Dreamer, when are we going to see Aegir get some comeuppance? I’m so tired of the constant cultural posturing about how inferior all land walkers are and how they’re basically subsentient cavemen. Who’s going to call them out? Does pride come before a fall here, or are we going to get another three events of Heres How Cool And Powerful And Right We Are? It seems like the narrative backs them up every step of the way with the exception of Skadi, who is only extremely powerful and seemingly never on the back foot. Maybe I’m being overly critical but the Iberian sections of the Aegir events have been far more interesting IMO.
On one hand, I get you: I really don't like it when narratives have these "Oh they are just better than everyone at everything, period, and the narrative embraces that as a selling point" characters who just exist to exist in a superior scale of power-slash-morality-slash-existence, period. Those tend to be the characters I shut out almost immediately because I find them utterly uninteresting, boring, and obnoxious.
That said, on the other hand, and bear with me, that's not what's going on here.
I can see how you can board that train of thought, especially with a bias against that kind of stuff in the first place (a bias that I share), but when you really get into it, it's not at all what's going on here: The ones telling you about the superiority of the Aegir are the Aegir, the narrative has not said that even once.
It seems like the narrative backs them up every step of the way
So I have to heavily disagree with this. The narrative has not once backed this up. You hear about the superiority of Aegir through the small running gag of Skadi in the past, and then Laurentina in the present, complaining about how the surface 'doesn't even have automatic toilets'. You hear about the superiority of Aegir through Laurentina's first impression of the surface world when she briefly regains her sanity for the first time at the end of Under Tides, complaining about how, well, primitive their technology is. You hear about the superiority of Aegir, foremost of all, through the very biased comments made by Gladiia, who, let's not forget, is a Consul of Aegir, aka one of the highest ranking individuals in Aegir, who one should expect to be patriotic. The characters from Aegir, who miss Aegir, are telling you about how wonderful and perfect Aegir is, not the narrative, and as readers, we do have a responsibility of being able to discern and separate this.
This, in fact, ties in with the narrative themes of Stultifera Navis: The 'Golden Age' that Gladiia wants to return to so bad is Aegir. The whole event's premise starts with the three Hunters making their way back to Aegir, in fact, and a plethora of other circumstances end up changing their plans and forcing them to remain on the surface world. Skadi doesn't particularly mind it, as the one with more experience in the surface and with the people of the surface, and also as the more worldly of the three Hunters. Laurentina's Files state that she quickly adapted after the initial cultural shock, and that she's cool beans with the "dry-landers", particularly because they also harbor love and appreciation for the arts, and any people that love the arts is people she can get along with. Gladiia is the one that most often speaks of the virtues of Aegir, as well as the one struggling the most with life on the surface, not at all helped by the fact that she's on a time limit, what with her Seaborn blood slowly but surely taking over her. It's not a coincidence that worldly and more down to earth Skadi has an easier time on the surface than rich girl Laurentina and person in a position of national authority Gladiia.
So what HAS the narrative said about Aegir? Well, let's start with the undeniable truths first: Is Aegir far, far more technologically advanced than the surface world? Yes, this is fact. Are the Abyssal Hunters, in terms of canon (forgive the following two words) power levels, WAY above most everyone else in the setting? Yes, this is fact. And did this help them at all to avoid the atrocities of the depths? No, this is fact. Did having all this superior technology and at least four full Companies of these insanely powerful supersoldiers, the Abyssal Hunters, practically a small army of Gokus in a setting where most everyone is at most Krillin, help them assure victory? No, this is fact, their "victory" was ultimately temporary, pyrrhic, and uncertain. Of those four full Companies, we know of only four survivors, Laurentina and Gladiia from the 2nd, Skadi and Ulpianus from the 3rd, and the three we know well have had no way to even return to report their victory to Aegir, while the fourth Hunter we only learned of recently basically told them "shit's fucked, don't go back".
The narrative has not told you anything about the inherent superiority of the Aegir. The narrative has not even made it a secret about how much that didn't help them and may have in fact hindered them. If anything, SN is the first time the narrative stopped needing you to read between lines to make it out. You focused too much on the words of the characters (the very reasonably biased characters) without looking at the bigger picture. I hope this doesn't come across as an indictment or a smoking gun, and more as a warning, because this happens often with plenty of people, from what I see. I'm trying to think of a single instance in which the narrative unequivocally says "the Aegir are just inherently superior and it has not bit their asses" and I'm coming up short. Yeah, they have immensely advanced technology and the Abyssal Hunters canonically are insanely strong, but that's about it. Hell, the current event, Stultifera Navis, makes it a point to throw a few lines about the Academy, where all of Aegir's brightest minds are nurtured and congregate, are ultimately a bunch of stiff old suits. SN even doubles down on the fact that a bunch of Aegir (the people) willingly left Aegir (the country) because they were discontent with how close minded Aegir had become, Breogan himself being a remarkable Aegir genius that simply could not contain his excitement at seeing all the cool shit the surface peoples had come up with. This isn't even a recent development, we've known of this discontent as far back as Glaucus, who was born in Aegir but left at a young age.
The set up at the end of SN very much implies that in the next heart-throbbing episode of Skadi and the Argonauts, we'll find out What's Up With Aegir Nowadays, with Ulpianus having quite heavily implied that the way Aegir went about the Seaborn might have been necessary at the time, but was ultimately the wrong way long term.
So, yeah, I disagree, and again, I don’t want this to seem like a smoking gun, rather, I urge you, and everyone, to separate the words from biased, organic characters from those of the narrative.
