#better to get this weird redirected vengeance than none at all i guess

[salteytakesonmanga]

It’s interesting that the object of Nami’s revenge isn’t Arlong but Nezumi. She totally could have dug Arlong out of the rubble and kicked him in the face a few times, but she took out eight years of rage on Nezumi instead.

Part of that may just be because it would have been too cumbersome for Oda to add a scene with Arlong. But the way this plays out it feels like the actual blame for all the suffering Arlong caused is placed on the Navy, for not stopping it in the first place. And then, once we get his backstory, that gets kind of confirmed again. Would Arlong have wound up in East Blue if it weren’t for the Marines that killed Tiger?

When she delivers this beating she says it's for shooting Nojiko and digging up Belle-mère's mikans, but this is the only scene we get of Nami acting out her vengeance. Narratively, this is supposed to be the catharsis for all of the abuse and misery she suffered, so it's odd that all of it falls on a guy she only met a few hours ago.