#ZoLu rant

[st-osmanthus]

Excuse me, my ZoLu brainworm has not left chapter 1136. And I wrote 1,500 words today, after a long month of unable to write anything, so I deserve to have this rant, dammit!

Ahem. Buckle in. It’s a long one. (Sorry not sorry)

Y’all, look at our precious idiot, scaring giants right out the gate with his bloodlust. Missing one eye, hair standing up like a demon, dressed to the nines like a rogue Viking, drinking some high-grade giant liquor without getting drunk — just living the outlaw life. This is the wild beast of the Straw Hat Pirates. He’s unpredictable. He’ll strike fear into your soul. He cannot be tamed.

Oh, wait, did someone say “Sun God”? Now he’s intrigued. That sounds familiar. The bloodlust is gone. He ain’t here to scare anyone. He’s just gonna sit still and listen like a good boy for the next five pages. Please. Tell him more…

Don’t mind the swordsman. He’s just drinking quietly in his corner, listening to the chatter, saying nothing for FIVE WHOLE PAGES. He’s a bit of a loner, after all. He’s too cool to participate in these antics. Too cool for school (probably never had a geography lesson in his life). Too cool to care.

Except.. did they say “Shanks”? Did Luffy hear them say “Shanks”? THE Shanks?! The man Luffy has idolized his entire life. The one name that can make Luffy’s eyes glow simply from hearing it being spoken. Shanks might have been here recently?

Oh, you bet our green-haired guard dog is sitting up and paying attention. And he’s got OPINIONS.

This page… ZoLu truthers can (and should) write entire essays on this page. These are just my immediate thoughts.

First, I gotta know. Did Zoro drag Luffy away from the party? Did they sneak away together after sharing a knowing glance? Did Luffy run off to make water and Zoro took the chance to corner him for this discussion?

Regardless of how, they’re alone now, and Zoro is doing his first mate thing, having clocked his captain’s unusual behavior, which of course has him concerned. He can’t let some random giant take advantage of his trusting and naive captain.

He’s gotta play the devil’s advocate, gotta present a different perspective on the matter even if it means popping Luffy’s bubble. What I want to know is, does the Japanese version have the exclamation marks?!? That’s three sentences in a row punctuated with exclamation marks. Stephen Paul is one of the best manga translators in the game, and he wouldn’t add them if the original text didn’t call for them. That means: Zoro is losing his cool. He knows of all people, Shanks would make the perfect lure to get Luffy on board for some crazy shit. He needs to caution Luffy against falling into a possible trap.

It worked. Luffy has a healthy dose of skepticism now: “You think Loki doesn’t even know?!” Luffy’s mad. Aww. He’s probably disappointed. ☹️

………….

And what do ya know? ZORO BACKPEDALS!!!

“I’m just basing it on his reputation… I didn’t see the guy.”

Y’all! This man sees how disappointed his captain got when he played devil’s advocate and he immediately backs off and tries to find a middle ground. “Hey, no worries, maybe Loki isn’t a liar. The fuck do I know, Luffy, I wasn’t even there!”

Absolute marshmallow pushover fake-ass tough guy.

(I adore him.)

The culmination of all this? Zoro’s gonna do everything possible to make his captain happy while keeping him safe. You see, he will get the keys to Loki’s cuffs, and then together, they will decide if Loki’s a liar or not. Zoro isn’t going to stop Luffy from finding out more info on Shanks, not if there’s even the slightest possibility Loki was telling the truth, but he is also not letting Luffy do this alone. He doesn’t trust anyone else’s judgment either. So it’ll be him and Luffy, sharing one brain cell against the world. (Until Nami caught them, which, like, thank goodness lol.)

—————

This chapter contains everything I love about ZoLu: Guard dog behavior from Zoro; complete trust in Zoro from Luffy; hot-headed captain teaming together with not-really-aloof first mate; Zoro inserting himself so that Luffy can still go on as his goofy self. I love that they didn’t say shit to the rest of their crew, that they wanted to just GO and do their own thing for a little bit.

It reminds me of their mad dash to the plateau on Dressrosa, or them standing side by side facing down Aqua Laguna, or Zoro going with Luffy to Roof Piece. These instances show again and again that out of the entire crew, Zoro is the closest to being Luffy’s equal. And every time, Luffy is grateful for the companionship. There’s really no other duo doing it like these two.

[rasangan-raspberry]

I don't think i posted this? lol

tbh after thinking about hancock a bit, i feel like she would become attached to anyone that treated her like how luffy treated her (as an equal and a friend, and not practically deifying her)

[queerdraws]

projecting on luffy again. get bited.

[acidicwerewolf]

Zolu is canon. Doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, but their lives are so intertwined you just can't separate them. Doesn't matter what you ship or what you don't, or what you think of the characters, you can't separate them without changing some of the things fundamental to their characters.

