#But I just feel like it'd be so unnececary

[moongothic]

WAIT WAIT WAIT HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE

So normally we only get fullblown, extended and dedicated flashbacks for heroic characters in One Piece, the characters who we're meant to root for. The literal only TRUE exception we've had to this rule was Big Mom's flashback. Even fucking Doflamingo's flashback was tied to Law and Rosinante's

So the fact that we haven't gotten a single fucking GLIMPSE at Crocodile's backstory is?!?

Like sure, we haven't gotten like a Moria flashback, but you know, he literally told us all we needed to know himself, AND we got to see glimpses of him in the Wano flashbacks. Arlong didn't get a flashback of his own, but he did get to cameo in Fisher Tiger's flashback. And Rob Fucking Lucci got a flashback that was 6 whooping panels long

BUT CROCODILE?? Not only do we know almost Fuck All about his story, but also have never gotten as much as a glimpse at it? But his backstory has been HINTED and TEASED at multiple times??

GUYS. FELLAS

Like. I am SURE the "Full Backstories for Heroes Only" rule is going to get broken again, but with Imu and Blackbeard already there just BEGGING to have their beans spilled, can we even be sure Sir Fucking Crocodile is somehow going to become A Villain So Dangerous To The Narrative that he ALSO should also recieve a Full Fucking Backstory?? For his Nefarious Schemes?? AT THIS POINT??

Y'all

I think it's more likely Oda's been saving up Croc's backstory because it might just completely recontextualize his entire character

#CROCODAD REAL?! #UNIRONICALLY #Sir Crocodile #Crocodad #Crocomom #OP Meta #Moon posting #Sleep Deprivation opened my third fucking eye I can see the fucking Matrix #Unironically this is the thing that has pushed me back into actually believing in Crocodad despite the timeline #Because I genuinely can not imagine how else Crocodile could be turned into an (anti) hero if it's not Crocodad #And I can not imagine his villanous schemes needing a backstory to explain them at this point- not over BB and Imu #And I mean sure maybe we could get three whole Extended Villian Backstories for Imu Blackbeard and Croc #But I just feel like it'd be so unnececary #Because there is no fucking way Crocodile is going to become The Ultimate Villian of the Story again #Not without some Darth Vader bullshit happening #But since he's supposed to be based on Wagnas from Romancing SaGa 2 and Wagnas wanted to SAVE the world #Look I have a whole different post about that waiting in my drafts I'll post it later #Point is!! I can't imagine him becoming The Final Villian!! Not at all!! #Also yes there are characters like Mihawk who have like histories etc that I'm sure many people would love to learn about #The only difference is that we've never gotten as much as a hint at what kind of a backstory Mihawk might have #Meanwhile Crocodile Having A History is something that's been hinted at every arc he's appeared in pre-timeskip #Like we KNOW he has a story we just don't know what it is

[moongothic]

Still not unconvinced that if crocodad real Crocodile was made to think he lost his baby in childbirth. Why or by who I don’t know, but it would explain a few things.

I mean sure, that would explain why he has trust issues, why Crocodile couldn't recognize Luffy as his child etc, but like. While the scenario is interesting, it feels hard to believe because there are so many easier explanations to why things turned out the way they did. Like this concept would require so many leaps in logic that it'd feel unnececary from a pure writing perspective

Like, for example, if we just wanted an explanation to why Crocodile didn't stay with his baby/bring him along with him, and why he didn't know his child's name:

1) As I've talked about before, staying with the baby would've stripped that child of any freedom to choose their own path, instead becoming an immidiate target for anyone with a beef against Crocodile (anybody who wanted to mess with him could just target the baby instead) and/or the WG if they ever revoked Crocodile's Shichibukai status (which they could do if they ever found out he had been involve with the Revs). Luffy would've been doomed to grow up like Robin and Ace had the WG ever found out about him, so Crocodile and Dragon would've had to leave Luffy behind, for Luffy's own safety, so he could be free to become whoever he wanted to become. (And let's not forget how freedom is a hugely important theme in One Piece, how being "the most free person in the world" is literally how Luffy defines what the Pirate King is)

2) Knowing ^^^ it could've been too hard for Crocodile to name his child, knowing he might never see the baby again. Or maybe, knowing his child would end up in the care of Dragon's father, letting Dragon name the child was intentional. Maybe Crocodile had an idea for a name but The Divorce went bad and he never got to name the child. Or maybe it's customary to let the non-birthing parent to name the child in the world of OP, like it seemed like Roger was the one who named Ace too?? Point is, there may not be any clear answer, but there's many simple explanations we could work with.

But then if we wanted to make the "taken from childbirth and lied to" route, like. It just raises so many questions. Too many. 1) Who stole the baby 2) Why did that person get to be around Crocodile and the baby at this time 2.5) Letting anyone untrustworthy know about the pregnancy would be dangerous as hell, who the fuck would Crocodile have allowed even near him at this time 3) Who took the baby to Garp 4) Why/how did Garp know about the baby being his grandchild 5) How did Dragon find out about Garp having his baby in safety 6) Why didn't Dragon tell Crocodile the baby was alive 7) Who told Crocodile the baby had died 8) Why/how did Crocodile even believe that

And my personal favorite

9) Did they show Crocodile someone else's dead newborn baby as "proof" that his child had died, or did they just take the baby, lie to him, and Crocodile somehow believed it without ever demanding to see his baby? Like. I'm sorry, but there's no fucking way. There's no fucking way. Like sure, giving birth and your baby dying would be a horrific experience and maybe you wouldn't want to see let the parent see the corpse immidiately because. Trauma and all. But they can't just throw the corpse baby into a bin five minutes after birth without letting the parent see their child at all. Like what if the parents wanted to bury or cremate their baby??

Like I'm not saying you can't write an interesting story that could work, you could. I'm just arguing that there's far easier ways to explain how Crocodad could've happened. Like there's perfect in-universe reasons and thematic elements you could work with

#Moon posting #Asks #OP Meta #Crocodad