#Ohara globe

[0ynes]

Yeah, the Ohara globe, BUT THE FLAGS?!!! Doflamingo's flag, Ace's flag, Whitebeard flag AAAAAAAAAAAA

[l-in-the-light]

The Red Line and the All Blue

I have been thinking about the All Blue lately. I really, really like the theory that to get to the All Blue we need to destroy the Red Line. But there's just one problem with this. It lacks story reason. It doesn't have the oomph the usual mysteries in One Piece deliver. It's like the fandom discovered this piece of puzzle and left it on display, instead of trying to connect it to other things to make bigger sense of One Piece's world.

Red Line is called, curiously enough, a line.

If we ignore the seabelts, it looks like it seperated the world into two parts, two halves, because that line goes all around the globe. Interestingly enough, it seems like the North-West part is the one that is scientifically more advanced in comparison to the East-South. We have the family of best doctors the Tragalgars and botanists Mont Blancs in the North. Germa Kingdom with it's advanced science also is located in the North. And there are also Ohara's scholars in the West.

Meanwhile, there's no notable locations like that in the South and East, and most places seem to look very primitive there (lots of villages and small towns, not counting Goa Kingdom itself). In South Blue it seems to be similar, though there's one exception: Torino Kingdom. It looks primitive but actually hides lots of advancement. This makes me think that (at least some places in the) East and South might be pretending to be more primitive that they actually are, hiding their inventions. Flevance or Ohara were pretty open about their achievements, knowledge and technology, like it was to be expected that they're advanced and proud of it.

Oda doesn't really expand much on West and South Blues, but we know quite a lot about East and North, so I will focus on them primarily as we move on.

Shakky makes it sound like calm belts are means of protection, not something posing danger, like we were led to believe so far. But now they're not so safe anymore because of scientific inventions. It makes it all seem like calm belts were placed there intentionally somehow and aren't a result of coincidence. Not even Marines could go to the calm belts before using Vegapunk's inventions.

Now the question we should ask is this: what are calm belts protecting? People like the Kuja tribe (personally I think Kuja are just benefitting from it, they weren't the original purpose)?

Or... perhaps to protect the Grand Line itself by seperating it from everything else? And by extension, also from the Marines. Grand Line is the place where all pirates go who seek the One Piece, it can't be a coincidence.

"This is the boundary between justice and evil!" said the Marines as they painted the line and told everyone to respect it. What we know from the Void Century so far is that it was a war between two different ideologies. What if the Red Line is the result of those two fractions seperating from each other, literally dividing the world into two parts? "Don't ever cross that line". Crossing the Red Line is definitely a difficult thing to do for normal people and if anyone crosses it it's either Marines or Pirates. It divided the seas for forever.

Vegapunk also said there are still scars left on the world from the Void Century's war. Not only the world sank by 200 meters, apparently there are literally traces from the war left behind, and normally you would expect to see some ruins. But 800 years passed already and so many nations are so fast at rebuilding their kingdoms, what possible "ruins" or "scars" could be left behind that are still visible? Unless... those scars are the Red Line and the calm belts. It would be indeed very challenging to get rid of those. Coincidentally we have no idea when the Red Line got created. All we know is that Lunarians used to live there at some point. Marco knows that from Whitebeard and I wonder who Whitebeard heard that from? Perhaps Roger, because Roger told him what the D. stands for, so why not that as well.

Unless it's somehow connected to the D.

Because in the "land of gods" this is what welcomes the visitors. Cloaked figures of warrior-guardians (my guess based on their looks alone), those on the left wieldings swords, those on the right spears. This must be a relic of older times, because it has literally nothing to do with Celestial Dragons. And it kinda fits the idea that current Government just stole the older structures for themselves. Impel Down (that bears poneglyph-like writings), Gates of Justice, Marie Geoise, they might have even had different functions long, long time ago. What all those locations have in common is their advancement and heritage that seems not to be used to it's full potential, more like recycled for a different purpose. Impel Down was probably never a prison to begin with. If you want more headbending mysteries, then I can't reccommend enough to play One Piece World Seeker. Just the map alone of the Jail Island raises so many questions. It's also a mining town and has an underwater prison as well...

This looks like there was once an entrance or a passage way, allowing the ships to go through between the North and East Blues. It has been sealed off or something else was done to it.

Curiously enough, doctors were the ones allowed to pass the line between "justice" and "evil". Because doctors save lives. We know Trafalgars were apparently a family of doctors for many generations. It is possible they didn't even originate in the North Blue, but moved there at some point. Because doctors are allowed to cross borders.

Many people speculate that the red figure of Luffy (or is it a statue of Joyboy?) symbolizes the Red Line in the logo of One Piece. The horizontal lines are the calm belts protecting the Grand Line. What's the anchor and skull&bones with the Strawhat then? In the very first chapter of One Piece Luffy wears this shirt:

Is the anchor Luffy, or rather, the East Blue where Luffy comes from? Is the skull and bones with a strawhat the North Blue then perhaps? So then, the idea behind destroying the Red Line would be to finally connect the East and the North Blues together again, seperated for centuries. That might be what the rope symbolizes: connect them together (coincidentally, the "full" name of One Piece treasure includes the word hitotsunagi which might have a second, double meaning: connect the people). The goal of destroying the Red Line is to bring the two seperated seas back together, and by doing that we discover the All Blue. Perhaps, long long time ago, in the ancient times there was only one sea.

Zou is on the back of Zunesha for over thousand of years. That's way before the Void Century even happened. Which means minks have the knowledge about the world that dates back a thousand years. And back then there was only one sea, the All Blue, and 5 islands in the whole world. It's likely the world was not divided yet into two parts with the Red Line either.

Why is the skull munching on the rope, I have no idea.

