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I read chapter 1152. Holy shit lol. Zoro is straight up NOT having a good time in Elbaf.

First he’s been uncharacteristically jealous and protective since Luffy’s shown an interest in Loki, to the point of kicking an unconscious Loki. Then he essentially gets chewed out by Gaban and is told he’s not doing enough for his Captain, which is probably the worst thing for his self-esteem and sense of worth. Now he’s so out of sorts that he’s getting jealous over Luffy’s father figure?! Our boy is going through it.

The Shanks thing really gets to me. LoL!!! I can’t recall Zoro ever having had a problem with Luffy talking about Shanks before. I can’t stop laughing.

Keep yer chin up, Zoro! Luffy still loves you even though you’re a big dumb-dumb.

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One Piece chapter 1152 spoilers!!!

I can’t believe Zoro didn’t realize he had conquerers haki until somebody told him. I love that idiot. Also, Luffy knowing the whole time and not saying anything because he thought Zoro knew and then being shocked he didn’t was really funny. Zoro sweating and being like “uh, Sorry”. Like, he’s so dumb. I love him so much. The fact that he makes that face with those stupid goggles makes it even better.

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Chapter 7 of my LuZo faerie AU is up!

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one last zolu to get one piece out of my system before i lock in for artfight 🫡

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Punts this into the sun and skedaddles away

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One thing I find really interesting about one piece, is that we never know what the main character is thinking. Like, we frequently get thought bubbles for every other character except Luffy. It’s like although Luffy is the main character, but not the protagonist, and his story is being told from the perspective of the people closest to him.

I don’t really have much to say about it, but I just find it really fascinating.

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Chapter 9 of Precious Treasure (I’ll Never Let You Go) is up

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everytime zoro gets called shy an angel gains its wings

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I like to think they’re a little possessive

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Chapter 8 of Precious Treasure (I’ll Never Let You Go) is up

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Chapter 6 of my mafia au fic, “Betray the moon as acolyte is up!”

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Looks like devotion

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Villain Analysis: The Garuda Himself

AKA What turns men into monsters; Is it ideology and propaganda? Projection and insecurity? Class and upbringing? Or perhaps, it is all of these combined.

A not-so-quick analysis of Vinsmoke Judge, what makes him so despicable and hate-able, why he works as a villain, what does this mean for Sanji as a character and WCI as an arc, and how the brains of awful men like his work.

Warning: this is very very long (around 2k words) and talks about topics of abuse and imperialism, obviously. Also, a lot of this hinges on personal subjective interpretation of the narrative and speculation, so please be patient.

For starters, let’s get a quick comparison between Judge as a villain and other antagonists throughout One Piece. There’s, in my opinion, something that quickly separates him from the rest.

While most villains in One Piece are often motivated to do horrible things because of personal pathos and experiences, wants, needs, desires and traumatic memories, Judge –at first glance at least, seems to be motivated by something very different: Ideology. He is an imperialist, a fascist, a eugenicist, a classist, a warmonger, and so on and so on.

He is most similar to a villain like Hody Jones in this regard. There’s no personal big event in their lives (that we know of, at least) leading this type of character to their horrible actions, but rather a worldview. Most other antagonists in One Piece are in my opinion written as “person first, ideology second”. They’re often motivated by their own specific experiences, even if they can be assigned an ideology on top of that. But Judge and Hody seem to be more symbolic of broader ideas at their core, so they’re in a sense the odd ones out. They’re the reverse; “ideology first, person second”, almost feeling like they’re representatives of broader harmful structures, rather than being their own individuals.

I think also it’s worth mentioning why the ideology is here, and what it offers in terms of the narrative of Sanji’s abuse. Some might think it was an unnecessary element that isn’t that thematically connected to Sanji’s struggles. Couldn’t his family simply have been abusive, without all that Germa nonsense? Well for starters, it’s mostly here for the pop-cultural Kamen Rider references, yeah. But getting that out of the way, I think Sanji’s suffering is connected to his father’s terrible worldview pretty directly.

For starters, fascism is all about control. It preaches scapegoatism, demonization of “weakness” and fetishization of strength. Judge is a man that runs his family the same way he runs his state; with an iron fist. Sanji’s abuse IS a direct result of him being unable to meet these horrific standards. It also helps that we know Sanji as a kind person, so juxtaposing him to his comically evil literal-supervillain family, makes it simply easier for us to root for Sanji and hate his relatives, from a narrative building perspective. Ideas around masculinity and what an “able body” is in Judge’s eyes, are both part of Sanji’s backstory of abuse. It is also important that the Vinsmokes are royalty, because the first thing we learn about Sanji in One Piece, is that he suffered through great hunger. These people are wealth itself; they have never experienced that hardship.

However, while I think it’s true to an extent that Judge at first is simply “walking ideology” without being much of an actual individual, the way WCI is written, he starts showing interesting cracks behind the mask that reveal hints of specific personal motivations. In other words, the awful person behind the just as awful ideology starts to subtly show, and can be pieced together by looking intently.

