Not Aromantic But I Believe In Their Beliefs.

After we learnt that there were ~25 people who left Wano with Kozaburo, but that only ~10 people stayed in Shimotsuki Village, I always imagined that Tashigi might be decended from the remaining 15.

I still like to think that Shimotsuki Kozaburo, Shimotsuki Furiko and someone else (who didn't stay in Shimotsuki Village) may have been cousins, later having children and grandchildren who would end up being third cousins- the grandchildren being Zoro, Kuina and Tashigi.

I feel like it would make sense for Tashigi to look similar to Kuina for this reason. We still don't know if Tashigi has a last name, and it is possible that she could be a Shimotsuki considering her connection to swordsmanship.

It’s been almost 20 years and i’m still wondering why Tashigi and Kuina are so look alike and this fact is remarked every time. I think most of us agree that they’re not the same person, but there must be a reason why they look so similar and at this point in the story it continues to be highlighted every time she and Zoro meet. I mean...what's the point? Is it supposed to have any relevance? Or is it just used as another gag?

I feel like such a dumbass rn.

I come up with an AU in my head and make myself cry ffs. How dare my brain do that, it's not allowed.

IT'S NOT EVEN SUPER SAD, IT'S JUST ONE TRAGIC EVENT

:'(

(I mean, one extra tragic event)

My brain just went on a tangent and ended with this.

It started out as 'Zoro's first daughter is definitely named Kuina', then 'Imagine if she almost died falling down stairs, that'd be sad' then fucking 'she dies falling down stairs because I have to torture my favourite anime character'.

Chewing and gnawing on the irony One Piece continually shows with the main characters where they're doing objectively kind and helpful things and that's what gets them in trouble with the law. It's the selective application of criminal justice. The bias and room for corruption built into the system itself. It's delicious. It's horribly relevant. I'm obsessed.

part 1/2

Every time I hear Misfortune Shop Girl/ Girl Who Sells Misfortune by Kikuo, I think of Nico Robin.

At this point, I'm just begging for someone to make an edit or something because I cannot 😭

Also listen to the song if you haven't, it's hauntingly beautiful. And watch the video because the art is cool.

I haven't even updated my fic in 4 months 💀

I got a comment today that said smth along the lines of "I didn't wanna be weird commenting on a four month old fic"

Baby, bless your heart but four months isn't old by any means and ao3 isn't fucking instagram. Comment on fics you like, regardless of how old they are! The worst that could happen is you make an author's day. Writing is art, not content.

HOW TO WRITE A CHARACTER WHO IS IN PAIN

first thing you might want to consider: is the pain mental or physical?

if it’s physical, what type of pain is it causing? — sharp pain, white-hot pain, acute pain, dull ache, throbbing pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain (typically caused by nerve damage), etc

if it’s mental, what is the reason your character is in pain? — grief, heartbreak, betrayal, anger, hopelessness, fear and anxiety, etc

because your character will react differently to different types of pain

PHYSICAL PAIN

sharp and white-hot pain may cause a character to grit their teeth, scream, moan, twist their body. their skin may appear pale, eyes red-rimmed and sunken with layers of sweat covering their forehead. they may have tears in their eyes (and the tears may feel hot), but they don’t necessarily have to always be crying.

acute pain may be similar to sharp and white-hot pain; acute pain is sudden and urgent and often comes without a warning, so your character may experience a hitched breathing where they suddenly stop what they’re doing and clench their hand at the spot where it hurts with widened eyes and open mouth (like they’re gasping for air).

dull ache and throbbing pain can result in your character wanting to lay down and close their eyes. if it’s a headache, they may ask for the lights to be turned off and they may be less responsive, in the sense that they’d rather not engage in any activity or conversation and they’d rather be left alone. they may make a soft whimper from their throat from time to time, depends on their personality (if they don’t mind others seeing their discomfort, they may whimper. but if your character doesn’t like anyone seeing them in a not-so-strong state, chances are they won’t make any sound, they might even pretend like they’re fine by continuing with their normal routine, and they may or may not end up throwing up or fainting).

if your character experience chronic pain, their pain will not go away (unlike any other illnesses or injuries where the pain stops after the person is healed) so they can feel all these types of sharp pain shooting through their body. there can also be soreness and stiffness around some specific spots, and it will affect their life. so your character will be lucky if they have caretakers in their life. but are they stubborn? do they accept help from others or do they like to pretend like they’re fine in front of everybody until their body can’t take it anymore and so they can no longer pretend?

neuropathic pain or nerve pain will have your character feeling these senses of burning, shooting and stabbing sensation, and the pain can come very suddenly and without any warning — think of it as an electric shock that causes through your character’s body all of a sudden. your character may yelp or gasp in shock, how they react may vary depends on the severity of the pain and how long it lasts.

