#silly little analysis

[rronikaveterr]

just a vent art thing about art style uhmmm…… I wanna draw everything at once and idk how to deal with that. at least this thing is fun to look at

[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.

[gaslightgirlsummer]

since I have nothing better to do i wanna add my three cents on this

despite the fluctuations i’m gonna say they’re either same height or charles is just a teeny tiny bit taller (like 0.5 cm), bc one more factor — max’s cap is taller than charles’ cap, which adds a little bit of extra height for him. but I would lean towards same height

also on some level gonna a little bit partially disagree on max being Undisputedly broader. they do undeniably have a different body shape and build which influences it, charles is built with hard straight lines while max is way more curvy, and max mentioned his body naturally prefers to carry a bit more weight

but! a lot of max’s perceived broadness comes from the style of the red bull race suit, which is very baggy and has very broad shoulders and when you look at his pictures in team gear or everyday clothes he looks way slimmer

(gif from @lestappenfiles)

And while last year max’s broadness would probably be undoubted, charles has gained a LOT of muscle (over 3 kg according to the man himself) and when you look at him you can tell, especially with his back and arms

so after this scientific analysis and conclusion, i’m gonna say they’re both broad, just in different ways 👆👆

i want to discuss how charles is allegedly only 1.5cm shorter than max yet in the photos of them talking to that f4 driver (and on many other occasions), max looks so much taller and broader?? i know charles is a professional athlete and he’s not tiny at all but why does he make himself smaller like that all the time. like what is going on there. just a lot to unpack there psychologically.

i mean ... okay, with max leaning like he is, i guess an argument can be made for him looking taller. idk about much taller. i was actually just thinking about this recently when i saw something on twitter and now i'm going to go on a wild goose chase trying to remember which exact photo it was about, probably

but in the meantime! since we have so much content to study !!

charles has his chin tilted up a little bit here, but he actually looks marginally taller. i think, based on google's profiles at least, they're allegedly both 180. i do think max might actually be a wee bit taller, as suggested by evidence #2 (where max is, predictably, leaning again). onwards!

if you look at this other photo from the same moment as evidence #2...

max looks much taller again, but you can see that charles is learning / has his weight shifted.

a lot of messy angles here and charles is sitting down/leaning over for some of it, BUT, that lower left hand corner where they are both mostly standing straight and the ✨pretty handshake✨ are both suggesting much closer in height.

these two mess with me because they look fairly equal in height here... in both. despite max slouching impressively in the second. i can only conclude that charles is slouching more than it looks like he is, bc otherwise idk how to explain the science of that.

okay so max slouches and charles leans. and then max straightens and charles slouches. ????

mirroring each other's horrendous posture. okay. still looking roughly the same height. pls straighten up.

this seems better. max still has a knee bent a bit, so may be slouching a little. charles looks like he's standing straight, finally. max a smidge taller?

obligatory padel date, because they are conveniently next to each other. both leaning embarrassingly, charles actually looks a bit taller??? but also looks like he is leaning slightly less than max, which would explain it. additional hair floof may also contribute.

okay but charles is leaning significantly more than max, who looks like he is standing straight. and they appear to be the same height here. which... would mean charles is actually a smidge taller, minus the lean? math is not mathing.

conclusion: this information is simply information the world does not want us to have. charles isn't as short as people make it seem, i think, he just... slouches? or something??? like i swear sometimes it looks like he's standing straight but i'll see him next to someone i know he is as tall as / taller than (based on other photos) and be like wait. he must he slouching or something.

lbr there is one undisputed fact and it's that max is broader. like... charles isn't really the delicate slender that he gets characterized as, but he is leaner than max methinks. this is clearly important research.

[lilyclawthorne]

There’s TADC spoilers ahead so proceed with caution

I know we’re all sad about Gummigoo but honestly I feel like he kinda had to be removed because it wasn’t going to be what’s best for Pomni

This is only her second day and while her nightmare in the beginning makes it clear that kaufmo’s abstraction did a number on her mentally, it also tells us something else. That Pomni fears that she’s not going to make it and these people will not care or even remember her if she abstracts.

