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roydeezed · 1 year

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Luffy's defining characteristic is his deep empathy in the context of his desire for freedom

Wordy title? Yeah. But it expresses the point I want to get to pretty succinctly. I saw a post the other day that said Luffy was selfish. I don't know how I feel about that. I really don't think he is that selfish. Yeah, he's selfish about meat and having fun. But I don't think that's his defining characteristic. It feels like an uncharitable read of him that doesn't take into account his worldview that everyone deserves freedom. Though that reblog about him being lonely is an amazing catch. I'm glad someone else caught that moment in the flashback cause I thought I was going crazy thinking Luffy had a deep trauma relating to his loneliness.

I think there's a lot to talk about there, including a theory as to Luffy's core motivations which involves Impel Down, Incarceration and forced labour of some sort but we'll get to that later down this post. I normally don't like arguing or refuting people's takes, which is why I didn't do this through a reblog, but thinking about why that take sat wrong with me helped me to reconcile Shank's whole persona, prompting me to make this post. But to do that, me, as the authour of this post, and you, as the reader, need to get on the same page about my long held beliefs on Luffy's defining charecteristic and motivation. And I'll go into that below the "Keep reading".

To start off with, we need to establish some common ground. First, let's start off with something quite simple to accept. And that's the fact that Luffy is kind. He will fight for the weak and hates seeing injustice. One of my favourite early stories is the Orange Town arc and the bond Luffy forms with Chouchou.

He understands people's(also read as animal's when applicable) emotions and gets upset when they're mistreated. So much so that he fights on behalf of people that can't fight for themselves. But only after they've resolved to fight. After Chochou loses to Mohji and Richie, Luffy fights them.

After Luffy defeats them, we get a soft moment between the two of them where he acknowledges Chouchou's effort, his love and his treasure. It chokes me up everytime but it's such a great distillation of Luffy's character.

This is why the label of selfish, even in the context that he selfishly wants to be nice, falls so flat for me. Luffy cares for people. He understands people(and once again, read as animals when applicable, it's just not as punchy you know what I mean?). He goes out of his way to care for them. Luffy has such a great emotional intelligence that he's able to understand when people are hurt, what's holding them back, and when they lie to themselves. For example, Sanji's dream was to go to the All Blue, but due to his obligation to Baratie, he couldn't leave. So what does Luffy do?

He destroys the physical metaphor for the mental block his friend has, not only to remind him that Baratie is just as much the people as the place, including Sanji himself, but also to unanchor him from the spot he's been rooted in so long, both physically and mentally. Oda does this time and time again, beautifully melding emotional concepts with their physical manifestations.

But Luffy understands one more thing. He can't fight these battles for them. He can show them the way. He can destroy things if it will help them come to a certain conclusion. But he won't make the decision for them. Because they need to do that themselves. They need to choose to fight. They need to choose to change. It's the most important thing to him. Not only the freedom to be unmoored from restrictions. But the freedom to choose either life. It's why he doesn't fight on their behalf until they ask him to.

He'll stop them from hurting themselves.

And he'll admit how much less he knows than them. About how little right he has to make a decision for them.

And he'll wait for them to make the decision. To ask for help.

Unlike animals, who he chooses to help when they choose to fight, for people he needs to hear it from their mouths. And then he seeks to understand the best way to help them. This is not the act of someone who is selfish. This is someone who respects choice and the dignity of being able to choose.

With Nami, once he understood what trapped her, her obligation to her people, the years of work she's done as a navigator, and all that Arlong was, Luffy set out to free her one by one.

Her obligation, and all that Arlong has done, Luffy could erase with beating Arlong. But her years of servitude, the crushing weight of incarceration? The feeling that comes with being used?

The only way Luffy could get rid of that was to destroy the place that kept her prisoner.

One Piece has very consistent and solid themes about how institutions, when granted power by the threat of violence, subjugates and restricts the freedom of the citizens it was meant to aid. We see that with the World Government, and places like Impel Down. On a smaller level, Oda shows us this threat through people like Arlong. They become like institutions and every action they take becomes one of restriction. Very rightfully, Oda shows that incarceration is one of the most dehumanising and soul shattering things that can be done to someone. The very place of Incarceration holds a power over the incarcerated. I'm sure if distilled enough, those statements can be ground up into something pithy enough to be an overarching theme, but I'm trying to make a point here so let's stick with my unwieldy lingo. Besides we all know if One Piece had a theme, it would be that Afro Power trumps all. I mean look at Brook, my guy survived dying. Also, Gaimon and Yasuie both had afros... We'll put a pin in this. But this is important. Back to the main point. Objects and places serve as anchors, the equivalent of handcuffs on a prisoner. That's why Luffy does this.

And this.

We see in Nami's reaction how much this all means to her. Her overwhelmed look as Luffy frees her from the weight and hold Arlong Park had on her.

These are the actions of a fundamentally kind person. One who believes that everyone deserves to be free. One who has the empathy to realize that it's a hard choice to pursue. And one who will unselfishly do his best to make it so that those that do choose to ask for help, get it. One who seeks to understand the pain of other's and how best to help them. The reason we see him choose to help people is because they've chosen to ask for help first.

Luffy understands that everyone deserves the dignity of freedom. Or more accurately, everyone deserves to be at a place where they can choose their future. It's why he doesn't begrudge Dragon or anyone for what they choose. Luffy also waits for people to ask for help because what good would freedom be if you weren't free to make the choice to pursue it. A forced decision isn't freedom to him. That's how deep his empathy runs. And that's how all encompassing his definition of freedom is. And it's the combination of this deep well of empathy and dream of freedom that drives and defines Luffy. My boy's wicked smaht(emotionally).

That's the face of someone who cares about others. The words of someone who cares about other. Unselfishly.

That was just one instance out of many where Luffy followed this pattern. Oda is amazing at cyclical storytelling, so much so that in the twenty year plus lifespan of One Piece I believe he has created his own tropes. And that cyclical storytelling is such a powerful engine of thematic storytelling, in so many different ways, that it's hard to get into here. But the general gist is that he repeats ideas that are important. Let's take a look at this pattern of deep empathy with another Best Girl, Robin.

We see here that Luffy comes to an understanding of what needs to happen first. It plays out in a different order but the beats are the same. And they all show his empathy.

He destroys her shackles first. He lets her know that as long as she's with them, she'll never have to fear the World Government.

And here's the most concrete example of his empathy. He needs to hear the words from her lips. He needs her to make the choice. And he gets her to the point where she's free to make that choice. The control the years of abuse and loneliness have on her is so intense that she doesn't even think she's allowed to wish for this, much less say it.

(I've stopped to cry multiple times while making this. Oda has a straight line to my tear ducts. Thank Nika I'm not talking about Fisher Tiger as well) At the end of it all, one must choose to live before being free. Up until this point. Up until learning the massive weight that Robin carries, Luffy was chasing after a friend. After learning of her struggles, he realizes that he needs to help her. And he got her to the point where she could ask for help.

I hope that, through actual textual evidence, I've demonstrated what I think Luffy's core characteristic, his empathy, and core motivation, his dream of freedom, are. Now we get into some of the more speculative points that build off of this foundation. We'll start with my take on Luffy's past and then explain what all of this showed me about Shanks.

