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ladyluscinia · 1 year ago

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"What if it weren't like that?"

...or I'd like to propose a different theory of what's going on in Edward's head.

Going into the S2 finale, I feel like there's once again a huge consensus that Edward and piracy are an unsustainable mix, and he has to quit. Specifically after 2x07 he knows for sure, 100% that he wants to quit, and he's pulling away from Stede because he doesn't know how to communicate that certainty to him.

There's a very established meta framework backing up this belief. It's not new, just everyone pointing and saying "look! - the show is affirming us" at the same time. And it does make a lot of points about foundational trauma, the violence of the lifestyle, etc. I don't need to break it down for you. If you're seeing this post then you've seen the arguments before.

The thing is... I'm not actually sold on this read.

Edward is a complicated guy and I love to try and peel back his layers, and I'm not sure that retirement is truly his endgame. And maybe more importantly... I'm not sure retirement endgame is quite the thematic crescendo it's being presented as.

So let's talk a bit about Edward, particularly in 2x06 and 2x07.

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Edward's Ongoing Depression Spiral

The thing about backsliding - and the Kraken was a pretty monumental backslide - is that even if you gain a lot of ground afterward, you still might not be much further than where you started.

Edward believing change is possible with Button's 2x04 guidance + his & Stede's conversation about taking it slow at the end of 2x05 are both huge steps for a guy that was openly suicidal at the beginning of the season. However, in the grand scheme of things, he's pretty much cycled back to the dilemma he was facing in S1 - continuing life as it was is intolerable, but he doesn't actually have a solid idea of what he wants. "Stede" is not a real, actionable answer.

In S1, this caused him to run recklessly into extremes of vulnerability with Stede because Stede was doing something different. He tried to metaphorically cut loose his entire history - as a pirate, as Blackbeard, as Edward Teach - and become a new "Ed" with no baggage, who was free to live an endless vacation honeymoon with his new boyfriend. And when the consequences of their own actions came crashing back in - an abandoned Izzy, Spanish Jackie, and Chauncey Badminton - Edward's desperate actions to save Stede turned into over-commitment to a guy he barely knows, a reckless plan to run halfway around the world to escape himself, and then a truly disastrous downturn when that blew up in his face.

Wherever you go, there you are - except Edward hates that guy. Edward's only concrete want so far for the new direction of his life is the one thing that's impossible - to not be Edward Teach.

So now, back to contemplating the same unknown future he was trying to chase in S1, the Kraken Era has given Edward new perspective, for better and worse. (I'm gonna link my rambling BlackHands / Kraken Era thoughts from 2x01 - 2x03 just because.) He's learned caution and is dipping his toes in self-reflection - Stede's love alone is not enough to save him, and his self-loathing has been acknowledged. Reckless pursuit of change without growth was doomed - an important lesson both Stede and Edward have started to learn.

Unfortunately, growth requires looking backwards, and if Edward was already disinclined to that due to killing his dad, he's struggling so much worse now that he's got months of fresh atrocities that he absolutely did not need to commit.

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Drowning in Guilt

Edward's core trauma that he flashes to constantly goes back to killing his dad that night - something notably not associated with piracy. That guilt is the root of his self-loathing, but Edward is a rather troubled grown man with guilt aplenty, especially after the first two episodes of S2.

In 2x05 Edward starts with a CEO scripted non-apology firmly recategorizing all of his Kraken actions as "whatever that nasty dark stuff was that brought us here... it's in the past", and then his discussion with Stede does not involve too much reflection on why this probation is necessary and drops this gem:

"Oh fuck no. Apologizing? Nah. Didn't apologize for jack shit."

However - demonstrating self awareness / growth - he's also clearly projecting guilt and a desire (that's almost too big to look at) to apologize to Izzy for everything, and then he honestly talks with Fang (who he's known for 20 years!) about how he can not be understandably mad at him, after Fang pushes back on Edward's toxic rewriting of Knife Parade. He even learns to sit with himself!

All of which makes the start of 2x06 so layered.

We open with Edward sitting with himself, looking out over the ocean and stewing in guilt - in order: his dad, the storm, Izzy's toe, shooting Izzy, driving the crew to mutiny - and then the conversation that Edward was haunted by all last episode comes to him. He's back in his leathers - playacting the penitent with the onesie and cat bell got old after a day, and he had never truly linked his probation rules with any of his earnest feelings of remorse. Just a necessary performance to appease the crew.

Now he's himself again, as uncomfortable in his own skin as ever, and Edward Teach apologizes for Izzy's leg. He isn't being demanded to apologize by Izzy (no matter how much he may deserve it). Izzy is fully prepared to pretend it never happened despite the evidence of his body. But Edward wants to - needs to for the babiest step toward his own peace of mind - and so he does.

And then he flees from one guilt and accidentally stumbles into another. Stede has so helpfully pulled all Edward's Kraken treasure into one place, and Edward lampshades it:

"Excellent. A reminder of all my guilt. A guilt room."

Now, Stede has a decent idea here. His "poison into positivity" bit is not bad (and it echoes the language Izzy and Edward used - though I think it's a tossup whether Stede heard about that or if the parallel is purely on a Doylist level). It definitely lifts Edward's mood for the day and pulls him out of his guilt spiral for a bit.

Until it comes back so much worse.

Ned Low. Oh fuck the implications of Ned Low.

So here's the thing. People have rightly observed that Edward broke Ned's record intentionally during Kraken Era. In fact, since he makes the comment about "We got a record to break" after the wedding boat aka the last ship he takes, and Ned isn't coming after him for a tie, presumably he set the new record and then proceeded to break it over and over again. Just to rub it in. Just to really piss the sadist off.

And if Edward's attempt to take the whole ship and crew down with a storm at his lowest point was bad, what he was courting by baiting Ned before the season even started was worse. This is a man who would have tortured everyone on the breakup boat to death when he caught up to them, and Edward was passively planning on letting him do it.

Edward knows this.

Poison into positivity just became "oh shit I forgot I'm the most poisonous thing any of these people have ever run into," and he's just getting started. It's hard to shove it down and brush it off and pretend it was no big deal when Stede starts getting the hot poker to the chest.

He doesn't want to kill Ned because he's not worth the poison, but the poison is already here.

When Stede kills Ned, Edward has already spiraled. He's already got a whole narrative in his head about how this is all his fault, how this is his poison, his guilt, his Kraken surfacing to ruin Stede too.

"I'm not a good person, Stede. That's why I don't have any friends," Edward chokes out.

"It all boils down to this - You're afraid you're unlovable," snarls Hornigold's ghost in the gravy basket.

"I hate myself," Edward realizes.

"Don't do it, Stede. Killing in cold blood" - like I did - "you can't come back from that" - like I haven't.

Edward's guilt is projecting all over this scene. He's made some baby steps toward seeing Stede as a flawed person vs mythical mermaid whose love can save him, but the idealization is still coloring both their views. Stede still hasn't told Edward about any of his childhood traumas or deep seated insecurities, and Edward has continuously avoided putting together that Stede is fucked up as well. He's convinced himself that killing Ned Low is a great tragedy that will permanently scar Stede's previously unblemished goodness in a way that is all Edward's fault, and he's sticking to it despite how completely it does not apply.

Reality has never been much good at breaking through his self-loathing before.

Izzy tries to warn him to give Stede a minute, but Edward doesn't listen. And while there's a good amount of concerned boyfriend in that act, I also suspect there's more than a little self-harm. Edward's spiraling about what he's wrought. He shows up at Stede's door already paralleling this to killing his dad. Of course he wants to be in the blast radius.

Apparently, having sex about it.

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"Bye-Bye" Blackbeard, See You Again Soon

Last season, when Edward's ignoring his past went poorly, he tried to metaphorically bundle Blackbeard and all his traumas up and cast them into the sea. He was "Edward Teach Born-on-a-Beach," and then "No-Beard" who found folding stuff in prison fun, and then he's kissing Stede and getting excited about picking new, cool names for China, because:

"Our old lives would be gone. Dead. Never were."

Edward, babygirl, that is not how that works.

Now, he's actively backsliding down a guilt spiral, just had ill-advised sex a day after the "take it slow" talk that he's already regretting, and he gets up in the morning, pulls on another goddamn robe, and goes to literally bundle Blackbeard up and cast him into the sea.

Babe you already tried this.

I don't think it's a coincidence that disposing of his leathers signals Edward is back to reckless change instead of intentional change. He tries to make breakfast in bed despite never having ever made breakfast before and explains his twine as a panicked decision. The idealization of Stede is back in force - he chooses now to tell him about the mermaid vision - "fantastic," he describes him - and thanks him for saving his life. (Once again, in times of trouble, Edward is the one offering up rosy imaginations for their relationship that swallow him whole and Stede is shoving his recent childhood trauma flashbacks down to be Normal™.)

In the Republic, Edward does avoid becoming straight up jealous of all Stede's positive infamy, but he's also doing his hardcore all or nothing thing again - this time running away from himself toward a grubby, poor, "nobody" version of Ed (or do we think he's gonna try "Jeff" again?). Jackie calls his attention to how his new life direction (as of 6 hours ago) is not necessarily aligned with Stede's, and - rather than doing something as crazy as talking - he mutters "shit" and heads to the docks where Izzy finds him.

For a guy who felt "Fucking great" throwing away his leathers, Edward sounds kind of sarcastic, even if I'm sure he's feeling just as light as he was on that Naval Academy beach. But Izzy - going through his own shit but still trying to be supportive - opened this conversation with a joke about Stede and I suspect thinks they are talking about putting the "Edward retiring to be with Stede" plan back on the table. (Edward could clear this up, but he's still not communicating his emotions to Izzy.) So Izzy encourages him:

"Maybe you should listen to it."

