Normal About Stories

[normalaboutstories]

Oh he's really screwed isn't he

[normalaboutstories]

Hooogh Re:zero. I'm an anime only, but I'm gonna go into my impressions on arc six ep 8 because I have thoughts. Spoilers for the ep below.

Ough. Ough. He's just a kid. He's so young and innocent. Why. Anyway in clearer words: yeah zerobaru getting his shit kicked in is rough. He's in way too high level an area and is dealing with way too much on every front completely unprepared. But the thing that gets me, from a character angle, is that in the past Subaru always chose the loops to some degree. He didn't try to get killed on purpose, obviously, but he always had an option to run away and didn't take it because it meant protecting his loved ones. But this Subaru is trapped. And to him, he doesn't have any loved ones. He's just been suddenly tossed into a terrifying hellscape for no reason, and can surmise that he either hasn't been able to or didn't want to escape it for a year straight. And he can't possibly comprehend the determination his past self had, because he doesn't have anyone to protect. Its just. Ooooough.

[emtearzz]

She then proceeded to encourage the chaos.

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.

Old art from last year below ↓

[cuttyflaps]

[escape-the-game-itself]

I found an old comment I made a few months ago elsewhere and I decided that I should make it into an actual post:

(read the page on the right first / image description in the alt text of the first image)

The thing is that what drives Nami to ask Luffy for help is seeing the villagers she was trying to save deciding to die fighting rather than let her suffer any longer

She was willing to keep working, she was committed to sacrificing herself for the sake of her village. But the villagers chose to stop her from doing that, so she could be free. They are returning the favour and sacrificing themselves for her

Her despair doesn't come from her own suffering but from the realisation that everyone she loves is about to die and there's nothing she can do about it

She isn't asking Luffy to save her, she's asking him to help save her loved ones, because she realises now that she can't do it on her own

That's why she's not a "damsel in distress" here: she's not the one in danger. She's perfectly capable of running away and taking care of herself. She has the option of leaving and never seeing the Arlong pirates again, and the villagers gave her their blessing to do so. But she can't, because her village means everything to her

[escape-the-game-itself]

(Yes, it's also about her finally opening up to her crewmates and being vulnerable for the first time in her life, and yes, it's also about her finally accepting that she can't just be a lone wolf and that she needs help, which is later echoed by Luffy's speech about how he too can't live without the help of his crew, but those are things other people have already talked about at length)

[escape-the-game-itself]

Also this is only tangentially related to that last post but

Nowadays Nami would beat Arlong so easily 😌

I don't know how much he's been training off-page, wherever he is, or if we'll ever even see him again, but I'm pretty sure he still couldn't take a giant lightning bolt in the face

Arlong was freed from prison and he became a petty landlord in the backwoods of the planet

Nami was freed from Arlong and she became a fucking weather wizard and then stole a piece of an Emperor's soul to make herself even more powerful

[escape-the-game-itself]

Something I appreciate about Luffy and Vivi's moment on Drum Island when Vivi calls him out is that Luffy immediately gets it AND it makes sense that he does. I think he saw some of Shanks in Vivi in that moment, a different flavour of the same thing: pride doesn't matter, protecting your friends does. Don't escalate a situation unnecessarily.

He needed to learn that lesson but he was also already primed to learn it. This is why chapter 1 is so so so important.

And I really appreciate One Piece for not insisting on forcing the characters to go on a whole arc to learn a lesson even when it shouldn't be that hard for them. Luffy didn't need to have it demonstrated to him why Vivi was right, he's got enough wisdom of his own to understand, he just needed to be called out.

Of course this later backfires when Iceberg does it in Water Seven. Luffy tries to take it to heart but it goes very wrong. That's where we did need a whole arc, for both Luffy and Usopp, and frankly the whole crew as a whole. (I have complicated feelings about the conclusions but that's maybe just a me thing, and it still works very well in the story)

There are not that many moments of character growth for Luffy in One Piece, and even the stuff that's there is subtle (and I think that's a GOOD thing, for the record, Luffy's purpose in the narrative isn't primarily about his growth but the change he inspires in others) but when he has them they're so well done and hit so hard. Even the smaller moments like the one with Vivi.

