#yes I’m an Usopp apologist

[pippin-pippout]

Oh I’m mad at Zoro. Saying that about Usopp. Don’t care what’s technically right or wrong, but Luffy also fucked up in that argument and almost told Usopp to leave himself before Sanji stopped him. And Usopp was supposed to hear that and not react out of hurt? Not to mention part of why he left was he felt useless. Acting like Luffy can’t be the one to bridge the gap especially when he has all the power, is dumb as fuck. Especially forcing Usopp to beg and humiliating him when Luffy already beat him up so badly (which I don’t blame Luffy for but, like Sanji said, it was humiliating). Not to mention Zoro knows Usopp fought so hard for their crew and to save Robin despite not officially being part of it risking his life as much as any of them. And it was Usopp who got Luffy back up fighting Lucci.

To me this narrative would make sense if pride was Usopp’s fatal flaw and this was meant to be a character building moment where he overcomes that pride to apologize for his fault. But that’s not his fatal flaw. In fact it’s the opposite. For all the bluster, he’s extremely insecure. He already had 0 self esteem so Zoro’s approach and Luffy going along with it, pretending not to hear him, forcing him to beg, just seemed cruel.

What I’m most irritated about with Luffy on this is that when both Nami and Robin left, Zoro spoke against them, and Luffy defended them. I know part of that is because Luffy knew he didn’t know the whole story in their cases. But at the same time, as he said in Nami’s case, he also didn’t need to know the whole story to make a decision. Luffy is supposed to be able to judge people by their hearts - that’s his big thing - that’s why vivi doesn’t care that Robin joined them because she trusts Luffy’s ability that much. So to me, this could have been character building for both Usopp and Luffy, but instead it felt like regression, particularly for Luffy. It didn’t feel like Usopp “manning up” or Luffy becoming less childlike, which seemed to be the intended message.

The whole reunion left a bitter taste in my mouth and I was really looking forward to it. And it seems like it’s closed so I don’t think this will be resolved in the future. If it is closed they better at least not make Usopp suffer/“earn” his place back by treating him lowly.