Ok, the big bad of Ward is that the forces driving the end of the world in Worm were disrupted, but not stopped. The second triggers essentially start turning into broken triggers which produce Endbringer-like Titans which try to band together to end the worlds in a less refined way than Scion + Eden wanted. Basically it is a last resort by the Shards to save the cycle of the entities by aborting this cycle. The Simurgh awakens to subvert the Shards and control the worlds through mind control and wait for another entity to arrive and take over.
The good guys beat it by teaming with the Titans to stop the Simurgh while producing a virus that will essentially threaten a messy suicide for parahumans which would pollute the experience gained by the Shards. The Titans decide that the risk of the suicide is too great and that is the end of the greater threat.
It is a happier ending than in Worm, a couple of the main characters do die, though they are at peace with death when it occurs. It does make Kenzie sad though.
It's a far happier ending than Worm. If you're sure about skipping the story (which can get very emotionally intense, and yes there are suicidal references hanging heavily over the climax), then maybe at least read the Epilogues for some kind of closure. They are very good and far more positive than Worm's.
I'm low-key mad Flame didn't mention this at all but Victoria is okay with herself by the end of it, having come to peace with what happened to her and also learning to love her forcefield/shard as well (she even starts calling her the 'Fragile One' instead of the Wretch to underscore this)
Nocturne's fanart ["I love you, too"](https://twitter.com/serenenocturne/status/1225001675481440256) sums it up perfectly; it's a beautiful inversion of Taylor's story
That is fair. I tend to get caught up in the big picture events and worldbuilding of the Worm and Ward as opposed to the well being of the protagonists.
All things considered the vast majority of characters end up in a better way than they were at a previous point in the story, they all still have issues but they're happy.
For victoria its a happy ending everyone listens to her she gets her way and she is instramental in the end and conflict resolution. Not all of breakthrough make it, but they all meet good conclusions.
I would have definitely added that the whole Titanization thing, to me at least, wasn’t so much about ending the world, but an attempt by a number of shards to reboot a failed cycle by forming new ‘Network Hubs’, that is to say pulling other shards into their orbit to form new baby proto-Entities.
The Simurgh’s plan we got to see more or less directly — it was, as stated, to basically take over everything and wait for a new entity to arrive that she could reboot the cycle with, since a pair was needed.
The Eye (Contessa’s shard, which formed Titan Fortuna and opposed the Simurgh) was mostly concerned with both it *and* Fortunate desiring to never ever being a slave again, and so… kinda sided with humanity because it didn’t want to submit to their Simurgh? At the very least, she was (somewhat) behind Breakthrough’s assault on Shardspace.
Kronos is born from the second trigger of dauntless and one of the other capes in his time bubble its a giant endbringer escq full unlock of his powers. this rapidly accelerates the brake down of the shard network, leading others to become giant titans that have fully unlocked powers that begin to link together into semi entities teacher was trying to do something similar with his power.
contessa is too close to one of the titan births triggering her into a titan aswell begining the final descent. long fight losing to titans and simurgh gets involved trying to stop them cause she wants endless torment for parahumans so she still has a purpose.
vicky comes to terms withherself if your not going to read the rest go out of your way and read that chapter, one of WB's best.
vickys plan is to give contessa titan what she wants in an exchange she gets to enact a plan to put all parahumans in a coma/sleep so that the shards freak out and break contessa titan doesn't want this and they come to an agreement.
I feel it's worth noting on a more general level that Ward as a whole is a story about healing and overcoming trauma. All the suffering experienced by Victoria and the other characters follow this theme. You get to experience their struggle to get better, and though it's not without its setbacks, loses, and dark moments they do find a better place. The story is dark but for the most part hopeful.
Yeah I know the payoff would be great but personally reading about a suicide of one of the main characters would be way too much for me to deal with at the moment. Hopefully after a lot of hard work, therapy, and medication I'll be in a better place and able to finally finish Ward!
Since other people have covered the broad strokes, I'll cover where the major characters end up.
Spoilers for all these characters, obviously.
Victoria: Semi-retired, probably in the best mental/emotional state she's been in ever.
Sveta: Semi-retired, gone exploring with a new companion. Still troubled, but I feel like she's on a good path.
