Spiral of Ants

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Video
Title: Spiral of Ants
Creator: Glowspider
Date(s): 6 September 2019
Medium: Youtube
Length: 5 minutes 45 seconds
Genre: summary
Fandom: Worm
External Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB7jRqHtlwc
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Spiral of Ants (A Worm AMV) by Glowspider is, as the title states, an animated fanvid in the Worm fandom. It is unusual for trying to tackle the entire, 1.6-million word story in one 6-minute long video, rather than focusing on one particular subplot, character, or concept from the story.

The author calls the video an AMV, even though they acknowledge in the description that it's pretty light on animation.

Structure

It's set to the song "Spiral of Ants" by Lemon Demon. It doesn't quite follow the order of events in the original webserial, opening with Taylor's trigger event in the locker, then using the trigger vision of the Entities to transition to Fortuna killing Eden (Worm). Thereafter, it mostly follows the order of narration of the webserial. Other events, characters, and ideas depticted include:

  • Advent of Scion
  • Taylor's first night out in costume
    • Fight vs. lung
    • Saved by the undersiders
    • Yelled at by Armsmaster
  • Undersides and other criminals of Brockton Bay
  • Bakuda's bombing rampage
  • Taylor's childhood (friendship with Emma, her mom)
  • Taylor moving out of her dad's house
  • Coil kidnapping Dinah Alcott
  • Leviathan attacking Brockton Bay
  • Taylor discovering Shadow Stalker's civilian identity at the hospital in the aftermath
  • Shadow Stalker targeting Taylor in revenge and getting caught by Regent
  • The Brockton Bay candidates of the Slaughterhouse 9
  • The current members of the Slaughterhouse 9
  • Taylor vs. Mannequin fight
  • Amy Dallon healing/monsterfying Victoria Dallon
  • Grue's imprisonment and second trigger
  • Bonesaw and Jack Slash decieving Taylor during Bonesaw's plague on the city
  • Taylor defeating Coil and Rescuing Dinah
  • The Travelers
    • Noelle/Echidna
  • Revelations of The Protectorate's (particularly the top 3's) connection to Cauldron
  • Unmasking of Taylor's civilian identity at the reopened high school
  • Diana's prediction
  • Alexandria's death
  • Weaver's introduction
  • Behemoth fight
    • Scion destroying Behemoth
  • Advent of Khonsu and Tohu and Bohu
  • Slaughterhouse 9000
  • Taylor (et al.) fight vs. Jack Slash
  • Gold Morning
    • Scion destroys Britain
    • Cauldron last ditch meeting
    • Taylor cuts ties
    • Amy modifying Taylor's power
    • "Finally, everyone was working together"
    • Khepri defeats Scion
    • Contessa shoots Taylor

Reactions/Reviews

Reddit

[u/MariaCallas]
This is gorgeous. I think you portrayed the cyclical nature of conflict that powers cause in worm really effectively. The repetitive colorful representation of the passengers helped with that a lot. I love it! Thank you for taking the time to make this. About how many hours did it take?[1]
[u/glowspiders]
I drew it all in a week (I know, I’m a bit surprised myself) but overall time to make it was upwards of 40 hours. It was something I was planning on for a few months, so I’m just glad my brain and hands can rest now that it’s done!!
This is definitely one of the better fanworks I've seen, for worm or otherwise. The sheer amount of effort that clearly had to go into it is impressive on its own: On top of choosing a relatively long song, a lot of the shots are really clever: The Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand was my personal favorite, I think. On top of that, you picked out a pretty fitting song! There's the obvious, in that its about ants, but the specifics of it fit worm pretty well: A colony of ants find themselves following a circle of pheromones, mindlessly following it over and over again out of instinct. As time goes on, they begin to die from exhaustion, destroyed by a cycle that none could or would break from. This mirrors not only the cycle of the entities, but several other aspects of the book: namely the equilibrium between heroes and villains.

This is fantastically done in nearly ever respect, and I'm definitely going to be looking out for anything new from you in the future

u/RoundestFrog [1]

Of course it's fuckin' spiral of ants u/maroon_sweater will you listen to it now???? it's like my favourite song

So many drawings!!! And you matched them up so perfectly!!! Your style is so charming and you only get better. I love this so much, glows, it's absolutely chilling. The Dinah parts are hauntingly beautiful.

u/CPericardium [1]

>Shot of Little Taylor & Annette, who's wearing a red butterfly shirt

I wasn't planning on sobbing into my coffee this morning, so thanks for that.

This is really impressive work and only makes me want a Worm animated series 100% more.

u/LazarusRises [1]

Really liked the portrayal of the Travelers here, and Tohu made me laugh. Good job!

u/casocial [1]

Wow, this must've taken a lot of effort. Practically every arc shown over less than 6 minutes!

Amazing work. I love some of the creative cuts (showing Eidolon's, Doctor Mother's and Jack's fate in two frames was great) and that trippy take on how Power-connections / Shards / Entities look.

