#fic meta

the wikipedia elaborates: "The trainees undergo practices such as hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation, prolonged nakedness, sexual humiliation and deprivation of warmth, water and food. Many of these techniques are against international law if used in interrogations."

back to gaz's wiki, on his mindset post RTI: "Kyle prides himself on high tolerance and tactical awareness."

we NEED to focus more on how insane and eager to be shaped into something better this young lad is. he wants to be sharpened like a knife so badly.

(reference: this is the chris meta about the jersey-verse/layla and bailey verse)

beaaaaaaans i've been thinking about this since the moment you sent it. here are some thoughts. rambling thoughts mostly, but thoughts i guess. (this got long- about 1.6k) (and if you have no idea what we're talking about: this is meta in the ship of theseus verse.)

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first up: i think buck is jee-yun's favorite person. she loves her mom, loves her dad, loves aunties hen and karen, worships mara, little starstruck by denny because he's old enough to be Cool but not Old, and the baby is The Baby.

(she is very protective of the baby. people worried she'd be jealous of the baby but she's actually like: IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BABY?????????? THE BABY CRAWLED AWAY. I WILL BRING THE BABY BACK. THE BABY LOOKS BORED. I WILL GET TOYS TO ENTERTAIN THE BABY.)

she loves buck because he's fun and exuberant and he makes amazing desserts. he's an adult but he's not one of those adults who's always tired and not now sweetie. when he babysits her and the baby, he calls the baby "big guy" and "lil guy" and jee is ENCHANTED because buck is so cool and he makes it look so easy coming up with nicknames like that.

1. Soft dom Stede Bonnet. Captain Voice, "stand down", "on ya feet!", "you were gonna burn my face off, remember?", "what'd you do with him?"

2. Modern AU Ed Teach loves Prince. It's in a number of fics. Probably because Prince was fucking amazing (what a loss) and talented and beautiful and masc and femme and told gender to fuck off way back to the 70s and never apologized for it and was still a sex symbol. Also, purple.

3. Bear with me ... Modern AU Izzy Hands is still a dick but less so, due to different societal trappings (and perhaps has more potential to realistically redeem himself without dying). The only way he can be the same level of dick in a modern AU is if they're running a criminal enterprise, something that comes parallel to the pirate thing. Otherwise, he's usually just an angry bureaucrat who's obsessed with Ed. Just without the pirate part.

4. Olu and Jim are in love in every universe, anchors for each other.

5. Modern AU Archie is either a new employee of Ed's or is one of his oldest friends. I like both. Because Archie is so funny and odd, but I think her chaotic personality works with Ed's love of whimsy. Side note, mostly unrelated... I noticed that people make up all kinds of shit about what Archie is short for... Madeleine Sami has Indian ancestry, and Archie is a common nickname for the Indian name Archana, so in my head, that's her full given name.

6. Stede is closer to Alma than to Louis. Makes sense. She's older, and she's sharp like Mary but maybe enough like Stede for him to feel that. She was hurt when he left. Louis was maybe too young to be.

7. Frenchie and Wee John are platonic partners. Like many, I read Frenchie as aroace. But I like them together. They have a similar level of disinterest that isn't really disinterest. They're room people now.

8. Lucius loves Fang. It's not really canon (?), but it makes perfect sense. He did draw him. Fang did develop affection for him. Lucius does like older men (Pete is old enough to be his father).

Things I don't really like to see but are common:

1. Helpless Ed. Ed is sensitive and soft, but he's extremely competent and also resilient. I think that gets lost sometimes when people are trying to write his emotional journey.

2. Extremely low self esteem Stede. Stede is definitely hard on himself, but he's also a bit high on his own supply. There's a nuance there that creates a tough balance to strike. He's not cocky, but he's also not a quivering little mouse man. He fakes it till he makes it. He's also a wealthy white man in the 18th century. Even if he was bullied, he's still used to people doing what he says.

