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something to add with the whole food motivation, yknow the ark when the crew are on an island full of bounty hunters that are literally tricking them and trying o kill them?
He legit fights his own second in command...because they fed him. Like, he full on ignores anything zoro is saying and is fighting him and getting all pissed off because they gave him food so they definitely cant be trying to hurt them.
i dunno if thats because luffy is just oblivious or what but he is definitely motivated by food lol
Luffy not wanting to be viewed as a hero is actually so important to me. Because while the first reasoning we get for this is him not wanting to share his food
We also learn later on that Luffy also doesn't want to be viewed as a savior, nor does he ever want to present himself as such. He doesn't want to be placed on a pedestal or (ironically) be deified by the people he helps.
At the end of Fishman island, he was fully ready to leave without fanfare because he did not want to be treated by the people in that way, and only agrees to stay because he is promised food. The same thing happens at the end of Wano, where he refuses to take any credit for the downfall of Kaido and instead simply enjoys the festival with everyone else.
I cannot overstate how much I love this decision for Luffy as a character. It is incredibly common for stories like Fishman Island and Wano to have the main character swoop in and save the oppressed people, with said character being to sole person to rally them and "teach" them how to fight back. We don't get that with Luffy.
In Fishman Island, he tells the people that its up to them to decide whether or not he is their friend or foe instead of swooping in playing the role of the hero. In Wano, he understands to importance of who begins the fight with Kaido, and stands back to let the Red Scabbards (Wano natives) get the first major hit on Kaido
Even in the prison when Luffy gives his speech, he is asking the people to let him help, to have faith that they and their country can be free again, to fight for the freedom that had been cruelly stripped away from them. And even then, it is Momo and members of the Red Scabbards that fully restore the Udon prisoners faith.
Hell, we even see this all the way back in Arlong Park, where Luffy waits to take action until Nami asks him for help. He doesn't come in guns blazing and save her like some sort of white knight, but instead waits for Nami's go ahead, placing the power in her hand.
It's just such a refreshing way of seeing a protagonist in this type of story be portrayed. To have him understand the importance of the people he fight's side by side with, and not place himself as the fixer of all problems, but rather as an aid to these people (often times an aid that they explicitly asked for). It actively rejects the white savior/white knight trope(s) and allows for the people native to the island to have agency in these large battles instead of being sidelined. It is their lives and stories that are centered as being the most important in these moments, and Luffy is simply there to help them.
The Fake Fire Lord and The Fake Shogun
I don't know if anyone noticed but Kaido's plan to leave Yamato as Shogun of Wano is the same as Ozai did when he left Azula as Fire Lord of the Fire Nation.
The difference is that Azula agrees to be the Fake Fire Lord while Yamato refuses to be the Fake Shogun and here I will explain why in more detail:
We know that Ozai decides to name Azula as Fire Lord because he knows about Azula's successes so he is entrusting Azula with the Fire Nation, while he is going to rule the whole world as the Phoenix Emperor, having more authority than Azula. Kaido, like Ozai with Azula, trusts Yamato to give him the position of Shogun and in turn, wanted to leave her as Shogun because by wanting and going to become ruler of the world, he would have more power and authority than Yamato anyway.
In Ozai's eyes, Azula is still his most capable general and his own daughter (read an extension of himself) while Kaido is confident that Yamato will follow his will and Yamato is his own daughter (and therefore an extension of himself). So, it makes sense that Ozai and Kaido to give both full powers over their previous domain, now that they can have more.
Also, this feeds the ego of Ozai and Kaido because they give Azula and Yamato more power but keep them both inferior and dependent on them, they give them titles (Fire Lord and Shogun) that mean nothing in the long run because in the end they would be under the rule and authority of Ozai and Kaido.
Azula ended up being a puppet ruler because even though she is Fire Lord, Ozai is the only one with real power for being the ruler of the world while Azula rules over one of the many territories that are under Ozai's command and thus, the Fire Lord title has no real value so Azula had no real authority over the Fire Nation and becomes just a title like any other that Ozai can easily take from her at any time. Similarly, Kaido wanted to appoint Yamato Shogun to rule Wano but any power Yamato would have would be overridden by Kaido's authority as Kaido would rule the world and Wano would only be one of many territories that would be under his command so that the Shogun title becomes empty and becomes a title that Kaido can either take away from Yamato and give to someone else or remove said title, making Yamato a puppet ruler with no real authority over Wano as Orochi.
The reason why this worked with Azula but not with Yamato is because of the treatment and upbringing that Ozai and Kaido gave their daughters which made Azula seek her father's approval while Yamato didn't. Azula was treated like a prodigy by Ozai and was always praised and told that everything she did was fine, she was used to it and Ozai only wanted her for her power and considered her his best tool
while Yamato witnessed Oden's execution and seeing his bravery came to admire Oden to such an extent of emulating him,
and wanting to be him
and Kaido disapproved of this to the point that he beat her and locked her in Onigashima with exploding handcuffs and starved her, killing anyone who gave him food.
