#but something something usopp being the badass sniper that he’s meant to be has me like

[elluminis]

I love Usopp so much holy shit man just single-handedly saved the entirety of dressrosa for the second time and unlocked observation haki??? Tell me why he has me crying 😭

[imalemonthatrants]

Mmm. 4 AM rant after stuck AU brainstorming for Zoro.

Mostly about two year timeskip and Oda's decisionmaking on Zoro as a character since then. Partly out of frustration of my own stubbornness.

I don't know why I hate it so much, but 4 AM me, after getting stuck trying to write an AU zoro centric fic (with romance) because I can't decide what his dreams and goals are, once again, want to bitch about Oda's decision making for Zoro's two year training period.

Don't get me wrong, I love that they became this fanon goth family and everything and I WANT to write it in my fics and all that, I really really do. But making Mihawk train Zoro during the two year timeskip really felt like it destroyed what Zoro originally was. And maybe Oda did it as a sense of "character growth" and the like, what with giving up his pride to ask his rival for training, but for me, him kneeling to Kuma and practically begging him to take his head over Luffy's was much more impactful in seeing his character growth in this scene.

Zoro bowing and begging for Mihawk to train him felt like a destruction of the core of his character. Not because he bowed and begged or anything, as I believe for the sake of the people he loves and cares for, he would honestly do just about anything. No, because at Zoro's core, he was supposed to be the honest, hard working character that got to where he was mostly by himself. Someone that had nothing that came to be something, and all by his own hands. Being trained by the GREATEST SWORDSMAN diminishes that. Now, it's not his hard work, but rather he was taught by the best. Now, the one that has the I went from nothing to something is Usopp, despite him being "just like his dad" with the sniper thing.

Now, Zoro just feels like a side character meant to revolve around Luffy. He gave up his pride for Luffy. Offered his life for Luffy's. The entirety of post timeskip, it's we're making Luffy pirate king or let's take care of Luffy. And yes, Luffy is the main character. All the characters are going to revolve around him. But as Zoro went from a character with his own aspirations and dreams that now seem meaningless because he's basically trained by the best to beat said best, his character traits are now limited to care about his captain, fight, be dumb, and be the "silent, badass swordsman". Except Law exists. Except Zoro is shown before ts that he's not just those traits.

Oda keeps making Zoro say he's going to be the greatest swordsman, but I honestly don't understand the worth of it anymore. It used to be lofty because we never truly knew how strong Mihawk is. Now, it's lost it's worth because we don't know how strong Mihawk is. Is he technically stronger than all the people Zoro have fought now? What's the point of being the greatest when the greatest fucking trained you, too? And even then, making Sanji as strong as Zoro is a slap to Zoro's I worked hard to get here. With Jinbe joining the crew, is he stronger than Zoro? Zoro's labeled role was always and only labelled combatant (even if he's the first mate now confirmed), meaning he should be the best fighter in the crew. But yet, his position and role is constantly threatened. Now, it feels like Zoro doesn't really care for his dream either. He cares about keeping his promise to his dead best friend. And he cares about Luffy. Not really about the goal or the path, but just the ending.

And this makes it difficult for me to write Zoro. I want to make him greatest swordman aspirer, but making Mihawk his father with this goal in certain AUs make the title feel washed out and pathetic like it does in the series now and I don't want to write it like that since I HATE it. So I have to make Mihawk not his father. Fine. Not ideal, but I could always do it in a different fic idea. But this also puts me in a weird position on reputation and standing. How could a person aiming for the greatest not be well known, especially with such a distinctive hair color? It makes my wanting to write a "underestimated MC" with Zoro as MC a struggle. Then, in battle heavy AU scenarios, what is Zoro's ambition then? For a character whose original core was ambition and promises, (which, again, I will state has been broken down as Zoro has now canonically broken a promise and whose ambition now feels shallower than a puddle after a 10 second drizzle.) What would he aim for? To be the strongest in general? To keep a promise to a dead friend once more, not living for himself, but in honor of someone else and therefore not living at all?

All of these feel wrong, despite it fitting in the manga, because being the greatest in general would mean he would have to be stronger than Luffy in the end, and as I kind of do like to match canonverse strength levels (well, my beliefs on it), it only feels right that Luffy is always the strongest (In battle heavy AU settings. Modern au or slice of life stuff, I'm fine with writing Zoro as the only fighter or the strongest in strength and battling).

