#he has the best character arc and learning curve ever stop ignoring him!!!

[in-cara-gible]

matthias' death isn't his only character trait just saying

[chaospectre]

Any Port in a Carbonated Storm

[This is a cheeky title for an untitled piece, written essentially as a prelude for a character in an Edwardian Vampire: The Masquerade setting. That setting hasn’t met as a fully realized table game yet, but I wrote this as a gift for the storyteller who is planning and writing it. As such, the piece assumes some basic knowledge of how VtM works. Hopefully, I’ve done enough with the contour of these broad strokes that you’d be able to enjoy a brief story about some chance meetings in the dark of night in New York City.]

The cold streets lay still at this hour of the evening. Lanterns glowed softly to provide some small aid to any waywards who found themselves outside at this hour; for which virtuous souls in this era would not have completed their business before sundown?

Patrick stumbled up the western avenue of Central Park with dissatisfied grunts. Shuffling along in the dark, he kept his eyes forward while not truly seeing ahead; so empty was his mind, drowned in drudgery, drowsy thoughts of his bed, and a dollop of drink. Some small parcel of his spirit recognized that he was north of 70, and after some more trudging he turned west, allowing the parcel to sink back beneath the bubbles of his mind.

Patrick continued in this way for some time, awake and not, upright and not. It could be said the smallest part of him was driving his turbulent frame homeward, as a coachman drives a clattering carriage over cobbles. In his state, any who bore witness would not blame him for falling over when he heard a rosy voice call out from the shadows.

A figure in a long street coat and newsy cap emerged from an alley between tenements. Patrick fought off bleary weariness and stared, focusing on a hand extended towards him as he heard, “Sorry to spook ya so, gov’, but I were asking if you was in fair form and now it seems that’s a ways aside the truth, yea?”

While Patrick’s mind was grinding back to life, he could not yet make anything of this velvet voice he was hearing. It sounded young, but whether lass or lad he could not say, and although smooth, it spoke in the coarse tongue of the street. He clasped the outstretched hand with his, grunted as he hoisted himself up, nodded as he righted himself, and responded, “Aye. Thank you. I’ve had much to drink and have much yet to walk.” Patrick glanced aside, trying to identify the block, “Much at this gait, at least.” Turning around to look, he stumbled once more.

The indeterminate youth reached out to steady the man, offering, “Come this way. Lean to here in the alley fer a spell afore ya tumble the rest o’ the way home.” Despite the curiousness of the request, Patrick found the contact comforting, and followed suit to lean against the cool brick of the alley, which lightened his bones and tempered his flushed cheeks. The two stood in dark and silence for a few moments as Patrick tried to will himself back to alertness, or at least to whatever modicum would be necessary to make it home while on his feet. “What’s got you so coiled up and taking liquid comfort to come to this sorry state?”

Leaning further into the wall, as though the resistance of the wall would push him back to sobriety, and without opening his eyes or turning to face the question, Patrick replied, “It’s hardly your place to ask a stranger his business.” Without pause, he heard a small, sweet chuckle, which almost provoked a low rumbling laugh of his own, but he did not at all understand why.

“May be right, there, gov’, but this side of the street is hardly any place at all. There don’t need to be any rules here in the dark.”

Patrick cracked his eyes open to regard the shrouded youth and their queer questions. They leaned on the wall opposite him, and naught of their form could be made out beneath the cap and coat. He knew nothing of them, and yet Patrick found them positively disarming. It was almost charming, and he couldn’t say what kept it from being so. “My story ain’t an uncommon thing you wouldn’t hear from any other working man. Just hit it hard today and then harder tonight.” And then, with a smirk, Patrick dismissively glanced away and parried, “I doubt you’ve the same excuse for being out here past bedtime, young’un.”

