snowspring

i knew from the start that i didn't want to write pirates of the caribbean, so to speak; it's been done a million times.  what i wanted, instead, was to write something as historically accurate as i could get, set in the south china sea.  so, in my research, i discovered a battle that took place in 1855 off tai-o, hong kong (known back then as ty-ho) in which british and american naval forces came together to defeat chinese pirates.  it was a decisive battle, in a place that was still affected deeply by piracy (at this point, piracy had been all but eradicated in the west due to british and american influence), and it eventually helped lead to the decline of piracy in eastern and southern asia.  intrigued, i decided to use that as a plot point: british and american forces banding together to defeat pirates!svt.

as i generally tend to do (lmao), i threw myself into research and it seemed like the more i researched the more everything kinda fell into place.  i learned about ching shih, a female pirate in the early 1800s, who commanded the largest pirate fleet in history, and modeled junhui after her... and pirate au was born!

(of course i also watched pirates of the caribbean a million times, especially the third one; jeongcheol have will and elizabeth vibes and that's all i'm gonna say about That.)

as i was doing some revisions i decided that i wanted to Rewrite "fractured moonlight" as a whole, with junhui's previously-dead brother litao as the main villain.  so, "blood red breeze" was heavily changed.  as such, this commentary is going to be exactly that: a commentary.  just me reading through the new work and making notes, essentially.  talking about the characters and the story!

"blood red breeze" is the first installment in the "fractured moonlight" series and details junhui's rise to power.  the title comes from "asura" by ravi, chillin homie, xydo, and cold bay, which is also on the fm playlist!

so one of the first things i'm reminded of when i start reading is that junhui has uh problems with authority.  he gets it partially from his father but also from just being an intelligent person.  at this point is history, the taiping rebellion (the bloodiest civil war in world history) is two years away but tensions are still high.  the first opium war, in which british forces managed to essentially lay claim to isolated-from-outsiders qing ports (and what an embarrassing defeat That was), happened a mere six years ago.  and throughout the qing dynasty's history, there was plenty of unrest.  and the son of a wealthy, successful pirate would hold no love for the government.  especially when said government was failing the people around him, people he cared about.  and we first see these feelings in the fact that junhui refuses to style his hair the way he should be doing.

the queue hairstyle, or braid, that the qing government forced on its male subjects was considered by many to be a symbol of oppression and i decided that junhui wouldn't have one.  his character is not han chinese, like most rebels who refused to wear their hair in the queue (historically, the han chinese opted not to cut their hair for cultural and philosophical reasons and were then forced, often violently, to shave their foreheads and adhere to the queue by qing officials) but for him, it's about freedom.  about being who he wants to be, not letting anyone else dictate anything about him.  actually, pretty much everything he does is about freedom.  like a pirate!!

[“I’m here,” he says in the man’s defiance-induced silence, “because I need to speak with someone who can deliver a message to… those in charge.”

The man huffs quietly, eyes still raking over Junhui’s appearance.  “I see. Regarding?”

“Wen Zhitao,” he says and the man’s face rather humorously pales, as expected, really, “the Pirate Lord of the East Seas. I know where he is and I am willing to divulge said information, for a price.”

Pausing, the man meets Junhui's eyes.  He’s thinking.  And Junhui is willing to give him all the time he needs; he’ll come to the right decision, eventually.  “And how do I know said information is to be trusted?”

“Because…” He glances out the window, past the sunlight pouring through, out to the sea.  From here, atop a small hill, the ocean glitters a bright, blinding blue.  Junhui stares for a moment that lasts as long as a breath and then he looks back at the man without an ounce of regret.  He, too, has made the right decision. “I’m his son.”]

hh okay so when i first wrote this, junhui's father was already dead, killed in battle during the first opium war, and junhui was planning on having his brother killed, while still haunted, metaphorically, by the ghost of his father.  but i like this better for so many reasons because now we get to see junhui dealing directly with his father and with his feelings for him.  he hates his father, not because he's a pirate but because he abandoned junhui.  because he's a coward.  because, eventually, he's corrupt.  because, no matter how old junhui grows to be, he will always resent his father for choosing someone else over him.  it's something i used to struggle with too and to give that burden to junhui, to maybe see him overcome it in the main au, eventually... well it's been cathartic.

his brother's name, "litao" [黎涛], literally means "great black waves" and the reason i chose such a name for junhui's brother is because he's the main villain now.  in this fic, it says he's dead but spoiler alert heh, he's not.  and we'll learn that later on.  i cannot WAIT for the brother-on-brother angst, it's gonna be so funnnnnn.