This is going to be pretty quick. First of all, the following paragraph contain some SPOILERS up to CHAPTER 1080. Oda has time and time again made it a point to highlight a plot point of characters having to forcefully work in solitude, isolated from friends. Hell, he even made an entire arc about it that resulted in our hero only escaping because of his friends. And bringing up that cyclical storytelling, we've seen arcs and moments repeat. But here's two things we haven't seen yet. An Impel Down like arc and a giant flashback like the ASL flashback. And with Garp being where he is in the story, just like how Ace's death motivated Luffy's first big flashback, if something happens to Garp, we could get a flashback into Luffy's past as we still need to learn of his true dream. And based on that second picture in this post, of Luffy saying lonliness hurts more than physical pain, and Luffy's aversion to lonliness as well as his high tolerance to pain, it makes me believe that his early childhood was truly tragic, something where he was imprisoned alone and forced to work on things for his captors. Also the way he gets rid of obligations people think they have makes me feel like whatever thing he may have been forced to do, he might've felt an obligation to carry it out. If that does turn out to be the case, it would just go to show how well Luffy is characterized.

Next, talking about Shanks, I feel like Shanks has been such an enigma to me. Both in his actions and his buddy buddy relationship with the Gorosei. It wasn't until thinking about his most recent actions in the context of Luffy's desire of freedom, and how Luffy likes to get people to a place of equality where they're free to make their own choices, that it clicked for me. Shanks is in a way a reflection of Luffy. Or more likely he taught Luffy the concept of the freedom to choose and the equality in reaching that choice. Because Shanks is about equality. Maybe in the way that his desire is freedom for all but I'm not sure about that yet. More than anything, Shanks wants things to be fair. Equal. Actual Justice in a world of twisted renditions. He's a reflection of the Admirals as much as he is a reflection of Luffy.

Look at his actions. He wants Luffy to give him the hat back when they're equals. He didn't do a thing to the mountain bandits until they chose violence, letting him play in that realm as equals. Arriving at Marineford and stopping Kaido, it was all about equalizing the playing field. Stopping the navy from poaching the warriors of Wano while the recuperated, also about fairness and equality. And with the most recent example of Kid, he wanted to make sure Kid had recuperated and only attacked when he knew Kid was attacking. I can't tell yet if it comes from kindness. But what I do know is that Shanks is a reflection of Luffy meant to better highlight our boy's sense of empathy and Justice. I feel like Shanks represents what Rayliegh talked about in Sabaody, about how after seeing the One Piece they came to a certain conclusion. One that must have been based on fairness and equality. But I think the One Piece needs Luffy and his empathetic and kind viewpoint to come to a different conclusion, the right one.

If somehow, somebody's read through this whole thing and made it all the way down to the bottom, thanks for reading! And I always love talking about about the stuff I discuss here, especially One Piece so feel free to comment, ask or DM about things.

#one piece #monkey d. luffy #luffy #one piece discussion #manga discussion

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saffronapplemanga · 1 year

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Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch’s Life in Mongol - 天幕のジャードゥーガル

HISTORICAL, DRAMA

Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol by Tomato Soup

(1 volume, ongoing)

JP only. Hopefully, it gets licensed! Please hire me to translate this, publishing companies. The first 5 chapters are up for free in JP here.

Links to my other manga posts here

An Irani girl named Fatima who’s a captive of the Mongol Empire and uses her education to her advantage???

Hello, my name is Fatimah, I’m half Irani, and it’s finally my time >:)

I hope you guys are ready for history and cultural lessons! I worked really hard on this post and she’s a long one... I literally just came back from an Iran trip and got some books, took pictures, and consulted people who know more than me for this post (the trip wasn't for the post, that was a coincidence lolllll).

This series won first place in the オンナ編 (Female Category) for the このマンガがすごい！2023 / Kono Manga ga Sugoi 2023 / “This Manga is Amazing! 2023″ which is a rather prestigious award. I’ve talked about the Male Category’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners (2nd place will have a dedicated post one day), and plan to talk about the Female Category’s 4th and 6th place winners eventually. I guess I have good taste, what can I say? Jk, jk, but check the links if you’re interested :)

This post will be broken up into the following sections - What's It About? - Some Background - Representation - My Localization Choices - Story - Art - Culture Time! - Let's Talk Religion - The First Word From God, "Read".

Enjoy!

What's It About?

I usually don't like to go into plot details too much so you can discover the story for yourself. But since it isn't currently accessible in English at all, I figured I’d summarize the first chapter so you at least know what it’s about. Then I’ll summarize the rest of the chapters in a spoiler section for those who are interested. That way, we can all be informed enough to discuss it. I might touch on themes or other things outside the first chapter in the discussion, but I’ll try to do it in a way that doesn’t spoil for those of you who want to wait and read it for yourselves.

Chapter 1

We kick off with a rather poetic reference to scholars using geometry to measure the earth and the idea of trying to quantify fate. In 13th-century Iran/Persia, in the city of Tous, we meet a family looking for a domestic worker. The family is a woman, Fatima, who is newly widowed, her son, Mohamed, and her brother. A slave trader offers her some options, but they are rather pricey. So he suggests she take a little girl, Sitara, for a heavily discounted price. The slave trader asks Fatima to educate Sitara since they are a scholarly family, so she does.

However, Sitara plays dumb to ensure her value as a slave stays low. That way, no one would bother taking her to faraway lands to sell her for higher prices as she wants to stay close to her home to try and go back. Sitara tries to sneak out and runs into Mohamed, who talks to her about why he thinks learning is so great. He inspires her to pursue an education so she can have the tools to handle whatever life throws at her. Mohamed wants to travel and learn from others to find the "truth" for himself. He promises Sitara that he'll write letters to her and his mother, which further inspires her to learn to read.

The chapter ends with Mohamed leaving Tous, and the narrator tells us it was the last time Mohamed and Sitara ever saw each other.

Chapters 2-5

I'm going to speed through the rest now that we got the setup out of the way.

***SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 2-5***

8 years have passed since Mohamed left and Sitara has been pursuing an education under the direction of Fatima and her brother. While the Tous army is investigating strange activity near their borders, Fatima shows Sitara some things her late husband left behind such as books and astrology tools.

As the Mongols are closing in on Tous, Fatima and Sitara hunker down in a cellar to wait the threat out. Unfortunately, they're found, and one of the Mongol princes takes a book that belonged to Fatima's late husband. Sitara tries to stand up to him, causing her to be attacked. Fatima takes the blow, saying, "Don't touch my daughter," before passing away.

Tous is razed to the ground, and its citizens killed or driven out and forced to march to the Mongol camp. Sitara finds out that the city of Neyshabur, the city Mohamed is studying at, was also attacked. His whereabouts are unknown.

Interestingly, the Mongol prince was specifically looking for the book he took since his fiance had asked him for it. However, the book is in Persian and they are unable to read it. Sitara meets a boy who is interpreting for the Mongols in an effort to make himself more useful to avoid becoming a meat shield in battles for them. While he can speak Mongolian and Persian, he can't read. But, Sitara can. He asks her to team up with him to help each other become more valuable to their capturers. Sitara will read the stolen book, and the boy will translate. He suggests she come up with a more "elegant" or "majestic" name before presenting herself to the Mongol princes. She steps into their tent and introduces herself as "Fatima".

***END OF SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 2-5***

Some Background

Quick disclaimer, I'm by no means an expert. A lot of this is what I know and what I've experienced. I might have to make some generalizations or else we're gonna be here all day.

I feel like I’m about to overshare but I want to offer my perspective on this series. I don’t get to do this often so indulge me please lol. This background is so you have an idea of some things that influenced my perspective on this story.