These people aren’t her friends. She barely knows them and she certainly isn’t trying to. The only attempts to get along with her directly are coming from Ragatha, and it’s very clear they’ve already started off with a strained relationship.

So Pomni is kinda just walked into this adventure, which she clearly isn’t interested in, and when things go haywire and she encounters someone having a similar existential crisis to the one she had only a day prior, she can relate to that. And she says it herself, she could really use a friend. She makes comparisons between Gummigoo and herself. She doesn’t have memories anymore outside of the game she’s been out in. She feels like nothing. I think she’s inadvertently telling him advice she needs to hear herself, if she wants to get through this, that this can be a home and she can be somebody real there.

But the thing here is that he’s not the same as her. He’s an NPC. An AI. A piece of the game. Pomni is missing memories. He never had any others. Pomni is trapped. He’s being offered even more of a life. Caine also let’s us know indirectly that it seems to not be good to get players and NPCs mixed up.

And once Gummigoo is gone, we move on to the final scene, Kaufmo’s funeral. Here we see that everyone aside from Jax’s absence) cared about Kaufmo. Zooble set up the service. Ragatha couldn’t keep from crying no matter how many times she’s been through this. Gangle and her drawing of the two of them. Kinger explaining how they like to do this to honor those they’ve lost. It’s made very clear that this group of people care deeply about those they’ve been forced to be stuck here with. That they’re not going to let someone who abstracts be forgotten, what Pomni feared would happen to her in her own abstraction nightmare. And while staring face to face with what could be a possible future for her, she has her own realization.

That these people she’s stuck here with are in her life now and they will care about her in some capacity. She needs a friend, and these people here are the only ones who are going to understand the unique situation she’s doing through, and as long as she lets them, they can be there for her when she starts to fall.

[chilfucked]

I'm thinkin abt when chilchuck does that cat thing where he looks up at you, like in your header, how he bares his neck by doin that, and how awesome it is that he feels safe enough with the touden party to do that so casually- rghhrgrhhr

dude i think about this all the fucking time. he’s such an expressive character it’s awesome. you can always tell what’s going on with him just by observing his body language

beginning of the series? before everything goes down? he’s open, relaxed. he’s really started to trust the people around again after years of not letting himself

you have him closing himself off after The Incident™️, his anger and frustration, and generally not feeling safe being on full display without needing to say anything

he closes off when he’s worried, scared, or being protective of the people around him

and he opens back up again once he starts getting comfortable with everyone again

i just. i love him so much, i love how no matter how hard he tries to keep people at bay. keep things to himself. he just. can’t. he’s an open book and boy howdy am i reading it

[bklily]

I fully agree, he belongs in the "oops, all trauma!" box. But who's gonna have the courage to put him there.

-

jokes aside like ok im about to go on a rant about Cat Walker

we joke about chat blanc being the scariest one and all but i actually think Cat Walker is easily the most disturbing persona of Adrien. To me personally

like sure Chat Blanc represents a lot of his anger and rage and abandonment. and Claw Noir does that too only in color and lipstick. but Cat Walker being the literal representation of Adriens ability to just, repress himself on command. to just shut off a huge part of his identity (Chat Noir) for what he fully believed to be forever. and easily start acting like a completely different person (Cat Walker) is so. incredibly disturbing to me.

like yeah the episode frames it lightheartedly but the IMPLICATIONS ARE THERE.

cat walker stares at the fact Adrien is so willing to abandon himself, to replace himself in people's lives, to stand by ladybug as a completely different person because thats what he believes she wants from him, to easily live behind layers and layers of masks, and he simply goes "i choose to not perceive that" and i think thats fucking wild man.

so yes, he does entirely belong in the box, but he sure as hell aint gonna admit it, because his whole thing is being the representation of Adrien's repression and covering up his problems. He's not gonna admit he has a problem. So if you try to stage a coup, YOU'RE going in the box, bucko.

[iguessitsjustme]

Qian: I give so much. I love my family. I will give my life to them. I will protect them and feed them and provide them with shelter. My life belongs to them.

Yuan: I will give my life to Qian. I love him. I will make sure he eats and rests and takes time for himself. I will make sure he stays healthy and well. My life belongs to Qian.

Qian: Wait hold on now wait a minute that doesn’t seem right

Yuan: Get loved…idiot.

