#Law and PTSD

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law on touching and being touched

It won't be a perverted post despite the title lol. But I won't stop your imagination, be free!

There's this funny theme going on with Law and Luffy in particular that picked my interest.

Luffy touched him first.

And he later returned the gesture, much more awkwardly.

Again, Luffy grabbed him angrily first.

Law made sure to return the gesture. (btw he also does it with Zoro, who was the first one to wrap an arm around him at post-Dressrosa feast. In Wano Law has no problem grabbing Zoro and shouts at him angrily. Again, it was Zoro who initiated the touch first).

Law grabbing Luffy to teleport them makes Luffy react in a curious way, you wanna know why?

Because it totally feels like this moment. Both Law and Ace, right after getting uncuffed, grabbed Luffy in same way to get him to a safer place. Ace-Law parallel in relation to Luffy kills me. The whole Dressrosa arc's plotline between Luffy and Law is just Marineford Went Well This Time. Ngl I kinda hated Oda at first for that. Now i dig it.

He didn't seem to like that. Luffy says "Let's all get along well!", but Law thinks alliances don't have to "get along".

Mistranslation here. What Law says here, being so surprised, is "nakayoshi ka?!" which means "you two get along?!" or "you two are buddy-buddies?!". It's a callback to Luffy declaring that Law and Strawhats crew should get along (he uses same word then, nakayoku-get along), Law learns here that Luffy's crew indeed "gets along well". You can interpret it whatever way you wish, but I will use it this time to put this scene into context:

The same gesture Luffy did to him before, but Law didn't return it to Luffy - that's because they're not crewmates. But he takes the lesson to heart and "gets along" with his own crew. Omg I can't believe i'm writing it, I make Law sound like this completely awkward adult who doesn't know how to be friends with people.

But bear with me, the shit is only starting. If you don't want to have feels I reccommend you just laugh at it and stop reading here. I digged up a feels landmine by accident. In-depth study starts below!

It's also a possible callback to the "reassurance" Law got from Cora-san. "I'm counting on you to escape" and Law did. He counts for his crew to steer the submarine well in similar manner.

Law's family didn't seem very touchy-feely, so please keep that in mind as well. He's got limited experience with touches and the few touches he did get familiar with were either taken away from him or brutalized.

Law getting patted on the head lovingly by his parent.

Next time this loving gesture happens, he gets thrown from like two-floor building into a pile of garbage.

And then he gets lied to that everything will be fine. We all know it wasn't.

Do you still wonder why he hates being touched on the head?

The sister touches his face gently while showing child Law support and compassion, reminding him not to despair, someone kind will help him.

Corazon doing the same gentle touch to the face while crying for him, thinking of all the pain Law had to experience. Indeed, the world sent Law someone kind. And Law lost him and blames himself for that.

Law holding Lammy's hand while lying to her that it will be alright. He never does that gesture again to anyone.

The sister holding Law's hand.

"Don't come closer! Don't touch us! We will get infected!" even doing the barrier gesture (I guess that's why Law doesn't get along with Bartolomeo). I used only few examples, there is much more, I just couldn't bear posting them all. Anyway, Law's got the message, his touch is unwanted. The body and mind remembers this.

Similar shit said at the auction in Sabaody about Fishmen, we don't see Law's reaction to that, but we can guess already that it was for sure triggering. Those people talking are sitting not that far away from him.

Ever wondered why Law throws people when teleporting? Besides the fact he avoids making contact with anyone unless they initiate it first, because that trauma is still strong in him ("Stay away! Don't come closer!"), there is one other possible reason:

Wonder no more! He does it to people because that's how people treated him as well, even people who apparently loved him.

Now that I have ruined the "Law is just an awkward unsocial nerd" joke for you, let me offer something to warm your heart a bit in exchange:

Corazon made sure to touch Law a lot and hold him in his arms, despite being often clumsy about it. I think he understood Law's trauma about being touched and his fear to touch or approach anyone, and tried to help him overcome it.

Being hugged and trying to return the gesture. Corazon's efforts did bring some results! But it only works for very few people, Law is still wary of people he doesn't know well. He expects to be unwanted and acts uneccessarily cold, distant and unapproachable because of that. But if you scroll back to the beginning of this post, you can see that he is trying his best to overcome it as well, one step at a time. Some things just can't be rushed.

And hey, at least he seems to be actually relaxed and almost like he *enjoys* being carried around. You think it makes him look uncool? Definitely. But suddenly it feels like Something Important, kinda intimate in a way and not just a silly comedy moment. It's a sign Law relies on people when he lets them carry him and that's why he doesn't protest.

Sanji is like "Why are you relaxing like that?! Get off!!" Finally, it makes sense why Law makes such a sour face here. Sanji should be grateful for the rare privileage after all! Anyway, this is anime-only extension, in manga Sanji actually doesn't tell Traffy to get off and Law chooses to scramble by himself, which doesn't taint the fragile trust those two just shared.

