The Dream Must End Or The People Can Not Go Free Puts That In My Back Pocket.

“The dream must end or the people can not go free” puts that in my back pocket.

But no seriously this goes hard and honestly have never thought about it that way.

So we all remember this moment from Jaya

It's an iconic moment for a reason, people love it so much so you see people make fanart of it or even get it tattooed on themselves, and it's understandable 'cause what Teech says here is kind... hopeful, inspirational even

Which is why the scene always felt so wrong to me, in a way I could not like put into words or explain why?? Like I wanted to be like "hey this guy isn't that bad, I agree with him!" and yet what Blackbeard says here didn't quite sit right with me?

But now, in-hindsight, I understand why

It's because Blackbeard is wrong

Like, from the begining, from when we're introduced to Blackbeard, he and Luffy are explicitly shown to be the polar opposites of each other in many ways (their taste in food being just one easy way to summarize it), including in ideals and beliefs

And while it would be so easy to think this scene was about showing that despite their differences Luffy and Blackbeard actually have one thing they agree on, one common ground

They don't

Luffy's dream has an end

And it's not just that, that's not the only reason he's the opposite of Blackbeard in this sense. If Luffy just keeps on dreaming of doing things, he will never achieve them, because achieving your dreams means the end of them

And think about how that reflects on the rest of the story

If people keep on dreaming of freedom, they will never be free

Nami's village would remain in Arlong's hands, rain would never fall in Alabasta again, the fire of Shandra would never be lit again, Water 7 will sink into the ocean, the kids on Punk Hazard would never see their parents again, the families of Dressrosa would never be reunited, Wano would remain under Kaidou's oppression, everyone on Fishman Island will remain at the bottom of the ocean and never see the true sun

The dream must end or the people can not go free

The darkness of night will break away The dream will end and the sun will rise

Ohhhhh very Chuck Shurely.

Like the Winchesters ind him and at first it’s like it this it? Is this the almighty god? A bored, vain and broken man? How human, how disappointing.

Throughout the series they are just as dissapointed in him as he is in the world maybe it would have just been better if he stayed lost.

Watching Dressrosa and seeing Zoro watch Luffy's colosseum battle on the screen I was suddenly hit by the fact that in a Modern AU he'd probably be the most obnoxious kind of soccer fan.

You know the one that probably picks a new favorite team every match and is only a soccer fan when they are actively watching soccer. I can honestly just imagine him screaming at the screen and being all dramatic at the team talking about honor and shit. No actual practical knowledge of soccer though.

I just think he and Mihawk would just be the kind of people that like sport in a Modern AU they are athletes themselves but they also just like competition and adrenaline and so sports. Except Mihawk atleast attempts to possess a basic knowledge of the rules and plays of sports he watches while Zoro will watch a sport he's never heard of in his life, chooses a random dude that's "got guts" and root for them so wholeheartedly you'd think he's supported them all his life.

All this to say that goth family watches the World Cup as part of "family bonding time" and

-Mihawk is rooting for 3 separate countries, the 2 that his data says are statically most probably going to win and his home country cause he has some "patriotic pride". He watches intensely but never actually reacts to anything.

-Zoro is rooting for whichever team is playing against whatever team Mihawk is repping at the moment. He has no stakes in this longterm whatsoever exceot that he gets his fill of trolling Mihawk, sports adrenaline and on the rare occasion his team wins he gets to be a smug asshole to the man who raised him 😌. He screams at the T.V so much you'd think he had money on the line.

-Perona liked the idea of styling cute matching jerseys so much so that she forgot how much she hates watching sport. She is very bored and unhappy and hopes that somehow both of them lose. She judges the outfits (the jerseys) of different countries and their coaches on a scale that only she really understands but all must suffer through.

-Shanks is there because this is the only time Mihawk will hold his hand even though he is squeezing so hard his bones might be ground to dust. (the only indicator that Mihaw is affected at all by what is happening). He's bar hopper he's used to seeing random sports he doesn't understand played on green fields running in the background of his mild buzz to drunken fool binge. He's just glad to be included.

FaceTime with Mihawk ✨

I feel like many people have a fundamental misconception of what unreliable narrator means. It's simply a narrative vehicle not a character flaw, a sign that the character is a bad person. There are also many different types of unreliable narrators in fiction. Being an unreliable narrator doesn't necessarily mean that the character is 'wrong', it definitely doesn't mean that they're wrong about everything even if some aspects in their story are inaccurate, and only some unreliable narrators actively and consciously lie. Stories that have unreliable narrators also tend to deal with perception and memory and they often don't even have one objective truth, just different versions. It reflects real life where we know human memory is highly unreliable and vague and people can interpret same events very differently

No but actually I've been really thinking about it and Mihawk just doesn't do shit by halves does he? he's so obsessive.

He doesn't just like red wine it's literally his favorite food

He doesn't just like swords, his is practically his soul made physical. Yoru is so coded in his dna that they literally had to make a replica for his clone.

he isn't just into swordsmanship he literally became the world's best and strongest swordsman

He doesn't just like to duel he's overdone it so much that no one can hold his interest anymore

He didn't just kill marines he was the literal marine hunter.

He doesn't just wait for Zoro at the top he collects every single bounty poster obsessively tracking his rise

He doesn't just let the kids live with him he adopts them, and teaches them how to be stronger. Doesn't let Perona go until he knowns that he can no longer properly guarantee her safety.

He can't just have a garden he has to go full on farmer strawhat and all.

He doesn't just like Shanks he wants to consume him whole he let's the memory of their duel haunt him and even 12 years later he can't fully forgive them. This might be the single most important relationship in his life.

There isn't a moderate bone in his body. He's either making decisions just because or letting them consume him whole.

I bet it's all the Catholicism.