I have a hunch this is all part of the plan. Roger's plan and Joyboy's plan (yes, I believe Roger did something as well to help Joyboy's plan to succeed). They're waiting for the "right people" to show up, after all. They are stationed in certain places that can't be avoided on the voyage to Laugh Tale, like Twin Capes, Sabaody... all ships have to pass through these locations on the Grand Line.

Maybe they helped fate a little?

But clearly fate isn't all there is to the story.

Merging those symbols together get us a "sun" symbol we have seen in many places before (like Alabasta and Shandora and Kozuki's clan, they're all the guardians of the poneglyphs and had possible ties to Joyboy). Blackbeard has it too, he apparently likes to study history, so maybe he knows some secrets.

My current bet is those two fractions used to be one, then they divided into "crossbones" (later outcasted and villainized, perhaps?) and "crosses" (World Government, the "good" guys or in other words: the winners).

But I bet you anything there will be a twist, or even few twists, here. There's no way the final answer will be that simple ;) And I'm sure Joyboy's plan will be one crazy ride as well :D

[eli-com]

୧ *·˚ MIGUEL OHARA drabble thing

୨୧ includes — NSFW, Miguel playing with your pussy?! Teasing!Miguel. afab!reader. Sleepy me writing about Miguel!

Thinking about how busy Miguel always is with work, his attention constantly being stolen away by a new alert on the monitors he’d installed in your shared home, that same apologetic smile appearing on his face each time before he made his way to his home office. But you’re just so needy, you have to have his attention, you crave it, it’s not your fault; you’re just used to getting what you want.

Miguel hated to slack when it came to his work, but he also hated to deny you when you give him such a pretty pout, stood infront of him with your hands behind your back looking ever so sad, just the sight made his heart ache (not to mention he could smell the arousal building between your legs, and his pants were tightening more and more with every second that passed). So he compromises, laying you across his lap, one hand massaging over the globes of your ass as the other swiped at the monitor, catching up on any new data Lyla had collected for him. You were stripped down to just your panties and bra, wriggling your rear in an attempt to get him to touch you the way he knew you wanted. He couldn’t help but chuckle at your little attempt to steal his attention, shaking his head and landing a hash smack to one of your cheeks, the skin already becoming a darker, rosy shade, a pathetic yelp escaping your lips as your entire body jumped.

“Couldnt just wait like a good girl, huh? Had to have your own way? Maldita mocosa.” He’d growl, his hand lowering between your legs, a finger beginning to run along your folds, your body squirming as you attempted to pull your panties down whilst remaining in your position. However, he’d be quick to stop your movements, a sadistic grin on his lips. “They stay on, cosa dulce.”

His index finger would simply ghost over your pussy at first, as if tickling it, your stomach fluttering each time you felt the tip of his finger so much as graze your folds. After a few teasing touches he had begun to swipe slow lines from your clit to your entrance, the fabric of your panties not doing much to stop you from feeling it; yet still in the way enough to frustrate you. Miguel would only hum in satisfaction as he heard your breathing get deeper, the quiet sounds you were trying to keep in slipping out. Strained moans, pathetic whines; all music to his ears. He’d add another finger, the both of them continuing to run through your folds, making sure to press harder as they reached your entrance, feeling your tight walls clench around air as fingertips grazed it through your panties, fabric now drenched with your arousal.

He couldn’t resist bringing his fingers up to his lips, a groan vibrating in his throat as your slick met his tongue; you always tasted so sweet. He’d be able to hold his urges to fuck you on his desk until you could barely walk back for a while, but he knew he’d never be able to deny himself a taste of you. Moving his hand back to your sopping cunt, he’d gently smack it a few times, listening to the breathless sounds the movement would pull from you, watching as your body shook with pleasure, your face buried in your hands. The two fingers would gently massage just over your entrance, repeating the same circular movements over and over again, enjoying how you did your best to grind against them, desperate to create some friction. He loved seeing you all flustered, desperate for him, ready to drop to your knees and beg for him to give you just what you needed.

More deep chuckles would leave him as he watched your legs squirm in the air, bending and straightening out repeatedly, moving in all different directions as you moaned from the feeling of just his fingers. His circular motions wouldn’t stop as he finally glanced back up to his monitors, free hand continuing to scroll through some more data.

“Gonna be good for me and stay still while I finish my work, baby? Promise I’ll take good care of you when I’m done… Quédate quieta y sé una buena chica, mi amor.”

[uaremyjae]

[ SPOILER ONE PIECE CHAP. 1105 ]

IS THE UNKNOWN PARTY APPEAR AT EGGHEAD WILL BE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY?

Okay so I have read the summary spoilers this morning and oh boy, the title itself is funny like “ THE PEAK OF SEVERE STUPIDITY” like what’s that even mean oda???

Anyway I want to talk about the last part of the chapter where it’s says that there’s unknown party has pulled at egghead and destroyed Marines warship that going after the escape technicians & research teams of Egghead. And the Marine frantically asked to call for Admiral Kizaru and tell him that “ They’re heading to Egghead” ?? 👀 This unknown party must be a very huge threat that it requires for Admiral Kizaru attention.

Some people thinks of maybe Blackbeard Pirates, I was like nah Blackbeard helping escapees in a broad daylight? That’s very uncharacteristic of BB Pirates where they all go for sneaky & stealthy attack. Besides BB already at Egghead.

Some people said maybe it’s Neo MADS. 🤷‍♀️ I am not onboard with that idea but it could be a wild card who knows. I’m not Oda. Why I think it’s not Neo MADS is that Judge is not that stupid to come to egghead Island with his bigass snails 🐌 ship with potential catch strays along in the Buster Calls. It’s better for them to watch Vegapunk downfall since they both wanted that and get the chance to be hire by WG.

Revolutionary Army?

Ooh that’s what makes me feel like ITS POSSIBLE. Ok some people said “ RA is at Momoiro Island at the Grand line Paradise. There’s no way they can arrived at Egghead that fast.”

