#I hope other worm readers agree with these meta assessments

[artaphant]

My ranking of the heart size of the Undersiders

Because nobody asked but I want it. Criteria involves their loyalty, caring for others' wellbeing as well as how deep that caring can go. It’s a long post enjoy

1-Aisha/Imp- I already made a bit of a rant on this, including her trust in Alec, (which I think would have had a big impact on his behavior in breaking this "Everyone thinks I'm a piece of shit so Imma act like one" kind of mentality he had.) Basically becoming the den mom to the Heartbroken. Also this was Kehpri's voice of reason, praying her ability would keep her out of Taylor’s control and still hear the words to ground her. She cares so much about the ‘monsters’ and saw the humanity and I am so glad that these people have proven worthy of that love. Fearmongering aside she is the nicest of the Undersiders. Sure, the ramped up paranoia caused by an invisible person fucking up with everything might be awful, but she could kill you. Instead she dangles you over a pit of spikes and has her friend leave a command to sing “I’m a little teapot” in your brain. And before she had the Heartbroken she was making creepy notes and sowing paranoia rather than death.

2- Rachel/Bitch- Yeah she doesn't relate to people well and comes off badly but her heart is in such a good place. She got dealt a bad hand with the foster homes and her powers but never lost faith in humanity and kept her heart open to her friends and friends of those friends. If her power had given her control of the dogs things would probably go very differently for Rachel. If she doesn’t become a hero of some kind in Ward I will be sad because she is a very good person in a very weird way. She definitely isn’t Protectorate material, but she doesn’t really deserve the villain role- none of the Undersiders really do but I digress. I love this Bitch.

2.5- Parian/Sabah- She has a partial number because she is a partial member. We never get to learn who the members of Dolltown are to Sabah but I hope those people understand how much this woman cared for them and how hard she tried to keep them safe and how she sacrificed some of her own morals to protect them. Definitely deserves herodom though she would rather just go back to fashion.

3-  Regent/Alec- Part of me wanted to put him lower because of my own personal feeling about rapists, but he really does have a pretty big heart. He did give up his life for Imp, proved himself worthy of her trust and never once fucked over the Undersiders when he really could have. His string of serial rape and disgusting take-over-body shit will be kind of chalked up to trauma. Heartbreaker’s abuse took away a lot of his heart, and gave him a very fucked up relationship with people and his power. Using it on a person involved creating a connection- it took him time with the person to take over them. Almost every time that connection was made, he was hated and became a monster in that person’s eyes.To Heartbreaker, to every person he has connected with and knows of his powers, he’s a monster- eventually Alec just leaned into this like it was a truth about himself. His last words "Fuck it" had more to do with this attempt at keeping a persona of a monster of a human than anything else. Truly he was saying “Fuck it, I care about Aisha. Fuck being a heartless monster.”

3.5- Foil/Lily- Loving Sabah and becoming Foil made her heart grow three times its size. This girl left her family and most friends in New York behind in order to get ahead as Flechette, to start a career as a hero. Image and popularity seemed more important really than helping or caring about people. Then everything changed when Sabah threatened to attack her and never talk to her again if Lily mistreated her. Ah, to be in love and to let that love spread to others.

4- Tattletale/Lisa- There is a special kind of caring with Tattletale, the woman who can find every secret. To overlook Taylor's betrayals and still care about her wellbeing, and want to bring her back into the group. To see past Heartbreaker’s son, who could take over any of their bodies and would probably have a hell of a time with it. And maybe her power helped her see the hidden good in her teammates as much as she could see the hidden bad but she still never let it make her bitter or hateful.

5- Grue/Brian- This man gave his whole ass heart to Aisha and just never learned how to expand it to anyone else. Sure he kept the team going and made effort to keep them safe, more out self-preservation than legit caring. If the team stayed alive, he stayed alive and he can stay with Aisha.The man didn't even have love for Taylor- though it may have to do with her own small heartedness. And that the chemistry was a bit eh to me.

6- Skitter/Taylor- I feel like some people might think ‘what the hell is Taylor doing sitting on the bottom of this list, she’s such a good person???’ Taylor is such a wonderfully complex character and I debated on her position but here is the fascinating thing about Taylor. She is a ruthlessly good person. Yeah it sounds weird but hear me out. Taylor has the strongest moral code of the Undersiders, probably of the entire Worm universe. There is not a person in the world that could stop her from what she thinks is the ‘right’ thing. The reason she was able to hop around villain/hero sides is because she wasn’t loyal to people. She was loyal to her morals and those morals fit a vast variety of people. Skitter sort of took out her heart so she could protect the world and ignore the individuals. Taylor didn’t care a huge amount about Dinah- Coil having her as a drugged up prisoner was wrong and she would not stand for it. Taylor’s love for Brian is a weird thing. It has a very high school romance feel to me and very much a ‘love what I see of this person, not what he really is’- as evidenced by Taylor’s non-relationship with Aisha, who is Brian’s whole world. And she left him, ditched Brian to follow her moral code and turn herself in and become a hero. She trusted her teammates, her father, her friends, everyone like she trusted her spiders to spin her silk and cared just as much for both.