Edward's face falls, he looks back down at the fishing boat, and apparently gets himself a new job. He just needs to go dump his boyfriend about it. They're simply incompatible, you see?

Edward's a fisherman now. He's gonna sit with himself until he finds a better guy in there, just like Fang taught him. (Don't blame Fang for this 😆 he just wanted Edward to stop talking!)

Now there's a lot going on in the breakup scene, but I want to talk about one statement Edward makes (keeping in mind he's already spiraled all the way into his new fisherman identity):

"I don't even know who I am! Alright, I know I don't want to be a pirate, but you..."

Because, see - I don't think the second part of that is necessarily true.

It's not that Edward doesn't want to be "a pirate". That's what he's using as shorthand (and a way to strongly delineate his new career from Stede: "Fishermen and pirates - they're nothing alike.").

What he's not saying is, once again, I know I don't want to be Edward Teach.

And, babygirl, I love you... but too fucking bad.

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Better Piracy as a Theme

There's a lot of meta around about how Edward views piracy as a kind of enforced toxic masculinity. How his traumas are woven so thoroughly into his Blackbeard career that the thought of continuing as a pirate is killing him. He has to retire. It's the only way he'll truly be happy as "just Edward."

And I question that framing.

Like... Edward clearly has trauma tied up in piracy. His time on Hornigold's ship appears to have defined his (and Calico's Jack's) fairly fucked up approach to casual violence. His time as Blackbeard has enabled his poor impulses, and he is absolutely sick of piracy as he's experienced it the first time we meet him. That's not in question.

But while leaving is one solution, I think change is another.

In the OFMD universe, piracy is not a stand-in for toxic masculinity. Stede, an outsider, describes it as a "culture of abuse" in the first episode, but it's the culture of piracy where we see openly gay relationships, polyamory, freedom of expression in clothing and presentation, the oppressed having power... to treat piracy as inherently toxic is to deny that the culture of piracy is what gave life to Calypso's Birthday party. Our main characters are pirates.

There is a lot of violence and most pirates are very troubled people, but it's not piracy's fault. That's getting the cause and effect reversed. The "problem" with piracy and pirate culture is that the people coming into it and building this community are already traumatized.

As Edward points out to Stede:

"It's usually something like that. It's often family-based stuff."

(Also the problem might be the pirate Captains, lol. I mean, if you start listing the major drivers and enablers of toxic culture... Hornigold, Ned Low, Calico Jack, Blackbeard. Fortunate, then, that the crew of the Revenge is demonstrating that piracy can also be about workers' unions and supporting each other against your shitty boss while operating in a thriving community. He can play nice or get out.)

Oluwande tells us from the start that people don't choose to be pirates - they get forced into it by terrible circumstances in a terrible society. Piracy is the community that accepts the outcasts, but it can't magically fix them. They have to do that themselves, which our crew is showing can be done.

Stede did not swan in with all the answers, but he gave his crew the space and all the confused-yet-well-meant support they needed to strengthen their own bonds and community. Oluwande and Frenchie especially have been really stepping up in leadership positions. Like, the whole plot of 2x05 was showing they have successfully formed a union and that they will operate as a united front against their captains if need arises. It's so good!

They are living that better culture that Stede wanted so bad, and it's not just our crew.

Piracy influenced by the Revenge crew has been shown as helpful and even desirable to chase.

Hellcat Maggie and the rest of Low's crew don't sail off to get new jobs - they are resuming piracy but this time talking about profit sharing. Anne and Mary, our oh so aggressive BlackBonnet mirrors, retired from piracy together like Edward was dreaming of in 1x09, and what "fixes" them is burning it all down and returning to piracy (rejecting Mary's fears) with their love at the forefront of their minds.

Edward wants to leave piracy behind forever because he has depression and hates himself, but the biggest thing he hates himself for isn't even a thing he did as a pirate. He's pushing back on his Hornigold trauma from the moment we meet him - in fact, I have a whole other meta idea I need to pull together after the season about how he has potentially thought he was doing "soft piracy" in spite of Hornigold this whole time - but the guilt he feels about killing his dad is still too big for him to even look at. And that won't go away even if he could cut 20+ years of Blackbeard out of his chest.

He's bored. He was stagnating. He needs to address that knot of self-loathing before it successfully drowns him.

Maybe people are right and he could be the one pirate to find peace operating a bed and breakfast? Maybe he'll follow in Jackie's footsteps and stay connected to the community by running a gay bar or something?

But I also think, maybe, he has a community surrounding him, a home and love on the sea, and a career with plenty of aspects he did enjoy - sailing, fuckeries, luxuries, creative problem solving - and he might just need to join everyone in striving for a better culture?

And step one would be realizing that wherever he goes, he's still Edward Teach, and he's got to stop running from that fact.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #my meta #blackbeard ofmd #edward teach #character arcs #ofmd piracy #ofmd 2x06 #ofmd 2x07 #really wanted to get this one out before the finale because i imagine it's going to either support my theory or cut its legs out #and if it's the former i want the opportunity to be smug 😘#ladyluscinia

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piratecaptainscaptainpirates · 1 year ago

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Like many others, Izzy's arc had been my absolute least favorite thing this season, but with the hindsight of the finale...it still feels rushed, but at least it makes more sense and is, at least for me, much more satisfying.

I had been among those wondering why they didn't stretch Izzy's arc out into next season, and now we have our answer - he was going to die at the end of the finale. And they had to fit a lot into eight episodes.

Izzy had to realize he was wrong about wanting Blackbeard over Ed.

The crew had to save him to symbolize Stede's influence.

He had to try goading Stede and fail, proving to him and to the audience that Stede knows Ed better than anyone and Stede is a good captain.

He had to be pushed down to his absolute lowest to be "reborn" as a symbol of the Revenge and what Stede's way of piracy can accomplish.

His lowest needed to provide a cathartic arts-and-crafts time for the crew to rally together over to help them deal with their own trauma.

We needed time to see what he's like as this new character. This is where it still falls short for a lot of people, because what we did get wasn't really enough and we didn't see enough of him bonding with the crew or making real amends. Still, good stuff about the healing power of queer community.

And then he had to give Ed closure. Izzy's death reframes the way he threatened and goaded Ed in s1e10, reminds him that he is so loved, and Izzy's death is also the death of Ed feeling like he has to be Blackbeard. It gives him permission to see who else Ed can be. Narratively speaking, it's delicious.

I doubted pretty much all the way through, but they really stuck the landing. Not perfect but given the time they had I'm honestly pretty impressed.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #our flag means death

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sewmice · 1 year ago

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Hai as a decently new utapri fan I wanted to ask your opinion on how new fans should get into utapri after finishing the anime. Should they play through the otomes games or maybe try listening to the Masterpiece shows instead?

Welcome to Utapri! I hope you're enjoying the ride so far! And as someone who has been here for 12 years, welcome to Utapri hell, this is your life now! (with love of course)

Since the Masterpiece shows are all alternate universes/acting, it doesn't technically matter? So the real question is, do you like the idol side or the romance side more? Idol side, go for the masterpiece shows. Romance go for the games. And honestly switch around as you please. Just get to SOME game knowledge at some point because that's where you really learn about the boys after all. Personally it's best to know at least a little from everything.

Also the next most important thing will be whether you know Japanese or not. Because currently the anime, movies, and Starish special are the only things available in English. So what you can enjoy is more limited. Shining Live was in English for it's lifespan, and has some archives out there. Live Emotion we can only hope will have an English version but we do not know currently.

Now my answer to assist gets real long so gonna put it under a cut for everyone's sanity.

If you know Japanese, absolutely go enjoy the otome games, all of which have updated ports on the Switch! The release order and thus suggested order would be Repeat, Amazing Aria and Sweet Serenade, Debut, All Star, and finally All Star After Secret. And one day we'll have Dolce Vita.

If you want Quartet Night, while you meet them in Debut, their routes start with All Star. Ringo and Ryuuya have routes in Sweet Serenade and All Star if you're looking for them. Mitsuo in Amazing Aria is well....you'll see.

If you don't know Japanese, I still suggest looking into the games, but your options are more limited. ShiningWonderland has a fantastic crew pushing out translations. They're working on Repeat for Starish and All Star for QN currently. Couple of the routes are finished for at least one ending and others seem to be nearing completion. But I can't speak for that team past that. They are all wonderful people though!

If you don't mind getting a shortened, not amazing experience. There are some old summaries floating around from Breadmasterlee. Those, plus some friends who could understand enough, were how I learned parts of the games back in the day. Not the preferred experience though.

You could also technically struggle your way through with like Google Lens translation? Definitely not recommended though.

As for the masterpiece shows, again if you know Japanese, just enjoy them. If you wanna know what order they released in, the sets were as follows: Masquerade Mirage, Tenka Muteki no Shinobimichi, and Joker Trap Bloody Shadows, Pirates of the Frontier, Every Buddy!, and Polaris Lost Alice, Trios, and The Forest of Lycoris Dreaming of OZ, Never Again Neverland, and Faust Last Cantata

I know that next to last set, the Shining Masterpiece Shows, have translations by Kanasmusings. You can also find translations for some other dramas there, and subtitles for a majority of the stage plays (you will need your own file or DVD/BD).

