#based oda

[nururu]

Sanji: that's the disgusting guy who saw u guys naked in the bathhouse while I was secretly hiding in the bathhouse to see you get naked

nami&robin: and we think ur a pathetic uncool virgin for that btw

[lastoneout]

Can I just say I fucking love how One Piece has revealed one of it's core messages to be "those in power have an obligation to recognize when it is time for them to step down and allow the next generation to carry on in their place, even if that next generation does things differently, bcs nothing stifles freedom and progress like a stagnant society so obsessed with it's past rulers and their legacy that it can't see the cracks forming until it's too late" like that's not just correct, it's straight up CATHARTIC!! Like yeah, Oda, you're right!! It is fucked up that the people in power are so addicted to being at the top that they silence and suffocate everyone who has come after them, insisting that the youth can't be trusted to know what's best or do what needs to be done!!! Thank you!!!!

[dkettchen]

she would've told them unlike her canon! version who decided not to be an ally smh

[denim-wizard]

Sanji vs homerotic relationships with big cat coded men

[tehzeldamaster]

gasp mom and dad are out to kick ass💀

[mintypsii]

post pirate king luffy where sanji has a restaurant in the all blue while usopp's still on the voyage (pining decades later)

[twst-mer]

playing with savanaclaw manga style

[allbuthuman]

BSD and loneliness

Loneliness and what it does to a person, as well as how far the attempts to counteract it can go, what they can and can't do, is an overarching theme in Asagiri's writing, and many of the stories portrayed can basically boil down to "this person is suffering because they are really, really lonely", which I love. Here I want to focus more on loneliness of the "existential" type, the one that's almost intrinsic to someone and stems from who they are rather than whom they do or don't have around them, because, in my mind, it makes for great tragic stories.

Dazai

He is the most obvious example, and probably one of the loneliest characters I've ever come across. Able to comprehend everything, yet unable and from a point onward unwilling to be comprehended, no one can understand his mind, and even those "like him" who might, like Fyodor, won't understand his emotions. First of all, of course, he controls them too well. Secondly, although I do think there are moments he shows a need for connection, he does that from the safety of his usual persona (for example, hiding behind his usual teasing), so that, in the mind of others, there is no clear distinction between the two. Thirdly, the awareness he has of his own emotions is probably very low, since he's learned that the only way to survive and make sense of himself and the world is to rationalise. There are meagre chances for Dazai the human being with emotions to be less lonely, until he chooses to let himself be seen and be vulnerable, and, at this point, it would probably be extremely hard for him to actually practice that, even if he did make the decision.

Dazai does understand that it's better for people to be with one another rather than alone. It's clear even in Stormbringer, when his mental health is arguably at its lowest. It's clear in Dark Era, when he says that if everyone around him died, it would be a form of suicide (I'm using these examples even though there are clearer ones because these are probably the times he was doing the worst). But he doesn't believe that he can have true companionship, and is also being taught to believe that attachment is a weakness, that loneliness is where he belongs.

And then there's Oda, who, while admittedly unable to understand his mind, comprehended exactly this loneliness of his. He and Ango both did, and, as per the light novel, they could not manage to interfere, but were by him as he experienced it. And yet he barely knew that was the case, until Oda made it clear, and then the one person who he now knew could see him died.

But what people rarely comment on is how much capacity to care for someone Dazai had. There was one person, the first person who saw beyond the unpredictable Demon Prodigy, the first person who acknowledged his loneliness - didn't even manage to break through it, just acknowledged it and treated him with care, and that was enough for Dazai to care about him as much as he did, and that is heartbreaking in itself.

Lastly, but perhaps the most telling point of all is Asagiri himself admitting that he never knows what Dazai is thinking. I don't want to get too into meta, but being the creation of someone, and still not being understood by your own creator is possibly the loneliest position I can think of.

Verlaine

My second favourite example, because here we have someone who was loved, and he knew that he was loved, but it wasn't enough to change things.

Verlaine's loneliness is objective, in the sense that he really is fundamentally different than those around him, he really is not biologically human. That loneliness of his, combined with the hatred that it fostered, was what led him to seek Chuuya - he thought that the only person who could understand him was one who shared that nature, and incorrectly believed that Chuuya would think so as well. He needed Chuuya, and thought that Chuuya would need him in he same way. He was, however, wrong, because Chuuya, being uncertain of his humanity instead of certain of his inhumanity, put great effort into being among other people instead of discarding them.

