We Really Can't Have Even A Single Peaceful Chapter In This Damn Manga

"Usopp Pinocchio imagery", this "Usopp Aesop imagery" that.... What about Usopp Odysseus Imagery? I never see enough of it.

Y'know, Odysseus, who sailed the world going on grand adventures, always thinking of his little home island to return to. Odysseus, whose main trait was being a wily, clever teller or tales, who would often trick his enemies to win. Odysseus who boldly lied to a Giant to save his crew. Odysseus, who put on a disguise and pretended to be someone else, with only those close to him being able to recognize him, confirming his identity to the rest of the world with a feat of sharpshooter archery!

Or what about Odysseus' main character flaw being his tendency for hubris? Hubris in the original ancient Greek sense (ύβρις); overconfidence and bragging in the face of gods, calling yourself greater than gods even as a mortal, and offending them. Like perhaps claiming you have "8000 Men" under your belt while facing opponents much greater than you, or earning the title of "God" when you're not one. Or more cheekily, calling yourself the "Captain" of your crew in the face of Sun God Nika.

I wonder what Penelope, patiently waiting for Odysseus back home in Ithaca, and rejecting a gaggle of suitors, reminds me of. vvvvv

I'm sure there's something about the Veggie Kids being his Telemachus in there, too.

The rot was inevitable

guys the atsushi hallucination jokes are not even close to funny. when has it ever been funny to make jokes about something like this. not to mention akutagawa has been normal about atsushi's hallucinations before and to make him the representative for making those ableist jokes is ooc and even less funny then they already are.

you all know ppl have hallucinations irl, right? and the exact type of jokes you're making, calling atsushi crazy & acting like it's a funny bit for aku to be baffled at him standing there, is how ableism irl goes?

and even beyond that, this isn't even new for atsushi. from the beginning of the story he's had hallucinations.

we've done better as a fandom. cmon.

Divine Being Amenogozen and the horror of the wrath of God

I wanted to talk about the current main threat to the BSD cast because I feel like not many people talk about him and how terrifying he is and also what he symbolises.

His creation/abilities:

So Divine Being Amenogozen was created via the 'Tripolar singularity' - a combination of 3 abilities/ability infused items. These are the Amenogozen sword (or the Space-Time sword), The Holy Sword Soluz Levni and Fukuchi's ability Mirror Lion. In short, Amenogozen can stab/move through space and time, the Holy Sword can infuse people's abilities into their bodies, and Mirror Lion strengthens any weapon by 100 times.

In terms of skills, Divine Being Amenogozen (who I will now refer to as Gozen) possesses the abilities of the Space-Time sword (liquification/absorption of people/abilities and energy blasts), as well as superhuman speed/swordsmanship, Levitation, self-healing and the ability to generate blades from himself to match his sword. He's already a powerhouse of an oppenent with just these skills that makes him an insane enemy for the characters to fight, but it's some of his other skills I want to draw attention to - mainly, spatial manipulation and his higher-dimensional existence (although I may bring mention to the others too).

As opposed to the others, I single out spatial manipulation as it is one of the things that makes him most intimidating alongside his physical appearance/actions. He's able to disappear and reappear in various places in the blink of an eye, something which really adds to the general horrifying nature of him as an antagonist.

The main aspect I want to talk about is him existing on a higher dimension than every other character in the series. Fyodor specifically says that Gozen is a fourth-dimensional being, whereas the rest of them are third-dimensional, and that Gozen's form is simply a shadow of his true self. Essentially, Gozen exists at a higher level of existence that is inconceivable to the rest of the cast, operating at this higher level not only in consciousness but also in ability/skill. It is why all of his skills are so heightened that they surpassed perhaps every single character in the current BSD canon.

To simplify the idea of dimensions, i'm pretty sure that a three-dimensional object is something that can be specifically located via 3 units (or dimensions) - usually this is the scales of height, width and depth in a physical space. A four-dimensional object also adds another variable scale (usually time I think) that you can see. In essence, Gozen is able to perceive the scales of height, width, depth and time (which implies that he can see through time itself).

[I want to clarify that this is not a topic I am very knowledgeable on, and I am kind of teaching myself the basics as I write this. So please feel free to correct me if I've got this wrong.]

So Gozen is able to travel across space and time, as well as manifest himself in multiple places at one via the past and present versions of himself (as if writing with two hands on a piece of paper, as Fyodor describes it). Fyodor describes Minkowski Space as part of his skills, a concept that I can't quite figure out how to explain so I recommend you give it a bit of research tbh). And Fyodor uses that to essentially kill the ability users that stand in his path and intimidate Atsushi into leading him to the book. It's also important to note that Fyodor, due to the seal marked on his hand from the Holy Sword, has seemingly complete control over the actions and abilities of Gozen. It is interesting to combine these concepts of Gozen's character with the general ruthlessness of his actions because it to me acts as a visualisation of the wrath of God.

Religious connotations and the wrath of God

Fyodor as a character has always been associated with religious imagery from his introduction. I don't know what specific sect of religion he's usually associated with, but for the sake of this post I'll talk about Gozen and his links to Christian imagery (since Christianity is the religion i'm most familiar with).