Seriously? Did everyone forget that Shanks pull up at Marineford from New World? When he literally stopped Kaido from coming a day before execution? 😬

And you think Revolutionary Army only resides at Grand Line? Ofc that’s their HQ and they must have their branches at every sea. See that’s what people forgot about the whole RA’s structure. And Dragon did mention before founding RA that he want to raise into a massive armed force scattered across the globe. Did he make it? YES!

You see RA’s has 4 captains for each blue sea forces. East Blue; Bello Betty, West Blue; Morley, South Blue;Lindbergh, North Blue; Karasu and each seas has their own team led by those captains. You are here telling me RA’s doesn’t have a team that resides at New World?

And the panel of where Vegapunk via Shaka ( RIP shaka mann 😭) talk with somebody that he can see that his death is about to happen and it turns out, it’s DRAGON who he is talking to. Another thing that seems possible is that Dragon asked Ivan opinion of where would Kuma heading to if a fragment of his true instinct still there. AND THE CLIFFHANGER THERE 🧐

I think He’ll— go where Iva? I think Iva knew Kuma will be heading to where his daughter is. Remember the exchange of how “ Child is Parents’ Weaknesses” from Dragon to Kuma? And with Shaka in contact with Dragon, there might possibility that Shaka inform him about Luffy & Bonney is on the island and the assassination planned on VP.

Judging by how the latest ending chapter turns out, the chances that RA pulled up to prevent lives of Egghead become like Ohara is quite high. Like the whole reveal about how Dragon told Vegapunk he will create military forces that can fight back after Ohara incident on Ohara remains must be hint of the future moves that RA will do during this arc.

Regardless, who are going to be there doesn’t matter. But if the RA catch the words that the Gorosei is at egghead and also stayed at the island with Kizaru while the Buster Call starts , well dragon appear to assist the RA & took Straw Hats under their care temporarily might be it. Probably escorted them to Elbaf.

How about Straw Hat Grand Fleet? Well yes it’s possible too! At this point, im sure the news about the Straw Hats vs Navy has been reported by Big News Morgan and the fleet took notice about it. Here’s the thing about Straw Hat Grand Fleet, what has been reported that seven powerful pirate groups under Straw Hats but no names mention on which pirates. So it’s interesting to see what happened soon!

[alexzalben]

KEVIN CONROY, PREEMINENT VOICE OF BATMAN, PASSES AWAY AT AGE 66

NEW YORK, NY (November 11, 2022) - Actor Kevin Conroy, the most beloved voice of Batman in the animated history of the character, died Thursday at age 66 after a short battle with cancer.

A noted stage, film and television performer, Conroy rose to unparalleled voice acting fame as the title character of the landmark Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1996). He would establish never-to-be-broken records as the quintessential voice of Batman, bringing the super hero to animated life in nearly 60 different productions, including 15 films – highlighted by the acclaimed Batman: Mask of the Phantasm; 15 animated series, spanning nearly 400 episodes and more than 100 hours of television; as well as two dozen video games. Conroy was also featured as a live-action Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse’s 2019-2020 “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event.

In recent years, Conroy was a notable fixture on the Con circuit, greeting fans with the same warmth, respect and enthusiasm they reserved for him.

“Kevin was far more than an actor whom I had the pleasure of casting and directing – he was a dear friend for 30+ years whose kindness and generous spirit knew no boundaries,” said Emmy Award winning casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano. “Kevin’s warm heart, delightfully deep laugh and pure love of life will be with me forever.”

“Kevin was perfection,” recalled Mark Hamill, who redefined the Joker playing opposite Conroy’s Batman. “He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated.”

Born on November 30, 1955 in Westbury, New York, and raised in Westport, CT, Conroy began establishing himself in the acting community while under the tutelage of John Houseman at The Julliard School – where he studied alongside the likes of Christopher Reeve, Frances Conroy, and his roommate Robin Williams. 

Conroy began his career following his love of the theatre, keeping him on stage in both New York and at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The actor received rave reviews for his starring performances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater, Eastern Standard on Broadway, Arthur Miller’s The Last Yankee, and in the title role of Hamlet at the 1984 New York Shakespeare Festival. In addition, he performed in films and television – most notably in the mid-1980s when he had recurring roles on Dynasty, Tour of Duty and Ohara; successful runs on soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Another World; and guest roles on popular series like Cheers, Murphy Brown, Spenser: For Hire and Matlock.

But it was his incomparable, nuanced performance as the voice of Batman that put Conroy on the map – and the fans’ radar – when Batman: The Animated Series debuted on September 5, 1992. From that point on, Conroy would forever be linked to the Dark Knight – in TV series like Batman Beyond and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited; films ranging from Batman: the Killing Joke and Batman: Gotham Knight to Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman; and more than two dozen video games.

“Kevin was a brilliant actor,” Hamill said. “For several generations, he has been the definitive Batman. It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the exact right guy for the exact right part, and the world was better for it. His rhythms and subtleties, tones and delivery – that all also helped inform my performance. He was the ideal partner – it was such a complementary, creative experience. I couldn’t have done it without him. He will always be my Batman.”

“Kevin brought a light with him everywhere,” said Paul Dini, producer of Batman: The Animated Series, “whether in the recording booth giving it his all, or feeding first responders during 9/11, or making sure every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman. A hero in every sense of the word. Irreplaceable. Eternal.”

Conroy is survived by his husband Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy, and brother Tom Conroy. Memorial services are pending.

[oh-warizoro]

So....... Vegapunk doesn't seem to believe in the World Government propaganda at all. He simply wants financial support (talk about real world accuracy)

Well I'm not 100% surprised, but I wasn't expecting him to have bonds to professor Clover from Ohara or Dragon???

I wonder to what degree he might've helped the revolutionary army. It's a possibility for sure!! He had a call with him just when the SH's arrived.

