Navigating the High Seas of Morality: Pirates vs World Government in One Piece

TJ Blackwell: 00:01:11

It's not up to us whether we live or die. Fearing death is the fastest way to lose. Just live while you can, even if it kills you. Today we're talking about One Piece. This is Finding the Good.

This is our flagship series of the year, Polarization. We are talking about One Piece World government for versus Pirates. Target audience here is generally One Piece fans.

I would say if you're not familiar with One Piece. Still good. Still good. Maybe listen to this and then check it out. I, of course, am the host today. TJ Tiberious. One Blackwell.

I'm joined by the one and only, the beautiful Christian Ashley. How are you doing today?

Christian Ashley: 00:01:58

Feeling pretty beautiful. Thank you.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:00

You're welcome. And also Elizabeth Pang Clyde.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:04

I love that no one knows which name to call me.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:07

That's all three.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:08

Even though this isn't on YouTube. I just want you guys to appreciate that I put the Luffy hat on my giant Pikachu plushie in the back of my studio.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:17

And you wish you could see this right now.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:18

He's ready.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:19

It's quite the sight.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:20

Yeah. I had a. There was a kid that came into our store today with a. With a Luffy hat on.

But, like, he didn't look like he knew, but it was definitely like the Luffy straw hat. But I didn't want. You know, he was like seven. I don't want to talk to him.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:31

But I have a Luffy pen that I will wear on my jean jacket. And people thought it was like Madeline's pen. Like, you know, that little British, like, storybook character. And I'm like, yeah, French.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:44

No, French.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:45

Absolutely not.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:46

Yeah, we clearly know Madeline. You don't. So, Peng, what have you been geeking out on lately?

Liz Clyde: 00:02:53

Let's see. Do you know what's crazy is I randomly decided to finish that one time. I got reincarnated as slime because.

Because I started it forever ago and I need. I got tired of Boruto. You can just only take so much of that, right?

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:10

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:03:11

I need another dubbed anime that I kind of don't care about. But it's been on my. I need to finish this list. So I started that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:18

It's good. It's really good.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:19

It's good.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:20

It's way better.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:22

And that's not a criticism because, you know, you need to have those scenes for things to make sense. So it's just nice to put it in the background. You don't have to watch everything. I get it.

Liz Clyde: 00:03:30

Yep. It's. I'm entering it. Entertaining. I'm enjoying it. It's very entertaining.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:35

It Is it is. I was super surprised when I. When I watched it. What about you, Christian?

Christian Ashley: 00:03:41

Me? I'm geeking out on the news that we're going to get a Spaceballs to. Mel Brooks himself came out and announced it.

Rick Moranis is coming out of retirement to come and do this. You know, he stopped acting a while back to look after his kids. Now they're old enough, he doesn't have to, you know, do that anymore.

It's like, okay, if you're waiting this long to do it, that gives me a little hope as compared to certain Star wars projects that have come out recently. So I'm very interested to see what they can do now that there's been about like 40 some years in between spaceballs one and two.

TJ Blackwell: 00:04:11

Yeah. And you've got to think like, he saw the sequels come out and now he's like, okay, all right, I've gotta. We've gotta do another one.

Christian Ashley: 00:04:19

Yeah, yeah. You'll have your own personal search for more money. I'm gonna join the. The team, right?

TJ Blackwell: 00:04:24

Absolutely. So me, of course, is still Night Rain. So good. So good.

I don't know how long far in the future this is coming out, but it's probably still going to be Night Rain. It's the closest we've ever gotten to a from software live service game. So I'm a great time.

But if you're on a laptop, please consider rating and reviewing the show on podcaster. GoodPods helps the show gain recognition and it makes it easier to find in store search engines.

And we love manipulating the system and we would like to thank James Barrett for supporting the show financially. That is all we care about. It's all money.

So please check the show notes for a playlist of all the other finding the good episodes we've done and are going to do this year. And let's get started. We are choosing signs here, and I'm gonna go first. We're choosing between the World Government and the Pirates in one piece.

I'm choosing the Pirates, of course. And Pang, what about you?

Liz Clyde: 00:05:25

I'm choosing the World Government.

TJ Blackwell: 00:05:27

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:05:27

Yeah, Christian, I'm a centrist for this. For the purposes of this video, this podcast, I'll choose both.

