“Taylor’s Had Plenty Of Friends, And Believes In, And Understands, Trusting And Relying On Those

“Taylor’s had plenty of friends, and believes in, and understands, trusting and relying on those friends–Aisha stood by her even in the depths of her madness as Khepri, Lisa and Rachel worked to help her and understand her as best they could even when communication was impossible for her, Parian and Foil willing came under her control when she needed them. Taylor firmly believes in the value and power of friendship, to the point where how she treated and parted with her friends was a deep regret she had. But that doesn’t really change her perspective on Unity, because that was forged in the flames of the apocalypse, wherein even the impending annihilation of Mankind across all Earths couldn’t make people get over themselves, work together, etc. A dozen different factions turned on each other in the midst of the end of the world, people kept secrets and lied to the very end, and perhaps most importantly–even those who did work together in the face of impossible odds couldn’t actually do anything. Many Parahumans did work together against Scion, for example, and broadly speaking, they spent a week dying without accomplishing anything of note. Making progress required dominating and destroying everything in her way, and the fact that her friendships endured even when the world didn’t and remained strong even when the world was ending is important, it’s true, it’s something she’s held close to her heart for twelve long years–but it doesn’t change that fact, either. And even then, well…when it came down to it, as Lisa complained, Taylor did things her way(….)

(…)Simply put, Taylor believes that friendship is an amazing, priceless thing. She believes that extending a hand of friendship, in the right place and the right time, can save someone and change their life and that it’s valuable beyond words, and that the bonds of that friendship can be unbreakable, that they can hold someone up even when all else seems lost, and survive when nothing else does. She believes in love and devotion and holding on. What she doesn’t believe is that people will put aside their differences and work together if the world started ending, or that it would necessarily matter even if they did. Sort of like how Taylor loved her father and believed he loved her and believed in the value of that love–but didn’t believe that going to her father would, say, resolve any of the problems that she was having with her bullies, which, to be fair, it didn’t. She believes in love and while she doubted her feelings for Brian, she wished she could have loved him and that that love would have be enough–but deep down, she knew it wasn’t. She believes in friendship and holds onto it forever, but couldn’t rely on that in the end, either. Because deep down she knows–or, at least, ‘knows’–that the way to effectuate change in the world is to dominate and destroy everything in her path, because that’s the only thing that ever did. TL;DR: Taylor was born to be a 90s Magical Girl, but was taught to be a 90s Supervillain.”

Ryuugi about Taylor Hebert from Worm