For those who made it to the end of this post, have I ruined Law's comedy moments for you forever? Because I sure just did that for myself.

I could also add one more cute thing from One Piece World Seeker Law's dlc, but I will let those interested to discover it by themselves!

I'm also amazed by the consistency of this theme. Both manga and anime never forget that touch is seemingly a big deal for Law.

[l-in-the-light]

It's on purpose, Law has a lot of points in common with many other Strawhats too. Try Chopper and Law, Nami and Law, and of course the most obvious one - Robin and Law. Why is it on purpose though? Well... I'm always down for some Law for a Strawhat propaganda lol.

But he did... He did have a Corazon attack with Sanji.

Just look how uncharacteristically shaken he is here (yeah yeah I know, it's not an objectively shaken up face expression, but this is usually as good as you get it with Law. And if you want Law to react like he reacts to Luffy's shanenigans to feel satisfied about it, then welp, do you want him to have only one emotion? He's already way too often reacting with anger on his first instinct anyway and it often becomes the only reaction he ever has, because it's the only one that is obvious. Here we have something completely different).

You can also argue the reason why Law shambled himself so fast to Sunny is to save immobilized Sanji (who reminds him of Cora) from Doflamingo. He simply couldn't stand the sight exactly because of all of Sanji-Cora similarities. Maybe it's a bit like watching Mingo shooting Cora all over again?

And of course the infamous onigiri scene. Law stayed on the deck of Sunny for the night, be it either he wanted to keep guard (though so many others were keeping guard that night, he really didn't have to) or because he didn't feel comfortable to stay close with the Strawhats while being defenseless. Dressrosa takes place in span of one day. After the battle Law has no problem with sleeping openly and unguarded with the rest of the Strawhats anymore. It took him just two nights and a heat of shared battle. The most impactful thing was probably the onigiri breakfast. Sanji prepared riceballs just for him, for a stranger who probably had very sus intentions (from their pov!), but Law instead of showing gratitude got into an angry quarrel with Sanji over an umeboshi filling. That same guarded and stoic Law, who kept almost all of his reactions to himself in Punk Hazard, and didn't feel comfortable sleeping close to the rest on his first night on the Sunny, got into an open fight with Sanji the very next morning (this follow up is sadly only described in SBS).

I will post this image till everyone knows it by heart, I guess, lol. When Law is emotionally attached to people, he shouts at them (be it to cover up his embarrassment or worry, but sometimes it's just a sign that he is openly showing his emotions and not guarding himself so much anymore). First time he shouted at Luffy was when Luffy charged openly at the front of PH lab (Luffy didn't hear that, was too far away, but is still counts), first time he shouted at Zoro was in Wano... but first time he shouted at Sanji was at the onigiri breakfast. He didn't know almost anything about Sanji at this point, because Sanji wasn't part of the group Law was captured with, and later on Law moved on with his plan alone as one-person-army. He simply had no interactions with Sanji before, but he lashed out at him like he knows him for ages already. Like he used to with Cora-san.

So yes, Law had a Corazon (heart)attack with Sanji, and it caught him completely off-guard too. Now imagine how much more it had to get to him when he saw the same Sanji in Germa's suit (please-someone-anyone-draw-Corazon-in-Germa's-suit!). Or when he rescued Law from badly done shambles in Onigashima's raid. Uhum, so many Corazon feels, I bet.

3. Ah, yes, Sabo. Not pushing my siblings dynamics propaganda for Lawlu, I would never. Not with all those Ace-Law parallels freefloating around in the story.

I know it's hard to read through Law's face expressions and body language. He often keeps his emotions to himself and his first instinct with strangers is to either show an intimidating smile or very guarded and closed off resting bitch face. He dropped the smiles super quickly with the Strawhats. And the only emotion Law seems to openly show is anger, which is sadly very typical for a person suffering from PTSD. If we want to see any other of his reactions, we really need to dig deeper, focus on micro-expressions and try to find patterns in his behaviour. Because on the surface, he has only three expressions: threatening (often comes together with a smile; two for one bargain), angry (if he feels close enough to show it to you), calm/stoic/withdrawn/detached (whichever way you prefer to define his usual resting bitch face).

Veterans are the most researched group when it comes to PTSD, btw (Law also qualifies for that, because cough cough Flevance? Genocide? War? Should ring all the bells). So yeah, it's no wonder that Law's expressions and emotional reactions are so hard to notice and interpret correctly. That's one of the many PTSD symptoms he has. Many people unaware about symptoms of PTSD will see Law as "detached", "emotionless", "uncaring", simply because his range of face expressions is very limited. It might be easier for me to make this connection, because I can somewhat relate to that. I might be internally going coockoo with stress and anxiety, and people around me will tell me I'm lying because they can't see it on my face. It's not only a PTSD symptom (many other mental conditions share this, even severe depression), but in Law's case PTSD clearly is the reason behind his flat affect. (Also I have to say it, great job at portraying it so accurately, Oda!)

