#one piece has really good themes about power and freedom

[elizabeths-storytime]

man I was just thinking about how people sometimes think the strawhats are silly because they are a pirate crew but aren't actually committing heinous crimes that other pirate crews are known for. That they aren't /really/ criminals. But like?? They very much ARE criminals. Their crime is just protecting peoples right to be free and to live. To the world government that Very Much is a Serious Crime because it interferes with the desires of those in power, who the government actually protects.

[yourheart-inmyhands]

hiii! I’m currently crying because I really like the Tsaritsa but there’s no content of her! Like anywhere!! I know that you are very busy but please bear with me😅 I’m sorry if I’m bothering you btw 😢

what if Yandere!Tsaritsa has a lover who loves to cause trouble/hates the Fatui. It’s to the point she can’t maintain them, do you think she’ll ask her harbingers for help? Like have the 9th bribe them with money in order to keep them away from going on with their evil villain schemes 😈(just that they’re trapped in the middle of nowhere and don’t have much freedom..) or just have a harbinger check up on the Tsaritsa s’ s/o each once in a while

by the way, I feel like I may come here a lot (I normally do, but I don’t request) so can I be 👛 anon? 🙏🙏 thank you for reading, I know this was trashy (it’s my first time requesting 😭)

Hi i'm sorry it took a bit to get to this, i was worried about not being able to do good enough and wanted to make sure i could do your request justice! if you're still interested in being an anon for my blog i would love to have you :D

Warning: this post contains yandere-themes, including delusional behavior, implied being held against ones will, and other potential topics. Please read at your own risk!

While she isn’t against asking the Harbingers to get you under control, she prefers to handle you herself. The Tsaritsa knew what kind of responsibilities she’d be taking on when deciding she wanted you, and thus she tries to avoid relying on them. At first, she tried to mitigate any negative feelings between you and her Harbingers by having you attend meetings with her, Fatui-related events, and other such things, but she has quickly learned it’s better to leave you in your shared bedroom and deal with any attitude when she returns home. 

During times when she has to be away from Zapolyarny palace or outside of Snezhnaya and can’t bring you, she’ll task one of her dear Harbingers with your care. It’s usually Pantalone or Capitano, Pierro is generally too busy, Pucinella is too easy on you, and the others have quirks of their own that she doesn’t hold high faith in. 

Long, slim fingers brush through the strands of your hair, tucking back any loose pieces and fixing the parting as she mulls over a thought in her mind. The Tsaritsa knows she has only another hour or so with you before she has to set off again, leaving you in the capable hands of her dear Harbinger Capitano. She hasn’t yet broken the news to you, knowing you’ll pitch a fit that is better dealt with by giving you space to lash out. She’d chosen Capitano this time specifically because you’d been extra testy lately, plotting escapes and trying to fight some of the lower-ranked guards posted outside your door. The large man could take quite a beating and she was hoping he’d be up for the challenge of your care. “My sweet Snowball, I’ve neglected to inform you until this point, but I have to leave Snezhnaya for some time. A minor god has appeared in a nearby nation and sparked trouble, Celestia has requested I step in to assist in handling them.” Her fingers pause in your hair for a moment before pulling away, allowing you a moment to process what she has told you. 

As much as she hates to do it, she often lies to you about where she’s going or why she has to be out of Snezhnaya. The Tsaritsa knows of your dislike for the Fatui and their motives, but she cannot simply halt her plan because you are heartbroken over it. Thus, she often will tell you false information, playing the part of the darling Archon that Celestia expects of her, but only in front of you.

Really, she rarely leaves Snezhnaya, often traveling to different parts of her nation to handle difficult tasks that the calloused hands of her Harbingers are not capable of. She has on occasion ventured out of the controlled walls of her nation, daring to visit neighboring ones in search of valuable items or materials, but she prefers to stay in Snezhnaya. While she may be powerful and well capable of defending herself, she sleeps easier at night knowing that you are within the same nation as her.

[crossguild]

one piece as a series actually displays an INCREDIBLE sociopolitical awareness that i think gets undersold because lol shonen and man i was NERVOUS about the slavery plotline with the fishmen but in hindsight mr. oda really hit it out of the park because it's not just about 'slavery bad' or 'heroes good because they oppose the bad thing', it's about an entire system that exists to protect and uphold it for the benefit of those in power and really digs into how those cycles of violence are so difficult to break.

op doesn't try to portray the fishmen as perfect victims who're deserving of not being oppressed because they're all actually good and kind people, and it doesn't try to say that liberation and justice is easy or that it comes without cost, nor does it even say that everyone who participates/has participated in the system as an oppressor is actually irredeemably evil. it's clear in that regardless of the good people in power, regardless of the shitty people being oppressed, people can (& must) do what they can to liberate others even if it's hard, even if it feels small or you face setbacks. and even from drum island, we have the message that kindness isn't enough-- you have to be able to leverage that kindness in a meaningful way, which i know twitter activists hate to hear lol.

a less sophisticated series would position luffy as a Hero who is the First Person who has ever thought that the system is bullshit and who has tried to change things and have him succeed in kicking off the great revolution, but OP could not be clearer about how many gears and levers were already turning, how many people were fighting and struggling and living despite that struggle, how much blood and sweat and tears were shed to bring things to a point where luffy COULD be that catalyst to set things in motion.

it sets up all these players who have been building and doing whatever they could with what they had. whitebeard planting his flag to protect FMI, for example, an imperfect solution that ties their safety to his life rather than true liberation, but it's all he could've done at that point and it was an important & meaningful gesture that made such a huge difference to so many people that the fishmen truly considered him their only true human ally. even by the end of fishman island, it doesn't show that luffy has brought freedom to FMI, but that he's helped to take one step in a series of steps that were taken before him and must be taken after him to repair relations between fishmen and humans.

and obviously all of this is analogous to certain real-world historical events which have repercussions to this day and draws heavily from the actual civil rights era of the USA, and we can quibble about how giving that narrative to a super-powered non-human sentient species to deliver a message about Slavery Wrong is a little tired, and i would agree with those criticisms, but somehow this absurdist action-comedy adventure series for boys 13-15 years old manages to nail those themes and stay on message without being preachy or ham-handed. fishman island isn't even my favorite arc but it definitely lives rent-free in my head

[maximumqueer]

Can I just rant a little bit about how weird it is that powerscalers make up a good chuck if not the majority of the One Piece fandom? Like, obligatory consume media however the fuck you want, I'm not your dad, this is just my silly little opinion.

