Is this series worth getting into?
>/lit/ - literature
>>22505090Its pure dogshit. If you're gonna read capeshit slop, at least read something entertaining.
>>22505090>>22505130I read half of it as a teenager but it's so long that I was never able to finish it. >>22505130How is this not literature?
>>22505090Yes, one of the best deconstructions of superhero tropes in existence, on the level of Watchmen. It's unbelievable to me that this hasn't been released as a physical book yet. >>22505249What do you consider entertaining "capeshit slop"?
>>22505090Readable but I dropped at the 75% to skim through the endAcceptable world building and writing, but too long for what it isThe characters were somehow believable but annoyingThe main character is a female but this is one of the rare that managed to write a female character normally without some feminist nonsense, so no default hereI don't recommend but way better than some random trash
>>22505471>write a female character normallyWhat the fuck do you mean? Taylor has the personality of a man. She just has a girl's body. In books written in the 21st century I've only seen women be able to write believable females. Male writers seem incapable of writing them as anything but men with vaginas.
>>22505090I'll defend Worm as basically good despite being obviously juvenile and amateurish in a lot of ways. It's not "literature" but the author is pretty smart and trying hard to say something, so it ends up being interesting in its own way.If you do read it, absolutely do not approach it as a "series". The sequel is genuinely unreadable. Might do a longer post on this later.
>>22505605The gist of it is that the author is the platonic ideal of the socially isolated super-nerd, and Worm is him pouring all of his neuroses, resentments, political confusion and grandiose ubermensch fantasies out onto the page, completely unedited, through the avatar of a 100% unfeminine female self-insert character. You could sort of compare it to something like Evangelion or Attack on Titan, maybe Ender's Game if we're being generous
>>22505364>on the level of WatchmenLets not get crazy here. Worm is fun, but its no Watchmen.>It's unbelievable to me that this hasn't been released as a physical book yet.A physical book is probably never going to happen. The author can't take a break from churning out slop for his absolutely addicted fans, and hes way too much of a control freak to let an editor go through his work. Also he basically hates the whole worm universe after the reception to the sequel.
>>22505090Yes and no. It's a very big read and I'd say only around half of it is great. It's worth reading if you're into capeshit and like worldbuilding, sure. But other than that if you're not willing to commit to reading it or like capes and worldbuilding, then skip it and read the fanfiction.
>>22505090For a superhero web novel the writer cannot for the life of him write fight scenes, so that makes it bad in my book. Plus the constant "thank good I was prepared for this situation off-screen" moments, and the power creep was just bad.
>>22505471>>22505588Eh... I think Wildblow is a crypto-yurifag so that might explain it
>>22505763>A physical book is probably never going to happen. The author can't take a break from churning out slop for his absolutely addicted fansThat is not the main reason he can't publish it, lmao. What if it got really popular? Imagine a reviewer in like the Washington Post reading the story and just disagreeing with Wildbow's interpretation of it:>Libertarian author Wildbow flirts with right-wing authoritarianism, questions taboos around rape and neo-nazism in new hit story "Worm"Not a totally fair interpretation, but not exactly wrong either. And he can't really edit the story to prevent that because it would end up something totally different.
I have read Worm, and I can pretty much agree with most of the posts in this thread. While I really enjoyed my time with the series. I heavily recommend Pact or Twig over Pale, Ward, or Worm. Worm works as a superhero deconstruction, but it's awkward, lagging, and does suffer from terrible characterization. I agree that Ward is practically unreadable. I do think Wildbow improves his fight choreography when removed from Worm and the perspective he's trying to portray in that serial.
I want it to read but it is too fucking long, a shame. But has overwhelming praised for being actual good.
>>22506719>What if it got really popular? Imagine a reviewer in like the Washington Post reading the story and just disagreeing with Wildbow's interpretation of it:I mean, maybe that could be a reason not to publish it, but its certainly not Wildbow's reason. The last time hes talked about physically publishing Worm he said it was probably not going to happen for the reasons I just gave. He can't take a break from the content train, he doesn't trust editors, and he doesn't like Worm anymore.Also modern Wildbow would totally be willing to change Worm to make it more palatable to modern internet sensibilities. Look at the way he wrote literally every antagonist in Ward. Hes a far cry from the guy that wrote and defended Purity's interlude back in Worm.
>>22505130Dude shut the fuck up I've seen that exact fucking comment in other threads.>>22505090Kinda shit? The main character is unlikeable the the super hero trope as it is is so fucking tired at this point. It reads like something a teenager came up with.
