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l-in-the-light · 4 months ago

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Luffy vs Katakuri. Fighting Oneself on the Other Side of the Mirror (1/2)

This post about Luffy's and Katakuri's similarities was requested by @mewiyev, I hope you will enjoy it! Also, there will be a part 2 coming up :D

I often mention that Whole Cake Island is our Alice in Wonderland arc of One Piece. Strawhats explore the Mysterious Forest and find their own dopelgangers that look like their own reflections in the mirror. That theme is especially important for Luffy and Katakuri's fight.

The mirror and its reflective world are symbolic of transition, transformation, identity, and perception. Mirrors can also reveal the future.

Right at the beginning of the arc, Luffy finds his doubleganger. It serves as foreshadowing to his fight with Katakuri of course, but also introduces us to the oddities of this new adventure. Strawhats enter a fantastical world (mysterious forest, but also Whole Cake Island in general) where the laws of physics and logic do not apply.

To move forward you need to go backwards, when you want to rush, you need to walk slowly, everything is reversed, like in a mirror.

Resting and relaxing before a battle? That's not how world works according to Luffy! Doing a stealth mission instead of beating up the emperor? Unheard of!

A cooking Luffy?! Welcome to Luffy in the Wonderland adventure! Mirrors often show us also "the opposite of what is normal or expected".

There's even someone taking over Sunny and attemping to steal Luffy's position as the captain of the Strawhats! Even later trying to recruit Luffy as his own underling, turning the familiar hierarchy completely upside down.

And that person is suspiciously similar to Luffy, especially in his powers, but also his personality, code of honor and strength of will.

They even mention that it feels like fighting oneself.

Except the tiny fact that Katakuri is "slightly" better than Luffy.

His techniques are better versions of Luffy's.

Mochi, despite being quite elastic and stretching, is a bit different from rubber, it's sticky and you can eat it, and it definitely doesn't bounce. That's why despite the similarities, Katakuri and Luffy are also different people when they start this fight.

The obvious difference between them would be the mastery of observation haki.

Now, there's no denying that Katakuri's observation haki is very impressive, but, as we learn later, it's less about developing the skill and more about "how he uses it".

You can fool your opponent thanks to it. We know from Pekoms that Big Mom's strength lies in her ability to acquire information. That's her biggest power. Katakuri knowing what Gear 4 or elephant gun attack is, doesn't have to be the result of his observation haki, but cleverly faking it and adjusting it, based on all the intel he acquired about his opponent beforehand. That's how he makes his powers seem even more terrifying. Because like Bege said: "looking into the future doesn't make Katakuri more special", but overwhelming his opponent into believing that it makes him invincible is definitely working in his favour.

He's the strongest General Officer in Big Mom's empire and Strawhats declared war on her all the way back in Fishman Island arc. Katakuri had plenty of time and reason to do his research for his future potential opponent.

Katakuri sees right through Luffy's attack and understands his intentions like they're transparent. That's because he would probably do exactly the same in this situation: take the blow on himself to prevent anyone else from getting harmed.

Katakuri as a child would never accept people laughing at him, but he learned his lesson thanks to Brulee getting hurt. The same way Luffy learned his lesson from Shanks, who ended up losing an arm as the result.

They both want to defeat each other at their best.

They both rely on imagination in the fight, adapting new techniques quickly. Katakuri was so delighted with the donuts he made them into his new attack. At the end of this fight Luffy gets inspired by Katakuri and exploits the future sight's weakness by adapting unpredictability (like in his fight with Enel) and as the result his Snakeman is born. It's the first time Luffy's attacks don't follow any laws of physics, instead they mimick Katakuri's mochi qualities!

And meat is source of strength for Luffy.

They're on the same page. They want one on one fight with no one disturbing them. Katakuri even brought Brulee here, like he was hoping Luffy's actions would lead to this outcome. They're almost guessing each other's thoughts here. Is that observation haki, or is that them just being so similar to each other? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Katakuri criticizing Strawhats for being overly emotional, despite being worried about his own brother as well. He keeps his calm no matter what, but he doesn't do it for himself, he does it for the people he still needs to protect. Luffy also demonstrates it when he tells everyone to not waste Pedro's sacrifice and escape.

But just like rubber and mochi can be similar but aren't identical, Luffy and Katakuri also have some important differences.

Katakuri is quite considerate, but also peculiar about his sweets. It's kinda reversed for Luffy who can eat just about anything and won't complain (despite his preference for meat), but will often behave in inconsiderate ways, especially when he eats all the food by himself and won't leave anything for others.

