#Zoro doesn't forget any of sanji's abilities

[deathxanamon]

Nami, Chopper and Usopp: I forgot he could do that.

Do you think theres any boat-degas within skywalking distance ?

[viiiiiiiiiin]

Okay so I have another cute zoro idea so hear me out reader has a crush on zoro but doesn’t think they are his type because their strength lies in more smarts rather then physical strength like let’s say they have a devil fruit power the allows them to avoid fights like maybe they can’t physically be hit because the can pass through any solid object so they never really focused on physical strength but since zoro is so obsessed with getting stronger they think oh he likes strong people aka people not like me little does reader know!! Also I LOVED THE OTHER REQUEST YOU WROTE FOR ME!!!!

Ghosted: Zoro x Reader

Includes: GN Reader , Zoro , a bit of Sanji , Reader's sister.

Info: Reader ate the Ghost - Ghost Fruit. This gives the user the ability to levitate and phase through objects. They can speak to the dead as well , and sometimes even absorb their power. The reader was imagined with a sister.

A / N: IM GLAD TOU LIKED IT ! I HOPE U LIKE THIS ONE AS WELL !! If you want a part 2 , lmk <33

You and Zoro had a strange dynamic. You were seen as best friends , but there always seemed to be something deeper down that nobody could put a finger on. You both were strong , but you never fought. You hated combat , but he didn't. You both seemed to be opposites , and still. You both were close.

You were more of a utility than a fighter. You would help with defense , strategy , and escape. You were the Strategist of the Strawhat Pirates , after all. People were unable to hit you , haki or not. To the crew , you were the brain and he was the brawn.

You both were almost never seen without one another , so one was bound to fall for the other. That just so happened to be you. You fell , and hard for that matter. You were infatuated with him , which everyone but him noticed.

However , you never tried to pursue him. In your eyes , he was strong as hell. He needed someone as strong as him , someone willing to fight. Someone who wouldn't drown the second they hit water , someone who could wield a sword as skillfully as him. You hated fights but he enjoyed them , so why would he like you ? That's what you told yourself.

He was strong and enjoyed being around people as strong as himself. It made you wonder , why did he hang around you ? You weren't strong. You hated combat. You were just a strategist , not a combat specialist. Because of this thought process , you never made an attempt to court him.

You usually talked about your issues with some souls that rested in your room. One of them being the soul of your past on sibling. On this day , you were ranting to her about how you felt.

"SisterName , he's strong. He loves a challenge ! He's one of the monster trio , and I'm not. I'm a strategist , Sistername. Why would he want someone as weak as me ?" Your face deflated as you fell into your bed. The color haired woman stood beside your bed and sighed.

"You know that's not true , Reader. Why would he be around you if he only liked strong people ?" She smiled softly and sat on the edge of your bed. Though she was there , no pressure was felt on your mattress. Not even a wrinkle was left in the place she resided in.

You groaned loudly and phased through your bed so that you were now resting on the ground below it. You whined , loud enough for her to hear. She laughed and rolled her eyes. "You're strong , Reader. You're strong in your own way. Don't forget that." She stood up from her place and sat down in front of where she once was. "Strength doesn't only lie within combat." She continued , laying on the ground to see you.

You sighed again and turned towards your sister. Your eyes met her glossed over white ones. You smiled gently and crawled out from under your bed. "Thank you , SisterName." You would've hugged her if you were able to touch her. You sat in front of her and watched as she nodded her head.

"Go talk to him , Reader. For now , I've got somewhere else to be. I'll be back. Love you , Reader. You know I'll always be here for you if you need anything." Her transparent hand patted your head , though you couldn't feel it. "Love you too , SisterName. Have fun." You watched as her ghostly form disappeared.

You took a deep breath and took a step outside of your dark room. You closed the door and started your long walk to the deck , thinking of the things your sister said to you as your feet slapped against the hard planks of the ground.

