#one piece meta analysis

[eddith]

After watching the fan letter i kept thinking how one piece is a masterclass of showing how a story doesn't need to be driven by romantic love to explore the beautiful romanticism of relationships in a real and heartfelt way.

Fiction is so oversaturated with romance that relationships between characters are most often than not so superficial and goddamn repetitive, I swear if it were another author writing marineford I would 100% expect the the plot to revolve around the main character saving their romantic interest.

I feel like writters dont really give platonic bonds this type of love and attention, and I do believe a part of it revolves around a societal context to what we as a society considers beautiful, romantic and worthwhile telling a story about.

And also the epidemic of loliness, the lack of connection and the isolation are all factors to why we see romantic love stories being pushed this much, this attachment of the idea of romance that most people seems to have.

And this is why i dont like the narrative of “separating the artist from their art” because I think this it is such a poor way of analyzing art. You can’t create a story like one piece, who explores platonic bonds and prioritizes them again and again and intentionally puts them at the forefront of your story if you, the writer, don't view those bonds as something special and worthwhile writting about.

Because after being caught up with one piece I kept asking myself why did this story had such an impact on me? The backstories, the bonds, they all shock me to my core.

Me being a older sister who wasn't ever that close to my little sister and who always felt this disparaging loliness since i was a child, watching mariford hurted me in a way that no story ever could, I can't imagine the impact one piece would have on me if i watched this when i was younger.

And I believe it's all because of Oda's view on relationships, how he seems to have a deeper understanding of people and how they work.

One piece transforms the “ordinary” bonds that most of us have in our lifes into something so extraordinary.

This why I not only respect Oda as a writer, but also as a person.

A person who could so beautifully show us the true beauty of life, that is, the people around us who love and support us.

[namisweatheria]

I feel like we don't discuss Nami's relationship with gender enough. Her entire character is so deeply informed by being a girl in a male-dominated pirate world and it's so interesting and so worth talking about.

The background creepiness of Bad pirate crews, which are most of them, how they tend to not have any female crew members at all, how they beckon any pretty young woman around to come play with them and join them. It's real bad. It's also like, a totally 2 dimensional portrayal of evil that is reserved for the most background of background characters.

However I think their ubiquity says a lot about how piracy is meant to be perceived by the public in One Piece, and is one of the strongest indicators of how prevalent misogyny is in-world.

It's very normal in One Piece for regular island inhabitants to have never met a Different class of pirate in their life. There's no reason for them to withhold judgement that maybe these pirates won't be like every crew that attacked before, and to wait and judge them by their actions. I mean frankly that would be irrationally weak self-preservation.

There are people who live peacefully under the flags of Yonkos who protect them, and feel loyalty and gratitude to them for it, but that seems to only be thing with very big name pirates. The East Blue, being the weakest and least populated, has no such plethora of powerful people and resulting turf wars.

So. Nami. Is very clearly implied to have never met any Different pirates before. I'm thinking about what that means. About how every group of pirates she stole from were creepy, dangerous men. How she started going out stealing when she was still a young child. How she didn't have a mother anymore to guide her or comfort her. How Arlong would grab her chin inappropriately, talk about her as a "human female", as property, and god knows what else.

How all the men in Arlong's crew treated her patronizingly, pretending they're all friends, teasing her and playing at respect when really not a single one of them ever stuck up for her or hesitated to accuse her of betrayal. Who were always ready to kill her if she refused to cooperate. Who grabbed her and intimidated her when they felt like it.

That's what she had to come back to after a close call with stealing from other predatory men, instead of the relief of home there was a dark, cramped room filled with endless hours of misery and isolation and blood. Where any one of her captors could barge in and demand new maps, work faster, where did you go, you took too long again this time. Endless threats and incursions.

I'm thinking about that her fight scene in Alabasta, where she tumbles and rips off her cape and uses it to catch her enemy's spikes, before leaping to her feet and running out the back door, all in one moment. How it makes her enemy reconsider her and think, "so the girl's not a total novice at fighting after all." What that implies about her experiences as a young thief. The times she wasn't fast or clever enough and had to fight and claw her way out. Why she always carried a staff and a knife. Why she was the only one before Chopper who had any medical knowledge or experience.

You know she was stitching herself up. And the weapons, how do you think she learned to use those? If any of the Arlong Pirates helped her it wasn't out of kindness and it wasn't gentle.

Then I think about Nojiko, and Bellemere's memory, and the only softness in a hard life. How easily Nami connects to every young woman experiencing hardship that she meets. How completely she dismisses the struggles of men unless they mean something to her and are going through something terrible. The way that Nami only has sympathy for women and children is easily noticeable in-text, but it's also something confirmed in those words by the author. And it's clearly because of the life she lived, the men who had all the power and only abused it, who saw her as nothing but a girl to take advantage of, without anyone aside from her sister clearly knowing and caring about any of it.

Nami clearly isn't bitter, she doesn't think the world owes her recompense, on the contrary she knows she is far from the only person in the world to suffer the things she has suffered. She is endlessly reaching out and kind, but only to those that she isn't sure would get help without her. Certainly, before Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro, no man ever reached out a hand to her without an ulterior motive.

