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Sketched in dip pen and colored in Ibis

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I miss Dressrosa 😭 I miss all of the side characters wtf

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Cavendish and The Little Prince

In Chapter 784 "Gear Four" Oda forestalls the reveal of Luffy's new form to emphasize he and Law as the "eye of the storm" to follow Doffy's defeat through the words of Cavendish "The Pirate Prince."

But given the implicitness of that conclusion; the scene more so exists as character building for Cavendish.

Sitting criss-cross amongst the chaos grants him a very understated character moment for Cavendish and the reader to just "be" and soak in the beauty and adventure of Dressrosa; a feeling the anime expertly captures.

Displaying concern and appreciation outside of self from a character who's core gag/drive is self-absorbenent; putting his own place on the seas into perspective.

But there's more too it.

Cavendish's archetype is that of the White Knight/Knight Errant in European lit/mythos; his epithets being a verbalization of that fact.

Dressrosa is One Piece's analogue for Spain-

Cavendish's name is English in etymology and his real world namesake "Thomas Cavendish" the privateer is partly known for his raids of Spanish ships.

He's the former prince of the Borgeoise Kingdom, hailing from Rommel where himself as Hakuba became known as their slicing winds (a Kamitachi; a Yokai in Japanese mythos) alluding to Dr.Jekyl and Mr.Hyde and Jack The Ripper as you may know, both English refrences.

His former kingdoms name shares it's etymology with Mary Geoise in the French word Borgeosie and Cavendish's aesthetics/rapier are very Musketeer/French.

His weapon/attacks are all references to European mythos/lit/plays.

-Durandal a French blade of legend

-Round Table (King Arthur)

-Blue Bird

-Biken: Zan t-Exupéry

-Precious Metal Axe

The tontattas/fairies being another tie to literature and mythos.

Given that pastiche it's notable that Oda chose Cavendish to sit in a childlike manner and note one of the two most fantastical aspects of the arc in the "dwarves" (the other being the toys).

It taps into the feelings fantasy ferments in children and the inspirations behind Oda's writing, in a land where Doflamingo has cast a cruel veneer over the settings beauty.

A recent realization on my part is on the fourth attack listed above "Biken: Zant t-Exupéry" or

"Beautiful Sword: Stardust Prince."

The attack's name coming from French novel "The Little Prince-" and it's author; a childrens novel dealing with space, a loss of imagination in adulthood, love and loss and the human experience more broadly.

The titular character being the lonely, blonde "little prince" of an asteroid where he resides and tends to his love.

A thorny, vain, rose that "The Little Prince" knows not how to love properly until they've lost each other and he learns to see the uniqueness in those he values through their worth to one another vs outside validation/being a lone rose.

Cavendish is first seen with a red rose and his attacks often have rose petals swirling around him.

He's a blonde prince, exiled from his home with his animal companion Farul (The Little Prince tames/makes a companion of a fox on his journey).

From Oda's SBS we know that he also carried roses as a child and in a cover page we see him tending to a garden of roses with Farul, his vivre card lists roses as his favorite food, making it clear that Cavendish and roses is imagery Oda is intentionally/continuously associating him with.

Knowing this all; I propose that Cavendish's character is partly inspired by The Little Prince (the novel/character) in his design, own emotional makeup having aspects of various figures in the book, and the tapping into child-like wonder described above as the Little Prince's narrator is a man at risk of losing that imagination, as multiple adults seen through the stories pages already have.

Also:

-The stars on his pants are similar to the stars on the little princes coat which is also similar to Cavendish's coat

-They both use rapiers

It makes me wonder what Cavendish's childhood was like; if there was any lonliness, whether there's anything to be said abolut the potential of "taming" Hakuba and growing in self-love/past his obsession with uniquness.

Of course there's much more to his character than a single inspriation and differences to see between him and The Little Prince but I'll definitely keep the story in mind going forward.

[wingsofsong]

Smiley.

Poison boi.

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Is today the day I finally write a novel on how Bartolomeo and Cavendish are irreplaceable allies and the two best side characters introduced in Post-Timeskip One Piece???

Maybe.

