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menacing-anon · 7 months

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My Predictions Masterpost, Pre-2x04

This is an update on all my predictions after the first batch of episodes! Here's the compilation pre-2x01.

In new promotional material is this ad; I haven't gone through all the photos on the Warner Bros. website that I haven't seen, because at a glance, they seem to give too much away. And as last time, I'm sure there are some great theories out there that I have to miss because I'm running late! Hopefully for the last time this season :)

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR 2x01-2x03.

First, I'll sum up what I got right and wrong in my previous masterpost, though I also made a bunch of predictions between eps that are only documented in my (under construction) reaction vids.

Episode 1: Impossible Birds

What I got right: The cake the Revenge crew eats is wedding cake, and we find out by the end of the conversation about Izzy and Blackbeard's relationship that Ed has repeated his violent act from the finale. Fencing with Izzy is Stede's dream sequence, transportation is an issue for them, and this ep features Stede and Oluwande shopping, etc. and the rainy shots of Stede and his crew. Stede lies awake next to Roach thinking about Ed, which alternates or is consecutive with Ed playing with the cake toppers, but,

What I got wrong: It happens at the end of this episode, and Stede thinks about what he heard about Ed that day. The wedding raid is the first time Ed is shown, the conversation with Izzy happens right after they eat cake, and Ed plays with the cake toppers in the auxiliary closet.

Episode 2: Red Flags

What I got right: Ed just had a rough night, then behaves like he's moving on. The storm happens, and the crew mutinies. Ed is the person with the rock tied around them.

What I got wrong: The Fang and Izzy area starts the mutiny, though Izzy is not in favor of killing Ed. He is still thrown overboard by his crew, is seen falling into the water here, reunites with Mer!Stede and emerges from the sea at the end. The intended new captain is Jim — this we just never find out. Stede runs across the beach, lies awake under Buttons' hammock, and throws the bottle in this ep.

Episode 3: The Innkeeper

What I got right: Izzy's amputation is for medical reasons. The man Ed confronts is a hallucination of Hornigold.

What I got wrong: Izzy's amputation is in this episode and due to the injuries he sustained before the gunshot. The innkeeper is not a character seen anywhere else.

The Rest:

What I got right: The Chinese Outfit Era is before Green Shirt Era. The crew is dressed in Chinese outfits by the (eventual) capturers. The scene where Ed headbuts Stede is around the time of the escape, and they're not made up then or when Stede tells someone that he hurt Ed. This is their IRL reunion. Lucius is alive, he reappears before Stede and Ed make up (in fact, Stede never tries to reunite with Ed while thinking he might have killed Lucius), and this is a reaction to him:

I'm proud of myself for this last one 😅

What I got wrong: The Chinese Outfit Era in in episode 4. The crew wears the Chinese outfits to blend in with another group. The scene with Anne and Mary? is Stede and Ed's IRL reunion. This shot of Zheng is in episode 6, on the other side of this street chaos:

Now onto predictions! *rubs palms*

Episode 4: Fun and Games

Every time, the way I thought an ep would end was actually the way the next started, so I figure we start with a headbut! 😅 B****, you thought 🤭 Ed probably walks out of the sea in his dream sequence, I would say before that so the headbut causes a sudden tone shift that doesn't wear off.

In the in-between part, Stede tells his re-changed crew the headbut was an accident, but I bet much of what happens has not seen the light of day at all and is so much fun! 😃

...Later, Stede runs into the similarly rumpled, mark-on-his-lip Ed at this furniture... shop? "Former" means Ed intends to leave, so maybe he came to stay with his buddies?

We meet Anne and Mary?, Anne and Stede talk, and they have a double dinner date. It takes a turn 😅

Although the kiss looks like it's in the same room as the dinner — where Stede is already sitting and there would be someone else for Anne to look at — ngl, it's off. Look at the candles and paintings behind Stede 🤔

I'm saying it's this room, or at least the same room in a different scene:

And Anne's tone in this conversation could be interpreted as flirtatious, so idk, maybe she's for real and that look after the kiss is because someone interrupted. Still, the idea that Anne is making a point or trying to evoke some reaction feels more right to me, enough to outweigh the set details that I can't explain away, so I'm throwing it in as an alternative prediction.