Because of Ozai's upbringing, Azula sought his approval, hiding her feelings and vulnerability from herself and others and consequently hiding her desire to be loved and to have someone she could love and trust, resulting in her basing her relationships on in control and fear, causing others to distance themselves from her and ended up as a puppet ruler with no one to trust while Yamato, through Kaido's upbringing, distanced herself from him and managed to create genuine bonds by opening up to others, expressing what she feels and wants without fear and showing vulnerability in a way that Azula wouldn't have done, causing Yamato to choose to defend her friends and her hero's dream by rebelling against Kaido and rejecting his plan to make her his tool by naming her the puppet ruler of Wano.
It should be noted that at the time Ozai names Azula Fire Lord, Azula was very unstable due to losing her friends through her own fault and Ozai was the only thing left for her so Azula agrees to be Fire Lord when her father orders her to because she seeks Ozai's approval since she wants someone to love her and be there for her while Yamato, because of Kaido's abuse, wanted nothing to do with him but still doubted that he was able to kill her but when he saw that the handcuffs exploded it was the straw that broke the camel's back for Yamato, causing him to disown Kaido as a father, calling him only by his name and rejecting any plan that Kaido had for her such as naming her Shogun of Wano as well that Yamato is not so affected by the fact that she distances himself from her father because, in addition to having the closest thing to a good example in her life (Oden's diary), Yamato has what Azula wants: people she loves, trusts and they are there for her
and achieves this by acknowledging his feelings
and being open with her desires
while Azula continues to refuse to acknowledge hers
and as a result, she refuses to open herself up and is unable to achieve what she truly wants.
Azula is a girl whose childhood was taken away and she was forced to grow up and be an adult by her upbringing so she doesn't open up to anyone and can't relate to anyone or do the same things that girls her age do while Yamato is an adult who acts like a child because of the little contact she has had with the outside world, but when she meets people with good values and meets people who value her, support her and encourage her to express her emotions and follow her path, she is able to grow and improve.
Monkey D. Luffy: The Solar King of One Piece
We all know that Luffy was always associated with the sun in some way and here I will explain this connection and how even this is present in mythology and alchemy:
Let's start with Luffy's birthplace Foosha Village ubicated in Dawn Island, East Blue. We know that dawn refers to the moment when the sun rises.
In the Skypia arc Shandia worships the Sun God. Skypieans and Shandia prayed for the Sun God to act, at the same time that Luffy punched Enel and rang the bell through the sky. And in this arc is where we are introduced to Joy Boy, known as the Sun God. At this moment we are shown that Luffy has a connection with Joy Boy and to make it more evident they show us the silhouettes of both that are practically the same. Considering the later revelation that the fruit Luffy consumed is the same one that Joy Boy AKA the Sun God Nika consumed 800 years ago makes it seem like Luffy, the true "deity" defeated Enel, a false deity, as a result of the skypieans and Shandia prayers to the Sun God in general.
Then in the Water 7 arc Going Merry is destroyed and Franky builds the new ship which is called Thousand Sunny.
Later in Fish-man Island arc we learn that the fishman dreams of one day living in the sunlight (we found out later that Joy Boy made a promise to the mermaid princess and possibly living in the sunlight this is the promise). We also learn of Fisher Tiger, a former fishman slave who went to Mary Geoise to free the fishman enslaved there as well as free other slaves there including Boa Hancock and her sisters Sandersonia and Marigold. After his attack on Mary Geoise, Fisher Tiger, together with the fishman he freed, founded the Sun Pirates,
a group of which Jinbe was part of and came to lead after Fisher Tiger's death , who later would be one of the Warlords of the Sea, while Arlong, another member, deserted after Jinbe became warlord and because his anger over Fisher Tiger's death, he with his original pirate crew goes to East Blue and terrorized Nami's village for years. The connection that the Sun Pirates have with Luffy is that Luffy confronts Arlong and defeats him, achieving the freedom of Nami and her village and as a result Nami joins his crew as a navigator and Jinbe saves his life several times and in the end of Whole Cake arc officially he joins Luffy's crew.
In Wano Country arc we find out that Luffy's fruit is not Gomu Gomu no mi but the Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika and that Joy Boy was the previous user of said fruit. And in this arc Luffy manages to awaken the fruit from him, defeats Kaido and brings a new dawn for Wano.
Now I will mention something that may seem insignificant to the point of going unnoticed and it's Luffy and the sunflowers. In an SBS Oda revealed that the flower representing Luffy is the sunflower, this is so true in Dressrosa arc Luffy wears a sunflower print t-shirt.
This flower gets its name from its ability to follow the path of the sun as it turns in search of sunlight and also was used as the representation of the solar deity in many of the Amerindian cultures, mainly among the Aztecs in Mexico and even the sunflower features clearly in the shield designs of several prominent Mexican deities, including Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc and Opochtli (god of hunting and fishing).
Another thing that seem irrelevant but that are also linked to mythology is the love that Luffy has for beetles.