>>22507925>Also modern Wildbow would totally be willing to change Worm to make it more palatable to modern internet sensibilities. Look at the way he wrote literally every antagonist in Ward. Hes a far cry from the guy that wrote and defended Purity's interlude back in Worm.You might be right, but I don't know. The guy got bowled over by the tumblr social justice crowd, but I'm sure he has some modicum of self-awareness. His tumblr fans will insist that he never actually entertained any ideas outside of normie progressive liberalism, and all the weird moral ambiguity, libertarian elitism and authoritarian sympathies in Worm just come from Taylor being an unreliable narrator. And he goes along with all of that, he did go on to write Ward after all, but he must know it's not really true. He admitted Ward kind of sucks, he knows Worm is still his big hit, he can't be completely oblivious to the fact that its emotional honesty is what makes it good, and that if he edited it until it looked like Ward even the tumblr fans would be disappointed.There's also the fact that he really doesn't make that much money from Patreon. Worm was really popular by the standards of contemporary fiction, it had both a huge number of casual readers and an obsessive hardcore fanbase. If he had been able to really cash in, sell both books and merchandise, he could probably have made more from it than he'd make in 40 years as a Patreon writer. By now he's probably missed the boat on that, but my theory is still that the reason it didn't happen has more to do with "sympathetic nazis" than Wildbow being busy.
>>22505090>Is this series worth getting into?Imagine a 21-century equivalent of an 'Iliad'... but written by a mentally-handicapped retard.You can feel the effort and passion put into work, but it is still a work of a dumb retard.A rough first proto-draft of what could have been a decent work, but never will be.
>>22505090I think so but I'm biased. In my opinion it's the best superhero story ever written, and even people who disagree with that have to agree that it's close to the top.
>>22508583>it'sWhere did you get physical copies of the series?
>>22508949I designed them myself and had them printed.
>>22508069You have an exceedingly charitable interpretation of Wildbow. Its far more likely that he just changed his opinions over time as a result of the general shift in the internet/global politics, instead of being a 4d chess player that has been writing the opposite of what he thinks for almost a decade.>He admitted Ward kind of sucksIn a very backhanded way, where he put a lot of the blame on the readers for not liking it. >if he edited it until it looked like Ward even the tumblr fans would be disappointedI highly doubt it. Nowadays Ward's image has been pretty thoroughly rehabilitated in Wildbow's community, since all the people that shit on it left. Its why Pale is basically Ward 2.0, and the community raves about it nonstop. If he were to make Worm into basically Ward I'm sure his community he currently has would fully support it.>There's also the fact that he really doesn't make that much money from PatreonHe makes 5k a month. Thats pretty significant when he has literally no other source of income, and not writing new stuff so he can edit Worm down into physical books would put a pause on that income for at least a few years. But really the more important fact is that Wildbow is obsessed with writing things serially. He can't function without the format of a web serial. If he tried to go through the editing process he'd probably keel over before he gets past arc one.
>>22509081Wildbow was right to blame retarded battleboarders for not liking Ward. The main criticism people had with it was "not enough fights".
>>22509123The main criticism people had with it was more to do with the whole thing being terrible, but whatever floats your boat.
>>22509141Nobody cares about your opinion, rightfully, you battleboarder.
I enjoyed it. And then all of a sudden this massive timeskip happened and I couldn't be assed to read the rest. Enjoyable first 3/4's tho
>>22505090Hell yeah.I dislike capeshit. Everything from Marvel, DC, Watchmen, Kick-Ass etc.But Worm is great, it does the subversion thing, but doesn't fuck it up. It acheives this through well-written characters and a low to the ground plot. Taylor is an excellent protagonist, she's like a spiteful nerd that's a little too fucked in the head, and zhe waffles between being nice and being a totally cruel lunatic. And the villains are crazy. They're OP as fuck and have really creative abilities. Think Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.What sets it apart is that nobody is really a nice person in Worm. Not in that they're unlikeable, merely that they're all motivated by different things, and there's rarely ever a reason to help each other.It really is something else, I highly recommend.
>>22505763>The author can't take a break from churning out slop for his absolutely addicted fansthe curse of being a webnovelist. I can't imagine it, you get so little time to edit.
>>22509258How did you end up on /lit/? There can't possibly be an actual person who takes a break from their current 19th century Russian novel to check out another chapter of that dogshit. It's just a contradiction. "Slop" doesn't even cover it, it's bad in more different ways than that. It's an unbelievably pretentious, self-important story with the worst prose you've ever read, a retarded setting that never makes sense despite endless tedious exposition, and a hamfisted "message" which is just the most crude, vulgar tumblr "trauma" politics that author is obviously struggling to force himself to believe. "Trauma" does not work that way idiot, the idea was made up by teenage girls ten years ago.
>>22508949yes, it's. "it's" = "it is""An ignorant pedant is the most insufferable thing under the sun."- Schopenhauer
>>22509123Powerlevelfagbros...Were we the bad guys all along?On an unrelated note, how would Goku fare in the Wormverse?
>>22510203Read the Iliad
>>22510302The Achaean Heroes' feats lag far behind those found in the Mahabharata
>>22510203Goku lets Flechette shoot at him to test his durability and dies.
>>22505364>Yes, one of the best deconstructions of superhero tropes in existenceIt's just a cursory glance towards the ramifications of solipsistic egoism pseud. Worm has as much - no, even less intellectual depth than a single arc of One Piece.
>>22511621>Goku lets Flechette shoot at him...which he laughs off before flicking off her head.
>>22511909You haven't read Worm I take it?
