#op meta

[questionable-method]

sometimes pre-ts zoro is just so very Nineteen that it makes me emotional. he's reckless. he's vulnerable. he's never worried about wrecking his body because he's young and strong and he can bounce back. (or maybe it's that he's kind of suicidal.) he's lonely. he laughs at stupid things. he acts older than his friends who are barely younger than him. he completely overestimates his skill level. his guiding philosophy is "fuck it we ball." his sleep schedule is just whatever happens. he has not been held in a long time. he can barely contain the love he feels. he is so so awkward about showing it. he's sure of what he wants. he thinks he's much closer to it than he is. he really really needs a damn hug.

[prince-liest]

I'm just so genuinely, incredibly happy that like... Valentino and Velvette stopping Vox and ultimately being the ones to defeat him was something that was done lovingly.

Yes, it was a big fucking "you will NOT kill us for that stupid deer" moment, but they also did it for him! When Velvette said "it's over!" there was a moment I was scared for them all, because I was still expecting that stereotypical breakup, of "it's over between us." But even in the end, at that moment, she wasn't talking about them as a team, she was talking about Vox's plan and telling him that it's over, it didn't work, and it's time for him to fucking pack it up and go home with them. There was NO POINT when they were considering abandoning him. NOT ONE.

EVEN THOUGH HE TRIED TO ABANDON THEM. And in particular this gives me a lot of warm joy and comfort, because his abandonment of them wasn't him being a cold, calculating, uncaring person that just used them to leave them. It was him having a catastrophic fucking suicidal mental and emotional breakdown that had been a long time coming. And they weren't going to let him destroy them with it, but they also didn't let him self-destruct, either. Not to that extent! Better to rip his head off and take him home. I feel like it echoes Cherri just hitting Angel in the back of the head or shoving Angel Dust in the sack because it it really isn't the fucking time for "I know you're still in there!" bullshit, shit is hitting the fan - and that doesn't mean you don't care about that person.

Their goal throughout the entire crashout has been for Vox to calm down. Even after everything fucking explodes, all Velvette has to give him is an eyeroll and an, "Ohhh, my god." Because Vox is right: they DO know him.

They might not be talking to him right now, but they loooooove hiiiiiiiiiiim. <3

[bellherald]

Though the latter images of Law and Luffy are related to the answer of a different D. question, it does raise a good point that not everyone might catch about how Luffy and Law's dynamic works.

Luffy calls Law "Torao" but not because he doesn't actually know his name.

In fact, Luffy knows the full thing! That's where the nickname came from in the first place—the fact that Luffy can't pronounce Trafalgar for the life of him. Torao (or Traffy, for English) is as close as Luffy can get to Trafalgar.

So it's a bit weird to think about how Luffy doesn't call him Law. Luffy clearly loves the guy! He willingly agreed to a shady alliance where he didn't know details of the plan or what it would entail because Luffy liked the guy who was asking him for a hand. Luffy, when first spotting Law after two years, introduces him to his crew like this:

To be named the same as a crewmember that the crew just helped and saved an island for last arc is a bold play by Oda showing us exactly what Luffy was headed towards, considering the standoffish fellow captain nakama. Hell, the official translation makes it clear that Luffy thinks of Law as one of his people by going the extra step and clarifying to English speakers that Law is closer to crew than not now, even if he verbally disagrees.

So why wouldn't he call Law his name? He cares enough to know it! That is the standard Oda himself has set for if Luffy will call them by name! Luffy has put in the effort of caring and remembering Law's name, so it isn't that.

It is because Law doesn't.

Law maintains that distance and only addresses Luffy with "Mugiwara-ya" rather than his name. Not only is it not Luffy's first name, but Law keeps the ambiguous -ya honorific attached.

So Luffy returns that, respecting one of Law's boundaries in his own way by keeping the nickname of his surname. Both of them address the other as peers rather than close companions. It's a bit of a mess, since Law stringently attaches -ya to keep that distance and Luffy has mangled Trafalgar into "Torao", but it works despite being unorthodox. Both of them are ok with that.

