#no but honestly what was lucci thinking picking up this fight????

[theproblemsofdonhi]

Big Luffy finds a weird looking cat.

#no but honestly what was lucci thinking picking up this fight???? #like... did he thought all that shit about luffy in the papers was fake news or something????? #is he stupid? #one piece #one piece luffy #monkey d luffy #rob lucci #gear 5th #gear 5 luffy #sun god nika #nika #my art #drawing

[maybeamiles]

Alright it's time for PART TWO OF MY ONE PIECE OPENING ANALYSIS. Turns out you can only add 30 images to a post lol.

Anyways you can find part one here, but if you've already seen it or just want to skip to the good shit, Hi. I'm anime only but have seen manga spoilers for Kid, Law, Kuma, and Bonney, so that will affect my analysis.

Anyways remember last time when I talked a bit about the line "When random contexts / Start to make sense on their own" and the deliberate parallels between the fights with Luffy/Lucci, Kid/(manga spoilers), Law/Blackbeard, Zoro/Seraphim Mihawk, and Garp/Kuzan? Well those continue here except it's Sabo and the Revolutionaries against the ENTIRE WORLD GOVERNMENT. These random contexts? They're all tied to the fight Sabo is in right now.

"When random contexts / Start to make sense on their own / The threads of time are spun back together"

This sequence of shots gives me chills every time. Every single time. The parallels between the Revolutionary Army's crows and the World Government's seagulls? The falling papers and books. Fucking Wapol??? The FUNERAL???? and the SWORDS??? God if those swords in front of the world government's throne DON'T end up being used to stab someone by the end of this story (either in the past or future or maybe both) I will eat my shirt this is CHECKOV'S SWORD THIS GOVERNMENT WAS FOUNDED ON VIOLENCE AND CONQUEST I SWEAR-

*ahem* Anyways. "The threads of time are spun back together." All of those "random contexts" we saw before? The fights that are paralleling each other and driving towards a single end point? To stick with the string metaphor, the world government has unraveled the thread of history. Everything happening now is going to spin it back together into a cohesive narrative. Time is running out. The end is in sight. Their string is going to be cut.

Again with the parallels. All of the men who Luffy impacted in the past, Sabo, Kid, Law, and Coby. They're all rising to take on this enemy. They have been beaten, but they will rise again, and they will charge forward into the future (at least, that's how I read the storytelling here). I think this theme of rising from major defeats is going to be a huge one in this arc, especially for these four. They are going to get stronger and be Luffy's competition. The Whitebeard and Garp to his Rodger, if you will.

Also, speaking of the men who Luffy impacted, HOLY SHIT IS THAT VIVI

Law, Coby, Kid, and Sabo may all be rising from defeat, but you know who's charging forward? VIVI. Vivi is going to be so fucking important this arc just you wait.

And listen- I saw a theory a few weeks ago that Vivi *might* eat a certain devil fruit that I will not name because (manga spoilers), but looking at this picture, with the way she's reaching out towards that specific shape? Yeah she's totally gonna eat that devil fruit. Wish I could link the theory but unfortunately it's deep in my youtube watch history by now and i didn't save it.

EDIT: As a couple people have pointed out, it might be Bonney in that scene and not Vivi, as indicated by the pink highlights on the hair. That honestly makes a lot more sense than Vivi eating a random(ish) devil fruit.

Finally, I want to talk about this last shot. The Theme of this opening. All of these separate, winding paths, leading towards one final destination: Laugh Tale. The truth of the world. Law, Kid, Luffy, Sabo, The Revolutionaries, the Marines, Coby, Garp, the World Government, everyone is on the path to Laugh Tale, we're in the endgame now, and everyone is going to be vital to whatever lies ahead. I imagine some of the poetry is lost in the english translation, but there's a reason that the music keeps repeating the words "all of us"

"All of us" are going to reach Laugh Tale.

#one piece #one piece theory #one piece spoilers #one piece reaction #egghead

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

Honestly? While there's no doubt that Luffy fucked up in Whiskey Peak? Like 80% of the outrage and 100% of the accusations of "ooc"ness come from 1) the misconception of Luffy being this super intuitive guy leading to him being put on an altar, and 2) a refusal to allow him any emotional depth.

To start off – Luffy's not that intuitive. The closest thing to it is what the crew call his "animal instincts" in Water 7, where he predicts that he will have to fight Rob Lucci, like he predicts other fights before and after. Only – is that really what happens? He "just knows"? Because, from what I remember, he very clearly identifies him as the leader and the strongest member of CP9 (#366: "of all the people we'll be fighting in a little while, the strongest is that pigeon guy! I'l definitely be the one to send him flying!"). Of course he assigns himself to fight him. That's his reasoning every other time, as well. At times (certainly not often, but sometimes), he demonstrates actual strategic thinking, like with Moria.

I think a lot of people want to think that Luffy "intuits" the Straw Hats' potential or even their pasts when he asks them to join, but we don't see any evidence of that. What we do see is a lot of instances where Luffy witnesses good things about his friends, both in terms of skill and of character. In Brook's case, he literally just went "talking skeleton cool cool cool cool cool". And that's all. It might be hard to swallow that some of the deepest and strongest bonds we see in the series, the most important ones and the cornerstone of the story, are based on something as flimsy as "hee hee I like you be my nakama", that Luffy didn't somehow know that they needed to be taken in. But that's just the way it is. Hell, if it had been solely up to him, Kureha, Iceberg and a bunch of random zombies without a will of their own who were trying to kill them would be part of the crew.

I think that what happens is that Luffy is very undiscerning and undemanding about who can join the crew or even sail with them (he also let Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 go with them without a fuss, same with the Franky Family, who he only knows from, you know, having beat up Usopp and stolen 200mil berries from them) and we want to think that there's some deeper reason for it. We know that it's nothing rational, because we're not so detached from what's happening on the page, so that leaves some kind of instinct telling him that these are the right people. It's a nice idea – it gives Luffy some unconventional wisdom to make up for his lack of it otherwise and fits well with his upbringing in the jungle.

But there's not really anything special about the people he picks up, except the fact that he picks them up. Not in the sense that they're special because of him, but that they become special to him. That's the real reason why he goes after Nami and Robin and Sanji when they leave. It's not that, oooh, he can sense how tortured and traumatized they are and that deep down they're good people. Nah – he just believes them when they say they are his people, so he refuses to abandon them.

And, okay, this might seem damning in the context of Whiskey Peak, because where was this faith when it came to Zoro, who arguably earned it more than anyone else in the crew? To be honest, that's one of the points where I'll concede that Luffy fucked up the most, but there is another matter at play here: everyone else claimed to be on his side, or at least be a certain kind of person, before apparently turning on him. He chose to believe that original impression out of loyalty.

Not only is Luffy not that discerning, he is known for being a sucker for deception. He can't lie, and he's so honest that most of the time he can't even conceptualize that someone might be lying to him. ("Are you going to betray me?" "No." *grins*) The idea that he could just... take a look at someone and divine either good or evil intent goes directly against canon. He gets taken in by CP9, by Kanjuro, hell, he buys that King Cobra betrayed Alabasta as Vivi is telling him of how Crocodile manipulated them.

And that leads me into Whiskey Peak and point 2.

Before we start, think back to Wano, if you would. (If you haven't reached Wano, don't worry, the spoilers in this paragraph are very light.) Imagine that, after spending the day with Tama, and Tsuru, and Kiku, and the rest of the village who gave up their scarce supplies to feed them, Luffy and Zoro go to sleep. The morning after that, Luffy wakes up to a massacre. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been cut down. The people who helped them, the people who he was talking and laughing with just a few hours ago, dead or near enough. He recognized Tsuru among the pile of bodies and she still has some breath left, so he asks who did it.

Basically, imagine sympathetic victims to the Whiskey Peak massacre.

When we read Whiskey Peak, we know there's something fishy going on. For starters, it's Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9's town, which makes it suspicious enough. Then, before the attack, we see them writing a letter saying that they wanted the Straw Hats to go there, making it obviously dangerous. This is without even getting into the clear threat evident to us readers because we know this is a story and that there's no way the heroes will have it that easy. We mistrust and refuse to sympathize with the Whiskey Peak inhabitants from the start. Until the reveal that Vivi's undercover, they're enemies and future meatsacks to us. We forget that that's not the case for the Straw Hats. Especially, that's not the case for Luffy, who takes everyone at face value.

I think a lot of people maybe get too caught up in their image of Luffy as a sort of chaos, "do things for the laff" entity who'll liberate you from tyranny in exchange from food, so they don't realize that there might be emotional, non-transactional reasons for his behavior. That he feels thankful to the people who help him, because he's survived on the kindness of others all his life and he would've died without it (and if you think that doesn't apply now that he's a pirate, go back to read the Baratie arc). That he might get attached to the people who are kind to him and others. That, even if he doesn't feel affection for them, he'll still be outraged when their kindness is met with cruelty by others. We joke about his disproportionate responses to being fed (aka overthrowing the government for a bowl of rice), but that's because he's not acting under a perceived debt, but out of a bond he's created with his benefactor/s.

