So, watched live action One Piece and now I'm watching/reading the OG stuff. No where close to done but my brain decided to fixate on Arlong so I can't help but talk about him a bit.
Something that I find kind of interesting about Arlong is that if you read his backstory then go back to the main Arc he was in you actually realize he's way more mellow then he was in the past. Now, he's still awful but given what we're shown of him in Jinbe's flashbacks I think it kind of shows that he did, in a weird way (and not in the way Fisher Tiger would have wanted) changed due to Fisher Tiger's words on not killing humans.
In the past Arlong was constantly advocating for killing humans and terrorizing them so they'd learn their place. He never warms up to Koala despite the rest of the crew--including his own friends coming to like her. Everyone is sad to see her go even Kurobi who is later one of the worst in Arlong's crew.
After Fisher Tiger's Death it's clear Arlong was going to kill everyone in Koala's village (and no doubt would have killed Koala). He was stopped and put in Impel Down--a notoriously hellish prison (run by humans). It's not clear how long he was there, but probably at least a few months, which is a long time in a place like that.
After his pardon he leaves Jinbe and the Grand Line. Presumably he started taking over villages pretty soon after.
Now, what I find interesting is that this is by far the most justified Arlong is in his hate of humans, yet it's also the nicest we ever see him being to them. Before Fisher Tiger's death and reveal of being a slave, or his time in Impel Down Arlong hated humans because of things that although affected him were not things he himself suffered.
Arlong was never a slave, and at least Hachi, Chew and Kurobi were also never slaves. They were all orphans and this might have been the fault of human pirates who attacked Fish-Men Island, but we don't know that for sure, and it's never brought up as a grievance of theirs. They know Fish-men and mermaids are taken as slaves and they surely get racist treatment from the visiting humans, but they don't have first hand experience with human cruelty--like slavery or murder.
Not until Fisher Tiger is killed for helping a human girl go home after being a slave do they experience real loss due to humans. From there, Arlong is captured and imprisoned in Impel Down where he was surely treated terrible by humans during his time there (given they treat everyone bad there). Yet, despite saying he's the anger of the fish-men he does not actually kill nearly as many humans as you'd think, given how he acts in the past.
In fact in a lot of ways he seems to try not to kill humans if he can get away with other methods of control instead.
This is when he takes over Nami's village. This is not long after Fisher Tiger's death which Arlong wanted to kill an entire village for. Yet, now, despite a huge uprising happening, with nearly the entire village of humans trying to attack them, he's not going for the kill.
This is him probably less then a year before the panel above. He's furious and saying he embodies the rage of all Fish-Men. Yet he arrives to the village and tells his crew not to kill anyone despite their open hostility.
Yes, he wants money because he (supposedly) wants to take over the East Blue(world?) but he's already got his money and killing a few villagers should be no big deal--he plans on taking over more anyway.
In the end though, he does only kill Bell-mere due to her lack of money. She makes a good example, of course, but he was more then willing to let her live, despite her shoving a gun in his mouth before she used the money for Nami and her sister.
This is a huge change in a short amount of time.
This is another time he and his crew don't kill for zero reason. They have been attacked all day by members of Luffy's crew. Zoro absolutely beat the shit out of his guys earlier that day. He was furious when Usopp dared to fire on him (to the point of flipping a damn house) but now they just leave two strangers (so not cash cows) alive? Usopp--was worth Arlong's anger, but suddenly two other random humans doing the same thing aren't worth killing?
This is how he responds to Zoro being what I would assume is racist given what Arlong says. He does not know who this guy is--Zoro was found tied to a boat and just brought to him and his first words are racist. Yet, Arlong lets it 'slide once'. Again this is the guy who hit a child for no reason except she was human way before he lost Fisher Tiger or went to the human torture prison. Yet now he's putting up with a stranger calling him racist names?
Going back to Usopp, this is how furious Arlong was when he was attacked:
He's so furious that for a moment he's willing to destroy one of his money making villages, right after losing one not to long ago, just to kill one human guy who didn't actually hurt him, nor are they a rebelling villager.
Yet this is how he acts once Usopp gets caught.
