#wsd thoughts

[writesailingdreams]

Gender and Identity Meet One Piece

This has been on my mind for awhile this month, and curiously, more to do with it being Pride month than because I associate the month with the beginning of my interest in One Piece. Accurately, I first watched some scattered (4Kids!) dubbed One Piece prior to June, but something about the 17th/18th date registers in my memory as when I committed enough to the show (as I had only been watching…

[writesailingdreams]

I do think my fan opinions on Ace are rather...not odd, but a bit different from how I approach or have thought of other One Piece characters.

When he first showed up, I thought he was fine. But my most distinctive feeling toward Ace, pre-Marineford, was a deep desire for his background plot (e.g. hunting for Blackbeard) to just...continue to be on indefinite hiatus. I never wanted it to reach a conclusion. But of course it had to, narratively. And we got Banaro Island.

I think it was at Marineford that I first I grasped him as a character. Unfortunately that’s when he stopped being a living character in the story. Together, these have made him one of the easier characters to analyze now. Prominently because his personality & backstory got better defined to me AND how he, technically, has a completed story. It’s much easier for me really dig into characters once their stories are complete. Usually that doesn’t mean death, but with One Piece still continuing, it makes him stand out.

But what made him the most interesting to me, compared to others with completed stories (e.g. dead), was the post-Marineford flashback and all the ASL brother’s content. Not only his relationship with his brothers, but the character arc (story?) it shows, going from a vicious anger kid to the polite strong man (with certain self-doubts, etc.) we’re introduced to in Alabasta. And while it might not be as interesting to me, I’m always really touched by his relationship with the Whitebeard Pirates and how & where it sits amid Ace’s whole personal baggage with himself.

[writesailingdreams]

@themattress replied to your post: Seriously, between Amity's anti-bullying here despite her past treatment of Willow *and* the reveal that she and Willow used to be friends in the previous episode, there is clearly something much more complex about their relationship than we know at the moment. Mysterious!

Agree. It’s seems like Amity may have experienced events different than Willow. Also, since Amity seems to be a very private and aloof person (with perfectionist tendencies) she doesn’t come across as helpful, caring or friendly but it might not mean she means badly.

Another thought, but I wonder if there’s competition in her family. Particularly around...mm...being the most skilled. If you’re not going to be the best, why bother?or waste the time? So, could her dismissiveness toward Willow be related to a sentiment that unless you’re going to exceed, best cut the bud of ambition before it blooms?

Additionally, maybe in Amity’s family the more competent you are at magic, the more good faith is bestowed on you. In her journal, Amity mentions how she can’t understand why no one else sees what Edric and Emira are like, and maybe she’s trying to be as good as a witch as she can to gain...status, leverage. Does she think if she’s more skilled, she’ll be believed more?

[writesailingdreams]

Highlights from “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” Take 2

(I accidentally deleted all the original text because I moved one of my tags)

Eda playing Hexes Hold Em with an “adorable owl”

Power of friendship & the moon!

Seeing the night market

Getting a little more demon lore (There are demon hunters! I felt sad for the demon the group had captured.)

Willow turning the vine into a kickass plant!

Hooty getting to be involved!

King falling sleep when weightless! So cute!

[writesailingdreams]

Actually got to see One Piece Stampede.

Less-spoiler-y reaction:

Usopp!

Hancock! ♥️😆

The audience was quite larger than I’m used to and the reactions to different characters showing up and different lines was great!

Spoiler-y thoughts:

What else did anyone expect Luffy to do with an Eternal Log Pose like that?

Robin was so blasé about Crocodile showing up!

I am very baffled as to when this takes place or when I might take place. It seems to be after Dressrosa but thus far, there hasn’t been much time for this to take place. Plus, Kid, Killer, Hawkins, Apoo, and Drake all seem to be unconnected or not-stuck on Wano.

Noted that Jewelry Bonney was the only one who didn’t land a hit on Bullet; I wonder, if she had, if she could have stopped him or slowed him down.

Hancock being as impulsive as Luffy and ignoring Law’s plans! (And for similar reasons as Luffy does sometimes: someone she cared about got hurt.)

Fire fist. Sad but sweet; it was a nice brotherly moment.

Festa unnerved me a lot more than Bullet.

Thought Garp randomly monologing backstory was weird.

