0So I have a boring, fairly flexible job where there are long stretches of absolutely nothing to do and I’ve been on a One Piece kick lately (I know you are shocked, SHOCKED! by that) and well. How to explain.
If the Straw Hats were likened to a body, Jinbei would be the bones of them, I think, solid and rigid and providing a foundation of steadiness they’ve been lacking. But, say you, doesn’t the foundation traditionally come first? Maybe so, says I, but when has this crew ever done anything traditionally?
Brook would be the lungs, allowing the rest of them to laugh, and sing, and pause and catch their breath when they need to. Joy is not as instinctual as breathing, but with Brook they’re one and the same (Though he has no lungs, ho ho ho ho!)
As for Franky, I think guts suits him best. He’s that feeling when you’ve been pushed too far, the abdominal clench when you’re really scared, the growl of your stomach when you’ve been doing something so long and obsessively you’ve forgotten to eat. He’s the passion and the verve that turns thought to potential to action, and pushes them forward.
And lovely Robin, the brain of course, always thinking and watching and cataloging. This body, this crew is hers and she will do what she has to to protect it, there’s no price too high, and no blow too low--because a brain can’t survive on it’s own, and that’s a lesson she was glad to learn, and learned it well.
Dear Chopper is the blood that runs in this crew’s veins, through every part of them. A doctor nurtures and heals and protects, just as it’s the blood’s job to clot wounds, create antibodies to diseases, and keep the body moving and growing and vital.
Vivi’s time was fleeting, but important. The role of the feet, that keeps the body moving and grounded. A body can live, and move, and move on without feet, but it will always remember what they felt like, and it will always feel their (her) loss.
I’ll say Sanji is the eyes and ears, but what I really mean is that he’s the senses, the lizard brain, watchful and cautious, the first and best line of defense. The body may be strong, but if he can see or feel or hear first, then he can perhaps prevent engagement altogether, and if not...he can at least delay it until they’re in the best possible position.
Usopp is their teeth, gritted in grief, chattering in terror, or bared in frustration, right up until they tear into the enemy as a last resort. It’s not pretty or elegant, it’s not powerful or conventionally brave, but it is effective, it does work, and after all isn’t that the most important thing?
You’re going to laugh, but Nami is absolutely their heart. Like a ship without a navigator, if the heart stops pumping blood to the rest of the body, that body will not function for long. And on a more whimsical note, when we feel compassion and worry and love, we don’t attribute them to the brain. It’s all heart.
Zoro is the hands, but not just any hands; they’re rough and callused and scared. Strong hands, capable of brutality and harm, but capable of profound gentleness as well (thought never really softness). Though these hands are more often cruel than kind, they are steady and reassuringly unbreakable, as if they belonged to a statue carved of diamond.
And what about the man who believes in all of their hopes and dreams as confidently as if they were his own? Who bears them forward at speed, belligerently unyielding in his conviction that his crew is the best of the best? What could Luffy possibly be but the shoulders, whose burdens are borne as gladly as the blessings, and who never falters under either.
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
blakekathryn
