#wardblr

[heyitschartic]

Thinking about gender swap Ward but no gender swap Worm so hard right now that a stream of blood starts coming out of my nose

[ewingstan]

Thinking about Lisa's comments on Contessa:

Victoria ends up disagreeing with this, and we do know that Lisa's power tends to see the worst in people. But I like this read, as it gets to what I see as an underutilized theme in genre fiction (or at least what I've read): seeking ever-greater power and influence with the end goal of getting to stop using it.

There's a subtlety there that other parts of Parahumans have brushed towards but haven't quite pursued. Taylor could be characterized as having a somewhat reactive goal; get the world working how she told it should work, where institutions did their job and people like her weren't ground up and discarded. Her pursuit of power and influence was largely to get to the point where she could make sure that Everyone Was Working Together. However, she didn't really see going back to becoming a normal person as an end-goal, even if it was the ultimate result*. She didn't want to gain influence so she could eventually relax, she wanted to gain power so that Dinah could escape, and her underlings could be safe, and that other people could eventually relax.

Krouse and the Travellers were in theory motivated by a return to normalcy; but in Krouse's case it was only for Noelle, and was almost a nominal motivation underlying the more practical matter of keeping her safe and sated. Sveta and the other case-53s want a return to a normalcy they don't remember, but largely don't pursue greater hard and soft power to get it. Amy has a similar level of "God having this much power pretty much demands that I use it," but her self-loathing and resentment of her perceived moral obligations almost never get vocalized as wishing she didn't have her powers. The case of someone who, by percieved obligation and need to avoid control by others, fully instrumentalizes themselves with the potential end-goal of one day getting to stop instrumentalizing themselves, is an interesting variation on all these themes. I do love how wildbow can take characters with very similar abilities, baggage and backstories and yet use them in ways that rarely feel like direct retreads.

[germesthegenie]

So like how long were you Ward readers sitting and watching my liveblog waiting for me to get here?

Not quite at the end of Arc 10 (will follow up with those thoughts in a reblog probably) but thoughts so far + a bonus below:

Bonus: Cuff with her regular / Worm hair color

Arc 10 (Part 1 - 10.1 - 10.11)

Carol really coming back to try and reclaim the “Most Hateable Ward Character” throne. Hard Boil has made a pretty secure hold on that spot, but Carol is really, really trying here.

(10.1) “Mom the fuck up!” LETS GO SVETA 🗣️ TALK THAT SHIT

Liking how Ward keeps up the slower slice of life moments Worm had early on but kinda dropped after Leviathan (even if pacing at times does feel a bit weird). Sveta and Victoria’s day at the mall was a nice breather and developing her plotline

It’s feeling like Sveta’s the next focus now that Rain, Ashley, Kenzie, and Capricorn have had their moments and Chris has left the team. That could be good, but then considering how the interludes of the rest have gone, could be sad

Kenzie had a crush on Chris? 🥺

Doodle Idea: Chicken Little staring into the camera with a fisheye lens effect

Undersiders are back again! And Imp lost an arm maybe?

March time? And she’s working with the hate crime cape? Damn maybe she isn’t as cool as I thought

And Faultline Crew’s back! Brockton Bay reunion

Tattletale borrowing Coil’s strategy of “leaking key info to sabotage the enemy”, now let’s see if it pays off better than it did against the E88

(10.6) Rain. Phrasing 😭. The rest of Breakthrough just going 🤨🤨🤨 killed me

Not Swansong scheduling Kenzie’s playdate she really is becoming her new mom

Sveta dysphoria :(

Was confused by the surprisingly intricate animated telenovela descriptions until I realized it was Kenzie making an auto rotoscope animation camera. Its on the smaller side of ridiculous cameras she’s made but still damn she is creative

Sidepiece and Disjoint almost sabotaging Breakthrough by making them look like freaks watching the video in public

Never ask anti-parahuman movements who they hire as muscle

(10.8) Victoria’s perspective on the Undersiders’ territories is interesting. Wonder what she thought of Skitter’s territory, which to my memory was relatively crimeless and provided for the community

(10.X) “Rex. Rex dead.” Why’d you do that power :(

(10.X) Golem Mention‼️ Nice to see he’s still active. Wonder if any of the others still are

(10.10) ^ Clueless

Poor Chicken Little, it’s like if Taylor joined the Undersiders with like 10 Alecs and Imps. He gets along better with them at least.

