#one piece ch. 1036-1042

[beaulesbian]

wano spoilers, ch. 1036-1042

i watched the ryuma one-shot before i got to the zoro vs king fight in wano, so only now i can appreciate the name of it even more! this connection between shimotsuki ryuma and zoro keeps getting better and better

plus the parallels of kaido and king, vs luffy and zoro are so insane! smth smth about saving a person (from navy/government) and they become so loyal to you and will want you to become the king of the pirates with their whole being, where your dream becomes their own in a way. different situations and people, but there's something soooo similar, it's very interesting! (one piece really doesn't have any captain and his right-hand man with just normal relationship aksjdskjd)

(and the luffy flashback!! even this one small panel of luffy from the mihawk fight and zoro promising to be stronger for him! to stand in future as the greatest swordsman beside king of the pirate!

it's so impactful! it's incredible how much it still gives zoro the strength after all that time. i will have to watch the anime of these parts, bc i read there's their first meeting scenes reanimated! can't wait to see that!)

zoro becoming king of hell after his fight with king and because of his enma sword?!! the sword that chooses its wielder and which wouldn't serve anyone weak, which recognizes what strength means to zoro and what his dreams/goals are?? incredible, brilliant, showstopping!

and then zoro seeing death itself?? and telling it not to kill him!

it rlly makes me wonder of these consequences of the drugs he took to become stronger. (which is another stuff i keep thinking about zoro and how he always thinks of himself as weak, not strong enough.. theres a lot to unpack here, but im so tired ;-;)

+ few chapters later, 1042, there was also one panel with luffy vs kaido that caught my attention, with luffy covering his mouth saying 'don't leave me yet, strength!' which is kind of unusual for him to say to himself something like that.

(which in combination of these two fights, where it could be assumed they're happening simultaneously, it's an interesting similarity - where neither zoro or luffy's body is listening to them much. one almost dead, the other losing strength...)

[kookoofufu]

Is it just me or do Wano's chapter titles go especially hard?