For those of you new around here, I'm a Kuwaiti/Irani-American, Japanese to English translator (I speak English, Arabic, and Japanese).

What that means more specifically is that I've grown up/lived in America my whole life, visiting Kuwait when we could, until I moved to Japan after college. My parents are both Kuwaiti with Kuwaiti fathers, born and raised, but both of their mothers are Irani. They know Farsi to varying degrees of fluency as a second language. I never learned it since their first language is Arabic and that was the language they focused on teaching me while living in America. They usually spoke Farsi if they wanted to keep me and my brother out of a conversation between adults, rude. But I can sometimes pick up on some things being said. One of my best friends is Irani-American (Her name is also Fatimah! It's a ridiculously popular name) and our experiences are quite different, but there's overlap as well!

For those of you who don't know where Kuwait is. It's a tiny little country in the northern end of the Persian Gulf in Western Asia. FYI "Mina" in "Mina Al Ahmadi," which you can see on the map, means "port".

Most of our Kuwaiti relatives have Irani roots and some Turkish. There are a lot of ethnic groups in Kuwait because it started out as a port city that was a part of the Silk Road network. (I actually wanna study the Silk Road more!) So lots of people from all over gathered there. There are black Kuwaitis, those with blonde hair and blue eyes (my mom's relatives are like this), those with more East Asian features (my cousins), those with darker features (my dad's side), etc.

The Silk Road in the 1st century, courtesy of Wikipedia. You can see the route going through Kuwait. It was specifically part of the Maritime Silk Road route.

Because of all the trade, you can see the influences of many other regions in the food, clothes, language, culture, and so on.

But, yeah! History is cool.

Representation

I am indeed one of those people who is annoyingly passionate about representation. Like, I could write a whole Master’s dissertation on why it’s so important, but I’ll spare you… for now. More eloquent people have already done so anyways.

As you can imagine, I’m not used to seeing myself represented in media. And any representation I did get, was… well, how do I put this… not great? Bad™ actually. Beyond racist tbh. So can you blame me for being excited? I’m still mad about that one episode of Grey’s Anatomy when that girl whipped off her scarf/hijab to save a patient IN A FULLY STOCKED HOSPITAL!!! That would never fucking happen ;_; like imagine if you pulled your pants off to put pressure on a wound when the gauze is literally right there. I CAN’T, where do I even begin??? But I digress.

And even if I wasn’t a person from this culture, it’s just cool to see rep we don’t usually get! For example, Requiem of the Rose King is fresh in my mind right now, but having an intersex main character is not something I recall seeing. While not intersex myself, nor a noble from ye olde times, I related to Richard a lot and appreciate what the story did. I can see people from other cultures relating to Tenmaku no Jadoogar, or simply just learning new things about a culture we don’t get to see a lot of rep about. (I plan to write a follow-up post after I finish the series and talk about the rep in Rose King a bit more.)

My Localization Choices

There are no official spellings for this manga, so some explanations as to why I wrote things the way I did. Thankfully, these are all real-world names with context, so I'm not pulling nonsense out of thin air. Localizing uncommon/made-up names is... hard... traumatic flashbacks to when I had to look up official spellings for Gundam and Kamen Rider and the client didn't give me glossaries... Literally did research about Sypha Belnandes' name localization being all over the place for this blog post. Spoiler, I don’t think it was supposed to be Belnandes.

It really be like that...

Sitara - シタラ "Shitara". This isn't a name I was familiar with, so I asked my mom and Irani-American friend if it sounded like a name they knew. I wanted to say "Sitra" sounds like something that has a more "West Asian pronunciation" than the Japanese pronunciation in the manga. I was wrong and it's "Sitara" which means "star" just like what they said in the story.

Fatima - ファーティマ "Fātima". Same as my name! It's a super popular name. I katakana-fied my name as ファティーマ, which is the same, I just put the dash that elongates the sound in a different place. Why? Fatima is an Arabic name فَاطِمَة. In classical Arabic, it's pronounced like Fā-dtee-ma or Fadt-ma in Kuwaiti Arabic (the letter طِ doesn't exist in EN/JP and the best way I can describe it is it's like D+T sound.) An Irani pronunciation is more like Fā-teh-meh, which is what my grandma and Irani-American friends call me. In English, I personally pronounce my name like Fa-tee-ma, but people have various preferences. So basically, I took the Arabic and English pronunciations and katakana-fied it how I thought it would sound best in Japanese. And no one has ever pronounced my name wrong in Japan since katakana is phonetic and is actually pronounced how it's spelled. Wild I know. Meanwhile in America... *cries* I have a half-Irani-half-Japanese acquaintance who doesn't put any elongated sound in her name like ファティマ, and it's all just preference tbh. There are also different ways you can spell it in English, but "Fatima" is the most common way.

Mohamed - モハンマド "Mohanmado". This one is pretty straightforward. I think most people are familiar with this name. Also super popular. There are various English spellings as well, so I just went with a common, shorter spelling.

The title, 天幕のジャードゥーガル Tenmaku no Jadougal (this is how it's romanized on anilist), also doesn't have an official translation. It basically translates to Witch of the Marquee. Tenmaku="tent/marquee" in Japanese. ジャードゥーガル comes from جادوگر "jadoogar" meaning "witch" in Farsi. The romanization of the title should actually be Tenmaku no Jadoogar. There is no "L" in Japanese, so it often becomes "R". In Japanese, ジャードゥーガル is "Jādoogaru". Without context, it's often hard to tell if it's supposed to be "L" or "R" so I don't blame them for the mistake. But yeah, that's why I wrote it as Tenmaku no Jadoogar for the title at the top of the post. How do I contact the anilist admins about correcting that? Lol. The way my brain is short-circuiting trying to combine Japanese, English, my nonexistent Arabic reading skills since Farsi uses basically the same alphabet, and consulting my Farsi "sources"... my brain can only handle two of the three languages I speak at the same time...

1/7/23 EDIT: I asked anilist to fix the spelling of the title and it's been changed!

Shout out to Fatimah #2 for putting up with all my questions <3 Farsi has some extra letters that aren't in Arabic and I didn't know about that one...

Story

I’m starting to realize that I really dig historical fiction. Things like Requiem of the Rose King (current read, I'm obsessed), Vinland Saga, Bride’s Story (a priority TBR of mine), and Ertugrul (this one is a Turkish drama, highly recommend!) are so fascinating because we get to take a peek at what life used to be like, especially if the author did their homework. This story reminds me of Ertugrul at times since they both take place in West Asia during the 13th century, and the characters in both had run-ins with the Mongols.

This baddie took out three Mongolian soldiers on her own!!! Well, her horse helped. Horses are great. I'm a horse girl, literally took riding lessons for ~4 years.

I found out while researching for this post that this story is in fact based on a real person in history! Here's the Wikipedia page, more info here by Dr. Jack Weatherford who wrote a book that I'm totally going to read once I can get my hands on it. I think this manga is going in a similar vein as Vinland Saga where the events are real historical events, and some characters were actual people in history, but the author is going to take creative liberties. (Check out Merphy Napier and Philip Chase's Vinland Saga discussions. They're great and Philip has a lot of historical knowledge relevant to that series that's super informative!)