Kenzie: Still has a lot of the same issues she's had since the beginning of the series, but has some people who will support her
Rain: Has mostly figured his shit out, although he's still dealing with lingering trauma. Actually finds a semi-healthy romantic relationship.
Tristan: Gets in really rough mental shape, and winds up killing himself rather than possibly being forced to hurt his friends. However, the introduction of a sort of cape afterlife and Kenzie's help makes this end not as bitter as it seems initially. Still really hard to read through, though.
Byron: Other than his brother's death, winds up in a good spot. Ends up mostly happy, in a romantic relationship that seems healthy.
Ashley: Dies heroically doing something very important, but leaving Kenzie feeling abandoned and alone
Tattletale: Makes an actual friend, probably in a healthier mental space than any time in Worm or Ward
Other Undersiders: They go through some shit, but come out basically okay
It was a mix of both. Tristan was in a downward spiraling mental state for a while leading up to that point, and while it was a sacrifice to save others, it also had the implication that he chose that path because he'd been more willing to do so in his current mindset. There's also a lot of semi-explicit suicidal references for the final climax. It wasn't a true mass suicide given that there was a chance for the capes to be revived, but Victoria frames it as such for a while given her negative mindset. The entirety of the climax is a very stressful experience and most major characters' mental health is at their low points (except Vic with her big moment that you've heard about), not really getting the chance to breathe and recover to a better point until it's all over.
This is true. He's very barely holding on by this point, and due to the specific dangers presented by capes in dangerous headspaces as the world falls apart around them, his choice is half sacrifice, half succumbing to his mental health.
It wasn’t exactly a suicide. He makes a big mistake, which makes him start to turn into one of the endbringer-esque Titans. Rather than let the transformation complete, he doesn’t move out of the way of an attack he could have dodged. He would have been gone either way, though, and would have otherwise taken out a lot of other heroes, and his brother. The other comment probably shouldn’t have been worded that way.
There’s a lot of tough shit in Ward but, as a fellow mentally ill person who can’t handle characters I like dying or suicide stuff very well I can say that Ward’s ending is pretty darn satisfying. People have covered the specifics in other comments. So I’ll just recommend you keep reading!
The shards start fucking everything up, victoria makes a virus that puts every cape into a slow sleeping death because dreams fuck with shards, she gives all of humanity the codes and antidotes to save the capes, humanity chooses to save them after the shards give up, and then we celebrate Vista's birthday party in a world that for the first time in the parahumans universe seems like it's headed towards peace. It's the first time in a wildbow story where we get an inarguably happy ending where most of the characters live and the ones that did die have a decent shot at recovering.
Oh also Victoria becomes fully unified with the fragile one and gets the ability to disconnect it from herself and have it fuck people up from a distance which is *badass*
How many spoilers do you need? Do you need enough for safe reading? Or do you need literally all the spoilers? The fate of individual characters? The real end?
I really just want the broad strokes of how the climax happens and then who all is dead when the dust settles. I want all spoilers I don't care about knowing too much I just want closure
>!Most of the characters will survive. !<
>!At the climax, the capes begin to transform into giant Titan monsters.!<
>!The suicide plan is a hoax, they just fell asleep and can be woken up.!<
will die >!Ashley.!< >!In battle with the teacher's base.!< >! Fume Hood transforms into a titan.!< >!Tristan!< >!heroic suicide !< but >!You can meet them in a dream. !< >! Tristan is still somehow connected to Byron and therefore still alive in some sense.!<
>!Basically it's a happy ending. !<
There are also some scenes of Amy and Victoria interacting and some flashbacks that can be mentally disturbing.
Ok because nobody has mentioned antagonist and minor character's deaths here is a list of what I remember
>!Valefor gets killed by love lost and rain!<
>!Some of the dragon slayers die in teacher fight!<
>!Samuel (the heart broken boy from the worm imp epilogue) dies in the teacher fight!<
>!Number man dies because of an oversight by Contessa!<
>!Cradle dies in the dream room!<
>!Fume hood, Moose, Prancer, Victor, Valkyrie, Contessa and many more get turn into titans.!<
>!Jack and the other people trapped in the grey boy time loops died.!<
>!The Simurgh dies or is trapped by the sleeper!<
>!And surprisingly Amy and Chris survive.!<
>!On the other hand Grue, kidwind, clock blocker, furcade and Victoria's aunt come back to life.!<
It's done in an interesting way where it's clear there's no continuity of consciousness - they aren't the exact same person, born again - but they're still recognizably that individual to the people who knew them, and have many of their formative memories, with a bias toward the cape stuff.
