#Republic Navy

[star-wars-forever]

[empiregothic]

[netmors]

One day, admiral of the New Republic fleet, commodore of the Chiss Ascendancy fleet, and diplomat of the “no-longer-Empire” came into the bar… and began to think about how to get from the "books" to the "screen".

And make it clear to one Сhiss that they will not tolerate an armada of zombie stormtroopers and witches “on their shift.” Even if he is their friend.

I'm still trying to comprehend how much I ultimately disliked the Ahsoka series… The first season feels unfinished at all.

[illustratus]

The Battle of Texel 1673 by Jan de Quelery

[pedroam-bang]

“Rocinante” MCRN Tachi (ECF 270) - The Expanse (2015)

[kitkatsudon]

A brief foray into the military ranks of TKEM characters…

It’s no secret that our favourite boys from the Kingdom of Corea have a history in the military - but apart from Gon being bottom of his class in the Naval Academy (as confirmed by Choi Gitae in Ep4), what else do we know? As with every tiny detail that sparks my interest in this show, I took it upon myself to find out, and gave myself a headache in the process. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Lee Jihun:

I’m starting with him because he’s the only one I could find a concrete answer for, thanks to him being from a universe very similar to ours. Though we only see him very briefly in Ep16, from that short scene we can glean a little bit of information about what he was doing:

To find his rank, one needs only to look at his epaulettes. You can see that his are black, with three gold stripes: two thick ones, with a thin stripe in the middle. This identifies his rank as follows:

He’s a Soryeong, which is the equivalent rank to a Lieutenant Commander.

However, what I find perhaps more interesting for Jihun is this badge he’s wearing:

Though it’s blurry when you zoom in, I’m pretty sure it’s this one:

You heard it here first, folks. Lee Jihun is a Navy SEAL. They didn’t have to include this detail - you’d probably have to be quite familiar with the military to recognise it straight away, and I doubt that even most Korean fans would be able to recognise it, because I can tell you for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to recognise the equivalent for my own country. Someone on the production team decided this, and I want to give them a big kiss on the mouth, because now it’s confirmed that the sweet little Jihun we saw grew up to be totally badass after his abusive father passed away. I sincerely hope that it was a good life that led him to joining this branch of the military, and not some combination of horrible factors that pushed him into joining one of the most intense and dangerous branches… hm. I’m not going to dwell on that, actually. You can all make your own conclusions here.

Now… to the Kingdom. *sigh.* This is where things start to get more vague and confusing. I’m going to start with ranks first, and then go onto what they were doing as one big section because, spoiler alert, I haven’t got any sort of concrete idea.

Lee Gon:

His rank is easiest to determine, because Choi Gitae says it explicitly when they met at his father’s funeral in Ep4. I cross-referenced this with the closed-caption Korean subtitles, and everything adds up nicely: though he’s the Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces in the Kingdom, thanks to his position as the monarch, while he was actually serving, he rose to the rank of Daewi, or Lieutenant - the highest rank of the junior officers - before leaving the navy.

Jo Yeong:

When we see Yeong in his navy uniform in Ep6, this is what we can see:

Once again, that same pattern emerges on his epaulettes of two thick stripes surrounding a thin stripe - he’s a Soryeong, a Lieutenant Commander. This means that Yeong ranked one rank higher than Gon before he left the navy, which is something that brings me quite a lot of joy.

However, something I like even more than that is Yeong’s current title, as the leader of the Royal Guard. We all know him and love him as Captain Jo, but in Korean he’s referred to as 조영 대장 - Jo Yeong Daejang. This is what Gon calls him in the iconic “Are you having fun, Captain Jo?” and you can also see that title of Daejang on his character page on the official TKEM website. On WordReference, this is what happens if I search for 대장:

Ignoring the results about other things, it doesn’t seem to mean “Captain” explicitly, it’s more like a general kind of leader title. His rank isn’t necessarily “Captain,” it’s whatever Daejang is equivalent to. So… how good is a Daejang? Looking at the South Korean armed forces, in the army, air force, and marine corps, Daejang is equivalent to General, and in the navy, Daejang is equivalent to Admiral. To put this into context a little better, the only rank in the South Korean navy higher than Daejang is Wonsu, and this rank only exists on paper and has never been given to any officer of the South Korean armed forces. To achieve this rank of Wonsu, you’re appointed from the rank of Daejang when you have “distinguished achievements.”