As we experience the arc through Sanji’s eyes, Judge is a man who initially seems like an intimidating “strongman”, an impossible-to-read stoic threat, with no thoughts of his own outside cruelty. He’s a walking stereotype without much depth to be found. But slowly, the faults of his character begin to show; he is hasty, he has emotional outbursts, he is pathetic and hypocritical, he is careless and thoughtless, falling easily into Big Mom’s trap. In other words the imperfection and insecurity that Sanji was never able to spot in his father as a scared kid, starts to reveal itself, as Sanji slowly overcomes his fear of this man. He is not terrifying anymore; he is pathetic. And he is human, the worst kind of evil. The image of a man who is as perfectly mechanical as his genetically augmented sons, is shattered. They have no choice in their cruelty (to an extent, at least, due to Judge’s actions no less), but Judge is perfectly capable of compassion. He simply chooses to disregard it. His evil, unlike his sons, is his own choice.

Judge often laments his own humanity, doing so multiple times throughout the arc. He complains about how he can’t bring himself to take “his own son’s life as a father” to Sanji’s face, or often shows his twisted love for the rest of his children. This is a man who wishes nothing more than to be like his so-called “perfect” cruel sons, these unfeeling warriors, soldiers with no fear or sorrow. He fashions himself after them, in a way. But that is not the truth of who he is, and he very very clearly hates that.

This is where his hypocrisy comes in; he punishes Sanji for the very same things he himself is very capable of. To me, that’s kind of the point of the scene of him crying during the assassination, a highlight of his “rules for thee but not for me” behavior. This might sound absurd at first, but don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. I think out of the three parental figures Sanji has had in his life (Sora, Judge, Zeff) he is the least like his birth father. He is in every sense, much more like the other two. However, no matter how absurd it feels, out of all his sons, Judge is most similar to Sanji. And he hates every second he is reminded of it. Not in the kindness, of course, but in his emotional nature. This is a man who, I think is not a stretch to say, projected on his eight-year-old son.

But here comes the problem, of course. As I said earlier, I think this is a man whose ideology came first. He doesn’t latch onto it to cover up for his insecurities, but rather, they are comorbid, it’s the reverse. The elements he sees in himself as “weakness” are elements that he hates, precisely because they clash with his worldview, not the other way around. The ideology is a result of upbringing, similar to the Celestial Dragons; taught from birth that as royalty he is superior to others, that he deserves everything by existing, that his kingdom’s horrific nationalism is excused due to whatever scapegoatism the Vinsmokes have been propagandizing for centuries. So when he is reminded that these ideas might be false, when he looks at his own “weak” son and realizes he is more like him than he is like his other “perfect” sons, he lashes out in ways the escalate in cruelty. I think he is at his core, a disastrous mix of entitlement and insecurity. After all, secure and happy men don’t fall for such ideas.

There’s an interesting moment right before he gives his last horrid speech where he lists all of the things he hates about Sanji (that scene where Luffy lovingly responds with “Why did he list all the good things about you?”). Before he starts angrily and pointlessly rambling, there’s a panel where he looks down at Sanji, their faces juxtaposed, with his bandages covering one eye; just like Sanji and his hairstyle, and while making a similar facial expression to him. There’s a pause in that moment. I think the narrative is telling us in a way, and if you want to interpret it as such, about the insecurity and projection hiding behind this man’s “strongman” mask. Literally a mask- Big Mom broke his helmet. He is here without it. And of course, he cannot change. He will not change. He will keep acting out his cruelty; it’s too late for horrible old men like him. But not for someone like Sanji. This is the last moment where we see the two reject each other for good. And it’s a reminder of how that man’s shadow no longer looms over Sanji. Sanji can see through him, he sees the real, pathetic, sad man behind the intimidating persona. Maybe he does see himself a little bit too, but he rejects that. He rejects a future where he grows to be like this man.

The last element I want to talk about however, one that I didn’t touch on so far, probably has to do with Sora. There’s two things that stood out to me in regards to Judge’s relationship to Sora that I never see anyone talk about.

The first is the fact that Judge calls Sanji “his greatest failure”. Think about it for a few seconds. Why would a man so self-absorbed not simply blame Sora for what happened? He could have easily gone “Oh, there’s no failure on my part here, my science was perfect! I didn’t make any mistakes; I was simply sabotaged. Sabotaged by a third party.” But he doesn’t. He doesn’t use Sora as a scapegoat. I mean- it wouldn’t have been inaccurate either. The reason Sanji was born human IS because of Sora’s interference, not because of any mistake in the science.  So why? Why does he not do it? Why is Sanji “his mistake”. I simply couldn’t figure it out at first, but then it dawned on me.

If Sanji is “Judge’s mistake”, than it can’t be “Sora’s success”. He is erasing her. He’d rather present himself as someone who messed up, than include her and acknowledge her actions. It’s about taking agency away from her. If HE is the one that failed when it comes to Sanji, he can make it about himself, and take her out of the picture. He can strip her of her power and decision. This is at his a core a man who is obsessed with control. Everyone else exists to serve him, in his eyes.

We see this even further in one of the most interesting and under-analyzed parts of Reiju’s speech to Sanji in WCI. While trying to figure out her father’s behavior, she makes the suggestion to Sanji that right after Sora died “he blamed you for everything that happened, and started to mistreat you accordingly.”

