#victoriadallonfan

[ewingstan]

We sort of touched on it in a prior post, but you’ve gotten a fair few details on how Mark and Carol raised Victoria by this point.

From what details you recall, how does her handling/raising of Kenzie fall into compare and contrast with those details?

Wooh. Hm. Well, I think she has Kenzie's ultimate wellbeing in mind more than Carol probably did while raising her and Amy. At the same time, when Victoria's first reaction to Kenzie getting publicly pilloried was "lets get you in front of cameras to argue your case, and also while we're at it lets keep our cape-network plan from falling through by jumping on the public-Scion-reveal grenade" I thought well. Yeah that's something Carol's daughter would think to do huh.

Its a dangerous relationship they're in. Victoria legitimately wants to keep Kenzie safe and stop her from overworking herself. She also really wants this cape group thing to work. She'd probably not consciously let the latter get in the way of the former, but she will let Kenzie fight as a hero if it seems like that's what Kenzie wants. The problem, of course, is that Kenzie wants what Victoria wants. Kenzie will act in whatever way will make the people around her happy, and so if she thinks Victoria wants her to be a hero (which you don't exactly need to be an observation tinker to notice), she's gonna make being a hero her whole thing. Not to mention that Kenzie also knows Ashley wants her to be an active cape, Sveta enjoys being on a hero team, etc....

I'll also say that the way Victoria's treating Chris.... kind of reminds me of how Carol treated Amy growing up? Victoria sees him as her responsibility: he's a member of the group Dr. Yamada asked her to shepherd, and he's a kid, and now that Dr. Yamada's gone that responsibility is even greater. Victoria is burdened with Chris in the same way Marquis burdens Carol with Amy; sure, Victoria does it a lot more voluntarily.... but she's also doing it more because she agreed to care for "the group," not for Chris. Chris is a responsibility that came packaged with what she wanted to do. And while the care she has for Kenzie seems to come from a place of genuine concern and affection, her keeping tabs on Chris feels strictly procedural. She's responsible for him, she'll keep tabs on him, nothing more to it. There's a lot of resentment and some frustration that boils into how Victoria treats Chris as a result. Insert your arrested development "I don't care for Chris" image here.

Hell, despite otherwise having pretty wildly different viewpoints when interacting with people, Victoria ends up resembling Taylor a lot in how she thinks about Chris, because it matches up so well with how Taylor thought about Regent. Its another case of "That guy I'm not as close to as the others, the dangerous one, the one whose probably a sociopath waiting to be let loose." I remember thinking that Chris seemed like "the Regent of the group" in my early reading, but they're really not so alike personality-wise, or even in terms of their place in the team dynamic; they're just positioned the same way in the mind of each text's narrator.

I read Taylor's reaction to Alec as one part fear-response to people who seem to delight in other's pain for no obvious reason, and one part a reaction to all the stuff she doesn't like about herself projected onto some twink in leggings. Her fixation on the idea that Regent must just like hurting people, that its just the kind of person he is, comes from the same scared confusion about why her best friend and the whole of the school started torturing her for no apparent reason. Its a reaction from a person who still categorizes everyone as bullies or victims, and is distressed about whether there's more to that and where she is on the spectrum. In her mind, he's a kinda evil dude that likes to hurt people because hes a bully and that's what bullies are, but actually maybe he's fine to hang around with? Which is getting churned in her head alongside her pledging to protect people by becoming a horrifying warlord and making long arguments to Pariah and Flechette about how villains can be helpful and heroes can be bullies. Taylor's relationship to Alec and her distance from him is symptomatic of her evolving views about who people can be, what power can be used for, and why people act the way they do.

Of course, Taylor conversely forms one of her strongest emotional bonds with someone who reminds her of her bullies even more than Alec does. But I think this makes sense for the same reason Chris and Kenzie could both remind Victoria of Amy but inspire such differing treatment. Bitch's first encounter with Taylor was a seemingly random attack that Taylor directly compares to the trio's assaults: she instinctively looks for a reason to hold back like she did for them, and then finds freedom in not having one. But while Rachel at first seems to directly fit the "bullies because she's a bully" model, Taylor learns pretty early on that Rachel has perfectly understandable reasons for her behavior, and that she can be predicted and made into a close ally if she just pays attention and puts in the work. Taylor's relationship with Alec is her sticking to the idea that the world is bullies and victims, and you have to find your place in it without understanding it because there's nothing more to understand. Taylor's relationship with Rachel, meanwhile, is her finding out the world isn't just bullies doing bad things because they're bad people. Rachel is the possibility of understanding the world, bringing it to heel, learning to love it and make it love you.