It's also probably one of the main reasons why Law in the novels might feel slightly OOC to the readers: it's the first time we're allowed to see his thoughts, which gives us insight into his emotions (Oda has a rule not to show thoughts of characters if he can help it. I count it for his "show, not tell" approach actually). But if you pay attention, even in the novels Law still acts pretty detached and rarely shares his insights with people around him. Pair it together with his flat affect and you will realize there's a huge gap between Law's inner life and what is seen on the outside, and that gap, is in fact, very canon to his character.

Also there's something going on with his smiles too, I swear. But I really love his smiles. He rocks them so well!

All that I can say......

[irafook]

Dealing with trauma

[minniiaa]

I think Law pretends to dislike everyone around him and refuses to acknowledge them as his friends because he’s so damn traumatized that he truly believes if he admits he cares about someone out loud they’ll just get taken away from him.

His crew are his subordinates and the Strawhats are his allies. Accepting anything more in his mind means they get the death stamp likes he’s some harbinger of death. I get why he would feel this way but it really is sad.

[pebbles-scatter]

putting these two in a room together and seeing what new mental illnesses they concoct

[l-in-the-light]

Beatifully said. This post deserves so much more attention, it's so heartfelt and real.

I also think Law is often mischaracterized in fanfiction, which is fine in general (ooc characters or alternative takes can be really cool too and often are), but it feels like there's no place for canon Law anymore anywhere, everyone is just projecting their desires and favourite tropes on him, and his own voice is not heard anymore as the result... which means we should talk a lot about canon Law, especially because he's so easy to just dismiss. He's introverted, grumpy, tsundere, and all of that is valid and true (he can also be an emo hipster, a nerdy loser or an insufferable, always complaining moody teen, if that's what you fancy the most imagining him as), but he's also traumatized, and if no one wants to talk about it, I guess I will. It's a part of him the same way lying is part of Usopp and stinginess is part of Nami.

Let me share with you one of the most striking (for me) images from the anime adaptation of Law's flashback, because I think it illustrates the original post really well:

"sometimes you just can’t show emotions the way you used to because part of the trauma is that there was no time to show them, no use to show them because you were surviving because you’ve seen terrible things and crying was for nothing. It served no purpose and any type of “showing emotions” was used against you so you just learned to repress them so hard that it became impossible to show them."

This anime shot always gets me. Law had to supress his reactions, emotions and pain so he can survive, and most of the time he achieves that by staying quiet and not moving. It's even more underlined by the fact he literally was rendered mute by Cora-san's spell later, which also ended up saving his life. Anime doesn't always keep up to that (and his seiyuu delivers a lot of grunts, but they're still mostly grunts, huffing and half-supressed sounds), but in the manga? Law's reactions are still pretty much muted, even when he's an adult. Most are just "...!!" and variations of that, even when freaking Doflamingo shoots him, Law supresses his cries, either not to give him satisfaction or because supressing gives him a sense of control over the helpless situation; it's probably both, but it's also a result of his PTSD imo.

His reaction to being shot is just "!!!" (which can be interpreted as expression of inner turmoil/pain or perhaps a grunt, the latter is how anime usually interprets it)

And again, he seems way too used to supressing, it's definitely his first instinct reaction to any sort of pain or danger. Even when he's defeated by Blackbeard and in real risk of dying right there, Law chose to be silent (while obviously also being in huge pain).

The only times he actually screams and cries out in Dressrosa arc is when Doflamingo severs his arm (he couldn't move while it was happening, so the pain kinda released him from freezing up, by screaming he regained back his control over his body. He still gathers himself really quickly afterwards) and when Doflamingo is about to stomp his skull into the ground:

He still tries to cover his eyes and lowers his initial volume too, trying to hide and not show his emotions openly. It really hits hard, because this is his failure, his moment, he's allowed to feel it to the fullest, but he still tries to stop himself from it.

He tries so hard to regain his control, but by doing that he's also just succumbing to his traumatic response. This visceral struggle is what made him survive all this time: supress, keep quiet, withstand the pain no matter what.

He also doesn't even flinch when Big Mom is beating him up while he's at the end of his strength and pushing himself even more over his limit for this last attack.

I guess it's not very obvious, because we start Punk Hazard with Law writhing and crying whenever someone squeezes his heart. Besides that, his pain reactions are always supressed, sometimes to the extreme too. Makes one wonder...

Even after Cora-san's spell wears off, Law's pain and crying gets muted by other sounds around. Technically he's allowed to express himself, but in reality he's still not being heard.

Some psychological research says there's a link between abuse and silence, and fictional stories sometimes touch upon that. For example, if you take away the voices of the victims, it's like the harm and pain never happened, because no one knows and those who do know will never talk about it. If you constantly hear the suffering voices in your head, you will have to appease them or they will never leave you alone, taking over your life. But there are other ways to make them go quiet, like by literally forcing them, especially if there's no hope to get justice. Anything to survive.

