They're So Girlfriends

starting to write my responses!!!

just to clarify: the ship i will choose for each emoji/set of emojis is random (unless you, like, explicitly ask me for a specific ship)

also, i will post all my answers under the tag #star's rarepair tag !!!

hi. very bored, so:

send an emoji in my inbox and i'll answer with one of my extremely nonsensical one piece rarepairs!

months ago, while mindlessly scrolling through twitter, i came across an analysis of this particular panel from chapter 434 (i can’t remember who wrote the thread, i’m so sorry </3), and i really want to talk about it too.

(EDIT: original author of the thread is @goingbuggy!!! go check out their metas, they're amazing)

the thread was focusing on the way the speech bubble covers shanks's scar completely, and how it can be seen as a sign of vulnerability. oda is using shanks’s own words to hide his suffering, letting his physical scars be representative of his emotional ones, even though the event he’s talking about is completely unrelated to the way he got his scar.

in fact, we know shanks is not ashamed of the scar, since just a couple of pages after this one he mentions it directly as a way to start the conversation about blackbeard:

he doesn’t have a problem with the marking itself, it’s just used as a narrative device, a tool to highlight (in an extradiegetic way) his emotional wounds and the pain he always tries so hard to hide, in an effort to keep his usual composure.

the original author of the thread compared the panel from chapter 434 to another, way older one, from the very first chapter:

this takes place right after shanks loses his left arm to save luffy’s life. it’s obviously a very emotionally charged moment, which means the best thing to do would be showing a close-up of shanks’s reaction to everything that’s unfolding in front of him at that moment (luffy’s cries, or even his own reaction to his sacrifice). oda, however, chooses not to do that; instead, he hides half of shanks’s face, just like he did in chapter 434. the way the moment is portrayed tells the reader shanks is willing to hide his pain in an even deeper way than what he’s showing by smiling at luffy right after getting his arm chopped off.

it’s a great way to explain an important characteristic without stating it right away. it's a focal point of shanks's character: it's his way of showing luffy he cares about him and would much rather hide his suffering than pass it onto him, but it's also oda's way of conveying that shanks is much more vulnerable than what he allows himself to show.

having said that, the reason oda chose to bring back this framing in chapter 434 appears obvious: shanks misses buggy.

it’s plain to see, especially if we look at the whole page.

shanks tries so hard to act collected when talking about buggy, but it’s obvious that he’s hurting. his wording makes it clear he’s trying to detach from him (“that’s the end of it” + “rumors have it”); he acts like buggy doesn’t exist in his thoughts anymore, when it’s obvious he still does. he feels remorse, he regrets letting buggy go. he’s scared he might have been in the wrong. he knows he hurt buggy, but he desperately wishes he didn’t.

all of this weighs on him in a way he isn’t used to, so he locks these feelings up, thinking of them only in relation to something that happened in the past, and as so, stays in the past. he smiles while talking about him and buggy, but it’s a remorseful smile. he cuts the conversation short even though he vividly remembers what happened between them, and as he does so, his words hide the scar. he desperately tries to patch things up in his mind by exclusively clinging onto the good memories they share, but the remorse always creeps up on him. he always smiles when talking about buggy, even when he’s talking directly to him. but his smile always ends up looking sour.

this is exactly why i hate it when people say shanks doesn’t care about buggy. oda wouldn’t have given these panels so much depth if he didn’t want to show just how much shanks actually cares. even just the fact the panel we are focusing on directly mirrors a panel from the first chapter, one so important and impactful, should tell you everything you need to know.

buggy will always be shanks’s weakness. caring so much about someone when you’re a pirate of that caliber is difficult in itself, even more so when that someone is so far away from you now.

Updated SplatPiece 🔥🎩👒🌸🐯

+ Uta WIP 🐰

surprise kiss!

something quick for valentine's day :3

slowly going through my asks, sorry if i take a bit to post my answers, life gets in the way sometimes + i'm working on other long posts too!!!