After what seems to be like forever , you reached the deck. Your eyes scanned the area in an attempt to find the green haired swordsman , only to be met with nothing. "Mosshead is in the crows nest." You heard from behind you. You turned around and saw a tuff of blonde hair. Sanji. You smiled kindly at the chef and nodded your head. "Thank you , Sanji." As the words left your lips , you began your walk to where Zoro was training.

Technically , you could've just floated up there and phased through the wall but you had some things to think about. What were you going to say ? How would you address your thoughts ? You were anxious , riddled with worry even. You took a deep breath as you approached the wooden door. You knocked twice then phased through the door.

The man in question was currently squatting with a weight that was half the size of the room. You knew he was strong , but DAMN. You stared at it , bewildered. Remembering what you came in for , you shook your head. "Oh. Hey , Reader." He spoke calmly , putting his weight down. It seems he just finished one of his sets.

He picked up a towel , throwing it around his neck as he picked up the bottle of water he brought with him. "Hey , Zoro. I have something to talk to you about." You spoke , a serious tone laced within your words. Zoro raised an eyebrow as he continued chugging his water. He leaned against the wall and placed his , now empty , water bottle on the ground. "Spit it out , Ghosty."

Your heart swelled a bit at the nickname , but you chose to ignore it for a bit. You took a deep breath and crossed your arms. "I'm . . I'm . . Iminlovewithyoubutiknowyoulikestrongpeoplesoiknowyouwontlikemeback." You spoke quickly , powers reacting to your anxiety. As you rambled and hid your reddening face , your body lifted from the ground and began to float around the room.

Zoro stared for a moment and laughed. "What ? Gonna need you to repeat that." You uncovered your face and gently placed yourself in front of him. "I'm in love with . . You . . But , uhm. I know you . . . Like strong people , so you don't have to say anything back." Your eyes closed tightly as you awaited his response , expecting harsh words to leave his lips. However , they didn't.

"As much as I like to fight , I don't JUST like strong people. You're tough , Reader. You can handle your own and I . . . love that about . . Uhm , you." His face was now reddening as he looked away from your color colored eyes. Your face lit up more and you turned your head.

"Just be honest , Zoro . . How do you feel about me ?" You spoke , a hint of sadness lacing your voice. His eyes turned to your form and softened. He sighed and sat on the ground.

"Fuck. I don't know how to express any feelings for you. But shit , Reader. You make my heart do weird things and -" He stopped and took a deep breath. "What I want to say is , I feel . . The same way." The last bit was spoken quietly , but you heard it. Your eyes lightened up as you ran up to him.

You threw your smaller arms around his muscular frame and smiled. "I'm glad , Zoro. Let's try not to keep things a secret again , especially feelings." You kissed his cheek and floated away from him.

He laughed and smirked at your words. "Deal."

[tokiro07]

@giltheweebzard replied to your post “Starting the year off right: thinking about...”:

Don't forget Monet incapacitated Robin before she could use her abilities against her. And while Nami could use heat effectively, she and Chopper got bailed out by Zoro who drew attention from Monet.

Monet is definitely one of the most pragmatic characters in the series, which is in turn aided by the fact that she's well aware of where she stands relative to everyone else

She was able to "beat" Luffy because he wasn't getting serious against her; if he'd actually made a real effort to overpower her, he definitely could have, and she acknowledged that, so she made sure to go for a capture rather than for a win while he was still underestimating her

The circumstances of the fight play just as much of a role as the fighters, but let's take a look at how the match-ups might go if everyone were just plopped into battle without any context

Luffy: his Haki and overall strength easily overpower Monet if he's actually making an effort, as we've established

Zoro: same as above, and seen in canon

Nami: her Heat Eggs definitively give her an advantage, and the heat from her lightning attacks should work on Monet as well, but given Monet's speed, she should be capable of maneuvering around Nami's attacks once she knows to be cautious of them. Nami's weather manipulation could likely prevent Monet from conjuring a snowstorm and gaining a field advantage, but that might also just lead to a stalemate. If Nami lands a lightning attack, she wins, but she'd have to really strategize around Monet's abilities. I'm gonna call this one approximately even, but I'll give the advantage to Nami on the basis that weather is her entire thing