The most recent Dramatic Masterpiece Shows seem to be works in progress at the moment. I know utapri-translations-uuuu is working on Heavens! And the CDs can be found in my masterlist.

The older ones I don't know off the top of my head if translations exist at all.

There are also Discord servers amongst the community, some public and some private, with resources and amazing people. But I'm not sure on how appropriate it would be to post the public ones. They don't allow piracy so as much as I push buying legally, uh, understandably linking from my blog publicly feels wrong. You can very likely find said discords via the Twitter fandom. Or talk to me in DMs.

This is a lot of info I know. Trying to cover as many bases as I can off the top of my head! Enjoy Utapri!

#uta no prince sama #utapri

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eliza1911o1 · 1 year ago

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So interesting that, when we have gotten communication between Ed and Stede this season (particularly in ep 4), Stede has never once brought up Chauncey. The dude not only stole Stede away from eloping with the love his life, but also died right in front of him in the same way as his brother moments after verbally abusing him

S1 was heavy with Stede’s internal thoughts and feelings, from the Badminton ghost to full childhood flashbacks; in s2, we’ve seen this shift over to Ed, such as with Hornigold and memories of his past. Since the emphasis has been on Ed’s, we have rarely been shown obvious cues to Stede’s anxieties and insecurities, though we’re well aware of them. Then, just as Stede has finally achieved everything he thought he needed to be, it all falls apart and, for the first time in quite a while, scenes of Stede as a child come back

This post reminded me that Stede has actually become more and more unhappy with himself and never reconciled with his emotions of inadequacy, no matter how happy he seemed. This is what makes Chauncey important, or, at least, his lack of mention

The Badmintons represented everything Stede was born into (particularly the insecurities his father imprinted onto him) that persuaded him into piracy. They aligned with norms, they bullied him for acting differently, and they even succeeded due to/within the limitations of norms as officers. Stede has always been told that being kind, liking nice things, enjoying intellectual activities, being adverse to violence — all that made him, him — were the wrong things for a man to be. This doesn’t change when he becomes a pirate; others still continue to point out his failings (Izzy in ep 5, Ned in ep 6, Zheng in ep 7). Stede has long internalized his strengths as his shortcomings, so while his personal methods and, truly, some luck are the real reasons things always manage to work out, he attributes his growing skill in piracy to be the true answer

Both Badminton’s die right at his feet and though Stede still takes on the responsibility and guilt, they really die due to their own carelessness. Killing Ned is done to cement his position, paralleling Nigel’s death in s1, but different in that it is an active choice. When Stede becomes a “real pirate” after killing Ned, for the first time this season (someone can correct me on this but it’s 3AM and I’m not double-checking rn) we see flashbacks, a moments of doubt and anxiety, quickly squandered because everyone likes him now, right?

Just when Stede finally manages to prove himself notorious as a worthy pirate, everything else begins to fall apart; Ed leaves, his crew almost leaves, he almost dies, yet again, and he’s back to feeling as weak as he always has. Everything, literally, blows up

Stede knows he isn’t a capable man (people always keep reminding, so it’s hard to forget), he knows he’s a failure and a mistake, he knows trying hard just brings misfortune to those around him, but he so badly wants to prove everyone otherwise and the only way he knows how to do that is by becoming something in their eyes. however, in doing so, Stede keeps surviving, untouched, while everyone continues to be put in harms way or, when it becomes too much, leaves him. Nigel and Ned dying bought respect, but Chauncey’s death reminded Stede of what he always felt like; a failure who ruins nice things. Now, at the end of the season and at his lowest, Ed has also left, so there’s no one to tell him otherwise

#ofmd #blackbonnet #blackbeard #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #ofmd season 2

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gloamvonhrym · 1 year ago

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oh I never posted all my silly phoenicis worldbuilding (birdbuilding) that I did while in fanfic writing hell

here’s a huge mostly-boring set of notes expanding and/or playing havoc with canon. I’m putting it here for future reference. maybe to link to it for funsies if I ever post this hell fic

phoenicis is a small insular nation with little social hierarchy, living on inhospitable mountains inaccessible to anyone except other birds. phoenicis has therefore evolved on a somewhat separate cultural track from everybody else in tellius. in this essay I will

economy/practical shit

implicitly in canon hawks are intensely community-oriented. again, they’re a small nation without much hierarchy, and with some preference for chaos. they all “just do what needs to be done”, paraphrasing ulki. they’re not the Strong Guys for the heck of it: they work together to protect & care for their own, and harbor a strong sense of collective duty and trust.

so they’re commies

with serenes out of the picture they’re the biggest commies in tellius

they don’t have currency, that’s some human shit. to each according to their need etc

(exactly how small and close-knit is. phoenicis? small enough that kilvas, a similarly small nation with even fewer resources, could kill everyone on the home front in basically a day when it was left undefended. so. take that for what it is)

infrastructure

minor architecture tangent: we don’t see much of phoenicis & kilvas except for the exteriors of their respective castles, which is kinda boring. obviously not everyone lives in the castles. but phoenicis DOES have some other visible infrastructure, namely the funky detail of these open doorways built into both the castle itself and the surrounding cliffs:

(I don’t know if there’s any kind of proper name for these, because obviously irl we don’t need them and they’re not a thing. I’ve been calling them sky doors, and I might have nabbed that from rebecca roanhorse’s “between earth and sky”, although idk if she in turn nabbed it from anyone else)

anyway there appears to be no actual barrier on these, at least not externally. what did I say. commies. who’s gonna rob and kill you in your own home, in your little nation-commune, where nobody except other birds can get to you, and everyone trusts everyone else to do their duty and provide for each other. (the answer is that other birds will betray you, eventually. sad!)

anyway it’s boring to stick around the castle 100% of the time. I imagine that this architectural idea continues down into the valleys, where maybe artisans can make stuff and services can be provided and bargain economy shit can happen

hawks have seemingly only been pirates for the last 20 years or so, and they do piracy for the sake of vengeance rather than need, and they can’t do that much of it because there aren’t a ton of them; and unlike kilvas, they abstain from trade with the whole rest of the continent, and are isolationist by choice. so they must be self-sufficient in basically every way. someone’s got to be making fabric, making clothes, making shoes, forging metals, creating pottery, creating music and art, administering medicine, providing education, etc, somewhere.

healthcare

tangent about medicine: phoenicis is probably the only nation in the continent that has historically had no contact with healing magic at all. the herons had innate healing magic, and everyone else either has human mages or contact with human mages. but phoenicis is on its own. their medical science is therefore more advanced by irl standards, because it has to be. they know more shit about practical mundane antitoxins, antibiotics, wound dressing, surgeries, anesthetics, and complications. it’s less pleasant than magical means, but it works.

(canonically, healing magic works on wounds and not so much things like regular illnesses, so everyone’s still got some mundane medical care; but when that’s ALL you’ve got, I think it follows that you necessarily come to understand the pure mundane science better than most other people. I bet phoenicis has bred its share of real scientists. if anyone in tellius is going to invent electricity,) (also: they might value physical strength very much, but because they’re commies, I figure they take care of their sick/disabled/injured pretty well, and most of them are at terms with the fact that not everyone can be the Strongest Guys. reyson’s complex about being too weak to live is likely more due to survivor’s guilt, helplessness to protect others/wreak revenge personally, and a post-traumatic focus on violence as a primary determinant of outcomes, rather than any actual pervasive cultural messaging that he’s useless.)

age

hawks live to some, what, 300+ years? janaff says a 24 year old should barely be speaking, but I feel like his ass was just being dramatic, similar to the way we needle real-life 18 year old adult humans about being tiny babies. there’s no reason why any creature should take 20+ years to be at least functional, that would be a huge evolutionary disadvantage. I posit that hawk adolescence is considered to last roughly age 20 to 70 (with heron adolescence lasting somewhat longer, given their longer lifespan; maybe to 80-85, such that reyson has somewhat recently hit true adulthood by the time PoR rolls around).

teenagers are stupid. hawk teenagers are REALLY stupid. chaos predilection + hormones. many of them will gleefully pick a fight over any dumb thing and be horny about it. strong with the vigor of youth, but exceptionally poor sense of their own limitations

by age 100+, their temperament evens out; but any contender for the king’s power is probably going to come from the young crowd at any given time. speaking of which,

government

there isn’t much of one. phoenicis is not big. everyone knows everyone and they’re very efficient commies so everything gets done that needs to get done. tibarn has 2 dumbass advisors. who needs a secretary of state.

the title of king goes to “the strongest” (I assume the intent is that this is determined by combat, against self-selected challengers who get to take over if they win, wakanda style). although canonically, his power is that he gets to call some shots but doesn’t really get any special privileges or reverence beyond that, which is nice because it means that if the king became super unpopular, the rest of phoenicis could probably depose him without much trouble if they wanted to. no divine rights here.

