#(Especially because knowing Oda there is no way he would do that without sexualizing him for no good reason)

[moongothic]

I love the crocodad theory a lot but I fear that the fandom will start misgendering him or respect the character less because of transphobia.

Oda have written queer characters before who are respected by the fandom such as Bonclay but for Crocodile its another story. He is their alpha male badass character and adding queerness to his character might make them mad. Not that I care about those bigots feelings but its already not easy to navigate this fandom without queerphobia being thrown in your face.

Ppl can digest a queer character who fit in the stereotypes but once they dont, its another story.

Same, people are weird as fucking hell and gross about Crocodile maybe being trans already, we can be sure it would get worse if him being trans was confirmed in the story, there would be absolutely no avoiding it

But at the same time...

Transphobes are gonna be transphobes regardless, and I don't want that to become a reason for any storyteller to not create trans characters. I don't want Oda to bend over backwards to please the transphobes when they're the ones in the wrong. If anything, I want Oda to just go all the way with the message of queer liberation and freedom in One Piece. Like it's not perfect, but it's already there, but it's so subtle many queerphobes have been able to ignore it this whole time and I don't want Oda to let them ignore it anymore. I want him to rub it into their faces so hard they'll start complaining about "Oda going woke"

And like, let's be real. If Crocodile was trans and Oda pulled it off just right (without falling into certain pitfalls that he's be stumbling with this whole time with queer rep), that could unironically be like. Great not just trans rep but trans masc rep in particular

Like maybe it's just the media I've consumed but trans masc rep is typically very non-existant and/or very much like Yamato, who, while valid as hell, might not be how many trans masc people want to be seen as by others (as in, "confused girls")

We've known Crocodile as a character for 23 years at this point, and for the first 8-9 years of that he was very much seen as A Manly Cis Man (like you said) without a hint of a doubt (until Impel Down). If it turned out he had been trans this whole time, that would force people to rethink how they view trans people.

As just regular fucking people

That person you knew for years turned out to be trans? So what? What does that actually change about them? It's still the same person deep down. Those are the things Oda could force people to think about.

And honestly? If that helped convert even just a single transphobe, or educate someone without an opinion on trans people, to just letting trans people live their lives in peace, I think it'd be worth it

But like, yeah. The transphobes are gonna be loud regardless. It fucking sucks, and I hate the fandom for it. But, damned if you do, damned if you don't, there's no avoiding it. And I think the potential positive impact would outweight the already festering negativity.

[caffeinatedseri]

Dazai and No Longer Human’s Yozo

It’s no secret that BSD’s Dazai draws heavily from his real life counterpart, especially from his semi-autobiographical work: No Longer Human. To preface, No Longer Human is written from the perspective of the main character Yozo, with the book itself being a documentation of Yozo’s notebooks (essentially his journals) throughout his life. 

As you progress through the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that Yozo lives an extremely two-sided life; his foolish personality acts as a facade to others in attempts to hide the darker nature within him. 

Dazai shares that obvious similarity with Yozo, but Dazai is characterized in a somewhat vague and mysterious way that leaves a lot of his inner thoughts up to interpretation and inferences. Thus, I’ll be going through some of my favorite quotes from No Longer Human and analyzing Dazai’s character through his similarities to Yozo.

(For the sake of readability, excerpts from No Longer Human will be in pictures, and quotes from the light novel will be in regular block quotes).

Dazai and Yozo’s Participation in Clownery

To start off, Dazai noticeably participates in the same “clowning” as Yozo, which in particular stands out with PM Dazai.

““How did your leg get hurt?” I pointed to the bandages, thinking that it must be the result of some violent fight. “I was reading a book titled ‘How to Prevent Accidental Injuries’ while walking when I accidentally fell into a ditch.” I wasn’t expecting such an abnormal response.” — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era (Oda’s POV)

This is pretty standard Dazai behavior, but the interesting part is how Yozo specifically used the word “deceiving.” If we were to assume Yozo’s true thoughts are Dazai’s as well, then it would imply that Dazai feels as if he’s manipulating people with his absurd claims (such as the above). However, in actuality, his clownish behaviors sound more like a joke, or some type of self-deflection, rather than an attempt to manipulate people. (Yozo also states that he would often incriminate himself by overexaggerating certain things, but I don’t think Dazai does that).

The second statement Yozo makes implies that he doesn’t care about ethics, morality, or the supposed “right way” of living life that’s described as “righteousness.”

Yozo’s statement on “righteousness” parallels Dazai’s in Dark Era, but Dazai’s statement carries a slightly different sentiment. Rather than being indifferent to the likes of morality, Dazai says that he’s “hated” by the concept of morality.��

I’ll be speculating a bit here → It’s heavily implied that Dazai had some sort of dark past that led him to joining the mafia, since he was already suicidal prior to doing so. This suggests that something affected his life so drastically to the point where he could no longer trust in such things as “righteousness,” because righteousness has wronged him in the past.

First, Yozo expresses his fear of people discovering his true nature under the mask of clownery, which would then lead to them pestering him for further inquiry. However, his real fear is that people would mistake his true nature as another part of his typical clownery.

More so than before, this attitude reminds me more of Dazai in the agency, rather than him in the mafia. Even though Dazai danced around darker topics in his conversations with Oda, he was still able to talk about them without much conflict. However, in the agency, Dazai doesn’t talk much about himself or any of his personal issues at all. 

Although this scene has comedic overtones, it’s interesting to see that no one would help Dazai if he was actually dying. Still, it could be argued that the other agency members knew it was just Dazai’s regular antics. (or that Dazai wouldn’t die in the first place). 

This scenario repeats itself another time when Dazai gets kidnapped by the mafia, and the other agency members kind of just brush it aside. As much as they may trust Dazai to take care of himself (which I’m sure he can do), it’s worrying that the other members may not be open to Dazai’s possible attempts at reaching out for help, if he were ever to make one. 

In LN 4, 55 Minutes, Atsushi addresses this issue by asking Dazai why he wants to kill himself, but the answer is left open-ended, with Atsushi himself not remembering the answer (or if Dazai even did answer). You could interpret Dazai’s change from his time in the PM as an improvement of his mental state — which I have no doubt that has happened — but Dazai needs to face his issues head-on if he truly wanted to reconcile with his past.

“Perhaps someone should persistently tie Dazai up, open the lid over his chest and stuff the head of a vacuum cleaner in. They have to let Dazai, who should be screaming in pain and resisting, settle down. Following which, the difficult things in his heart must all be dragged out under the sun and stepped on mercilessly.“ — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

Oda, the man who understood Dazai more than anyone else could at the time, even specifically stated that the pain in Dazai’s heart must be forcefully dragged out, because he knew that this would ultimately be the most beneficial for Dazai’s sanity.

Throughout No Longer Human, Yozo is often misunderstood by others, or other people simply don’t care about him.

When Dazai goes to visit Oda’s grave in Dead Apple, Atsushi finds him and assumes that he’s visiting the grave of someone important to him, as an act of respect or remembrance, something of the sort. However, Dazai makes the automatic assumption that his “clownish words of deceit” (as stated by Yozo) will always be prioritized over the truth, which is why he chooses to brush off his actions as a joke. 

Although I made the point earlier that the agency members don’t give Dazai opportunities to open up about himself, Atsushi is notably different, similarly to Oda, because he’s able to take Dazai seriously and persist even through his antics. 

Atsushi takes Dazai’s act of visiting a grave seriously, even when Dazai plays it off, because he knows Dazai is a person just like anyone else. This understanding between them leads to Dazai telling Atsushi about Oda, thereby allowing Dazai to divulge a crucial part of his past.

Dazai and Yozo’s Friendships

Similarly to Yozo, Dazai’s attempt at “disentangling” himself from these relationships only serves to wear him out in the end. However, they also slightly differ in a way: Yozo is unable to form any friendships for his whole life, but Dazai had Oda. I would argue that Oda was Dazai’s only friend, mostly because of this quote:

“Odasaku understood him far beyond what Dazai had ever thought. He had already reached close to his heart, the place near the center of his heart. Before this, Dazai had never noticed there was someone who understood him so well. For the first time in his life, Dazai wanted to know something from the depths of his heart.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda was special to Dazai because Oda was able to understand him — maybe even more than Dazai could understand himself — which is why Oda is the only person that Dazai asks for advice from. 

However, Dazai does the same thing as Yozo when he “plays the clown” as a form of self-protection from such valuable friendships. (which is probably preventing him from becoming closer to the rest of the agency).

“Things that we don’t want to lose will definitely be lost. Now that it has come to this, I have no more feelings anymore. Things worth pursuing will always disappear the moment before you get them. Nothing is worth prolonging a painful life to pursue.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Interestingly enough, Dazai says this when Ango is revealed to be a spy — before Oda dies. If Dazai was in this state of distress from Ango’s betrayal, you could only imagine how devastating Oda’s death was. 

Dazai speaks as if he’s speaking from experience, which suggests that he’s faced a similar loss in the past. Despite this implied experience, he still became friends with Oda (and Ango to an extent), fully knowing that it would only bring him pain in the end. Dazai's statement here acts more as a front that makes him sound cold and detached from the situation, only to hide how he truly feels about losing one of his only friends. 

To give some context to this passage, Yozo’s partner, Yoshiko, had been sexually assaulted by a coworker, of which Yozo attributes the cause to her overly trusting nature. Thus, this leads to Yozo’s belief that trustfulness is inherently wrong or creates weakness.

Dazai’s hesitance to form friendships most likely stems from this same inability to trust others like Yozo, but Dazai does trust a few people, namely Chuuya, Oda, and Atsushi.

With Chuuya, there’s a different type of trust between him and Dazai. Their impeccable trust is obviously a key factor in their partnership as SKK, but there’s a certain limit with this trust. They certainly trust each other in battle, but I’d argue that this trust doesn’t extend to their personal business. 

As of now, we don’t know a lot about how SKK interacted with each other during their time in the mafia (which could change with the new LN), but I doubt PM Dazai would feel comfortable with confiding in Chuuya with anything because they (kind of) hated each other. The level of trust required for a friendship would involve a mutual understanding between two people, but Chuuya and Dazai haven’t necessarily shown us that they were able to do that.

Dazai essentially broke his trust with Chuuya by leaving the mafia on a whim, but he also intentionally antagonized himself to try to make Chuuya hate him.

This scene also has comedic overtones, but it suggests something a bit sadder about Dazai. There are possibly two motivations as to why Dazai chose to do this: (or a mix of the two)

1. Dazai didn’t want Chuuya to be incriminated as his accomplice when he became an enemy of the mafia.

2. Dazai wanted to push Chuuya away because Oda — Dazai’s most trusted friend — had just died. As a form of self-protection, Dazai broke whatever semblance of friendship he shared with Chuuya in order to prevent the same pain that came with Oda’s death. 

It’s also important to consider that trust is a 2-way street; both parties have to have the same level of trust in each other. Just like Yozo, if Dazai is unable to trust anyone, then he may have cut Chuuya off to protect him (since Chuuya may have trusted Dazai more than Dazai was able to reciprocate).

In contrast, Oda and Dazai have a level of unspoken trust that basically motivates Dazai to change his entire life. 

“Odasaku’s eyes radiate with conviction. The words are clearly said with some sort of strong basis. Is it past experience? Or perhaps someone’s suggestion? — He is trying to show Dazai the path he once walked. Dazai understands this. Dazai can trust it.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Returning to Yozo’s question — “Is trustfulness a sin?” — Dazai answers it by showing us the strength of trust in this moment. Trust insinuates blind faith in another person, the willingness to believe someone else without logical reasoning, which makes it all the more important when PM Dazai — the genius prodigy who operates on a solely logical basis — is able to trust Oda and change his path in life. 

Atsushi is most likely the one that Dazai trusts the most in the agency, due to the aforementioned issues with the other members. However, it seems more like a budding trust that’s growing to become like Oda and Dazai, but it still requires Dazai to take that step forward to further their trust. 

Dazai and Yozo’s View of the World

In this scene, Yozo had made a decision for immediate gratification, but that choice caused him insufferable pain afterwards — supporting his belief that the world was a “place of bottomless horror.”

This parallels two of Dazai’s statements: one from Dark Era and one from Dead Apple.

“Please, take me with you. Wake me up from this rotten world of a dream. Come on, come on, come on!” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

(Dazai wasn’t talking about himself here, but the allusion sets up a situation where he can talk about himself indirectly — I talk about it more in my other post here)

We don’t really get a reason for why Dazai is suicidal, but from this we can infer that it’s something more complex than he makes it out to be — something like an issue deeply rooted within the world, with no easy solution. 

One could guess that this was the result of an unfortunate decision (like Yozo), or the realization that the world was simply a terrible place (possibly because no one cared for him as a kid and he had Mori as a “parental” figure instead).

Yozo expresses his lack of understanding in the compassion of human nature, but Dazai (as we know) seems to understand other people perfectly, as least enough to manipulate them.

However, this forms somewhat of a paradox: Dazai understands people so well to the point that he can’t understand them.

Dazai understands every flawed aspect of a human being — the tendency to manipulate, lie, kill, etc. — most likely because of his past as a young child. “Human beings never did teach” him the hopeful aspect of human nature  — the ability to love and cherish others.

Shibusawa in Dead Apple reflects this mindset, but take note of what Dazai says: “You wouldn’t be saying that if you actually had friends” — clearly a reflection of Dazai’s personal experience, by knowing how important friends are.

Yozo’s deathly fear of society tames itself when he comes to the realization that society is really just made up of a bunch of individuals working for their individual benefit, so he has no reason to fear society as a whole.

I don’t believe Dazai has this same fear of society, but he does reflect this individualistic mindset in the way he acts. Often enough, Dazai doesn’t tell anyone about his plans and would rather manipulate people into following such plans, even when it would be easier to cooperate. He always takes care of conflicts by himself, and by his standard.

Yozo’s fear of society possibly manifested into Dazai’s ostracization from society. More speculation here, but → My guess is that Dazai was alienated not only as a genius isolated for his intelligence, but also for his ability. There seems to be some division between regular society and ability-users’ society, but I can see Dazai being rejected by both because he’s the antithesis to all abilities. 

Regular society would either shun him like other users or attempt to exploit him for their personal gain (possibly for his intelligence AND his ability), or ability-users would see him as a threat and/or menace to their safety.

When Yozo considers a double suicide with his partner, he comes to this unsure conclusion of whether or not he actually wants to go through with it.

This reflects what Oda believes about Dazai:

“I thought you and Dazai were very similar, unable to see the value of your life, hoping for death, hence jumping into a world of violence and fighting. But that’s not the case. That guy is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

At the end of the story, Gide and Oda are different from Dazai because they face an inevitable hopelessness. However, Dazai has a small spark of hope to live on that persists beyond the other two. 

This is represented in Dazai’s own statement to Oda, when Oda is set on walking to his death: “Go and rely on something, hope for something good to happen next, that something will definitely happen.” 

If anything, this sounds more like a plea to himself than to Oda, but it establishes an important point: hope is built upon the assumption that the future will treat your present desires well. Vice versa, hopelessness is built upon the expectation that the future will neglect your present desires.

It’s a bit wordy, so I’ll elaborate on. Right after Dazai says this line, they proceed to talk about their desires → Dazai wants to find a reason to live, so he joined the mafia; Oda wanted to become a novelist, so he didn’t kill anyone. 

Now, the difference between hope and hopelessness:

Oda feels hopeless because he expects that his present desire (to become a novelist) won’t be fulfilled in the future. By losing the one qualification that he felt he had to follow (not killing anyone), he no longer believes that he can become a novelist.

Dazai has hope because he assumes that his present desire (to find a reason to live) will be fulfilled in the future. He doesn’t know that for sure, but he persists onwards regardless of having full assurance or not. 

Dazai’s hope and trust in Oda brings him to where he is in the present, and takes him one step closer towards discovering his reason to live. 

[randomidiocyncrazies]

i know you like them both so yunichika and oda/aoki for the ship ask

thank you for giving me a chance to gush about these kids!!! they’re precious.... this got pretty long so imma put it under a cut

YuniChika, the main boys of 2.43:

• when or if I started shipping it:

tbh i didn’t really ship them when i read the first book... they’re the kind of pairing that i can see people shipping and i think it’s cute, but i’m not super invested in them as a romantic pairing. I think i was more sold about them as a ship in the second book, but i can’t quite remember if there was a specific moment that made me change my mind, or if it was a gradual process

• my thoughts:

i think the anime definitely played up the tension between them (allll the blushes lol), but i’m glad people are enjoying the YuniChika content XD they’re pretty cute!

also, i think they balance each other well and spur each other to become better—Yuni and Chika are both self-centered(?) in very different ways: Yuni lacks drive because he mostly wanted to please people so they’ll like him, while Chika has the opposite problem in that he acts like he doesn’t care what people think of him. 

but now Yuni is able to take a stand for his interest in volleyball and for Chika, and while Chika doesn’t really soften and still has a problem with not realizing how harsh he could be, he’s more willing to communicate his thoughts.