>>22511928>Goku can tank galaxy exploding beams with only superficial damage done but ackshually THIS character is the definitive Goku killerIt's so tiresome.
>>22510330They're all Aryans anyway so we can We Wuz both.
>>22509278>Taylor is an excellent protagonist, she's like a spiteful nerd that's a little too fucked in the head, and zhe waffles between being nice and being a totally cruel lunatic. And the villains are crazy. They're OP as fuck and have really creative abilities. Think Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.Sounds like shit.
>>22511952It's not about "tanking" anything. Flechette's power is to ignore durability, full stop. She kills world-ending monsters with a crossbow, not because the crossbow does an unusual amount of damage, but because her power says "this bolt is penetrating you, deal with it." If Goku gets hit in a vital area, he dies. Obviously Goku could dodge the bolt easily or blow her to smithereens before she shoots him, but that's not how Goku operates.My comment wasn't intended to start a circlejerk about Worm. In this hypothetical that's been constructed, a character that relies heavily on letting enemies hit him to test his durability would lose to a character who cancels any form of durability with her hits.
>>22512040In DB sufficient Ki lets you negate special effects like that.
>>22512040You're retarded. DBZ is a world where gimmicky shit magic powers are a dime a dozen but they're almost entirely worthless because if someone is exponentially stronger than you, then they basically nullify everything you can throw at them. You have full stop reality warpers like Buu being toyed with by Vegito because he was just that much stronger than him. Even if Goku let himself get hit (I don't even know why he would here you just presupposed that's the case) he would do so with a ki barrier set up anyways.
>>22505090It's poorly written, and the story is like watching a potentially good YA concept devolve into complete fucking trash on all levels right up until the author pulls a deus ex machina and ends the story.In short, not really. I suppose it has what you might call historical value, because it inspired a lot of things that are definitely better than it is.
>>22512092Not going to defend worm as good but what did it inspire that's so much better?
>>22505090I read it a few months ago. It's quite long and I think it's well written. Enjoyed it a lot.>>22506435but all of the girls have hetero love interests>>22509498>19th century russian novelsIt's a meme, you're not actually supposed to read them retard.
>>22512098I mean, if you go on Royal road and look up anything in the superhero genre you can find a couple stories that are clearly aping the same style as worm but at the very least don't have the infinite power scaling problem or the constant "the world is ending and even if we save it the world is ending even harder because this story has to have a tone that the author wants even though he's not capable of executing it" problem.The perfect run, for example. If super minion ever gets finished I would use that one as an example as well, though there's still plenty of time for the author to fuck it up. I suppose there's also a bunch of litRPGs that share a similar plot structure of "giant enemy shows up every few arcs, gang wars in between" but I'm not sure that I would call those better than worm.
>>22512078Goku deliberately let Frieza punch him several times in Super and let Nappa, Vegeta, and Cell power up to full in DBZ just to make a fight more challenging. The only person he took seriously and tried to finish right away was Buu. If someone told him "this crossbow can hurt anyone, no matter how tough they are!" he would probably say bring it.How shard powers would interact with high ki levels is an open question, I'll grant. I will however point out that Vegito was turned into candy by Buu's attack, even if temporarily. It wasn't as if Vegito was effortlessly swatting aside Buu's attacks.
>>22505090It's really good overall, but the final arcs are shit. Read up to Echidna, then move on to fanfiction.
By the way, who is best girl and why is it obviously Lisa?
>>22512933is Lisa a habitually nude giantess? no? then she doesn't trump Narwhal or the Simurgh
>>22512970>habitually nude giantess
>>22512888Agreed, loved it until echidna and then it just devolved into meta shit, also the story of her (echidna's) friends is badJust make up whatever explanation you want for the powers and how they came about and you'll be happier
>>22512888You're telling him to skip Golden Morning? C'mon now.>>22512970>>22513022Narwhal isn't nude, she wears a layer of crystals instead of clothing. Also the Simurgh doesn't even have sex organs dude, how's that gonna work?Best girl is Glory Girl/Victoria for the record, but I'm probably biased from reading Ward.
>>22512099>It's a meme, you're not actually supposed to read them retard.Wait, wait, hold up. I was having fun here giving backhanded compliments to this dreck, assuming I was talking to other people who respect good writing. If you guys are actually just mentally deficient philistine cowards who can't enjoy a story if it's not about flying wizards or whatever, that really spoils the whole thing.
>>22513547>Best girl is Glory Girl/Victoria for the record, but I'm probably biased from reading Ward.Wow, you sure sound like a truly embarrassing faggot. Do you like any normal stuff, or is most of what you read just 6000 pages of weird autistic space aliens crying about their rape trauma
>>22513653I don't know about "normal", but I finished "Notes From Underground" and Cline's "1177 B.C." last week, and I started a book about sports law called "Representing the Professional Athlete" this week. I mostly read print books at home, cycling between different subjects and fiction/nonfiction. I read autistic space aliens crying about rape trauma at work, on my lunch break.
>>22513701That's really not the response I expected. I don't understand it but to each their own I suppose.
