Back and looking for Nakama

[donnervark]

Hello. Its been awhile and I still need to reapprove some characters as well as make a new one. But I'll be looking for partners. I've got a storm of plots and ideas in mind. I'd like to start a crew, as well as join one.

I've got an Octopi Mermaid character, Shipwright. Also a martial artist/Cook/powerhouse. And I'd like to make a captain for a crew of revolutionary-friendly pirates.

[Deleted]

Dibs on Nellix of Rose?!!? =O

Got a nice home for her with some interesting peeps both you and her might be fond of. What's good?

[❰ Misha ❱]

Post
"Blackbird" Emile Reivelt

Emile Reivelt

Only character I have at the moment and he's a Marine. But hey, trying to spread the word a little bit.

"Speech Here"

?

[donnervark]

Misha. I really should make a Marine character. Guh....only problem is i DESPISE WG and the Celestial Dragons. The only way I could make a Marine is if they were infiltrating them for the Revolutionaries haha.

[EriChar]

You could make a character who is working their way up the ranks and trying to change the Marines from within to be less of the 'tools' of the dragons?

[donnervark]

I could, however it would always end the same. Because even an Admiral for all their power, is nothing but a tool for the WG and Dragons. And I feel really anyone who knows enough about the world to try that in the first place, has to know its not possible. Unless they were also a Celestial Dragon...but for some reason I don't think they'd be able to join the navy without giving up that title, and with it their power, thus giving up any chance of being able to change things.

Yeah any Marine I made would have to be a Revolutionary spy or eventually defect and become a Pirate. The WG is just WAY to hideous for anyone with actual morals or a real conscience to work with/for. Either that or they have to be painfully naive, ignorant, or just plain stupid enough to believe that they are really fighting for justice.

[Roin]

There's always Truthful Hearts if you want to run for a while as a Marine. It's going to be the group I lead with Egon, which ends up defecting from the Marines and becoming a Revolutionary Marine-based idea. Here's Egon and if you need more info there should be a thread on one of the boards outlining Truthful Hearts a bit more.

[❰ Misha ❱]

Well, even if you don't make a Marine Character, I'd be up to play the antagonist "naive" WG agent in a thread. Let me take a moment though to also say a couple things while being completely respectful if you don't mind.

Throughout the story, the Government has been repeatedly portrayed as sometimes downright wrong and ideological, though these flaws in themselves can be equally as inherent in Pirates and just given different spins and traits. So what makes Pirates/Revolutionaries more moral than Marines? The answer in my opinion lies in how we make them individually.

One thing I noticed the first time I left and was frustrated repeatedly by is that: Pirates can be made quite repetitious; their backgrounds and personalities following a single directional line toward Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, or some other form thereof. Back in one of my runs on this site, not many wanted to play the bad guy or have the greedy/shady Pirate that will steal, plunder treasure, and basically eschew morality unapologetically. I allied myself with one of the True Evil Pirate Crews that lasted maybe about 2-3 weeks because of that frustration. Back in that time frame there were just a lot of people that weren't pirates; they were adventurers. Marines and the WG have their flaws and obviously we will see these tropes play out in Oda's story, but the duality in both of them that isn't displayed fully on-site is one of the things that makes it interesting.

Now, I don't know how many have gone down this route but my point here is that the characters under both banners are left to decide on the moral scale for themselves. The character I play, Emile believes he is fighting for Justice, but he isn't "naive" or "ignorant". Apologies if this offends, but I feel I wanted to say something because that frustration still boils within me.

"The WG is just WAY to hideous for anyone with actual morals or a real conscience to work with/for."

Well, that is really all I had to say. Even if you are against rping with Emile, I am completely open to other capacities. I just wanted to spread the word a little bit here.

[donnervark]

I don't mind at all. These are the types of conversations I find interesting!

You make very fair point. I myself don't care to play evil characters because I find it difficult. I tend to naturally align with the Chaotic Neutral/Good spectrum because I don't like extremes. But in addition I think most people are attracted to freedom, where the Marines are the opposite of that.

To address one of your points, I don't think the Revolutionaries really fall on either side of the scale. They definitely are united against a corrupt organization, and I've yet to see any 'corrupt' or evil ones.

However, yes, Pirates fall all over the place. However often times genuinely innocent people are lumped in with Pirates or criminals by the WG simply because they....don't agree. There is no 'respectfully disagreeing' with the WG. You either obey, or you are a criminal. Period.

Now the strongest point you have, about how its all about how you build the character, is the only point I will say is flawed. To explain, take this scenario. You are a Marine. You live and serve on an island with your spouse and children. You've been loyal all your life and serve with honor. One day a Celestial Dragon comes to visit your town, and sees your family. He then says..."Oh! I like the look of them! I'll have them be my slaves!"

What do you do? You literally have no choice. You cannot plead, you cannot argue, you cannot fight. Oh wait, you can fight, only if you do the Marines, people you've served with and fought under with pride for justice, will turn on you, and shoot you down....then hand over your family to become slaves. Likely, ADMIRALS will show up if you hurt the Dragon. The highest military power in your organization, will come and defend that CG's RIGHT, to have your spouse and children as slaves.

That is the fatal flaw of the WG. No matter how noble you think you are, no matter how firmly you hold justice to your heart, by fighting for the Marines, you are endorsing SLAVERY, both subtle and outright. Because ultimately the WG will murder you if you so much as argue against them. That my friend....is not a fuzzy line. That is black and white in my eyes.