A louder, brighter laugh came from the opposite wall, and as Patrick’s gaze was drawn back over, he saw faint lamplight bouncing off what must have been a cascade of dark hair, which the youth was now running one hand through, cap held in the other. “Wherever we find ourselves, it can be important to take a moment to breathe, and allow our own creature comforts to set us aright again.” Patrick was transfixed by the glint of light in her (he was certain it was ‘her’, now) eyes, which he had not yet seen but now could not ignore. “Wouldn’t you say?”

A moment. Another.

“What?” Patrick grasped at brick as a parcel of his bubbled up to deliver the thought that her voice sounded different than it did a second ago, but he wasn’t receiving such messages at the moment. “What?”

“If you’re worried, it only has to be a moment, but what a moment it would be, wouldn’t it?”

Patrick felt warm. Everything felt warm. His blood flooding through his veins felt warmer beneath his skin. The night air went from crisp to sharp and scalding for a moment. Her scent tickled his mouth, his nose, his eyes, his- when did he get close enough to feel her breath?

“Wouldn’t it?”

An eternity in a moment. He was already leaning over her, hands splayed on the brick beside her head. She placed her cap on his head and pulled the brim closer to her, bringing his face with it.

“You seem to be tasting the idea, sir.” She opened her coat, revealing reasonable men’s garments, a buttoned shirt, a waistcoat, trousers, but also releasing the air that had been trapped within, and that air subsumed Patrick’s senses. She traced his collar for a moment before gripping it in one hand. “If you care to dine, I trust you’ll find the meal fare quite reasonable.”

Patrick’s tantalized mind found a bubble of clarity as it became achingly clear what this woman was propositioning.

And when it popped, it exploded.

-----

Heartbeat pounding in the temples. Bleary moonlight and crooked shadows. A dirty patch of ground, cool to the touch.

Elaine finally pushed herself upright. What had taken only moments felt like hours, as the gravity of the situation dripped along the ground.

Her cap was ruined. All of her clothes too, frankly. Stripped buttons lay scattered all over this alleyway, beside the man. She never learned his name.

Even if she took the entire contents of his wallet, it would not have been worth this. She wouldn’t be able to get home, get anywhere in this state. She stood contemplating the sight, and what it would take to clean any of this up.

“You’ll also catch your own death in the night like this, hardly covered and wet with red.”

Elaine jerked to a low stance, looking around for this voice that suddenly pooled around her. It certainly wasn’t the man’s, though a man’s voice it was.

“What exactly was your plan after all this? Bleeding up and down Western Central Park couldn’t have been how you expected to spend a Friday evening.”

The voice didn’t echo. It sounded as though it were coming from directly behind her, and yet as she turned and turned Elaine found nothing. Nothing until the moon drew directly overhead, and she finally made out the form of a proper tailcoat at the other end of the alley, coiffed in neat blonde hair. She remained in her low stance, still gripping a pocketknife in her right hand, coated in gleaming crimson. “Some men jump, some men limp, some men whine, but most men pay. I’ve never had a man so… instantly… entitled to what wasn’t his. Anger and entitlement must have driven him to drink. I suppose I’d have to watch out for that next time, were I ever to have another after tonight. I doubt I’ll ever have another free night after this.”

The man peered down at the body, then regarded her crouching form, tapping his walking stick on the ground. Elaine did not feel as though he glanced overlong at her exposed vulnerability. In fact, she had almost no read on how he read her, a rare thing for her. “What cause have you to say such a thing? You’re a plenty clever girl. You were doing quite well before the man decided upon what was his.”

Elaine did not know why she was compelled to say anything to this man who appeared out of moonlight. Perhaps some nihilistic resignation to the fact that she had no exit strategy for this. Perhaps something about the man who remained entirely composed when confronted with a highly indecorous cadaver and the woman who made it in an alleyway at night. She looked down at the body, and then at her knife, “I carry this knife in case of tempers like his, but it’s never… never supposed to come to this.”

“And yet you wielded it so well!” Elaine looked up to hear the blonde’s voice come from right in front of her. She struck with her left hand as she drew back her dagger in her right to follow up, but found that the man had already stopped both her left punch and right stab with outstretched index fingers. “If only you could have seen the arcs, the curves, the splashes! I dare say you were quite ready to do so, as you were ready even just now.”

