“Korra Is Humanity’s Destroyer”

they make me so happy

or something

I wish all Sanji haters a very ✨️horrible day✨️🥰

monster.png

i keep putting this off and wanting to write stuff proper, but i'd rather just slap my thoughts and share this rather than perpetually putting this off so!

Usopp fic recs!

(more specifically, a handful with <100 kudos that i love!)

Gen

To Who We Once Were by Senna_B

sanji & usopp fic; an excellent temporary amnesia fic, where first it's Sanji who experiences it, and eventually regains his memories only for Usopp to lose his a moment later. really good fic that looks at how Baratie Sanji would fair showing up in the middle of fucking nowhere and having this "guy he literally just met in passing" try to tell him they've been crewmates for years. and then the same thing with Baratie Usopp. the way these two hurt post ts Usopp & Sanji and help them too oh my god. In summary, this fic fucks.

fledge by thathastu

usopp-centric fic; usopp is so concussed, loves to climb trees, and has these heartwrenching flashbacks of his mom. also his priorities are wack lmao, but as he says he's "not liable for any of his actions. because he's concussed". Nami is worried for him the whole time- which i mean rightly so, Usopp's dangling from a tree branch after being blown up, i'd be worried too!

As Children Under the Moon by Senna_B

franky & usopp fic; post-wano, the two of them talking about Toko being taken care of by the villagers and talking about their own childhoods. I like the interpretation of the Syrup villagers as people who were nice to Banchina and Usopp together, but not so much Usopp on his own. That and the way they "didn't want a dead kid on their conscience" but otherwise didn't really care about him, is equally interesting and heartwrenching. Shaking Franky's hand in that I'd love to go back in time and "straighten them out".

Ship

Asking for more by lunaticus

sanuso nsfw fic; went in for the smut tag, but really enjoyed the little acts of love and little hints about their relationship outside this moment. augh and Usopp's realization about Sanji being okay with/wanting PDA and Sanji's reassurance was so- god, i really love it. the whole fic flowed really well and felt real yknow? (also the smut was excellent)

under the weather by txmpxrxry

sanusona sickfic; Usopp gets sick and really needs to learn to be doted on more!!!! he's so miserable trying to tough this cold out on his own before he gets snitched on aughhh. and the three of them at the end of the fic are so damn cute together oh my god

give him the father of the year award now

Alabasta is my favorite arc because it's supposed to be so middle eastern! My grandpa is from Palestine and raised my mom there. I'd seen rumors that a Palestinian actress was in consideration to be cast as Vivi and I'm just a little let down. I've seen dozens of pictures and videos of the Straw Hat jolly roger being used as a symbol of liberation at Free Palestine events. I just...thought this really could've been something for the movement. Idk.

I am very disappointed in OPLA's casting for Vivi and King Cobra ngl. I am a South Indian Muslim woman and Alabasta is literally one of my favorite arcs. Casting South Indian descent actors makes no sense because Alabasta is very clearly inspired by Middle Eastern and North African culture, particularly Egypt.

The clothing and archeticture makes the Egyptian influence in particular very obvious. Specifically Crocodile's rainbase, the Jackal and Falcon as the cities dieties, and the heiroglyphic treatment in the tomb where Luffy and Crocodile's final showdown happens really proves the influence is inargueably Egyptian. Vivi and Cobra's family name is even Nefetari which is so similar to Nefertiti, the most obvious ancient Egyptian name.

AND!!!

At the time Alabasta was being published in the manga, beginning around 2000...

...Palestine was going through the Second Intifada.

Other MENA countries also had protests and uprisings in solidarity. In autumn of 2000, the Egyptian ppl in fact rose up against their president, Hosni Mubarak, against his support of Israel and in solidarity with the Palestinian Second Intifada.

A lot of the story beats in Alabasta clearly took inspiration from the political movements in support of the Intifada. Considering that Palestine is going through a genocide and ethnic cleansing and one of the producers is very Pro Israel, I can't help but think the producers deliberately wanted to hide the arca's influences to MENA uprisings in support of Palestine. But it's in the DNA of Alabasta itself.