[ghost-106]

the thought that matt and beth look at dndads tumblr haunts me

[its-your-mind]

*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

[florart98]

Catherine is actually very good at lying, she completely fools Flyte, she even seems to have fun with it

look at her proud smile

She just can't lie to Jackson. She can't even look at him because she can't hide anything from him.

Except when they look at each other, then she blurts everything out and she tells him the truth.

[lampochkaart]

Kokichi is asexual and you can't change my mind (and Kaito is an ace too 'cause i said so)

Here is why i think that way

Disclaimer! This post is not created to judge or shame anyone. I created it to explain why i think about them in that way and maybe try to make this headcanon to be more popular. I might sound kinda salty at times here but in general I don't mean to hurt anybody.

It kinda confuses me why so often Kokichi portrayed a little bit too intrested in making sexual comments and jokes. I probably shouldn't be surprised, because I know that we live in a sex obsessed world. I'm kinda used to it at this point. But I think people kinda exaggerate it.

In actual game he doesn't make sexual comments and jokes THAT often and 90% of the time they are directed at Miu who is the MAIN sourse of them in game. I even think that he would not say so many of those things if Miu wouldn't be starting it first.

He even get's confused for a second when Gonta tells him he couldn't catch Miu for Insect Meet and Greet because his "face got hot".

And in bonus mode Dangan Salmon Team he isn't particularly intrested in that either. In most cases when the player chooses sexual option even though the game states that it was a good option Kokichi will often just change the coversation to a different topic. Yeah, they had fun, but they didn't really talk that much about initial chosen option.

"Let's read a dirty book."

"How about joining my organization instead?" *starts rambling about his organization*

And yes, I REFUSE to call this protag Shuichi. This is NOT my favorite protagonist. He would not fucking say this.

Look how they massacred my boy *cries*

One thing Kokichi also does very often is being sarcastic. I really like this scene. But surprisingly I've seen people taking his excitement as genuine and was like ??? How? Have you gone so crazy after you've seen his first phrase that you blacked out and missed part when he went "nope :)". He literally was like "Is that what you wanted me to say? You wish😊🖕"

I also like how sometimes when the protagonist say something sexual Ouma redirects topic from himself. And he often suggests Tenko as alternative. For a long time I couldn't understand why it was her specifically. And then I realised. It's because Tenko will beat up any man who says something like that to her. He literally indirectly tells player to fuck off.

I can't belive how often those moments are overlooked.

I think that's all my main points regarding Kokichi. Everything else is not very convincing and can be dismissed. But I just want to point out that his color palette basically resembles asexual flag, because I think that's a neat detail.

Now Kaito. I'm gonna be honest. The main reason I headcanon him as ace is because I headcanon all my favorite characters as asexual. But there is a reason I fully accepted him as ace.

The scene in Talent Development Plan where he's discussing "man's passion" with Leon and Teruteru. While they were talking about girls it turned out Kaito this whole time was talking about chasing passion in more philosophical sense. And by exploring "unknown worlds" he probably meant space (they really should've seen that coming).

That's pretty much it. I just saw 1 (one) reason to make it canon for me and immediatly jumped on it.

I think that's it for both of them. They're not the only characters i headcanon to be on the ace spectrum (and i also have some on the aro spectrum too!) but they're the ones I think about the most, so I thought I'd explain it.

[starlight-wannabe]

gonna cry- the new episode is making me feel so many thingssss

SXF MANGA CHAPTER 107 SPOILERS AHEAD

loid and anya yet again

oh gosh

anya's trying her best to do everything for her papa, and he doesn't even know to what extent

and yet

and yet he still knows he's using her. he still knows he's using her.

and he can't let himself feel bad about it. but he does because he knows he knows he knows it's wrong.

and the way anya's looking at all this just breaks my heart even more

she's afraid. she's so afraid and it's played off for laughs but you can tell she worries about this!!!

I WILL NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE KNOW THE LEAST ABOUT ANYA AND HOW SHE'S REALLY THE MOST TRAGIC CHARACTER

she's too young to process all the trauma she's going through!!!!

