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ximca · 7 years

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Let’s get this out of the way. Pudding was INDEED jealous.

1. Chiffon wouldn’t have been so surprised if the dual personality thing was a known factor to the siblings, or at least to her. You can argue that Pudding loved Chiffon, but then it would make no sense to modify her memory, right? Hence, the dual personality is something new.

2. Her uncontrollable dual personality only surfaced this chapter, because in a previous one (Ch. 861):

Does that look like an uncontrollable dual personality to you? That’s acting. It’s the profession of hiding your real emotions to pretend otherwise for an audience. In this case, audience=Sanji. If it was dual emotions Pudding, then the Evil Mode Pudding should have reacted openly.

“But it would put the wedding plan in jeopardy!”

You know what else would be in jeopardy? The trust of Luffy’s crewmates to take Sanji and bake a cake.

3. Pudding is in love with Sanji (or at least, holds special affection for him as Kind Mode Pudding). This is not debatable. Why wouldn’t she feel a little jealous if she didn’t feel for him?

4. Pudding being jealous does NOT invalidate everything that has happened between her and Sanji. It builds up her character and adds another layer to it, even if she’s not relevant in the future (which she will be, though as ally or enemy I don’t know, but I’m 100% positive not as nakama).

5. Do you know what actually invalidates Pudding’s characterization and development over the course of the arc?

Calling THIS a gag moment.

Because this moment was what made Pudding act like how you see her now, a confused tsundere/yandere lovesick girl.

Also, shoutout to that one reviewer who has a tumblr account: “Using ships to argue plotlines” is a thing thanks to one particular Shichibukai called Boa Hancock.

As they say in North Blue: LOVE IS A HURRICANE.

The plot line would never have advanced if it wasn’t for her romantic feelings for Luffy.

No seeing Ace in Impel Down. No key to Ace’s handcuffs in Marineford. No recuperation in Amazon Lily.

#sanji #pudding #boa hancock

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ximca · 7 years

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Chapter 876 in a nutshell:

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Try to bake it right, To a palate's delight Hold that rolling pin proudly (The oven is hot) So why don't you show me what you got Whisk that egg yolk loudly And bake it up (Yeah) Turn up the heat Bake it up (Yeah) So you can compete Bake it up (Yeah) Give Big Mom your best So you can LEAVE this culinary slugfest Bake it up!

#sanji #pudding #big mom #one piece 876 #4kids #this is appropriate

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ximca · 7 years

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REBLOG IF YOU HONESTLY THOUGHT YOU’D NEVER GET OVER 10 FOLLOWERS.

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ximca · 7 years

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Evidence.ZIP: Nami's slow descent into love

Before we start I want to make clear a few things. This is not paid work which means it's substandard trash, all of the scans used are unofficial, but all the interpretations are mine.

Ready? Set. Go.

This first panel is not a shipping panel. LuNa or SaNa, it's not. However because it's been some days since Sanji took off, that means between that day and the day Luffy and company arrived, he's been on her mind. Again I stress, this is not a romantic sign or symbol of any note. Her tears are of worry and relief because she's been worried sick for her nakama and relief because finally, Luffy's here, let's get the rescue rolling.

The next two pictures are about Nami being eager to get off their butts and go after Sanji right away. But Luffy and Zoro are in no hurry, and even Chopper and Brook in other panels are just sad that Sanji is gone but they're not like Nami who's gung ho about chasing him right away. Does that mean they’re not worried about Sanji? No, of course they are, but Nami obviously is the most worried here.

Right before everything happened, Nami was pretty belligerent towards Sanji. She's used to everything he does, including his antics. But by no means does that mean she's apathetic to him. After all, even as early as FI our guy Sanji put in the work. In PH even if he didn't like it, he followed Nami's wish to save the kids and his body serendipitously saved Nami from Caesar's explosion. Nami knows that Sanji would save any other of his nakama, but it was only during the time skip that she began to see how much special attention Sanji actually paid her. And she doesn't even know yet, that Sanji gave her body respect when he dived that lake to get Kinemon's torso, when just a few minutes ago he was cupping her breasts like a madlad for a punchline.

Nami also remembers quite clearly what little Sanji told them about his family. It doesn't seem anything special until you realize that when this happened, Nami asked Chopper right before to dig a spot up for gold, and forgot all about it entirely when Sanji was telling them about Liar Norland.

So then Sanji and co. got captured. This is what I think triggered Nami, the "I'll be back but not really" smile she's seen twice in her life now: Sanji's and Bellemere's. She never really knew what she had until he was gone.