After reading more Law’s Pov’s on fics I’ve realized that sometimes people misinterpret Law a lot, if you read Law’s novel you realize that he is thoughtful, more tender than he appears to be and inclined to profound reflections about existential issues. I do think that I get why it happens as a person with PTSD, sometimes you just can’t show emotions the way you used to because part of the trauma is that there was no time to show them, no use to show them because you were surviving because you’ve seen terrible things and crying was for nothing. It served no purpose and any type of “showing emotions” was used against you so you just learned to repress them so hard that it became impossible to show them. You learn to rationalize and micro analyse everything because your fucking life can depend on you hability to do so. So yeah I get that many people people would look at you and misinterpret you as “not caring”  or “cold” because you might be running thousands equations thinking about the risks of trusting someone, since you are so low energy you literally can’t afford another pseudoargument or anything that would just make you lose any more times because you never had time to begin with. It is living in borrowed time every single minute expecting the other shoe to drop. Anyway, I’m not comparing my trauma to Law’s his is way bigger than mine, but the little things, yeah I get them. 

Just a little rambling here to the void as always. 

[syrupfog]

AU where Sanji never actually left Germa, and Judge made him a test subject early on, successfully getting rid of his empathy after years of torture.

But like, he has those years of bullying from his brothers first, and his empathy’s gone but his anger’s still there. Also with no Zeff, he fights with his fists and doesn’t treat women Like That. Because Zeff’s the one who instilled in him to never hit a woman (and made it weird but that’s not the point).

He’s out on some mission in the Grand Line when he runs into the Straw Hats and he sees Zoro’s green hair and associates it with Yonji and he just haaaates him on sight.

The fight is super evenly matched and Zoro manages to knock him out eventually but he’s like what’s the guy’s DEAL. Wtf is his problem.

Maybe Law’s with them when it goes down and he recognizes that costume and fanboys…

Oh actually yeah— Law’s with them! And after Zoro knocks him out, Law goes into Creepy Surgeon Mode and is like for the love of god please let me get my fingers in that chest cavity

And everyone else (bar Robin ofc) is like Σ（ﾟдﾟlll）

But Law gets a room going and finds all sort of odd Germa technology literally implanted in him and starts pulling it out and messing with it and suddenly Sanji wakes UP and he’s— he’s scared. And overwhelmed. He’s in real time having to reckon with years of torturing people.

And Law’s like oh the emotional part of this is not in my pay grade this is not my job anymore and dips.

So Sanji’s there in the Sunny’s infirmary like “I’m a monster I need to be put down oh my god” and Luffy shows up like HEY you’re cool as hell join my crew.

Zoro is not a fan of this option and also it turns out neither is Sanji BUT sanji has nowhere to go so he makes a deal to sail with them until the next habitable island. So Zoro watches him like a hawk bc he’s like “you’re definitely faking this and are gonna turn evil and try to kill people again right”

But instead he just keeps finding Sanji being really pathetic and sad and looking longingly at the kitchen (Robin doubles as the cook and her food is damn near inedible but that’s just the life of a pirate innit)

Late one night Zoro comes off watch and he sees Sanji sneaking into the kitchen and he thinks OH he’s going to try to POISON US so he sneaks in after him and confronts him, swords and all. And Sanji, who knows what an awful person he’s been and knows he deserves death, just starts crying and is like “yeah you can kill me just let me cook one thing once I just want to remember what it feels like”

So Zoro lets him cook, and is like yeah I’m killing you after this, and Sanji spends a long time sniffling as he re-familiarizes himself with pots and pans and spices and knives and ends up making something garlic-y and delicious that smells strong enough to wake up the crew, and everyone traipses in enraptured by the smell. So Sanji serves them and Zoro tries it first because if it’s poisoned he’s not letting EVERYONE go down. But it’s not poisoned and it’s really good, and anyway Zoro can’t kill him now in front of everyone.

But three nights later the same thing happens— he sees Sanji sneaking into the kitchen and follows him and Sanji says “I know you should’ve killed me last time but you couldn’t, I get that, but I’m dangerous. So let me cook just one more time and then you can kill me.”

And it doesn’t happen of course. Everyone comes in and everyone eats and Zoro watches Sanji recover a little of himself.

And so it goes. At first every few nights and then every other night, and then every single night.

And whenever Zoro comes in, Sanji says, I know I deserve to die but let me cook just one more thing.

And at some point Zoro stops thinking about killing Sanji. He’s a part of the crew now. He’s proving himself, and anyway Zoro can beat him and hold him down and Law can reverse whatever it is again if needs be.

So it’s just a thing they do. Zoro lightly threatens him and Sanji begs for his life and they move on. It’s routine but it doesn’t actually MEAN anything anymore.