So tell me....as a Marine...if you showed up to an island by order, and a Celestial Dragon ordered you to murder another Marine so he could take his/her family as slaves....would you do it?

[❰ Misha ❱]

No problem, I'm playing Devil's Advocate a bit here too, but this is an intriguing conversation.

Before I answer your final question, let me pose the same contrasting question to you. Where are the stories like Gekko Moriah? It is true that Marines are saddled with a bureaucratic government that is overtly unfair and does things that would be considered oppressive in many cases as I stated; I'm not defending them in any way. As I recall however, few people have reached the point where the Yonko reign over the New World or have had their entire existence wiped off the face of the map by a lone Shichibukai while IC.

It is not all Freedom and Bink's Sake. The strong triumph while the weak die off. You can't fight in this situation either and flanked by Giants, you can only wallow and whimper while lamenting that you're not strong enough to protect what is precious to you. Marines are bound within the system in which they operate for sure and this system is certainly imperfect in every manner imaginable. Just the same, Pirates live in a dog-eat-dog world. It's a "take your pick" choice where the fatal flaws are displayed quite a lot for Marines, but I think that, more often than not, it is brushed over when it comes to Pirates. Imagine any character on this site going up against Kaido. They will lose and nothing they say or do will make a difference.

As for Revolutionaries, there hasn't been an exclusively bad Revolutionary yet although we know so very little about them. If history is indicative however, coup d'etats take place all the time and the resulting new establishment isn't always perfectly just and fair. I don't know exactly what will occur in the future when it comes to Revolutionaries so I'll leave them alone for the time being.

To answer your question: If Emile was ordered to obey such a directive, his thoughts on corruption would take hold mostly and he would feel validated in his own beliefs. As a character, he understands that the Government is corrupt and that people are oppressed but he still fulfills the requirements of his job. It might leave a bad taste in his mouth and I honestly have no clue what his future as a character will entail, but he would do it as directed and take whatever may come afterwards as a result.

If I personally was bound within the same situation, I might hesitate because I don't have the mindset that is set in story and so that would end up being my tragic end (XD assuming this question isn't just purely rhetorical). I understand that this is a forum however and as such it is up to the players to deign what they want their character to do and what their objective morality is since they are the ones who make the site. This colors the story however and makes it more lopsided in favor of Pirates while the Marine's fatal flaws are displayed in full as kindling for the Pirate's beliefs.

*Sigh* Apologies if that is long-winded. I maybe got a bit carried away in the moment.

[Dandead10]

Now, it's been quite a while since I've posted and said hello to anyone. I'm here to speak about the whole ideals of the marine core and such. True, as a marine you are basically bound and chained to the will of the celestial dragon's and the world government. However, we must out into consideration that Marines look at it from a rather different perspective than black and white. For instance if you look at it from the perspective of Coby, the only real reason why he wanted to be a marine was because he had a personal experience with pirates. Most likely a lot of marine recruits would be the children of marines as well. People really don't think that the world government would hold a lot of corruption, but when you mention the celestial dragons, I believe they really don't play a very big role whatsoever. Really, think about how little the marines have interacted with the celestials. Instead, marines fight for an ideal of what they call justice. For the marines that are currently aware of the corruption, they still follow orders as it is better than the alternatives.

You may be asking what the alternatives are. Well let's put it in a easy way. You can be a marine and grow in rank, power, and respect to hold the peace of society the way it is. You could be a pirate/revolutionary that most likely will be hunted by the world government and executed. Or you could be a civilian nobody that is going to be terrorized by all three parties, mostly pirates. You say that the world government and by extension the marines are corrupt, but do you really put into consideration that just because of this marines are bad people? You say that the marines are a restriction to freedom, but think about it this way. Without marines, there would be more people like Crocodile, Buggy, Arlong, and more that rule over islands and restricting people and slaughtering them as they please. The whole term of evil, justice, freedom...it's all subjective. Also, you say that it's impossible for change to be caused in the marine core, but it can actually be tremendously changed. Ever since Akainu took over, the marines have changed their whole training regimen and the way they function. To be honest, the Admirals run the game not the dragons. The admirals have real control over the navy, and without the navy the celestials are powerless. In other words if I were to put it this way, the celestials are the figureheads while the admirals are the prime ministers.

Imagine if a celestial dragon told Kizaru that he/she wanted his nephew for a slave. I guarantee you that it would be over for thar dragon in a second. As humans, marines would let personal bias and such get in the way naturally. As Doflamingo had said before that justice always wins because the winner of the battle becomes justice. Well, if you think about it that true in many ways. People say that justice always prevails, so therefore justice would be determined by the view of the person. For instance I'll give you a good example of what justice is like in real life.

A man had heard a thump in the night, and had grabbed his firearm as there was a intruder in the home. He had seen the figure, and had fired in the darkness. It turns out that the intruder was stealing from this man and was now dead. The man who was defending his home was arrested and given a term for fifteen years. Care to know why? It was because he killed a person with a firearm without it being in self defense. Justice has it so that even if someone is breaking in and stealing, if your life isn't in danger, you can't do anything except call law enforcement. In other words the man would have to wait for the possible intruder to shoot at him first before shooting back. Corrupted enough?

[Roin]

Stepping in to say this thread is barreling off topic drastically. The fact of the matter is that the faction isn't that big of a deal. Keep the topic on what it was for (this dude looking for RP ideas) and take the long-winded discussions to General. It does better there and avoids bloating the thread with everyone's personal thoughts on something that (due to the site running on consent and mostly free-reigned) would rarely/if ever be a problem.