"And they were roommates"

some weeks old sabolaw drawing i didn't wanna let marinate on my pc

my nephew watched me draw this and asked me if they could "please be at a wedding". so they're officially guests at franky and robin's wedding <3

this is also my official "law is shorter" headcanon post 🥳🥳 cheers to the short king

bonus wips i didn't have the energy to fix/clean of them actually dancing together (or attempting to) under the cut!

they're insufferable

(reference for the first wip here, reference for the second one here)

references for their outfits (and sabo's hairstyle) from none other source than one piece grand collection; here's the link for sabo's outfit, and the link for law's. enjoy!

if after the most recent op episode you start to take a liking to ahiru (belo betty's subordinate), and you want to draw her or create any fan content of her, please keep in mind she has already appeared in the anime and THIS was her original color scheme (she looks the same in the official colored manga if you're wondering) !!!

toei whitewashed her and changed her whole color scheme for the newest episode:

so this is how she appears now, apparently.

as we all know, the one piece anime is notorious for whitewashing its characters. i think it's incredibly important to keep using ahiru's original color scheme in fan content, because she was originally a person of color and it's vital that we as a fandom do not succumb to toei's attempt at erasing other races and ethnicities.

to all op artists, please draw fanart for ahiru and please use her original color scheme!!! don't let the new one replace the original one!!!

Who would you date from One Piece?🤔

oh i have multiple answers to this question LMAO

i'm not one to think about these things frequently, but i still have a lot of options in my mind. though i'm an extremely difficult person emotionally so i'm not sure they would want to date me lol

the first one to come to mind, for some reason, is shachi. i think his physical features match my ideal type the best (ginger hair, big smile, and i also assume he has downturned eyes... so cute). he's very cheerful, always knows how to make the best of a bad situation and is generally very relaxed, which are all things i like in a partner. he also likes to party which i personally find very attractive for some reason, maybe because, on the contrary, i'm always home lmao.

another character i would love to date is usopp. again, extremely attractive physically (yes i really like big noses), but his personality is a big part of it. i just love when characters are not that confident in themselves, it just makes me drawn to them. also i feel like he would be great at taking care of a potential partner, because he's very in touch with his emotions.

i can't end this post without talking about sabo. i admit this is because my partner is very similar to him so i'm kind of biased; i basically just see him whenever i look at sabo and it just made me fall in love with sabo as a consequence. in general though, i find sabo very charming, i'm sure he would take great care of me and would match the more capricious sides of me very well.

believe me, i would LOVE to date ace or law. they're my romantic comfort characters for a reason! but realistically, i don't think our personalities would be that compatible. i mean, i ship ace with deuce, who i consider very similar to me, but i think i just lack the patience necessary to deal with ace unfortunately </3. also me and law are just way too similar in multiple ways, which would be good in a sense but also kind of boring, you know? oh, and i'm also deeply in love with baby 5, but we suffer from the same kind of mental illness so it would just be negatively insane and chaotic.

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

Im not gonna say character but please understand me here

got the memo anon, don't worry <3

buggy x galdino/mr. 3!

this is the rarest pair i have with buggy ><' i ship him with shanks and mihawk, and also with cabaji a bit, but i think him and galdino are the least popular ship with buggy i have.

i headcanon them as exes; they had a thing during the impel down arc and got together officially right after (buggy used it as a way to get over shanks, seeing him again after all that time made some feeling resurface and buggy wasn't too happy about that...). they split up on good terms, just realized they weren't that great for each other. it's a bit awkward now that they're both part of cross guild lmao

i think they could work well as a couple honestly. galdino is honest to a fault and that would spark some arguments for sure, and buggy's need to always get taken care of would tire galdino out in the long run, but other than that i genuinely think they would be good for each other. i totally can see them in a domestic setting, like, galdino cooking dinner while buggy folds the laundry or something. as we saw from their moments together during impel down, they're a fun duo: definitely the type of couple that would spice up a night out with friends with their constant banter (that would totally turn into an actual fight, give it, like, 20 minutes).