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“Of course only that most SUPER name!!”

Welcome to the Strawhats, Nico D. Olivia! ((the ‘D.’ was at Luffy’s insistence, for good luck. parents-Frobin AU!))

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Chapter 1113 Spoilers

Out of all the things I thought Vegapunk was going to say, this was not one of them. This completely took me by surprise.

But what is so interesting is that looking back over the series, the world sinking makes sense. This isn't just some left field no build up kinda reveal, there were hints. Water 7 slowly sinking with each Aqua Laguna, the destruction of Lulusia directly leading to the rise in ocean levels worldwide.

Hell, even aspects of the series that I thought I understood have been put into a new perspective. I had viewed the Red Line as symbolic in its extreme height. The Celestial Dragons look down on humanity and view themselves as god-like, so their residence is located at the highest point in the One Piece world. But now, I'm also thinking that the height of the Red Line is also due to the fact that the World Government knows that the world is sinking (and could very well be the cause of it) making its height practical in addition to being symbolic. (This is operating under the theory that the Red Line was artificially created).

Even just the nature of the islands has been put into question for me. Were they always islands, or were they at some point larger landmasses that sunk to the point of being islands?

God, Oda is so good at writing mysteries and recontextualizing information that even 25 years into the series he is STILL able to surprise his audience. I can't wait to see were this reveal goes.

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Kinda criminal that he has a transformation power-up that color coordinates any outfit as a side effect, and the anime just… keeps him in bleached jorts.

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episode 82 of one piece - sanji does one of his "my well-being is less important than everyone else's" things with the avalanche, flinging luffy and nami out of the way and fucking up his spine

and luffy shouts, "next time you do something like that, warn me!"

and it's mostly a joke

except for how, also, it's not a joke

because a lot of people would just say "wow, what the fuck, don't do stuff like that!" a lot of people would say, "hey, promise me you're not going to fling yourself spine-first into any more jagged rocks!"

but luffy gets it. he would never ask that of his friends. he knows that, sometimes, you gotta do a stupid thing. sometimes, you gotta do the stupidest thing you can think of, and get really badly hurt, because you gotta protect your friends. luffy doesn't expect other people to live by rules he doesn't hold himself to, and he would never agree to stop doing reckless, dangerous, self-sacrificing shit to save the people he cares about - so he won't ask it of anyone else.

but, like - you gotta let your friends know

you gotta warn him, first

you can pull the sacrifice play, but only when you've given him the heads-up so he can pull your ass out of the fire, afterwards

fuckin ASKING FOR HELP is maybe the #2 most important Luffy Life Lesson!!!

(#1 is Follow Your Dreams)

and his friends are all so bad at it! he just keeps having to say this over and over, in different ways, because each of them needs to hear it, but they all need it in a different way - but it's the accompaniment to almost every major arc. ask for help. ASK for HELP.

NEXT TIME YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, WARN ME

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One Piece and Being Different

I could talk long and wide about all the things I love about One Piece, from the worldbuilding to the character writing to the political/darker topics it touches, anything. But one of the main reasons I personally love it so much and I don't believe has been talked about as much as it should, is how much it celebrates otherness. This is very much an overarching theme in the series because pirates by themselves directly go against society's standards, but this is focused more on a character point.

Objectively speaking, most OP characters are freaks and weirdos and strange and off putting, and it's good! Luffy specially, and he is the MAIN character, celebrates and embodies this weirdness to the extreme, and it's incredible how he manages to push this idea to other people around him too. It happens time and time again that he will meet someone and, the more different they are, the more he instantly wants them to join his crew. He is so incredibly driven by the wonder of discovering things different to him that he only feels happy about their existence, he wants to know and have fun with and love them because they're different!

And it has been acknowledged, the general effect Luffy has on people, how he manages to pull them to him like moth to a flame and recruit them to his side without even trying. It’s such incredible power, but it's also incredible how everybody around him, and especially his crew, always strive to become better for him, and most of the time becoming better, in OP, implies stop being normal. Being human, being acceptable by society's standards.

Like damn, the whole character plot of Luffy's fight against Katakuri was Katakuri coming to realize that he doesn't have to put up a front for other people, that he can keep going being himself, without hiding his monstrous features. That is when Katakuri stops fighting for his family and starts fighting because he wants to. And even after Luffy wins that fight he is respectful of Katakuri's wishes and covers his mouth with his hat.

Most of the Strawhat crew are really adopted strays, lost people and old enemies. They were othered, by people or circumstance, and Luffy gave them a home and a purpose. And in their increasing devotion to his cause, and through his constant love towards them, they have learned to stop being afraid of being different. Luffy will always accept them.

