The Bride of the Emperor Storyline Tournament - Crane Bounty

[Asahina Shimato]

As much as I admire your grace in defeat, I still think the Crane shouldn't have had to compete in this.

Now we'll have another story of "yeah, the Crane really wanted this and if they were really as well-connected as they say they would probably have got it, but hey, the Crab beat them in the courtly game again."

Well, kind of fitting that we will abandon the courts; the Crab are pretty much the Left Hand now with Empress, Imperial Advisor and Voice.

[Doji Pheelyp]

....

The most I hope for now is that the Story Team would make it that Ayameko and the Crab feel beholden somehow to the Crane for building the one-eyed woman up, and rely on the *real* Left Hand as the necessary cogs in the bureaucratic machine that anyone needs to go through to wield any Imperial position properly.

[Kakita Shiro]

[Asahina Shimato]

That would be the sane position. My position is pretty much holding an insane grudge against the principle of Worfing the Crane by means of prizes.

Why should we give up on this as long as the Crab still defend their wall and the Phoenix still have their council? Why not have a tournament around who gets to man the Great Carpenter Wall this season and who gets to be on the council of Five? Sounds like fun to me.

[Kakita Shiro]

Because the Emerald Championship and who the Emperor beds are only tangentially related to the Crane political machine, which comes mostly from the favor trade and a ridiculous surplus of rice. What you (facetiously?) propose are central elements to Crab and Phoenix identity. What you say about the Voice and the Advisor are more relevant, but it comes back to "CCG wins, get over it."

[Asahina Shimato]

Get over it? Never!

The mother of every Emperor has to be a Crane. This is the way it should be, you know it is!

And yeah, you don't see the Crab and the Phoenix fight over these central elements to their identity the way we have been made to. That's precisely my point.

And while I understand that we have these most assuredly relevant political gnomes that work silently at night - that you better not look to hard at lest they flee and never return - we keep losing political battles like this one. Funny, isn't it?

[Kakita Shiro]

[Asahina Dreamspoiler]

I will grant that Crane's historical duty seems to be marginalized by CCG wins. The Voice position in particular has been the culprit. Making Imperial Advisor also determined by CCG wins just hurts that much more. The arts, which should solidly be Crane territory, are up for grabs with the Turquoise Championship, thankfully, now held by the Crane, though previously held, not once, but twice, by the Lion. Is there a Military Advisor position that would have been traditionally held by the Lion that is now determined by CCG wins? I am drawing a blank. Is there a position traditionally held by the Underhand that is now determined by CCG wins?

I guess we can just chalk it up to there no longer being a Hantei on the throne. On the plus side, when Onyx hits and all hell breaks out, the Crane can say 'you should have had a Crane advising you instead of all those Crabs. We would have seen all these political slights to Kanpeki and alerted the Emperor to probable retaliation.'

[Daidoji Tacticus]

Ah, yes, the arts. Where every artistic masterpiece that gets story time is also assigned by tournament wins, to the point where people can argue with a straight face "oh, no-one likes Crane art anyway".

[Doji Hajime]

Well I guess at least I don't owe anyone anything.