By Ed's look and the setting — ooh, and Mary sitting next to him! — I believe this also happens at Anne and Mary's place. I guess they split into duos to talk, before the dinner. EDIT: Actually no, I think it's after Ed causes some havoc at dinner!

There's that clip where Stede demands Ed's respect as his captain. Someone predicted that Ed might step down as captain in recognition of the harm done to the crew, and I suppose it might also be because... they just wouldn't let him stay in a position of power if he sticks around. I believe this might play out towards the end.

Anne and Mary have a bunch of furniture and stuff, and Izzy's peg leg looks like it could be from another object, so I say he gets it from there. Through whom? All my guesses are equally unsupported, but maybe Stede feels responsible, or his anger towards Izzy has cooled off enough to think about what might help him.

What with their training, I think the rest of the Light Shirt Era is too much for one ep, so I'll say it happens in...

Episode 5: TBA

Ed is in his If I Was A Regular Dude Phase outfit, and Stede demands his respect as his captain. I have no idea how they still aren't made up, tbh. Stede isn't just immediately telling Ed why he didn't meet him at the dock, that he loves him, and that he's been looking for him for weeks? 🤨 The whole crew isn't groaning at them to just kiss already? Hyped to see what gives.

Anyway, Ed's disrespect prompts Stede to start training with Izzy. Stede may very well approach Izzy with the idea, 'cause I doubt he would go to Izzy just to be like, "what do I do if Ed doesn't respect me?" 😆 The way I see it, Izzy had two issues with Stede as a captain: his people-positive management style and lack of piracy skills. Stede was never gonna stop supporting his crew, but now that even Izzy is realizing Stede is onto something with that, he could probably respect Stede as a captain if he became a more capable pirate, so he's willing to help make that happen. Otherwise, Izzy sticks around because he feels like he owes it to the crew to improve their situation, which I'm basing on his 2x03 conversation with Stede where he takes responsibility for their pain and wants to prevent more of it.

Izzy instructs Stede on the deck and slices candles. We get a raid, maybe a small one for practice, where Stede picks up a gorgeous coat, fights a guy, and tells an observing Izzy that he's done a punch, as demonstrated on him earlier.

The Rest, Chronologically:

I'm still grouping events by OOTD, though now breaking it down further to include Ed. Below is a handy-dandy chart for your reference. Keep in mind as well that there's Before Earring and With Earring for Stede.

I'm more or less saying it's an episode per slice.

Episode 6: TBA

I am so confused about the order of events in Green Shirt Era 😭 If how much 2x01 changed my predictions for the next two eps is anything to go by, 2x05 or 2x06 will make a lot of this fall into place.

"Alls I know is," in Green Shirt Regular Dude, Izzy and Ed talk outside Jackie's, then Ed talks to Jackie while Stede is a seagull nearby, probably after becoming the object of enthusiasm of these folks outside:

So maybe this is later in the same ep:

Quite possibly around here, Zheng returns and draws her dagger, and Oluwande fights someone.

Green Shirt Era also comprises this:

I think it would happen sooner rather than later, to allow time for more overarching threats and introduce the fireworks, which I'm pretty sure are involved in a later, Banes-related explosion — check out the top right corner.

Also, it's Before Earring, and speaking of that, I know people thought Stede's screaming is post-battle, but I think it might be around here, because of the bullet wound or whatever is going on. Banes also talks to the "gentlemen" at least an episode before they do anything, probably at the end.

Episode 7: TBA

We enter Green Shirt With Earring Back-To-Black Back-To-Beard. Someone was like, "why are they avoiding showing Ed in the ad? what are they hiding?" The beard that he grows overnight! And that's what everyone's screaming about here, if you ask me 🤭

More likely, it's an intimidation tactic! 🙌 Which is why Ed equally quickly loses it in time for the larger-scale beach battle.