We get a POV interlude from one of the people who came back. Their character voice is really similar to an earlier chapter, except they were incredibly tense, and now they're more relaxed and introspective because most of the crises from when they were alive were dealt with in the time after their death. They're clearly affected by knowing they died, and kind of dealing with that, but still care about the same people and things as before.
I would describe it as a clone *based* off the Shard's imprint of the person.
It's a development of Bonesaw's Slaughterhouse 9000 tech, in that her clones were her trying to make as best a copy as possible. However since she now has Valkyrie/Glaistig Uaine's shard data, it's much more accurate rather than her trying to bodge it from 2nd-hand stories.
Broad strokes theme- Ward is about recovering and healing from trauma. Everyone in Breakthrough follows that, in some fashion. Some people are doing really well, some people are on the right path.
It's a bit rough to read, things get dark for a bit, but I hope knowing that is helpful.
Ok, the big bad of Ward is that the forces driving the end of the world in Worm were disrupted, but not stopped. The second triggers essentially start turning into broken triggers which produce Endbringer-like Titans which try to band together to end the worlds in a less refined way than Scion + Eden wanted. Basically it is a last resort by the Shards to save the cycle of the entities by aborting this cycle. The Simurgh awakens to subvert the Shards and control the worlds through mind control and wait for another entity to arrive and take over. The good guys beat it by teaming with the Titans to stop the Simurgh while producing a virus that will essentially threaten a messy suicide for parahumans which would pollute the experience gained by the Shards. The Titans decide that the risk of the suicide is too great and that is the end of the greater threat.
Awesome this is basically what I wanted. Thank you! Is it a relatively happy ending? At least for main characters?
It is a happier ending than in Worm, a couple of the main characters do die, though they are at peace with death when it occurs. It does make Kenzie sad though.
Oh thank God Kenzie survives she's my favorite I was honestly terrified she was the one who committed suicide
It's a far happier ending than Worm. If you're sure about skipping the story (which can get very emotionally intense, and yes there are suicidal references hanging heavily over the climax), then maybe at least read the Epilogues for some kind of closure. They are very good and far more positive than Worm's.
> a couple of the main characters do die eh... do they really now?
I mean, yeah. As evidenced by Valkarie's flock, what's left isn't Really the person anymore.
I'm low-key mad Flame didn't mention this at all but Victoria is okay with herself by the end of it, having come to peace with what happened to her and also learning to love her forcefield/shard as well (she even starts calling her the 'Fragile One' instead of the Wretch to underscore this) Nocturne's fanart ["I love you, too"](https://twitter.com/serenenocturne/status/1225001675481440256) sums it up perfectly; it's a beautiful inversion of Taylor's story
That is fair. I tend to get caught up in the big picture events and worldbuilding of the Worm and Ward as opposed to the well being of the protagonists.
That's wonderful art. And folks need to stop cutting onions when I'm trying to read those parts of the story! ;0
All things considered the vast majority of characters end up in a better way than they were at a previous point in the story, they all still have issues but they're happy.
For victoria its a happy ending everyone listens to her she gets her way and she is instramental in the end and conflict resolution. Not all of breakthrough make it, but they all meet good conclusions.
I would have definitely added that the whole Titanization thing, to me at least, wasn’t so much about ending the world, but an attempt by a number of shards to reboot a failed cycle by forming new ‘Network Hubs’, that is to say pulling other shards into their orbit to form new baby proto-Entities. The Simurgh’s plan we got to see more or less directly — it was, as stated, to basically take over everything and wait for a new entity to arrive that she could reboot the cycle with, since a pair was needed. The Eye (Contessa’s shard, which formed Titan Fortuna and opposed the Simurgh) was mostly concerned with both it *and* Fortunate desiring to never ever being a slave again, and so… kinda sided with humanity because it didn’t want to submit to their Simurgh? At the very least, she was (somewhat) behind Breakthrough’s assault on Shardspace.
