The Songbird and the Sea

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Fanfiction
Title: The Songbird and the Sea
Author(s): MissterMaia, maia_archives
Date(s): May 2017 - December 2017
Length: 256k words; 34 chapters
Genre(s): AU, slash
Fandom(s): BTS
Relationship(s):
External Links: ao3 link, Archived version

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The Songbird and the Sea (abbreviated tStS) is a popular BTS fanfic by MissterMaia. It is a Pirate AU. The pairing is Yoonmin with side pairings VKook and Namjin.

On the Archive of Our Own, it is the most popular BTS fanwork by kudos, second most popular by hit counts, and has the third most comments; as of January 2021, it has 720k hits, 34k kudos, 6k comments, and 8k bookmarks.[1]

It was posted in 34 installments between May and December 2017. In September 2018, the author announced that they would post the sequel, The Songbird and the North, only to Patreon to prevent unauthorized translations as happened with The Songbird and the Sea. The series has 4 books planned including The Songbird and the Sea, The Songbird and the North, The Songbird and the Gift, and the Songbird and the War. As of November 2020, the third book is in progress and the fourth has not been started yet. Additional books are The Captain's Memoirs and a prologue. These sequels have "book" names instead of the names of the BTS members. [2]

Synopsis

Summary: In a world where dominance of the sea is an endless battle between pirates and mariners, Park Jimin is content living in his little village on a small, uninteresting island by the eastern mainland. He wants nothing to do with the bloodshed of good and evil, the heartless killing of both innocents and condemned, the constant establishment and disruption of order. What he wants is peace, to live his life in the same town he was born in, to spend his days in the beautiful forest, and to use the powers of his Blessed Rune to nurture the home he loves so dearly.

But when his island is attacked by pirates, Jimin will have no other choice than to do as they command and leave all thoughts of peace behind in favor of boarding the Agust, a pirate ship captained by the infamous Min Yoongi, Black Fox of the East.

Additional Content

In January 2019, the Twitter account @songbird_info was created to give information on The Songbird series. Its single Twitter thread fully explains why MissterMaia stopped publishing The Songbird Series onto Archive of Our Own. This second Twitter thread explains more information about her. She has left Twitter, is going to school, and "living her best life."

Okay, so! As you might know, my hesitation with posting the sequel(s) to tStS has largely been due to the fact that people have taken it and translated without my permission, and refused to take it down when asked (even website admins have refused to help).

@songbird_info on May 29, 2019 at 10:56 AM UTC[3]

FAQ time:

Tbh I don’t really know what to put here because I’m not sure what people frequently ask ʕ⁎̯͡⁎ʔ༄ —

•Maia has left Twitter

•BUT! You can find her on Patreon where she is creating her third book tStG, has finished tStN, and has revised tStS.

@misstermaia on December 9th, 2019 at 3:31 PM UTC[4]

Fan Reviews/Reactions

The fic has 34 reviews on GoodReads, with an average star rating of 4.74 out of 5 from 226 ratings.

As of November 2020, it is the most popular work by kudos and hits in the Alternate Universe - Pirates, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Magic, Enemies to Lovers, and Historical tags on AO3. It is the second most popular work by hits in the Romance tag.[5]

[...] Fave Part? – There’s a reason why Songbird is the most popular fic of this ship. About two-thirds into the story a nagging feeling filled my heart whenever I looked at the pages on the bottom of my screen: I did not want this story to end. I kept going back to those defining moments instead of moving forward:
  1. the one where Yoongi barges in when Jimin is caged up in Son Jukan’s brig.
  2. the one where he appears right before the pirates in Shanghai violate Jimin.
  3. the Holi-esque festival where Jimin and Yoongi connect (eep!!!!).
  4. the moment he leans over Jimin’s shoulder when they’re playing Hangman’s Mercy – a personal favourite – I yelped!
  5. their first kiss + the morning after in the infirmary… swooooning… [...]

- Fic Review - The Songbird and the Sea

I've read a LOT of BTS fanfiction (specifically read this one at least a year ago), but it stuck with me. It is a masterclass in worldbuilding and characterization.[6]

this is not only a yoonmin classic, but rather it’s a bts fanfiction classic. the world building is insane, it’s a pirate au and it’s a masterpiece. if you want to read a fic that everyone knows, this is it.[7]

Fan Creations

Inspired Works

Fan Videos

Fan Art

Tumblr

Twitter

Moodboards

Other

Controversy

In 2018, fans made Twitter callout threads with evidence that MissterMaia was transphobic.[citation needed] MissterMaia also did not comply with requests to putting the proper warnings on The Songbird and the Sea on AO3[citation needed] - specifically, readers pointed out five instances of attempted rape in the story, while the work on AO3 only contains warnings for violence. With comparisons to real life author J.K. Rowling, the much of the Twitter ARMY fanfiction community turned against the author.[citation needed] MissterMaia was soon driven off the platform, but continues to publish their works on Patreon.