OKAY, for the second idea, I can do it. It would just not be the side of Zoro I want to write. Because someone who lives for someone else wouldn't be as selfish and arrogant as I would like to write him as. (Many would say these are bad traits, but it's writing these traits and making the character grow from them that really gets my writer heart going, okay?) They'd be more broken, more insecure and unsure, more lost in comparison to the secure, reliable and straightforward mountain that Zoro is in my eyes. So I dont want to write that and in many cases because that's not the side of Zoro I want to focus on in most AUs. (I definitely DO have versions of this side of Zoro in multiple different AUs lightly plotted out but don't want to write.)

I want a goal that makes Zoro still able to be an "underestimated" MC whose relatively unknown, but still lofty and so far out, that's maybe battle orientated. One where Zoro can be confident and that reliable mountain feel without making him stand out so much. One that he focused so much on, he doesn't have thoughts of most other things. (Like of things you do in bed so I can still make him a naive cinnamon roll. A violent, bloodthirsty and terrifying cinnamon roll, but an innocent one nonetheless) If I can make Mihawk his dad with this goal, bonus fucking points.

In the end, I have to settle. I really do. Underestimated and Zoro just don't fucking mix to be honest. Except maybe when it comes to anything other than battle prowess. Weak to Strong would be fun tho. I want a "they fell in love as they learned about each other, especially after thinking the other one sucks on first meet" thing, not "their obvious, great traits appealed to me greatly and that's why I fell for them and only fell harder the more I knew them" (both great routes, btw but I'm so stubborn) or a "they've already known each other for a long time and came to realize they love them, but are too scares to go beyond friendship" (also a great one, but not the one I want to write!!!) it may be because I want to write enemies to lovers, but I'm finding difficulty to do that without making it a toxic relationship. Lel

Okay. One hour of ranting later. Time to sleep.

[cuccofarmer]

I’VE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT.

The present differences between One Piece pre- and post-timeskip – A One Piece Essay.

With One Piece’s Dressrosa arc finally wrapping up last year, there has been a collective sigh of relief as the longest running story has ended. The complaints, from what I saw, stemmed from the fact that pacing was a dramatic issue during Dressrosa and its overall length led to a huge loss of interest. Personally, I loved Dressrosa’s story, but I wholeheartedly agree that it was a total struggle to stick out. This was the arc that broke me. I saw the light and switched to reading the manga which is a million miles better, by the way. Despite all the superiorities in the manga, it still suffered from a multitude of similar problems as the anime.

This drove me to try and find out why I still felt a whole inside my heart even while reading One Piece. I had to think long and hard, and dug through the internet to find a lot of other opinions on the matter. I came to the conclusion that, since the timeskip, the overall thematic feel for our favourite pirate anime/manga has just changed drastically. I know this isn’t anything new, quite the contrary and don’t get me wrong I love One Piece a lot and still find joy in following the story.  

Search your mind and think back. Can you remember the good ol’ days when five intrepid kids (yes kids) got on a dingy little ship with dreams and ambitions that they could only wish to achieve? Good, because for many that is what made them fall in love with One Piece. I remember when I started watching all I wanted was to be on that ship with them. It made you feel part of something, like you were really on deck with the crew as they made their way from East Blue to the dreaded and mysterious Grand Line. Even following that, the crusade through to Alabasta, trying to save their very own princess. The diabolical Sir Crocodile, with his hook made of gold and his fearsome sand abilities. Remember as the crew faced off with Baroque Works and found the reason for their fighting.

Oh boy, and even Skypeia. I hated Skypeia for a long time because it was hard to get through, but I can tell you the second time I watched it I found a lot of reasons why it was good. The intrigue, the exploration, the mystery behind the missing island, and by far the best part of that arc, the Almighty Eneru (or Enel for those who prefer). Man was he as good villain. You could argue he was horrible, but just think of his motivation. How evil and power-mad can one man get? All it took was Luffy’s perfect counter to put him in his place.

