#talky talk

[deepseaphantom]

i love to headcanon characters as aro ace out of spite.

[sroloc--elbisivni]

Hello yes, am very interested in your “Dragon is a paragon instead of a person for the sake of the revolution” take and would love to hear more on that, if you’re willing to share it.

HI COOL i don't know how much i can elaborate on it because it's just. how I read canon? like--okay. Next paragraph, spoilers for God Valley flashback in current manga.

One Piece is a story about legacy. Family, chosen, deferred. We know that the 'will of D' in particular is a legacy passed down through family lines. Dragon, as he's first named to us, is only 'Dragon the Revolutionary.' The earliest we see him, he's at God Valley, and he's there because he's a Marine and the son of a Marine--he had to be following after Garp. when we see him leaves, he tells Garp to his face, "I hate you," and that's also him hating and leaving and denouncing and rejecting the Marines as a whole. There is no way to tell this story that gets Monkey D. Dragon away from the man and circumstances that made him.

But Dragon, just Dragon, The Revolutionary--he doesn't have a family who can be hurt or disappointed or targeted on his behalf. No father, no son. no Will except what he makes. the Revolutionary Army is founded on dreams, not just Dragon's but Ivankov's, and everyone else who has ever joined dreaming of a better world and determined to make it happen. and we see at Marineford that Dragon's identity is NOT common knowledge. he's made himself the Most Wanted Man In The World, synonymous with the Revolutionary Army itself.

we know he gives up Luffy, and we know--we do KNOW this, we have explicit and repeated cues about it no matter how many 'oh he's a deadbeat' "jokes" fandom likes to make!!!--that it was an act of love, that he loves Luffy and wants to see him thrive, that he's PROUD of him for becoming a pirate and pursuing his dreams in a way i don't think Luffy could have if he was raised among the RA. Dragon has never once put the weight or consequences of having him for a father on Luffy's shoulders. he's cut himself off from that legacy, for good and ill, in both directions. and everything we see about him, from saving Sabo to paying tribute to Ohara to saving Luffy in Loguetown to trying to run out of God Valley with babies in his hands--he's a man who does things on purpose. He makes decisions and sticks to them.

And with Rigo Sanchez's delivery in OPLA, all I can see and think about is a man who KNOWS he IS the Most Wanted Man In The World, the Leader of the Revolutionary Army, whose every single word and action reflects back on his cause and is therefore chosen with the weight of that in mind. Someone who has to live for his cause because he has no other life, by his own choice. We're starting to see in current-day canon how the legend of The Flame Emperor is growing up around Sabo--I think the same thing happened to Dragon, once.

AND YET DESPITE ALL OF THAT. Despite seeing him tell Kuma that Luffy is his greatest vulnerability, that being too connected to his son could destroy him (destroy that separation, destroy that denial of personhood, destroy the fact that he isn't just someone who came from nowhere and lives for nothing but the Revolutionary Army, force him to be a person and reckon with his grief and past and future)--we see him come to Loguetown. not for the RA. to see his son set out to sea.

Because it's also the first time we see him, the other thing I realized from OPLA and Sanchez's performance is that the only time we ever see Dragon smile in person...

....is in Chapter 100, at Luffy.

[major-monster]

both accidentally ableist/unknowingly sysphobic OJ AND loving & supportive of paper’s syshood OJ are important to the Payjay ecosystem btw.

[cyphricks]

Been reading dungeon meshi and you can tell the author really likes drawing Laios like this

[zwierzodudle]

i am not very good at taking pictures of my fish

[sketchy-etchy]

Second viewing of hoppers is noticing the incredibly painful parallels between Mabel and George

such as George feeling scared and cornered when Mabel tries to approach him and (little) Mabel getting surrounded and cornered by the adults

[splinterbark]

*places a crown of flowers and leaves upon your head*

I declare you prince of this part of shellwood!

Rejoice lesser plants! Your splintery ruler is now properly ordained!

@cornflowermoth

is pretty yes?

[piko-piko-chan]

Okay so I know Kagehina is basically married in their highschool years

BUT

Imagine if they just never felt the pressure to name their feelings and just... Expected each other to be by their side. Being together was just how the world worked

Until Hinata moved to Brazil

Imagine Kageyama texting Hinata in the evening to talk about his day just to realize Hinata is probably still sleeping right now

Imagine Hinata going on his morning jog, realising something is off and putting on interviews with Kageyama to at least hear this smug voice that used to race with him at every practice

Imagine Kageyama having to basically rewire his brain to stop always considering the wild, unexpected variable of Hinata on the court

Imagine Hinata complimenting the setters who he had the pleasure to play with and feeling off when they just say thank you instead of friendly kicking his ass

Imagine Kageyama subconsciously clinging onto the feeling that Hoshiumi will replace Hinata, always setting the balls unintentionally perfect for Hinata no matter how off they feel for Hoshiumi

Imagine Hinata memorising English verbs and laughing to himself (which kinda weirded out his roommate) about how he will beat Kageyama in this too

Imagine them both going into a call and talking to each other until they both go silent

They don't know what to do without the other

Something is off

They are off

And they silently just wish they would be together and not just by texts or calls

How they could wake up together, race together, play together, tease each other together, figure out new strategies together

Just be together

And they just stay on the call, in silence, just imagining the other next to them. Maybe a few tears fall down their faces. But nobody wants to break the silence to remind the other that they are so far apart.