• what makes me happy about them:

boys reuniting! relearning how to have a relationship with one another! learning from past mistakes and trying to be better people together! HELL YEAH

• what makes me sad about them:

boys, please use your words to communicate with each other...

also, from Yuni’s perspective, it’s kinda sad when someone you used to know really well comes back into your life, but they’ve changed so much that they are essentially a different person... but of course they have a new opportunity to become closer now 😉 so i’m not that sad about it

• things done in art/fic that annoys me:

... there are fanworks for them????????? 

(on a more serious note, erasing their flaws to make them more likable... please don’t make Chika ‘secretly nice’ or whatever, the kid is blunt as hell, and not realizing how his words affect others is his biggest flaw. on the other hand, Yuni can still be a little spineless at times, and sometimes his priorities are. questionable.)

• things I look for in art/fic:

hm, i’d like a future fic about them as professional players! i think their inclination is to stick together (they’re a package deal!) but it’d be super interesting to read something where they’re on rival teams years down the line

EDIT: haha Chika actually transferred to Keisei High School after their first Spring Tournament, so he and Yuni have faced each other as rivals since then (2.43 next 4years). they’re go to the same university and are on the same team now though!

• who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

uh i don’t really have specific people for this, but Chika would probably have to be with someone who understands his love of volleyball (like Oda, but if Oda wasn’t their team captain and thus too much of a dad friend to qualify as a romantic interest), and someone who can inspire Yuni would be good for him

also, i know who i’d NOT be comfy about: the first book (and anime i guess) had this weird tension between Itoko and Yuni, COUSINS who BASICALLY GREW UP TOGETHER. i think(?) their weird whatever was mostly dropped in the 2nd book and wasn’t really made explicit, but like. what the hell. (i have no idea what happens beyond the 2nd book.)

• my happily ever after for them:

the YuniChika in college arc is being serialized rn, so in a way that’s already fulfilled? (i have NO idea what’s going on tho) 

in general i just hope they can play volleyball together until one or both decide not to, for whatever reason, and that they stay in each other’s lives and support each other even after they’ve retired from competitive volleyball. i think with Yuni’s personality he could be a good coach after getting more experience, and Chika... he’s really valuable as a strategist, but I think he’d always be a little brusque, so he’s respected but hard to bond with if he does take on coaching?

• what is their favorite non-sexual activity?

bold of you to assume Chika even cares about sex

anyway, they don’t go to movies for a romantic date night, they go watch volleyball matches. sometimes this backfires when Chika gets too frustrated at bad plays tho

and of course i will never pass up an opportunity to talk about Oda/Aoki, the main guys of my heart (my OTP for this series tbh):

• when or if I started shipping it:

they pinged on my radar when they were bickering in Ibara’s chapter, but i wasn’t super duper invested... and then I got to The Dog’s Perspective and the Giraffe’s Perspective (specifically The Kick™) and oh god i’ve never fallen so fast

• my thoughts: 

GOD WOW Aoki really loves Oda... even though objectively Oda’s height prevents him from being a super ace, he is the coolest, strongest super ace to Aoki. i think it’s beautiful that someone can see you as your best self even when you’re feeling shitty about yourself. Aoki knows that objectively Oda faces a lot of obstacles, and wants to support him as best as he can—not out of pity (pity would’ve burned out long ago), but because he really respects Oda’s passion and drive.

also, these two have unaddressed issues that they should talk about! Oda, i know you feel inferior but you are so much better than you think you are. please accept that Aoki really does respect you, and that you are worthy of it (or like, you don’t have to be ‘’’worthy’’’’ or ‘’’’’’deserving’’’’’’’’’’ of it, because it is Aoki’s choice to support you and play volleyball with you!!! it’s not something you gotta earn, it’s something freely and happily given to you)

(ahhhhhh i die when i think of them)

• what makes me happy about them: 

gosh i love their dynamic SO MUCH! Oda is exactly my type of character (passionate, determined, knowing that he can never be the best at what he’s passionate about due to factors he cannot control, trying to be kind and gracious but struggling with feelings of inferiority and jealousy, thinks of himself as a selfish person, a supporting character...) and Aoki’s devotion is really touching. 

again: even when you feel like crap about yourself, there’s someone out there who thinks you’re the best thing that happened to them.

there’s also the fact that Oda thinks the world of Aoki as well (to the point of feeling inferior, which is like... c’mon Oda :/ you are better than you think you are!) he trusts Aoki a lot, despite knowing his willingness to engage in, uh, underhanded methods

• what makes me sad about them: 

it’s their last year together, and they’d be approaching a new phase of their lives in different places... although Aoki offered to lower his rankings so they’d go to the same university, realistically they’ll go to different colleges, and most likely end up in different prefectures. (like, not only do i think it’s a Terrible Idea to give up your dream school so that you could stay with someone else, there is no way Oda would accept the offer without being crushed by guilt. something like that would actually ruin their relationship, which i think Aoki knows as well.)

there’s also a lot left unsaid between them at this point and i just want them to lay everything out between them and move forward together

• things done in art/fic that annoys me: 

the fact that there’s NONE >:[ what does a gal have to do to get some content for them???????

• things I look for in art/fic: 

at this point anything is fine.... it’s a desert out there and i’m dying

more specifically i’m Extremely Down for a get together fic; i personally only see them getting together after high school, at least several months (or even longer) studying in different prefectures and no longer able to see each other every day. (i mean... absence makes the heart grow fonder right?)

i’d also love to see Oda using Aoki’s first name, considering Aoki calls him “Shin” and all. Oda managing to surprise/fluster Aoki would be nice too.

EDIT: they’re both in the Kansai region (2.43 next 4years prologue). Oda’s revealed to be studying in Osaka, and assuming Aoki got into KyoDai, they should be around 2 hours away from each other by train? so visiting each other over short breaks would be cute! also, apparently Oda took a gap year before going to Osaka (2.43 next 4years Ch 1.2), so something set during that time would also be awesome :V

• who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

hm... if i had to imagine people well-suited to them, i’d say Aoki’s type is people who are straightforwardly passionate about their interests (Oda hooked him with his unbridled love of volleyball way back in their first year of high school after all), and I think Oda probably needs someone who is willing to indulge him a little (like Chika he can be pretty dang determined about what he wants, though without the single-minded intensity at the expense of everything else)

... this is just a roundabout way of saying i think they’re ideal for each other, especially if they resolve the problem of hiding things from the other

• my happily ever after for them: 

they get careers/hobbies they enjoy, and get a place together as boyfriends/husbands. no i will not hear any criticism of this idea

i can see Aoki working in the private sector (this guy is fine with ‘joking’ about blackmail after all!) after getting his law degree. this is super self-indulgent, but given his penchant of rooting for passionate but objectively disadvantaged entities, i think it’d be pretty awesome if he works for a smaller company that truly believes in their work, instead of working at a big firm pulling in big bucks.

while I’m not sure what Oda is canonically studying, I can see him going into sports education or sports therapy—i think he’d be really good at nurturing the talents of other athletes, and he’s good at rallying the team (Aoki pretty much says he’s the heart of the team in the epilogue of the first book, though Aoki’s kiiinda biased lol). i think it’d be really cute if Oda coaches a grade school team!

neither plays volleyball competitively after high school, but sometimes they watch matches for fun (esp if their ex-teammates are playing). Oda also makes Aoki come to his students’ matches if he doesn’t have work

EDIT: apparently Oda continues competing as a wing spiker in college, playing in Kaisai’s 2nd Collegiate Division (2.43 next 4years Ch 1.2)—Aoki probably watches his matches, even when he’s busy (and Oda probably chides him for neglecting his work, but they both know Aoki can manage his workload).

• what is their favorite non-sexual activity?

hm... idk, i think they’re the kind of couple who are cool with just chilling with each other doing their own work. like, Oda planning strategies for the kids he’s coaching while Aoki reads next to him, occasionally glancing over to make comments, stuff like that

also since Oda says they mostly talked about volleyball during high school, I can kinda see them finding something new they both enjoy after they get together? Maybe shounen manga, for something fun

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece 1000 - 10 Confessions as a One Piece Fan

Although we did the Initial Thoughts a week ago (a long week ago, damn) which you can read here I wanted to do something for the official release of One Piece’s 1000th Chapter At first it started out to be ‘10 things I wanna ask Oda that I don’t think we’ll ever know’ but I couldn’t think of 10, then I was gonna do a General opinion post about it, but didn’t want it to come off too negative. So I am settling on a confessions post, which will have elements of these anyway.

So as we have a happy 1000, let’s talk about some stuff I usually don’t get to talk about in One Piece

Note: There will probably be spoilers so make sure you’re up to date

10. Late Beginnings I think the first confession I have to have is that despite being older than One Piece I am unfortunately not a ‘Day One’ fan. In fact I think I mainly got into One Piece around mid-Whole Cake Island arc, before I had of course known about One Piece, it was a ‘Big Three’ anime after all but the most I knew about it was that they had a guy named Luff-y and another called Zorro, and it was about ‘Pirates who can’t swim’. My curiosity only developed when in a youtube deep-dive of anime clips I kept being recommended One Piece clips, and decided to give a couple a go. Most of them were Paradise arc stuff from the anime, the dub voices were mostly atrocious so I stuck to sub. I was happily surprised about the amount of fun and emotional weight these clips gave me, which led me to check where One Piece was as of current and backtrack from there (Ironically I did the same with Beastars). I did eventually get caught up around the time of the Mafia Meeting and I’ve kept up with each chapter since.

9. I mostly still prefer the Pre-Timeskip looks When I first felt this I thought it to be pretty controversial, nowadays not so much. I understand that Oda wanted to change the look for many characters but some of them did feel like a downgrade. I think the ones who got it worst was Franky, I think it’s the bulbous shoulders, Franky was no stranger to body horror from Enies Lobby to Sabaody but I kinda preferred that he still had a lot of his humanity rather than looking like an action figure. Otherwise I think Robin, Nami and Chopper had it bad, maybe Brook too but his was more fashion than design; the women in general took heavy hits by Oda’s proportion design - I mean I get it boobs are nice but proportions are what make them better - but Robin also underwent a skin color change in the anime, who pre-timeskip shaded her skin darker than in the manga and corrected it to match the manga, I think most of us would’ve preferred Robin to have kept the darker skin tone and possibly even the fringe, Robin’s hairstyle (and her fashion in general) can be hit and miss. I go to and fro about Nami, other than the general waist and bust adjustments I think it fits her character to use her sexuality a bit, she was no stranger to that pre-Timeskip, sometimes though I can’t tell whether I preferred her with short or long hair (Short was definitely better on Nojiko), I do think though that Oda could have her show less skin, she is still very pretty in outfits such as Water 7, Thriller Bark and even her fake pirate disguise in the early chapters/episodes. Finally with Chopper I think it was a bad move to alter the hat, that was a memento from his father figure Hiriluk, it’d be like if Luffy altered his straw hat or Zoro replacing Wado Ichimonji, I do also feel that the design for Chopper’s points while easier to draw don’t look as good, I think a lot of it is the scruff, or lack thereof in favour of smoothness, Walk Point is fine but Heavy Point, Guard Point and Horn Point seem less threatening, Monster Point especially too, in Enies Lobby he looked like a cave painting of menace and destruction, now he’s smoother and his scruff lighter so it’s not as good. The rest of the designs I’m quite fine with though.

8. I wish some markings stuck as well Tattoos and Scars seem to be optional in the One Piece world sometimes, unless it’s branded in molten heat like the Dragon’s hoof, Sun Pirates logo or an attack from Sakazuki. While Nami’s redesigned tattoo has stuck around and Luffy and Zoro’s scars persist, they are mainly character reminders/mysteries for huge moments in the story, and I kinda wish that some of the Straw Hats had littler markings, not just scars either. For instance, the Alabasta X on the arm, I really wish that stayed on each of the Alabasta characters’ arms since it was a symbol of friendship with Vivi, I also wish that Luffy kept the 3D2Y mark on his arm. In terms of scars though it would’ve been nice to see the characters a bit more battle-worn; Zoro’s ankle scars from Mr. 3 have faded and frankly he should be covered in little and long scratches given his fights with Mr. 1 and 2 years of Mihawk Training, Nami’s shoulder scar is hidden completely by her tattoo and she has no scars on her hand (from fake stabbing Usopp) or foot (from blocking Miss Doublefinger), Usopp himself could’ve used some small scratches because lord knows how there’s even still bones in his nose plus he was in murder island for 2 years, Chopper could at least have a small bald patch from when his shoulder was impaled and burned by Shura’s fire lance too, other than that there’s just Jimbei’s potentially missing shoulder scar from Marineford, though Oda has kept it obscured a lot so maybe that is still there. I understand why Oda doesn’t or forgets to, but it would’ve been nice if we lived in a vacuum of no time limits and whatnot.

7. Dead End Adventure is my favourite One Piece film I don’t know what it is, but Dead End Adventure just gives me the most fun out of the One Piece films. It has a good side plot and the side character Shuraiya was a blast of a character. Granted, Gaspard wasn’t too good of a villain side for actually harming the straw hat and his defeat was a bit underwhelming but the race, the settings it was all fun. It is not to say I don’t enjoy any other One Piece movies, I delight in the horror fuel of Baron Omatsuri - and that killer final punch - and Z’s tragic tale of a fallen marine, Strong World has that epic entrance to the party and Stampede also had some great team up moments and fantastic writing for Usopp and Smoker but Dead End Adventure always feels like the movie I could watch in any mood.

6. Skypeia and Fishman Island are some of my favourite arcs While I can understand the criticism of the Long Ring Long Land arc (especially since the anime dragged out the Davy Back Fight) it surprised me that people found Skypeia and Fishman Island arcs to be boring or less entertaining than previous arcs. Everyone has their preferences of course but I felt that Skypeia and Fishman Island were very powerful arcs especially with the theme of racism. Both had glorious setting design different to the common customs of the world we had seen, Oda made both Skypeia and Fishman Island feel very much lived in with its own budding culture and prejudices, with a villain who was dead set on destroying everything just to have their way. With Enel and his priests we were able to push several characters to newer limits, with Robin showing her fighting capabilities, Zoro learning his projectile slashes, Chopper having to endure fighting 3 priests and even Usopp growing all the more braver in the face of seemingly indestructible opponents and later gaining access to the dials. With Fishman Island it was different because it was basically a ‘flex arc’: where the main villain is meant to be a stepping stone rather than a threat but even then the symbolism of the enemy is what’s significant with them, the inherited hatred of humans. But at the same time we do learn new strengths from the crew; Red Hawk, the use of armament Haki, Skywalk, Hell Memories, Franky Shogun, Usopp’s pop greens, Nami’s weather eggs, Brook’s Soul Solid and his new DF power (which is possibly an awakening), as well as the first true steps of Jimbei joining the crew. The biggest strength of both arcs is the flashback as well, like Wano would in present time both arcs demonstrated that Oda can carry a story without his main characters and still keep it as captivating as ever, be it the friendship of Noland and Calgara, the tragedies of Otohime and Fisher Tiger or the life of Kozuki Oden and the man who would be Pirate King. And the impact of Fishman Island and Skypeia’s flashbacks both come back around in Dressrosa with the dwarves and Koala, and Fishman Island really does kick off the whole Yonko saga with Luffy challenging Big Mom, these arcs were definitely significant as they were entertaining with silly faces, strong fights, challenging themes, lorebuilding, good side characters and unique twists. And the overall message of healing from the past is still significant to this day. Through Wyper’s sacrifice and the Bell ringing to Jimbei giving blood and the Ryugu royals wanting to attend the Reverie, it is all very powerful stuff and while the arcs are similar in nature its their similarities that make me love them. Also the cover stories with Enel and Gedatsu on their own mini adventures are fun

5. I really want to know where Ghin is Ghin/Gin was such an interesting character in Baratie. Given that this was right before Arlong Park too so we had not seen a character conflict with different loyalties in One Piece until then, his gratitude to Sanji against his loyalty to Krieg created a fantastically complex character, but then he left and we didn’t hear about him ever since. Did he survive Krieg’s poison gas? Is he still with Krieg? One reactor of the episode said “maybe he’ll become the next Don” which was a concept I kinda really liked. The guy was pretty strong given that he had bested Sanji at that time, and since he didn’t appear in a cover story my mind does wonder. It’s not just Ghin either, a lot of the early East Blue characters kinda fell off the map; where is Morgan? Last we saw he was sleeping as he sailed past Jango, where is Kuro? For someone wanting to resume piracy after some years off he has been very quiet, where is Krieg? Only Arlong and Morgan were arrested and the latter escaped so the rest of these characters are a mystery. Recently in Wano I am still wondering where Law’s crew that he brought to Onigashima went, as well as Caribou - where is that slippery bugger?

