#the Rumbar pirates

[badly-drawn-doflamingo]

The Brutality (and some censoring) Of The Rumbar Deaths.

Similar to my piece on Yorki and his lil sickness, this is again just something that haunts me constantly and is honestly something I don’t see anyone else talking about. Maybe this is because I have Rumbar Pirates autism. The deaths of the Rumbar Pirates are often thought to just be the snippet we see during their final moments, however Oda paints a much darker picture, with such dark hues the anime had to censor some of this. More than just Binks Sake happened to these men.

To begin, I am going to introduce you all to a certain Rumbar Pirate. Pirates.

This is Madaisuki! He has a twin brother named Madawadasuki Mizuta!

These Mizuta boys are named this because they are the japanese pun of “I love DOTS!” and “Dots ain’t half bad!” We know they were young, and that they wanted to be just like Brook. (I will go over these statements a bit later.) They wore matching clothing, mirroring one another as some twins do, having a tight bond. We already know their candles were snuffed out too short, but do you know how this happened to each? Madawadasuki is shown in the Bink’s Sake flashback, blood pooling on his temple and matting some of his hair. He looks tired, but with a smile, plays on with the other remaining crew. That is the key word here, remaining. There were hundreds of men on this ship yet THIS is what we see surrounding Brook on the deck? Where are the rest. THAT is where Madaisuki comes in. 

Madaisuki does not die on screen, but his body, just the body, is gruesome enough that the anime had to censor it. When we find the young man, he is in one of the off rooms, looks to be the dining area, thrown onto the floor with his arms outstretched, with his hair still attached to the skull.

This is not the reason behind the censoring, no, the reason is the cause of death.

Plunged into his skull and back, pinning his body to the floor with his jaw still open, are his own weapons. His own swords pin his body to the floor, so even if he somehow survived the attack, he could not get up, however with your own blade through your brain case and into the blood spattered floor below you, that is not much of an option. Those swords.. they also are made to mirror YORKI’S. They both wanted to be just like their Captains.

[ more info on Maddy here ]

This leaves a few things open for the reader to take in. Why is he tucked away in an off room like this? Well, it means the battle either continued into these rooms, not just on deck, which is more than likely shown by the shattered mirrors and doors in the bedrooms and hallways we see, or poor Madaisuki was cornered, overpowered, and butchered.

In any case, this means his brother either also saw this and continued to smile and sing for Laboon, or held a hope that somehow, his twin was just somewhere else, tucked away to die in peace. How many other men died this way, for we see bedroom doors torn off hinges and blood spattering the walls.

Time does do that, a butchering does.

This is just one body, one upon hundreds, we know this because of a line Franky states so casually I am unsure if the anime added it; “We could not carry them all, we buried them here. The weight was too much for the Sunny to take.”

The weight was too much for the Sunny to take.

How many men died, because those multiple upon multiple coffins were not filled with bodies, but skulls. Only skulls.

If the ship cannot carry it, how do we expect BROOK?? He must hold grief for he was acting Captian, these things on his head alone, and knowing he failed his partner, my god, that must ache. To know you created widows, fatherless children, families who will never know if their little boys or men or partners or fathers would come home. No closure, only Brook, and the poison that caused the remaining light-hearted musicians to bleed out in their little heap.

When Brook picks up the skull of Madaisuki, a memory comes to mind. Perhaps not a recent one, for he knew them for many years, but one that stood out to him. One Oda chose for us to see as a representation of Brook’s thoughts;

“You’re awesome, Brook! Can you teach me to swordfight like you?”

We see the body, with his own weapons used against him, holding his corpse in place with a hole blasted through his brain. His polka dots he adored are spattered as well, torn where his ribcage was cut open. Brook failed him. He failed them all, in his eyes, not the viewer or actuality. And this breaks my heart.

Update 1.0

Absolutely I think he does have his.. odd crew moments/interactions.

Sanji at the right angle, asking for something and the response is a slip up of “yes, my Captain!” In such a tone that Sanji could mistake himself as more than a crewmate in Brook’s eyes.

Somedays they finds the skeleton speaking to himself, small quolms or questions, asking to an invisible force in silence.