Liz Clyde: 00:05:34

Yeah, no, I'm really.

Christian Ashley: 00:05:36

You have to choose one. I'm really the Pirates, but I will extol the values of both.

TJ Blackwell: 00:05:42

All right, all right.

So the division at hand, of course, naturally, I'm sure if you're unfamiliar, you could assume from the name the World Government and the Pirates have always been at odds. That's Most of the World Government's job in one piece at least is to stop pirates. At least. Ideally. Really.

The true division we see in the show started during the golden age of piracy with Gold. Roger. Gol d Roger. So that's. We're kind of dealing with the repercussions of his reign as Pirate King in the series. So the World Government.

You know, I'm not count. This is going to be full of spoilers, by the way. I'm not counting Emus Emu's schemes as World Government. That does not seem fair.

Christian Ashley: 00:06:33

I'll agree with that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:34

Yeah. That's like they're not World Governor. They're just a different entity controlling World Gov parts of it.

And we've seen enough parts of the World Government who weren't inherently malicious to say that, you know, somewhere the World Government has to be doing its job. I assume, you know, what about you Christian, you radical centrist? What do you think? Expound upon that if you could.

Christian Ashley: 00:07:54

In the world of One Piece. We have the general idea. If you want to get things like bare bones, there's the World Government who controls over.

I think it's like 100 and some nations across the entire world of these mostly island either islands or island continents. And they are very authoritarian by nature. They bring rule of law and stuff like that.

They also suppress people and make sure that other movements that could possibly ever threaten them are taken down or take away information. That's why we have the whole time timeline where we're 100 or so years that have been taken away from history and only can be told by the poneglyphs.

Then on the other side we have the pirates who are opposed to the like the order and control of the World government. They're more anarchy and chaos kind of personified in the world.

It's not like to say every pirate is an anarchist and not every person in the World Government is a controller by nature. But that's like the bare bones idea.

And the idea of the piracy is like, look, freedom means that it's going to come in a very anarchic way to multiple people's interpretations of what freedom means.

Because some pirates, like you know, your blackbeards and your buggies and the like, they say, this is how I'm going to rule over people and this is how I'm going to cause chaos and take over this land for my own versus more people like Luffy who's like, no, no, no. I want. His idea of freedom is I want people to do whatever they want. So Long as it doesn't really harm anyone else.

And it's very childish, very shonen idea. But it's Luffy, so what else are you expecting from him? So it's a wide spectrum when you actually look at it.

But like bare bones, it's order versus chaos, control versus anarchy.

TJ Blackwell: 00:09:37

Yeah. And that's kind of the problem with discussing this in one piece. It's nuance. There's a lot of nuance in one piece.

And we follow a very non pirate group of pirates in the straw hats. You know, they don't do. They don't rob people, they don't burn places down for looting purposes. They don't do that kind of pirate activity.

Pretty much all they do is stop the world government from oppressing people. Other pirates don't really do that.

That being said, I still am on the pirate side generally speaking, because yeah, I don't like government overreach. And in one piece it is particularly bad. The world government essentially like the peak British Empire. So I'm not a fan of that.

And once again, this is one piece, so it's not the entire world government.

You know, we have some characters in World Gov who are great, awesome characters that we love at, you know, borderline main cast at sometimes you have Garp, Colby, even Helmeppo, like characters that we like. Aokiji, Defector, a Kainu donut maker. So that's why I'm going pirates paying. You're choosing world government side?

Liz Clyde: 00:10:53

Yes, because I. I need order. You know what I mean? Just with any side you have good you. I mean, the world government is supposed to be order.

It's supposed to be a good system. And just like how you have pirates, good pirates and a bad system, you're going to have bad people in a good system. It's just going to be what it is.

But if I think about like my core values is order. They're supposed to protect people.

So without the government, then you have the risk of everything being like Dressrosa, where you have a dictator or Alabaster, where crocodile was like the ruler or something like that. So you definitely still see the need of the world government, not the need of oppression as some, you know, have done it.

But then as you were saying, Garp, Smoker, Colby, they are leaders inside that are trying to be the change inside and you know, be the examples and work their way up so that I would be like the smoker probably in. In the other group.