So Luffy, who couldn't understand duplicity if it showed up with a twin, gets to a village full of people who happily welcome him and his crew, who appear to do this for every weary traveler that has just passed through the harrowing ordeal of Reverse Mountain. They offer them food, drinks and shelter for as long as they need it. Not only that, they all spend hours partying together, chatting, having fun. Than, Luffy wakes up to find everyone either slaughtered or nearly – the people he was partying with not long ago, from the elderly to children, and, okay, gross, but let's recognize that One Piece is a piece of media with an antiquated system of gallantry that says that it's also an outrage that the women were also hurt. He walks up to one of them and asks them who did it. He says it was Zoro.

Take a moment to place yourself in his shoes. This was objectively a horrifying experience. You wouldn't be surprised if he went after the culprit if it was a stranger. And while I think he should have given Zoro the benefit of the doubt, there's something actually a lot more horrifying in the fact that it was one of his friends who did it: that means Luffy's responsible. He's the one who brought Zoro there, after all. Most codes of honor would have the leader of a group vouching, at least implicitly, for its members.

And it might have easily felt like a betrayal. Not because Zoro went against Luffy, but because he let him down.

A lot of people bring this fight back to loyalty – hasn't Zoro shown Luffy how loyal he is? (And, you know what, I think we could have an interesting discussion about that? About what's said, what's implied, also what's actually witnessed by the characters, but never mind.) Zoro promised him he'd be the best, and that he'd stick by Luffy in his path to achieve that... but he never promised he'd never cruelly cut down an entire village in the meantime, something which is not beyond what any other pirate would do, loyalty notwithstanding. And a good thing, too, because he did, in fact, do that in WP!

That's the other thing. Imagine waking up to a whole village of people who helped you and your crew cut down by a member of said crew. The children included. The idea of there being a good reason for it is actually more out there than a prideful and powerful man who agreed to become a pirate, specifically to establish himself as the strongest in his field, would lash out at the flimsiest offense to his ego, to be honest.

Basically, it all goes down to how this guy, so honest he can barely conceive of being lied to when he's directly informed of it, should have walked out to find bloodied piles of bodies and gone "this guy with violent tendencies I met like a month ago killed dozens of people, including children, who fed us and sheltered and fed us, who I like because of that, probably did it for a good reason". Forgive me if I bring up the children too much, it's just that, if there's one demographic you don't expect anyone to have enough of a good reason to maim, it's that one. Faced with this kind of scene, it makes sense to doubt your initial judgement of a person.

Of course, what he did see of Zoro before that should have told him enough to at least doubt. At the very least, he should have heard him out before killing him. Zoro did try to explain. (Then again, if someone admitted to slaughtering a whole neighborhood and then claimed to have a good reason for it I wouldn't be jumping to hear them out.)

That said, it's not about Luffy doubting Zoro's loyalty, it's about doubting his character when faced with incredibly damning evidence against it. One the one hand, maybe Luffy's the one who should've been more loyal. On the other, the fact that his loyalty didn't extend to forgiving one of his crew when they apparently go rogue and attack not just an entire village, but of full of people who helped them and continuously did the same for others, just goes to prove that he doesn't have the moral backbone of a wet noodle, in addition to checking out with his tendency to develop an attachment to people who feed him.

#One Piece #Whiskey Peak #Monkey D. Luffy #Roronoa Zoro

[punks-never-die205]

Unseen

afab!reader x Killer

CW: canon-typical violence, smooches, sexy times, second go at life try again style story, 18+ only

Summary: A Killer x Reader fan fic set in the One Piece universe, may still diverge from canon events. Starts prior to the time skip.

I don't have much to say, I wanted to write a story where the reader smooches Killer, so I did. It kind of ran away from me after that but I'm having fun with it =D

Available on Ao3 and Wattpad

Chapter 0: Life's a Beach

You tried to muffle the sound of your own breathing. The slim turn of moon in the sky was the only real light, since you'd left town some hours ago. You had been trying to shake Jabra, a terribly persistent member of CP9, with limited results. He wasn't as bad as Lucci, but that terror had been on a long-term undercover mission as far as you were aware. You hadn't seen him or Kaku for a few years now.

Being an orphan with a knack for fighting, you had spent some years being trained and raised by the World Government to eventually become a part of CP9. While most everyone else had leaned into it, there was something about the whole thing that never sat well with you. You gave the bloody nightmare the slip when you were 16, and you'd survived well enough in the years since. You had honestly lasted on your own for seven years longer than you had expected.

You couldn't hear anything around you aside from the sounds of nature, and crept along slowly in the dark of the night. You were picking your way through the underbrush for an hour before you heard the ocean. You let out a small sigh of relief; Jabra were a devil fruit user, and you could lose him completely in the water.

What you saw when you got to the shoreline wasn't empty ocean, but a big mean looking ship that had been anchored into the cove. You didn't need to see much to know it was a pirate ship. There wasn't any other reason to dock at the cove when the island's busiest pier was just a little ways further by boat.

Given that the front sail had a massive flaming skull on it, you figured the pirates associated with the ship were of some renown. You don't go showing off your jolly roger like that without having the balls to back it up.

You pondered your options quickly; you could stow aboard a pirate ship you knew nothing about, steal a rowboat from the same pirate ship, swim around it, or move on to a safer stretch of beach and risk being caught by Jabra.

There was a noise in the woods behind you, and you caught the not-as-distant-as-you-wanted voice of Jabra swearing. Your options were limited, and if you hit the water now, Jabra was going to hear you. Fortunately, you were good enough at geppo to get from the shore to the ship. You couldn't sustain it over long distances, but you just needed to clear a few dozen yards and that was easy enough.

You landed on the deck of the ship and peeked back toward the shore from behind the cover of the solid railing that bordered most of the deck. You focused everything you had into watching the beach, but even after several long minutes had come and gone, you hadn't heard or seen anything further from Jabra.

You put your back to the railing and looked around the ship. It was quiet, a few crew members seemed to be sleeping further away from you, and if anyone had noticed you there hadn't yet been a commotion. You tucked your long hair into the cap you were wearing and spent a moment to make sure you weren't going to bump into any surprises.

You could go high to the crow's nest, but that seemed like a great spot to run into someone. There were several levels up from the deck, and if you could slip to the side of the ship that was the not-shore-side, then you could geppo your way up to the top of those cabin levels and hopefully stay out of the way. You considered going below deck, but if you were seen you wanted to be able to beat a hasty retreat.

Pirates were preferred over CP9 agents, but you weren't so naïve as to think pirates were all reasonable people either. You crept low, continuing to use the railing as cover, and made your way to the stern of the ship, and shifted your way to the ocean-side things. With a full ship between you and the shore you felt a lot safer. If you were seen you could just throw yourself into the ocean, and the pirates would create all the noisy cover you'd need to give Jabra the slip.

Kicking off the air again you geppo'd your way up to the "roof" of this part of the ship and knelt low. Your senses were on high alert, half expecting the lookout from the crow's nest to have noticed you by now. If he missed you slipping onto the deck though, you might be home free. If you don't see anyone get on your ship, you're not going to pay attention to movement on your ship. It was a logical, but in this case, foolish way of thinking.

There wasn't a lot of moonlight either. Visibility for the best of people was limited in these conditions. After you had gotten comfortable in your new spot, you saw light spill onto the deck as someone with a lantern started walking around. Whether he was doing a security check or a bed check wasn't your concern. You kept the light in your peripherals and looked back to the shoreline.

You nearly hissed at the silhouette of Jabra darting around the tree line. He'd almost be mistaken for a wolf, if you didn't know that such beasts didn't exist on this island. You flattened yourself in your spot and resigned yourself to stowing away aboard a pirate ship. If you could stay out of sight for the voyage to a new island, then that would be best.

And if you got caught – well, you'd have to worry about that problem later.

You'd been dodging Jabra for four days. You'd barely had enough to eat and drink and your sleep was lacking. You tried to keep your eyes open, but sleep overtook you as you realized you weren't going to be arrested by CP9 tonight. The relief settled too deeply into your bones, and you should've known better.

#Unseen #massacre soldier killer #killer one piece #x reader #reader insert #one piece fanfiction #canon au

[pagingdoctorbedlam]

Hi! About that Changeling/CP9 AU, tell me more bout it my friend 👀

Aaaah, I love talking about Changeling! (And CP9!)

For those who don't know Changeling: the Lost, it's a tabletop game where all the characters were regular humans who were all kidnapped by The Fae. They were trapped in Arcadia, twisted into inhuman forms, and eventually escaped...only to find a simulacrum in their place (and usually an unusual amount of time has passed), so no one ever missed them. Changelings then have to carve themselves a new place in the world, while also avoiding being recaptured by the Faerie. Changelings often collect in large social groups called Freeholds, which are split into Courts for separate emotions (Spring is Desire, Wrath for Summer, Fear for Autumn, and Sorrow for Winter, plus a couple oddities.)

In the Changeling AU (which really is just my Changeling setting I run in my campaigns), all of CP9 ended up in Arcadia together, banding together to survive. Lucci and Kaku were later found at a Goblin Market, being sold in a secret slave trade. Bedlam, the new Summer Monarch, picked a fight with the slavers in an effort to rescue the duo, which earned their respect. Lucci and Kaku now work as Bedlam's guards while they figure out how to rescue their friends.

More details, like the in-game abilities and such, under the cut!