Stede talks to someone about being a failure, probably before the succeeding action. The soldiers raid? the bar, and Zheng, Stede and Ed prepare to fight. There's that protagonist-caused explosion, and I suppose that's when chaos ensues on the street. Right before it might also be when Ed says that something's wrong.

New threat introduced and assessed, all the mains gather to discuss the suicide mission: the beach battle. Right? Surely it's not at the bar. I don't know when Oluwande, Jim and Archie wear dumpling chains, but nobody was shown stealing them, so perhaps it's after they ally with Zheng against their common threat.

lizardywizardry points out in the replies to the ad that "it's only suicide" is clearly from a different conversation than "if we die," predicting that Stede gives Ed a last-night-on-Earth speech, and naranja-petrificada did raise the possibility of Gentlebeard having a bittersweet sex scene with that context in the finale.

On the first point, yes, and I'm not oblivious to the possibility that that's actually when Gentlebeard make up. Super late, but as naranja-petrificada suggests, penultimate episode para||el 🤷‍♀️ I won't commit to that prediction, though; I think they'll get there by the time they're planning all together.

Secondly, Gentlebeard's probable sex scene — Chekhov's orgasms — totally escaped my previous post, whoopsie daisies, but I'll say... end of episode 7. It suits for an ending, it almost para||els the timing of their first kiss, and it won't detract from the fuckery-heisty-ambitious-packed-twisty-cliffhanger finale. naranja-petrificada says that might mean a morning after scene, which I would also bet on, and they have some more interesting ideas from there!

Episode 8: TBA

Morning after scene, then suicide mission. During it is the other time I think Ed might say a storm is coming.

Frenchie, Lucius and Izzy infiltrate in army? attire. But as I wrote last time: Izzy is also the only character seen talking to the new antag, about piracy and in his regular outfit. No way he gets in cahoots with them, and he could be recognized during the fuckery if it were before, so I guess that's in the aftermath...? Much to think about.

Also Red Shirt Era manages to slip in after...? I am SO confused, I'm SAYING 😫

And that's it! I'll be back to reevaluate before the next drop! 😃

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our-flag-means-death-ao3feed · 1 year

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No Light to Break Up the Dark

by SpaceCadetGlow

What Izzy sees when he looks at his captain, from the day they meet to the day Izzy tries to leave. Based on the January prompt: "Whenever I look at you..."

“Above all else,” Edward says, hushed and rough, like he’s just finished a pipe, “is loyalty to your captain.”

“You have it,” Izzy says. The moment seems to hang suspended in time, anticipation crushing so thick and heavy on Izzy’s chest that he’s barely breathing. Edward shifts forward an inch in his seat–

Then he leans back, reaching for a bottle for them to share. His smile is thin, but it puts Izzy enough at ease that he can sit up and take a couple of slugs, until he feels right in his body again, until he’s fully cognizant at his captain’s side.

Words: 5917, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of SCG's Year of the OTP 2023

Fandoms: Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Israel Hands

Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Israel Hands

Additional Tags: YOTP2023, Angst, Pining, Mutual Pining, Golden Age of Piracy, Pre-Canon, Emotionally Repressed, Sexual Repression, Dubious Consent, Internalized Homophobia, Sex Work, Shame, Canon-Typical Violence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Post-Canon, Blackbeard | Edward Teach's Kraken Era, Canon Compliant, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex, Izzy steadfastly refusing to analyze his own feelings, Character Study, They don't actually fuck

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/44422909

#Our flag means death #ofmd

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not-wholly-unheroic · 3 years

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On the Origins of Hook: The Complicated and Often Contradictory Backstory of a Villain

The story of Peter Pan has been told and retold in writing, on the stage, and on the big screen countless times, yet in the original storyline, we are thrust into a world with a pre-established (and presumably long-standing) relationship between its hero and villain with little information regarding their pasts. So far as the audience is concerned, Peter and Hook have always been a part of the Neverland...yet as evidenced by the many retellings that attempt to answer the question of these characters’ origins, clearly, people want to know more. Barrie, however, leaves a great deal to the imagination and while he tackles a bit of Peter’s past in The Little White Bird, there is significantly less information about Hook in his writings, and much of it is up for debate, as Barrie arguably contradicts himself.

