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Multiple Times - Blog Posts
sometimes i sit and wish zoro had a ‘hat moment,’ like nami’s in arlong park, usually just as an extension of me wanting zoro content. but i’ve been thinking about it, zoro and luffy’s straw hat, and realised just how many times he has either caught it or been trusted to hold it.
zoro doesn’t need a shifting character moment that impacts his relationship with the crew because he doesn’t have anything in his backstory that hinders his openness with them. as far as we can tell, there is nothing subdued and hurting in his past that needs addressing. if any of the strawhats asked, i think he would easily tell them about kuina, his parents, the dojo, if they don’t know already.
zoro being trusted to hold luffy’s hat, to catch it over open waters when it’s dangerous for luffy to, etc, it speaks so hugely about zoro and luffy. zoro doesn’t need the anchoring support it has, instead he acts as a person luffy trusts to protect it.
in a lot of ways, luffy’s strawhat is an extension of himself, his strawhat is him. it’s what makes the moment in arlong park so special, it makes every moment it’s in danger so terrifying. he’s straw hat luffy. in fact, many enemies, friends and acquaintances refer to him as just that- straw hat.
luffy’s trust in zoro to hold his treasure, a piece of himself, is so special. it perfectly sums up their relationship, their trust and their willingness for vulnerability with each other. luffy allows zoro to protect him, and zoro would catch him every time.
zoro not having a ‘hat moment,’ instead having multiple where he holds it in tricky situations instead, it makes sense. luffy leans on zoro, he allows himself to be supported. though not shown, i am sure zoro would be equally comfortable for luffy to hold onto wado if he couldn’t.
luffy physically handing over a part of himself to zoro, a part that i am sure he values over a limb if need be, it’s so telling. he repeatedly trusts zoro with his life many times, yet somehow giving him his straw hat feels just as special.
zoro doesn’t need the comfort of the hat, he’s able to offer the opposite instead. luffy is comforted with the knowledge it’s in his hands.
Maybe it’s a product of being a fan of Naruto for near ten years now and considerably evolving in my perceptions of it, but it’s always strange to see how despite it being near as long since the main series ended, so many people still unabashedly miss the point. Naruto sympathizing with and talk-no-jutsuing almost every villain he comes face-to-face with isn’t an arbitrary thing that Kishimoto employs because he’s an incompetent writer. It’s a narrative device used time and time again to illustrate that there are truly no villains or heroes in this world, only victims who are the product of an exploitative, violent environment funded by the feudal-state system. Even the worst people we come to know in the narrative are a product of that environment and of the cycle of violence that refuses to be broken, so yes, empathy is the point, even for the villains who seemingly belong at the bottom of the barrel. Understanding their circumstances is about understanding the desolate environment that created them and how such an environment should never have existed in the first place. It’s never about excusing them for their actions. Recognizing that ultimately the system is to blame and not the individual people in it is vital to Naruto’s thesis as a whole. We can argue about whether the conclusions and sequels to the main series actually stick the landing with that thesis, but at least for the bulk of the main narrative, it is important and intended for readers to recognize that Naruto’s empathy for others is born out of social intelligence and compassion, not naïveté.
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