Usopp: I don't know how well his Pop Greens would work in a cold environment since they're from a tropical one, so there's a good chance that Monet could make her surroundings too inhospitable for them to be used properly. Usopp has used flame-based attacks before, so he definitely has a way to harm Monet even without Haki, but again, it's a matter of actually hitting her since she's very good at outmaneuvering her enemies. If he ever learns to actually utilize his Observation Haki, he'd probably be able to find where she hides in the snow, but if she's being cautious of long-ranged attacks, she'd probably be able to catch him before he can use his arsenal effectively. Usopp has a way to win, but advantage to Monet

Sanji: in terms of strength, Sanji wins - fire powers, Haki, iron skin, no contest. Buuut it's Sanji. He can't hit her, he won't hit her, he'll let himself die. Best bet is to tag in someone else

Chopper: no Haki, no heat-based abilities; he might be able to concoct a medicine of some kind that would allow him to produce heat, like a reverse version of Queen's Ice Oni, but Chopper's never been shown using medicine offensively aside from the Rumble Ball, so I'm not inclined to believe that he would. Even in Monster Point, Chopper doesn't have a way to hurt Monet and would really only be giving her more surface area to hit, though it might make him durable enough to resist most of her attacks. Monet has the advantage, though it would most likely come down to a battle of attrition more than anything else

Robin: Monet being a Logia-user gives her a distinct advantage, as Robin's grappling techniques are rendered completely moot; Robin's best hope against Monet is to use Fishman Karate, which can damage Devil Fruit-users the same way that Haki does, but Robin has thus far only used Fishman Karate strikes as a set-up for her grappling, so we don't have much reason to believe that she has anything in her arsenal that would allow her to land a definitive blow. If she has more techniques up her sleeve, sure, but as it stands, Monet most likely wins

Franky: Multiple methods of taking advantage of Monet's weakness to heat (fire-breath, laser beams, etc.) and a near-invincible body give Franky the distinct advantage, though Monet's cunning and strategy could eke her out the win. Still, I'm giving this one to Franky since I don't know if Monet's offenses have a way to get around Franky's iron constitution. Edit: Reevaluated this, I forgot that Franky's back is still his weakness post-timeskip. Monet would definitely figure this out since she favors attacking from behind. Franky is also canonically the second-slowest Straw Hat and almost exclusively wins his fights through brute force instead of strategy, so Monet would definitely land her hits with little difficulty. In the worst-case scenario, Monet would likely figure out that she can freeze Franky's cola to render his weapons useless. Monet takes the advantage

Brook: Brook's ice attacks shouldn't have much effect on Monet given that she's already frozen, though it's been stated that Aokiji's ice Logia would overpower her snow Logia the same way that Akainu's lava overpowered Ace's fire, so it's certainly possible that Brook could freeze Monet's snow into solid ice to force her into having a corporeal body, but that depends on how adept he is at using cold, I think. Brook's speed also gives him a good counter to Monet's, but a lack of Haki makes his offensive options a lot more limited. He uses his hypnosis abilities so rarely that it's hard to say whether they would affect Monet, but I'm inclined to believe they wouldn't since he only really uses them on fodder enemies. If ice overpowers snow he has a way to harm her, but being able to harm her isn't the same as being able to beat her. I'm going to give this one to Monet, but cautiously. Edit: after much thought, I've decided that Brook's ice should be able to harm Monet, and his speed should be more than enough to keep up with her, even if only via reaction time. Brook has shown resistance to being frozen (as he has no flesh or blood), and his lack of organs makes him resistant to stabbing attacks. Only Monet's bites pose a real threat, and they're her slowest attacks (Nami could move Chopper out of the way while otherwise immobilized by Monet's cold, which wouldn't affect Brook). This one goes to Brook, but Monet's strategies still give her a decent chance