Similarly, Victoria's relationship with Chris is a reflection of everything she internalized from the Wretchening, while her relationship with Kenzie is her reacting against those internalized lessons towards something more hopeful. Chris is a medical freak who becomes a horrible misshapen monster on a regular basis and who suffers horribly for it, yet keeps choosing to do so. He's wretchening himself at the slightest provocation—he's impatient to wretchen himself! Add to that how his emotions rule him to the degree that they physically transform him, and that he shows absolutely no desire to reign them in, and its pretty clear why Victoria is often so negative to him. He's a powderkeg waiting to go off in a horrible way like his sister was, filled with strange and offputting desires turned into strange and offputting flesh, and unlike Amy he doesn't even have the decency to shamefully repress it. Chris is Amy as the deviant who qua deviancy will inevitably be a danger to everyone around him. Kenzie, meanwhile, is Amy as the sister who gave too much of herself. Victoria's shown at times that she hasn't forgotten how she loved Amy as a sister, how she wasn't inherently evil. She spoke with regret about not listening to Amy when she begged Victoria not to hug her. And she's pretty much said in-text "I don't want Kenzie, who I love as I once loved my sister, to exhaust herself to the point that she becomes lost in the way my sister did." Victoria looks at Chris and is reminded of all her fears of what strange and dangerous people will do, of her belief that bad people do bad things because their bad people. Victoria looks at Kenzie and remembers that's not true, and that she can do something about it.

[thepariahcontinuum]

Alexandria from Worm/Parahumans.

Tarn from Transformers.

Tyrian Callows from RWBY.

.....Sweet fuck it would be poisonous, you've got what is probably the best version of the "Evil Superman" archetype, a self righteous fanatic commandant turned Gestapo/inquisition with an addictive personality and a case of hero worship and an unhinged lunatic who is basically Jared Leto's fursona given the ability to say "Fuck your defences" and a need to worship someone.

Basically it would be a competition between Tyrian and Tarn to see who could prove themselves to be the most loyal and efficient follower of Cauldrons' plan by eliminating everything in the way in the most heinously over the top way possible.

[elcuervoborracho]

a piece for @victoriadallonfan , A role swap between Yang Xiao Long and Victoria Dallon, giving each of them a personal spin to the others powers, as well as a design fitting their new universe. here's the individual pieces under the cut:

[wormbraind]

no you cannot be neutral. commit or die

propaganda:

homestuck (@starkid256, homestuck's strongest autism warrior)

homestuck will give you autism. also once you join it you never come back but thats the fun of it. also your worldbuilding skills will improve

dungeon meshi (@thesternest, curator of my dash)

dungeon meshi is one of the best manga i read lately its essentially a really good show and great depiction of how it feels like to be autistic like Laios might be higher than Asa as autism of all time

ward (@victoriadallonfan, professional wildbow shill)

The sequel to Worm, taking place two years after its ending, Ward focuses on a former hero trying to live her life in the post apocalypse Earth, all the while haunted by the demons of her traumatic past. But she’s pulled back into life of heroics by a series of suspicious coincidences and now given the chance to teach a new generation of young heroes how to protect humanity. The story focuses a great deal on mental health recovery, backsliding, and the effects PTSD not just in the life of a superhero but the survivor of traumas many people face in real life. And while the protagonist is a hero, it’s not afraid to show how toxic and potentially dangerous the mindset of being raised in a superhero society as child could have on not just the human psyche, but on human culture as well.

Ward is not for the feint of heart - in many ways far more graphic than its predecessor - but it also has allowed many readers to feel seen by openly discussing theses topics, sometimes through the use of symbolic powers and scenarios. Add in creative power applications, menacing villains, and amazing characters all around, and you have a very heart-wrenching but enjoyable journey ahead of you.

[victoriadallonfan]

Just a heads up that if you have not upgraded your tumblr package to VictoriaDallonFanPrime, then starting 1/27/23 you will be exposed to advertisements during your favorite VictoriaDallonFan posts!

We appreciate your loyal dedication to all things Ward, Victoria, and VictoriaDallonFan ♥️

[mspaint-taylor-hebert]

@victoriadallonfan i think you're the real victoria dallon

[graffic17]

Kofi request for @victoriadallonfan, a Butcher Cherish!

