#its not refusing to see sanji as having moved on from his family its just fucking tagging

[sa-bo]

It's kind of downright goofy that the OP fandom has this weird touchiness with calling him Vinsmoke Sanji. Like. First of all he's a fictional character, you're not hurting his feelings by using his last name. Yeah he prefers Blackleg Sanji because the Vinsmokes horribly abused him every moment they could get their hands on him, but like... It's a fuckin fictional character man. He's not gonna SEE you and get upset.

Second of all fandom content has always been tagged with the character's birth name, no matter how formerly abused they were?? It's just a Fandom Thing, not a direct shot at Sanji himself?? Lol?? It's not refusing to respect him disowning his family--it's tagging shit correctly. This goes for Ao3 AND Tumblr. Sanji will always be a Vinsmoke by birth, even if Zeff is his adopted dad, and the Mugiwara, his new family

[stainedglassandpigs]

Some of my head cannons for luffy

-Wavy hair but he rarely lets it get past his shoulders mostly a short shag

-Brook often styles luffy outfits

-He has freckles but not manny just a few big ones

-(I love his little running thing with Hercules beetles I think he loves them most but generally has a fascination with bugs)

-Ppl often make the mistake of thinking sending Robin out to a new island with luffy means everything will be fine but they often have to leave islands early bc of the Kaos the two get into while out together

-Has a tattoo on his back (its the one from the official art where they all have tattoos I just really like that one but I don’t really see luffy having many visible tattoos) ofc he got it after meeting law on the low luffy is a big copy cat

-He had his ears pierced (5 in total. Each side both have the standard done but one side has a singular cartilage done and the other has double) it’s a family thing so Garp, dragon, sabo, and ace all have at least their standard lobb pierced.

-He doesn’t drink much not for any real deep reason, and especially won’t drink Sake with random people, only his crew on rare occasions bc of the significance with his brothers.

-Isn’t a good cleaner but not bc he doesn’t try he’s just genuinely not good. Sanji and him spent so much time in the kitchen together eventually he was a bit above average at helping in the kitchen, everywhere else he’s horrible at

-His rooms is moderately decorate but the area in his room with the most attention is the photo wall area

-The crew hold a spa day once a month (mostly in part bc nami got so tried of the collective lack of care from certain crew mates *camera dramatically pans to zoro and luffy*) when they do nail polish luffy is always matching with someone bc he can never just pick one color

-Big big hugger, don’t even try to run it will only make the hug more intense

-Unibrow king, it naturally thins toward the center but it’s definitely there

-He may not be much of a trinket keeper cause he’s always moving so much from place to place after merry he was more strict with what came in and out of his room but if you give him something he’ll keep it for as long as possible. I know we see that with his straw hat but in other aspects to like you go to put some of his laundry away and see a pen you lent him a long time ago laying around.

-Luffy hates to be still for to long but if someone on the crew is sick you’ll usually find him near them or if they will allow it lying in bed right next to them and be really gaf bout getting sick, he just wants to be there for his friends

-Because there can be a lot of dead time out at sea Robin taught him to crochet but he only knows one pattern and that’s a fish and he refuses to learn more patterns bc the first one was so hard. Now though on particular boring days random crochet fishes will pop up around the sunny

-Someone once called chopper a pet and got flung cross the island

-He doesn't have a favorite flower but whenever the town/island ppl give them gifts after the crew helps them without fail luffy always ends up with sunflowers.

-He has sharp k-9s ( no one knows this put him and nami both have a matching gold tooth there isn’t even any big reason either they were out shopping on day and nami seen a beautiful women with a grill and convinced luffy to get one tooth done with her )

-Ussop makes his jesus sandals

-Sabo and him penpal cause Sabo wanted to be more up to date with his little brother in as many ways a possible and the den den Mushi calls weren’t cutting it . Sabo’s are nicely done and always have a cute photo of something he’s seen while luffys just always written on the back of a wanted poster of people he knows and luffys always sends him a sea shell from each island

-Luffy loves a good sweet but he also loves his friends more and chopper’s favorite food category is sweets so when they’re on island luffy always gets him the last piece of a really good sweet.

-He can sleep anywhere, once Franky found him alseep standing up and it scared ts outta him

-He has a Portuguese (Spanish if you think of him more as the live action) accent but rarely get to actually speak Portuguese so when he does he’s even more excited.

-He’s taught the crew enough to understand him and respond, Sanji on the other hand knows Spanish and argues with him all the time.

-When him and Sabo are on the phone they speak in Portuguese exclusively

-Always giving ppl the middle finger

-Sometimes he just won’t want to sleep alone and the crew will randomly wake up with him snuggled up to them, locked doors will not stop him.

-Zoro try’s to get the crew to train with him sometimes and fails but he has a trick up his sleeve for each member to get them to train. He got luffy bc he turns it into a game, only downside for zoro is he does genuinely have to come up with a prize each time for luffy

-I know the street love ace luffy and I can see it but I can also see the he gets bitches angle, I’m more of a middle man with this and that he got moves but barely cares to put them into actions and most times doesn’t

-On sight when it comes to insulting his loved one like the person barely can finish letting out the insult (or whatever) b4 luffy on they ass

-He’s bad with dates but big on birthdays, like the one number he can always remember without fail and will have a lil sum arranged

-Jimbei luffy favorite nap partner and they be going Olympic when it comes to taking long ass naps on sunny days

[auxiliarydetective]

OHC Day Six: Role Swap AU

But I'm Just A Tailor

The person we'll be displacing from their canon today is my beloved fashion icon, Akaito Coraline. And it all started with this gif:

Look at that lacing! At first, I was just joking about how Cora would be obsessing over that detail, and care less about how she was damn near being sliced up by Mihawk then about finding out who made that coat for him.

But then it came to me.

What if she made it?

I hereby present to you... Akaito Coraline - Cross Guild AU

Normally, I don't give warnings on the specifics of spoilers after OPLA (unless they're also spoilers for more recent animanga happenings), but in this case:

This post will include spoilers on the arcs that OPLA Season 2 will be based on! If you want to avoid those, click away now!

This also means that the exact happenings on how this AU would play out will necessarily change once season 2 is out, but for now, I'll be working with what I know about Alabasta.

SO!

The first divergence is that, instead of ending up in the East Blue after fleeing from Germa, Cora runs straight into Sir Crocodile's arms. And Crocodile is no fool. He's a very informed man, so he realized who Cora is very quickly. As such, he hires her into Baroque Works as his personal tailor, under the codename Miss .

He promises her that she'll have all she could ask for. All she has to do is to make clothes for him and to keep quiet about his operations. No assassinations required. That doesn't mean he doesn't support her in learning to fight with her rapier and devil fruit though.

It doesn't take long for him to introduce Cora to the royal family of Alabasta. They're kind and welcoming and give Cora a lot of freedom in learning about the country's culture, its fashion and different methods of clothing design. Cora finds herself growing close to Princess Vivi especially, but she knows it's only temporary.

Things start to turn chaotic when a group of teenagers who call themselves the Straw Hat Pirates start picking fights with Baroque Works. They wreak havoc in Whiskey Peak - taking in Vivi in the process -, defeat multiple agents on Little Garden and even steal an Eternal Pose to Alabasta! Sir Crocodile is very upset and Cora can feel trouble brewing. The ever-terrifying Miss All Sunday is acting strangely too.

But then, the Straw Hats show up at the Rainbase Casino.

Cora's entire world is turned around.

Suddenly, things aren't easy anymore.

There's a man on the phone with Sir Crocodile, someone who identifies himself as Mr Prince. His voice is oddly familiar. Too familiar for Cora to just sit idly. She finds the mysterious man in the middle of the casino, and her heart nearly stops when she sees him. Because it's Sanji. The Sanji she has been mourning for over ten years, who she thought was dead. She knows it's him but he won't stop pretending that he doesn't know who she is. He has to know, she saw it in his eyes, but he doesn't want to let her in.

"It's because we're supposed to be enemies now, isn't it?"

No matter what she tries, he won't drop his act.

That is until they meet again in the middle of a civil war and Sanji is fighting Mr 2, one of Baroque Works's best agents... and one of Cora's best friends. Mr 2 has the ability to change into anyone he has touched, which is part of how he fights. Change into people his opponents care about and hit them when they're paralysed and conflicted. Just as Cora arrives, she can see Mr 2 wearing her face, see Sanji refusing to hit someone who looks like her. Now he can't lie to her anymore.

In a move that her boss would only consider stupid, Cora steps between the two combatants, nearly getting herself stabbed. But it works. Even without her drawing her rapier, neither of them want to hurt her.

The civil war for Alabasta ends. Baroque Works has fallen. With no other options, Cora leaves Alabasta with the Straw Hats on their ship, but she can't get herself to stay. She's just not cut out for a pirate's life. After all, she's just a tailor. So, she leaves the ship at the next island, aiming to find a job with the Marines instead. Surely, they need someone to make the thousands of uniforms they need, right? It sounds like the perfect stable job.

But things turn out very differently. Cora does find work with the Marines, but not making uniforms. Instead, she's tailoring the suits and coats for the upper ranks. But this job is anything but stable. It doesn't take long for a big execution to take place at Marine Headquarters. A war breaks out, with Cora getting stuck right in the middle. She tries her best to avoid the fighting, to defend herself whenever she can, but the chaos is so fundamental that she can't do anything except hide and wait for it to be over.

When the smoke clears, Cora finds herself staring it to piercing, golden eyes of Dracule Hawk Eyes Mihawk, a Warlord just like Crocodile had been. He... kidnaps her(?)... out of the ruins of Marineford and brings her with him to his island, a dark and gloomy place with a large castle in the middle. Apparently, there's a whiny ghost girl on the island too... and Zoro, that green-haired swordsman that was with the Straw Hats. Neither of them are supposed to be here, it seems. But Mihawk, despite his cold exterior, lets them stay. And he'll let Cora stay too, if she makes clothes for him, that is. As it turns out, the World's Greatest Swordsman is into fashion. Who knew!

It's definitely not what Cora had expected her life to become. Living in a castle on an otherwise uninhabited island (safe for the killer gorillas), alongside a moody swordsman, a quirky goth girl and a mossheaded, directionally challenge pirate, albeit the latter only temporarily. But using her skills and passion and having discussions about fashion in return for meals, a home and swordfighting lessons from the World's Greatest... Not a bad deal.