TJ Blackwell: 00:11:55

You know, I do think it's interesting because, you know, it's one piece and the two places you named Dressrosa and Alabaster will buy Doflingo and Crocodile are pirates, but were given the authority to do those things by the world government because of overreach.

Liz Clyde: 00:12:14

They did, but that's the bad section of the world government.

TJ Blackwell: 00:12:18

Yeah, so there's a lot in this conversation. Christian, you also chose pirates. You also already kind of explained your stance, but do it again.

Liz Clyde: 00:12:27

Do it again, Christian.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:28

Okay.

Ultimately, in this series specifically, more often than not, I'm on the paying side of things, where I need order, I need things to be done correctly. But in the world that I'm given here, that hasn't been achieved. It has been. It's an inherently flawed system, and that's just humanity to begin with.

We are incredibly flawed beings, and anytime we try to bring structure to that, it's going to be ruined by other people. Because not everyone's going to be on the same side of things.

And when it comes to this series in particular, the world government is corrupt for the most part, causes devastation. Slavery can pretty much kill anyone you want, I mean, pretty much commit island genocide at any time.

And you being in the law correct to do so because you're protecting the world government, you're corrupting the nobles and everyone. And ultimately Emu, who people don't really know that much about because hasn't really chosen to do that for his own reasons.

We're still learning about. So on the pirate side of things.

While even though I myself am not a very anarchic person, given who I'm choose to deal with here, I am ultimately on their side more because we have people like Luffy and Zoro and Nami and Sanji and so on and so forth who are have all their own motivations for why they're doing what they're doing. And they're seeking the freedom in order to seek those things out. And ultimately they're seeking good things.

You get someone like Robin, who is my favorite straw hat.

Her reason, her motivation for doing what she's doing is to find out what happened in the Void century and to learn why her family had to sacrifice themselves all those years ago and they were wiped out by a Buster call. And she should have the freedom to do so because someone's hiding something. Why are they hiding it? What does that mean?

Then you have Luffy, who's like chaos personified at times.

It's not like say he's never salt water ever, but pretty much his goal is just, look, let people live their lives and have fun and not hurt Other people. And those are good things. But ultimately, because flawed people are flawed people, that system's doomed to fail too. So while ultimately I.

If this were real world, I would be more on a World Government side. But given who I'm dealing with, I am on the pirate side. Because they're actually most often, more often than not doing good in the world.

Because you have exceptions like Smoker and Garp and Colby and the like. But those are the exceptions, not the rule.

TJ Blackwell: 00:14:47

And you do also have to take into account that Luffy himself has caused like a massive shift in the world of piracy. In One Piece, the Straw Hat Grand Fleet is several thousand pirates strong. And they're just like, oh yeah, we don't. We don't need to be evil.

We don't need to steal from these people. We just need to fight the World Government. That's awesome.

So I think if we knew more about the world of One Piece, you know, pre Luffy, pre supernovas during Gold D.

Rogers era, who's to say, you know, World Gov might have been way more in the right if they were, you know, defending the people from pirates like we did see early on, you know, pirates who were just trying to raid little mountain villages and you know, take over plunder. We don't get that a lot anymore. And it might still happen. We don't know where. We've power scaled way beyond that. We have no idea.

So who's to say, Peng, how do you feel justified in your choice after seeing so many of the atrocities that World Government has committed?

Liz Clyde: 00:15:58

I mean, like I said, I look at the good with the just with like Colby, the sweet little angel. But like you see there is reform happening. Because I could say the same thing.

Like how, like look at Blackbeard, who freaking gave up Ace, you know, hate that guy. But with my. My main stance with the World Government and I think it also kind of shows they also do not enjoy at least some of them. The what.

What do we call them again? Like the Celestial Dragons. Like those are.

I think it's kind of weird because usually in a world you either have, you know, if you have a government, you usually don't have it separate, if that makes sense.

Like so the World Government and like the Celestial Dragons are a little bit more separated than you would like in England, where the Queen controls the forces, if that makes sense. And there's more like a reference. So that's kind weird because you see the corrupt aristocrats and whatnot. But I don't know. I just have to stay True.

I think if it's. I. I'm in my world. I know we're talking about one piece.

