#and yes I'm back on my bullshit again

[sheliesshattered]

the trouble with trying to rewrite this particular episode is that the episode, as aired, is just so bad that it's physically painful to rewatch

[moongothic]

WAIT WAIT WAIT HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE

So normally we only get fullblown, extended and dedicated flashbacks for heroic characters in One Piece, the characters who we're meant to root for. The literal only TRUE exception we've had to this rule was Big Mom's flashback. Even fucking Doflamingo's flashback was tied to Law and Rosinante's

So the fact that we haven't gotten a single fucking GLIMPSE at Crocodile's backstory is?!?

Like sure, we haven't gotten like a Moria flashback, but you know, he literally told us all we needed to know himself, AND we got to see glimpses of him in the Wano flashbacks. Arlong didn't get a flashback of his own, but he did get to cameo in Fisher Tiger's flashback. And Rob Fucking Lucci got a flashback that was 6 whooping panels long

BUT CROCODILE?? Not only do we know almost Fuck All about his story, but also have never gotten as much as a glimpse at it? But his backstory has been HINTED and TEASED at multiple times??

GUYS. FELLAS

Like. I am SURE the "Full Backstories for Heroes Only" rule is going to get broken again, but with Imu and Blackbeard already there just BEGGING to have their beans spilled, can we even be sure Sir Fucking Crocodile is somehow going to become A Villain So Dangerous To The Narrative that he ALSO should also recieve a Full Fucking Backstory?? For his Nefarious Schemes?? AT THIS POINT??

Y'all

I think it's more likely Oda's been saving up Croc's backstory because it might just completely recontextualize his entire character

[loumauve]

So many combat applications! Slicing, stabbing, gouging!

(she's been trying to get Darling to explore combat applications for years)

[dmitri-smerdyakov]

Stating the obvious here but this scene should NEVER have been cut from Secrets of Dumbledore, there was absolutely zero need to cut it and I'm going to be forever salty about it.

There's just so much I love about this scene... Newt being Newt, Theseus cradling the baby Qilin and singing to it (my ovaries may or may not have combusted tbh), both of them in waistcoats?!?!, Pickett having a matching bandage on his little twig hand/arm just like Newt, the tiniest scraps of information about the Scamander parents - their mum used to sing to them, their dad had an old drinking song - and just the two of them being brothers... this scene shows why not only Newt but also Theseus are Hufflepuffs, shows their brotherly relationship, shows a caring older brother side of Theseus.

I'm just forever going to be mad about the potential of this series and how it's now unlikely to ever be realised.

[vicmillen]

Sooooo, what would happen if somebody in Wild's Hyrule mistook Time for Wild, because Wild sometimes just parade around with the fierce deity set?

I'm not entirely sure what happens next, but I think this is more interesting to explore for the second chapter of the wrong face... I don't think Time would fully realized why, but he'll maybe get a feeling it has something to do with FD.

Hmm, much to think about.

[savrenim]

not to be another donations post but you may remember how over the summer we had massive amounts of plumbing problems and other unexpected moving costs? well. after proceeding to work every single hour available to me for six months, take no holidays whatsoever, and budget the hell out of every aspect of my life, I was actually on track to pay everything back and maybe have a little bit of wiggle room by the time summer came around!

and then we got a call from the vet about routine labs saying that if we didn't take Suzy in to an emergency specialty hospital immediately, she would die within in a week, she might die anyways if we took her there, but it was our only chance to have a few more months with her. after an extremely difficult household discussion, we decided that we needed to do as much as we could for her. she's been a beloved member of the family for 18 years. we were not going to abandon her in her hour of need.

with two days at the specialty hospital, the prognosis was better than we could have possibly hoped! the most important thing is she does not have heart problems at all, which means that we can treat her chronic kidney disease with normal IV fluids and with careful treatment she could easily be with us for years to come. the timely intervention also may or may not have saved her from acute kidney failure too, we'll know when we go back to the vet on Wednesday to get her blood checked where her levels have stabilized at.

two days at the specialty hospital means we are also down $3652 , and no longer are on track to pay back everything by July when it comes due unless a couple of uncertain things going forward Go Right, I do not trust everything to Go Right, and we're also still uncertain about what long-term treatment going forward is going to cost.