Finally, a stable employment... right?

No, this AU is called Cross Guild AU for a reason, her state of employment will change again, though not as drastically. But this post is already long enough, and if you know about the Cross Guild, you know where this story is headed.

General Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats

One Piece Taglist: @supermarine-silvally

Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[trashytoastboi]

HI! I SAW UR POST ABT OMEGA LUFFY SANJI AND ZORO WITH AN ALPHA S/O, WHAT ABT ALPHA LUFFY SANJI AND ZORO WITH AN OMEGA S/O EHHEH I LOVE UR WORK

Heyya🍀 thank you so much! And Tumblr blooped and gave me a heart attack. Sorry for the long wait and hope you enjoy😅~

(Gender Neutral)

Headcanons: ABO AU! Alpha! Luffy, Alpha! Sanji, Alpha! Zoro x Omega S/O

Monkey D. Luffy

🍖Just a light hearted alpha who appears unconcerned with all the politics of where alpha’s, beta’s and omega’s should stand in society. He completely disagrees with the structure of that and believes it should be based on the individual, which is why his crew has such a variety, not like the majority who aim for alpha dominated crews. And in fact encourages his omega to be a little more outgoing, and confident in themselves. Only time he prefers to keep them close is when it could be dangerous for them but even then, Luffy will protect them.

🍖When he sits on his special seat while sailing, {Name} is guaranteed to be right there alongside him. Luffy is very affectionate and constantly scenting his omega. Whether intentional or unintentional, most of the time, by scent alone people assume its Luffy coming into a room, to discover {Name} instead.

🍖Not an extremely possessive alpha unless another alpha tries to make a move on his omega, then Luffy makes sure everyone knows who they belong to.

🍖As it is, Luffy is incredibly protective over his crew, and over his friends. Being his omega does put them on a very high priority for protection in Luffy’s eyes.

🍖There have been a lot of moments when Luffy was faced with hard decisions, or painful situations and he often has to be strong as the captain. Not always allowing his weakness to show, which why being able to take comfort in {Name}, just having them in his arms calm him down. Both as an alpha and as their mate.

🍖Does not mind alpha’s from his crew being around {Name}, unless {Name} has a heat that is quite close. Then Luffy prefers everyone to stay away from his omega.

Sanji

🍽Gentle, Sanji over all is a very gentle alpha which makes people misunderstand and think that he is a beta. He also has the tendency to be a bit insecure, due to his past family situation. Sanji takes care to always look after his omega and refuses to objectify them like many have done. (Honestly, he is probably the sweetest alpha)

🍽It provides a lot of security for Sanji when his omega is wearing his clothes, or scented by him. Also has a very strong yet delicate scent which is calming for {Name}.

🍽Sanji can be possessive, but is subtle about it. Often times it can make him anxious and insecure and instead of forcing his possessive urges on {Name} sometimes he will deal with those feelings by himself. Until his omega reassures him that it’s okay for him to show that they are his.

🍽You’ll never see him angry until it comes to protecting his omega and fellow crewmates. That’s the scary side of his inner alpha when seeing someone hurting {Name} or causing them any form of discomfort.

🍽However whenever he can, he is affectionate with {Name}, enjoys nuzzling and when they kiss him. (Really, having his omega initiate a kiss makes him get all those fuzzy little butterflies in his stomach)

🍽Trusts the alpha’s on his crew, minus Zoro (mostly because, just because – he doesn’t really have a reason to distrust him) and will often growl if the Marimo is too close to {Name}, and prefers other alpha’s not getting close. Mostly because other scents around {Name} can really bother Sanji.

Roronoa Zoro

⚔For the most part, Zoro appears standoffish but he is very attentive and watchful. While he does not typically have his omega at his side constantly, Zoro does have a protective gaze that follows them and never turns them away when they do want to nestle into him.

⚔Very robust scent, it can be a bit smothering, but that’s just Zoro. Luckily due to that, his scent is enough to chase away any alpha’s dumb enough to try anything with his omega, minus the few really brave (stupid) stragglers that come along.

⚔Revisiting his standoffish nature, do not let it deceive… Zoro is very possessive over {Name} and can act on those urges to make sure everyone knows that {Name} is his omega and his mate. If he feels that it is necessary Zoro will throw an arm over {Name} and not let them go anywhere without him.

⚔Unless one wants complete annihilation in this life and probably even the afterlife, it is not wise to anger Zoro with threats to {Name}, nor trying anything unsavoury. Zoro will legitimately lose his shit, and it will be a terrifying experience for everyone involved (Mostly for those on the receiving end of his swords)

⚔When together, especially while alone. Zoro can take on a seemingly uncharacteristic gentleness with {Name}, tenderly holding them close to him while he scents them. Planting kisses on their neck and nuzzling, just comforting and reassuring them.

⚔Zoro practically growls at every single alpha minus Luffy that looks in {Name’s} direction, he knows that they are amazing and there is no better omega. Which is exactly why he refuses to let anyone even think of stealing {Name}.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 990 - Initial Thoughts

Well, okay then!

The new chapter FINALLY gets translated so I get check it out, both sides are teasing, pleasing and treasoning Something big is bound to happen in 10 chapters time though, OP1K is closing in on us quick and fast. Spoilers for Chapter 990, Support the Official Release

YES POUND, the receipts are enough to bring him on the ship, the family is complete!

Sasaki’s loose though, mainly thanks to BM’s Delphinium, it’s interesting though, their friendship seemed legit so this cuts deep for Sasaki - he’s not bothered about the Wano stuff as a whole, he just wants payback for himself

Thankfully, the Su Long Minks are able to kick most of the Ass, only Jack is really holding them off thanks to his durability as the Scabbards and Kaido still stare each other down (bit of an odd tactic, especially since Su Long has a time limit until death)

The Teases though! Inu and Neko stop Kin’emon from attacking, in shadowed out Su Long forms, so they could have the honors of taking on Jack

King just echoes my concern about Queen screwing up so much, but interestingly Queen doesn’t think that Babanuki was swayed, Tama’s DF still allows a wildcard to come into play

King though is rallying the Flying Six, meaning this will be some of the bigger fights

I TOLD YOU HAWKINS WAS ALIVE! Though shame he’s not the guy with Law, his buddy though Drake is there with him and there is a note that Hawkins could easily bounce since he doesn’t want to be here.

Here’s the interesting part though, 1% - that’s the probability of ‘that man’ being alive by the morning. But who is that man? Drake could easily think it’s Luffy (or ‘Stealth Black’) but what if it’s not, what if it’s Kaido? or Jack, or Queen or King? Maybe the 1% is Luffy but that’s his chance of Dying? The odds are nondescript, but Hawkins should know how Luffy’s avoided death, even in Marineford his cards would not be certain of Luffy’s death after all

Also gotta talk about that BIG ASS HELMET behind Hawkins, first the sword now this helmet, was there some Ancient Giant Shogun or something?

Back with the enjoyable Ulti/Pay-Pay stuff though, I really hope we see them again. But seems that the Yamato bounty has been called off for them and all focus is on the raiders. 

Pay-Pay just give her the damn Piggyback ride!

Who’s Who is making his moves though, asking Drake to take down his primary target: Queen. Hawkins looks at his cards though, did his predictions change?

The Oniwabanshu do provide a proper challenge for the samurai prisoners and yakuza but old Mega Forehead leaves the battlefield, and it is noticed

Good on the raiders to at least try and pave the way for Luffy against a Number, but Zoro and Jimbei are quick clean up crews

Thriller Bark mentions again, I feel like Moria is still set to show because of this

Zoro being a bit bloodied seems a bit worrisome, given how the rest are unharmed, including Sanji who was drilled into a building by King

LUFFYWHYAREYOUINGEARFOURTHYOUSAIDTOCONSERVEENERGYNOTWEAROUTYOURHAKIFORANOTHERTENMINUTES!

I had to look at Myo-o (Fudo Myoo) for a reference and...I kinda see it? I guess Hyou isn’t used to this much Haki coating and steam emanating from the body

Alas the twist belongs with Drake, Who’s Who led him straight to Queen because they knew he was a traitor

I’m conflicted by Hawkins as well on this, it seems he’s testified information that points to Drake being the one that freed Law - and he would be sore about that given how he got cut up - but surely this’d also be an out for him? Maybe he’s playing a longer game, making sure he knows what Drake’s plans are before joining in on them?

I still don’t think it was Drake though, the guy was wearing a kimono and the wooden sandals wasn’t he? Sure it could be a disguise but why hide that from us after we knew he was in SWORD?

X Calibur, yes. Just, yes. I was hoping he’d have an attack like that. Though it is a shame that Luffy couldn’t take out 2 Numbers alone

Drake sees his opening though, another unlikely ally declaring themselves! This one though thanks in part to Coby, who’s pro-Luffy dialogue convinced Drake to make a gamble on it.

‘Pirate Alliances and Betrayal go and in hand’ was the theme that carried over into Wano as we (still) fear the stability of Law and Kid’s working with Luffy, as well as whether the Straw Hats will be forced to sacrifice the samurai to defeat Kaido. But right not the treachery is unravelling for Kaido’s forces with Drake. It’s interesting that Drake thought he could escape Wano but decided to stick to the mission, Hawkins as glad as I am that he’s alive does make me concerned, is it just bitterness or observation. I hope the latter partly because of my 5 Captains theory. The pace of the story is jam packed because this whole chapter is just moments after the last, the battle is still in its infancy as Inu and Neko have just turned Su Long - and they refuse to show us STILL! No Carrot this chapter but the focus has mainly been away from the crew as a group aside from Zoro and Luffy, looking more at the enemy side as we prepare truly for the tower climb, the Flying Six will have to fight the rest of the crew if they are to push their way up to Kaido, who’s basically just chilling, but Jack’s about to be wiped out so if Oda does show it that may be a little cathartic Painfully, another week break, it was only 2 weeks since our last one D: Oda I know you’re giving space for the Volume Release as we feast on the juicy SBS content and whatever Sanada says, but the 1000th Chapter is so in sight it hurts to delay!