Luffy also is clearly more chaotic and crazy than Katakuri, if Brulee's reaction is anything to go by. And she probably knows Katakuri the best out of everyone ;)

Katakuri has a reputation to uphold which is vastly different from Luffy's: the walking chaos. Katakuri is the perfectionist on the surface, but...

It turns out even Katakuri isn't perfect and can also lose his calm. He has his weakness, he hates when others see how he looks when he eats and would avoid it at all costs. It didn't use to be this way, it's the result of his past, he decided to "change his nature" (carefree, earnest, soft) for the sake of others, literally and figuratively hiding it from other people's perception.

Mirrors are said to have the power to deeply disclose who we truly are. That's not a coincidence that Luffy and Katakuri's fight takes places in the mirror world of all places.

But Luffy, after catching up on Katakuri's true nature and seeing through him, knows that Katakuri isn't that stoic perfectionist that we were led to believe. Luffy is honest with him here, telling him he needs extra time to recover, not hiding anything. Katakuri reacts with "I'm not so soft to let you get away like that!", but he actually is. After Luffy miraculously escapes, Katakuri just sits and waits for him to return, despite the fact he says he half-expected Luffy to escape and not come back.

As the battle goes on, differences between Luffy and Katakuri dimnish further, they start to reflect each other more and more. Even the thing Katakuri couldn't comprehend: Luffy's neverending determination to stand back up despite falling to the ground over and over again in shame of defeat.

Luffy tells him. "It just feels much better that way". Being able to just freely voice his thoughts, to complain when he feels pain or hunger, to thank his opponent when he feels grateful to him, to fall to the ground when his opponent's attack is stronger and better. Live earnestly, embrace everything that is thrown at you, just do your best the way you are, not by trying to be something or someone you're not. Be free.

And at the very end of their battle, Katakuri does the same, for the first time in decades, erasing the last difference between Luffy and himself: he also falls on his back. Luffy placing the hat on his face is the sign of respect, but if you think about it, it erases the whole point Luffy was trying to make, doesn't it? It's like telling Katakuri to still hide his weakness. But Luffy never meant to undermine Katakuri's resolve. He just tried to show him that he can be free while also respecting the vow he made to himself long time ago. One doesn't exclude the other, if that's what you choose for yourself, by yourself.

That's what changed for Katakuri and it stays true later on. Katakuri is still hiding his face, as we are shown through Egghead arc. And that is not a contradiction. The vow he made in his childhood never stopped being important to him, after all, and we will explore the reason for it.

But what changed for Luffy? Alice in the Wonderland is said to be a tale about Alice maturing. So does Luffy change or learn lessons from this adventure or does he just become better at haki and that's it? We will take a closer look at it in part 2. Edit: part 2 is done! https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/763644921544638464

(yes I run out of pictures per post space again)

#one piece #luffy #luffy vs katakuri #charlotte katakuri #alice in wonderland #whole cake island #one piece meta #mirror world

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l-in-the-light · 4 months ago

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Through the Looking Glass, and What Luffy&Katakuri Found There (2/2)

Part 2 of my analysis of Luffy and Katakuri's similarities, done on request from @mewiyev. Part one is here, in case you're interested: https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/763628387804856320 (you can read it in any order you want, but part 1 is meant to be the first chronologically).

To continue from where we left off, to understand Katakuri and his vow and what kind of a person he actually is, we need to do things in reverse. By starting with analyzing his talk with Brulee and his flashback.

Brulee removes the hat from Katakuri's face like it's not a big deal, despite what she just said. And of course she does, because she prefers him when he isn't hiding how he looks.

She seems genuinely more curious than disappointed. Also she came back here because she was worried about him, brought first aid with her as well.

Katakuri on the other hand finally says something he has been keeping a secret from everyone.

Seeing from his reaction, he also kept it a secret from Brulee as well. This is the first time he realizes she already knew. She's also so happy that he's sharing it with her, that *she* doesn't have to pretend not to know as well.

Brulee thinks Katakuri did it for all of them and she's very touched by that. We learn that Katakuri, long time ago, didn't care to make friends, he wouldn't put on appearances or get along with people who make fun of him. He just wanted to be himself, inside and outside, completely transparent. He would always beat up people who made fun of him too.

And then he learned actions come with consequences. "It was my fault it happened to Brulee".

And this is his resolve as the result of it. "I was too soft, too naive!". He decided to be perfect from now on, show no weakness. But let's stop here for a moment. Because how exactly "showing no weakness" or "being perfect" is gonna help prevent similar situations from happening? We can't really reach any conclusion here, unless we go back and ask the question Katakuri himself asked as well: "Why did they go after his sister?"

