4 Smiles :)

Only one chapter of the Stormbringer manga has been released and I'm already in pain

Kids show

I hate that that was the first thing I thought when I saw that Atsushi panel

Concept:

It’s been speculated for a while that Higuchi has an ability. I’m not sure if it was ever confirmed but I find the possibility very interesting.

For me it’s less so what her ability could be and more why she’s hiding it.

Ability users in Bungou Stray Dogs are inherently dehumanised. We’ve seen countless characters suffer at the hands of others for having an ability.

And yet we’ve never seen anyone expressly hide their ability.

I don’t count Atsushi because he lost his memories. Nor any of the spies in the story, Ango and Tachihara. As they were hiding their true identifies and that includes their abilities.

I feel if anyone does know about Higuchi’s ability it would be Mori and maybe Akutugawa.

I say maybe because while I don’t see a reality where Higuchi wouldn’t tell Akutagawa. Whether or not he cares to listen is a lot more debatable.

Especially if he believes her ability is lesser than his in some way. And thus just dismisses any talk of it on principle.

I do like the idea of Higuchi not having an ability that fits what you’d expect of a Port Mafia member. It would tie in to the conversation she and Mori had about her fitting this kind of role.

And it would further play into this parallel with the Agency.

As they have Ranpo, someone who doesn’t have an ability but acts as if they do. And has one that’s deemed so great and amazing the Agency thrives with it.

While the Port Mafia would have Higuchi, someone who has an ability but acts as if they don’t. And serves her organisation well even if her ability doesn’t fit with them.

But it may be turn out to be exactly what they need.

Okay but, Atsushi leapt forward. He was sliced from behind.

He should have fell onto his front, he should have been faced down when he hit the ground.

And yet, as he falls he somehow manages to turn over.

To turn towards Akutagawa, to keep his eyes on him and not the thing that just killed him.

His eyes that plead with Akutagawa to be safe, the hand that pushed Akutagawa away from danger still stretching towards him, are the last things to go.

With the last of his strength in the physical world, Atsushi fought to know he'd saved Akutagawa, fought for him to be the last thing he saw.

"I'm sure he's got nothing to do with me!" says Luffy and I was waiting for him to say it. For him to hear all of this Nika lore and declare that, nope, I don't care, I'm not Nika, I'm not a liberator. It's just such a Luffy thing to do. But I know many fans actually will be shocked with Luffy's answer here or will just dismiss it. I have seen many opinions before that Luffy was always a liberator by choice, so becoming Nika is just natural course of events for him and he will have no problem embracing his role in the bigger scheme of things. Some even complained they hate that Luffy is Nika because they don't want Luffy to be the "fated hero" but instead a "from nobody to the king of the world" trope. But nope! Luffy just noped all of this himself.

Luffy is not a liberator and he's not an altruistic hero, he doesn't go from island to island aiming to save people, and if you think he wanted to, then please remember Fishmen Island and how unhappy he was with the idea of being a hero:

And now if you think Luffy changed since then because Dressrosa happened, then please remember what he asked of Momonosuke in Wano:

Yep, that's right. Luffy still *doesn't have any interest* in becoming a hero. If you think he's alright with that and changed his mind, then you're just not paying attention to him, sorry to say that. Luffy has been pretty consistent about this too and now he declared it yet again in Elbaf. It's the third time already.

You just think it's not a big deal because he so easily changed his mind in Fishmen Island, but it happened only because he had an actual reason to do that. Jimbei promised Luffy all the meat he wants. He gave him a *personal reason* to act like a hero, which is why Luffy agreed. And he did the same in Dressrosa. He wouldn't liberate that country if he didn't get attached first to Law and Rebecca (yes, in this order), and his crew to tontattas. They always do it for someone particular, for their friends. It's the same in Wano too, Luffy's constant motivation is Tama, Momo and Kinemon. He wants them to be happy, most of all, and he even says as much when he defeats Kaido: "I want a world where all of my friends can eat as much as they like".