[tfw-no-tennis]

hhhhhhxh

more abt hxh bc my last post was too long n i had to split it off holla

so i left off talking abt when gon woke up....i love how polite gon is to pretty much everyone - hes such a good lad all the time. s/o to his aunt for raising him right (tho i think hes also just a rlly good boy inherently too)

also is he named gon bc ging was like ha ha im boutta be GONe lol seeya kid!!!! like ????

i find it interesting that kurapika and hisoka fought....we really havent seen them interact at all yet. also hisoka is so smirk-y i hate that bitch...what did he say to kurapika?????? 

this poor red shirt old guy lmao hisoka is SO clearly uninterested in fighting him and then he fucking dies. rip mdude

what did hisoka whisper to HIM??? guess we’ll never know #RIPLegend

oh mannnn if killua had just won against pokkle then he wouldnt have had to deal with illumi doing That to him :( my smug son......

leorio is such a good dude....also its so funny to me how tall and lanky leorio is, espec compared to the other 3 main characters lmaoooo

or maybe those 3 are just rlly short??? i mean gon and killua are literally 12, but whats kurapikas excuse

GODDDD I HATE THIS BIIIIITCH. FUCK OFFFFFFF tho the evil piano music slaps. but jeeeeesus illumi is so creepy and awful, and seeing him take off his disguise is not any better a second time...he and hisoka truly deserve each other wrow

does illumi have hair powers??? cause it kinda looks like it. or maybe hes just gay and dramatic 

ok but the sick electric guitar riff (?) that played when illumis face was revealed was lowkey kinda hilarious

man i was so wrong abt killua knowing that that was illumi :( poor kid

killua is immediately freaking out and meanwhile illumi looks bored as hell. dude ur the worst 

killua: [freaking out] illumi, completely blank-faced: hey 

I HATE HIMMMM even tho his catman design is regrettably kinda cute

why do illumi and hisoka both have such snatched waists i hate this

wtf so killua has another different brother??? i assumed he attacked illumi....how many fuckgin zoldyk sibling are there?????

leorio ur too normie for this conversation lmao. also wow fucked up family huh

killua looks so like...small and helpless, which is so at odds from what we’ve seen of him so far :( this poor kid

illumi totally has some weird brain powers man callin it now 

gon: wow killuas family sounds wack...  satotz: oh lmao you havent even heard the rest 

KILLUA ;_; 

this poor baby assassin :( :( :(

IMMM INCONSOLABLE. HE WANTS TO BE FRIENDS W/GON.......ARE YOU KIDDING....AUGHHHHHHHH

meanwhile gon decided he and killua are BEST FRIENDS like 10 mins after they met. GOD 

like in the recap ep he called killua his best friend ;_; and meanwhile killua doesnt even think they ARE friends god destroy me 

this calming classical music is throwing me off vbhjfjhbsdkgndks

i sense that leorio and kurapika are rapidly acquiring a new son

DAMN THIS IS SO FUUUUCKEDDDDD illumi is such a crusty bitch wow. leave killua alone asshole 

all that stuff abt killua like, only thinking he wants to befriend gon but really wanting to kill him....that sure sounds like some ‘worst fears’ type of shit for someone like killua....illumi is such a classic abuser wow

i have 2 know is satotz like, repeating this entire conversation verbatim in a calming monotone to gon rn. like....

LEORIOOOOO I LOVE UUUUUUUU AUGHHHH him telling killua it doesnt matter if illumi is his brother, fuck that guy, beat him up as usual and leave.....ooooughhhh leorio is such a good dude ;_; 

and the OF COURSE him saying the obvious - that gon and killua are ALREADY friends....i love this, i feel like leorio said all the exact things the audience is thinking...yet it still didnt get thru to killua bc hes so rattled by illumi appearing, and the abuse in general 

i think if gon were there things wouldve gone much differently 

of COURSE crusty bitch illumi is like oh ok now i have to kill gon.....biiiiitch i hate uuuuu 

also that just shows that hes lying to killua (which we already knew obvs), bc if it were inevitable that killua would kill gon to like, test himself or w/e, then why not just wait for that to happen? that would have a much bigger impact on killua than illumi killing gon....its obvious that illumi is just manipulating him, but killua is too BSOD to be able to tell (also, hes 12)

ok bitch illumi is preaching abt not needing friends but he and hisoka are definitely fucking and theyve been teamed up for the entire hunter exam it seems.....what a hypocrite. hate this guy

god im so glad we didnt rlly get to see whatever the fuck illumi did to that random hunter examiner guy’s face. jeeeeesus. also i cant tell but i wonder if him forcing that info out of the guy was the result of his freaky mind powers or if the guy was just like oof ouch pins in me face

LEORIO AND KURAPIKAAAA THE PROTECT GON SQUAD!! and joined by new member hanzo!!! who ironically beat gon up for 3 hours str8 like, a very short amount of time ago lmao. but still i love that sm

illumi u dumb bitch.....tho i dont buy for a minute that he didnt already realize that killing gon would disqualify him...he defs just wanted to get under killuas skin even more :^( 

KILLUAAAA ;_; when he goes to step back from illumi but illumi tells him not to....ughhh HATE this guy, leave this poor kid alone. no wonder he wanted to leave

illumi saying theres only 1 way that killua can stop him - does he mean by killing him, or something more specific, like some forbidden zoldyk murder technique? 

‘your beloved gon’ wow gay. theyre 12 and theyre dating ok. killua is literally that kid whos like wow i wonder if gon likes me...and meanwhile gon is like wow cant believe me and killua have been dating for 3 months now

leorio saying ‘we wont let him kill you or gon’ ;_; leorio ily sm...thats like the exact right thing to say - hes offering protection and reassurance as an adult figure...unfortunately killua is clearly too freaked out to even process anything outside of illumis gaslighting and abuse 

also illumi is defs doing something to killua w/his eyes via his freaky mind powers. js

illumi i hate you stop being weirdly cute. augh 

classic abuse tactics, being like ha ha nvm i wasnt gonna kill gon! jk!

killua just shutting down completely after that :( :( noooo

and then he kills that old guy and leaves, ‘proving’ that illumi is right....noooooOOOO

and now we boutta see gon go FULL shounen protag for the first time, oh FUCKKKKKK yesssss

this is the first time we’ve seen gon angry oooh man and of COURSE its on killuas behalf,....im so fuckign emo already looooord

god ok the episode preview where its gon saying ‘do leorio and i look alike?’ YES U DO LOL youre father and son so jot that down 

oof, gon and illumi have such fundamentally different POVs on like, family and life and morals, and you can tell by their 4-line exchange before gon does the ICONIC one-handed grab’n’fling

AUGHHHH gon saying hes gonna rescue killua....SO good...he recognizes that killuas family is wack as hell and killua shouldnt be w/them - the classic ingrained ‘found family is more important than blood family’ stuff

tho thats an interesting contrast to gon himself, whos looking for his deadbeat dad

‘but it wasnt his choice’ that so good ily gon BEST boy, hes so perceptive and good......he knows that killuas hand was forced and that he needs to be RESCUED (love that word choice) from his shitty abusive family

of course kurapika and leorio voiced complaints ;_; best parents 

kurapika should be a lawyer tbh 

leorioooo ;_; such a good dude, saying he should be disqualified instead 

HOW is leorio a stronger combatant than that old dude hvbajufjbsja that guy had some moves it seemed, and leorio has,....a knife? a briefcase? the classic premed attitude of ‘fuck it, i could die anytime, lets do this’? like.....cmon vhabjdfjbhsf i refuse to believe this man is of any use in a fight. ill believe it when i see it

pokkle pls ur not plot-important enough to be jumping into this convo rn

tho i am curious abt what hisoka said to kurapika. tho i agree that thats irrelevant to the discussion 

gon repeating satotz’s wisdom :’) and saying that killua will definitely pass if he takes the exam again...ough

gon is SO GOOD i cant get over it !!!!!!!!! AUGHHHH....recusing killua from his abusive family and making it so killua never has to see them again is like...so good. what a good good perfect boy.

also thats like, the perfect response to this. killing illumi would just start a ton of drama, and killua would be conflicted abt that....but removing killua from his situation is perfect 

ok ive ranted a lot ill talk abt the rest later woohoo

PREDICTIONS: 

i predict that hisoka will show up in this upcoming zoldyk arc somewhere bc illumis gonna be in it (i assume) and theyre dating. also hisoka is a central character so itd make sense for him to show up in the second major arc. tho tbh this could end up being completely false and i wouldnt be that shocked lmao

i think leorio is gonna get Big Sad someday bc hes like, so normal compared to the other MCs, and also hes suuuuch a bleeding heart (i love him....) so i feel like thats gonna lead to some sadness for him once his friends start doing crazy shit or w/e 

also i predict that if he gets nen itll be like healing nen or st. does that even exist??? idk jack shit abt nen lmao 

i think that illumi has hypnosis powers or something, even just based on design alone. it could defs be for aesthetic (character design in hxh is wild), but his eyes look noticeably different from any other characters. also he was doing some freaky shit to killua. also i held this prediction before seeing the part where this is brought up so we’ll see if its right lmao 

as for this upcoming arc -  ruth and i are wondering if itll be similar to the vinsmoke drama in one piece - character goes back to abusive family, squad goes to rescue them...and then character refuses to be recused. w/sanji it was partially bc the vinsmokes threatened to kill zeff, his TRUE dad, but i predict in this case it could be more like the zoldyks saying ‘look killua these 3 weirdos showed up looking for you, convince them to leave or we’ll kill them’ and killua will be like, oh shit bc like.....think abt it. the vinsmokes targeted zeff (and not the strawhats) bc they knew they could easily kill him. same goes here, i assume - a family of trained assassins vs Good Good Fishing Rod Smell-Power Boy (who hasnt thrown a single punch yet), Lanky Dr Man With A Switchblade We Havent Seen Him Use Onscreen, and Mx 2 Wooden Sticks, Bloodlust, and Arachnophobia - 3 For 1 Deal! its a no-contest. so thats one thing i could see happening, potentially 

im way too tired to remember my other predictions rip lmao

[one-piece-drabbles]

Skyburst

Notes: A warning for violence and unhealthy family dynamics. Inspired by this post from Nari ( @authenticaussi3 ) - years old now, so I’m either late to the party or just that slow of a writer. Take your pick.