The answer to that is, surprisingly enough, revealed if we compare Katakuri's flashback to Luffy's. After all, just like accident with Brulee shaped Katakuri, the same way accident with Shanks losing his arm shaped Luffy. There's a clear parallel here so let's look deeper into it.

How did it happen in Luffy's case? Oh, right. Luffy was the one who started the fight with the bandits, because they were talking bad stuff about his friend (Shanks) and he stood up for him. Mountain bandits were just drinking, minding their own business and talking trash about the thing with Shanks that happened the other day. Luffy, who looked up to Shanks, but also just really loved him, couldn't just sit and ignore what he heard.

We're led to believe that the bullies "got revenge" on Brulee, but Katakuri is taken aback. That clearly never happened before. Let's look at what Brulee said after that "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. If you ask me, you're fine the way you are". No one asked anything about that, why did she say that? We should ask this question and draw a parallel to Luffy. What actually happened was probably Brulee overhearing the kids trashtalking her brother, she told them to take it back, said that Katakuri is fine the way he is and demanded that they apologize to him. Which the kids wouldn't do and some struggle happened, Brulee probably tried to force them to follow her, the situation escalated fast and someone took out a weapon and she got hurt.

She doesn't want Katakuri to know that she got hurt while defending her beloved brother. She didn't want him to worry or blame himself, because she knew Katakuri is actually a gentle kid. So she instead blamed it on the kids, Katakuri can get his revenge and everything will be fine, was probably her reasoning here. But she didn't realize Katakuri figured out the truth. He realized that his attitude of "I don't care what others say about me, I will just beat them up" was naive. That's because he thought it only concerns him. He didn't think it could also affect people he actually cares about. Not only because of the potential revenge, but them trying to defend him as well.

In world of One Piece (but often in our world as well), when you love someone you don't want to hear others say trash about them, you know you need to defend them, take their side. By doing that, you can often endanger yourself to violent situations like this. The only way to prevent this from happening is to reduce reasons for others to try picking fights with you, so people are too scared to badmouth you, and also eliminate all possible reasons why they would make fun of you (in Katakuri's case: covering his face serves that purpose. If they can't see his mouth or witness him eating, they can't laugh. And as the consequence no one needs to defend him and get hurt in the process!).

The same can be said for Luffy, btw. Luffy understands why Katakuri hides his face and what he's trying to protect by doing that. And he approves. Because Luffy is the same. When Shanks saved Luffy, Luffy also blamed himself, just like Katakuri did. Katakuri decided to hide his true nature as the result, from everyone. Never showing his weaknesses, vulnerability, not even his own emotions (enjoyment of eating, for example). Luffy also vowed to himself that he won't show weakness again, won't ask anyone for help, basically won't make the same mistake he did before.

Except it happened again and that wound is still quite fresh in Luffy's mind. In Dressrosa Law, Luffy's dear friend, almost lost an arm because of Luffy's actions. The result wasn't that drastic, because they could still restore Law's arm, but it defnitely gave Luffy quite a scare. Who knows what answer would Luffy reach if he didn't meet Katakuri? What kind of vow would he make to himself to make sure nothing like that ever happens again?

Maybe the very same vow Katakuri once made. "Show no weakness. Make them fear my perfection!" so that no one has to risk their wellbeing for Luffy ever again. Seems Luffy reached a different conclusion in the end and even convinced Katakuri that This Is Not The Way. Do what you have to do to make sure things don't become like that again, but don't close yourself up to the people who are actually dear to you. Everyone deserves a safe haven. First thing Katakuri did after the fight was to tell Brulee the truth (and probably only to her).

You can’t change the past, but you might learn something from it, says Alice from Through the Looking Glass.

The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible. Is another lesson Luffy relearned in WCI.

And Luffy rediscovered the old truth: there are some things he can't do (like cooking, navigation, fighting with swords etc.), but there is one thing he can do: beating up the biggest threats and fighting seriously. Luffy started the arc and went through it trying to do things in different ways than usually, but only realized that he still sucks at them and can't do them no matter how he tries. (I wrote more about that in this post: https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/762470814037819392, you don't have to read other posts in the series to read that one).

By the end of the arc Luffy accepts again that he has to rely on others. It feels like nothing really changed after Whole Cake Island, Luffy is still the old Luffy. But sometimes reaffirming who we are is as important as making big changes and decisions. Luffy faces a lot of anxieties about growing up in this arc, just like Alice from Through the Looking Glass does. Both of them start to understand the rules of the "adult" world, are confused by them and proceed blindly through as they learn by making mistakes. And both of them walk out of this experience without dramatically changing themselves. The change will come inevitably either way, no one can avoid growing up, all they can do is to watch it do it's thing in due time, while trying to stay themselves.