In this panel Nami is mad at Zoro for victim blaming Sanji. Both sides have a point, but take note of Luffy. He noticed, as well as I did (and a few others), that Nami was being a teensy bit overreacting at this point. Why I judged that to be his action instead of Luffy observing the back and forth, is because he’s of the same opinion as Zoro...marriages are no big deal, it’s not like somebody won’t return from a marriage. But Nami’s uncomfortable with it, so in order to remedy the problem, he decides to go up to Sanji and ask him to come back, because their navigator was being cranky when he wasn’t around. Also because he didn’t want to be a Big Mom subordinate, but if it was really the basis of his decision then he should have decided the chase before Nami’s overreaction.

The other two victims, Brook and Chopper, had very different stances. Brook was the calm and mature narrator while Chopper just kept apologizing.

See again Luffy in this panel. But, in addition to noticing Nami's vehement objection to Sanji's Vinsmoke lineage, there's also what I call the "wait a minute!" graphic. It's those small lines that form a semicircle near a character when something catches their attention during someone else's monologue. So now he knows something's definitely up with Nami, if he wasn't sure before.

That face isn't a "wait a minute, what are Vinsmokes?" but rather a "wait a minute, why are you objecting?"

For comparison, this is Nami’s “wait a minute, I know who you’re talking about” panel.

After the Jack ownage, Luffy was open to another banquet like he wasn't done with one the night before. Nami feels once is enough, let's get going, and gives her usual excuse of "you can't go anywhere without a navigator" spiel like Luffy doesn't know what she does. Go back to when Luffy visited Pekoms, he was still saying no to her because the fewer the members the higher the chance of stealth. But now all he says is OK. He knows that somebody on his crew can't wait to see Sanji again, and he's all too happy to oblige.

Even in this catfight prelude, Nami wants to hurry up, giddy up. But when Pudding elaborates on her situation...

THIS is where I think Nami caught herself slippin'. Luffy's just happy with someone complimenting his cook, Chopper is concerned with fact checking, but Nami...is concerned about Sanji's emotional well-being? If she really didn't give him the time of day then why the hell does she care whether Sanji marries for love and not just for political reasons? Just Nami well-wishing? Can't be, because well-wishers would not question whether or not the bride loves her groom in a political marriage.

ANYBODY else would give the happy bride-to-be a congratulations but only a "former-gf-who-has-accepted-the-reality-of-the-situation-who-still-has-residual-feelings-of-love" would confirm for herself if the man she left/who left her is being loved by his bride-to-be.

And before someone says “But family members and to an extent nakama would ask that too!”, they won’t question the bride’s/groom’s feelings, but whether or not he/she is ready to take care of their partner for the rest of their life. Nami isn’t asking “Will you take care of Sanji for the rest of his life?”

Also I think this conversation makes One Piece finally fail the Bechdel Test after all these years.

Fast forward to when they caught up with the Germa, that's Nami's face of relief from being worried about not being able to see each other again. If Sanji were his normal self this is probably where he'd ask her Do you love me now, Nami-san? or something. And after Nami fighting about quarter/half of 11 hours vs Cracker (this dude could take several G4 punches too), she'd probably reply to him in kind at that point.

I have no doubt in my mind that this Nami was one who already recognized her feelings and had no problem acting on them.

But reality is cruel...Sanji wasn't taking any chances. Even going as far as mock Luffy for his dream...and she believed it...despite hearing about a week ago from his own mouth that Luffy was going to be PK!

Luffy never believed the cockbull Sanji was cranking out, so why did Nami? Well for starters, Nami never experienced Sanji lying to her. Ever. You can even search the whole manga for a panel up to that point where Sanji lied to her, you won't find it. That's why she believed Sanji's lies so easily.

Do you remember the Usopp vs Luffy fight? The stated reason is because Usopp doesn't want to leave the Merry behind, due to his own insecurity about being weak and his projection onto the boat being useless and needing replacement which snowballed into him cracking. But was that really all it was? Of course not, Usopp wasn't selfish enough to fight for himself. Flee for himself maybe. He wasn't just fighting for the Merry Go, he was also fighting for Kaya because Merry was his reminder of her.

Scour the manga, all of Usopp's most emotional fight moments are because he was fighting for someone else.

Back to Nami, what did the slap mean? Was it anger at beating Luffy up and spitting on his dream? Yes. Was it because of all the stress and worry for him being useless at that point? Yes. But as a natural opposite of Usopp, Nami's most emotional fight moments are about herself.