For all that Luffy likes a good surprise, he thinks—and in all honesty, it takes him a few seconds to come to this conclusion—that he doesn’t like hurtling through the sky without any sign of how he got up so high. He’s pretty sure that the white stuff below him is just clouds and not weirdly-colored ocean, but that doesn’t answer the question of what’s below the white carpet. Or how he ended up like this.

Nami would know, but she isn’t around to ask. His whole crew is gone. He twists in the air, wind stretching and pulling his skin, but he can’t see any sign of his ship. Still falling and now blinded by the sun, he brings a hand up to his chin and tries to remember the last thing he did. Were they in a fight? No, he had dinner, Sanji kicked him out, and then he went to sleep in his hammock. And woke up in the sky.

He groans, spreading out his limbs in frustration. He finally stops spinning just in time to hit the tallest cloud. The cold, annoying before, is now biting as water soaks his skin, hair, and clothes. With little choice but to keep falling, Luffy shields his eyes. A rumble he can feel in his bones shakes the air, followed by a teeth-rattling boom. Bright blue light flickers around Luffy in constant flashes. The cheery sunlight of before dies under a suffocating blanket of gray.

He’s falling through a thunderstorm. But the weather was clear when he went to sleep—Nami even talked about it, saying that Usopp would be able to fish for a while before anything hit.

Maybe this is a dream. That would make the most sense, right? Even though he’s never had a dream like this before…

He breaks through the lowest layer of clouds and the water vapor becomes torrential rain. Lightning strobes the sky and thunder roars. Luffy claps his hands over his ears as one thunderclap goes off way too close—only that makes him spin again, so it’s either painfully loud noises or throwing up in freefall. Luffy chooses the former. He’s getting far enough from the clouds now that it shouldn’t be deafening anymore.

Maneuvering himself with plenty of trial and error, Luffy finally gets a look at the ground below, blinking almost continuously against the wind. It’s an island, the only one Luffy can see, not that visibility is all that great. Even in the downpour, fires rage all over. The closer Luffy gets, the more details he can make out. There’s a fight going on between white-clad people and…one person?

He’s going to crash down right in the middle of the plaza in the thickest tangle of it all. Water gets into Luffy’s eyes and he wipes it away. He orients himself one last time and braces for a hard landing.

Something slams into the ground a foot to Ace’s left. It isn’t a cannonball or a bullet, no—the force of the impact knocks Ace off his feet. Several marines try to take advantage of the opening, but Ace catches himself on his hands and spins with his feet in the air, releasing a cyclone of flames that burns them all twice over: first with the fire and then again with the steam.

Flipping back onto his feet, Ace eyes the impact crater. It’s too deep to see to the bottom from his angle, and he’s not getting any closer in case the marines are trying another one of those surprise explosives.

A hand shoots out and scrabbles on the upturned brick of the plaza before finding a grip right on the edge of the hole. A second hand joins it, and then any body parts are just a blur of motion. Ace rolls out of the way of the human missile and comes up swinging, knowing that whoever it was would’ve stopped against the wall just behind him. He catches sight of wide eyes and a panicked expression before the stranger bends impossibly far backwards to avoid the hit, nearly slamming his own face into the wall. A stream of fire easily twenty feet high explodes out from Ace’s fist, leveling the entire block behind the house and roasting all the marines too slow to get out of the way.

The attack sputters and dies when the stranger’s feet hit Ace’s shins and knock his legs out from under him. His jaw cracks against the ground and bloodied rainwater splashes all over. Ace snarls into the shattered brick at his own amateurish mistake. The rainwater isn’t enough to stop him, but there’s just enough ocean in it to stop his full-fire transformation. He slams a fist against the ground and releases an omnidirectional explosion that clears the ground for thirty feet in every direction. Ace gets to his feet, wiping his freshly-sopping hair out of his face, and finds the kid who knocked him flat.

Kid. The realization makes him pause, the pouring rain drowning out all the thoughts in his head for a second before he can bring it all back. The stranger can’t be older than twenty, with short black hair and a scar under one eye. That scar rings uncomfortable bells in Ace’s memory, and fire flickers to life on his shoulders.

“Ah, wait!”

Staring in disbelief, Ace watches as the kid jumps up into the air, fingers grasping at something floating down from above. It moves erratically, battered by the same rain still doing its damndest to drown everyone out in the open, but the kid eventually snatches it and jams it onto his head.

And now, Ace thinks, the universe has to be playing a trick on him, because he knows that hat. He buried that hat. How the fuck does this random asshole have it?

Ace is so caught up in memories he wants no part of that he doesn’t realize for several seconds that the rain has stopped. Water runs in rivulets down his face and bare chest, collecting between his shoulder blades before sliding in freezing lines down his spine. Without a curtain of rain in the way, Ace can finally get a clear look at the kid, more than just random details, and it stops him cold.

It doesn’t matter that Ace’s memories are more than ten years old. It doesn’t matter that this kid is almost three times the age of the Luffy he knew. None of it matters, because this kid—this kid—

He looks like Luffy. He looks like how Luffy should’ve looked if the world let him live, right down to the round features that Ace had always figured he’d grow out of and the straw hat Luffy refused to let out of his sight. He looks so much like the Luffy Ace wanted to grow up with that it makes his chest clench, and he balls his hands into fists on reflex. How long has it been since he thought about Luffy? A year? Two?

He blinks, time restarts, and a bullet chips the ground an inch from his left foot. Ace leaps back, a retaliatory barrage of fireballs consuming the sniper’s chosen roof a second later. As the marine screams and falls to the street below as an inferno himself, Ace goes to work on the stragglers who weren’t cowardly enough to run when they had the chance.

Watching him, Luffy can’t bring himself to move, to speak, to do anything but witness as Ace, alive again, murders scores of marines with uncaring brutality. He isn’t concerned about ending life quickly, only incapacitating until the next attacker is down, so the groans of the dying quickly fill the air until Ace goes back and kills them too.

It’s all too much like Marineford, and that snaps Luffy out of his trance. He acts without thinking and joins his brother against the marines. They’re all retreating now—when Luffy propels himself onto a nearby roof that avoided Ace’s flames, he can see ships pulling away from the harbor—but they’ve left a few dozen to cover their escape. Ace and Luffy make short work of them, and while Luffy could catapult himself after the fleeing ships, he doesn’t want to take his eyes off Ace.

Because it is Ace. It has to be, even if he’s not…right. He’s missing his tattoos and his hat and and he’s got more scars than the old Ace ever had, plus there’s something wrong behind his eyes that makes Luffy shiver. Despite all that, he’s still Ace.

Right?

As they stand there on the beach, watching the disappearing ships, Luffy tries to keep himself together. His own grieving words echo in his head and he sneaks glances at Ace, trying to reconcile what he knows with what he sees. He can’t do it.

Ace catches Luffy’s look and turns fully to face him. There’s none of the warmth that Luffy is used to seeing in his expression and his voice is dangerously bland. “Just who the hell are you, anyway?”

Ace expects hostility, or fear, or at the very least trepidation from the kid in front of him. Even Luffy knew when to be afraid. He gets none of it; the boy just stares at him, gears stagnated and mental trains stalled at the station. Scowling, Ace waves a hand in front of his face. “Hey. I asked who you are.”

“You’re Ace, right?”

Irritation showing in the tongues of flame licking at his hair, Ace crosses his arms. He’s not surprised the kid knows who he is. Every single flat surface has his wanted poster tacked up on it these days. “Yeah, I am. Now, for the last time, who the hell are you?”

The kid gets a furrow between his eyes like Ace just asked him how far away the sun is. The gears slowly begin to turn. “You…you don’t remember me?”

More fire. Steam wafts up from Ace’s skin in deceptively gentle wisps. A rumble of thunder from the retreating storm shakes water from the shoreline trees. “I think I’d remember someone like you. Spit it out. Last warning.”

It’s like someone flipped a switch. The kid slides out of Ace’s reach with unexpected speed and offers up a laughably unconvincing smile. “I gotta get back to my crew, they’re probably looking for me—”

“Hold it.” Ace’s hand fastens around the kid’s wrist like a vice. He yanks him close. “Name.”

Luffy swallows. He’s never seen Ace like this before, not since those first few weeks at Dadan’s hideout. Ace’s eyes are hard, his expression promising retribution if Luffy doesn’t listen. There’s something so…so feral about it, and Luffy can’t get the memories of that haunted young boy out of his head. It’s unlike him, but none of this is right and he just wants a little bit of time to think, but Ace isn’t giving it to him, he isn’t acting right, he doesn’t even know Luffy—

Tugging ineffectually on his arm, Luffy tries to hide the pain from his voice. “You’re burning me.”

Ace’s grip tightens. “I know.”

Every ounce of experience in Luffy’s bones is telling him to run, but he can’t. It’s Ace. “I’m Luffy, okay? Luffy. Let go.” Ace’s fingers go slack in surprise and Luffy yanks his hand away. He stays several yards away from Ace, prodding his burned wrist. The skin is raw and pink.

Ace had burned him and hadn’t cared that it hurt. They’d hurt each other plenty of times growing up, that came with their home and with training, but it was never like this.

“Luffy?” Ace’s quiet voice makes Luffy back up another several steps. Ace is glowing with heat, the air distorting around him. “Is this some kind of joke?” He raises his head and his eyes are alight with rage. “Who sent you? How the fuck did they find out about my brother?”

“Ace—”

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Ace continues, heedless of Luffy’s interruption. “You’ll either tell me or you’ll die. I mean, you’ll die either way, but you can at least give me the pleasure of putting up a fight.”

Fear—honest, unfamiliar fear—hooks its fingers in Luffy’s head and instinct takes over. Straightening and losing the confused edge to his expression, Luffy meets Ace glare for glare. “You’re not Ace, I am Luffy, and I really don’t like what you’re doing with my brother’s face.”

His sheer certainty throws Ace out of his reflexive rage. He takes a closer look at the kid. He’d thought that he was some kind of government spy, but really, there’s no way CP9 or any of those assholes know about Luffy. Ace has never talked about him. Plus, too many details are the same for this to be coincidence: the hat, the scar, even just his overall appearance. Hell, Ace is pretty sure that this kid has the same devil fruit powers, too.

The more dots he connects, the farther from the present moment he gets. Adrift in memories, he hardly notices Luffy edging away again—hardly, but he does.