To start off, One Piece has always put more stock into the world building and political systems than the power systems, which very much (to me at least) feels very vibes based. Like, there is a structured nature to them, but one that Oda has no qualms with bending or breaking for the sake of the story. The world building/political systems on the other hand, are very fleshed out. This series regularly tackles issues of slavery, oppression, genocide. Of government misinformation and corruption and how that effects the people of the One Piece world. And it does so well! Yet time and time again the main conversation I see boils down to who can punch harder, and do said punching in the coolest, most badass way.

And I think this is why Gear 5 was so controversial when in first debuted. It did not fit into the powerscaling system that had been developed, it being the amine/manga equivalent of Looney Tunes. And it did not fit the typical rage filled final form that has become standard in Shonen. It didn't matter how thematically relevant that Luffy's final form was joy incarnate, that it represented the themes of freedom that the series had been building up for its decades of run time. It was not stereotypically terrifying and powerful in a way that the cishet male viewer could project onto in a power fantasy type of way. It's silly and goofy and designed to make the viewer laugh along with Luffy as he pulls off these insane stunts (like turning Kaido into a jump rope). It's not really meant to be powerscaled or viewed as a power fantasy, its meant to the the antithesis of the oppressive regime of the world government, and a beacon of hope for the oppressed.

[raine-kai]

Luffy and the Limitations of Reality

Today I finally got the time to watch the Gear 5th fight episodes, and I had some thoughts. (Well. It's less that I had time, and more that I was paying no attention to anything else because my brain was full of One Piece so I decided to embrace it.)

First off, SEVEN EPISODES??? Wow they really milked it 😂 I don't remember how many chapters it was but seven would be almost a whole volume and I don't think it was that. (Yes, I know, old news that the anime will milk these things for all they're worth, but still.)

Secondly and most of all, though, I want to talk about what Gear 5th, and Luffy's use of it, tells us about him.

Luffy is excellent at working out clever ways to fight opponents, even when it seems impossible, and training himself up to impossible lengths, using everything he has at his disposal.

But Gear 5th is a little bit different in that it's literally world-bending. The fact that he could use it more or less instantly could be the fruit communicating to him via their compatibility...or it could be that Luffy is always pushing the boundaries of reality in his mind.

While it could easily be a bit of both, Luffy's comment that he can do everything he wanted suggests to me that it's more of the latter.

This means, to me, that Luffy has always felt a little bit caged inside his own head, trapped by the boundaries of reality and physics. That Gear 5th to him is breaking free of these trivial cages that have always limited him, and allowed him to have the time of his life.

There's something that resonates with me about that, feeling trapped in your mind and discovering an outlet through imagination and joy that cut through and reshape a dark, serious world.

One Piece is full of metaphors and references and I'm sure we've barely scratched the surface of what Sun God Nika means, and who Joy Boy was.

But I feel there is something momentous about having Luffy be so good at using his Nika powers, with very little learning curve. Something that suggests an enormity about how he fights all systems that limit him all the time, including physics and reality itself.

He's always done silly things in battle—the first examples that come to mind are the time he tried to eat Crocodile and water Luffy and gomu gomu no boh—and Gear 5th harkens back to those with Kaido demanding that Luffy take the fight seriously. But things like grabbing lightning or peeling up the ground? Luffy has these extremely wacky ideas and as soon as he sees that he can make the ground change form to suit him, he immediately starts playing with that.

One Piece has always had a huge theme of freedom, and I like that it takes this theme to extremes—freedom even from things like physics which will forever constrain us.

It's redefined the shonen genre, and continues to do so by defying and subverting genre conventions again and again.

I've been a One Piece fan for over twenty years, and most of the long-running stories that I was a fan of twenty years ago have waned in my esteem; yet here is One Piece, still waxing, still growing in its scope and impact. The queer representation that used to be considered questionable has become something largely seen as very positive—not through retconning, but through expanding the in-world representation of non-cis characters. (I still live in dread that one day this will be taken away, but until then....) The story has had its ups and downs, but it always introduces something new to drag me back in.

Today, it's the notion that true freedom means even freedom from physics and the limitations of the material world, and that could so easily be silly...and it IS silly, but in a way that continues to make me invested in the story, and love Luffy ever more.

Kaido keeps telling Luffy to be serious, calling him a child...but he loses. All this time, he's been waiting for Joy Boy, but when he meets him, he ridicules him.

There's something in here too about the power of childish fun, embracing your brain's weirdness, and not minding when people call you names.

But when I put it like that...hasn't that always been ONE PIECE in a nutshell?

[thydungeongal]

Somewhat strange and specific question, specifically what would be a good ttrpg to do One Piece. What I specifically want from it is some stuff to do cool freedom fighting pirate adventures along with the really interesting power system of Devil Fruits-

I sadly don't know a lot about One Piece except that Luffy loves his friends and to stretch. Apparently there's a Spanish RPG called Seapunk Unleashed that has yet to receive an official English translation, but based on a little bit of googling the developers seem to be working on one, and it's explicitly inspired by One Piece.

Besides that, there are a few systems that I know that model the action and themes of shonen anime, but I don't think any of them have explicit support for nautical adventures. Anyway, here's a selection, I recommend looking into them (I'm including Panic at the Dojo here because while it's more of a martial arts game than a battle anime inspired game, its martial arts creation system could be used to model a lot of anime style signature fighting styles).

(if you have ever supported any charity bundles on itch.io you might already have one or more of these games)

[bottlepiecemuses]

One Piece Shows Even If You Topple The Celestial Dragons There Could Be Other Types Of Tyrants To Take Their Place

As One Piece shows in the series, the world is under a dictatorship that is run by a tyrannical king who is hinted to be hundreds of years old and hides in the shadows so no one really knows that there is really a true ruler with puppet agents following his orders. All under the rule of Imu through the world government we see systematic oppression and authoritarian practices seen as normal by the people of the world or weakly excused as a price to pay to have any sort of peace. And the emphasis in the story is that this is an unfair system and that one day they will finally topple. However, despite all of this I do think there is another theme that comes with how tyranny stinks.

