History Fridge / Worm

*** High prices also insure that only people who are already successful under the current power structure can get vials, reducing the chance for Caldron capes to destabilize anything.
** It also explains the whole deal with rogues; their name designation (which gets brought up several times in-story) and their treatment by the legal system (as seen in Canary's trial) make much more sense when you realize Cauldron wanted capes to fight, so they essentially punished those who didn't, to both set an example to others who didn't want to use their powers for violence (after all, rogues would get treated negatively, and what better way to stay safe than by being protected by trained heroes or villains?) and make sure that those who refused had a high chance of being sent to the Birdcage, where they would still be surrounded by trained villains.

* Scion, the extradimensional alien distributed-computing-network entity... was put on the [[DeadlyEuphemism fritz]] by a [[IncrediblyLamePun bug]].

* Khepri was [[spoiler:the Path to Victory's plan from the beginning]]. Cauldron's plan was to create an army of easily expendable mook troops that could survive due to the CardboardPrison rules, but they wouldn't be any good [[spoiler:without something else making them "willing" to risk their lives]]. Additionally, Dinah's prediction that Taylor would be there while others may or may not be is because [[spoiler:Countessa's path has a 100% chance of occurring, and has been protecting her the entire time]].
** Why would Cauldron just let Manton fall into the hands of the Slaughterhouse Nine when he is so powerful? He's right beside Countessa, so it can't be an unimportant event that just fell through the cracks (the Path can't be bothered to control the breakfast choices of every person on the planet). Unless giving Siberian to the S9 was necessary for the Path to succeed. Say, protecting the S9 from being stomped by the Triumvirate before [[spoiler:Jack could set off Scion when Taylor was at the perfect emotional state to become Khepri]]? Siberian is the only one we see take down one of them after all.

* Jack Slash was revealed to have an unknown secondary power, a Master/Thinker ability which prevents other parahumans from killing him. This power is also the reason he is still alive despite years as one of the most wanted and notorious men in America, and not just because of how it protects him in a fight. If Contessa tries to build a Path which would call for Jack's death, the Master power could interfere and force her to take an alternate path taht spares him. Similarly, Rebecca would be subconsciously pushed to not crack down as hard on the Slaughterhouse, resulting in the PRT not having as intensive a manhunt as one might expect.

* Wilbow had an aborted interlude (one which he removed,due to reader backlash and himself not liking it either,on retrospect)where he introduced Witness,a tattletale clone made by Echidna,who survived while all other clones died,and joined the irregulars.It hit me a while after finishing arc 29:in the original draft,Witness was meant to corrupt the Irregulars so that they created havoc in Cauldron,rather than them being revenge bent by themselves.

** And/or the cultural associations with power which was why he chose the "golden god" image in the first place.

* Remember how Panacea had intense romantic feelings for Glory Girl -- feelings which led her ultimately to break down and mind-mojo GG into loving her back? Some time after the unhappy resolution of that relationship, [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/interlude-21/#comment-20566 comment thread poster Mrmdubois pointed out]] that Glory Girl's [[EmotionBomb awe aura]] -- an aura that presumably kicked in at puberty, and that she used all the time -- would, naturally, be affecting ''Panacea'' all the time at a ... suggestible point in her sexual development. It is, in fact, possible that ''Glory Girl brought it on herself.''
** When this was brought up, Wildbow himself stated "I was wondering if anyone was paying attention to that."
** This becomes obvious in hindsight when you consider that the chapter immediately before we learn this has Cherish explain to Regent that continuously dosing someone with a small amount of positive emotions every time they meet her will result in them falling in love with her simply through the Pavlovian conditioning of their brain as it learns to associate this one specific person with feelings of happiness and adoration.

* Alexandria: YMMV on her actions and whether she's [[spoiler: evil or not for allowing Cauldron's human experimentation and other horrors]], but in terms of character arc and slowly darkening morality [[NotSoDifferent she's the Taylor of the previous generation of heroes.]]

* [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/taylor-hebert-medhall-intern-worm-fanfic.729583/post-67200175 This forum comment]] points out the parallels between post-WWI Germany and Brockton Bay, and thus explains why much of the city's white population is, if not actively aiding [[ThoseWackyNazis Empire 88]], at least passive about them.

* Why is Dragon so much better a Tinker than everyone else? No, it's not because she's an [[spoiler:ArtificialIntelligence]]. It's because [[spoiler:her creator]] was a Tinker -- second generation capes tend to be more powerful, and she's second gen!

* There is only one real reason for Coil to insist that none of his troops use grenades: in one of his cut-off timelines, she must have used her bugs to bounce the grenades back at them.
* At the burning house, Coil went and hid in the car, rather than lead his troops. In other words, in the timeline when Coil ''didn't'' hide, he must have lost so badly that ''letting Skitter go was better.''

** While this may indeed be the case in the greater world, and indeed, Word of God is the ultimate arbiter, from what we see in the beginning of the story, this is not the case. The E88, ABB, Merchants, Wards, Protectorate, Slaughterhouse 9, all have a significantly larger number of male capes than female.
** Sexism against males could be a reason. The general sexist belief that males shouldn't be able and allowed to express emotions and how most of them should be reserved and stuff is probably a thing that the Entities don't want, meaning that they likely ''engineered the abolishment of general sexism''. It could also just be a byproduct of the Shards ramping up human emotions, or (more likely), both. While this leads to a greater sense of unity within humanity, it's a win for the Entities since they have more opportunity to explore and utilize human emotion.
** Though it could also be a case of RealityEnsues. IRL, there is sexism, there is racism, there is tribalism and there is bullying - but those are not evenly distributed all over the planet. Since all of those behaviours are indeed present in the greater Worm universe, it could simply be the case that Brockton Bay has more of one and less of another.

