#also he has a shit ton--must have all of East Blue Mapped | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

problemswithbooks · 7 months

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So, watched live action One Piece and now I'm watching/reading the OG stuff. No where close to done but my brain decided to fixate on Arlong so I can't help but talk about him a bit.

Something that I find kind of interesting about Arlong is that if you read his backstory then go back to the main Arc he was in you actually realize he's way more mellow then he was in the past. Now, he's still awful but given what we're shown of him in Jinbe's flashbacks I think it kind of shows that he did, in a weird way (and not in the way Fisher Tiger would have wanted) changed due to Fisher Tiger's words on not killing humans.

In the past Arlong was constantly advocating for killing humans and terrorizing them so they'd learn their place. He never warms up to Koala despite the rest of the crew--including his own friends coming to like her. Everyone is sad to see her go even Kurobi who is later one of the worst in Arlong's crew.

After Fisher Tiger's Death it's clear Arlong was going to kill everyone in Koala's village (and no doubt would have killed Koala). He was stopped and put in Impel Down--a notoriously hellish prison (run by humans). It's not clear how long he was there, but probably at least a few months, which is a long time in a place like that.

After his pardon he leaves Jinbe and the Grand Line. Presumably he started taking over villages pretty soon after.

Now, what I find interesting is that this is by far the most justified Arlong is in his hate of humans, yet it's also the nicest we ever see him being to them. Before Fisher Tiger's death and reveal of being a slave, or his time in Impel Down Arlong hated humans because of things that although affected him were not things he himself suffered.

Arlong was never a slave, and at least Hachi, Chew and Kurobi were also never slaves. They were all orphans and this might have been the fault of human pirates who attacked Fish-Men Island, but we don't know that for sure, and it's never brought up as a grievance of theirs. They know Fish-men and mermaids are taken as slaves and they surely get racist treatment from the visiting humans, but they don't have first hand experience with human cruelty--like slavery or murder.

Not until Fisher Tiger is killed for helping a human girl go home after being a slave do they experience real loss due to humans. From there, Arlong is captured and imprisoned in Impel Down where he was surely treated terrible by humans during his time there (given they treat everyone bad there). Yet, despite saying he's the anger of the fish-men he does not actually kill nearly as many humans as you'd think, given how he acts in the past.

In fact in a lot of ways he seems to try not to kill humans if he can get away with other methods of control instead.

This is when he takes over Nami's village. This is not long after Fisher Tiger's death which Arlong wanted to kill an entire village for. Yet, now, despite a huge uprising happening, with nearly the entire village of humans trying to attack them, he's not going for the kill.

This is him probably less then a year before the panel above. He's furious and saying he embodies the rage of all Fish-Men. Yet he arrives to the village and tells his crew not to kill anyone despite their open hostility.

Yes, he wants money because he (supposedly) wants to take over the East Blue(world?) but he's already got his money and killing a few villagers should be no big deal--he plans on taking over more anyway.

In the end though, he does only kill Bell-mere due to her lack of money. She makes a good example, of course, but he was more then willing to let her live, despite her shoving a gun in his mouth before she used the money for Nami and her sister.

This is a huge change in a short amount of time.

This is another time he and his crew don't kill for zero reason. They have been attacked all day by members of Luffy's crew. Zoro absolutely beat the shit out of his guys earlier that day. He was furious when Usopp dared to fire on him (to the point of flipping a damn house) but now they just leave two strangers (so not cash cows) alive? Usopp--was worth Arlong's anger, but suddenly two other random humans doing the same thing aren't worth killing?

This is how he responds to Zoro being what I would assume is racist given what Arlong says. He does not know who this guy is--Zoro was found tied to a boat and just brought to him and his first words are racist. Yet, Arlong lets it 'slide once'. Again this is the guy who hit a child for no reason except she was human way before he lost Fisher Tiger or went to the human torture prison. Yet now he's putting up with a stranger calling him racist names?

Going back to Usopp, this is how furious Arlong was when he was attacked:

He's so furious that for a moment he's willing to destroy one of his money making villages, right after losing one not to long ago, just to kill one human guy who didn't actually hurt him, nor are they a rebelling villager.

Yet this is how he acts once Usopp gets caught.

This is after he comes back to Arlong Park to find most of his crew beaten to a pulp by Zoro. He flipped a house he was so pissed off at Usopp, ready to destroy an entire village that he gets good money from (and which he needs to keep Nami around) but suddenly after his crew is hurt he's not in the mood for killing Usopp ASAP?!

Also, he was only in Nami's village because he saw Genzo had a weapon. He thought the village was going to rebel like the last one and he wanted to nip it in the bud and kill Genzo before it got to far. That was the only reason he was there and yet, after Usopp makes him absolutely furious he and Kurobi leave Genzo alive.