The characters are lovable and interesting. I like Sitara's spunk, Mohamed's thoughtfulness, and Fatima's gentle nature, just to name a few. The relationship Sitara has with Mohamed and Fatima was very sweet. I'm interested to see how the relationship that I mentioned at the end of chapter 5 goes. Also intrigued by the bits of relationship dynamics with the Mongolian characters we have so far.

I got super excited when the theme of "learning/education" came up. Seeing how that looked back in 13th-century Persia, which was a hotspot for advances in many fields, is so cool! This story led me to do some research and asking around on topics I was familiar with, but not an expert on, and I learned things about my own culture/religion. More on learning and education later. But overall, a strong start and I can't wait to read more!

Art

My twitter reading thread for this series

The art is very stylized, like a chibi-esque style with Persian art influences. I like the contrast between the simplified shapes and the detailed bits. I’m a big fan of inky blacks and white whites. I know all manga is black and white but this one feels like it has more contrast due to the simplified shapes. It's got tons of charm!

The shoujo-esque flowery background, but make it Irani-flavored✨ It looks like the rug we got in Iran!

Some pictures I took at historical sites in Tehran with more examples of flowery imagery. Sorry if the image quality sucks, I didn't have my good camera :(

Culture Time!

As soon as I saw this cover, I felt a sense of familiarity. Particularly, the style of henna on her hands made me go, “Hey! That’s similar to how we do our henna!” While we also do the mehndi style henna (Is that the right term? Help) in Kuwait because of Indian influences due to longtime trade, we have another kind as well. You take the paste and hold it in your hands while curling your fingertips into it.

I had such a hard time finding pics that weren’t the intricate mehndi design ones. I would’ve just put henna on my own hands and taken a pic to show what I’m talking about, but it’s winter and it’s not good to use henna in winter because it has a cooling effect. I put henna on in winter once, and it made me so much colder. But makes you feel nice and cool in the summer! That’s why it’s traditionally applied to the head, hands, and feet, which are places you have a lot of heat dissipate from and it saps the heat away. I remember my mom doing that for me and my brother all the time when we were little during summer.

But! With the help of my mom, she helped me narrow it down. I didn't know the actual name of this style of henna. I just called it Kuwaiti-style henna lol. Apparently, it's حنه قصعة henna gasa'a, and bingo!

It doesn't show super well here, but the tops of the fingertips are also dyed like on the cover of the manga. Love that nazar ring though, so cute! 🧿

This is the mehndi style henna that people are most familiar with.

When I was little, I assumed that henna was made from soil because there are soils that can dye things a reddish color. But it's actually from a plant! The leaves are ground into a powder and then made into a paste when you want to use it.

Health, cleanliness, and hygiene are big deals in Islam. Other than being used for beauty and it’s cooling effect, henna is also used to keep oneself clean and smelling nice. It’s said that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) utilized henna as well.

I actually didn't know much about Iran's henna culture. When I asked my Irani-American friend whose family is from Tehran (northern Iran), she said she wasn't familiar with any. But like Kuwait, Iran has a lot of ethnic groups. It's also a large region (it used to be a whole empire and all that, too), so there are definitely people who do use it!

Turkmen Iranis, dying their fingertips with henna, exactly like in the manga! My family are Turk, too! (From a book I picked up a few days ago in Iran, "Nomads: Migrating with Swallows". What a pretty title...)

The clothing of the characters also felt very familiar. The cover of volume one reminded me of this picture:

Maku Kurd girl ("Nomads: Migrating with Swallows")

Iran grows tons of fruit, herbs, and flowers, famously roses! Rose water is a staple we pretty much always had at home.

Rose water is used for medicinal purposes and has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities. People often wash up with it since it has a lovely fragrance and makes you smell nice. It's also used in foods and desserts or added to drinking water for flavor and health benefits.

Sitara bringing Fatima rose water. It looks just like this 12th-century rose water container. We still have containers like this nowadays and I actually used one to wash my hands recently.

Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Water Granita With Rice Noodles), Bastani Sonati (Saffron and Rose Water Ice Cream), in Kuwait we say Sharbat Nimil but apparently, it's Tokhm-e Sharbatie in Iran (Rose Water and Basil Seed Drink) Fun fact: Sharbat Nimil means "ant drink" because the seeds look like... ants... and the thought freaked me out as a kid, I never wanted to drink it. I thought my aunt was messing with me but my parents said, "Yeah, no, that's actually what it's called."

Dates! Another staple. Always have some in the house.

These are ripe dates. We call them "tamar". Sweet, delicious, amazing.

These are fresh dates! We call them "khalal". Sweet, crunchy, amazing.

The architecture was also, you guessed it, familiar as well. Particularly the courtyards! It really took me back.

Courtyards! My Irani grandma (also Fatima, I told you it was a popular name...) had a courtyard home in Kuwait too, but less fancy, and she had a huge date tree instead of a fountain. We would play there all the time when we visited. Also reminds me of the houses in some of the Irani movies I've seen.

Let's Talk Religion

I know religion is historically always a fun and totally not divisive topic, but we're all going to be civil and discuss stuff like adults. I'm not trying to convert anyone, I swear. Chasing after people and forcing religion down their throats is actually frowned upon in Islam believe it or not. I’m also not saying it’s a better religion than others or anything of the sort so don’t come for me. It's just relevant to the story and I'm hoping we can interact in good faith, so let's talk.

I am NOT a scholar, this is just what I know and my understanding so please don't quote me. I probably have to gloss over and simplify a lot because there's... too much.

There are various interpretations of Islam. The Quran, to my understanding, is meant to have its interpretations evolve over time to address the issues of people no matter the time or place. Issues faced centuries ago might not be as pressing now, or we might have new issues today that weren't a thing back in the day. Iranians mainly practice Shia Islam, which is also the sect I know most about so that's what we're focusing on.

Islam is the fastest-growing religion. It's also quite misunderstood due to hate/misinformation, AND — I'm gonna just say it, there are Muslims who have skewed interpretations of Islam's teachings. Am I the perfect Muslim and my interpretations are law? I didn't say that, obviously not. But I'm going to call it how I see it. I don't take sides and I'm not going to defend someone just because they identify as Muslim if they're doing stuff that doesn't make sense (that would be un-Islamic and just... dumb imo). But anyways, there are a few points I’d like to touch on so we all have a base understanding.

Many people think that Allah (SWT) is “the Muslim god” but actually, he’s the same god that brought down the Bible and Torah. He's just... God. This is why you’ll see a lot of crossover between these religions. And Christian Arabs, for example, say Allah because that’s just God in Arabic.

Why did God come up with different religions? It’s my understanding each religion was what the people needed at the time. (Also because of the next point)

Muslims DO believe in the original Bible and Torah, but historically there's evidence that these books have been altered by people over the years. (Again, I'm not saying your religion is wrong if you're Christian or Jewish. You do you.) Then what about the Quran? I’ll actually address that later.

Muslims DO believe in Jesus. We just think he's a prophet instead of the son of God or God.

Cool? Cool.

Now to address some religion-related things that came up in the story.

The part where there is the selling of slaves made me raise an eyebrow since slavery is not allowed in Islam, because, duh.

I did some research and asked around. I was able to talk to my Irani-American friend's aunt when I visited them during my Iran trip last week since she's studied this kind of stuff. She joked that I should save myself the trouble and not touch the slavery topic, especially with Americans since it's... like... a super touchy topic. But this is an important topic and we should talk about important topics instead of shying away from them — respectfully, of course. And maybe we can all learn something. It was a perspective on slavery that was very different from what I'm used to hearing about in America. She essentially confirmed what I was thinking.

