🇲🇽 • Spanish please xD | English bad | Japanese and German learning | ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ » Re-traducciones: Ok (? -de hecho no me preguntes a mi sino al artista, si te da permiso adelante no necesitas preguntarme a mi- ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
homing went bankrupt and caused his family to move out from mary geoise hill (a place where super rich people live) to an ordinary suburban, and there they met the trafalgar family who lived next door
This is a line from the song I’ll Cover You from Rent. I keep thinking of it whenever we make the ‘Law is going to be queen of the pirates’ type of jokes
Redraw of my most popular art piece ever because GUYS STOP SHARING THE OLD ONE IT LOOKS BADDDD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I'm so tired of seeing it everywhere, post this one instead.
OH WHAT????? BABY YOUR ART LOOKS BEAUTIFUL😭😭💕 BOTH WITH THE NEW AND OLD ART STYLES, I LOVE IT!! I LOVE THE COLORS AND SHADING, EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS JUST PERFECTION🥹🥹
When your oomf's a smoker but you aren't but you still wanna hang out w/ them 🥺
Saw this and I just think Takeshi would keep it on hand so that he too can share in his smoking friends (specifically Gokudera's) hobbies for bonding time 🥺
During Marineford, Garp is embroiled in the second worst Catch-22 in all of One Piece (that I know of) and I've never seen it mentioned or brought up by fans.
Because after Garp allows Luffy to knock him off the platform, Sengoku says this:
But after Ace's death, Dadan accuses him of the exact opposite:
So what is the truth? Is Garp more loyal to the Navy than he is to his family or is it the other way around?
Some Garp analysis below!
Most fans think that the dilemma Garp's in revolves around his place in the Navy as he fails protect Ace and Luffy from an institution that seeks to kill them for being born. But I'd argue that's only a small part of what's going on here. The dilemma actually begins with Roger and Dragon respectively.
By taking them in, Garp promises their parent(s) to protect them. Because he knows his grandchildren will face a horrific amount of adversity in their lives, he trains them vigorously while also pushing them to become marines.
This choice to push enlistment onto Ace and Luffy is a highly contested point for obvious reasons. But Garp’s logic makes sense. Being a war hero has insulated Garp from a lot of the Navy’s bullshit and ensured that he’s not 100% beholden to the celestial dragons. More importantly, It’s the only thing standing between him and the execution platform that Ace is currently on, as Sengoku tells him he would have been killed for Dragon’s crimes otherwise:
Dragon, of course being a criminal on the same caliber as Roger in a lot of respects.
So from Garp's perspective the path makes sense. If Ace and Luffy can become big named heroes in the marines then there's a chance they could escape execution and keep their freedom.
But here's where the dilemma kicks in. Ace and Luffy want to be pirates. More than that, Ace's dream is to become a pirate and surpass Roger in notoriety.
Garp wants to keep his grandchildren safe -> Garp trains them and pushes them towards becoming marines -> Ace and Luffy rebel because their dreams involve becoming the biggest high profile pirates in the world (which puts targets on their backs) -> Garp continues to try and get them to enlist to protect them -> they refuse and the cycle repeats.
Because ultimately what Ace and Luffy want is antithetical to the promise Garp made to their parents. He cannot save them from the world that wants to kill them for being born without crushing their dreams in the process, something that Oda considers being on the same caliber as death, as mentioned in this SBS in chapter 30.
Which brings us to Marineford. Ace is set to be executed for the crime of being born as Garp visibly struggles beside him.
It isn't Garp's status as a marine that's holding him back. It's his status as a grandfather. Oda makes this clear by including short flashbacks to Ace and Luffy's childhood throughout the arc.
If Garp steps in to save Ace, he would save Ace’s life as his grandfather but he would also crush Ace’s dream of being seen as a pirate. This is akin to death, as Oda mentions.
If Garp doesn’t step in to save Ace, he’s reaffirming Ace’s wish to be seen and treated like a pirate, his dream, but in doing so there’s a high chance he’ll die.
No matter what he chooses, Ace dies. That’s why Garp can’t do anything but watch what’s unfolding.
Garp’s beholden to the promise he made with Ace and presumably Luffy’s parent(s) to keep their children safe. But, because both Whitebeard and Luffy actively chose to be a part of Ace’s life as pirates, they are only beholden to Ace. That’s why when they arrive to save him and Ace asks them to stand down on the basis of his pirate honor, they’re able to lean on their family ties to refuse his request without denouncing his dream.
With this in mind, when Luffy makes his way to the platform, Garp is finally free to take action as he can now rely on Luffy to save Ace.
But then he does something really interesting.
Garp uses his position of power to show Luffy and Ace what future lies beyond them if they follow through with their dreams.