4. Basil Hawkins is probably one of my Top 5 Supernova There’s something about that dude I gravitate towards, which makes it quite frustrating when the anime decides to add extra malice and creepy faces to him. Hawkins in Wano is still a victim, if anything he is simply a prisoner with better working conditions, if he thought he could survive escaping Kaido he would but he doesn’t so he won’t, he’s also gonna feel sore about Drake betraying him and letting Law cut him up, so it annoys me that Hawkins is seen like a villain. Not only does he have an extremely interesting Devil Fruit and creativity with it but he’s also audaciously confident in his fortunetelling, even Luffy ran from Kizaru at Sabaody while Hawkins looked at his cards while Kizaru was about to boot him to holy hell and said ‘nah I’m not dying today’, you gotta respect that moxie. At the same time though as a pirate he has that shades of grey element, he’s okay with letting some of his crew be disposable and we don’t even know to what end, he doesn’t look like a guy too concerned about being Pirate King or having riches. I also get a good laugh in that his hobbies are interior design, it makes me really want to see what the inside of his ship looks like. I think as a top 5, I have Luffy, Zoro, Law, Hawkins and then Kid, Bege, Killer and Bonney are not far behind with Apoo dead last because fuck Apoo. Kid and Killer are cool but I do feel like they need a bit more character, Bege earned some points in being funny and his care for his family in WCI and then there’s Bonney - I really hope we dig into Bonney’s significance, she feels really important and that mystery keeps her fresh whenever we see her. Drake too has only really started to become interesting because of SWORD, we could still see more fleshing but for now he is like bottom 3. It’s a shame Urouge has to be so low, he’s not bad but he’s not spectacular either, gotta admire his hobby of lovemaking though, you do you Urouge.

3. I don’t think that either of the ‘Most Beautiful Women in the World’ are the Most Beautiful Women in One Piece The in-world consensus seems to be that the Most Beautiful Women in the World are Boa Hancock, Komurasaki and Shirahoshi, and granted they are very pretty, but the most? Not for me. I mean, y’all know that Nico Robin, Nami and Vinsmoke Reiju exist right? Makino as well is stunning, as are Tashigi, Bonney, Margaret, Ishilly, Nojiko, Vivi, Rebecca, Pudding, Perona, Cosette and I’m sure a few others, realistically I think they could all give them a run for their money. I get how for those three their beauty is a plot point (Boa it’s drilling home Luffy’s obliviousness to it, Komurasaki it’s the swerve of her not being awful and for Shirahoshi it’s due to Vander Decken IX pulling the creep factor on her) but it would’ve worked the same way without the ‘world’ hyperbole I think. As much as Oda is iffy with proportions and rarely writes women with as much attention as the boys he sure knows how to make them attractive.

2. Some of my favourite individual Straw Hat scenes aren’t in Canon If I were to have a top 5 moments of each character, it may surprise you that some of it comes from movies or filler episodes, particularly Sanji’s flexing on Jessica in the G8 Arc (in fact, Jonathon is one of my favourite marines, T-Bone is in there too, but I don’t have room to fit that). Some are of course obvious because of how iconic they are but it does go to show that sometimes filler isn’t all bad. Since you’re probably curious: As a Group Goodbye Merry [Enies Lobby] Entering Shiki’s Palace [Strong World] Walk to Arlong Park [Arlong Park] Entering the Grand Line [Reverse Mountain] vs a Stuck Oars [Thriller Bark] Jimbei Giving Luffy Blood [FMI] Vagabond Drill on Big Mom [WCI] Leaving the Big Mom Pirates [WCI] Returning in Wano [Wano] Trying to argue with Luffy [FMI] Brook vs Chess Soldiers & Big Mom [WCI] Flashback [Thriller Bark] Breaking Mother Carmel’s Picture [WCI] Baron Corpse vs Dog Minks [Zou] Hysterically laughing at seeing Duval [Sabaody] Franky vs Senor Pink [Dressrosa] Playing with the Kids [Punk Hazard] vs Fukurou [Enies Lobby] Freedom Roller [Wano] Trapping Caribou in the Barrel [FMI] Robin  I Want to Live [Enies Lobby] Clutching Spandam [Enies Lobby] Throwing Usopp under the bus [G8] vs Yama [Skypeia] Clutching Tequila Wolf guards [Amazon Lily] Chopper Monster Point [Enies Lobby] Flashback [Drum Island] Chopper Man (& Minoru Kazeno) vs Usobada [Chopper Man Special] Don’t blow the whistle: Immediately blows whistle [Skypeia] Dr Chopper the definitely Human Doctor not wearing fake glasses [G8] Vivi w/ Karoo (she counts okay!) Goodbye speech [Alabasta] Escaping Bon Clay [Alabasta] Karoo Digging Luffy Out [Little Garden] Luffy Fan Club Meeting [Reverie] Slapping Usopp awake [Drum Island] Nami vs Kalifa [Enies Lobby] Standing by the kids [Punk Hazard] Saying goodbye to Bell-mere [Arlong Park] Helping Luffy vs Cracker via Lola’s Vivre Card [WCI] Luffy WILL be Pirate King [Wano] Sanji ‘I needed a light’ [Skypeia] Flexing on Jessica [G8] Saving the Vinsmokes [WCI] O-Soba Mask [Wano] vs Doflamingo [Dressrosa]  Usopp Alabasta speech [Alabasta] Awakening Observation Haki [Dressrosa] Sogeking Theme Song [Enies Lobby] vs Perona [Thriller Bark] Saving Luffy from the fire [Stampede]  Zoro Nothing Happened [Thriller Bark] vs Ryuma [Thriller Bark] vs Mr. 1 [Alabasta] vs Gyukimaru & Kamazo [Wano] “He’s sweeping our floors that fiend!” Test of Luck [Loguetown] Luffy ‘On the Sea, you fight Pirates’ [Wano] Red Roc [Wano] vs Katakuri [WCI] Haki clash with Doflamingo [Dressrosa] Punching Saint Charloss [Sabaody] I will have to say that for some characters I could go to 20 so if one’s missing it may’ve just missed the mark, such as Usopp and Nami vs Enel or Luffy putting back a Zombie or Stealth Luffy, I mean it is 1000 chapters as well as movies and filler episodes/specials...

1. I’ve learned quite a lot due to One Piece Since my fascination started with a deep dive of checks, I did start to learn a hell of a lot more not just about the franchise itself (you know it’s almost catching up BATMAN on total sales, which has been around more than 3 times longer?) but I also learned a lot about stuff Oda has used as a reference key; folklore, actual pirates, actual practices, the amount of detail Oda puts in is astounding. Which does lean into another thing I’ve learned, One Piece has changed the way I approach some of my ideas for writings and whatnot, before I would be afraid of either spoonfeeding or being too vague, Oda’s mastery not only in storytelling but character development, character quality and pacing has both helped and intimidated me a lot of times, I mean consider this: it took hundreds of chapters to get a proper backstory on Luffy, the main character, how unprecedented is that? Often I could fall into the trap of making sure you knew everything about the main character from day one but now I wonder about what’s necessary for the now and what can I work on. Another thing that both inspires and intimidates me is his drawing, I suck at colours and still do, and a lot of Oda’s attention to detail is incredible considering he’s gotta whip that out on the weekly, but at the same time you see some of his rough sketches and they’re pretty similar to a rough sketch of my own, so in a way it’s a ‘there’s still hope for you’ moment seeing those. I can’t say I’ve learned Japanese from listening to One Piece, but I have picked up on some stuff, some hiragana there, some phonetics here, I also appreciated some of the stuff kaizokuou-ni-naru does (I won’t tag them in case that’s a bit rude to do it out of the blue but check out their tumblr) when it came to deciphering the Japanese of chapters and the little puns and hints Oda puts in his native tongue. And of course any One Piece fan has learned one thing above all else: Patience. Oda himself included, it took over 20 years to get to 1000 chapters and we still have plenty of questions to ask, plenty of islands to see and thus plenty of chapters to go. So Straw Hats off to you Oda, and a happy 1000th!

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Alex ze Pirate “Mini Review” 1: About Male Abuse

Alex ze Pirate is in my opinion the WORST “comic” series Dobson has ever written up until this point (date for archives: June 2020). Sure, I agree with people that his “hot take” comics on Star Wars Fans, political issues and virtue signaling for the sake of making brownie points are worse overall cause they are uneducated propaganda that give insight in how much of a loathsome human being driven by spite he genuinely is, but Alex “offends” me as someone who enjoys fiction. It may not be the worst thing ever written, but it just does so many things wrong in terms of storywriting, storytelling, presentation and creating fictional characters, I can’t help but wonder what went wrong that Dobson even remotely thought this thing would be a “successful” comic series to establish him as a creator. Cause I can tell you, having read the likes of Don Rosa’s work on Disney, Hilda, Cleopatra in Space, Spirou, Asterix, One Piece (of which I will talk a lot in my next few posts) and many more, I can confirm by comparison that Dobson’s pirates as a published comic would have only one use on the public shelves: alternative for toilet paper during the COVID-19 epidemic

 Believe me, I would love to write an in depth analysis of everything wrong with Alex ze Pirate, from the lazy artwork up to even the publication history of this trainwrack. But doing so would take a lot of time and there is one individual part of this I think deserve at least extra attention. Something that in my opinion embodies quite well a lot of things I consider wrong with this comic. So before I am going over Alex in its entirety (and believe me, the day will come) let me just talk within the next few posts about one certain aspect and story of the comic, that genuinely got me to loath this comic to the core: Sam the Cabin Boy and “his” own individual story Dobson drew in three parts around 2010.  

For starters, lets talk who Sam is: Sam is one of the main characters in the comic and actually the first person who joined Alex and Peggy in the initial pages of Legends, the “original” form of Alex ze Pirate.

See, back in 2004, Dobson released Alex ze Pirate in form of a single comic volume called “Legends” which features Alex trying to recruit a crew. The thing is around 78 pages thick and based on what I saw pretty terribly paced. For comparison: When Luffy in One Piece got his crew together, he spend multiple volumes and at least three minor story arcs to get Zoro, Nami, Sanji and Usopp to join him. All while also giving us good insight into the kind of people his new crewmates were (especially Sanji’s and Nami’s backstory got to me), defeating the likes of Buggy and Captain Black, meeting Dracula Mihawk and defeating one of the biggest bastards Eichiro Oda ever created in form of Arlong. What is the story how Sam joins the crew? An orphanage organizes an auction and sells kids off. Which I assume was even illegal in pirate times, so kudos for already showing us how despicable the world of Alex ze Pirate is to begin with and how much it deserves to be nuked in some sort of alien invasion.

 Sam also doesn’t really get anything to do when he is introduced, just helping Alex escape on a small boat. Which is weird because he does not know her at all, she is just some stranger who bought him off and has no means to keep him in check, so why even bother following her and not let the mob get rid of Alex? 

Anyway, I wish I could tell more about Sam’s involvement in Legends, but I don’t have really more than some scans of it in the beginning and near the end. So I don’t know his involvement in the rest of the volume. I also can’t say how he plays out in volume two, because that does not exist at all. Cause for reasons I will never understand, Dobson just abandoned the idea of telling a “coherent” and ongoing story with Alex ze Pirate and instead went to his colored one page comics/strips with it, turning it into what some people called “Garfield with Pirates” (which I consider a genuine insult towards any newspaper comic out there, even something as Boondocks). And the first thing we see of Sam in “classic” Alex ze Pirate?

 The perverted dwarf of the crew showing of his shota underwear so that Alex and Sam stop bickering who is the cutest, leaving him embarrassed and humiliated.

 Which kinda sums up his role in the comic to a t. Cause this is what Sam is: He is the buttmonkey of the crew. And honestly, I would not have a total problem with Sam being a buttmonkey, if a) he wasn’t it all the time, b) he would actually do something to deserve any form of humiliation and c) if the other characters in this comic itself would not be some of the biggest assholes I have ever seen, who get away with abusing the poor lad.

 See, here is the problem: In a crew featuring a choleric homophobic soulless ginger

 A black rat person who wants to fuck the ginger even without her consent

 A furry abomination that has the same brain wavelengths as Chris Chan 

And a perverted dwarf who tries to impersonate Happosai from Ranma 1/2

 Sam is the only decent person in the entire crew. He works hard, he even questions the morality of his friends at times, he is honest, he is not perverted, almost good to the point of childish innocence and he has a very humble “goal” which is he wants to own his own piece of gold. Not even a big pile of treasure, just one single coin would be enough for him.

 So he is likeable and relatable. In fact, if anything goes by, he may have been one of the most popular ones in the comic. And yet he is the one who gets constantly abused by “fate” and his friends, because as Dobson would say it, he is supposed to be the buttmonkey. There is just one problem: People do not necessarily like buttmonkeys.

I can primarily speak only for myself here, but I hope what I have to say resonates with others too. See, I get it: A character who is the butt of a joke can be fun. Like Daffy in Duck Amuck. But there is a fine line where a character being humiliated for the sake of a joke is fun (and perhaps even deserved because of his own shortcomings or deeds/actions that make the humiliation sort of kharmic, like lets say Johnny Bravo) and a character being humiliated to the point it feels disproportional, unfunny and mean spirited if not outright sadistic, can be crossed. Take Meg Griffin from Family Guy for example whose only “purpose” for existing within the last 12+ years is to get shat on by her family and the writers. People have no idea for a plot with her, so what do they do? Have her father physically and emotionally abuse her, fart in her face for what is supposed to count as a joke and then add additional insult to it by acknowledging that they are only doing this, because they have no other idea for her and think abuse is fun. Let me just tell you from experience, it is not.

And that is essentially what Sam is: He is the Meg Griffin of Alex ze Pirate, used by his creator as the butt of very unfunny jokes, even if he does not deserve any of the things said or done to him. Want to see some examples?

 How about the description Dobson gives Sam within the introduction of one of his volumes, showing how little Dobson as the creator even cares for him.

Why is he called an unworthy “slob” if he is the only one who actually works? Shouldn’t a slob be someone like Dobson, who can’t even take care of himself anymore? Also the confirmation that he was kidnapped at the age of 16. And as we have no clarification how much time passed between Legends Vol. 1 and anything afterwards, that means that in a way Alex is a child abuser.

And now, here some examples by the rest of the cast. Like Uncle Peggy framing him for all sorts of his perverted actions and even trying to kill him for no apparent reason?

Alex trying to kill him with chicken pox…

…Destroying all his worldly posessions which is hilarious because he is a poor orphan…

…Essentially describing him as worthless because he was born with an Y-chromosome…

… doing the kind of thing Dobson claims women would never do to man, using their sex appeal to hurt them…

…forcing him to do some unnecessary and rather petty work for her in a physics defying manner (seriously, the way he holds the axe does not compute with how he swings it. Try it out yourself)

… stealing his food and just being a cruel sadistic cunt to him just because it is fun.

Which is “funny” in so far as that there are a few comics indicating she would jump his dick and ride it like a little pony if she could.

 By the way, Talus and Atea are not better. None of them calls Alex out on her bullshit on average, Atea uses Sam to trigger traps in one story arc…

And Talus, the closest to a “friend” he is supposed to have, once for no apparent reason made him dig through his litterbox

And don’t get me even started when the characters decide to gang up on Sam, to the point he gets sexually harassedor is called to be less worth as a human being than the dirt you find in your belly button

Fuck’s sake, even in fanart everyone gangs up on him, even the freaking big bad of the story everyone is supposed to hate or be afraid of

 Bottom line, Sam is an abuse victim played for laughs in this comics. And just to clarify, I do not think this was Dobson’s intention. But if the character is undeservingly the butt of jokes for the majority of over 120 strips, it turns nasty. The way Sam is treated, I just find disgusting and indictive of just how unlikable any other character in this comic is to the point I do not want to see this being turned into a proper “franchise”. And I assume others were disgusted by it too, cause Dobson eventually decided to make a story more or less addressing the treatment Sam receives, while also attempting to prove that deep down the assholes with starring roles in this trainwrack care for him. How did this play out? Well, I am going to talk about it, so likely not well. If you want to see the details, grab yourself some popcorn and take a toilet break before we tackle part 2 of this thing.

[infriga]

Monkey D Luffy!

Sexuality Headcanon: Luffy is ace/aro as FUCK. Asexual icon.

Gender Headcanon: Luffy identifies as a guy and he definitely cares about being manly, but his ideas of being manly seem to be based less on him wanting to be a man and more on him just liking manly things because he thinks they’re cool. Aside from that he’s completely gender blind so I doubt he thinks or cares about it much.

A ship I have with said character: What ship DON’T I have with Luffy. He’s the kind of character who can be shipped with basically anyone because he has chemistry with most people. My favourite are probably SanLu, ZoLu, and KataLu, though I’m also fond of LawLu.

A BROTP I have with said character: My top ships are also my top Brotps, but I also love his friendship with Bon-chan, and his relationship with Tama is also really cute.

A NOTP I have with said character: Tama, his grandpa, Dadan, uh, there are so many characters in One Piece god, probably the really shitty villains like Spandam or St Charles because they don’t deserve him. I prefer his brothers as a brotherly relationship. Blackbeard. Oh Akainu for sure, Akainu doesn’t deserve to be loved at all. Most of the other characters are fair game tho.