Then to my favourite ever story arc in all of One Piece. It is so hard to beat Water 7. It had so much good shit crammed into it. Even more surprising if you combine Water 7 and Enies Lobby together as the saga it comes close to the length of Dressrosa. So why is it so much better? For many damn good reasons. Remember when the crew lost Robin, only to find her supposed betrayal? Good Lord was that heartbreaking, even though you knew she would come back there was a tiny part of you that was still secretly worried. There was that deep-rooted connection to each crew member that you didn’t want tainted. For me the defining moment of this saga was when the Strawhat pirates stood at the gates of hell (or Justice if you like), and stared death in the face when they were toe to toe with Cipher Pol 9. Enemies who could swat them like flies and yet they found the strength to beat them against all the odds, even if it meant sacrificing their humanity. Goddamn motherfucking Sniper King. That’s all I have to say.

Thriller Bark had that stink of adventure all over, however slow it was, so you could put up with the crew being duped by an idiot, Moria’s god-awful laugh, and the cringiest moments of Perv-salom. There was a mystery to be solved and a treasure to be found. There was something lacking though. How come Zoro and Sanji were missing for so long? Surely our two favourite hot-heads weren’t captured by the enemy? Well they were, and for one good reason: they needed to make room for the rest of the crew. At this point in the story we had eight crew members with the ninth one being introduced. How much time can you devote to NINE main characters? Five is perfect, six is fine, seven is manageable, eight is pushing it, but nine? It’s one hard task to make sure nine dang Strawhats have the same amount of development.

Luckily the plot went elsewhere at this point, we saw the crew split up and the focus was all on our meat-loving captain. Ace in danger? We better get going! So we couldn’t dwell on the fact that suddenly we were seeing so much less of our favourite nakama even when the crew was all together.

Then you hit the timeskip. Finally our Strawhats are all back together again! This should be a cause for celebration. Except something wasn’t quite right. Who’s this fishman poser? Why is he just a copy/paste Arlong? Luffy’s super duper strong now! Can’t he just squash him? Why do I care about a goddamn goldfish lady? Shira-who? Show me more nakama adventure! Wait what? Sanji’s decommissioned? You’re telling me I waited all the way through Amazon Lily to Marineford and now my favourite goddamn cook is in a fucking coma? I say nay!

Do you remember when Zoro used to smile because he was happy, not because he was sadistically going to cut someone to ribbons? Do you remember when Nami’s character was something more than fan service? Do you remember when Usopp fought through all his fears to look his enemy in the eye and stand his ground? Now he’s just played for laughs. Do you remember when Sanji was suave and collected and not a quivering heap in front of every lady he met? Do you remember when Chopper could ACTUALLY FUCKING DO SOME DOCTORIN’. Now he’s just a squeaky merchandising ploy. Do you remember when Robin, my favourite Strawhat, would ACTUALLY FUCKING DO SOMETHING – LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL. Do you remember when Franky didn’t completely look and act like an abomination? Me either, Franky never got that much screen time did he? And Brook, poor skeletal Brook, I hope you get some sort of development, man. It looks promising in Whole Cake Island, you might actually get some real badass action.

Above all, Monkey D. Luffy, when did you become such an idiot. Sure he was always a dolt, but now he just meanders through the story, punching anything in his way. The stakes aren’t as high anymore. Who knows what training the Dark King gave Luffy for two whole years? Hody Jones was a scrub. Caesar Clown was a scrub. Doflamingo was a Hannibal Lecter level badass mo-fo. I bet you he owns that Pulp Fiction wallet, but jfc a build up of close to 200 episodes? Like I said, I am trash for One Piece and the storytelling is still fucking prime. So I’ll keep going, especially since Whole Cake Island has given us a lot of promising material, maybe the first bit we’ve had in the New World.

Here endeth my essay on One Piece. Conclusion? We have become detached from our favourite characters. Through some fault in the story, a by-product of having to fit so much in each segment, we have lost a lot of what made us fall in love with it in the first place. We used to be so lucky we had heroes who we could identify with, who we could journey with. Nowadays we have these super-cool, super-badass pirates, but they’re untouchable. I just wish we had some semblance of the good ol’ days. Maybe I’m just being spoilt.

Also the animation is shit now.

Peace out, I love y’all. TLDR: Pre-Timeskip was better because the characters had more development and were more relatable whereas now they are super-powered infallibles.

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