“You can’t be,” he whispers. “I—you died.” The phantom blood spray arcs through the air as Luffy’s tiny body smacks into a tree and crumples to the ground. “You died.” The bear’s roar is a declaration, a challenge, and Ace can’t match it. Luffy is unconscious or dead and Ace—

It’s his greatest shame, a burden he will never be rid of, and his right hand curls into a fist.

He runs. Over and over again he runs. Night after night, year after year, he turns on his heel and he runs. Like a weakling. A coward. A selfish, worthless monster.

“Luffy.” The boy freezes, microexpressions flickering like strobes under a cracked mask of confidence. “You really are him. How—” Ace stops. “No, that doesn’t matter. You’re here now. We can be together again. Brothers. Family. Like we used to.”

“You’re not Ace,” Luffy repeats.

“What are you talking about?” Ace takes a step forward. Luffy takes a step back. “C’mon. It’s me.”

Shaking his head, Luffy maintains the distance between them. “You’re not Ace.” His voice hardens. “Ace wouldn’t do what you do. He cared about—about things. About himself. You don’t care about anything.”

A strong ocean wind washes over the island, picking up and spreading the nauseating odor of burning flesh. Ace’s rampage had spared no one, not a single soldier and not a single civilian. It was cruelty of the highest, most callous order. Luffy’s right foot slides back and he sinks into a ready stance.

“You’re not my Ace. I’m not your family. Leave me alone!”

Ace grins, teeth shining with reflected firelight from the village still burning in the background. Something broken and mad bleeds out from behind his eyes. “Leave you alone? No,no, I can’t do that. This is a second chance.” Flames race across his skin and bathe his face in demonic light. “I’m never leaving you alone again, Luffy.”

[remnantoforario]

The Road Not Travelled AKA Fairy Tail’s Lack of Motivation

I know. I know. Another long-winded post about why Fairy Tail isn’t good, but before you fire up the reblog button calling me a hater, I just wanted to say my peace about something that has been bothering me about the series, almost since it started. That is (as the title clearly states) Fairy Tail (and by extension Hiro Mashima’s) lack of motivation when it comes to its characters.

Warning: This post is going to be very messy. This is mostly a rant/scattered thoughts about a variety of different things in the series. If you’re looking for more cohesive breakdowns of the series faults, I suggest looking at posts from @thegreatrhapsode, @ac-fairytail, and a few others since they would be much better at this than I am. Let’s get started. 

So what do I mean by “A lack of motivation”? It’s simple really. None of the main characters in Fairy Tail have anything to do and thus aren’t motivated to do anything other than what they have been doing. I’ll break them down.

Natsu: When he is first introduced in the series it was established immediately that his one goal in the series was to find Igneel. It was this goal that lead him to Hargeon where he met Lucy, and it was also what spurned him to go find Macao for Romeo. It is also one of the first things Mirajane tells Lucy about Natsu after she joins the guild. He forms a connection to Gajeel over their missing parents, and it is also one of the first thing Jellal says about him when he bursts into Erza’s mock trial.

Natsu’s singular focus in the story should be investigating any lead he can on Igneel...but after Phantom Lord he seems to lose motivation (there’s that word again) in favor of just doing whatever at the guild. Now I’m not saying every single arc Natsu should be out looking, but the fact that after Phantom Lord, Igneel isn’t really mentioned again until Eclipse poses a very large problem for Natsu as a character and the story as a whole.

Even when given a new goal (that of killing Acnologia) he still meanders around until the final fight to put the guild back together. 

With a goal so concrete in his mind, it would only make sense for the story to form around this idea and have arcs centered on it, but it doesn’t so Natsu is left dicking around with nothing to do. But he’s not the only one with this problem.

Lucy: Arguably the best developed character in the series, she suffers from a lack of motivation very early on. It was established not long into the story that her goal after joining FT was to gather all the Zodiac Keys (and finish her novel but that was never all that important and more of a character quirk). It wasn’t as pronounced as Natsu’s goal was, but it was progressing further than his. She already had Aquarius, Cancer, and Taurus before the story began, she acquired Sagittarius as early as the second storyline after the Everlue job, helping Loke gained her his Leo key, beating Angel during the Oracion Seis arc granted her the Gemini Twins and Scorpio, and Loke defeating Caprico helped Lucy regain her mother’s Capricorn key (which she was originally supposed to have anyway). 

Her goal seemed attainable...until the GMG (This arc was responsible for A LOT of FT’s problems, but that’s a post for another day). Yukino presents Lucy the chance to complete her goal by offering the remaining zodiac keys, but Lucy refuses. 

Now her reasoning is sound enough, being a CS wizard herself she knows how important the bond between a spirit and their wizard is and wouldn’t feel right breaking that up. That is fine and speaks to Lucy’s character, but the problem arises in that there is nothing for her to do after this moment. You could argue that her new goal is finding Aquarius’ new key but that is established so late into the story that it’s pretty much moot (even the sequel hasn’t done much with it at this point). 

Happy: Never really had any long lasting motivation outside of what Natsu wanted. Moving on.

Gray: Probably one of the biggest wastes of potential in the series when it comes to rival/best friend characters, Gray almost immediately stagnated after Galuna Island. His mission of “killing” Deliora done. He was aimless until literally Tartaros when he met Silver, after which his motivation became “Kill END” and we all know how that ended. 

Erza: Has pretty much the same problem as Gray, but worse. After her issues in the Tower of Heaven were solved, she was pretty much done for the rest of the series. Any significant change that could have been brought to her character was swiftly tossed aside in order to keep the status quo and she became a shell of herself as early as Tenrou Island. A mere two arcs later. 

Wendy: Probably the most developed character after Lucy (in my opinion) she was both blessed and cursed by having her issues resolved in the same arc she was introduced. After that, she pretty much integrates into the guild immediately and seems to have no goals other than “get stronger” and “be less clumsy”. Both are admirable, but nothing worthy enough to justify her being a main character. 

Compare FT’s main cast to that of One Piece or My Hero Academia’s. Now you can argue that a lot of the characters in both these series aren’t well developed, but the one thing both Oda and Horikoshi excel at over Mashima is that their main characters have goals that can be carried throughout the series and, characters with less broad goals don’t overstay their welcome. They do what they are introduced to do and leave soon after.

In OP, the main goal of the story has always been finding the titular treasure. It’s a defined goal, but also broad enough to carry the characters throughout the entire series. 

Luffy’s goal is to find the One Piece, but not only is the story framed around this idea, Luffy’s crew is as well. Zoro wants to become the world’s strongest swordsman, an easy way to do that is travelling the world and defeating strong opponents. Nami wants to map the entire world, best way to do that is travelling it. Usopp wants to be a “brave warrior of the sea”. He does that by doing various feats across the world and building his legend. Sanji wants to find the All Blue, Chopper wants to be the world’s best doctor, Robin wants to find the Poneglyphs and learn the world’s dark history, Franky wants to create the world’s best ship, Brook wants to reunite with Laboon after travelling the world, and Jinbei wants peaceful coexistence between Fishmen and humans. 

With the possible exception of Jinbei, everyone’s goals (while vastly different) center around and are bolstered by Luffy’s search for One Piece. Helping him in turns helps them, its mutually beneficial and thus creates a group of characters who are together because they want to be, not because they have to. They want to see each other succeed and feel like actual friends (instead of yelling about friendship every five minutes while being massive dicks to each other)

Other characters who have arcs that are resolved leave before overstaying their welcome. Vivi is a prime example. She stayed with the straw hats long enough to reclaim her country from Crocodile, and then she was gone. Her arc was done, so there was no real reason for her to stay. She would only stagnate. 

In MHA, all of Class 1-A share the same goal of wanting to be pro heroes, but all have their own motivations that go a bit deeper than that. Both Deku and Bakugou want to be as great as All Might, Todoroki wants to spite his father, Uraraka wants to make enough money as a pro for her family to live comfortably, and Iida wants to live up to his brother’s example just to name a few. 

Since Deku is the main character the story focuses a lot on his personal journey to the top, but other notable characters get their shine when needed.

Even Naruto built its story about Naruto becoming Hokage from the very first chapter. 

Bringing all of this back to FT. None of the main characters have any established motivation, and if they do the story either isn’t structured around it (Natsu), Drops it entirely (Lucy), or finishes it and proceeds to do nothing else with the character (Gray, Erza, and Wendy).

It’s not like Mashima is incapable of writing motivated characters. Rave Master’s main cast had various different motivations that either carried them through the series, or evolved over the course of time. 

People called FT a ripoff of OP in its early stages (a comparison I still don’t quite understand), but maybe Mashima could have leaned a bit on Oda’s story structure. 

Have the story actually center around Natsu’s main goal of searching for Igneel. Have him ask questions and going on jobs based on leads he had found, taking him (and his team) on various locales across the world. Build up the continent and its history with the dragons. 

He could even leave the story for an arc or two, giving a side character (like Levy, Cana, Juvia, Mirajane, Lisanna or Elfman) a bit of time in the spotlight to develop their own stories along with the main cast. 

Change him over time to be a more single minded character post-Tartaros. Have him ignore bringing the guild back together in order to find Acnologia, which would cause tension between him and his friends and add more weight to the END turn as his obsession grows. 

If Lucy no longer wants the Zodiac keys, why not have her new goal be earning enough money to buy back her family’s home and land? Its a lofty goal to be sure, but it would add a little more weight to her desperation to go on a job other than “I need to pay rent”. It still amazes me that Lucy is supposedly came from a very influential family in terms of industry in Fiore, but no one recognized her name. They have a railroad named after them for God’s sake. Do something with that. Does she not have an inheritance?

Gray is a little harder to pin down since most of his character is tied to Deliora and with him gone there isn’t much for him to do. SO if you don’t want to phase him out, you could evolve his motivation from killing Deliora, to finding Ultear. Have Lyon or someone (possibly even Jellal in Tower of Heaven) mention that Ultear is still alive. Gray’s mission would be looking for her in order to make amends, which would lead to their fight on Tenrou, to which after his goal could once again evolve into defeating Zeref for creating Deliora in the first place, leading to the fight with Natsu. 

