[Hereafter] Chapter CXC: A Friendly Face
Added 2025-03-29 21:12:54 +0000 UTCOne of the things I really like about how Wildbow wrote Taylor is that she doesn't often communicate her most intense emotions verbally. I try to carry that forward here in Hereafter, and instead of having her explain when she's feeling lost or unmoored or desperately in need of a hug, describing her physical reactions, how she acts on those emotions. I hope that subtlety and nuance carries through.
But also, surprise! Yeah, guess who. I knew some people would guess just based upon that teaser I gave you all last year, so if you saw you-know-who coming, congratulations, pat yourself on the back.
We're officially in Act 2 of the American Singularity, which means some of the mysteries start getting solved and some of the questions that have been hanging start getting answers. I hope you're all ready.
EDIT: Added the material companion, because it arguably belonged here in the first place.
EDIT2: Moving down all the way. 5/10/2025
Comments
Damn really hope she decide to come with them tp Chaldea after the singularity, she would be an incredible asset.
kyle53
2025-05-10 19:54:43 +0000 UTCI feel conflicted, on one hand so much love, heroic spirit Dragon, Taylor having to deal with the aftermath of Arash's death, that ending moment between Taylor and Marie, and the likelihood of more screen time for Siegfried. I love Jackie and Aífe but please let there be more Sigfried. For also finally, let me put some off my disorganized and half thoughts into words. firsts is coils, betrayal, and ambush leading to Arash's sacrifice. It's sudden, but all the pieces are still there for why it happened. Taylor was hyper focusing, with the tragic news, and the lack of critical information, and she decided to play the stupid game and won the stupid prize. However, there is always some thoughts in the back of my head. I could never piece together and I think I'm getting some half grasp on it. It was a trap design for Taylor, running headfirst into situation she had experience with, but were morally compromising. However, even though it's similar to the events of the original story, this is not a scenario, the twins would have fallen into without listening to Taylor. In the storyline, the fight between the faction leader breaks out because of the characters morals in not entering a partnership under a false pretense. The twin's voiced how uncomfortable they were with an alliance with a man like coil, but it was Taylor's call to make, and that cost her dearly and I'm wondering if it ever gets addressed in the story? The other thing this chapter finally let me get a grasp on, is why the twins were made so lacking on key details on Taylor's career. And why weren't the characters discussing these major details when they had the chance? here it's now clearly that the reason is simply put narratively it was never important for the twins to know these things. There aren't spending time with a villain Taylor or her teammates from early in her career so the info they would have them is unimportant for the story, and thus it was unimportant for the narrative to establish them finding out about it, and learning all the background details would simply take up unnecessary time. However, we can see how that clearly changes with someone brought up by the narrative earlier with Dragon. In the meeting about earth bet the narrative takes time to establish her character and her relationship with Taylor, as displayed in this chapter that was important for the story, for the twins to trust her with Taylor safety, after being betrayed and forced to split up. Now, there's still a chance that character is not mentioned in that meeting will be relevant to the story however, with the party being split and Taylor by herself, it's not relevant for the twins to have any real information on those characters. Even when the party splits, the narrative usually will stay on Taylor. This does confirm in my eyes, that the other notable subjects of the meeting will be relevant. The two most relevant, talking points of that meeting were, of course, Jack slash and the slaughterhouse nine, and of course, the Endbringers. After all, someone still stole the grail and try to get it deep in the ocean. Edit: realized I rambled for about three paragraphs and never got to my point, the main parts I grow conflicted on is that while I feel having Taylor interact with the characters from her past is interesting, I felt more invested in the twins and other servants finally getting answers on Taylor's life and seeing how they respond to learning about her previous relationships and more questionable actions, and I fear that splitting the party means we will not be getting much more from the twins, whilst the main character drama is occurring.
the pyro stick figure 76
2025-03-31 00:08:05 +0000 UTCNot bad. The identities of the Heroic Spirits was a surprise, but a welcome one. Not surprised Taylor doesn’t trust them either.
Noah Andrulis
2025-03-30 17:45:15 +0000 UTC