It's the fact that who can replace a corrupt system if it was finally out of power. When you look at the pirate side you see many figures like Kaido and Big Mom who are offered as an alternative authority for people who seek protection. Despite the fact they themselves are in conflict with the world government, it doesn't mean they would bring the dawn to the world and end the darkness.

First we have Big Mom who espouses equality and peace among all people and lets her subjects eat in a land of plenty. However, despite her claims of being a kind, just ruler the reality is more bittersweet on the surface. Big Mom at heart is an overgrown child who never truly grew up and as a result she has a self-centered view of things where everything she does is good and those who don't obey her are bad. As a result, she endorses ruthless methods to get people to comply what she wants like forcing them join her tea parties or have a loved one killed. Or the fact that those who try to leave her crew have to give up their life or appendage like the case with Pedro. There is the most galling fact that she makes the population give a portion of their lifespan to fuel the homies that litter the land or make them be exiled. It's really is a deal with the devil where everything seems grand on surface, but it's really shitty underneath the surface. It has the face of kindness but the hands of a tyrant that strangles you if you don't do what you claim. It's barely better than what the world currently has where the world nobles are overgrown royal brats who demand everyone cater to their needs and never return the favor.

Interesting enough Kaido as well speaks about equality and merit for all based on strength. Unlike Big Mom, he doesn't emphasize peace but war and thinks it's the true equalizer and endorses anarchism. However, as seen in Wano this also leads to a form of tyranny through might makes right. Those who are stronger can easily overpower those who are weaker. This as as a result leads to just as much of a world of bullies like the World Nobles who trample everyone they think as inferior and exploit those who can't fight back. It would be just another world where the weak have no voice and they will always be trampled by the ruling class. In this case, it would be the warrior class instead of the noble class who wouldn't act any different. The world would know no peace and everyone would be fear for their lives like in Wano under his 20 year rule. It is why he doesn't become the new joyboy because he becomes another tyrant that stamp on the freedoms of others while saying he is bringing up equality.

And that is where Luffy comes into the picture because unlike those other two he's actually someone who liberates whoever he goes without conditions or drawbacks. Even though Luffy never intended to be a hero, he always manages to still make the world a better place because when he sees injustice he knows and emphasizes with the suffering people go through. He might not do it out of selfless heroism but he does show gratefulness by returning a small favor by liberating them from whatever oppressor a new friend is under. Luffy ultimately is the perfect counterpart to those who would be just as bad as the government if they were truly in charge. It is for that reason he's the new Joyboy because he understands the importance of freedom and that someone who doesn't undrestand that is no different than the world government.

[domain-of-sentience]

ch 39 ramblings (+ HoS analysis)

wow this was the greatest arc of all time huh

(due to length, this post will mainly be a HoS analysis but ill start off with summarizing my feelings about the chapter/arc as a whole)

Summary

in my prior posts i've already mentioned how these chapters had it all: good premise, good cast and character development, actual stakes, immersive and gut-wrenching scenes, the list goes on. lately i've seen people express concerns over Sa and how she compares to the likes of other antagonists like otto but honestly...

i care more about the chess pieces than the ones controlling them

i fucking love seeing characters struggle in the face of adversity. in some of the previous arcs, it felt like the protagonists would always find a way to be one step ahead. but whenever the salt snow cast tried to do the same, they'd end up spraining that metaphorical foot or be pushed many steps back... or just die onscreen 🙈 even if there wasn't true death, there were still lasting consequences

the spectacle was off the charts too. so many scenes were rendered with love and care that sprinkled additional life to these characters, many of whom had lofty dreams that were to end in a whimper than a bang.

and don't get me started on the elden ring ass boss fight and that tense platforming sequence. despite knowing that things were going to be ok somehow, i was able to suspend that thought and immerse myself in what truly felt like despair and isolation

Senti Thoughts (Unceasing)

she had plenty of memorable moments overall. at first i thought the writers were going Too hard on her haughty side, so much so that people were picking on her over it and even the fucking narrator had to jump in

(then i found out this was vita, sorry vita but you're on my list now)

i mean this is the same herrscher who made so many reasonable deductions in the previous chapter. the second time she met kevin she immediately surrendered knowing that she couldn't win. if this Sa was the quantum counterpart to the cocoon of finality then hos would certainly be more cautious, right?

but i think she was fairly confident in two things: the relative power level of Sa and her own natural adaptability to situations, such as the way she cleverly hid herself from Sa's omniscience:

this wasn't Finality that she was contending with, but a fellow rival in the domain of consciousness

Comparison to Vita

she and vita are alike in many ways: their clairvoyance, their eyes, their bird imagery, their selfishness, their love for freedom, their disdain for boredom, their interest in companionship, their struggles with free will, and even this weird tidbit:

i think the only remarkable difference they had was senti's activeness to vita's passiveness

tho, despite their similarities they don't have interesting interactions outside of the mindspace (WHICH BTW always fills me with nostalgia whenever they play that hos bgm)

Freedom, Mind and Body

freedom is one of the core themes of this arc (like, they really beat you in the head over it), but it's an extremely consistent trait for senti's character.

she is not a materialistic person; she would rather simulate the taste of tea in her mind than to experience it for herself. despite being a free spirit, she still has a Restraint that manifests as a mental shackle: an influence from memories that do not belong to her, which still affects her to this day. so who can blame her for always chasing freedom?

but the most interesting thing is this:

it would explain why she could taste the moonrock a long while ago when she didn't know it was rock salt. although, i guess it's largely unnecessary since she can just influence people's consciousness to look however she wants. but y'know, chekhov's gun and all....

also, the 72 transformations is another journey to the west reference!

