#she strikes me as one of those 'very popular with the ladies but is incapable of noticing' sorts of people

[lucresence]

Canon Interactions

Byleth

As Byleth has never discriminated against her and even shows an emotionless persona similar to her younger self, she feels a connection to them and considers them a role model. During her Academy time, Byleth helped her stand up for herself against bullies and encouraged her to become more self-confident. She may not always show this, but she is very grateful for their support and tries to repay their kindness with small gestures.

Edelgard

As the leader of the Black Eagles and later the Strike Force, Edelgard is a person of adoration for Kriemhild. In their school days, Kriemhild found great comfort in Edelgard's advice regarding marriage and personal development. Kriemhild considers her a suitable leader and will gladly follow her - although she would not lay down her life for her.

Hubert

Due to her adoration for Edelgard, Kriemhild understands Hubert's devotion to her, although she does not condone all of his actions. He also was one who was able to look past her scary facial expressions as a student, which piqued her interest in him as a possible friend. She respects him and tries to prove her worth as an ally to him.

Ferdinand

As the Draupnirs pay for access to the Boramas Port (the capital of the Aegir Dukedom), they also attend social gatherings to maintain the healthy business relationship (although Lady Ute does not particularly like the Duke). During one of those events, a 10 year old Kriemhild witnessed a rather rowdy Ferdinand, covered in dirt, being dragged back by the guards. Seeing him all polished and well-behaved, she hoped she could learn something about socializing properly from him.

(This references one of his tea invitation lines. If you do not conform to this, please let me know and we will work something out!)

Linhardt

Always scared that he might have fainted, when he naps. Kriemhild finds his philosophy of life a bit odd, but intriguing. His interest in research, crests in specific, is something she shares. Thus, when encountering problems with her own research or development of spells, she will often approach him and ask him about his opinion, even when it is not a field he is an expert in.

Caspar

As Kriemhild's family resides at Fort Merceus and is famous for their social events and balls, they have met several times in their childhood, when Kriemhild's expressions were even scarier. While she pretends that his loud behavior is annoying, she actually appreciates the memories of how he treated her well as a child. She will scold him as she takes care of his wounds.

Bernadetta

Kriemhild's uncontrolled angry expressions only further worsened Bernadetta's fear of having wrong the other. They had a rough start at the Academy, but were able to sort out the issue. Having found a more confident side, Kriemhild tries to help Bernadetta create a similar personality, as she considers it a good solution.

Dorothea

Dorothea’s persona is an ideal person in Kriemhild’s eyes as a student. Popular, outgoing and well liked. Along with her interest in opera performances, they were able to find a common interest despite their differences. Growing up, Kriemhild has taken a liking to playing the role of a villain in those opera stories and tales. Perhaps two actors playing the same role would be one too many. She would rather play her own role instead.

Petra

I swear, I will finish their supports at some point, pls send help

Mercedes

Kriemhild's family's generous efforts to support their daughter in her magic related interest allowed her to spend some time at the School of Magic in Faerghus. During this time, she encountered Mercedes in a moment of frustration about her own emotional incapability. Encouraged by the other's advice and emotional comfort, Kriemhild has taken a liking to Mercedes. However, Kriemhild does not want to be part of or an inspiration for any ghost stories.

Lorenz

They were also able to encounter each other at the School of Magic. Impressionable a young Kriemhild was, she became somewhat of an adorer of Lorenz (albeit more of his confidence than his magic skill). As a young noble of high status in the Empire, they did indeed have conversations about marriage in the past regarding their own expectations. Growing up, Kriemhild’s change of personality might be quite the change from her previously adoring, timid personality.

Lysithea

As both are magic prodigies (albeit Kriemhild being older), Lysithea declared them rivals, which was rather intimidating for young Kriemhild. Growing older, Kriemhild has come to accept this role of healthy rivalry, because she found it a valuable confidence boost and motivation for her own spell development.

Other

Those not listed above are invited to surprise with unexplored interactions.