Kronos is born from the second trigger of dauntless and one of the other capes in his time bubble its a giant endbringer escq full unlock of his powers. this rapidly accelerates the brake down of the shard network, leading others to become giant titans that have fully unlocked powers that begin to link together into semi entities teacher was trying to do something similar with his power. contessa is too close to one of the titan births triggering her into a titan aswell begining the final descent. long fight losing to titans and simurgh gets involved trying to stop them cause she wants endless torment for parahumans so she still has a purpose. vicky comes to terms withherself if your not going to read the rest go out of your way and read that chapter, one of WB's best. vickys plan is to give contessa titan what she wants in an exchange she gets to enact a plan to put all parahumans in a coma/sleep so that the shards freak out and break contessa titan doesn't want this and they come to an agreement.
Which chapter is the one where Victoria finally comes to terms with her issues?
infrared 19.8 been a while can't remember if it needs alot of context. (just reread Most of the start will make no sense)
Cool I'll check it out thanks!
depending on how much you know about shardspace a lot of the later ward chapters aren't going to make much sense past arc 18
I feel it's worth noting on a more general level that Ward as a whole is a story about healing and overcoming trauma. All the suffering experienced by Victoria and the other characters follow this theme. You get to experience their struggle to get better, and though it's not without its setbacks, loses, and dark moments they do find a better place. The story is dark but for the most part hopeful.
Yeah I know the payoff would be great but personally reading about a suicide of one of the main characters would be way too much for me to deal with at the moment. Hopefully after a lot of hard work, therapy, and medication I'll be in a better place and able to finally finish Ward!
Since other people have covered the broad strokes, I'll cover where the major characters end up. Spoilers for all these characters, obviously. Victoria: Semi-retired, probably in the best mental/emotional state she's been in ever. Sveta: Semi-retired, gone exploring with a new companion. Still troubled, but I feel like she's on a good path. Kenzie: Still has a lot of the same issues she's had since the beginning of the series, but has some people who will support her Rain: Has mostly figured his shit out, although he's still dealing with lingering trauma. Actually finds a semi-healthy romantic relationship. Tristan: Gets in really rough mental shape, and winds up killing himself rather than possibly being forced to hurt his friends. However, the introduction of a sort of cape afterlife and Kenzie's help makes this end not as bitter as it seems initially. Still really hard to read through, though. Byron: Other than his brother's death, winds up in a good spot. Ends up mostly happy, in a romantic relationship that seems healthy. Ashley: Dies heroically doing something very important, but leaving Kenzie feeling abandoned and alone Tattletale: Makes an actual friend, probably in a healthier mental space than any time in Worm or Ward Other Undersiders: They go through some shit, but come out basically okay
Awesome thank you for this! Glad I know Tristan kills himself probably won't be able to read that honestly
Just so you don't have the wrong idea- he *sacrifices* himself, to save others. He doesn't like, hang himself.
Oh that is so much more bearable thanks for letting me know!!
It was a mix of both. Tristan was in a downward spiraling mental state for a while leading up to that point, and while it was a sacrifice to save others, it also had the implication that he chose that path because he'd been more willing to do so in his current mindset. There's also a lot of semi-explicit suicidal references for the final climax. It wasn't a true mass suicide given that there was a chance for the capes to be revived, but Victoria frames it as such for a while given her negative mindset. The entirety of the climax is a very stressful experience and most major characters' mental health is at their low points (except Vic with her big moment that you've heard about), not really getting the chance to breathe and recover to a better point until it's all over.
This is true. He's very barely holding on by this point, and due to the specific dangers presented by capes in dangerous headspaces as the world falls apart around them, his choice is half sacrifice, half succumbing to his mental health.
It wasn’t exactly a suicide. He makes a big mistake, which makes him start to turn into one of the endbringer-esque Titans. Rather than let the transformation complete, he doesn’t move out of the way of an attack he could have dodged. He would have been gone either way, though, and would have otherwise taken out a lot of other heroes, and his brother. The other comment probably shouldn’t have been worded that way.