Erza is simple enough. She is heralded as Fairy Tail’s strongest woman, so why not have her actually lean into that and try to become a wizard saint? The near death experience would have spurned her choice, leading to an arc explaining the saints and how to become one. Erza could fail to be accepted (something she never seems to do post-Tenrou) and the rest of the story could be her working up towards that goal, and in a change of pace you could KEEP HER AS GUILD MASTER. 

One of Fairy Tail’s biggest problems is its unwillingness to change. Everything and everyone just sticks to the status quo and the story suffers all the more for it.

Keeping Erza as master changes the entire dynamic of the team because the story would have to phase Erza out and put someone else in (again either Juvia, Cana, Elfman, or some other notable side character).

Wendy’s motivations could be the same as Natsu’s, finding her dragon. Her relationship with Grandeeney is arguably as strong as Natsu’s with Igneel so her joining him on his jobs wouldn’t be much a stretch. You could even add Gajeel for an arc if you wanted. Three dragonslayers and three exceeds. 

I say all that to say that one of Fairy Tail’s most frustrating aspects is its refusal to realize the potential of its characters. There is so much to do in this world, so much lore and information imparted onto the audience, but the characters (and the author) seem to not care the least bit about it. They say they will do something, but don’t and that to me is worse than doing nothing at all. 

[zonamievents]

Take My Hand

Theme #2 & #3: First “I love you” + First Date Rating: T / 14A (alcohol use) Pairing: Zoro x Nami

The heat made him so sleepy, but Zoro knew that he’d be skewered alive if he dared to take a nap now. Still, he couldn’t help but yawn as he wandered along the beach, lazily looking for that pesky navigator of his.

The one who would be the one skewering him if he didn’t enjoy this little vacation of theirs to the fullest.

After she had spied a beach on a puny little island, Nami had demanded that they drop the anchors of the Thousand Sunny and take the time to appreciate a day or two for just the Straw Hats. There was a small discussion amongst the crew to see if it was something everyone wanted to do, and normally, Zoro knew that he’d be the first person to upset the vote by telling them to carry on. The man he had become since the separation was more goal-oriented, more focused than ever before and a stop at a random beach was completely unnecessary in his mind.

However, he couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss.

The other night had rattled him more than he could ever let on, especially when he had assumed that he could convince himself it was all a drunken dream. Maybe it was because she was more of a woman now than ever before; her shape had matured into an hourglass, almost as if she merely needed some time to become a fully realized interest for him. It was a strange feeling, knowing that he suddenly saw a member of his randomly formed family as attractive, even more so when she was one of the first people to join!

It was something he needed to get a handle on, and fast, as he spied her staring out at the sea without a care in the world.

The sun had begun to set off in the distance, with the light of its dimming rays setting off the orange tint in Nami’s hair. Things he had merely seen at face value were now suddenly aspects he adored about her, including the way that her bikini top looked only like a strip of turquoise fabric that was twisted in the middle of her chest. The same twist seemed to sit on the tops of her hips, making Zoro assume that it was the style of the entire swimsuit. Not the type she’d normally wear, but then again, he knew he wasn’t behaving the way he’d normally behave either.

“Oi.” He called out to her before she could notice his approach.

Nami turned to look at him, tucking her windswept hair behind her ear so that she could see him clearly. Her smile was small but it was enough to strike a chord he didn’t know his cool heart still possessed. “Hey, is everyone back on the ship?”

“That dumbass cook wanted me to tell you dinner was ready.” No he didn’t, but Zoro was always willing to make Sanji look worse in Nami’s eyes, and she would be rather disappointed if they returned to the Sunny without something ready for her to eat.

Huh, maybe he had been interested in her for longer than he originally thought…

“That’s fine, I’m almost done.” She sighed, her eyes somewhat hooded as she looked back at the sea. Someone unfamiliar with Nami might assume that she was sad, but Zoro recognized that withdrawn gaze as an indicator that she was still working while trying to stay engaged in their conversation. Always the cartographer, the navigator, her personal goal of mapping the entire world sometimes preoccupied her the same way training overcame him. He had always respected her dedication so it was something he rather appreciated seeing, when she would lose herself to charting something new.

“What’s left?” He wondered aloud, nervous once the words left his mouth.

“Huh?” She asked, eyebrow cocked, her eyes less foggy than before.

Carefully, he took another stab at carrying on with their conversation. “What else do you have to do before you come back to the Sunny?”

For some reason, his question made her grin at him in that familiar Cheshire-like way. “Why? Are you going to keep me company while I walk around the shore one more time? Make sure I don’t get taken out to sea?” She was clearly joking as she motioned to the calmest tide he had seen in forever.

But her attempt to brush off his kindness didn’t bother him in the slightest. In fact, he calmly shrugged his shoulders and made his way to her side. “Sure.” Was all he was going to say in responsejust in case he shared more than he was ready to yet.

Nami was visibly unprepared for his company at first, but it eased him rather quickly to watch her turn and face the rest of the beach with him without so much as a peep. Step by step, they began to wander along the sand in the direction of the sunset, his hands in the pockets of his swim trunks and hers slightly out at her sides. She was walking rather slowly but he didn’t care what pace they moved at, so long as he had some time alone with her to determine just what it was he was feeling.

“I’m surprised you’re not asleep somewhere.” She called him out on his lazy behaviour without any remorse, as if his gesture to wander with her didn’t warrant him any of her favor.

Knowing he couldn’t argue with her assumption, Zoro mumbled, “No point sleeping now, when dinner’s on the table.”

“That’s true.” She said in an almost sarcastic tone, possibly disbelieving of his explanation. Whether she accepted it or not, Zoro wasn’t about to start an argument with her right now. Was that more out of character for him than anything else he was doing at that moment? Probably, but he wouldn’t let that disturb the confidence he gathered to be alone with her.

Besides, if he didn’t follow her back to the ship, he’d probably be the one carried out to sea.

It was easy to stay with her when he was intent on figuring out what it was he felt now, after that late night kiss they had shared not too long ago. Nami was acting like she didn’t remember what she did - crawling up his body and stealing his lips with her own - and even though it bothered him somewhat, Zoro knew he needed to figure out what it was he was dealing with before harping on her for playing the fool--

He noticed it before she did: a sea urchin being washed up on the beach by the supposedly gentle tide. Would she notice it in time while she was studying her steps? Why would he take that risk, when he could guarantee her safety then and there?

His hand flew out of his pocket and snatched hers up, grabbing hold of her so swift he managed to tug her out of the way. She did stumble somewhat - his habit of acting out before communicating his intentions a rather bad habit of his - but he’d never let her fall, and he hoped she’d recognize him for his chivalry instead of his roughness.

When she tossed her head up to look at him, there wasn’t a glimpse of anger on her face. No hatred, no hint of being put out by his sudden grab of her hand. No, she forced her expression to remain solid and blank, but he could see the surprise in her eyes.

She did remember their kiss, and she was just as confused as he was on what they were supposed to do about it.

“Didn’t want you to get hurt.” Zoro’s voice was so tender, he had never even knew he could sound so soft. It slightly embarrassed him to appear so corny in such a still moment; they remained still, caught in a moment where they said nothing but so much passed between them. Awareness, realization, some fear and uncertainty, all lying beneath a type of excitement that he had never known before in his entire twenty-one years. Something had happened when they kissed before and now he knew that she was just uncertain as he was.

To someone as emotional useless as Roronoa Zoro was, he felt like the fact that she hadn’t run scared from him as a love letter in its own way, a confession that he felt rather than heard.

Nami implied she felt the exact same way when her words sounded as if they held a double meaning, “Thank you.”

“Messed up what you were doing?” He felt a responsibility to ask, taking the spotlight off of what they were trying to keep a secret and return both of their attention to her unexplained charting exercise.

For some reason, his question made her smirk. “You usually do.”

“Huh?” That wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

Tugging on his hand, she refused to let him out of her clutches - like she had initiated their hand-holding and was in control of them now - as she started to casually stroll along the beach. He caught up to her in a mere two steps, just in time to hear her try to change the subject. Feigning exhaustion, Nami proclaimed, “You’re always causing some kind of trouble for me! Whether you’re distracting me from my maps or getting lost, you have a talent for messing me up.”

His mouth was open, ready with a protest! However, he realized something while formulating a response: it was her kiss that ‘messed up’ their relationship, that dug up all of these feelings he had for her. After that, he couldn’t look at her the same and even though he had no complaints about it, it was ironic for her to accuse him of anything when their relationship was surely changing right before their eyes.

Maybe that’s what love was for them: instead of saying anything, they’d just keep messing with each other as a sign of affection.

Zoro stifled a chuckle as another thought dawned on him too: perhaps a stroll around a random beach could count as a first date, since they couldn’t seem to get anything right in terms of love.

[pingo1387]

Prompt 1- Sanji/Zoro - Bounty hunter Zoro finds the holy grail bounty -Hitman Sanji...but uh containing him seems like it could be dangerous for all kinds of reasons. What now?!

Zoro couldn’t believe his luck. The man wore a hat and sunglasses, but tufts of blonde hair poked out, and the hat had shifted upwards for a moment to reveal an unusual eyebrow before being tugged back down. There was no doubt about it: The third son of the Vinsmokes, known as Black Leg, was sitting across the café from him, holding a mug of black coffee with fingerless-gloved hands. Black Leg, the only one of the infamous assassin family Zoro had ever had any leads on. Black Leg, the assassin with the fourth-highest bounty in the country. Black Leg, holding a mug of coffee, its reflection in his sunglasses moving as his head snapped up to gaze at Zoro. 

Zoro gave him a wave and cast his stare down at his own drink, an Irish coffee (he wouldn’t have it any other way). It wouldn’t do to make a scene in the café. Citizens were almost as scared of bounty hunters as they were hitmen, and if there was a scuffle, Zoro’s identity was sure to be revealed—what other bounty hunter had such telling hair?—which would cause Black Leg to either up his vigilance or flee the area. Best to wait until there was a time where he could corner Black Leg, alone. His hand wandered to the sheath concealed under his loose shirt, in which one of his daggers lay. 

The squeak of the door made his eyes flicker up, and he saw the slim figure hurrying away, the cup left on the table. Zoro waited before standing, tossing the rest of his drink into his mouth and swishing it around like mouthwash before gulping it down and burning his throat. As he passed Black Leg’s table, he noticed a generous tip left, and not a single drop of coffee in the mug. 