This is after he comes back to Arlong Park to find most of his crew beaten to a pulp by Zoro. He flipped a house he was so pissed off at Usopp, ready to destroy an entire village that he gets good money from (and which he needs to keep Nami around) but suddenly after his crew is hurt he's not in the mood for killing Usopp ASAP?!
Also, he was only in Nami's village because he saw Genzo had a weapon. He thought the village was going to rebel like the last one and he wanted to nip it in the bud and kill Genzo before it got to far. That was the only reason he was there and yet, after Usopp makes him absolutely furious he and Kurobi leave Genzo alive.
Flashback Arlong, who was barely held back by Fisher Tiger would never have left any of these humans alive. They were in his eyes disrespectful, not fearing him like he wants, and most did not give him money--the only benefit he sees to keeping humans around. Yet, he lets all of them live--maybe he has plans to kill them later, but again, past Arlong would kill them ASAP.
I know that the most likely reason for this is because Oda didn't have everything with Arlong and Jinbe's past in his brain at this point (there's ten years or more between these parts in the story). Not only that he can't have important people like Usopp and Zoro being killed off. He also seemed less willing to kill characters off in the start of the manga, which is why Genzo and Zoro's friends lived (killing Genzo would also have been way to mean to Nami).
But from an in character perspective you could see this as Arlong being affected by Fisher Tiger's words of not killing humans. No, he can't fully follow that rule, let alone Fisher Tiger's orders to not treat humans badly. Arlong has hated humans for far to long, and he was barely managing to restrain himself for Fisher Tiger despite respecting/caring for the man with his whole heart.
He can't not kill humans or treat them like crap--but he can come up with excuses that limit how many he kills. A 'well, if they pay me, they can live', or a 'they're to weak to kill so I won't', or 'I'll give this guy a warning for insulting me before I kill him'.
He lets his crew drag him away from Nami's village because he doesn't really want to destroy it (for monetary gain not kindness obviously). Kurobi doesn't kill Genzo because he wasn't told to so he lets him off, despite that being the only reason they came in the first place (despite defiantly knowing killing him wouldn't get him in trouble and is Arlong's intention). That gives Arlong time to calm down and by the time Usopp is caught he's more willing to take the time to ask him what he's doing there and then let Nami deal with him.
Part of it might also be Arlong knowing Jinbe will come kick his ass as soon as he finds out he's been killing/terrifying humans. He can bribe the Marines, but only to a point. If he was slaughtering every human that looked at him wrong or said something racist he'd be to much of a threat for higher-up the Marines to ignore. Eventually they'd tell Jinbe to deal with him and Jinbe would. Arlong would know that and given he was beaten easily by Jinbe he also knows he'd lose immediately (and either be killed or sent back to Impel Down).
Either way, he's showing some restraint even though he doesn't have someone like Fisher Tiger, or Jinbe directly telling him to. For whatever reason Arlong is way more willing to keep humans alive if he can come up with an excuse for it. Which I find kind of fascinating and adds some depth to his character that I don't think was necessarily intentional, but is the strength of the writing that Oda was able to add something years down the line that somehow didn't conflict with what's already established.
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People need to learn to hate a character without coming up with the most BS excuses.
You cannot actually tell me Naruto learned more from Jiraiya, or Sasuke learned more from Orochimaru than they did from Kakashi
Jiraiya taught Naruto Rasagan and Summoning.
All we see Sasuke get from Orochimaru is his summons, and he also has an eagle summon so clearly he couldn’t even just have only the snakes to connect him to his ‘master’
Meanwhile, Kakashi taught Naruto chakra nature, how to use his shadow clones, Basic Chakra control, is stated to have improved all three of his students exponentially before the chunin exams, and of course he taught all three of his students the importance of teamwork and protecting their friends over the mission. A lesson that Naruto and Sasuke both take to heart in their own way.
He taught Sasuke the chidori, which Sasuke evolved into other types of chidori style jutsu’s. He also helped him improve his taijutsu so much in a month that Gai, the Taijutsu master, was impressed and concerned about the training Kakashi put him under for that month.