In conclusion: Yeong has an incredibly high rank in the armed forces, second only really to Gon himself, assuming no one from the Kingdom has ever been appointed the rank of Wonsu either. However… there’s a first time for everything, and though I’m only speculating and of course could never say anything for sure, if anyone was going to get those distinguished achievements needed to be a Wonsu, it would be our Jo Yeong Daejang.

Choi Gitae:

I’m including him briefly because I have a bone to pick with the subtitles. In English, he’s Captain Choi. In Korean, Gon refers to him as Hamjang, which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t exist in the South Korean navy of our universe. In the Korean subtitles in Ep4, he’s named as 최 소령, Choi Soryeong, and he’s just… he’s not that. Let’s take a look at some pictures:

The epaulettes on the first picture and the star badge on the second tell us that his rank should be this:

He’s a Junjang, equivalent to a Rear Admiral (lower half). Not a Captain, and not a Lieutenant Commander. As for the Hamjang/Junjang disparity, I’m going to suggest that Hamjang is the Kingdom of Corea’s equivalent to the Republic’s Junjang.

So, what was everyone doing in the navy?

The only clue we have is a badge:

This is from Yeong’s uniform, but in Ep6 Choi Gitae was wearing the same, and Gon was wearing a gold version of it. However, for the life of me, I can’t seem to figure out what it is! The design seems to be that of a ship sailing through the waters, but that just gives ✨navy✨ in a general sense. Browsing google images, I’ve noticed the same golden badge that Gon wears on other high ranking members of the South Korean navy, so maybe it signifies a high rank? Or maybe it just means that the wearer is in the navy? I don’t know! I can’t work it out! What it tells us at least is, if Yeong isn’t wearing a “specialised” badge like Jihun… it’s unlikely that he served in any kind of special forces… which I feel is a piece of information that might break some hearts in the fandom as their headcanons shatter into pieces. I’m disappointed too, because when I saw Yeong’s badge without paying attention to any of the other characters, I thought that the two shapes on the sides looked a little like submariner dolphins, so I’ve spent half a year or so thinking that’s what Yeong did in the navy, before I realised that Gon and Choi Gitae had the exact same badge.

So, if anyone has been bothered enough to read this far and also happens to be a Korean military buff, I would love you forever if you could tell me exactly what this badge means, and whether it gives us any indication of what Yeong or Gon or anyone else was doing in the navy. However, maybe it’s good that it’s unclear, because that leaves fic writers plenty of room to wonder about what Gon and Yeong were doing in the military - whether they were doing different things, strengthening their bond as best bros doing the same thing, and if you’re on the same side of this fandom as me, whether they were repressing some big feelings at seeing each other in their military uniforms, or whether they were engaging in certain activities that are maybe stereotypical of sailors cooped together on the same boat without women to spend their nights with… there’s plenty of room for interpretation :D

[catilinas]

indexer’s temperament moment but. obviously i am guy who wishes more ancient texts survived (villa of the papyri pspspsps) but. i do also love how there is so little of everything that it is possible to have really specific comprehensive indexes

[arsenicflame]

i need someone to make me a cut of the second half of ofmd s2 but only with the bits i want to rewatch so i can simply pretend the other sections do not exist and that i enjoy the show again

[madcatacres]

I've seen a number of posts about ofmd's Ed Teach changing his careful avoidance being a personal killer after his dad (and no, shooting someone who's already shish kebabed does not count *by his rules* which are what we're talking about here - "technically the fire killed those people") and then mowing through a bunch of British navy guys when he thinks Stede may be dead after that massive attack on the Republic of Pirates. The immediate trigger is concern for Stede but also, Ed's first kills are a couple of armed uniformed bullies harassing who they think is a harmless fisherman, an old man, an easy target, over the mere fact that he might be fishing.