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Oda really knows how to create interesting side-characters. I could watch a whole different anime just about Cavendish and would absolutely love it

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I remember I didn't join Tumblr a decade or more ago because the etiquette on replying to blog posts confused me as a person who likes to reply to a wide range of takes and wants that done to my posts, with disagreement and otherwise.

And now I'm just replying to random posts totally unknowing to whether the replies are or aren't welcome as I expected to- weeeee 🙃

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I think to enjoy Bellamy's character you have to wholly accept that you're watching/reading a character who's far from fundamentally decent and is a habitual double downer on terrible pursuits guided by impulse and a shallow understanding of others/the world around him.

Which when you factor in the grief for his crew and the way Doflamingo's symbol and person has been his life's goal/determinator of worth on the contingency to never lose, until the hand that dealt that loss inspired him to change and make that folly his dream; it becomes even clearer the level of discombobulation he acts out across the arc.

Which doesn't mean those aspects of his person can't be poorly written- just that as a Bellamy fan (tied for my top spot including the SH's) it's the extent to which he's an irrational ass that makes me a fan, so I love that Law interaction.

I remember back when chapter 769 and Stephen the current translator for VIZ posted on Arlong Park about the chapter and while uneasy he explained/appreciated Bellamy's suicidal decision as a very "Japanese" act, similar to the way we now know Wano's warriors rush to death.

Also- Bellamy is a victim of Doflamingo's emotional manipulation/abuse, hence him telling Bellamy he's "free- as he's always been," which I'm sure you understand; but I don't think an important junctures in the continued arc of a character who's first appearance as a Luffy foil/mirror was in Jaya (the beating heart of One Piece) alongside BB, who Oda's kept in the story to where we now know he's crafting the indestructible representation of Luffy's dream/the dawn of the world to fly atop the Thousand Sunny- is *just* a plot device in that moment for serving a dual purpose.

Plus Doffy "Weaklings don't get to choose the way they die"-> Law to Tashigi

Bellamy continues that theme by attempting to escape that belief through choosing his way of death via Luffy- misguidedly and in lieu of said emotional manipulation.

Now he's without strings and reflecting on his life in a town of windmills (Luffy parallel/Donquixote allusion as a symbol of delusion) which I believe shows Oda's care for him as an individual/valued person to follow without Mingo's presence.

The duality of One Piece's bombast is just as a character's virtues will be acted out in the most extreme of fashions so will their fatal flaws, for better or worse and it's a toss up how the reader will take that/how well Oda will actually write it.

Edit: and now that I've read the other Dressrosa blog posts just as I expected- you did describe Bellamy's psyche/the weird relationship vibes well

One Piece Rewatch Episode 711

I can't help but feel like Pica's "Pica Pica" laugh is a Pikachu reference. I remember thinking that even when I was just reading that manga and couldn't hear it being done. It might just be me, though. Baby 5 tells Sai that she'll reserve two venues, one for their wedding and one for Chinjao's funeral. I cackled at the mood change between the two and how both Sai and Chinjao jumped up to say he's not dead. I always feel like Bellamy's logic kinda maybe might make sense, but it just doesn't. "I can't just turn on him because I didn't get what I wanted!" Ummmm.... yes, you can. Especially because Bellamy didn't just not get what he wanted. He got beat up by Doflamingo. Also, Doflamingo's just an asshole. That's the kind of person you DO turn on. To me, this is clearly just a plot device to delay Luffy from going up to fight Doflamingo so that Law gets a little bit of his revenge. At this point, I remember getting impatient because Law has already lost an arm and is struggling against Doflamingo and Trebol. He gets a counter shock in, but he's basically getting thrown around like a rag doll. Cavendish screaming at Bartolomeo to let him inside his barrier was much welcomed comic relief.

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Willingness and a different framing for seeing them is the answer; aka back when it was week to week and chapter 704 dropped my focus wasn't on them as tournament participants, it was "Oh- Cabbage's first interaction with Luffy was him being helpful, oh he delivered a line on the bloodlust of the colloseum spectators and the nature of the tournament/showed a bit of cynicism that for some reason fans are missing and only seeing the gag/finding him arrogant without basis despite existing in the New World as an independent captain for three years- therefore I will defend him and endear myself to him as he's clearly a future ally and will be Luffy's friend considering their close contact and the shallow nature of his grudge."