There, he doesn't do it altruistically because he hates oppresion and villains who thrive on pain of common people and he can't stand seeing it. Yes, he probably thinks it's unfair, but he also grew up in Goa Kingdom, the very definition of unfair regime. He saves oppressed people only when they are his friends or has some other personal interest involved. He defeats the Marine base in Shells Town for Koby (and Zoro, later). He defeats Don Krieg so he can repay his food debt to Baratie. He defeats Arlong for Nami. He fights Wapol for Chopper (who saved Nami) and who he already considers his friend because of that. He fights for the Giants (Little Garden) and Vivi (Alabasta), Conis (Skypiea), Robin (Water 7 and Enies Lobby), Brook (Thriller Bark), Hachi (Sabaody) etc. Though, he does make friends rather easily, so usually it's not that big of a deal. But he isn't going out of his way to places he reads about in the newspapers that need to be liberated, he instead cares more for his own dream. He doesn't enter a certain island with the idea in mind that goes like "if I see some injustice here, I'm gonna bring this shit down". It's the other way around. He makes friends and realizes they're unhappy.

He wants them to be happy again and to live without regrets, and that's why he brings the shit down, whatever it is that makes people he cares about feel so unhappy. Because he thinks this is at least something he can do for his friends. Luffy doesn't think he can do a lot of things, he can't do much at all, but he can do one thing: beat up a guy when needed.

He knows how regret feels like ever since he believed Sabo died, he's not gonna sit there and do nothing next time something like this happens. That's why it's so important for him, to make sure his friends are happy. And that's why he beats up people and liberates countries. It's not for justice, he simply wants his friends to be happy.

But wait a moment, Luffy also wants freedom. Yes, he does. He wants to be the King of the Pirates, because for him it means to be free. And that's how he actually speaks about Nika as well:

He wants the freedom for himself. Isn't it funny that he thinks he already achieved it though?

And before you're disgusted by how selfish Luffy actually is, hear me out: Luffy is simply not a martyr. He won't die or sacrfice himself for the world to liberate it. He will instead die for the world if he thinks that will make his friends happy. Preferably though, he would want to survive and eat that meat with them, and be happy together.

Still, if you want him to be a liberator of a whole world it is actually possible, you just need to make it personal for Luffy, like I suggested. For example, put a person or multpile people who want to save/destroy the world (whichever option you fancy) on Luffy's crew. Luffy always cares for dreams of his crewmates and will always support them (because fullfilling their dreams will make them happy), so he would become a liberator if that helps them. But he would do it for them, not for the world.

Luffy is not a hero because he has a golden heart and a strong sense of justice. He's a hero when his friends are in danger instead, because instead of a golden heart, he simply has a big heart and makes friends wherever he goes. A martyr-like hero who sacrfices himself for people without caring for his own wellbeing is noble, but it's also not a healthy mentality, believe it or not. For starters, if you never care enough for yourself and are ready to throw your life away for a concept, what will happen with people who love you and care for you? Is it fair towards them to throw your life away without caring who you're leaving behind and how they will feel about it? Do you even care then for their feelings if your pursuit of greater good is more important to you? You can save the world and make people you love sad and unhappy, and like they don't even care anymore to live, because you were the one who made them happy and now you're gone. Did you save the world for them or destroyed it for them instead, as the result?

Luffy has his own interest in saving his friends too: so he's not alone again. Humans aren't selfless beings, but it doesn't automatically make us bad people either. And sometimes, while pursuing selfish things, we do something that appear to be extremely selfless. But at the bottom of it: we also do it for themselves, even if it kills us.

Tokyo Babylon taught me that every act is selfish, even if it appears like we do it for someone else: we simply want to feel better about ourselves then. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as we don't lose the sight of other people's feelings on our way. We can always share, after all, and that sharing is the bridge between the lone islands that people are.

