#these sad Buggy headcanons just write themselves

[cipher-zoo]

Roger doesn't praise Buggy, like he'll give him a small compliment but that's about it. It's to a point where Buggy gets genuinely surprised when it happens Shanks absolutely gets praised though. -Forgotten birthday anon

Excuse me, Anon. Did you really think that it was okay to send this to me? A certified Buggy Stan? Because it is! It is fully okay! In fact, I love this. Your brain is amazing, and I am so happy you chose to share those thoughts with me!! 💙

I hope you are okay with me extending on this (again) because I just can't help myself.

It's not that Roger never praises Buggy, he does. It's just rare, and somehow that makes it worse. Sometimes Buggy feels like he is doing everything in his power just to get Roger to recognize that he is in fact trying. He may not be as skilled at fighting as Shanks, but that doesn't mean that he is useless. He can still be a great pirate. Roger just needs to see that.

That is why Buggy steals the damned fruit. If he manages to sell the thing for far more than the rest of the crew could, then surely everyone would have to acknowledge that he is more than just a cabin boy. That would show them that he could hold his own, even if he isn't the best fighter on the Grand Line. After all, wealth could grant just as much infamy as power. Of course, having a lot of money is a very welcome byproduct that Buggy won't shun.

But things don't turn out the way he thinks they will. Instead of stealing away in the middle of the night and returning with heaps of money and Roger's respect, Shanks makes Buggy eat the Devil Fruit. Which means that now nobody will be able to sell it and to make it worse Buggy loses the only thing he was better at than Shanks. Swimming.

And somehow all of this, Buggy thinks, is because Roger praises him sometimes. Because if Roger were to never do it, then maybe Buggy wouldn't have to try. If Roger just never muttered praise towards him, then Buggy wouldn't believe that there is a way to make his captain acknowledge his skill. If there is no way for you to win, why play in the first place.

But the head pats and the "you did goods", as rarely as they happen, are enough to spur him on. To make him believe that it's not that Roger doesn't want to praise him, it's just that Buggy, no matter how hard he tries, is simply not good enough to be praised.

By the time he grows older, Buggy accepts this. He knows that Shanks is Roger's favorite, it's okay. He just wishes his captain would tell him once, just once, that he is proud to have Buggy on his crew. But who could be proud of a clown?