if this recording had existed when I wrote Dearly Beloved, the wedding dinner scene would have featured a well-lubricated Mio Sakamoto and her impromptu navy witch choir putting their own spin (enumerated below) on this classic.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

---

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

And we sailed away in the roughest of water
Row, me bully girls, row
But now we return in the most royal quarters
Row, me bully girls, row

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

So now we feast on pheasants by the flock
Row, me bully girls, row
It's a long, long way from the gruel and the stocks and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

A wee dram o' whisky for every witch
Row, me bully girls, row
And a bottle of rum for the shanty witch and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

And we sailed away in the roughest of water
Row, me bully girls, row
And now we return and so lock up your daughters
Row, me bully girls, row

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row

And it's row, me bully girls
We're in a hurry, girls
We've got a long way to go
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And not wear any pants and it's
Row, me bully girls, row
—trad. (18th century?)

I don't have time tonight to actually listen, alas, but I cannot stop giggling at the lyrics. XD

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>I don't have time tonight to actually listen, alas, but I cannot stop
>giggling at the lyrics. XD

When you do, you'll understand why I'm so pleased with how well "... and not wear any pants" lines up with the actual song. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>When you do, you'll understand why I'm so pleased with how well "...
>and not wear any pants" lines up with the actual song. :)

Haha! I have now listened, and you're right! The original line "and bid farewell to France" makes zero sense with the story right now.

Call me perverse, but I can't help but wonder if Krupinski gets an elbow to the ribs every time the line about locking up your daughters comes around.

"I see London, I see France..."

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

LAST EDITED ON Aug-02-23 AT 01:48 AM (EDT)
 
>Call me perverse, but I can't help but wonder if Krupinski gets an
>elbow to the ribs every time the line about locking up your daughters
>comes around.

Heck, when they're all singing it as a group, she might get that line herself. Probably delivered while brandishing a tankard, amid various cheers and jeers. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Call me perverse, but I can't help but wonder if Krupinski gets an
>>elbow to the ribs every time the line about locking up your daughters
>>comes around.
>
>Heck, when they're all singing it as a group, she might get that line
>herself. Probably delivered while brandishing a tankard, amid various
>cheers and jeers. :)

Hehe. Her or Yoshika, now that I'm thinking of it again. I wonder what kind of drinking age they try to enforce on witches in general. Not that that ever stops determined teenagers.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>I wonder what
>kind of drinking age they try to enforce on witches in general. Not
>that that ever stops determined teenagers.

I suspect that, while the various forces involved (except probably the Orussians) don't come right out and issue alcoholic libations to their witches, the Allied Expeditionary Forces make few efforts at policing that sort of thing outside the standard regulations about drunkenness on duty that apply to anybody in uniform.

Less so in the anime for obvious reasons, but on the franchise's print side, World Witches characters are often shown engaging in vices that would have been typical of the adult soldiers they replace in that setting. For example, IRL pretty much everybody smoked in the 1940s, but witches whose ace archetypes were known as especially heavy smokers are usually depicted with cigarettes on the go themselves, even though they're teenage girls. (I used a variation on that trope myself in The Fall of Petrograd, although in that case, I don't have any reason to assume that the real Anna Yegorova was in the habit of smoking entire cigarettes in two drags. Poetic license. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

This is, indeed, an excellent image.