In terms of canon (which for the purposes of this article I am limiting to Barrie’s final published version of the novel), much of what we know about Hook can only be inferred from a few brief passages. In the initial introduction of the pirates, Barrie gives us the following description of Hook:

In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, reclined James Hook, or as he wrote himself, Jas. Hook, of whom it is said he was the only man that the Sea-Cook feared. He lay at his ease in a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right hand he had the iron hook with which ever and anon he encouraged them to increase their pace. As dogs this terrible man treated and addressed them, and as dogs they obeyed him. In person he was cadaverous and blackavized, and his hair was dressed in long curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly. In manner, something of the grand seigneur still clung to him, so that he even ripped you up with an air, and I have been told that he was a raconteur [storyteller] of repute. He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew. A man of indomitable courage, it was said that the only thing he shied at was the sight of his own blood, which was thick and of an unusual colour. In dress he somewhat aped the attire associated with the name of Charles II, having heard it said in some earlier period of his career that he bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts; and in his mouth he had a holder of his own contrivance which enabled him to smoke two cigars at once. But undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw.

From this, we may be able to draw a few conclusions about who Hook was before he came to the island. (1) He was likely a sailor, if not a pirate, BEFORE he met Peter, given that he had previous interactions with “The Sea Cook”--that is, Long John Silver. (2) He was alive and most likely an adult by the mid 1700s, as in Treasure Island, Billy Bones--a former crewmate of Silver’s--has the date 1745 in his log and the dates 1750 and 1754 on his treasure maps. (3) Hook’s hairstyle and fashion is similar to that of Charles II, whose reign ended with his death in 1685.

We are also informed by John that Hook was supposed to have been Blackbeard’s bosun. Blackbeard was born somewhere around 1680 and may have been a privateer earlier in his career at sea, but he didn’t actually take up piracy until 1716 and had only a very brief reign of terror before he was killed off the coast of North Carolina in 1718. Assuming Hook was meant to be Blackbeard’s bosun after he went pirate, this gives us a pretty narrow window of time during which Hook might have interacted with him. And, if we take the comment about the Sea Cook seriously, then Hook must have been pretty young at the time he worked for Blackbeard, given that there is a twenty-seven year gap between Blackbeard’s death and the earliest date Billy Bones offers in connection with Silver.

Hook also uses words and phrases such as, “Pan, who and what art thou?” which would seem to indicate that he is from a time period centuries before the Darlings come to visit. (“Thee” and “thou” had pretty much completely fallen out of common use in English by the late 1700s/early 1800s.)

So far, so good. The dates might make it a bit of a stretch, but we can pretty comfortably say that prior to Neverland, Hook was a sailor--and probably a pirate--during the 1700s, was likely born in the late 1600s, and was possibly a related to Charles II, who had many illegitimate children. This possibility fits nicely with Barrie’s statement that, “Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze.”

We don’t know much about his parentage, however, except that Hook’s voice cracks when he is speaking to Smee about mothers regarding the neverbird’s refusal to leave her eggs even after the nest falls into the water. Whether this is because he was close to his own mother and is lamenting her loss or he had a rather indifferent (or even cruel) mother and he is lamenting his own lack of a loving childhood is up for debate, though the official sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet--written in 2006 by Geraldine McCaughrean--favors the second interpretation. (Again, however, for the purposes of this article, I am only considering Barrie’s published novel as canon.)

We also learn that Hook attended Eton, a rather prestigious school for boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Assuming Hook completed his schooling there and was, therefore, at least eighteen by the time he joined up with Blackbeard, it would place his being born somewhere close to 1700. Assuming his interaction with Long John Silver was, at the earliest, probably around 1745, and that this interaction happened prior to his visiting the Neverland, it puts Hook (physically) at approximately age 45 by the time we meet him in the book, give or take a bit.

