The Day of Thunder

[Doji Hikaru]

Subject: Epileptic Trees

While we're waiting for D4 to drop and the second half of game to begin, I'd like you to share with me your most wild conspiracy theories about what's going on in your PFs. Polish up your tinfoil hat and tell me what you think the deal is. What's up with this village? Who's the Champion? who are the Thunders? Whatever comes to mind.

Totally optional thing for posterity. I think it'll be fun to go back and see what we thought before we knew the full story.

Are the Thunders all chosen now, then?

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Don't think so. Just 'who you think is likely to get the job'

[Jiyo Sora]

Don't think so. Just 'who you think is likely to get the job'

This.

[Doji Hikaru]

Ahhh, I get it. Thank you!

[Akodo Kenji]

It seems to also be meant for wild speculation and fun. So you can likely be more then a bit silly with it.

I see the chapter on "Morale" in Leadership hasn't been written yet

I dunno, Kenji has reasonably high Morale all things considered. But that's also because he trusts in Lady Makime.

[Jiyo Sora]

I dunno, Kenji has reasonably high Morale all things considered. But that's also because he trusts in Lady Makime.

It's not his morale I'm worried about

[Otaku]

I see the chapter on "Morale" in Leadership hasn't been written yet

Well… to the extent Akodo is cross-universe plagiarizing Sun Zi…

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder: then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose.

Thus the skillful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand. It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order. He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and appearances, and thus keep them in total ignorance. By altering his arrangements and changing his plans, he keeps the enemy without definite knowledge. By shifting his camp and taking circuitous routes, he prevents the enemy from anticipating his purpose. At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him. He carries his men deep into hostile territory before he shows his hand. He burns his boats and breaks his cooking-pots; like a shepherd driving a flock of sheep, he drives his men this way and that, and nothing knows whither he is going. To muster his host and bring it into danger: this may be termed the business of the general.

[Jiyo Sora]

But he's missing one of the most important things Sun Zi has to say...

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

We haven't got that standing here.

This isn't about the soldiers, and training the farmers wasn't about actually making them soldiers. It was about bringing them on board and getting them to buy in.

[Otaku]

But he's missing one of the most important things Sun Zi has to say...

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

We haven't got that standing here.

This isn't about the soldiers, and training the farmers wasn't about actually making them soldiers. It was about bringing them on board and getting them to buy in.

That’s really just “the Way” (ie Dao! Silly Victorian translators trying to Enlightenment-ize texts). It’s about acting in harmony with the natural patterns of heaven and earth and fulfilling various ritual/social obligations. There’s a particular, very abstract and paternalistic sense of noblesse oblige as one component part of that, but I can assure you Sun Zi and his patrons didn’t give a swimming carp about democratic buy-in.

(He also drops all mention of Dao in anything that could even remotely be read as its political-moral sense like halfway through the first chapter, after the most peremptory of rhetorical ass-covering, but that’s another story XD )

[Jiyo Sora]

And yet best practices care very much, because if people are digging in their heels, your will to win will break before your military ability does.

Or would you prefer I go find the Samuel B. Griffith translation, which is only as Enlightened as a United States Marine Corps general cares to be...

[Sukuna]

I will say that brutal post entertained me greatly.

[Jiyo Sora]

It was certainly very Lion


And Dragon...

...

Imperial Note: Create a buffer zone between them.

[Sukuna]

Naaaaah. Satsuki, Ranmaru, and Shang seem chill with the Lion.

[Wu Zhe]

I probably could find passages that goes against the way the lions are acting

[Jiyo Sora]

Naaaaah. Satsuki, Ranmaru, and Shang seem chill with the Lion.

[Sugri]

Clearly this is all a dream taking place within a snowglobe that has been isekaied into a metafictional reality being told by a marionette show taking place in the stomach of the shark being jumped over by the self-insert author.

[Jiyo Sora]

Clearly this is all a dream taking place within a snowglobe that has been isekaied into a metafictional reality being told by a marionette show taking place in the stomach of the shark being jumped over by the self-insert author.

Truly, the insight of the Ivory Kingdoms seldom fails us!

[Makime]

I probably could find passages that goes against the way the lions are acting

And would kindly explain that?

[Wu Zhe]

And would kindly explain that?

No

[Otaku]

Clearly this is all a dream taking place within a snowglobe that has been isekaied into a metafictional reality being told by a marionette show taking place in the stomach of the shark being jumped over by the self-insert author.

*thumbs up*