For this, I'm using the 1st Edition Seemings/Kiths/etc unless otherwise noted.

Rob Lucci: Obviously, he's a Hunterheart Beast leopard; there are other kiths that can fit with the feline theme, but c'mon, he's a Hunterheart through and through. He's in Summer Court, though he sometimes works alongside Autumn for special missions. Also, Hattori is some sort of Hedgebeast or Hobgoblin. They lurk around the city and gather information from the local animals, and use that info to chase down targets (or just people Lucci doesn't like, for that rush of glamour).

Kaku: Also a Beast, likely a Swiftrunner! (He got chased a LOT by other beasts during his time in Arcadia...possibly even by Lucci and Jabra before they became allies.) He's also in Summer alongside Lucci. Kaku works in construction whenever he isn't doing Changeling stuff, but he's still well-known for parkouring throughout the city. Alongside his swords, Kaku also uses the transformative aspects of the Mirror and Fang & Talon contracts to...terrifying effect, so Autumn is fond of him too.

Kalifa: I admit, I'm having some difficulties pinning her down. I'd say she's an Elemental, but there really isn't a kith for...soap. The closest is Manikin (for manmade materials), or ironically, a twist on Blightbent (since soap IS toxic, and her cleanliness is deadly). Once she escapes, she's a Spring courtier who uses her looks and wiles to get what she wants. She still works a day job as a secretary who is unnaturally good at her job.

Blueno: Also a tough one. I definitely pin him as a Darkling, with maxed-out Contracts of Shade and Spirit; he slips into the Twilight (where ghosts and spirits reside) in lieu of using his doors. (Or he's just a Helldiver in 2nd edition, I guess.) For kith...honestly, a Razorhand could be pretty cool, and sorta' emulates the Finger Pistol. Either way, I'd put him in Winter court, and his work as a bartender allows him to easily sup from the sorrows of the sad souls who enter his bar.

Jabra: Also a Hunterheart Beast; he and Lucci had a pretty strong rivalry in Arcadia. While Summer court makes sense, I do like the idea of putting him in Autumn court, lying to his opponents to get their guard down before terrifying them with an unexpected blow. For his day job, I'd initially put him as a martial arts instructor, but I also think he could make an interesting private eye, especially since he could sneak around for more information in wolf form.

Kumadori: Fairest Dancer, with an emphasis on Kabuki theater, and a stalwart member of Winter court. Kumadori embraces his sorrow for what he's lost wholeheartedly (especially his dear sweet mother), and fights to make sure no one else has to suffer as he did. He also has a special fighting style that allows him to control his hair like limbs in a fight (Multi-Limped Fighting from the Promethean game line, fyi). He still performs in theater for his day job, and volunteers for a lot of the local festivals.

Fukuro: There are so many options for Fukuro, what with his zipper mouth. He could be a Darkling Whisperwisp, able to send messages from afar. Or an Ogre Gristlegrinder/Corpsegrinder/etc. Either way, I'm not sure which court he'd call home, as he likely garners Court Goodwill with multiple courts by exchanging information. Maaaaybe he's in Winter as a member of their radio station; even if not, I think he'd be a fun radio DJ as a day job.

BONUS: Spandam: I don't plan on including Spandam in the changeling lineup...and he's not competent enough to be a True Fae on his own. So he was likely favored by CP9's Faerie Keeper, and got to control some of their torment. Part of Lucci and Kaku's plan, along with rescuing their friends, is to also kick Spandam's ass for the torment he put them through. If Spandam DID get out though, he'd be a Spring courtier (his desires and ambitions are the strongest part of him), though I'd have to think long and hard about his Seeming and Kith.

Nero: A Darkling Gravewight, as he keeps getting "killed" over and over again, including at least once at Lucci's hands. Should he ever break out, he'll have enough of a chip on his shoulder for Summer Court, though then he'd come face to face with Lucci again...

Bedlam (CP9 OC): This whole AU began when I realized that Bedlam would fit pretty well as Summer Monarch with a campaign plot thread I've had for quite some time. Bedlam's a Beast Windwing who was chosen by the Summer crown soon after their escape. They're still a doctor, both in their day job and for their court, and handles fights with tactics and patching up their courtiers instead of fighting on the front lines. They're still finding their place among the more experienced court heads, but at least they have Lucci and Kaku by their side.

#cp9 #bedlam answers #opheadcanons #changeling: the lost #rob lucci #kaku #kalifa #jabra #blueno #kumadori #one piece fukuro #one piece kaku #doc bedlam #spandam #one piece nero

[luccislegs]

Hnnng I didnt want to give you too much to do, so I didnt ask it earlier but, if you dont mind I have a request! And its Kaku, Lucci and Kumadori with a workaholic s/o who has major ocd? And (if its okay) because if it doesnt tend to take care of themselves if it hinders work? (So like, not eating, not sleeping, not staying in bed when sick/injured etc)

so long as you don’t go over my character limit, i don’t care lol anyway i did some research on ocd to try and make these more on point, but since i don’t have it i may not have everything correct

kaku:

he’s the most understanding. when he first found out you have it, he went and did research on it to see exactly what he was dealing with.

he’s also the one that tries his hardest to help you whenever you’re having trouble managing. if he sees that you’re staying late trying to finish that one document that you just can’t get out of your head, he’ll gently talk you through why it can wait and actively encourage you to leave it be.

he pays more attention to your obsessions than the others, trying to keep you from harming yourself too much. he’ll remind you to eat, and coax you to leave and have lunch with him.

he’ll force you to stay in bed if you’re sick or injured, talking you through why you being sick won’t help you get the work done any better than not doing it at all, reminding you it isn’t going anywhere. he isn’t above using physical affection against you either, and he’ll hold you close to him while he tells you about past missions or ideas he had, or asks you about some specific thing. just, anything to distract you.

kaku is the one that makes a true, educated effort to try and help you. he’ll tell you flat out if what you’re doing is harmful, and won’t encourage you to follow through with your compulsions. he isn’t forceful or demanding about it, but he doesn’t let you just get away with it.

kumadori:

he is sweet, and is understanding, but doesn’t really understand. he does some research, but doesn’t fully grasp how to handle your obsessions and compulsions.

if he catches you in the midst of an all-nighter, he’ll ask if you’re coming to bed, but won’t push as hard as he should to make you. more often than not, he’ll just annoy you into giving in, but won’t understand why you’re so antsy.

honestly, it would be up to you to sit him down and really explain your personal obsessions and compulsions, and ask him to help you more. he’s more than willing, he just needs a little guidance on how to help.

once he knows what you need from him, he does surprisingly well. you have to pull yourself away from your work in order to really focus on what he’s saying, because you know how he is, everything is long and drawn out.

at first, you’re a little annoyed because you’re being pulled away from your work and your brain doesn’t like that. then you realize, holy shit i’m being pulled away from work. 

kumadori doesn’t even know how much he helps either. there’s just something about the slow, drawn out way he speaks to you about how you need to eat or sleep that calms the obsessive thoughts. maybe it’s the fact that you really have to focus in order to catch everything he says, or maybe it’s just his voice, but whatever it is, you often follow him to bed or to the kitchen without fight.

he’s also the best at helping you fall asleep. when you ask him to tell you a story, you’re usually asleep before he’s through.

lucci:

lucci is, as he ever is when you’re an agent, a bastard.

lowkey thinks that your ocd is a hindrance until you start overworking yourself. that being said, he won’t let you kill yourself doing it, but he’s impressed by the performance. at least until you’re so exhausted you start making mistakes.

he knows full well what you having ocd means, but it doesn’t really make a difference to him. unlike kaku, he isn’t gentle when he tells you to stop your compulsions, just that you have to stop.

if you haven’t eaten that day, he’ll physically pull you away from your work and force you to eat, regardless of your protests. he’s generous enough to distract you while you eat, otherwise he knows you’ll sneak away from him and return to your work.

he’ll also actually encourage you to return to work if you’re injured or sick, because he takes being laid up like that as a sign of weakness. he would do this to you whether you had ocd or not, too.

sometimes though, when you’ve literally passed out doing your work, he’ll pick you up and carry you to bed. the next day, he’ll keep you from your work, distracting you with a date or physical affection. if you wake up and immediately try to get up and go back to work, he’ll pull you back into his arms and hold you there, whispering in your ear that it can wait, doing whatever he has to to keep you from leaving.

he’s an ass, but you are his partner and at the end of the day he does care for you. He’s just not as caring as he could be.

#rob lucci #rob lucci x reader #kumadori #kumadori x reader #kaku #kaku x reader #one piece headcanons

[arkus-rhapsode]

Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest Chapter 12 Review

Oh my god... What the heck is even going on?

So our cover page is Natsu and Lucy, and Natsu I hope you enjoy that brain freeze.

So we open on Jellal confronting Touka. We learn like how Avatar was devoted to black magic there was a group devoted to white magic. Now this is cool, but literally if you watch the anime recently, that arc was done in 5 episodes. So this feels really odd on how much effort is being put into it.

Like if there was like something tying into Tenrou or hell edolas, that make more sense, given all thee time on it.