I'm firmly of the opinion that Luffy actually didn't need to learn that much, he just needed experience. He's a bit of a dumbass, but he understands the important things, he has his priorities in order, and that genuinely makes him wise beyond his years.

Even in Water Seven I would argue that a lot of the problem stemmed from Luffy struggling to handle the pressure and the distress he was feeling. He decided to act in a very un-Luffy-like way (hiding his feelings) to try to cope with the stress, and it didn't go well. He was trying to be more mature and went about it the wrong way. He needed to find a more Luffy-ish way to be mature, and he did.

This got a bit rambly but I hope my points came across

[normalaboutstories]

Major spoilers for One Piece chapters 179-181 below!

Ok lets get things straight its analysis time. I have a hill I'm willing to die on.

This fucker doesn't actually look like that ^ Why? Well. First off, the shillouette doesn't match up. And yes, I know, Oda's original shilouettes are often misleading compared to the final character designs, but thats not whats going on here. For Loki and Kaido, those shilouettes were both presented hundreds of chapters before their debut, and they were people imagining what the characters looked like. For Imu, his (their?) debut was physical. They were shadowed, but that was their actual real body. Second, look at Imu's shilouette body even from the chapter this design dropped.

The shoulders aren't NEARLY broad enough. And look at that wrist! It's skinny! There's no way in hell this could physically be the same built guy we see only panels later. And obviously, Oda knew what the design was going to be at this point.

Second! We know that Imu already has at least some control over his appearance. When he fights Loki, he grows to the size of a giant. He seems to be able to summon and disappear his massive wings at will. And when he first arrives at Elbaf, he seems to undergo some kind of painful physical transformation.

Not to mention when he seems to turn into this giant, horrifying thing when facing down Sabo???

It seems to go a bit beyond a normal Zoan transformation. Maybe he just has more control, like Luffy or Chopper. Not neccesarilly full-on shape shifting, but certainly enough to change his appearance to a degree.

Third, hey Imu, we know what you look like so why are you still a shillouette in this flashback?

You could argue its just because the original Joy Boy is a shillouette too, but notice that Imu's shillouette isn't his demon pretty boy one. Its his veiled persona. Almost like that's a "true form" that he would've used in a casual conversation like this seemed to be. And notably, a true form that the author still wants to keep hidden. Fourth. The design is too cool. This ones less of a concrete point, but I still think its important. He looks like goddamned Sephiroth. Handsome, scary, way-over the top outfit, not a single "quirky" or "joke" element in his design. Its not very One Piece like. And that all makes sense if you imagine that this appearance is one Imu designed for himself. Its his ultra-edgy unbeatable self-insert OC. And that makes it interesting in parallel with Nika, doesn't it? Nika is a clown, his power comes from laughter, while Imu's appearance begs you to take him uber-seriously. There's something really pathetic about a scrawny guy who hides in his room and stabs photos of people he doesn't like trying desperately to present himself as shadow the hedgehog. Its fascinating, and it makes me really interested where hes gonna end up as a villain.

[normalaboutstories]

My sister has a theory about what the weapon that destroyed Lulusia is

[clementine-kesh]

call me terminally academia-brained but i do think a lot of the fun of character analysis is figuring out how to build a compelling argument for a particular reading using lines of evidence from canon as well as meta/intertextual support

[clementine-kesh]

and you could say that what i’m saying here is basically “a lot of the fun of doing character analysis is doing character analysis” but let’s be real a lot of fandom character analysis is pretty heavily vibes-based. and i think that’s where i really chafe up against the traditional thought-terminating fandom attitude of like, everyone’s opinions hold equal weight and any interrogation of that is inherently hostile. because i think it’s fascinating to dig into where others are coming from in terms of their views on characters or dynamics or whatever, especially when they differ significantly from more commonly expressed views, and part of that digging is asking people okay what parts of canon are you drawing from to support your opinion? what parts of canon are you disregarding or downplaying? how does this argument hold up in the light of how race, gender, class, ability, etc. operate both in the piece’s in-fiction and real world contexts?

[settingsailforop]

oh another op fandom complaint i have is the fact that so many op fans are fans of a ship first and the series second. i’m sorry but it’s true. their meta analysis is completely dependent on their ship which like. you can make a compelling argument for why a ship is cool without having your ship be the ONLY lens through which you view the series, because that causes issues and generates some weird bits of analysis that i see floating around constantly. i like certain ships but im ultimately a fan of the series first and my ships second lol.