Meanwhile other people dismissed the gladiators as non-pertinent so when they were they hit the puzzled face; but I assumed they'd matter and was open to being entertained by them/hearing Oda out. Oda wrote Cabbage/Barto with the explicit intention to endear them to the readership more than with any other newly introduced side character in the arc; which even manifests in their unique future popularity poll placements.

Cabbage is still in my top five including the SH's a decade later.

Such a star.

I don't get how people have watched Dressrosa and cared about Barto and Cavendish I'm so sorry that whole coliseum thing was so sleepy-time for me

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Gotta remember to make my Cabbage character appreciation/analysis post

Maybe I'll do a couple; I've yet to write something more than a couple of sentences on how great and underrated his relationship with Luffy is

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My Fishman Island Watercolor painting

There's some gouache in the bubble and I wish I'd remembered to do the castles silhouette

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Since we're approaching Egghead in the anime and leaving this flashback fairly soon.

Here's a traditional watercolor piece of mine from earlier this year.

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I also painted Beehive Island not just Egghead Island

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My unhinged thoughts on Luffy and Garp's relationship post-Marineford

Y'all have a very lovely comment on one of my fics to blame for this rant on Luffy and Garp's relationship and where they stand after Marineford:

Luffy and Garp as they relate to each other is so interesting because I think despite his absences, Luffy acquired a lot of his ideas about what family is and isn't from Garp. And, maybe, learned to separate what a person is to him from who that person is, too. In a way I think that's why he imprinted so hard on Shanks--he's the first person Luffy met whose role in his life matches who he is as a person and it's why he builds himself a family by acquiring people whose goals match his own so that there IS no conflict. Fast forward to Luffy as a teenager, we see that when Luffy is confronted by a person who has a conflict with his own ideals and goals, it doesn't present an inherent issue for him--that's the primary way he relates to people anyway (for ex: Coby).

Garp is also the one who modeled for Luffy that presence/time spent doesn't correllate to the strength of a relationship, that just because Garp wasn't there all the time doesn't mean they don't have a bond. And yes this gave Luffy all the abandonment issues but it's clear that Luffy has accepted it by the time canon comes around. At some point he clearly decided to view it as "Gramps gave me what he needed and made sure I had a family to grow up with and that's plenty, of course he loves us," and not "Gramps abandoned me and never loved me."

On top of all of that, whatever else Garp did or did not think about him, Ace, and Sabo, and their dreams, Luffy grew up knowing that Garp valued them and their lives above the letter of the law and his job. Luffy never cared who Ace's dad was, but he grew up knowing that Garp also knew and always thought he deserved to have a chance to live, and always loved Ace even if he never approved of the kids' desire to be a pirate. He knows that Garp values family over the law.

And then there's Garp. Garp who Sengoku describes as "a family man more than a marine." Garp who refused (multiple!) promotions to the Admirality because he didn't want to serve the Celestial Dragons, Garp who Roger trusted with his very own kid. His parenting techniques might be...questionable (read: If this was a real man he would have CPS called on him so fast but we're going with the intended reading of him from the manga) but it's clear he loves the kids. We also know the man has a flexible view of the law, he's a Marine because he believes it's where he can do the most good/help the most people. He views the rules as things he can bend if not break (a quality that clearly gets stronger as the generations pass lmao). He doesn't seem to respect authority, but he DOES seem to respect the need for the perception of it, or at least the role the Marines need to play in the eyes of the public. He believes people need heroes to believe in, and he believes the Marines should fill that role, and that's what he spent his life trying to embody.

And then Marineford.

Garp is caught between these two things: his family, and the institution he devoted his life to. And it sucks, obviously. He goes to visit Ace in Impel Down and he tells him a few things, but Garp says 1) No one can stop the war (not even him), 2) he's proud of Luffy for everything he did at Enies Lobby and Sabaody, (which also tells Ace that he's not condemned in his eyes for being a pirate--the condemnation of his life is coming from the institution Garp works for, not from Garp as a judgement of the man he became).

