Alabasta Is My Favorite Arc Because It's Supposed To Be So Middle Eastern! My Grandpa Is From Palestine

Alabasta is my favorite arc because it's supposed to be so middle eastern! My grandpa is from Palestine and raised my mom there. I'd seen rumors that a Palestinian actress was in consideration to be cast as Vivi and I'm just a little let down. I've seen dozens of pictures and videos of the Straw Hat jolly roger being used as a symbol of liberation at Free Palestine events. I just...thought this really could've been something for the movement. Idk.

I am very disappointed in OPLA's casting for Vivi and King Cobra ngl. I am a South Indian Muslim woman and Alabasta is literally one of my favorite arcs. Casting South Indian descent actors makes no sense because Alabasta is very clearly inspired by Middle Eastern and North African culture, particularly Egypt.

The clothing and archeticture makes the Egyptian influence in particular very obvious. Specifically Crocodile's rainbase, the Jackal and Falcon as the cities dieties, and the heiroglyphic treatment in the tomb where Luffy and Crocodile's final showdown happens really proves the influence is inargueably Egyptian. Vivi and Cobra's family name is even Nefetari which is so similar to Nefertiti, the most obvious ancient Egyptian name.

AND!!!

At the time Alabasta was being published in the manga, beginning around 2000...

...Palestine was going through the Second Intifada.

Other MENA countries also had protests and uprisings in solidarity. In autumn of 2000, the Egyptian ppl in fact rose up against their president, Hosni Mubarak, against his support of Israel and in solidarity with the Palestinian Second Intifada.

A lot of the story beats in Alabasta clearly took inspiration from the political movements in support of the Intifada. Considering that Palestine is going through a genocide and ethnic cleansing and one of the producers is very Pro Israel, I can't help but think the producers deliberately wanted to hide the arca's influences to MENA uprisings in support of Palestine. But it's in the DNA of Alabasta itself.

Additionally, there is this terrible TERRIBLE habit of Western production companies conflating India and MENA as the same. India has centuries of cross cultural exchange with the MENA region but our socities, archeticture, and clothing are VERY different. I come from a family that has been Muslim in India for generations and even still our clothes, archeticture, and cultural traditions are very distinctly different from MENA muslims. This is because majority of the Islamic influence into India did not even come from the MENA region, it came from the Mughal Empire which originated in Central Asia.

Below is Jama Masjid in New Delhi, India:

and here's the Grand Mosque in Cairo, Egypt:

Now compare Jama Masjid above with Meidan Emam in Esfahan, Iran

Of the three shown here, which one looks most like the palace in Alabasta?

Its definitely not the masjid from India.

I'm very disappointed but unsurprised OPLA went in this direction. I would just like to encourage fans who aren't MENA or Indian to be more critical of these decisions as well. This casting is basically the same as the Disney Aladdin approach. Indians and MENA are not interchangeable.

I've been seeing a lot of posts celebrating that King Cobra and Vivi are not white and I would like to encourage those fans to reconsider giving Netflix and OPLA credit for representation when a critical look at the source material shows the casting decisions are incorrect and seem to be politically motivated. I know that Oda is deeply involved in OPLA but that still doesn't justify the swap.

Ok so let’s talk about a fairly well known OP Theory,

Is Kid a Vegapunk Satellite?

(I like to believe he is but I’m only 70% sure if this theory)

Now let’s talk (possible) history

So I believe Vegapunk made Kid to express all his anger so it wouldn’t blind HIS work. So after he made him, he left him somewhere far far away from Egghead (like in the South Blue)

Why would Vegapunk choose to leave his anger satellite on a scrap heap, no government protection island? Because the constant stress of possible danger and rude islanders is a perfect place for Anger to fester and stress to build. (An unnecessary evil from Vegapunk) but Anger can’t build and fester on a technical paradise.

Vegapunk probably never planned that Kid would ever even leave his island, nonetheless the South Blue itself to enter the Grand Line. When he first read about Kid’s atrocities, he was probably having a visceral reaction (not to the violence, Kid’s the anger part of the brain) but to the fact that he was making headway into the Grandline and became a Supernova.

What Vegapunk didn’t know while Anger can blind you, spite is also a pretty big motivator for angry people. He didn’t understand the idea that his satellite he made to seethe on an island somewhere would have goals and aspirations (like claiming the One Piece).

Now let’s move onto my other point, the number 7 on the Damned Punk

(Not to mention this is an actual Railgun, as in a FUTURE GUN)

Now why, why would Kid put a 07 there? There was no reason to add a 07 and yet he did, as if it was a type of instinct to put it on a creation he was proud of. Kinda like the Satellites

(Who also share the same Number system as Kid, 0 than a number.)