That is, until one really bad night where Sanji doesn’t show up in the kitchen like he always does, and Zoro goes looking and finally finds him deep in the steerage, and Sanji says, “I can’t keep living like this, please just kill me. I can’t keep living knowing I’m going to die the next day.”

And Zoro’s like ???? You’re not gonna die the next day wtf

And Sanji says, please, just get it over with.

Zoro realizes that Sanji has continued all this time assuming Zoro really is coming to kill him every night

But it’s been MONTHS at this point. Surely he wouldn’t still think—

But Sanji’s wracked with more than a decade’s worth of guilt, is so sure he deserves the worst the world possibly has to offer.

Too bad Zoro’s a little in love with him at this point. And says anyone who wants to kill Sanji will have to go through Zoro first.

Which Sanji DOESNT UNDERSTAND and he doesn’t understand the kiss Zoro follows it up with, but he returns it. Greedily.

Because as much as he knows he deserves death, he also relishes every moment of life, every chance to feel the emotions he wasn’t allowed. And Zoro goes from jailer to protector in his mind. Slowly. Hesitantly.

He spends years working through the trauma, decades really, but the simplicity with which Zoro sees the world helps. Zoro doesn’t blame him. Zoro loves him. Sanji doesn’t know much but he knows he’ll defend this ship that saved him with his life.

And he knows Zoro wouldn’t let Sanji defend HIM with his life, because Zoro views his life as precious and important.

Which is something Sanji is still learning.

He’ll get there.

[carisisrolledupsleeves]

this

and also this

my expectations were low but wtf

[outcast123]

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

Life always gets better for me everyday in every way

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law and his rare friendships (Law and closeness series part 4)

Let's venture into less explored territory. And we will start with no one else but our beloved Kinemon!

They met at Punk Hazard, Kinemon doing some rampage and Law was sent by Caesar to stop him. At first he cut him up into three pieces apparently, but I think Kin is colorizing here a lot.

Because let's take a look at his awesome feats. He might be cut into pieces, but he's still a decent threat despite that! I think Law started by cutting Kinemon in half, then got surprised he still tried to fight him, and then he cut off his head as well only to realize that even the head alone is probably bouncing around as well! So he caught it, but in the meantime the legs already run somewhere else and the torso escaped Law on his way back to lab somehow which is where Brook finds it later. And Law was probably like "screw it, I don't have time for this" and left it be for now. But I bet it wasn't "letting his torso to rot, and feed legs to wild beasts" like Kinemon claims. After all his legs turned out to be just fine lol. And we know by now that Kin's legs just run off on their own aimlessly, so this is probably what actually happened.

And this is how Strawhats find Kin. I guess Kinemon was still causing a lot of trouble despite being only a head. Maybe he tried to bite Law? Anyway, he must have been really *mad* to cut him up into that many tiny pieces. I think Kinemon was behaving like a little shit. It's important to mention Law never did that to anyone else before.

And he attempts to do the same to Tashigi who is also trying to bounce around while being cut in half.

Yeah, Kinemon and Law started off on a great note there. But I think Kin earned Law's respect for that, because this is probably what Kin shouted at him while being cut into smaller and smaller pieces:

And Law shoved his head into some closed off room, instead of giving it to Caesar. I think he was trying to spare him and hoping he can restore him back later on.

As soon as they both end up on Strawhats ship, Kinemon already treats Law with respect! It's no longer "that warlord" but "Law-dono".

It seems that despite what Kinemon says, Law actually earned his respect back there already. He even tried to catch his name or the title to know who he is.

It's so sweet he's already asking Law to give him a ride to Zou and before he can get an answer Luffy butts-in haha.

He's always listening carefully to Law's plan in Dressrosa and keeps closely with his assigned group. And yes, it's implied that Law was the one who strategically seperated the groups.

Kin is the first one to raise a concern to stick to the plan and not waste any time. He understands the stakes but won't venture off on his own, instead making sure the whole group knows what to do. That's because they left before Law finished going over the plan again. Kinemon took it on himself to make sure "they got the memo", so to speak.

Kin's also the one who seems most worried about Law, probably because when he almost rescued him he realized in what kind of terrible state he was. "Answer me!!" there is a lot of concern there he didn't show for any of the Strawhats yet, but he did for Law.

His idea to distract and cause some chaos by disguising himself was also something Law would approve of.

On Barto's ship Kin is already taking care of the dangers ahead of others, because he's aware his friends are still recoving from their injuries.

Kinemon never forgets that Strawhats and Law are in alliance and are two seperate crews. He asks Law specifically for help as well, clearly surprising him with that request. Kin's amazement seems to be very genuine and he is very polite in how he asks for help.

And then alliance happens, they bump fists together I bet Law must have braced himself for it and Luffy declares "Being in alliance means we're friends!". This is the moment Luffy defines what Kinemon and Law's relationship is supposed to be from now on: friendship. And of course Law is annoyed about that, it should be up to him to decide stuff like that! Luffy doesn't care though, pushing Law's boundaries further for him.

