1

Two interesting little snippets this week, both involving Ririka:  First, when she and Marika were talking about het finding a new job, she makes the comment that her daughter's maturity makes her want to "fight even harder."  When Marika questions the word "fight," Ririka says it's nothing and quickly changes the subject.  Second, later on, when Misa's on the bridge talking about how much Ririka had changed to become a good mother, she then ends with "However...I think it's almost time."  Time for what???  Seems to me it's hard to keep a good pirate down.  (And I'm still not totally convinced Dad's dead and gone.)

2

About Ririka, my money's on her joining the crew of Barbarossa.

But what I'm afraid of is her trying to join the crew of Bentenmaru. That would be a mistake for both her and her daughter -- but that doesn't mean the writer won't do it.

Regardless, I'm not expecting any development in this regard for quite a while. At least not until book 3 is done.

3 On Ririka:
She wouldn't be getting a license for a ship if she's going back to being a Pirate.  She's been, mostly, straight for a while, so I imagine she'll want to captain some commercial ship.  After more than a decade in the type of job she had, I imagine she has connections all over the place.  It shouldn't be hard for her, given her experience & connections, to land a captain slot with the appropriate commercial licenses. 

The conversation also hinted that Ririka would be leaving, given the "support" context.  Which also harkens back to the discussion about keeping a steady income as a pirate.  Now that she doesn't need to support her daughter directly, she can go back off and do what she really enjoys: blowing things up. 

At least her cooking is better, now.

I'm still curious what Ririka pulled to get the "cease fire" around Marika.  Maybe that was part of the reason she settled there in the first place.  She'd eventually be able to wring a deal to protect Marika, as she knew this would eventually come about.  Which leads me to believe that the old cook is the real power on the underworld of the planet.

On the crew:
Ah, no more Kane-sensei or Misa-sensei.  Though we do now know why Kane was drinking so much while at the school.  He really couldn't stand to be teaching High School, haha.

Oh, and I SOOOOO want to see Schnitzer as a PE Teacher. 

Gruier:
Getting both princesses out of the system is probably the best idea available.  They took a lot of tensions and pretty much pushed them almost up to a shooting war.  Good thing Jean T. Marika was there to solve the problem.

That ring pretty much says Gonzaemon is alive.  There's pretty much 0 reasons to ever give anyone that ring.  Having that out of your control is practically a death sentence for a ship like that.  That'll probably be part of the major storyline to end the series, I imagine.  (I'm just speculating, obviously, as I don't know).  Still, that's a monster exposition drop.  And it'll be really important later.  They didn't spend that long talking about it without a reason.  Not in this series.

4 sqa:  You may be right about Ririka going another route, I was thinking that too -- on the other hand, didn't Kane say something at one point about having a large ship license?  In the very strange quasi-official environment in which the privateers operate, you may actually NEED a license to pilot a pirate ship.  I mean, they file navigation plans and everything (at least for some missions).  Who knows????

5

Re ceasefire: The government of Sea of the Morningstar is, and has always been, very motivated to keep Bentenmaru as a pirate.

When Ririka became pregnant with Gozaemon's baby, that was cause for quiet celebration in certain quarters; it meant the line wasn't going to end with him.

But a pirate ship is no place to bring up a child, so once she made the decision to have her baby, then pretty much everything else follows.

The government's hands are all over this. They probably found that house. They paid to put armor plate in all the walls, and to fit it with a world-class security system. They allowed her to keep a private arsenal. They've been making sure that nothing bad happens, ever since Marika was a baby. Though she hasn't been aware of it, I have no doubt that she's been covered by security people her whole life. Not to the level that Gruier and Grunhilde are, of course, but they haven't been ignoring her either.

And when, after Gozaemon died, Marika decided to take up the family trade, there was more, less quiet, celebration. Yeah, the paperwork hurdles for her getting her Letter of Marque were a pain. But the government dispatched a helicoptor to pick her up, and considering all the red tape it really did go pretty fast. When's the last time you ever saw a government finish any bureaucratic action in an afternoon? 20-some agencies, and every one of them was ready for Misa and Marika, and got them back out again in minutes.

So when it comes to things that relate to the government, or which the government can influence, just keep in mind that there's a Fairy Godmother in the government, keeping track of Marika and doing as much as possible to help her out.

Because the government of Sea of the Morningstar really, really wants her out there, doing exactly what she's doing.

