One Piece rambling post!
Okay, I got lazy. XD I'm not gonna do my super mega all emotions One Piece post. So no pics, just text, (and where appropriate) gifs and videos. XD (I couldn't be bothered to go back and screencap everything!) Major spoilers for everything up until the start of the new arc.
Disclaimer. I cry at emotional stuff a lot easier than I used to, as you can probably tell from my bawling posts recently. XD For example, the John Lewis Christmas ad...
Click to view...makes me tear up like this.
Whereas One Piece (and I fully admit it's cos I'm waaaaay too attached to these characters) makes me go like this:
So I apologise in advance for all the ;_; and T_T and NOOO's that are about to follow! I also apologise because this is in no coherant order whatsoever!
Feelings:
- I love Luffy a lot. He's one of my favourite protagonists. But I'll be damned if I didn't miss the other Straw Hats. They balance each other out so well, so there was a definite NOTHING FILLS THE VOID feeling with them missing.
- I loved that Oda brought back old characters such as Crocodile, Bon Clay, Mr 3 and my utmost favourite recurring character, Buggy. We needed them to fill the gaps that the Straw Hats left.
- Jinbei is a badass. Seriously. The old dudes in this world are friggin badass, and Jibei's in the top 5.
- It's probably a good thing Kuma split the group apart. With the level of strength that was at Marineford and Impel Down, there would have been more than just the two casulties. The only person who would've been strong enough to survive would have been Zoro, except that he was already 80% dead after Kuma's first attack. ;_; As smart as Nami, Usopp and Robin are, no way they could've survived this. And as much as he'd hate to hear it, Sanji is not as strong as Zoro, at least not at this stage.
- BON CLAAAAY! ;_;
- Even though they were in the middle of the fight, I loved seeing how Ace and Whitebeard met. And can I just say how awesome Whitebeard is? ;_; I will get to him again in a bit.
- The usual "Oda makes you care for randoms you never met before" came into play a lot in this arc. Odz (Oars?) Jr had me tearing up. Damn, he had it bad. And Squardo's probably going to hate himself for the rest of his life. ;_; Lesson for the kiddies: deal with your crap. Talk about your feelings. Don't let it bottle up or you'll stab your adopted dad and regret it for all time!
- Luffy and them's entrance into Marineford was so funny.
- Sad moment #...I've lost count: Ace was totally prepared to die, and just wanted it over with. He didn't seem to care. Until he saw how much effort people were putting into saving him, and how much people wanted him to live. Only then did he want to survive. And I weeped all over. ;_;
- Another interesting contrast between the pirates and the marines (a big theme of the show, good and evil is based on who you are and your actions, not what title you carry in life). Just like you have pirates like Luffy, Whitebeard and Shanks, you have marines like Smoker and Garp, who will do their duty but have certain moral lines they won't cross. Just as you have pirates like Arlong, Blackbeard, you have marines like Akainu.
- The pirates were willing to risk war and death for someone they considered family. The marines (in particular Sengoku) were willing to risk war and dangerous unrest in the entire world for the sake of principal and saving face, no matter the cost to their troops and civillians.
- Can I say how mad I am that Akainu didn't die? I reeeeally wanted him to fall in that hole and never come out!
- Again, the marines carry out (or in this case, try to) a massacre that is hidden from the public. Luckily for us, Buggy managed to get some of that footage out but I doubt the general public will start doubting the word of the marines.
- Important information that got out. One Piece is a thing, and it does exist. Of course, Luffy was unconscious when Whitebeard announced this.
- TOO MANY KUMAS!
- Loved Hancock managing to block him though. She's so hilarious.
- The fake-out save! Oda, why! Why you gotta do this!? ;_;
- AKAINUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
- The first on-screen in real time death on One Piece. ;_; And it had to be Ace! ;_;
- Ace cried. I cried. He said thanks for loving me. I cried. He died. I cried. Luffy cried. I broke down. His voice actress is outstanding. You could feel every ounce of pain Luffy was feeling. All that effort, all that work. For nothing. His brother was gone and he just shut down.
- My heart!
- And then, you gotta go and kill Whitebeard. Dude's so old, so many "this would've killed an ordinary man" injuries, already ill before this whole thing started. But dammit if he didn't go out like a boss. He kicked all the asses. Took all the names.
- The way the marines attacked him is probably the first time this show has actually scared me. It was really, really distubring. There was a bloodlust there that was just really...unsettling to say the least. They only had the guts to do it when he was already dying.
- But Whitebeard man. He died. Standing up. And when his jacket fell off, they showed that his body was beaten, bruised and scared. But there was not one single mark on his back. And the narrator was all "Whitebeard, died aged whatever, without a single scar on his back because he never ran away from a fight." Cool. Definition of. If I was a little kid, I'd be all "I'm gonna be this badass when I grow up."