Luffy, if he dies, will also say, just like Seishiro: "I didn't do it for you. I did everything by my own choice". For myself. Despite the fact it is also true he does it to make his friends happy. Being selfish and being selfless is like two sides of the same coin and both choices can end up actually hurting people. In the first case, because you care too much about yourself and too little about feelings of others, and in second case because you care too little about yourself and still too little about feelings of people that love and care for you. Can you spot the thing in common here?

the noceda siblings

You know how I know Shanks is toxic with a capital T? Because as soon as bro pulls up to where his exes are at:

One of them IMMEDIATELY leaves as soon as he sees his face. You could not threaten him enough to breathe the same air as that homeless looking man. 😭

Meanwhile, the other is more upset by him pulling up than he is by all the other traumatic events he just went through in a literal WAR. Buggy doesn't have post traumatic stress disorder, he has post traumatic Shanks disorder. 💀

If cellphones were a thing in the One Piece universe they would both have Shanks' number saved as "do not answer" & I just wanna know exactly what put him in that position.

Cover 91 redraw or something

I legit hate drawing zoro, I can never do it right for some reason. Nami is like the exact opposite, shes so easy to draw. She's the best. And Robin with brown eyes, I like it that way

Apparently people are going crazy with theories over Queen's updated Vivre Card, and while those, as I've complained before, tend to be extremely untrustworthy and full of retcons and decanonized errors, IF it is to be trusted there's so much funny shit to unpack here. I don't even know where to begin. Like.

-The information that MADS was formed 39-40 years ago. The idea that those three stooges (since the other two known members are like, 1-2 decades older) were actual minors when they started building literal chemical weapons of war (16-17 years old) is fucking wild. Lu Feld out there creating new exciting ways to do child labor. Loosing my mind. But it's OK because these are the world's Most Evil Teenagers and they yearn for the unethical science mines.

-It also, apparently lasted for 10 years. Those guys were working together for a decade. Which honestly makes a lot of interactions they have with and about each other both make more sense and way funnier. I guess Vegapunk feeling the need to keep Caesar around even during the Punk Hazard days, despite the fact that he's. well. himself, makes more sense considering he had already worked with the guy for a decade. That will numb you to a lot of red flags lmao. It also makes the Neo MADS cover story of Judge initially not recognizing Caesar, absolutely hysterical. Who the fuck are you (directed at a guy he worked with for ten whole years).

-Yeah let's get it out of the way, if this vivre card information is canon, Mr. The Plague has a son he's abandoned. People are going wild trying to figure out who it is and everyone's either banking on Weevil (which feels like, he's more likely to be just a failed clone of Newgate, so I'm not sure if it's him? Still could work I guess.) and. let's get it out of the way. Franky. And unfortunately for everyone, not only does the timeline line-up perfectly, like, too perfectly (his son is stated to be 36 years old and abandoned at the age of 10, when Queen was already with the Beast Pirates). Franky is 36, abandoned at the age of 10, and stated his parents were pirates. But also, Franky never saw Queen in his human form (only in his dino form) back at Onigashima so like. so he couldn't have made any comments about him. I have no idea if it's true. But like, can you fucking imagine. Can you imagine. Not one. Two. Two Strawhats that were abandoned by their MADS fathers. That's so funny. And tragic. Can anyone in this organization be normal about children for ONCE I am begging you. I'm including Vegapunk in this; what the fuck is going on with the Seraphim. Heartbreaking: the last five people on the planet that should ever be having any kids keep having and/or picking up kids. Anyway yeah, this could easily be a bait and switch but the fact this is a possibility is haunting me. I don't know if I believe it, but I kind of want to.

-Oh yeah, his real name is Scien. You know. like Science. Apparently. Which is very stupid but also kinda fun. Honestly if it was romanized as something like "Psien" or "Saien" or "Psion" or "Scion" or "Cyan" it'd probably feel less goofy.

That's it that's all the new info. It is completely useless but mildly entertaining to me in extremely funny ways. Have fun and do what you will with it.