The Status Quo

did you know senti is a character who hates stagnancy, but is stagnant herself?

she admitted to being stir-crazy in times of relative peace after the great eruption, she was seen pacing around in the country of iron sand while she couldn't do anything else, she'd rather beat up the problem head-on than to brew up a solution. indeed, she is a very active herrscher who likes to mire herself in chaos for the fun of it

ironically she gives away so much Therapy Guidance but she never addresses her own underlying issues, such as her wish for people to genuinely care about her. you can't fight that problem away, so she'd rather ignore it.

she couldn't even give that new body a real chance because it would unravel everything about her. she can't leave her comfort zone at all. even her fighting tactics haven't changed a bit (thanks mhy)

to use an analogy: she is like water. water is versatile and can easily turn into vapor or ice, just as how senti is adaptable and can literally change her physical state. but no matter what form water takes on, it is still molecular water in the end, just as how senti will always be senti

but what happens if water undergoes a chemical reaction and irreversibly changes?

even pseudo-death freaked her out. can you imagine what would happen if her authority diminished completely, or if she was restrained in a corporeal body, or if she was locked up with fuhua in a room forever-

Sentihua Crumbs

you can leave this post now if this isn't your thing

hmmmmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmm also senti isn't beating the absent father allegations

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the funny thing is that this arc was so fucking good that i want to go into the next one with ZERO expectations. like i'm not really sure if they can keep this momentum up and so far all of fuhua's appearances since the end of the taixuan arc were.... lackluster at best

but here's to hoping that fuhua and senti have genuinely meaningful interactions that can at least hold a candle to what the seeles got

[eybefioro]

Hi!! I hope it's not too late but i wanna know about the To be a guardian wip :))))

It isn't too late!! I'm always happy to talk about my wips 😂

This one is something that spiraled out of control from this writing prompt, and now has over 30k words (it was supposed to be a simple one shot lol)

It's an AU, where Aziraphale isn't the angel of the eastern gate. Crowley is a slightly different character, he has been alone on earth since the beginning, so he's more lonely, but he has a lot more power and freedom since the arrangement is with Beelzebub. He ends up adopting Warlock more or less how the prompt suggests. Warlock is an orphan, and Crowley ends up relating to him and being properly good, even if he wouldn't admit it. The whole thing is about loving and letting yourself be loved and taking care of other people. I'm still developing Aziraphale’s part, but here he is Adam's uncle and a literature teacher. Because of some circumstances (the satanic nuns are his family in this one, and they're sort of an angel obsessed cult lol) he will need to take care of Adam and you can guess how A/C will meet.

A (long) snippet:

Time passes.  Crowley keeps meeting with Warlock sporadically, until the encounters aren't sporadic at all – he starts to accompany the kid everyday from school to home, to make sure he's alright. Somedays, he ends up helping him with the homework and laughing about the dinosaur bit (he will never tell Warlock the truth though, the kid likes the dinos). In others, he scolds Warlock for not getting enough sleep, going to bed later to read his beloved comics, or for not eating enough vegetables, of all things (those times he felt especially undemonic and out of place. Those times, everyone around Mayfar suffered a little bit more with his annoyance, just to even things out). On most days though, they enjoyed each other's company and Crowley incentivizes Warlock to be a little piece of work to the teachers who refuse to understand him.  With time, Crowley's flat gets warmer. The lights, always so white and bright, start getting cosier. The throne room now has a wall full of Warlock's drawings – some of them he stole, most of them gifted, only a few that Crowley helped draw. The couch in the sitting room gets comfier, and a fluffy white rug appears under it. Slowly, the walls, before so dark-grey and stone-like, acquire a more light, inviting and less oppressive tone. The kitchen now has food in its  storage besides coffee and alcohol. Actually, he had a proper pantry now, not that he dared to think too much about it; he supposed he was in need of a new hobby to occupy himself, and cooking was as good as anything else, really. The cupboard, having before only one sleek black mug, now also hides a fun colourful one, that he refuse to notice it was super hero themed. Somehow, comic books find their way between Crowley's soul collection, and who could blame him? He watched so many cartoons and talked so much about it with the kid that he learned to enjoy it quite a bit (his favourite were the ones with some Endless beings, that he found while browsing for more comics for Warlock. Crowley thought it was pretty malign to give the kid more books to distract him from responsibilities. No other reason at all for it, obviously). By the door, hangs appear to hold coats, right above a shoe rack, things that Crowley never needed since it was easier to snap his clothes on or off. The passenger seat of the Bentley grows a safety belt. All the big floor to ceiling windows and the balcony gets secured with a safety net. Small changes keep happening all around him without his knowledge and at a slow pace, Crowley not being able to recognize the gradual changes, but, with time, his house feels less and less lonely.

One day, a couple months before the first time he met Warlock completes one year, Crowley is walking towards his bedroom, and notices that the hall is longer. He halts, side eyeing a weird new door by his side. It is a sleek built-in one, the same type from the throne room, but smaller and not pivoting in the middle. It wasn't there before; it never existed before, and Crowley doesn't know since when it has been there, doors like these are supposed to be mostly unnoticeable. A shivering fear crawls behind his back; Hell shouldn't be able to mess with his flat. It's supposed to be a neutral ground, his house being the only place that Hell or Heaven couldn't interfere, an old agreement. He opens it, dreading whatever will be behind the door. He's welcomed by a sight that makes his mind stop in shock. It's a comfortable sized room, not too big to make you feel bad, and definitely not small – just the right amount of space to be cosy and still have plenty of room. The walls are a light greyish blue, still having the stone like texture, although softened by the change of colour. The window is big, having a beautiful landscape of the city framed by soft red curtains. A comfy kids bed with the same shade of covers occupies a side of the wall. There’s a white desk and chair in the middle of the opposite wall, surrounded by also white built-in shelves, ready to be filled with clutter. A soft rug sprawls in the middle of the room, with comfy beanbags, all following the colour scheme of the rest of the room. Crowley slides with his back to the wall, sinking into the floor. The sight of that perfect room burns behind his eyes. He knows who this is all for. He hugs his knees and lets himself cry soundlessly. It aches. He can't run away from it anymore. Nor pretend to run away from it anymore. He likes the kid. Even his house likes the kid (okay, maybe that has to do with his subconscious moulding his surroundings, but anyways). Even if it will hurt in the end, even if it doesn't make sense, he wants to protect Warlock, help him grow up, see him enjoy life and be able to provide comfort and… and care. He won't say love. Demons don't love.

Look, To be a guardian is my roman empire. I'm even making a 3D model of Crowley's flat.

There's so much I wanna talk about lol I could go on for hours.