[red-catmander]

(furiously opening my canvas before pride month is up) I'VE STILL GOT TIME

lulum......

[opbackgrounds]

Hi there Sarc' ;) I am sorry if the question has already been asked but I thought it could be interesting to have your opinion about this. While I love most of the female characters in OP and think that most of them are well developed and can be truly good role models for girls I still feel that Oda sometimes has a sexist view on female characters (the jokes about the naked bath scenes for example or Kororo being considered ugly make me really uncomfortable). What do you think about it?

Ah, I wondered when I would get this question. 

When people talk about sexism in One Piece they typically are referring to two different things: How women are drawn, and how they’re treated within the narrative. While there’s some overlap here, there’s enough distinction that I want to address them as two separate points in two separate posts, because I guess I had Opinions, and by god there should be a limit to how much text one tumblr post can be expected to hold. Consider this an introduction.

Buckle up, kiddos. This is gonna be a long one. 

Nami Face Syndrome Isn’t the Problem...

An important thing to remember with Oda’s art and storytelling style is that almost everything is hyper exaggerated for effect. You don’t go into One Piece looking for realism. You don’t go into One Piece expecting the characters to act like normal people. Everything--from the art to the humor to the battles--is stretched and pulled to its absolute limit in hopes of garnering a particular reaction. When a character is sad they cry big bubbly tears with dribbles of snot coming from their nose. When they laugh their mouths take up half their face. 

And when a girl is hot, her tiddies are two great big watermelons stuck to the center of her chest.

What is often dubbed “Nami Face Syndrome” within the fandom is somewhat misleading. After all, why was Wanda, who is a literal dog that walks on two legs, decried as yet another Nami clone at her introduction? I would postulate it’s less to do with her face and more to do with the fact that from the neck down they are virtually identical, something that’s made more obvious because Wanda is literally wearing Nami’s clothes

What makes this frustrating for a lot of people, myself included, is that it’s not that Oda is incapable of drawing more diverse body types, but that he often chooses not to. Take for example the Kuja tribe

or the Charlotte family daughters (thanks to Arthur at Library of Ohara for the resource). It’s pretty clear Oda has the chops to make his women as weird as the men, and he often does! For important characters, even. And yes, as the Kokoro example given above sometimes the gonkness is brought attention to, but for others like Lola and Chiffon it’s...not. 

(more on mermaids later)

But Sarcasticles, one might protest, even Oda’s “ugly” characters have ginormous boobs! Where is my itty bitty titty committee representation >:(

To which I can only shrug. For Oda, boobs on a woman are like abs on men. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense, they’re gonna have ‘em

Seriously, Oda. What the fuck.

...So What Is?

I have a theory that’s impossible to prove, and that the problem isn’t so much Oda’s character design so much as the ratio of his male to female characters in general. It’s not that every female character is a Nami clone, but Oda has a template he uses for attractive female characters ages 16-25, the same way he uses Robin as a template for attractive women ages 26-35, which is how you get cases of mistaken identity like Viola for Robin or scenes during Reverie where one could be forgiven for thinking Nami’s supposed to be an identical triplet

 Oda does this for his men, too. It’s not as obvious because 1) Even men with similar facial features can have a wider variety body types due to Oda having a sliding scale of buffness he’s willing to attach to a pretty face and 2) There are more men. 

There are a lot more men.

In groups where the male to female ratio is more or less equal (Baroque Works, Big Mom’s kids) you get a wide variety of designs. But there’s only one female Supernova. There’s one female Warlord. CP9 only has one female agent. Only one of the Revolutionary Commanders is a woman. There are very few female background characters in crowd shots, especially among marines. Big Mom might be the only female Emperor, but she’s not young, In fact, when drawing her at age 28, Oda defaults to a much more generic “pretty girl” face before giving her much more striking, memorable features in her 40s

If you look at Oda’s male characters, the ones that are supposed to be hot are often given the same square jawline and the thin-bladed nose that at one point in time was reserved for Robin. Both Coby and Sabo had very distinctive noses before their glowups, while Ace must have had a laser treatment done on his eyebrows sometime between Alabasta and Marineford. 