Ed killing the two naval guys in the rowboat pulling alongside his is a proportionate response there even without a panic or fugue state triggered by grief/concern for Stede. If soldiers or pigs decide they're going to fuck with you while and because you're a solitary, isolated helpless target and you can respond with lethal force, that is both proportionate and morally justified (fuck the law) as self-defense. You are in fear for your life in that situation if you have half a brain.

The pirates on and around RoP are also, I have to say, at war. This is a show that balances humor with issues about trauma and slapstick violence with occasional actual real world consequences, yeah, but remember historically this is an era when you could be a sort of franchised pirate called a privateer, the justification for the British Navy attacking Republic of Pirates is definitely that these are people attacking ships not under the control of a crown, not that they are just out there doing pirate shit, killing and maiming and robbing and worse (the worse gets mostly kept out of ofmd's slightly more light hearted and allegorical piracy-is-queerness universe, I feel like I need to specifically and briefly address that).

Besides that, while we're only shown adult pirates lying around the republic dead, we don't see any live children either. Whereas we've been very clearly (while the crew is shopping for stuff for Calypso's birthday) shown children running around the Republic earlier (two of them being the waifs played by Taika's kids). The level of atrocity beyond which the British were unwilling to go to is not tidily defined. Incidentally kids historically got pressed into service (one of the OFMD BTS photos I have seen shows a flyer posted with others in RoP referring to impressment so I think it's safe to consider it something alluded to by the actual show's plot) - quick rip from wikipedia article on impressment, "In 1703, an act [of the Parliament in England] passed limiting the impressment of boys under 18 years of age to those who were not apprenticed."

So yeah Ed absolutely gets blood on his hands personally for the first time in roughly thirty-five years, and that is a huge step for him but it's not only things falling into place with his integrating his identity, and killing for the crew and for love in the metaphoric landscape of piracy being queer love and family, it's also probably (in context of the show) more moral/responsible than the killing by proxy he's been doing as a pirate (although this is a show about pirates. Sort of.) So. Jackie's poisoning the occupying force and the guerrilla warfare in the stolen uniforms in context of the plot pass as reasonable measures (if desperate). I haven't seen those characterized anywhere as personal murdery actions. (Slightly off topic, I did see a post complain that Jackie passing out the poisoned booze wasn't FAST enough or, overlooking the incident entirely, that there wasn't an explicit enough example of racism/colonialist violence being punished in S2. Beg to differ. Jackie being less hotheaded than S1, pre-unbearding Jim is also entirely in character.) The staff of Spanish Jackie's, citizens (?) of the Republic of Pirates, and crew of the Revenge (and QAR) have been invaded and are at war. Ed's also at war, but no longer at war with himself.

I'm just gonna post this phrased awkwardly because every time the thought comes to mind and I want to compose something worded well I don't get around to it.

I'm leaving out any mention of a character death which I do not consider controversial and which had no immediate influence on Ed's (combat) actions. Also have some S3 speculative thoughts I'm keeping out of this rambly mess of a post.

[sidonius5]

ℐ 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒥𝒶𝓅𝒶𝓃𝑒𝓈𝑒 𝒜𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓊𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐬. 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓈 𝑔𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝑜𝓊𝓈...

[wwskn]

Random ass Earl Grey Macaron doodles

[empiregothic]

[s-elkye]

OC Art Requests

‘Aight boyos here is the Google form for OC requests!! To request, please fill out this Google form!! These are completely free, just to make things clear.

Made a couple of small changes, but there is no need to redo it if you already did. In fact, if you already submitted a character, please don't resubmit them or submit another to avoid duplicates; I only allow one character submission per person.

OC Request Form

Should not take you that long at all. I hope this format isn’t too intimidating!! You can find my TOS here: Link

Current IPs I'm taking OCs from:

Star Wars/SWTOR

Supernatural

Marvel/MCU

The Boys

Avatar (James Cameron)

Cyberpunk 2077

These are just meant to be fun practice for me! If you have an OC from any of the fandoms mentioned above, it's highly encouraged to submit them!

[illustratus]

The Raid on the Medway, 1667 by Willem Schellinks

[pedroam-bang]

Ansel Hsiao - Venator-class Star Destroyer (2022)

[thepunchingbag]

Cut Content KOTOR 2: Atton dialogue files after Mical calls him smelly