Sakura is the only one who we can confidently say learned more from her master, and Kakashi can’t teach medical ninjitsu (he only knows basic medical ninjitsu and that’s only after the way) and states himself he’s not the best at teaching chakra control (hence why he asked Ebisu to help Naruto with that during the month between chunin exam fights)
Like…
Hate Kakashi all you want but calling him a ‘Bad Sensei’ is factually incorrect for what we see. Even when he screws up it’s not out of malice or thinking he just knows better. He’s genuinely trying to help his students and just screws up.
It happens.
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I was wondering if there are any rare happy ritsu moments in ur zombie au since hes always miserable I think,, like is he always miserable or is he happy/not miserable and feeling kinda good sometimes?
VWHDGDGD NO YEAH OFC HE'S HAPPY SOMETIMES im just horrible and enjoy putting him through misery
ive never been able to get a genuine smile to look right on his face in my art style either i think thats part of it. as ive said his face is just built to be mildly uncomfortable and bothered and i lean into it sm it's starting to get kinda funny
but yes ritsu is happy plenty! i think, canonically, he just seems like the type of person to me that tends to turn lemonade back into lemons. he's easy to scare and his first reaction to things is often Dread and Anxiety. he dwells on the negatives a lot and seems to be a "hope for the best, expect the worst," kinda guy, but there's a section in this post abt shigeo always loving the little things in life, and ritsu steadily learns throughout the journey on how to do that and how healing it can rly be. even if he had to grow up too fast during this whole thing and learn things a kid should never have to, the journey also gave him some good insight and lessons in other places! ritsu is smart, he figures it all out
in terms of little things here n there he's the happiest lil guy on the planet when he finds one of his favorite foods—swings his legs while he sits and munches on a kitkat bar like he's got absolutely nothin in the world to worry abt. sometimes mob does smth funny that he laughs at; for the longest time i've had this silly image in my head of mob accidentally knocking down a bucket from a store shelf and it lands on his head and he just kinda stands there and makes noises.when the noises continue out of pure curiosity about the weird echoey quality it's giving them ritsu cannot help but lose it
besides tiny things tho, when tome comes around ritsu in general is a lot happier, just cuz he has somebody to talk to that will actually respond in some way. they're sorta reluctant partners in crime at first (at least on ritsu's end) but over time and over bonding they grow to rly like each other's presence. they bicker constantly but it's almost always fond eventually, and they shove each other and playfight until mob gets antsy enough to get worked up about it. rly, tome is a godsend to ritsu's mental health—after months and months of being effectively alone with his thoughts, he finally has another person to converse with. a person His Age, too!
tome is rly good at knowing when ritsu is thinkin himself into oblivion and she's Also rly good at being the most annoying girl on the planet to yank him outta that and replace any misery with Oh My God Get Off Me You Freak. she doesn't even do this on purpose at first, but over time she learns how to tell when he's thinking too hard and, ofc, she's grown attached and she cares, so she's as obnoxious as possible to lighten the mood
when they find reigen n teru, ritsu gradually gets Much happier still. now that he knows they're safe and the gang is finally back together (and now that there's an Adult present and he can relax a lil and let himself be taken care of) his stress levels r exponentially lowered. having teru back is another instant lift to his mood—im always a big fan of teru and ritsu friendship, and i think adding tome to their dynamic simply makes it more chaotic. truly a trio of the 3 most normal teenagers in existence which will surely bring nothing but good (reigen sweats offscreen)
actually this makes me feel bad for forever torturing him im gonna go draw happy zau ritsus brb ,.,.ok imback <3
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Hellooo mun!!! If you met your muse (or muses, if you wanna do both or just the birb) how do you think that interaction would go like?