It is known that collecting beetles is one of the main hobbies that children in Japan have, which highlights Luffy's childlike nature but his connection with beetles is also related to the sun as in ancient cultures these animals were considered sacred animals and in Ancient Egypt they were associated with the sun and principally with Khepri, one of the Egyptian sun gods who was the morning sun god who had the head of a scabbard beetle and morning sun is also known as a dawn
and Luffy loves beetles and in the manga its said that Luffy will bring the world to a new dawn.
Also, Gum-Gum Bajrang Gun, Luffy final attack on Kaido, is named after a Monkey deity from hinduism mythology, Bajrang Bali or Hanuman. Who, when he was a child, tried to eat the sun, mistaken it as fruit, making reference to Luffy, a character associated with monkeys and inspired by Sun Wukong, a character who was powerfully inspired by Hanuman and just as Hanuman tries eat the sun believing that it was a fruit, Lufy eats the Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika believing that it was a normal fruit and later believing that it was a paramecia type.
The connection that Luffy has with the sun is present even in alchemy, to understand this first let me talk about alchemy:
In alchemy there are two important figures that are known as Solar King and Moon Queen, which are two substances that, when united through the alchemical wedding, give rise to the philosophical child or the philosopher's stone, this is important because the final objective of alchemy is to create the philosopher's stone that transforms lead into gold and also creates an elixir of eternal life.
Therefore, they are often referred to as the "red man" and the "white woman", the "red stone" and the "white stone" as well. Essentially, the two principles are as follows:
Red: sun, fire and air, sulfur, active, golden, hot and dry, heart or soul, masculine.
White: moon, water and earth, mercury, passive, silver, cool and humid, mind or spirit, feminine.
Having explained this as Luffy has the characteristics of the Solar King.
To begin with, the Solar King and Luffy, in addition to being associated with the sun, are also related to royalty (Solar King is represented as a king and Luffy wants to be the Pirates King).
Sulfur has always been associated with yellow (one of the Solar King's colors)
and fire (confirmed by the triangle of the fire element present in its symbol),
and Luffy has strong associations with fire and yellow which are explained below.
Fire: Luffy has two brothers Ace and Sabo with whom he has a fairly close relationship. Ace was the previous user of the Mera Mera no mi and had fire powers and after his death Sabo eats the fruit and inherits Ace's powers.
Also in the Wano country arc, Luffy learns to use Ryou which makes his attacks appear to be on fire.
Air: believe it or not, Luffy is also related to air. Air is an element that is always associated with lightness and freedom. Luffy is from Foosha Village (basically mean Windmill Village), he's someone with a light and relaxed character and values freedom because his dream of being Pirate King is to be the freest man in the world, Luffy always frees individuals and islands from oppression and his fruit is a symbol of everyone's desire for freedom. Also his gear 4 and 5 forms have clouds and Luffy in his gear 5 form can fly.
Solar characters are active and Luffy is someone quite active, he seeks adventure and prefers action over words. Also the characters associated with the Solar King are related to the heart or soul, that is, they are governed by emotions and/or are empathetic, that is, they understand the emotions of others and Luffy is emotional, he only does things because he he wants to and incredibly Luffy is one of the characters with the highest emotional intelligence in One Piece (gets mad at Morgan for giving the marines a bad image because it hurts Coby's vision of them and his dream of being one, he puts his hat on Nami to comfort her and assure her that if he will help her, he protects Hiruluk's flag because he knows how important it's to Chopper, encourages Robin to express her true desire to live and orders Usopp AKA Sogeking to burn the World Government flag to show her that his support for her is honest, covers Katakuri's face with his hat black as a show of respect and because he knows how sensitive Katakuri is about his mouth, etc.).
The Solar King's colors are red and gold (or yellow) and Luffy is seen wearing these colors most of the time.
The Solar King represents the masculine so most of the characters associated with it are male and Luffy is male.
It would be quite interesting if Luffy began to share some characteristics with the figure of Moon Queen (Luffy also has associations with blue and white, he has associations with earth growing up in a place with abundant plants and with water wanting to be a pirate and navigate, his gear 5 transformation does it on a full moon) which, together with the characteristics of Solar King that he already has, could turn him into the philosophical child or simply he would help to symbolically form the philosophical child with another character, well, let's remember that the two main functions of the philosopher's stone are transforms lead into gold and also creates an elixir of eternal life and with Luffy these two functions can be related in this way: Luffy improves the lives of the people he meets and even frees individuals and even whole countries (creates an elixir of eternal life) and he inspires them to be the best versions of themselves (transforms lead into gold).
I don't know if it was intentional on Oda's part but finding these features was quite interesting for me.
Luffy and Collector: Gods of Joy, Children of Heart
I don't know about you but Collector reminds me of Luffy from One Piece in the sense that Collector is what Luffy would have been if he didn't have good adult figures in his life and didn't have healthy relationships with other people.