[assiraphales]

I don’t get how ppl can STILL infantilize luffy and act like he’s naive/doesn’t know what’s going on around him. the whole point is he understands situations very clearly and chooses not to accept them. he’s one of the most emotionally intelligent (and kind) characters in the entire series and while his default disposition is fun/freedom/whimsy he’s also legitimately terrifying bc nothing will stop him when he sets his mind

[assiraphales]

mind u this is a character who has tolerated innumerable physical wounds. who has sacrificed years off his own life. whose heart stopped beating. and do you know what almost killed him? his grief — almost punching his way back to his brother if jinbe hadn’t stopped him

he didn’t want to hear nami’s backstory, but when he saw the blood covered pen and the shackles he destroyed the map room first bc he knew this was the place that caused her the most pain. he knew robin was scared to be the reason the strawhats became a target to the world government so luffy had usopp shoot down the world government flag. in a three minute fight with crocodile with a HOOK thru his middle he figured out that the warlords weakness was water, an when he ran out of water he used blood.

in amazon lily boa said ‘you can either leave this place and return to your friends OR you can save the life of this stranger” and what do you think he chose?

he’s seen the worst the world has to offer and actively chooses day in and day out to smile. to make his friends laugh. to be a good person. to choose kindness

[settingsailforop]

this is like, pure speculation and i’m not a theorycrafter or anything, but. i could see zoro leaving the crew at some point. for two reasons: first, his downward spiral character arc really mirrors usopp’s arc in w7 in several ways; and second, because oda likes to reuse certain plot points lol. i’ve been thinking about how the zoro crashout could play out and while there are ways that it could happen that don’t involve zoro leaving the crew, it’s such a tried and true formula that i would not be surprised if oda went for it again.

[settingsailforop]

i also think it’s quite likely that a zolu breakup arc is going to happen btw. like a big blowout argument is going to take place between them.

[hiddenfolk]

Y'know a lot has been said about One Piece's tendency to avoid killing off characters, to the point of fake out deaths, but honestly a part of me has come to appreciate it the more OP reveals the cruelty and violence of it's own setting. Like, something about how Luffy's very presence defies despair, how he exists in a world so hostile to life, and yet everyone gets to live

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

not ‘zoro is the first mate/vice captain of the straw hat pirates because he would take over for luffy if something happened’ because 1) zoro has never shown any desire whatsoever to be a captain 2) even if he did none of the other straw hats would take him seriously in that capacity but most importantly 3) the straw hat crew flat out DOES NOT EXIST without luffy as its captain so arguing whether or not zoro would take over is a moot point to begin with—but rather, ‘zoro is the first mate of the straw hat pirates because he is the only one amongst them who isn’t afraid to tell things exactly how they are when the crew needs to hear it, and that is a critically important counterbalance needed with a captain as reckless as luffy’. zoro is the first mate of the straw hat pirates because he doesn’t believe in the impossible but he DOES believe in the impractical, and being able to tell the difference between the two is a vital skill for encouraging luffy’s best instincts but also reigning in his worst tendencies. zoro is the first mate of the straw hat pirates because he’s just as big a dreamer as the rest of them, but he will also remain steadfast in his duty to keep the others safe, even at the cost of his own ambitions. because what is the point of being a dreamer if he can’t protect his captain and his crew?

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

okay sorry i need to add to this because people are always making fun of the fact that zoro and luffy share the same brain cell and it’s like no you don’t UNDERSTAND sharing the brain cell is an ESSENTIAL PART OF THE DYNAMIC because sharing the brain cell means that zoro knows EXACTLY what luffy is thinking and also EXACTLY when he needs to pull luffy back!! if they didn’t share the same brain cell the dynamic wouldn’t be nearly as cohesive!! to quote @prophecydungeon it’s realist-and-dumbass vs "i don't care if it's realistic, i'm making it happen"-and-dumbass but either way the dumbass part is a CRITICAL COMPONENT.

