#onepiecedorayaki

[onepiecedorayaki]

it's so important to me that dragon was a nobody in the god valley incident. he's so small and weak compared to all these important and powerful figures, it looks like one of them could accidentally step on him and kill him and they wouldn't even notice. and yet he wasn't just one of those small fries that become fodder to the bigger people. all because he refused to simply follow orders. it shows that even a nobody can make a difference if they care enough.

and this seems to be the philosophy that the revolutionary army is based on. the RA exists to empower the little people so that they can fight back against their oppressors. from sabo to koala to the people of lulusia. they might seem helpless on their own, but there is power in people's desire to make a change.

[onepiecedorayaki]

i can't help but compare dragon in god valley to luffy in marineford. because both of them are such small players among big figures (both literally and figuratively), and they are both risking their lives in the battlefield to save another person. and yet, the differences are so stark.

in marineford, luffy was in the limelight. everyone from both sides were focusing on him, either helping him or blocking him from getting to reach ace. in contrast, dragon was practically invisible. only the holy knights were briefly interested in him when they were trying to take back garling's babies. but even then, they didn't seem to notice the existence of a second baby. afterwards, nobody gave a single thought about dragon.

and i feel like this is such a fundamental difference in their personalities, and one that led to their diverging paths. dragon's unassuming personality helped him succeed in working underground as the revolutionary leader. people knew so little about him that even after becoming famous, he managed to hide his surname, connection to famous marine hero garp and the existence of his child. in contrast with dragon's ability to hide in plain sight, luffy draws people's attention everywhere he goes. so much so that the crew can always find him easily by going towards wherever the biggest commotion is. the first thing he says whenever he meets someone new is his full real name. and the second thing he says is that he's a pirate. he can't lie or lie low to save his life. it's only appropriate that his goal is to become the most famous person in their universe.

they are such polar opposites. shadow and light. inconspicuous and eye-catching. they have similar goals of freeing others but through two contrasting methods. they may even be two sides of the same coin. after all, a stealth attack and a distraction work best when they go hand in hand.

[onepiecedorayaki]

i'm not normal about koby and helmeppo's relationship actually.

koby was helmeppo's first friend. the first person to care about him when no one else did. his own father didn't care about him. his neighbours (the villagers) only saw him as his father's son. he pulled all sorts of antics to get his dad's approval or even attention but no one cared a bit.

and then he met koby. this boy who was friends with the guy who took down his dad. this boy whose head helmeppo pointed a gun to in the middle of the fight. who later on risked his life when helmeppo's own beloved dad took helmeppo hostage.

helmeppo's life was turned upside down when his dad was beaten. he lost his privileges, his easygoing life. but in exchange he gained a friend. finally someone saw him and cared about him. finally someone called him his "frie..."

and that's when helmeppo started to change and realise what a piece of abusive shit his dad was.

to me, koby is to helmeppo what luffy is to koby. a person who believed in him and inspired him to grab life by the balls. a person who showed him that things can change for the better if you go for it. i just like koby and helmeppo's characters because their arcs show that people can change if you give them a chance.

[onepiecedorayaki]

(spoilers up to chapter 1159)

looking back at chapter 522, the recent developments in the elbaf arc puts this scene in a completely new perspective.

what are the odds that, in this moment when luffy found out about ace's execution, he was with one of the few people who had actually been in the exact same shoes?

it just gives grandma nyon's glint and ?!! a whole new meaning.