So Jellal describes White magic as a philosophy of nothingness, which that doesn’t make sense. Fans of yugioh gx might compare this the darkness and light in that series and how darkness led to creation while light was subjugation. But Black magic is clearly about ending life or manipulating life. I guess you could dumb it down to all life, but literal Ankherseram black magic is portrayed as nothing but death. So wouldn’t white be about life? I guess nothingness as life without personality isn’t wrong,  but this feels like a stretch.

Also, Mashima said anyone could learn any type of magic. So why is that an abnormality? Like if this was Black Clover where you are assigned a single affinity that be one thing.

Suddenly Laxus steps in, and want to make this clear. I don’t exactly hate the idea behind this. That Laxus wants to defend someonew ho is a part of his family, given his new found view on FT, and its using the family aspect of FT on its head. Someone bad could be using FT’s family mentality for personal benefit. Which is interesting.

Okay, well Jellal has a reason, she is  suspect and as a guild master he has authority to take her in. However, Laxus you of all people know that people in your guild will still harm it.

On the one hand im torn, the shounen loving half of my brain wants to see this fight. But the logical half says that these two are mature adults with enough common sense to take this to the run knights. And confrontation is over after this page.

Yeah for a chapter named after the two, its got very little to do with theem. Instead.... The worst thing in the chapter happens. We cut to Diablos’ ship and we see this.

Yes you are seeing this right. For people who were saying I was to harsh, calling this a submissive Erza fetish that Mashima is putting out, I ask you read this chapter.

You know I can’t tell if Skullion means this is temporary as in terms of magic, or temporary as Kyria will grow bored, but I do know that this is nothing but sick and tastess. Also props to Madmorel for having some class to be disgusted by the perv in the group. Like that is becoming a rarity these days.

We are guided down to the lower deck where natsu and wendy are being held, the motion sickness keeping them in check.

I’ve been putting this off long enough, its time to rant. This is bull shit. People told me, i was too harsh on mashima, but at the least I thought this was some sort of temporary thing that was meant so Kyria could get a win in a fight, but this might be some permanent magic effect feels disgusting.

Now, people say that this happened cause people would rag on Erza, called Erza fights awful, and that now Mashima is going in the complete opposite dirction. You didn’t like strong erza, fine! Here’s weak Erza, you happy cynics?

But that’s not the case. People didn’t like Erza because she was “too strong” she was someoone who went from this amazing badass female character, to this static friendship speech spewing tool that never truly got any development. Its painful for people to see a character like Erza not grow after she had developed so much in ToH, but it just was never followed through. All the times she won just felt like a poor spectacle without any character behind it.

Now you could say an erza who needs to get her strength back could be character development. No. Cutting away a person’s strength with “magic” is not character development, its forced regression. Its the author literally creating an unrealistic situation bcause he has no idea what to do with her  after ToH, hell he can’t even fully commit to a love story between her and jellal.

When Erza came onto the scene, she was cool, in control, yet could over react at times. To see her be pushed to her lowest by ToH and then recover and face midnight in OS, is peak Erza character shining through. That this is how erza’s development deserved to be treated. But Watching Erza crawl on the ground, be spanked, and cry for mercy like a hentai doll, all because of plot convince magic is so gross to me. Its ejecting the Erza that we all love and stripping her of all that personality just for this.

So if you blame this development on people who were too hard on Mashima about how he was writing Erza, I, a critic and very judgemental person, find this worse than any of the nakama power or skimpy armors.

Erza being trapped in Kyoka’s sex dungeon was bad, but you know what, EErza actievly resisted it. She didn’t want to be there aand tried to fight back. It wasn’t handled well, but that t least felt like whatt her character would do in this situation. But this was forced upon her and this is nothing more than an Erza made for this arc.

Also, lets step out of this and look at this from the meta perspective that this is also extremely lazy. In Eden’s zero there’s a villain who is all about subjugating women right now, and Mashima couldn’t be bothered to not let that bleeed into his other work. If that doesn’t scream creately lazy, than I don’t know what will. Also that frog thing in Eden’s zero is actuaally better giveen the fact he’s not mind bending away personality, he’s forcibly turning them in statues to do with what he pleases against their will.

Im not saying this cause im anti ecchi or that im anti  mashima, im anti such a hack story writting device that weather you stuck it out as a fan of erza’s till the end of FT or liked her at first but than soured on her, I ask, would you tolerate this? I’m not claiming ownership of the character of Erza, but I am asking do you think that this is worth a character arc because our author couldn’t think of anything better to do with her. You know if you knew Erza was so strong,Ad that in actuality she would sweep away most threats, why did you bring her? I honestly would’ve preferred Jellal and Erza being out of the action cause they had a kid or something. Erza having to pick between biological family and her guild family seems like a better direction to take her character in than this.

To see Erza cry because someone’s magic made her into a slave is so lacking in power than say the sheer emotional weight of watching simon die. Like this is shit is just awful.

We cut to Luccy and here is where I get to credit thee art. Sure Lucy is in a bikini, but what matters in frame is the wounds on her legs. Which is a nice us of having aa skimpy dress and not sexualizing it.

We get a flashback of Lucy realizing Kyriaa took her friends and this is where I give Caramille a big fuck you. Oh sure, this did happen after they showed up, but Diabolos clearly was going to find the place eventually and more importantly, you did fuck all. Like, go screw cause you have contributed literally nothing.

We find out that there is another ship in the area and that Gray is okay because he was saved by you can guess who...

Okay on the one hand, this definitely seems like Brandish’s kind of entrance, but on the other. Fuck you, Hiro. Like she just passed by and saved Gray? Hw? The entire ocean was either freezing or evaporating, what is your range? Also, who is in charge of Alverez? Yajeel? Oi...

Post Chapter Follow up: Its easy to say why I don’t like this chapter. I feel so sick by the sheer amount of laziness and disgust in the slave Erza plot. Like, my god this is so wrong. Not because of the subject, human slavery makes sense in a series aimed at teenagers, but the sheer disrespect that Hiro treated this character, made my blood boil. At the very least in Alvarez, Erza still seemed like she was the same character from beginning of the series.

People who follow me weekly on this review series are probably going to ask when I will stop harping on this Erza thing. Well each week, it  somehow get worse and more gross.  First time it felt like a cheap win, second it was bad use of domination, now this is full blown fetish material.

As for the brandish thing, I know why she is here, Lucy is literally not strong enough to handle 3 DE’s by herself with a few exceeds, and I’d accept that Brandish reentering the series. But maybe leave out Gray? I guess you could say that this is a subversion of the Musica captured by Doryu, but this feels lazier. You could’ve just made this a big “step up Lucy plot,” but no, had to save Gray, even though Skullion should’ve notice when his magic didn’t actually ash up Gray. Plus think about, if they save save Natsu and Wendy this arc and beat these three dragon eaters, wouldn’t some added bit of tension to the quest be finding diablos’s hideout and saving Gray from the “dinner table?”And I was cool with the kidnapped gray thing, but no, we had to have kidnapped everyone else.Also if he was made small how did he survive the water? Like he’s the size of a pin, he’d drown.

Now the stuff with Laxus and Jellal is actually fairly good Its an interesting take on FTs standards vs the consequences of their past when we are suppose to be rooting for Touka to be extracted. And involving two characters that really have been in the moral gray spectrum make them the most qualified for this subject matter. While i definitely didn’t like the Touka plot at first from how disconnected it was from everything (and it really is kinda shoed in on this point) it still is the more interesting plot. It has more intresting ideas than, “more dragons” and is involving the characters that come off as the most interesting.

Final Verdict: 3/10

There is clearly some interesting idea at work here

However, the way the plotline for the dragon portion of this arc has become a mess

I don’t use this phrase lightly, “Erza literally deserves better than this”

Plot convince playhouse at its finest

#fairy tail #fairy tail 100 year quest 12 #fairy tail 100 years quest 12 #erza scarlet #jellal fernandes #laxus dreyar #touka #touka the white mage #team natsu #natsu dragneel #wendy marvell #spriggan 12 #jerza #brandish #brandish mew #gray fullbuster #lucy heartfilia #nalu #edolas #avatar #crime sorciere #diabolos #kyria #madmorl #skullion raider #happy the cat #carla #fairy tail 2018

[doctorgerth]

If you're still taking match ups! I'm 28, female, preference for men but meh, not fussed. 5'3 ish, usually quite laid back but ready to throw down at any time. Sarcasm and reasonably dark humour. Like reading and writing, occasional art and general creative stuff. Not a morning person. I like vegetables?? I'm bad at describing myself?? I enjoy driving at night time.. I like hugs by only with people I know. Bit of an introvert... im so bad at this Haha. Help me.

Yay, my last matchup for the week! I’m so excited to get a request from you, sweetie. I’m a huge fan of you and your blog so I feel honored that you are requesting from me!

Your match is…

Kid

You’re willingness to throw down is really what won Kid over. He finds it amusing and pretty sexy how quickly and easily you can go from 0 to 100. You can keep up with his pace pretty well, and that’s the kind of partner he needs. You’re a chill person, but he knows you can fight for yourself when you need to, and that makes him feel better. Kid loves strong women; he doesn’t have the time to constantly protect you - he’s got people to murder, things to steal!

