#i really liked this event

[gailiag]

The Stultifera Navis Post

Well here it is. My scene analysis-turned-character analysis-turned-event analysis of Stultifera Navis. SN story spoilers and descriptions of being eaten alive ahead. This is a long one, so strap in. Ye have been warned.

Of all the things that happened in Stultifera Navis, the one I keep coming back to is the scene in SN-10 before where the Endspeaker, Will of We Many, tells Laurentina of Amaia's sacrifice. This isn't my area of expertise, but there's something about its writing that's just so intimately visceral. The contrast between the imagery of her being devoured, still conscious even as her flesh is stripped from her bones, all the while comforting the Endspeaker as one might comfort a child, makes for an incredibly powerful scene.

[Image ID: A screenshot of dialogue between a Seaborn and Specter. The text is white on a greyed-out background, which depicts the Seaborn, an angelic jellyfish-like creature, floating in the air. The dialogue reads:

Seaborn: Laurentina, that is the name of our scaleless kin, the Liberi, the Iberian.

Seaborn: As I consumed her, she kept stroking my head. She spoke of many things. Time itself was like frozen dust, an eternity seeming to pass as I listened to her.

Seaborn: Until she could no longer speak, until even her bones were digested by our smallest kin, she nurtured me with both nutrition and time. She taught me everything I know.

Specter: Since when were you so sentimental towards your food?

Seaborn: Such was her request, I merely granted it. If there is purpose to such emotions, we are willing to experiment.

End ID]

In SN-ST-11 “Main Mast,” Amaia tells the Endspeaker that there is no grand purpose, no glory, no honor in sacrifice, and that the shred of humanity she gives it is purely for the survival of their kind. But despite her going on and on about how humans are not so different from the Seaborn, I think we also see sentimentality in how she nurtures it and in her request to be remembered. There is still a glimmer of humanity left in Amaia, and she gifts this to the Endspeaker. It's not lost on me that the Endspeaker is referred to as "it" before consuming Amaia, but "he" after.

It is clear throughout this event that Amaia’s view of humanity is reflective of the Seaborn’s view as a whole. The Endspeaker is continually baffled with the Hunters’ refusal to join their “kin.” Amaia explains this belief more fully than any other character. In her eyes, idealizing things like sacrifice and dedication is merely a delusion that lets humans pretend that they are somehow more noble than the animals that they are. The Endspeaker says she taught him that laws are much the same. To the Seaborn, there is no inherent meaning to life or death or duty or pain. Any attempt to create meaning from this is a delusion, a denial of the truth that humans and Seaborn are fundamentally no different from each other. In a world devoid of any inherent meaning, the only rational goal is survival. 

When Amaia and Laurentina share a dance in Main Mast, Amaia tells Laurentina that the part of her that keeps her awake and alive, that makes her Laurentina, is the Seaborn part of her. That she is, at heart, no different than them. But Laurentina rejects this. In what I would argue is the most important line of all of Stultifera Navis, Laurentina says, "Because, during the process of carving, chiseling, and shaping, we give meaning to the forms of the dead, liberating them from the void of meaningless." Laurentina does not reject Amaia’s premise that there is no meaning inherent in sacrifice or life. But she concludes instead that sacrifice is meaningful because we remember them, and the meaning of sacrifice or of life is the meaning we give it. Amaia calls this delusion, but Laurentina suggests that our ability to make meaning from a meaningless world is what makes humans unique. Looking at the characters in this light, I think we can see what Stultifera Navis has to say about what makes someone human.

 To the contrary of Amaia’s perspective, Laurentina believes that, much like what separates a sculpture from a rock, it is the act of remaking herself as an Abyssal Hunter from the unstable, originium-infused body she has been given that makes her human. Skadi lays her own claim to her identity. "...No. I am the Abyssal Hunter, Skadi." Not Ishar-Mla, not seaborn, but a Hunter. Gladiia's concern at her physical transformation is at some level self-fulfilling. She sees the physical transformation as synonymous with becoming Seaborn, and so it is. Opposite Gladiia there’s Captain Alfonso and First Mate Garcia, who resisted assimilation into We Many for sixty years, remaining human only through continuing to define themselves as human, even as their bodies were twisted beyond recognition. 

