Ten Thunders M3E Faction Book Stories [Spoilers]

[StormLordXIII]

Just had the chance to read the three new stories in the Ten Thunders M3E faction book. All three of them move the narrative forward in different ways. The third piece, which focuses on Misaki and her struggles adjusting to leadership, ties together a lot of lingering questions about the new Oyabun's intentions and beliefs. It is a direct sequel to the M2E-3 Shifting Loyalties piece, "From the Ashes" - the story that polarized the community about whether or not our faction was noble, sinister, or both. I think this new story - in which Misaki makes a difficult decision to spare the life of a traitor - casts the Thunders in a bit of a new light. What do other people think?

[Da Git]

While Misaki's a lot "nicer" than Dad, she's still utterly ruthless, killing anyone even approaching a rival who doesn't bow down to her and running all sorts of things a crime syndicate would. One of the worst imo is the protection money rackets, exploiting an already used and abused population. The story of the Thunders brutally killing the sweet-maker on the holiday for not paying protection money is testament to that. 

Also, the fact that she tolerates Huggy and what goes on in the Honeypot is pretty horrible. 

Sure, she doesn't kill Mei, but she basically enslaves her to her will, blackmailing her against the lives of the Foundry. A fate Mei remarks as worse than death. 

[solkan]

1 hour ago, Da Git said:

While Misaki's a lot "nicer" than Dad, she's still utterly ruthless, killing anyone even approaching a rival who doesn't bow down to her and running all sorts of things a crime syndicate would. One of the worst imo is the protection money rackets, exploiting an already used and abused population.

It feels like you're complaining that Misaki is still consistent with what she was doing two books ago.  😕 

Two books ago, the Ten Thunders was a protection racket and they were actively courting the Tyrant who keeps Lynch as a pet.  And they had Mei Feng running around as enforcer for the racket.

Two books ago, Misaki was an enforcer for the racket.  She gave herself a promotion, and continued running the racket the way it had always been run.

If you're willing to accept that Misaki was telling the truth when she says "I have no issue with extortion, but the abuse of refugees who put their dream in a new world...”  Expecting the Ten Thunders to give up extortion would be like expecting the Arcanists to give up profiting from soul stone smuggling.

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Sure, she doesn't kill Mei, but she basically enslaves her to her will, blackmailing her against the lives of the Foundry. A fate Mei remarks as worse than death. 

What Misaki and Mei Feng's encounter boiled down to was:

• Mei Feng was all set to be the heroic martyr when she lost.  Misaki told her that was bs, not happening.  And pointed out that if she tried to be the honorable heroic martyr and commit suicide, that wouldn't accomplish anything.
• Misaki gave Mei Feng what Mei Feng wanted--sending troops and supplies to the fight back home--while at the same time telling her that she doesn't get to go off and be a hero and instead has to run the shop here.

Mei Feng was trying to be the honor bound hero to her people.  To the point that she would rather have gotten killed after losing than lose than fight, gain concessions and get told to keep doing her job.  🤔  No, I can't fault Misaki for the end of that exchange.

 

[StormLordXIII]

What did people make of this?

Quote

“You had it wrong, Lady Feng,” the Oyabun said
as she departed, motioning for her men to lower
their weapons and join her. “Coming to Malifaux
was about rebirth – only now I see that it was not
intended for your country, but for the Thunders.”

 

[Da Git]

9 hours ago, solkan said:

It feels like you're complaining that Misaki is still consistent with what she was doing two books ago.  😕 

Two books ago, the Ten Thunders was a protection racket and they were actively courting the Tyrant who keeps Lynch as a pet.  And they had Mei Feng running around as enforcer for the racket.

Two books ago, Misaki was an enforcer for the racket.  She gave herself a promotion, and continued running the racket the way it had always been run.

If you're willing to accept that Misaki was telling the truth when she says "I have no issue with extortion, but the abuse of refugees who put their dream in a new world...”  Expecting the Ten Thunders to give up extortion would be like expecting the Arcanists to give up profiting from soul stone smuggling.

That's basically what I was saying, she's a little "nicer" (the "" hear meaning not nice at all!) than dad in that she'll ask you a few times to join her and play the long game rather than just cutting their head off at the first refusal, Misaki's still far, far from nice. She's the head of a crime syndicate after all! I used the fact that she's still running the protection money rackets as an example that she she hasn't fallen too far from her father's tree. whether this will change in the future now that she's in charge and how much she continues to exploit the poor souls of Promise and Little Kingdom remains to be seen, but exploit them for her own gains she most certainly will.