“John, how did you make your coffee again?”

“Madaisuki, how do you do this..?”

Some nights, he’s found over the beds, absent in all human aspects but dead, mute and upsettingly still.

When Usopp asks, after minutes of motionless, creeping anxiety, why does he just stand, why does he watch?

“I want to make sure you’re breathing! It means you’re real.”

[variouspolltournaments]

Propaganda

The Rumbar Pirates: "The crew that will put a smile on everyone's faces!"

The Hex Girls: They're goths, they're eco-friendly, they're icons. Vote for The Hex Girls

[autisticaboutstufflol]

So @badly-drawn-doflamingo INFECTED MY BRAIN with Rumbar Pirate bullshit so of course I madly wrote an angst fic in a daemon AU, because I'm crazy, and I can only think about my OP daemon au.

It's a retelling of the Rumbar Pirates deaths, so like. heed my tags.

Enjoy! Or cry! Or both!

[hhhhunty]

Happy birthday, Brook!

[opbackgrounds]

I love the framing of this panel, with the last remaining members of the Rumbar Pirates bracketed on each side by swords, symbolizing their upcoming demise. It's gorgeous and tragic, with great use of negative space that really helps hammer home Brook's question.

The Rumbar Pirates singing as they die reminds me a lot of the musicians on the Titanic who played until the ship sank to help keep the passengers calm as they loaded the lifeboats.

[anongalactic]

y'all ain't ready for this-- @badly-drawn-doflamingo 's Admiral Yorki AU that I hijacked and threw my awful guy into!!!

Long story short, Yorki lives (somehow). Old man with memory loss gets scooped up by the marines and somehow becomes an Admiral. Now he goes around surveying and checking in on various world government islands and important figures, and just maaaaaybe has a bias towards Enies Lobby and a certain cp9 director... he's fun to annoy, okay!!!!

(+ more yorki under the cut!)

[tinycurlyfry]

All that’s left Adrift for fifty years.

[glitchy-grump]

This counts

[sootandpepper]

"Please... live... so we can all meet again!"

[help-i-lost-my-sock]

One Piece puns

Okay, so you know how Japanese doesn't have the letter L, right? And they replace L with R.

Now, in One Piece this seems to work both ways and we see this with, for example, Laugh Tale -> Raftel and Rogue Town -> Logue Town.

Now here are two little puns I found that make use of this.

- The name of Brook's first pirate crew is a pun on rum and bones. The Rumbar pirates (cool in English too cus, you know, pirates and rum) also works as the Lumbar pirates. The lumbar is the lower back region of your spinal column or backbone.

- Sanji's Mellorine is a pun on food and falling in love. Mellorine is an imitation ice cream, which Sanji can probably make cus he can make any type of food. He's also basically saying the girls are sweet like (immitation) ice cream. Anyway, replace the "ll" with "r" and you get Mero-rine. Mero-Mero (think of Boa Hancock's devil fruit) is a Japanese expression meaning "to fall hopelessly in love".

You're welcome 🤭

[asyisnotok]

skeletons are fun to draw...

[badly-drawn-doflamingo]

Yorki and ‘His Illness’;

Oda really knew how to drive the knife in when it comes to the story of Yorki and his crew, man…

From the choice of scenes before we get to see the bed-ridden body to the actual real world equivalents, its really rough on the heart.

What we knew about Yorki, from the scenes right before the announcement of his illness getting worse, is both his confidence and his strength.

The scene we get to see is his crew surrounding his brand new bounty, Yorki cheering and proudly proclaiming his joy for it. We see the great swaft of muscles on him, his chest fully exposed and his hair bright and fluffy along his shoulders. His face is clear, his arms fill out his coat, which is important later on, and he holds such a pride that he reminds me quite a lot of Luffy. We see him break up fights, offering advice to his men and we see him joking and drinking alongside his caring crew… and Brook. Brook is always by his side, during the mornings when he brushes his teeth, to the night when they drink side by side. They’re always together.

