right about Alec Vasil; congratulations

^ this is always happening to me