A random headcanon: Luffy is secretly instinctively good at math but has a hard time articulating it out loud so most people don’t realize it. His culverin attacks in G4, especially as Snakeman, basically require a hefty calculating ability with angles and stuff to be as accurate as they are, and he was able to determine how many meals he missed in an instant when he woke up in Alabasta so canon supports this. He’s really good at judging distances and stuff in general too so it fits in my opinion. But he’s so dense most of the time about other stuff that no one would suspect it.

General Opinion over said character: I think Luffy is a more complex and interesting character than most people give him credit for. A lot of people mistake being a simple person with being a simple character, but there’s a reason why it’s so hard to get a good handle on his characterization when writing him. Part of it is that Oda almost never shows Luffy’s thought process, which leaves a lot of his actions up for interpretation. It also means we can’t really delve into how he thinks like we could for other main characters who tend to do a lot of thinking that the audience can see. Luffy does do a lot of thinking himself, but we don’t get to see it, we just get to see him pondering something before making a decision. He often seems to come to a quick conclusions which makes people think he doesn’t take much time to think, but too many of his decisions had to have been thought through beforehand so that means he does often put a lot of thought in to plenty of his decisions, even if it doesn’t seem like it. He's definitely a quick thinker, but he does think.

One arc that really showcases how Luffy isn’t just a singleminded idiot is Water 7. We get his reaction to finding out that Merry can’t be fixed, where he insists that they won’t ever leave someone behind, that they refuse to accept that her journey with them is over, but then the shipwrights counter that by telling him that he basically has to choose between the ship and his crew, because they won’t be making it to the next island if they keep sailing on Merry. And this obviously hit him hard. Later when we end up in the cabin with Usopp, Luffy has decided to buy a new ship. Usually Luffy makes choices based on what he wants, and does whatever he can to do it no matter the obstacle, but here he’s taking his role as captain seriously, and instead making a decision for the good of the crew, whether he wants it or not. This is where it gets really interesting to me. We the audience know he’s just as upset about leaving Merry behind as Usopp, but Usopp has been through a lot of shit in Water 7, and is blaming himself for losing the money they were going to use to repair Merry, so Luffy tries to put on a happy face to keep Usopp from feeling bad. This is very out of character behaviour for Luffy clearly, he’s never been the type to hide how he feels, but the decision itself makes sense in context. He’s not acting based on how he feels, he’s acting based on what he thinks is best for his crew. That moment, where he masks how he feels because he’s trying to do what’s right as captain based on what he thinks will help the crew and Usopp, is reflected again at the end of the post-Enies Lobby arc, when he wants so badly to let Usopp back on the ship, but he knows he can’t until Usopp apologizes, because he realizes that Zoro was right, crewmembers can’t be allowed to leave and rejoin the crew so easily without consequence if they show a lack of respect for Luffy’s decisions. So he stands there and sweats and is so obviously unhappy about it, but he waits anyways. These sorts of moments are the ones where I want to point at him and say “there’s more to him than just meat and punching things!” We see another good moment at the end of the WCI arc, when Jinbe asks Luffy to go on without him so he can stay and help his former crew. Luffy absolutely doesn’t want to leave Jinbe behind. They finally just got him to join their crew, they just spent the whole arc trying to rescue another crew member, and they’ve had friends die for that cause. The last thing they want to do is abandon Jinbe, leaving a crewmate behind is one of the things he would never be willing to do, but Luffy has to make a choice. He could order Jinbe not to go, but he respects Jinbe, and he doesn’t want to take that choice from him. Jinbe’s former crew is like family to him. But they can’t stay and help Jinbe either, because after everything they went through to get Sanji back it would be an insult to stay when the fishmen are putting themselves at risk to give the Strawhats a chance to escape. The best thing he can do is give Jinbe the order to survive and return. “Even if you die, don’t die.” aka “Don’t let even death stop you from coming back to us.” He tells Jinbe with all the authority of a true king that he is Jinbe’s captain now, and Jinbe is bound to obey his orders. There are so many other scenes I could point to for this topic but these ones are some of my favourites and if I went over all of them this would probably get way too long.

Yeah, basically it bothers me when people say Luffy doesn’t have any complexity as a character, he absolutely does, you just have to look for it. He’s not giving up all his intricacies easily, you have to work for them. I could talk all day about this topic but I’ll stop here for now lol.

[divincta]

DAZAI INFO DUMP

( mentions of suicide, violence, murder, mental illness, abuse, mentions of self-harm, piercings and tattoos, etc. )

GENERAL

Name: Dazai Osamu

Alias(s): Twin Dark (former, alongside Chuuya Nakahara), The demonic prodigy of the Port Mafia guerrilla squad, The youngest executive in Port Mafia history

Nickname(s): Mackerel

Birthday: June 19th

Age: 22

Ability: No Longer Human

Gender: Demigender / Demiboy ( he / they ) ( AFAB )

Sexuality: Homosexual

Height: 5’11

Like(s): Suicide, Alcohol, Crab, MSG

Dislike(s): Dogs, Chuuya Nakahara

BACKSTORY / HISTORY ( BASICS )

Dazai was born to a family that heavily was cemented into the idea of “ability breeding” ( marriage that is carefully picked in order to insure powerful abilities in children ) but when his ability manifested his family was sickened at the thought that in the end his ability was the ability to nullify other abilities

His family often referred to him as a “curse” or “stain” on the family tree, throwing out any and every piece of his existence once his ability showed itself.

Dazai was kept locked away from his siblings ( his younger sisters not even knowing he existed and his older brother was to never speak of him ).

His father was brief acquaintances with Mori Ogai and shared his frustrations about his child’s ability, which in the end piqued Mori’s interest. Mori offered to take him off of his family’s hands and that’s when Dazai was brought into Mori’s custody at the age of 7 years old.

While protoge to Mori, Dazai was broken down and rebuilt into the perfect mentee and successor to Mori, almost too perfect at times. There were times where Mori would just punish Dazai if he thought he was being just a little too perfect.

When Oda died 4 years ago, Dazai never left the Port Mafia, feeling as if it was his fault and following the paths of “punishments” and “being a blight on those around him” he knew that leaving the Port Mafia was not an option but he no longer had a want to surpass Mori, and Mori could see that in his eyes after Oda’s funeral and burial.

MENTAL STATE

Dazai has Bipolar Disorder I, MDD ( Major Depressive Disorder ), GAD ( Generalized Anxiety Disorder ), BPD ( Borderline Personality Disorder ), and C-PTSD ( Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder )

Dazai has a lot of suicidal tendencies and they tend to come in moments of impulsivity or while he’s mid-manic episode but he does have a few that happen outside of those moments.

Over the years Dazai has begun to have a dependency on alcohol and Dazai Post! Oda dying does tend to have a lot of Alcohol-Related Psychosis Hallucinations of Oda around Bar Lupin or while he’s in his apartment ( he tends to talk to him a lot )

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE / HIS SURGERIES

Dazai let his hair grow out a bit after Oda died, mostly because any sense of self-care went out the window

Dazai is blind in his right eye completely due to a time he got kidnapped ( he was around 11 / 12 ) and he had gasoline poured down the right side of his body, though it splashed into his left eye in the struggle.

In his right eye he went completely blind, his eye chemically burned. It had to be removed and he has a false eye but most of the time he finds it really uncomfortable so he just keeps it covered up without the fake eye in there ( Dazai tends to keep it covered either with bandages or with an eye patch of sort in his later years it just depends on the occasion )

In his left eye he is partially blind / has very bad eye sight on. He still has depth issues at times if he isn’t familiar with a space, that tends to be why he always has someone with him when he’s in a space he doesn’t know well. It is most likely to happen that Dazai will eventually lose his sight in his left eye as well.

Dazai’s body is covered in scars, some self-inflicted others just from the line of work within the Port Mafia. The two worst of Dazai’s are ones that span from his mid-thigh to near his rib cage and one that is around his neck.

The one at Dazai’s rib cage to mid-thigh is from the incident when he was kidnapped at 11 / 12 years old and was in the end set on fire by his capture ( reference )

The one around Dazai’s throat goes fully around his neck. It is from an incident where in a two week manic episode it came to a close when Dazai tried to hang himself at the age of 16. He was luckily saved by Hirotsu but he has a permanent indentation and discoloration from where the rope was around his neck.

Dazai had his top surgery when he was 17 years old, before that he tended to bind unsafely even though he knew how to do it properly ( it just didn’t do quite the job he wanted )

He does have a few scars from his unsafe binding on both his sides, they are a lot like little welts that cover his sides from where materials he used would cut into his skin.

Dazai has several piercings and tattoos he got when he was 19 / 20. The piercings he has are several ear piercings, his tongue, dual hip dermals, and his nipples. Most of his tattoos are serpent and dragon type designs that cover most of his smaller scars ( but a good portion of his skin ).

SEEING HIS YOUNGEST SISTER AGAIN

Dazai’s sister reached out to him when he was 16 years old, having found information on him in their father’s desk / office

Dazai was very hesitant to meet his sister but agreed to it, slipping out in the quietest part of the night without telling anyone ( especially not telling Mori knowing he would not approve or worse could inform his father ) however, like most things, Mori is very aware of what is happening

Him and his sister met in a park and it was fairly civil at first, that was until Dazai’s sister brought up the Port Mafia and Mori, almost accusing Dazai of leaving their family for the Port Mafia ( that was the cover story their parents told to everyone else / the younger siblings in order to cover their hand in what they’d done )

This was enough to sort of snap something within Dazai, a sort of barricade of where all of his emotions concerning both his family, Mori and even his feelings of himself. This leads to him attacking his sister, blinding by both built up emotions and rage, ending with her dead and him making his way back to his apartment

When he got back to his apartment it was clear that he wasn’t in his right mind, Chuuya being the one sent to his apartment and being the one to find him desperately trying to rid himself of blood soaked bandages

It’s only weeks later that Dazai tried to hang himself and was found and saved by Hirotsu.

OTHER

Dazai does experience a good amount of gender dysphoria on his worst days.

He has been on testosterone for quite a bit of time but he hasn’t had bottom surgery yet, only hesitating because part of him doesn’t believe he deserves the happiness of being who he really is inside and out.

Not very many people know that Dazai is trans, it’s something he never really felt the need to share. The only people who know are Mori, Hirotsu, The Executives, and Chuuya. It’s not something he talks about with people unless he trusts them.

Dazai doesn’t like dogs because he father had two of them and the sounds of them barking outside of his room as a child makes him very nervous around them

[monkeydluffy19920]

Respond: Is Sanji a pervert?

In reference to/inspired by [x] @cruising-on-pirate-dreams

It’s always been an interesting topic to see how people interpret Sanji’s character, in general. Usually, if he is not liked in fandom, he is seen as a hardcore pervert who thinks nothing more than that and all the arguments are based on his will to peep women and his nose bleedings. Then, there are other thoughts, that consider that his ero- kappa side is partly an exaggerated gag made by Oda-sensei.

Ever since the beginning, it's been fun to ponder the reasons behind the characters’ behavior and Sanji is not an exception. Actually, he was one of the characters I didn’t completely like in the beginning, because back then, during the elementary school, it was hard to understand why would someone fall in love with (almost) every lady they meet. Then slowly his characteristic started to open more to my blind eyes and the more I saw the soft side of Sanji and how much he puts effort on his friends, the more reasonable it was to see why he is so popular among fans. It seems like the hate he gets is mostly because people pay attention to his lust-side and examine it only from one point of view.

There was a very interesting analyze written by @cruising-on-pirate-dreams about Sanji’s personality and tendency to be called pervert. In comparison, the fellow fan used Absalom and there were good points to be lifted up:

Absalom without a shame used his devil fruit skills to lurk on both Nami and Robin and never gave a rat’s eye whether Nami or Robin liked his forceful style to approach them. Both of them were clear objects to him that he licked and touched without permission, he even said openly that he likes Nami more because she is weaker in his eyes and later he kidnapped her and made her unconscious so he could marry her by force.

Sanji has a tendency to put himself into the submissive position, especially when it comes down to interacting with women. Yes, of course, he has this “I need lady~!”-kind of side but it’s remarkable how the more familiar/closer the woman is, the more submissive he actually is, in other words, he never puts himself above the ladies, especially when it comes down to interacting with Nami and Robin.

Before the Whole Cake Island arc was published, I’ve written in Reasons to love Mugiwaras - Sanji - post that I actually do believe that despite the reputation and what he gives out of himself in public (being tough and ladies man), deep inside he is actually very broken and vulnerable and once more of his past was revealed after the time skip, the more sense all the headcanons and speculations started to become logical.

The flashbacks in the Baratie arc showed that he was on edge of dying after the shipwreck which gave a little pieces of information about him but after the Germa66 and Sanji’s links into it were revealed, it was even more clear that he indeed had a terrible and traumatic childhood and suffered from great amounts neglection and abuse by his biological family until he escaped. The new supplement/update of the background story finally gave a further and more detailed explanation of why Sanji doesn’t see self-worth in himself and always puts others in front of him. He has put himself under the target line for his nakamas many times without caring how his own life and his dreams of finding All Blue would be thrown into waste if the worst-case scenario happened.

Thankfully, there was someone from the family standing by his side and therefore Sanji grew very close to his mother. Unfortunately, she passed away early due to the illness (that actually protected Sanji to become an emotionless killing machine like his brothers) and then he was again left all alone in his personal hell.  Sora’s death might’ve left a certain gap in his heart. Perhaps the reason he treats women kindly (especially the ones he really adores) has roots in Sora’s way to support Sanji and maybe inside his core, he decided to continue sharing her mother’s legacy of kindness. He might appear like a tough guy who swears like a sailor but only the fact that he has saved an enemy from starvation tells that Sanji truly has a heart of gold, just like Sora.

It’s highly likely that behind the scenes and below the surface,  Sanji could be actually looking for similar acceptance and unconditional love he got from his mother. But why then do all that ero-kappa stuff and womanizing when being around women? Mainly I still believe that it’s a continuous character gag just like Zoro’s poor sense of direction or Nami’s greediness but somehow it feels that there might be logical reasons behind this behavior.

Of course, it’s easy to interpret and only think that he is just a lustful pervert from the fact that his locker is full of girl magazines and that especially during the crew’s reunion after the time skip when it felt like Sanji couldn’t control himself with his nose bleedings.

However, if one takes a look to past 20 years One Piece has existed, it’s remarkable to see how much Sanji actually does pay respect to women, especially towards his crewmates. He doesn’t only give compliments on their appearance (i.e how cute they look) or use polite suffixes (”chan” and “san”) while communicating with them, he also praises openly and sincerely their skills and how strong they are. So, it’s obvious that Sanji definitely sees more than just their bodies.

Then to body swap, what @cruising-on-pirate-dreams wrote as well in another post. It’s easy to be seen that Sanji was happy that Law happened to swap his and Nami’s bodies and yes, he took peeks and adored the body features. However, because of this ero kappa-gag, one perspective is easily being left out of the spotlights (if readers didn’t pay enough attention): He did take good care of Nami’s body and he was aware how his actions can affect on her body and reflected on them many times. He smoked in her body but felt bad for doing that. Now it could be easily argued: “If he cares about Nami, why did he smoke in the first place?” but the answer is simple, he is a chain smoker and besides, Nami herself did give him the permission and the cigarettes in Punk Hazard.

Well, despite Nami’s warnings, he did take her jacket away when she wasn’t looking but he had a good reason (Kinemon’s torso was underwater and he happened to be the best swimmer out of the options) and besides, he apologized, just like he apologized for harming her lungs with his cigarettes. He also kept constantly worrying whether the diving would be too much for Nami’s body under the circumstances.

So, if Sanji really does only see Nami as a sexual object he wouldn't have feel an urge to apologize for things he did when their bodies were swapped. If she’d only matter to him for lustful reasons and for good looks, he could have taken the advantange on her by taking everything away and do more exploring (if he was alone) but he didn’t because obviously, they were busy solving the mess Caesar made but mostly, (putting aside the comedy-reasons) he knows that going further would have been way too disrespectful and would have violated their nakamaship (and would be against the fact that he has protected her purity back in Thriller Bark and tried to avoid to stain her) especially if he later got caught somehow and it would anyway make no sense if he wanted to hurt her in any way intentionally. 

So, at least for me especially Punk Hazard was an arc that proved that despite the comedy, Robin and Nami are clearly not objects for Sanji and although he surely has felt some lust towards them, he respects the boundaries treats them well and speaks with much softer tones to them and even uses certain suffixes while addressing them. 

Someone asked the reasons behind the suffixes and whether there are any deeper meanings  Oda’s response was that he was basically inspired by his older staff members who wanted to be treated as they were younger. Zeff taught Sanji chivalry and perhaps this detail of the story was really based on Oda’s real life.