There are two potential problems with that timeline, however. (1) In Barrie’s original novel, only Peter stays young forever. The boys can technically grow up, and Peter “thins them out” when they do. (Decide for yourself whether that means banishment or something worse.) If this is the case, Hook shouldn’t still be alive or, even if the aging process is slowed down, at the very least, he should be an old man, given that the Darlings visit in the early 1900s...making him at least two hundred years old. (2) Near the end of the book, when Hook is trying to convince the boys to join his pirate crew and John asks innocently whether they would still be loyal subjects of the king, Hook responds with, “You would have to swear, ‘Down with King George!’” John (and likely the audience) assumes here that Hook is talking about King George V, who would have been the present king of England at the time the novel was published. If this is the case, how does Hook know who the king is? Has he been able to leave the island and find out this information? Or is Hook, perhaps, from a more modern era than we suspect? Cleverly, Barrie leaves this question open-ended, as Hook could just as easily have been referring to King George the First, who ruled England from 1714 until 1727.

As for personal hobbies, we know only that he loves flowers and plays the harpsichord--an instrument that was once quite popular but which had fallen out of favor by the 1800s, replaced by the piano.

The rest of the information we get from Barrie about Hook’s origins comes primarily from his “Hook at Eton” speech, delivered in 1927--many years after his original play (1904) and novel (1911). And here’s where things get interesting (read: contradictory). Because he wrote the speech so many years later, as a sort of afterthought, and because of the inconsistences with the novel, I personally reject this information as canon. Nevertheless, it is Barrie’s take on his own character and, therefore, is worth at least considering.

In this work, we are told that Hook not only attended Eton but also--at least briefly--went to Oxford. This in and of itself poses no major problems for the timeline suggested by the novel. What DOES pose a problem, however, is the fact that Barrie claims to have been in contact with Hook’s “Aunt Emily”--apparently his closest surviving relative--and has been in search of possible photographs of Hook during his time there. This would indicate that Hook MUST be from a much later, more modern era than the book suggests, as photography didn’t really come into fashion until the mid-1800s, and even if “Aunt Emily” is quite old (and she is likely a good fifteen to twenty years OLDER than Hook if we assume she is near in age to one of his parents) at the time of Barrie’s supposed meeting with her, she couldn’t have reasonably been expected to have been born before the early 1800s, placing Hook’s own birth nearer to the 1850s. While some of the information in the novel might be explained away to fit with this date (his choice of dress and hairstyle, for instance), he could not possibly have interacted with Blackbeard or Long John Silver. In fact, he could not have been a pirate--at least, not in the traditional sense--at all, as the Golden Age of Piracy (1650s--1730s) had long passed and the Age of Sail ended in the 1860s. Because of this inconsistency, some have argued that Barrie may have intended Hook to be a more modern man who essentially became trapped in a child’s fantasy land. He became a “pirate” only AFTER his interactions with Pan--that is, he took on the role of a villain because that is how Peter and the children imagined him--and that John’s assertions about his interactions with Blackbeard and Silver are merely rumors that the boy has heard.

Setting aside this apparent contradiction in the timeline, we DO learn some other interesting facts about Hook. For instance, Hook’s blood (which was said in the novel to be thick and strangely colored), is specified as having been yellow. This, along with his appearance having been described in the novel as “cadaverous” has lead some to conclude that Hook was likely rather sickly as a child. We also learn that Hook enjoyed the Lake poets and strawberry mess (a dessert), collected keys, performed well in sports while at Eton (though he did not like water sports as he rather surprisingly hated the feeling of water on his skin), and played the flute. We also learn that he was politically conservative and was probably never in a romantic relationship.