Both are characters who highly value freedom, and they have a playful nature and just want to have fun, so much so that they even play children's games like tag. Luffy wants to be Pirate King because he wants to be free to do whatever he wants and Collector just wanted to be free from his confinement. But Luffy has emotional intelligence and moral maturity so he doesn't take away the freedom of others while Collector simply doesn't have these things and doesn't realize that his actions are wrong. Their desire for freedom is evident in their family history. Luffy was the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, a Navy vice admiral who is recognized as the hero of the marines for finishing off Rocks D. Xebec, and Garp wanted Luffy to be a marine but Luffy doesn't want to be. On the other hand, Collector comes from a race that preserved the lives of other beings by force and destroyed those who opposed them like the titans
while Collector didn't like the extermination that his species did with the titans
and it even seems that he is afraid that King will judge him for this.
If there is something that Luffy has that makes him stand out from other shonen protagonists, it is that he is selfish. We know this from his meat speech in which he says that he doesn't want to be a hero because he would have to share his meat and he doesn't wants to share his, he wants to be the Pirate King because he wants to be free and fulfill his secret dream, which until now we don't know what it is and the only thing that is known is that Gol D. Roger also wanted the same thing, he destroyed governments and caused wars with the sole purpose of does what he wants or simply saving someone because he finds it interesting or funny, and Collector also does this. This selfishness is seen even in his friendships as Luffy drags his crew to any place that is dangerous and always chooses to go to those places the hard way because he wants to have adventures and have fun just like Collector just wants to play and have fun with those he considers them his friends.
But Luffy has a balance between his egoism and disinterest because Luffy does what he wants and what he wants is for him and his friends to be happy and free but collector doesn't have that balance, which makes him more dangerous.
The reason why Luffy has kindness, morality, emotional intelligence and doesn't take his selfishness to the extreme is because he has healthy adult figures who have helped him establish his moral values and Collector doesn't.
To begin with, Luffy meets Shanks and his crew and seeing how free and carefree Shanks was, he wishes to be a pirate like him. After eating the Gomu Gomu no mi and he is involved in an incident with some bandits who disrespected Shanks and Luffy tries to take revenge but they kidnap him and Shanks saves him but not before losing an arm protecting him from a sea king and before Shanks gives his straw hat to Luffy, telling him to give it back to him when he is a big name pirate.
This whole incident makes Luffy admire Shanks and molds his way around him.
Later his grandfather Garp, as I said before, wants Luffy to be a marine so he trains him to the extreme to be strong since he was a child and when he found out about Luffy wanting to be a pirate leaves him with Dadan and the mountain bandits.
While Collector has never had a positive interaction with adults throughout his life. The other Collectors just wanted to preserve things and destroy anyone who got in the way and Belos has been manipulating him for 400 years.
And while Luffy already has a strong moral, it's his relationship with his friends that helps him mature. Vivi teaches him that he cannot solve everything with violence, Zoro teaches him that being the captain of his crew he must take his role seriously so that others respect him, Ace's death teaches him that he must strengthen himself and even before everything Luffy himself admits that there are things he cannot do alone, such as lying, navigating or using swords, and he needs other people to do what he cannot and this is something that Collector needs to learn but he hasn't had the chance until he meets King.
But despite the fact that I mentioned earlier how Luffy and Collector are both selfish and how Luffy has a balance between selfishness and selflessness and Collector doesn't, at the same time they both respect their friends, trust them and are extremely protective of them. Luffy would never trample on the dreams of his family and crew and he'll get mad at anyone who tries to hurt them and Collector, despite taking King with him, doesn't take François by force and never violates his privacy and only does so because Belos told him to and he got mad at Terra for insulting King and turned her into a doll for it.
One thing that Luffy and Collector have in common is their hatred of loneliness. Luffy meets Ace and Sabo after living with Dandan and Ace acts mean towards him but Luffy doesn't react meanly towards him but seeks to talk to him. Then he finds out that Ace and Sabo hid a treasure that they got from some pirates and they wanted to use said treasure to create their own pirate crew and they tied it up, then the enemy pirates look for the treasure and seeing that Luffy knew Ace these pirates left, they take him and hit him to make him say where the treasure is but Luffy doesn't say anything and when Ace and Sabo saw this they decided to help Luffy. Then Ace asks him why he helped them and didn't tell the enemy pirates where his treasure was even though he and Sabo treated him badly, Luffy replies saying that he didn't say anything because he wanted to be friend with them because he didn't want to be alone.
Collector on the other hand helps Belos and later helps King because he wants to be free but above all because he doesn't want to be alone anymore. He considered Belos his friend before he betrayed him by trying to kill him by throwing his disc into the void and he considers King his best friend and loves hanging out with him, Collector is so desperate not to be alone that he agrees to befriend anyone who treats him good.
Another thing that Luffy and Collector share is the nature of their powers as their powers are dangerously destructive, they can even modify reality and the only limit they have is their imagination but they both use it in a funny way. Basically, they are both gods who spread joy and fun through their powers but can be dangerous if left out of control.
Luffy possesses the Gomu Gomu no mi (whose real name is Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika) which gives him the freedom to shape and stretch his body however he wants, he is quite creative with his power and he doesn't care if he or his techniques looks ridiculous. We see this with some improvised techniques and we even see it with his Gears and Gear 5 is the maximum expression of all the above mentioned.