SO SHE'S NOT PROCESSING IT

WE THINK OF HER AS STRONG BECAUSE SHE THINKS OF HERSELF AS STRONG BUT SHE'S SIX AT THE MOST. and most people think of her as 4/5!!! WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS BABY GIRL Y'ALL PLEASE LISTEN TO ME

SHE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO HATE TWILIGHT AND YET SHE DOESN'T BECAUSE SHE IDOLIZES HIM

these tiny moments where she gets to be a kid are everythingggggggg aughhhhhhhhhhh

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

i keep thinking about bad's vacation outfit. mostly, i keep thinking about him not wearing armour.

bad is, fundamentally, not okay rn. his son got kidnapped. the code attacks are starting again. people keep going missing left and right and skeppy isn't here but he's been missing him from the start. he lost the election by a single islander vote. there's been a lot of pressure on him for a long time, and he's finally starting to crack.

the thing about bad is that he does NOTT talk about his emotions. he's silly about it. he plays games about it. he will never answer a straightforward question with a yes or a no, not unless he's lying. when forever asked him he was okay, he said yes.

i think... there's really something about him, repeatedly, saying he's on vacation. sure, yeah, take a break, but he keeps throwing himself into danger anyway, he's still taking care of the eggs. he's silly with it, but i don't think his "vacation" explicitly means "i'm taking a break." I think it means "i'm not someone you can rely on right now." what? not being at the top of the island/egg defence squad because he's falling apart at the seams? :D nahhh he's just on that vacation grind! look at him! he's so silly! he's building skeppies and he's being so silly !

and. god. the way he's absolutely clinging to skeppy right now. i get the sense that he takes a lot of comfort from skeppy, just from the existence of him. can you imagine being alive has long as bad has? losing and losing and losing and losing, and then you finally find someone you can't lose? skeppy is bad's emotional support diamond and he is Not There to emotionally support him. bad keeps throwing tantrums when people ignore him, and he keeps building skeppies.

he's never going to say he needs help. he's never going to say he's not okay. he's going to say "i'm not crazy" and "i don't have an obsession" and "yes i'm fine" and "i'm on vacation" and not wear his most protective armour. the ARMOUR. bad boy halo the most paranoid parent on the island keeps running around with several eggs at his heels when he's wearing only enchanted sunglasses and boots. WHEN THERE ARE ACTUAL CODE ATTACKS. WHEN THE CODE HAS THE ! SWORD. if "i'm on vacation" means "i can't help" then the lack of armour is a physical, visible reminder. it's the closest he can get to saying "no, i'm not okay."

and man.manm an man. the whole thing with dapper right now. dapper is the only one who really knows the extent of bad Being Weird right now. pomme has a good idea of it, but when she asked about bad "is he going insane again?" dapper's response was "he never stopped." i've seen lots of talk about bad needing dapper more than dapper needs him (and its TRUE. god. it's so true.) but dapper is also! not doing okay! kiddo was very recently kidnapped! he takes after his dad and doesn't overtly express his distress, but the way he was scared of getting too close to elquackity at the talent show... the way he and pomme huddled together when bad left them alone for an hour... he's watching his dad fall apart in front of him, and there's nothing he can do about it.

from a roleplaying perspective too i LOVEE how bad is slowly, slowly ramping up the skeppy obsession. he's clinging to sanity so he can be a good dad to his kids, but his kids are so mortal. so fragile. bad isn't; bad isn't wearing all of his armour. and skeppy isn't; bad is placing more skeppies around the island. i adore this man's roleplay i hope he gets WORSE

[kacievvbbbb]

I think it’s interesting how as time goes on Zoro kind of becomes more and more like mihawk in some ways whether that’s just because if you spend time with someone for 2 years you’re bound to pick up their habits or a deliberate attempt to emulate him is a conversation for another time. And Mihawk and Zoro where already pretty similar at the start so it’s a little hard to notice now.

But yeah whether unconsciously or consciously Zoro is becoming a bit more like Mihawk and it’s interesting to think that while this means maturing in some ways (he’s swordsmanship for one but he’s also just quieter much more assured of himself) it also means deaging in some others.