How long do you think it took to make this?

u/Executioner404 [1]

[u/AceOfSword]
That's a cool animation. I wasn't sure about the style at first but it grew on me as the video went on, it's very fitting in some ways.[1]
[u/glowspiders]
I definitely think my art improved as the video went on. Mostly because I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with it. I actually did a scrapped version that was ~2 minutes long before settling on this!
This was incredibly beautiful oh my god. I discovered this album around the same time I started worm so this is just perfect. I love my fellow worm fans sm

u/knightonahorse [1]

I absolutely loved how well this caught the feel of the entire story without really telling the story itself.

Everything is there and it's all progressing smoothly without diminishing the effect it had or the effect Taylor had on the world.

I found the Gold Morning imagery and transition between S9 and S9000 the most heart wrenching. It truly hammers home the loneliness and despair of Taylor up until that point.

Really well done!

u/Saberleaf [1]

I especially love how the passangers and entities glow with the music.

u/Frescopino [1]

That was so cool! I love the surreal vibe.

u/QuantumAwesome [1]

[chandra381]
This is great! How did you make this? You have a very unique aesthetic - I especially liked your take on Tohu.[1]
[u/glowspiders]
Okay I’m only an artist by hobby so don’t judge, but the art was done in sketchbook and the editing was done in iMovie. Sometimes simple is better :) I had a loose outline by lyrics/rhythm for what I wanted draw at each part, but obviously a lot of that changed as I went along, depending on if I thought something was too repetitive or too time-consuming to draw. The art style is partially for convenience. I had to cut quite a few corners to fill 6 minutes, but using color was definitely intentional, and I happen to like drawing with the rough pencil brush because I like the childishness it invokes. I’m so happy it turned out cohesive and aesthetically appealing!
[u/benzimo]
Congrats on finishing this glows! Your art has really come a long way, just beautiful and amazing. I really love the imagery in a lot of the shots, I think Sophia and Taylor was probably my favorite bit. Now make more wormcaps[1]
[u/glowspiders]
Thank you for your moral support while I spammed the discord at 2 am every night. I think the Taylor and Sophia bit is my favorite too. I'll make more wormcaps when the mods of wormmemes announce September's theme.
I like this a lot, the music choice was excellent and the tone really matched up

u/ButteryMen [1]

This is on the Lullaby for Gods level.

Really great. Some shots are amazing, like photos and Travelers. I really loved the moments that were especially closely synced to music. It made it feel more like an animation, even if the pictures were changing comparatively slowly.

u/fortunateevents [1]

Okay I was really skeptical at first but this is eerily beautiful. I am moved.

u/Mr24601 [1]

Tumblr

History of the entire worm, I guess.

thebsdude [2]

Oh I loved it! My favorite part was probably the last coil bit, both how the image mirrors for a second and when we see the numbers ticking up

infinite-chump [3]

OP this is amazing.
#parahumans#worm#amv#my favorite part's problem the whole 9-way splitframe with the S9 and their prospective recruits

st-just [4]

*goes completely nuts over these parallels*

[screencaps from the vid of Regent and Khepri controling their victims]

jessie-ewesmont [5]

Ok I finally watched this and OP it's amazing!! There were many things that you managed to convey so clearly with a few well-chosen visuals -- I think my favorite is Dinah's rescue with the percentages, and as others are saying the newer Endbringers. But really with each scene I just kept thinking "wow, that was conveyed really well"!
  1. also really loved the quick and effective summaries of Travelers&Echidna&Cell&S9000&etc.#just amazing job OP

businesstiramisu [6]

[rainfrazier]
#nachtare’s post from monday was like the very last thing i saw on tumblr before leaving for a hiking trip#which caused this amv to get stuck in my head HARD#literally me sitting on a rock in the woods in the middle of nowhere humming spiral of ants for three days straight#also this was like the first worm fandom thing i ever saw and can we just appreaciate the freakin ARTISTRY here#the shot where the flames are reflecting in the eyes on skitter’s mask#‘don’t feel surrounded by death’ with all the slaughterhouse nine#‘false bugs’ and its jack and bonesaw holding her hands#see how they drop like a stone#‘you’re free now’ and it’s dinah#khepri with the spiderwebs#literally the perfect worm amv ever#worm spoilers#ok that’s enough tags[7]
[brocktonbay]
youtube version
  1. hali had a moment in the prev tags so I clicked on the link thinking ‘I will watch 5 seconds before I turn it off from embarrassment’#but THEN I realized it was the dailymotion link?? so boom here’s the better version#coming up on the two year anniversary damn that shits wild at least my art improved
[rainfrazier]
#NICE NICE NICE#also don’t be embarrassed about it it’s literally THE worm amv#wormusic

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Spiral of Ants—A Worm AMV, Archived version. Posted to Reddit on 2 September 2019, most comments are from the same date.
  2. ^ reblog by thebsdude. Sep 2, 2019
  3. ^ reblog by infinite-chump. Sep 2,2019
  4. ^ reblog by st-just. Sep 2, 2019
  5. ^ reblog by jessie-ewesmont.Sep 2, 2019
  6. ^ reblog by businesstiramisu. Sep 17, 2019
  7. ^ reblog by rainfrazier. Aug 26, 2021. followup reblogs by rainfrazier and brocktonbay also from August 26, 2021.
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