That's awfully vague, since there are a lot of people and they give it wildly-varying amounts of credit. What exactly are you trying to say?
I'm trying to say the writing rewards a second look. I appreciate the story a lot more on a slow, careful re-read than I did when I first read it, galloping through the chapters like the ending wouldn't be there if I didn't finish the story within a week of starting it. I think a lot of people rush through it like that, and they end up with a lower opinion of the writing than it deserves. It's structurally quite good, in ways that are easy to miss at four in the morning.
I don't think it's mis-aimed (nor, indeed, do I think it's a "complaint"), for reasons I'm having trouble articulating. Fortunately, I'm not terribly invested in making myself understood on this point.You also seem to be misaiming your complaint about non-readers writing fanfiction, as that is precisely what Valor literally just said he doesn't plan to do.
Yeah, practically, what it means is:
It's described in the same quote. Christ.
Or treating WoG as canon.
Don't draw any conclusions about the story from Wildbow's WoG posts. Even ignoring the ones which contradict canon, his WoG posts don't (IMO) fit the tone or theme of the story very well.
No argument. For what it is, i.e a grim-derp story with virtually no editing, written and posted at the speed Wildbow wrote it, it is beyond amazing...
I can't engage with your post because I really don't want to be involved in any discussion where this word is in use. I have never seen that go well.
Fair point. it is a phrase different people have different definitions for. What I meant is that the setting is dark by authorial fiat with no/poor in-universe explanations for why it's so dark.
... The ones sending out the powers chose people who wouldn't be "heroes" with them. That's a bad explanation?
Not what I'm talking about. That part actually makes sense, however having civilization hold together just enough to fuck over the protagonist and her friends, but anything that would help them not existing/failing is ridiculous. Worm is a civilization on the edge of collapse that somehow holds balanced on the edge neither improving, or collapsing for basically Taylor's entire life.... The ones sending out the powers chose people who wouldn't be "heroes" with them. That's a bad explanation?
I disagree with this assessment. It's not on the edge of collapse; or, if it is, it is a very wide edge. It is merely slowly collapsing. We see that collapse progress steadily, in slow motion, through the entire story. It's less a Jenga tower waiting to fall and more a great stone ediface, crumbling under steady bombardment.
Let me put it this way: You know the thing that Canary got arrested and sent to the Birdcage for? That was pure shard intervention.
One Word Of God take* is the shards use precog to select for violent manics predisposed to using their powers for violence, but the text reading is shards actively push for it and punish parahumans who don't use their powers for violence.
How long did it take the Western Roman Empire to fall?
Could you cite any contradiction? It's often claimed, but so far I can't remember ever seeing it. Though he is human, so mistakes wouldn't be surprising.
To me, the important part is the rest of his post (I don't disagree with you on the slow speed of collapse being plausible, but I want people to think about the way the collapse is somehow always working to screw over the protagonist, whether it's because something is broken, or because it isn't). I mean, it's plausible that that's because Ziz planned it that way, but it still makes it really hard to enjoy reading the story, or fanfics that try to imitate the same 'feel.'
I'm not really sure I agree with that part, either? I mean, there are times when the aftermath of an Endbringer attack or whatever helps Taylor more than it hurts (or at least impedes her enemies more than her). Even aside from that, you have to consider the fact that the story is told from her perspective. It's not like everyone else is having a picnic in the park; we're just getting a protagonist's-eye-view of what's happening to and around the protagonist.
Haven't read it. I have my doubts, but I'll refrain from comment until I have.
I'm confused as to why you're sure it's correct when firstly, you're not sure what he said, and secondly -- unless I'm mistaken -- you haven't read Worm. Surely you can't know whether the tone of A Cloudy Path matches that of Worm any more than I can, without having actually read both works.
Get back to me on this request when you've read Worm. Or, better yet, once you've read Worm, I'll just take your word for it on whether the two stories have similar tone.
I suspect we may have different ideas of what is meant by "tone," if you feel it can be inferred from a plot summary.
Sure, but I notice that a lot of your complaints had to do with characterization and pacing, which are not at all the same thing. That's one reason why I wanted to know what Wildbow had actually said, and part of why I'm skeptical of your reasoning behind judging Worm based on a reading of A Cloudy Path.
Just as a side note: I had never heard of this story before coming to this thread, and I've read and gone looking for a fair amount of fanfic in the four or five years since I finished reading Worm.
