#—the shuggy pseudo-incest wank

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

What I don’t understand in shuggy is why oda added that brothers line. The in universe explanation of marines didn’t knew works, but we as readers? Why he decided to add that? I heard people talking that Japan is very specific about sworn brothers and shuggy are not but why even write that line? I don’t get this decision. Unless he wanted us to think they were like that or idk Did you ever talked about it from the author pov? Like everything author puts in his work he does on purpose. That line has to have a purpose. And what do you think it was? I’m not attacking, just finding good writer who likes shuggy so can answer that in smart way

well, first off i have to disagree with you: oda isn’t doing everything on purpose.

i mean that both in the sense that we know not everything about one piece has been planned all along, and in the sense that we know he’s added elements to his story and world unthinkingly. sometimes he forgets to draw things! sometimes he makes a joke and didn’t think through the implications! you should look through the SBS catalog sometime, it’s fun to see him come up with explanations for some of this stuff after the fact.

now, is the sworn brothers line one of those unthinkingly added elements? probably not. it feels like something written with intention to me.

what intention? as far as i can tell, just the textual one: to show how limited the marines’ understanding is.

the marines looking at buggy’s history with shanks and calling them sworn brothers shows how, even with all the facts in front of them—like viewing the complete impel down prison footage and deciding that luffy and buggy had the breakout planned from the start—the marines will consistently come to wildly incorrect conclusions about who buggy is, and why he does what he does.

(this has become a common theme with buggy & the marines in the years since marineford—just look at cross guild!)

i’m not even saying this as someone who views that relationship as romantic. shipper goggles off, i’m saying i simply do not believe buggy considers shanks a brother.

we’ve seen a sworn brothers’ bond before: the one between ace and luffy. we know how buggy thinks of shanks. the two relationships could not be more different. thus, by having the marines misidentify the buggy & shanks relationship as 兄弟分, as kyoudaibun, as sworn brothers, oda shows that the marines don’t understand buggy at all.

i really don’t think it’s any deeper than that.

oh, what, you wanted to see what else i had to say? okay, then. but this bit gets kinda mean.

listen.

i am certain that oda does not intend for a queer reading of shanks and buggy. i’ve said it before: oda is a remarkably queer-friendly shonen author as far as gender is concerned—though not so queer-friendly that one of the main characters of the series isn’t deeply transmisogynistic—but queer sexuality is just not present in the text.

now, that doesn’t do anything to stop me from having a queer reading of shanks and buggy. that doesn’t stop any of us from having all kinds of queer readings of one piece!

but it does mean that when you ask me, “i understand your point about the marines being wrong in-universe, but why did oda use the phrase sworn brothers?” a big part of me wants to say, “i don’t know, and i don’t care.”

i’m not a mind reader! i can’t tell you what oda was thinking! and frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what he was thinking! death of the author, you know? our interpretation as readers is equally, if not more, important than any theoretical authorial intent.

and even if oda does someday condescend to answer an SBS question about a five hundred chapter-old turn of phrase, and it turns out i’m totally wrong about everything… so what?

you’re not gonna “prove me wrong” about shuggy. i am under no delusions that i am “right.”

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Why did Oden called Buggy second son? And does that mean he also confirms them as brothers like marines did? First son, second son, sound brotherly to me but I am not fluent in English and know nothing on Japanese names. And is buggy younger? By month me he is, If so why he angry at that?

oden gives a number of characters nicknames of a sort, where he combines their name with a syllable or two of a typical japanese personal name. white-kichi, buggy-jiro, red-taro… the strawhats do something similar to blend in while they’re hiding out in wano, but as far as i can tell the endings they pick are fairly random, while i think oden assigns his with intention.

吉, kichi, means good luck or fortune—and i think that first meeting with whitebeard is something oden looks back on as being very fortunate. it changed his life, in several very big, very meaningful ways!