He also appreciates how low-key and laid-back you are in the relationship. Kid isn’t one for super romantic gestures, so he enjoys that you’re content with the smaller things. You wouldn’t think it, but Kid actually can be romantic and cute without even trying. He’s not a flowers guy, so he likes to disappear for a while into his shop to make you cute little trinkets or jewelry that makes him think of you. It’s small, but damnit he’s proud of what he’s made for you! He needs immediate affirmation that you like it, because he doesn’t do this for just anybody. If you show even the slightest hint of hesitation or dislike for it, he’ll huff and throw it over board, threatening to never make you anything again - when really he just goes right back to his shop to make something better! You wearing or using the things he makes you really warms his heart, though he’d never verbally express it.

You are a bit older than him, but that’s another thing he really finds enjoyable about you! Kid finds mature women who have their shit together much more appealing than whiny, dramatic, and bitchy girls close to his age. He loves to brag to others about snagging a cougar for a woman (even though there’s only a 5 year difference??) and it doesn’t seem like he’ll stop any time soon. On the flip side, he likes make fun of the height difference between you two. When you’re arguing or just getting on each other’s nerves, he likes to remind you that he is your superior/senior. He also loves to torture you by picking you up like a small sack of potatoes and just throwing you over his shoulder. He either does this to shut you up…or he does this while taking you to the bedroom, letting you know that it’s time for some lovin’ now.

Kid is the biggest sarcastic asshole of them all, so he appreciates that you don’t get offended when he’s being pretty snarky. Its just his normal conversational tone, and honestly, you’ll serve it right back to him. He finds that really entertaining, causing him to laugh a lot. The crew find it strange since Kid’s laughter is usually maniacal, but your witty banter makes his genuine laughter come out! Your dark humor really threw him off at the beginning - he’s called you a freak many a times - but now after being with you so much, he’s developed his own sense of dark humor. Now, he calls you “my little freak”, which can be innocent in nature, but we all know what Kid is really insinuating. The only good thing about mornings is morning sex, according to Kid, so he is with you on not being a morning person. But, you two know how to make it at least a little more tolerable. ;)

He likes to pick on you for being a little nerd, what with your reading, writing, and artistic hobbies. He never makes fun of your creations though, as he knows he would never want you to do that with his. He also sees how much time, energy, and creative thinking goes into your art, and he truly respects that. You two love to show each other your art. He tries to act uninterested, but he can’t hide the proud smile that creeps on his face when you show him a new drawing or story you had just written. You’re unique, talented, and highly interesting - Kid never gets bored with you (which is very hard to say about his past lovers)!

Other potential suitors:

Law - it’s the dark humor. Law isn’t a humorous guy, but you sure do make him laugh with your macabre nature. He relates to it, and you two like to exchange jokes every now and then. The crew finds it absolutely disturbing, but you two are never fazed. He’s also a sarcastic asshole, so he enjoys your witty responses. Law hasn’t met a lot of people who he enjoys holding conversations with, but you, he could talk with you all day! 

Lucci - he is a calm and collected guy, but like you, he can jump into any fight without hesitation. Lucci enjoys how laid-back you are, but also how there’s a strong fighter hidden underneath that chill persona. He also enjoys exchanging in sarcastic banter, your dark humor eliciting a chuckle from him every now and then. It’s enjoyable to see you break his scowl, and it embarrasses him, which makes it even funnier! 

Robin - again, the dark humor. This woman lives for some dark humor. She’s been surrounded by people who are sincerely disturbed by her words, but with you, she can let loose all the jokes she’s kept to herself! Aside from that, she enjoys sitting in the library and reading with you, or reading while you work on some art! She enjoys reading and critiquing your stories, though she truly loves them all and hardly ever has anything bad to say. She always demands a copy to keep for herself, and she really hopes you will release a book one day! She’s your biggest fan, and even asks for autographs, just to be cute and playful

#one piece #one piece matchup #matchup weekend #matchup #arkanfire #kid

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Greg Werner

  I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

  Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

  My next guest in this series is Greg Werner, the official One Piece columnist for Shueshia and Toei. For my chat with him, he chose the Arlong Park, in which Luffy and his crew take on Arlong and Nami officially joins Team Straw Hat.

  A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Arlong Park arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Arlong Park arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

    Dan Dockery: Sell me on Arlong Park, in one sentence. Let's say that I'd gotten to the end of the Baratie Arc, and I decided "You know what? I don't think this is for me." What would you say to convince me to keep going?

  Greg Werner: I don’t know if I could sell a bottle to a milkman, but I’ll give it a shot ... Can it be in the form of a question?

  Yes.

  Do you want to know Nami’s backstory? And that seems so facile, but you’re coming off Baratie with the knowledge that Nami has betrayed the crew, she has left the crew, and she has stolen the ship. But it seems like she’s not acting freely, and she mentions the name “Bellemere.” So if you’ve gone through One Piece and you’ve come to that point, that’s simple enough. 

    So, you have Luffy who wants to go get her, an injured Zoro, Usopp, who's gotta be in a weird state, and Sanji who finds her extremely attractive and cool. It's a fun dynamic.

  Zoro and Usopp are an interesting combination, they always are. Usopp always feels like Zoro’s little brother and Zoro kind of has to take a back seat due to injuries here. But I always find their interactions to be very sweet, and you get to see a kind side of Zoro, which is the antithesis of how he interacts with Sanji. And you’re getting hints of the rivalry between Zoro and Sanji here, one that ramps up to the hunting contest in Little Garden, at which point they cease to call each other by their names and just insult one another. And between Luffy and Sanji, you get these kindred spirits due to their dreams. Usopp and Zoro are a little more straight-faced about their dreams, but both Sanji and Luffy utter their dreams with these big smiles. So even though Oda has his pieces all over the map, it’s nice to see the freshness of all of them working together, which is something you won’t find in anything but the best shonen action series.

  When you meet Arlong, he's kind of a jerk. He doesn't seem very nice. But he's one of the first One Piece villains who seems like a complete character. He's mighty but underhanded and deceitful. What does his introduction do for One Piece?

  So I bought the first ten volumes for a co-worker because he’d seemed interested in it, and I said “There, you’ve got the first ten volumes. Now you have no excuse not to get into it.” And we’ve been talking about it recently, especially the little details, and we found something very interesting about Arlong. There’s one aspect of Arlong that is completely different from every villain up to this point and it’s how he treats his crew. Buggy starts off beating up one of his crew members. Part of Kuro’s plan is to kill his crew. Krieg only sees his crew as numbers and will gas them. Arlong, though, to members of his crew, he’s extraordinarily loyal. When he finds out that Zoro has beaten up his crew, Arlong is pissed. In some ways, he’s very similar to Luffy, but he’s despicable and terrifying and he’s one of my favorite villains. 

    That's a great point; Arlong is the first bad guy to have pride in his crew. Speaking of Arlong's crew, this is the first time we get the classic 1v1 where a Straw Hat member matches up against an antagonist crew member. When you first read this, because it's electric every time I watch it, how did you feel to watch it go full-on battle manga?

  Zoro’s a beast. Sanji’s a beast. But Usopp? Facing down this insurmountable force? How is he gonna do this? And I think that’s the moment that got me. The others are awesome, and I love them, and they’re great, funny battles. But with Usopp fighting Chew, it showed Oda’s ability to shine in a certain way. Like Toriyama and Dragon Ball, Oda’s been very influenced by Jackie Chan, because Jackie Chan fights are awesome, visually stunning fights, but they’re funny. And that’s what Oda strives for sometimes. When you combine the action with the gags, you get something very special. You’re not just excited, but you’re laughing, too. And I think Usopp’s battles represent the pinnacle of that. It clicked for me there and it became a page-turner. It feels like what a shonen action series should be. And I enjoy Oda’s different takes on it, but he does it so well here.

    I’m glad you bring up Toriyama and Dragon Ball because if you read any interview with any Shonen Jump author, they praise Toriyama. And it’s deserved. The man’s battle scenes and pacing have never been beaten and probably never will be. He’s the master. But one of the things I like about Oda is that he doesn’t try to copy them. Rather, he takes bits and pieces and spins it off into his own thing. Do you remember the Oda interview with Toriyama where he was like “I really liked Tao Pai Pai …”

  From Color Walk 1.

  And Toriyama was like “I ... drew that?” It’s the funniest thing in the world to me. 

  I think his exact words were “Now you’re getting into the minor characters.” And Oda’s like “MINOR CHARACTERS?”

  He nearly killed Goku! But I dig that kind of reverence and inspiration. So Nami’s backstory — it’s heart-wrenching. Bellemere’s awesome. Makes you wish she was still around in the series.

  Isn’t that perfect? That’s exactly what he goes for. 

  In the end, she refuses to say that she doesn’t have children, even after a bad spat with Nami. This flashback is one of my favorite ones. What did you get out of it and how did it take the story to another level? Because to match it, every flashback to come had to do some heavy lifting.

  Every detail in this flashback builds on itself. There’s no excess. And maybe outside of the Chopper backstory, I can’t think of another backstory that is so full of necessary information that weaves into a single narrative. Every event evokes an emotion in the reader and pushes the story forward. Bellemere has the fight with Nami, makes dinner to reconcile with her, a Fishman crew member sees the cooking smoke from her house, the Fishmen find her, she refuses to discount Nami as her family, and she’s killed. It all comes together so neatly in three chapters, I think. Oda sets a reeeeeally high bar for himself, but to be able to match that through nearly a hundred volumes of story takes a special kind of manga genius. It’s also the very first time I cried while reading manga. 