I think when she sees a girl in trouble, a girl biting her lip to hold in a scream of grief, a girl running in the woods away from a monster, a girl captured by pirates, she sees someone who no one is coming for. Who no one will stick up for. A person without allies in a world against her. Whether it's actually true in this case or not, she runs straight for that girl anyways every single time.

[maximumqueer]

Luffy not wanting to be viewed as a hero is actually so important to me. Because while the first reasoning we get for this is him not wanting to share his food

We also learn later on that Luffy also doesn't want to be viewed as a savior, nor does he ever want to present himself as such. He doesn't want to be placed on a pedestal or (ironically) be deified by the people he helps.

At the end of Fishman island, he was fully ready to leave without fanfare because he did not want to be treated by the people in that way, and only agrees to stay because he is promised food. The same thing happens at the end of Wano, where he refuses to take any credit for the downfall of Kaido and instead simply enjoys the festival with everyone else.

I cannot overstate how much I love this decision for Luffy as a character. It is incredibly common for stories like Fishman Island and Wano to have the main character swoop in and save the oppressed people, with said character being to sole person to rally them and "teach" them how to fight back. We don't get that with Luffy.

In Fishman Island, he tells the people that its up to them to decide whether or not he is their friend or foe instead of swooping in playing the role of the hero. In Wano, he understands to importance of who begins the fight with Kaido, and stands back to let the Red Scabbards (Wano natives) get the first major hit on Kaido

Even in the prison when Luffy gives his speech, he is asking the people to let him help, to have faith that they and their country can be free again, to fight for the freedom that had been cruelly stripped away from them. And even then, it is Momo and members of the Red Scabbards that fully restore the Udon prisoners faith.

Hell, we even see this all the way back in Arlong Park, where Luffy waits to take action until Nami asks him for help. He doesn't come in guns blazing and save her like some sort of white knight, but instead waits for Nami's go ahead, placing the power in her hand.

It's just such a refreshing way of seeing a protagonist in this type of story be portrayed. To have him understand the importance of the people he fight's side by side with, and not place himself as the fixer of all problems, but rather as an aid to these people (often times an aid that they explicitly asked for). It actively rejects the white savior/white knight trope(s) and allows for the people native to the island to have agency in these large battles instead of being sidelined. It is their lives and stories that are centered as being the most important in these moments, and Luffy is simply there to help them.

[patientwasabi]

I was thinking about Luffy not wanting to be a hero when I realized something.

His very simple yet insightful line, "heroes share their meat, I want all the meat", very clearly shows that heroes make sacrifices. He doesn't want to make sacrifices. Perhaps it's because he's been the sacrifice himself.

Garp is a hero. He's cool too. But he was hardly present in Luffy's childhood. No matter how much he'd get beaten by his grandpa, I bet he'd still rather have him around than not ("being alone is worse than being hurt."). Yet Garp very clearly makes a sacrifice here. Being a marine being a priority over his grandson in the absence of the child's father.

Later, after Enies Lobby, he finds out that Dragon is a revolutionary. Literally a hero of the people. What's he done? The cost he paid for a greater good? He sacrificed Luffy.

So, while Luffy loves really deeply and fights for this love, he would rather have a death grip on his precious ones by being a pirate than let go and sacrifice and become a hero.

This may very well just be me looking too deeply into it, but the idea of Luffy being the sacrifice just did something to my insides that is hard to explain.

[sailing-ever-west]

I'm obsessed with Nami in the realm of female character writing, because on the surface her arc is to be saved by a guy/group of guys, and generally with female characters that's used to take away their agency or power and/or support a romance. But with Nami...it does none of that. Her story is about learning to depend on others, but rather than reducing her power in any way, it increases it. The isolation she experienced before wasn't independence, but part of her oppression, so having a family to support her gives her infinitely more freedom.

Luffy is her captain, but the way Luffy does that is never to lord over people, it's to raise them up with him. And, importantly, he waits for it to be her choice. He stays supportively in reach until she asks for his help. The only time he intervenes without permission is to stop her from actively harming herself. And when he does intervene, it's not to whisk her away and keep her somewhere else safe where she's dependent on his security and protection, it's to literally beat the crap out of her oppressor so he's never a problem again and she's free to live her life either way. And although Sanji acts romantically toward her and the rescue follows his grand ideals of fighting for a beautiful lady, there's no expectation that she now owes him anything or has to give him a chance just because he helped her out of an abusive situation. He did it because he cared, not in exchange for anything. They were all willing to fight and bleed for her with next to nothing in return, and that's so vital.

Nami being a woman is definitely relevant to her story (using her beauty and pretend helplessness to steal without suspicion, the fact that she takes after her mom who was tough as nails in the male-dominated marines, the very real isolation and fear of being female surrounded by [fish]men with power over her), but it's important to note that she doesn't need saving because she's a woman, or due to any weakness on her part. She is shown as incredibly strong, brave, and clever, right from the beginning, but she was trapped in a situation with Arlong that would've been impossible for anyone to get out of alone. Now with a crew by her side, she no longer has to.