He's the one making WG tech, including the means to spy calls from all around the globe. I'm certain he has his own secure line? Of course he would make one! Call it a beta version, tell the government it doesn't work or whatever to keep it 😂

He's a smart mf, he probably knows his way around it just as much as he know he'll be killed by them.

[spiderdreamer-blog]

Kevin Conroy: A Memorial (1955-2022)

I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to write this for a long time. Sixty-six years old. That’s less than a decade older than my father. Regardless, Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, is dead.

And, think for a moment about that phrasing: the voice of Batman. Many actors have come and gone and played the role, many quite well. But no one outside of perhaps Adam West, if in a very different fashion, became so singularly associated with the character than Conroy. Many have spoken on why: his humor, his humanity, his stone-cold badassery. These are all known factors. What I hope this will illuminate is what he meant to me.

Like other Batmen such as West or Michael Keaton, Conroy had an unusual path to the role. A New Yorker by trade, he studied at Juilliard in the early 1970s alongside the likes of Christopher Reeve (who he considered rooming with) and Robin Williams (who he DID room with). By 1980, he decided to give television a a try and moved to California, landing a role on the soap opera Another World. He then began performing at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, acting in Shakespeare (John Glover, who later became his Riddler, shared remembrances of such after his passing) and other productions such as Eastern Standard, where he played a TV producer hiding that he had AIDS. Which he said he felt obligated to do as tribute to all the friends he lost and all the funerals he attended. He continued to work primarily in TV for the next several years, with guest spots on Cheers, Matlock, Dynasty, and Murphy Brown, and larger roles on Ohara and the Vietnam drama Tour of Duty. Not always distinguished work, but it gave him a steady resume.

And then came the big one.

Conroy, by his account, was surprised when his agent initially contacted him with the offer to audition for Batman: The Animated Series. They don’t want cartoon voices, he was told, they want “real” ones (which aligned with casting/voice director legend Andrea Romano’s “voices with character” philosophy for the series). He initially wished to audition for the role of Harvey Bullock, which he felt was a more colorful and exciting part. This is a revealing insight because indeed, when you look at how Batman is written in much of the show, he’s quite static and reactive as a character. The villains get to scream and rant and joke, but Batman must be stoic and unmovable as a rock outside of rare occasions. And I suspect this was what was giving the creative team headaches in casting; as Bruce Timm and others tell it, they had found a few actors who were okay and *could* do it, but nobody really outstanding. Then Conroy stepped in and was the answer to their prayers.

For his part, as told in the wonderful story Finding Batman that he wrote for DC Pride this year, Conroy took from life. As a gay man in the 80s, not only had he seen friends and loved ones die at the hands of a cruel epidemic, he had faced discrimination and homophobia. As he began to record his audition, it all piled up: confusion. Fear. Anger.

In those moments, he became little Bruce Wayne in the alley, his life changing in an instant.

He became BATMAN.

Indeed, when one looks back, it might be tempting to call it more of an embodiment than an actual performance. But this does a disservice to Conroy’s skills. For one, he evolved the voice over time from where it started. In the early episodes especially, there’s far more of a rasp that underlines the deep growl. And his Bruce Wayne is far more cheerful and upbeat in a higher pitch, playing more into the deception that he’s a rich buffoon. By the time of Superman: The Animated Series and the revamped New Batman Adventures, he adds a flinty core to both Bruce and Batman, with the differentiation more subtle. Indeed, the Bruce voice gains a suave romanticism that will be useful in his dalliances with the likes of Lois Lane or Diana Prince. It reaches a true equilibrium in Justice League, with a gruffer tone smoothing out the rasp, which then became his “default” tone for Batman through the rest of his life.

This had a few different purposes. From a real-world Doylist sense, it lets Conroy smooth things out and protect his vocal chords better. Watsonially, it has a few different sides to it, and ones I’m not always sure were intentional. In TAS, one of the hallmarks of Batman’s characterization is his compassion. He gives most of his rogues many chances to redeem themselves, especially the likes of Harley Quinn (”I had a bad day too, once”) or Harvey Dent/Two-Face, since he blames himself for that particular tragedy. (The one exception, as ever, is the Joker because he proudly spits in the face of redemption, though Batman does still have the capacity to be amused by his misfortune at this point)

In Superman and Adventures, however, while this is still present in plots like his desire to help Arnold Wesker banish the Scarface personality or pity for Paige Monroe’s dysmorphia, a harsher, more biting tone is starting to become evident. He’s notably hostile to Superman on their first meeting, even implicitly threatening him with Kryptonite (”It doesn’t take much, does it?”). And his entreaty to Harley in Mad Love is a tough-love takedown of how the Joker’s used her as hired help “from the moment you walked into Arkham”. In Justice League, especially Unlimited, this does start to become tempered by him genuinely becoming friends with the other Leaguers and starting a romance with Wonder Woman. While his badass quotient goes up, especially the penchant for one-liners (my personal favorite is an impatient “You’re in my way” in Maid of Honor when he smacks the shit out of Vandal Savage with a chair), he also becomes more of a comedy straight man in dealing with headaches like time travel and bringing new people on. We also get the famous “Am I Blue” sequence in This Little Piggy where we all learned that holy shit he can SING. By the end, he’s actually joking around with Superman and seemingly happy.

And then of course...there’s Batman Beyond, where this all comes crashing down. (Though we do have to work backwards a little here since while it’s set in the future and the Justice League makes an appearance, Justice League itself came afterwards in production; they’re finally married fully in Unlimited’s season 2 finale Epilogue).