GOD another thing i love about this fic......... YANAN.  what a TREAT it's been to write him in this au!!  i was a carat before i became a universe and i knew about yanan first through junhui and then to become a fan of pentagon too and get to know him from that.... !!

in this fic, i chose to highlight junhui's confidence and yanan's levelheadedness.  i know irl they are both so much more than that but it was important to me to balance them like this, to show how well they work together.  and to uhhhh maybe set up some foreshadowing [junhui's father was obsessed with power and keeping it and losing it and uhhhhhh guess who else is too heh].  they break up well before the events of the main fic but they still remain besties because.... well i mean yanan's been his bestie for half of his life bro :((((

[speaking of!! junhui is 15 when his mother dies and he meets his father for the first time.  he's just barely twenty-three when he has his father killed.  and he's 30 in the main fic.]

tbh okay so the end scene.... where junhui and the others straight up murder the icky corrupt commanders... okay so i struggled with keeping that in because i wasn't sure that it fit but like.... in this fic, we see how junhui starts.  we see that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get his power, to keep it.  and then when we catch up with him again in the main fic, he's tired.  he doesn't Like the endless murder and violence and bloodshed that being a pirate constitutes but he does what he has to do.  and it'll be interesting to see how that uhhh continues to develop as the main fic goes on...........................

but!!!! now i get to talk about something else fun heh - the other captains/commanders!!

so, the way the fleet is set up, junhui sits at the metaphorical top as leader/commander, right.  then there are smaller fleets within the main one and those are headed by commanders, too.  i haven't named the fleets yet except jeonghan heads the red flag fleet which is based out of hanseong (seoul).  other commanders include song qian (victoria from fx!), nakamoto yuta (nct!), xiao zhan (who acted in the untamed, stfu i was Big into the untamed when i was first writing this), zhang yixing (lay from exo!), and zhou jieqiong (kyulkyung from pristin!).  technically, junhui also has commanders based out of vietnam, the philippines, indonesia, and thailand, but i haven't named them yet.





jeonghan's crew is the one i've fleshed out the most, ofc!  he's got some seventeeners with him (joshua, seungkwan, soonyoung, and jihoon) as well as the vixxes (who used to be joseon navymen until they tried to capture jh and it uhhhhh didn't work so now they're like hey the govt sucks being a pirate is fucking dope), nu'est, and victon (because it's my au i can do what i want!!!!!!).  under his command, he has captain kim hongjoong (ateez!!).

yixing's crew is where the exos, the ncts, and probably the shinees are.  i know junmyeon is exo's leader but yixing is one of my biases so he gets to be pirate commander lmaooo (this ties back to yixing being an avatar in my avatar au too lmaoo i blame the lit mv like bro have u SEEN it)

other than that............ i don't have the rest of the crews figured out lmao it'd take wayyyyyyy too long.

(i might write a johnten oneshot set in this au, as well as a sulay one, too... in which junmyeon is probably a captain under yixing's command and uh..... heh)

anyway you totally came here to listen to me ramble about the other characters lmaooo

i think though that's pretty much all i wanna say about "blood red breeze"!  i really like this version so much more and GOD i really love pirate jun.  he's so confident and sexy but he's also so!!!! hurt!!!! and dealing with so much stuff and i can't wait for all of that to come out in the main fic.... all of his lil character flaws god i love himmmmmmmmmmmm he's so cool you guys.

anyway i love this au and i am STOKED to keep going!  thank you for reading if you made it this far heh, i love you guys! yo ho ho and all that~