** As has been pointed out on the Awesome.{{Worm}} page, there is only one real reason for Coil to insist that none of his troops use grenades: in one of his cut-off timelines, she must have used her bugs to bounce the grenades back at them.
** At the burning house, Coil went and hid in the car, rather than lead his troops. In other words, in the timeline when Coil ''didn't'' hide, he must have lost so badly that ''letting Skitter go was better.''

** Grue's power takes an active proactive approach, blocking out any stimulus for the senses including all electromagnetic radiation [[note]]to block any [[InnateNightVision unusual super-sight power]][[/note]] and a degree of heat [[note]]because both heat and sound are caused by atoms vibrating, so it is a side effect of blocking sound[[/note]]. His "darkness field" is just an area where even light is blocked.
*** His "darkness" interferes with other powers because he's blocking others parahumans' connection to their own passengers. It has a stronger effect on some parahumans simpler powers, like Shadow Stalker and Velocity, because their simple powers require less energy from their passenger, so when he takes energy from either of them, it's more of their power than when he draws from, for example, Taylor, who barely notices it.
*** You could also say that Grue's power in general is to dampen wavelengths, with his second trigger allowing him to take some of the information that he's dampening and use it for himself. This covers the light, sound, radiation and powers as he dampens the connection between shard and host. He also affects Breakers like Shadow Stalker more because they become effectively 90% shard when using their powers while their real body is transported somewhere else.
*** The PowerCopying ability that Grue gained from his second trigger is just an extension of his power-blocking, taking the energy/data that is blocked from a parahuman in his darkness and letting him control it.
** Imp's power takes a more passive approach, temporarily blocking or removing the fact of her existence from people's heads.
** Actually, there's a simpler explanation for how different they are - in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it {{Cameo}}, Scion's interlude reveals that Imp's power is totally unrelated to Grue's, and them being brother and sister is just a coincidence.

** This is only amplified by [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/interlude-18/ Interlude 18]], in which Noelle's power picks out a few rare capes whose powers have an intensity that, to her superpower-detecting sense, "set them apart from the other parahumans in the same way that the other parahumans were set apart from the people who ''could'' have powers but didn't". The three she names? [[AllYourPowersCombined Eidolon]] -- generally considered the single most powerful member of the Protectorate -- [[PowerCopying Grue]] ... and Skitter. And that's in ''reverse order.''
** The suggestion of Interlude 18 is amplified in [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/interlude-24/ Interlude 24]]: when Chevalier looks at Taylor (now Weaver), he describes her as "surrounded by the nimbus of her power, which glowed with an intensity that surpassed any and all of her teammates."
** There's a ''reason'' for this: Taylor received the Administrator shard from the Entity, a shard so powerful that before releasing it the Entity had to weaken it to the point that it was nearly useless by Entity standards.
** It's more likely that the aura simply identifies people who've had a second trigger event (since there's no real suggestion, at any point, that Grue is unusually powerful or has an inherently unusual shard.) We eventually find out that Skitter had a second trigger before the story began; we don't know about Eidolon for sure, but it's very likely, especially since we know that Cauldron is capable of causing them and Eidolon is one of their aces.

** Though it could also be a case of RealityEnsues. IRL, there is sexism, there is racism, there is tribalism and there is bullying - but those are not evenly distributed all over the planet. Since all of those behavious are indeed present in the greater Worm universe, it could simply be a case that Brockton Bay has more of one and less of another.

*** Actually, it's because Dragon -isn't- a Tinker, she's a Thinker with the power to understand and thus reverse-engineer Tinker-tech. The reason Dragon is so much better at 'Tinkering' than anyone else is because unlike every Tinker in the story, ''Dragon actually understands the science behind what she is doing.''

* [[WordOfGod According to Wildbow]], [[https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/interlude-21-donation-bonus-1/#comment-20179 Scion has a penis]]. Now, this in itself is more Fridge Humor than FridgeHorror, until you consider the reason ''why'' he was given male-genitalia in the first place: '''Procreation'''.

** Confirmed by Wildbow

* [[WordOfGod According to Wildbow]], [[https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/interlude-21-donation-bonus-1/#comment-20179 Scion has a penis]]. Now, this in itself is more Fridge Humor than FridgeHorror, until you consider the reason ''why'' he was given male-genitalia in the first place: to '''procreate''', obviously.

** Sexism against males could be a reason. The general sexist belief that males shouldn't be able and allowed to express emotions and how most of them should be reserved and stuff is probably a thing that the Entities don't want, meaning that they likely ''engineered the abolishment of general sexism''. It could also just be a byproduct of the Shards ramping up human emotions. While this leads to a greater sense of unity within humanity, it's a win for the Entities since they have more opportunity to explore and utilize human emotion.

** Sexism against males could be a reason. The general sexist belief that males shouldn't be able and allowed to express emotions and how most of them should be reserved and stuff is probably a thing that the Entities don't want, meaning that they likely ''engineered the abolishment of general sexism''. It could also just be a byproduct of the Shards ramping up human emotions. While this leads to a greater sense of unity within humanity, it's a win for the Entities since there is more opportunity to explore and utilize human emotion.

** Sexism against males could be a reason. The general sexist belief that males shouldn't be able and allowed to express emotions and how most of them should be reserved and stuff is probably a thing that the Entities don't want, meaning that they likely ''engineered the abolishment of general sexism''. While this leads to a greater sense of unity within humanity, it's a win for the Entities since there is more opportunity to explore and utilize human emotion.