But Garp isn't doing this as a Marine (Sengoku even asks "who gave him the order?") he's doing this as their grandfather. Because even while he's down there "keeping the pirates away from Ace," his thoughts remain on Ace and how he's doing emotionally.
Which brings me to another point of contention in Ace and Garp's relationship. This scene:
People shit on Garp for not telling Ace that he deserved to be born, but doing so is a complete misunderstanding of their relationship. Throughout this arc, it’s been shown time and time again that Ace does not accept platitudes. It doesn’t matter that Luffy wants to be his friend and chases after him. It’s only after watching Luffy be brutalized on his behalf that Ace rationalizes Luffy’s friendship. Because he’s seen the extent of Luffy’s devotion, Ace can take Luffy seriously. Ace does the same with Whitebeard where Ace tried to kill him multiple times and was still accepted as his son. (This is kind of behavior is called boundary pushing btw.)
If Garp had simply said “of course it would have been better if you were born” Ace wouldn’t have accepted it. Why? Because he doesn’t have direct confirmation of that being true. So, knowing Ace’s psychology, Garp gave him a realistic answer, which may not have been kind, but was ultimately truthful. That’s why Garp is visibly affected when Ace breaks down in happiness now that he has confirmation of how loved he is.
But moving on, Garp plants himself as an obstacle in Luffy's way to Ace and uses his position to teach Luffy a lesson. Not because he cares about his title or what it symbolizes but as an example of the foes Luffy will have to strike down if wants to save the people he loves. He's forcing Luffy to adopt his own form of justice in this scene (which Garp reiterates with all the people mentors) which is antithetical to the justice the navy stands for that's defined by laws/regulations.
And you can tell Garp isn't doing/saying this for the Navy's sake (once again no one gave him an order to do any of this), because of the cuts to Garp training Luffy. Even right when he's about to punch Luffy, Garp sees both him and Ace as children.
So when he lets Luffy punch him and falls off the platform, he's concluding the lesson as his grandfather not a marine. Because that's who Luffy is punching: his grandfather.
That's why Sengoku says Garp put being a father over being a marine in this scene because this entire interaction was a bluff on Garp's part:
People assume that Garp's actions here were out of guilt for being a marine but he's never put that much stake in his title (hence why he laughs off most of the marine's problems.) When viewed from the above lens, this scene is actually more anti-marine than it is pro marine.
Further, by knocking himself out as his grandfather, Garp gives Luffy a chance to understand the stakes of what being a pirate means (supporting his dream to be a pirate while warning him about how strong he'll have to be to survive on the path he's chosen) and save Ace's life at the same time breaking his dilemma.
That is until Ace gets embroiled in an even worse dilemma.
Because when Akainu insults Whitebeard's legacy, Ace is in the worst Catch-22 of the manga.
If Ace runs away with Luffy, he’d be shitting on Whitebeard’s legacy (he’s only in this mess because he went after Blackbeard for doing essentially the same thing) -> Ace would live but Whitebeard’s legacy would be tarnished -> considering Ace’s dream is to make Whitebeard the king of the pirates Ace’s dream would be tarnished as well -> Meanwhile, there may not be enough time for both him and Luffy to get out safely so he could lose Luffy to Akainu. -> Thus Ace would experience a spiritual death akin to dying for real because of his dream being tarnished and potentially lose his brother.
If Ace stays to confront Akainu, he can defend Whitebeard’s legacy and keep his belief that Whitebeard’s the greatest pirate alive intact while giving Luffy time to escape at the cost of his own life.
Ace was going to die either way. So he chose to die for his beliefs, save his brother's life, and reaffirm Luffy's dream before he died.
It's here, after Ace's death, that Garp gives up all pretenses of being loyal to the marines and fights as himself that he is restrained by Sengoku. (It's not surprising that Garp resigns in the aftermath of this as this is seemingly one of the only times his place marines has ever held him back from taking direct action.)
Garp later returns to the Goa Kingdom to protect the area. When Dadan accuses him of not being able to save Ace and Luffy and valuing his job over their lives, Garp doesn't correct her. He instead takes her fury head on as an outlet for his own pain as a grandfather. That's why he's surprised Makino steps in for him because she points out his dilemma perfectly. Ace and Luffy were within his reach but he couldn't save them.
With all this in mind, Garp’s place in Marineford becomes less of a critique of the marines (Sengoku, Akainu, and Koby’s place in the arc do a great job of that already), but a more personal rumination on how Oda’s theme of dreams/ambitions conflict with the tangible reality of death. It’s paradoxical and borderline ridiculous to put so much stock on one’s beliefs to the point of being willing to lay down everything to reaffirm them and yet doing so is the greatest expression of love in the manga. It's so interesting.
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