If everything goes alright, I plan of making this a 3 part series. The first one, is focused on Crowley and Warlock relationship, the second is where there might be a slow burn between Crowley and Aziraphale, and the last one is where there is sorta of a... hm... impending doom. Yep. But just the first part is solid, the rest still need lots of plotting, and the draft is *rough*.

Wip ask game

[3c0ra-zon3]

One Piece, food, and the Power of Friendship

(As someone who is in recovery for an eating disorder and is just beginning to form meaningful relationships after nearly 3 years of isolation.)

In September of 2023, I started watching One Piece because of the live-action I finally gave in. I was hooked from the beginning. I think there were a lot of driving factors to my instant connection with the show. It partially being my loneliness and partially my lack of job.

I think I want to preface my praise with an acknowledgement. One Piece is by no stretch of the word a perfect show. It has flaws from the pacing, the art style in certain arc, to more serious flaws like the way in which they portray some of the queer characters or Sanji's weird descent into complete perversion. One Piece has a lot of things in which it could do better, but I think, it is also a show that does a lot of things right.

One of the things it does incredibly well is food symbolism. Around 3, closer to 4, months ago, I posted about One Piece and food symbolism. Unfortunately, this isn't a post going more in-depth on it, though I've certainly considered it, I want to talk about how important it is to display food the way One Piece does. No matter how silly it may seem to most people, One Piece is a large reason I decided to move forward with trying to get better. I'd been struggling back and forth around the time I'd started watching One Piece but around December/January, I really began to descend into things worse and worse. I found myself growing distant from One Piece, I don't know if that was a subconscious thing because as I began to keep myself from food again I began to realize all the meanings that food was holding in One Piece or maybe it was just good old depression. Regardless, I pushed myself to continue as my enjoyment was far too great not to. Having shows that push, even passively or symbolically, that food is good and food is fuel is incredibly important and necessary. I struggle to think of many times in which food is regarded as bad, maybe in some arcs minor bad guy/girl mentioned not wanting food or keeping their figure, but to my recollection, there is little to none of that in the main cast or in general. In fact, we see Nami and Robin eating regularly. We see the crew enjoying food together, enjoying themselves around food. We see them eat for pleasure because something is yummy, not just for survival. And we see this constantly. We see this with so many crews. We see this at the end of most arcs when people are celebrating their freedom at last after month or years of poverty and starvation. I didn't fully recognize, even till writing this out, how important that passive/symbolic message was and is. I feel free? In a way. I feel lighter, I am not fully recovered, but I've slowly been finding myself enjoying food more, even before deciding to recover. One Piece made me recognize things that years of therapy couldn't. My therapist could tell me till she's blue in the face that I deserve food and freedom and happiness, but for some reason, a silly show about pirates and freedom made such a significant impact on me. Shows that push that passive influence works because it begins to slowly break down ideologies of self-hatredself-hate in a way therapy can't. It's similar to how the ideologies of self-hate became so ingrained in us in the first place, bit by bit in the shows and media we consume.

Then the theme that regards the power of friendship. I think this is something One Piece does better than most shows because it shows true unconditional love to someone. It shows that people can be friends despite different lives up until their meeting, or how it shows loving someone through hard times, or that bonds can be bone deep (yohoho) despite the short time you may know someone. I've never seen another show that so accurately portrayed the emotions I felt as someone who was outcasted and alone for so long. There was this connection I felt so deeply to Robin, that for along time I couldn't place. But, she ran and she was whatever she needed to be so that she could survive and have people around her and she searched for so long for the people that she could call her home. And, ok, I'm not on the run from a government and my people weren't wiped out, but! I was an autistic kid in public school who didn't have the best home life. I was desperate for love so I was whatever I needed to be so I could have people around me. Even when things got better-ish at home, I still struggled. Now, I was an autistic kid who had to move to another school cause the bullying got too bad. I was running but I couldn't get away I couldn't find my people. I was whatever I needed to be. Then around my mid 9th grade or 10th grade, I honestly have such a bad memory, I left in-person school to do online classes. I was alone, truly, for the first time. I wonder if Robin felt a similar empty confusion. I'm just barely beginning to find people to surround myself with for the first time that are, is as it's only one person, kind and caring to me and we connect.

I tried to condense this down and make a TLDR, but my brain exploded, so you get my barely edited kind of jumbled thoughts on this. I don't know, One Piece is just an important show. Despite its flaws it has a lot of important messages like you deserve freedom and food and happiness and people who will love you through hardships. I think it has a lot of things it could do better, but I also think there aren't many shows that do these themes so much justice and show them all at once. I think few shows will ever live up to what One Piece has done for me mentally. And, I think it proves that a lot more shows could replace the toxic passive messages they chose to use for more positive ones and that may help a lot of people, but who knows? I am just a Tumblr user that can't quite word things the way I wish to. Maybe that's the TLDR.

[dolphs-world]

Video Games as High Art

There's this guy I know from High School who is just so particular. So sure of himself, that every action he makes is the right one. A lot of people find him off-putting or hard to be friends with but I've always been drawn to strong personalities. Multiple times he has said this "In 20 years time everyone will be making jokes in the way that you do because your humour is 2 generations ahead". I would find this a compliment but one time we were discussing memes. I said that memes will never be high art, especially in their state now, because of how derivative they are and their use of copyrighted materials. He said "Well then I have some Dogelore comics to show you that would change your mind". Going through my posts, I have alluded to my thoughts of High Art. Seeing as I have had this blog for over a year now I think I should share it as I think about it every day. High Art is piece of work of great thematic depth and intellectual exploration that is exemplified by it's medium of choice. Historically, this has been limited to older mediums. Recently the discussion of video games as High Art has popped up as games are able to have richer stories. I don't think of video games as High Art. Video games are a tool, not an inherent artform. The interactivity and freedom of choice ironically limits the ways a story can be explored. Now this is not to say that games can not be high art, I have 3 examples. Donkey Kong Country: Going through the game you can see the ways industrialisation has affected the island with the enemies becoming more and more militaristic and technological based, much like the original Sonic, and at the end you fight a king, the purest representation of this idea. You fight him on a pirate ship. The next game is a mirror, fighting back the force that tried to colonise your homeland. Sadly, the third game does not continue with this rich theming. Metal Gear Solid 2: The MGS games have been lauded for their rich and deep story. I guess that's the but it's more so a fun spy plot with some of the greatest voice acting in a video game. The second game, however, is a rich deconstruction of men's relationship with power fantasies. But this deconstruction is one layer removed from the medium of video game as it's all subtext. New Vegas: I don't really need to discuss this one, there's a reason it's still being discussed today. Now I haven't played a lot of RPGs but the ones I have had no level of depth as New Vegas. But, I believe that RPGs would be the best genre for High Art as they are all about choices and story. The issue with video games is that since it's such a new medium a) we have yet to see what will stand the test of time thematically b) because it's still so new the standards for a good story are much less than something like film. That's a reason why video game movies aren't good, they're stretching a thin plot that's decent within it's context as not being the focus into a 2hr screenplay. Video games can be High Art, they should be, but it is not going to happen until the designers can accept the constraints of being a video game and using that to help them. The worse games are trying to be movies. Can you imagine if in a film there was narration to explain everyone's emotions, in order to feel like a book, forgetting it's a visual medium? That's what a cutscene is! Be proud of being a video game, respect your history. That is how video games will become High Art.

