#victoria dallon

[germesthegenie]

Actually had most of this done for a while but wanted to wait until I finished Arc 7 and had time to type out all of my thoughts, which can be found below

Settling into a rhythm of doing 2 arcs per one of these post

Arc 6

Nice to see the Undersiders in action again + Vista

Will say Victoria’s fights, while still good and interesting in things like Aura and the careful use of the Wretch, doesn’t have the same variety and fun stuff as Skitter. I do get that it’s kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Taylor’s “How do I use my ‘weak’ power (her words not mine) to take down this stronger foe?”, instead being more of a World of Cardboard situation with less control / mental stability. Tradeoffs I suppose, there will probably be some stuff to help it shine in its own right (Victoria’s internal monologue after accidentally hitting someone too hard with the Wretch in 6.4 was good)

That said, the rest of the team has a lot of fun stuff going on with how they can use their powers. Kenzie even got to drone strike Mama Mathers, which is perhaps the funniest way for that fight to be resolved

The fight with Cradle and Operator Red was neat. I mean, not for Rain, but at least that meant we got to see Scapegoat again- oh hes Fallen? Huh.

I like Chicken Little, even with just the bit we see. Lets hope third times the charm, Lisa.

Super Magic Dream Parade is… certainly something. Might go into the “niche characters to draw” pile

I like the subversion of what they thought was gonna be them destroying the portals and instead expanding them. The separation of humanity to different Earths felt like more of a backdrop/flavor so far, hoping this means we get to see more of the variance between the worlds

Arc 7

What felt like 3 arcs in a trenchcoat, this one took a long while to get through (partially because of school starting up again midway through)

I like the little mini trials as a sort of epilogue to the past 2 arcs in what is for the most part a transition period before I assume is the next big event with the group behind the portal attacks. Nice little moments for Rain.

Yamada’s missing after the portal incident? Damn that sucks hope they can mamage without her- RILEYS MISSING TOO WE GOTTA GET THEM BACK

Jokes and blorbos aside, those two being missing are pretty bad for a lot of reasons, both within and outside Breakthrough

Victoria’s meeting with the other therapist was rough, though for understandable reasons. Never really thought of the implications before on her being potentially Ship of Theseus’d from stray cats

Victoria getting to see a bit more of the ugliness going on in Breakthrough, starting with Chris lashing out. Completely reasonable for him to, but damn went right for the gut with the Amy mentions

Speaking of things tied to Amy, hi Marquis! I just drew you! I can’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or he just did the equivalent of accidentally hitting every negative dialogue option but damn

A lot of buildup towards what I can only assume to be Teacher’s Cauldron making a play, especially with the Nieves interlude. Not sure what his goal could be supporting an anti-parahuman movement, other than ig weakening his main enemies in Citrine and Tattletale.

Eclipse

As someone whose first experience with Worm was making a character who was a former Boston Ward, I was excited for an arc that was at least in part all about Boston

Ashley’s trigger is tragic. I had a feeling any trigger involving pure destructive power like that was either bad leading up to the event or in the direct aftermath, and that was both.

Interesting to see how many different players there were in the Boston Games, as well as the more familiar faces like Accord and Blasto. I liked the bits of their dynamic and personality in Worm, and was glad to see more of that and how their rivalry started here.

Look. I still hate Carol. But I can’t lie, some of her lines during New Wave’s fight with Damsel were kinda cool. Now just keep that kinda cold energy for villains and not, y’know, your daughters.

Poor original Damsel, fought like hell against heroes, villains, and her own powers half the time, and didn’t even get a seat at the table. Not to mentioned played from the start by J. Maybe. Never did get confirmation he was actually a spy iirc.

Oh hi Jack! And yay Riley! Nice little tie in back into the Worm timeline. Well, nice for us, horrific for Ashley. Again, poor original Damsel.

Also intro to the other Ashley clone, neat! Also interesting stuff at the end with the mystery memory.

Kenzie Interlude (bc this also deserves a whole section)

irl was doing some labwork and decided to put this behemoth of an interlude on the audiobook to listen to in the background and that was a wild experience

The dinner was just painful to listen to. The way the parents were more focused on themselves or how things looked vs their daughter literally bleeding… like I wanna say it bordered on over the top but like with the bullying in Worm this kind of stuff and worse does happen. Glad she got out of that… right?

