I, Panacea (Worm SI Fanfic)

[Psyckosama]

Eh, seriously? He's dragging Worm down to the level of Ward?
The stupid in Worm was already just on this side of acceptable, and I only read it at all because of the massive amount of fics... Ward, on the other hand, is so infamous that I swore it off without even bothering to give it the benefit of doubt; if that is how the new Worm is going to be I'm glad I actually managed to get Calibre to download its old version.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, he's editing the scenes with Amy to make her "consistent"

Mind posting up the old version?

 

[edale]

Too bad Wildblow has decided to rewrite Worm to make Amy as shit as utterly she is in Ward.

Click to shrink...

Wait... Wildbow is rewriting Worm?

Is this him finally publishing it, or him doing it as another webnovel?

 

[Annatar]

Wait... Wildbow is rewriting Worm?

Is this him finally publishing it, or him doing it as another webnovel?

Click to shrink...

Nope, just making edits to make Worm and Ward more continuous and smooth in things like characterization.

 

[edale]

Mind posting up the old version?

Click to shrink...

Here you go, epub and mobi. From my calibur library. I scraped the story myself with a Worm scraper tool. Includes cover art. I believe the scraper tool I used also corrected some spelling and grammar mistakes in the original (it was specifically made to scrape Worm).
https://mega.nz/file/rEASkSzI#m85RGB-Smv_8F2yrcWH8c_om0LRKhyRE3XHJvGt0sTQ

Wildbow said he didn't want any ebook copies to go around, since he planned to publish eventually... but if he's now editing the original work, then I feel no shame in posting this.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Nope, just making edits to make Worm and Ward more continuous and smooth in things like characterization.

Click to shrink...

Translation: He's making Worm!Amy evil instead of rewriting Ward to make her... not.

"Carol was right all along, about the girl who lives in her house" was a lot better when it was just subversive black comedy.

 

[Ack]

I now consider the rewrite to be fanfic of the original.

ie, not canon.

My canon is the original posted work.

He wrote it, he left it for years, and then he wrote a sequel.

IMO, retconning the whole damn original story just to fuck with fans who consider a certain character a certain way is petty as fuck.

 

[SlickRCBD]

Does anybody know where or how I can download Ward in an e-reader friendly from? I used DownThemALL! to get an HTML version easily enough by sucking the site, but I can't find a .mobi or .azw file (or I could use Calibre to convert an epub, lit, or anything else Calibre supports) of it.

 

[macdjord]

I now consider the rewrite to be fanfic of the original.

ie, not canon.

My canon is the original posted work.

He wrote it, he left it for years, and then he wrote a sequel.

IMO, retconning the whole damn original story just to fuck with fans who consider a certain character a certain way is petty as fuck.

Click to shrink...

He has always been explicit that Worm as originally posted was just the first draft and that he planned to go back and do some major reworking in the future.

 

[Ack]

He has always been explicit that Worm as originally posted was just the first draft and that he planned to go back and do some major reworking in the future.

Click to shrink...

Editing, sure.
Expanding and bridging some aspects, certainly.

Actively altering the goals and personality of characters just to retcon them to fit in with a sequel because he didn't like the way fans saw them?

I'm not a fan of 'death of the author' but IMO that's pushing the envelope.

 

[Death by Chains]

I could understand the impulse if this was how he saw the character all along and he bungled portraying her in the original so people took the wrong thing away from what he originally typed, or people retaining their old incorrect interpretation after he kept making the character's true nature more and more explicit (see also: Spike the Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, particularly the notorious episode Seeing Red), but deciding years after the fact that the character was always such-and-such a way and actively retconning the original portrayal? Seemingly in an effort to spite the fans of the original interpretation? That's... pretty damn low. And intellectually dishonest, at best.

 

[XulaYuki]

been a while though it was the other pancea si fanfic lel
finally remeber wat this one was halfway through

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Editing, sure.
Expanding and bridging some aspects, certainly.