[daystarvoyage]

What do you think about animation’s respectability politics?

Oh man oh man where to begin with this Good one, this topic might make me emotional, Nostalgic, and transparent.

Now, I'll try to articulate as much as possible, cause there's a lot going on with today's society and how we Poc or Bipoc Are seen.

(Meaning People of Color & Black Indigenous People of color.)

This will not only affect my way or others' views of today's media from the 80s and today's 2000s cause as a person born in the 90s.

i have alot to say on how we come along way from today's media, watching all forms of animation, be it episodic or story-driven shows, of every genre, but theres one topic no one dont want to open about is how we see each other in forms of media so where gonna get donw to the first years of my life and how it effected me

The Raging 80s & 90s (The open space for resolving politics & steppingstone to cultural appreciation.)

This was the pinnacale of golden age animation that trailblazed so many ideas, great shows and driven packed series & francshies, i feel this was a excellent time to see.Which had very provactive engaging storytelling made up for it,

(without the whole lgbt themes getting in the way be it good or bad we'll get to that soon.)

however There were certain times we never had premoninet characters, main main characters if you will, never gained any limelinght or just a magic or Token black being a side piece or disposable best friend without reasonnig leaving the show,

(Disney shows im looking at you with a bomb bastic SIDE EYES later on.)

that are underused to a degree in 80s animation which atsome point were depicted good.

(exception of kid n play show in the 90s being a prominent cast of colorful cast & movie series or fat albert being a first main character howver he has at times can promote harmful stereotypes.)

check out this beautiful empowerment article

but anything girl theme like jem from the 80s where i saw shana was ago to for black girl empowerment.

but however we have 90s example had harmful ones done in the most gaudy ways say example family matters urkel, & Great Exhibits of good poc rep Like Storm From Xmen,

may i say it was a truly a good time to be beautiful in my own skin and how to love yourself if you saw yourself in said character in your favorite show, where you had so much freedom seeing black people be powerful yet building the road for beautiful melanin folk to rise being happy in there skin.

Now for the dark days of todays

Todays depiction of black media 2000s So on THE DARK DAYS but theres light

with black animators and viewers finally seeing the great stamp that shows our culture being on televison shows put into media set the tone and bar in todays media but,

This is the years wear we as people have been see or degraded in the disrespected, from black face on youtubers to freaking damn controversys on stars wars casting its first black warrior along the african ariel debuncle ( which i find stupid)

I feel in todays media they really dumb down our self worth to try to make a profit off our culture, seeing it done beforehand on animation

YOU GUESS IT DISNEY (which understandable they had there controversys coming,)

which there some shows that show good represnetation with bad and flawed stories that dont paced well or just written in the white eyes for the audience, cause in todays world anything can be fixed with lgbt themes at the cause of proper stories to for the sake of appealing for profit, out of our pockets. so i feel todays media run these types of steroetypes to filth 247 in media.

heres a the gloriyfied tropes they try to depct on us that are harmful to this day everyone even social meda and tiktok

At the point i feel theres alot of work for todays future animators, creators to have better inclusion and open minded options to appease to other viewrs and true fans of great storytelling to tell for generations

But it have been great positive lgbt tropes which sometimes can make or break a show

Article here

Hope this answers all Thanks from The Daystar Voyage

Also DISNEY NEEDS TO BE BLACK OWNED ONE DAY LOL

[raviollies]

that last piece made me really curious about whats the deal with theta and blythe. like how do they see/treat each other and such. could you tell us a bit about how their relationship is??

I have a LOT to say

Blythe and Theta have a very complicated relationship, as that's my bread and butter, but giving a little detail as to why Blythe sought out a pact and the little blurb on her backstory would kind of give a better understanding of the specific themes I am going for.

Blythe is very much meant to embody the toxic expectations of society (and particularly women) and how that can mentally deteriorate you. There is a conversation to be had about the desire of validation from the public can force you to reshape yourself until you no longer resemble what you once were, and how that takes a toll on you but that's for another time.

Some aspects are not unique to being a woman but it ties together --- she excelled academically, got a job, was prim, proper and attractive; a good student, a good daughter, a good woman, and eventually, the expectation of good wife and mother.

However, this was not only not acceptable for her exaggerated sense of ambition and pride, and it being tarnished by being thought of as 'simple', the disrespect of being acknowledged for your looks and your mind being overlooked, and her rather rampant desire to be in control and not subservient (Internalized misogyny at conflating being a wife/mother to giving up your freedom and agency) --- she could not stomach to be just that, and wanted more, to really CARVE her name into history. She wanted to be on top, to have power, to be the top dog so to speak but felt confined by the cage she very much had a hand in constructing. You set up expectations for yourself, mold yourself and then find that mold restrictive.

At the time in the background of her life, floating in and out was a mysterious sorceress, Theta, who upon gleaming more and more of Blythe's desires, revealed herself to be a fairly powerful fey, and offered a Warlock pact. Blythe would get what she wants, and Theta, would get an apprentice, and an eventual member of her coven. The appeal was there, who wouldn't want to be a powerful witch?

