#gregor the snail

[trans-queen-administrator]

Gregor the Snail is such an odd cape name. Honestly it's kind of funny on the surface, because like, fuck he sure is. But I think it's one of my favorite names in the series after I looked into it. All of the other case 53s (except sveta) only have cape names to speak of, in large part because they have no memories and were likely assigned these names by the PRT because they all have powers. None of them get to choose their names or even choose to be capes, they have no choice from the moment they begin to exist as C53s. The exception is Sveta, who chose her name because she wants nothing to do with her cape persona of Garotte with an unwilling triple digit body count. Gregor though, he took whatever C53 cape name he was saddled with and he made it his own. He's not just "The Snail", he's Gregor. He had no name and he chose one for himself and forces everyone who fights him to remember that he's not just a crusty slime man, he's a person, he has thoughts and feelings and a name. His interlude gets into how he can't fully separate his cape and civilian lives because he's so strikingly abnormal, and this lack of divide is why he only has one name that has aspects of both parts of his life. Gregor The Snail is a kinda funny name, but it's also a mans attempt to establish an identity for himself and be seen as a person when the world seems to be against both those things.

[ewingstan]

Going through some old drafts I never posted. A Skitter sketch (I think one of the first pieces of digital art I've ever attempted), an attempt at fleshing out more of my Case 53 Taylor AU, a Gregor I did while practicing poses, plus a bonus Hobie Brown.

[junebugtwin]

Inspired by recent events: A Gregor! 

A cool dude and a pain in the ass to draw.

[faultlinescrew]

Posting my Gregor design that im in the process of workshopping for #Gregorsweep

[cpericardium]

[bones-napss]

gregor the snail seems to be heavily based on kafka's metamorphosis. but did wildbow intentionally just make a kafka guy? how much does gregor from the metamorphosis influence the content of gregor from worm's character? or is he just supposed to be a literature fan? did he read kafka after arriving on earth bet?? i am so curious about wildbow's creative process specifically for gregor. what does it mean that he is a literature guy? does kafka specifically draw him in because he is just like that?? is it because he has little else to do but read? is it just because wildbow wanted his name to be an on-the-nose reference to the story he (and his attitude to being a case 53) was based on? was he even based on the metamorphosis? did he come up with gregor the snail and then he was like 'oh and i will name him after the vermin man'?? why is he a snail?? what does it mean????

[wharfjetty]

Who up gregoring they snail

[yakapin]

gregor mirmir

[n0brainjustvibes]

wormfaves: vibes edition :>

i'm a short hair aisha truther though i do enjoy drawing her w/ longer hair sometimes. alec in my head always had, like, "forgor to cut his hair" mediumlong hair and "forgor to shave" scraps of teen guy baby mustache. i do regret not giving him a friendship bracelet to match with aisha though. i would guess vista doesn't wear green outside her cape outfit... the way I see it is, being "missy" is Playing A Role to her. hence she chooses clothing that supports the role + clothing she (12yo) thinks is Practical. and i can have one (1) sophia picrew. as a treat.

they're in order of How Much My Special Little Guy They Are.

[scarfgirl]

gregor the snail of Faultlines crew (I wish I had given him the black mesh shirt and shiny black leather pants , i am pretty happy with his body shape though ...maybe should have made him a little less transparent ...just a smidge ) from Wildbows web novel 'worm'

[trans-queen-administrator]

I think it's wonderful how worm has like 3 billion minor characters and any time I think about one I don't really care about for like 2 minutes, they instantly become a new favorite. Without fail, everyone is tragic and interesting when you dig under the surface.

[brocktonbay]

…that’s right, it’s time for:

MISS TUMBLR SEXYMAN 2023: WORM EDITION

Featuring art from a frankly staggering amount of amazing bloggers on this platform! Voting for each round of the tournament will last 1 day, with 1-3 days between rounds. There will be 4 rounds total, ending in the crowning of wormblr’s first ever Official™️ Sexyman™️! Participation through memes, halftime reports, sexyman muckraking, campaigns that cost the GDP of a small nation, other such posts, and plain old voting is highly encouraged. I will be using the tag #Miss Tumblr Sexyman 2023 Worm Edition and welcome everyone to do the same.