Law already takes on his role in the alliance, assuring Kin they will be safe in his submarine and no one will be able to suddenly attack them on his watch. Now this is a turn of 180 degrees, Law takes them as his own personal responsibility from now on, gives emotional reassurance and basically saying "count on me" but with different words. He already succumbed to the fate Luffy bestowed upon him.

And take a look at this. There is team Luffy, team Nekomamushi, Team Inuarashi and Team Kinemon. Do you know what that means? Yes, Law handed the leadership over the group to Kinemon! Meanwhile himself taking the role of a support and protection. And this trend will continue all the way in Wano as well.

Apparently he visited Kinemon at the castle ruins every single day. Most likely worried about his health condition.

Law apologized immediately to Kinemon the moment the other asks what's going on. Even takes the blame for himself, but also takes extra time to reassure Kin that his part of the plan is unaffected and no one knows about the samurais. I think it's implied again that it was Law who seperated the tasks in each group meanwhile taking a supervisor role himself. He told Kinemon to find Akazaya samurais and they had a whole operation going on in the background with gathering supplies of weapons and food, bit by bit, while officially putting the blame on some third party. Knowing Kinemon he wouldn't be smart enough to think of it this way, so Law at the very least helped him organize stuff. Besides we don't see Kinemon running around and making sure everything works out: that's Law actually, checking up with all the groups and resolving any potential crisis situations (like when he warned Sanji of trouble and took it on himself to lead the whole group to safety). Besides we have Sanji's words for proof when Law apologized to Kinemon: "What kind of shoddy operation are you running, Law?!" which is pretty direct in pointing out who the actual mastermind is behind the Wano's battle.

Seeing how Kin also wasn't the smartest at reading the coded picture message about the raid, I think it was originally Law's idea as well that the message should be some sort of code only people involved would understand. The raid picture also mentions meeting up at a port specifically, and that seems to be a reoccuring point plan in every of Law's plans ever since Rocky PORT Incident. Even in Dressrosa and Punk Hazard the chosen meeting points for all seperated groups were told to be specific ports.

When it turns out there was a traitor in the midst of their core team, it's Law who seems to have taken it on himself to dig up information from Hawkins. Interestingly enough every last samurai arrives for the raid despite that every single bridge in the country had been destroyed. I have no evidence but I think it's likely Law helped all those people travel to the "true" meeting spot. After all we didn't see him for days before the raid, and while many fans believed Law turned into a snitch, the raid itself denies it: Law was from the very beginning to the very end on the alliance's side. But then why didn't he take credit for what he did to make the raid a success? Well, he didn't take any credit at all before either, giving it all to Kinemon, so why would he start to take it for himself suddenly?

Here Law rescues the samurais, scolding them for underestimating the sea. Doesn't it look similar to you? Law is rising them up just like Oden did on his execution day. This symbolically proves Law is the actual person carrying the whole battle operation on his back. Just like his full name, Trafalgar Waterloo, should have hinted us all along. His reactions to all the others discussing what's happening are also very telling - Law's the only one not surprised that samurais aren't there yet, that there is a traitor, not even surprised that Kid is there. But he is taken aback about news of Big Mom and Jinbei, because that's some wild cards he didn't know anything about before.

Even though Law protests his submarine isn't samurais garrison, it's pretty clear who samurais themselves think runs their plan in reality. And worthy to notice here: Law no longer calls Kinemon by his full name. It's "Kin" from now on. And how many people did we ever see Law using such an affectionate name for before? With him you're either "something-ya" or a full name basis. Kin is literally the only exception. You can't see it as anything else but affectionate. Throughout Wano they became really close friends.

And of course Law saves Kinemon's skin by coming up with a backup plan on the fly and even decides he will carry the samurais to the back entrance of the island on his submarine. He also allows Kinemon to take the full credit, not really expecting any gratitude. He just sits there in the background, letting others take the spotlight.

And this is a good moment to remind us of what Sengoku told Law about love. It should be unconditional, which means you don't expect anything in return for your help. Law usually operates on "favour for a favour" basis or impersonal alliance level. But in this "alliance" he doesn't even want the credit, doesn't expect anything in return, and breaks his own rule of not calling people in affectionate ways. And does he even get anything for himself from this alliance besides the rise in his own bounty?

Imo there's only one possible conclusion here: Law accepted the condition of the alliance Luffy set up all the way back in Zou, it's supposed to be a friendship. Law indeed fullfilled that condition, he truly became friends with Kin. Of course he still wouldn't admit openly that they're friends, but like always with Law, we need to actually look at his actions and subtext. This friendship wouldn't have happened if friendship with Luffy didn't happen first! After the raid Law doesn't stay at the shogun's palace and instead stays with the ships at the port, but I bet you anything Kinemon ran to him at least once to tell him how grateful he was for his help.