Except Theta failed to disclose that the pact would involve Blythe becoming a fey herself, being transformed into a Hexblood. Having her trust in the process broken, she fled from her family in Waterdeep and went searching for a way to reverse her "curse" and return to being an Elf, and that's how she ended up in Barovia!

Blythe very much despises Theta, she sees her as someone that had ruined her life with her fey logic, someone that cursed her and parasitically permeates her existence. She wants nothing more than to rid her life of this hag. Theta on the other hand, does not hold any ill feelings towards Blythe, believing her to be confused, lashing out because of something she does not understand but eventually will. She is possessive over her, and will do things because of her own perception of "doing what's best for Blythe", uncaring of what Blythe thinks, after all. She just doesn't get it yet. (This is very much meant to be a parallel to Ireena and Strahd's relationship)

Like that one post of someone's mother turning a sunflower away from the sun to face the room because she enjoys looking at it, Theta is meant to represent this overbearing nature of "wanting better" of older generations. She does not do things because of any evil intent, but rather out of a twisted form of love ---- she genuinely cares, but does so in a way that only does further harm. She will berate, hurt people that Blythe cares for, dash her dreams because she EARNESTLY believes that's for the best, because she thinks that Blythe is meant to be like her (and who's to say that Theta, at one point, didn't walk the same path?). But that's not to say that Theta is not a major obstacle in Blythe's life, that has to be excised.

That's the JIST of it; I really enjoy writing and exploring themes that draw from my personal experiences to really provide an interesting narrative, so I hope it's engaging!

[nhi-theuserof-this]

COMBINING MY TWO BEST THINGS RN ONE PIECE + PUNKNOIR *not a crossover

ok so I’m in love with gear 5 but punknoir is my number one so what if I— *spits this out*

Mild OP spoilers excluding the crazy ass(exaggeration) Gear 5 stuff and some fun and deranged thought process coming from a place of love up ahead, although all this is centric on hobie and noir interacting with OP the media not actually a crossover

Also this is probably so niche in general just bear with me lmao

-Hobie would be showing noir around and introducing him to other spider people that are willing or able to help with the different time period whiplash which would then lead to eventually meeting someone that would want to update them on media like shows and books and such

-It obviously branches off into media from not america and when you mention manga or anime you have to bring up the big three, hence one piece, doesn’t really sound interesting to either of them at surface level

-noir wants to have something modern to talk about with new people though, so he briefly researches themes of books and shows he’s heard about and rabbit holes across one piece themes of freedom and the part where (haha) luffy is like legally a terrorist or something so now he *has* to check out one piece

-He reads the manga first because he likes reading at his own pace but watches any particularly interesting parts in the anime after reading it in the manga

-noir brings up one piece to hobie pretty soon and since hobie is from like early 2000s? Or a little before?(messy ahh timeline sorry guys) one piece is probably still relatively new in his universe(if it exists in his universe)

-Hobie checks it out himself via video and or written analysis people post online about it as well as checking out the first few chapters

-I’m not very good at getting hobie as a writer but he comes off to me that he would appreciate the story one piece is trying to tell combined with its lighter tone that keeps it from going on like a ‘dark tone’ the way more current / popular anime does

-Hobie starts to occasionally read one piece since it’s not as long as it is in the universe noir picks volumes up from so he slightly might not know the commitment he’s gotten into

-He still has plenty to say about it anyhow, and Noir loves to discuss with him about their own perceptions on the ideas as well was the story itself

-Noir is fucking enraptured by one piece

(Gear 5 content ahead!)

-Noir eventually catches up to one piece and starts reading each chapter as it comes out, and imagine how fucking wild he would go when he reads the gear 5 reveal?

-Noir is from a generally dark and quite gloomy universe, and I feel that this plays a large role in how much he’d care about something so ridiculous to his own universe

-freedom freedom freedom that is like such a big theme and noir would absolutely latch onto it right?

-Noir would absolutely be bothered by plenty of things in one piece due to again, timeline differences, so the sun god nika part would likely bother him simply because of his own silly spider god scenario—I can absolutely see himself relating to luffy with the coming back from the verge of or actual death without their own say-so via their powers/granter of power

-He’d probably try to compare his own attitude and world view to luffy’s in a combination of trying to better himself as well as it’s fun to relate to a character that deeply

-from that general point onwards noir would totally try to get hobie onto one piece by watching the show together

-at this point it’s like a special thing for them two to just enjoy one piece

-when gear 5 is animated and they watch it together noir has to pause the episode a couple of times because he is so happy with how it was animated and hobie is laughing his ass off at the smear frames they land on whenever it’s paused

-they both immediately rewatch the episode like three more times and keep noticing new things, it’s a blast

Ok ran out of things to say🔔🔔🔔🔔🛎️

Sorry my silly ass couldn’t handle the pressure of not combining these two things when I just had the power to make my sillies like my other little guy that I’ve been braining over for the past week

I’ll maybe make some art!!

[pumpkincentaur]

WIP INTRODUCTION: THE LADY DRESSED IN BLOOD

In the Alabaster Imperium, all those cursed with magic are property of the Emperor.

They are his soldiers, his servants, his stalwart tools of reign and rule.

But a storm brews beneath the Pale Throne, and the scales have just been tipped.

An orphan raised in a remote mountain village on the borders of the formidable Alabaster Imperium, Sevka was born with the uncanny ability to mold the flesh and bone of living things. But this power is no gift—Sevka is an Astara, or star-witch, cursed by the actions of a being that left the world long ago. By imperial decree, she should be the Emperor’s personal property. By religious doctrine, her tainted soul will vanish into nothingness the moment she dies instead of returning to the stars. But a curse laid by her mother—an Astara herself— before her death prevents Sevka from leaving the mountains, so she hides under the guise of a mundane healer, keeping her secret lest the people of her village kill her for it.

The Gods do not love the star-witches, after all, and neither do their people.

When a military incursion from across the border destroys Sevka’s village and forces her to reveal the true nature of her abilities in order to survive, she’s discovered by another Astara and the imperial military and taken to the Snow Palace, where the Imperium’s most powerful Astari live at the Emperor’s whim. There, she is taught to embrace her power as a gift... but a gilded cage is still a cage, and the luxuries of the palace cannot hide the Emperor’s intent to use his Astari as weapons in his fight to expand the Imperium across the world and back again.