Jinbe: no contest, Jinbe's on at least Doflamingo's level and is both skilled in Haki and the foremost Fishman Karate master. He's so serious that I don't even see a way that Monet could get the drop on him in any situation, either, but perhaps her binding-based abilities would let her hold her own for a while

So that's three definitive losses (Luffy, Zoro, Jinbe), three solid wins (Usopp, Chopper, Robin), two shaky losses (Nami and Brook), one shaky win (Franky), and one default (Sanji)

Huh, that came out a lot more balanced than I was expecting to be, actually. Basically three each of losses, wins and possible draws. Honestly, though, if Oda put any of the Straw Hats against Monet, he'd probably find a way for them to win, since generally the crew doesn't lose their arc fights, but that should only strengthen the argument that Monet isn't too weak to join. They're all dolls that Oda plays with as he sees fit, he can just write a way to win any given fight. He's skilled enough to do so with logical consistency between battles, but still, if Monet joined, he'd make sure that she's a competent enough fighter to beat whatever opponents he'd have her up against and would make her just as viable a combatant as anyone else on the crew

In short, "too weak to join" is just an excuse that people use to derail the argument

[snezhnayansnow]

More One Piece!

Watching Dressrosa now...

I'm sure my husband is getting hella sick of me lmfao

But in all seriousness... One piece's number one rule: women are useless!

It doesn't matter how cool, how op, what the power is, how strong, how hyped up they are...

Women

Are

Useless

And it's killing me!

I won't even talk about the designs of the ladies but let's list our Dressrosa beauties:

Violet (Princess Viola) - to save her father she becomes an assassin for the Donquixote Pirates. That's so rad! She ate the Glare-Glare fruit (now the ocean hates her) which gives her these amazing clairvoyance powers and shit. She was going to fight Sanji till she was moved by his dedication and ability to see through her. She didn't want to work as an assassin, she wants to save her Kingdom! What a total badass! And then as soon as she joins the Strawhats... Useless. A man had to remind her to use her powers to locate the Tontatta Princess, Mansherry... And now she's nothing more than a pair of binoculars to watch the split up Strawhats. After she FOUGHT SANJI and FOUGHT TO SAVE SANJI! Did we forget about the whale tears? What the fuck!?

Rebecca - What a woman! Even though the whole country hated her, she entered the colosseum. This woman wanted to win to save her country so she could live peacefully with her dad friend! And even though I hated the fact here's a girl that's gonna fight but doesn't wanna hurt people... This bitch stuck to her guns like a fucking champ! She didn't hurt shit and is such a good dex fighter! Holy fuck!!! Of course she lost to Sabo because ya know...... But she joins forces with the Strawhats to save her Kingdom from the Donquixote family. And since she doesn't fight she's now useless........... Will we see more of her? Can she keep rolling those saving throws? Who cares! We'll know she's gonna be useless till one of the men comes along to save her...

Kuween (The Manager) - Here is a woman dedicated to her job! She is THE MOTHER FUCKING MANAGER of the smile factory. And she takes her shit seriously! Her weapon of choice is a... Vacuum? Okay... Um... Vacuums are cool I guess. She can suck up all the escaped rebellious Tontattas, who are slaves at the factory. Yeah she's a bad guy but what a girlboss taking so much responsibility and pride in her work! SUPER!!! Oh no, yeah wait, my boi Franky took her out with a hug and a kiss. Lowly virgin Kuween got played at the absolute MAN POWER of the pervs, Franky and Senor Pink. And is now useless... Like a Hallmark channel movie lead roll, giving up her job because of some useless man. Smh.

Giolla - a super scary art teacher looking mf with a passion for the avant-garde! This lady farts art with the power of the Art-Art fruit (and now the ocean hates her). She turned Chopper into a Minecraft character lmfao. Hilarious! The fact fluffy Doflamingo trusted this old woman enough to get on the Sunny and take the kid and the scientist is amazing! Mango do be trusting his crew! And she would have gotten away with it too... if she wasn't so full of artistic passion and let Brook sweet talk her into art... It do be like that. How come this ugly old broad was the best one yet!?