There are a few other bits of information about Barrie’s idea of Hook that can be found in the early manuscripts for the play, which feature “deleted scenes.” One such manuscript--the earliest, I believe--can be found here. (Though good luck with reading it without going cross-eyed because Barrie’s handwriting is BAD.) However, I think this post has gone on long enough, yet we are still left with many unanswered questions. But perhaps this is what Barrie intended all along. Perhaps, fittingly, we are ultimately left to fill in the blanks about this villain of the Neverland with our own imagination.

_____

Thanks to @katherinenotgreat for asking me to do a post on Hook’s origins. Thanks also to @concordia-cum-sinistro for your input. Feel free to add your own information regarding the original manuscript drafts, as I know you are more familiar with them than I am.

#peter pan #captain hook #captain james hook #james hook #jm barrie

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 4 years

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Don't feel like you have to make a list or anything but do you have any specific fic recs? I just really enjoyed that one you mentioned!

OH BOY DO I

Jonny Recommends a Bunch of OP Fics

(i know you said no need to make a list but i’m gonna anyways, here’s a bunch of junk grabbed from the mess that are my bookmarks. most of these will be gen and G/T rated unless indicated otherwise cause that’s how i roll. i feel like i’m not very good at describing things to make them sound appealing but i will try! if nothing else, know i’ve read everything on this list at least two or three times.)

Oneshots, AKA Most of What I Read

Ring Around by Maldoror_Chant - ~600 words - Platonic kisses!! It’s just so goddamn cute please read it.

Underwater by ThisCat - ~1000 words - In which Luffy almost drowns, and thinks about some stuff, and the author has one of the best grasps on his personality and attitude towards death I’ve ever seen. Also every time I reread this I find myself holding my breath, which should tell you something.

✖ by Faktory - ~1000 words - Vivi gets a tattoo, for remembrance’s sake. We need more Vivi in fic just in general, and this one is just so warm and meditative and lovely.

reach up to me (if you even can) by guiltylights - ~1500 words - Look it’s just a fic about Ace getting to see tiny Luffy post Gear Third and laughing his ass off for a solid five minutes. Good shit. Brothers.

In Another Life by marimoes - ~1800 words - Hey I know you guys love Doflamingo and Rocinante do yourselves a favor and just read this one? It’s not happy but man it sure is something. Closure? I dunno but it’s good.

tomorrow never happens by midnightluck - ~2000 words - Pre-canon, Sabo runs into a Vice Admiral who seems to know him for some reason and everything works out pretty well.

Back So Soon by Moriohno - ~3000 words - Post-canon, Brook keeps his promise, just go read it right now it might make you cry but like for happy reasons.

A Way to Reach the Future by JadeFlicker - ~3000 words - The Strawhats accidentally land on the frozen wasteland that used to be Ohara. More hopeful than you’d think. Also one of the few fics I can’t read in public because I will cry.

Interlude for Eight Straw Hats and One Giraffe by Maldoror_Chant - ~4000 words - Kaku has a terrible horrible no good very bad day, and probably has to falsify a mission report. Honestly just hilarious from start to finish.

paint the flag and fly it high by Codedredalert - ~4000 words - Pre-canon fic about the baby Heart Pirates stealing a submarine, designing their Jolly Roger, and largely failing to paint said Jolly Roger on said submarine.

disaster in the making (we’re not sorry for it) by guiltylights - ~4000 words - The original fic I recced that prompted this ask, but I’m putting it here again now that I’m making a proper list cause it’s just excellent and needs more appreciation. Law crashes a Shichibukai meeting with a big sack of hearts and Hancock and Doflamingo get to bear witness.

Deliverance by Sarcasticles - ~7000 words - Listen, I know a lot of you who follow me love Sabo and Koala. Read this fic. Pre-canon, they have their first mission on their own, everything goes wrong, Sabo does some arson, it’s excellent.

Prospects by BrambleFuzz - ~9000 words - Katakuri joins the long list of people who did not get the heads up that friendship with Monkey D. Luffy isn’t optional once he’s made up his mind about it. Rip.