[dykealloy]

such a small detail but I cannot stop thinking about law leaving kikoku by luffy's bedside when he went out to talk with hancock and ivankov. idk it stirs up a lot of questions. like does law do this often? does law, like zoro, talk to his well-behaved cursed sword like "kikoku, sit. watch." before he leaves to go have lunch or a well deserved twenty minute post-surgery nap. is this the protective equivalent to leaving a baseball bat by the bedside? doctor's bedside manner emotional support blade? but then I also can't help but notice that it's unsheathed. which... actually, who is that sword protecting really, just sitting there? did luffy wake up more than once in the cradle of that submarine while his body was still recovering? (drugged up to the gills, entirely noncoherent, unable to be reasoned with, going in and out of consciousness, the only thought running through his mind being "ace"). probably would've been a nightmare for the heart crew

[shanksxbuggy]

Shanks has a connection to each of the other current Four Emperors, and he also happens to have received a permanent scar from each of his interactions with them.

In that single conversation between Whitebeard and Shanks, they mention every future Emperor and reference the ways Shanks was wounded in some way based on his relationships with each of them.

Blackbeard gave Shanks the scars across his eyes.

Shanks lost his arm saving Luffy.

And Buggy? Well, Buggy left scars on Shanks’ heart that he still hasn’t forgotten.

I saw this in a fan art, Shanks thinking about Luffy makes his arm throb (that’s why he touches the stump of his arm), Shanks thinking about Blackbeard makes the scar over his eye throb, but Shanks thinking about Buggy makes his heart throb 🥺❤️

(“So your arm - “So your scar -“ “So your, uh…ex-situationship -“)

Was it really just a coincidence this one interaction had all these references to the future Emperors and the way they caused hurt to Shanks? Also the scars encapsulate his relationship with each of them. Blackbeard is a crafty adversary, Luffy is his hope for the future and someone he wants to watch out for, and Buggy is someone close to his heart.

All of the current Emperors have unfinished business to settle with Shanks. It’s worth noticing that out of all of them, Buggy is the only one who dealt emotional damage to Shanks.

Blackbeard vs Shanks and Luffy vs Shanks haven been built up to be these grand physical clashes and battles to prove who’s stronger. Buggy and Shanks’ confrontation has also been built up, but it’s surely to be more of an emotional understanding and reconciliation than a genuine test of strength.

Shanks and Buggy’s narrative resolution of the conflict in their relationship will rely on them finding the One Piece. As it’s been revealed, they actually did want to be with each other, but they wanted different things and didn’t understand that and were hurt by each other because of it. In order for them to reconcile, they will have to reach a satisfying end to their own goals (finding the One Piece) and make up for the misunderstandings and failures of when they broke up.

Finding the One Piece is about discovering the world’s secrets and changing the fate of the world…but sometimes it’s also about resolving the personal issues of two men and getting them back together.

[kacievvbbbb]

Something about Vegapunk using the dna and blood of a caged and experimented on child to create more caged child experiments and the cycles we perpetuate.

Because what does it mean that all that King has left as proof, that the lunarians were real, that they existed as a tribe, as a people, are seven manufactured children he doesn’t even know about, enslaved as weapons to the government that wiped out the culture they’ll never get to be a part of, and Alber himself another enslaved child lost to something he’ll never fully know.

And what of the warlords? Already young once and hurt by their government, young again and slaves to it. Boa looking at a version of her practically pulled out of time stuck in her worst nightmare or Jimbei looking at a version of himself living out a past he escaped by the skin of his teeth but so many he loved didn’t, even Doffy once again at the mercy of the people that already abandoned him, has Kuma not suffered enough? Given enough, is this child version of him doomed to repeat the same path he already could not escape from . Property of the world government, beholden to the celestial dragons, this version of me that cannot go free?

It’s interesting that Vegapunk joined the government so that he could do the most good, but look at the long line of people right infront of him that he’s hurt with his own hands.

[beaulesbian]

Every once in a while I think again about the end of Thriller Bark and feel completely insane and ill about Zoro's sacrifice, FOR LUFFY, specifically (you know, the character Kuma's threat was directed at). It wasn't even that long into traveling together, a few months maybe, yet Zoro was ready to give up everything in that moment - in the chapter with Kuma appearing being titled The End of the Dream ! - to protect his crew and Luffy, so he could continue in his journey.

Since Luffy and Zoro met, they always understand how words and promises were imporant to them - with Luffy punching Helmeppo in ch. 3 for lying to Zoro. Zoro learnt how serious Luffy was about his dream, and soon he realized he backed up his words with actions as well - untiying Zoro and giving him his swords back - his biggest treasures. It meant that Zoro could be honest and honor-bound in the same way to Luffy, to gain this mutual respect and trust between them since day 1. To wield his swords to protect both Luffy and later their whole crew, and to step in a way between Luffy and danger.