[averykellyfan]

So since @victoriadallonfan keeps posting old moments from Ward I figured I'd post Past Pale highlights, here's a great moment from 16.8. Florin literally stops himself in the middle of his big emotional villain monologue so Avery can talk with her gf, then as soon as she finishes he immediately goes "oh by the way, I have absolutely ZERO game plan here for if you decide to fuck my shit up, I know i'm doing evil stuff here but please just don't"

[keighthundred]

fanart of my favorite ward fic

guess which one it is

@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan@victoriadallonfan

@heyitschartic <3

[henghost]

i've been thinking that i should do something of a "hard pivot" and wholeheartedly renounce my amy stan-dom. i'm thinking i should become a hardcore victoria stan instead, since she's so cool and interesting. incidentally, does anyone know where @victoriadallonfan lives? i will NOT use the information to stalk him and steal his skin, to be clear.

march is also an option.

[pitaenigma]

It's been a long time since I posted something about worm but I don't really feel like it so I'll just tag @victoriadallonfan and remind him of the time Taylor, as an authority figure, got angry at someone who corrected her even though that someone was right because they should know better than get in the way of an authority trying to help.

[lakesbian]

I don't know who Ridtom is and at this point I am not too afraid to ask but too afraid to do it off anon

tumblr user victoriadallonfan

[thesternest]

@victoriadallonfan how much of Wormblr could I deceive by showing them a picture of Victoria from Hero Killer and claiming it's actually Victoria Dallon art

this is what she looks like btw

[elcuervoborracho]

a little bit of a role swap, why not? Gojo as a mage and Frieren as a shaman!

Requested by @victoriadallonfan ! Here's Gojo without the coat under the cut

[artbyblastweave]

There’s this scene in Chevalier’s interlude where he’s going through the list of who bothered to show up to the New Dehli Endbringer Fight. Something that caught my attention is when he notes that Spire, head of the San Diego Protectorate, made the choice not to take his team to the fight, owing to recent losses and personal anxiety about the odds.

Now the first interesting thing about this is that we’ve never heard of Spire, the story has never alluded to Spire, we have no idea what Spire does power wise. San Deigo’s “Hat,” in terms of the U.S cape scene, is that it houses The Whetstone, the training facility for new Wards, which is a premise that other authors have milked multi-million-dollar franchises out of. Whoever’s in charge of that operation is a pretty big goddamn deal. And this is all we get about Spire for the entire book. 

While this feels like that thing Wildbow sometimes does where he namedrops a random cape for flavor, Spire is actually performing an extremely important role, demonstrating the ongoing collapse of the Protectorate, highlighting Chevalier’s specific anxieties about his own ability to lead, using a character that Chevalier would definitely know about even if the audience doesn’t. And so this is an instance where my “tell-me-more” reflex is actually steering me wrong. There is the perfect amount of Spire in this story.

The other thing I find interesting about this is that it indicates that, apparently, individual protectorate cells are allowed to just... not do things, when asked. One of the most prominent teams in the country is allowed to tell the head of The Protectorate to go stuff it. This might be a feature of the broader politicking of the post-echidna Protectorate; Chevalier might not be forcing the issue because that would be a bad look so soon after the entire upper management got ousted for secretly running the government and so forth. But it’s also highlights something interesting about cape-specific power structures. There’s a drum that @victoriadallonfan beats, (that I beat to a lesser extent because I’ve never been as completely convinced that it’s true) that the government hero structures are fundamentally dissimilar from conventional police. Their groupings are smaller with a more lateral distribution of power- clusters of six to twelve people with comparable soft social power to each other. Their mandate is more specific- power-related crimes only. Their numbers are drawn from segments of society most likely to have been fucked over by said society, and their mandate is to get as many capes on their side as possible, leading to an inherently more forgiving (albeit self-serving) approach to crime-fighting. Individual Protectorate members can be brought in line with the goals of the greater authoritarian machine only to the degree that their wranglers are capable of forcing them in line. This means that, for better or for worse, heroes have vastly more discretion in how they go about their jobs. 

Now, In canon, we mostly see them use this discretion to do really horrific things (Hi Shadow Stalker) and to enact coverups. So on the whole this discretion is probably not a good thing even if it theoretically could be. (If anyone can jump in with an example of heroic discretion being put towards positive ends, that’d be neat; again, I’m not totally sold on the premise that they aren’t just shinier cops.)

 But the Spire thing does demonstrate that there’s a level of pushback possible that calls into question not whether the PRT is authoritarian (it is) but whether it’s effective at turning its individual members into institutional authoritarians.

Spire said no. Chevalier listened. When the depths of the PRT’s corruption became clear, it hemorrhaged members. Something to take away from this! Not sure what, but something!

[mspaint-taylor-hebert]

give peace a chance

@victoriadallonhater

vs

@victoriadallonfan

this feud has gone on for far too long enough. you must make peace.. please.give peace a change.... tare down this wall....