太郎 and 次郎, tarou and jirou, taken literally mean eldest son and next son. surrounded by grown men, two boys, and his own family, is it any wonder oden gives these kids nicknames that emphasize their youth and position them in roles similar to those of his own children? i don’t think it means anything more than that, though.

we don’t get confirmation of who is older or younger of shanks and buggy in the text… we’re told in extracanonical places like data books and sbs answers that shanks and buggy are the same age, and they were given birthdays by goroawase rules, which puts shanks’ birthday in march and buggy’s in august. so i guess buggy is younger by five months or so?

and i can’t say for sure why buggy is mad about being assigned second son when he is, in fact, the younger of the two of them—though you have to remember, buggy’s temper is rarely a logical beast—but i do have my pet theory.

i may have mentioned it before, idk, but i think buggy was a pretty competitive kid. if you’ve spent much time around that kind of kid, you’ll know they can turn anything and everything into a competition, even stuff they have no control over. who’s fastest? who’s tallest? who’s oldest? who got the biggest piece of meat at dinner? who got the biggest piece of cake for dessert? any way they can make themselves out to be the winner, the best, they’ll take it. and any way they appear to come in last, or even in second, will make them miserable.

now, i’m not here to get into the psychological underpinnings of why such kids are so competitive… but i’m given to understand there’s usually a bit of an inferiority complex involved, which certainly feels appropriate for buggy.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

https://www.tumblr.com/the-obnoxious-sibling/733886299587674112/i-noticed-you-tag-op-post-with-ship-name-are-you

I don’t mean it in hateful way. I do enjoy some ship content of them. I keep wondering. It’s bad intel of marines is explanation in the world, but as narrative tool, why would Oda put it if not to hint that those two saw each other as brothers? Deep inside.

(the post linked in the ask, the first of three or four times now that i’ve been asked for my opinion on this subject, so you’ll forgive me if i’m a little snippy in my response)

i think it serves the same purpose in the narrative as it does in universe: it explains why the navy is suddenly taking buggy seriously.

why call them sworn brothers? well, what other turn of phrase would the navy use to describe a relationship where an enemy pirate (and, one might assume, enemy marines) never saw one without the other? the navy doesn’t respect the term nakama, they don’t think crew bonds or friendship are significant, so the relationship must be familial. i could get into the inherent heteronormativity and amatonormativity of the navy as an institution, but we both know that is not why you sent me this ask.

buggy doesn’t respond to the ‘sworn brothers’ claim, too busy freaking out about his secret past being revealed. you’re free to take that lack of reaction as a sign that it’s true and obvious and not worth commenting on, just as i’m free to take that lack of reaction as a sign that buggy had bigger things to worry about at the time. it’s very much open to interpretation.

but, honestly? i think if they saw each other as brothers they would call each other brother. chosen family in one piece are not afraid of calling each other words like father, son, or brother.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

You rebloged a post and I really don’t want to hate but I just don’t understand this dynamic. Shuggy aren’t considered brothers but they have the same adopted father? I just don’t understand it. I kinda want to like this ship but? I guess they’re similar to she ra main couple?

(the post i reblogged; this one also seems relevant)

first off: anon, i am not the arbiter of what you can ship. i am not some fandom judge who slams down a gavel and says, "THE VIBES ARE SUS, SHIPPING IS NOT PERMITTED." all i can tell you is my opinion, which you are free to disagree with.

and in my opinion, if i had written that post i wouldn't have called roger their father figure. (which is what it says, btw: adoptive father figure. the post isn't even—ugh, never mind.) but i am not obligated to tag my reblogs with 'ok i know what op said but i would call this relationship xyz' disclaimers, i actually think that kind of thing is pretty rude! the op can see your tags, you know! i don't think buggy and shanks consider each other brothers, or roger their father; i think they would use words like "crew" and "captain."

in my opinion, the only crew where "captain" means "father" and "crewmate" means "brother" is whitebeard's. because that's explicitly what whitebeard wanted as a pirate: a family.

in my opinion, people in fandom are very quick to slap a "found family" label on groups that really don't warrant it, partly because that's the easiest way for them to understand a concept like "people who aren't related but are very close" and partly so they can immediately shove every character into a nuclear family role and call any ship that isn't 'mom' x 'dad' incest-coded.

and i find this especially tiresome in one piece fandom because there is found family in one piece! there are people who declare themselves kin though they aren't blood related! there's whitebeard and his crew, obviously.

and there's ace, sabo, and luffy.

luffy's crew isn't his family! his crew is nakama, friends, comrades—it's not a lesser bond for not being familial, just different.

and until the day canon says otherwise, i will believe roger's crew was the same way.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I noticed you tag op post with ship name Are you shipping shanks and buggy? I want to know since they were raised together and it was said in manga in japannese that they are siblings and I want to block people who ship them. I think adoptive siblings are still siblings

oh, yeah, i do ship it

i don't have serious opinions on the sibling thing—iirc the only people who describe the relationship as brotherly are the marines? and given they also seem to think buggy is one of the four strongest pirates around, i… don't trust their intel, lmao—but you do you, friend! cultivate the fandom spaces you feel happiest in!