Nami decided to fight Arlong because of his continued tyranny towards Cocoyashi Village despite her doing her best to pay up their freedom, but the bulk of her anger was about how much Arlong fucked her life up. Thanks to him she never grew up with a normal childhood.

With Nami vs Ms. Doublefinger, I think Nami even decided to leave her to Zoro. However because she was being labeled a weakling (and underestimated), she decided to stay and fight. Nami vs Kalifa was a similar case of underestimation despite her taking the fight because Sanji was useless against Kalifa.

I think Nami was also mad that Sanji wasn't the same man she realized she fell in love with. Gone was the kind, humble, and goofy man who would stick up for his nakama and their dreams. In his place was a snotty brat who acted superior to everything and believed status gave them the right to shit on other people's dreams. Nami thinks Sanji has changed for the worse because of his newfound status, and drops the endearment term “-kun” which she only used for him.

It's framed like in TV dramas where the lady slaps the man out of passion. Yonji even lampshades it: "She's the fiery type!"

The last pic is just Nami’s “oh shit no” look compared to Luffy’s “oh shit” one.

I’m too tired to continue so I’m stopping this here.

Better researchers than I can spot where Nami first got infatuated by Sanji.

All I’m saying is, they don’t really care about us Sanami shippers should not worry about the character development Oda gave Nami in the Year of Sanji. It’s been a long time coming for us but it’s the last stretch before the game ends.

Don’t expect Oda to give them a flashy confession or an extraordinary action to validate the ship.

But if I read Oda right and this is where he wants Sanji and Nami to take the next step into their relationship, we’re in the green.

Naysayers will say things like “but Nami would do the same for the other nakama” or “so and so would act like that too” but take heed and remember, Oda does not write without reason. He MADE Nami overreact because he wants US to care that Sanji was taken from the crew. He WROTE Sanji into catching Nami with both of them sharing a brief smile because he wants US to feel the relief of both parties safe in each other’s hold.

And he DREW Pudding being jealous because that’s how some other ships feel about this arc. jk ilu guise this is just banter

Thanks for reading.

#sanami #sannami #sanji x nami #sanjixnami

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ximca · 7 years

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One Piece 875 thoughts

I’m currently abroad and didn’t have much time not the right mindset to write anything yet - but I guess I should have, for a chapter like this, over which I’d rejoice over for weeks in normal circumstances.

Women are strong.

And by that I don’t mean necessarily physically strong. But women can and will react and this saga is proving it by the day. I’ll never get over the fact that the only female yonkou - though for a shounen manga a 25% of women involvement is not bad at all - is also the dumbest. The fact that Streusen manipulated quite probably from day one, the fact that she loses her temper to fits of rage. It’s not something I appreciate. They fail to give depth to the character - hell, Señor Pink had a better development.

But Big Mom is not the only female character in this saga who, for the better or worse, changes things.

My girl Nami

One day I should really reflect on how I went from hating to her to loving her as I do, and shipping her with my other disliked character, Sanji. But that’s for another post. What is easy to see now is how we went from Punk Hazard Nami who declares, though jokingly, yes, that she’s not afraid of an enemy who’s running away, to last chapter when she submitted - I hoped for longer - the pet of a yonkou to her will, to, well, the magnificence of this:

Oh, and not minding Sanji holding her as he is and him not going all heart-eyes over it, but that’s too for another post.

Nami is not strong. She’s not physically strong, she’s not a man, to begin with. Keep in mind that Oda was that guy who never tried to sell the “but women can be just as strong as men”, at the very beginning of the manga, with Kuina. I practiced kick-boxing, I was even pretty good at it. I stood a chance against most female opponents, and men, of approx my size and height. But when I faced a taller male opponent - which often happened, as I’m not super tall -, and such, heavier, I hold much less chances. It’s natural. And Nami is a woman who is not a fighter, so she stands even less chances. But she’s smart and that in the end fills the gap. She didn’t use her charisma or her strength, she used her brains. And despite criticizing Oda repeatedly for often putting women on the wrong pedestal, it’s worth mentioning that some of the smartest characters in OP, her, and Robin, are women. I always wondered, how can they defeat Mama? They can’t. Not now, at least. They can slow her down. But to even do it physically would be impossible, Luffy showed it a couple of chapters ago trying to punch her back.

But what’s more surprising is the courage. Had you been Nami, would you have gone? I for sure can’t tell. One of the four most dangerous people in the world? But she did. She always pushed the others forward, even. Just in Dressrosa, two sagas ago, she even refused to get off the ship.