(worth noting: I think tibarn’s characterization is super different between fe9 and fe10, with RD tibarn being a lot sassier and more informal. FEH skewed towards the RD vibe, and I think they were right for that. given the hawks’ uniquely relaxed philosophy towards royalty, their insular culture, and the likelihood that they all knew tibarn by name before he ever had a title, it wouldn’t make sense for them to do a lot of formalized bowing and scraping. RD tibarn would never have unironically addressed caineghis as “o majestic king of lions” or whatever he said)

(by contrast, apparently, in japanese, reyson consistently addresses tibarn formally (and also naesala, up until naesala betrays him). I don’t speak japanese and can’t really count this as an aspect of my experience of these characters, but I wonder if the other birds also address each other in this way, or if it’s a trait peculiar to reyson.)

family

families are not nuclear. hawks raise their kids pretty communally, foremost in unstructured “flocks” (households or clusters of households). actual bio parents may or may not be closely involved

parenting is kind of hands-off overall. the concept of adult supervision falls away pretty fast. “let your kid do the stupid dangerous thing so that he learns what’s stupid and dangerous” ass culture; learning by experience is optimal, and if you’re not adequately responsible then others are less likely to be sympathetic and/or have your back in turn. hawk kids tend to gain squads quickly, and they often hang together for life ride or die

if a young hawk is neglected or entirely rejected by their home flocks - rare, but not impossible - likely someone else will pick up the slack, if not adults then some loyal friends

relevant headcanons: tibarn, ulki, and janaff have been sticking together since an early age. ulki in particular had some problems - his original family did not appreciate that he kept overhearing things he shouldn’t, and he was way too autistic to know what was meant to not be repeated, so after not too long he became a bit of a lone wolf. tibarn and janaff already knew each other - janaff’s exceptional sight didn’t cause him any similar problems; and were initially concerned with ulki’s misfit status, but his ability was a valuable bonus. they all adopted each other.

food

the main thing hawks don’t do is cook. because they mostly eat raw meat, fish, and bugs, which is very sexy of them. I imagine every household has certain members designated to hunt regularly on its behalf. add that one to the chore chart

(maybe someone starts experimenting more with cooking when herons are there, and further when phoenicis is open to international relations. for fun and community!)

gender

ok the shit I made up, let’s go off the rails

hawks are queer-normative. in that they don’t give a shit about the anatomy or superficial presentation of who sleeps with whom. most of them are equal-opportunity in that regard

they are, however, by human standards, masc-centric to a sort of absurd degree. they’re not dumb senseless brutes (see again, commies, intense intra-community trust); they’re also probably not the most emotionally available fellas

(“but wouldn’t this level of intra-community trust result in greater emotional availability, not less?” look I’m not saying they’re scared of it. but why would you cry out your feelings with some other guy when you could be killing animals or committing piracy about it.)

gender presentation: I said equal-opportunity in terms of sexuality. might be because it’s a little difficult to tell. the games appear to have no female hawk characters but in MY headcanons their presentation is just masc-centric across the board, and maybe they skew a little less sexually dimorphic in general, so you wouldn’t know anyway

most hawks are he/hims. that’s just a quirk. like discworld dwarves but with less to say about it. just a nation of butches, for fun

bad gender parity in the tellius games? how do you know janaff isn’t a he/him lesbian

hawk dress is largely unisex, earth-toned, and utilitarian. not necessarily fully unadorned - tibarn has an earring & a few other things, including a necklace (feathers; battle trophies?) - but he’s still pretty rugged. nobody is flashy.

nothing AGAINST conventionally feminine presentation per se. hawks would chafe against overly rigid norms. but the way medieval-fantasy femininity looks, they’d probably think it’s a little odd in a practical sense. but who knows. maybe leanne starts something with those she/her pronouns and flowy dresses yk.

(tangent on clothing: phoenicis isn’t really friendly for something like cotton crops, but they can have wool, because goats & sheep can live on mountains. I’m also happy to make up that there’s some kind of hardy tellius breed of mulberry-adjacent tree, which can grow at least somewhere in phoenicis, resulting in the availability of silk and maybe barkcloth. or something. idk I’m not that kind of historian.)

sexuality

hawks primarily value strength, physical + emotional. we knew this. again, doesn’t make for the greatest emotional intelligence. overt softness is not the thing. tibarn kind of sucks at the direct empathy that reyson claims all living beings share, for instance. 2 hawks in a fight would rather tussle it out than waste time talking.

this carries over. in a partner, again, attraction tends to disregard sexed anatomy, but the most valuable thing is being well-matched physically. being creatures of chaos, they trust their impulses, they like a challenge, they don’t mind a fight, and they probably don’t super want to be with someone they have to worry about hurting

(hence that kind of hot chemistry between tibarn & nailah. also janaff hits on lucia at first glance bc she’s a knight obviously she’s got some beef babeyy)

pursuant: by and large, hawks really don’t find herons very attractive. that delicate graceful peaceful affect is kind of a mystifying ideal to them. it’s like art - nice to look at, ig, but what would you actually do with it. people significantly weaker than you are for you to protect, not sleep with. tibarn is a notable exception because he is down bad for reyson

and reyson is like an alien, and tibarn is maybe a bit of a freak for being into someone so fragile. you are the very strongest guy, tf you want with a boy who breaks if you look at him wrong. what do you get out of that sir. he has complexes about this :) but I’m not going to elaborate on that because that’s what hell fic is for

“herons in phoenicis: conceptualizing the vulnerable body in hawk-normative society”, the title of my tellius gender studies thesis at the university of crimea or whatever

speaking of reyson. what does this mean for him. I need to talk about it because I’m obsessed with him. the commie stuff isn’t that much of a culture shock at least

but have some added fuckery: sole survivor, adapting to another culture, learning another language; lone chaos-sensitive empath in a sea of macho chaos-oriented dudes who aren’t very attuned to that kind of thing; also extremely physically distinctive in a way that is kind of weird at best

how do you even maintain a sense of personal identity when the baseline relevant factor is “you’re incomprehensibly different from everyone around you in every way possible”? I think reyson experiences some Gender about this. the most masculine heron is still a lily reed compared to even a fairly femme hawk

reyson’s gender, per the rest of the continent: male. reyson’s gender among hawks: heron

I imagine leanne is somewhat shielded from this once she comes round - she’s able to lean on reyson and naesala, and I figure she does, pretty heavily, considering she picks up maybe a few words of the modern tongue over the course of 3 years. she’s deliberately feminine, and also has already chosen her own terrible boyfriend [affectionate]. she’s not without her own traumas, but she’s more supported, and maybe is even in a place to kind of enjoy the confusion & attention she garners from being the sole girly-girl. I feel like she would.

and her terrible boyfriend [affectionate] is a raven, not a hawk. and by contrast, ravens are VERY attracted to herons. because herons are pretty. and ravens like shiny pretty things.

misc

I’m not quite committed enough to make constructed-culture art, but in my mind hawk visual & aural culture resembles late antique/early modern celtic styles in a few ways. insular culture yk. some book of kells bullshit.

(kinda weird, upon reflection, that phoenicis isn’t full of ancient tongue speakers, considering serenes was allegedly one of the few nations they were ever friendly with. and yet even tibarn understands very little ancient. at the very least, being the most isolated nation, it would make sense for the hawks to have their own modern dialect. but they don’t, that would have been hard for an FE game to pull off, and I’m not enough of a linguist to try. so it is what it is! maybe, even though they don’t fraternize with other nations, they’ve always kept pretty close tabs on them just in case, the necessity of spying facilitated the shift to modern. whereas serenes never did that. anyway sometimes the hawks sound a little irish in my head.)

they are also superstitious. all those lonely windswept coastal peaks, there’s a lot of howling winds, spooky nooks, weird environmental physics interacting with weather phenomena. you end up with stories about folk monsters. hawks know shit about ghosts, fairies, sirens, and banshees, and how to placate them if you piss them off. also the herons sometimes scare people to death because they wear nothing but white and drift around like specters.

I also have a lot of headcanons about herons. but they’re more feelingsy. so I’ll leave that go. I might add to this as I remember more stuff

#long post #text #ref

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veryace-ficrecs · 1 year ago

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Luffy and The Strawhat Pirates Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

Humble Refusal by LyraMae - Rated G

The Straw-Hats had all been offered something that, years ago, they’d accept in a heartbeat. But now, they have a different answer. “Sorry," they all grinned. "But we already have a captain.”

blow my blues away by LadyCrimsonAndBlack - Rated T

It's surprisingly hard to get arrested for being a pirate when you're chaotic enough to commit half a dozen crimes at the same time. (Or: The Strawhats keep getting arrested for literally everything except piracy.

A Thousand Steps to Home by MelodramaticCoffeeAddict - Not Rated

It really was an accident. Sanji swears. He didn't do this to Zoro on purpose. But the damn marimo has no respect for women. And Sanji didn't know he was holding a magic, wish granting stone. So, when he yelled “I wish someone would would have taught you some manners as a kid, you shitty kelp head”, he hadn’t expected anything to happen. Certainly not Zoro to keel over and disappear inside his own clothing. Or Zoro is suddenly four and Sanji finds they have a lot more in common than he ever dreamed.

What's Mine by Shizuku749 - Rated T

-Post-Whole Cake Island.- Sanji's been upset since his Wanted poster updated to 'Vinsmoke' two days ago. So when Luffy suggests they make the Marines change it back, well...predictably, all hell breaks loose. But Sanji wouldn't have it any other way. After all, he thinks, cracking his fiercest grin, this is the family he chose.

Of Toy Tigers and Parades by taizi - Not Rated

In which Sanji's not as much of a jerk as he pretends to be, and Luffy's really, really easy to please.

The Many Marriages of the Straw Hat Pirates by LadyCrimsonAndBlack - Rated G

There are a lot of strange traditions to be found on the Grand Line. Sometimes, the Straw Hats get caught up in them. (Or: The Straw Hats get married to each other. Repeatedly.)