Rimbaud knew Verlaine's nature since the beginning. He accepted it, he cared for him and loved him regardless. He knew that it made him suffer and was there for him, and he did try to empathise with him, while knowing that it was impossible, because the gap was not one that could be mended. In Verlaine's case, no love could be enough to change his nature, a nature that made him look at the world with hate, including the person who loved him. To a person who feels like they should never have been born, even the sincerest "I'm glad you were born" would only cause pain, until it was too late.

Of course, that's not to say that he actually hated Rimbaud - it's very apparent from the ending of Stormbringer that he cared about him, and that he did appreciate all the efforts he made for him. I don't know if you want to call it love, but it's the closest thing he had the capacity for. But, at the end of the day, nothing that Rimbaud would do could change the fact that Verlaine perceived the gap between himself and the world as unbridgeable. Yet still, he was affected. Nothing could really change, but Rimbaud reached him somehow, although the ending couldn't have been different.

Shibusawa

Here we have an example of someone who shared a similar kind of loneliness, but never had anything to counteract it. He's portrayed as comparable to Dazai and Fyodor: smarter than everyone around him, detached and bored. But, in contrary to Dazai, he isn't shown having any meaningful relationship that could challenge that. This difference is recognised by Dazai, who tells him to his face that he wouldn't think like that if he had any friends. This is a "playful" way to put it, but in reality Dazai simultaneously empathises with his point of view and discards it, because he now knows better than to view people the way Shibusawa does.

I haven't read the light novel, I'm just basing this on the movie, so I can't say much more, but I think his character works as a good point of contrast between people who still try to find "meaning" and those like him, who have decided it's not worth it.

Curious to see where Fyodor, the other so-called superhuman, will fall in regards to this loneliness, but I think we don't know enough about him and how he actually feels in order not to grasp in the dark.

(part 2 about the less existential type of loneliness if i gather enough coherent thoughts)

[altruistic-meme]

another stupid chuuya headcanon where I give him my personal loser traits (with bonus dazai hc too):

hes absurdly shit at handling spicy food. he can't eat it for SHIT it hurts his mouth and is terribly unpleasant. he can and sometimes even will cry if he eats smth too spicy.

despite this he refuses to admit that he has a -10 spice tolerance and will still try and eat it bc he thinks not being able to tolerate spicy food makes him look like a wimp.

it is the one thing he and dazai actually agree on, though dazai's tolerance is somehow slightly worse than chuuya's. baby boy will think black pepper is spicy if there's too much of it.

[moongothic]

...I... I do not know what on earth compelled me to make this nor why, but I will not be taking criticism at this time

[theprodigypenguin]

It's ten at night and I can't stop thinking about Dragon, Kuma and Iva founding the revolutionary army together and how close they were and a lot of fandom only speculated they were close by inference but it's basically canon that they were CLOSE, like those three are FRIENDS and that is just... that makes me so happy. I love that Iva has Dragon and Kuma, I love that Kuma has Dragon and Iva, I love that Dragon has Iva and Kuma. And I love that they all had a hand in training Sabo. He is their legacy 🥺 he is the revolutions legacy. He carries pieces from all of them. I am so emotional over the revs. They mean everything to me.

[t4t-dazai]

uh ! dazai osamori? anyone? no?

[ID: black and white portrait of dazai in the artstyle from the game "omori". End ID]

[sickficideas]

the hand that feeds || [BEAST AU] akutagawa sickfic

ao3! 3.6k - please refer to the tags in the link for content + warnings!

Ryuunosuke can't see straight.

He's trying to pay attention to the report in front of him. Everything's so fuzzy. It feels almost like he's got his eyes open underwater, a ridiculously disorienting feeling considering he’s just sitting in an office chair. Completely dry.

“Akutagawa?”

Kunikida's voice even sounds like it's coming from the far end of the world’s longest tunnel. His ears are ringing on top of it, and Kunikida starts to say something to him from across the desk that he can barely hear. His voice breaks through all the white noise in his ears just at the last two words.