The Quran envisions the ideal society as one in which slavery no longer exists. Since slavery was such a widespread issue around the whole world back in the olden days, (it still is an issue today, but I'm assuming it was worse back then) it was unfortunately unrealistic to try and abolish it in one fell swoop. Again, this isn’t just abolishing in one country or region, but tackling the issue worldwide. So, in Islam, the idea is that there are steps in place to phase it out. For example:

No free people can be enslaved, duh.

People cannot be enslaved due to debt or crime.

You are encouraged to help slaves buy their way to freedom by giving them money to do so or buying them to free them.

If you are in possession of a slave, you should free them.

If you house a slave, you must treat them well.

This last one is just an interesting thing I didn’t know about that I saw in my research and it came up in the story — Slaves get half the punishment for a sin than if the same sin was committed by a free person.

I wondered why then, did Fatima's family, not free Sitara and the other slaves? It didn’t look like they had anything stopping them from running away either. Sure, Sitara got scolded by another slave for trying to leave, but she could have tried again and run away. The other slaves in the story seemed like they wanted to/were okay with staying, even though they did wish they could go home and felt homesick. So what’s up?

It's my understanding that back then, it was common for people to take slaves into their families, offer shelter and educate them. It was a way to take them off the streets, away from the slave traders, and keep them safe.

Why not just take everyone back to their homes? Various reasons. They might be in danger if they try to go back. They might not have anywhere to go back to. Also, this was the 13th century. It's not like they could just hop on a plane and go home. There's also no law enforcement the way we have today. Hell, even with all the local and international law enforcement of today, slavery is still a major issue.

Sitara wants to go home but has no home to go back to.

Is this ideal? As I mentioned, ideally slavery wouldn't even be a thing. I’m pretty sure we can all agree slavery=bad. I'm not here to argue that. But I also think it's important to try and understand what things were like back then and why people did what they did. A lot of times I see people measure things with their standards that were developed in modern day, with their own life experience. You need to be careful when doing that. I'm sure in the future, people will look back at us like, "Damn, y'all lived like that???"

Perhaps, this was the best the average person could do. Try to protect them and offer them shelter and an education. As long as we don’t live in an ideal world, we need to consider various solutions to issues. So this was an interesting way to try and tackle the issue given the time and circumstances. It’s rather different from what I think most Americans know about this subject.

Did everyone do this? I'm going to say probably not. Terrible people always exist. Plus there are plenty of people who say they practice a religion, but cherry-pick what they want to follow, do the opposite, have distorted understandings of its teachings, or just downright weaponize religion to suit them. That's a whole other discussion though, so I'll leave it there.

I would like to read more about this topic though, so if anyone knows any sources, let me know!

The First Word From God - "Read"

"Slave or not, it is a Muslim's duty to seek knowledge, as stated in the hadiths."

What's a hadith? Here you go. Also, this is the OG Fatima, Lady Fatima (PBUH).

When God first sent the angel Gabriel down to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his first word to him was, "read". Education and seeking knowledge are SUPER important in Islam, and should not be kept from anyone regardless of race, gender, etc. Seeking knowledge will make you a more rational, well-rounded person. Knowledge in this context is broad and all-encompassing. It doesn't only mean religion, math, and science, but philosophy, art, and so on. Literally anything. I hope I don't really need to convince anyone that education is a human right and empowering and all that stuff, so let's keep it moving.

"Isn't that what learning is all about?"

To address this earlier point:

Muslims DO believe in the original Bible and Torah, but historically there's evidence that these books have been altered by people over the years. Then what about the Quran?

Tbh, I hesitated to include this part because people might misinterpret or take offense. To reiterate for the umpteenth time, I'm not saying your religion is wrong if you're Christian or Jewish. You do you. We’re actually told to respect believers of these religions. I swear!

So, yeah. Moving on.

Another reason seeking knowledge is an obligation in Islam is so that you are able to read the Quran for yourself. When loads of people read it, memorize it, and are familiar with it, any changes will not go unnoticed. This is to stop people from weaponizing and distorting the Quran's teachings. And this is why there is only ONE Quran, and not multiple versions (I’m not talking about translated Qurans).

In general, having knowledge about things makes you less susceptible to being lied to or misled, regardless of the topic. Unfortunately, I'm in the camp where I believe not enough people do their own research and reading. And again, I don't just mean religion, but everything. That kind of thing takes effort, and effort is hard.

Go read!

You're Still Here?

Like the first-place winner for the Male Category, The Summer Hikaru Died, which I’ve been pushing on anyone who will listen since volume one hit bookstores in Japan, Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol deserves to win the Female Category. From what I can see so far, it’s well researched and written with love. I'm looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds and I may add more thoughts as we go.

Volume 2 is due to come out February 16th, so I’ll be tweeting my thoughts on my reading thread. The link to this post is on Twitter here if you want to share it there. EDIT: Volume 2 post is up!

If there's anything else you'd like to see me discuss or expand on, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'd love to hear what others think!

I await your email publishers, my resume is ready... [email protected]

🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿🪬🧿

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If there’s any Japanese-only manga you want me to check out, let me know! No promises, I’ll only read what I’m interested in, but I’ll take suggestions into consideration. Preferably, shorter manga or newer manga with a few volumes out since I like to take breaks from longer series I’m reading :)

#天幕のジャードゥーガル #Tenmaku no Jadougal #A Witch’s Life in Mongol #manga recs #manga #漫画 #おすすめ #Tenmaku no Jadoogar #manga recommendation #kono manga ga sugoi #このマンガがすごい #manga discussion #shoujosei #josei #josei manga

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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For the life of me I can't remember the name of the person I saw that pointed this out (I'm sorry!), but it's a fun little piece that really reminds me of the differences in English and Japanese as a language. Asa using the Kanji for 'die', while Denji only uses the hiragana for it. It's a really great throwaway piece that gives Denji an impressive amount of character, and makes full use of the written medium. I might just end up grabbing a full Japanese set because of stuff like this.

#chainsaw man #csm #chainsaw man manga #manga discussion #manga #csm mitaka #asa mitaka #denji manga

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renjihoe · 11 months

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Yukino’s Star Dress (Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest Spoiler - Chapter 134)

Calling Yukino’s Star Dress an invalidation to Lucy’s power is crazy. I was surprised she didn’t have it to begin with and now she does, here comes all the boohooers. We get it y’all love Lucy but why can’t they both be strong?? Calling Yukino’s Star Dress poor writing because it was thrown in there random as if Lucy’s Star Dress wasn’t ALSO random asf (minus Aquarius form). Yukino has always been a more skilled celestial than Lucy and that is a fact (coming from a Lucy lover) because she’s been a mage longer. Just say you don’t like someone stealing the spotlight from Lucy. Again they are BOTH strong and BOTH have an amazing and powerful magic power up, so let it go. Let’s just appreciate two badass Celestials slaying instead of putting one down just to praise another 🙄

#fairy tail #fairy tail 100 years quest #fairy tail anime #fairy tail manga #fairy tail spoilers #fairy tail lucy #fairy tail yukino #lucy heartfilia #yukino #yukino aguria #anime and manga #manga discussion #unpopular opinion #anime rant #rants and ramblings

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missdeepend · 11 months

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Gray Fullbuster is the Weakest Link Currently

THIS WILL HAVE SPOILERS FOR 100 YEAR QUEST!