Calendars and Kings by taizi - Rated T

"When I was little, all the other kids got treats and candies on my birthday too, so I didn't know it was special for me. Ace always said it was, but I thought that was just 'cause he was my big brother. I thought that since it was already a holiday, it didn't count!"

the communal currency of humanity by blueh - Rated G

“How did Luffy get someone like you to join the crew?” “He blackmailed me.” Nami’s expression morphs into something that Zoro can’t quite describe and it takes all of his willpower not to laugh and how perplexed she seems. “Luffy blackmailed……you.” “With my swords at a marine base." "There are so many things wrong with that sentence." also known as: the strawhats exchange stories of their wild captain and their wild adventures

your love is sunlight by SoccerSarah01 - Rated G

He shoots his arms out and brings everyone into a hug. “I have the best crew in the world!” Luffy exclaims happily. “Luffy- not across the table, you dumbass! Now we’re all dirty!" “Shishishishi!” And Luffy laughs, and laughs, because he really is the luckiest guy on the planet. - (Or: Luffy really, really loves his crew, and makes sure they know it.)

#veryace recs #one piece #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #black leg sanji #one piece nami #ussop one piece #soul king brook #jinbei #nico robin #franky #tony tony chopper #ao3 fic recs #fanfic recs #ao3

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saltpepperbeard · 1 year ago

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Im sorry about this i need to rant. I thought things were getting better but Izzy stan Twitter is at it again with their whining, truth bending and self-victimising.

'Do you like OMFD but wish the queer disabled hero didnt die?' IZZY IS NOT THE HERO OF THIS SHOW!!!!! He is at best a reformed antagonist. What an insult to the other disabled characters, and what about the actual heroes of the show??

'We've been betrayed by straight man writing queer stories'. First of all, way to dismiss the other writers. Also, its not his fault you project your personal traumas and mental health on a fictional character on a show with death in the title.

'GB's ending is comphet (?????) because 'we only need eachother' and theyre breaking away from their queer community' ED HAS BEEN WANTING TO LEAVE PIRACY SINCE LAST SEASON!!! also, its progress that Stede was able to resist basic flattery. And David made it clear that they still have work to do. This one truly broke my brain.

Im just sick of all this. Izzy stans have been coddled for the past week, being told its ok to grieve, but theyve crossed multiple lines. I do wish some things had been more explicit in this finale, only because David overestimated the maturity and media literacy of some people.

Sorry for this but i needed to talk to people here. Its beyond annoyance at this point. Im angry and sick of petty crybabies actively working to poison what we've built.

I'm a bit late to answering this, anon, so pardon the tardiness, but I think it says something that this still holds weight/relevancy even after a bit of pause.

I can totally understand the frustration because I too have seen some absolutely WILD takes. And I don't even go into the main tags, nor am I on Twitter, yet I STILL manage to see whispers of things in my peripherals. I have seen some things similar to what you mentioned that made me just...goggle. I could genuinely just do nothing but...GOGGLE. GAWK, GAPE, AND GOGGLE HSDJKLS.

I of course invite you to hang in this little Safe Spaceship Corner, because so many people are trying to maintain a steady course throughout all of this. But even still, it's frustrating that one can't even really go into the fandom space on Twitter or into the tags without being BOMBARDED. And I'm upset that it has to be that way. I'm upset that people are legitimately finding it difficult to interact with the space, or even enjoy the material now.

And again, AGAIN, I still maintain my opinion that his fans are allowed to be sad/angry/upset by his death. I totally get that. But what I do NOT subscribe to is attempting to pull everyone else down into that and painting it all to be some sort of "personal attack." Or just...throwing any sort of vitriolic label at it in an attempt to "justify" the upset instead of just...sitting with that upset.

Like...It's a story. You may not like it. And that's totally okay. There are things in this season I didn't particularly like. But that's MY opinion, and based off MY personal preferences, not the fault of those who decided to share their story with me. It's not some betrayal, or vendetta, or anything of the sort. And it's such a shame that it's being painted as such and THEN some.

#Answered #Anons #OFMD #OFMD Season 2 #and isn't it also saying something that i'm not tagging him PFFFF #isn't it saying something that i KNOW that's basically painting a big ol' target #it's just so sad really #and i've definitely noticed the drop in energy/excitement since then #the atmosphere has felt very different since...#well TECHNICALLY since 6/7 because those were narratively jarring too #but definitely since 8 #and it's sad because this is such a special show and so many people have worked to bring it to us #and so many of US have worked to continue carrying the excitement #but now there's just this dark cloud hanging overhead #BUT still anon #STILL #i fight to continue sailing on #to continue focusing on the good #turning that poison into positivity #and you're more than welcome to just come here and REST #to take a breather in a sunnier spot

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mysteriouslybluepirate · 1 year ago

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As a fandom- where do we think Izzy's story will end? [Poll at the bottom]

Now. So much of S2 is about what Stede/Ed want in the end. Sure, they're together again, but now what? For Stede, it's a pirate's life. He wants a crew, a family, connections, and adventure. Freedom from a life he hated. Even if it's short, he wants joy. For Ed, it's peace. He wants to fish, and eat good food, and spend time with the person he loves. Away from the stress of piracy. Of being hunted down and fighting to survive. To me, this is why the S2Ep7 fight happens the way it does. Stede's rising popularity shows Ed that, fuck, Stede is slowly becoming an example of the pirate life that he'd despised. Ed is dating the most popular pirate in the Republic, and fuck. That's dangerous. That's a target on Stede's back. That's more fights, future rivalries, future doublecrosses, another fight surviving against the authorities. An expanding list of people to hunt down the man he loves. Here he is, slowly watching as Stede, a man who onced loved nature and marmalade. Scared of violence and fighting. Slowly get taken over by a hardened Stede. Still Stede, yes. But scary and new. Ed's scared. So he runs. Chooses to protect his heart and go before he is forced to break up with Stede. He can't be this anymore. Leaving Stede behind, sad and confused on how things went to shit so quickly.

So....

Not to be an Izzy fan about this but... When everything settles down. When Stede and Ed are free to run and be happy, what will Izzy Hands do?

I've seen so many opinions, but honestly, I don't think even he knows the answer to this question yet. I think a large part of his S3 arc is Izzy looking at life and being like 'fuck, I'm in my 50s, but I'm still alive. So what now?'.

To be by Ed's side? Well...not anymore. He has a family. Sure, for a second it looked like they'd all split up in EP7 but we all know the upcoming bullshit in ep8 will tie everyone in tighter together. He doesn't need Ed the way he did even a few episodes ago. He's trying to form a life where he can be happy with his identity outside of Ed.

These last few episodes have shown that this life is too dangerous for Ed to feel safe starting something with Stede. There will be a compromise, and fuck. The idea of Izzy just going along with it because 'that's where Ed is' after everything is just...heartbreaking.

To go retire? I mean. I'd want that ending for him, to grow older, happy and safe, and warm and loved by his community. Maybe get him someone whose as loyal to him as he was to Ed(platonically or not).

In S1 he stated that's not a future he ever expected for himself. Sure, maybe next season we'll get some 'It's my final day before retirement' bullshit. But it will need to be set up.

To stay a first mate? Maybe! hell, Izzy loved Ed enough to 'let him' become a fisherman without talking him out of it. Clearly he enjoys the life he has on the revenge. Whose to say he won't enjoy being first mate under a different captain. Say, Olu, or Jim, or some rando they introduce next season.

To become Captain? Again, maybe? I can see it. The show ends with Stede and Ed in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Izzy and the crew run off for one more adventure (with the promise that yes, they'll visit as often as they can).

It's sad in a way. Knowing what we all know about history. How one day Captain Hands will die at sea. Either by being too slow in a fight, being caught, or their ship going down. But maybe that's what he wants?

THIS is the reason so many latched onto Izzy Hands. Stede and Ed will get a happy ending. Period. The End. But what about our crew? What about Izzy? Izzy's arc has meant so much for so many of us. I don't see him dying this season (FINGERS CROSSED) but this fucker would die for his crew.

SO. What do you think? As it stands right now.

#izzy hands #I do want to see what we're thinking about Izzy's ending before the S2ep8 premier #We'll see. His ending is going to be closely tied to how the show ends #I made this just because I want to gauge how the fandom feels about this guy #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #I will always be an obnoxious fan...nothing will change that #ofmd #israel hands #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd season two #ofmd s2ep7 #ofmd meta

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tymime · 2 years ago

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I'm very alarmed by how many people are dismissive of the lost media community, even going so far as to spread misinformation about them. I've seen them characterize lost media seekers as ignorant whiners and brats, and that they're wasting their efforts. Do these people have any idea how difficult it actually is to find this stuff? It can take years, if copies even exist. Don't they value art preservation?

You'd be astonished by how many shows that are barely twenty years old that have simply vanished, with no clear indication of whether or not the copyright holders kept a record of it. When fans try to contact the people involved in the show, they often refuse to answer emails. These aren't old, aging shows from fifty years ago, decaying in some film can. These are shows from as recent as the 2000s and 2010s.

There's been a toxic attitude going around big media companies for a couple decades now, treating their IPs (and their customers) as disposable, moving on to the next thing as soon as profits dry up. This is a big part of the reason media becomes lost in the first place. Old show not getting enough ratings? Need to make room for a new show? Just get rid of it! Now, some of these examples aren't lost media, admittedly- but they definitely could have been, if not for an on-the-ball internet pirate downloading and backing them up. There's a series from 2002 called Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? which hasn't been on the air in about twenty years. The original audio track was missing for many years, and had to be pieced together from several sources, with the video elements coming from a foreign dub. There was a music track heard in an episode of SpongeBob called "Humpback Hop" with several minutes cut from it, unheard of for two decades, and even the composer had lost all of his copies of it. It seemed like even Nickelodeon didn't have it in their archives, because they rerecorded it for a DVD menu. It's a miracle somebody finally tracked it down. There's a series from 2007 called Out of Jimmy's Head, whose original English version is still half missing. Even though by all accounts it's a crappy show, I still want to see it. (update: This show has been found, thank goodness.) And even though I'm not a fan, there are dozens of 2010s Cartoon Network shows that were once on HBO Max, that are simply gone. They're not in reruns, they're not officially streaming. You have to resort to piracy to view them. I wouldn't wish this fate on anybody. The Willow series from 2022 was taken off Disney+ mere weeks after its debut, just because not enough people watched it. It's stuck in the middle of a storyline.