I still have my ko-fi and my patreon, but honestly, I'm aware that everything is tight for everyone always and there are also a lot of causes that need money right now and in the face of that "hey my family went super out on a limb to try to save our cat and would love some help not falling off" feels kind of shallow. but like. not to sound dumb or like a youtuber or podcaster, but, like. honestly I think the Most Helpful Thing that anyone could do for me right now is take a fucking HelloFresh link that will send you a "free" box for cost-of-shipping ($7ish?) if you Sign Up For An Account that you can then cancel Immediately After The Box Has Shipped and Never Give Them Any More Money Than That and get Six To Ten Meals Out Of It, and for getting someone to "sign up", they will give me a free box too. like. if 13 people are willing to take a link then I don't need to worry about food for the next three months. which would be. HUGE.

so I guess.... dm me if you want a link? otherwise expect to see a lot of promotion of my writing/ patreon as I scramble the hell to try to make this money up

[bugdotpng]

person with ADHD attempted to go through 5-month-old mail pile to find a singular EOB. 1 dead 30 injured. EOB still at large

[tenpintsofsundrop]

"But soon you'll learn: for death leads to purification."

It's so interesting that Deathstroke said this to Jason - a character who dies and comes back as a very different person.

Obviously Slade means this as death (potentially Jason's death) being a means of purification for the Titans group, but the way he says it, it sounds like it would be a transformative process for Jason, rather than an ending, and I love that double meaning.

[narnianvalkyrieofberk]

Guess who's back on their Achilles bullshit again!

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Turns out I can still learn something new about my favorite band: Ron Blair played the fucking cello on "The Wild One, Forever"?!

It was confirmed by Tom Petty who said: "He doesn’t play the cello," Petty said of Blair. "He just fashioned out enough that he could play the chorus."

[grapejuicegay]

took advantage of mush brain to finally watch all of until we meet again and this parallel kind of got to me

[angryducktimemachine]

I wish I'd be able to do like. Actual crafts but the moment something takes longer or requires patience and waiting time my brain immediately looses interest :/

[moongothic]

Many people have pointed out (in relation to Crocodad) how in Japanese the etymology of the word "wani" (crocodile) is a bit complicated to say the least and in mythology could mean a variety of things, including a shark, sea monster or a dragon

Which, of course, is quite an interesting coincidence. Crocodile does often get referred to as "wani" not just by Luffy but some other characters, and so it would be just a little funny if both of Luffy's dads were sorta kinda called dragons

There's also people pointing out how Zoro's mother was called "Tera", similar to terra (earth) and Sanji's mother was named Sora (sky). So if Luffy's birthing parent was named after a water-dwelling creature, well, it'd be cute and round out the monster trio's birthing parents in a funny way, since we'd have earth, sky and the sea

But what really is fucking me up about the whole wani-thing is the Myth of Toyotama-hime

So the TL:DR; of the myth is

The pregnant princess Toyotama came from the Ryuuguu Castle deep in the oceans onto land to give birth to her child, telling her husband that when she would give birth, she would revert back into her true form, requesting him to not look at her while she gave birth. But her husband could not keep that promise, so he peeked in on his wife, only to witness a giant wani giving birth. The sight of this horrified the husband so much he fled, while Toyotama princess was so hurt by what had happened that she returned to the sea, abandoning her child.

Indeed, this myth bringing up wani pregnancy is just. An interesting coincidence for Crocodad speculation

Of course, we know Oda borrows from mythology (fucking, Fishman Island's castle is literally the Ryuuguu Castle), so if Crocodad Real, it's genuinely plausible Oda could('ve) take(n) inspiration from that very myth

Thing about it is that though...

Like, if we're assuming Crocodile never fully realized he was trans until he got pregnant, then him transitioning either immidiately or as soon as he could after giving birth would make sense. Dude seeks out Iva-chan and gets the t-juice*, so on and so forth, but my question is like, would that have been before or after delivering the baby to Dragon (so he could then pass it onto Garp)

*(Or hell, maybe Iva-chan was there helping deliver the baby, helping Crocodile crack his own egg etc, maybe the secret Iva-chan is holding over Crocoboy's head isn't that they knew Crocodile is trans and could out them, but knowing Crocodile gave birth to god know whose child)

Because like

How did Dragon find out about his partner transitioning?