Franky had to quite literally rebuild himself into a living weapon, he chose to do that so his Battle Frankies couldn't be used against his will ever again, but despite being a cyborg he still looked mostly human. His pre-time skip design often shows how he pulls off his skin gloves to punch with his real metal hands. He was a criminal and shunned by his city and he was okay with that, but he still chose to blend in. After he joins Luffy he fully embraces himself and becomes quite extravagant in his own design, he is proud to show off his body modifications, he has fun with it, he accepts his cards and decides to use them at their full extent for Luffy. His metal parts in full display, painted with bright colors. Flame-shaped fists, changing his hairstyle at the push of a button, that is not someone trying to blend in anymore.

Chopper is a character whose biggest fear has always been being an outcast. He was bullied out of his herd for not being reindeer enough, he was hunted down by humans for not being human enough. Eventually, however, he learns that in order to be able to keep going, to defend his newfound family, he will have to become a monster for them, and he is happy to, because he would do anything for them. He knows that they will never think less of him for being a monster, for being different. These are some of the most extreme examples but every single character in the crew reflects this theme in some way.

We have people with extremely bizarre powers, shapeshifters, furries, witches, made up creatures, zombies, talking animals, talking food, living skeletons, a whole kingdom of queers, sea monsters, dragons, human experiments and so much more. In a series that mixes so many genres, so many themes, so many types of characters, such outrageous and unconventional character designs could have been used for mockery, or simply used as villainous traits as so many other stories do. And they are certainly sometimes cause of mockery, but it's rarely ever malign. In OP this extreme otherness is often a source of awe, a positive trait, something to be admired. It certainly is for Luffy.

Luffy is a main character that exclusively judges people by their true selves, beyond what they may be saying or doing, with his very keen emotional intelligence. In the world of One Piece, where the maximum power is held by the World Goverment, an organization that actively shuns everything different and is willing to sacrifice anything for the continuity of censorship, power and control, that turns a blind eye towards unaffiliated countries, the slave trade, and the underworld, that is willing to create agreements with some of the most feared pirates and allow them to continue to exercise fear in exchange for their assistance as brute force, Luffy and his recurring thread of freedom and acceptance is beautifully fitting.

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I'm obsessed with Nami in the realm of female character writing, because on the surface her arc is to be saved by a guy/group of guys, and generally with female characters that's used to take away their agency or power and/or support a romance. But with Nami...it does none of that. Her story is about learning to depend on others, but rather than reducing her power in any way, it increases it. The isolation she experienced before wasn't independence, but part of her oppression, so having a family to support her gives her infinitely more freedom.

Luffy is her captain, but the way Luffy does that is never to lord over people, it's to raise them up with him. And, importantly, he waits for it to be her choice. He stays supportively in reach until she asks for his help. The only time he intervenes without permission is to stop her from actively harming herself. And when he does intervene, it's not to whisk her away and keep her somewhere else safe where she's dependent on his security and protection, it's to literally beat the crap out of her oppressor so he's never a problem again and she's free to live her life either way. And although Sanji acts romantically toward her and the rescue follows his grand ideals of fighting for a beautiful lady, there's no expectation that she now owes him anything or has to give him a chance just because he helped her out of an abusive situation. He did it because he cared, not in exchange for anything. They were all willing to fight and bleed for her with next to nothing in return, and that's so vital.

Nami being a woman is definitely relevant to her story (using her beauty and pretend helplessness to steal without suspicion, the fact that she takes after her mom who was tough as nails in the male-dominated marines, the very real isolation and fear of being female surrounded by [fish]men with power over her), but it's important to note that she doesn't need saving because she's a woman, or due to any weakness on her part. She is shown as incredibly strong, brave, and clever, right from the beginning, but she was trapped in a situation with Arlong that would've been impossible for anyone to get out of alone. Now with a crew by her side, she no longer has to.

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regret.

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This is going to be a bit of a rant, you have been warned.

Every time I see people talking about the One Piece dub there is almost always someone(often times multiple someones) in the comments saying how the dub is actually the worst thing to have graced their ears and that the sub is superior in every way. Like????? My brother in christ, no one is holding you at gun point and forcing you to watch it dubbed, just accept that people have different opinions and preferences than you and move on with your day. It is not that serious. The world is not going to end because some rando on the internet watches One Piece dubbed, I promise.