Conroy was in his mid-40s when Beyond began production and he was asked to play a far older Bruce Wayne. But this is not uncommon in animation, where one often plays old or young no matter what age you’re currently at. Yet what he does here is markedly different from what often happens in these cases. Often, western animation opts for caricature of what people believe older men and women sound like, a sort of high-pitched scratchy reediness; think about what Dan Castellaneta does with Grampa Simpson to make him sound like a senile buffoon. Conroy takes a different approach, instead doubling down on a gruff weariness that shows how both Bruce’s body and his moral code have degraded over the years. He’s much harsher as a taskmaster now, much less willing to believe old foes like Freeze can be redeemed, which adds friction to his relationship with Terry McGinnis, especially since a mediator like Alfred is long dead. He has great chemistry with Will Friedle, then making his voiceover debut after coming off several years of the sitcom Boy Meets World and an accompanying anxiety breakdown, as a result. It can even be funny in a darkly comedic sense since Bruce is perhaps at his most unfettered publicly, taking advantage of how he’s no longer expected to be polite to people he doesn’t wish to be, such as the instantly memeable “with a cane” moment, or his snarky “Sure you are” response to the Jokerz asserting how totally tough and badass they are. Or how he muses on the fate of Bullwhip at the end of “April Moon” when Terry reports that the gang leader doesn’t know that the good Doctor Corso has discovered his affair with Corso’s young wife: “Then maybe Bullwhip won’t be coming back...”

Yet even this gets to go through character development. Through his partnership with Terry, his moral compass slowly reawakens as the younger man truly becomes Batman in ways he couldn’t have anticipated. By Return of the Joker, Conroy is able to show how much Bruce cares about him now even through that harshness, as he tries in vain to stop him from being hurt by the Joker, and then fully endorses him as his successor. This is brought further home in Epilogue, where Conroy ages Bruce even more, first in an imagined scene where he’s at his harshest, then a real-world scene where he’s positively Alfred-y, complaining about soup he made that’s now cold. A real corner has turned.

(Epilogue also contains the famous flashback scene where a League-era Batman comforts Ace of the Royal Flush Gang as she dies. The interesting thing about this great scene is that Hynden Walch drives much of it as Ace, with Conroy’s responses being shorter and shorter. But even this gains great power in his hands: “I’m dying very soon.” “Yes. I’m sorry.”)

Justice League and Unlimited were the end of an era, the finale of the DC Animated Universe/DCAU, and it soon began to be time for Conroy and other members of the cast and creative team to move on to other projects. Yet even as others began to take over the role of Batman like Rino Romano in The Batman and Diedrich Bader essaying it quite wonderfully in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Conroy did not fade into the ether. In this new stage of his career, he not only continued to play Batman in games like Arkham Asylum and direct-to-video films like Justice League: Doom or The Killing Joke, he perhaps got to truly flower with his vocal and emotional range. In Brave and the Bold, for instance, he had wonderful guest spots as a Superman-esque alternate Batman and a calm, foreboding Phantom Stranger. The Venture Bros. cannily cast him as Captain Sunshine, and Conroy mined his heroic tones to offer a dark, deranged parody of his iconic stature.

And more recently, he played Mer-Man in Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation with a true supervillain-by-way-of-pirate energy I had NO IDEA he was keeping locked inside. I hope that he was able to record more of the role for the second season Revolution and we can have at least a little more of that, ‘cause it’s awesome. (He also played Hordak in a credits stinger in the OTHER He-Man show on Netflix, and was awesome there too, even for a series I don’t particularly care for). His Batman was starting to become more overtly comedic in shows like Justice League Action, such as a priceless scene where he tries to play “good cop” and freaks Deadshot the hell out in the process, or a quite funny appearance on Scooby-Doo and Guess Who where Batman had to deal with those meddling kids and their dog. It felt like he still had so much to offer us. Especially since this was coming after a period where I felt he was starting to lose his luster as Batman because he was asked to give essentially the same performance over and over again, much in the way that I’ve started to grow weary of Peter Cullen’s Optimus Prime.

But now...he’s gone.

When Adam West died, there was a sadness but not quite grief among Bat-fans. He had lived a full life and seen the redemption of both his own persona as a figure of fun who was in on the joke and the 60s Batman series as one of the best shows of its time, to the point of finally coming back to the role in earnest in two DTV films. By contrast, Conroy’s passing felt like a shock to the system. He had struggled in silence with cancer, to hear his friends tell it, because he cared about his fans so much and didn’t want them to worry. That kindness and compassion was a repeated theme in the remembrances. Friedle spoke of how Conroy mentored him as a voice actor in a time when he truly needed that. Mark Hamill, so often a legendary Joker to him, called him a brother. And fan after fan spoke of the kindness he showed them at conventions or in messages on platforms like Cameo. I was granted one of the latter myself for my birthday in 2021. Yes, it was paid for, but personal encouragement from Batman himself? It meant so much to hear.

In the end, I hope he knew that. I hope he understood how much we appreciated him.

Rest in peace, Dark Knight.

[animeniac-writings]

I NEED IT

[theredandwhitequeen]

Best Actress tv musical or comedy

Catherine O’Hara won for Schitt’s Creek, and I’m so pleased for her.

[mydetheturk]

...

[nastyaddictivereading]

So The Golden Globes really gonna go and not nominate Schitt’s Creek for ANY category huh??? Not even best comedy???

[skygemspeaks]

They need to release a globe of the one piece world pls. The one in ohara looked so cool and i would happily buy one to display in my room, especially if they had any of those good quality ones that look like those old antique globes please this is my only wish

[onepiecescience]

was re-looking into the globe on ohara, and yep, my bad, i got mixed up and mistook it for “the one piece planet has six satellites” and not ‘this is how the other planets in one piece can be seen in the sky”

my genuine thanks to the 3-4 people who pointed it out.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece - Void Century Theory Dump

So as promised I am ready to do a dump of theories that mainly involve the Void Century, so that’s the stuff involving the Great Kingdom, the Initial D, the ancient weapons etc. They will be like my other Theory dumps I’ve done on this page but possibly in more detail. Spoilers for Chapters leading up to Chapter 968