In his Gear 5 form, Luffy can turn everything he touches into rubber, from objects to people, thing that he takes advantage of to do techniques like this.
or this
even in his fight against Lucci he creates goggles with his hair before attacking him.
Collector has cosmic powers. He taught Belos the draining spell and he was able to move the moon with his finger but we see that he has a preference for using his powers in a fun way and he doesn't care if his magic looks childish while using it: uses his powers to turn others into dolls,
creates a castle with a part of the Titan's skull,
and even uses a star to travel.
Interestingly Luffy and Collector share certain physical traits: they both have markings under their left eyes (Luffy's signature scar and Collector's star-shaped freckles) and when Luffy is in his Gear 5 form he takes on an appearance that makes him more similar to Collector (white hair, red eyes, white clothes with purple).
Another curious fact is that both relate to each other since Luffy is linked to the sun and collector is linked to the moon and stars and in the culture the sun and the moon always intertwine making them complementary in addition to the fact that the moon has no light own and reflects that of the sun. This could be interpreted as Collector and Luffy are the same but Collector doesn't have maturity and emotional intelligence (the moon lacks its own light) that Luffy has (the sunlight) but is trying to learn that maturity and emotional intelligence (moon reflects the sunlight).
SAME
ENERGY
Not to mention that I made a post where I mention how Luffy and Collector are similar, except that Luffy has mental and emotional maturity and Collector doesn't.
It would be quite interesting if Dana based on Luffy (and especially his Gear 5th form) to create Collector or just she at least knew about Luffy and his Gear 5th form.
The Fake Fire Lord and The Fake Shogun
I don't know if anyone noticed but Kaido's plan to leave Yamato as Shogun of Wano is the same as Ozai did when he left Azula as Fire Lord of the Fire Nation.
The difference is that Azula agrees to be the Fake Fire Lord while Yamato refuses to be the Fake Shogun and here I will explain why in more detail:
We know that Ozai decides to name Azula as Fire Lord because he knows about Azula's successes so he is entrusting Azula with the Fire Nation, while he is going to rule the whole world as the Phoenix Emperor, having more authority than Azula. Kaido, like Ozai with Azula, trusts Yamato to give him the position of Shogun and in turn, wanted to leave her as Shogun because by wanting and going to become ruler of the world, he would have more power and authority than Yamato anyway.
In Ozai's eyes, Azula is still his most capable general and his own daughter (read an extension of himself) while Kaido is confident that Yamato will follow his will and Yamato is his own daughter (and therefore an extension of himself). So, it makes sense that Ozai and Kaido to give both full powers over their previous domain, now that they can have more.
Also, this feeds the ego of Ozai and Kaido because they give Azula and Yamato more power but keep them both inferior and dependent on them, they give them titles (Fire Lord and Shogun) that mean nothing in the long run because in the end they would be under the rule and authority of Ozai and Kaido.
Azula ended up being a puppet ruler because even though she is Fire Lord, Ozai is the only one with real power for being the ruler of the world while Azula rules over one of the many territories that are under Ozai's command and thus, the Fire Lord title has no real value so Azula had no real authority over the Fire Nation and becomes just a title like any other that Ozai can easily take from her at any time. Similarly, Kaido wanted to appoint Yamato Shogun to rule Wano but any power Yamato would have would be overridden by Kaido's authority as Kaido would rule the world and Wano would only be one of many territories that would be under his command so that the Shogun title becomes empty and becomes a title that Kaido can either take away from Yamato and give to someone else or remove said title, making Yamato a puppet ruler with no real authority over Wano as Orochi.
The reason why this worked with Azula but not with Yamato is because of the treatment and upbringing that Ozai and Kaido gave their daughters which made Azula seek her father's approval while Yamato didn't. Azula was treated like a prodigy by Ozai and was always praised and told that everything she did was fine, she was used to it and Ozai only wanted her for her power and considered her his best tool
while Yamato witnessed Oden's execution and seeing his bravery came to admire Oden to such an extent of emulating him,
and wanting to be him
and Kaido disapproved of this to the point that he beat her and locked her in Onigashima with exploding handcuffs and starved her, killing anyone who gave him food.
Because of Ozai's upbringing, Azula sought his approval, hiding her feelings and vulnerability from herself and others and consequently hiding her desire to be loved and to have someone she could love and trust, resulting in her basing her relationships on in control and fear, causing others to distance themselves from her and ended up as a puppet ruler with no one to trust while Yamato, through Kaido's upbringing, distanced herself from him and managed to create genuine bonds by opening up to others, expressing what she feels and wants without fear and showing vulnerability in a way that Azula wouldn't have done, causing Yamato to choose to defend her friends and her hero's dream by rebelling against Kaido and rejecting his plan to make her his tool by naming her the puppet ruler of Wano.
