There’s a lot of minor character I love in One Piece, but in this case I decise to speak about Tashigi. For years I have to endure a loto of Tashigi’s hate and hater, most of them with a lot of reason than weren’t even true. I don’t know why, maybe it’s hard to appreciate human characters’ in shonen (not for me) since I always see hate against them, or sometimes was a matter of shipping, but it was very hard to be a Tashigi fan back then.
Now, the situation is a little better and, despite even I didn’t appreciate very much how Oda handled her in Punk Hazard, I see more and more people that appreciate her. But sometimes the hate still got me hard, so I feel to speak about her. I can say a loto of thing, but I don’t want to made is too long, so I’m here just to explain about my favourite part about her, Alabasta.
Tashigi isn’t weak, quite the contrary. It is the best swordswoman we saw, she learnt haki when even Robin haven’t, she’s skilled despide her personal disavantage and became a marine captain when she was 23. But Oda always put her agaist opponent that are too strong so she ended up always beaten up.
But Tashigi’s streng isn’t only physical, is also mental and we saw in Alabasta. Smoker put her in a very tough situation, letting her in charge of every marines in Alubarna. She failed to protect the king and she had to let Luffy doing his things, but despite her suffering for defeat, she didn’t let this to beat her.
She managed to stand up and to still though cleary, clearly enough to take the decision that save everyone’s ass. Without her decision, Bibi and Usopp would have been killed by Baroque Works and Zoro would have lost, so nobody would have found the bomb. Plus, she still kept fight and better than her men, since she was able to recognize Baroque Work’s agents.
She didn’t let her emotions, her feelings, to stop her until the situation was so catastrofic. She had to fight, she wanted to fight and she did.
Only and the end, when everyone was safe, she cried. But she wasn’t a cry of help, or a cry of ‘I give up’. She was a cry of a lot of emotions, all of them she had kept inside before because she need to be strong for everyone, she need to fight. She was sad, angry, disappointed and happy that everything ended well.
Criing isn’t a weakness. And she didn’t cry because she’s weak. She cried because she needed to vent before stand up again, ready to become stronger and to fight again for what she belives.
Tashigi is a well-rounded female character and a positive role model. I just hope that Oda won’t let her down, but made her grwe up more and more, until Tashigi will be one of the soldier to create the new marine.