So that's one confirmed friendship of Law we see in the series (besides the one he has with Luffy, but I elaborated on that one all the way back in part 2). The other friendships we can see in the series is that with Bepo, Penguin and Shachi, and Wolf in Law's novel. We know that Law created Hearts Pirates together with them, he doesn't consider Hearts to be his own creation, it's theirs as much as it's Law's. That friendship started off on a sour ground, Penguin and Shachi were bullying Bepo and Law saved him. But they quickly became friends and Law's strength and attitude earned their deepest respect. Penguin and Shachi sometimes allow themselves very cheeky comments ("Captain! You're so sexy now!"), they're also slightly older than him, but despite that they have really big respect for Law and always listen to him, despite sometimes complaining ("Captain got carried away" or "stop him Bepo!!"). They know each other well and as teens they spent a lot of late nights just talking together. They would sacrifice their lives for Law and Law would do the same for them, but he's also not beyond sending them to safety instead and taking all the risk on himself. They often shower Law in compliments, almost like they know he has low self-esteem, but then they know him for 13 years already, of course they would be best friends at this point and know that stuff about him (about his touching trauma probably as well).

Bepo is the only one privileaged with any physical affection, he is Law's safe haven, the last one he allowed himself to keep. The main Hearts also know of Law's past and his full name, as well as the fact he is a D. Of course they also started doing those silly power rangers-like poses when Law introduces his crew and I bet you anything it's a nod to Sora Warrior of the Sea. They're all fanboying the comics together. Law is probably slightly more affectionate with his Hearts than anyone else (which in this case means he allows himself to be a bit more open, but he still keeps some distance from them), but we can see he still acts like a leader for them, trying his best to earn the respect he received. But we also see him worrying about Bepo a lot in Wano when the mink ate a poisoned fish. He almost threw his own raid plan out of the window just because Bepo asked to not leave him alone; clearly they are his firstmost priority. Too bad we don't have that many of their interactions to analyze.

And then we have his friendship with the old man Wolf, inventor from North Blue, who took Law in (spoilers ahead for Law's novel!). At first their relations are mostly "favour for a favour" kind, something that Law knows well because he tends to operate on same basis. So, Law is allowed to stay at Wolf's place if he finds a job and helps with chores and testing the inventions. They take turns preparing the meals. Everything changes when Wolf has an unfortunate accident and Law saves his life. Wolf then asks for a friendship and Law thinks to himself that he can't really refuse a request from someone who doesn't usually do "friendships", he feels honoured with that trust. Wolf still acts as their mentor but it feels more like they became a family. Law is very grateful to Wolf for standing in defense of Penguin and Shachi. Wolf is also the one who teaches young Law how to be a captain and puts it into his head that he needs to take responsibility at all times. In general Wolf acts rather cold and rough, but always shows a kind heart when any of them needs it, and I bet Law took on his habits because that feels a lot like how Law himself acts on many occassions.

Wolf definitely became some sort of a rolemodel for him, but there were also few occassions when Law allowed himself to say some really spoiled and cheeky things to him (like: you do the dishes from now on). Law also helps Wolf make a tough decision: to resign from taking responsibility for his son's actions and not to kill him with his own hands, he literally stops his effort by saying "Family shouldn't kill each other". At the end Wolf gives them a partying gift: a yellow submarine, and encourages Law to go out to seas to look for freedom and experience life as he wants. Even 3 years later both of them think of each other fondly, implying that maybe one day Heart Pirates will return to share stories about their adventures.

That's all the canon provides us. Law generally keeps to himself, but in Law's novel he doesn't seem to have any problem to make friendships, every person he saves becomes eventually his friend, which really gives one more argument that there's no way Luffy would be the exception to that rule. But it becomes clear that the older Law gets the more reserved he becomes and doesn't seek out friendships. He probably wouldn't have perceived Kinemon as his friend if not for the condition of the alliance Luffy applied. And this begs to ask about the elephant in the room: why? Why is he that reserved and why did he allow himself to accept Kinemon as friend in the end? I think he felt it's okay to become friends with Kinemon, because he's a samurai thrugh and through. Even if they win and Kin lives, Law would leave Wano and probably never see him again. I guess that made the decision easier on him to some degree.