[My understanding is also quite limited so please don't take what i say is complete fact in case i'm completely wrong 😭]

Gozen as a higher-dimensional being to me brings associations with the concept of God and his omnipotent power. God is often said to know all, see all and have immense power (enough to create, for example, worldwide flooding). Gozen also exhibits similar concept:

- when he faces kunikida he is aware of his previous injuries (his hands being destroyed by the explosion in escape from the Hunting Dogs), despite not having been known to exist until much later.

- Gozen uses huge blades to chop down any buildings in a large area around the airport, showing he has power on a huge scale.

- Since he can present in multiple places at the same time (by manifesting past and present versions of himself at the same time) he can perceive through time.

Now, Gozen is not specifically like the Christian God. The christian God is said to have created the world we know and have complete control over it. Gozen doesn't show any evidence of this. Gozen seems more similar to a God present in a religion with multiple Gods that are worshipped by different people for different purposes. I seem to bring this towards the Christian God because often I know more about it (Christian primary school core) and see many depictions of the Christian God as one who is surprisingly ruthless - weather it be in stories surrounding Adam and Eve or The Great Flood for example. It's the inherent horror associated with this wrath (great anger and/or a desire to punish) that I bring to attention.

It is the inherently horror of being punished by someone of a higher existence and power that I focus on. I can see how Fyodor summoning Gozen to rid of his enemies here and his plan to unite humanity via the removal of the 'curse' of ability users can feel similar to the concept of Judgement day, where God is to come down and judge humanity for their actions and send them either to heaven or to hell. Fyodor however is more about force and violence in his methods, suggesting that he has perhaps invoked the more violent aspects of Gozen's wrath.

And there's a huge element of horror in fighting against a being who exceeds you in every single aspect and is at a completely inconceivable level and has so far basically killed anyone it has come in contact with before you but yet it decides to spare you and intimidate you instead because you serve, in its opinion, a greater purpose. Because that's what Atsushi is facing. Gozen is drawn in such an intimidating way at many points when facing atsushi too - I'm adding some because I think his design is so interesting too (might make a separate post on that because this is getting long).

Essentially, Gozen is terrifying because he is above and beyond everything any of these characters have ever known and possibly will ever know. He is a godly being who is ruthless in his directed pursuits and operates with such an intimidating air because of his inherent power and higher-dimensional existence. He is terrifying because he is so inconceivable and invincible in the eyes of the characters in universe, and to them Fyodor has essentially invoked the wrath of a God upon them for the 'crime' of being ability users that dare oppose him.

[This post started to fall apart towards the end because I only have a limited understanding of God's presentation in Christianity but I wanted an excuse to talk about how interesting and terrifying Gozen is as a character concept... I kind of love him as an antagonist despite him being so overpowered.Sorry that this became a bit of a mess towards the end but feel free to add anything to this idea - whether corrections or new ideas!]

This is how optwt is talking about Nico Robin right now. Op is a supposed Robin fan as well btw (she's their literal pfp).....

Imagine trying to say Robin was useless in Egghead (which is what they did) when she was out here throwing hands??

Imagine trying to paint the moment of the coward trio + Brook saving Robin as anything more than a beautiful display of love & an amazing reminder of how much the character's life has changed for the better?

Imagine watching Robin be understandably triggered by Saul getting taken down & calling her a crybaby who needs to "get over it"?? What? The same chapter Saul told her not to do anything btw.

As if Oda isn't consistently realistic with how his characters respond to traumatic events & triggers??

When I say Powerscaling & "Agenda Piece" have rotted the brain, THIS is the exact type of takes I'm talking about. I honestly cannot believe anyone who calls themselves a Robin fan can in good faith say something so ridiculous wrong & mean spirited about the character. It makes no damn sense to me smh. Do you even like her at this point to be saying something so off base? Do you even understand the character & writing?

Oh baby.....

One of my favorite Sanji headcanon's is that he has the best sea legs of the crew, tied w/ Jimbei after he joins. But he also absolutely has the WORST land legs when they make landfall.

I think this because, prior to Kamabakka, the longest period he spent on actual land seems to be starving on a rock with Zeff.

I totally buy that Germa likely had some sort of stabilizing tech on their snails, definitely in medical and engineering areas. You need a measure of stability in your evil laboratory.

But any ocean-going vessel does need to actually move with the sea. Otherwise, it won't move at all. So, I think other areas were less stabilized.

Thus, Sanji went from weird snails that swim the seas, to cruise ship, to trauma rock, to a restaurant ship before joining the Straw Hats. Moving on a ship likely feels more natural to him than on land.

I think he has trained himself to adjust pretty quickly, as a necessity, and also because the Mosshead definitely would call it out. But even still, his first few steps on any island are not as graceful as his usual stride.

Okay, ramble done.

After everything that happened in this arc, I think we can all agree that Fyodor is the BIGGEST Atsushi hater of all time

Some sskk doodles