Back to the previous topic, why is Sanji portrayed as a pervert? Well, mainly for sure to make balance with comics on heavy storylines and because being interest in opposite-sex openly seems to be part of who he is but then thinking below the surface, what if those wild nosebleeds and dreams about peeping women are all actually just a mask of him? Yes, he does have a crush easily on women he meets and flirts with them but what if there is more than that?

Actually, one of the headcanons I’ve had for years is that Sanji has experienced a traumatic loss that has given him the deep fear of losing the others he holds dear (and that’s why he'd be so sacrificial) and Whole Cake Island sort of supported that thought. It can be possible that because he was strongly bullied by his siblings and despised by his own father (being called a weakling and so on), this all has stained his self-confidence below zero for good and it still will take time to see that he is worthy. Hopefully, Luffy’s words back in Baratie and the retrieval team’s efforts and experiencing his lowest point before the tea party opened his eyes for good and gave his character the chance to grow.  

Like many fans agree, the only place where Sanji has complete confidence is anywhere that is related on his profession, cooking because Zeff convinced that the “chibi-Nasu” really does have potential in becoming a chef, otherwise, he can be surprisingly insecure although he doesn’t show it up openly, perhaps he hides it with this kind of actions.  On top of that, Zeff raised Sanji to respect women so if he really was a pervert and didn’t care about what his foster father taught, then perhaps he would act more like Absalom. However, (again setting the comical aspects aside), I think Sanji himself knows where to cross the line when it really comes down to women. Most likely Zeff wouldn’t approve if Sanji really thought that women are just objects of lust and Sanji probably doesn’t want to disappoint (even unconsciously) someone who saved him from certain death and raised him as his own child. 

Only Oda-sensei knows completely his character and knows the answers but Sanji’s behavior makes me wonder that what if actually at some point he has created kind of an “alter ego” to protect himself? What if he built himself a personality full of confidence so no one would see that deep inside, there is a fragile boy and a wounded man? Well, this is all just speculation so it’s hard to say whether there is any truth behind these thoughts or not but shortly said, Sanji is a great character and there are definitely reasonable reasons for his behavior, in general. However, he indeed is stuck in these ero kappa- gag and it’s sometimes a shame indeed that some (potentially shippy) moments are ruined by those weird faces or when he goes too lustful but on the other hand, it might be just Oda’s way to keep the series’ focus on the main points instead of romance

It’s really hard to believe that Sanji would actually be a pervert as in the term is officially described but once again, it’s all about interpretation. However, if one takes a closer look to the comparison between Sanji’s and Absalom’s interest in Nami (and other women) and comparing it to the facts of what perversion is in terms of human behavior,  it can be easy to tell that out of these two, Absalom is the true pervert.

[nad-zeta]

Matchup Duo 💎

HOWDY, not sure if matchups for ikeseng are open but here i go anyway?¿ ´･ᴗ･`

-I’m a Leo, and a combination of ENFP/ENTP (if that helps with characterization), but I’m becoming more ambivert as the days go by. But I still act like a crackhead (making up new words, making random sound effects out of boredom and roasting people playfully, having airhead moments, for examples) and a lot of people irl do get put off at how “obnoxious” I can get, but I do know when to “flip the switch” and become serious/quiet.

-I have really low standards for humor idk I laugh at my own jokes it’s honestly astounding, but cursed memes/images are somethin else💀 Dark jokes are always open in my ally👀

-Ironically, I canNOT stand horror, I will legit be so paranoid or freaked out and start overthinking and just cry and DIE—

I’m very open, almost TOO open, but ask me literally anything and I’ll usually tell everyone my honest opinions/thoughts, but I know how to deliver words tactfully and articulately. Debating, (public) speaking, writing, and understanding concepts are my strong suits; likewise I suck ass at math (I have no idea how I ended up in Calc BC ap, I just— 😭)

-Speaking of writing, I write poems whenever I feel like it, I have a whole collection HAH. My love of expressing comes from my tendency to play the devil’s advocate in interpreting and arguing for almost all perspectives in topics. So you can probably guess how I don’t get offended really easily and welcome both playful and serious banter (despite the crackhead persona, I’m very observant of people and their values expressed and how they tick, so I know when to back off especially when they get uncomfortable with my aggressive debating/personality). Need advice? I can use what I’ve gathered from different people and help anyone in their particular situations.

-And speaking of expression, I love fashion and makeup! I love being able to express myself through use of presentation and have fun while doing it! hehe (k-fashion, asian beauty 👀) HECK YEAH I’M DOWN FOR SHOPPING—

-I like to dance yeehaw, and I was on a competitive dance team (well that was before when the corona hit the milly rock a little TOO hard and put all the dancers out of commission😔🤝😭) I’ve also been in my own highschool’s dance club for 4 years!!

-I’m a console gamer :0 Big fan of winding down with video games, but books are the best if games aren’t an option.

-Music is a huge part of my life; I played the flute and the viola for years before and been surrounded by music through dancing as well; while I’ve been in a choir before, my vocals aren’t stellar oof, but at least I’m not tone-deaf.

-Can’t cook to save a life ooooof, that’s where my airheadness REALLY kicks in. I literally burn myself making instant :>

-I’m not phased by sexual innuendos/conversations/kinks because I see them objectively as unique characteristics of every person, but I’ll crack up at a sex joke or a cringe flirt line with friends. And like I’ve said, I’ll share them myself without objection if ANYONE asks. But the moment someone actually TRIES to make a move on me (like what!!¡¿), I’ll first play it casual but then bolt for the door because it’s hard for me to actually imagine that ANY guy would see me in a romantic light LOL but i’d get used to the advances quick and if it’s someone i liked back, i’d tease them the same or raise up the antics ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

Hi, there, dear! <3 Can I just say u sound like a super cool person! Anyway here is your matchup dear, I hope you enjoy it! And thanks for waiting soooooooooo long! ^_^

So I match you with………… Masamune

Selfie Match up

The first time this boi meets you he is ecstatic, finally someone fun to liven up this boring place.

You scream fun and outgoing

Masamune is already imagining all the fun adventures the two of you can go on and he hasn’t even talked to you yet!

He is absolutely captivated by those big dark brown eyes. 

Those big bright intelligent eyes are all telling of the playful mischief the two of you could get up to together.

He absolutely loses himself in your deep warm, captivating eyes, they remind him of home, they are deep and rich like the soil of his home town, soft and comforting, while busting with endless life and energy

HE is absolutely dazzled by the way your soft strands of earthy hair moved so freely in the wind. It low key reminds him of his own wild free personality

If he ever had to imagine his perfect woman you would be it.

You have the same vibe as playful kitten having endless hours of fun, and boy oh boy all Masa wants to do is join in.

He wishes nothing more than to boop your cute nose

His brain goes haywire, all he wants to do is kiss those soft lips of yours

Masamune continues to eye you from the corner of the council room. Gosh if love at first sight did exist than this would describe his exact feelings towards you.

Match up part

You were named as the new princess of the Oda forces and was forced to sit through the rest of the boring war council. It had been 30 minutes in, and you were already losing your mind from boredom, that is when the one-eyed dragon passed you note from across the table. You giggled a little at the joke and wrote back on of your own. The two of you passed notes back and forth, every joke or remark you read made you want to break out in laughter. As the council progressed, the two of you got rowdier and rowdier and the both of you were now making strange noises. You were making all sorts of weird sound effects, and Masamune was howling in laughter. TBH they were so funny even Nobunaga couldn’t help but laugh. Everyone was having a good time except Hideyoshi “Okay that’s the third time the two of you have disturbed the council”. Hideyoshi started lecturing you and Masamune about not disturbing the council any further when Nobunaga announced that the council was over. The two of you couldn’t help but laugh in victory. The two of you continued your conversation in which you were playfully roasting each other. Masamune was right; you really were going to be a lot of fun.

Masa love chatting and spending time with you and honestly, he loved the fact that you understood and laughed at all his jokes. What he loves the most is times just before your about to deliver the punch line to a joke, but you burst out laughing for 20 minutes before you can even get it out. And once you finally coke out the punchline between laughs, you continue to giggle at your hilarious sense of humour for another solid 30 minutes. Masamune can’t help but laugh at you laughing at yourself. When the two of you goofballs are around its always a fun time, but beware of some occasional dark humour i.e. the two of you got scolded one day for joking about some dark topics in front of the kids *cough* Mitsunari *cough*

The first night you arrived, and Masamune barged into your room, and Masamune being Masamune, ignored any boundaries of personal space and started to page through one of your books that were laying on your writing desk. It was your fashion portfolio that caught his eye. He loves all the different looks and the way the colours and patterns seemed to complement each other. You had explained to him that you were heavily into fashion and makeup and considered it as part of your self-expression. Masamune smiled his big cat-like smile at you asking if you wanted to meet up with him tomorrow. You honestly didn’t have anything better to do, so you agreed.

You and Masamune spent hours in the market looking at different fabrics, clothes and makeup products. Everything was so different in the past. After spending the whole day shopping your grab both of Masamune’s hands in your, you beam up at his with the brightest smile stating that you had a fun idea. Masa is pretty much keen for anything, so he goes along with your strange idea. The two of you make your way back to his manor. And that is when the two of you hold a fashion show, to show off your new clothes and accessories the two of you bought. It was a lighthearted fun game, filled with banter and giggles. It had actually become somewhat of a tradition now for the two of you to do this little fashion shows in his room after a long day of shopping. You would always bust out laughing at the strange poses Masamune would do. 

Another fun activity the two of you have adopted is poetry slams. Both of you would spend the week writing your best poems and then present them to each other. Just like the fashion shows, these evenings are also always filled to the brim with laugher and banter. The two of you had gotten to know each other fairly well like this, as sometimes the theme of the poems would be dark and depressing, and after the two of you would discuss the emotions behind it. U guys would in those cases always be there for each other lending a friendly ear to listen to the others problems.

Needless to say at this point, Masamune was head over heels for you and somewhere in between the fun poetry slams and fashion shows, his flirty jokes stopped being jokes. He was serious about you. One night he actually kissed you, you were honestly so shook, you ran, you legit sprinted away. Little did you know the tiger was on your heel running after you. He caught you and tacked you to the ground. The 30 second run actually gave you time to sort your feelings, as you too had realized that you had also fallen for the one-eyed dragon. He stared into your eyes questioningly, and that’s when you snaked your hands behind his neck and pulled him down to return the kiss.

The two of you made such a sweet couple. After work, Masamune would always be on the hunt for his kitten to spend time with you. He was super shocked when he heard singing coming from the kitchen. He snuck up to the kitchen and peeked inside. He had to chuckle when he saw you singing your heart out and dancing like nobody was watching. He never knew you could sing and dance like that, he watched you for a while utterly awestruck by you. He was pulled out of his reverie when he smelt something burning and saw a cloud of smoke coming from the oven. You panicked at seeing the smoke and swiftly opened the oven. You didn’t even think when you took the baked, well-burnt goods out the oven without mitts or a cloth. You had legit burnt your hands to a crisp. 

Masamune rushed to your side to evaluate the damage. He got a bag and filled it with ice, putting it on your burnt hands. He then proceeded to rub some medicine on the burns and wrap your hands “Best leave the cooking to me from now on Kitten”. He then took over from where you left off, making you the best meal you had ever tasted. You sat on the kitchen counter to keep him company. The burnt buns and your burnt hands were long forgotten, as the two of you were laughing and chatting away. 

Now, whenever Masamune cooked, you would sit in the kitchen with him and keep him company. The two of you would laugh and dance together in the kitchen. It was always so much fun spending time with him, you especially love it when he sings in his most false off-key voice it is honestly hilarious. You couldn’t help but think he complimented you perfectly. He could cook when you couldn’t even make toast successfully, and you could sing beautifully, while he sounded like some cat in pain.

Another thing Masa absolutely loves, is to sit and listen to you play the flute or viola. The soothing music and the amount of love and emotion you pack into the songs as you play, washes away all the stress and tiredness from his day. He could sit four hours and hours just enchanted by the sound of your music. Even more so if you sing along to the song, you are playing. He loves hearing your beautiful voice. This boy will legit drag you to sit in his lap and nuzzle and kiss you until you agree to play or sing him a song.

Masamune is always by your side supporting you and showering you with love. Whenever you get sad or insecure, Masamune is always there to lighten the mood. Like one time, some maids pissed you off. “ why is my kitten so angry today” Masamune literally came up to you and pinched your cheeks, he then squished your face “Common lemi see that beautiful smile.” When you still had a grumpy expression, he pulled you up and started spontaneously dancing. You couldn’t help but smile at the goofball and join in. Soon your big wide fast movements slowed down, and Masamune pulled you into his arms by your waist. He then dropped his head down and rested it in the crook of your neck. You honestly love quite moments like this just slow dancing in your lover’s arms. He would ask you about your day and would tighten his hold on you, enveloping you in a warm embrace, while you talk out all your frustrations of the day. After he would nibble on your ear whispering how much he loves and adores you.

Masa is like your fun knight in shining armour whether it is comforting you and helping you get to sleep after hearing some crazy scary ghost stories or spending hours upon hours bantering with you while you playfully insult each other, He is always there for you, loving you from the moment the sun rises till the moment it sets. He has truly met his match with you and never has in his life been happier, or laughed so much. The two of you can always be found snuggled together with Masa’s lil tiger cub in the futon after a long day of laughs, fun and adventures

Perhaps it truly was love at first sight after all 

Other potential matches…………….Mitsuhide 

 Hope you enjoyed it, love! and I hope you are staying safe and well🍭 @smol-vy

[chouetteffraie]

Why do you think skk is so popular 🤔🤔

This is a loaded question, dear nonnie! Coming right out of the gates with a toughie huh?

Soukoku is a behemoth of a ship. Getting initiated into the fandom, it’s probably one of the first ships you’ll see. With soukoku fanart popping up in the bungou stray dogs tag all the time and, out of 13144 bsd fics on ao3, 5655 of them including soukoku, it’d be hard not to see the immense fanbase it has. So, we come to your question nonnie: what makes soukoku so popular?

Please note: this comes from the perspective of a relative nonshipper, and I only speak for my own opinions and observations. I’d love to hear anything you have to add!

under a read more because it got a little wordy!

1. Foe Yay

Foe yay is a term used by TV Tropes to define the shipping of two characters who are enemies, whether it’s because the operate on opposite sides of the law or they just don’t like each other. Overall it boils down to this: the hostile tension between them can be easily read as romantic or even sexual if you choose to read it as such.

Media is up to interpretation, so where one person sees bitter enemies, another sees a viscous round if flirtation. Neither are wrong interpretations, even in regards to the canon legitimacy of a ship- I hold this viewpoint because I believe canon can be anything you want it to be; it’s an open field to sow the seeds for creativity. So, in any situation where they are together, there’s automatically a possibility for that moment to be regarded as a ship.

2. Their history

Let’s be real: people love a story where two characters know each other like the back of their hand. While that may not be the case, it’s a pretty solid fact that of every character in the series (that’s still alive- sorry, oda), Chuuya is the one who knows Dazai best. Everyone in the ADA may (or may not have) heard about his time in the mafia, they may have heard him talk about his darker days, and they can see what he’s capable of, but they weren’t there with him. Chuuya was.

Chuuya is the only one that’s still around who, through being partnered with Dazai in the past, knows that darker side of him the best. Akutagawa, as his subordinate, only knows the version he saw as an underling. Chuuya saw more of the real him as an (almost?) equal. Dazai isn’t very open with his personal details; he never was. But there are certain things Chuuya doesn’t need told like others might because he was there, and that sets the foundation for a nice potential ship.

3. Their partnership

I don’t remember the exact phrasing, but soukoku was and is described as an ultimate powerhouse, an unstoppable duo. In order to be part of a team that rises to such infamy, there has to be a certain bond, one where the members can work together and trust that the half of the job that isn’t theirs will get done efficiently. 

Not only do they have that certain bond, one where they can trust the other’s strengths and play off them to emphasize their own, it’s almost like the two characters were made for each other - in a way. In terms of their abilities, Chuuya’s could legitimately kill him when he uses it, and he has no way to stop it. The only way it can be stopped is through Dazai- he’s dependent on Dazai if he wants to perform to the best of his abilities (slight pun intended). Dazai, however, would be incomplete in the team without Chuuya; where he’s tactics and intimidation, Chuuya’s more the powerhouse and action guy he needs. While capable independently, the two are better together. They allow the other to perform just a little better than they would alone.

4. Their trust

Because of this partnership, the two of them trust each other. Chuuya has literally admitted this to Dazai (yeah I see you “I used Corruption because I trusted you” squad) They know what the other is capable of- Chuuya is especially aware of Dazai’s darker habits he tries to hide- and Dazai knows how Chuuya will respond and trusts him to be loyal and dependable as he’s always been.

5. Their current bond

William Shakespeare once said (something along the lines of), 

“Love me or hate me, both are in my favor. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart…If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.” 

What that means is that any strong emotions, whether positive or negative, towards a person will put them in the forefront of your mind. When you have a crush, you often think about them all the time, are reminded constantly of them, and have strong reactions when they are mentioned. When you hate someone, you tend to think about them all the time, are reminded constantly of them, and have strong reactions when they are mentioned. Thank you copy and paste.