It's almost a microcosm of their alliance as a whole—completely removed from the normal idea of a "pirate alliance" actually is. Where they operate in a way that is perceived as weird but it works almost only because of that. In a normal pirate alliance, they would've betrayed each other and worked only for themselves but instead they work together and care about the other. It was continuously hammered in that pirate alliances end in betrayal and it didn't happen. Even when Law tries to break the alliance, Luffy doesn't let him because this isn't your normal pirate alliance. It's the Straw Heart Pirate alliance, and that means there's going to be chaos and madness but we're getting through this together no matter what. It works because they're both weird, disrespectful pirates who care more about doing their own thing rather than fitting into the norm.

[kookoofufu]

I love Oda but man is INSANE for not making the timeskip more relevant to the straw hats outside of power ups

Brook: Literally a rockstar??? There should have been a running gag where people ask Brook for his autograph at every island they visit! It would be so funny if some villains were starstruck fans trying to keep it together during a fight!

Sanji: It would have been great if the newkama recipes came up more than once. There could have been a gag where Sanji stops in the middle of a battle to literally cook a power up for the crew. Imagine this man dicing onions in Onigashima, force-feeding Zoro a stew during his fight with King

Robin: She worked under Dragon for two years, met Sabo and Koala and maybe Ivankov, she probably knows the Army's entire plan to take down the gov and yet it never comes up! Does she know about Kuma? Nika? The five elders? Does she secretly communicate with the Rev Army????

Zoro: I love the idea of Perona teaching Zoro about fashion. It wouldn't have plot relevance but imagine him busting out some fashion tips out of nowhere every so often.

I'd love to hear more ideas, the missed opportunities here haunt me.

Edit: link to ongoing collection of headcanons since some people only see the first four ideas

[settingsailforop]

okay i have a zolu hot take for you all. i think that there is a fundamental communication disconnect between luffy and zoro that has its roots in the east blue but is growing more prominent now. and i know that everyone likes to go “well these two share a braincell and are always on the same page!!!” but. hear me out. spoilers for egghead and elbaf in this post, stop reading now if you don't want those.

i think there is a disconnect between luffy’s expectations of zoro and zoro’s expectations of himself and both of them feed into it unconsciously. see the root problem is that zoro has sky-high unrealistic expectations of himself and is basically always half-killing himself trying to live up to them because he hinges his sense of self-worth upon them. zoro is NOT always calm cool and collected, that's a front he puts on to others because he thinks it's what's needed from him — to always be steady and grounded and unshakeable.

meanwhile luffy relies on zoro and trusts him implicitly and that is cool and fun but holy shit does the knowledge of this weigh on zoro. for much of the story luffy cannot conceive of a world in which zoro loses and he expresses as much. skypeia "how could this have happened while you were here" is the first moment that springs to mind, but also consider: in sabaody when luffy told zoro and sanji to split up to protect their crew members while running from the pacifistas, he had already seen zoro was wounded at that point. chapter 510 zoro collapses due to his wounds from thriller bark, and chapter 511 luffy makes the plan to split up! and this isn't him being intentionally callous — he just thinks zoro is always going to be able to handle what gets thrown his way!

i think we have this feedback cycle where zoro demonstrates reliability -> luffy places a lot of trust in zoro -> zoro increases the burden on himself beyond what luffy expects -> luffy sees zoro is trustworthy and places more trust in him -> rinse and repeat. and yeah this starts in the east blue, where luffy witnesses zoro 1) carry him in buggy's iron cage with his guts spilling out, 2) purposefully injure himself in his fight with cabaji to make a point about how he will not let getting wounded hold him back, and 3) literally swear on his sword that he will never lose again, while half-bisected. like. that's quite the first impression to make. no wonder luffy thinks zoro is basically invincible after that.