Despite their significant age gap and general dispositions, when it comes down to it Zoro is just a lot more emotionally mature and developed than Mihawk is. And a big part of why is because he found something larger than himself to devote his life too, hell Mihawk himself even kind of acknowledges this when he agrees to take Zoro on as a student when Zoro begs for the sake of his captain and crew. He acknowledges that putting aside his own ego and dreams for the sake of someone else isn’t something he can do and sees it as a fault in himself and a strength in Zoro.

Mihawk may be outwardly mature and his skills defiently did not stagnant but I’d wager that Mentally Mihawk is still stuck at the same age he was when he took over the title of world’s strongest swordsman. Honestly maybe even younger. And it isn’t until training Zoro, letting Perona stay with him, for probably the first time in his life taking charge of lives outside his own did he finally unarrest his development.

If Zoro is purposely trying to emulate Hawkeyes, which it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was that’s who he’s trying to be Afterall, then it would honestly set him back emotionally because fundamentally as he is now Mihawk’s attitude doesn’t work in a crew. It’s too singular, too abrasive. And while that abrasiveness can be useful in Zoro’s role as Luffy’s first mate sometimes it makes him a little too callous a little too apathetic, like with his disregard for Luffy’s sadness over vegapunk.

But Zoro has his crew to temper that, they are honestly just too ridiculous to ever stay serious around. And try as he might to hide it Zoro is also just a silly dude who likes to be horrifically petty with his opponents. And zoro still has so much fire in him, so much he has too prove and so much he wants to protect to ever really fall into Mihawk’s apathy. Zoro has Luffy who even after they reach their dreams will probably still continue to turn the world upside down forever keeping Zoro in some kind of trouble and his life interesting.

Zoro can’t be Mihawk because even Mihawk can’t be Mihawk anymore. Being with crossguild and crossing with the Red hair pirates and the strawhats is going to change him, it has too. if Mihawk is going to live after losing his title he’s probably gonna have to become a little bit more like Zoro.

[beebopboom]

Archangel Raphael

Is it Crowley? Is it Aziraphale?

What if I said he is the both of them?

I know a little out there thing to say but it’s a theory i’ve had hanging around in the back of my head for a while now because the thing is,

Crowley seems to have held the rank Raphael has but Aziraphale shows more of his actions.

These two theories have been around for a while and at no point am I trying to take away from what people have put together. This is just for fun and silly purposes. and I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve had this theory for a while and just didn’t know how to put it in words so it might not be the best.

But let’s just start with who is Archangel Raphael

Raphael

The Angelic Prince of Healing

Well let’s start at the beginning, or well before the beginning.

According to the Midrash Konen, before he was Raphael he was the angel Libbiel.

In this God gathers all their angels before Adam is created and hears their opinions. While some angels praised God for their creation others spoke out against it. The Angel of Love and the Angel of Justice were both in favor while the Angel of Truth and the Angel of Peace both objected.

For this the Angel of Truth is cast out Heaven by God. God then summoned a band of angels under Michael, Gabriel, and Libbiel. Both of the bands under Michael and Gabriel scornfully called out against the creation of man and were too cast out. Libbiel seeing what happened to those bands warned his own to call out in favor of creation of man and thus was rewarded with the new name, Raphael, for his efforts.

Raphael, the rescuer, Angelic prince of Healing.

This is just one story of Raphael, if we take a step outside religion but still the very important book, Paradise Lost by John Milton, we can find Raphael there as well.

He is the angel that comes to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to warn them against temptation. Through him we hear about the rebellion and war in Heaven. He eats with Adam and Eve and doesn’t just directly quote God but rather shares his own views and opinions.

An interesting and very important take on Raphael but let’s just jump back into the religious stuff.

In the First Book of Enoch he is the angel over the spirits of men and set over all diseases and wounds. He was instructed to bind Azazel and heal the Earth that has been corrupted by the Watchers.

In the bible Raphael was one of the three angels that appeared to Abraham in the oak grove of Mamre. His task was the heal Abraham and save Lot. (Genesis)

Though not identified with name he is credited to be the angel who periodically stirred the pool of Bethesda (John)

His main story though comes from the Book of Tobit. He acts as a guide on Tobias’s journey to Sarah disguised as a human peasant. On this journey they gut a fish that they then end up later using to expel the demon, Asmodus, and heal his father, Tobit. This is the story where most of his depictions come from including the one above.