“...in thirty?” Kunikida asks him. He sounds like he’s already repeated himself.

Ryuunosuke just nods, even though he’s not sure what he's being asked. They had plans to meet a client and start a case today, is he asking him if he'll be ready in thirty? His stomach twists at the idea that he'll have to be somewhere out in public with the way his ears and his eyes are treating him. He can't possibly defend himself from any threats like this. He’ll have his guard completely lowered.

He's starting to realize that he's not feeling very well.

Kunikida has gotten on his case several times for ignoring when he's sick. Ryuunosuke doesn't mean to, sometimes it's just too late when he finally makes the connection. He doesn’t think he’s sick, anyway. Maybe he just needs something to help him along. As long as he can see and hear well, it doesn’t matter. He just wants to do his job right.

Maybe he can ask Yosano for some medicine before they leave.

He stands from his desk, leaning on the chair for a little longer than necessary to hold his balance. He's much dizzier than he expected. Everything swims around him and he thinks if he wasn’t holding the chair, he would’ve fallen over. The ringing starts getting louder. It hurts. The infirmary isn't far, luckily, and he can’t stand around for long. No wasting time. The faster he takes medicine, the faster he can feel better and get back to work.

He crosses the infirmary’s doorway, scanning the room, squinting, just barely about to make out that Yosano is sitting at her desk, flipping through some papers. He can’t even tell if it’s a book, a report, or just loose sheets. He’s too out of sorts for this.

“Miss Yosano?” he manages, but his brain has already given up on trying to keep him upright.

He feels his head smack against something, and then, he’s out.

…

Yosano knows she can't go a single day without something happening. It can be anything from Kenji scraping his knee to the Agency getting raided, but every single day without fail, something disrupts her peaceful schedule. She’s not as faithful to a schedule as Kunikida, but she still likes to have one, at the very least.

She's at her desk towards the back of the infirmary, which for the week so far, has stayed empty. It's given her time to catch up on writing up reports and deciding what she needs to order, setting aside tools she needs sharpened - she likes it, having everything in order and actually having the time to do all of that.

She flips over to a report that needed her medical addendum - one written by Akutagawa, who she knows is not at all fond of doing such thing. He’s always very short and to the point. She can respect that, she would also much rather do more physical work than paperwork. Kunikida might be the only one in the building to prefer the latter.

Akutagawa’s handwriting has improved, though, she’s noticed. It’s still quite obviously his, but it’s not as sharp, not written so much like he’s in such a hurry to finish it anymore. She’s seen Junichiro work with him on getting his handwriting more legible, at the very least - it’s working well. She smiles at it.

She hears someone enter the infirmary, but she doesn’t lift her head. There’s a medical report filing cabinet right at the door that they often go digging into without bothering her, so she doesn’t speak unless spoken to. She hears the footsteps approach a little closer, though. Too close to access the filing cabinet. They’re almost dragging, too. Strange.

“Miss Yosano?” her visitor speaks. Akutagawa. Ironic, that she was just analyzing his handwriting. She scans the report, wondering if maybe that’s what he’s waiting on. She’s finished with it, she thinks.

She picks up the sheet to hand it to him, but before she can make eye contact with him, all she sees is a blur of black and grey heading straight for the tile floor.

Well, that’s caught her completely off guard. Her own gasp even scares her, it sounds like she’s seen a ghost.

Yosano pushes her chair back without any regard to where it’s tipped over to, quickly rounding the desk to the other side and kneeling beside Akutagawa’s crumpled-up form on the floor. She’s fairly certain she heard him hit his head on something on the way down, She needs to make sure that he didn’t seriously injure himself before she assesses the rest of his situation.

She hears a few sets of footsteps rush in at the commotion, a few gasps of surprise and concern, but she whips her palm up at them to signal for them to not come any closer, to be quiet. She knows how Akutagawa can react when overwhelmed and she doesn’t have any idea what’s wrong with him yet.

She sees a red smear on his forehead when she gets a good look at his face, which is twitching in discomfort but not showing any current signs of consciousness. She moves her hand down to brush the hair out of his face to get a better look at his temple, and with an exasperated sigh, she realizes he's radiating heat. She lays the back of her ice-cold hand against his forehead and then moves her palm to cup his cheek. She's figured out why he passed out.