Baby 5 - yes that's her name, Baby 5. Why? Idk yet, probably some dumb backstory like abandoned by family or something (just finished episode 692: The Struggle with Pica — Zoro's One Finishing Move). However, look at her badass devil fruit... She can turn any part of her body into any kind of weapon using the Arm-Arm fruit (and now the ocean hates her). This bitch turned into a bomb, a fucking bomb, exploded and put herself back together. Fucking rad! So we know she can nuke a place and live. Her downside- she is a female Sanji. Some guy says something and she has to help him... It's sweet. Probably linked to that backstory and wanting to prove she's useful or something... Idk. I know a lot of ladies dream of being a bride and wife one day. So we're really playing this up, but this is totally screwing with her badass abilities. Another Hallmark movie lead roll syndrome claims another op woman... I also wanted to point out, when she fought Franky on punk hazard, changing her upper torso into a gun... She looked like a gun, but last episode fighting another character she changed into a rifle with tits. Are you fucking with me? The gun had to have tits suddenly. I fucking hate this show!

Sugar - the most useful one here, and here's my theory: she's not a woman "yet" but a child. So since since we can't slap tits on her to make her useless, she's more useful. Even though her devil fruit powers stops her body growth so she'll always be stuck with a physical appearance of a child, she's still not perceived as a woman, aka not perceived as useless! With the Hobby-Hobby fruit (and the ocean hating her) she's been turning all the citizens, not citizens, Navy/Marines, and anyone one else that gets in floofer Mango's way into toys, which some how also makes people forget about them. Weird flex, I still don't get it, but okay. She's only stopped by Ussop trying the spicy grape challenge... Which I would have been too. Ussop was fucking terrifying (get that man some milk). But just how useful is she? Well since we saw her freaking out from dudes with long noses and long noses shaped hot dogs... She got some PTSD. So even though this bitch can fight the Tontattas by matching their speed, which is crazy, and can literally make the world forget about you and turn you into a slave for the Donquixote Pirate family, we know how this is gonna end. She'll be rendered useless by some stupid Ussop long nose face thing before she can do any damage to the Strawhats.

Princess Mansherry - Who the fuck spelt her name? Idk, she's in the next episode so I got nothing on her yet except she's crying in the time-out room. Tontatta Princess, Mansherry, who Leo said was "selfish, mean, capricious, and short-tempered" and based on how she was crying for him to save her- bet this girl got a crush on that dude... Boys are dumb (but at least they're useful...)

Wicca - this Tontatta stole Zoro's sword! What a bad ass! We see the Tontatta's strength when she throws a tantrum while arguing with Zoro. And she has the balls to call Luffy, Zoro, and Kin'emon names, cuz they allllllll a special kind of stupid. And she had to put up with all 3 of them at once. Damn girl... And with all that strength what do we see her do? Absolutely nothing. She's become just another background Tontatta... Sad. After she had to do all that work to get Zoro to run in a straight line. She deserves better!

Bian (Pink Bee Squad Leader) - Yes, the Pink Bee herself. Why is she a bee? I'm not sure, I honestly can't remember if the anime said anything about devil fruit or something. Even though she has a title and a whole squadron bee-hind her, what has she actually done? She uhhhhh raided a ship to cause a distraction... And ummmmmmm spelt out some words to start a revolution in the smile factory so her Tontatta friends finally understood they've been tricked. But seriously, what has she done? We see more of that ugly ass beetle man, Kabu, the other squadron leader.