It's just so weird to me, that so many One Piece fans (really just anime fans in general) insist that the dub is so horrifically bad to the point of being unwatchable and state it like that is a fact. Hell, some treat it like it's sacrilege to NOT watch the sub. It's one think to prefer to sub (completely valid, consume media in the way that's most enjoyable for you) but it another thing entirely to insult and disparage the people who watch it dubbed, as well as the VA's that worked on it. There are 100% ways to express opinions on the internet (especially opinions that do not really matter) in a respectful way.

(Side note, I will personally fight anyone who shits Luffy's English VA for her performance. She captures his charm and energy so well, and that is a hill that I will die on.)

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I'm also so mad at Garp. Like I knew I would be. He is that kind of character. He knows that on some level the marines are bad. That they are too corrupt. He, like Koby, thought he could be a force for good, and saw the evil that pirates were doing. But that's because the marines are a lot better at hiding their evil.

He walked into Impel Down, past the tortured screams, took the elevator down past Levels 1 - 4 where even Level 1 was enough to make Vice Admiral Momonga feel sick to his stomach at the treatment of the prisoners with light sentences.

Garp then goes to a chained up Ace, who presumably went through a lot of torture, who has done much less evil than Blackbeard – the man the marines just let into the warlord club – and laughs. He berates him and Luffy for not being Good Marines like he wanted them to be. And when Ace begs to be killed, Garp just tells him nothing can stop that now, knowing ace wants to be killed there - before whitebeard can risk himself to rescue him.

And of course Ace brings up their blood and their fathers as why he and Luffy turned out the way they did. But as we see, the real reason Ace is a pirate is because Whitebeard was the only one to act like a father to him. And that role that was supposed to be GARP'S job.

Garp's belief, even when facing all of this, is that the marines are still the lesser of two evils. Or perhaps he just doesn't believe another alternative is possible. And I guess until Luffy came about, it really wasn't.

So he'll tolerate the Celestial Dragons and turn a blind eye to slavery, though he won't let himself be promoted so he doesn't have to report to them (out of sight out of mind). He'll visit Luffy and the strawhats with Koby on a friendly visit and promise not to take them in, and then attack Luffy's new ship with firepower enough to kill some of them and certainly with the goal of capturing them and putting Luffy in Impel Down. And he'll visit Ace in prison before he dies, though do absolutely nothing to help the kid he swore an oath to take in, who he already failed.

The tragedy of Garp is that he tried to do the right thing at every turn, but unfortunately was wrong every time.

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nobody doing it like him HE'S THE SILLIEST EVER

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One Piece Reread - Ch. 166

I really do love how Oda didn't just introduce Vivi as a character solely to push forward Luffy's character development, but rather had them both learn from each other.

Luffy, earlier in the Drum Island arc, learned diplomacy - that sometimes immediately jumping to violence is not the correct way to handle a situation.

And here, Vivi is learning about the sad necessity of violence (in the short term) in certain situations. She was raised as a diplomat, and dislikes violence as it leads to death - specifically the death of those she cares for (we see this in her flashback in an earlier chapter). So as much as she hates Crocodile, she refuses to face him head on and instead she tries to get her people to stop fighting indirectly by infiltrating his organization and exposing him. But, as Luffy points out, getting the rebels to stop won't stop Crocodile. They will still need to take him down, and going after the rebels only gives them less time to do that.

Vivi's plan relies on a people that have lost faith in its governing body to believe a member of said government. And even if she was able to convince Koza (the rebel leader), the chance that all 700,000 rebels would heed his call to stand down is highly unlikely.

This does such a good job of exposing Vivi's fears. How she was unwilling to take risks, worried that they would get the Strawhats - her new friends - killed. It takes Luffy knocking sense into her (literally) for her to understand that they are willing to accept the risks of fighting back directly against Crocodile and his underlings so that her country and people can know peace and freedom again.

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One Piece Reread - Ch. 159

When I first read through this section, the way the Strawhats reacted to Ace being polite (as well as Ace just being polite to them in general) was kinda funny. And while Ace is generally more polite than Luffy (at least as an adult), they aren't nearly as different as the Strawhats make them out to be (re: Ace face-planting not once, but TWICE into a plate of food in the previous chapter). And so my take away when first reading this chapter was that Ace was being as polite as he was to show his gratitude to the Strawhats for being there for his brother. Which is sweet.

On this read through however, with the context of Ace's backstory, these scenes migrate from simply being sweet to also being devastatingly sad. Ace's big hang-up, his insecurity as a character is a fear (and belief) that he is not loved, not wanted, and better off dead. As such his treatment of the rest of the Strawhats can now also be read as a desperate need (whether subconsciously or not) to be liked and viewed as worthy of life by those his younger brother cares about. Ace's attitude and actions in general can be read like that. If he is polite enough/makes a good enough impression to strangers, if he is useful enough to the Whitebeard Pirates, if he can help to make Whitebeard himself the next Pirate King maybe, just maybe he can finally beat that deep, soul crushing fear and belief that those people from his childhood (and adulthood) were right, that he is better off dead.