Love and hate have very similar “symptoms,” so it’s easy to see why enemies could be viewed as lovers in denial. Let’s be real, denial is a sexy, sexy concept to play around with in fanfic. Who doesn’t love a good slowburn and some classic mutual pining?

Even now, in the current timeline, Dazai lives to pester Chuuya constantly, who is the perfect target with his temper and confrontational attitude towards Dazai. You know what that is? Chemistry. I’m not talking strictly romantic, either. As two characters, they go well together: they interact and bounce off each other in an entertaining and believable way.

-

Overall, soukoku is what I see as the most fundamental ship in any fandom. For Durarara, it was shizaya, for Voltron, it was klance- the whole “rivalry” thing seems to attract shippers, and for good reason. Soukoku has a few unique spins to it to help shippers make their point, and I know I’ve missed a lot of them in this quick little ask. Still, I hope this gives you an idea as to why I think it’s so popular!

[faiyx]

I’m always sad when a great artists stan se*x predator sanji. like what’s the deal? Not enough decent character in one piece?

ok heres the deal. Its okay if you dont like sanji as a character and if his characterisation makes you uncomfortable. Honestly the way hes been written around women makes me uncomfortable as well but I still appreciate the parts of his character that were not ruined by the writer. I think sanjis horrible behaviour around women is actually mischaracterisation over the years, its a character archetype that sadly went way overboard especially after we reached the new world. its a character archetype typical for anime, that works for very one dimentional gimmicky characters but not for a long running show, for a character thats very well rounded and has an otherwise very realistic and believable personality. it shouldve been dropped years ago but we all know they didnt.  I actually think this extreme behaviour is out of character for him since it stands in direct contrast to all the other values he holds. Sanji is probably the most emotionally intelligent character in the strawhat crew. He is very much in tune with everyones feelings and we see him trying to prevent emotional hurt several times ( him calling luffy a monster on drum island to make sure chopper has a positive representation of a word thats otherwise deeply hurtful to him, him providing snacks and sweets when the girls dont feel good without being asked to do so, etc). The treatment of women shown in canon would be very hurtful to them, of course it would, so I think if he was written in character he wouldnt hurt them in this way. It literally doesnt make sense if the writing is supposed to be consistent. But Oda probably thinks this shit is funny and its a slap in the face to all the female characters in one piece and sanjis character, because he has other great personality traits going for him. I dont want to present this as unproblematic and in fact not disgusting behaviour tho. It very much is. And it bugs me as well. But you have to understand that 1. i am an artist, i make my own interpretation of things, you probably noticed i change things around when it comes to character designs and i do the same with parts of the writing from the original source material i might not like as much you know? 2. of course there are many great and amazing characters in one piece and i have a lot of favourites but sanji just stuck with me from the moment i watched an episode for the first time which was when i was literally 12. This horrible behaviour isnt his only personality trait, its a gimmick oda and the anime producers took way too far . There is still a whole lot to like about him if you ignore the issue weve been talking about ( not saying you should on a broader level, sexual harrassment and the depiction of women is very much a problem overall and in the anime industry but for my personal comfort enjoying this amazing series i chose to do so and do my part by not depicting him engaging in that behaviour and in drawing the women of the series in a more respectful way ) I love that he is so supportive, he loves his friends to a degree where he was about to sacrifice himself for them on several occasions, I like the way he can put himself into someone elses position and really feel with them, I love how he treats his crewmates, how he always makes sure everyone is healthy, how he is able to adapt to different social situations, how polite he is and so much more. On top of that i really like his character design. I know you probably dont care about this, the way you worded your message implied that you were probably planning to rile me up or something but i hope you can understand where im coming from. its okay to like a character who has flaws especially when theyre so obviously bad writing. but its also okay if you dont like him so. also feel free to unfollow me if it makes you that upset

[sambart93]

2019.03.20 and 22 Tsuki ni Hoero, Yoru wo Kogegase-kun Yo [Review]

I was highly anticipated the sequel to a stage I saw last year -- first stage’s review is here.

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage and Video 1, 2, 3, 4

CAST and CHARACTERS

Oguri Ryo as Byakki / Byakomaru Satake Uki as Mibu Sumika Maruyama Shogo as Gedomaru (Young) Hattori Takeo as Yumemaru Yamamoto Mayu as Suzuran Kadono Sho as Kagami Saizou Hanaoka Meika as Nadeshiko (Young) Iwasaki Koji as Yagara Keiji Harigaya Saori as Kohaku Sekiya Mayu as Yukikusa Kimura Yuryou as Kumasaka Gyouki Aina as Hikime Shouji Masato as Takagai Eiji Nishimura Misaki as Tsubaki Tanaka Hiroki as Sayo / Tenkokumaru Mizuki Momoko as Nazuna Araki Miyu as Yukinashi Matsuda Misato as Fuji Oobaya Chieri as Kaki Tsubata Maruyama Raiden as Gedomaru (Old) Ogura Erika as Ayame Ishiibe Yuichi as Mibu Taigoku Takeda Tomohiro as Sunayama Ukon Ensemble: Umeda Shohei, Oda Shunpei, Uruhata Mirai, and Soga Kaoru

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: Unfortunately my gut instinct that I got before the show started, turned out to be true: This didn’t live up to past ASSH stages, and this is the first ASSH stage that I’ve been somewhat disappointed in them. This play is still very good: great acting, great characters; the stage, the costumes, the music are all beautiful; and the comedy is very good and had a lot of the audience laughing really loudly.... I was especially in love with the background of the stage this time around, and I thoroughly enjoyed the falling cherry blossom petals that we got throughout the play too. One of my favourite scenes is a ‘in the river/lake’ scene; the sound work during that scene was great. And I also loved the Ryo vs Sho fight scene too! BUT the story didn’t have anything new or surprising. I felt the character introductions were too long (it’s something we’ve seen a billion times, no need to explain who’s fighting against each other etc.), and that they were trying to fit in too many story lines -- There are like 6 or 7 storylines in this and at least 2 of them have nothing to do with one another. Upon my second rewatch, you could’ve easy cut out the 3 - 5 characters who were part of this Women’s Only Fight Club, and that would’ve made the story stronger and would’ve cut the play down by about 20 - 30 minutes (the play is 2 hours and 25 minutes!) -- which we could’ve used to develop other character’s relationships. A thing I can’t blame them for is, I went on Shonichi (the very first performance) so of course it’s not going to look or be perfect. But in the first show, their fight scenes and choreography was very slow. But luckily at the Friday night show, their movements were much more refined and the speed was up and I could really appreciate some moments. Personally, this stage would’ve flourished more if they’d either: A. cut a storyline out, OR B. cut out about 2-3 characters, OR C. cut the introductions down, in order to make it a tighter show. I’m still hoping for a third stage though but it would be nice to have Sayo/Tenkokumaru as the main this time and not as the Storyteller as he has been the past 2 times. Rating: 6/10

*

SPOILER REVIEW

STORY:

So we follow Gedomaru and the Young Boy around on their travels when they end up at a village where someone recognises Gedomaru. Soon, they are ambushed by a group of girls who claim that Gedo is the reason for their mother's death and that they are out to avenge them. All the while, the Young Boy is curious as to how he and his father met, so Gedo recites how. Soon enough Gedo realises that the group of girls' mothers had a part to play in that part of his history and the stories begin to entwine.

The backdrop to Gedo and Byakko's meeting is in the middle of two warring states (which are coloured Green and Orange). But in order to create peace, one side, Green, sends their daughter to be married to the other, but the other side (Orange) had other mischievous plans in mind.

COMMENTS

☆ I absolutely adored the background this time around. They made it look like the starry sky and had lots of glitter on it! It was so beautiful!

☆ I also loved what they did with the lighting! Depending on which side of the war we were on, the lights were either more green/blue, or more orange/red.

☆ The sound was great too! There is a scene where two characters are in a river and the timing of their movements with accurate water sounds were perfect! The music itself was great! Some tracks I could recall being in the first play too so it felt very familiar and nostalgic at times, especially some of the fighting and high tension(?) songs/tracks.

☆ Once again, Oguri (along with Sho this time) did the choreography for the fighting scenes! You could tell they were the more skilled ones, because the fight between them two (compared to everyone else') was so tense and so high speed and their movements were much more fluid. I really enjoyed one specific move Hiroki did too. It was when the Girl Gang attacks them and he does this move where, in order to stop/block the person behind him, the wings his sword around and behind him without even looking where his target is! And I thought it was hella cool. I also really enjoyed the choreography with the two Ninjas, they had lots of high kicks, lots of slides, lots of cartwheels etc. which I enjoyed watching (as an ex-gymnast myself).

But I will say, on the first day, all the fight scenes were very slow. You could tell it was their first performance, because there were a lot of minor slip ups, and it wasn't perfect, and it looked very, very clunky and slow. But on my second viewing (which was the 5th show), they had drastically improved and I could see how fast and how comfortable they had gotten with the fights.

☆ Of course I thoroughly enjoyed the acting! There were some moments and some characters that really stood out.

☆ BUT, and this is a big butt, I didn't really enjoy the antagonist this time around. I don't know why but I found the bad guy very 1D and very bland. I don't even have a specific reason why. But he felt very much like an after thought; it felt like he was put in at the last minute because 'damn we need a big bad guy'. I'm not sure how to describe it. But, let me tell you his arc: So he's on one side of the warring states, the Orange side, and he's very much ready to fight and battle with the other side til one of them is standing. But agrees to take their sister and 'marry her'. But as soon as she's in his hands, he holds her hostage and eventually kills her. He then starts a big battle against the other side. But when his henchmen go against him, he doesn't hesitate to kill them, even though he was having a sexual relationship with one of them. To stop him advancing, the Greens and Byakki team up and defeat him. His arc and his story takes up like 10% of the entire play. He's killed off about 30 - 40 minutes before the end (or at least felt like that) so.... I don't really understand WHY he was chosen as the 'antagonist'. This play could've very easily stood well on it's own without him. We could've cut his stage appearance out completely and just had people discussing him and it would've had the same amount of impact. Maybe I missed something but I personally didn't find him compelling or interesting. In fact, I was more interested in his daughter's story.

☆ His daughter, Sumika, has ran away and gone into hiding because she holds the power of seeing the future when she sleeps. She believes she's cursed, and because of her power, she believes she's to blame for everything bad that has happened and now she's on the run, because both her father and the Greens are trying to find and capture her (for different reasons). She finds Byakki via one of her dreams and manages to track him down; she begs Byakki to kill her. But he refuses, twice. Her journey is basically questions why she was born, why she has these powers, and finding solace in Byakki who has also been ostracised for his 'abnormality'. I loved her and Byakki's relationship! And there's a scene where the Ninjas track her down and Byakki defends her, but once he's taken too many blows, she gets in the middle of them and yells 'he's not a monster! He's a human just like us!' and it really hit me in the feels.

☆ Another character I thoroughly enjoyed was Nadeshiko. She was played by Hanaoka (and if you remember, I absolutely loved her in Zigoma!) who is just one of the funniest women I know. Her comedy and the way she delivers her comedy is always so spot on and so well done! She has the perfect balance of being cutesy-funny and then switching to a 'deep-voice' funny. She's also not afraid to make fun of herself or her fellow actors. She had some GOLD comedy moments in this.

☆ There was a cast change with Young Gedomaru... I have to admit, I was not happy the first time around. I felt like there was a complete change in his personality compared to the first version we saw of him. But then I saw how much laughter he was getting from the audience and how much the audience accepted him. Also this is set before the events of the first stage so of course he'd be a bit less mature, and more child-like and would have a more happy, positive view on things, so then I came around to this new Gedomaru and I just enjoyed his upon my second viewing. He is very funny and is another main source, besides Nadeshiko, of the audience's laughter and the comedy. He falls in love with Sumika straight away and vows to protect her. Also his stubbornness of wanting to win against Byakki so much. It's both admirable and stupid at the same time, and Byakki feels the same. But fighting against each other is what tightens and strengthens their relationship.

☆ Sumika was really cute. I loved how quiet and how pleasant she was. But she was also going through a tough time and kept it to herself which proved how strong she was. She was also determined about dying while also showing how vulnerable and scared she was which was beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed her relationship with Byakki too. BUT I really wish we'd removed a character or a storyline or two so we could've expanded other scenes and relationships like this one. I would've loved an extra 20 or so minutes with Sumika and Byakki building a relationship, because it felt very much like: They met -> he protects her in a fight or two -> crying and super sad because he has to kill her -> End. It felt very rushed and I couldn't get emotional about the scene at all! So I would've appreciated it more and would've been more invested if we'd actually spent time to develop their relationship and feelings.

ALSO! The entire show I was like: Yo is this Young Boy's mother?! Are we finally finding out who she is?! But alas, she dies in the end so we're still left wondering who tf his mother is!! Grrrrr. We better be getting a third stage to finally answer that god damn question!

☆ Also on the topic of Young Boy and Hiroki; I was so pissed he was playing the story telling again! He was barely in the stage because he was only needed when we were in the present or hoovering over some of the past scenes. COME ON! GIVE HIM THE LEAD ROLE HE DESERVES! I was disappointed we got him as the Story Teller again -__-

☆ In this we got to meet Gedomaru's older brother! Who is a priest at a temple. I loved how much obvious love he had for his brother, but also allowed his brother to grow independently and learn from his mistakes. I thoroughly adored the last scene with him where he tells Gedo that he's going back to the temple and accepts that Gedo will be going off with Byakki, and his last line is something like 'you know you can always come back to your home at the temple' which was really sweet. But now there's the mystery as to what happened to his brother, because in the present Young Boy asks 'how's your brother now?' and Gedo replies very vaguely like 'it's best if we don't meet again.' so I'm like super suspicious! What happened to his brother?! I hope he gets killed and Gedo goes on a manic revenge spree or something that Byakki has to save him from! Ohhhh that'd be good!!

☆ Towards the end of the play, we get sakura / cherry blossom petals falling down from the ceiling and oh my did it look beautiful! It was such a beautiful touch and I am so glad they added it into the stage because it's so emotionally and visually beautiful! I know it's such a simple thing and it IS used in so many stages, but every time, I can't not appreciate it!!

Now I want to get into the negatives in detail for a moment.

☆ For me this was their weakest stage so far. I've always been so impressed with their stages, and I had a feeling this one wouldn't quite hack it, and unfortunately, I was right.

☆ For me, I didn't find anything surprising or new in this stage. I am so used to ASSH taking a simple story and just having them put in such surprises that my mind is blown by the end of the story. But I feel they played it very safe in this one. There were no surprises, and nothing new. Also ASSH are known to be brutal with their killing off of characters but no one major died. No one's death was really that surprising or emotionally hurt.

I will admit that Sumika's death was impressive but that was all thanks to the actress' skills. She first gets her ear cut off and her scream during that moment is just pure gold and absolutely amazing voice and physical acting! But in terms of WHO died, there were no high stakes at all. Like ASSH have killed of WHOLE casts before!! Now that's theatre! That's drama! That's WOW! But this one was just ... safe.

☆ I also felt that even though the story was very stereotypical: two warring states/kingdoms and their daughters getting caught up in the shit shit, yet I spent we OVER-spent time introducing the war and who was on who's side. I seriously think you could've completely cut out the two leaders and just had his underlings talking about him. I felt the presence of the two big leaders were unnecessary and you could've easily just had them AS spoken characters -- I hope you understand what I mean: they could've just been talked ABOUT rather than actually getting actors and having them physically onstage.

☆ They also spent a whole scene dedicated to the three Girl Gang members and explaining their tragic past and why they joined this group. You could've cut out both of these parts.

☆ There were also too many story lines. Let me break down the groups and relationships:

Present Day:

(1) Old Gedo with Young Boy, eventually Old Nadeshiko joining. (2) Girl Gang: out for Revenge on Gedo because of what happened to their mothers.

Past Day:

(1) Orange Clan: We have the Leader who's marrying Green's girl but ultimately wanting to battle, and absolutely hates his daughter and trying to track her down thanks to his ninja henchmen. His henchmen are slowly questioning their leader's leadership, sanity and motives. (2) Green Clan: Just wants a peaceful land, sends daughter to marry Orange so they can have a peaceful, political agreement. After the daughter gets killed, they try and find Sumika for either help or entrapment. (3) Girl Gang (4) Nadeshiko and Sumika on the run and trying to find Byakki. (5) Byakumaru bumping into Gedo, becoming spar buddies and eventually friends. (6) Gedo and his brother: Out on their travels and find Byakki and won't leave until Gedo defeats Byakki. (7) Sumika and Byakki: After finding Byakki, she really wants him to kill her so her powers can stop. (8) Gedo falls for Sumika at first sight and now sees Byakki as a love and fighting rival.

