#sorry to my nlmg moots who constantly have to read about my whines

[sillsif]

ben, to me, is a politician. a diplomat. he knows very well how to present himself and frame reality according to his needs. cunning, too, i’d say, though not necessarily malicious; selfish, yes, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

supporting evidence: nueng told ben about palm’s situation without using the word servant but ben deduced that and wielded it against palm as a subtle jab, since he perceived palm as his competition.

in the previous seven episodes, whenever chopper tried to talk to ben, it’s like pulling teeth. ben wasn’t particularly interested in continuing their conversations, and chopper always had to start another topic just to talk for a few seconds more. 

i believed that ben knew about chopper’s feelings, not because of any canon evidence but simply how expressive chopper was — thanks to perth’s incredible acting — that someone as sensitive as ben could not miss it. but there had been zero indication in their exchanges that chopper confessed before, which is why i believe the ep8 conversation was a retcon. 

then, even if i ignore the past confession retcon, ben’s sudden “what ifs” strike me as no more than that — what ifs. he never said it was the case. he said “what if i told you that was the case”.  the phrasing of it, plus his track record, compels me to believe he was providing chopper a possibility, which may or may not be true, now that is interested in chopper.

to be honest, i think this ben is more interesting to me than a “poor baby did nothing wrong” interpretation. i love a messy gay!