Kathgon - Thoughts From The Brain Cauldron

eyepatch + chopper live reaction to zoro saying fuck. the crew came up with the rule to not swear around chopper

Hiyori again 👍

what I find wonderfully intriguing about kuina is her confidence!!, the way she may act arrogant yet hides a fear of falling behind that she just accepted for the most part, before the promise... I just adore her headstrong personality and slightly cocky demeanor so much. gah. usually when you think "dead childhood friend to strong tough guy who's motivated by a promise he made to her" you think of a gentle girl who was kind and loving and saw the beauty in every living thing; and while I do appreciate those characters, kuina's rage strikes a chord with me. her frustration was so strong that zoro would never forget it. and like, same lol. kuina was zoro's rival, the daughter of the head of the dojo, the cool and undefeated older sister figure hiding a deep insecurity insisted by what she had been taught about being a woman. and she was fucking MAD about it, and I'm obsessed with it!!!! she was mad at being born a girl because she had been taught that meant she could not achieve her dream. she was cool and collected but also fierce and angry and sad and only just 11 years old. her memory persists.

in the manga, I think the main memory of her is kuina crying, telling zoro he was lucky he was born a boy. this does kinda fit the "lovely somber girl, victim of the world's cruelty" image more, which is why I AM SO CRAZY OVER EPISODE 19 FOR WHAT THEY GAVE US ON KUINA. her relationship with her father, the interactions with zoro, and fight 2001 is always so vivid and haunting to me. SHE!!! exposing a vulnerability and making a promise just to die the next day. back to the "tough guy remembering the past which motivates him" trope thing: it'd be the girl smiling and saying something touching or heartfelt, yeah? well for zoro it's kuina beating him 2000 times at something he was good at. for zoro it's her defeating him for a 2001st fight WITH REAL SWORDS and then crying about it. for zoro it's seeing someone he respects crumble and fall apart. the memories of her he holds onto are mostly her fighting and being sad... her strength and fears... Man these kids drive me crazy

zoro’s sexuality is hilarious to me, cause i could believe anything at this point. gay? totally see it. bi? sure. straight as an arrow? wouldnt be surprised. asexual? ofc just like luffy. aromantic? makes sense he has swordsman stuff to do.

oda could tell me tomorrow that zoro’s been a sapiosexual trans woman this whole time and id just nod like yup thats silly ol zoro for you

Hey mouthwashing peeps.

Y’know how Anya stole and hid the gun when she realized she was pregnant? Straight up refused to tell Curly where it was bc she didn’t want Jimmy to know where it was and get a hold of it if/when he found out?

Remember how Jimmy stormed out of the med bay when Anya told him and Curly went to find him?

Remember where Curly found him?

He was outside of the cockpit doors.

He was either on his way to the utility cabinet to get the gun or already searched it and was about to go look for it when Curly found him.

So he knew the gun was gone and that Swansea had the axe, meaning the only two weapons on the ship were out of his reach.

He crashed the ship *after* he realized he couldn’t just kill Anya, he had to kill the whole crew. We know he crashed the ship so he wouldn’t deal with the repercussions of his actions, but holy shit.

Anya was scared he’d go ballistic and she was fucking right.

i like in the earlier episodes (specifically on syrup island) when zoro has his bandana on and he just

No comment...

he doesn’t get paid enough for this

EXACTLYYYY

I feel like a lot of people really want/wanted Kuina to be Tashigi because they can't accept that all the potential she had was ruined because she had a tragic accident.

What makes Zoro's backstory sad isn't so much the scale of destruction, like on Robin's, but rather how down to Earth it is, as Kuina tripped, fell and probably broke her neck in a bad landing. It's that simple, and it serves as a good contrast to the larger scale backstories.

Today I was showing my nephew the second episode of OPLA with Usopp, and we've got to the scene when Zoro was trying to get out of the well, while thinking about Kuina. My nephew complained about how in anime Kuina died in an accident which he found lame, and I started to think about it deeper.

I came to conclusion that Kuina's fairly normal death via tripping accident is meant to be doubly tragic. She didn't just die young in a stupid, easily avoidable accident, while having such grand plans as becoming the greatest warrior ever; she didn't even die in combat. All of this happens some time after Zoro and Kuina promised each other that one of them will become The Greatest Swordsman in the World, so Kuina's ordinary accident feels like a cruel twist of fate. She didn't even die a warrior's death; she just tripped.

I was just rereading Found Among The Strays, found this artwork linked and DAMN. It's honestly heartbreaking 😭

Read it if you haven't already btw

“Did it work?”

Found Among The Strays