Fallout & Worm

Some random thoughts about Fallout: Equestria, Fallout 3 & 4, and my attempt to read Worm. Four paragraphs of rambling text.

Fallout & Worm

Comments

[MSPiper]

It's been a while since I tried Worm myself, but I think I remember enough to at least address a couple of tangential points....

Seriously, how do they not know where Leviathan (or the other end bringers) are all the time? They aren’t subtle. I bet a spy satellite could track them 24/7. But nope. It takes super-AI computer analysis and prediction programs to get even twenty minutes warning before Leviathan hits a large city.

Three main things to keep in mind:

1. The Endbringers aren't subtle when they're attacking somewhere, but while they're at the bottom of the ocean or deep in the mantle is a different story. Simurgh (I think that's the right spelling?) can be readily monitored due to staying in the high atmosphere, but Leviathan and Behemoth are a different story.

2. Even if you know roughly where they are now, what matters is figuring out where they're going to be. And you can't just toss out a warning to every possible target – though obviously that's probably still a good idea – because you need to get the big-name capes to the Endbringer's actual target fast enough to actually defend the place. (Also, note that they mess with precognition/future-sight powers, so those are of limited help.)

3. Keep in mind that it requires a supercomputer AI by the stunted standards of the setting's tech. They're way behind our world's progress because tinkertech doesn't scale nicely and they've, y'know, been under attack by eldritch abominations for the last thirty years. Remember, Brockton Bay was described as a tech hub, and you can tell by the way only three-fourths of Taylor's high-school classmates were struggling with basic typing. In 2011.

Completely unrelated, the whole most super powers don’t affect living things and/or people just seems like author fiat.

More like arbitrary distinctions are basically a ubiquitous hallmark of superpowers in general – at first glance, that's far less notable than a lot of the bizarre things major characters' powers can and cannot do, especially when you bring in other settings for comparison. And unlike most stories, Worm does at least provide an in-setting justification for both of those kinds of arbitrariness, though if I remember right it doesn't show up for a long time.

[Singularity Dream]

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Oh, I know that. Can't have a superhero story without semi-random limitations on things. Was just to vent a bit on some of the worst. The story was also written almost a decade ago at this point. I'm not saying it was a bad story. I did keep reading it all the way up through the end of Leviathian's attack.