Right so the Void Century happened 900 years ago, it’s a Century which led to the World Government being formed of the 20 Kingdoms, the fall of Shandora and the Great Kingdom, Joy Boy failing to keep his promise to Fishman Island and leaving something of his in Laugh Tale, the Tontattas being oppressed in Dressrosa and the overall forbidding of reading Poneglyphs. There’s a lot there that can be digested and there are a lot of theories about it already, so sorry if some may sound familiar. Im the Immortal

We’ll start with the one who sits in the empty throne, Im or Imu, is a mysterious individual. Gentle to butterflies but knifey to sweet princesses who did nothing wrong. It is a common theory that Imu is an immortal being, someone who has lived since the Void Century, but I believe it goes a little deeper. Imu isn’t immortal ‘just because’, Imu is immortal because he has had the Perennial Youth Operation, what makes the Ope Ope no Mi one of Marejois’ most beloved treasure. It’d explain why the Gorosei answer to them despite being pretty old themselves and how they could keep to themselves so much that nobody really knows that they exist.

Eight Moons

It’s a combination of many theories I’ve seen, but I do believe that the One Piece world has 8 Satellites orbiting it. Of course there’s the standard moon otherwise known as Fairy Vearth, but Ohara’s globe showed at least 5 other satellites, including one with a satellite of its own, but we always see this kind of globe from the front, as if there’s a missing moon behind the planet. The idea that there are eight moons go beyond just the globes of Ohara, the Kozuki Crest and the Alabasta flag also have a symbol of a circle with eight dots around it. Right now I do believe that at one point Wano’s borders were very open, it’d explain why Toki was born in Wano yet never saw it - since her time jumps do not affect her geographical position. It’s also unusual how often the moon is a focal point around the planet, from the Minks’ ability to perform Su Long, the ancient city of Birka and the Wano Daimyo names all relating to moons. A Spaceman Came Travelling...

We already know that the Shandorians, Birkans and Skypeians all once inhabited the moon thanks to Enel’s cover story arc of him going to Fairy Vearth, whereby he entered the advanced and abandoned city of Birka. Given that there is potentially 8 Moons, why could there not be life on those moons. I speculate that this story runs much deeper, we know there are even Space Pirates from the cover story, but what if most of the races from these 8 moons all came down to the planet and they comprise of the 20 Kingdoms. Not only that but this could explain how some races could’ve come to be, the technological advancement of Birka and the fact that their automata match the invention of other automata Enel meets is proof of that but the Minks’ ancestral race may’ve also come from the moon, since they seem to react to a full moon’s radiation. This could also be why there are races such as longarms, longlegs, fishmen and merfolk. The Creator Race

So, through Enel’s cover story we can prove that there was a dude that happened to create 4 Automata that almost exactly matched the design of Automata in the Moon City of Birka, this robotist happened to live on one Karakuri Island as well, the birthplace of Dr. Vegapunk. Vegapunk has been a heavy mystery himself almost as much as Im, what we know of Vegapunk is mainly through their creations; Seastone manipulation, Cybrogs, Artificial DF, Lineage Factor, Artificial life etc. It seems that there’s only certain things that Vegapunk has failed to achieve; Climate Control and Gigantification which could be key to other parts of these theories. Now Vegapunk could simply be a born genius, or maybe he’s from a race that was the most advanced race out of the 8 moons, Oda did say in an SBS that Vegapunk may already know what Devil Fruits really are and thus how they work, and the World Government have him locked up so much that even the threat of Kaido has made CP0 only hesitate about handing Vegapunk over to Orochi - how Orochi would know of Vegapunk is another question, was Vegapunk from Wano? Digging deeper this could also explain how the races of moon people integrated themselves into the ‘Blue Star’ and even created some of the aforementioned races like Minks, Longarms and Longlegs, even maybe the Kuja and the Three-Eyed Tribes, all a product of Lineage Factor tampering or natural selection not unlike how humans created dogs out of wolves or oranges out of citron. A key point could also be the theme of Electricity, Enel was able to call himself God by virtue of having a lightning Devil Fruit, all Minks naturally have the ability of Electro, the city of Birka ran on electricity and like in the modern world electricity had been key to many advancements. Of Dwarves and Giants

One of the things I mentioned that Vegapunk failed at was Gigantification, it seems a little odd that he would need to research that. But imagine that normal humans were from the moon, a much smaller land space, and they come to the Blue Star where everything is either Huge or Tiny. We know that Giants can live for at least twice as long as a One Piece human would and that they have always been a sought after force, even Big Mom believes that with the Giants she would be unstoppable. So perhaps the Giants are the native race of the Blue Star, alongside the Tontotta dwarves. There is some evidence to this as well, Oda seems to lean on a lot of Norse myth (even Im’s name is based off of a Jotunn) and if Giant Jack is a part of Elbaf’s Yggdrasil tree that could further fan the flames. The interesting thing is that the Giants and the Dwarves seem to live in areas where flora thrive, often a sign that they are symbiotic with the ecosystem, there’s also the matter that there are various giants; Oars, Saul and the Yeti Cool brothers being different kinds and sizes of giants, even Kaido and his Numbers could be a form of Oni giant and attempting to obtain gigantification the ways they influenced other races led to smaller scale creatures like Ceasar and outliers like Magellan, Big Mom and Whitebeard, people who seem like they could be like giants. The Kingdom of the Dawn