  Next, we run through basically a Greatist Hits collection of One Piece moments: Nami asks for help, Luffy gives Nami the hat, the march to Arlong Park, Luffy slugs Arlong, the fights happen, Luffy brings down the Gum Gum Battle Axe, Arlong’s spine gets turned into clam chowder, etc. So much of what we think about One Piece is distilled into the final chapters of Arlong Park. So do you have a favorite moment from this climax? I honestly can’t pick.

    I didn’t realize this when I first read it, and it took me several years to understand the importance of the giving of the hat. It’s one of only two times in the series that Oda uses five exclamation points in a row. The other one is when Luffy comes swooping in to save Vivi from Crocodile. Even the famous “dreams of mankind will never end” doesn’t get five. Luffy’s pissed and the best part about this is that he doesn’t have a single reason to be. He knows nothing about Nami’s history and actively refuses to listen to it. He takes a nap instead. He’s just ready to be a tool for her, so when she asks him to help her? YOU GOT IT. And then, the next thing he tells her, after the fight with Arlong, he tells her that she’s his crewmate. Nami has held this by herself for so long, she’s so strong, and she finally opens up to accept help from someone else. And it tells us that Luffy knows what kind of person you are, even if he doesn’t know that much about you. He might be dumb and reckless and strong, but there’s a spark there. He can read you. 

  One thing I like in the anime is that Nami is the first Straw Hat introduced in the story. She’s at the boat party that gets attacked by Alvida, and her showing up there and then being the main focus of Arlong Park bookends East Blue and kind of turns it into her saga. But as they leave this arc and head to Loguetown, what is new about One Piece? What's there that wasn't around before?

  That’s a good question.

  Because I hear many people say “Arlong Park is what made me a One Piece fan.”

  You get to see their daily routines onboard their full ship. You have the established East Blue crew in one location and we get a slice of life. In just a few scenes or panels, you finally get to watch the crew relax. You get a window on their lives and there’s a sense of completeness. It’s a warm, fuzzy feeling. 

    ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

  Favorite character?

  Luffy, Franky, and Zoro.

  Favorite villain?

  Arlong.

  Favorite fight scene?

  Luffy vs Bellamy. It’s so satisfying.

  One Piece island that you’d want to live on?

  Skypiea.

  What Devil Fruit would you eat?

  Flower-Flower fruit that Nico Robin uses. I’d get so much work done.

  One Piece moment that made you cry the most?

  Bellemere’s death.

  One Piece moment that made you cheer the loudest?

  The defeat of Lucci. That was remarkable.

      Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with Aggretsuko and The Black Mage writer Daniel Barnes about his favorite One Piece arc: Marineford!!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[roninkairi]

Better Fights Than Superman Vs. Goku

As long as comic books and manga exists, there will be at least two people arguing about who can take who in a fight. That is a constant that I have learned.

In fandom, there are debates about the levels of power heroes and villains have, the types of feats they have to qualify for a win and loss, morals, strategies, and so on. However, while there is many debates and many matchups that have been put out there, there is one that I can never seemingly have a pure definitive answer for myself: Superman vs. Son Goku.

I’m not going to bore you with the background story for these two heroes. And, to be frank, I don’t really think I’m going to give you a definitive answer about the type of fight these two can have. There are so many variables to consider, not to mention the history these two have (and considering that Dragon Ball Super, a new manga/anime series, is giving Goku new powers to use, I’m not even going to try to gauge their strengths at this moment), picking a winner for me boils down to “who do I like more” and I can’t really do it.

Also: I’M GETTING BORED ABOUT DEBATING THIS.

So, what am I doing? Simple really; I’m proposing other worthwhile matches that you should consider discussing. The following are fights I think are more worthy of debate for fans of comics/cartoons and anime/manga and should make for some interesting questions and analysis. You may be surprised by some of the fights I propose. First up-

 Iron Fist (Marvel)  vs. Might Guy (Naruto)

  This one was not taken lightly by me, especially given what I know of the two.  Danny Rand, a martial arts master, manipulates chi and the power of the dragon Shou-Lao to enhance his body and his abilities to super hero levels. Might Guy, a taijutsu master, can tap into the 8 Gates, which can grant him even greater superhuman strength, speed and agilitiy. And given what Guy does during the events of the 4th Shinobi War, Danny would really be tested.

 Samurai Jack vs. Goemon (Lupin the 3rd)

 I know a lot of you know who Jack is, but you probably may be thinking “Who da hell is GOEMON?” I’ll give you a heads up: Goemon is based on a historical figure, Goemon Ishikawa. (His full name in the series is Goemon Ishikawa XIII). Like Jack, he is a samurai swordsman who is a skilled fighter (Both of these guys are trained in multiple styles) And like Jack, he has a mystical type of sword. (Zantetsuken, a sword made from a meteorite, which can slice through anything) And if you think Jack’s feats were remarkable, you ought to see all the crazy stuff Goemon has been up to in the entire history of the Lupin the 3rd series. (To give you a small example, he has cut through skyscrapers, tanks, squads of armed men and LIGHTNING. I shit you not on that one.) It was no accident that there is a character in Samurai Jack that is based on two Lupin the 3rd characters. I would not be surprised if Jack was inspired by Goemon too.

 Popeye vs. Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

 Another fight that a friend of mine, Katie, had suggested in the past and, quite honestly, this one is more interesting. Two men of the ocean, both of questionable intelligence, fighting it out to see who is the baddest man to sail the seven seas. And also both are ridiculously durable. Seriously, ever see what Popeye goes through WITHOUT eating the spinach? And Luffy can take some serious beatings. (Look up with fight with Rob Lucci)

HOWEVER…there is one other opponent I’d like to see take on the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.

 Reed Richards vs. Monkey D. Luffy

 This is a little more logical as both have similar powers. The key difference here is that while Reed Richards may have the intelligence to constantly have Doctor Doom curse his name, Luffy is more of a fighting type of brilliant. And that’s actually important considering all of the opponents that he has bested in combat who are way more intelligent than him. It would be interesting to see how Reed would fare.

Ok this next choice…this one is a doozy because well…just see for yourself.

                                                                      Freakazoid vs. Bobobo (Bobobo Bo Bo-bobo)

 There is no possible way I could accurately describe the chaos involved in a fight like this. For starters, Freakazoid works on a level of random comedic genius we don’t get to see that often and the character himself can’t quite be defined in a conventional term other than “batshit crazy”. And on the other side, we have a manga series that operates purely on frequent and random acts of pure comedic insanity. (Seriously, Fist of the Nose Hair.) In order for me to even consider writing the script for this fight, I would need to be stoned out of my mind. Or, barring that, tripping on serious peyote. But lets face it, it would be funny. So funny it would be illegal.

 Now, strictly speaking one of the people involved in this one is from a book series. I’m going to let it slide on the basis that the other series stared as a Light Novel.

 Lord Voldermort (Harry Potter) vs. Lina Inverse (The Slayers)

 One of these people is a powerful master of magic, wielding powers far beyond our comprehension, whose very name strikes terror in even the most fearsome of creatures and has been responsible for a lot of destruction, leaving even towns burning behind. The other is Voldermort.

Both of these people are respective geniuses at their craft and have gained knowledge of various magic styles. What separates them however is morals; yes Lina DOES have morals despite the fact she likes getting paid handsomely for her services and DESPITE her many nicknames (Like “Enemy of All Who Live”, “Lina The Pink”, “Lina The Bandit Killer”, “Empress of Destruction”, “Natural Disaster Mage”, “No Breasts Demon”—)

Me: Oh shit, I didn’t mean to—

Lina: DRAGON SLAVE!!!!!

…as I was saying, the very lovely noble and kind magic user who is merciful to all her foes (I am NOT typing this for fear of my life by the way) has morals whereas Voldermort has no qualms about doing anything to get what he wants. (Dude was willing to a baby because it may have been a threat to him. There’s no grey area there.) Plus, despite being nigh immortal, Voldermort would be hard pressed to fight a mage who knows spells that can hurt your very soul.

 So there you have it, some of my choices for a better fight than Superman vs. Goku. And before I go, here is the joke fight that, admittedly, I would be happy to see…

                                                   Perry the Platypus vs. Kyuubey

…face it, it would be AWESOME.

