i think a lot of what makes the crocodad thing like almost unbearably painful (affectionate) is it means there's a chance that like ,, baroque works and 12+ years of isolation and Gearing Up For A Dictatorship were all a pivot from something else, but it was something he knew was doomed. what does it mean that this child happens and this is his course of action, vs what it means if this was what he wanted to do all along?
without luffy, yeah, he's been alone too long, he's gone a little bit nuts behind his steely gaze, he has 'i can do it myself' disease, that's compelling on its own. but if all this started because of that secret -- croco's location change, dragodile both throwing themselves into their careers and refusing to let anyone else in, all the alabasta stuff -- ohhhh my god????
and if croco wanted to see his son grow up, and maybe be in a halfway normal domestic relationship with someone he cared deeply about, but circumstances prevented it, or dragon prevented it, or -- most guttingly -- he refused to let himself have it, and these years of isolationist strategizing were more like years of grief,, and he's made himself into a monster because everything he touches disintegrates anyway,,,,,,,, i'm punching the wall repeatedly if i'm being honest, i'm weeping so hard i'm going to drown all of us. i've had dental surgery that was easier to deal with than this.