It also recontextualizes why he is after Blackbeard, which we learn in this chapter as well. Yes, everything Ace says is true regarding his reasoning, wanting to take responsibly for Blackbeard's actions etc. But, with the knowledge of his backstory, Ace's devotion (nearly to the point of obsession - he refuses to stay any longer than necessary, despite that this is the first time he has seen Luffy in years) to going after Blackbeard is now also his way of proving that he is worthy of Whitebeard and the rest of the crews love (despite the fact that we learn later on that they did not want him to go after Blackbeard for fear of his safety).

Every part of One Piece with Ace in it is bittersweet for me now, even these earlier chapters they aren't necessarily meant to be. Just. Knowing how deeply he was hurting, to the point of self-destruction, to the point where it took him dying to realize that he was in fact loved, and did want to live is so horrifically tragic.

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Something I appreciate more about Drum Island arc is the way we’re reminded how long change can take. Even though it looked like Hiriluk died in vain, those doctors who saw him held onto the inspiration and hope he gave them for five years, just waiting for an opportunity to take action.

This happens again and again, where Luffy and the Straw Hats blunder into a powderkeg of a situation that’s been simmering for years if not decades and become the catalyst that finally moves people into action. Obviously for narrative reasons more stuff happens around Luffy because he’s our protagonist, but it also ties into his personality and character. The simple fact of Luffy’s presence seems to electrify people and spurs them to finally rise up.

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Oda: Here’s my new character! He’s a cyborg (but only on the front) who is fueled by cola that he stores in a fridge in his stomach!

Also Oda: Indiscriminate violence against a population for the actions of a few is not justice, no matter what the actions of the few entail. A ruling government built on colonialism and violence has a vested interest in rewriting the historical narrative and will do anything to protect their own version of events. This includes atrocities against citizens, including their own, if it furthers their narrative. They will demonize the survivors and victims to make them seem like villains and terrorists, and lie to the world at large. It is our job to listen to the survivors, and make sure their stories are not forgotten or distorted.

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nah but the way some parts of the fandom mistake luffy embracing joy & freedom over conquest as naivety (to the point of infantilizing him) is so ironic considering that most of his enemies underestimate for the same reasons. baby girl has seen cruelty oppression societal rules and abuse first hand and does understand it—he just chooses not to accept it

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I never liked the idea that Luffy is a nepo baby because of the positions Garp and Dragon hold, because they have done fuck-all for him - least of all use their positions of power to somehow bolster Luffy's own.

Legitimately the only major part Garp and Dragon played in Luffy's life was abandoning him, making other people to raise him in their stead (Dadan). Luffy only interacts with Garp and Dragon and collective of three times outside of flashbacks, and yes in those moments they did either help him escape (Dragon) or weren't actively trying to kill/apprehend him like they were ordered to do (Garp). But, and I cannot stress this enough, a parental figure not wanting their child to die/not wanting to kill their child is literally the bare-fucking-minimum. Luffy's not a nepo baby because Garp doesn't want to kill him, it just makes Garp a slightly less shit person.

Iva helping Luffy out because they work with Dragon is similar, they want to help Dragon's son save Ace (who Iva in that moment also thought was Dragon's son) from being executed. Wanting to help your friend's kid save their brother is not nepotism, it's just being a good person. Like, Dragon having friends surrounding him who are willing to help him or his kid in moments of need is just good community building, an aspect that One Piece as a story has always put emphasis on. A person needs good people surrounding them who have their back and vice vera. A lone person cannot get very far in the world of One Piece, but a group of people dedicated to helping each other achieve their goals will.

Also, it should also be noted that the no one outside of Garp and Strawhats knew that Luffy was related to Dragon until Marineford. Hell, LUFFY HIMSELF didn't know Dragon was his father until Post Ennis Lobby. To benefit from nepotism people - or at the very least people in positions of power - need to know who your family is, and for the first 17 years of Luffy's life, the majority of people didn't. They thought he was some rookie upstart from the East Blue, because he was. No one knew who the hell he was for the longest time, and it was only through his fights with strong, notorious pirates, and insane stunts like declaring war of the World Government that Luffy became more well known.

I know a lot of people mean this as a joke, but it's one of the One Piece takes (joking or not) that truly gets under my skin. Nepotism has a specific meaning - a person gaining power though family connections in the same or similar field - and I just don't see how Luffy fits that meaning.

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