Caught between her status as one of the most powerful Astari the world has ever seen, and the dire warnings of the bastard prince who serves beside her as the realm’s foremost living weapon, Sevka must choose a side. A bloodstained life of luxury earned through unquestioning obeisance, or an even bloodier path to freedom that will tear everything she knows asunder?

Whatever Sevka chooses, the world will pay the price. It always does, doesn’t it? That’s how the story always goes.

WIP INFORMATION

Genre: dark fantasy/romance

Series or Standalone: book 1 of 3 in the Fleshwitch trilogy

Expected Word Count: 120,000ish upon completion

WIP Page: here (also linked in the title above)

WIP Tag: #ldb

Themes & Tropes: the narrative as a prison | they’ve been dead since the beginning | imperialism | tragic heroes | villain protagonists | corruption arcs | black and grey morality | maybe if we tell it again they’ll be okay this time | (we know they’re not going to be okay this time or any other time but we’ll tell it again anyway)

More information under the cut. If you’d like to be added to the taglist for The Lady Dressed in Blood, please let me know, either by responding to this post or sending me an ask!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS, BABE E!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is I, your number one hyperactive knucklehead writeblr, with yet another WIP. I promise I’m serious about this one... like, for real. It’s something special, I think.

“But Delaney, what about UHT????” UHT still exists, it’s not gone from the blog, as you can see. It’s just... taking a nap. I’ve really been through it this year and took a good hard look at UHT, and in doing so I realized that it’s not the WIP I should be working on right now. It needs some serious work on a conceptual level that probably requires a bit more experience on my end, and so LDB is here to fill the gap.

And, God, I LOVE this project. It’s a love letter to tragic literature as well as what many supposedly-YA romances could be (THIS IS NOT YA. I REPEAT LDB IS NOT YA). It’s a treatise on the way stories work and the way telling a story is really just committing a murder and dragging the corpses around on a stage. It’s a promise of so much more to come, and a small, small piece of a very big world. It’s not the first step, but the next step, and we all know that the next step is the most important one a man can take...

But, this is my project for NaNoWriMo 2022!! It is here and oh boy I hope y’all are ready for it.

TRIGGER WARNING: It kind of says it on the tin, but, uh, the main protagonist of this series is pretty much a fleshbender. This is a dark fantasy project, and it’s going to have some triggering stuff in it. Said stuff includes: body horror, blood, gore, murder, death, manipulation, emotional and physical abuse, imperialism, war, and more. There will also be NSFW scenes that proooobably aren’t going to make it to Tumblr, but I’m undecided on that as of yet. As per usual, I’m not going to let anybody go into engaging with this project without warning them about the big stuff first. Any triggering or NSFW content relating to this project will of course be tagged appropriately.

[aangmarble]

Now that episode 1071 of One Piece is out...

I'd like to share my two cents on Gear 5. I'm pasting what I posted on ANN's forums:

Episode 1071 is without a doubt one of the biggest turning points in One Piece, but what does it actually mean for the story? Is it really a turn for the best? I mean, sure, Gear 5 looks great, and it's a joy to see the Luffy vs Kaido fight becoming a Looney Tunes segment all of a sudden. One Piece's goofiness has always been one of its biggest strengths, so if you turn it up to eleven, it's bound to be fun as all hell, especially in animation form. But what about Gear 5 as a concept? Because the truth is, what once was a story about freedom and inherited will might now become a story about destiny and The Chosen One™. And yes, you could easily argue that destiny is not a foreign concept to One Piece, not to mention that small doses of destiny in a story are okay**; afer all, that's how most main characters work in the first place. But the way destiny has been framed in the Wano arc is different from the way it was framed in the past. Before Wano, with the story constantly making allusions to "the dawn of the world," it seemed like the world was waiting on someone capable of achieving the will of D, and Luffy was simply shaping up to be that someone. But Wano has been presenting it as though Luffy was always scripted to be that someone. Remember what the Sea Beasts said back in Oden's flashback?:

Now, with Wano introducing the concept of Nika out of nowhere***, Luffy's Devil Fruit actually being the Sun God's fruit, and Zunesha saying Joyboy is back****, things are not looking good. Did Luffy become a great pirate through his own efforts, or was he always destined to become a great pirate? There are also so many other things that just don't feel good. I will always prefer the idea of Luffy accidentally eating one of the crappiest fruits possible but working hard to make it good versus the idea of Luffy eating the most powerful fruit in the whole world. I will also always prefer the idea of the people of the D. and Luffy being framed as "the enemies of the Gods" versus the idea of Luffy now being a God-coded character. Still, I don't want to make it sound like I think One Piece is ruined like some people have been claiming ever since the Gear 5 reveal. Oda has made it clear over and over again that Luffy is a character that will always go against the path other people want to force on him. He has made it clear over and over again that One Piece is a world where the characters forge their own future. Plus, there are still so many things we don't know about Joyboy, Nika, and the Void Century, and the story might easily pull a twist that subverses all the destiny stuff that was introduced in Wano. So even if it is revealed that Luffy is indeed the Chosen One, how Luffy will react to that information is what I'm interested to see. We'll just have to wait.

*I will say that the episode could've fixed some things from the manga. Hiyori's scene felt pretty out of place and should've been moved somewhere else to give it the focus it deserves. Also, I think they reused the same sequence of Luffy jumping around like three times. **It's worth mentioning that even stories that function on the principle of destiny can be good. Not because the destiny stuff can be good, but because if everything else in the story is great, it balances things out. A great example of this is Avatar: The Last Airbender. The problem with One Piece is that its main theme is freedom itself. Our main character's goal is to become the freest man in the whole world. So if One Piece turns out to be a Chosen One storyline in the end... well, I think we call all see how that would spell disaster. Is our boy Luffy actually free? ***No, that silhouette of Luffy dancing in Skypiea is not foreshadowing. Stop it. ****It bears repeating that there is still much we don't know about Joyboy and the Void Century, even in the manga, so we can't take Zunesha and Momo's words about Luffy being Joyboy too literally yet. I say this because people have been claiming that Luffy is Joyboy's reincarnation or something along those lines, but I believe it's too early to conclude that.