#i couldn't help the frobin plug

[miscreantahead]

I think the thing most people don't wanna see about shipping the strawhats together is that while they are not actually siblings so it is fine to ship them, they do behave a lot like siblings (the first five, anyway which are the ones I'm mostly concerned with for this post but the overall sentiment applies to the entire crew.) As a whole they act like family, they enjoy screaming and yelling and picking fights with each other. They are intimately aware of each other's boundaries just enough to know how to get as close as they can without actually crossing the line. They love each other unconditionally but are in tune with each other's flaws and bad habits. They enjoy getting on each other's nerves as much as they do seeing each other happy, they can recover from most arguments just as fast as getting into them.

Again, they are not actually related so I personally I don't have a problem with shipping them, but sometimes I feel like people who don't ship them have the right idea because at least they understand that while all of these characters love each other, there is not a single pair of them whose interactions are always respectful, always devoted, always sensitive or always considerate. They all have their moments vs. one another and their gripes. They're all physically violent with each other even (some more than others (zoro and sanji), and some get beat up way more than others(luffy), some are the most known for beating up others (nami, sanji.)

For me, it's simply how MUCH content they have over the span of over a thousand chapters/episodes, 80% of which they are all in, that makes them so fun to ship. But they're like this with each other for a reason, Oda wrote them as behaving like a family, fiercely loyal with a devotion to one another that is entirely unconditional. Every SH to SH relationship has its unique values, every relationship has its unique barriers, romantically read or otherwise. But there's no dynamic between any of the that is ever going to be the Most Valid to ship (except frobin) and people who don't get that are the people I can't understand.

In the end it just comes down to what you like the best based on your personal preference, that's it. I got a favorite too, and I don't make it hard to guess, but I don't play around with trying to find reasons it's the objective best even though I may feel that in my heart of hearts just because I am so grossly enamored myself. You don't have to make it more complicated so your favorite can be the objective best.

Like at some point you gotta ask yourself: do you like One Piece, or do you like just One Ship? The latter is fine, go for it, have a ball, just have some self-awareness about it.