[soft-niku-and-sake]

Saw a fanart of an another zoro ship where the other character is wearing one of Zoro's earrings and my mind just instantly goes blank. I mean, dont get me wrong. I'm not shaming the artist, his/her art is amazing!, but "Luffy wearing Zoro's earring" is such a classic and popular Zolu headcanon to me that seeing it being done to other Zoro ships look so weird and uncomfortable. I know no one owns headcanons but dang I should just not open tags that I blocked lol.

[transusopp]

Pls draw zoro & usopp together ?? :D they’re one of my favorite duos & they don’t get very much fanart I think (or just usopp if u don’t wanna draw two people ofc!!!!!!)

look at these goobers. i heart them. idgaf what the haters say they're besties. talk to the wall. also i tried a new rendering thing + also drew their postts designs from memory cause i was too lazy to pull a ref (im so responsible). i hope it looks okay </3

[zoluulife]

I really hate those mf who treat Luffy like he’s a child that doesn’t know anything about anything as a way to justify them shitting on zolu, they act as if he’s never heard of a crush in his life “ I don’t know how you can ship Luffy with anyone he’s so innocent “ (yes someone has actually said that to me) like Luffy? The man that fights to free people of oppression? He’s not 2. He’s seen and been through stuff most adults wouldn’t be able to handle ,he is so emotionally intelligent and it’s shown throughout the show. Shipping him with someone that makes complete sense is not that fair of a stretch.

[neurodivergentnecessity]

Luffy is not smart but he isn't as dumb as people think he is. Like Luffy is dumb and he is childish but he isn't as dumb or as childish as many people seem to think. In canon it's usually people underestimating him in one way or another and they usually are quickly proven wrong. In fanon though? Luffy feels so off, like I feel like when I read or see some fanon things Luffy just doesn't feel like himself. Luffy is not smart and he is childish but when I see some fanon things I feel like Luffy is portrayed as an actual kid. And it's so frustrating because I understand where they come from in this because Luffy is childish and he acts dumbly and he is impulsive so it isn't strange for people to see him like that but it feels weird to be this extreme. Of course there are some alternatives that portray Luffy closer to how he is but in some of these parts of fanon Luffy feels mean. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I've never seen Luffy as mean or malicious in any way he always has good or neutral intentions, that can sometimes lead to disaster, and the only time he has bad intentions is if you've hurt his namaka in one way or another. Yeah sure he can be very stubborn and rude at times but he isn't mean.

In short: he would not fucking say/do that

[minniiaa]

finally realized the reason one piece twitter is so toxic

… it’s where all straight men are

Tumblrs got all the girlies, gay, and nonbinary theys who are just floating around on lil clouds making art and writing stories/headcanon of their favorite characters and ships

The twitter zoro dickriders and powerscalers would fall out their chairs if they stepped foot into this place and saw that no one is out here arguing that zoro could beat bb and akainu in a 1 v 2

(If you are a straight man reading this and do none of these things then you are one of the good ones. please keep doing what you’re doing.)

[st-osmanthus]

OMG I am SO MAD.

Remember this adorable moment in ep 341 where Luffy offers to share his lunch with Zoro in order to get Zoro to go into Thriller Bark with them, and Zoro caves in less than a second? This is a canonical moment, btw. I don’t think his eyes are closed in the manga as he smiles but this is 100% an Oda original. And it’s so special because Luffy never offers to share his food, never mind doing so this happily.

Well, I just saw a clip of the dubbed version of this scene by chance, and in the English dub, instead of sharing his lunch, Luffy gets Zoro to give in by threatening to eat Zoro’s lunch.

That’s completely different!!! That’s the opposite of what he says in Japanese! WTF?! O, my ZoLu brainworm is PISSED.

I can’t believe I’m just finding this out after, ionno, 13 years or something, but I am retroactively angry.

(Now that I’ve typed this out, it seems like a very silly thing for a grown woman to be angry about but ya know what, we could’ve hooked so many more ZoLu truthers with this scene, but those who only watch the dub will never know, and that’s so sad for the fandom.)

[hellfire-fist]

Nah 'cause in what world does Sanji have a much bigger impact on Zoro than Luffy??? Which idiot actually thought of analyzing Zoro only to neglect his loyalty to Luffy, and how much he changed because of Luffy? The man literally changed careers for him, only for you to focus on the chef's impact???? What the actual fuck.

I'm not denying there's definitely a bond there, but even in the source material, there's not much of their interaction that even weighs equally with ZoLu's non-verbal communication. They're "rivals", but it's obvious how much heavier Zoro's sense of responsibility with Luffy is. The most I can give with Z and S's relationship is that they have a mutual understanding with regards to Luffy, that's it. And for crying out loud they're basically brothers. Zoro is the brother Sanji should have had, mf even looks like Yonji for fuck's sake!