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

@likorys-shimenawa so, yes and no! i was actually just talking with someone about this last night and imo sanji and luffy do NOT share the same brain cell in the way zoro and luffy do because unlike zoro and luffy, sanji is never heedlessly reckless the way that they are, and i think that recklessness is a key component of the dumbass-for-dumbass dynamic that zoro and luffy have going on. what sanji and luffy DO share however (and what zoro critically doesn't) is an emotional core/bleeding heart. sanji and luffy are both very much driven by emotion in a way that zoro isn't and they're both willing to override what they feel is practical in favor of doing what they feel is right, and sometimes, that's actually the better call!! if zoro is the counter weight of practicality on the right side of luffy, then sanji is the counterweight of emotionalism on the left side, and both of them are key to elevating luffy to the heights he's managed to obtain. the main reason sanji wouldn't get the first mate title (imo at least) is that he already has the title of cook, which on luffy's crew is (let's be real) just as if not more important lol than the idea of being first mate anyway.

but wait, we can go even further!! because while zoro and sanji don't share a brain cell and they don't share a bleeding heart (which is not to say zoro doesn't care, just that he's usually coming at it from a very different angle than sanji is), what zoro and sanji DO share is... pretty much everything else, actually. they're both protectors, they're both willing to lay down their lives for the rest of the crew, they will both stand unflinchingly by luffy's side to lift him up without really wanting any of the glory for themselves. and more than that, they make up for what the other lacks in a way that completely rounds out a whole and makes them a more perfect unit together than apart. zoro is steadfast where sanji is fiery, and sanji is tender where zoro is blunt. zoro is more proficient in armament, sanji excels in observation, and if sanji doesn't gain conqueror's haki or something equivalent by the end of the elbaph arc i will eat my shoe. if one of them is attacking head on then the other is holding the back line, and both of them are perfectly aware that no matter what, luffy comes first. zoro can be objective in ways that luffy and sanji can't, while sanji can be cautious in ways that luffy and zoro can't (or won't), and both zoro and sanji can be realistic in ways that luffy refuses to be unless he's forced. luffy's dynamic with both of them is important, but so is their dynamic with each other because if that part wasn't there, then their own parts in being a counterweight to his antics wouldn't work either.

anyway, in conclusion: LUFFY+ZORO+SANJI IS A BEAUTIFUL TRIUMVIRATE AND IT CAN'T NOT BE A TRIUMVIRATE!!!! NONE OF IT WORKS WITHOUT THE DOUBLE COUNTER WEIGHT!!!! YOU CAN'T HAVE A TRIUMVIRATE WITHOUT BALANCE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE BALANCE WITHOUT THE TRIUMVIRATE!!!!!!! A TRIANGLE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THREE SIDES AND A BIRD CANNOT FLY WITHOUT TWO WINGS TO HOLD HIM ALOFT!!!!!! AAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAA

[normalaboutstories]

Y'know I see a lot of people talking about how Roger handed over custody of Ace to Garp when that's just not true. Rouge was alive at the time, and as far as Roger knew she would continue being alive and could raise their child perfectly fine. What he asked Garp to do was protect Ace and Rouge form the navy (which he was in a good position to do, and which he did). Garp winding up with custody of Ace and deciding to pass him on to Dadan was a surprise outcome of all this. Doesn't really change much in the long run, just something I've noticed people overlook.

[theonescreencap]

i'm not embarrassed to admit that like half the reason i got into one piece is because i'm aroace and i'd heard that luffy is (arguably, sort of, word of god) aroace, and i love the hc but i'm also happy that it has so much basis in canon & stuff oda has said. it feels like an intrinsic part of him and it's always depicted as a positive trait! something that makes luffy himself and it's a good thing

like, protagonists never get to be aro or ace unless the story revolves around them discovering their identity. it's really nice to have a character so full of life who knows so clearly who he is, who also knows that dating/romance/etc is not part of it at all. one piece has its misogyny issues but i get to watch it knowing that luffy is never gonna "get the girl" as a prize for anything and that his relationships with like robin and nami especially will stay platonic and important without having to become something "more"

his lack of interest isn't a tragedy because he doesn't give a shit what other people think of him, and even when it is part of a gag (like in amazon lily) the humor isn't coming from making fun of luffy for not experiencing attraction. he's not broken he's immune and i think that's so fucking based and funny. and the whole story is about friendship and found family because that's what's important to him! the aroace hc feels so correct to me and i'm so happy that one of the most popular manga characters ever is such blatant arguable rep