Who was ??? in the credits? I mean, who was that in the movie? Was it that guy who made the Eternal Log?

It was basically a smorgasbord of characters and cameos. Also, the Strawhats, individually were less the focus than the different fractions of the world + an odd collection of people from those fractions.

Law, why are you always getting into trouble?

Loved the interactions with Sabo, Hancock, etc.

Usopp had some of the best characterization I’d seen in awhile! (Like, we all knew he wasn’t missing with his shots; that was a great “surprise” for the antagonists.)

I think that’s everything...

[writesailingdreams]

So...

...Matthias is Dad TM of the Frozen group now, especially Anna? Right?

[writesailingdreams]

One aspect of Revolutionary Girl Utena’s deconstruction of fairy tales set up is how it doesn’t fit with how I interept fairy tales. The tale of Dios and/or the Rose Bride, as I understand it, is tied up in the sentiment of wanting someone else, the Prince, to take care of all the troubles in the world and in one’s life.

But that’s not how fairy tales work, at least not the ones I’ve read. Fairy tales are means of transformation or life blueprints or ways to understand ourselves or ways to express the world around us. They can be both powerful and transgressive (to the dominating ideology), and comforting and familiar.

But I never would have thought of fairy tales as a means to expect someone else to do the work. And even if it does happen, it’s more often magical help or an animal, usually a result of previous kindness or luck. (My personal favourite is a dead ghost.)

But the tale of the Rose Bride doesn’t really work as a fairy tale.

And maybe that’s the point? Maybe it’s an anti-fairy tale because there’s not a problem that has to be fixed or a quest to undertake or an animal spouse to appease. The Prince is being perfectly good until the witch steals him away; more precisely, the world expects Dios to...I’m not sure...preserve and protect young girls and/or everyone, even at the expense of himself, but Anthy stops this and earns the world’s wrath.

But that’s what she should do. Help in fairy tales can be cushioning but it’s usually not detrimental to the helper. Since it is to Dios, it stands to reason that the help he provides is not fairy tale-ish but rather...I’m not sure.

This has always been a bit of the elusiveness of RGU – what it is that is being deconstructed. I know there’s misynogy against Anthy “taking away” Dios, and I know there’s Akio’s conflicting manipulation that relies on adolescents believing the sentiment of fairy tales—that it can be transformative and freeing—while he sees it as a farce while being trapped in his own narrow world.

And is that the point? Akio created a story, the tale of the Rose Bride, to...? But why? Or is the point that he’s...trying to build this very narrow world on a very narrow idea: a woman ruined everlasting goodness*. But a goodness shown to be unsustainable. A goodness that’s meant to shelter everyone forever all the time doesn’t exist or work in fairy tales.

I think that’s why Mythos from Princess Tutu is able to end up as he does — still a prince but not depleted or dead. Because

other characters (like Duck/Ahiru) carry on the sentiment of the prince

other characters are able to be self-sufficient and make stands without the prince protecting or serving as the end-all purpose

Rue selfishly loves Mythos (I use “selfish” in a Tiffany Aching sense)

Mythos chooses, at the end, to focus on what he wants as an affect of Rue’s love; he can be the Prince Rue loves rather the Prince who Saves Everyone from the Raven

And I wonder if some of those things are what happens between Anthy and Utena, and which Akio can’t grasp. He’s still working from his narrow contradiction built on unsustainable claims.

But I think the idea that’s being deconstructed is that people can believe the unsustainable anti-fairy tale and wrath against women and fairy tales are childish delusions. And that seems fundamentally hard to grasp because it’s hard to imagine believing those sentiments.

Also, I think, really, RGU is more of a fairy tale than the tale of the Rose Bride or opening narration ever were.

*this plays out in other, non-fairy tale places, often in mythology/religion (ancient or modern)

[writesailingdreams]

If you read about the themes and characters in Disney’s Aladdin, Aladdin is consistently neutral or in the middle ground between the good way to act (blue) and the bad way to act (red, villain).

I bring this up because when you read this stuff, Jasmine comes across as much more the foil to Jafar than Aladdin. And that just fascinates me, cause:

she’s so popular and still the only Disney Princess who’s not the lead

yet she has a much stronger want than Aladdin

it puts Aladdin in a unique position of not being the foil to his villain, but not being bad either

I feel like there’s something about the original tale in this, but I can’t find the words