Nintendo has been notoriously bad about this. They don't want you to play any NES, SNES, GB, or N64 games that aren't the most iconic best-sellers. They take down ROM websites, even if most of the games there aren't first party or being sold in any way. The only way to legally play a game that isn't available on the Switch is to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a working console and cartridges. Most people can't afford to do that.

If it hadn't been for the efforts of unofficial programs like Ruffle and Flashpoint, thousands of flash games and cartoons would be unplayable and unwatchable.

Even if the cartoon is safe and sound locked away in some vault, instead of missing entirely, it still winds up unseen that way. The public has a right to see a show they used to be able to see and enjoyed, instead of it being unviewable for all eternity. "Oh, but they have a right to not let us see it! They own the rights to it, after all, and can do whatever they want!" some might say. What if WB went out of their way to destroy every DVD, Blu-ray, and video tape of Looney Tunes, and locked away all their copies? Would you feel the same way then? Would we not have a right to see them? Would you just roll over and take it, and let corporate overlords tell what you can or can't watch? Just shrug it off and say "Oh well, guess I'll never see it again"? How would it not irritate you? TV and movies aren't the same as some painting or statue where usually only one version of it exists in some museum or private collection. Media is meant to be distributed and seen worldwide, for everyone to enjoy in their homes. If they're stuck in some warehouse on some hard drive, they may as well not exist.

It extends out into other aspects of our lives- old buildings get torn down instead of getting restored, vintage interiors get torn out or covered up by something modern or ugly. There was a time when films and video tapes were routinely destroyed to make room for new ones, because nobody thought anybody would want to see them again. We need to get past this destructive pattern.

Am I grateful for streaming services and the content they make available? Of course I am. But as many have said before, they could take it all away, and a show can simply vanish, leaving fans to resort to piracy just to see it, if anyone even bothered to save it beforehand.

Being dismissive of these efforts is the sort of attitude that's part of the reason media gets lost in the first place.

#lost media #streaming #cartoons #animation #disney plus #cartoon network #disney #hbo max #flash #ruffle #flashpoint #nintendo #media preservation #preservation

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salvadorbonaparte · 2 years ago

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Re-Introduction Post

Hello everyone, so much has changed in my life that I think it's time to re-introduce myself

Name: Mack

Age: 24

Pronouns: They/He (English), Sie/Er/Hen (German)

Academic Background: BA in English Language and Linguistics and Hispanic Studies, MA (nearly finished) in Translation Studies, PhD (prospective) in German/Translation Studies

Academic Interests: Sociolinguistics, Morphology, Audiovisual Translation, Minority Languages, Literary and Poetry Translation, Censorship in Translation, Accessibility, Subtitling and Dubbing, Science Communication

Other Interests: Language Learning, Horror, Creative Writing, Films and TV, Cultures, History, Art

What to expect on this blog in the future: Posts on language learning, linguistics and translation studies. Postgraduate tips and insights into my own journey towards a PhD. Further updates of my MEGA folder of language, linguistics, translation, history, literature and culture resources (check my pinned post!) I've also been considering making some YouTube videos! It sometimes takes me a while to answer but I also love receiving questions on any of my academic Interests (or personal interests, seriously, just talk to me, I don't bite). Chaotic Academia.

This blog isn't for you if you: don't support academic piracy, don't support other's journeys including the right to drop out of a course at any stage or never attend university at all, make fun of people's accents or language level or accessibility needs, are elitist when it comes to academic access for working class, queer, disabled people and ethnic minorities, the typical fuck off if you're transphobic, racist, ableist, antisemitic etc etc etc (I don't believe in DNIs but like why would you want to interact with my blog if you're any of the above, just fuck off)

#Langblr #Studyblr #Lingblr #Gradblr #phdblr

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amazinglyspicy · 10 months ago

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hello and sorry if i am barking up the wrong tree--do know of any good readings on media piracy, like critical theory, what forms do or do not affect certain kinds of creators, freedom of information/art etc? I'm struggling to find stuff online with the enshittification of search engines, and you seemed like you might know!

Hi there. The question you’re asking is very complex and there’s really no true one answer for it.

Media piracy as a whole is too new of a topic to really have much empirical studies or data to suggest if piracy hurts sales one way or another. We mostly have anecdotal evidence.

However, there is one study from the EU that suggest video game piracy in particular doesn’t harm sales numbers and in fact may help sales in some cases (i.e. trying out a game before you decide to buy, through the means of piracy). Going further, the same study found that piracy does negatively impact film and book sales, while music sales differences were negligible.

You can read about the study in this article, which also contains a pdf link to the study itself.

Generally speaking, I would suggest not pirating anything that’s worth buying. An indie game you pirated and ended up liking deserves to be bought.

Books always should be bought to support the author, and at local book store where the money actually helps your community too. Unless they’re overpriced textbooks.

If you use a cracked Spotify app and find a band you like, please look them up on bandcamp and maybe buy some merch too while you’re there. That does wonders more than paying for a Spotify subscription and streaming their music.

Big companies like Nintendo, Disney, Adobe etc. don’t deserve a dime. Always pirate their products.

As for what information/art should be free, I’m of the opinion, all of it should be free. No one should be denied the right to learn or engage with artworks because they are locked out behind a paywall. If you are privileged enough to help out independent game developers, authors, and musicians, then you definitely should! But just because someone doesn’t have that privilege themselves doesn’t mean they should never get to play that game/read that book/hear that music etc.

I know this isn’t exactly the answer you’re looking for, and I apologize for that. But you have to also understand things aren’t so black and white of “piracy good or bad?” Because it really depends on the situation of who is doing it and what is being pirated.

#piracy #txt #warez

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the-bar-sinister · 2 months ago

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Deicide: Red Shift (72069 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth Chapters: 16/?

Summary: A mysterious signal is drawing ships across the Grand Line to a place called Elegia for the first ever concert by the rising star singer, Uta. Following the signal are Cross Guild and fallen emperor Shanks, the Charlotte family, the Donquixote Pirates and the shattered remnants of Law's crew, and Kid's crew, and Cavendish and Bartolomeo.

And the Straw Hats and their captain Luffy, who hasn't seen Uta since they were both little children at their idol Shanks' knee.

Perhaps this meeting was ordained by fate. Perhaps, in the end, there was only ever one tragic outcome possible.

But Luffy has other plans.

catch up here

Hancock Boa wasn't exactly the sort of woman known for her patience. She was known for her beauty, her power, her commanding presence—but not for abiding inconveniences that came her way. No—those she crushed under her heel until things started going her way again.

But it was a little difficult to grind such an intangible problem under her boot. She scowled at the transponder snail, who looked back at her with its wobbly eyestalks without a care in the world.

She hadn't been able to get a hold of Crocodile OR Doflamingo for some time now. All communication with their channels had seemingly gone completely dead, and all she could pick up was static on the airwaves.

"How absolutely wretched," She sniffed with a toss of her hair over her shoulder. "For the both of them to vanish after heading to the same place is absurd."

"Could something be blocking the communication?"

The person who asked, standing by her side looking out at the sea with her, wasn't one of her kuja warriors. The blonde with the burn scarred face was dressed in what Hancock had decided to refer to as 'the dress', an emergency reserve outfit kept on the Nine Snakes in the rare occasion that the Kuja found one of the creatures known as 'man' and didn't immediately decide to pitch him back into the sea.

A loose and draping Kuja cloak over a body-obscuring dress patterned in lily flowers buttoned up to the neck with shapewear carrying the appearance of small breasts. A measure of propriety to keep all but those in the direct know from having to find out a man was on board.

Most Kuja still feared the men of the world. Hancock couldn't blame them—the world was a cruel place. And she—well. If it wasn't for her darling Luffy, and the sometimes irksome men of Cross Guild, she wouldn't have resorted to the use of 'the dress' for their visitor. It was only the pleading of his partners and the claimed connections that spared him at first, as it was.

"It could be. But it's not quite—" It was simply as if nobody was picking up at all. "it's reaching them, but they won't answer."

"That's… troubling. I don't like it. You said Luffy would be on that island?"

Hancock nodded, her lips drawing tight as she gently flicked her earring back and forth with her fingertip.

"It was reported to me that Luffy's ship, the Sunny, was headed towards Elegia for this 'Uta Concert'. Which means he's very much there and I should very much like to make sure he's okay. I've heard tell of it over and I'm not altogether sure I trust it."

She paused. "---and I suppose I'd like to check on the others as well."

He nodded. Sabo. Luffy's brother. Hancock could imagine why he was so worried about a communication issue given how desperate things were when she picked up him, and his handful of crew.

The only thing on Hancock's mind had been Amazon Lily. Cross Guild could wait until it was safe. Her home, her people, they were all in danger from the heavy hand of the World Government who hated them for their connection to piracy.