This then leads to the ‘Great Kingdom’ that Clover was talking about in Ohara, a kingdom whose name Clover couldn’t even speak of before being shot. When you hear Kingdom though you think of one country or one island, but what if the Great Kingdom was actually an empire. I mean you’d think it excessive for 20 Kingdoms to need to take on one right? But what if the Great Kingdom was a combination of kingdoms that included Shandora and Wano, two countries who have been called the ‘City/Country of Gold’. It’s worth reminding that neither of these lands had a ‘King’, Shandora may’ve had a God and Wano has a Shogun (sans an Emperor) but not a king nor a queen. I definitely believe that Wano had ties with the Great Kingdom, the main reason being Poneglyphs: Wano is where the texts were made, where the language was written and taught how to translate, if the Kingdom ‘disappeared’ leaving their story on Pongelyphs then that implies a Wano connection, potentially from the Amatsuki clan - as demonstrated with Toki not being in Wano when we meet her properly - or the Kozuki clan given their blood bond with the Minks on Zou, their crest being placed under a Rio Poneglyph of a millenia-old City. A common thing is also the term of the ‘Dawn’, a symbol of an event in the future where dreams will come true and I believe like others that this is the core belief of the Great Kingdom, a kingdom of many races and cultures living freely and prosperously, the Kingdom of the Dawn. Though whether that was its actual name I’m not sure of, I feel like it’d have another name since Luffy was born on ‘Dawn Island’, so I feel like if the WG didn’t want that name out there so badly they wouldn’t allow one of their Affiliated Kingdoms to have that kind of name. I think it’d have a name similar to the pirate havens like Tortuga, Port Royal, Libertatia and New Providence. This Kingdom however was clearly something threatening to the other leaders of the world to the point that they were terrified of their skills and the creation of what they deemed ‘(Ancient) Weapons’, which led to a war that caused the fall of Shandora (but didn’t ravage their gold) and possibly the closing off of Wano. The Great Kingdom ‘Disappears’

Defeat is feasible yes, but it was rare even for the WG to eradicate even a single island, would they really be able to do that 900 years ago? Part of the reason CP9 wanted Pluton was for its destructive power. So how did the Great Kingdom ‘disappear’? The wording makes it out like it just vanished rather than dissolved. So what if the main country of the Great Kingdom did really disappear, just not in the way that the WG thought. Remember that the Pluton was said to be able to destroy an entire island and we know that Poseidon could command Sea Kings that were capable of carrying the Noah, so what if the Country itself was ‘blown up’ by the Pluton itself but secretly, the island was scattered across the world with the help of the Kingdom’s allies; the Sea Kings and the Giants. Oars is known as a ‘Continent Puller’ so it’s possible to have that strength, and if that is true then maybe islands such as Zou, Ohara and possibly even Dawn Island and more could actually be remnants of the Great Kingdom, hidden or assimilated into the world. The Nefertari Redemption

Alabasta is noted as being one of the 20 Kingdoms that made up the World Government, but the only ones that didn’t go to Marejois after the Void Century. Why seems to be the appropriate question and the appropriate answer could be because they regretted the outcome of the war. It’s possible that the Alabasta Kingdom was the Garp to the Great Kingdom’s Roger, there was emnity but also understanding, which could explain why Alabasta then held not only a Poneglyph but also the entire Pluton hidden within their kingdom. Perhaps Alabasta regretted the side they chose and instead decided to withhold the Ancient Weapon (remember Robin scoffed when Cobra said that the country was charged to ‘protect’ Pluton) from the newly established World Government, and sometime down the line after holding the Poneglyph explaining where. An answer Robin never found because she never read the First Poneglyph the Straw Hats first came across. There are other ‘Ancient Weapons’

As said in a Sherlock Episode “There’s always something so comforting about the number 3″, so far we are told of 3 Ancient Weapons; the ship Pluton that can destroy an Island, the Mermaid Poseidon who can command the Sea Kings and Uranus. Each of these weapons were named after Gods because of their incredible power, but what if there are other ‘weapons’. People speculate that Momonosuke is Uranus or Zunesha was Pluton, but do we consider that there are other things that could be tools of destruction? Take a Dragon for example, Kaido is considered the strongest creature but the WG doesn’t call him a Weapon, it’s gotta be odd as well that Oda mixed the namings up to have the common trifecta of Sea, Sky and the Underworld but gave two of them names of Roman Gods and one the name of a Greek God. It’s possible that there are other weapons out there but they’re not deemed weapons because the World Government have them, and thus don’t fear it being used against them. The Tequila Wolf Project

Tequila Wolf has been a World Government project for at least 700 years, a massive bridge with an unknown stopping point starting in the East Blue. We saw it with Robin and recently Oden so the question is why is Tequila Wolf important? If Kuma wanted Robin to meet the Revolutionary Army why not send her to Baltigo, the army’s HQ? There was something here that Kuma wanted Robin to see, something she needed to learn about it to better prepare herself for the New World. Its name may be a hint, Tequila is named after Santiago de Tequila (much like how Champagne is after the French Province or Stilton after the English Village), the village translating to ‘Place of Tribute’ so it’s possible that this bridge is a Tribute - though wolf does imply deception, like the Crane and the Wolf fable. I personally think this was the WG’s plan to lock in all the islands they deemed important and like most nobles we have seen, leave the outside to suffer, thus the trickery of the wolf, while in Japan once worshipped for protection the rest know it to be a trickster that deems itself superior. Joy Boy and the Initial D.

Recently, the name “Joy Boy” returned to the limelight having been the writer of the Poneglyph in Fishman Island, then we discovered that Joy Boy was a key part of what lived in Laugh Tale, a gift he left behind being able to bring the Roger Pirates to tears of laughter as Roger muses that he wished he lived in his era. So who was Joy Boy? What was Joy Boy?  I think the answer lies in the giant Straw Hat, Joy Boy was a giant, or at least partly giant, a leader of the Great Kingdom who constantly smiled and brought joy to people around him, was able to turn even his enemies to friends, someone of deadly strength that his allies are called ‘Ancient Weapons’. Joy Boy is the person I believe is the reason the World Government outlawed the use of D. the D stands for something that Joy Boy’s real name had, whether the D is his smile, Dawn, Dragon, Devil or something else, the D likely comes from Joy Boy and the people and friends that rode with him as Nakama thus adopted the name D to carry on his will. A small thing I want to note as well, I feel like each of these D holders initially named themselves after animals or parts of an island; Monkey, Jaguar, Rocks, Water, it’s possible other D holders over time married into other families or corrupted their names (imagine if Roger’s family were Gull then changed to Gol) while keeping the D a secret note to the will they carry. Inherited Will