In Jewish text, under the name Israfil, he is depicted as the angel who stands eternally with a trumpet on his lips waiting and ready to announce the day of judgement.

Wooh that was a quick run down. (pls correct me if any of this was wrong) But moving on for now.

Title Sequence

Disclaimer: Not main supporting evidence. Secondary at best. Really just something interesting that didn’t fit anywhere else.

Now before we get into how this all connects in the show I wanted to make stop to point out something from the s1 TS that I have never been able to explain away.

Both of them getting sucked up into the spaceship and then it burst into fish.

Fish huh? Interesting…

Gabriel’s Trial

This is the part that gives us some of the biggest pieces of evidence for a Very Highranking AngelCrowley.

Before we even get to the trial we have Crowley able to get into the file that only a throne, dominion, or above could access.

Then we have Gabriel saying he is “the only first order archangel in the room, or yknow the universe” with the immediate cut to Crowley. Visually this is a very obvious signal that this is something to pay attention to, foreshadowing that something is not right with this statement.

The clip above also gives us that this being would have been considered a Prince of Heaven.

Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, and the last three kinda vary. But we are just going to focus on these four anyway since that seems to be the number the show likes.

The only one missing from those four is Raphael and it seems that the Metatron still holds quite the grudge and memory of this being….*cut to Metatron glaring at Crowley*

But there is also something else we learn in this Trial.

That the name Gabriel is tied to his angelic status, a name he was about to lose along with his memories. A name he does end up losing while he doesn’t have his memories, getting replaced with Jim.

But one thing I did want to mention in this section before leaving, even if it didn’t happen during Crowley’s trip to Heaven, was when Michael says “there is always a Supreme Archangel.”

All of this has some very interesting implications of what happened in the past, and let’s not forget that Aziraphale was battling demons while all this was happening.

Now though that this has all been laid out let’s get into the meat of this.

Aziraphale and Crowley

yknow for this being about them I haven’t talked about them a lot lol. But let’s start at the beginning of them, the time one became two.

Originally they were written as one character, a fallen angel, until it was eventually changed into the two characters we know and love, Aziraphale and Crowley.

Now I’m not claiming to know what was going on in their heads during the creation process, just that the absence of a single prominent archangel when they were originally a single character is…interesting.

but that’s what got me thinking.

In Before the Beginning there doesn’t really seem to be a rank system more along the lines of groups that have certain jobs in the creation process of the universe. Not saying there wasn’t a ranking system but I doubt it was as large and complex as it is in present day.

However there is no denying the parallels that Gabriel and Crowley play to each other, particularly with their Angelic Ranking.

So what I’m proposing is that yes, Crowley was a very high ranking angel, perhaps on the same level as Gabriel - an angel named Raphael.

But he Fell, his name taken away from him in the process and he became Crawley.

With this though it left a space open, a Raphael shaped space up in Heaven and History. The Job of who Raphael was supposed to be.

A job that another certain angel seems to take up through his actions, Aziraphale.

Aziraphale’s name quite literally means “helper of Raphael” which technically he did do when he helped start up the star factory.

but even in that moment it was the two of them doing a job that was supposed to be only meant for one.

It’s a theme they continue throughout their years together, they cancel each other out, they take to doing each others jobs that never tip off the other side. They are the most powerful when they are working together, helping to stop Armageddon and the 25 Lazarii miracle they perform together. Two sides of the same, single coin.

The spot for Raphael was only meant to be held by one, the place Crowley held before the Fall. The place Aziraphale took up in the aftermath. There is always a Raphael.

However one does not just lose the power of being a first order archangel hence why Crowley is still so powerful.

The only one to realize this - The Metatron and well probably God too. Hence the need for at least Aziraphale back up in Heaven, as well as just keeping an eye on him.

and this really all just makes me want to point out that after Armageddon was diverted and they were out there on the bench and Crowley asks if God,

“Planned it all like this, very beginning.”

and I can’t help but say, yes. Two angels designed for the same role, one fallen and one not. Together they are complete and bound through history. Together they are the most powerful. 

[llovelyclouds]

gideon the ninth, chapter 4

harrow the ninth, prologue