How should I feel about you?, Charlotte Pudding

This character’s a mistery. She had that bit of a tendency of standing in the way of my otp - though not really, not anymore, I could never see Sanji returning her feelings. Ever. - and tried to kill him and his crew multiple times, but I like her. Like for characters like Doffy, you have to admit they’re psycho b*****s and that you like precisely for that. Her ever representation, and the way that even after she’s confessed her intentions we can’t quite tell what she’s thinking, make her interesting. And one can’t deny that, again despite not being a fighter in the strict sense of the word, she was vital to this saga, for the worse, so far.

Now she loves Sanji, apparently. Truly, because he treated her like a decent human being - though she’s not - and not a weapon/freak for the first time. But her feelings for him are a mess, currently, intertwined with the confusion of the current situation and the fact she, as he said, is lying to herself. She may like him and as such want to save him, but she’s also, in her own way, wicked, and can’t stand see him holding another woman.

A woman who she knows tried her best to save him- so from an external pov like hers it’s not difficult to imagine they might be in love. And along with that, he envies his bonds, with the other members of the crew, bonds of trust and friendship that spell “family” more than her blood family ever did.

Call me a fanatic shipper, but it’s difficult to ignore that she’s getting angry here specifically because Sanji is holding Nami.

The point is: for better or worse, Pudding was and is central in this saga. Despite not ever being a fighter. You may like her or not, but one gotta appreciate when Oda gives women a chance to shine.

All the others: the Charlotte matriarchs

Starting from Mama herself, on whom rivers of words have been written - and unfortunately not much more, since her development is what is - , the Charlotte family doesn’t grow thin on female key figures. Lola, of course, before we even knew anything about her lineage, Smoothie, who’s freakingly scary, Amande, Galette, who are all fighters, and fight not in any way less brutally that their male counterparts - hello, Katakuri; but also those who are not, like Chiffon, and, I’d like to point out, not even pretty, who still refuse to stand idly by. In particular her: her goodbye with Bege was quite moving. She’s a mother, she’s not supposed to leave, but she did, to ensure that something good happens. She’s not cold-hearted and scheming, though that doesn’t mean she’s good altogether: she still wanted her mother dead. And her reason for it was one of the most common in OP: abuse. But how good is it that she managed to escape that situation and find happiness again though in an arranged marriage?

Women in manga don’t have to be just pretty, can we all agree on that? But they surely also don’t have to be just “good”. They’re supposed to be in every way as admirable and despicable as males could be, and receive the same reaction for it: that’s equality.

There are still some good ones though Reiju, Sora

To spend more words on Sora is unfortunately quite useless: she was good to a fault. That’s pretty much it. And yeah, she was the umpteenth abused mother in OP, which doesn’t make her less interesting, but overall less relevant. I don’t think we’ll see much more of her: but precisely as an abused mother in OP, her inner strenght are what echo here. Mothers who went that far to protect their children: Otohime, Belle-mère, Portgas D. Rouge. And it’s also curious how heavily Sanji’s circumstances echo with Ace’s: Luffy was about to lose him to a self-sacrifice, like it happened for Ace; both Ace and Sanji grew up from a childhood of spite to find people who loved despite, or for, what they are; and both their mothers gave their lives for them. I think here Luffy’s journey of saving was supposed to be the redemption for Marineford: he stated it wouldn’t happen again, and it didn’t.

Then, Reiju. She didn’t appear in this chapter but for what the issue is, it’s difficult to forget about her.

Everybody, both here and in the Japan, as she proved swiftly introducing herself in the top 20 of popularity. But what shouldn’t be understated about her is that she too isn’t perfect: she stated to have “committed terrible deeds”, and she too is a victim of her father’s manipulation and ambitions.

The point about women in this saga is that they are not supped to be pretty or caring or good anymore. They can be that, the opposite, and most importantly, various shades of that.

A bit late and well, general, cause I’m abroad right now and have too much on my mind. But in a normal occasion this would a chapter I’d celebrate over for weeks, so here goes. Besides, the app now allows me to format, and this makes so much more excited that is should.

Reiju is just that. Her goodness - and good looks - obviously stand in first place, but that’s not all there is about her. And she, like Sanji - they truly are siblings - was ready to pay for it.

So. A women’s honour. Women can be good and can be faulty, can be pretty and can be ugly, but can, most of all, not be just that. Not a hype chapter, that’s for sure. But really appreciable on the long run.

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