The air bit Zoro’s cheeks as he sped after Black Leg, keeping a distance to mask his presence. Street after street he crept closer and closer, and it was only when they were the only people in sight that he lunged. 

With the training of an expert, Black Leg spun around and kicked out at Zoro, forcing him back. Zoro shook his head and darted after him, reaching out a hand to seize his shoulder and force him to the ground, but Black Leg ducked down and kicked out, sweeping Zoro’s feet out from under him. Zoro, on the ground, grabbed hold of Black Leg’s legs, clawing into the skin for dear life. 

But Black Leg did not punch him, as expected, and froze where he was, struggling to pull his legs out from Zoro’s grip. It was a ridiculous sight: Zoro, on his stomach, clutching a pair of legs, their owner wiggling in place helplessly. 

Finally, Black Leg fell onto his behind, and Zoro’s grip loosened with the changed position. Black Leg used the opportunity to kick his chin, which weakened Zoro’s grip enough to allow him to escape. Zoro sprang to his feet and ran after him, refusing to let his opportunity go to waste. 

Black Leg turned and ran down an alley, only to skid to a stop at the dead-end he faced. He whipped around to find Zoro in his face, slamming him against the wall with a dagger pressed to his throat. 

“Okay,” Zoro said, catching his breath. “Come quietly. Make it easier for both of us.” 

Black Leg’s hand shot up before Zoro could react, but he wasn’t hurt—instead, his hat fell to the ground. 

“Thought so,” Black Leg hissed. “Fuckin’ grass hair bounty hunter. Zorro.” 

“It’s one R,” Zoro said, an eye twitching. 

“How’d you know—?” 

“Heard it in your voice. Are you coming quietly or not?” 

“Fuck you,” Black Leg said, spitting on Zoro’s shirt. “I can’t go to prison. You know what they’ll do to me?” 

“Oh, please, you can fight them o—” 

“I meant my sentence, jackass. It’s life behind bars or capital punishment in this case.” His cheeks twitched, and Zoro knew his eyes were narrowing. “You don’t look bright. That means the death penalty.” 

“I know what that is, dumbass. If you aren’t coming quietly, I’m gonna have to fuck you up until you don’t have a choice.” 

“Not on your life.” Black Leg’s chin inclined ever-so-slightly and Zoro knew he was eyeing the blade. “You don’t get it. I can’t go to prison.” 

“Pretty sure you can.” 

“I won’t let anyone take me there. See, this is what I mean. You’re not bright—” 

Black Leg went silent as Zoro pressed the blade into his throat, bringing out drops of blood. 

“I warned you,” he said coldly. “Come quietly or I’ll beat the shit out of you.” 

“Like you ever could.” 

“Which one of us has their back to the wall?” Zoro took out another dagger, holding the tip to Black Leg’s hand and watching the color drain from his face. “Do you like killing people, jackass?” 

“Get that away,” Black Leg whispered. 

“A weak point, huh?” Zoro pressed the tip into the back of Black Leg’s hand, and he froze, barely breathing. “Do you and your sicko family get off on killing?” 

“Fuck you,” Black Leg whispered, struggling for breath. “You think I like this? Don’t fucking compare me to those coldhearted sons of—” He caught himself. 

Zoro seized the hand and pinned it to the wall, holding one dagger to it while he stowed the other away. Black Leg could have escaped anytime he wanted in that position, and all it would cost him was a nasty hand wound, one that would easily heal with time. But instead his face was stark white, staring in abject terror at the blade. 

“How about I make this easy?” Zoro offered, watching his face with curiosity despite himself. “Come with me and I won’t cut off your hand.” 

“You wouldn’t,” Black Leg whispered, his voice barely there. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck despite the chill in the air. “Fuck you, you shit excuse for a human being.” 

“Look who’s talking. You’ve killed people.” 

“Fewer than you think.” Black Leg turned to him, moving a fraction of an inch. “Don’t do this. I can’t have this right now. I don’t want this—” 

Zoro faltered, something behind Black Leg’s words confusing him. His hesitation caused his knife to slip just far enough away from the vulnerable hand so that Black Leg could yank it away with no injury. With a kick to Zoro’s ribs, Black Leg left him in the alley as he sprinted away. 

Black Leg readied the gun, staring for the longest time at his target from the rooftop. The man (he had never been assigned a woman since a disastrous mission) was reading a newspaper on a park bench. It was a classic setup for an assassination, and all he had to do was pull the trigger. 

He shifted the target with practiced hands so it aimed for the man’s thigh instead. Perhaps he would bleed out, perhaps not, but at least this way he had a chance. Black Leg took a deep breath and then shrieked in pain when a boot fell onto his spine, heavy with the weight of the person it carried. 

“Well, well,” came a familiar voice. “Here to kill another target?” 

“No,” Black Leg wheezed. “I wasn’t—” 

Zoro squat down and shoved his head aside, peering through the barrel. He frowned. “You’re an idiot. Why would you kill someone by shooting them in the leg?” 

“I told you, I wasn’t going to.” 

“Then you won’t mind if I do this.” Zoro kicked him out of the way and took up the gun, first removing the bullets, and then bending it over his knee and tossing it to the roof. 

“Thank you.” 

Zoro blinked and stared at Black Leg. It wasn’t the knee-jerk reaction he had expected, but there the infamous assassin was, hair still covered by a hat but sunglasses gone, revealing eyes filling with tears. 

“Now … now I can tell them it wasn’t my fault for real,” Black Leg said, crawling over and picking up the gun. “I’ll say … I got in a fight with a bounty hunter, and he ruined the gun, so … I couldn’t finish the job.” 

Below them, the target for murder had folded up the newspaper and walked away, unaware of his close call. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Zoro said at last. Coming to his senses, he knocked the broken gun away from Black Leg and yanked out a dagger, tackling him to the ground. Up close, he was shocked at the blue of the eyes he saw, and how wet they were. 

“I told you,” Black Leg said, harshness returning to his voice. “I don’t like this.” He blinked away tears and sneered. “Why do you care? Like you’ve ever listened to anyone before turning them in, I’m sure.” 

Zoro moved his dagger down to Black Leg’s hand again and watched his eyes widen. “You seem to care about your hands. I guess you couldn’t fire a gun without them.” 

“Are you kidding?” Black Leg said, every muscle tense. “If it was just that—I would’ve broken my own fingers long ago. I would’ve done it again and again until Father either killed me or disowned me.” 

“Then why?” 

“Fuck you. I don’t have to tell you shit.” 

“Guess not. And I don’t have to leave you with all your fingers.” 

Truth be told, Zoro didn’t know why he dawdled. He could have incapacitated Black Leg then and there if he wanted. He could have done it in the alley, or when Black Leg cried over the broken gun for all the wrong reasons. Fourth-highest bounty in the country. Well-known assassin. Didn’t want to be one. 

“I want to cook,” Black Leg blurted out. His ears turned pink. “Fuck you, fuck you, you piece of shit. I want to cook, and god, fuck, the only way I can do that is if I have my hands intact by the time I get out of that shitty family.” He grit his teeth as his eyes welled up again. “Fuck my father, fuck my brothers. I never asked for this. I never asked to be born.” 

Manipulative, cunning, sly, pleading. Zoro had seen these qualities and more in his quarry, and never one to be swayed by emotions, he had seen through them all, and brought them in in the end. 

“That’s why I can’t go to prison. Okay?” Black Leg stared at his hand, trying to flatten it, keep it away from the blade. “I’ll never, never be a cook in prison, or if I’m dead.” His eyes flickered up to Zoro’s face. “Would you believe me if I told you I’ve never tried to kill anyone?” 

“No.” 

“I tell them I’m a bad aim.” Black Leg laughed the kind of dry, forced laugh made when a superior tells a bad joke and you’re on the brink of losing your job. “Shoulders, abdomens, thighs, anywhere but the vitals. You know why I have the fourth-highest bounty out of everyone in my family, right? Because not everyone I aim for dies. If they do, well, fuck, I tried. If they don’t, one of my brothers is probably assigned to them. Does that make me guilty if they kill them? Tell me that!” 

“You’re still hurting people,” Zoro said, but his voice was hollow. 

Black Leg gestured to the dagger still pressed to his hand. 

“That’s different—” Zoro shook his head. “Never mind. Fuck you.” 

“Fuck you.” 

Zoro withdrew the dagger and sheathed it. “You can’t be faulted for failing to do your job if you’re being shadowed by a bounty hunter, right?” 

Black Leg stared at him incredulously, frozen on the roof. 

“Right,” he said, biting sarcasm coming back into his words. “‘A bounty hunter? Why not take him out yourself, you idiot? Well, we can do it for you, just tell us what he looks like.’”

“‘No, that would be a very bad idea,’“ Zoro said in the same singsong, sarcastic tone. “‘I think he’s contacted the government! They’ll kill me for sure if he dies!’” 

“Like they would care if I died.” 

Zoro stared at him. “Then tell them I’ve got tabs on your whole family.” 

Black Leg pushed himself into a sitting position. “Why are you doing this?” 

“Testing your sincerity. If you’re lying, I’ll die, and that’s that. You and your family are free to go. If not … well, we’ll see how things go.” He shrugged. “And if I shadow you, fewer people get hurt.” 

“Fine,” Black Leg said. He stood, studying his hands. “Zoro, with one R.” 

“Yeah. Black Leg.” 

“It’s Sanji.” 

“What?” 

“My name’s Sanji. Only my enemies call me Black Leg.” Sanji glared at the broken gun and kicked it before turning. “See you, Zoro.” 

Wherever Sanji went, there was Zoro, never more than a block away. He sat in earshot of Sanji at every restaurant and bar and café, watched him as he ate and talked and laughed like anyone would, and staked out his path going home. Sanji had only contacted him once to warn him about learning where he and his family lived, fearing he would be caught as well. 

“This is so nice.” 

Zoro started when Sanji sat with him at the bar, holding a drink. 

“What is?” he said, staring. “We’re not supposed to talk.” 

“No one’s here to know.” Sanji gave him a smile, and Zoro lost his words. “I meant, it’s nice, not having a target. I still can’t believe you’re doing this.” 

“Yeah,” Zoro said, trying to find his voice. He cleared his throat. “Well, I still haven’t settled on whether you were lying or not. And don’t forget I could kill you anytime I wanted.” 