Ace responds by saying Whitebeard is the only father he has (ouch--Garp is the only father figure Ace grew up with), which is the last exchange we have until this:

Garp believes in the need for the execution and the war in general--the problem for him is that this is his family. This is the baby he took responsibility for, a kid he's loved for years. So Garp doesn't do anything in the war, doesn't object or condem. All he does is take a seat next to Ace, keeps him company. And to be fair to Garp? It doesn't seem like Ace expects anything more. And it seems like he appreciates it.

So he's got one kid on the execution stand, and he's resolved to let him die for the sake of what he thinks is the greater good. And his other kid, the one chasing the same fate that's getting Ace killed now, is trying to save his life. And he just...watches it unfold, because he's trapped by his own convictions--another thing he passed down to both of the boys, so how can he betray what he told them and not hold steady to his own beliefs?

I think for Luffy, he probably didn't have much time to process Garp's presence at Marineford or his role in Ace's execution at the time. In fact the only time they really interract directly is this moment from a chapter literally titled "The Execution Platform":

The title obviously refers to the literal execution platform Ace is on that Luffy has been trying to reach the entire arc but metaphorically? It's also about this. Luffy, being confronted with a grandfather who is for some reason putting his job over his brother's life, and Garp, making a last ditch effort to stand by his own conviction.

There's no way Luffy can understand this decision in the moment--he already made the same one on Amazon Lily, where he was faced with the option to either go and meet his crew on Sabaody (keep following his dream) or go after Ace. He chose Ace, because Luffy always chooses people over his own goals. I think he would understand Garp more if he had been present for Garp and Ace's conversations on the scaffold, but he wasn't.

There's an argument to be made here that Garp is giving Luffy the opportunity to save his brother by stepping in himself and letting Luffy punch him. It would be more plausible except for the fact that Garp calls Luffy "Straw Hat" here instead of "Luffy." He drops the familiarity, and he sets himself in Luffy's way, even when Luffy begs him. I don't think Garp knew he was going to let Luffy knock him away until the very last second. Not until Luffy committed to punching him.

He gives Luffy this one last piece of advice, this one last chance to be his grandfather, where he says "this is the path you have chosen, and it will be difficult, but you're on it now and you have to commit.":

And he remembers Ace saying he wants to live, and lets Luffy hit him to get to his brother.

This is the last we see of their relationship. Luffy doesn't mention him again except to tell Chin Jao off in Dressrosa. Presumably he processed how his relationship with his grandfather has changed in the aftermath, but what he thinks about it? Mostly a mystery. All the things he got from Garp are still true, and I think he still probably manages to compartmentalize most of it as a person vs. dreams/conviction thing. Luffy wouldn't judge Garp for his decisions, and he wouldn't hold resentments either. Whatever he feels or doesn't feel toward Garp, it's definitely overshadowed by Ace's loss.

For Garp's part, the man retired immediately after the war. Luffy literally says "If I don't do everything I can to save Ace, I wouldn't be able to live with myself" a few chapters before the execution stand, and Garp didn't live with himself, at least not without changing his circumstances. He gave up his commission to run escorts for royalty and train people. We do know he's still proud of Luffy, like he told Ace in Impel Down, and he laughs when Luffy's New World exploits are brought up. Garp's the one with regrets, not Luffy, and I think if they ever speak again (who knows, with Garp being...y'know), it'll be about those regrets.

What else do you talk about with estranged family?

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K can we talk about how I'm actually kinda super in love with baby 5 cause like... wow

I did not think I'd love her and now I love her

Sai trying to get her to do things cause she wants to not just to be useful and her changing sides to be with him like I like to think it wasn't just cause she felt needed like I don't think any other man would make her actually betray doflamingo and yeah she doesn't like actively betray him but she doesn't fight against those opposing him but I don't think she'd do that for anyone just because they said they needed her at least I would like to think that what sai said to her about valuing her own life and that she doesn't need to be deemed useful by anyone just to live really affected her because he's the first person to tell her that and maybe she realizes that doflamingo was taking advantage of her trauma

Anyway

I think she's neat