3. Calico Jack and the Badmintons as one-note villains. They're used as stand-ins, I think, when a villain is needed. Canonically, Jack is boorish and mean to Stede, but it's calculated. It's a fuckery, if you will. Nigel B was played as genuinely believing he and Stede were friends, as twisted as that may be. Chauncey B had lost his twin and gone a little mad. They had reasons for their behavior. Sometimes they're written as just being wankers because the plot needs wankers.

6. Izzy and Ed grew up together. Forgetting that they're ten years apart and from different parts of the world, their relationship reads very "we met at work" to me.

when you are a creator and you have a Special Interest*

Canon Silco whos so ready to kill Vander and the four kids in exchange for Zaun in s1 a1 vs Devotions Silco already being Mami and putting Viktor above anything

AND ALSO! In canon Silco just. avoids every contact with Vander, developing shimmer and puppeteering the chembaroms from the shadows for YEARS and he only shows himself before both Vander and Benzo once he's sure he's gonna win (killing Benzo, kidnapping Vander (and the kids) to get rid of them). He's blindsided by his hatred for Piltover and his love to the cause, he doesn't care what or who he has to step over to get to the objective. (Again, enslaved children!). In Devotions, with Viktor in the middle, will he still develop shimmer for the cause? Take control of Zaun by making them addicts?

I feel like part of what motivates him in Devotions is wanting to give Viktor and Zaun a better life, so i am soooo curious to see if Devotions Silco will still become a drug lord even if it means sacrificing some of his newly acquired morals (courtesy of parenthood) or if he'll take a path more similar to s2 e7 arcane au Silco (yknow. Reconciling with Vander early, giving up shimmer and playing happy families) (boooo) (I hate that au sorry it's just Bad for Sil and the worst part is that it's CANON)

I think Devotions Silco is more similar to s1 a2-3 Silco when he has already been appointed Father of Jinx, but even then, there are a lot of differences between the two and ugh I'm just expecting to see what your Silco will do considering he's a parent from the beginning now.

Anyway!!! All this to say I'm super excited to see how Devotions will develop now that we are technically at the very beginning of the canon story and I 100% trust your vision bc your characters have been incredibly well written and coherent with their actions!!! Excited for ch 20!!!

Join me in character study purgatory omg, it soothes me from RL. Regarding canon Silco, I think Vander’s betrayal and the aftermath (being scape goated, being alone having lost his family and friends and confidant all in one go, being disfigured and in no doubt agonising pain) really shaped who canon Silco was.

I think his approach isn’t entirely deliberate (as much as he liked to frame it as a choice) — we saw how shimmer made jinx so much life volatile and paranoid. Early shimmer was probably different but we can make an educated guess that it wasn’t particularly great for a traumatised mind. It was probably even worse than the jinx variant tbh.

I think canon silco has a lot less qualms than devotions silco. Regarding the shimmer issue, it’s interesting how I haven’t really seen any meta discussions of the (American) writers, their privileged backgrounds, and the general war on drugs approach in USA history. Having a black character parrot that propaganda was especially vomit worthy for me — especially look at what horrific debacle “DARE” program was, where they sent cops into American classrooms to “teach drug prevention” but used a method proven to increase the likelihood of drug use. Because the real purpose was to get kids to inform on their parents (just like in a certain period of Germany).

All this is to say, the entire shimmer drug line (heavily narrated by a billionaire cop, no less) was illuminating re the writers themselves. The discussion around this illuminates the media literacy (or lack thereof) of the participants.

I can’t remember “child enslavement” being canonised on screen (Idek about interviews and retcons), it seems like kids generally were working in the undercity due to poverty. Not in favour of child exploitation, just not sure if I’ve missed something textual. The fact Renni’s son was there seems to imply they were being paid / were more like workers?

Re the AU - god the way it was positioned as a “utopia” made me so BLEH. The repetitive propaganda of “forgiveness and peace is the only true way to change”, “turn the other cheek to your billionaire oppressors”, “forgive and stay with your abuser and you too can achieve all your political goals and have a family”

Like. Yes. Ask your oppressors nicely. Violence is bad in any form!!!! Look if you had just asked NICELY everything would be sooo much better. —— as we all know, those who enriched themselves off exploiting the poor will of course stop doing that if you ask nicely. No need for protests or collective action.