He was being actually more upset that Sanji got up from the previous Kuma's attack and interrupted their fight - Zoro was trying to keep the whole crew safe by this exchange for Luffy's head - if Sanji was offering his life for Luffy half dead and without much strength left to fight for himself (he started the offering of his own life already believing he woudn't survive, with a "you should find a new cook"), then this very specific sacrifice would be meaningless to the crew (- if this arc was taking place post WCI, then it would turn out very differently, with the strength of Sanji believing in Luffy, but it wasn't his moment during this scene) - it would hurt them more than help them, because as much as Zoro was prepared to die as well, he was prepared to keep fighting until the last breath.

Zoro was thinking he might die - Kuma's words were pretty certain he WOULD die - but he still had the willingness and strength to take on the deal for Luffy, for his captain and his crew. ("if i die here, it just means I wasn't worth much to begin with" this line he says times and times again during the overall story, like in Rogue Town throwing Kitetsu and waiting if it would cut off his arm, up until standing against King in Wano "it's my power that was lacking", and all the other times he was questioning his worth - it's something he tempts the fates he doesn't believe in, to actually harm him, to take his strength away if he doesn't deserve to survive. and it's him saying he knows and accepts his own weaknesses - of not being strong enough (in comparison to Sanji in this example), and always fights through them.)

He threw away his swords, including Wado Ichimonji - literally throwing aside his and Kuina's dream, to compell Kuma into a duel (with the anime playing 'The Very Very Very Strongest' when Zoro bowed down and pleaded Kuma, offering him his head instead of Luffy's) so Kuma wouldn't go after the crew and specifically Luffy later - no matter the outcome if Zoro would surive or not.

And then, he was actually strong enough to survive taking his captain's fatigue, agony and pain! Possibly being the only one who could survive taking Luffy's pain.

Zoro could have back out when Kuma offered him the 'taste' of the pain, with the realization of the scale of the hurt with the very possibility of dying from it. But that wouldn't be Zoro now, would it? He accepted and took all of Luffy's pain so his captain wouldn't have to suffer or die, and when they found him afterwards, he still kept standing, tense with the fatigue but alive! (again, with anime adding the music of 'Luffy's Fierce Attack' to underline the importance between these two).

He was training for this since the beginning - to become stronger to shoulder the pain of his crew if necessary. (And not only that - he was preparing for that so another Kuina incident didn't have to happen). He was the first one to fight one of the Warlords before anything really began: his fight with Mihawk at Baratie really set the tone and his own goals to overcome - a glimpse to see on how much different levels the Warlords actually were in comparison to Zoro, Luffy and the others, and if they were supposed to beat them so Luffy could become the Pirate King, that always meant to be ready and to get even stronger than them.

(small spoiler for egghead, ch. 1102: seeing Kuma (a Warlord at that time) remembering this Thriller Bark event later, during Egghead arc, and thinking that even he might have passed out from the pain, makes it all the more meaningful that it was Zoro who took the pain and withstood it - establishing how high was the strength of his willpower, already before timeskip.)

There could be so many other nuances and details from these last few chapters of this arc, and even what this deal meant for the following arcs! Zoro was still in pain on Sabaody, and because of that the crew wasn't as strong as it could have been (not to say they would have a chance anyway, knowing what all was in the motion).

The next is the tragedy and beauty of LUFFY never finding out about this. Half of the crew knew: Sanji, Brook and Robin knew the details, but would never tell Luffy - and that shows their loyalty to both Luffy and Zoro (and Zoro's decision). Luffy woke up and first thing he did was to jump up and down, excited not to be weighted down by his injuries, and only seeing his swordsman being down with injuries so severe he was out more days afterwards, knowing that something else attacked them (him = Zoro), after he was passed out from the fight against Moria, brought down his mood (even if it's not much noticable, but the change into subtle worry is there in the few next chapters).

"I can't explain it either!" - meaning he was thinking about it too, possibly how weird it was for him to move normally after such long fight. We don't really ever hear/see Luffy thinking about something, except when it's mentioned how he came up with a solution or idea, telling us there's more to Luffy than just being straightforward in his goals and speech. With Luffy being sometimes very emotionally intelligent when he wants to be, he could have figured it out from all these other people in the room asking similar questions and deducing. Even Usopp was putting two and two togehter. We might never find out if Luffy actuallly knows or not. Luffy probably wouldn't ask Zoro directly, especially if Zoro wouldn't tell first and didn't want to talk about it

- because for Zoro, nothing happened! Nothing, that would compromise his and Luffy's first promise. For Zoro to become the Strongest he couldn't back down from the duel with Kuma (just like before with his duel with Mihawk at Baratie. When he's faced with something he swore to overcome, he can't back down or evade. Even back then Luffy understood that as he held back Johnny and Yosaku, but Sanji was perplexed how far Zoro (and Luffy) would go to reach their dreams). When Sanji was asking him in front of Kuma "What about your dream?" Zoro was still thinking about his dream- it was just that the context has changed, it changed into a journey. His dream is the most important thing, but it wouldn't mean much, if, when on his way to accomplish that, he would betray his other words and promises.