Did pre-T Crocodile tell him he was transitioning while handing over the baby? Or did he just leave without an explanation and allowed Dragon to just Take In The Change after it had happened whenever they saw each other again (if they ever did, for all we know he could've just walked away without talking to Dragon again and Dragon just found out either from Iva-chan directly or from seeing him on the news)

Or did Crocodile transition first and then deliver the baby to Dragon without any warning, again, just giving Dragon one hell pf a surprise

In any scenario, how did that even go down?

And we have to ask the sad question of... is Dragon a Bisexual King or not? And would Crocodile have been... afraid of Dragon's reaction? (This would've been a younger Crocodile mind you, who would literally have been just coming out of his shell, and that shit's scary man)

Because if Toyotama Princess is any indicator, this wani's relationship did not end well after her truth was revealed

Like, let's say Crocodile transitioned first and then showed up without warning as a man to Dragon to hand over the baby. Thing is, while we know VERY LITTLE about Dragon still, I can't imagine him being like violently transphobic or even lashing out at his partner when he'd come out. But I could imagine him being so shocked he'd be left utterly speechless.

And I'm not entirely sure which would be worse; Dragon outright but "kindly" telling Crocodile he's not into men and breaking the poor bastard's heart, or Bi!Dragon being too shocked to say anything, letting Crocodile to just jump to conclusions based on his reaction (and maybe then causing Dragon to jump into further conclusions (that Crocodile must actually be into women)), unintentionally causing a divorce out of sheer misunderstanding and literal lack of communication

And the sad part is, considdering Dragon is a very secretive man, who according to the Crocodad Theory can't even have told his partner his full name mind you... The miscommunication seems very plausible to me?? Does it not?

Or, maybe Crocodile delivered the baby to Dragon pre-T and told him he's going to Iva-chan without further explanation, jumping into conclusions, afraid to hear what Dragon would say. So he just leaves without explaining before Dragon gets to say a word. And Dragon just accepts it. Assuming he's the one getting dumped.

Either way, whatever might've happened can't have been good, can it

Also, considdering Garp is a fucking idiot (affectionate), and Luffy clearly inherited The Stupid from his grandfather, I would not be surprised if Dragon was also actually a bit of a himbo underneath that serious face he puts on (either that or Crocodile kept on smoking while pregnant)

Which could also turn what would otherwise be a tragic miscommunication into an absolute comedy if Crocodile and Dragon ever met again and the two realized that they're both idiots who jumped into conclusions and ruined their marriage by refusing to talk about their fucking feelings to each other. This is an absolute trainwreck of a family

But considdering the things Crocodile has done by this point*, would it ever even be possible for the two to reconcile?? Because, althought Dragon is pro-overthrowing corrupt governments especially if they're affiliated with the World Government, from what I can tell, he's still against unnececary violence (Vegapunk even comments that Dragon "hates war" in a flashback) and needless loss of life. And Crocodile caused just that.

*And I don't even mean the failed attempt at taking over Alabasta, I mean the drought Crocodile caused that caused countless people to starve to death and then caused the civil war which had already taken lives and permanently disabled people BEFORE the Strawhats ever even get to Alabasta. Like Crocodile's bomb may have been a dud but he still caused people to die for no reason, and I can't imagine Dragon being fine with that. But then again, Robin and other Baroque Works members also contributed to the loss of life and their sins have been neatly swept under the rug so IDK

And like. We don't know if Crocodile moonlighted as a Revolutionary for like 10+ years after Luffy was born and slowly went out of contact or if he just left immidiately. But theoretically, the two might not have even seen each other in like almost 20 years

That'd be a long time to carry a broken heart

How the fuck would you even heal from that

Also like

Crocodile did seem a little suicidal at Impel Down if I'm being honest

Like.

He had a dream of becoming Pirate King. But he lost to Whitebeard, and his dreams were ruined.

Dude had a master plan to take over a country that took him almost a decade to pull off, only for it to get wrecked in the final hour by a literal child.

His useless underlings then come and try to break him out of prison

And he chooses to stay

When we finally see his face for the first time in Impel Down... His mouth might be forming a smile, but those eyes aren't

And he even says it himself

"I didn't think there'd be anything for me to do if I were free"

Is it not like he has given up on life entirely..?

And sure, he does ask to be let out so he can get revenge on Whitebeard, but was it out of a genuine belief he could actually take down the old man or just a slightly more fun way to die than rotting away in prison for the next few decades?

