Been Sitting Here Staring At It For Like Three Weeks And Kept Getting Distracted - Tumblr Posts

Do you think Roci loved Doffy?

　　　oh, of course he loved him. it's evident in his behavior:

　for one, rosinante couldn't bring himself to shoot him. even at the cost of his own survival, even knowing what a fundamentally evil person doflamingo is and what a better place the world would be if he just wasn't in it, even knowing that his whole mission was to stop him because, if he didn't, doflamingo was going to hurt a lot more peopleーhe couldn't do it.

doflamingo was so confident he wouldn't do it, too. he stopped his crewmates from interfering, sent all of them away and allowed rosinante to wave his gun around for a solid three minutes of screentime before pulling out his own.

　the second main thing is that rosinante always calls him doffy. there's a reason a lot of people with nicknames are uncomfortable when strangers or acquaintances use them without askingーjust using their nickname in itself implies an emotional closeness. a connection.

rosinante wasn't even doing it for his cover within the familyーhe couldn't speak to the family, so he never used it around them anyway. he had absolutely no reason to continue using the nickname by the time that he left the family with law, but he did anyway. because they were close. actually, the only time he calls him by his full name is when he's speaking to him in an official capacity as a marine, which shows that he easily could slip out of calling him doffy if he wanted to. but he doesn't want to. because they were close.

　because, at the end of the day, doflamingo said it best: he's just like his father. he loves him unconditionally, despite everything. honestly, the reason he went on that mission at all is another way to prove how much he loved him.

he probably knew in his heart that he stood no chance against his brother; he didn't have a devil fruit suited for combat, his clumsiness made him a hazard, and he even admits to himself during the scene with the op op fruit phone call that he cannot refuse doflamingoーwhich, again, is why doflamingo wanted him to eat it in the first place. the only things that made him have second thoughts was the fact that he already ate a devil fruit (so he'd die anyway) and the fact that law was a better candidate for it. if it came down to a standoff, he probably knew he wouldn't be able to do it.

but he still went anyway. because of their connection. because he probably didn't trust anybody else to 'handle' his brother the way that he would handle him. because he loved him.