While Reiju is an unreliable in-universe narrator, she is one of the few people close enough to her father to be able to figure out his behavior. And here, she is suggesting that a big part of Sanji’s mistreatment is because, in his twisted mind, Judge blames Sanji for Sora’s death. This to me reads in a couple of ways. For starters, it’s once again taking agency away from her. It couldn’t have been her own decision; it had to be the fault of something or someone else. In this case… their unborn son…? Wild choice on who to blame. But it works in his head; Sora didn’t CHOOSE to disobey him, it was all that child’s fault. But also, it does beg that question again of what happens when you mix that complex villainous humanity with wretched ideology. Did he love Sora? Or is him mourning her just a feeling of loss of something he owned, a loss of ownership and control? Well, if I had to guess, it’s probably a bit of both. And that’s what makes Oda’s villains much, much more interesting to me, compared to simple walking stereotypes. Twisted abusive love expresses itself this way very often. To people like this, genuine feelings of love and horrific desire to control and hurt are the very same. And I think the same can be said for his “successful” children. I do think he loves them, genuinely, but a man like this experiences that emotion through a sense of ownership, control, and an extension of his own ego. It's not that is isn't love, or that it's performative. It is simply twisted, selfish, abusive, but it is there. But Sanji? He doesn't even get that.

God I hope this man suffers a terrible punishment for everything he’s done. An excellent villain, I need him dead and rotting in hell. Whole Peak Island. Thank you Mr. Oda.

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a bunch of *waves hands* totally normal luzos

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Chapter 5 of my LuZo mafia au, Betray the Moon as Acolyte is up.

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I love fics in any word count range. I’ll read anything from a 100 word drabble to a 300 thousand word monster of a fic. I also write plenty of one shots in the 1-2k word range as well as fics between 10-20k words. Even if they aren’t as popular as the longer fics, I still cherish every nice comment I get, and every kudos.

What I’m saying is, if you can, try to ignore the people who say they don’t read below 100k words. In my experience, they’re just a loud minority. People will still read and love your 12 thousand word fics.

I'm kind of feeling off put by how much of the Ao3 community is agreeing that they do not read fics under a certain amount of words.

Saw a comment saying "I dont read anything under 100k words" and Sooo many replies agreed. As someone who is extremely proud of their 12, 20, 40k fics It kind of makes me want to stop posting there entirely.

I know I shouldn't feel discouraged from posting there, but like.. if you guys aren't even going to read it, why should I?

I write for fun in my free time as a disabled father of two. I know I'm not going to have time to keep up with the highschool/ college writers and thats fine, but Im confused because people say "Ugh I really want a fic where __" and I say "hey! I have a fic where __!" And they say "Oh it's short" when it's half, or an entire novel length.

So idk. I don't want to see anyone complaining about not being able to find fics of what you like if you exclusively only read a certain number and act as if its our jobs as hobby writers who are unpaid to make every fic over 100k.

Thats just my thoughts on it..

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I love this interpretation of them. They’re so in love in such an undefineable way that you can’t put a label on them.

Tbh I do think that Zolu could realistically be a couple and make out and have sex without being disingenuous to Luffy's stated sexuality or having any attraction between them whatsoever. Iirc, sex and all that is something that Luffy just "doesn't think about" - and he's obv had plenty of time to grow attracted to someone in a romantic or sexual way, and just hasn't. (Zoro doesn't seem to show interest in other people like that either, which is likely unintentional irt sexuality but a truth nonetheless.) So like, no attraction- possibly at all, possibly without the catalyst of experiencing it first. K. Cool. Good.

Then there's also the distinct relationship that Zoro and Luffy have, bound together by fate in a different way than the rest. Luffy loves all his crew equally, but love has different forms in different relationships (not in a way that's necessarily labelable as romantic, familial, or any of that)

And then their brains work the same, they speak the same language, they have the same crazy sense of devotion, etc etc etc. And look how crazy devoted they are already, how intense. Ultimately, they've probably discovered every single way to express affection toward each other that they can.

But when there's something major, something life-changing, it can feel like all the established ways of telling someone you care aren't adequate in that moment. Something like a final fight in a 1000+ chapter story would probably feel that way; that ultimate success and victory. But what expression of love haven't those two traded back and forth a million times by now?

Kisses are known to signify love, of multiple kinds. I honestly don't think that either of them have particularly thought about it much, but they know it's an action that exists. And I don't think Luffy would mind at all in that context: a kiss as communication. And obviously, it's easy for the serotonin and dopamine rush from being told something that intense to cause you to indulge, to say it right back. I don't think it's about physical pleasure or having a relationship that involves kissing or more for either of them. I just also know that there's gotta be a moment in the story where Luffy fully fucking processes that Zoro's not gonna leave his side, ever, and this late in the story that's a way for it to play out and feel realistic.

Luffy's relationships, outside of his brothers and bio family, aren't something that should be fit into a societal label, because what's important to him is the actual actions themselves, and words are, frankly, limiting. Hence, nakama.