Long post - Character Development for my Law
Ok all. This post is mainly for the benefit of @pilawforhire is response to this post.
Some people will find themselves tagged in this post as you have been key people in Law’s development. You don’t have to read :) Not every important person is tagged. I have only used a few as examples.
@pilawforhire, before I answer your questions I feel like I should explain my own development. Law’s development is not my own doing. It has been influenced by the people Law has met in his travels. I don’t want to simply answer your questions ... I want to explain WHY I am answering them the way I am. For that you need to know my Law.
If there are any specific headcannons you want to ask about after then just come ask <3
When I first started RPing Law, I simply went by his official bio. Nothing special ... no real development. I didn’t realise at the time how much work I would need to put into Law.
He may be a pirate but he is a doctor first: The first key person Law met was Anya played by @traflagardanya. Anya is a young, poor girl who was very sick. When interacting with Anya, I wasn’t able to simply brush her off with attitude like Law had been mostly doing before. There was a desperate need to help this person. It reminded me that despite the reputation he had been given ... Law was still a doctor. Law wanted to help and save this child. So he did. Anya joined his crew and became a part of his family. From this point I looked at Law more as a doctor than a pirate. With the exception of marines, he would help people he saw suffering if he could. Pirates would have to pay. Civilians he would help for free if they were brave enough to ask for help.
Meeting Anya really made me think hard about Law and what made him how he was. Once we learnt of Law’s passed, I created a child muse for him. Law started as an angry child, hellbent on destroying everything.
Small Law: I didn’t really have a Corazon to interact with when I first started child Law. So the people he met during this time are people he bumped in to while looking for Cora after getting lost on their travels. @pirate-jenny was the first person to show him real kindness. She offered him food ... specifically an apple. This was a meeting he always remembered. It taught him that people could be kind. Not everyone was cruel. Whenever they met, Law always thought of apples. @marco-fushicho was a very key person. When they met, Marco offered to help Law find the person he was looking for. It was Marco that also gave him the idea of a family. After losing his own, Law never considered having a family again. But Marco with his idea of a family (not having to actually be related) changed this. It was also Marco that started him trusting others.
Then there was @tyraelnshryskull, the large ancient demon that inadvertently saved him from people chasing him. What was most important though was their second meeting after the loss of Cora. The first person he went back to was Tyrael and she became the first member of his new family. She encouraged him to learn how to use his devil fruit so he could save himself. She became a mother to him but also gave him an understanding of the natural world around him. Law became much more considerate of the world around him. He was no longer the destructive little child he was before.
Gap Years (Unwritten): Law remembered all the people he met as a child. He met many of them again over the years like Tyrael and Marco. The creation of his crew/family happened over a long period of time. Bepo was a small injured bear that wouldn’t leave him alone after he helped. Other members of his crew were being sold in slave auctions. Of all the people he saved, many chose to stay. He educated them in fighting and medicine.
Development of fun: This is all thanks to @someidioticurl with her OC Emil. At first Emil was a bit of a pain for Law, but really helped to develop his lighter, sillier, more childish side. Emil is someone he can completely relax around. Going out and getting ice cream ... or just sitting and chatting. Emil gave him a reason to genuinely smile and laugh.
Development of love: My Law has always been a flirt, mainly if it means he can get what he wants. However meeting certain people allowed him to learn that he was still capable of truly loving someone. @eliteofficercorazon, @eustasskid-redhairedbastard, @lost-mosshead, @black-tiger-lover, @deathoftheinnocent, @spottedsoftpaws. They gave him a reason to stop thinking selfishly ... to consider others.
Awareness of himself: This is important. The development of Law’s awareness of his own strength. Law knows he is strong, however he knows he is not the strongest. There are people out there that could and would kill him. 2 people come to mind straight away though both from another fandom. Toby @despairforme with Nnoitra and Zeke @sadisticperfection with Szayel. Before writing with either Toby or Zeke, I had to really stop and think about Law and his limitations. As cocky as he was, both of these muses could kill him easily. So I had to approach them differently. Starting with Nnoitra there was a bit of trial and error. Law’s default flirty attitude did not work so he had to try something else. He fell back on what he learnt as a child with Muffy ... offer someone food and it might make him less hostile. This did seem to work. Though Law is always cautious when they meet. He does not go looking for a fight. With Szayel it was very different. There was no real hostility in their first meeting ... just curiosity. Law was able to fall back on his normal flirty attitude. He is under no illusions though. He is well aware that Szayel could ...and still might kill him. But as long as he can keep the scientist’s interest, I don’t believe he has too much to worry about. (Though what started as flirting is starting to develop into more lol).