and zoro wants to be relied on by luffy! the problem comes in where as i've mentioned zoro is someone who holds himself to completely ridiculous expectations. so to zoro "being relied on by luffy" means something different, something harsher than what it means to luffy. it's zoro constantly bodily throwing himself in front of harm and berating himself for being "weak" and not expressing pain either physical or emotional because he thinks that's what makes him reliable. thriller bark is obviously The example of this but i think the aftermath of the moment actually says as much as the moment itself. zoro trains ridiculously hard despite his injuries, he conceals what he did from luffy, he hides his pain in sabaody until he literally drops from the strain. he's barely holding it together and he's presenting a front of "i'm okay i'm okay i'm fine" because he thinks that's what luffy and the crew need from him — until he quite literally can't anymore.

okay now flash forward to latest the latest arcs. in chapter 1175, we have luffy saying "i always believed in you" to zoro and zoro going "yeah i know that!" and like. oh boyyy. i think we are reaching a boiling point with this disconnected communication because luffy has been "checking up" on zoro in a way he never has before. sending kaku to watch over him in egghead, asking zoro if he needed help in his fight against lucci, and now going "i always believed in you" in elbaf. zoro has been off since wano and i think luffy is picking up on it. but to zoro, luffy's concern probably reads as luffy losing trust in him, because zoro is so used to having luffy rely on him wordlessly. if luffy can't trust zoro to uphold his promises (read: never show vulnerability) then how can zoro continue to have worth?

oh also there is yet another aspect to this, which is that zoro himself has high expectations of luffy and will hold luffy to said expectations. and he's generally pretty good about communicating them (i.e. in w7 and punk hazard) but lately he's gotten more shifty about this too; see: post-egghead zoro saying behind luffy's back that luffy's pathetic for feeling so sad over vegapunk now that he's an emperor of the sea. but! here's the twist! zoro's expectations of luffy are actually zoro's expectations of himself, because zoro is the projector of all time and holds luffy up as a mirror to his own self-worth. if luffy is worth following then that means zoro is worth something. if luffy isn't worth following, what does that say about zoro? this is why when zoro is scared and upset he'll sometimes verbalize that by criticizing luffy. again, see punk hazard.

so yeah i think luffy and zoro trust and rely on each other on a very deep level but they also hold different expectations of themselves and each other and that puts them in a bit of precarious position. and a lot of it stems from the fact that zoro has unaddressed Issues. also btw i think this communication discrepancy makes zolu more compelling than if they were just perfectly in-sync with each other all the time. i like the idea that there's a bit of unspoken friction between them when it comes to their expectations. i really hope it gets resolved in a satisfying way.

[murphmurphthejerk]

I just wanna say Rayleigh is lying out his ass when he tells Roger he doesn't "wanna be tied down" with Shakky. That man definitely already feels something for her, but is holding back for the sake of Roger since that's his bestie boyfriend.

Because why doesn't Rayleigh want anyone else to know about Shakky's letter?

"I figured I should talk to you one on one Roger "

He knows this would upset Roger & he wants to discuss it in private AKA this is a serious & delicate situation.

At no point does Rayleigh deny having feelings for Shakky. He simply comes up with the convenient excuse of not wanting to be "tied down" as Roger angrily & in jealousy says " Well I do!!". He's trying to show Roger that he has nothing to worry about from him.

Rayleigh's face when Roger proclaims he's "not giving up" is the biggest clue. Oda gives him that ultra sunny & happy background, BUT he juxtaposed it with his thought bubble. "........" typically indicates some type of unspoken feeling or an awkward pause of some sort. Rayleigh is suppressing his true feelings & is putting on a fake smile. Trying to convince himself that this is what he wants.

Finally, why tf is Ray going to such extremes as to not be in the same vicinity as Shakky? He even lies about "not feeling good" while he stays behind, gets drunk, & sings Binks' Sake which is famously bittersweet. Man is coping hard.

IMO, Rayleigh is trying to be a good friend/first mate by suppressing his own desires for the sake of Roger. Roger in turn is being a selfish brat & not realizing that he's technically the random love interest meant to be an obstacle for the endgame couple.