"a terrible war is about to break out" and "you intend to rescue the most important prisoner in the world". we know this is a pretty apt description of the god valley incident from young gloriosa's point of view.

but the more interesting part to me is what she said in between those two frames: "you're like an ant diving into a hurricane. you'll probably just get flung far away." so far until chapter 1161, we still haven't seen much about gloriosa during the incident itself, but it's probably safe to guess that she was having trouble keeping up will all the big players involved. and even if oda showed more of gloriosa's point of view in the god valley incident, there is a good chance he might not delve into details about her thoughts and emotions at that moment.

so i find gloriosa's reactions to luffy's decision all the more interesting. she wasn't just giving advice to some random youngster. it was an advice to her young self, if only she had known earlier what would happen.

and i think her reaction is quite mixed. her words seem to be advising luffy against risking his life for his sibling. but her facial expression and her actions betray her true feelings. when luffy was talking to her about ace being his brother and him wanting to save ace, gloriosa looked at luffy earnestly. but when she was telling luffy how risky and fruitless it would be, it's like she couldn't even look at him. in the top left panel above, she was looking away, and in the bottom left panel, she was closing her eyes. it feels as if she was only giving luffy these warnings as a formality, without actually trying to stop him.

indeed, the decision to go into an all-out war to save your sibling who is the most wanted prisoner is not an easy one. especially when you are surrounded by people who are far stronger than you. some of them are also trying to save your sibling, but they are not necessarily your allies. even if you knew how things would play out, would it make the decision any easier? even if you knew that your involvement would make no difference to the outcome of life and death of the person you're trying to save?

it just shows the strength of luffy's will that he didn't hesitate about saving ace. he only considered ace's feelings about his younger brother risking his life to save him, but then he made his decision and never wavered. and i think that devotion to his sibling is what inspired gloriosa to help luffy this much.

[onepiecedorayaki]

parallel between olvia and dragon choosing to abandon their children to fight for a bigger cause, thinking their children would be better off shielded from the dangers of the wars they're waging on the world government, but ultimately failing to prevent their children from developing abandonment issues and having traumatic childhood because of the abuse and neglect done by their foster parents.

and the contrast with bellemere choosing to raise orphans after losing a battle and her will to live as a marine, thinking those orphans would be better off raised with love even if she was poor and didn't know the first thing about parenting, but ultimately still failing to prevent her children from developing hyperindependence and having traumatic childhood because her love alone wasn't enough to protect them from tyrannical pirates and the corrupt marines that enabled them.

the fact that corrupt government institutions find a way to hurt children, regardless of whether their parents choose to fight those injustices or not.

[onepiecedorayaki]

i think an important difference between luffy and other people who want to take advantage of robin for her poneglyph-reading abilities, is that luffy lets robin study history as much as she wants to.

most people who just want to use robin only care about a specific piece of information from the poneglyph, like the location of some ancient weapon or the location of the one piece.

but robin (like most academics) cares more about pursuing her passion and accumulating knowledge, rather than just chasing after a specific piece of information which might have some particular real-world applications.

some examples are alabasta and skypiea where robin found informations about the locations of two whole ancient weapons and she wasn't just indifferent she was disappointed. crocodile wasted three years and destroyed an entire country just for a sliver of a chance at finding information about one of those weapons. and similarly, the world government invested 5 years of 3 of their most elite soldiers to find information about pluton. and robin had the gall to be disappointed after finding information about not one, but two ancient weapons! (she's such a true scholar. i love it.)

the difference between luffy and people like crocodile and the world government is that luffy isn't just using robin as a translator machine to gain useful information. luffy is helping robin to fulfill her dream of studying history. the fact that it would also reveal information that could help luffy find the one piece is just a by-product, not the focus of robin's work.

[onepiecedorayaki]

i was rereading chapter 1080 and i noticed this:

koby has been called naive a lot, but he has to be really dense or delusional to think that the government would never legalise a country of criminals. there are so many evidence to the contrary. but the most obvious evidence that koby definitely knew is the warlord system. active pirates who are authorised by the world government. two of them were even legitimate monarchs of affiliated countries, one of which was only protected specifically because the pirate monarch agreed to join the world government as a warlord. and when the world government decided they didn't need these warlords anymore, that country was immediately attacked by the world government.

by koby.

which makes it so ironic that koby said this line. because he was only captured by blackbeard specifically because he followed the government's order to attack amazon lily. the empire which had always been ruled by the captain of the kuja pirates, a criminal. the empire which had been legal until now because their empress agreed to join the government as a warlord.

if a country of criminals didn't exist, koby would not even be here being held hostage by blackbeard.

his next dialog gives more evidence to koby's delusions about the nature of the world government and the navy.