EMOTIONAL PAIN

grief can make your character shut themself off from their friends and the world in general. or they can also lash out at anyone who tries to comfort them. (five states of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventual acceptance.)

heartbreak — your character might want to lock themself in a room, anywhere where they are unseen. or they may want to pretend that everything’s fine, that they’re not hurt. until they break down.

betrayal can leave a character with confusion, the feelings of ‘what went wrong?’, so it’s understandable if your character blames themself at first, that maybe it’s their fault because they’ve somehow done something wrong somewhere that caused the other character to betray them. what comes after confusion may be anger. your character can be angry at the person who betrayed them and at themself, after they think they’ve done something wrong that resulted in them being betrayed, they may also be angry at themself next for ‘falling’ for the lies and for ‘being fooled’. so yes, betrayal can leave your character with the hatred that’s directed towards the character who betrayed them and themself. whether or not your character can ‘move on and forgive’ is up to you.

there are several ways a character can react to anger; they can simply lash out, break things, scream and yell, or they can also go complete silent. no shouting, no thrashing the place. they can sit alone in silence and they may cry. anger does make people cry. it mostly won’t be anything like ‘ugly sobbing’ but your character’s eyes can be bloodshot, red-rimmed and there will be tears, only that there won’t be any sobbing in most cases.

hopelessness can be a very valid reason for it, if you want your character to do something reckless or stupid. most people will do anything if they’re desperate enough. so if you want your character to run into a burning building, jump in front of a bullet, or confess their love to their archenemy in front of all their friends, hopelessness is always a valid reason. there’s no ‘out of character’ if they are hopeless and are desperate enough.

fear and anxiety. your character may be trembling, their hands may be shaky. they may lose their appetite. they may be sweaty and/or bouncing their feet. they may have a panic attack if it’s severe enough.

and I think that’s it for now! feel free to add anything I may have forgotten to mention here!

okay, whew. lots of thoughts about how dark one piece can get…

so i've reached the part where hiyori publicly humiliated one of the corrupt individuals in flower city in front of all the people in the brothel for falling into the trap of greed and lust.

and wow

i just. it's so fucking dark. and it's like in your face and it gets under your skin kind of dark. the laughter of the courtesans, kyoshiro mocking and ordering his underlings to beat him up in front of everyone, and hiyori's "i spent it all" laced with no remorse at all… it's just so cruel. and rightfully so tbh, since it was displayed how the man caused so much trouble to innocent people just to fulfill his disgusting fantasy of objectifying hiyori and viewing her as a trophy he can have.

i know that hiyori's identity as komurasaki was for the agenda of bringing down orochi, but a royal ending up as an oiran makes me sick. im not saying this because sex workers disgust me (i dont. but im of the opinion that sex work can be very dangerous and it is such a difficult job. and also it caters to the objectification and commodification of their bodies, which i find to be extremely damaging.), but i find it to be really tragic.

but at the same time, there's no definite answer as to what really happened to hiyori growing up, nor if she slept with men as an oiran at all. it's kind of up in the air for us to decide. i think this is a smart decision on oda's end as a writer.

are we going to interpret it as close to reality, or are we going to use the bounds of fiction and say that hiyori was relatively safe growing up?

i mean, we can say that hiyori did sleep with men as an oiran in exchange for manipulating them to drain all of their money. but we can also say that hiyori just entertained them until they're not of use to her anymore.

idk but to me both scenarios make sense.

it's like with hancock and her sisters. we know that they were abused by celestial dragons, but to what extent? were they physically tortured or did something far more sinister happen to them? also the same with robin's life. she spent most of her life running away from powerful people, and most of them are men. we can never say for sure if she always got away unscathed.

i think oda puts these types of situations in the story to keep younger audiences from digging too much into it while teaching them to be aware of the dangers lurking in the society ー but for us who are older it will really make us think and it kind of serves as a reminder of how scary the world is.

anyway back to hiyori, im of the opinion that she didn't actually sleep with any men, but thinking about all the mind games that she played with them just makes me feel bad for her. i imagine she had to endure so much of that from a young age, all while dealing with the death of her parents and the fall of their empire. it's just too much for a little girl. and now she has to put up a front for the sake of rebellion. it's like all her life, up until the strawhats freeing wano, she never got to truly live as her own person.

it's pretty fucked up. i want to say that there are better ways to write hiyori's character but yeah, i can't really think of one that would have bigger impact than what she was in the story. that scene of her stating her name as a kozuki sends chills down my spine. i honestly don't get how people would just dismiss her as a 'whore' or an 'evil, manipulative cunt who doesn't care about the lives she'll ruin'. as if kaido and orochi weren't the root cause of it all.

i just love how deep the lore can get. there have been so many characters in the story of one piece and im just amazed at how oda can maximize their stories to the fullest potential of the specific arc that they belong to.

truly a work of a genius.

A new champion takes the stage,

A celestial wonder we shall now engage.

We ponder what it may be,

Another cosmic body to join our gle—

what the fuck