It's already paid off for them. The Golden Ghost Ship job was a big deal, obviously for Serenity. But it was a big deal for Sea of the Morningstar too. Having their girl (and their pirate ship) be the one to save the day is good for prestige. Plus there won't be disruption of trade between the two systems, and now that Gruier and Grunhilde are going to school on Sea of the Morningstar, the relationship between the two systems will be close and friendly -- and that's a major win.

The Fair Godmother (or Father) is going around to all his bosses saying, "See? I told you she was going to be amazing! Didn't I? It was all worth it!"

6 About the house: It's not out of the realm of possibility that Ririka's house was custom built for her. It's a nice looking place, but I bet it's armored like a fortress. And that little hidey-hole full of guns in the garage can't possibly be usual.

Ririka has (had) a job, and it's a good job, and she works hard, and she's getting paid well. But I have no doubt she was also getting money from Bentenmaru Inc, and I wouldn't be surprised if the government was chipping in, too, at least indirectly. They may have outright given her that place.

Not soon, but there will come a time, maybe ten years, when Marika is going to start feeling pressure to find herself a man and get pregnant. Which will be interesting, because she'll have to keep making pirate raids while she's knocked up. I suppose she could let someone else lead the boarding actions...

7 I think Steven is on the right track here.

Coming off way too many series without even basically thought out world building (I recently watched all of Guilty Crown... ugh), that we need to respect the brilliantly detailed world that Moretsu Pirates is built upon.

Which means there's a whole lot more behind the scenes than we've been told yet.  Which means that Ririka & Marika are actually under the protection of the planetary security/defense ministry.  Especially given the fact that the Captain's family line has to run the ships was a bureaucratic way to keep them around after the war ended 100 years before.  The Bentenmaru is pretty much a space based PMC merged with a private intelligence firm for the Sea of Morningstar.  That makes them really, really important.  Especially given how the GU likely limits most of the military force they can have.

It also just dawned on me: the reason the school has the Odette II is that it's actually Ririka's ship. Theorycrafting: she wasn't the direct descendent of the ship's Captain (maybe a cousin or something that would be "next of kin" but not enough to keep the Marque independently).  So when she retired from pirating and left being under Gonzaemon's banner, she couldn't legally operate the Odette II as a pirate ship.  This would also explain a bit why Blaster Ririka leading boarding parties is shown a lot (aside from not showing Gonzaemon).  It further explains why all of the Odette's systems are still up to full spec.  They're really not that old.  Further, Ririka pretty much ran Ops at the Space Port, which means the ship could be easily be protected.   Because, really, there's no other reason for an all-girl's school to have 1 of 7 original pirate ships.

I came up with that idea because Ririka was picking up the license that I think Kane mentioned for the Yacht Club, so the ship could be taken out.  Kane having pilot licenses makes sense (he'd have had them before taking a position on the Bentenmaru), but if Ririka plans to do things a little more "legit" for a while, she'd probably want that on hand.

Just speculation, but it would make some sense for the world. 

8 Jeeze, I love series that make ya think this much, especially when the show ends up being worthy of all the speculation, as I'm pretty sure this one will.  (Counter-example:  Gosick.  Starting out seeming deep and complex, ended up -- not so much.)

9 Yeah, I gave Gosick my "Worst of 2011" award just because of that.  Although I still wonder if I should have given it to Rio: Rainbow Gate.  Kind of hard to give it to a show that made my brain do a belly-flop after half an episode.

What worries me is that we're building castles in the air for this show; it may still disappoint us yet.

10

Rio wasn't pretentious, the way Gosick was.

...but let's not derail this thread, shall we?

11 I foresee Grunhilde getting a cutesy nickname in the future, inside the Yacht Club.  That could be great.

12

No, I don't think they'll do that. They've been teasing Chiaki, but that's because they're trying to get her to loosen up. The princesses are a different matter; they're entitled to be just a bit stuffy, after all, and indeed they're being surprisingly accessible, such as being addressed by name without any honorific at all.

Also, it wouldn't really be fair to pick on her. Most of the girls there are 5-7 years older than she is.

I don't even expect any -chan for her.

Grunhilde was a little bit withdrawn on her first meeting with the group, but I fully expect her to lighten up later, and I think the older girls will fully appreciate that and not hassle her.

13 Considering that almost everyone in the club seems to be a cut-up to one degree or another, at some point they might start giving her a little ribbing -- of the gentle kind -- just to make her feel included.