Like I have to stand by the government and that could get me canceled, especially what's happening in today's government. But. Yeah, but I'm not going to go and be a pirate and try and oppose the government now. You know what I mean?

TJ Blackwell: 00:17:18

Right. Do you feel like your faith has influenced that decision at all?

Liz Clyde: 00:17:24

Probably not. I think I'm just a scaredy cat, to be honest. When it boils down to it, I'm not gonna like, I believe in like silent protesting.

And you know, if you're going to do it peaceful, not silent protesting. Peaceful protest. We just had that with the. The King's Day or the no Kings Day.

But to do like any kind of like against the government here is not going to end the same as it does in one piece.

TJ Blackwell: 00:17:51

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:17:52

So I think because of like just my limited perspective, like I can't just be like, yeah, pirates, screw the world government. But I'm like, they're still good in the world government. So even though I would say both sides are kind of like 50, 50.

So I'm a choose world government.

TJ Blackwell: 00:18:12

Yeah. And I do think it is possible to live under a pirate's rule and still get that order.

Like if you were on one of Big Mom's many, many islands, like you're still getting the order. You're just getting candy text.

Liz Clyde: 00:18:27

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:18:27

You know, and it was a bit aggressive.

Liz Clyde: 00:18:29

I mean, you. What was the game? Life or Soul? A soul or life is the game you had to play that you're. Yeah, well, I mean that I would always play that game.

TJ Blackwell: 00:18:40

Pros and cons. I do think you get a lot, a lot better protection being a part of a, of a Yonko's fleet.

Liz Clyde: 00:18:49

I would say, speaking of faith, it made me think of like, let's say the world government. My world is colliding with one piece world. And Zoro and Sanji had to like stake out the territory and the world government was after them.

I would hide them on the roof until they could easily make their escape. So I would do that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:19:10

Yeah. Do you feel like that would be biblical? Like, are you disobeying an unjust law by harboring those horrible fugitives?

Liz Clyde: 00:19:20

Yes. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:21

Despised.

Liz Clyde: 00:19:22

Correct. Yeah. Little Joshua Bibles thing. Yeah.

It's just, it's such a hard thing because like, if, if that's what your faith leads you to do you know what I mean? Because my husband, I, we were just talking about this, like what does justice looks like. Look like us now?

Like, how do you be just in this world where so many people are being oppressed by the government and it's. It's like, but how does that look up? Because we're not going to go.

If we drive by and we see an ice raid, we're not going to stop our car and try and like, defend, you know, the people we have. We're powerless to do that. So what. What do you do in that situation? So I'm not saying I would hide some people, but.

TJ Blackwell: 00:20:01

Right.

Liz Clyde: 00:20:01

Officially, Officially, like, I'm with the government. Don't look at my spare bedroom though.

TJ Blackwell: 00:20:09

Yeah, officially, I am not with the. With the government. Just because I do feel like my faith does compel me to side with the pirates in one piece.

Specifically, just because of the sheer volume of oppression that we see repeatedly from the world government onto entire races of people. Even ongoing currently in the manga, they're doing it again to a race that everyone already thought was extinct. And then, you know, we just.

Just got finished going through Kuma's backstory where they did the same thing, but they succeeded a lot better. Yes. You know, so far we'll see if they succeed this time, where they just have killed every buccaneer except Kuma almost.

And Kuma they turned into a weapon. Lots of weapons.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:44

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:21:45

So what do you think, Christian? Is this faith led decision for you?

Christian Ashley: 00:21:49

Yeah, ultimately, I mean, disregarding for a second that it's possible, Christianity is actually kind of canon in one piece because we have seen Bibles before, we have seen crosses and the like. Zakuma obviously is one of the most biggest ones when you're carrying a Bible around with them. So maybe in the world I can even justify it.

But just for me, looking at the world, what a huge part of what we're called to do is we're called to call out the good and call out the evil. And that's why, like, I see the good in the world government and I also see all the flaws. And the same thing with piracy.

Like you have maniacs like Arlong and Blackbeard out there.

Well, there also have people like, you know, Luffy and the Straw Hats versus, you know, I'm not a big fan of the Nobles for the most part and what they've done, but I am very appreciative of someone like Garp, who takes the law very seriously and actually protects people, using the law for his own good, for its own good, to protect people, even at the personal cost. So for me, I think it's fine to rebel against evil when evil is being done. We're called to pray for people in government.