You know the saying, "to be loved is to be changed"

Frankly, the same goes for the reverse. Being unloved, or believing yourself to be unloveable will change you. For the worse

[icharchivist]

I find it funny that, the Summer breaking point happens when Tenma insults Kazunari and cuts very deep in his insecurities and this is where everyone starts to be tense, while before that Tenma has legit insulted everyone else and they all rolled with it.

And by funny i mean fucking heartbreaking.

Yuki doesn’t even bat an eye at Tenma’s calling out his carelessness with the rice. Misumi takes being called a weirdo like a champ despite being hurt. Muku gets a little down after Tenma calls him a ham completely unprompted for no reasons. 

Yuki doesn’t care and calls Tenma out, and Misumi and Muku both are hurt but they both downplay their hurts. I’d assume, from it, that Misumi just has heard far worse being directed his way so he handles it, and Muku meanwhile told himself so much worse things that Tenma can’t be as bad as what Muku already thinks of himself. Not to mention it’s already stuff Tenma had called them before, so they get ready for that too. And Yuki learnt not to mind when people insult him.

They’re all trying in their own way, and gets their mood down when Tenma is so rude with them.

But god when it’s on Kazunari it just.

I could imagine that Kazunari being all so friendly and having shallow relationship, while being something Kazunari is aware of and really unwell about, isn’t something that people have reproached Kazunari to his face. Because he’s just so nice! I’m sure most people see him as someone they like to have a nice chat with but wouldn’t confide important things to.

So it’s not something Kazunari gets told a lot. He thinks about it a lot, sure. But he’s also more optimistic and is genuinely believing he’s going to be friend with this group if he tries. He saw that it worked for Tsuzuru, he wants to hope it’ll work for him too. 

And it hurts that Tenma is insulting him on the one thing Kazunari was trying to fix about himself by trying to connect with Tenma in particular, as well as the rest of Summer. As if Tenma was telling him the one barrier on the path to have a sincere friendship with all of them is the fact Kazunari wants that friendship so much to start with.

Everyone gets insulted on things they either don’t care about (Yuki) or that they can cope with (Misumi, Muku) but Kazunari gets hit on this idea of being unsincere.

And it’s even more striking because, Kazunari always wanted his friendships to be sincere. He’s friendly because he wants to make friends and he sees the good in people no matter what. There’s nothing fake about the way he wants to befriend them and see nice things in them. The only time he gets fake is on the way he erases his own opinions to be a people pleaser. And sure that’s the one thing Tenma takes issue with, because he sees right through it. But the friendships being shallow has more to do with how people react to this friendliness. Like Izumi said to Sakuya in the first chapter, it takes two to tango, if the other person isn’t willing to make it work, no amount of trying on your side is going to help out.

So this one insults ends up cutting too deep on a point not only Kazunari is vulnerable on, but one that Kazunari is trying to work with specifically in his way to be friendly with the gang and when he’s talking to Tenma here.

I mean, for a conflict-avert person Kazunari still called out Tenma for being rude there, and it came to bite him in the ass. 

Obviously Tenma was just, getting irritated and he has no filter and he didn’t think his words through and Kazunari telling him to calm down was a last straw, and Tenma is also looking for sincere friendships so he takes offense with the way Kazunari makes friends. That doesn’t excuse what he says at all, just more explains why after that he’s really “huh oh i fucked up”. 

But man this whole scene. The way all of them react.  Because the situation is still lighthearted even when Yuki, Misumi and Muku gets insulted. Because they’re coping with it, it’s rude but it’s not important. The music is still joyful.  But those little things add up and when he lashes on Kazunari, it’s just the last straw for everyone. The music gets sadder and intense. 

It’s so sad. It breaks my heart. 

[i-wakeupstrange]

just saying.

considering how many comic universes it happens in, you can't tell me spider-people and devil-people becoming friends

isn't also some cosmic strand of fate

[chronal-anomaly]

Headcanons coming soon:

-Military propaganda in ruined London and how it helped to have her enlist

-Weapons training re: long guns, pistols and bladed weapons in the military, then again before the Slipstream

-"Pocket dimensions" and how Lena's blink/recall/etc work

-Identity before and after the installation of the accelerator

-Probably more tbd