- And the best part? Dude was the strongest man in the world. He could've taken over the world if he wanted to. He was on death's door and managed to cause all this damage, he could've easily have taken the world. But he didn't want that. He wanted a family. To have people that meant something to him. Aaaaaaaand cue the ugly crying. It makes you wonder what happened to him that that's all he wanted out of life, but we'll never know now!
- AND HE KNOWS WHAT ONE PIECE IS, AND WHAT D MEANS!
- Marines went even more scary when he died. But then, awesome happened.
- Remember Coby? Little wuss that became a marine? Well, he seems to have the same empathic powers that Aisa from the Skypeia arc had. And he could feel all the evil feelings going around and couldn't take it. So he tries to stand up to Akainu. Yes, that Akainu. Coby dude, cho balls! It shows how much he's grown and that his wish of becoming a great marine would probably come true.
- AND THEN CAME THE SURPRISE OF MY LIFE! I don't read spoilers for this show, so I had no idea he was coming. And I don't read the manga, so I didn't know he was on his way.
- Shanks! ♥ IT'S SHANKS!
- It's ridiculous how much I fangirl Shanks. His voice actor is so cool as well. (He voiced Hiko Seijuro in Ruruouni Kenshin, amongst others) And he got hotter while he was away, damn.
- And as if he needed to be anymore awesome, he stopped the entire war without lifting a finger. Just cos he's that badass.
- I hate that he didn't get to talk to Luffy though. He was right, but still! Stupid man promise!
- His reunion with Buggy was hilarious though.
I love Buggy! XD
- Luffy waking up to find his brother had died, and when Jinbei told him and he just cried his heart out.
- My heart! ;_;
- THEN THE FLASHBACK EPISODES! ;_;
- SABO! OMG! SO SAD!
- More hints about the rotten hierarchy in the One Piece world. It's probably for reasons like this that Luffy's dad is a revolutionary.
- LMAO, Luffy's town was next to a kingdom! So random!
- Dadan! I kinda love Dadan! She's pretty much those kids' mum and now two out of the three are dead.
- Garp's an irresponsible parent. Dragon must've had a good mum.
- Why are all the mums on this show dead? ;_;
- I loved that even though Ace thought of himself as the leader, it was Sabo who was the more mature out of the 3 of them.
- My heart breaks for that kid. ;_; Although now we know why Ace and Luffy left home at 17 and one of the reasons why Luffy is always striving to be stronger. And also why they both cherish their freedom so much.
- It also makes a lot more sense now why Luffy freaked out when the crew was attacked by Kizaru and Kuma.
- I really, really felt for Dadan when she confronted Garp. Just like a mum, she was more concerned about Luffy's grief than her own.
- I cried when Luffy was all "I want to see them!"
- My heart!
- And the way they reacted when they heard what had happened. All of them were all "how must he be feeling, what is he going through, he's all alone". This crew, dammit. ;_; Usopp's reaction got to me the most.
- LMAO at where Sanji got thrown to. Kuma be trollin'!
- And LMAO at Zoro being stuck with Perona. I kinda love her though.
- DYING at the girls thinking all males were stretchy like Luffy. When they pulled on Rayleigh and Jinbei's faces, I had to go in search of oxygen man.
Final thoughts.
- Even though this show is completely ridiculous sometimes, the thing I love about it most is the relationships. Some people don't like that there's no romance on the show, but it's probably my favourite thing about it. There are different kinds of relationships in real life that are just as important as love relationships. It also gives the female characters space to grow and be awesome, rather than just being a plot device to further the hero's story.
- Random as it was, Buggy's comic relief was seriously needeed as we were missing Usopp, Franky and Chopper. Buggy's voice actor is a boss, I love him. Plus Buggy was important in the end, cos if he hadn't fiddled with the video den den mushi, the world wouldn't have seen what little they did and the declaration that One Piece is real wouldn't have been heard. So even if Luffy didn't hear it, the crew will have heard about it. Iva was damn hilarious too!
- A lot of people (I heard) had a problem with Boa Hancock and the fact that she was head over heels in love with Luffy. For me, I thought it was classic Oda. You have here the most beautiful woman in the world, who can entrap any man and she falls in love with one of the most simple men in the world because he's a good person. Sanji acts like Hancock did on a daily basis (okay, minute-ly basis) and no-one gets mad at him. Plus, we usually only see men going gaga for girls in this show, I'm sure one girl going gaga over one boy won't kill us!
- Sengoku, you've released some Pandora shit over here. A lot of islands were being protected from pirates by Whitebeard. And he scared a lot of the pirates so they didn't cause as much trouble as they could. Shanks ain't gonna cover your ass! But you've quit, so it's not like it matters. There's so many secrets about this World Government that we still don't know. Obviously, the poneglyph tells of a secret history of the world and that's why it's forbidden to know how to read it. The fact that Gold Roger knew how to read it too is interesting, and we still don't know why he does. The Celestial Dragons have something to do with it, definitely. It makes me think that they're not meant to be the leaders of the world and that's what the Poneglyph shows.