It should be noted that at the time Ozai names Azula Fire Lord, Azula was very unstable due to losing her friends through her own fault and Ozai was the only thing left for her so Azula agrees to be Fire Lord when her father orders her to because she seeks Ozai's approval since she wants someone to love her and be there for her while Yamato, because of Kaido's abuse, wanted nothing to do with him but still doubted that he was able to kill her but when he saw that the handcuffs exploded it was the straw that broke the camel's back for Yamato, causing him to disown Kaido as a father, calling him only by his name and rejecting any plan that Kaido had for her such as naming her Shogun of Wano as well that Yamato is not so affected by the fact that she distances himself from her father because, in addition to having the closest thing to a good example in her life (Oden's diary), Yamato has what Azula wants: people she loves, trusts and they are there for her
and achieves this by acknowledging his feelings
and being open with her desires
while Azula continues to refuse to acknowledge hers
and as a result, she refuses to open herself up and is unable to achieve what she truly wants.
Azula is a girl whose childhood was taken away and she was forced to grow up and be an adult by her upbringing so she doesn't open up to anyone and can't relate to anyone or do the same things that girls her age do while Yamato is an adult who acts like a child because of the little contact she has had with the outside world, but when she meets people with good values and meets people who value her, support her and encourage her to express her emotions and follow her path, she is able to grow and improve.
Monkey D. Luffy: The Solar King of One Piece
We all know that Luffy was always associated with the sun in some way and here I will explain this connection and how even this is present in mythology and alchemy:
Let's start with Luffy's birthplace Foosha Village ubicated in Dawn Island, East Blue. We know that dawn refers to the moment when the sun rises.
In the Skypia arc Shandia worships the Sun God. Skypieans and Shandia prayed for the Sun God to act, at the same time that Luffy punched Enel and rang the bell through the sky. And in this arc is where we are introduced to Joy Boy, known as the Sun God. At this moment we are shown that Luffy has a connection with Joy Boy and to make it more evident they show us the silhouettes of both that are practically the same. Considering the later revelation that the fruit Luffy consumed is the same one that Joy Boy AKA the Sun God Nika consumed 800 years ago makes it seem like Luffy, the true "deity" defeated Enel, a false deity, as a result of the skypieans and Shandia prayers to the Sun God in general.
Then in the Water 7 arc Going Merry is destroyed and Franky builds the new ship which is called Thousand Sunny.
Later in Fish-man Island arc we learn that the fishman dreams of one day living in the sunlight (we found out later that Joy Boy made a promise to the mermaid princess and possibly living in the sunlight this is the promise). We also learn of Fisher Tiger, a former fishman slave who went to Mary Geoise to free the fishman enslaved there as well as free other slaves there including Boa Hancock and her sisters Sandersonia and Marigold. After his attack on Mary Geoise, Fisher Tiger, together with the fishman he freed, founded the Sun Pirates,
a group of which Jinbe was part of and came to lead after Fisher Tiger's death , who later would be one of the Warlords of the Sea, while Arlong, another member, deserted after Jinbe became warlord and because his anger over Fisher Tiger's death, he with his original pirate crew goes to East Blue and terrorized Nami's village for years. The connection that the Sun Pirates have with Luffy is that Luffy confronts Arlong and defeats him, achieving the freedom of Nami and her village and as a result Nami joins his crew as a navigator and Jinbe saves his life several times and in the end of Whole Cake arc officially he joins Luffy's crew.
In Wano Country arc we find out that Luffy's fruit is not Gomu Gomu no mi but the Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika and that Joy Boy was the previous user of said fruit. And in this arc Luffy manages to awaken the fruit from him, defeats Kaido and brings a new dawn for Wano.
Now I will mention something that may seem insignificant to the point of going unnoticed and it's Luffy and the sunflowers. In an SBS Oda revealed that the flower representing Luffy is the sunflower, this is so true in Dressrosa arc Luffy wears a sunflower print t-shirt.
This flower gets its name from its ability to follow the path of the sun as it turns in search of sunlight and also was used as the representation of the solar deity in many of the Amerindian cultures, mainly among the Aztecs in Mexico and even the sunflower features clearly in the shield designs of several prominent Mexican deities, including Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc and Opochtli (god of hunting and fishing).
Another thing that seem irrelevant but that are also linked to mythology is the love that Luffy has for beetles.
It is known that collecting beetles is one of the main hobbies that children in Japan have, which highlights Luffy's childlike nature but his connection with beetles is also related to the sun as in ancient cultures these animals were considered sacred animals and in Ancient Egypt they were associated with the sun and principally with Khepri, one of the Egyptian sun gods who was the morning sun god who had the head of a scabbard beetle and morning sun is also known as a dawn
and Luffy loves beetles and in the manga its said that Luffy will bring the world to a new dawn.
Also, Gum-Gum Bajrang Gun, Luffy final attack on Kaido, is named after a Monkey deity from hinduism mythology, Bajrang Bali or Hanuman. Who, when he was a child, tried to eat the sun, mistaken it as fruit, making reference to Luffy, a character associated with monkeys and inspired by Sun Wukong, a character who was powerfully inspired by Hanuman and just as Hanuman tries eat the sun believing that it was a fruit, Lufy eats the Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika believing that it was a normal fruit and later believing that it was a paramecia type.