((omg hello!! gosh ahsjdk tbh i never really thought about it because i don't even like the idea of any of the actual canon characters interacting with me personally [see: @dolasach's reason for existence + this blog honestly just being made so that i could have a reason to interact with the rp blogs without having to bring out my oc] but this did get me thinking >v<
for the crow:
crows are honestly extremely rare where i live, at most i see them as small black figures in the sky when they're flying off. so if i got the meet the crow irl i think i'd be genuinely thrilled?
as in. i would go through the motions of trying to befriend the thing and also play the part of a fool that tries to feed a mechanical bird ;-; i'd hope that it'd be like what's going on with yvonne, but i'm not talkative enough with animals to get any sort of emotional investment out of anyone at onychinus hq for what drama might be going on in my life. so like. i'd just be a running joke to the engineers for being a reason why the bird keeps coming back with a chassis full of food lol
for dolasach:
okay so like. i so CLEARLY imagine myself to meet her because of some art event where she's a guest, like a lecture or workshop or gallery exhibit opening. she'd have such a particular vibe to her, i feel? that would make it shockingly easy for me to actually reach out and ask questions about her craft (if it were a gallery opening) or ask some really thorough questions + start a bit of banter (if its a workshop) even if her gaze would be so intense i might die on the spot <-aroace but not immune to cool hot people.
i think it would go fairly well, i don't think i've ever left bad impressions on more important people i've interacted with and half the time end up befriending them + i want to believe i'd get a genuine laugh from her 😭 that's all i want oml))
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Starting a new run on Baldur's Gate 3 was hard since, one, I love my first character so much and it's hard to follow up after her, and two, it took me like an hour staring at my computer fanagling with character creation options to convince myself to do the Resist Dark Urge option.
It's an interesting run and I've already had fun recruiting all the characters I didn't the first time around... but if I'm being totally honest, the primary reason it took me so long to finally sigh and hit start game was because if I resist my urge, I'm letting down my favorite NPC, poor Sceleritas Fel
You will never meet a bigger hype man, maybe it's an unpopular opinion but I really love this little dude. World's best little fiend butler... and I don't wanna make him sad 😭
To cope I tell myself that I'll maybe get to see him with Airetos again after patch 7 drops those new epilogues, and that in the meantime he's living his best life at her beck and call while she and Astarion bang in the Bhaal temple or in the palace of Astarion's.
But yeah no my current character is gonna disappoint the hell out of him. Sorry, buddy.
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Reasons I like Mills so much -
This is going to get real as I do talk about my own real life experiences with my own child! Nothing explicit will be said but if you're sensitive of implications of abuse then don't read on okay? <3
I am actually un certain if I want to post this or not.. I'm just letting you all know this isn't any self-insert information (Actual self-insert is going to be totally different!) this is my reasoning on why I like him. It's very personal reasons to me and for that, this post is not rebloggable. If you read it thank you, it means a lot to me and if you can't read it, that's okay too. I care about people's comfort.
He's a dad / I'm a parent
He had to leave his child behind (She was very sick) / My child was essentially kidnapped by her biological dad.
He would do anything for his daughter He took that two year long journey to get enough money to pay for her treatment. / I worked endlessly for six months straight, making phone calls to every lawyer under the sun that I would accept me, fought with police and CAS to check in on my daughter. (They both failed us.)
I relate to him - He was far away from his daughter and didn't know if she was okay until he did get confirmation via video logs. / I didn't know if my kid was okay and I had no way of knowing because she was essentially kidnapped. So I can relate to the pain he felt- (Just fyi- this is true and not just something made up for an si, it was extremely traumatizing for me.)
Unfortunately he lost his daughter (she passed away before he got back home) / I thought I could lose my daughter. (from what had happened to her when I was able to get her back safely)
There was a moment where he laid down and he covered his eyes, his hands were shaking and no noise was coming out of him. the scene didn't have to explicitly say anything to me I know what he was feeling. Yes, his was over the loss of his child and mine was the unknown of my child. I knew she wasn't safe and even though I was trying my hardest to get her back home I felt so helpless and alone I did what he did. I broke down. No noise, silent tears as I sat there shaking uncontrollably.
So I don't just like this character because I think he's a cool protective dad (He finds a survivor of a crash who is a kid and helps her) or because he's portrayed by Ad.a.m Dr.i.ver. I like him because I relate to him in a sense- Every time there was silence and he remembered those good times I knew exactly how he was feeling, every breakdown, every defensive statement.... because I experienced something similar. I connected with him in a very real way... That is why I like him..
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