Joy Boy may’ve been this charismatic figure, but there’s still the matter of Fishman Island, his failure to bring the Fishmen and Merfolk to the surface via Poseidon being a deep regret for the character. This could’ve been a human trait had it not been for Chapter 968 alluding to the fact that Joy Boy can ‘reappear’. I don’t think this is Joy Boy pulling a jesus though, I think Joy Boy’s particular race is capable of reincarnation the same way Poseidon is. Poseidon is reborn over time in a Mermaid Princess so maybe the timelines of reincarnation are iffy and the Poseidon of Joy Boy’s time died (or Joy Boy themselves were dying) thus rendering them unable to carry the Noah. If certain characters are able to reincarnate this can give a whole new dimension not only to the Will of D but Inherited Will as a whole. Luffy may’ve inherited Roger’s Will but what if Roger inherited Joy Boy’s Will first and thus Luffy is the reincarnation of Joy Boy that Roger was hoping his ‘son’ would be. This can be further evidenced by the fact that Luffy does intend to reopen Wano’s borders for Momonosuke, thus the point where Joy Boy has returned to Wano. The Devil Tree

Which leads to our finale part of the theory dump. It’s often considered that Devil Fruits were born from a moon, since as Enel noted the moon has no Water. However it cannot be Fairy Vearth, since Enel found a dried canal. So the Birkans, Shandorians and Skypeians did not have the Devil Fruits, instead I believe that the Devil Tree came from the same moon that brought Im and/or the founders of the Great Kingdom and with them they brought a seed for the Devil Tree. From what we know of SMILE, a Devil Fruit seems to take away a key property of its eater, usually their ability to swim, so it’s possible that the Devil Tree’s fruits were initially normal, but when eaten or exposed to a property reincarnated itself into the Devil Fruit we know today, leading to an endless cycle of gestation within a host and reincarnation through the lineage factor. The tree was likely also called the ‘Devil Tree’ not because of its properties but because the ones who planted it sported horns, which can explain why SMILE Gifters and Pleasures grow horns after consumption. I also believe that the Devil Tree isn’t the only tree brought by this race, like many things Trees seem to have properties unlike the simple tree would, there’s the Sabaody mangrove with its bubbles, the Boin Archipelago Venus Fly Trap islands, the Tree of Knowledge, Treasure Tree Adam sporting strong wood durability, Sunlight Tree Eve which can emit light (Like Dressrosa’s sunflowers), Hiriluk’s fabled healing Cherry Blossoms, Weather balls and Shandora’s trees of cultural significance. The Key note of the Devil Tree was its further cultivation, something I believe was the role of the Donquixote family. Doflamingo was key to the production of SMILE and he seemed to want to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor. So it’s possible that back in the Void Century, the dwarves were enslaved to use their botany skills to cultivate multiple Devil Fruits, a fate they’d then repeat with SMILE. Phew! That took a lot out of me, but that’s my Piece, whether it’s key to One Piece we’ll have to wait and see, but I’ll just wait by the phone, see if Oda gives it a ring.

[honmakurara]

Tempt me if you can

Phantom Thief Yamaneko strikes again in Kurashiki, to get Monet's famous Water Lilies painting. Once there, his ally Ohkura will bump into a very determined security guard, Nishikido Ryo. Ohkura Tadayoshi likes beautiful things, and Nishikido definitely is.

Lenght: one shot (11630 words), AU, comedy, fluff&smut, art (Claude Monet, Setouchi Triennale), UST, action&romance

Kurashiki is a charming place, indeed. Magnificent weeping willows adorn its historical Bikan district, the preserved area where several kinds of arts incidentally flourish. The Ohara Museum of Western Art is one of those jewels, and that is also the reason why I'm here today.

It's a beautiful night with a bright moon. As I look up towards the white globe, I recall Natsume Soseki's famous quote. 'The moon is beautiful, isn't it?' It could easily apply to these lovely and historically preserved streets especially, where couples stroll along the riverbanks holding hands under the moonlight.

Unfortunately, I cannot enjoy the romantic scenery this city has to offer any longer, for I am on a mission here. Kame-chan has already penetrated the western-looking building to retrieve the Water Lilies, and I’m following.

It's almost a pity we have to remove such a precious piece from here, given the long journey the painter Kojima Torajiro-san had to take in order to bring the original painting to Japan, straight from Claude Monet's home in France. But that cannot be helped.

It should be just a matter of few minutes, though. The halls and corridors are nicely lit even during the night, but there's only one security guard patrolling the rooms, while another one is in the office getting bored with the security cameras. Japan is a safe place, after all. After eluding the alarm system, we placed fake videos in the cameras so that all the monitors would keep showing deserted corridors while we’re infiltrating the museum.

And here we are: the security guard guy is currently patrolling some other rooms, and it's me who has to check on him through the mini-monitor on my watch, so I gave Kame-chan the okay and he rushed straight to get the painting.

"K-chan, he's now moving," I warn him through the mic, in a whisper. "He might decide to turn- no, wait, he's definitely turned towards the wrong corridor and at this pace he'll reach your room in a few minutes' time. Seems like he's got some sixth sense, darn. How long will it take you to be done?"

>> Distract him just a little, T-chan,<< he orders me in the earphone, >> I'm nearly done here. <<

I roll my eyes.

How to, darn? No time to think, let alone to act. But if I don't do something soon, Kame-chan will be found out. And we cannot be found out, yet.

I should not have to be doing this, for I'm the brain dude here, rather than the action one like Kame-chan is, but anyway.

Oh come on, Ohkura Tadayoshi. You can do this. Kame-chan always says you're brilliant after all, doesn't he?

(keep reading @ Ao3, DW, LJ)