Links will be updated here as voting goes live!

ROUND ONE

Flashbang vs. Kevin Norton vs. Gregor the Snail (feat. art by @brocktonbay)

Jack Slash vs. Eidolon (feat. art by @ishdaj)

Legend vs. Armsmaster (feat. art by @heyitschartic)

Accord vs. Lung (feat. art by @lizardinkart)

Crawler vs. Danny Hebert (feat. art by @sweaterregrets)

Marquis vs. Mr. Gladly (feat. art by @strikermoment)

Trickster vs. Nilbog (feat art by @rililith)

Number Man vs. Coil (feat art by @cpericardium)

ROUND TWO

Gregor the Snail vs. Jack Slash (feat. art by @brocktonbay)

Armsmaster vs. Accord (feat. art by @tactilescream/seathing)

Danny Hebert vs. Marquis (feat. art by @despite)

Trickster vs. Number Man (feat. art by @bug4932)

ROUND THREE

Gregor the Snail vs. Ã̶̮̜́͑͝ŗ̶͔̙̼̜̹̻̄̍́m̷͖̻̳͚̪̖̪̔̈́́s̴̨̧̟͎̣̹̱͓͂͗͌̇̇́̊͝c̸̢̛̺͚̺̼̪̐͛̈́͐c̷̝̝̯̳̅͒́ö̵̡̗̺̰͕̭́̎́͋́͛̈́̑̚r̸̢̨̠͈͉̻̞̱̈̊̈́͛̃̾d̷̛̟̙͚̫͎̠͋̈́͌͜ͅ (feat. art by @aruliart)

(context here)

Marquis vs. Number Man (feat. art by @rainfrazier)

ROUND FOUR (FINALS)

Marquis/Number Man vs. Gregor the Snail (feat. art by @senviva)

(context here and here)

[wormsideblog]

So, we know that Cauldron takes most of the case-53s from warzones, people who were about to die. We know that Gregor the Snail is Icelandic. Wtf ia going on in Iceland?

[txttletale]

Seven (worm/ward)

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

number man. if you have to hornypost about a male character at least make it like gregor the snail. not the white blonde guy in a suit cmon booo

[ask meme]

[lakesbian]

i remember gregor & his interlude being discussed on here semi-recently as an oddity in terms of how, unlike more or less Literally Every Other Fat Character In Any Wildbow Novel Ever, gregor is portrayed as likable and sympathetic + it's even explicitly mentioned as shitty that it's acceptable for people to mock him for being fat. so i'm interested in looking at what's going on there now that i'm actually rereading it

Gregor walked down the side streets of downtown Brockton Bay with the hood of his sweatshirt casting his face in shadow. Anyone who happened to cross his path and look beneath his hood were quick to glance away. Embarrassed, spooked. Those that saw him from a distance knew him as monstrous as well, but in a different way. To them, he was simply one of the morbidly obese. A man in his late twenties or early thirties, nearly three times the weight he should be for his five feet and ten inches of height. His weight, he knew, was one of the rare things in this modern world that someone could use to mock him openly.

there's a lot of implications to unpack wrt "one of the morbidly obese" and the specific detailing of his young age vs not being the weight he "should be." like, i think the obvious connections between piggot being fat & being unhealthy show that worm is coming from a deeply fatphobic lens wherein fat people are seen as 1. inherently unhealthy and 2. disgusting and/or morally degraded for that perceived unhealthiness. actually, even moreso than piggot, it's the constant usage of the (widely scientifically inaccurate) medical term "morbidly obese," obvious emphasis being placed on the perceived unhealth of fatness via the word "morbidly." the, like, really precise focus on exactly How many times over the weight he "should" be also demonstrates such fatphobic, pseudoscientific medicalization of weight. (not that someone would deserve oppression based on perceived lack of health even if they really were unhealthy and even if it really was 100% their fault, but that should go without saying.) it's being implied that it's bad people are a cunt to him about this, but it's also still being implied that the thing they're being a cunt to him about is something actually Wrong with him. so. not great.