Acilia - omfg I forgot about her! I'm sorry QUEEN! A gladiator at the Corrida Colosseum and like one of 5 people that like Rebecca, this absolute unit of a woman throws her whole pussy into it every time. Honestly, barbarian to barbarian, this bitch serves cunt. She's strong AF and isn't afraid to show off some girly flair with all the cute hearts on her shield. She was fending off that Rolling Logan fool till Cabbage had to ruin it. And of course because Rebecca had to win (her saving throws are too good damn) our barbarian queen fell... But without her help, Rebecca wouldn't have survived. She was useful for one whole episode and that was pretty much it. You go QUEEN! I hope we'll see her again, but since she's such a side character I doubt she'll be showing up ever. You deserve better too, Acilia!

[dbphantom]

Thank you so much if you voted I LOVE YOU!! I am awake now so here are the final results ignore that the poll is still going please I won't be counting anything past now

Sanji and Zoro tying at 32.1 each is hilariously in-character

I voted for Sanji because I was torn between him and Usopp, but leaning towards Sanji. The 'remaining' ability was fire powers and I felt like that fit him best, plus Nami needed someone to team up with and he'd jump at the chance. Also choosing to run around a strange forest in the middle of the night to look for someone who is essentially possessed doesn't quite scream Usopp to me (and also I just needed to see the results) ((my vote counts because I'm the one who's gonna be writing this!))

I was going to give Nami the ice powers (because I was super hoping Nami was going to get Monet's fruit in her tangerine tree allll the way back in PH), but because Zoro and Sanji tied I figure I should give them the fire and ice abilities (sorry Brook, Zoro is stealing your bit) to mirror Rikki and Emma

Which means Luffy and Nami will have the same powers!!! \o/ Let's teach Nami how to bloodbend >:D

Luffy was included at the start despite already being turned because he's getting wind powers 😆 also would mean there are three people on the crew who have powers now!! But now there are four >:) I'll never say no to the opportunity to have MORE mermaids

So instead of Luffy being there when Nami and the other person fall in to have 3 people in the pool (splitting the powers evenly while boosting Luffy's), I'm making it that Luffy gets his boosted abilities first. That lets Nami chase him down as she has a sixth sense for weather and can pinpoint where he's using the wind powers. I was going to have either Usopp or Sanji as her partner in running across the island in the middle of the night (I couldn't decide, hence the poll), but since Sanji and Zoro tied I'm going to have all three of them go in together! I can already see Nami falling in and grabbing Zoro and Sanji by the backs of their shirts in an attempt to not fall and accidentally dragging them in as well because they're too busy fighting with each other.

Shouldn't they know what a Moon Pool is and be more careful? Well, it's Luffy who should have told them that information so... No, not really XD I imagine he would have told them had they actually stumbled into it together (oh, it's right in front of us, let me just casually mention this is the same as that other place on Dawn Island), but since he finds it on his own and then they have to chase his moonstruck ass across the island, that information never comes to pass so they have no clue what happened until the next morning.

This leaves Robin, Chopper, and Usopp to fight the bad guys of this mini arc which I'm pretty excited to write because they don't really team up for combat too often!! Also Robin is undeniably the powerhouse out of the three of them outside of Chopper going monster point, so her getting any time to shine makes me super happy

Also, honestly, Usopp being the Lewis-esque science assistant character for the East Blue crew just feels right. Lewis is the best and Usopp fits those aspiring scientist/craftsman vibes really well. You look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't spend hours in his workshop trying to figure out a way to waterproof them. He WOULD. I already have two bits that are references to the original show where Usopp fits Lewis's role perfectly

1. Usopp chilling and drawing on the mini-Merry while Luffy swims around him, taking Sanji's call on the mini-transponder snail and handing the receiver over to Luffy (the 'it's for you' bit)

2. The Water-7 clockwork running on Water-7 time on the wrong island means Usopp lets Luffy outside while the full moon is up accidentally (Ohhh, it's water-7 clockwork. That means it's running on water-7 time!) <- both of them would totally forget to consider time zones until after. Especially if Usopp's been using it without fail for a while. 'It' being a little watch he has to track the moon because water-7 deals with flooding and high tides and knowing the position of the moon is important especially with aqua lagoona... Just bear with me here, okay, I needed a moon-tracking device to exist for plot reasons and Nami couldn't wear it because she already has the log pose on XD

