#notice how i only used platonic scenes ☺️

[nostalgicninjas]

Cobra Kai Dynamics: Miguel Diaz and Samantha LaRusso

I gotta go. But I’ll see you out there rooting for me, right?

I’m always rooting for you, Sam.

[wavytam]

Hi! First of all thank you for your always on point theories and overall amazing Sanami content! <33

I've noticed that we've probably seen all the original main cast characters being romantically (or at least hinted to be so) connected to another character, even if the connection was one-sided. Nami was nowhere seen in a similar situation, except the gag-full marriage with Absalom. The manga is already on it's final saga and there's no sign of her having reciprocated or one-sided feelings towards another character, male or female. Personally, I think it would have been at least logical to make her reject Sanji somehow, if nothing is planned between them. He's been head over heels, willing to die for her for quite a long time and we don't see any signs or development from Nami's side, neither positive, nor negative. As of now, do you think there might be a future change in Nami's feelings or will her undefined position towards Sanji remain till the end, as we haven't seen anything after the WCI events?

Thank you once again and sorry for this long text lol!

Hello!! Oh! Thank you so much for your kind words!! I really appreciate it! 🥰☺️

About Nami not having any crush on anyone up until this point: this is a good point.

Now, about your question. "Do you think there might be a future change in Nami's feelings or will her undefined position towards Sanji remain till the end?"

(Okay, I'm really sorry for how long it got! I tried to shorten it the best that I could!!)

I think that by the end of the manga, we will find out whether she likes Sanji romantically or not.

I don't think Oda will leave this unsolved, but I do think that (if Nami does reciprocate Sanji's feelings) he might make it happen very discretly, and maybe not even give much panel time for that. Similar to when, all of a sudden, Oda gave us a coverpage of Mister 9 and Miss Monday happily together... with a kid. It was so out of the blue, and we didn't really even see any moment between them that even hinted they had a mutual interest in one another.

Of course, with SaNami, from Sanji's part it's obvious he is interested in her romantically, but what we need now is for it to be mutual, and that's the part I think that might happen "offscreen".

I know this isn't something we, SaNami fans want things to go, but I there are to reasons for me to think that:

A) The "offscreen" route seems like the standard for how shonen mangas deal with romance. Shonen Jump still focuses on content for boys, and they don't think boys want to read about romance as much as girls. So my guess is that, even if Oda wanted to portray a romantic relationship amongst the crew (I don't think he does tho) I don't think he would be able to write that many romantic scenes - so a lot of the romantic development would have to happen offscreen.

I'll give you an example: Sasu Saku in Naruto. Please consider that I am not comparing the characters themselves with Nami and Sanji, I am just analysing how another mangaka from Shonen Jump developed the relationship of an endgame couple in his story and how it might be how Oda writes it too (because he is also a mangaka writing for the same company).

For the entirety of the manga, Saku had a crush on Sasu, but we never really knew whether he reciprocicated her feelings or not. He cared about her, obviously, but for years, fans had to rely on small hints that could be interpreted either as platonic or romantic from Sasu's part.

Only by the end of the manga did the author let us know that Sasu did, in fact, like Saku romantically. And if you rearead the manga knowing that, the moments between them that before were seen as ambiguous become mostly romantic.

(Please, do not interpret this wrong, I know Kishimoto and Oda are two completely different mangakas, with completely different writting styles, but they are writing for the same company, have the same audience and therefore have to follow the same set of rules)

B) I have a feeling that Oda doesn't want to shift the dynamic between the crew.

I myself am a very romantic person, but to be honest, I'm very picky when it comes to romance being portrayed in adventures. I've always liked to ship characters and read fanfics about them, but when it comes to the official content I don't like it when romance takes too much of a story that isn't supposed to focus on it. It's a weird thing from me, I know. Go figure.

Anyway, I think that Oda is afraid of that happening to his story. One Piece is about a group of friends helping one another to pursue their dreams. If we add romance in the mix, the "family" dynamic in the story shifts, and it doesn't really add to the main message anyway, which, to me, is "found family" and "freedom". Otherwaise, the fandom would also get into bigger fights, saying things like "W character loves x character more than y" "W character would rather let y die than character x because he/she loves her/him more" when these things don't really matter.