[ buff pirate cowboy! ] Until they’re not. Now comes the topic that may be a bit rough, the real life equivalent of what we see Yorki suffering from. I'll list the symptoms and y’all can make what assumptions you wish, and again, I’m not truthfully claiming its any REAL ILLNESS, but I mean simply it is inspired by, acting the same and such. We see a cold compress, so it’s bothering his body temperature. We see sunlit windows, open to the fresh air as if that could help. We see spotting across his face, and hands; small wounds, growing in number. We see his hair, like a mock halo loosely scattered across the pillow he lays in, and it’s stringy now, not glossy or kept. His mouth his covered by a mask, so they believe its airborne/touch. These sound to me, a lot like a certain sickness, one passed by blood which is interesting given the scenes we see before this are Yorki and the members who now are sick, sword fighting with a rival crew. It’s also notable this sickness, and spots of this illness do not show up until the few month mark. Brook would have had to watch he changes wrack his body. Yorki, would have had to watch the changes wrack his body. The doctor states he's unsure what it is, perhaps the plague, but is treating it best he can, as what he believes it to be is unknown. But knowing what we do on old methods of that certain sickness, it would make sense. The mask helps, the spit and body fluids being a factor, but the idea of sunlight and fresh air helping is an olden falsehood. The men come into the room, and Yorki speaks to them through horse coughs, offering words of encouragement and laughing through the mask as they shuffle out. They know the truth of this serious matter, and Yorki does too. They leave, each crying their hearts out for perhaps they did not realize the truthful change until that moment. Brook certainly looks perturbed, staring blankly ahead at the bed. Note, most do not get too close to the bed, standing feet away, and not touching Yorki.

What a physical change from the man we saw before. But not too much mentally… or has it. He has a mask, mentally and physically still up; he gives them hope, tries, but… they see through it after months of his brushing off of the sickness perhaps.

After everyone leaves, Brook remains to stand, away from the bed until called. Called. Yorki calls to him, stating his name as he always did. “Brook.” “Yes.” And Brook comes closer, but not quite to the bedside, staring ahead with a blank expression. Than Yorki leans over, and grabs his hand, and in a flash of a moment Oda CHOSE for us to see, Brook looks disgusted. He grimences, brow furrowing at the wounded hand that touches him, but than we see what he sees lying in the bed; a weeping, broken husk. Yorki has begun to weep, sobbing as his confident facade is broken and melted away in front of his Vice-Captian. And Brook melts too, dropping to his knees and forgetting all of these ideas of illness, tossing any safety away for his crew and himself just to make Yorki feel seen, or perhaps because of his own need to love his dying partner. He clutches Yorki’s hand, and now we see the true damage the illness has done; Yorki’s wrist is thinner than Brooks. His arm is gaunt, and we see the bone. He is withering away, has been for months it seems, but Yorki always was good at excusing it with a confident smile. But now, in the bed, unable to stand and wracked and eaten away by something we can only claim perhaps as some blood related illness, he weeps before his partner. “Brook-” “YES? My Captain?” “Give them HOPE.”

I’ll just include the rest of the scene here for your own enjoyment.

I could dive into the fact that Brook believes he failed those words, or the fact the crew did not just die of poison, and their deaths were so gruesome the anime had to censor it. The fact Brook continues to “give the crew hope…” or the way he mentions he may not have made it out of the triangle alive.

However! That is for another day.

[extrashortshorts]

What would you say the Rumbar Pirates to be?

Would Yorki be a Yorkie??

Would Dellinger stay a fighting fish?

🤔 Edges of Yorki's hat really look like a pointy ears, as well as messy hair, but to be fair i am still not sure

And Dellinger...

yeah what an amazing world we live in

[slutpoppers]

Brook's grandline eyecatcher, One Piece.

[sapphicfandompirate]

Y'all ever think about Brook's backstory at inconvenient moments?

Y'all ever think about how since Yorki and half the crew set off separately because they were sick, that means that Brook never gave them a proper burial?

Y'all ever realize Brook didn't even have Yorki's bones as some sort of comfort?

[opbackgrounds]

This is a lovely sentiment, but I especially appreciate that Brook gets a moment to say his own private goodbyes to his former crew, and of course that goodbye comes in the form of a song