#tashigi is getting all the girls fr

[zoolitsky-fandom]

@trafalgarlawtism sorry I tag you in like everything I see ever BUT LOOK ITS BROOK AND FRANKY…. 👀 👀 👀

I always have a load of fun with rare pair commissions! Here’s some recent ones. Thank you guys as always 🫶

( 1-3: N/A 4: @fallensnowfan 5: @boneparrot )

[cuntyglam]

hi! sorry in advance if this is bothersome, like fr feel free to just delete if you’d like, but for some reason your ask box seems like a good place to go to talk about this? anyway, that “lovingly help her transition” post has me thinking about transfem butch zoro again & just, like, yes sexy muscle woman blah blah but also honestly it just adds several really interesting layers to zoro’s relationship with women, as well as her relationship with strength itself that don’t really get discussed in conjunction with that headcanon & it’s a travesty fr. like, the way she hears kuina- a girl who will come to be the baseline for zoro’s view of strength for the rest of her life in someways- struggle with internalized misogyny as a result of their environment goes from something that frustrates zoro as it relates to his own strength to something that frustrates her on a much more nuanced level because, though zoro may or may not be aware she’s trans yet, if she can’t beat kuina, & kuina can’t be the strongest because she’s a woman, then what hope does zoro have? & that’s not going into the ways that the rhetoric placing any win specifically on zoro’s body rather than skill could be a huge source of dysphoria, & honestly i think that both of those would follow zoro for quite a long time in the context of her being transfem? but it also adds another layer to her taking on kuina’s dream as part of her own- like it was meant to be a pair of women fighting for the title & now that it can’t be zoro would feel like a more gendered? ig? responsibility to take the title on top of just the more directly interpersonal stuff. & it’s also a reading that i think has a very interesting impact on her whole thing with tashigi because i think both in canon & in this context part of what frustrates zoro so much about her is, for all she looks like kuina, she in many ways lacks kuina’s resolve or desire to prove her own strength. for all tashigi is very clearly (rightfully) outraged by the misogynistic expectations placed upon her, we very rarely see any desire from her to better herself for her own sake or in spite of those expectations (though the scene at the end of alabasta is a noteworthy exception) & like where in canon i think zoro tends to fuck with her because of it in a way that’s a tad more spiteful & demeaning, i think in a transfem reading of zoro it’s a bit more like… genuine indignation over how much of her ability to move through the world tashigi is willing to give up as a result of those expectations in comparison to her actual capacity. like it goes from “you wear the face of my dead friend who has come to be definitional to my person while in some ways being antithetical to her existence, & so i am fine talking down to you” -> “you are allowing the expectations placed upon us as women to hold you back & wasting the chances to do better never knowing when you’re gonna die & you can’t even see it. my best friend was willing to fight for it as a very young girl before death caught her, i’ve had to fight for it my whole life, what the hell are you doing to yourself?” & then there’s tashigi’s insistence on zoro’s disconnect being a result of being biologically male… like tashigi goes from irritating to triggering for zoro in a way. & with strength it’s like… kuina defined both strength & girlhood for zoro in a way that is incomparable to any impact anybody else has ever had on her, but the blueprint was cut off before completion, & now zoro is having to figure it out all on her own. & her commitment to being herself takes on a role that’s just as large as her commitment to strength, if not outright merging the ideas in a far more direct way than canon itself. to be the strongest swords(wo)man she has to be a woman who is herself who is able to carry the people she loves for the girl that taught her all this in the first place, yk? plus it just adds a cute layer of solidarity to everything going on with zoro & okiku. anyway sorry if this is too long or irritating or incoherent, just wanted to say butch transfem zoro rights!

oh my gods this is fantastic you need to write an essay NEOW. i’ve always headcanoned zoro as trans masc just because they feel very trans masc to me, and i’ve also headcanoned kuina as someone who may have been trans masc if they were able to grow up, but i really love this interpretation !! it’s just so fantastic, and i really love it. you could do debates or something fr. while i’ve always interpreted their relationship with women and misogyny in a transmasc light it’s so cool to see that reflected on a transfem zoro. i don’t know why i’ve never thought about it but i adore it !!

[1pcii]

mh yea! i definatly think the fact that they looks so similar and have the same main conflict to the point ZORO points it out is where most of that theory comes from. which I find funny because oda also makes it a point to say how DISSIMILAR they are, kuina was loud and abrasive and competitive while tashigi is more soft-spoken or atleast calm and by-the-book. their main goals are different and ZORO is the irrational one for being so hung up on their similarities and projecting onto tashigi. people make a literal connection in what's just a parallel. tho getting more of a backstory on tashigi is always a nice idea.

FR!!!! there's something about being a 1pc swordsman that gives you such A complex relationship with gender and your body and mortality and and. I wonder if it's because of how important swordsmanship' is in wano which has a more traditional view on gender in general 🤔. AND YEAAA I LOVE KIKU TOO. she's so fucking cool. I love when shes downplaying her skills on purpose and zoro is all 'ik you don't need me to save you' and she's like 'yea yknow what Ur right' and goes all out in her introduction!!! she's amazing <3

[post source]

THEY CAN LITERALLY HOLD SO MUCH GENDER IN THEM.

that fics sounds incredible!!!! I'll be sure to give it a read omg. I fucking love kuina lives au's so much and ZORO being part of HIS motivation, I'm sobbing that's such A cool idea. the first person to ever really see you for who you are, to make you feel like you can do anything RAAHGDJDHDIDJ I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. AND FUCK YEA KUINA AND TASHIGI INTERACTIONS!!! their potential dynamic is so interesting to me. I wholeheartedly believe that if kuina lived SHE would be tashigi's rival and it would be so good for a couple reasons.