[1000sunnygo]

About Monet...

Her case always stood out to me like a sore thumb because it was the FIRST time a woman in One Piece died onscreen, in real-time. She was not worse than Luffy's other enemies (or allies), she's not a death-penalty-deserving irredeemable and hateable scumbag like Orochi (or Vergo). Even Ceaser is now roaming free. Monet is similar to Baby 5 in many ways, but unlucky as hell. Being a character from a manga where the author tends to give almost everyone a second chance with life, she got none.

Oda said in SBS that Monet and Sugar were rescued from a terrible living condition. The sisters weren't from a poverty-stricken background like Baby 5, at least not initially. In the doodle Oda drew of Monet's childhood self, she had neat clothes and a pair of glasses, and looked like a nerd with her book about birds.

Remember a certain nerd who "seemed" to have a decent childhood in those childhood doodles, holding a dissected frog? It's possible that Monet's life crashed down in a similar manner, maybe at an older age, or maybe her experience with exploitation and betrayal pre-rescue went on for a longer duration. She was 17 when Doffy found her.

Monet is the only character who bluntly tried to flirt with Law. It was a split second thing but what Monet was to Law was not what Law was to Monet. Keep in mind that during the entirety of Punk Hazard, Monet was practically at Law's mercy. There was a gaping hole in her chest the entire time. She seemed - probably the most carefree one has ever seemed with their heart gone, courtesy of Law. It's not like she had no fear of death, Zoro could paralyze her with it. I think it never for once crossed her mind that Law might take advantage of her biggest vulnerability. Similar to how she betted Zoro wouldn't kill a woman, Monet probably held some sort of belief about Law. Ironically she wasn't wrong about Zoro (who indeed went easy on her), but his lesson to her about a cornered tiger became relevant in a roundabout way. She was wrong to assume her surgeon's sympathy.

Unlike Law who had a clear plan on how to retrieve his own heart from Ceaser, Monet seemed to have none on how to get hers from Law. Ceaser said Monet underwent the surgery to spy on Law (pretty sure that she just wanted to be a bird. Utility thoughts came second), of course she had to keep Doflamingo informed about Law's activities, who was blissfully unaware of the latter's revenge plan...

Judging from her weakness to men praising her, maybe she had her own quest for love and Doffy, a women-lover who considered Law to be his reflection, expected things to naturally roll out between Law and Monet and subsequently bait Law to spill his true intentions? We all know in spite of harboring a detailed plan about each other for 13 years, Law and Doffy knew jack about what the other person was truly like.

I can't definitively say that Monet had a thing for Law, maybe it was something she subconsciously considered. But pretty sure that if there's someone who had a good chance of releasing her from Doflamingo's control, it was Law. True that she was a spy and her loyalty ran deep. But the children who were rescued by Doffy in harsh condition were all yearning for love. We've seen two cases where a Donquixote family member loosened their ties to Doffy when they found someone else who promised true and unconditional care. It's possible that with Monet it would've been the same.

Unfortunately, Law had no obligation to 'rescue' her - an enemy, and Oda had no obligation to keep Law clean of this unusually cruel and unremorsed action because Law is not a Straw hat. A man who was poisoned as a child being merciful to a person directly involved in poisoning children wouldn't have come off as a great writing anyway. Leave it to the mushroom hat doctor to have terrible onscreen chemistry with women.

[babybells123]

(ASOS, Sansa II)

(ASOS, Jon XII)

[eddith]

How it pains my heart when people talk about the Straw Hats disbanding and "settling down" after achieving their own personal dreams and finding the One Piece.

Like, what do yall mean?? Are we watching/reading the same story??

The strawhats are together because this is their family.

The Thousand Sunny is their Home!

Robin has spent most of her life alone why would she “settle down” away from her family??

This sea is so vast, if im not mistaken, the one piece earth is 6x times bigger than ours, just the strech of land of the grand line is enormous and people keep talking about the crew “settling down” when we have SO MUCH to explore yet? like, don’t piss me off.

There is so much land, so many cultures and stories to explore in this vast world.

When we see other crews like the Roger pirates, the ONLY reason they disbanded was because Roger was fucking sick.

And it’s the SAME thing that happened with the Whitbeard pirates, they literally grew older together, traveling, exploring for their WHOLE lives ultil their captain was killed.

Like, are we not seeing the pattern here?

(And fair enough, if you think Luffy is going to die at the end of the story, you might as well think about the crew being separated.

But ever since Gear 5, it feels like Oda has created this character in Luffy where he can do absolutely whatever he wants, so I think it would be appropriate for Luffy to just decide he's not going to die, lol.)

But it genuinely pisses me off when people talk about Robin and Nami going away when like…

Sure Nami has her family, Robin has the revolutionary army, even Chopper has the sakura country, Sanji has the baratie and Franky has his family

Yes, they do indeed all have family ties outside of the crew.

But that doesnt mean that the crew is less of a family to them, they chose this, to be each other “Nakama” to be in this journey together.