“Get me a thermometer, he has a fever,” she huffs, looking up at the small crowd that’s gathered at the doorway with her hand stretched out. Kenji is already at one of the drawers near the cots to grab one for her.

Kunikida’s face twists up with a slew of emotions, seeing Akutagawa’s unconscious form on the floor. “Dammit, how many times do I have to tell him -”

“Hush, Kunikida! Let him come out of it without your shouting,” she barks back at him, maybe a little louder than she meant to. She knows he means well, she understands that it's frustrating, but now is not the time.

She sees his shoulders sink as Kenji hands her the thermometer, and he promptly backs up, kindly following her earlier silent request to stay back. Yosano presses the cold metal censor to his forehead to get a reading, and waits for it to calculate. She prefers the oral thermometers, but this will give her a good idea before she gets him into a cot.

The thermometer reads a solid one hundred and two point nine, which considering these are lower than the accurate temperature, greatly concerns her. She sighs, wondering how on earth he got through most of the day with a fever this high. He must have been feeling awful.

She’s very careful, sliding an arm around his shoulders with the intention of getting him off of the floor and onto a cot. Kenji walks forward again and quietly offers his help. He can do it much easier than she can, and Akutagawa holds much more trust in Kenji than he does in most people, so she stands as Kenji lifts Akutagawa off of the floor. She hears a pained noise from him, but he doesn’t quite stir.

Kenji lays him down in the nearest cot, and Yosano sees Akutagawa’s eyes start to flutter open at the movement. She briefly catches sight of Kunikida urging some of the assistants to clear out of the room, but allowing for Junichiro to stay. Junichiro always worries about him the most.

Kenji brings over a stool for Yosano as she opens up the drawer for some supplies to place an IV catheter. She can’t be sure how dehydrated he is, but with a fever like that, fluids would certainly do him some good either way.

Akutagawa’s eyes finally open, and Yosano hears his breaths start to quicken.

“There you are. You're okay, just in the infirmary at the Agency,” Yosano assures him, a gentle hand on his chest to discourage him from trying to sit up. “Looks like you're not feeling too well this morning, are you?”

Akutagawa doesn't answer right away, likely not entirely mentally there yet. He’s not as pale as she would expect him to be with that fever, she realizes, but his eyes are sunken. He gives up his efforts to move and sinks back down into the pillow with a defeated groan. She pulls out a few things to clean up the blood on his forehead from the drawer, and Akutagawa lets his eyes fall shut as she dabs at his temple.

“None of you noticed?” Yosano asks her three visitors with a huff, finding it hard to believe that Akutagawa hid this from everyone without any signs.

“He's really good at hiding it,” Kenji remarks. “He does pass out sometimes when he helps me at the farm, his body still isn’t super used to it…I never notice until he’s already out.”

“I don't even think he means to hide it,” Junichiro frowns, slowly starting to come closer, “he must just be so used to having to push through it.”

Yosano sighs. Her eyes turn to Kunikida, who stands with his arms crossed over his chest, very visibly concerned, but just as frustrated, too.

“I've talked to him at great lengths about how dangerous this habit is. It’s already almost killed him once,” Kunikida huffs. Yosano sees him chew at his lip. He's referring to an incident from a few months ago where an unchecked injury of his landed him in the hospital with a severe infection while Yosano was in northern Japan - she thinks Akutagawa had started to come to her pretty regularly for injuries since then, but maybe it’s the fact that this is an illness that makes it different. “I don’t know what else I can say to him.”

“He did come to me,” Yosano reminds him. That’s why all of this went down, after all. He didn’t faint in the office, it happened right in front of Yosano’s desk, before she could even properly acknowledge his presence. “He just needs to work on his timing. He’s almost there.”

“I suppose,” Kunikida says with an exasperated sigh, his eyes dropping down to Akutagawa. Yosano smiles. Kunikida worries about a lot of things, and Akutagawa is very, very high on that list.

She watches Akutagawa lift his hand up to graze the spot on his forehead that’s been cleaned of blood. He’s still visibly very out of it, his eyes are glassy and a little unfocused. She’s surprised he’s managed to appear well for this long. This certainly didn’t come out of nowhere, he must have already been experiencing some very disorienting symptoms before he walked into the infirmary. It seems his body has given up on trying to fight it off.