She didn’t hear the man approach. In fact, as she registered his last words, she heard his walking stick topple and clatter over at the other end of the alley. This wasn’t a trick of the light, or her nerves failing her in her final hours before she’d be subject to the law. This man was unflappable, faster than shadows, and still staring directly at her, his face inches from her face. “And yet I’m no match for you, so let’s cease the theatrics. Are you here to commandeer a doomed woman for some rich pervert’s purpose? You’ve been watching this whole time and you didn’t stop any of it, so I can only assume your ends are nefarious at best.”

“You’re not entirely wrong, but you wound me so to tell me to dispense with theatre. Theatre is the whole point, you see. And I’d merely hate to lose such a skilled player as you, whose words remain so incisive before a man whom she cannot strike.”

“I’d rather leave my body with his for the police to find in the morning than to be subject to whatever demented will you’re intending.”

“Such spirited words for someone threatening their own demise! You continue to surprise. Delight, even.” They had remained frozen in this awkwardly combative pose, index finger to fist, index finger to wrist, as though they were striking the pose for a dance, all this time, but the man finally stood upright, righting Elaine along with himself. He took her hands and folded them in front of her, dagger still clutched, but being careful enough not to have her cut herself. “What would it take for you to believe that I intend something… nefarious, sure, but something different, a different role for you?”

Elaine could not move her hands. His frigid grip ensured that, and so he saw fit to continue. “A different role than toiling day in and day out, thrifting, grifting, stealing, and selling even yourself to feed all those adorable little mouths back at the orphanage?” She chilled to think of how he could possibly know any of these things. Could this madman read her mind, or has he been watching her for longer than just tonight?

“You seek to protect and provide for yours. I would do the same, and I would empower you to do so as well.” He relented, releasing her hands to quizzically shrug at her. “I don’t have to call you ‘mine’ if that’s more to your taste, but it would be true to at least some degree, there’s no getting around that.”

He shrugged and she stared, uncomprehending. He continued, “If that’s so abhorrent to you, go ahead and do what you’re going to do. Kill yourself, I imagine, after making a few arrangements for one of your little scoundrels to find this poor man’s paltry salary. You’re determined to die here, for fear of what comes with the d-”

“Why is it so important to you that I agree to whatever this is? Whoever you are, you could have had your way with me already. Several times, even. Assuming you have a way out of this mess, which you must, or you wouldn’t have wasted your time.”

“Wits sharper than your blade, even in the face of the truly unknown. Remarkable. What a remarkable performance. What magnificent theater, to be arguing for your fate, as your meal cools down below. Pretty soon, he’s going to be useless to you, and then what will you do?”

“Wh-”

“It’s important to me that you agree simply because...” He took her head in both his hands, adoringly, and in the instant before the moonlight overhead vanished behind the rooftops, he flashed the sharpest smile Elaine had ever seen. “...even with such noble motives, having you agree to give up the dawn just makes for better theatre!”

Fear already filled her being, but now understanding was swelling to match. He saw both swirling in her eyes as she raised her chin while keeping his gaze. She nodded once, and tilted her head. He fed quickly, and soon after, so did she.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thor (2011)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, three times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Three (21.42% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Eleven.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

The fun:boring ratio tilts considerably depending on audience mood and/or desire for originality; the majority of the story is generic in the extreme and can be tedious as a result, however those elements which are more unusual and intriguing arguably save the overall product. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Darcy asks Jane if she can turn on the radio. Jane tells Darcy to drive into the anomaly. Jane tells Darcy to stop talking about her iPod.

Female characters:

Jane Foster.

Darcy Lewis.

Sif.

Male characters:

Eric Selvig.

Odin.

Loki.

Thor.

Fandral.

Hogun.

Volstagg.

Heimdall.

Laufey.

Phil Coulson.

Clint Barton.

OTHER NOTES:

“But I supported you, Sif.” Good to know that Thor supports non-traditional gender roles, despite being such a macho cliche.