Twitter

Claims against MissterMaia

Also the author of songbird and the sea is extremely transphobic, mean and also had ppl call her oppa also I’ll never forget her cult of friends who would send names in a gc of authors they didn’t like (mostly who wrote btm yoong) and bash them or when some of them made jokes about Yoongi not having a prostate because he’s such a top????!?(& like trash

@yoonjns on June 10, 2020 at 7:53 PM UTC[8]

guys. the author of the songbird and the sea is transphobic, was telling people to call them oppa tho they r white white, were bullying people for not enjoying their fic.

BUT IF U WILL RECOMMEND IT TO PEOPLE MAYBE WARM THEM ABOUT LIKE 5 RAPE ATTEMPTS BECAUSE THE AUTHOR DIDNT

plus the fact that the author said jimin “was like 16” and yoongi is a full on grown man but “it was not@al back then” god i wish i was taking scr when they were tweeting all of that

@agustd_twts on June 11, 2020 at 1:42 PM UTC[9]

It’s the year 2020 and people still recommend misstermaia fics

misstermaia Handshake jk Rowling

being transphobic pieces of shit who think they’re untouchable because they wrote something everyone loved once

yes it’s been years but I will not let this go because people still glorify her and spread her shitty fics around

This bitch is still active and still making a profit off of her bullshit. 743 people at $3 a month. This transphobe is making over $2000 a month. So yeah, I’m still mad.

Unnamed Fan 1 on August 7, 2020 at 3:39 PM UTC

WHO REMEMBERS WHEN MISSTERMAIA CALLED ME A CUNT AND MISGENDERED ME FOR CALLING HER TRANSPHOBIC AND CIS I DO

@fagvich on January 30, 2020 at 4:43 PM UTC[10]

Claims for MissterMaia

(Two deleted tweets were before this tweet)

She is NOT problematic TF

(deleted tweet)

Excuse me@but she did not. She wrote an abo threadfic WITHOUT a mention of mpreg and yet got bashed by folks who said abo as a genre is transphobic and she disagreed. It’s not like she created the genre. I’ve read both sides of that debate I was ON TWT during it

deleted tweets and @nenya_twt on December 28, 2020 at 5:36 AM UTC[11]

(deleted tweets from user @mngloss, who was tagged in the thread)

@nenya_twt: As for yoongs hitting jimin - he was a pirate captain being insulted by a prisoner. Nobody complained for when tae drove the sword thru that guy’s foot or some many other violent moments in other fics. And yoongs HATES himself for hitting him.. stop bandwagon hate

(deleted tweet)

@miniaminie: their relationship was toxic at the start none the less. No matter if Yoongi regrets it or not. I read about how she also used slurs. Obvs, if she isn't problematic then I'm happy. Again, she is one of my favourite authors.

@nenya_twt: Just search misstermaia transphobic: it’s all about non Ym shippers and non fanfic readers complaining about mpreg in a Fic which is a ABO threadfic she wrote THAT was tagged w mpreg but didn’t actually contain any mpreg.

Either way, she isn’t the only author to write abo and yet she was bullied off of Twitter for it.

I will always defend Maia I hate that amazing ym Fic writes like her or mintsoda etc were BULLIED off Twitter. Pbk was so bullied she stopped writing and abandoned TLWWT.. it’s sick

@miniamine: I did search it and barely found stuff. I'm not from the US so my results may be different. Like said, I don't see mpreg ffs as transphobic depending on how they are portrayed. +

Most aren't portrayed that way though and are easily avoided if that's the case. Also, I don't condone bullying someone even if they have done something wrong because of things like misinformation, etc.

@nenya_twt: I’m not in the US either and the search results don’t work that way. She wasn’t in the US either.

deleted tweets and @nenya_twt on December 28, 2020 at 6:07 AM UTC[12]

References

  1. ^ Found via the BTS works search and sorting January 2021.
  2. ^ MissterMaia. THE SONGBIRD AND THE NORTH: STATUS UPDATE. Tweet. 25 Sep 2018
  3. ^ Twitter Thread by tStS sequel info
  4. ^ Twitter Thread by @MissterMaia
  5. ^ Found via the tag search and sorting November 2020.
  6. ^ Comments on The genuinely best fanfictions you have ever read? posted to r/FanFiction Aug 13, 2021
  7. ^ "Hello, I would really like to read some classic fics, you know big titles, stuff that everyone in fandom has read". Archived from the original on 2023-02-03.
  8. ^ Twitter Thread by @yoonjns
  9. ^ Twitter Thread by @agustd_twts
  10. ^ Twitter Thread by @fagvich
  11. ^ Twitter Thread by @nenya_twt
  12. ^ Twitter Thread by @nenya_twt
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