We're called to watch after them. But we're called above all things to follow Christ alone.

I mean, we look at Peter and John being taken away by the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they're like, look, you can tell us whatever you want to do. We're going to keep claiming Jesus because we serve God, not man.

And if man isn't serving God, then it's not up to man to be upset when man, who is serving God actually tries to fight against him. And how is that actually brought about? Would I ever actually lead a revolutionary army? Probably not.

But I'd be a willing participant if it actually had to come to death.

If the government got that corrupt, where all these people were being obliterated for no good reason and laws were passed that restricted people far too much for their own good, the government of way overstepped its bounds.

Yeah, that's that part of me that would be a bit more in this sense of pirate, like fighting against an evil like that, wanting more freedom for people. Because when you go that far, it goes against the freedom that we do have in Christ.

And that freedom is to reject evil and praise good and follow good.

TJ Blackwell: 00:24:00

And I do say, like, thinking about doing this episode, it was actually a lot harder than I expected it to be to choose a side just because, you know, piracy is basically just being helmed by Luffy at this point as a force for good. And we know good like, well and true. Before Luffy started tearing his path across the world, that piracy was.

Was not, not good for most people because, you know, they had people like Kaido and Big mom and Arlong and Hori White and Horry Jones, I always call him Hori White. You know, oppressing their own people and taking advantage of their own people in the face of the world government.

They were just had so much power that the world government couldn't really do anything about it, which is a different issue. Should the world government have better training? I don't know.

If an admiral is not as strong as Yonko, which I think we've seen plenty of evidence of, is they're not as strong as a Yonko, which I know it's still divisive, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't think any of the Marine Fort Admirals at least could have beaten Law and Kidd in a fight, you know, which is to say neither did Big Mom. But I don't Think any of the admirals could have either. So that's kind of where I'm coming from with that.

The current admirals, I don't think we've seen enough of. We've seen a little bit from Green Bull. I feel the same way. He's absolutely getting packed up by Lawn Kid. And forget Zorro being there and Luffy.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:36

Right?

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:37

Like, no. There's just no way. No way. I don't think Green Bull could win a fight on his own against Jinbei. Not if he really wanted it.

But that's not really the issue we're talking about today. I do really understand why you would take the world government side here.

Because at its core, what the world government's trying to do is understandable. I wouldn't say good.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:00

Understandable.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:00

Understandable. You know, they are trying to unify the world and make everything easier, less dangerous.

But in that, you know, overreaching over controlling way, which I just don't really like. I'm a laissez faire kind of guy. What can I say, you know? But that's me. Anything else for you guys here on this discussion?

Liz Clyde: 00:26:27

I mean, I would say in a perfect world, everyone would have the same morals and just want to be generally a good person and not suck. But people suck.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:37

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:26:38

In both sides.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:40

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:26:40

But I mean, I. I think I know. I mean, if I had the choice between joining the world government and Luffy's crew, it would be a tough one.

Because all Luffy wants to do is just have fun. It's like, I. It's even hard to think that Luffy's a pirate. He's just a goofball who defends people.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:57

Yeah. Like, none of the straw hats are pirates. Except Jinbe was a pirate. Brooke was a pirate. That's it.

Liz Clyde: 00:27:08

Yeah. Everyone else, no one else was a pirate. Bunch of goofballs hanging out, trying to achieve each other's dreams.

TJ Blackwell: 00:27:15

Actually, well, I guess Nami was sort of a pirate.

Liz Clyde: 00:27:18

Yeah. But like, more like an enslaved captive than a pirate.

TJ Blackwell: 00:27:22

Yeah. Yeah. That's literally it. The rest of them were just kind of people doing their own thing.

And Luffy is, I guess, technically a pirate, but he was never really a pirate either.

Liz Clyde: 00:27:34

Yeah, I mean, you can't blindly. And I'm saying, like, I want people to think I'm just like, go with the flow. You can't blindly follow government.

Because I mean, look at our history, and we've had so many civil wars and so many progression that's happened of people standing up against the government. So it's just. It's just a crazy time.

TJ Blackwell: 00:27:52

Yeah. Yeah. All right, real quick.