The Marines were dispatched to subjugate the Kuja—to enslave them and ransack their home for anything the Celestial Dragons deemed worthy of their attention. She'd set out at once with her loyal sisters and her crew to intercept and destroy them for daring to lay a hand on Amazon Lily now that they considered her and the Kuja 'fair game' with the Warlord's dissolution.

It was only when the sky lit up with a nauseating and blinding light like a second sun that her attention was finally overtaken from her silent and brooding fury. As the light waned, burning her eyes, the Mother Ocean became angry.

Her fury burned like Hancock's, tossing the Nine Snakes around its waves as she barked every order she could to keep them from going under in the sudden hostile waves.

There was supposed to be an island nearby, but she didn't see it on the horizon.

Instead she saw a single ship, tacking into the wind for all it was worth, taking on water as smoke rose from the air.

Hancock's eyes widened, and she wheeled with a point of her imperious hand and an order to divert to the sinking ship and to pull what could be saved from the wreckage. The instinctive fear that had welled inside her at the flash of light clawed at her ribs as she took a sharp breath and directed her Kuja to cut through the ocean's fury.

There were five survivors. Well four and… something else. He wore the face of the man she had once known as a fellow Warlord of the Sea, but there was something wrong with him.

"It was part rescue mission," the blond man with the burn scar explained to her when she boarded their sinking ship. "He was being held in Mary Geoise, but something terrible's been done to him."

Mary Geoise. That had been one factor that had saved the lives of the men among them. They were Revolutionary Army— the parties responsible for the incursion into the sacred land that had only barely been reported in the paper.

The second— they had recognized her.

"You're Hancock, aren't you? My brother told me about you."

Hancock was happy to be torn from the warped visage of her former comrade—Kuma the Tyrant—turning instead to pour the full force of her stoney glare upon the young man.

"Your brother is familiar with me?"

That in and of itself was noteworthy. Even as one of the most worldly Kuja, Hancock didn't make it a habit to get to know any men she didn't have to. The Warlords were her first exception, and Luffy the second, leading to a sudden rise in male encounters since she'd met him.

Encounters like— the young man's face suddenly flashed through her memory. It was distinctive, certainly distinctive, and she'd seen it before.

"You're that young man who was helping out with that whole mess with Bullet and the Pirate Festival, aren't you? The one who was close with my husband!"

"Yes, Luffy! That's my brother!" the young man explained to her, earnestly. "He said he spent two years with you on your island, and that you're engaged to be married. Thank you for keeping him safe during that time... when I couldn't."

Hancock's hand covered her mouth to hide the wide smile on her face. He didn't need to say anything more. He knew of her engagement. He knew of Luffy's time with her as she protected him and helped him heal—the evidence spoke volumes.

She believed him. "But of course. It was my honor as the Pirate Empress to care for and love him as much as I was able."

Her eyes fell to the two women talking quietly a little further behind the young man—a pair of redheads, one with a striking and well-toned figure and a hardened look to her face, a bandage only barely covering a smattering of burn scars against her cheek, the other slight of frame but clearly strong—looking up at her with wide and expressive eyes.

Isuka and Koala, she'd been introduced.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Luffy spoke of you on Amazon Lily."

"The pleasure's all ours," Sabo said, giving a bow. "I know it's hardly usual, but we'd be deeply grateful for any kind of assistance in this predicament. For the sake of my brother and because– there are people who need to know what happened here."

Hancock smothered her smile enough to lower her hand with a quirk of her lips.

"But of course. It's not a matter I divulge lightly, but I know well the horrors of the Celestial Dragons and the temple to cruelty they call 'Mary Geoise'. The word must get out—and I will help you, but I want you to understand something men."

It was enough to send the young man who was trying to quietly shrink as small as possible behind Sabo into a twitch, leaving him stumbling to his feet with a hiss of breath. "Yes ma'am! I'm listening, ma'am!"

Sabo nodded, putting his arm around the other man after he helped him to his feet. "We're at your mercy, ma'am."

Hancock chuckled under her breath.

"I won't throw you men to the sea on virtue of your connection with my fiance, and on the strength of your character." She pointed. "But know that men who cross me are turned to stone along with their wicked hearts. If you sail with me—you understand that well."

Isuka chuckled in the back. "Sounds like even Luffy's brother is on thin ice," she murmured. "That's the pirate empress for ya."

Hancock smiled thinly. "So firstly—you gentlemen will have to wear the 'dress' of Amazon LIly to avoid making my crew uncomfortable. Some among them aren't used to the company of men yet, even with our dealings with Cross Guild. So you'll wear what I order you both to wear."

Sabo doffed his hat. "A small price to pay, empress."

Sabo had told her that they'd been returning to the island that was the Revolutionary Army's secret home. And that what looked like a stormcloud had gathered in the sky.

There was a great light. And the island was gone.

An entire island—wiped from the face of the earth by some great storm that was far from a force of nature. The Revolutionary Army turned to a sinking crater in the sea.

It turned Hancock's stomach but time was short. A second tragedy was still looming.

So she'd directed the ship to Amazon Lily once more with the incident sitting like a pit in her stomach, and the cloying fear of just what sort of atrocity had been committed. The whys, the hows—they were all a horrible mystery that plagued her all the way through the brutal liberation of her land.

The brutal annihilation of the Revolutionary Army. The marine assault on Amazon Lily.

Yes. She could see why losing communication made Sabo worried.

It was the same reason concern clenched her heart tight in her chest.

"We'll have to divert ourselves to check on them. I wasn't planning on going back to headquarters until I'd seen Luffy anyway."

"It'll be good to see him again." Sabo nodded. His voice stayed light but she watched his fingers clench around the ship's rail.

It would be good to see him again, it'd be good. Her lips tightened into an approximation of a smile. It'd be fine. They'd be simply enjoying the unsettling little music concert. And may mother ocean and all the gods protect the Grand Line from her wrath if they weren't.

When Crocodile finally had managed to track down the Donquixotes he had not been thrilled to discover that their surveillance expert Violet was seriously out of commission. That was no fucking good. That pointed to their trouble with communications being a real fucking problem and not something with an easy fix.

He was, however, absolutely thrilled to get to Jinbei– calm, sensible Jinbei, alone without Straw Hat there– to start explaining Cross Guild to him, and why they hopefully didn't have to be at each others' throats. And without Buggy there to whine about the One Piece, too! What a huge stroke of luck.

It was on Jinbei's advice that they'd taken the conversation outside. Just in case Straw Hat got impulsively violent when he saw them. With Straw Hat Luffy, who fucking knew? The first time Crocodile met the kid he'd been throwing punches before Crocodile even knew what was happening.

Apparently he'd already made peace with Doflamingo, but with the Straw Hat kid who fucking knew?

Who fucking knew what to expect. Not him. Not Doffy's family. Not even Jinbei, who was on the kid's crew.

So they were outside, and when Straw Hat rolled up Crocodile felt like a deer in the headlights. He was sweating, though no one saw it, given how instantly he reabsorbed it into his skin.

Straw Hat stopped. And he stared at him with those big, dark eyes, as wide and unknowable as the sea itself.

And everybody went quiet and still while they all waited to see what he was gonna do.

And then Straw Hat grinned, that big, stupid, disarming grin of his, and waved at them all excitedly.

"Hey!! Croco! Hawk Guy! Smokey!! Are you here for my sister's concert, too? I guess she's pretty famous!"

Crocodile felt a little faint. The gamble had paid off.

He raised his hand– not his hook– and waved back.

Luffy thought of himself as someone who was pretty flexible. Someone who was pretty good at rolling with the punches. What with being stretchy and everything it was practically a talent. So when he saw Croco, Hawk guy and Smokey standing around with Jinbei and Yamato and the Donquixote guys… especially after the day he had just had… it was just kind of whatever. Almost normal.

Honestly he was mostly wondering at this point who wasn't friends with Crocodile. Cause like, Vivi was for sure, and Robin probably even if they had a complicated history, and Mingo who was now sort of his friend through the transitive property of Traffy was apparently Croco's friend.

And Croco had saved his life at Marineford for sure.

So like. He was cool with Croco. That was fine. And Zoro seemed to adore Hawk guy as much as he wanted to beat him. They spent two years together and Luffy was a little jealous of that. So Hawk guy was fine.

Smokey was a little less of a known element but he didn't seem to be trying to arrest anybody, and there were definitely people to arrest if he was going to. So Luffy quickly decided Smokey must be okay, too.

Anyway, aside from Hawk guy he'd already beaten everybody there up. He could do it again if he had to.

But hopefully there wouldn't be any reason for that, and they could just have a good time.

Everybody seemed to be waiting for his reaction. The Straw Hats had frozen, so had the conversation around the door as everybody turned to look at them.

He had to get this right, as captain. He put on his biggest grin, and waved to them.

"Hey!! Croco! Hawk Guy! Smokey!! Are you here for my sister's concert, too? I guess she's pretty famous!"

Croco, grumpy old man that he was, waved back at him. "Straw Hat! About time you joined us."

"Give me a break, it's been a busy day! I didn't expect to see you here– though Vivi's probably pretty happy to see you, huh?" He turned to grin in Vivi's direction. She did look pretty excited, she had a big smile crossing her face and was practically vibrating with the ironclad restraint to not tackle hug him from across the room.

"You didn't tell him I was gonna be here, Doffy?" Crocodile grumbled.

Mingo laughed that crazy little giggle he always had. "Like the kid said! It's been a busy day!"

Did everybody call him Doffy these days? Should Luffy switch? Mingo suited him more though.