(10.X) I still got Monster and No Longer You to finish (they’re like in different states of completion atm)… but Chicken Little kinda has enough Telemachus energy that a follow up to We’ll be Fine might be put in the queue

(10.10) Oh hey its more Brockton Bay Reunions. Hi Weld Hi Laserdream Hi Vista Hi- GOLEM AND CUFF???

They’re still together, kicking warlords’ asses (as Weaver’s bootcamp taught them), Golem seems to be doing better and more comfortable with himself. Chicago Wards stay winning (except Wanton in the nebulous “maybe died onscreen” realm)

(10.10) Victoria and Sveta are Chicago Wards fans too, instantly elevating them in my internal ranking of Breakthrough (they were already at the top)

Everyone else outside of the Undersiders daring not to mention Taylor’s name after GM and then there’s Cuff who’s just “Ugh, Weaver.” It’s funny and also kinda fits with that fic I’m writing (also poor girl is never living the New Delhi V incident down lmao)

(10.10) TECTON MENTION‼️ Hoping he’s alive and still in the cape scene since the way Cuff said it feels a bit ambiguous. Same for Grace and Romp (thinking about it the latter could’ve maybe gotten along with the Major Malfunctions pretty nicely)

(10.10) Theo being the one to tell Victoria it was good she punched Nazis is great even without my bias. Helped him get a wakeup call kinda like Rain had without needing something like the mall incident

(10.10) Nice little coincidental cameo before we move on- THEYRE STILL HERE? I don’t dare get my hopes up past this arc but I am being fed

Dear god who invited the S9 crime scenes to the reunion too that is horrifying

(10.11) Ok they’ve been really mysterious about their new system for holding dangerous criminals. Like it seems bad enough Tattletale specifically wants a pass from it for her people, and even the heroes seem either in the dark on the details or iffy about them. Like what, are they dropping them to Earth Zayin?

[lemurlord]

Reminder that Amy made cute little outfits for Dot.

[victoriadallonfan]

Thinking this can be a fun fan community game/art practice

[dw-flagler]

as a fanfic writer and reader, as much as i love torturing lisa like an ant under a microscope or some shit there's literally nothing i could ever do that would be crueler than what happened canonically.

[estavionpira]

Hello, PHO user. Before you is a PHO post asking you to name a female cape. You have unlimited time to tag a female cape, NOT a male one.

Begin.

[cpericardium]

have you drawn contessa in the jujutsu kaisen "nah, i'd win" panel

I'm sure someone has already done this

later that day

[goldenmotive]

[bug4932]

vicky for riddy @victoriadallonfan :]

[butchseiya]

Gave in and doodled Tattletares

[heyitschartic]

Hello is this Victoria Dallon? Yes, your daughter Kenzie fell into the Taffy puller on her field trip today. Yes she's nine feet tall now, yes, we're so sorry. Basketball? Yes, we have a school basketball team, why do you ask?

[thedubiousdallon]

In the low-stakes slice-of-life version of Worm that lives in my head we increase the degree to which Victoria is a magnet for socially awkward repressed dykes by a factor of a hundred. Her admirers start a support group. There's a private PHO thread and Ashley gets snippy when anyone comments on the latest post before her. Everyone pretends that it's not weird that Amy's there. There are ten Dean interludes where he's playing 5D chess to keep from becoming the protagonist of a harem comedy because he's convinced that they're all actually into him.

[germesthegenie]

Truly the most important of polls for this blog

Might influence future doodles and the Cuff fic im maybe writing

[ewingstan]

It strikes me that Lisa is cruelest to people when she realizes that she's failed to save them.

[victoriadallonfan]

And the WIP

Death Battle: The Simurgh vs Makima

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