The connection that Luffy has with the sun is present even in alchemy, to understand this first let me talk about alchemy:
In alchemy there are two important figures that are known as Solar King and Moon Queen, which are two substances that, when united through the alchemical wedding, give rise to the philosophical child or the philosopher's stone, this is important because the final objective of alchemy is to create the philosopher's stone that transforms lead into gold and also creates an elixir of eternal life.
Therefore, they are often referred to as the "red man" and the "white woman", the "red stone" and the "white stone" as well. Essentially, the two principles are as follows:
Red: sun, fire and air, sulfur, active, golden, hot and dry, heart or soul, masculine.
White: moon, water and earth, mercury, passive, silver, cool and humid, mind or spirit, feminine.
Having explained this as Luffy has the characteristics of the Solar King.
To begin with, the Solar King and Luffy, in addition to being associated with the sun, are also related to royalty (Solar King is represented as a king and Luffy wants to be the Pirates King).
Sulfur has always been associated with yellow (one of the Solar King's colors)
and fire (confirmed by the triangle of the fire element present in its symbol),
and Luffy has strong associations with fire and yellow which are explained below.
Fire: Luffy has two brothers Ace and Sabo with whom he has a fairly close relationship. Ace was the previous user of the Mera Mera no mi and had fire powers and after his death Sabo eats the fruit and inherits Ace's powers.
Also in the Wano country arc, Luffy learns to use Ryou which makes his attacks appear to be on fire.
Air: believe it or not, Luffy is also related to air. Air is an element that is always associated with lightness and freedom. Luffy is from Foosha Village (basically mean Windmill Village), he's someone with a light and relaxed character and values freedom because his dream of being Pirate King is to be the freest man in the world, Luffy always frees individuals and islands from oppression and his fruit is a symbol of everyone's desire for freedom. Also his gear 4 and 5 forms have clouds and Luffy in his gear 5 form can fly.
Solar characters are active and Luffy is someone quite active, he seeks adventure and prefers action over words. Also the characters associated with the Solar King are related to the heart or soul, that is, they are governed by emotions and/or are empathetic, that is, they understand the emotions of others and Luffy is emotional, he only does things because he he wants to and incredibly Luffy is one of the characters with the highest emotional intelligence in One Piece (gets mad at Morgan for giving the marines a bad image because it hurts Coby's vision of them and his dream of being one, he puts his hat on Nami to comfort her and assure her that if he will help her, he protects Hiruluk's flag because he knows how important it's to Chopper, encourages Robin to express her true desire to live and orders Usopp AKA Sogeking to burn the World Government flag to show her that his support for her is honest, covers Katakuri's face with his hat black as a show of respect and because he knows how sensitive Katakuri is about his mouth, etc.).
The Solar King's colors are red and gold (or yellow) and Luffy is seen wearing these colors most of the time.
The Solar King represents the masculine so most of the characters associated with it are male and Luffy is male.
It would be quite interesting if Luffy began to share some characteristics with the figure of Moon Queen (Luffy also has associations with blue and white, he has associations with earth growing up in a place with abundant plants and with water wanting to be a pirate and navigate, his gear 5 transformation does it on a full moon) which, together with the characteristics of Solar King that he already has, could turn him into the philosophical child or simply he would help to symbolically form the philosophical child with another character, well, let's remember that the two main functions of the philosopher's stone are transforms lead into gold and also creates an elixir of eternal life and with Luffy these two functions can be related in this way: Luffy improves the lives of the people he meets and even frees individuals and even whole countries (creates an elixir of eternal life) and he inspires them to be the best versions of themselves (transforms lead into gold).
I don't know if it was intentional on Oda's part but finding these features was quite interesting for me.
I've seen a pretty interesting theory that Imu is actually a child. If this theory turned out to be true it would not only be an interesting plot-twist but would also be an interesting foil for Luffy.
Luffy is a boy who is growing up to become a man (in the Pirate King), his Gear 5 form represents the limitless imagination, joy and freedom of a child and has an optimistic point of view of life. Imu, on the other hand, could be an adult trapped in the body of a child who has lived for 800 years, rules the world from the shadows and does so with a system that oppresses others, his powers seem to represent terror and nightmares, and could also have a cruel or indifferent point of view of life.
Luffy, the boy who, despite becoming a man, retains his inner child. Imu, who despite being in the body of a child, is an adult who has lived so long that he lost his inner child.
Some time ago I made a post where I said that Imu would be a very good and interesting contrast for Luffy and both this post and the chapter 1060 on which it focuses show more clearly the contrast between Luffy, the future Pirate King and Imu, the current King of the World.
Isn't it "funny" that Imu destroys Lulusia in the same chapter where Luffy happily talks with his crew about what is at the end of his dream?
Like, you see this.....
...and after a few pages you have this
I think, if this is no coincidence (which likely isn't, Oda wouldn't randomly put all of these specific scenes in the same chapter), it could be taken as another proof that at the end of Luffy's dream of becoming the pirate king there is something bigger than that, something like maybe uniting the whole world under his crew, the whole world being one "crew" of friends (literally a one piece of friendship lol) and of course Imu stands in the way of it, because they want to keep the world divided into four seas, various nations with social and racial differences fueling hate against each other (instead of directing it towards the ACTUAL enemy).