Robin watched idly as Smoker sized her captain up from Crocodile's side. His eyes were scrunched in that particular way that she recognized from Alabasta—not anger, exactly, but a tension.

Maybe he was simply unsure of how to react to seeing his longtime on-again off-again rival, his quarry, when clearly so much had changed for him. It'd have to have, otherwise why would Smoker, the marine, be standing side by side with his old enemy? The man he locked away in Alabasta?

She was about to open her mouth when Vivi clearly couldn't take it anymore—she launched herself bodily in a sparkle of starlight to tackle hug Crocodile with a grin. "Croc!! It's so great to see you! I've missed you! And hey too, Smoker!"

"...." Smoker huffed out a breath of smoke. "Vivi. I see you didn't wind up getting dragged back to Alabasta. Good."

Robin decided to keep quiet for the moment, and observe how this played out.

Crocodile chuckled, and slung his arm around Vivi as she tackled him. "Hey, Viv. Missed you too. Happy to get such a warm welcome, honestly."

Jinbei, meanwhile, regarded Luffy. "Captain, how did things go with Uta? Do you have any information?"

Luffy shook his head. "Uta said she thinks it might be somebody's devil fruit doing something weird, I guess."

"That makes a fair bit of sense," Robin mused. "devil fruits are notoriously tricky. It could be simple as one canceling another out."

An arm sprouted to rub her chin as she smiled over at Vivi and Crocodile with a little wave of her free hand.

Mihawk made a low 'hm' sound as he shifted to cross his arms over his bare chest. "I'd agree with that if it weren't for our own discovery."

With a squeeze of Crocodile's arm, Vivi chewed her lip. "O-oh?"

"Could still be a devil fruit admittedly, but I gotta wonder," Crocodile grumbled. "We can't get anything on transponder that isn't Uta."

Luffy looked at Robin. "What's that mean?"

Robin tilted her head to the side as her finger brushed along the curve of her chin. "....it means that all signals are being jammed on this island. The only thing that exists per the transponder— is Uta. It means it's a rather large signal blockage, captain."

It still could be a devil fruit. That was the easy, sensible answer, but the question then became 'how' and 'why', and 'how purposeful'. Often the key questions to ask in these sorts of situations, and often innocuous in their answers.

But something didn't feel right. There was something that felt off in the air, and it gave her the sense that the answer wouldn't be one she liked to hear.

At least there was quite the group here, it was nice to see Crocodile again after their little reunion after Dressrosa.

"I knew this concert was fishy," Smoker murmured. "Losing all transponder signals ain't great. Especially with the Navy enroute to turn this concert into a bloodbath."

"Yeah, wait, hey, Smokey, aren't you with the navy?" Luffy demanded, hands on his hips.

"Oops," Smoker said dryly, "I got on the wrong ship."

"Huh?" Luffy stared vacantly at him, lengthening his neck to stare more closely.

Crocodile snorted. "He's fucking with you, Straw Hat. Smoker's on our side now."

That was a surprise. Smoker and that second of his, Tashigi, had long been stalwart opponents. They'd stood strong as the force of justice that seemed intent on chasing them all about the Grand LIne.

And now they were apparently pirates?

Smoker laughed roughly before he nodded. "That's right, Straw Hat. I've gone Pirate—I hit my fucking limit on what I could excuse as 'justice', and the lot of us cut ourselves free of the marines."

"Oh?" Luffy blinked and then he grinned. His long arm snapped out and he grabbed Smoker's hand to give it a shake. "Congratulations then, that's great!"

A dry, snide voice cut into the festivities from the doorway.Caesar Clown. "I hate to interrupt, but I thought you'd want to know that Violet's awake."

Smoker's half smile faded at the mention of Violet's awakening, but he shook Luffy's hand with a low laugh. "....we'll have a drink to celebrate it, Straw Hat."

Robin turned her attention to the door with a nod. "Thank you. Can we speak with her?"

Caesar nodded. "Well obviously but please only like, I don't know, five or six of you at a time, it's a small room."

Robin chuckled low under her breath as the image of the entire group—the gaggle of them, looming Donquixotes and Crocodile, and Smoker—and the Straw Hats, all jammed in the small kitchen jostling for space.

She couldn't help the small smile that spread across her lips, and the soft, barely audible chuckle as the figments of her imagination jostled for space.

When they'd entered the room, Violet was sitting up with her arms curled around her knees and her forehead pressed against them. She was breathing—shaky, soft breaths as her brow furrowed in quiet confusion.

Luffy, arms crossed, promptly demanded the answer to the question he was sure was on everybody's minds. "So what the heck happened, huh?"

Mihawk huffed a soft sound—maybe it was approval? Maybe he thought it was funny. It was kind of hard to tell.

Violet looked up with a thin smile. She looked tired. "Getting right to the point per usual, Luffy. It's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you again too," he huffed. He watched as Mingo knelt down beside her and brushed his fingers over her face. It was hard to read his expression behind his glasses, but it reminded him that maybe he should clarify his position anyway. "Mingo and I worked things out while you were asleep."

"I'd hoped you might, if you had half a moment to talk," She mused before she nuzzled her face against Mingo's hand. "I'm alright, Doffy. I promise. I've got some—unpleasant news, though."

"Worried you might say that." He trailed his fingers through her hair for a moment before giving her some space. "Well, let's not keep Straw Hat waiting then. What kind of unpleasant news?"

Luffy could see the way her fingers lingered on his arm as he stepped away before they folded on her lap. "Elegia's cut off from the outside world."

She closed her eyes. "It's in a sort of—bubble. There's the concert venue and the surrounding island—and I cannot sense anything outside of it. Not only that, but I'm actually having a bit of trouble seeing here, in general, as well as seeing into the minds of others."

"Ah…bother," Mihawk murmured.

"A bubble?" Crocodile demanded gruffly. "Why the hell are we in a bubble?"

"Oh, that one's obvious!" Finally, a question that Luffy could answer. He smacked his palm with his fist.

All eyes were on him now, especially the piercing stares of MIhawk and VIolet, who's uncanny eyes stared him down in anticipation of an answer.

Croco leveled his gaze at him too. "Well, Straw Hat? What's obvious?"

"If we're in a bubble, it must be one of Uta's songs! She used to be able to make people like, live in them, kinda, while she was singing! I guess she's gotten a lot better at it!" Luffy laughed, thinking of how much it had always annoyed Uta that people fell asleep when she sang, even if she was the one putting them in a trance.

Mingo laughed, too. "Well, that certainly explains it!"

"You didn't think you should mention this earlier, Straw Hat?" Croco demanded.

Luffy blinked at him. "No? Why would I?"

Violet blinked slowly, and then she started to laugh with MIngo. "We're living in a song…no wonder I can't see. No wonder people are a mystery to me now!"

Mihawk tilted his head. "That's a unique ability. Are we transported to some 'song' world, or is this some vivid illusion?"

Luffy thought about it. Admittedly, he had no idea exactly how much her powers might have grown. If everybody at the concert was there, probably quite a bit!

"If it's like when we were kids, then we're all probably asleep!"

"What?" Croco didn't look happy about that. "We're asleep? So our real bodies are just, what, laying around on the island somewhere?"

"Yup!" Luffy laughed, remembering waking up after his face had made a print in the dirt. "You worried a bug's going to crawl into your mouth, old man?"

"I think he's more worried about the marines who are coming, Straw Hat," Mingo suggested.

Mihawk nodded.

"Indeed. Luffy, Emperor Luffy—" he closed his eyes "if we're asleep here, it means we're all but defenseless when the marines encircle this island and burn it to cinders."

Violet hissed softly through her teeth, before she smiled. "Well. If we're all just asleep, that's a small matter to fix isn't it? She's a sensible girl, and your sister. If we just tell her the danger, she'll release us from her spell."

Luffy frowned. As weird as it was to talk to all these guys, they were kinda right. It seemed like Uta just hadn't thought about the consequences of her dream concert. That was alright. It'd be easy to warn her.

"Yeah, we can just talk to her!" Luffy nodded. "Pretty silly of her not to realize that she was the one causing the problem with your vision, though."

Crocodile lingered by the door with Mihawk while Luffy was gathering up a little party to go talk to Uta again.

"I don't like it, Hawky."

Mihawk frowned sharply, leaning against his shoulder as he murmured in a low voice. "Neither do I, Crocodile. I don't believe she could have simply forgotten about the risk her powers pose. Not with the way she's deliberately goading the World Government."

"Exactly." He pointed at Mihawk with his cigar. "And that's why we're gonna go along with Straw Hat instead of waiting around here to find out what the hell is up."

"You want to confront his sister?" Mihawk asked with a note of amusement. "That's my captain, alright."

As the moon rose over Elegia island, Uta looked out over concert grounds— still, and quiet. They were in a state of respite, of divine rest under the glow of the moon and in the beauty of a still night filled with dreams of a better world.

A new genesis cast in silent, pale moonlight. It filled her with a thrum of warmth, a shot of excitement as she imagined it. It was almost as intoxicating as their cheers, and the smiles on their faces.

She spread her hands out towards the tents and the small clustered groups on their campgrounds, her smile inching wider on her face. This was the shape of salvation— a salvation she'd bring to the entire world as she wiped the Great Pirate Era from the face of it.

This was her song of liberation, after all.

#luhan #boa hancock #monkey d. luffy #straw hat luffy #sir crocodile #revolutionary sabo #flame emperor sabo #uta one piece #one piece film red #film red #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #fic: one piece deicide

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