#marvel #iron fist #naruro #might guy #samurai jack #lupin the 3rd #goemon ishikawa xiii #popeye #one piece #monkey d. luffy #fantastic four #reed richards #freakazoid #bobobo bo bo bobo #harry potter #lord voldermort #the slayers #lina inverse #phineas and ferb #perry the platypus #puella magi madoka magica #kyuubey

[agemintherough]

New Chapter Preview

@secondaryshade asked for an update...how about a preview? I will admit that my new job is taking a bit of time away from writing, but it's getting there! *GWMAPT* "...and that's how we got here!" Petrea finished explaining their journey to Steven as quickly as possible. The boy, still bound and unable to do anything about it, sat there flabbergasted. Of all the ways for this day to go, this was the absolute last direction he could have predicted. In the span of twenty-four hours, she practically everything had been turned on its head. His crew was divided, the ship was unrepairable, he quit the Crystal Gems, his date with Connie was tarnished, he was captured by government assassin, and was now in the presence of the LAST people he could have pictured seeing. Finally, something GOOD was happening to him. "I can't even...you...I mean...YOU ATE A DEVIL FRUIT?!" Steven gasped upward, whispering as loud as he could. "For the fifth time, yes!" the muffled voice of Genevieve called to him from her hiding spot. "I know it's a lot to take in, but we kind of are in the dark here..." "Literally in her case," Damian interjected. There was silence for a moment while Genevieve clearly muttered something that Steven couldn't make out before she spoke up once more. "...I hate you. Regardless, we are kind of lost as to why you are here and what we have walked into. Care to fill in some of the gaps for us?" "How do I put this delicately?" Steven began, not knowing how much time he had before his captors returned. "Um...so the Going Merry can't be fixed no matter what we do..." "What," the trio responded in unison. "...Usopp quit the crew..." "What?" "...he fought Luffy in a duel and lost..." "What?!" "...and I quit the Crystal Gems and ran away before all of, well, this." "What?!" "Back the hell up!" Damian practically fell on his face in utter shock and horror. "You're telling me that ALL of this happened in a DAY?! What the ever-loving hell?!" "The Merry can't be fixed?" Petrea's eyes widened. "You QUIT the Gems?! I just...why?!" "I just got so mad at Garnet and Pearl," Steven sullenly replied, tears forming in his eyes. "Garnet saw that the fight would happen and Pearl...Pearl just isn't happy no matter what I do to help! I couldn't stand it anymore...but now I feel so terrible about it!" "Aw, kid..." Damian awkwardly patted Steven's back to try to comfort him. "I'm sorry that you've had to deal with this crap. It sounds like you've had a day from hell..." The youth sniffled a bit, unable to really wipe away his tears since he was bound. "I mean...it wasn't all bad...I took Connie on a date...and I kissed her." A high pitched squeal came from the luggage compartment as Genevieve pushed the door open enough to look directly at Steven. The half-Gem noticed immediately that her rosy cheeks had almost doubled in size somehow. "You kissed Connie! Ahhhhh!" "I thought that we were trying to be stealthy here!" Damian hissed at her. "Get back in there!" "But...but...this is important!" Genevieve whined as she shut the door again. "If we get our asses caught right now, then it won't matter what he did! We need to be smart about this!" Damian snapped at her. "I know we've been out of the game for a bit, but we need to think! We are on a train surrounded by government agents and assassins! There are only four of us and these Marines that are still under the delusion that we are friends right now! How the hell do we get out of this before they stop chewing each other out?" "If I may interrupt, my friends?" Captain T-Bone suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to jump. "If you are going to attempt anything, you should do so now. You are about to lose the element of surprise and once this train leaves, it will be impossible for you to make it out of here alive unless you are willing to see the train all the way to Enies Lobby." The two visible former Baroque Works Agents stared at the Marine captain in blank surprise. It was becoming more and more apparent that they were clearly not ready for a rescue of this magnitude in this amount of time. Steven, whose hope of escaping had somewhat diminished, just gave his friends a meaningful smile. "It's okay, guys. If I have to do this, at least I know you guys are here to have my back. Maybe we can be there for Robin too." "Aw crap, I forgot about her...how the hell are we going to pull this off?!" Damian grabbed his head in frustration and stood up, walking to the door separating the train cars. "After all we went through to get here, we are going to end up watching as our friends end up being sent to Impel Down or wherever the hell they are going to take you both!" "Keep it together, Damian!" Petrea told him bluntly. "We are not giving up!" "Damn straight, we aren't! I just don't know...aw shit! They are coming back!" the bomb-man stopped as he listened in. "Steven, listen to me: you CAN'T make it seem like you know we are here! Don't play act or anything like that. Pretend like you don't know that we are here or that our near-dead ace in the hole is hypnotized to be our friend! These guys can pick up on that kind of stuff easily!" Steven nodded profusely, his eyes darting from them to the door. "Got it! What are you going to to? Get out of here and get help?" "We might not have a plan, but we sure as shit are not about to let you do this alone. Let us figure out how we are going to rescue you, kid. Until then, just remember that it's gonna be okay," Damian adjusted his uniform and lowered his sunglasses, giving him a wink. "Besides, do you honestly think the others aren't planning on storming this train and saving you as we speak?" Petrea reassured him, also preparing her disguise. "They toppled a criminal empire to save a country. These guys don't stand a chance if they took one of their own. Between us and them, we'll be back to the Merr...um...back together in no time!" The chocolatier hastily coughed, trying to hide the fact that she brought up the dying ship. Before Steven could get another word in, Apollo and Nero returned to the car. They were silent and sullen, clearly the result of the conversation they shared with Lucci and the other members of CP9. Nodding to Captain T-Bone, they helped Steven to his feet and led him back to their own car. The half-Gem looked back once to see his friends off before he was once again confined to captivity, but they did not dare to return it. The second the three of them left, Damian and Petrea began to sweat. "Just to be clear, we have no idea how we are going to pull this off, right?" Damian asked his former partner. "None whatsoever," Petrea replied, fear oozing in her voice. "I'm utterly petrified. I have faith that Robin can handle getting out of here herself, but Steven? He's not ready for something like this! They'll kill him first! What the hell are we going to do?!" It was then that the sea train began to jump to life. Looking out of the window, they watched as the train departed from the Water Seven station towards Enies Lobby. Any chance of them getting off of the train was now seemingly thrown out of the window. In its place was the fear and dread of fighting off the might of the World Government itself. "We pray for a miracle," Genevieve told them from her hiding spot, her voice unsteady and fearful. *GWMAPT* "Shitty rain and waves! It'd be a miracle if I could get this damn cigarette to light!" Sanji grunted from the outside of the moving sea train as water splashed his face. "How the hell am I going to sneak around and save everybody if I can't even get a light?!"

[beautifuldisastr]

As season 3 closes, ‘Madam Secretary’ creators, cast reflect on real-world events, show’s future

Politics are notoriously unpredictable. So, perhaps, it’s little wonder that the creators of “Madam Secretary” on CBS have a hard time conjuring storylines that are more dramatic than current events.

“We shoot three or four weeks out, and by the time they got on the air, some of these things have happened” in real life, Barbara Hall, the show’s creator and executive producer, told The Washington Times during recent filming along the National Mall.

On a particularly bright spring day, series star Tea Leoni jogged with a dog and two fictional Secret Service agents trailing her near the Lincoln Memorial. A sign not far off informed passersby that they were tacitly giving permission to use their likeness in the background of certain shots. Here and there, onlookers recognized Miss Leoni, using their phones to snap photos of the star.

“We try to take anything that’s happening right now and then ‘game it out’ in the future to the most dramatic conclusion,” said Ms. Hall, a veteran producer of “Homeland,” “Joan of Arcadia” and “Judging Amy” in between takes of Miss Leoni jogging with her entourage next to the Reflecting Pool.

Viewers have tuned in for the exploits of Secretary of State Dr. Elizabeth McCord (Miss Leoni) since 2014. The show, already renewed for a fourth year, airs its third-season finale this Sunday.

“The first time we were here was the pilot episode, so this is a little nostalgic for us,” said executive producer Lori McCreary of location filming in the nation’s capital. (The bulk of the series films on soundstages in New York.)

“We had no idea if the show would ever get picked up, or if people were going to like it,” Ms. McCreary told The Times of the political show’s beginnings. “So being here at the end of the third season is really satisfying because we know we have a great audience.

“And I love being here. There’s nothing like shooting in D.C.”

Season 3 has seen McCord working to end a hostage crisis in Sudan, fighting worldwide human trafficking and even in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize. All the while she balances geopolitics with a home life that includes her husband, Henry, (Tim Daly) and the couple’s young-adult daughters, Stephanie (Wallis Currie-Wood) and Alison (Kathrine Herzer).

Both Ms. McCreary and Ms. Hall are proud of the fact that their show not only features a strong woman in the title role, but is run by women and has a writing room staffed by several more — somewhat of a rarity in the often male-centric television industry.

“The networks are really focusing on” gender parity, Ms. Hall said. “We’re certainly doing our part. I just think it’s a matter of awareness and everybody being committed to improving that situation.”

“Girls especially being able to see women in those positions will make the biggest difference,” concurred Ms. McCreary. “I think mentoring programs are great,” she said, adding the crew has many women on staff as well.

Such sentiments are echoed by actress Patina Miller, who portrays press coordinator Daisy Grant on “Madam Secretary.” Miss Miller, who came up through the milieus of soap operas and Broadway plays, believes it’s crucial to continue to support entertainment created and shepherded by women.

“It’s been great to work in an environment where we’re getting to tell smart, interesting stories that are written by females and performed by females,” she told The Times. “It’s a really great place to be in, and I hope we continue to move in that direction.”

Art not imitating life

“What I like about the show is that we portray a government that is aspirational,” said actor Erich Bergen, who portrays McCord’s assistant, Blake Moran. “Very similar to what was going on in ‘The West Wing,’ we’re trying to [show] a government that works for everyone and attempts to do the right thing.”