Nothing happened, but at the same time, so much happened. Not many are strong enough to keep on being themselves despite hitting the magical adulthood's treshold, right? We try to adjust ourselves to fit other people, like Katakuri did his whole life. He became a people pleaser, thinking that keeping appearances is more important than who he actually is. But he actually doesn't have to be perfect, he can allow himself to fall flat on his back, and it won't mean he broke his vow to protect his siblings. He will still hide his face though to prevent people who care for him from getting hurt for his sake. But he realized that he can prevent it without hiding himself from everyone. He will for sure no longer try to hide from Brulee. She's his new safe haven, where he can act openly like himself, he doesn't need to be perfect for her. I wonder if Luffy will eventually find his safe haven too? Because we all know not all Luffy's smiles are genuine, often he smiles just to make others stop worrying.

Let's go back to Brulee for a moment. She is kinda coded to be Katakuri's most important person, according to my own theory of pirates and their treasures. They both have matching marks on their faces, Katakuri has his mouth ripped from ear to ear, Brulee's scar literally rips her face in half. He hides his mark, Brulee wears hers proudly without trying to hide it, like she is fond of it. And of course she would be, if she earned it defending her most favourite brother in the world, right? One Piece Red shows us beautifully who is her most beloved person, when Nami lures her out of the mirror by saying "you will be stuck here forever if you won't help us, and you will never see your family again!" and Brulee appears, crying "Even my older brother Katakuri??" and upon getting affirmation Brulee decides to help them.

Actually, seeing Whole Cake Island through the lens of this theory significantly changes motivations of Brulee and Katakuri, so let's take a closer look, shall we?

The very moment it's revealed that Brulee was made into unwilling accomplice, Katakuri declares that "there's no way to stop things" anymore. He won't let it slide, after all. He can't let it slide, even. He's the perfect brother meant to protect everyone.

"I'm the victim here, brother!". Big Mom wouldn't care for that excuse. Many times through the arc other characters and Brulee herself mentioned that if Big Mom finds out, Brulee will end up dead. That's why Opera lied (which ended up working in Luffy's advantage too), to save himself from punishment. The said punishment is clearly hinted to be most likely death.

This puts Katakuri in a tough spot. He should punish Brulee or allow others to do it. What he does instead though, is keeping her close to himself at all times.

He takes her to the Sunny with him, he fights Luffy in the mirror world, and I think it's all because he wants to keep an eye so that no one tries to execute punishment on her. He's also making sure it looks like she's making amends for her blunder, which might or might not help. The bottom line here is: he's protecting her by bringing her with him everywhere.

Also that motivation he shares here? "Strawhat Luffy needs to be snuffed out now"? A big fat lie. You can see that Katakuri's eyes are shaded (in One Piece that often means that a character isn't completely honest!). His true motivation is getting revenge on Luffy for manhandling his sister. That's why he waits on Sunny for Luffy to arrive, that's why he tells others to retreat. This fight is personal for Katakuri, it's payback. Would he do the same for any other sibling? Maybe yes, maybe not, but I think Brulee is Katakuri's most beloved person in the world and he would do just about anything for her.

But, you might say, Katakuri cares for all the siblings, he's the perfect brother! Yes, he does. But that doesn't mean he can't have one special sibling he cares about the most, right?

Both Katakuri and Brulee care for their family a lot. Their care is reflected in each other like a mirror image.

And just look how fond he is of her. He's teasing her that she's just gonna sleep all day (is that something that actually happens often, because it sure sounds this way). She's kinda out of the loop here, but he doesn't even acknowledge this because he doesn't have to. He knows Brulee is one tough cookie. We also know that thanks to the flashback. And of course the person who would defend Katakuri like that would become His Most Favourite Person in the world.

Brulee is also always observing Katakuri in this fight. She's worried, but she won't assist him, she knows better than to interefere in his fights. And it's not because she is afraid of punishment or Katakuri disliking her. Oh, if his life was truly in danger, she would easily have done that, she has the guts. She doesn't act just because she doesn't want her brother to suffer the consequences. Let's look at things from her perspective. Once upon a time she defended her brother and got hurt as the result. That was the last time Katakuri showed his face, despite the fact that Brulee loved his face and told him as much. She probably reached conclusion that the change in him is Brulee's fault, she wanted well but caused him pain instead that he doesn't want to experience again. She doesn't want a repeat of that so she doesn't try to interfere anymore.