HOWEVER, I do think by the end of God Valley Roger will realize the error of his actions. I'm willing to bet we will see Ray's mask slip or perhaps Roger will witness a moment between the two after she is safely rescued. Just think about Kinemon & Tsuru after she almost got eaten by that giant boar.

It will be at that moment Roger finally sees Rayleigh's true feelings & he will back off & offically let go of Shakky. I will be honestly surprised if Rayleigh doesn't make clear once & for all he does love Shakky during an incident where she is all but confirmed to be kidnapped. Oda loves to showcase the strength of his couples' bond by giving the man a dramatic "rescue the girl" moment.

It would also be a nice parallel to when Rayleigh pulled up to Amazon Lily to rescue his pseudo daughter Hancock. That might've not been the first time he has come to a young woman's rescue.

Notice how after this, Oda frames Rayleigh, Hancock, & Shakky close together? This isn't Ray's first rodeo. 👀

This even puts a more pleasant spin on Rayleigh's introduction words:

Not only have I recently seen people say a more accurate translation would be,

"I can't just ignore a beautiful young girl "

it's important to remember Rayleigh was in the middle of helping Camie who just recently been abducted & put up for auction.

He was quite literally seeing a young girl being scared & abused by the CD's. Could this have reminded him of his wife?? Since it's all but confirmed that Shakky was kidnapped in a similar manner? 🤔

Also, remember how we love to say Rayleigh & Shakky are in an open marriage because of this dialogue?

Knowing what we know now about Shakky's past....was this another tongue in cheek moment from Oda? Is it possible that Rayleigh likes to spend his time freeing young women from slavery on the Sabaody Archipelago? Did Rayleigh & Shakky specifically move here so they can help trafficked women? I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

In conclusion, Oda is going really fucking hard on the shoujo angle! This flashback seems to be doubling as Rayleigh & Shakky's love story & I, for one, love every second of it!! 💕

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

The whitewashing in one piece pisses me off for obvious and numerous reasons but a really petty reason is that. All these lily white bitches are pirates. Old timey ropes sails and scurvy ass pirates. They are all out in the sun 24/7 and with the exception of, shit, boa, koby and bonney none of these little pricks are remembering to put on sunscreen. They should all be burnt as brown as my field working ancestors. Everyone should be tanned as fuckall and well on their way to skin cancer. Ace and Luffy still have their tans from alabasta on the execution platform type tanned. The dressrosa arc alone should have darkened everyone's shade by about ten. Fishmen racism being the prevalent type of racism in op is so because every human alive is the same shade and texture of a roasted grape. Trafalgar d water fucking law gets a pass if only because he is anemic and lives in a Beatles song. The rest though? These assholes spend most of their natural lives on the open ocean committing feats of strength and daring under the blazing sun and you want me to believe they're Taylor Swift's cousins? Babe be real pls. Pls be so for real. Fucking atrocious.

[sableu]

we know that dragon doesn't seem to like violence. he was physically repulsed by it as a young marine, vegapunk says he doesn't like war, he doesn't like celebrating military victories even when they're to his side's benefit, etc. we've never seen him in a fight and the only time we see him intervene on screen (in loguetown) it's non-violently.

on the other hand, we see pretty much the opposite from sabo. his fighting style (bare hands, metal pipe, fire) is visceral and destructive, he seems to get genuine joy from toying with and kicking the asses of marines at dressrosa, he's fine with being framed for the murder of an innocent man if it means spreading revolutionary fervor, etc.

so, concept: what if part of the reason dragon chose sabo as his right hand man is because of this difference between the two of them? because despite dragon's abhorrence towards violence, he knows that in the world they live in, violence is sometimes the only option?

maybe dragon needed someone on his shoulder to say "yeah we're gonna need to blow some shit up and hurt some people for this one, boss" and then go do the blowing up for him.

and sabo was the perfect person for that, because he 1) has similar enough ideology to dragon to not do harm unnecessarily, but 2) is perfectly happy to become violent if the situation calls for it, and 3) is very, very good at doing the violence lol.