More One Piece thoughts
Oct. 10th, 2023 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42I wasn't planning on commenting on the Thriller Bark arc until I was done watching it, but after the episode I just watched last night, I have to get it out there... I was DYING LAUGHING over everything to do with "Tactic 15/Pirate Docking 3." The very concept (which one of them came up with that? I feel like Usopp maybe mentioned it to Franky as a joke, and Franky was like "hey, let's do it!" and they got Chopper on board because of course he would find that cool, and then maybe they mentioned it to Sanji and Zoro, who both took it as a joke or thought they were off the hook because they figured they'd never need to use that tactic... but I wonder who was originally supposed to be the left arm, because I feel like Robin would have flat-out told them "no" right away if she'd known about it from the very start, and I know they said "Nami never would have left us hanging like that!" but I feel like Nami absolutely would have left them hanging like that, hahahaha. I figure Luffy might have been down to do it, but they probably never thought of asking him because they figured he can handle whatever enemy would require Tactic 15 on his own), the fact that Robin absolutely refused to do it under any circumstances, the way Oars was genuinely disappointed that he didn't get to see the "giant robot." (I love Oars so much. I was sort of hoping Luffy's will would be too strong for him to submit to Moria's will, and Oars would just end up being a huge liability because he's walking around casually fucking shit up without a care in the world. But even after he submitted to Moria and went on the warpath, I do love that he still has some traces of Luffy in him- including the fact that he won't really hurt anyone unless they seriously piss him off. So, just as I predicted, the remaining Straw Hats seriously pissed him off, and now he's going to attack them. I also love that my other prediction- that the remaining Straw Hats would have to fight him all together to take him down- is coming true. I think it's funny that Usopp kept being like "We don't need to take Oars down, we can just wait for Luffy to take down Moria and that'll take out all the zombies!" when 1. you do realize you're talking to Zoro and Sanji, who wouldn't back down from a fight, and 2. Luffy is really getting nowhere with Moria, so this could take a while :'D I honestly don't know how he's going to end up kicking Moria's ass like he wants to- it seems like Moria might genuinely overpower him. But he's got to have some sort of weakness, like how Crocodile and Eneru had weaknesses that Luffy was able to exploit. We'll see what happens...)
Gotta love how the entire crew of Thriller Bark is made up of such pathetic and unlikeable people. Moria would make a terrible Pirate King, seeing as he doesn't want to do anything himself and just forces his underlings to do it all for him. That's antithetical to the idea of freedom that the Pirate King represents. Absalom is... well... he's a disgusting creep whose defeat was immensely cathartic for me to watch. I won't say I hate him as much as I hated Spandam from the Enies Lobby arc, but my hatred for him is somewhere up there. I was happy that Sanji got to beat him up, but even happier when Nami delivered the finishing blow, because fuck him for doing what he did to her. (I also can't wait to see Sanji's reaction when he realizes that Nami saved herself and didn't need him to save her. I mean, yeah, Sanji helped, but Nami was the one to finish off Absalom, and she wasn't even aware of Sanji's involvement either. I feel like Sanji's the type of disgustingly chivalrous person who would be disappointed that he didn't get to rescue his damsel in distress, completely subjugating Nami in the process.) As despicable as Absalom is, I loathe Dr. Hogback even more, even though I feel like his character could be a lot more nuanced and less obviously evil. I would have preferred if he had started out as a genuinely good doctor who wanted to help people, and maybe Cindry could have been his wife or his daughter- someone with whom he had an actual bond, not a random actress he treated once with whom he became obsessed- and after she died, his obsession with bringing her back to life drove him to madness and immorality. Instead, him revealing that he had never actually cared about helping people as a doctor made him too obviously evil and one-dimensional for me. I have a feeling that Oars didn't actually squash him, but I couldn't care less if he did, no one will miss him. (I hope Cindry is all right though, and I hope she finally gets her shadow released and finds peace in death. As great as it would be to see her come into her own as a person in control of herself, I don't think her life would be very happy without a shadow, as she'd never get to see sunlight and therefore could never go outside the Florian Triangle.) Finally, I do have a soft spot for Perona, the cutesy evil ghost girl... but the fact that she's so reliant on her power and FREAKS THE FUCK OUT when it doesn't work for her makes her pathetic in my eyes. I loved the way her fight with Usopp went- Usopp is so much more clever/stronger than he thinks he is, I don't get why he's always so full of self-doubt. (At least his self-doubt and anxiety actually ended up protecting him from Perona, though. That plot twist cracked me up, between Usopp going "I just naturally have A NEGATIVE PERSONALITY!!!" and Perona reacting as if she'd lost all faith in humanity and telling him to cheer up.
I have a little bit more to say, but I may wait until the arc is over to share all my thoughts. For now, I'll say this: Brook is on track to becoming my second-favorite Straw Hat Pirate (I know he hasn't joined the crew yet, but we all know that he will). I mean, a talking skeleton swordsman who sings and plays the violin and makes dumb jokes about being a skeleton all the time? He's so fucking cool!! I also like his backstory. I don't know how he's going to act once he officially joins the crew, though- I feel like he could get annoying quickly- so I'm trying to reserve my judgments for now.