As you can see... there is just too much. This stage/story would've benefited if they had either: cut 2 or 3 characters out, OR cut one story line out completely. Upon my second watch, I realised that there is literally NO POINT to the Girl Gang at all (besides gender equality and girls can fight too and being a conflict to present Gedo), so I think they should've cut them characters out completely. Also physically cutting out the two leaders and having them only in the dialogue would've saved a lot of time too.

☆ This play is 2 hours 35 minutes long. If they had cut out the parts I wanted, this could've been under 2 hours. AND if they really wanted, they could've used that extra time to actually DEVELOP relationships between the remaining characters. I have no problem giving that time to Gedo and Byakki, or Byakki and Sumika! We need their development in this story in all honesty! And thinking about it, to say Byakki is the same character, he's in it almost a little as Young Boy is! He's barely in the stage compared to some many other characters.

☆ Also I went there for Hiroki and his has the smallest part... again! He's playing the story teller... again! So of course my bias heart is sad about this! I really thought we were going to get HIS story this time around! I really thought we were going to find out who his mother was this time around! But alas, this stage was set in the past and he's just a bystander again *cries* I really hope we get a third stage and that he's main next time!

*

Don't get me wrong, this is still a solid play, with amazing acting and lots of great characters. Also it has a lot of charm, a lot of amazing scene and nice moments, some great lines, some very funny parts. However, this was just their weakest one for me. 'Safe' is definitely the word to describe this play. I am still hopeful and wanting a third stage! But seriously, if the next stage is not about Hiroki and his mother, I swear to god! xD Anyway, thanks for reading as usual!

[blackjacketmuses]

frost blue, burnt umber, tea orange, vermillion, coral, bougainvillaea, currant, crimson, mallow, cadmium yellow, anise, new leaf, sanguine, cool grey for you newest muses~

frost blue: does your muse enjoy the snow and cold? or are they the type to enjoy summer more?

Dazai: Dazai hates cold weather. Hates it! He’s too skinny for this he hates being cold, catch him burying himself in six blankets or draping himself dramatically across a space heater. He’s not a fan of sweaty weather, either, but summer is less awful.

Poe: Edgar prefers the snowy season and winter most of all, mostly because it’s the season for blankets and warm drinks and snuggling up in your room to write. And really, ‘strangers stuck in a building during a snowstorm’ is a classic mystery trope and one of his favorites.

burnt umber: how stable is your muse, mentally and/or emotionally?

Dazai: Ahahahaha. Okay, no, he’s actually fairly stable? In a, uh, very specific sort of way. He’s functional, by some description, and not A Mess, but...he’s stable in that we can expect him to keep his cool and not have a meltdown? But he’s definitely not...he’s mentally stable, I’d say, yes, but not emotionally stable. He’s just very good at pretending otherwise.

Poe: Ha, not really? He’s far better now than he was at the bottom of his epic downward spiral, but he’s definitely not the most stable man. Too much anxiety and depression and cripplingly low self-esteem and shyness. 

tea orange: what is something that your muse is fascinated with?

Dazai: Suicide. I mean, besides that, uh. He actually has a fascination with reading about gods and monsters and folk legends? Part of that is absolutely because of Chuuya and Arahabaki, but part of it is a desire to both find something so out of the normal that it might actually kill him, or find an explanation for why he is how he is.

Poe: Cryptography! Word puzzles and ciphers and codes are so neat, and he loves making them and solving them. He’s considering making some to give to Ranpo to try out for a change of pace from mystery solving, but he’s not sure if the other man would be interested...

vermillion: is your muse courageous, or would they consider themselves to be more of a coward?

Dazai: Well, Dazai doesn’t think in terms of courage/cowardice? He has a very utilitarian “if it needs done, it needs done” view of things; no matter what it is, if it’s necessary to do, he’ll do it. More generally, I’m not sure he even can feel genuine fear? He can be concerned or worried or shocked, but real fear is a little beyond him.

Poe: Oh, he absolutely thinks of himself as a coward! He refuses to fight and would much rather just avoid any confrontation altogether, and hates raised voices and loud noises and crowds. (He does however have an extremely high tolerance for spooky/scary things and occult creepiness, he loves that shit, so there is that.)

coral: what is your muse's romantic and sexual orientations?

Dazai: Bisexual biromantic. However, he’s also...I wouldn’t say he’s demisexual or demiromantic, but though he’s absolutely flirtatious on occasion (of late, it’s just a new thing he’s playing around with trying) and has had sex before, it’s not something that he really puts much thought into. Feelings are hard enough to parse without putting romance into it, and he sees sex as more of a way to feel things and as a release more than anything intrinsically tied to romance. He is capable of it, though, it’s just. Complicated to say the least. 

Poe: Edgar is absolutely deeply, deeply asexual, and he’s not very sure about romantic orientation? He has had crushes on a few girls before, but he’s very much also crushing hard on Ranpo. So I’d really put him as biromantic, but still somewhat closeted.

bougainvillaea: would your muse consider themselves as blunt, or do they beat around the bush instead?

Dazai: Ha. He can be vague about things when he wants to be, and he is a lot of the time --- he treats a lot of things as only need-to-know basis, especially his plans --- but when the chips are down he can be pretty brutally blunt.

Poe: He hates being straightforward, it makes him anxious that people will be mad at him, so he’s gotten really good at beating around the bush and talking around things. He is a mystery writer after all.

currant: what's something that absolutely disgusts your muse (can be a person, place, thing, ect)?

Dazai: Waste of life. He’s very pragmatic and efficient and straightforward with all he does, and even if his plans are left mysterious and a little convoluted at times they’re all plotted to get the result as quickly and simply as he can manage; he hates any sort of thing where people die or are hurt for no reason, like how Mori basically threw Oda away, or Mori releasing Q without caring about collateral damage. Can you tell he isn’t a big fan of Mori? He didn’t like him before, but despite him being genuinely devoted to the mafia, his habit of making moves that don’t seem to care about getting people killed who don’t have to get killed has really not helped. 

Poe: Bad writing!! Purposefully bad writing!!! Writing that shows you give zero fucks about the actual characters and plot of your work, just the end goal of whatever you’re writing!! Writers selling out and going paint-by-numbers with their plots because they care more about the money than the work itself!! He’s very passionate about this!!!

crimson: how passionate is your muse about the things they love most?

Dazai: Passion is difficult. I wouldn’t say that he’s passionate about the things he cares about most, even suicide, but he’s devoted. Passion implies a level of emotion that he’s not really capable of experiencing quite as much as most people, but he’s devoted to the things he cares about, so that’s in a way the same thing.

Poe: Super passionate. Mysteries and writing (and to a lesser extent the occult and cryptography) are basically the only things that get him excited and able to actually talk and gesture and get really happy and passionate and vibrant, that really let him come out of his anxious shell and be the huge dramatic dork that he is.

mallow: what sorts of things might remind your muse of those close to them? any scents, objects, sounds?

Dazai: Wine, stupid fancy hats, cats, curry, bourbon and jazz music, schedules, the sound of a chainsaw, butterflies, straw hats, piles of candy, stuffed rabbits or stuffed tigers, a default cellphone ring, black coats, ochazuke.

Poe: Candy, newsboy caps, the smell of grapes and the ocean mixed together, snowglobes and tea, the scratch of a pen on paper, green eyes.

cadmium yellow: what subjects or topics does your muse avoid, because they bring up harmful / painful memories?

Dazai: Don’t talk to him about the mafia, don’t talk to him about Lupin, don’t talk to him about Ango or Odasaku, don’t ask him about his history with Akutagawa or Mori, don’t ask him about why he’s so obsessed with suicide (and expect a straight answer). In fact, he tends to avoid talking about anything from before he joined the ADA as much as he possibly can. He’s started a new life, as far as he’s concerned, and wants the ADA to know as little about who he was then as possible. Not necessarily that he cares if they think less of him, it’s just...he wants to do what he promised Odasaku. He doesn’t want to bring the person he used to be back into this.

Poe: He doesn’t talk about his parents much, and he sure as hell avoids talking about the six years between his defeat at Ranpo’s hands and his arrival in Japan with the Guild. He can give basics to others if necessary, but he doesn’t want to relive that time.

anise: when it comes to self-care, what does your muse do to take care of themselves? do they take care to spend time on it, or do they feel they don't deserve it?

Dazai: What’s self care? His sleep patterns are pretty irregular if he sleeps at all, and he either eats normally or forgets to eat for days at a time, it varies wildly at best. Self care for Dazai is, in all honesty, trying to kill himself. Yes, you can be worried, this is definitely unhealthy.

Poe: Self care is blanket burritos, hot cider or mulled wine, and a good book. He has enough bad days that sometimes this is literally all he can do, and though he’s trying not to drink as much anymore, it still happens.

new leaf: what message would your muse send to their past self, if any

Dazai: He can’t think of anything, and even if he could, it’s not like it’s going to change anything. What’s the point in it? He knows the person he was wouldn’t listen.

Poe: Please don’t give up. If you keep working hard, you’ll see him again and he’ll acknowledge you.

sanguine: does your muse typically have an optimistic, pessimistic, or some middle ground outlook on life?

Dazai: He’s pretty realistic, almost pragmatically so. People are idiots, prone to thinking emotionally, evil people exist and win more than they lose, and life is full of bullshit and things you can’t stop or change even if they suck. But somehow, people still live. People still live, and that’s...probably enough for them. As for personally, it’s....a lot more complicated. 

Poe: He’s pretty pessimistic as a general rule, poor thing.

cool grey: if your muse could ensure one thing for certain in their future to come, what would it be?

Dazai: (manga spoilers) If he could ensure one thing in the future, it would be that the ADA gets their reputation back after they defeat Fyodor and can go back to their usual lives without being hated or chased down or accused of things they’d never do/have never done. He doesn’t care so much about himself, but he wants the rest of the ADA to get their lives back.

Poe: One thing for certain? That none of the people he cares about die or are lost to him. What’s going on right now is scary, and he’s afraid for the people involved in it. (That, or that he gets to keep Ranpo’s respect.)

[remnantoforario]

Some excerpts from an interview Hiro Mashima did with ANN at NYCC this year:

Here’s the full interview on ANN

Both Rave Master and Fairy Tail are fantasy works. Have you ever considered doing something outside of the fantasy genre?

I personally just really love fantasy works in general, so if I do a new series, I would like to try to make it fantasy again. Rave Master was about friends saving the whole world, but Fairy Tail is about closer-knit relationships. So if I do another fantasy story, I would like to try a different approach.

Funny, judging by some people I talked to the characters in Rave were much more “close knit” than the ones in FT. Also FT eventually became about saving the world by the time Oracion Seis rolled around so *shrug*

Have you ever considered revisiting Rave Master?

At the autograph sessions, I have been experiencing a lot of people actually requesting characters from Rave Master, but I realize that I have forgotten how to draw a lot of the characters from that series, so it might be hard to revisit it.

I can understand this honestly. I’m sure he remembers how to draw the mains (Haru, Elie, Plue, Musica, etc.) but some of the minors and supporting characters would be hard to remember without a picture or something.

Many comic book artists have said that they know the last page of the series before they start. Was that the case for Fairy Tail?

I honestly didn't have any idea what the last scene of the story was like in my mind when I started the series. The fact that I didn't know what was going to happen next was actually the best part of working on this series. For example, when there is a cliffhanger where the characters are in a really tight spot, the fans wonder what is going to happen next? Well, that's actually my question and I really have to think about it.

Believe me, the “flying by the seat of my pants” writing showed. Especially in the last arc.

I find Zeref very interesting. He isn't your typical bad guy and he is sort of a tragic figure. Why did you decide to make him like that?

I didn't want a typical bad guy. I kind of combined all of the elements I had been cultivating and inserted it into this character, and he became a really highly complex character.  

Maybe in the beginning. Too bad all that potential was wasted by the time we saw him again post-Tenrou.

Everyone likes the female characters in Fairy Tail. They seem to be both strong and sexy at the same time and self-confident. How did you go about making such balanced female characters?

This is actually kind of what I like in females. This my personal taste so I inserted it into the character. It's kind of my wish.

“Balanced Female Characters”?

Where? I didn’t see that in FT. The closest to balanced was Lucy (and possibly Wendy), but she fell short of that mark a long time ago.

Is there a particular character you wish you had more time to develop?

One of the characters that I think of is Acnologia. In my mind I had a deeper setting for this character. But the story is from the main character's point of view, so I couldn't really do that. I may have some time to explore the story of Acnologia at some point.

Here’s a small list of NOT main character’s who received more development and background than the main villain of the story:

Lyon Vastia

Ultear Milkovich

Irene Belserion

Minerva Orlando

Sting Eucliffe

Rogue Cheney

Zeref

Mavis Vermillion

Nearly the entirety of the Oracion Seis 

Flare Corona

Anna Heartfilia

Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki

August

What I’m trying to say is that is you gave Irene 3 chapters of flashbacks, then you had no excuse not to develop Acnologia, Mashima. Too little too late to want to do it now.

What Fairy Tail character will you miss the most?

There is a character named Brandish. I wish I could draw more of her.

Yes. You missed drawing Brandish so much that you didn’t even have her show up or even be mentioned in the final chapter. 

Ok.

In American spin-offs, they worry a lot about continuity. Did you worry about that over the 11 years you worked on Fairy Tail?

I was thinking about it a little bit, but it wasn't the highest priority. It is more important to me to make the story exciting and really portray the emotions of each character. So if the fans find some flaws in the continuity, I am actually excited to know that people are reading that much into it.

This is probably my biggest peeve about this interview. I get wanting to create complex characters and a good story BUT a good chunk of that hinges on continuity. Character’s development has to be consistent throughout. Without following internal continuity the story devolves into an unorganized mess with no logic (which is ironically what FT became at the end of its run) and the fans stop caring because they feel that nothing previously established matters anymore.

One of the most egregious examples of this is telling us of Fairy Law’s added consequence of killing the user WAY after it was introduced, only to immediately backtrack on that by the final chapter. 

American comics can get away with this in a way because they have many writers handling a single character over a number of years. For example Spider-Man has been around for 50+ years and has had no less that 20 writers working on him in different points in that time frame. Each writer brings something new to the table, some good (Death of Gwen Stacy), and some bad (One More Day). 

Manga is held to a different standard because there is only ONE writer (usually). They (and by extension you, Mashima) are the only one who controls the story. Outside of spin-offs (which mostly aren’t considered canon by a majority of the fandom) and sometimes sequels, (but even those have input from the original creators) no one else will write these characters so there is no excuse for you to not to put continuity as a priority. 

I understand forgetting one or two minor bits, but FT sometimes ignored entire plot points or outright ignored things that were previously established. Some almost right after they were introduced (Alvarez was littered with these). 

The fans should not be focused on pointing out flaws, they should be enjoying the story.

Sometimes in Fairy Tail characters die, but they always come back. Why did you decide to do this?

This has to do with the fact that in Rave Master, a lot of characters actually died and it turned out to be a sad story. When you are working on a manga in a magazine, it is up to the reader's polls and feedback whether you can actually stay in the magazine. To be quite honest, the chapters that have the death of a really important character get a lot of reaction. Knowing this, I really wanted to make sure that people don't die in my series.

So basically you killed people off for shock value just to bring them back. Instead doing all of that, how about you NOT kill people off in the first place?

Since a weekly series has such a fast production pace, were you able to take care of yourself by eating and sleeping?

Of course! I have no problem eating and sleeping.

Sarcasm aside, it is good to know that he has a decent schedule and can remain healthy. Too many mangaka push themselves too hard writing their stories and end up getting sick. Oda immediately comes to mind. 

If you were in the world of Fairy Tail and you could have three people on your team, who would it be?

Lucy, Erza, and Juvia.

On a technical level this is a decent team. On a more petty level OF COURSE he’d be on a team with three of the most sexualized women in the series.

A lot of shounen characters seem to have the same characteristics. Like they are rebellious, but very skilled at what they do. What makes Natsu unique?

His pink hair! And the fact he gets motion sickness.

Nice to see Mashima not even attempt to lie at how generic Natsu is as a protag. Also is motion sickness really all that unique when all the DS in the series have it?

As you move onto your new series, what will you carry with you from Fairy Tail? What mistakes will you avoid or what things will make your life easier with the next series?

One of the things I learned, and feel that I succeeded with in Fairy Tail is developing lots and lots of characters with very unique personalities. I would like to apply that in my next series too.

“developing lots and lots of characters with very unique personalities.”

A comedian this man is.

Do you worry about the elements of Fairy Tail bleeding too much into your new series?

I honestly don't think it is necessarily a bad thing that my new work reminds people of my previous work. In Japan, there is kind of a jinx. After the first big hint, your next series is going to be a flop. I personally am not worried about it. I don't think Fairy Tail was a giant success.  In this way, I feel no pressure to work on a new series.

Nice to know the bar is low.

Is he being humble? or does Mashima himself know Fairy Tail isn’t that great?

You make the call!

An anime adaption will add many more elements to the story. What do you like the most about the anime that is not in your manga?

I think the biggest contribution of the anime is the work of the voice actors. Even on the US side, the voice acting is really similar. It has the same kind of feeling as the Japanese voice acting. I am actually quite happy with the outcome of it.