But the biggest difference on the men has got to be muscle mass. The overgrown noodles of early One Piece are lost to the annals of time. Shanks alone must have gained 30 pounds of pure muscle from the time Luffy got his first bounty to his appearance at Marineford. 

Now, I will acknowledge that there is a difference between the increasing sexualization of female characters and the male power fantasy of giving Zoro bara tiddies post-timeskip. While I do think there are certain male characters specifically designed to be the Hot Dude, what I’m trying to emphasize here is that Oda works with templates for both men and women, and both of those templates have been exaggerated over time. Bigger boobs for women, more muscles for men. And when you’re only slotting for one girl in any given group, and that one girl has to be The Hot One then you’re going to have a lot of ladies that end up looking the same. 

My love for Otohime on this blog is well known, and I want to use her as an example of what Oda can do when he works beyond this template, because it’s really freaking good  

Otohime is neither conventionally attractive nor gonk. She’s dressed in very conservative, traditional clothing and has a narrow waist and small chest. 

There are no sharp edges on Otohime. Not her eyebrows, not her jaw, and most of the time not even her hands, emphasizing her gentle nature. You don’t see it as well in this panel, but Otohime’s head is often drawn wider than her shoulders, emphasizing her frailty. Oda gives her a longer neck to compensate, and the overall effect is a very soft, willowy figure. 

Her headpiece looks like a sunburst. The audience never sees her fins, so Oda gives her a scale patterned kimono-dress-thingy (my knowledge of Japanese clothing is, uh, not good) as a visual reminder that she’s not human. The sash that circles around her head harkens back to Japanese mythology as a symbol of divinity, similar to a halo in Western culture. And fun fact: Otohime is named after a god, just like Neptune, while her goals and ideals are pure enough to be heaven-sent. 

I’m not an artist, but this is a really damn good character design. A lot of Oda’s older female characters are. Dandan, Tsuru, O-Tsuru, Shakky, Kureha, Big Mom, and Nyon are all instantly recognizable and have strong designs, even if a few of them fall into the hourglass figure that Oda often defaults to. It’s just...there aren’t that many of them.

So the question becomes why aren’t there more women, and I think the answer is because, ultimately, One Piece is a series geared at boys. While I wish there were a few more important ladies, I can understand why there aren’t. 

Note, that doesn’t mean I think it’s right or that Oda is obligated to include more women. It’s just one of the facts of the shonen manga industry at this point in time. 

A more important question, I think, is why does every younger woman have to be attractive? And why do the attractive ladies have to wear outfits that are blatant fanservice? This is something I don’t have an answer for. Oda has said on more than one occasion that he writes One Piece with his twelve year old self in mind. It could be that it’s a calculated move to appeal to his audience, in which case it’s certainly worked because said Hot Ladies are constantly used in marketing and merchandising. It’s the Hot Ladies that top the popularity charts (although, to be fair, who’s there for competition?). In the most recent chapter a new Hot Lady was introduced, and the fandom went batshit crazy for her.

Even the fans who are very vocal about how Oda sucks at drawing women. It’s interesting how that works out sometimes.

Or maybe I’m giving Oda too much credit, and he’s just horny. Not having direct access to Oda’s mind, I don’t have an answer. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a little of Column A, a little of Column B, because that’s usually how life is. 

But in a vacuum big tiddies are just a design choice. An exaggerated aesthetic, in a series full of exaggerated aesthetics. It’s when that design choice is paired with in-story comments, actions, and decisions where things really start to get heated. But that’s a whole other ball of wax, and there should be a limit to how much one tumblr post can be expected to hold. I promise I’ll get to the meat of your question next time.

Thank you so much for your patience. I really do think it’s important to start here before diving into everything else, if only because it helps keep my thoughts organized. I hope you’ve found this helpful, and if not, I hope to do better next time.