One more thought- I was thinking about how the members of the Straw Hat Pirates who I headcanon as queer (Luffy is aroace, Nami is a lesbian, and Zoro is demi/bi) would interact with that part of themselves, given how different the world of One Piece is to our own, and if it would even matter to them, and I just wanted to say that I think Luffy wouldn't give his sexuality/orientation a second thought (and I don't think anyone else would care that much either), but I think he would be excited once he finds out about pride flags. I can just see him being like "wow, that means I get TWO flags!!" and flying the ace & aro colors on board the Sunny just because they're flags and not because he really feels connected to this part of his identity at all, lol. Also, one last semi-related thought- in the dub that I'm watching, there's a throwaway line when Nami is fighting against Absalom's attempts to kiss her, and one of the things she says is "I'm a pirate! I'm into adventure, not romance!" And that just makes me really happy. I think that's the stated reason out-of-universe why there's no romance in One Piece, and I love that they threw that in there, even if it probably doesn't align with whatever the original line is in Japanese.
Gotta love how the entire crew of Thriller Bark is made up of such pathetic and unlikeable people. Moria would make a terrible Pirate King, seeing as he doesn't want to do anything himself and just forces his underlings to do it all for him. That's antithetical to the idea of freedom that the Pirate King represents. Absalom is... well... he's a disgusting creep whose defeat was immensely cathartic for me to watch. I won't say I hate him as much as I hated Spandam from the Enies Lobby arc, but my hatred for him is somewhere up there. I was happy that Sanji got to beat him up, but even happier when Nami delivered the finishing blow, because fuck him for doing what he did to her. (I also can't wait to see Sanji's reaction when he realizes that Nami saved herself and didn't need him to save her. I mean, yeah, Sanji helped, but Nami was the one to finish off Absalom, and she wasn't even aware of Sanji's involvement either. I feel like Sanji's the type of disgustingly chivalrous person who would be disappointed that he didn't get to rescue his damsel in distress, completely subjugating Nami in the process.) As despicable as Absalom is, I loathe Dr. Hogback even more, even though I feel like his character could be a lot more nuanced and less obviously evil. I would have preferred if he had started out as a genuinely good doctor who wanted to help people, and maybe Cindry could have been his wife or his daughter- someone with whom he had an actual bond, not a random actress he treated once with whom he became obsessed- and after she died, his obsession with bringing her back to life drove him to madness and immorality. Instead, him revealing that he had never actually cared about helping people as a doctor made him too obviously evil and one-dimensional for me. I have a feeling that Oars didn't actually squash him, but I couldn't care less if he did, no one will miss him. (I hope Cindry is all right though, and I hope she finally gets her shadow released and finds peace in death. As great as it would be to see her come into her own as a person in control of herself, I don't think her life would be very happy without a shadow, as she'd never get to see sunlight and therefore could never go outside the Florian Triangle.) Finally, I do have a soft spot for Perona, the cutesy evil ghost girl... but the fact that she's so reliant on her power and FREAKS THE FUCK OUT when it doesn't work for her makes her pathetic in my eyes. I loved the way her fight with Usopp went- Usopp is so much more clever/stronger than he thinks he is, I don't get why he's always so full of self-doubt. (At least his self-doubt and anxiety actually ended up protecting him from Perona, though. That plot twist cracked me up, between Usopp going "I just naturally have A NEGATIVE PERSONALITY!!!" and Perona reacting as if she'd lost all faith in humanity and telling him to cheer up.
I have a little bit more to say, but I may wait until the arc is over to share all my thoughts. For now, I'll say this: Brook is on track to becoming my second-favorite Straw Hat Pirate (I know he hasn't joined the crew yet, but we all know that he will). I mean, a talking skeleton swordsman who sings and plays the violin and makes dumb jokes about being a skeleton all the time? He's so fucking cool!! I also like his backstory. I don't know how he's going to act once he officially joins the crew, though- I feel like he could get annoying quickly- so I'm trying to reserve my judgments for now.
One more thought- I was thinking about how the members of the Straw Hat Pirates who I headcanon as queer (Luffy is aroace, Nami is a lesbian, and Zoro is demi/bi) would interact with that part of themselves, given how different the world of One Piece is to our own, and if it would even matter to them, and I just wanted to say that I think Luffy wouldn't give his sexuality/orientation a second thought (and I don't think anyone else would care that much either), but I think he would be excited once he finds out about pride flags. I can just see him being like "wow, that means I get TWO flags!!" and flying the ace & aro colors on board the Sunny just because they're flags and not because he really feels connected to this part of his identity at all, lol. Also, one last semi-related thought- in the dub that I'm watching, there's a throwaway line when Nami is fighting against Absalom's attempts to kiss her, and one of the things she says is "I'm a pirate! I'm into adventure, not romance!" And that just makes me really happy. I think that's the stated reason out-of-universe why there's no romance in One Piece, and I love that they threw that in there, even if it probably doesn't align with whatever the original line is in Japanese.