Birds of Alubarna by kurgaya - ~29000 words - The Strawhats go to a masquerade and that’s kind of all I can say about the plot on this one- and okay listen I know it’s long and also kind of baffling at first but YALL this author’s prose is so floaty and magical and it goes so well with the sort of unreal fantastical nature of events and it’s just good?? It’s just good. Also Vivi is in it and that’s always a bonus.

Chaptered Fics, AKA Half of These are Fix-It Fics and I’m Not Sorry

Lionheart by cyan96 - ~28000 words, Unfinished - tbh I nearly didn’t put this one on the list because I feel like most people who follow me have probably already read it, since I read my tags and I know how many of you love Law and Cora, but, on the off chance you haven’t, go read it rn. Go. Do it.

Sea of Monsters by WhirlyBird70 - ~32000 words, Unfinished but it’s more like a bunch of short stories anyways - Bunch of fucked up stuff in this one so mind the tags but like, it’s a The East Blue is Full of Demons AU and it’s good weird shit so if you’re into that go read it.

Small Changes by sweetscentences - ~37000 words, Finished - More Law and Cora. Honestly this one is just… so happy and domestic and good?? Also it’s got baby Heart Pirates, and they’re fucking adorable. (Also the author says they’re working on a sequel, so go support that!)

our shores of starlight (come sailing in) by kurgaya - ~46000 words, Finished - First thing on this list to not actually be gen- it’s Zolu, kinda, but not really focused on that? Mostly it’s just about Zoro. He’s a ghost in a sword, which is absolutely not gonna stop Luffy from recruiting him. I already talked about how great kurgaya’s prose is somewhere above this and that applies here too, it’s just gorgeously written.

Scylla by missmungoe - ~50000 words, Finished - Technically this one’s not gen either, it’s Makino/Shanks. Makino marries a pirate, becomes a pirate, gets a sword, nearly gives Garp an aneurysm. Please read it.

Overcoming an Era by Beyond_Kailani - ~60000 words, Unfinished - Ace bumps into a very familiar blonde in a top hat while searching for Blackbeard and ends up dragging him along. Maybe my favorite ongoing fic? I’m a huge sucker for canon divergence with regards to the ASL brothers and this is just, that, and it’s wonderful.

Within Risk of Reason by Depths - ~60000 words, Unfinished - Another Sabo-centric ASL fix it, I’m a simple woman with simple tastes- but really. It’s got time travel, and crimes, and vaguely dubious adoption. What more do you need? It’s so so good.

Obligatory Shitty Self-Promotional Note

I’m not narcissistic enough to make a whole nother list here, but I also write OP fic and my ao3 is Origamidragons if you want to check that out!

#some of these authors are my friends #n some of them i dont talk to but i know follow this blog #so if your writing is on here: youre so cool and i love you so much #most of them also have more fics i love but this got long #so if you see something u like here #check out their other work as well #faq #i didnt put many overtly shippy ones on here #since ik theres a lot of people following me who have diff tastes #although if yall want that list too just ask #fic recs #not japanese #jonny answers #one piece

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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FEATURE: Why The Seven Warlords Are Perfect Examples Of One Piece's World-Building

So, in my opinion, successful worldbuilding requires two crucial things:

1) Enough details that the world feels fleshed out.

2) That the details are introduced and arranged in a way that feels natural.

If you lack one, the other suffers. Too little of the first, and the world will seem dull and lifeless. If you stumble at the second, the reader might as well look at a series' encyclopedia instead. Luckily, One Piece has both of these aspects in spades, with each new island the Straw Hats discover or character they meet or detail they learn usually feeling like a proper extension of what has come earlier. Even when they launch into the sky to rescue an island in the clouds or find themselves attacked by a horde of zombies or wander through a town made entirely of dessert foods, it never seems out of place or like it's stretching the series' internal logic — such is the strength of the series' world-building.