I have some ideas about possible reasons why Law avoids any new friendships or affectionate bonds with people and instead tries as much as he can to keep it impersonal. He clearly can be a caring and dedicated friend and I don't think his trauma is the only reason why he avoids people. Because there's no reason anymore (after defeating Doffy and Kaido) to not openly admit he made new friends. I will take a closer look at his possible reasons in the next post.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

CW: I'm mean here about shows and stuff people like

syndrome from incredibles, Thanos in the comics, mad hatter from Batman, tighten from Megamind, frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame, Red Hulk, parasite from superman and Ozai all of these villains are pathetic but they work for some reason I cannot place. A lot of stories try and write villains that are pathetic but also scary and it doesn't work- I love Starscream he can be an amazing character (he can be sympathetic or a straight up monster he can be lame but still threatening etc) and I like most versions but God can writers screw him up and he can fall flat (i love tfp i swear but god i hate their starscream! He just didn't work for me! Megatron and knockout are cool tho) Belos for some reason doesn't work for me at all- I know he should be scary while the fandom is wrong about him being a colonizer/cult leader/a dictator (he's not stop using words you dont understand the meaning of)and how insane it is that he's in a kids show (watch more cartoons there's villains darker than him) he's still trying to commit genocide and he's abusive and he's at his core got very little depth or complexity- he's really just an isekai character gone wrong- a pathetic guy with a hero complex and emotional baggage who becomes a villain- but he just didn't work for me. Neither does Jacob Hopkins- he's just Ronaldo from SU if he was written to be a straight up hate sink. I'm a lesbian latina with autism and was raised with a different sect of christan beliefs from him- I know historically this guy would have murdered me and i know he should work but something about him didn't stick the landing! The main thing I think about with belos isn't 'wow this guy is a great villain' it's 'can y'all stop being weirdly ableist toward this old man' or 'why do so many of y'all wanna fuck this man he's ugly' and dont get me started on mcu villains - their version of the mandarin, she-hulk's dumb men rights activists on reddit (seriously that's the scariest villain you can come up with? Like revenge porn is evil but really? I don't like the term man-baby- I have personal issues with how the term has been used in ableist ways- but yeah erm man babies on reddit are the best you can do for a villain? That's freaking stupid) and OMG Sutur in Ragnarok was terrible etc etc- these villains all suck!

How do you write villains that are pathetic but still work? How do write villains who are at their core whiny insecure losers but still work as detestable threatening villains? Like marvel made a character whose whole thing was that he's an incel work but so many other stories fail to write that stuff. Part of me thinks it's because these stories are desperate to make their villain into a hate sink joke but still make them scary and it fails but Tighten and Red Hulk are right there and there's no way the writers weren't purposely writing hate sinks with them! And they work! Why doesn't belos?

[melancholitas]

Shachi and Penguin being so close to each other, bordering codependency in it's purest form, probably fills Law's heart, but also sparks some envy in him.

The bond and trust they have for each other, expanding it to him and Bepo, for a big part to the crew as well, is something the Surgeon probably wishes for deep inside as well. Something he doesn't know how to reciprocate, and is deadly afraid of in the same breath. It would mean conviction, dedication, openness. Something he had to deny himself for the longest time. But such bonds are an important necessity for the human mind. It's a survival need his body had to shut itself off from.

So every time Bepo and those dorks are catering to him or their crew, he feels pride to have them around him, truly feels lucky. But still wishes he'd be whole enough to give them back what they deserve. He tries, he opens up as much as he can, but his survival instincts are so tightly screwed into his being, its never enough in his eyes. So all he can do is protect them in his own way.

Deep down, Law finally knows he's enough. Knows they understand and don't mind his standoffish-ness. 'don't need to find a reason for someone's love'

But guilt is a mighty demon. Guilt to have survived multiple times, guilt to not have been able to save his loved ones, guilt to be as broken as he feels, guilt to still selfishly put them in danger, guilt to even still exist despite all odds... The list goes on.

So he craves and needs their love and affection, while simultaneously it makes his skin crawl, feeling unworthy of such. It's wasted on him. The key to heal is at the same time his worst fear.

[sirshio]

I'M BACK!

I love how MML depicts mental disorders and traumas. I already wrote a whole essay about Cavendish's autism and how good portrayed it was, now I want to talk about Dakota's PTSD.

Well, it's absolutely obvious he IS traumatized af, that's not the point. The point is that I think The Island (not an episode, an island itself) is a very decent and accurate metaphor of a person having a serious trauma. I have it too, so I'm speaking from my own experience.

In first year, when I was trying to live through that, I often felt like that I am okay indeed and nothing happened to me. There is another person, another version of me who is grieving and not knowing how to live. And I'm pretty sure my reaction is actually very common, this is how human's mind tries to help itself.

So do you see my vision? There's always another version of Dakota who grieves and who is hurt, who is to carry this burden and feel all these emotions, because all this happened to him. And another. And another. And another. But the "real" Dakota is completely okay. Everything is fine.

Why everything about The Island is SO fucked up?! WHY?!?

A mentioned essay:

[is-your-blorbo-neurodivergent]

does he have ptsd?

submit your own characters here to be featured!

reason: I mean HAVE YOU SEEN the whole plot about The Island? He's traumatized as fuck! And the fact he either seem to don't care or to make a joke about it makes the situation even worse!

[vivaciousoceans]

Ngl it does not sit right with me that a woman had to experience sexual violence for Carisi’s ptsd storyline.

[littlegoldfinchh]

on my way to my nonconsensual roleplay class