And in the end, this goes both ways. Amaia asks that the Endspeaker assign no meaning to her sacrifice, no greater purpose beyond the simple instinct of a species to survive. But she asks that the Endspeaker remember her, and the Endspeaker makes its own meaning of her sacrifice in doing so. It recognizes the gifts of knowledge, of feeling, of time, she has given him. Even Amaia understands the implications of this act. In the flashback to her conversation with Bishop Quintus, she says, "[y]ou have to admit, that we're more like them, more like humans, than we are like Seaborn.” The Endspeaker shows signs that he, too, has the capacity to become human. 

It's not that we humans aren't so different from the Seaborn. It's that now, the Seaborn aren't so different from us.

[earl-grey-love]

While I was aiming for <250, I am pretty pleased that I managed a final rank of 340 in this event 💕

[unforth]

Gentle reminder that very little fandom labor is automated, because I think people forget that a lot.

That blog with a tagging system you love? A person curates those tags by hand.

That rec blog with a great organization scheme and pretty graphics? Someone designed and implemented that organization scheme and made those graphics.

That network that posts a cool variety of stuff? People track down all that variety and queue it by hand, and other people made all the individual pieces.

That post with umpteen links to helpful resources, and information about them? Someone gathered those links, researched the sources, wrote up the information about them.

That graphic about fandom statistics? Someone compiled those statistics, analyzed them, organized them, figured out a useful way to convey the information to others, and made the post.

That event that you think looks neat? Someone wrote the rules, created the blogs and Discords, designed the graphics, did their best to promo the event so it'd succeed.

None of this was done automatically. None of it just appears whole out of the internet ether.

I think everyone realizes that fic writing and fanart creation are work, and at least some folks have got it through their heads that gif creation and graphics and moodboards take effort, and meta is usually respected for the effort that goes into it, at least as far as I've seen, but I feel like a lot of people don't really get how much labor goes into curation, too.

If people are creating resources, curating content, organizing the creations of others, gathering information, and doing other fandom activities that aren't necessarily the direct action of creation, they're doing a lot of fandom labor, and it's often largely unrecognized.

Celebrate fan work!

To folks doing this kind of labor: I see you, and I thank you. You are the backbones of our fandoms and I love you.

[comfymoth]

i’m mad this is my most liked post right now so look at my cat instead lol

[egophiliac]

roll out the red carpet guys we're going to the SHAFTLANDS

[maximura]

Park Seonghwa | Cosmopolitan Korea July 2024

[mawguai]

Returning color to my world

[wdapteo]

dan & phil moodboard

inspo by @whisksandslits's post!

[bacchuschucklefuck]

they tried to rebrand as The Criminals but riz is literally the city council's treasurer and also turns out people in their late 20s don't really name their friend groups. so now they're The Intrepid Heroes

[thatmooncake]

Day trip misadventures with Sun and Moon featuring @crabsnpersimmons <3

[jomeimei421]

Felt a bit nostalgic watching RT shut down…Here are the og faves again for old times sake 💙

[crystallizsch]

i really like how canonically yuu is genuinely supportive of grim wanting to be a great mage. if i recall correctly, even character voice lines point this out. and it seems like yuu dotes on grim a lot and defends him too??? yuu even encourages grim's ambitions whenever he declares wanting to be a great mage. and also when he does that boss-henchhuman dynamic. i mean yeah you can interpret it as yuu saying that being condescending and sarcastic as if they're talking to a child saying "when i grow up i want to be famous!" but like. i really think they're genuine when mc loves grim in their own way.

even if grim is usually a menace, he's become like family to yuu.

and i'm pretty sure grim feels the same way.

think about it this way. despite all the mess, all the unpredictability, the danger, and all the drama being in nrc. what's always the constant? yuu goes home at the end of the day to the ramshackle dorm (basically their home at this point considering they slowly but surely fix it up over time) and with who? “the great mage” grim. as the sole outcasts in that academy, they both sleep soundly knowing they will always have each other at the end of the day.

[cheriafreya]

What happened...?

[leafspiritz]

III; three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile

[ashipiko]

is it obvious that i’m a trappoler or

[egophiliac]

c. can i ask what's happening with idia during the whole tsum thing

Idia gets into a fistfight with his tsum and loses