I know what you are all saying, what about Happy and Carla? I am not counting the two cats, and I truly do wish those two would get a decent power up at some point. I am counting this on the fact of team Natsu characters, which include; Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, Wendy Marvell, Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, Happy and Carla. As I stated before the last two I am not counting, but the other five are all up for discussion.

AGAIN THERE ARE GOING TO BE SPOILERS BEFORE!

In terms of the group as a whole, they all have their greatest strengths and weaknesses, but there is one who sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the group. Gray Fullbuster. Not only does this go down to his magic and the difference in strength as of recent (I’ll get to later), but this also goes down to overall plot relevance even with the 400 year connection. Each of the main set of the other characters have a set connection to 400 years in the past and the dragons, except Gray. I find this funny and it doesn’t really mean much but it is a detail I wanted to point out. Even Erza has a connection to Irene and was technically conceived all the way during the war. Then you have Natsu and Wendy who are obvious and Lucy with her connection to her ancestor and her mother who opened the Eclipse Gate. Gray has no connection, which I find unfortunate but there is not much that needs to be discussed there. On the other hand, there is the power difference and the plot relevance as of currently which is t he biggest hinderance to his character. I always adored Gray’s character from the beginning and felt sympathy for his character. His history with Lyon was always interesting and the pain he felt when he saw the old Ultear is still one of the harder scenes for me. His potential grew even more when we discovered who his father was and he gained the Devil Slaying Magic, meant to kill E.N.D who we found out was none other than Natsu, his best friend whether he would want to admit it or not. However, it is safe to say that as a character Gray has not grown at all since the 100 year quest began. The only thing that seemed to grow is his bond with Juvia (which is another issue I’ll discuss in the future). Its upsetting as there was so much potential for his character but each time his spotlight seems to be stolen away up until recently. He had nothing to show against the Dragon god of Water and most likely will not against Ignia, which you would think he would have something up his sleeve. Up against Selene’s minions he had nothing and when he could finally have his moment vs Wendy, Carla, and Happy it was stolen away. Until recently you could say his battle with the member of Gold Owl, but even then it was interrupted by nonsense with Juvia. I can’t think of any recent battles Gray has had that wasn’t interrupted by something with Juvia or another character when he finally had his chance to shine, but maybe my thoughts are just blurry. My biggest issue is that everyone has grown. Wendy has of course as well as Natsu who of course does because he is the center character. Lucy is basically one of the strongest Celestial Wizards Fiore has ever known and Erza... well she is Erza and so is always going to have a new armor up her sleeve. Meanwhile, Gray has nothing. He has his Ice Devil Slaying powers, but we have had nothing to show it. We have no history on Devil Slayers to know how strong his potential is. We have hardly any demons as it is. In fact, there are only three known users of Devil Slayer Magic. The other two are dead, who were Silver and Bloodman from the final season. There has not been a mention of another user let alone any without the ice as its main element. There is so much potential for Gray and yet he falls behind the group due to the writing being so focused on Dragons. I know Gray will always have Juvia and Juvia will always have Gray but it would be nice if they both had their scenes to shine, or at least give them a boost of strength. Anyways, let me know what you guys think. I’m curious about your current thoughts of Gray Fullbuster and the Devil Slayer dilemma. What are your ideas to fix it?

I’ll see you later in the Deep End!

#fairy tail #fairy tail anime #fairy tail characters #fairy tail discussion #fairy tail manga #gray fullbuster #team natsu #fictional characters #magic #anime #manga #manga discussion #anime discussion #Character Study #male character

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scp-6224 · 1 year

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Can't wait for this scene to get animated

#spy x family #yor briar #fiona frost #nightfall #spyxfamily #anime #manga #manga discussion

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javestier · 1 year

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Theory about the brain-snatcher i guess

So, before taking the place of Hikaru, the brain-snatcher was a no sentient being. No emotions, no desire, no pain. It just existed. It had a will, but it’s existence wasn’t something it was aware of. Just like an animal. My theory is that the desire of being human came to it right after it gained a human conscience. Humans need stimuli, humans need connection and love. Humans need a sense of self. I don’t think that the brain-snatcher had a desire to be alive. It’s real instinct is to eat. To grow. So I guess that when it took Hikaru’s “brain” (this could be literal though), it wasn’t planned for it to become so attached to human life. The love and joy he feels for Yoshiki aren't it's feelings. It’s just Hikaru’s brain. It’s true nature is to consume, to exist, but something unexpected happened.

The best outcome i thought about would be that the beast gets carried away on the human experience and learns about living as such while it becomes able to control it's monster side. Then I just wonder how much it will take for it to give up to it's true nature.

art is by mokumoku ren, the author of this manga.

This might have a lot of grammar mistakes. English is not my first language and i'm high lol. I'm currently obsessed with this manga and i'm looking for people to chat about how good this story is :D

#hikaru ga shinda natsu #mokumoku ren #manga #manga discussion #bl manga #hgsn #the summer hikaru died

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alacrity42 · 23 days

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Iruma Chapter 343 - A discussion

If this is what Beem's viewers go through every time they look at his work, no wonder they lose themselves; Galna literally is designed to drive her sister insane and having a conversation with a demon so sadistic and ready to drag you to hell is uh

bad

The idea that Beem's paintings also send you to your evil phase if you do manage to survive is pretty cool. Guess Sabnock's are built different.

#mairimashita! iruma kun #mairimashita manga #manga discussion #mairimashita iruma kun spoilers #m!ik

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marsbarsthereal · 11 months

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when skip and loafer finally, officially becomes the slice of life/romcom cult classic that it always should've been, i would like to state that i was there. WE were there when the manga was releasing. WE were there when copies of it were floating around the shelves of barnes & noble. WE were there in our small little fandom circle, hoping, praying, that someday, it would get the recognition it deserves. and i'm ecstatic to say, our dreams have come true! and to all the new fans, welcome! we are so, SO happy to have you guys. like literally so much.

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flamingeaux · 1 year

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[ Repost of an Analysis I made on Twitter a few months ago before the events of chapter 99+]

I like how Phos is a characterized representation of the "Ship of Theseus Paradox"

I know in all other media characters are completely different by the end, depending on the events of their story. But in Phos'case, it truly is a physical part of their being

The Ship of Theseus Paradox, in super summarized words, regards change across time. If all the parts of a ship are gradually replaced over time, is it the same ship? When does it stop being the original, and become something else?

Phosphophyllite is the same. With the gem’s unique ability for memories to be stored throughout the entire body, parts that are lost also lose those memories within.

Phos loses body part after body part, and gets a replacement each time. By my understanding, all that’s left of the phos from the start, is the torso. They are still called phos, but what about when the head is replaced with Lapis’

Are they Lapis or phos. But then there’s the replacement of the arms, legs, and eye; are they gold, agate, or pearl?

Phos is still there, but by how much

#land of the lustrous #housekinokuni #houseki no kuni manga #manga discussion #phosphophyllite #haruko ichikawa #ship of theseus

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roydeezed · 9 months

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One Piece-Chapter Round-Up(Chapter 1089)

Heyo friends! I am back with another One Piece Chapter Round-Up below the cut, but before we get into spoiler territory, I just want to point out this absolutely hilarious cover page. At first I didn't even notice Sanji behind her in the window but I love these layers Oda adds on to the simple request of Nami being served milk. Since she's being served a drink it makes sense the cook is in charge of it and since it's Sanji there's no way he doesn't use that opportunity to be... himself. And funnier still is that since the fact the paper is facing away from him he'll be waiting eagerly only to be rejected. One thing I might be reading into a little too much is Nami's quill, which looks like a skypeian wing hanging off her shoulder. Foreshadowing perhaps?(Look I have a contractual obligation to be absolutely unhinged at least once per round-up) Anyways, moving on, let's talk about the chapter below.