One piece doesnt feel like the type of story that just “ends” after we accomplishes our dreams, with everyone separating and living “normal lives”.

It's not just about Sanji finding the all blue, he has to explore new fish, cook for his family, like, it's the start of something bigger, you know? And i can say that for any Straw Hat.

To me the end of one piece feels like “What will life be like after we accomplish our dreams?”

Pirate king is not a tittle that you gain and then that’s it, you know?

You need to LIVE as the freest man in the World.

Roger lived a life of piracy, and at the end of his journey he was named King of the Pirates.

But for fucks sake, Luffy has the power of the Sun God.

(Is it really that crazy to think that because of this ancient power he awakened, he might not be affected by all the times he shortened his life expectancy to protect people?)

It just doesn't feel like a story where the hero gives up his life to save others at the end.

It feels like the kind of story where you always fight with every ounce of strength in your being to live as hard as you can.

[namisweatheria]

One Piece means a lot to me as a disabled person, which I think would be pretty surprising to anyone who only has a surface understanding of it. The supposed central theme of "follow your dreams" would be pretty alienating to someone like me, right? It really, really would be, if that's what it was actually about.

However, that ignores that Luffy's dream is to be the most free person in the world. And to attain that goal, the first thing he does is find friends to live life with. Over and over again, from the very beginning, he takes on their burdens, all in the name of being the most free.

Do you see what that would mean to me, as someone who needs more help to get by than is considered culturally normal, to the point that it puts me in a whole socially manufactured category of "other"? Not to mention, because of the infantilization of me due to that category, because of being forced so squarely into the "cared for" role, taking care of other people is deeply meaningful and empowering for me. However, the myths of independence and universal natural ability often make it emotionally difficult for my loved ones to accept that care.

The fear of asking for help, the guilt of being cared for, the weight of someone you loved who could not be as free as you, the insecurity of not contributing enough, the fear that you were born wrong, the self-hatred that says you are not worth the effort, Nami Sanji Zoro Usopp Robin Chopper Ace they all explore the painful obstacles to free connection. Through deeply impactful stories that weave beautifully into the larger one.

All centered around this one person who views loving them and living with them and carrying them as essential to his freedom. Who cannot, for countless reasons, live a normalized life of Structured Relations. Who views exploring and bickering and suffering and laughing with them as the ideal way to live. Who repeatedly puts his life and limbs on the line to do so.

To me, it is an ultimate privilege and freedom to carry other people's burdens. To care for them and live with them. This is central to my whole perspective, and is completely informed by my life experience as a disabled person. I rarely see it reflected back to me. Let alone as powerfully and beautifully as Luffy does.

Nor the other half of it, of wanting to create this life with people in ways that aren't socially normal or approved. Of creating many varied lifelong intimate relations among equals, rather than conforming to the expectation of choosing One Person to live life with and then Creating More.

The utter lack of roles and norms is just as integral and powerful to the exploration of freedom and connection! It is meaningful to me as a queer person, yes, but even this is deeply influenced by my disability. I could never be that One Person, despite everything I have to offer, there is logistically far too much that I cannot do to be someone's equal partner in this society that demands so much from all of us. However, even if I could, I wouldn't want to! It doesn't make any sense to me to only have two people navigate life together on such intimate terms. Can't the demands of society be more comfortably met in a group? Isn't life more fun that way?

We are taught that we can and must do everything ourselves, I just happen to be one of the people that never had a chance to buy into that lie. To learn very early not just the necessity of interdependence, but the joy in it. To learn that it is most comfortably lived with more people involved. To me, close relationships are, love is, a natural extension of that understanding. One Piece celebrates interdependence constantly from the start, while never pretending that it is always easy.

The obstacles to free connection that I mentioned before, they are interspersed throughout the story, and they are always met with "I do the things you can't do, and you do the things I can't do." With, "Of course I can't use swords you dumbass! And I can't cook either! I don't know a damn thing about navigation! And I can't lie!"

These are intentionally impactful moments, and they define the series. I found it very fitting that the Fan Letter focused on a character who was empowered by Nami to feel free and live adventurously despite not being the most physically capable. The character is able by our definition, but the story is very affirming in a disability way, and it was extremely One Piece. I loved how it acknowledged this deep connection between One Piece and the lived reality of disability and celebrated it as integral as it is.

I also believe that absolutely none of this is intentional. It is simply an earnest exploration of human relationships, emotions, and behavior, and it naturally arrives at a radical and disability-affirming viewpoint. Because we are the monkey wrench in the deeply unhealthy (lol) and dominant line of thinking that independence is all. So naturally anything that also disputes that thinking has a disabled-perspective feel to it. The best part is how much it doesn't give a fuck! One Piece is aggressively against conformity in human relationships, in a way that is hard to find in our new world of self-conscious authors.

It's also, you know, the worst part, in terms of all the outrageous bigotry and offensive character design, but god damn it if it doesn't elevate the good parts to unbearable heights. Even the bad character designs can sometimes be more impactful for their intentional "ugliness", when those characters are inevitably taken seriously despite their appearance and the stereotypes they play on, it hits hard every time. I do have a simple hatred for many choices, there is no pay-off for much of the awful problems in numerous character designs and dialogue. But no matter how upset I can be by those things, in the end they can't succeed in pulling me away from One Piece. It's just so crazy and unique and great and terrible and beautiful and I LOVE IT.