I’m really very concerned by Jane’s driving. Someone revoke her licence. 

“Son of Coul.”

Heimdall does not get enough credit for being the MVP of Asgard. 

Loki’s suggestion that maybe he’ll pay Jane a visit himself is clearly intended to goad Thor into fighting him and as such need not be taken seriously, but it’s still totally uncool. Of all the goading methods he could have used, we really didn’t need to go for the implied rape threat.

I thought they might manage a Bechdel pass between someone other than Jane and Darcy for a moment there at the end of the movie, but Frigga doesn’t actually get referred to by name in this movie, and she and Sif only talk about Thor anyway. Disappoint on both counts. I kinda also thought Jane and Darcy might do some more/better passing in general; it’s better than nothing, but the three passes they got were pretty freakin’ weak.

When it comes to uninspired, generic origin stories, this movie kinda makes Iron Man look like an innovative goldmine by comparison. ‘Arrogant man takes a humble, learns to value his power and earns it back through selflessness’, it’s...been done. A lot. And while Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is watchable and not without charm, he’s not an especially charismatic actor and the predictable arc of his character doesn’t offer much scope to impress, while the typically-excellent Natalie Portman suffers a similarly bland fate with prescription-love-interest Jane Foster. The chemistry between the two is pretty nonexistent, and frankly it’s easier to believe that Jane is a slightly-amoral scientist essentially using Thor for her own gain, rather than buying that she’s becoming genuinely enamoured. If the film had leaned into the idea of Jane Foster: Amoral Scientist a little stronger, they could have built a more interesting (though less comfortable) narrative and perhaps even a more believable romance as the two bond over their shared moral learning curve. But, that would require Jane’s character to be more of a priority beyond finding excuses for her to be in Thor’s presence and develop ~feelings~, so. Not shocked they failed to deliver there.

Pretty much every person who has ever seen this movie (and probably some who’ve only read about it) agrees that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is where the fire’s at, both as an individual character and in terms of the plot he facilitates and inhabits. It’s not hard to understand why: while Thor has his dull human journey in the desert on Earth (the majority of which is spent just going places and talking to Jane and occasionally having a comedic ‘not from around here’ moment), Loki is a trickster God with magic powers living in the mythological land of Asgard and playing out a long con to win both the throne, and his adoptive father’s approval. Anything about the film that is clever or different or interesting, visually engaging, or emotionally poignant, it’s going on in Asgard, in the part of the plot where Thor is absent for the bulk of the film. Unfortunately, Thor’s absence from that thread means that we don’t get to spend nearly as much time enjoying it, and that’s why even the film’s best qualities can’t necessarily save it from the generic trash-pile. It’s easy to reach the end of the film in frustration, wondering how the Hell the strongest elements of the story (Shakespearean tragedy on alien worlds!) wound up as background noise to an unconvincing snooze-fest romance in Nowheresville, USA.

Broken into its component parts, Loki’s story isn’t that unfamiliar either; ‘jealous younger brother vies for older brother’s birthright’ has been done a fair bit (The Lion King being the most well-known example, let’s not kid ourselves), as has the juxtaposition of entitled brat vs scrappy underdog, as has ‘driven mad by envy’ and ‘power corrupts’ and pretty much any other trope being invoked in Loki’s lane. However, it works through 1. Hiddleston’s dynamic performance, 2. any and all majesty/intrigue/gravitas supplied by the setting, and 3. the additional factor of Loki discovering his adoption and true Frost Giant heritage. While it should not be ignored that Loki’s machinations for the throne predate that revelation and therefore it is neither an influence on his overarching ploy nor an excuse for him devising that ploy, Loki’s struggle with learning that his life as he’s known it was built on falsity and the way that complicates his desire to prove himself provides him some all-important nuance and pathos that gives the audience something to latch onto and identify with, even if only as empathetic understanding (one hopes that no one is going so far as to identify with the attempted genocide or the successful patricide; most of us can identify with betrayal/abandonment/daddy issues to some extent or another). Even if his ultimate decisions are plainly reprehensible, Loki’s journey to that point is littered with appreciable miseries, and that makes it an obvious emotional narrative standout compared to Thor’s paint-by-numbers excursion.