Ok ... questions time.
What are situations that amuse him?
Law is pretty easy to amuse. Upsetting the marines, people falling over, cutting his crew’s heads off ... no permanent damage of course.
How does he show it? (Smile vs laugh till he cries– if he would ever do that vs hide his amusement)
Law will openly laugh in front of his family. To others it will just be a smirk. Though the smirk is unlikely to be malicious.
Is he able to laugh at himself/life (when things go wrong or when he self-reflects)?
It is hard for him to laugh at himself without it being a bitter laugh. He holds so much sadness and regret that he doesn’t like to share with others. I think this is why his crew are happy to let him laugh at them.
Does he seek or avoid confrontation? (He doesn’t seem like someone who would go picking fights, yet his cocky behaviour pre TS seems to me like he enjoys rubbing people the wrong way)
As mentioned previously. He will always avoid a fight. He would rather stop and observe. He has no issue pushing a few buttons for his own amusement though. But hurt his family and you are fucked.
What is his self-esteem/self-confidence/self-worth levels? Does he hate himself, and how long does he dwell on it before moving on?
All are low. He just covers it with the cocky and flirty attitude. He thinks very little of himself and often won’t believe others when they try and say otherwise. Even the people he loves have a hard time convincing him. He hates himself for being the only survivor ... for running away.
Does he understand most jokes?
Yes. He is clever and witty. He understands most forms of humour.
Does he use humour to cope?
Not really. He uses drink to cope.
Does he keep silent if something rubs him the wrong way? (His shock at his own outward declaration of hating bread seems to infer that he usually doesn’t vocalise his concerns or when he doesn’t like things. And yet, in Dressrosa, he was complaining a lot, but that’s because he was under a lot of stress, exhaustion, and the circumstances meant he probably couldn’t care to hold things in anymore.)
Depends who he is with. If he is comfortable around the person, he will complain ... sometimes a lot lol. Around strangers or less known people, he will keep quiet or eye-roll and simply walk away.
Does he worry about what people think of him? (He seems to value his reputation, and likes that people think of him as cruel/sadistic though I believe those are limited to rumours)
Again it depends on the people. He cares what his family thinks of him. He is happy to let marines believe he is a fucked up pirate that cuts out everyone’s hearts as it keeps most people out of his way. But he doesn’t really care what others think of him.
He’s always cool-headed and calm, but is he overly sensitive? (It seems like he is? Although he doesn’t show it.)
Oversensitive about certain things ... bread .. Cora .. Doffy...
What does he think of himself? Does he hate himself? (He would seem to harbour guilt of his failure to protect Corazon and his family; to have failed as an older brother, have low self-worth.)
Law hates himself. No matter how much others love him, how good they make him feel ... there will always be hate for himself deep down. For all the reasons you listed in the question.
Does he find amusement in others’ misfortune? (I don’t see it. Like he’s humble, and I don’t think he laughs at others’ disabilities or misery, and yet he isn’t beyond messing up his enemies in a cruel way. SO! What are his limits? Where does he draw the line in his ‘cruelty’?)
Not really. If he needs to mess with someone then he will. The damage is rarely ever permanent and he will normally reverse it once out of harm’s way. He does not like seeing others suffer ..... I am not going into my Ace feelings right now because omg that is a whole other range of feels and headcannons XD @freckledinferno WE STILL NEED TO WRITE LAW SAVING ACE AND FEELS!!!!!
Does he meditate?
No. He sits there and wallows in the past.
What does he do when stressed?
He breaks things and cuts off heads of anyone that bothers him.
What does he do when things get hopeless?
He thinks back to every person he has ever met and wonders what they would do.