[maximumqueer]

I think there are a couple of reasons why there is so much "controversy" (if you can even call it that) surrounding chapter 1118. Part of it is just misogyny. There are unfortunately a lot of misogynistic fans in shonen spaces, and One Piece is no exception. They don't like that a girl gets a cool power up, especially if its similar at all to the male protagonist, who has to be depicted as cooler and more powerful than every other character (but especially the women) at all times.

And that mindset bleeds into the the second reason. Being that the people mad at this chapter (in my opinion) don't really understand One Piece as a story. They treat it as a more stereotypical shonen, when in it far from that, and Luffy as a stereotypical shonen protag, when he is anything but. Some of the complaints that I've seen directed at Bonney's Nika-like form is that it robs Luffy of what makes him special as a character and undermines the importance of Gear 5/Nika.

To tackle the first part, Luffy's power set has never been what has made him special. We've seen already that devil fruits can have similar abilities. Monet and Aokiji both have ice based powers, Catarina Devon and Bon Clay can both mimic how other people look. Hell, we've already seen a devil fruit user with similar powers to Luffy in the form of Katakuri, and I don't remember fans being angry about that. Luffy isn't the only person to awaken his fruit, nor is the only person to have awakened the Nika fruit. And he won't be the last, because that's how devil fruits work. When Luffy dies, the Nika fruit will respawn and someone else will carry on the name of Nika. This is even more obvious with haki. At least half of the characters Luffy has fought in the New World had conqueror's haki, just like him. What does make Luffy special is who he is as a person. It's his ability to reignite hope in people. His nigh unwavering belief in both his own and others dreams, and his ability to inspire that belief in others.

As for it undermining Gear 5. Luffy's awakening has always been about freedom, but not just for himself. Nika is a god of liberation, not personal freedom. If anything, Luffy being able to instill such a deep and profound sense of freedom into a person that they are able to take on a Nika-like form FURTHERS its importance, especially thematically.

Its also is worth mentioning that Bonney's Nika transformation is the perfect culmination of her and Kuma's arc. For a young girl, who spent the majority of her life trapped inside because of a terminal illness brought on at the hands of the world nobles, whose father - in order to cure her so she could have freedom - sold his body to the world government (after previously escaping enslavement by the very same people). For her to achieve complete and total freedom, and for Kuma to be there to see it, to know that in the end he succeeded, and that his daughter is now wholly and truly free - having taken the form of the god he worshipped - is beautiful. Is the perfect way to bookend both of their arcs.

(Also Luffy literally ENCOURAGED Bonney to take on her Nika form. And he laughs with delight when she is successful. He is HAPPY for her.)

All this to say, Bonney's Nika form is fucking awesome and I can't wait to see her and Luffy kick ass together in the next chapter.

[brookstolemybrand]

Another post because I have more thoughts on the ASL brothers

(btw is there a better word for them bc I kinda feel bad about possibly clogging the search results for the language?)

Anyway, I was thinking about how Ace and Sabo represent different big brother archetypes for Luffy:

Ace is the big brother who has the closest relationship with Luffy. They very much grew up together, Ace trained him, protected him, lightly bullied him, all the classic big brother things. And both of them gave each other companionship, they both kept each other from getting lonely, especially after losing Sabo

Ace is also the big brother that Luffy looks up to, who Luffy strives to follow, who's like the older, stronger, cooler version of Luffy. He has similar (though very crucially still slightly different) ambitions: he also wants to become a notorious pirate. He's also the pioner, trailblazing ahead of Luffy. Luffy is always in some sense following in his footsteps, even as far along as Wano!

(And of course this is why he's the brother who had to die for the narrative....)

His role in the story is also to introduce Luffy to the wider world of pirates, the big league pirates. He is the connecting link between Luffy and Whitebeard and arguably also Luffy and Blackbeard

I also feel like as a big brother he's primarily Luffy's protector; whether he means to or not, he ends up saving Luffy over and over again, from the marines, from Blackbeard, from Akainu...

Meanwhile Sabo is the brother who kind of ends up taking the role that Luffy might have played in another timeline where Dragon raised Luffy as his own. I'm never going to bother arguing over whether Sabo or Ace was actually older, but here Sabo kinda plays the role of the oldest son, destined to follow in the father's footsteps.... except of course for the fact that Dragon isn't originally Sabo's father! He's a father figure Sabo chose for himself!