The villain narrative being the highlight of a story isn’t entirely unusual (though films in which this is unintentionally so tend also to be poorly conceived), but what’s really unfortunate is that Thor’s character motivations are not second in complexity to Loki’s; the criminally underused Heimdall is actually the next-most nuanced character around (and look at that, he’s also on Asgard and not bore-ing it up on Earth). The thing about Thor’s arc is that it’s not just predictable, it’s not just generic: it’s also barely there. We perceive the arc because we’re so familiar with the trope, but we don’t actually watch Thor learn anything, we don’t see practical signs of the degradation of his arrogance and his transformation into a wise warrior who understands restraint. Beyond causing a ruckus when he first arrives on Earth, Thor really doesn’t display any aggressive entitlement, he settles into pleasantly-strange-fish-out-of-water mode pretty much immediately, and he seems to ‘learn his lesson’ spontaneously after being told that his father is dead. He appears to mourn the implications of his inability to lift Mjolnir more than he is bothered by being told of Odin’s demise and that he can never go home; those latter revelations instead trigger his instantaneous reformation (insofar as he says the words “my father was trying to teach me something only I was too stupid to see it”) and that’s it. Confronting the destroyer and being ‘killed’ by it prompts the return of his Godhood, but refusing to shrink from a fight isn’t a change of pace for the character we saw at the beginning of the film; all in all, there’s no actual clear-cut learning in this process, there’s just a complication-free acceptance of his apparent new state of being, and that means he’s worthy of kingship now? Were they too afraid of making him dislikeable by playing out an excess of arrogance on Earth, so they softened him up immediately and in doing so, downgraded his character arc to just the concept of one rather than an actual presence? If there were more of a distinct process to his experiences on Earth, they’d be less damn boring, because we’d be following an actual story instead of just waiting for them to hit each predictable beat, and maybe they’d also generate some real characterisation of any of the Earth characters while they’re at it (instead, we have completely-useless-to-the-plot-comic-relief Darcy, and surrogate-dad-exposition-master Selvig, comprising the whole of Jane’s illustrious company). Thor’s clutch of friends back home may be a one-dimensional quartet defined almost entirely by their most obvious single descriptors (the female, the Asian, the fat guy, and...Sir Didymus), but at least they have a clear trajectory of plot-relevant motivation, even if they do become inconsequential by the end of it. Yeah, this isn’t a very good movie.

I said at the top that audience mood may be a deciding factor in the success or failure of the film, and I mean that in the sense that this is a movie that may prompt vastly different responses in the same person over different viewings; speaking for myself, I have watched it and been basically entertained and appreciative of the visuals and at least some of the characters and story elements, but I’ve also watched it and been overwhelmingly bored by the trite predictability and the flat characterisation of most of the players, and unimpressed by the soft-focus CGI of Asgard. Caught in the right mood, Thor’s inexplicable laid-back Earth persona can hit just the right note for casual comfort viewing. Caught in the wrong mood, Loki’s Asgard shenanigans feel over-hyped and not engaging enough to save the movie. Is Jane too bland, or full of shades of untapped character potential? Is Darcy funny, or painfully annoying? Is Heimdall intriguing, or too nebulous to matter? It all comes off very conditional, little of it anchored solidly or fleshed out strongly enough in-text to be considered an absolute. The plot floats, dependent on the aura of various cliches rather than categorically declaring itself in any unequivocal ways. It’s not particularly messy, so at least it has that going for it, but even that is a conditional statement. The film is rarely subtle enough to develop any depth, and the shallow invocations of the idea of a narrative arc lack the conviction necessary to make simplicity a virtue. The end result? I guess the best word for it is ‘forgettable’. 