Actively altering the goals and personality of characters just to retcon them to fit in with a sequel because he didn't like the way fans saw them?

I'm not a fan of 'death of the author' but IMO that's pushing the envelope.

Click to shrink...

Wildbow decided that a JK Rowling speedrun wasn't enough. Now he wants to tangent it into George Lucas.

 

[Zackarix]

Spoiler: Meme

 

[GladiusLucix]

So, if I understand the discussion, Wildbow's going from "Amy raped Vicky after being pushed over the edge by the Slaughterhouse Nine" to "Amy raped Vicky because she finally had the opportunity"? I'm glad I stick to fanfiction.

And, speaking of fanfiction, the Canary bits reminded me of this fic that I saw someone recommend recently, from the "Quinn Calle takes Canary's case" angle.

Also, now that Dragon can fork herself, how long before she gives Armsy a one woman harem?

 

[Psyckosama]

Wildbow decided that a JK Rowling speedrun wasn't enough. Now he wants to tangent it into George Lucas.

Click to shrink...

You give him far too much credit... he's not inventive enough to be George Lucas.

 

[demonitter]

Nice to see the story getting to the part that matters, don't you need Panacea+Bonesaw+Skitter to create Khepri and then the doormaker combo to beat Scion?

I was kinda feeling sorta frustrated when your PoV guy was talking about foreknowledge that matters and events that should be done when you can just ignore everything else and just get the requried capes together, or if you can contact Cauldron have them do the combo right away after Taylor triggers. There's really no reason for the rest of worm to even happen :S.

 

[Ack]

Nice to see the story getting to the part that matters, don't you need Panacea+Bonesaw+Skitter to create Khepri and then the doormaker combo to beat Scion?

I was kinda feeling sorta frustrated when your PoV guy was talking about foreknowledge that matters and events that should be done when you can just ignore everything else and just get the requried capes together, or if you can contact Cauldron have them do the combo right away after Taylor triggers. There's really no reason for the rest of worm to even happen :S.

Click to shrink...

Scion is still a factor. Mike's getting the requisite capes together, but he doesn't want the golden idiot to get an idea of what's going on and wipe out one or more of their required capes. So, slow and easy, no urgency, then BAM!

 

[nick012000]

I could understand the impulse if this was how he saw the character all along and he bungled portraying her in the original so people took the wrong thing away from what he originally typed, or people retaining their old incorrect interpretation after he kept making the character's true nature more and more explicit (see also: Spike the Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, particularly the notorious episode Seeing Red), but deciding years after the fact that the character was always such-and-such a way and actively retconning the original portrayal? Seemingly in an effort to spite the fans of the original interpretation? That's... pretty damn low. And intellectually dishonest, at best.

Click to shrink...

Eh. I think that the hints of what he intended were always there, if you go back and look for them. Just look at Wildbow's comment in this Reddit thread, quoting the relevant sections of the original text. If he's editing it, I think he's just trying to make that original intention more clear.

 

[Psyckosama]

Eh. I think that the hints of what he intended were always there, if you go back and look for them. Just look at Wildbow's comment in this Reddit thread, quoting the relevant sections of the original text. If he's editing it, I think he's just trying to make that original intention more clear.

Click to shrink...

You give him too much credit as an author. And that's to say, any at all.

 

[Zackarix]

Eh. I think that the hints of what he intended were always there, if you go back and look for them. Just look at Wildbow's comment in this Reddit thread, quoting the relevant sections of the original text. If he's editing it, I think he's just trying to make that original intention more clear.

Click to shrink...

If those hints really where there all along why did nobody pick up on them until after he started writing Ward and he still needed to highlight the parts where it was "hinted" if you squint and interpret them in the worst possible way?

 

[Psyckosama]

If those hints really where there all along why did nobody pick up on them until after he started writing Ward and he still needed to highlight the parts where it was "hinted" if you squint and interpret them in the worst possible way?

Click to shrink...

Because people expected realistic human behavior and not "Full Retard" grimderp stupidity.