It's a very funny twist of fate

Sabo is the brother who takes the role that was arguably destined for Luffy, but that Luffy didn't want

So that Luffy can be free to do what he actually wants to do

Because that's what SABO's role is as a big brother, and the role he plays in the story; he takes Luffy's place in order to free Luffy. He does this in Dressrosa obviously, but he also does this in a more general plot level by fighting the World Government and the Celestial Dragons directly while Luffy is busy elsewhere. This is all very protagonisty stuff that would better fit the main character, but Luffy simply does not have the time to be doing it and can't divert from his path

This is kinda meta in fact, he's taking a necessary role in the story in order to free Oda from needing to make Luffy do awkward detours and mess up the pacing (particularly with the Reverie; imagine if Luffy had to go all the way back to Mariejois... and hell, he almost does when he hears about Vivi! But even here it's actually partially thanks to Sabo that Vivi managed to escape on her own and didn't need Luffy to come and save her, although this was very indirect and unintentional of course)

He also plays the role of the Hero of the People that Luffy explicitly doesn't want

So where Ace is Luffy's protector, Sabo is Luffy's liberator

Ace protects Luffy while he's still too weak to always take care of himself and teaches him important lessons early on, but he has to die so that Luffy can stand on his own feet and become his own man, not the little brother protected by an older brother

Sabo frees Luffy to follow his own path, mainly on the meta level but occasionally also very literally (such as Dressrosa), and that's why (for narrative reasons) he's brought back when Luffy starts to become more adult and more independent and is starting to get threatened by (gasp) responsibilities (and as the plot becomes too big for one protagonist to handle all alone)

Both of them act as conduits for Luffy to be able to continue this adventure, and they show up exactly when they're needed and exit when they're not

[sailing-ever-west]

The Vinsmoke men are misogynistic and it's so narratively important even though it's mostly subtext and never outright stated. None of them ever say anything against women specifically, and they don't seem to discriminate as far as who can be warriors, but their actions reek of it nonetheless and I can't stop thinking about it.

On the surface it seems like Sanji gives thought to treating women differently and the Vinsmokes don't, but it's clear through their actions that the only "equality" they're really upholding is that no gender is exempt from abuse and exploitation.

It's like when people say "well if you want equality, women should get drafted into the military too!" When the problem is that no one should be forced to join the military. That's basically exactly what Germa is doing.

Sanji's view of women is frequently flawed and a bit myopic, but he seeks to treat them with kindness and love and respect, whereas the Vinsmokes make no attempt at philosophy about women and just treat them horribly.

The most glaring example is probably Cosette, who they berated for making food they didn't like and then proceeded to beat unconscious solely to shatter her confidence and upset Sanji. And when Sanji is understandably enraged at their horrible abuse, they assume the reason is that he was physically attracted to her and didn't want the object of his attraction damaged (saying they didn't know he Liked her, and if the busted up face wasn't a dealbreaker they could make her Sanji's personal attendant, which also reaaally sounds like code for something else).

Another aspect is that despite having no emotions, the Vinsmoke brothers still seem to experience attraction to women. But it's not love in any sense of the word, just purely physical. They find Nami attractive, even wanting to arrange to keep her around when the Strawhats are captured by Big Mom (ew), and there's that scene of them and Judge in their private room surrounded by mostly drunken unconscious (and rather scantily dressed if I remember correctly) barmaids that were sent to them. Granted, nothing Happens in that scene, but the undertones are gross and we're only shown a small portion of the night. Whatever the case, it's clear that these women were not sent in to be equal, respectable company, but an objectified distraction to pair with alcohol, and were treated as such.

And then there are the internal family dynamics, which I think are the biggest and most important part.

To start, there's Reiju. On the surface she seems like she has the same status as her brothers, a modified Germa weapon capable of performing as her father wants. But whenever Judge talks about being proud of his children, he always emphasizes the triplets. Often he doesn't even mention Reiju, and his attention to the boys' training seems to be much closer than to hers. Her raid suit is also more sexualized, as though that's expected to be part of her arsenal. And of course, there's her name meaning "zero" while the boys are all numbered. She is the eldest, but she survives by being ignored, and it's clear that her father prefers her emotionless brothers. This feels symbolic as well since being emotional is often seen as a feminine trait, portrayed as a weakness. Judge hates weakness. And so he hates emotion, hates women.

But at the root of it all, really, is Sora. Sora who's choices and body and children were stolen from her for an abusive man's ideals about war and domination. We don't really get to know how much choice she had in her marriage, but given Judge's royal status and the fact that they obviously share zero values I think it would have to be a strategic political arrangement at best, and something she got no say in at worst.

The kids are all named in a numbering system, which also reeks of Judge not letting her into the decisions. And, of course, there is the absolutely horrific experience of being forced into prenatal surgery to genetically modify her children against her will, to the point that the only way she could exercise any agency was to poison herself in an attempt to save even one of them. She was literally just a baby-producing machine to Judge and it couldn't be more blatant.

The violent, self-centered, and misogynistic Vinsmoke brothers are born directly from a woman's choice being taken away from her. Kind, selfless, and loving Sanji is born directly from her one act of defiance, and then later saved by his sister's one act of defiance as well (after which, she was programmed to be obedient).

Basically, the Vinsmoke family is built and preserved on the abuse and exploitation of women, and Sanji is the black sheep for many reasons, but I suspect a rather large one is that he's the ultimate antithesis to that.