9 hours ago, solkan said:

What Misaki and Mei Feng's encounter boiled down to was:

• Mei Feng was all set to be the heroic martyr when she lost.  Misaki told her that was bs, not happening.  And pointed out that if she tried to be the honorable heroic martyr and commit suicide, that wouldn't accomplish anything.
• Misaki gave Mei Feng what Mei Feng wanted--sending troops and supplies to the fight back home--while at the same time telling her that she doesn't get to go off and be a hero and instead has to run the shop here.

Mei Feng was trying to be the honor bound hero to her people.  To the point that she would rather have gotten killed after losing than lose than fight, gain concessions and get told to keep doing her job.  🤔  No, I can't fault Misaki for the end of that exchange.

I read that a little differently, that Misaki was threatening Mei that if she tried to escape through the breach at a later date (to me, the whole commit suicide from failure is Japanese, not Chinese, could be wrong though), then she she would take her vengeance out n the Foundry, the people Mei professes to love and protect. Mei's foremost desire was to escape Malifaux and the clutches of the Ten Thunders because she didn't want to be used and abused and then killed after she wasn't useful anymore as be Doc Huang's warning book 4 (I think).

 

[Da Git]

6 hours ago, StormLordXIII said:

What did people make of this?

Quote

“You had it wrong, Lady Feng,” the Oyabun said
as she departed, motioning for her men to lower
their weapons and join her. “Coming to Malifaux
was about rebirth – only now I see that it was not
intended for your country, but for the Thunders.”

 

That could mean anything really... but I'd hazard a guess that she has big plans for the Thunders and Malifaux...It could mean that she intends to put a hold on some of the worse traits of her father's reign, but who knows...

[solkan]

 

3 hours ago, Da Git said:

I read that a little differently, that Misaki was threatening Mei that if she tried to escape through the breach at a later date (to me, the whole commit suicide from failure is Japanese, not Chinese, could be wrong though), then she she would take her vengeance out n the Foundry, the people Mei professes to love and protect. Mei's foremost desire was to escape Malifaux and the clutches of the Ten Thunders because she didn't want to be used and abused and then killed after she wasn't useful anymore as be Doc Huang's warning book 4 (I think).

 

The terms Misaki gives Mei Feng are:

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Your assignment remains the same. You will run our forges and continue insinuating yourself into the Union. You cannot leave Malifaux, but I will allow you to send limited numbers of Foundrymen and assets Earthside every few weeks to the Three Kingdoms Coalition as I deem appropriate.

Except for the part of making Mei Feng stay in Halifax and do her job, that's what Mei Feng claims to have wanted to accomplish:  Send troops and supplies back home to help the war.

So what Mei Feng is complaining about being worse than death is that she doesn't get to go, and instead has to keep working in Malifaux.  

The exchange, after Misaki has specified her concessions:

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"Tell me, is that really worse than dying?”

“Continuing to serve you? Yes...” Mei sputtered again. “You’ve humiliated me in front of my men, and I can never return home. Just kill me. This is worse than death.”

“Good,” said Misaki. “That was the point.” Her voice was steady, but now that she was speaking privately, it retained a sliver of warmth. “And if you ever think of killing yourself in some kind of grand gesture,” she added, not unkindly, “remember that hundreds of men and women at the Foundry are counting on you.  And now, I suppose, so is your country, your Empress, and me. 

If Mei Feng isn't around to run the Foundry, none of what they just agreed to is going to happen.  On page 52, that's Mei Feng prepared to take everyone who will follow her back to Earth, no plans on coming back or leaving Foundry elements behind to send reinforcements.

Realistically, what's Mei Feng going to accomplish by running back to Earthside with the Foundry forces she currently has?  She'd be running around playing hero or trying to be a general.  

Staying in Malifaux, she's working to supply troops and supplies, which is more likely to help in the long term but denies her the chance to run off and become Heroic General Mei Feng.  

Would it have been great, positive, and life affirming if Misaki had said "It would help the Empress more if you stayed behind and sent periodic shipments of supplies, golems, and troops from here" and they negotiated this settlement without a fight scenes?  It would have been completely out of character for both of them.  

They got into that situation because

* Misaki was running the Ten Thunders into the ground by trying to be an enforcer instead of a leader

* Mei Feng's response to that happening was to take all of her forces and try to go back to Earth.  Great opportunity to go be a hero, right?

But if the Arcanist story is any indication, when crime bosses fight, you've got to burn down at least one Guild factory to get to the grudging admiration and truce moment in the crime boss buddy movie script.  And with everything else that was happening, all Mei Feng and Misaki had the budget for was sparring.