Mr. Bergen, who cut his teeth on stage as Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio in the stage and film version of “Jersey Boys,” said “Madam Secretary” viewers need only click “a few channels over” to witness the current chaos of the Trump administration and the nonstop criticisms emanating from its political enemies.

“I think our show holds an important place on television just because of [what] we’re watching our real government go through,” he said.

On “Madam Secretary,” the McCords marriage is depicted as stable and the fictional administration is largely scandal-free.

“The drama that is dealt with between Elizabeth and Henry is obviously very high-stakes given their jobs, but they work through it as a strong couple and a strong family would,” Mr. Bergen said. “I think that’s something we don’t see a lot on television.”

Like Mr. Bergen, Miss Miller is a veteran of the New York stage, having starred in the Broadway and London versions of “Sister Act” and assayed the lead in “Pippin.” But reciting the same lines night after night on the Great White Way is a far different animal than learning and filming a new mini-film every eight days on “Madam Secretary.”

“There kind of is no rehearsal process in TV and film,” she said. “We have blocking and marking, and then we shoot.”

Furthermore, she said 40 to 50 crew members don’t provide the instant performance feedback that a packed theater of 1,000 audience members can.

“Coming from the theatre, you feed off that energy every night. It helps your performance in a way,” Miss Miller said. “With TV, because there is no audience, you don’t get the satisfaction of knowing if what you did during the scene played well. You find out later whenever you see it.”

The piecemeal nature of TV and film work means that actors aren’t as “in charge” of their performance as stagecraft allows, Miss Miller believes. Rather, it’s “everyone telling the story,” including the editors who construct the show from shards of different takes.

The brisk nature of TV work also requires the rapid memorization of scripts — as well as sudden, and constant, rewrites. Miss Miller credits her time on “All My Children” with helping her to develop the ability to briskly learn new dialogue. (She calls “AMC” legend Susan Lucci “one of the most amazing, talented actresses.”)

“Honestly, you just get used to it,” said Miss Miller.

Mr. Bergen said that while people do approach him on the street to discuss real-life politics, more often they wish to inquire after aspects of the show’s characters.

“I hear the classic line: ‘Boy, I wish you guys were in the White House’ a lot,” he said.

Mr. Bergen was in fact invited to the Executive Mansion during the show’s first season. He dined with former President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Mr. Abe, it turned out, not only recognized Mr. Bergen but informed him that “Jersey Boys” was his favorite film.

“So I was there as a ‘Jersey boy,’ but then I was also starting to get known for this fictional government show,” Mr. Bergen said, adding that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also approached him at the event to discuss the show, which he describes as a “meta moment.”

On the set of “Jersey Boys,” Mr. Bergen said he experienced another such surreal incident sitting next to director Clint Eastwood on the first day of filming in Burbank, California. Mr. Bergen pondered if perhaps “Jersey Boys” would be the octogenarian’s final film, but while entertaining the thought, he received an alert on his phone announcing Mr. Eastwood’s next project, “American Sniper.”

“He’s very inspirational to me,” Mr. Bergen said of Mr. Eastwood, who, at 86, continues to make films.

“It’s the same thing with Frankie” Valli, the Four Seasons frontman who still tours the country night after night singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and other classics, Mr. Bergen said. “If you love what you do and it’s what you know how to do best, there’s no reason to stop.”

Incumbency

The cast and crew of “Madam Secretary” are mum on the details of Sunday’s season finale, but all involved are proud of the season 3 arc, including the May 7 episode, “Seventh Floor,” which Mr. Bergen describes as “our strongest yet.”

“I think we’re really about to start hitting our best stuff” in season 4, he said. “I’m very proud of the work we’ve done.”

Miss Miller said her character Daisy’s pregnancy will play a major part in future storylines.

“We’re going to keep giving you a fantastic show,” she said.

Ms. Hall, the show’s creator, echoed the sentiments, saying the showrunners’ goal remains to continue to expand the universe of “Madam Secretary” moving forward.

“We want to [give] everybody a better understanding of our characters,” she said as the crew called for Miss Leoni and his entourage to do another jogging take by the Reflecting Pool.

The season finale of “Madam Secretary” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.

- Washington Times

#Madam Secretary

[recentanimenews]

The Top 10 One Piece Anime Moments From 2018

One Piece has been going for about two decades, and I sometimes doubt that I will live to see the end of it. So, it might seem silly to take a little year out of its grand timeline and talk about the best parts of it. But the day that I stop celebrating One Piece is the day that joy dies, and that's why I feel that it's necessary to look back into 2018 and pick out the best bits. And yes, I know that 2018 isn't truly over yet, but unless One Piece decides to include an anime-only scene in the next episode where Sogeking has a sudden one-on-one duel with Kizaru, I think this list is pretty set in sea stone. 

  So with that said, here are the top 10 greatest moments from the One Piece anime in 2018! Many of them are great for different reasons--some are touching, some are weird, some are action-packed, and some are about Luffy cutting off a villain's windpipe. Actually, that's #10. Let's check it out!

  10. Luffy Chokes Out Charlotte Cadenza

    Not a lot of focus is put on this sequence, but in Luffy's effort to find Sanji's location, he chokes Charlotte Cadenza to unconsciousness . This stuck out to me because it shows that Luffy is so desperate to find his cook pal that he's breaking out the sleeper hold. It makes me hope that we'll eventually see Luffy get so frustrated that he locks in a triangle choke on Blackbeard, or a double wrist lock on Akainu.

  9. Pudding's Third Eye Is Beautiful

  Charlotte Pudding is one of Big Mom's many manipulated children, someone who has lived her whole life being told that she is ugly and is currently being used in one of the Four Emperors' schemes. No matter how important she is now, Big Mom will always see her as a pawn. Then, on their "wedding day," Sanji tells her that her third eye is beautiful, and in a life that's devoted to serving her unstable warlord mother, Pudding finds a brief moment of comfort.

  8. Charlotte Linlin's Feast Of Friends

    I wondered how they were going to do this scene, because it would be weird if I had to eventually tell people "man, remember when Big Mom graphically ate a dozen helpless children?" But what the anime ended up with--while not quite scary--was weird in its own right. It was so calm that it was a little bit unsettling.

  7. Nami's Lightning Bolt

  If there is one Straw Hat that does not get enough credit for how cool they are, it's Nami. I've mentioned this before, but Nami is frequently the Straw Hat's MVP. However, because she's rarely altering the landscape with earth-shattering punches, everyone ignores her contributions. No, her lightning bolt didn't incinerate Big Mom, but it did buy the Sanji Retrieval Team some time to get away. Here's hoping that she gets more big moments in Wano.

  6. Luffy Clashes With Katakuri

    The fight that everyone compares this to is Luffy vs Lucci--while I'm gonna need to mull over that question for about five more years before I have an answer as to which one is definitively better, I'm gonna go ahead and deem Luffy vs Katakuri to be particularly rad. I honestly think that the anime is pacing it out a little better than the manga did. That may sound blasphemous to One Piece manga purists, but who cares? They can go make their own lists.

  5. Pedro's Sacrifice

    First of all, you're my boy, Pedro. Your duel with Baron Tamago in 2017 is one of the best One Piece anime fights in years. Second, this hit me just as hard as I hoped it would: I got goosebumps when Pedro's image dissipated. Let's all pour one out for Pedro right now. Coffee, liquor, water, it doesn't matter. Your boss asks you to clean it up? Tell THEM to clean it up. That nerd will never understand.

  4. Sanji Wants To Return/Luffy Decides To Crash The Wedding

  Sanji revealing that he wants to be back with the Straw Hat crew was nice, but the icing on top of the nakama cake was Luffy's nonchalant "We're just gonna crash the wedding" reveal. There is regular chill and then there is Luffy chill, and that's a level of chill that I hope we can all reach one day.

3. GERMA 66 ASSEMBLE

    Every once in a while, I'll hit a manga panel (Subscribe to Weekly Shonen Jump! It's $26 for an ENTIRE YEAR and it's incredible) that makes me excited for what it's gonna look like in the anime. And Germa 66's big Power Rangers reveal was one of those panels. Luckily, the anime didn't disappoint. All of the awesome makes you momentarily forget that the commanders of Germa 66 are 80% terrible and that only Reiju should leave One Piece alive.

  2. Katakuri's Donut Bliss

    Yeah, I'd be slightly unhappy if Eiichiro Oda decided to end Luffy's quest to become Pirate King and instead shifted the One Piece story to focus on Katakuri's love of donuts, but the key word here is "slightly."

  1. Carrot's Sulong Transformation

    If there is one kind of scene that One Piece does amazingly well, it's the "A Character Just Gained A Power Boost And Is Now Gonna Straight-Up Eat An Enemy's Heart" scene. And when Carrot transformed into her Sulong form and began tearing ship wheels off and demolishing the Big Mom pirates, it gave me that classic feeling that I got when Luffy first activated Gear 2 against Blueno years ago. Oh, One Piece. You're too good to me.

  And those are the top 10 One Piece anime moments of 2018. I hope you've all had a decent year, and let's ring in 2019 the right way: By rewatching One Piece from the beginning. Don't act like you don't have the time to. 

----------------

Daniel Dockery has a Twitter that he uses for official One Piece business and/or dumb opinions. 

By: [email protected]

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