Are you happy now, sub purists? Even Mashima says the Dub is good. Can we stop the hate now?

Can you describe how much influence your editor has?

One of the main processes is that I usually write the first draft of the chapter and I show it to the editor. The editor will give me feedback about whether it is good or bad. If the editor says it is not good, I was would ask the reason why so I can fix it. This creative process is very important. Sometimes we get in a conflict when the editor says one thing and I disagree and I push forward with what I believe in. If I don't succeed, I feel like I should have listened to him. Or sometimes when I am stuck on an idea he gives me very prompt advice, which really helps me.

Man, if Alvarez was what the editor approved, I can only imagine what he turned away. Either that or he just gave up after awhile. 

[controliisms]

Is your Dazai a yandere? He seems to come off that way in posts and I don't know if it was intentional or not.

i originally hadn’t put much thought into this ask when i first received it earlier on today. however, upon researching the topic and asking a few friends here in the community who may have written a bit with the darker, creepier side of this muse, we eventually came to the conclusion that yes, this dazai could be considered at least partly a yandere. there will be an explanation analysing dazai’s behaviour and putting it against some common trends found in this type of character under the cut: all the normal warnings apply for this kind of topic! if you have any further questions, im me or ask me!

first, here is the definition of the word ‘yandere’ which i will be using: 

yandere: a fictional character who fits the archetype of being genuinely romantic, loving, kind, merciful, sweet and gentle, but is at the same time brutal, psychotic or deranged in behaviour. the psychotic tendency can be both sudden and ever-present. often used for both comedic and dramatic displays of character. 

this is the definition i am basing this off. now let’s look at dazai’s behaviour. for this slight analysis/headcanon, i’m going to be using dazai and chuuya’s relationship as an example, as it is the relationship on this blog that has probably been written and developed the most. however, i will also be pulling actions from threads between dazai and ojoku.  to explain dazai’s behaviour, i will also pull excerpts from threads with those two characters. below, i’m going to list the common traits of a yandere character, and i will pull up examples of dazai’s behaviour underneath them, and compare. 

please note, some of these excerpts may be from discord threads. 

1. possess an unhealthy infatuation or love for one certain person; 

this one is fairly simple to fulfil. dazai already has unhealthy attachments to both chuuya and ojoku, as i’ve mentioned above. i don’t really think we need to analyse this point too much, really. dazai’s attachment in general is very unhealthy, as as i’ve mentioned in a previous headcanon ask, ‘ once someone has his heart, he’s utterly devoted in every way ‘. while this might sound cute, it really isn’t once you have a closer look at dazai’s behaviour. for example, it has been mentioned in discord chats that dazai is almost unhealthily obsessed with ojoku, refusing to let him go out with chuuya alone. this behaviour eventually spirals into more toxic behaviour. as well as this, there have been multiple mentions of dazai ‘ refusing to leave chuuya’s side. ’ this, again, is due to an unhealthy type of love: dazai has to be where his significant other is at all times because he loves them so much. 

2. ‘sweet’ or ‘cute’ on the outside; can become enraged if certain conditions are met;

let’s take a look at a recent ask reply for this one. the ask i will be pulling from can be found here. when dazai even thinks there’s the possibility of chuuya being flirted with/flirting with somebody that isn’t him, it’s like a switch has been flipped. here’s an excerpt from before the incident: ‘ it had seemed like it was going to be a normal night. dazai had gone to get them both drinks ’. that seems like a rather normal activity when you’re at a club or a bar, right? now let’s look at dazai’s thought process and his behaviour after noticing somebody’s flirting with chuuya : ‘ dazai excuses himself from the conversation, leaving both the drinks he had originally gotten on the table next to them and telling the person he was feeling a little too drunk to be continuing any kind of important conversation ( when he wasn’t even tipsy. ) but he had other matters to deal with. ’ immediately, dazai drops what he is doing, and he’s no longer that happy and sweet person he had been before. we then see ‘ dazai sidles up next to the girl who’s flirting with chuuya, tipping a small something into a drink before swapping it with the girl’s. ’ dazai takes action without even assessing the situation because he’s angry at the possibility of someone taking chuuya away from him. then we get the final line ‘ there’s an apology then, only something small and a smile that’s reminiscent of a predator bearing it’s teeth. ’ we can see that the innocent facade we usually see on this dazai has vanished almost completely! he’s no longer that cute person we’re used to on here, because the conditions have been met, in this case, flirting with the object of his affections.

we later explored this anger in a discord thread, which led to this line. ‘ dazai growls and pushes the knife right up against chuuya’s throat. ‘why did you let her flirt with you, then?’ ‘ this is clearly anger now, and it’s more than just a small amount of ordinary jealous anger! dazai is openly threatening his partner in his annoyance. 

3. often carries a weapon; 

we know from being in the mafia that this dazai would definitely carry weapons around, though i’d also like to draw you to a small detail in that previous ask response, which is this: ‘ she’s already as good as gone dazai knows, as he tucks the small bottle of a well known, fast-acting poison into his pocket. ’ dazai had brought something other than his usual weapons to that club. he claims it was for a business deal, but where was the business partner then? why would they have been drinking if he was there for a business deal? dazai had brought that poison there for that very reason. it’s discreet, and lets him get rid of people who are interfering with his and chuuya’s relationship immediately, without drawing attention to either of them.

similarly, dazai carries around a small blade in his belt, which, during his relationship with ojoku, he uses to threaten him several times. 

4. wants to be the only person in their loved one’s life; 

dazai has been cutting people out of chuuya’s life in his main verse simply by being around him so often. he’s controlling, using his jealousy as a way to get chuuya to stay away from other people. his murderous tendencies would make people stay away from chuuya too, in case they got caught up in that. he allows kouyou to stay in this case because he knows that would cause more trouble than it’s worth with chuuya. however, this doesn’t necessarily mean at some point he won’t attempt to persuade chuuya to stay away from kouyou - because he will. 

with ojoku, it has been discussed that dazai’s main issue is chuuya. in this case, ojoku has to protect chuuya, and in order to do that, clearly spends a lot of time with him. dazai takes control of that by claiming this means ojoku ‘doesn’t love him’ or ‘is in love with chuuya’. this is a form of emotional manipulation intended specifically to stop ojoku from spending time with chuuya, or to force him to make a clear choice between who he prefers - which, in normal relationships, is both unfair and unreasonable. yet dazai does it without second thought. when that doesn’t work, dazai takes a more violent approach: threatening both ojoku and chuuya in order to get them to give in to his demands. 

6. break the law through actions such as murder, specifically when they see the target as a ‘romantic rival’.

we’ve clearly seen dazai murder that girl in the club who was flirting with chuuya. he did it without even assessing the situation beforehand – as soon as dazai thought there was somebody with romantic rivarly, he sprang into action and killed her immediately. later, in the aftermath of this, he tells chuuya this, ‘ i think you’re beginning to understand that i own you. body and soul. you’re mine. ’ dazai essentially murdered a completely innocent girl just because she was too drunk to realise that chuuya was turning her down! it’s clear from this excerpt that he also cares very little for what he’d done. 

7. can often act violently towards their loved one; can even end up killing them.

we’ve seen dazai press knives up to both ojoku and chuuya’s throats, and though he didn’t kill either of them ( yet ), he did actually harm chuuya. luckily chuuya didn’t mind, but let’s have a quick summary: as a stated in the tags of another post talking about dazai and unhealthy behaviour, dazai straight up cut his name into chuuya’s skin, probably deep enough to scar like that. and he knew what he was doing. this violence isn’t something we’d normally associate with a healthy relationship in our society by any means, and yet dazai has no issues doing it without even asking if it was okay first. 

as for ojoku, he gets off a little easier with this one. dazai can’t physically touch him in their mainverse, as ojoku is an extension of chuuya’s ability, but he does threaten chuuya, which in turn is a threat to ojoku. he does hold a knife to ojoku’s skin, and if given a reason, he would definitely harm ojoku with that knife without any guilt. on top of this, it has been discussed that in order to hurt ojoku, dazai may purposefully nullify him, especially if romantic rivals are around. 

8. shows no remorse or regret over what they have done; sees it as justified.

dazai is amoral. it’s a large part of his character even in the canon series, and it’s pointed out with what oda says to him in canon before he dies: ‘ neither good nor bad mean much to you, i know, ’ this only solidifies the idea that dazai doesn’t know the difference between what would usually be considered ‘good’ and what would usually be considered ‘bad.’ therefore he is far less likely to feel guilt over committing any number of crimes, and so the murder of potential romantic rivals or toxic behaviour towards his significant other is no different.

8. likes to ‘mark’ their partners through violence or sexual means; 

we already have a lot of evidence from this, mainly from dazai and chuuya’s romantic relationship. it has been mentioned time and time again that dazai has an unhealthy addiction to marking chuuya’s neck until it’s literally covered in bruises. this, plus, as mentioned before, he carved his name into chuuya’s skin. if that doesn’t count as marking, i’m not sure what does, honestly!

these are clearly just a few points i could have covered here, but i’ll summary. dazai is not a very good person to be involved with, romantically or otherwise. he latches on to people and won’t let go with his affection, to the point where it may even be draining for people to be around him. it can be incredibly difficult to get along with him, too. though dazai can be very sweet and cute, i can assure you there is a far creepier side to his character that i barely explore on here, but desire to do so in the future!

[kingcocoabutter]

Pride And Prejudice

One of the most iconic scenes in #VinlandSaga is this one:

 Halfdan tells Thorfinn that he will give him the funding he needs for his venture as long as the latter licks his boot. To a wealthy man, having someone else *struggle* to put aside their pride and do something so debased and shameful is a greater reward and provides a greater thrill than gold or produce. He’s shocked, however, when Thorfinn bends down to do so without a moment of hesitation, even asking which boot to lick. Halfdan is repulsed because he can’t believe someone would sacrifice their dignity in such a manner but to Thorfinn it’s such a small price to pay for the sake of his dream. But I digress because I’m not really here to talk about Thorfinn, I’m here to talk about Sanji and false pride. Now maybe this is premature but I HATE the idea that Sanji did not even hesitate before deciding that he was going to use the Raid Suit as a disguise when taking on Page One (especially after the events of WCI and even post arc) which were meant to be about how he was escaping his family’s legacy. And fans have offered up innumerable justifications for his willingness to do so, ranging from how it’s “acceptable” because he will *only* use it as a disguise or how he’s putting aside his “pride” for the sake of the crew. And it really fits in with this mythological perception we have of Sanji as being the Strawhat’s “shield” or their white knight and how willing he is to throw himself into harm’s way to protect his crew. Some of which is true. But I’d argue that out of all the SH’s not only is Sanji the most deeply flawed but he is also the one SH of which the fandom has the most flawed misconceptions.

Sanji is SUPREMELY prideful. And that in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s problematic in the way that Oda has framed it with regards to the story and his attitudes towards certain demographics. Sanji is SUPREMELY proud of his status as a man and a chef and he VIOLENTLY rejects anything that would lead others to perceive him as less than in those regards. Hence his virulent homophobic/transphobic attitudes to the point where he has created an attack that is the literal embodiment of his gay panic. As he told the LGBTQ+ denizens of Peachy Kingdom. 

This attitude also manifests with regards to his treatment/perceptions of women, whom he showers whom he deifies and showers with adoration/love/affection while simultaneously objectifying and sexually assaulting them not realizing how contradictory those attitudes are. I’ve written about the latter extensively and so I’ll refrain from espousing anything further but I will most definitely be addressing one of his more controversial attitudes (i.e. his refusal) to hit women later in this thread but first I must digress.

I’ve been vocal in my disdain of how lackadaisical the SH’s attitudes/approach to declaring war with one of the Emperors has been and personal dislike aside I don’t think any of their approaches has irked me as much as Sangoro the Soba chef. Tasked with collecting information/intel on Kaido’s forces, “Sangoro” instead does this: 

Now again I admit that maybe he had some plan we are not privy to but it’s the events that follow that tempt my ire. Kyoshiro sends some goons to wreck Sangoro’s Soba stall and in the process they wreck some food thus earning Sanji’s ire. So of course the reasonable way to respond is for him to beat the crap out of all of them for daring to disrespect food.

The way the events play out is very much #OnePiece and very much what we know of Sanji. Not debating that. But it again goes to show how little this series has progressed and it’s characters have developed or changed over the course of 900 chapters. I get mad when fans suggest that Sanji is going to don the raid suit to protect his crew when his actions re the Soba shop are what led to the crew being endangered in the first place. The SH’s are in the heart of enemy territory and yet none of them are acting as such. How are we supposed to believe that the Emperor’s are one of this world’s most powerful forces of nature, and that Law/Luffy working together have only a 30% chance of victory if their plan is *flawlessly* executed and everything goes according to plan when the SH’s lack any kind of awareness that they cannot act as they like?

A more powerful narrative arc would have seen Sanji putting on a façade and allowing the goons to destroy his stall and ruin the food, and him apologizing for having set up an unlicensed stall. Would it go against everything that Sanji stands for? Of course! But as he stupidly points out later, when Page One is chasing them, Robin and Nami would be in trouble if they get caught and were tortured for information. So if he realized that why would he do something that would very obviously draw attention to himself when their goal is to be discrete?

And I’m not saying that Sanji wouldn’t or shouldn’t retaliate. He could have donned a disguise (not the fucking raid suit) at night and paid the goons a visit at night to exact vengeance for what they did and that way there would be no attention drawn to him or the SH’s. Hell Oda could have even turned “Sangoro” into a mythological figure by taking a page from Food Wars book and having Sanji operate a food stall that shows up in different districts of Wano at night serving food to the hungry masses and then disappearing. And similar to Food Wars this mythical stall would serve different varieties of food every night creating an air of mystery and excitement that would make the people of Wano seek it out. This would have been a great way to collect information, inspire the masses, and frustrate Kaido’s forces by keeping them preoccupied with this so the others could operate in secret.

But Oda can’t or won’t do that because he can’t do anything that would make Sanji look less noble or do anything akin to asking him to sacrifice his pride for the sake of the greater good. I mean we’ve seen this all the way back in W7/EL when he was willing to let a crewmate die for the sake of his pride. And let me make it very clear that Sanji’s refusal to hit women isn’t noble or moral or even acceptable when it’s so blindingly hypocritical when he turns around and assaults and objectifies them. And again for a man that claims to love women he doesn’t even put on the pretense of caring about them in any non-superficial way. What good is his adoration of them when he outright ignores how they’re treated and abused by others? It’s the equivalent of claiming to value/love freedom and yet remain silent when minorities are being assaulted and discriminated against. 

And what frustrates me even more than all of that is that Sanji’s only able to do what he does and hold the moral high ground and never question his values because Oda will never let him be wrong. He can never face a consequence for making the wrong choice. One of my favorite moments and lines from The Dresden Files *SPOILER* is one where Harry is going through a crisis of faith and when talking to his father he gets this advice:

H: “I crossed a line”

F: “I know. It only means what you decide it means.”

H: “What?”

F: “Harry, life isn’t simple. There is such a thing as black and white. Right and wrong. But when you’re in the thick of things, sometimes it’s hard for us to tell. You didn’t do what you did for your own benefit. You did it so you could protect others. That doesn’t make it right – but it doesn’t make you a monster, either. You still have free will. You still get to choose what you will do and what you will become. As long as you believe you are responsible for your choices, you still are.”

And another:

“Take the high road if you want to. Choose to walk away from this strength in the name of principle. But after your noble death, everyone who might one day have come to you for help, everyone who is killed in the aftermath of the Darkhallow – every life you might have protected in the future will be on your head. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt.”

The only reason the SH’s and hell even Sanji are able to play off his sexism as “chivalry” or “nobility” on W7/EL (or hell even with Pudding) is with the acceptance of the idea that no one was harmed by his actions. On W7/EL this meant acknowledging that Robin would not die and that she would be rescued no matter what. And you can spin that any way you like (he had faith in the crew etc.) but what the crux of it comes down to is this: what would Sanji have done if Robin had been killed because of his failure to act? How would the crew react? Would they blame him or would they split the blame equally amongst themselves. Would this make Sanji reconsider his position? What if Kalifa had been like Lucci personality wise? Would he have behaved the same way if after she immobilized him she went after the other SH’s? After Nami?

The reason those quotes above spoke to me is how they relate to the idea of choice. I’ve been told that if Sanji were to hit a woman that it would somehow “ruin his character” or that it would mean that he somehow after that would justify hitting all enemy female combatants without regard for his “chivalry”. That’s all bullshit. There is a difference between *choosing* to fight a woman and hitting one in a blatant abuse of power. It’s about time that he starts taking responsibility for his actions and choices into his own hands and owns them rather than ascribing them to something external. Given the choice between taking an enemy combatant out of commission to save the life of a friend or holding on to your principles and placing the burden on your teammates, it’s obvious which action is worthy of praise and which is one is worthy of contempt. Too bad we seem to have got them flipped.