#ch537

[opbackgrounds]

Death Wink is simultaneously one of the stupidest and most cool powers in the entire series

[every-sanji]

[kookoofufu]

Zoro the alcoholic

Tiny bonus:

[swallowingsirens]

Unpopular opinion

I really don't like mavis at all As much as I try to like her I physically cannot bring myself to do it, sorry not sorry

[opbackgrounds]

Several tattoo alerts, and despite the criticisms of how the Newkamas and Ivankov are presented, I like the idea of the setting. It's almost like a cabaret club, and there's something that feels very real with Level 5.5 being a counter-cultural paradise carved between the walls of hell. There will always be these sorts of places outcasts and the oppressed make for themselves despite the pressures of the outside world, and I like that they aren't just existing or scraping by. These guys have created a community for themselves and are thriving.

[opbackgrounds]

All throughout the arc Oda has portrayed Impel Down as both a literal and metaphorical hell. Yes the guards dress like Satan and the levels correlate with Dante's Inferno, but it's also the ultimate expression of the World Government's oppression. If piracy is how freedom is symbolized within the series, Impel Down is the place that those pirates go to have all their rights and freedoms systematically stripped away. It isn't enough for the World Government to kill them, they have to crush their spirit and kill their dreams, with the very worst offenders being erased from history altogether.

Level 5.5 is Impel Down's antithesis, the Garden of Eden hidden amongst the flames of hell. It's here that certain prisoners are able to claw back their freedom, and I think it's significant that Iva says that that they have to "travel down paths that don't exist" to manage it. It's Luffy's journey in microcosm, as he literally is searching for an uncharted treasure in order to become the freest man in the world.

I also think it's significant that the guards of Impel Down themselves are confused. They think that because the prisoners have escaped their control they have been spirited away to some deeper hell, when it's only after leaving the influence of the World Government's power that the Newkamas are truly able to find their freedom.

[opbackgrounds]

If I had a nickle for every time Luffy begged someone to save the life of a friend while half frozen and on the brink of death himself I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it's happened twice

[opbackgrounds]

A few more tattoo alerts, and more importantly, I know there are people out there who get really upset with how Ivankov and the Newkamas are portrayed. I'll be honest and say that's way outside my wheelhouse, and I'll leave that to those better suited for such a discussion.

However, I do think that it's cool that Iva is named after and somewhat based on a friend who pushed for more okama characters, who also was the initial voice actor for Iva before getting into legal trouble