Flashback Arlong, who was barely held back by Fisher Tiger would never have left any of these humans alive. They were in his eyes disrespectful, not fearing him like he wants, and most did not give him money--the only benefit he sees to keeping humans around. Yet, he lets all of them live--maybe he has plans to kill them later, but again, past Arlong would kill them ASAP.

I know that the most likely reason for this is because Oda didn't have everything with Arlong and Jinbe's past in his brain at this point (there's ten years or more between these parts in the story). Not only that he can't have important people like Usopp and Zoro being killed off. He also seemed less willing to kill characters off in the start of the manga, which is why Genzo and Zoro's friends lived (killing Genzo would also have been way to mean to Nami).

But from an in character perspective you could see this as Arlong being affected by Fisher Tiger's words of not killing humans. No, he can't fully follow that rule, let alone Fisher Tiger's orders to not treat humans badly. Arlong has hated humans for far to long, and he was barely managing to restrain himself for Fisher Tiger despite respecting/caring for the man with his whole heart.

He can't not kill humans or treat them like crap--but he can come up with excuses that limit how many he kills. A 'well, if they pay me, they can live', or a 'they're to weak to kill so I won't', or 'I'll give this guy a warning for insulting me before I kill him'.

He lets his crew drag him away from Nami's village because he doesn't really want to destroy it (for monetary gain not kindness obviously). Kurobi doesn't kill Genzo because he wasn't told to so he lets him off, despite that being the only reason they came in the first place (despite defiantly knowing killing him wouldn't get him in trouble and is Arlong's intention). That gives Arlong time to calm down and by the time Usopp is caught he's more willing to take the time to ask him what he's doing there and then let Nami deal with him.

Part of it might also be Arlong knowing Jinbe will come kick his ass as soon as he finds out he's been killing/terrifying humans. He can bribe the Marines, but only to a point. If he was slaughtering every human that looked at him wrong or said something racist he'd be to much of a threat for higher-up the Marines to ignore. Eventually they'd tell Jinbe to deal with him and Jinbe would. Arlong would know that and given he was beaten easily by Jinbe he also knows he'd lose immediately (and either be killed or sent back to Impel Down).

Either way, he's showing some restraint even though he doesn't have someone like Fisher Tiger, or Jinbe directly telling him to. For whatever reason Arlong is way more willing to keep humans alive if he can come up with an excuse for it. Which I find kind of fascinating and adds some depth to his character that I don't think was necessarily intentional, but is the strength of the writing that Oda was able to add something years down the line that somehow didn't conflict with what's already established.

#one peice #arlong #Jinbe #i just find him neat #is this a meta?#i might also give my thoughts about why he liked Nami so much #yes he treats her like crap and he (supposedly) needs her maps #but he would not be seen with Koala at all #he is not in any of the panels of her bonding with the crew even in the background #yet he throws parties when Nami comes back?#after he outright says she's tried to off him multiple times #he even defends her loyalty to the crew--SHE TIRED TO KILL YOU MULTIPLE TIMES!#but he fucking trusts her?!#are you kidding me!#also he hates Koala pre-Tiger's death but accepts Nami and fights tooth and nail to keep her around #again maps are important but really? he can't find anyone else to make maps? can't have someone on the crew learn how to make maps?#also he has a shit ton--must have all of East Blue Mapped #which is kind of why I say he supposedly wanted to conquer East Blue (the world)#it's been 8 years and he only has 20 villages #sorry but dude isn't trying at all #plus he knows he can't beat Jinbe or the Grand Line Marines #so i think he's just saying shit to feel better #probably would have sit on his ass in Arlong Park until he died of old age #Ends up being a slightly more evil Walt Disney with his knock off amusement park for his 30+ year-old fish-men friends #fucking love this dude; he's pathetic

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

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of galadriel and celeborn

“special thanks to vardasvapors for helping me put off deciding whether to read lotr or the hobbit first”

The very first sentence begins, “There is no part of the history of Middle-earth more full of problems than the story of Galadriel and Celeborn.” There is also no elf more full of problems than Galadriel, so this is fitting. We’re off to a tremendous start! The problems Chris is having, though, are mostly historical inconsistencies.

...And these are the kind of inconsistencies that require a map. Lemme dig one up. All right I’m patching together 3 different maps in my head, this legendarium is Impossible. Originally Tolkien was thinking Celeborn was one of the Teleri who never went west in the first place (although, given that Cuivienen was a long way east of Lorien, he still went a LITTLE west), and had always lived in Lorien--east across both the Blue Mountains and the Misty Mountains from Beleriand. Then Galadriel hiked over two mountain ranges, just for funsies, and met a bunch more elfs there. However, in one of the appendices it says he lived in Lindon, which I think is just on the Beleriand side of the Blue Mountains.

In any case, the reason that she remained in Middle Earth after the big old war with Melkor was that “at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so." wow she truly is the greatest of the elves. The ban is because she was “one of the chief actors in the rebellion.” Like, was she? Did she convince a ton of people to come with her, all for the purpose of ruining Feanor’s life? I love her an unimaginable amount. Oh to be fair though “she longed to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.” She has always been kind of into dominating other people?