And while we’re on the topic of the other satellites, let’s draw some comparisons between Shaka and Killer’s mask.

It’s (somewhat) safe to assume Kid might’ve designed Killer’s mask as it seems to fit almost perfectly on him and shows none of his face (the exact specifications that Killer would probably want). It’s smooth and rounded kinda like Shaka’s and that beard sticking out almost resembles Shaka’s lower mask.

Now this point doesn’t have much meaning but it is interesting how similar they are.

Now you may ask “what about child kid, we’ve seen him and he was already on the island?” Well whose to say Vegapunk didn’t drop him off on that island even younger?

(Look he’s even holding a wrench and a toy robot he probably built himself.)

Childhood is also a person’s most impressionable time, so placing him in a negative environment at a young age was crucial to making him a bitter and angry so the others don’t feel that. (Seriously it’s unnecessarily cruel)

Now let’s talk about another point, Kid’s Face

Look at his face it’s got a sort of Perma-Malice to it, wouldn’t you agree? Like his face was made to feel every bad emotion of a person. Now let’s take a look at his smile, clearly scary and kinda unnerving, as if he’s not supposed to smile. Now let’s compare that smile to the grimace on the right, it looks almost perfect, as if that’s how his face should look. I’m fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kid smile while he wasn’t being malicious in some way.

It’s like the only reason he smiles is to piss off his enemies and look smug, meanwhile that grimace is a fairly common face that we’ve seen many a time whether pissed off or sad. It’d make sense for the Satellite of Anger to have a face more inclined to make a resting bitch face.

Anyways I think if Kid had made it to Egghead, the Satellites would be very tense around him. Kinda like how you’d tense up if you don’t want someone to figure out a secret but they’re on the tip of figuring it out. Like “please, please just leave. Don’t make eye contact with us”.

Also Kid looks vaguely like Lilith, what with the both of them having kinda defined chins. Kid’s chin is more square than Lilith’s but that smile is almost a dead ringer

(And you got to admit they look vaguely like siblings for some reason.)

Last point I have here is his devil fruit, we know Kid got it at a fairly young age and that’s why he’s so adept at using it but we also can assume that Kid did a bunch of experimentation with it. Seeing what he could and couldn’t do and all his limitations, just like a scientist would.

It got to the point where Kid was 100% confident in the idea that he could make his Punk Rotten

A giant robot made of magnetized metal (kinda like the fake sea kings of the Vegapunks). Kid was so confident in his abilities to make this thing because he’s tested himself multiple times and trained himself to the peak of his devil fruit.

(Idk I like this theory and I think I’d be cool with it if it were true.)

While I do like some of the points you make, I can't say I really like this theory at all to be honest. It seems too coincidental and there's a fair amount of holes in it, the biggest of which being that the satellites were only conceptualized and created during the timeskip. Plus why would a perfectionist like Vegapunk pull a Star Wars and release a number 7 satellite decades before 1-6 were made? If we're talking about Kid representing spite, Atlas already covers that because a lot of her job is griping about her frustrations about not having enough resources to patent inventions and then take out those frustrations through violence. As for Kid not smiling in a way that doesn't look malicious, there's plenty of other characters who do that too, Doflamingo and Blackbeard being some of the most prominent.

You can also count Kaido in that, barring his goofy drunk expressions.

But the real reason why I'm not a fan of Kid being a Vegapunk is that a big part of his appeal lies in how he doesn't have some secret past. He's not related to anyone famous, he didn't have a mythical Devil Fruit or a warlord being an influential figure in his childhood. He was just a scrappy kid with a knack for robotics on some scrap island in the middle of nowhere who fought hard and viciously for everything he had and got to the top by his own merits. Vegapunk is far from the only genius in the One Piece world, Franky was an engineering prodigy long before he ever looked at Vegapunk's blueprints in Baltigo.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the South Blue had a reputation for being home to a lot of technicians and shipwrights.

this is nothing that a little weed and a reasonably priced cocktail and a themed dinner party and a bisexual he/they and a paperback novel from the discount bin and a bucket of movie theater popcorn and central ac and a personalized playlist from your best friend and clean sheets and a slam poem and a four hour video essay and a pair of comfortable jeans and freshly washed hair and complete political reform and a single, perfect strawberry can't fix

Why Eustass Kid is the perfect man

In this essay I will...

Edit: this post is now canon.

the grip kid would have on society if he actually had canines

I made Blackbeard so slayyyyy