I know that there are people out there who do that anyway, but I think Oda wants to keep himself away from that type of discussions to focus more on the fraternal love the Strawhats clearly have for one another.

Obviously, it won't stop anyone from shipping (lol here I am, writing this huge text about SaNami even with all the warning from Oda himself), but maybe the wars could be even worse if Oda chose to portray romance. If that's the reason, I really understand where his mindset comes from.

With those two points in mind, my guess is: if Nami does reciprocate Sanji's feelings and they do end up together, not only do I think it will happen doscretly but I also think it's going to be only at the end of the story.

For now, I think Oda will keep on writting ambiguous moments between Nami and Sanji (with Sanji being the one crazy in love), trying to preserve the dynamic they already have until the very last arc, and only change it when the story comes to an end.

That way, romance amongst the crew won't be portrayed during the entirety of One Piece.

Okay, sorry for the big text!! But I hope I answered what you wanted to know!!

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

🍒🍌🍐🫐

I would like to know your opinions on these in the fruit emoji thing you reposted ☺️

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

I love writing siblings relationships! You know, that kind of relationship that is simultaneously "my siblings//cousins are the most annoying people I have ever known" and "I'd go to war for them".

...Yeah, specifically the Hook siblings.

They are very chaotic and I like that.

And for romantic relationships, my favourite is Harry Hook and Uma. I mean, look at them.

🍌 In your opinion, what’s the funniest joke/reference/pun you’ve made in a fic?

...I don't know? I genuinely don't know. I'm not sure how funny my works are.

Sure, I write them by going „Oh, you know what would be hilarious -“ but an actual joke? That does not involve at least 400 words of setting the situation?

No idea.

Either way, I'm gonna find some sentences//quotes to post here, because why not:

[CJ, spotting a snake in her hair:]

Unfortunately, it has no original ideas, nor anything interesting to say.

It only hisses. Ssshame.

CJ hisses back at it.

...Yeah, generally anything CJ does. Like these instances she got lost while trying to narrate:

The princess and Carlos are in this Selfies class, alright? The teacher's Mother Gothel, apparently, and joke's on them, she's a terrible teacher.

On the other hand, she doesn't care for anything other than herself happening in the classroom, and me and Freddie always take full advantage of it. Sometimes, we ask Ginny to hold a separate lesson while her mother is teaching: Ginny stands right beside her, actually telling us stuff, like chemistry and so, and have you guys known that if you add potassium into water, it will catch on fire? It's really cool, really, she showed us, too! The curtains caught on fire, but it was alright. The anti-fire-anti-fun system went off and the water poured down and it made even bigger flames until there was no more potassium and it absolutely doused Mother Gothel's curls in water and smoke and that's when she noticed that we haven't been paying attention to her at all.

Isn't that hilarious?

She is a disaster. And I better shut up about her.

The whole idea of the Hook siblings trying to (and failing to) narrate the plot of Descendants sounds utterly hysterical to me though.

But, yeah, I have no idea how funny are my ideas to other people.

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc…

Rise timeline!

It's wrong!!

I mean, yeah, the plot with the trident can have rights I suppose (if only because Arabella deserves a corruption arc), but the race for Lost Revenge?

Yeah, no. No way in hell Uma got that kind of loyalty in just a few months.

I'm moving that back to when she was like twelve or so, which has the added bonus of maling Uma's and Mal's rivalry both more petty and more dangerous. You know, fun things.

🫐 What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.)

Not exactly a ship, but generally CJ dynamic with Mal.

Imagine the chaos, pretty please, especially when we take into consideration:

Their combined lack of survival instinct

The bloody mess it creates with Harry any time they cooperate (which is why they cooperate in the first place. CJ wants to irritate her brother and Mal wants to piss of Uma, even in this really round about way.)

Then generally siblings relationships. Hooks, Faciliers, Jay and Jade, de Vil cousins. Mal amd Hadie, which is very optional. Just saying.

Also Ben, Audrey, or Lonnie spending time with the pirates. Lonnie in particular deserves to meet the Lost Revenge crew and Harriet's crew too.

Also. The sheer chaos it would throw into Auradon high society scene and media :)