“You hit your head right there. It bled a little but it's not too serious. I won't use my ability for it,” she assures him, laying a hand on his arm. “You have a high fever, though. I want you to rest for a while.”

He seems to understand that, as far as she can tell. His eyes dart to Kunikida for just a brief moment before they move back to wander around the room. Yosano wonders if he was looking to him for something - he likely knows how Kunikida reacted. He doesn’t want to disappoint him.

“I’m glad you came to me for help,” Yosano tells him, because she does want him to know that he did a good thing by coming to her, and that he should do it again - hopefully, next time, before it gets to the point of fainting.

Kenji helps Akutagawa remove his coat, his tie, belt, shoes - anything that would restrict any comfort for him, since Yosano would like for him to rest for a few hours, at the very least.

Yosano starts to place the IV catheter in the top of his hand, as gently as she can. He’s usually good for this in most situations, but she thinks he’s very sensitive when he gets high fevers like this - the touch is a bit overwhelming for him. He winces every time she moves back to touch his skin, so she keeps one hand wrapped around his wrist to reduce the impact a little.

She starts to recognize a change in his breaths and general discomfort in his face as nausea, so she’s glad she decided on the IV anyway - she can certainly give him some medication for that through the line, along with something to bring that fever down.

“Kenji, do you think you can get an oral temperature on him? I think his fever is a bit higher than the first thermometer read,” Yosano says. He’s come back already with a cold washcloth that he’s finished laying over Akutagawa’s forehead. His whole body winces in a shiver from the feeling, but he relaxes a few seconds in. 

Kenji nods and moves to take it out of the drawer. Still very gentle with him, letting him know what he’s about to do and why - Akutagawa barely parts his lips, even that seems to take a lot out of him. Kenji holds the thermometer under his tongue as Yosano finishes up taping the IV catheter to his hand. She watches Kenji’s brow furrow when the thermometer beeps.

“A hundred and three point two,” Kenji announces meekly taking it from his mouth to show Yosano. She huffs out a sigh. She was expecting that, but it’s still concerning to have it confirmed.

“Will he be okay?” Junichiro asks, the same concern written all over Kunikida’s face, too.

“Are you doubting my skills as a doctor? I’ve handled much worse than this,” she reminds them, trying to bring the mood up a little bit. They’re no doubt remembering Akutagawa’s recent hospitalization, but this is a much easier situation to handle. “He’ll be just fine. Just give him some time to rest and recover, I’ll take good care of him.”

“Of course. I’d never second-guess you,” Kunikida says, but it sounds like more of a reassurance for himself than anyone else. He checks his watch, and then his eyes dart down to Akutagawa - Yosano smiles. Looks like he has plans, but he doesn’t want to leave him. “I have to be at a meeting with a client shortly…please let me know if anything changes in his condition.”

At this, Akutagawa suddenly tries to sit up. She’s putting the pieces together now. Akutagawa was supposed to come along for this meeting, and he came to Yosano before they left, probably hoping for a quick fix so he could get back to work. He’s not much different from Kunikida in that regard.

“You need to lay down, Miss Yosano said you need to sleep off your fever,” Kenji says, a gentle hand on his chest. Akutagawa’s eyes look a little frantic. He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t let Kenji guide him back down to rest, either.

“I’ll take care of it, Akutagawa. Your health is more important than the clients,” Kunikida assures him, and Yosano is very surprised to hear him say that. She knows how much he values his work and the company. It’s not easy to sway his heart like that.

Akutagawa looks hesitant to agree to that sentiment, but begrudgingly, he lies back down.

…

After observing Akutagawa for a while after giving his IV injections, Yosano moves back to her desk, where she can still watch him from afar, but get some work done. Thankfully, the medications seem to have tired him out, and he’s been very asleep. The nausea has subsided, too, and thankfully never had the chance to escalate into vomiting.

It’s started raining since Yosano shooed her fellow Agency members out. It sounds nice against the windows, peaceful. She’s noted in the past that the rain puts Akutagawa on edge - likely a result of many, many years on the streets, but even now, he’s fast asleep. Kenji laid a blanket over him and added some extra pillows to make it more comfortable.