“I know. But still, thank you.” 

When Sanji didn’t move, still watching Zoro with piercing eyes, Zoro cleared his throat and he jumped. He stood and hurried away, and only looked at Zoro once more during their stay there. 

“We’re leaving.” 

Sanji stared at Zoro. “Excuse me,” he said, refusing to reveal how warm Zoro’s gaze and the hand on his shoulder was. “What? And what happened to no contact?” 

“Doesn’t matter anymore. You’re dead.” 

“Oh.” Sanji sighed. “I see. So you think I’m lying.” 

“It’s not that, you idiot. Your family just got a letter informing them of your untimely demise.” Zoro gave him a hard stare. “And I just quit my job.” 

Sanji stared, processing his words. “You mean,” he choked out. “You mean—” 

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.” Zoro rolled his eyes, looking around. “I’ve always hated this city, anyway.” 

His reflexes, borne of unforgiving combat, all failed him when Sanji flew upon him, pinning him to the wall with a kiss and a brush of a sharp tongue. 

“Oh, my god,” Sanji said, pulling away. “I’m sorry, I—” 

Zoro reached around and yanked Sanji’s hat off, showing beautiful blonde hair which he seized in a fist and shoved towards him for another, messier kiss. 

“We’ll find someplace,” he said, breaking away. “Where no one knows us—you can cook. I can, I don’t know, I’ll find another job. Fuck bounty hunting.” 

“Fuck assassination,” Sanji said, and he was crying again, shoving his head into Zoro’s shoulder. 

The familiar squeak of the apartment door made Sanji turn around, and he smiled at Zoro’s disheveled clothing and five-o’clock shadow, contrasting his own neatly combed hair and pink apron. 

“Welcome back,” he said, stirring the stir-fry. “How were the kids?” 

“One of them kicked me in the nuts,” Zoro muttered. 

Sanji burst out laughing. 

“I asked them if they had any ideas about how to defend yourself if a stranger comes at you,” Zoro explained, rubbing his thigh, “and one of them rushed forward and—” 

“You couldn’t stop him?” 

“I didn’t expect it. Fuck you.” 

“Fuck you, too.” Sanji stifled his laughter and turned off the heat on the burner. “You’re just in time. Dinner’s ready.” 

“Hope it’s edible.” 

“It’s all you’re getting.” 

Zoro slithered up behind Sanji and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. Sanji plucked a bit of beef from the pan and popped it into Zoro’s mouth. Zoro chewed slowly, closing his eyes. 

“Well?” Sanji said. 

“Less teriyaki sauce,” Zoro said, swallowing. 

“Let me take care of that.” Sanji turned his head and kissed the corner of Zoro’s lips, where a spot of sauce hung, and Zoro nuzzled his cheek, eyes still shut. 

[tumblunni]

Man i'm remembering how raw all of Nami's early arcs were in One Piece and how much it sucks that she just got completely sidelined later on and increasingly turned into a sex symbol as well as being pushed further into the box of 'token weak normal human who can never win a fight' while usopp eventually escaped it. Oh except she can sometomes win sexualized fights against other sexualized women. *sigh* That moment where she got fuckin assualted ny an invisible man while naked in the shower and it was all played as sexy to the audience and sanji makes a shitty joke about wishing he had the invisible power to perv on girls and then EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT NAMI gets some damn resolution on beating up invisibiluty asshole and its clear the whole thing was just an excuse for the author to show tits and her feelings dont really matter. Oh and the fuckin literal soap bath battle with the lady whose power is magic soap that makes people extra slippery and shiny like JESUS CHRIST BRO

Anyway lets not go on for an hour about the bad nami stuff and instead remember the great stuff!

Like that FUCKIN RAW moment in her backstory arc where theyve played the reveal of her being part of Arlong's crew SO WELL that you genuinely cant tell if she was really evil all along and is really betraying everyone. And then they slap you right in the face with what seems to be a scene of her murdering usopp! And its just done so damn great and dark and shocking, like right down to the framing of it where it looks like he escaped for a second and then he barely has time to gasp out a word before she stabs him. And they let this ride for a decently long amount of time too before revealing she's not evil after all. Just enough time to sink in and make you believe it! And the circumstances of the reveal are SO DAMN GREAT, yo! I think its straight up the most badass heroic thing anyone has ever done in the entire series and i hate how it doesnt get remembered much or aknowledged as much as the bigger more dramatic fights.

Cos you see...yeah Nami was not in fact evil and was just pretending to be loyal to these villains because theyd been blackmailing her for years ans she had a plan to trick her way out of it and wanted to keep her friends safe from being involved (and loads of other complex shit!) But she REALLY FUCKIN DEDICATED HERSELF TO HER ACTING cos she knew just how damn dangerous these bastards are and how much it was gonna take to fool them. The real reason Usopp got cut off mid sentence into a strangled scream is because Nami stabbed HERSELF to fake killing him! She wrecked the shit out of her arm and rubbed the blood on him and told him to stay down, and then managed to not let out the slightest sound of her pain and continue pulling off her amazing fake villain acting while bleeding out underneath her sleeve. Its not really brought up again but from the degree of how goddamn much she injured that hand and how she wasnt able to get it treated until after HOURS OF HIDING THE PAIN, it probably would have left her with permenant muscle spasms and difficulty moving her fingers. And she's a mapmaker so thats an injury that would really affect her career for the rest of her life. She risked all that to save a friend who believed she'd betrayed him and was 100% down to fight at that moment! Like seriously they also had some great development with usppp realizing he was wrong and working hard to overcome his cowardliness and put his own life on the line to help save Nami later on. It was such a good arc!!

Oh and of course theres the entire context to this whole thing that this villain group actually murdered nami's mother when she was a kid and groomed her into joining them. And right from the age of like six years old she was already planning how to out-manipulate the manipulators and gain the trust enough to take revenge someday. And she faked joining the villains, faked being fine with it, faked not mourning her goddamn mom. She let herself be treated like a heartless demon child by everyone she ever knew, so she could make these monsters believe she'd betrayed them and thus someday save them all. Save all those people who never even fuckin believed in her! And the villain dude fuckin branded her like a cow and she was so traumatized she tried to dig the tattoo out with a knife and seriously man her left arm must be so damn scarred and i hate that they dont atually show it just cos 'she's gotta be sexy'. They used to show the scar underneath her life-affirming happier replacement tattoo, but it just got phased out around the same time her waist became 2cm wide...

Also it really fuckin sucked that this arc just ended with Nami's decade long plan to save her family failing and she cries into the dirt and then all the male characters save her aand defeaat the bad guy instead. Even worse that this started becoming a trend where every new arc from now on would have some sort of femle character who was very sad and her grand character development was admitting she needed luffy to save her and then everyone else except her gets to defeat the bad guy she has this deep personal reason to want to defeat. Sigh!

So yeh seriously Oda i know ur tryin real damn hard to amp every damn battle as the biggest thing ever now but nothing will ever be bigger than back when you had more simple fully realized concepts that gave the whole cast time to shine and aalso very specifocally nami who was the best most goddamn engaging character and you suddenly somehow forgot this. "Woman who is so much of a damn hero that she'd stab herself to save her friends who didnt even believe she wasnt evil" is like the fucking apex of what this series has ever achieved and i wpuld personally like to remember her always as the way she was in that moment.

Also seriously it would have been way better if nami got to contribute towards defeating arlong AT ALL, and especiaally if she could have dealt the final blow. Like yeah she isnt some beastly strong superpowers guy like luffy and co, but it would have been so satisfying to see all her intelligence and planning pay off! Instead of just bullshit 'arlong somehow magically knew everything she was ever planning and he only let her believe he was fooled so he could have fun shooting down her hopes when she got so close'. Nah yknow what would have been really satisfying and great? If we still had that moment but then it was revealed nami actually double-doublecrossed him! Like he's boasting about seeing through her whole plan and then suddenly he stumbles and realizes she poisoned his drink or something. Would have been extra mega double triple satisfying if this was after him actually beating all the main brawn-over-brain characters in a physical fight, and it looked like our heroes were all doomed but she managed to take down this guy they couod never hope to defeat. Though some very simple clever trick that he never expected because he underestimated her. And also this could work well to introduce the seven warlords kf the sea without immediately undercutting them, like if we clearly show that arlong actually WAS wildly out of their league and they genuinely could not defeat one of the warlords at their current power level, they just got lucky with a creative solution. That would have worked better than having zoro fight mihawk for literally no reason except 'i wanna prove im stronger than mihawk'. Srsly so much of zoro's goddamn honor shit seems so dumb on a rewatch, he outright stabs himself to give himself a handicap cos something sonething honor, and refuses to accept help because honor and fights people who didnt wanna fight him because honor and generally this looks more like signs of the man being suicidal, geez! Also stabbing yourself for no reason is nowhere near as raw as stabbing yourself to save a friend. Also zoro fuckin passed out from blood loss and nami not only didng do that but also completely hid her injury from a literal shark man who can smell blood. And stared him right in the face and lied about murdering her best friend. Nami is the highest goddamn power tier in one piece and if the creator cant figure that out then i have no interest in reading any more of it

WE ARE NAMI STANS FIRST AND HUMANS SECOND

[aminayblog]

#''but im an abuse survivor and i dont like it when people call me part of MY fam-'' shut up dweeb it's a fucking anime boy#its not refusing to see sanji as having moved on from his family its just fucking tagging#vinsmoke sanji#blackleg sanji#sanji#one piece#putting this in the main tags actually. fuck with me

It's kind of downright goofy that the OP fandom has this weird touchiness with calling him Vinsmoke Sanji. Like. First of all he's a fictional character, you're not hurting his feelings by using his last name. Yeah he prefers Blackleg Sanji because the Vinsmokes horribly abused him every moment they could get their hands on him, but like... It's a fuckin fictional character man. He's not gonna SEE you and get upset.

Second of all fandom content has always been tagged with the character's birth name, no matter how formerly abused they were?? It's just a Fandom Thing, not a direct shot at Sanji himself?? Lol?? It's not refusing to respect him disowning his family--it's tagging shit correctly. This goes for Ao3 AND Tumblr. Sanji will always be a Vinsmoke by birth, even if Zeff is his adopted dad, and the Mugiwara, his new family