By The Way I'm A Firm Believer In The "gunko Is Victoria" Theory. I Know It's Far-fetched And Honestly

what's your favorite op arc?

WELL. my answer changes pretty frequently to be honest. but i think my favorite manga arc right now is impel down!!! i like the pacing and most of the characters are really enjoyable, plus the dynamic between luffy, buggy, galdino and bon clay makes me love it even more <3

when it comes to the anime, the arc i find myself rewatching the most is wano, i love the storytelling and the regular pov changes help me stay focused. but once again another reason i like it so much is because of the characters... i love the luffy + kid + law trio too much

it's not easy for me to choose a favorite arc overall because my way of engaging with media is through the characters; every arc is good to me if i get to see my favorite characters doing their thing on screen!

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.

IT'S REALLL IT'S SO REAL. ACTUALLY INSANE

i would love to share my thoughts on the shanks twin theory (which is now apparently Very Real and Very Much Not A Theory Anymore). but i will not. i will talk about it when we have more info though trust me

toei realized law fans were succumbing to starvation so they had to intervene

SHUGGY IS INCLUDED IN THIS YEAR'S TOP 100 SHIPS OF TUMBLR?????? SHUGGY NATION WE WON SO HARD

i baked a cake to celebrate law's birthday earlier today,

i think it came out pretty cute! i'm sure my law action figures loved it too despite their seemingly uninterested looks...

bonus picture of The Tiny

sa dee bo

Hi 😊👋 I'm a huge fan of Law too. I've just finished reading Law novel too. Maybe you want to share your thoughts on this asks:

Does Law see his crew as subordinates or friends? Would you say that Law has a weakness for people who have a trauma too? 🤔

i'm sure law sees them all as his friends.

at the start of the novel, when law asks bepo, shachi and penguin if they want to stay with him and wolf, it's not because law and wolf actually need someone that can help them with their tasks, it's just because law wants to offer them a safe place to stay, but he's not in touch with his emotions enough to admit it. when he recruits them, he even calls them his subordinates explicitly, but it's clearly just a part of his façade; again, he's not ready to admit he cares about them yet. sure enough, by the end of the first novel, he refers to them as his friends, and has matured enough to admit he loves them and realize that he can count on them. also, the fact law often seems to separate from his crew before he gets into any dangerous situation is kind of relevant to this conversation: he prefers to go solo or to form a temporary alliance with other pirate crews because he doesn't want to put his crew in danger, not because he thinks they aren't strong enough. he always tries to keep his crew safe no matter what, because they're more than allies to him, they're his friends, his family, and the only people he has left. this is also the reason the clash against the blackbeard pirates is so heartbreaking: law tried his best to protect his crew, because he didn't want to, once again, experience the loss of the people he loves most, but he couldn't do anything to prevent it.

i do think law finds himself drawn to other people with trauma, especially if their trauma is in any way related to their families. even though law always tries to hide his actions behind the "i acted on a whim" excuse, it's clear that his empathy gets the best of him when he has to choose whether to recruit someone for his crew. we've seen this with every crew member with a canon backstory: first it was bepo, who set sail to try and find his brother and found himself stranded and alone; then it was penguin and shachi, who lost their families and ended up being used and abused by the adults that should have protected them; and now, in the newest chapter, it's hakugan, who lost his parents and has to bear the responsibility of raising his little sister alone. all of them are scarred and survived multiple traumatic events. law sees his reflection in his crewmates, when he looks into their eyes he can see the little boy he once was, scared, alone and devoid of purpose. that's why he's so determined to help them, and offers them a place in his crew with no hesitation: he wants to be to them what cora was to him, even though he probably doesn't realize it.

thank you so much for your question, anon!

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!