She hears the infirmary door open, and this time, she lifts her head. Oda peers inside, his eyes already on Akutagawa’s sleeping form. He makes eye contact with her as he wanders inside.

“I heard he’s not feeling well today,” Oda says, closing the door behind him.

“Very not well. He managed to get himself a hundred and three degree fever without anyone noticing,” Yosano says with an expectant sigh. “I only found out because he passed out in front of my desk.”

Oda’s brow raises. “He came to you?”

Yosano smiles. “He did.”

“That’s very good to hear,” Oda says. He’s so hard to read most of the time, but she can tell he’s relieved to hear that information. He worries about Akutagawa the same way Kunikida does, but he’s a little more patient with him.

Oda sits down on the cot right beside Akutagawa’s, and just watches him for a while, hands joined on his lap. She’s not quite sure where he was at today, he’s never doing what she expects him to, but it almost seems like he’s sitting with him as some sort of reassurance that he’s okay.

After a while, he takes the cloth from Akutagawa’s forehead and dips it in the little ice bath bowl on the stand beside his cot, gently wringing it out and pressing it against each cheek for a few seconds before laying it over his warm forehead. He adjusts his blanket and pillows just slightly.

Yosano checks the time and decides she’ll check his temperature again. She sits down on the stool beside his cot and gently slips the thermometer under his tongue, and even with that, he doesn’t stir.

Oda tilts his head, curious for the result.

“A hundred and two point one. Very good progress,” she assures him, especially for having been so high just a few hours ago.

“Good,” Oda sighs with relief.

“Oda,” she starts as she slides her stethoscope underneath his shirt. He shivers, likely from the ice-cold feeling of it, but he doesn’t wake up. “Do you know how long he was on the streets for?”

“I couldn’t tell you for sure,” Oda says with a little shrug as Yosano finishes her reading. “I’m not even very certain of how old he is. He says nineteen or twenty.”

“Really?” she says, surprised to hear that, but in the end it makes sense. “I have March first in his chart as his date of birth. Is that just an estimate?”

“He said that’s the birthdate his sister gave to him,” Oda answers. Yosano’s heart sinks and she frowns. He’s led such a tragic life. If he wasn’t even sure of his age or birthdate, he must have been living on the streets for a very, very long time. “I only know he had been looking for his sister for four and a half years before I found him. Before then, I’m uncertain.”

“He’s had to push through illness and injury hundreds of times on his own then, no doubt,” she assumes. She understands that it’s not hesitancy he’s facing when he’s feeling sick, or when he’s hurt - he simply never had this option. It seems almost like he treats it as an addition he doesn’t need, rather than a last resort, as Kunikida seems to think.

But he’s learning to grow out of it.

Akutagawa shifts, a little too quickly, and Oda reacts faster than Yosano could have - he stands and lays a hand on Akutagawa’s chest, his eyes wild and staring straight at him, chest puffing in a very sudden fear. Yosano isn’t sure where this came from - a nightmare, maybe. She sees him blinking away tears for a second.

“You’re at the Agency,” he says simply, and that alone seems to prevent anything worse. Akutagawa’s eyes relax and his body is slow to follow, but he keeps his gaze fixed on Oda. Yosano wonders where that came from - if it was a premonition of his ability, or he’s simply learned to recognize trauma responses like this from all of the orphans he’s cared for.

Akutagawa seems to be too tired to even stay awake to see this through. She watches his eyes roll back as Oda lifts his hand from his chest, and his breaths slowly return to normal. Oda adjusts the washcloth on his forehead and leans back to sit on the cot as if nothing happened.

“You understand him so well,” Yosano remarks. He’s always been good with him, he always seems to know what’s going on in Akutagawa’s head before anyone else could hope to figure it out.

“He’s no different from my kids. They’ve all faced similar hardship,” Oda tells her simply, “his older age just means he’s better at hiding it.”

“You were the perfect person to find him, then,” Yosano says with a light smile, and Oda lifts his head to meet her eyes.

“I think so, too.”