-the difference in gender opinions is so much more direct because it's coming from the person themselves on not their younger brother who lives out their memory

-WADO ICHIMONJI

that fics relationship between trans!kuina and tashigi reminds me a bit of the dynamic between trans!zoro and kuina in aether above. trans zoro who never got to tell kuina and then she dies and he never can 😭.

ALSO YESS MASC WOMAN KUINA. non-binary kuina also <3 every gender and gender presentation works for her in such unique and interesting ways!!!

the GNC swag in this pic

I love how her design is so gnc also because it feels very symbolic of how gender doesn't (or atleast shouldn't) matter to childeren. kids are kids and are unburdened by societal gendered expectations. AND ZORO WEARING KUINA SHIRT STYLE AS AN ADULT TO SHOW HE KEEPS THAT WAY OF THINKING/IN HER MEMORY AAAAH.

OMG I felt the same way tbh. I got into 1pc mainly because of opla but reading the animanga version of kuina and Zoro's story hit so much harder. opla imo toned it down alot by having koushiro be a supportive father and the dojo being mixed gendered (which is prolly just netflix background character diversity stuff) but it kinda cheapens her situation where she is being FED this rehtoric and is being reinforced by her being the only girl at her dojo, making her insecurities feel so randomly attached. where's the puberty horror? where is the loneliness of being a girl in a ''''boys world'''', she was so alone and zoro ultimatly being the one to come to an understanding and befriend her is sososo important.

but her story in the animanga, GOD yea it hit me so hard. transmascs when a female character has the same issues as them 🤝‼️.

ZOROS BACKSTORY AND TRAUMA IS JUST AS IMPORTANT TO HIS MENTALITY AND VIEWS ON GENDER AS LIKE, SANJI'S FOR EXAMPLE. they so obviously parallel but ppl don't give HALF as much though into zoro genderism as sanji. (probably because he's more chill about it until tashigi shows up lol). but still a backstory dosnt have to be super angsty and layered with explicit suffering to be complex and important. zoro also just isnt that kind of character, every obstacle and conflict he uses to better and motivate himself, we love a mental health king <3.

the 2001th battle is cinema to me idc idc. I'm so glad we're in agreement of this vision 🤝. genuinely it's so cool that we both share so many thoughts on these characters I feel like they're so slept on sometimes besides generally referencing them. Zoro carrying on kuina will with his own. the fucking... 3 motif is so good. his dream being symbolised by three ppl (himself kuina and Luffy) YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS TO ME.

the way he carries her sword and the beliefs that gave her hope in her last days with him to the top. crying sobbing I'm w you think about them all the damn time <333

SHADAHKNKAS saw u in the notes of some kuina posts and that made me realize that there is simply a bond with kuina and tashigi fans, who may even often be the same fan, because AOUGHHH KUINA I CARE HIM SO MUCH episode 19 literally changed me forever. swords + gender struggles are all you need to hook me on a character sometimes Maybe. the whole greatest swordsman promise... sob. also. something about zoro promising his name will reach the heavens and trans kuina. which made me think.. what if kuina and The trans fear of dying then having your deadname on your tombstone that you can't do anything about because you're dead. kuina dying before they even get to figure everything out and all of a sudden he's just known as kuina forever, and then zoro making a name for himself in kuina's honor or something idk (i like zoro's backstory) (KUINA )

THERE ISS. people who theorise that they are secretly related or the same person or direct parallels are so close to getting it but don't imo (no shade to those theories tho, I just personally find them narratively unsatisfying).

like they are parallels in that kuina is symbolic of the sexism people suffer and tashigi is an adult woman who has come out the other end sword swinging but ultimately so unsure of herself as a result. also the (trans)genderisms, we are all hand in hand 🤝.

MAN KUINAS STORY BROKE ME DOWN ON A BASE LEVEL AND REWIRED NY BRAIN. I had to take a break from reading just to let it soak in it's so good, a swordsmans promise indeed, that scene was beautiful, I love zoro the world's first a accidental feminist <3. zoro carrying on her dream with his will never not have me in hysterics.

FUCK YEA THATS SUCH A GOOD IDEA. I have soo many thoughts about baby!zoro and kuina and trangenderism. egg kuina cis zoro, egg kuina STEALTH TRANS ZORO ABSVDJFBKSHDKDN <333.

little baby zoro looking at his grave with the uncontrollable urge to carve out those letters. to carry and rearrange them and make sure they get back to him in the afterlife spelling 'worlds greatest swordsman'.

trans kuina makes me so emotional because ultimately I don't know if they were canonically trans but it's my FAVOURITE 'what if' for them. they never really got to be anyone outside the dojo masters daughter. the failure of a heir and the girl who beat zoro 2001 times. who would they have been if they got to grow up? come to terms with themselves and unlearned all that heavy, painful biases pushed onto them? as a transmasc who's studying into a (cis)male dominated field myself ik, the feelings of 'betrayal' and 'proving misogynists right' and imposter syndrome and inadequacy issues and perfectionism they might've gone through,,, sobbing my eyes out HE MEANS EVERYTHING TO MEE.

zoros backstory is genuinely one of my favourite parts of the manga idc how 'simple' it was it's still beautiful.