ALSO I LIED THERE'S 3

3. Usopp filling a bunch of water guns with lots of different liquids and chasing Luffy around the Merry with them for science (Luffy's having a blast with it and Usopp is an amazing shot despite Luffy being able to waterbend)

Also Usopp would 100% try to get a piece of Nami's hair for 'testing' and she'd give him some of Chopper's fur dyed orange

"Nami, I have made an incredible discovery. Did you know you're a fifteen year old reindeer?"

Nami: :3c really?

So yeah I'm actually really really happy with how this turned out thank you so much everyone who voted :'D this is gonna be so swag

The first two are Luffy and Nami. The best things come in threes so here we are

[duckielover151]

THE ONE PIECE DIARIES

Episode Count: 119

All right... This will probably be a big one... I kept trying to decide where I wanted to stop this one to organize my thoughts and eventually decided to get through everyone's individual battles and just save my thoughts on Luffy for the very end.

This has been a good round of battles. I really liked seeing how each of those match-ups shaped up. I'll start with Sanji's fight, because I have the least to say about it.

Actually... I don't have much to say at all about Sanji. Every time Bon Clay's on screen, it's like I have to do some self-reflection. In an 'Am I the Asshole?' sort of way. I mean, those sorts of jokes would have been some real low-hanging fruit, but I was kind of proud of Sanji for not making a single rude remark about his appearance. I was waiting for it.

But more so than that... I was impressed Bon Clay actually put up a fight. His devil fruit ability is both fun and a little sinister, but I was expecting him to have use primarily as a spy. I really should have known better. Ballerinas go through some kickass physical conditioning, and I really enjoyed seeing how he matched up to be Sanji's perfect opponent in a lot of ways.

Next for me is Chopper and Usopp's battle... I'm simultaneously proud and a little conflicted. Just plain proud of Chopper. I always manage to forget that he's a competent fighter as well as a trained doctor. His default form is just so small and cute. But his ability to switch between all his forms and his knowledge of how to best use each one based on what's going on in the battle is just really impressive.

I am... still torn on Usopp. This was a huge step for him. There was that moment where he almost ran away. But he stood his ground like the warrior he so desperately wants to be... and is looking pretty rough at the end of it. I'm just at odds with Usopp's pride. Because the thing is... I love the kinds of characters who've always got a trick up their sleeve. Who may not be the most traditionally strong, but who use the skills they do have in clever ways. That's the kind of character I want Usopp to be.

The problem is... Usopp wants to be someone like Zoro or Luffy or Sanji... Someone who is traditionally strong and can push himself to unreasonable limits and survive literally anything... I just don't know. I was proud of him for sticking it out and winning this fight. I'm just not sure where Usopp's character goes from here. He'll have to go through some pretty intense training to get stronger the way he wants to. And I believe he could do it. But I don't want to lose the potential he's got as their inventor-type, you know?

On the other hand, Zoro's go-to solution for any problem has always been to try and brute force his way through it. Which is why his fight was really interesting. (And a lot shorter than I'd expected it to be.) I'm not sure I've entirely absorbed what his whole zen, a-sword-can-cut-nothing lesson was supposed to be yet... But I don't feel like he totally gets it himself yet, so that's okay. It made me excited to see him grow, though, in a way I haven't really been thus far. He's another one whose pride I've been at odds with in the past.

And finally Nami. Hands down my favorite of the fights because you just don't expect it from her. I totally expected Zoro to take them both on. I love seeing someone who's usually not a combatant step up and kick ass. It doesn't have to be perfectly executed. Hers certainly wasn't. But I love the road she's going down. Because it really would have been okay if she never stepped into this position. One Piece isn't a show where only the fighters are likable, well-developed characters. She would still be really central to the crew even if her only role was as their navigator. But I'm not gonna pretend I didn't love to see it.