Tell me that green-haired asshole doesn't look like Zoro.

[raynezeyra]

my friend told me i like zolu bc i like akataka and THATS NOT RIGHT AT ALL I LIKE ZOLU BC OF THEIR KNIGHT/KING DYNAMIC but you know what my friend might be on to something

[goldenthyme]

Been thinking on why I don't like Sanji/Zoro, and I think it's more of the assumptions it places on Zoro rather than me not being a Sanji fan. After all, the assumptions it places on Sanji are ones I rather like for that type of character - taking a symbol of weird, sexual harassment type of heteronormativity and viewing them as queer. But a lot of the assumptions on the Zoro side are very "of course he's gay" or "of course he's into ___ sexual thing" and as someone who's always read him as very aspec, that bothers me

[butchered-icarian]

Some silly goofy addition: I love that by meeting Luffy, Zoro actively chooses to live. Not just by his "join me or face the firing squad" bit but to, actually, chooses Life.

His dream grows with it. He invites people into his life alongside Luffy, and he finds other purposes and things to care about other than just to hold onto Kuina's ghost, and by that he overcomes his grief and every of his action towards his goal is to honour her, no longer acts of mourning.

Choosing Luffy opened Zoro's world.

no but meeting luffy honestly gave zoro freedom. to embrace his whole self instead of hiding behind “demon pirate hunter”. to live. his whole life was structured. his childhood was riddled with his anger and the loss of kuina. he trained relentlessly to reach his goal. he became a bounty hunter and the entire east blue (including civilians) shuddered at his name. but luffy came hurdling into his life and saved it. not just from the marines but from a self destructive path that would only end in flames — and alone. luffy reminded him that fire doesn’t just burn, it also warms. it protects. zoro could be silly. be good. he could have fun while chasing his dreams. have a family and a purpose beyond fighting mihawk. that while he didn’t fear his own death, he feared his captain’s. his crews. and he would stay alive for them, be the worlds greatest swords man for them, never lose another battle for them, not just a ghost. zoro was lost but luffy became his true north

[zoluulife]

Imma say it, it’s so funny seeing zosan Stan’s saying that thriller bark is a zosan moment. Like is the zosan moment in the room with us..? I think personally the reason zoro didn’t let sanji take the pain instead of him was because of the duty he felt as a first mate. He felt obliged to be the sacrifice, he knew he had to be. But also because I mean come on it’s Luffy zoro will do anything for Luffy including giving his life for him. He values and respects Luffy the most out of anyone.

He didn’t not let sanji do it bc he was in love with him or something that’s just stupid, and honestly something zosan shippers say bc they are desperate for something. The whole zoro giving his life for Luffy vs sanji saying he should instead moment if you look at the two manga panels you will see an difference. Even though zoro says it for the crew it’s clear that his actual main reason for doing it was for Luffy while with sanji when he said he should be the one to do it it’s clearly shown he was talking about the crew in a whole.

The two panels are so different thriller bark IS zolu angst arc cry if you think otherwise bc that little “hand holding “ thing sanji did when he fainted was NOT a zosan moment

[outofpocketonepiecethoughts]

I want to preface what I’m about to say by saying that I have nothing against any ship. I have nothing against SanZo/ZoSan and even enjoy some of the fics and fanart. More importantly, I have absolutely nothing against people who like ships that I don’t like.

But goddammit why is it that if I like even one piece of ZoSan art it ends up being my entire dash. I want to see ZoLu. Sometimes I admittedly get a bit annoyed by it because I just wanna see LuZo and the only thing on my dash is ZoSan and LawLu. I don’t wanna block those tags because there’s a lot of talented artists posting there but I sometimes wish that LuZo was more popular.

Sorry for venting and being a bit negative. I don’t want to hate on ships I’m not as into or be super complainy but you know what I want to vent a bit so I’m gonna vent.

I also just don’t really get the popularity those two ships have. I get why people like SanZo. It’s got a lot of drama and they do have some pretty gay moments, but I have a hard time understanding why it’s so much more popular than LuZo. Like, the incredible devotion involved with Zoro and Luffy is insane. I get LuLaw less. Like, dressrosa made me get why people ship them, but I don’t quite understand the popularity. I don’t know maybe I just prefer to have more material to work with in terms of ships compared what there is with LuLaw. It’s like, I kind of get why people ship it after dressrosa but I still don’t really get the appeal. And I don’t really get why it seems to be quite a bit more popular than Zolu.

Again, I’m not hating on other people for liking what they like. Your preference is yours and mine is mine. I just sometimes get tired of seeing so much stuff for ships I’m not really into instead of what I really want to see.

Sorry for the rant, I just felt like I needed to get this out so I can go back to being a normal member of the fandom and just talking about things I like instead of being negative.

I probably won’t post about this stuff again because it is pretty negative, but just this once I’m gonna let myself be a bit negative.