 

[edale]

He has always been explicit that Worm as originally posted was just the first draft and that he planned to go back and do some major reworking in the future.

Click to shrink...

He was always explicit that Worm was going to be majorly reworked for publication.

That heavily implies that the original stays as-is, and the edited version is what gets published. Kinda like when a WN (web novel) author decides to make the WN into a LN (light novel) and then into a manga. A lot of things can get changed and edited in the LN and manga, but they never go back and change the WN to match the edits in them.

He's basically doing what George Lucas has been doing with the theatrical versions of Star Wars. Everyone knows how much backlash Lucas is still taking to this day over that (Han shot first damnit!).

 

[macdjord]

If those hints really where there all along why did nobody pick up on them until after he started writing Ward and he still needed to highlight the parts where it was "hinted" if you squint and interpret them in the worst possible way?

Click to shrink...

Devil's avocado: No one picked up on it because Woobie!Amy was already a thing in the fandom and contradictory hints were ignored.

 

[Ack]

Devil's avocado: No one picked up on it because Woobie!Amy was already a thing in the fandom and contradictory hints were ignored.

Click to shrink...

Counter to devil's avocado: If Amy was evil from the beginning, never felt true guilt, why the F did she have all those prison tats done?

Walking to the hospital in the middle of the night is not a sign of evil.

In fact, why did she even maintain her 'no brains' rule for so long?

If she had no particular problem with manipulating people any way she wanted, why didn't she just go ahead and fix Mark? Why all the fucking drama?

Conclusion: She wasn't evil. She had a conscience. Wildbow's just decided to write it out for the sequel, and is now retconning matters so she never did have one.

Clarifying point: I have no trouble with characters becoming the bad guy. Have not read Ward, but it's possible to go down that slippery slope and end up as an irredeemable human being.

What I object to is her doing it suddenly, or worse, "She was evil all the time, and you didn't know it."

That's lazy writing. And going through seven years after the fact to literally change the story to fit his meta-narrative is disrespectful to us, his readers.

 

[edale]

That's lazy writing. And going through twenty years after the fact to literally change the story to fit his meta-narrative is disrespectful to us, his viewers.

Click to shrink...

You hear that, George Lucas?!

 

[nick012000]

Because people expected realistic human behavior and not "Full Retard" grimderp stupidity.

Click to shrink...

Given that Wildbow apparently based these sorts of things off of his experiences as a social worker, IIRC, I think you're just overestimating what realistic human behavior can look like. People can do all kinds of fucked up shit to each other without it being unrealistic.

 

[Ack]

Given that Wildbow apparently based these sorts of things off of his experiences as a social worker, IIRC, I think you're just overestimating what realistic human behavior can look like. People can do all kinds of fucked up shit to each other without it being unrealistic.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, but he had everyone acting like that all the time.

From my personal experience, that sort of behaviour is the exception rather than the rule.

 

[SMDVogrin]

Yeah, but he had everyone acting like that all the time.

From my personal experience, that sort of behaviour is the exception rather than the rule.

Click to shrink...

Which fits with him basing everything on his experience, really. If you see horrible people all the time, it's easy to believe that everyone is horrible, rather than "my job self-selects for horrible people".

 

[Ocean Sailor]

Which fits with him basing everything on his experience, really. If you see horrible people all the time, it's easy to believe that everyone is horrible, rather than "my job self-selects for horrible people".

Click to shrink...

So if he were a coroner all his characters would be dead? Or, since he wanted a fantastic setting, undead, so they could have speaking parts and be horrible to each other? Also, going by how awful everyone is in his works, he appears to have very little contact with people outside his job and the internet, doesn't he?

 

[Psyckosama]

Given that Wildbow apparently based these sorts of things off of his experiences as a social worker, IIRC, I think you're just overestimating what realistic human behavior can look like. People can do all kinds of fucked up shit to each other without it being unrealistic.

Click to shrink...

Just because you work in a field where you deal with the bottom 5% of human terribleness doesn't mean the world is ALL SHIT ALL THE TIME.