She really would make a fantastic nemesis for Morgoth; each of them trying to conquer more of the disputed lands and rule over everyone. Risk: Belerian Edition! I was considering her against some other elves who would make fun servants of Melkor, but she would never serve anyone, literally ever. If she got captured by Morgoth and he tried to break her mind she would just blow up his entire castle, killing everyone within half a mile. Is that something she can do? I know Luthien can do that, but Luthien is half-god so I dunno.

Back to the actual text: Chris is talking about Galadriel’s lover, Teleporno (Celeborn in Sindarin). This is the most unfortunate name had by any elf. Teleporno! They invented phone sex so Galadriel could run around far away from him and not get sexually frustrated! Another version of the story says that he lived in Alqualonde and was her first or second cousin. They built a ship together and after the destruction of Alqualonde they set sail by themselves, wanting to escape from the horror of their ruined city, but were Banned anyway. Banned! Banned! You’re all banned! None of you are free from sin! But this version of the story is pretty non-canon since it contradicts a bunch of actual published materials. Tolkien just wanted to make a point about how extremely separate from Feanor she is. Possibly he was being threatened by Galadriel to make this point.

Yet ANOTHER version is that they were still second cousins but they met in Doriath and lived there basically the entire first age, which doesn’t sound very Galadriel to me. Anyway in this version Galadriel and Celeborn hang out in northwestern Middle Earth for a while in the second age and then move to Eregion just west of the Misty Mountains for the purpose of thwarting Sauron. It says she might have chosen that place because she was pals with the dwarves of Khazad-dum (although Celeborn apparently blamed them for what the Nogrod dwarves had done to Doriath, because he was a racist fool). This is cute, I love to imagine that she has travelled all over the world and made friends with many different kinds of people. It’s interesting trying to imagine Galadriel being a guest anywhere except with her kin--she doesn’t like not having power like that. Must one assume that the people she visited were subservient enough to satisfy her pride? Ugh where’s my fanfiction of Galadriel travelling the world and having a personal crisis whenever she has to be humble. She needs to learn to play it like Teru and be The Most Gracious, Not That It’s A Competition. Her perfect etiquette gives her power. I dunno.

She looked upon the Dwarves also with the eye of a commander, seeing in them the finest warriors to pit against the Orcs.

Oh.

Moreover Galadriel was a Noldo, and she had a natural sympathy with their minds and their passionate love of crafts of hand, a sympathy much greater than that found among many of the Eldar: the Dwarves were "the Children of Aulë," and Galadriel, like others of the Noldor, had been a pupil of Aulë and Yavanna in Valinor.

Mm... okay.

Now we hear about Celebrimbor, who lived in Eregion with our heroes. He LOVED crafting so so so much and he was dating a dwarf (Narvi), really ahead of the times. They basically carved a heart with their initials in it on the west gate of Moria:

I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Eregion drew these signs.

Cute... It says both kingdoms grew greater together than they would have apart, this is so so good. I’m a little concerned though, why they ever left...

Ah! It’s because Sauron taught a bunch of Eregion elves The Deep Craft Lore and convinced them to stage a coup against Galadriel’s family. She took her kids Amroth and Celebrian through Moria (to the other side of the mountains I think?) but Celeborn was too racist and stayed in Eregion. Because he wasn’t a threat and no-one cared about him. So Sauron hung out convincing the masonic smiths guild of Eregion to make him rings of power, and when Celebrimbor found out that it was actually for BAD REASONS he was SHOCKED and went to Galadriel for advice.

She told him to hide the three elven rings, and he gave her one, the water ring. It made her gay for the sea though, so she was a little sad. This was a Curse I guess. Oh shit this next part is good! Sauron makes war on Eregion, and although Gil-Galad sends Elrond to aid them they don’t quite get there in time; Celebrimbor makes a Famous Last Stand on the steps of the smiths guild that’s about to be ransacked for its magical treasure. He was probably expecting to die, but instead he is taken captive and tortured to find out where the seven rings and the three rings are. Then, disappointingly, Sauron puts him to death. This isn’t like in my fanfictions. WOW he does, uh, use Celebrimbor’s mutilated body as his standard while fighting Elrond’s forces though. Hell of a thing.

Elrond’s people withdrew to Imladris; the Lorinand elves and their dwarvish allies withdrew through Moria, which meant Sauron had a grudge against the Moria dwarves Forever. He’s so petty. Anyway then he marches to the coast to fuck with Gil-Galad’s fortress at Lindon. Blah blah war murders and the Numenoreans come to kick Sauron’s ass. The siege of Imladris is broken, Sauron retreats to Mordor with his tail between his legs. Galadriel, infected by Nenya with the seagays, moves to the coast until circumstances far later force her to return.

#next time: amroth and nimrodel #silm

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