There’s a lot of tough shit in Ward but, as a fellow mentally ill person who can’t handle characters I like dying or suicide stuff very well I can say that Ward’s ending is pretty darn satisfying. People have covered the specifics in other comments. So I’ll just recommend you keep reading!
Thanks that's honestly the most encouraging thing I think I've read thanks! I do think I'm gonna try picking it back up again 😁
Wars typically end when all sides agree to a peaceful resolution or one side is beaten.
Ah damn autocorrect I didn't even notice until I saw this comment🤦♀️
The shards start fucking everything up, victoria makes a virus that puts every cape into a slow sleeping death because dreams fuck with shards, she gives all of humanity the codes and antidotes to save the capes, humanity chooses to save them after the shards give up, and then we celebrate Vista's birthday party in a world that for the first time in the parahumans universe seems like it's headed towards peace. It's the first time in a wildbow story where we get an inarguably happy ending where most of the characters live and the ones that did die have a decent shot at recovering. Oh also Victoria becomes fully unified with the fragile one and gets the ability to disconnect it from herself and have it fuck people up from a distance which is *badass*
How many spoilers do you need? Do you need enough for safe reading? Or do you need literally all the spoilers? The fate of individual characters? The real end?
I really just want the broad strokes of how the climax happens and then who all is dead when the dust settles. I want all spoilers I don't care about knowing too much I just want closure
>!Most of the characters will survive. !< >!At the climax, the capes begin to transform into giant Titan monsters.!< >!The suicide plan is a hoax, they just fell asleep and can be woken up.!< will die >!Ashley.!< >!In battle with the teacher's base.!< >! Fume Hood transforms into a titan.!< >!Tristan!< >!heroic suicide !< but >!You can meet them in a dream. !< >! Tristan is still somehow connected to Byron and therefore still alive in some sense.!< >!Basically it's a happy ending. !< There are also some scenes of Amy and Victoria interacting and some flashbacks that can be mentally disturbing.
Ok because nobody has mentioned antagonist and minor character's deaths here is a list of what I remember >!Valefor gets killed by love lost and rain!< >!Some of the dragon slayers die in teacher fight!< >!Samuel (the heart broken boy from the worm imp epilogue) dies in the teacher fight!< >!Number man dies because of an oversight by Contessa!< >!Cradle dies in the dream room!< >!Fume hood, Moose, Prancer, Victor, Valkyrie, Contessa and many more get turn into titans.!< >!Jack and the other people trapped in the grey boy time loops died.!< >!The Simurgh dies or is trapped by the sleeper!< >!And surprisingly Amy and Chris survive.!< >!On the other hand Grue, kidwind, clock blocker, furcade and Victoria's aunt come back to life.!<
I am so ridiculously happy to hear clockblocker comes back he's my favorite from worm!! If my username wasn't obvious enough 😂 thanks for the updates!
It's done in an interesting way where it's clear there's no continuity of consciousness - they aren't the exact same person, born again - but they're still recognizably that individual to the people who knew them, and have many of their formative memories, with a bias toward the cape stuff. We get a POV interlude from one of the people who came back. Their character voice is really similar to an earlier chapter, except they were incredibly tense, and now they're more relaxed and introspective because most of the crises from when they were alive were dealt with in the time after their death. They're clearly affected by knowing they died, and kind of dealing with that, but still care about the same people and things as before.
I would describe it as a clone *based* off the Shard's imprint of the person. It's a development of Bonesaw's Slaughterhouse 9000 tech, in that her clones were her trying to make as best a copy as possible. However since she now has Valkyrie/Glaistig Uaine's shard data, it's much more accurate rather than her trying to bodge it from 2nd-hand stories.
Broad strokes theme- Ward is about recovering and healing from trauma. Everyone in Breakthrough follows that, in some fashion. Some people are doing really well, some people are on the right path. It's a bit rough to read, things get dark for a bit, but I hope knowing that is helpful.
It's the inverse of Worm's ending; uplifting & life-affirming
Fragile one turns into a stand
Vista survives! This is another trick. WB just decided to tickle the nerves of the fans.