Additionally, there is this terrible TERRIBLE habit of Western production companies conflating India and MENA as the same. India has centuries of cross cultural exchange with the MENA region but our socities, archeticture, and clothing are VERY different. I come from a family that has been Muslim in India for generations and even still our clothes, archeticture, and cultural traditions are very distinctly different from MENA muslims. This is because majority of the Islamic influence into India did not even come from the MENA region, it came from the Mughal Empire which originated in Central Asia.

Below is Jama Masjid in New Delhi, India:

and here's the Grand Mosque in Cairo, Egypt:

Now compare Jama Masjid above with Meidan Emam in Esfahan, Iran

Of the three shown here, which one looks most like the palace in Alabasta?

Its definitely not the masjid from India.

I'm very disappointed but unsurprised OPLA went in this direction. I would just like to encourage fans who aren't MENA or Indian to be more critical of these decisions as well. This casting is basically the same as the Disney Aladdin approach. Indians and MENA are not interchangeable.

I've been seeing a lot of posts celebrating that King Cobra and Vivi are not white and I would like to encourage those fans to reconsider giving Netflix and OPLA credit for representation when a critical look at the source material shows the casting decisions are incorrect and seem to be politically motivated. I know that Oda is deeply involved in OPLA but that still doesn't justify the swap.

Momentary bliss

Average day on social media...

Was watching the Jaya arc and I noticed these scenes where Sanji and Zoro brought up the idea of replacing the Merry...

I might have missed these details on previous watches/reads, but these help to set up for the Water 7 fight, as well as establish their characters.

The fact is that Sanji and Zoro noticed how badly damaged the Merry was even this early on in Jaya. Not just damaged, they thought her condition was so bad they should get a new ship. And this was before they went to Skypiea and back, when the Merry got even more damaged. So, how much worse would the Merry be by the time they reached Water 7?

And even though Usopp didn't say it, he knows the Merry so much better than Sanji and Zoro. So, it's unlikely that Usopp didn't notice, but rather he might be in denial about it.

In fact, he did admit, two chapters later, that the Merry's "a wreck", even if he never admitted that the Merry is probably no longer safe for them to travel with.

But anyway, back to the previous scene.

Right after Zoro brought up the idea of replacing the Merry, Luffy immediately reassured Usopp that they wouldn't do that,

which is interesting because in Water 7 before they fought, Usopp didn't get to see how upset Luffy was that he had to leave the Merry behind. Usopp didn't see Luffy arguing with Iceburg about not wanting to ditch the Merry. And when Luffy broke the news to Usopp, Luffy hid his own inner conflict about having to abandon the Merry. But at least, Luffy did tell Usopp about his feelings for the Merry in Jaya.

But the thing is, Luffy didn't just tell Usopp how he felt about the Merry, that the Merry was "part of the crew" and he didn't want to leave her behind. He also reassured Usopp that the Merry could be fixed. Which as we all know is not true. And I think this highlights Luffy's unfounded confidence pre-timeskip. He wasn't qualified to judge the Merry's state and yet he made such bold claims. Luffy's optimism is a strength which helped him win against very strong opponents. But sometimes it could also put his crew in danger. The arcs from Water 7 to Marineford helped Luffy learn this the hard way.

In a way, the next panel illustrates this in one simple scene. Right after Luffy made the claim that the Merry would be "as good as new once [they'd] fixed her up", he immediately did something that ended up damaging the Merry even more. Luffy had good intentions and the confidence that he could realise it, but he didn't always have the capability to back it up.

Anyway, I just think it's so interesting how Oda links the different arcs together. How he sprinkles hints and foreshadowing about an arc in the previous arcs. And I think that what makes One Piece so fun to watch/read.

One piece episode 1112

Hey folks, I made some GIFs for you to use for whatever you wish. If you haven't watched the episode yet, maybe come back later.