[fiapple]

i'm getting towards the end of the skypeia arc, & i'd like to say just how much i adore the way the female strawhats have been treated.

just... every aspect of how the way their characters have been previously contextualized influences the story-line is treated with a masterful amount of consideration. we're given so many layers to both of them that enrich not only their characters specifically, but the arc, and the one piece world as a whole. without nami & robin having their specific skills, and their specific values, without those being built upon, the story would have come to a halt.

you could not have skypeia without nami & robin being who they are as individuals. not just because they never would've gotten there without nami, but also because the way these women think is itself foundational to the machinations of the arc as a whole.

to be totally upfront, if you think any other strawhats were more central to the skypeia arc than nami & robin were you are full-on fucking lying to yourself.

[symbologic]

Luffy vs. Zoro at Whiskey Peak

Unpopular opinion maybe, but the Luffy vs. Zoro clash in Whiskey Peak made sense for their characters. You could even argue that it was bound to happen, given their personalities.

Luffy likes the people who feed him. In the the face of their suffering, no matter who's responsible, he's too angry to concern himself with the reasons behind it. Zoro, on the other hand, prefers to handle things independently without saying much about it, especially if it means his crew gets to enjoy themselves a little longer

So it's not really surprising that Luffy would be blindsided by finding their hosts cut up by his swordsman, and that this would send him flying into a fit of rage. If he's never paused to listen to context or backstories before now, why would he start here? And of course, Zoro is not the type to back down from a challenge. He will match Luffy's energy and respond in kind

"But if Luffy were a good captain, he would have stopped to listen to Zoro's side of the story." Vivi tells him he's a bad captain two arcs later, precisely because of this kind of behavior. It clearly leaves an impression on Luffy, and we see he's grown into a better leader by the time he reaches Amazon Lily. (Almost as if Oda set all this development up on purpose with Whiskey Peak. HMM...)

"But Luffy refused to believe that Nami had killed Usopp in Arlong Park." This argument is like comparing apples to oranges. Nami did not actually do the murder that Johnny and Yosaku claim they saw, nor is she capable of killing people in cold blood. Of course Luffy isn't going to believe Nami killed Usopp based on hearsay. But in Whiskey Peak, Zoro did cut those bounty hunters. Luffy sees the evidence for himself, and he knows the carnage Zoro is capable of inflicting once he puts his mind to it. There is no denying what happened. Nothing other than Zoro saying "someone else did this" (or Nami knocking the soul out of him) was going to stop Luffy from going ballistic

"Why would Luffy fight so hard to recruit Zoro into his crew, firmly believing that he wasn't a bad person, only to later attack him because he believed Zoro was capable of harming 'innocent' people?" Because the fight was never about whether their hosts were "innocent" or not, not really. Their fight was about what Zoro did (assaulting the ones who fed them), and how those actions made Luffy feel (mad as hell, because these people FED THEM) For Luffy, context did not actually matter at that moment in time because, for him, "they fed me" unequivocally means "they're my friend", full stop This is even shown again in Mocktown! Both when Luffy unquestioningly eats an apple from Doc Q, and when Bellamy buys Luffy a drink in Mocktown. In the first case, Luffy only lived because he was lucky. And in the second case, he assumes Bellamy is a good person despite all evidence to the contrary, only to have his face brutally smashed into the bartop by Bellamy. Luffy is shockingly bad at reading people who try to feed him.

Luffy has interpersonal conflicts with all the core members from East Blue at different times. The fight with Zoro is the only one instigated by Luffy. But surprisingly, their fight highlights their similarities instead of their differences. They still fight equally and work together against BW agents who try to interfere with their fight.

I think that's what Oda wanted to showcase with this scene.

In short, Luffy's initial anger stemmed from his protectiveness towards those who have fed him, while Zoro's actions were driven by his dedication to the crew and subsequent refusal to back down from Luffy's challenge. It was a clash resulting from miscommunication and misunderstanding, something that is not typically a problem for them — until it suddenly becomes one When all is said and done, they're both quick to forgive and forget. This, too, is fitting for both their characters. From that point onward, Zoro continues to demonstrate that Luffy's trust is not misplaced. And Luffy never, ever doubts Zoro again after this

[mollypaup]

my oofuri experience so far has been "damn abe i can't even think of a homosexual explanation for that, let alone a heterosexual one. you are insane." and then feeling the worms burrow into my frontal cortex about any two given characters on screen at a time.