They both act this way. One is protecting the other by withholding and pretending. Brulee knows Katakuri didn't truly change, thanks to her devil fruit's ability she can peek at him anytime she wants, but she won't call him out on his lie and will play along. They both play the pretend game, which reminds me of polish novella "The Waistcoat", in which wife and husband keep on lying to each other to spare their beloved one pain and ligthen the burden.

"I will pretend to believe your lie and will play along with it, to help you and to keep your spirit up!", is what Brulee is truly doing here.

Also Brulee isn't so weak, and yet she fails to fight Luffy and his crew properly, mostly just trying to sabotage him indirectly. Why? Because he probably reminds her of Katakuri. In One Piece it's a reccuring theme, when one of the characters can't fight someone that reminds them of a dear person or some impostor pretending to be them. Brulee in that frame above almost sounds *worried* for Luffy or unusually interested in him (though she also just wanted to lure him out, not gonna deny that).

Katakuri changed his attitude in that fight after Luffy's return. He realized probably that Luffy would never harm Brulee and he might be grateful for that, and his initial anger for them misusing her kinda dissipated.

On the contrary, suddenly Katakuri seems like he's trying to teach Luffy how to fight, getting disappointed in him when he doesn't deliver. At first he wanted to defeat Luffy in fastest way possible:

It's clear Katakuri's motivation changed in the middle of this battle.

Till it finally reaches this point. What is actually going on inside Katakuri's head? At first, he wants to make up for the blunder of Brulee. He's monitoring the situation outside the mirror world closely. He knows that if they get the Strawhats, Brulee's blunder will get forgotten and he will deliver his revenge at the same time, just like he wanted.

After he realized that Luffy won't hurt Brulee, he decided for another way out of this situation. If they all lose to the Strawhats, Big Mom would have to punish all her children, which she won't do. So if Katakuri loses to Luffy, he will save his face and protect Brulee from punishment at the same time (her blunder wouldn't stand out anymore if they all lose!). That's why he takes the loss against Luffy despite being stronger than him. All of Luffy's last punches miss him while every single one of Katakuri's is landing. Katakuri easily accepts the limit of Luffy's current strength. That's also why he asks him to come again (once he's stronger, too), so they can have a rematch, without the "losing face" shanenigans coming in the way. He allows himself to voice his wish to fight someone strong, just because he wants to fight him in an even fight, not doing it for his family or for keeping appearances.

Just look at this. He's anticipating Luffy "doing the unthinkable". It's like he wants to see it, despite claiming he should probably eliminate him before that happens. In the middle of the fight, with his resentment gone, he started to kinda root for Luffy, he wants to see how far he can take his observation haki in such a short amount of time.

And Katakuri is actually a strategist, we can see that when he tries to manage the situation at the tea party/wedding. Trying to prevent the biggest disaster scenarios, telling his other brothers to assemble two squads to go after Bege and Strawhats while he himself goes to the final goal and waits, so their targets get surrounded from all sides. Even standing guard at the entrance to the tea party proves that he chose the most strategic position to avoid any bad things and twists happening:

He sales it as his haki's premonition, but he truly doesn't need that to know what this guy is planning. He knows Big Mom and her usual modus operandi (and we know it too thanks to explanation from Pekoms), anyone who refuses to attend the tea party (no matter the reasons) will receive a special "gift" - a severed head of someone close to them. Katakuri claims it's his haki at play here just to instill fear and so no one questions him. He strategizes his strong points for maximum impact, and it works fantastically well.

Brulee claims she won't forgive Luffy for hurting Katakuri, even though she knows already that Katakuri is very fond of him. Katakuri doesn't even answer, because what could he say? He did everything there for her and he's still not gonna admit that openly. Brulee doesn't need to see the future to guess Katakuri's reaction either, she knows him so well she doesn't even need that ability. That alone proves she's his favourite sister, imo.

Also, here's a thought. Katakuri might have also realized that Brulee was unusually fond of Strawhat Luffy through this arc, definitely going easy on him. Heh, indeed.

Fun food for thought: Luffy probably wanted to master observation haki just so nothing bad ever happens to someone dear to him on his watch, without him knowing. I bet you anything that's why Katakuri ended up mastering his observation haki too, so the tragedy never repeats again and so he would have a chance to prevent it if it ever does anyway.

This marks the end of my meta on Katakuri :) This one is sooo long. Whoever lasted to the end of it, I hope you enjoyed!

There's more Katakuri and less Luffy here, mostly because I already did the full analysis on Luffy in Whole Cake Island here: https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/762470814037819392

#one piece #luffy #luffy vs katakuri #charlotte katakuri #charlotte brulee #alice in wonderland #one piece meta #love is a hurricane #mirror world

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