"if the government and navy give in to terrorist acts like these". again, the government had already done that in the past, and the evidence is the warlord system. moreover, this is not the first time teach was trying to make bargains with the world government. he had successfully done that in the past when he got the government to make him a warlord in exchange for ace's life.

but the more interesting one is the next part, "then all hope is truly lost!!" which implies that rather than being simply stupid, koby was in denial about the nature of the world government. he seems to place the entire weight of his hope in the world government. he didn't want to believe that there was no hope to humanity and so he refused to believe that the government would make deals with terrorists. which again, they have done, and koby was not only aware but complicit, even if he does not want to admit it yet.

and i really really want to like koby. his character is interesting because he shows that people can change and can be inspired to change. koby used to be a timid boy with low self-esteem. but luffy inspired him to chase after his dream, and subsequently koby even inspired helmeppo to take control of his life and change.

the question is: what if koby's dream has been wrong all along? his dream since childhood has been to join the navy and fight bad guys. but what if you can't join the navy and fight bad guys?

oda doesn't really judge people's dreams. it's not about having the right dream but about having the convictions to chase after your dream no matter what. but there has been one exception: bellamy. his fight with luffy in dressrosa was about bellamy realising that he had the wrong dream all along. he knew he shouldn't have idolised doflamingo, but he chose to stay true to his course, even if that course meant chasing after the wrong dream. oda portrayed his choice in a positive light because of the strength of his conviction.

but i think koby's case is slightly different because it's not just that his dream was wrong, but that it's impossible. if his dream was only to join the navy, then he has already achieved it. but his dream is as much about fighting bad guys as it is about joining the navy. and it's becoming ever clearer in the later arcs that there are many bad guys you can't fight as a navy. in fact, you can't fight the main one piece villain as a navy since this main villain is the very person controlling the entire world government and by extension the navy. it would be so interesting to see how koby comes to terms with this realisation and the disillusionment that comes with it.

i know some people aren't too optimistic about where oda will take koby's character. but i think there are some interesting directions that he can take with koby, and i'll be eagerly waiting and hope i'm not disappointed.

[onepiecedorayaki]

i really like the idea that even though each devil fruit is unique, its power is not. for example:

even though sanji can't get the clear-clear devil fruit, he can still turn invisible through the power of science. and so can queen.

science also allows vegapunk to extract kizaru's laser beam and put it into the pacifistas, which is then copied by franky.

vegapunk can even duplicate a whole devil fruit so two users of the same fruit can exist even though it doesn't happen naturally.

except if the two devil fruits are slightly different, like ms valentine's kilo kilo fruit and machvise's ton ton fruit.

or two devil fruits can work differently but with a similar result, like how both bon clay and brulee's powers can create doppelgangers.

maybe they even work very differently, like how there is a lightning devil fruit which was eaten by enel, but big mom and nami can also create lightning using zeus which is created by the soul soul fruit. the minks can also create lightning using their fur and friction. and loki can create lightning using his hammer ragnir, which i'm not sure is a devil fruit power or not.

on that note, big mom can also mimic the flame flame fruit power by giving her soul to a flame thus creating prometheus. luffy and sanji can create flames by punching/kicking the air hard enough. franky breathes fire using science. and the skypieans can produce flame using dials.

there are a lot more examples but i'm trying to highlight the different ways you can obtain the same power. and it seems like your imagination is the limit.

given all that, it's unsurprising that you can have two nikas, and who is two say you can only have two? which makes luffy special not because he ate the nika fruit by accident but because of his personality.