Christian Ashley: 00:27:54

I mean, I just find it funny how the Straw Hats and the World Government really came to blows with each other. And just going through the series, it's after the events of Water 7 and everything just going there.

And it's because Robin got taken away and she had really become part of the crew.

And because they were restricting the freedom of one person, Luffy declares war on essentially the entire world because his ideals are just that strong. And that's why ultimately, you can say that Luffy isn't the strongest character in the world. And there's some criticism there I agree with.

But at the end of the day, someone who holds his convictions that much and has people who believe in him that much, that they're willing to fight the entire world because one person was going to have their freedom taken away. I love it.

That's one of my favorite scenes in One Piece is them declaring war, Robin saying that she wants to live, and them fighting against CP9 and bringing her back.

It's just a wonderful thing, because everything that's spiraled down since then is from this Shatterpoint moment right here, where they said no to the idea of one person being forever having stripped of their free will.

TJ Blackwell: 00:29:12

Mm. And at that point, Luffy certainly was not the most powerful person on the planet.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:18

Yes.

TJ Blackwell: 00:29:18

He wasn't even the most powerful person there. Well, he was until they got in there, but now they're kind of, you know, they're kind of out of luck.

I think he can fight like Figarland and maybe like one more Gorosei before it's too late. And he'll just be too strong for everybody else. We'll see. Of course, the power, I think, is going to keep ramping up, but now they've. They messed up.

They made a real enemy. And he's going to unite the entire world before he's the Pirate King, it feels like.

Liz Clyde: 00:29:48

But we're just beginning, so who knows what's going to happen?

TJ Blackwell: 00:29:51

Yeah. Story just started.

Liz Clyde: 00:29:52

It just started.

TJ Blackwell: 00:29:53

What do I know?

Christian Ashley: 00:29:54

Oto's going to end in five years, guys.

Liz Clyde: 00:29:56

Five years, Right?

TJ Blackwell: 00:29:58

Five years.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:59

Like five years ago.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:00

Five times ten, maybe. Could you think about. Think about years, guys. Think about it. There's a serious possibility we may not be alive.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:09

No, actually, there's not.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:11

No, I'm just. Well, I could die tomorrow. No, I could die tomorrow. But I'm saying. But I think. Think about the people who passed watching this.

Like, if they started like One Piece with their Grandkid or something like that. And they have to pass. Not knowing.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:26

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:27

That's sombering.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:28

Sobering.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:30

No, I'm gonna say sombering. Sombre. I like.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:33

It's a somber thought, for sure.

Christian Ashley: 00:30:34

It makes you feel bad.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:35

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:36

Yeah.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:37

Let's just take a moment to. I'm just kidding. But random thought, like. Because I feel like it's never going to end.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:43

Yeah. I. I feel like if. If you get one question standing in front of St. Peter, you get the answer to End of One Piece is not a. Not a bad.

Not a bad question to ask.

Liz Clyde: 00:30:53

No. Like, where was it? What is it? It better not be friendship.

TJ Blackwell: 00:30:57

It's not. Hopefully it's not.

If I live out of spite until I'm 114 years old, because the series isn't finished yet and it's Friendship, I'm gonna be really upset.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:10

Well, Oda's a young.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:12

There will be a rebellion.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:13

Yeah. Civil war.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:14

Really upset. But yeah, there's a strong possibility we're passing this story on for, you know, nothing crazy.

I wouldn't be that surprised if I had kids that were my age by the time it finishes as I was when I started it, if that makes sense.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:34

So you think it. I mean, I'll be happy if it ends in 15.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:38

Yeah. I think no more than 15.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:40

No more.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:40

Surely. Surely not.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:42

Could you imagine, like, we have this reunion episode when it finally ends and we're all old?

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:49

Yeah. Wow. I'd be amazed if it lasted another 15. I think five is possible. Unlikely. But I think it's possible to end it.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:57

And then we can find the good in the ending. See who won.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:01

Yeah, the good is by then we could rewatch the series.

Liz Clyde: 00:32:05

Well, by then we're gonna have another anime that does all out. All the. Yeah, Just watch that one.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:10

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:32:10

Yeah. Or remake, I should say.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:14

Yeah. So we are going to wrap up now. I do have one extra special question that was only going to be this for the subscribers.