i also can't help but wonder how much of the description about how he's treated (i.e. as so monstrous no one can even look at him and he can't go outside or do anything in public ever) is projection of authorial beliefs. like, true, fat people are constantly dehumanized and treated as grotesque and monstrous to life-ruining extents--but this paragraph coming from an author who consistently describes fat characters with palpable disdain and disgust is like. yeah, i'm sure he would compare being fat to having translucent snail-encrusted skin you can see organs and bones through. hard to believe the description here is coming purely from empathy without aaany elements of how the author views fat people he sees in public in it.

but the most absurd line here is of course the last sentence: "His weight, he knew, was one of the rare things in this modern world that someone could use to mock him openly."

this is very funny because:

brockton bay has a nazi problem. characters in worm make fun of each other for acting [r slur]ed or being gay or not being white or being an addict or looking ugly all the time. what do you mean, being fat is one of the rare things that can be used to mock someone openly. there's a conversation to be had about fat people as accepted targets of mockery even in ostensibly anti-bigotry spaces in the year of 2024, but when this was written in 2011? in worm? it's a genuinely bizarre statement

wildbow is literally always interrupting character narration to viciously mock fat people. literally all of the time. forever. Where is the self awareness.

overall i guess it's nice that there's an attempt to establish narrative sympathy with the fat character, but it's being done with Literally No Self Awareness as to how the work itself treats fat people, to the point where it probably would've been better to not bother including the description of how it marginalizes gregor at all--wildbow doesn't try to do this for any other character's marginalized status, so i'm not sure why he felt the need to attempt it with gregor. like, at this rate, you'd be better off just neutrally mentioning that he's fat when describing his appearance and leaving it at that

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 5 thoughts:

Young lady, is your team about to make a deal with Nazis? What have I told you about making a deal with Nazis? Don't do it! That's what I've told you.

The school meeting was probably the hardest chapter to read so far. Do not want. Give me more horrible cape shit instead.

Also, Alan can die in a fire. Alan can get resurrected and die in another fire. Twice. Alan is absolutely a 3 fire asshole.

So many good wolfspider moments!! AHHHH! Taylor runs into the building to rescue Rachel. Rachel comes back to rescue Taylor. Rachel's dogs defend Taylor when Rachel isn't there. Taylor tells them to stay back so they won't get hurt!! RACHEL GIVES TAYLOR HER JACKET!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taylor fucking rocked during the whole fight, I couldn't be more proud of her. Figuring out how to deal with Oni Lee, desperately working to save Newter, the shit she pulled on Lung? Beating him a second time? Giving orders to everyone, keeping people focused, and sharing money at the end to earn goodwill? God damn that is some top notch shit.

Seriously, the Oni Lee fight was crazy. That man is scary but Taylor found a way to lock him down.

Coil’s sniper!!!! I had heard about him with no context before, so I got super excited when I realized this was the scene that birthed him! Fuck ya you Clint Barton motherfucker, I love you.

“I made his crotch rot off. Accidentally.” Fucking amazing line.

Holy shit though, she just fucking cut out Lung's eyes without a second thought. God damn. Fuck girl. And you still think you want to be a hero? Child villainy clearly runs in your fucking blood!

It looks like the Nazi survived, that's really too bad.

I love Newter he is fun. Taylor made some comment about him being attractive "if you looked past the odd appearance" and I'm just sitting here going "the odd appearance is what makes him attractive!!"

Labyrinth is super fascinating and I want to know more about her.

Taylor, child, have you put any thought into the fact that you've defeated Lung twice, Oni Lee once, and Bakuda once? That basically the entire leadership of the ABB is going to have it out for you forever? Not that you could have prevented all of that (I mean, if you hadn't blindly attacked Lung on your first outing you could have but we're ignoring that), you had to defend yourself, but are you going to plan for the future? Or just hope that Lung never escapes again and the other two forget you?

Interlude thoughts - There is that unethical parahuman testing I've been waiting for. I knew it had to show up sometime. Why leave all your subjects tattooed though? The people running this are either kinda dumb, or the tattooing thing is part of an elaborate scheme and they want people to look into it. I really hope Gregor the Snail and Newter figure out what they want though.