However, if one thing represents the consistent power of the series' world-building as a whole, I think it's the Warlords of the Sea. Based on the real-life privateers who would use their approval by a country's navy to plunder certain targets, they're notorious pirates who, in exchange for some of their money and a government favor from time to time, are allowed to roam the world un-targeted by the Marines. It's a pretty cool concept, one that creator Eiichiro Oda introduces through Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman.

Mihawk is first seen cutting through Don Krieg's already wrecked ship, having terrorized the blustering pirate previously in the Grand Line. He is then more than willing to cut down (but not kill) Zoro after the young man challenges him to a duel. This combination establishes a grey area for One Piece, as so far, Luffy has only taken on guys like Morgan, Buggy, and Kuro — men that lean more toward abject cruelty when they're allowed (though we'll see Buggy change a little as the series goes on). It shows that the morality of pirates is a wide spectrum, so the fact that later, when it's revealed that Luffy doesn't see himself as a true hero, it doesn't come out of nowhere.

It also establishes the Grand Line as not just a place where Luffy will be forced to overcome bigger obstacles on the way to his dream, but a location of pure chaos for most. Mihawk is both a new character and an omen of terrifying things to come.

Soon after, we get our first reference to Jimbei (sadly, we'd have to wait over a decade to see our lovable fish uncle for the first time) and learn there are seven of these warlords. Not only does this number let us know that the Warlords have a fair bit of organization (or at least an attempt at organization by the government) but it also creates anticipation for meeting them and, in some cases, beating them. In many series, the protagonist faces boss battle after boss battle, with new villains seemingly coming out of nowhere after the last one goes down. But by establishing a group and a concrete amount here, Oda begins adding structure to what would normally seem like a revolving door system of bad guys. When Luffy faces Crocodile (and later Moria and Kuma and Doflamingo) he isn't punching an escalating, random assortment of foes. He's taking on a system pre-set by Oda in the beginning.

Crocodile's role in the series goes a long way in not only giving us an idea of how huge some of these challenges will be for Luffy going forward on his adventure but also revealing crucial details about the political landscape of the Grand Line. Through Crocodile's plot, we learn that many of these kingdoms are ruled by a monarchy, but are often ripe for revolution, as the relationship between the royalty and their citizens is unsteady at best.

This is not only a reflection of what the Great Pirate Era has done to regular people (many live in fear of pirates and hunger for comfort from the ruling party) but also of the wider relationship with the world government. We haven't even met the higher-ranking Marines or the Elders yet, and yet we know the job they're doing taking care of the Grand Line probably isn't very good if the influence of outside corruption constantly threatens to lead to all-out war in a kingdom.

When Blackbeard attempts to gain membership in the Warlords, is rejected, and then finally admitted upon his capture of Ace, it further reveals an unsteady systemic power balance. So hungry for reputation is the World Government that they grant Blackbeard status without much thought given to it. He's allowed to join the club simply because he nabbed Whitebeard's 2nd Division Commander. And when the Straw Hats get to Thriller Bark (and are first told of things that will pay off muuuuch later like Wano and Kaido), this pride is taken a step further when Moria refuses Kuma's help in dealing with Luffy.

This kind of worldwide instability and constant thirst for power helps us better engage with stuff like Crocodile's quest to find the ancient weapon Pluton or the fact that, over the years, Doflamingo has seemingly been involved with every criminal activity ever, or the way that Boa Hancock stayed a member of the group even though she obviously seems like she's on Team Luffy for a chunk of the Marineford War. Additional bits like that don't matter in the slightest if it doesn't fit with the world-building themes of the series so far, but in One Piece they all become reasonable parts of the total package.

Good world-building is so much more than being able to tell readers which way the toilets flush or how a certain character like their meat cooked (though both of those are nice additions). It's taking the over-arching structure of a story and making it so cohesive that no matter what detail you decide to spackle in there, it fits and sticks. Everything works with everything else because the reader understands the system you're playing with. Through the Warlords, Oda didn't just introduce a multitude of characters and locations and new pieces of lore to obsess over but helped to reinforce and strengthen wider themes already in place. That's good writing.

Who is your favorite Warlord? Let me know in the comments!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

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