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You listen closely to the <span class="mu-i">Blondish</span> song. More then the words themselves, you listen between the lines.
The blondes are an old culture. At this point in time, they are probably the only traditional culture left on this planet, mostly untouched and untainted from the others. Their cultural values are alien to your own- the ideas of libertine democracy are not present in their culture. There are values that are present; and the way the song is sung makes you feel as though the people here believe in what they believe very strongly. Even if it is ultimately wrong. Gods and ancient heroes aren't real. There is no special afterlife, nor strength of the spirit that lets the hero of this ballad win no matter what.
But you will say this about the ballad; it is simple, clean, performed with heart. You can see Brun smiling, even though you are sure he has heard it before. It is not novelty that motivates the crowd's reception of quiet concentration, somehow many times more respectful towards the performer then a stadium of cheering fans.
Truthfully, you grew up in a time and place immersed in a world where stories exist in context of other stories. Every story is judged, consciously or not, against every other story- but the blonde's song isn't set up that way. The characters grow and change, but there is no grand twist. The same values at the start of the song are exalted at its end. Something about it, its straightness or how “cliche” it would be in your own culture, makes you feel like you're missing something. The hero stays a hero and the villain stays a villain- and even the pessimist inside you trying to find it can't see the thinly veiled social commentary of the age of when it was written. This is a story that exists for the sake of being a story.