The little callback to Victoria doing the whole crisis point thing in Arc 2 was nice, though

Everything was going so well with the foster parents and then… that. Honestly didn’t fully get it at first until reading the comments on the website and… yeah. It’s not her fault, she was 8, she was traumatized and afraid of being separated from them and then the poorly worded search. Keith could’ve handled things better but it was also traumatizing on his end. Just an awful situation overall.

How does it keep getting worse

I’m gonna be real I went into this thinking the parents were gonna be robots or holograms with AI like she had in Glow Worm and it was gonna be sad as like a pretend of what should’ve been but… no I could not have predicted any of what was actually going on whatsoever.

Gonna need to remember to not draw Kenzie smiling if shes meant to be happy damn

[lemurlord]

Victoria Dallon: I really am Ship of Theseus 7.

[bug4932]

bad dream/dont wake me up

[titanfortuna]

[crosslinked-art]

Ridtom seems to like my steampunk Worm art, so here’s Vicky

[tisinoodle]

Sketch based on a conversation I had with @victoriadallonfan

[ewingstan]

Only just now really considering the extent of how much it would fuck you up to declare you’re invulnerable while activating your “be impressed by me” aura, only for 1) the worst girl in the world to say “no your not” in her least impressed voice and 2) immediately getting covered in bugs. Compared to that the whole getting-shot-at part wasn’t even that bad.

[worms-in-my-head]

Guts and Glory

[senviva]

violence

[butchseiya]

Gave in and doodled Tattletares

[il3x]

FIG. 1: THE BRAIN.

Last stronghold, first breached.

This one was inspired by @quezify's work, particularly these pieces. They also have a piece called Embryology of a Wretch which feels very Victoria-core.

[artbyblastweave]

The thing about Aura theory is, I'm glad it's not canon but there's no real mystery about why people find it compelling, right? Because it would dovetail with a lot. Half the point of Amy's character is that being adopted by the Dallons is the familial equivalent of sticking a guy in a very slow trash compactor, and having her spend all her time next to the emotional-manipulation-equivalent of a cracked fuel canister is the perfect power-driven reification of that. This is a kid who's whole deal is that her brain is getting cooked by simplistic, judgmental narratives about good and evil picked up from her family, and over here you've got the perfect golden girl she can never measure up to, with a power literally designed to make everyone around her buy into traditional narratives about superheroes- a power she wound up with because of her own fears of failing to live up to those impossible, unrealistic narratives. And "Oh, I'm immune to your Aura via overexposure" is a very don't-upset-the-status-quo kind of lie for Amy to be telling herself. Altogether, if everyone involved is getting cooked like a hotdog by this thing- it's not thematically necessary but it would be aligned. The main reason not to do it, and the reason I think Wildbow went so far out of his way to shut it down within the text of Ward, is of course the implicit victim-blaming angle, the implication that if only that gosh-durned Victoria hadn't been so trigger happy with that aura of hers we could have avoided all that mess, she was "asking for it". And, fair's fair, a lot of bottom-of-the-barrel fanfic that came out between Worm and Ward worked that angle and it was as obnoxious and bankrupt as it sounds. But of course once you've committed to this plotline to the extent that Worm and Ward did you're kind of cooked on the unfortunate implication front anyway, too little too late

[victoriadallonfan]

Tattletale: “I didn’t think you’d like Halloween, Hon. Since it makes finding villains difficult.”

Victoria: “That’s because you’re thinking of it from a crime fighting perspective and not from a ‘free candy’ perspective.”

Tattletale: “…Wait, are you telling me you still go Trick Or Treating??”

Victoria: “What part of free candy did you miss? And besides, I bought new buckets so Fragile One can participate.”

Fragile One: [I CRAVE HANDS FOR TREATS]

Victoria: “Not now.”

Tattletale: “Oh god, don’t tell you me you go out dressed in your cape costume.”

Victoria: “Of course not!”

Pulls out black and purple spandex suit

Victoria: “This year I’m going as you!”

[bug4932]

girl whose life is absolutely completely fine

[estavionpira]

from https://www.reddit.com/r/WormMemes/comments/1ggtr5i/saw_the_potential_for_some_amy_posting_in_this/

[noctilia]

Canon scenes from Ward