[creative-type]

Chapter 218 is Amazing and Here’s Why (Continued)

So I had intended to finish my analysis of chapter 218 of One Piece in one post, but things were starting to run a little long and I split it in two. Here’s Part 1 for those who are interested. For the rest of you, let’s jump in where we left off

I know I say this a lot, but I really like that panel. For one thing, Usopp is using a desk lamp. Knowing him, he probably invented it himself just for the occasion. 

On a more serious note, the entire feel of this scene is completely different than the last time the Straw Hats as a group interacted with Robin. I wrote extensively on chapter 114 here, but what I want to draw attention to now is how the tables have (supposedly) turned. Remember how Robin held all the power and was seated above the Straw Hats while tossing them around like a bunch of punks?

Yeah, that’s no longer the case. Robin is surrounded by Usopp, Zoro, and Nami, the three Straw Hats who distrust her most. And while Usopp’s too much of a chicken to be intimidating, there’s no mistaking Zoro and Nami’s body language. They’re closed off, guarded, and Zoro at least has his weapons close at hand. 

At the same time, the way the speech bubbles are placed draw attention to Chopper and Luffy. You can barely make out a hand, and one might assume it’s Sanji’s, as he’s the only Straw Hat not visible. 

Which, of course, it’s not

This set up is the impetuous for three hilarious pages where Robin one by one wins over the Straw Hats (except Zoro, because he’s a killjoy). I recommend reading the entire sequence to get the full effect. It’s classic Oda humor from start to finish that makes me smile every time I read it

(especially this)

Now going back a bit, Robin tells Usopp that she’s an archaeologist from a long line of archaeologists and has been on the run for twenty years. Never once in this entire “interview” does she lie. In fact, I can’t recall Robin ever  lying in the entire series, except for when she didn’t give Crocodile Pluton’s location. 

There are a couple of different reasons for this. For one, it’s convenient for the narrative if the audience doesn’t have to second-guess everything the main characters say. On the whole the Straw Hats are pretty honest people - Usopp being the obvious exception. (Nami is also a bit of a wheeler and a dealer, but since Arlong Park is more prone to using her good looks and force of will to get her way over straight-up lying. That, or stealing what she wants outright.)

Secondly, Robin has had a bounty on her head for a long time. The Ohara incident was publicized around the world. There’s no reason to hide certain aspects of her backstory when it’s essentially public knowledge. 

Still, it’s interesting to note that the one Straw Hat who is known world-wide as a demon who has betrayed every group she’s joined tells the truth here. It’s obvious that in addition to winning the Straw Hats over, Robin is using her ability to direct the attention away from herself. One might even suggest that Robin tells Usopp she’s an assassin to rattle him enough to avoid more personal questions. She does a masterful job of using each of the Straw Hat’s weaknesses against them. 

It becomes more apparent later on that Robin is an incredibly private person. When Chopper and Sanji are looking for her on Water 7 they don’t know where to even to start, because there are no ancient ruins about, and that’s the only place they can think of where she would go. 

Now, this falls more into the realm of theories and head canons, but since Robin’s whole dream focuses around finding The Truth and since her whole life has been ruined by vicious slander and falsehoods, I would imagine that Robin hates lying more than the average person. She will misdirect, avoid questions, or tell bits and pieces of well-known information without giving context, but she won’t lie.

Moving on, Robin uses the same intelligence and playful nature that was established in chapter 114 to avoid any more of Usopp’s questions (consistent characterization, gotta love it) before having a private word with Zoro. I like how Robin doesn’t even try the same tricks she used with the rest, because I think she knows it won’t work. Instead she addresses him more or less as an equal.

Assuming this is a nuanced and accurate translation, when Robin says “This isn’t that bad” we can make the assumption that she thought it would be bad. It’s understandable that she would think this way - the Straw Hats were her enemies not too long ago - but it brings up the point that Robin willingly stowed away on a ship she knew she wouldn’t be welcome because she had no place else to go. When Zoro affirms that the Straw Hats are basically a bunch of dorks, Robin smiles.