Obviously I want to freak out about that last panel, but there's something really interesting going on with this chapter before that. I don't know if it's because I have been recently reminiscing over Coby and the time he tried to stop the Marineford War, but I have honed in on the idea Oda presents of The Marines' absolute disregard for life and their acceptance of collateral damage. It was a shock to see it doubled down on in a new chapter just mere days after watching a clip of that moment from Marineford.

With this being tumblr and the overwhelming majority of us being left leaning, I feel quite comfortable in discussing politics as mine are also left wing. Very heavily so. But I preface it with that fact so that you understand that some of my personal biases may play a role in my interpretations. Obviously, Oda and Japan's cultures are vastly different from those that I was raised up in so I am only speaking from a very surface level understanding and not the lived one Oda writes from. I have a very ACAB and abolish the police mentality and from my obviously biased point of view, it seems so does Oda.

But it's not just policing that Oda emphasizes. It's any system of power. But he looks at it through the lens of policing because they make the most natural enemy of lawbreaking pirates. Also just like the popular idea of the Death Note representing Japan's harsh police system, the Marines also appear to be an allusion to it. I am really curious about which way Oda went about creating the Marines and their relationship to pirates. There was an idea of a distinction between pirates called Peace Mains and Morganeers in the two one shots of Romance Dawn where Morganeers were the pillaging type of pirates whilst Peace Mains preyed on the Morganeers like vigilantes and adventured as well. Obviously that put Peace Mains in a sort of policing position so it's really curious how we ended up with the Marines being the big bad(other than Blackbeard of course).

In a tangent before we get back to the Marines, it's really interesting what carried over from the one shots, what didn't and what could. It had been a while since I revisited them but one thing I realized because of Crescent Moon Gyari is that Whitebeard's Beard looks like a crescent moon, basically symbolizing the moon before the dawn that is Luffy. Sorry if that was obvious, I'd just never made that connection before. The more interesting things to me are what might still carry over. Particularly from the second one shot where the Nami stand in, Ann, a blue haired girl with a pet bird is featured. Ann obviously also shares similarities with Vivi and Karoo but the idea of the Roc being a bird who's blood can cure diseases got my attention. That coupled with the Big Egg on the Oro Jackson and Choppers dream makes me think this could make a appearance once again. Also interesting was the fact that one of Luffy's moves was called Moon Shot and the idea of flying was presented over and over again. And Nami was also the child of Pirates. Wonder if that'll ever come into play. Another thing that was quite apparent was the imagery that really made an impact and crossed over to the final version. Honestly, I'd love to examine the two one shots in relation to the real story one day if someone hasn't already.

Okay tangent over, back to the main topic. Which is, first of all, Oda's take on the Marines. There's two things at work here. One is Oda's take on the Marines as an organization through Imu's actions. One that does not care about the collateral damage as long as their power in ensured. And the other is institutions of power perpetuating their power through terrorizing life and the environment it lives on. They're kind of the same idea but one directly criticizes policing while the other criticizes any position of power. We'll focus on the first idea and then talk about how it connects to the second.

The idea has been hammered into us over and over again. The Marines exist to further themselves. It's the absolute and peak function of institutions of power. And also very antithetical to the idea of dreams, which terminate once you reach them. Each of our Strawhats have a dream that has an end goal. But as a result of this goal of self perpetuation, the Marines often overlook their secondary goal of keeping the peace. This idea started as early as Axe-Hand Morgans but gets properly implemented in Arlong Park where the Marines look away as they get paid. Arlong doesn't disturb them and they benefit by having him essentially be an agent for them. That's how you know peacekeeping is a secondary goal. It's secondary to the idea of the Marine's keeping power. Oda criticizes privateering and the warlord system through this hypocrisy.

And if this was just one instance then it could be seen as just one bad egg. Like policing so often wants to put out. But a system of power relies on the methods they use to stay in power always staying relevant. And that's when we come to Marineford, skipping over a lot of incredibly relevant examples to this argument like Enies Lobby. I feel like ya'll can follow that tangent yourselves. Ohara, knowledge that would invalidate their power, etc, etc. I would go more into it but I don't want to write so much away from the current chapter and the fact is that Marineford appears to deal with my criticisms.

So how does Marineford appear to address the criticism of self preservation and perpetuation? (And this next statement is me playing Devil's Advocate if it's not apparent) If the Marines cared about preserving themselves, why would they seek to end the age of piracy if the function that keeps them in power is dealing with Pirates?

Because, my devil's advocate self (wow, thank you for the softball Roy(no problem, Roy)), Marineford was an attempt by the Marines to depose Pirates and crown themselves the key power in the One Piece world. Oda did the math for us, the three great powers used to be the Four Yonkou's, The Marines, and the Seven Warlords. Do the math there and the Pirates come out on top. Also Oda cleverly states the strength of freedom by showing how strong these scattered, unaffiliated, and free people are by having the Marines, a wholly organized military force, be only a third of the equation instead of dominating. Oda follows George Lucas's lead on the idea of Rebels and Vietnam. So, Marineford wasn't just an attempt to put an end to the age of pirates, it was also an attempt to declare the Age of the Marines. And they did the math too, regardless of what happened, they would come out on top. Whether they declared their age or the pirate age kept going, they would still be needed. As Billy Butcher once said, "Fucking Diabolical". Why Koby was so important to the narrative of the War was because he let you see the true colours of the Marines. One that did not care about collateral damage as long as they stayed in power. They sacrificed so many lives needlessly for that reason. And they might have possibly ended the pirate age if not for Whitebeard.

So all of that just to get to this chapter. Sorry for the long ride, but thank you for sticking with me. This chapter horrifically signifies the Marine's policy, by way of Imu, of collateral damage through very familiar sights of rising sea levels. I will speak to the real world connections soon. But these scenes of climate devastation show how uncaring the Marines are to the suffering of their subjects. And Subjects they are. Some people say One Piece is pro monarchy but Oda positions the Marines, even clearer now with Imu, as Monarchs, and criticizes them. Oda isn't pro monarchy, he's showing us how these instituions of power supplanted the previous institutions. And while people suffer, the Marines launch yet another offensive to keep ahold of their power. It's blatant at this point. Where they could be helping people, they gather one of the biggest forces they have since Marineford and try to stop the release of information that could weaken their hold.

And the scenes of Climate Devastation precede an even more horrific sight. Not one of collateral damage. Not of the uncaring nature. But of the direct cost of keeping their power. The sunken island kingdom of Lulusia. It's terrifying and it ties the collateral damage to the cost directly. It's Oda's way of pointing out that the consequences of their actions and the actions they take to stay in power don't affect them, but their subjects, the people they purport to protect.

All of this is why I am so interested in the conclusion Oda reaches in terms of the Marines. It's the reason I support the Ancient Kingdom being a nation of Pirates, it supports the idea of dissolution of the Marines. Oda is clearly setting up Koby and the rest of his peers as the next generation of the Marines but up until Koby became the clear front runner of the Marines, I always thought the Marines were meant to dissolve. But Oda seems to be setting them up to reform in a new direction. There's not a lot I disagree with Oda on but this might be one. Either way though, I will appreciate the nuanced take that Oda so often hides under layers of shounen action.