And that is if you could join any captain's crew, like World Government Captain, Marine Captain, or any pirate captain's crew except Luffy's. Who would you choose? That's going to be just for subscribers. So y' all think about that for a minute.

Liz Clyde: 00:32:42

Give us money. You can.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:44

No, give us money. Money makes the pirate world go round. And two out of three of us are pirates.

Liz Clyde: 00:32:50

So I'll just tax it and get my money.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:53

Yeah, you would, you sick freak. So, Christian, do you have a recommendation for the. For the audience to check out today?

Christian Ashley: 00:33:01

Yeah, if you're into history, philosophy, mythology, convoluted things, and also anime. I'm going to recommend the entire Fate series. That is a lot.

Liz Clyde: 00:33:15

Wow.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:15

It's a lot.

Liz Clyde: 00:33:17

It's summertime, so there's someone who has a lot of time right now.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:20

You got the time. You just don't know it. Look, you can do what I did and start with Fate Zero, then do Unlimited Blade Works.

I think that gives you enough because there's three different paths in the original game. I've never played the visual novel, but you can. And they butchered the first anime they ever did because they tried to do all three endings in one.

So I say do Fate Zero Fate. Unlimited Blood Blade Works. And if you want to do the other stuff, have at it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:33:45

Yeah, I would. I would say watch Unlimited Blade Works. And if that hooks you, you've got a lot of content to catch up on. A lot. A lot.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:55

Me, it's a series made for me. It's convoluted nonsense that does make sense. If you pay attention.

TJ Blackwell: 00:34:02

A lot of attention. Maybe with like a spreadsheet or a flowchart.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:06

You're going to need like a degree in like 60 different subjects to understand everything. Yeah, it's fine.

TJ Blackwell: 00:34:12

It's insane. So for me, I'm actually going to recommend something a little unusual.

I was talking today with a historian who just so happened to have a copy of A Wise Man's Fear on her bookshelf behind her, which is the second book in the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. The third novel hopefully will come out eventually.

And I would like to recommend anyone who is willing to check it out, who, you know, wants something new to read. Not either of those books. Not Name of the Wind and not the Wise Man's Fear. Read A Slow Regard of Silent Things.

It is a novella in the same series, but it kind of familiarizes you with the tone that a lot of his writings have. And it's just such a delightful little story.

The character that it features, you don't really get to know a whole lot more about by reading the other two books anyway, so check it out. It's a great read. It's really short and it's just. It's a fun time. It's a fun time. I like it a lot. Hang. Do you have a recommendation today?

Liz Clyde: 00:35:18

Yes. This is a TV series, but it's a lovable book series. My husband and I, we are rewatching it together. A Series of no Unfortunate Events.

So if you love the books, it's a fun. It's just a fun. It's so good, fun show to watch.

So if you haven't, if you've never read the book or watched the show, you can be fine and watching the show. It's fantastic. I love it. If you loved Crunk from Emperor's New Groove, he's like the narrator. So it's fantastic.

TJ Blackwell: 00:35:48

Warburton.

Liz Clyde: 00:35:49

Yeah. Go watch it.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:51

Yes.

TJ Blackwell: 00:35:51

Yep. It really is phenomenal. So one of Netflix's best projects, in my opinion.

Liz Clyde: 00:35:56

Mm.

TJ Blackwell: 00:35:57

So once again, if you're on a laptop, please consider ratings and reviewing the show. Podchaser.

Liz Clyde: 00:36:02

Good.

TJ Blackwell: 00:36:02

Pod, Spotify, literally, whatever. However you want to rate us. Carrier pigeon. Figure it out. I can house one.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:09

Sure.

TJ Blackwell: 00:36:09

If you're on the phone. Spotify. Thumbs up, thumbs down. Leave a comment. Thank you once again to our supporters. Specifically this time, Trip Fuller. Love you, Tripp. Great guy.

What? Could not do it without you. Check the show notes for players of all of our other finding the good episodes.

We are tackling polarization in a big way this year. One episode a month. This is, you know, month six. So halfway through, check the other ones out. And I'm just gonna rip Will off again.

Actually, I'm not. I am. We are all a chosen people. A geekdom of priests.