Now Robin smiles an awful lot for someone who wants to die. It’s basically her default expression, and it’s nothing but a front to hide her real feelings. She even smiles when she’s just been stabbed and is about to be buried alive after living a miserable, meaningless life without accomplishing anything she’s ever set out to do. That’s one deeply-rooted defense mechanism.

This is the first time we see Robin really be happy, and her surprise at learning that the Straw Hat Pirates are fun-loving and cheerful even when traveling with a former enemy is the kick-start to Robin’s character arc.

Because make no mistake, the Robin who joined the Straw Hat Pirates was the same Robin who joined Crocodile. All the stuff at the beginning of the chapter helps flesh her out into a fully-realized character instead of a cardboard Vivi replacement, but at this moment Robin’s beliefs about the Straw Hat Pirates are challenged, and a character can’t change if they aren’t challenged. 

There’s a cute Zoro-pouty face to that ends this scene, and our focus swings back to the Straw Hats as a whole. An undetermined amount of time has passed because now they’re talking about the weather and Zoro is back to lifting weights

I don’t know if you can have foreshadowing that’s paid off in one panel, but Oda doesn’t waste a beat with the little clacks of wood against wood. For the second chapter in a row there’s an amazing twist at the end that no one could have seen coming. I already shown this spread in my last post, but it’s so epic it deserves a second viewing

I can’t remember if this is the only time Oda has used a real life quote in One Piece, but if not, it’s one of very few. And honestly, what could be more appropriate for a series like One Piece? The whole composition of this page is beautiful, and all the little details take my breath away. I really don’t get it when people say Oda’s art is ugly, because they’re wrong. 

Anyway, things get crazy for a couple of pages while the Straw Hats try not to capsize. Oda has this thing he does when he uses square or rectangular panels for his dialogue and uneven shapes like trapezoids for action scenes. I think that’s pretty standard procedure for comics (I’m by no means an expert) but here Oda helps sell the chaos by composing his pages so it feels like the panels are tilting with the ship

There’s also a nice gag with Usopp that doubles as a character moment. Instead of grabbing hold for dear life Usopp sits and closes his eyes to pray, completely ignoring the problem in hopes that it goes away. It’s funny here when he gets a skeleton to the face, but it highlights a huge flaw that finally comes to a head during the Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs.

After that we get this sequence of panels

Please forgive my horrendous edit, but I wanted to show how the speech bubble fits into curve of the wave in the second panel and leads the eye through the rest of the sequence even though the individual images don’t really relate to one another. Oda constructs this scene in such a way that we feel the chaos, but he does so in an orderly fashion. Each panel gets smaller and smaller - similar to the “fade to black” technique I talked about previously, and it leads directly the last splash panel on the page

The chaos ends just as abruptly as it began. The Straw Hats are mystified, and, honestly, Oda could have ended the chapter here. It’s such a high note, a good dose of Grand Line craziness after so much focus on the crew. But Oda isn’t satisfied with stopping here. He ends the chapter with what I believe to be one of the best story hooks in the series, tied only with Zou for sheer “WTF, the Straw Hats are going where?” moments in all of One Piece.

Skypea isn’t my favorite arc in the series. A lot of people say the same. But if you can pretend that you’d never read/seen what was coming next and take the end of 218 for what it is - and that’s pure hype - then you’ve got to admit that Oda has done his job.

So that concludes our look into chapter 218 “The Log Pose and Why It Is Round”. To summarize my thoughts on the chapter and why it’s amazing

Ships fall from the sky

Oda never forgets 

But he does lure us into thinking he does

Ships fall from the sky

Robin is established as a “protagonist” without necessarily being a “good guy”

Symbolism

Excellent page composition

Gags that reveal character

Consistent characterization with hints of further development to come

and last but not least

      10. Ships falling from the sky

(Thanks to everyone who has the patience to read this far. Next I’ll continue my Nico Robin study with chapter 253, specifically looking at Robin’s place in the Skypea arc and how Oda prefers stealth development over big character moments. See you next time!)