But now to get to the real world implications. The whole situation with Imu is such a startling reflection of our own world. Again my politics come into play here. The Marines and the Twenty Kingdoms purport to be equal and not ruled under anyone but it's revealed that all along Imu has ruled them. Which would be a stark contrast to our largely democratic nations, right? But then Oda uses the visual metaphor of climate change and his point is clear. While policing exists to self perpetuate, it also answers to the beck and call of billionaires and corporations. I'm sure the statistic of 100 companies being responsible for 71% of global emissions is a statistic you've heard before dear reader. The governments bend over backwards to lobbying from these corporations while the police enforce it on the base level. On a visceral and violent level. We never left the monarchy, we just got new rulers.

Oh no! I've revealed my personal politics. Ahh! But in all honesty, this is my blog and I want to be able to talk freely here so I'll say what's on my mind. I'll always try to be upfront when my biases show though. The reason I am so explicit about my political opinions is because a lot of people who talk about One Piece don't engage with the deeply political and radical ideas it has. And as a result, you get a neutered audience and a neutered discussion. Anyways, that was my very long and convoluted idea on Oda's representation of policing and related politics, especially in relation to this chapter. Now onto a breakdown of the actual chapter.

So right away we see an interesting sight. Morgans has already positioned Luffy as the main character of this conflict. And as we later find out, the Marines approve. Knowing that this will be a much talked about event sheds a really interesting light on this. One, Morgans has made Luffy undeniable in the media in regards to whatever happens next. Two, something big is going to happen. Three, the Marines will probably want to disavow it. Four, Luffy's presence is going to have the opposite effect and solidify this event as if he wasn't presented in such a central light, the Marines would've been able to sweep it under the rug easier. Also while a lot of that is speculation, one more reaching bit of speculation I want to put forward is that whatever happens next is going to invalidate Lulusia's disappearance. Some major truth is going to be revealed and it's going to show how unnecessary these sacrifices that the Marines make are. This also only furthers my interest in Morgans. Who is he? What's his play? What are his goals and is he playing a game with the Marines? It seems he regularly withholds information but eventually plays it in an acceptable manner to the Marines. My take is that he's possibly a revolutionary who's doing his best to sway the tide in their favour. If you look at a lot of his moves, it suggests they're highly calculated for maximum effect under the Marines rule while also shifting the discussion more in favour to the Revolutionary's and their causes and setting up for future dissemination of information he's currently withholding. Or it could be entirely posible I am giving him too much credit. Next, Makino calling Luffy her baby's big brother. Another clue to deadbeat dad Shanks theory? Don't mind me here, just watering my pet theories.

But next, as I mentioned before, we see the consequences of the Marine's actions. From the apparently mundane but heartbreaking in Kamabakka, to the loss of life through tsunami's and the loss of homes on other islands. It's horrific and centers on the very real horror of Climate Change. But the sea levels rising a meter is also horrific in another way. Just to show how much water has been displaced, it's almost five times as much as the sea level has risen over the past 100 years in the real world. I think I dove a lot into the real world side of things so I do want to indulge in the One Piece world for a bit.

So first off, the connection to Enies Lobby is completely apparent. Enies Lobby has some connection to the Mother Flame and perhaps the Ancient Kingdom being there holds some weight? I think another thing that is interesting is that the water was displaced. Somehow the Mother Flame doesn't just create a hole, but an entire Void where the water can't take the space of. Something something Void century, the theory's not fully there yet. But what it also suggests is that maybe Lulusia isn't completely gone? Perhaps it's been sent to Davy Jone's Locker? There's so many pieces of evidence floating around that I'm sure I'm missing something or overlooking a key piece that ties everything together, because right now this feels like a major hint to the true nature of the world. Also this could be a key factor in One Piece's unique world, like the Calm Belt and the Red Line. Also one interesting line is, "had no parallel in recorded history." But perhaps the Void Century? Speculation abounds! But maybe I'll have a concrete theory in the coming days, who knows. The Truth is Out There. No, but really, I feel like one or a few of those massively popular and some not so popular theories are somewhere close to the mark. Like the One Piece being a log book or the destruction of the Red Line. There's so much that's valid that I can see it all happening.

Another heartbreaking scene plays out a little bit after we see the Marine's massive fleet, with a small flashback to Vegapunk, Sentomaru and Kizaru all looking much younger and happier. Kizaru is such an interesting character. He apparently has Unclear Justice but in everything he does it's hard to understand what that actually means. Nature of the word I guess? But Aokiji was Lazy Justice, and that can be seen in that he seems to be taking the easy way out by falling in with Blackbeard but what does that mean for Kizaru? He seems happy in the past and now he is very much uncaring. He mentions he's a cog in the machine but there seems to be some wiggle room. Perhaps unlike his previous two comrades, Akainu and Aokiji, Kizaru is the only one who can change? Honestly I don't really have a bead on him. But I am fascinated. Like with many things.

After that we get a recap and two key moments. The moment where Jay Garcia tells them to sink the escaping scientists is quite obvious and a parallel to Ohara and I think we've talked enough about direct actions, consequences, and collateral damage to get a rough gist of where that would go in reinforcing the themes Oda has set up in regards to the Marines. But the smaller moment of Jay Garcia remarking he likes what Morgans wrote is also key. The Marines hold some sway over the media, from withholding key information to actively enforcing violence but this is also an insight into how Morgans plays the game. He pacifies them but he also pushes his own agenda. A free media is key to citizens freedoms so it's really interesting how these two entities push and pull. I hope we get more insight into Morgans to see what Oda is actually trying to say because I'm curious.

And now we finally get to the last few pages. York is at times terrifying and at others painfully stupid. Just my type of character. She reminds me a lot of Buggy, who first started off as terrifying before becoming our lovable clown boy. But this makes me want York in the crew so bad. I would love if Vegapunk and all of his satellites joined because it would be such an interesting dynamic. The Come Save me panel is also quite a hilarious inversion of "I want to Live" from Enies Lobby as York is asking the Marines for help this time. I love her confident blustering. It's peak One Piece. It's peak Oda. I love it so much.

AND THEN FINALLY!!! OMFG THEY LOOK SO FUCKING COOL!!! I lost it so hard here. They're back and they look so badass! They look like a proper yonkou crew. This cutaway also hammers home how close we are getting to the end as Oda is skipping over some big fights. What this flash forward does let Oda do is that he can use it to do a small flashback chapter and recap key skipped over elements instead of going through them at a much slower pace in chronological order.

One final thing. All the strawhats look so cool, but a really surprising thing I noticed was that Ussop was holding the phone where I would assume Sanji would be. It feels like Sanji has shed a lot of the baggage that came with being Mr.Prince after Whole Cake Island and Wano. Now he's enjoying himself in the background. This could also be setting up the central role Ussop is going to be taking in Elbaf. Ussop of course has employed trickery before but just in this particular case with it's callbacks to Enies Lobby, I would've assumed Sanji be the one pulling off this ruse. Anyways, that's all for today folks. If you've read this far, thank you so much for sticking through. I really appreciate it! See ya for the next one! (Gonna slink off now to watch 1071).

#one piece #one piece chapter 1089 #one piece 1089 #op 1089 #one piece manga #manga recap #manga discussion #one piece spoilers #op koby #eiichiro oda

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