Imu's style is surely divide et impera, while Luffy wants everyone to be free and happy. I also think ultimately the concept of "one piece" will be applied to the whole world, the Red Line will cease to exist and so all the separations and divisions it symbolises, not just physically as one huge mountain in a world of sea but also as the house of Celestial Dragons and World Government
Since it was revealed to us that the sapphire scales disease that Bonney inherited from her mother Ginny is incurable, a theory popped into my mind: what if Kuma turned into a cyborg to save Bonney?
Don't forget that the paw-paw fruit can repel anything from the target's body so Kuma probably repelled the disease from Bonney's body and absorbed it into her body so that it wouldn't come back to Bonney. Later, he would ask Vegapunk to turn him into a cyborg so that the disease couldn't affect him.
Luffy and Collector: Gods of Joy, Children of Heart
I don't know about you but Collector reminds me of Luffy from One Piece in the sense that Collector is what Luffy would have been if he didn't have good adult figures in his life and didn't have healthy relationships with other people.
Both are characters who highly value freedom, and they have a playful nature and just want to have fun, so much so that they even play children's games like tag. Luffy wants to be Pirate King because he wants to be free to do whatever he wants and Collector just wanted to be free from his confinement. But Luffy has emotional intelligence and moral maturity so he doesn't take away the freedom of others while Collector simply doesn't have these things and doesn't realize that his actions are wrong. Their desire for freedom is evident in their family history. Luffy was the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, a Navy vice admiral who is recognized as the hero of the marines for finishing off Rocks D. Xebec, and Garp wanted Luffy to be a marine but Luffy doesn't want to be. On the other hand, Collector comes from a race that preserved the lives of other beings by force and destroyed those who opposed them like the titans
while Collector didn't like the extermination that his species did with the titans
and it even seems that he is afraid that King will judge him for this.
If there is something that Luffy has that makes him stand out from other shonen protagonists, it is that he is selfish. We know this from his meat speech in which he says that he doesn't want to be a hero because he would have to share his meat and he doesn't wants to share his, he wants to be the Pirate King because he wants to be free and fulfill his secret dream, which until now we don't know what it is and the only thing that is known is that Gol D. Roger also wanted the same thing, he destroyed governments and caused wars with the sole purpose of does what he wants or simply saving someone because he finds it interesting or funny, and Collector also does this. This selfishness is seen even in his friendships as Luffy drags his crew to any place that is dangerous and always chooses to go to those places the hard way because he wants to have adventures and have fun just like Collector just wants to play and have fun with those he considers them his friends.
But Luffy has a balance between his egoism and disinterest because Luffy does what he wants and what he wants is for him and his friends to be happy and free but collector doesn't have that balance, which makes him more dangerous.
The reason why Luffy has kindness, morality, emotional intelligence and doesn't take his selfishness to the extreme is because he has healthy adult figures who have helped him establish his moral values and Collector doesn't.
To begin with, Luffy meets Shanks and his crew and seeing how free and carefree Shanks was, he wishes to be a pirate like him. After eating the Gomu Gomu no mi and he is involved in an incident with some bandits who disrespected Shanks and Luffy tries to take revenge but they kidnap him and Shanks saves him but not before losing an arm protecting him from a sea king and before Shanks gives his straw hat to Luffy, telling him to give it back to him when he is a big name pirate.
This whole incident makes Luffy admire Shanks and molds his way around him.
Later his grandfather Garp, as I said before, wants Luffy to be a marine so he trains him to the extreme to be strong since he was a child and when he found out about Luffy wanting to be a pirate leaves him with Dadan and the mountain bandits.
While Collector has never had a positive interaction with adults throughout his life. The other Collectors just wanted to preserve things and destroy anyone who got in the way and Belos has been manipulating him for 400 years.
And while Luffy already has a strong moral, it's his relationship with his friends that helps him mature. Vivi teaches him that he cannot solve everything with violence, Zoro teaches him that being the captain of his crew he must take his role seriously so that others respect him, Ace's death teaches him that he must strengthen himself and even before everything Luffy himself admits that there are things he cannot do alone, such as lying, navigating or using swords, and he needs other people to do what he cannot and this is something that Collector needs to learn but he hasn't had the chance until he meets King.
But despite the fact that I mentioned earlier how Luffy and Collector are both selfish and how Luffy has a balance between selfishness and selflessness and Collector doesn't, at the same time they both respect their friends, trust them and are extremely protective of them. Luffy would never trample on the dreams of his family and crew and he'll get mad at anyone who tries to hurt them and Collector, despite taking King with him, doesn't take François by force and never violates his privacy and only does so because Belos told him to and he got mad at Terra for insulting King and turned her into a doll for it.
One thing that Luffy and Collector have in common is their hatred of loneliness. Luffy meets Ace and Sabo after living with Dandan and Ace acts mean towards him but Luffy doesn't react meanly towards him but seeks to talk to him. Then he finds out that Ace and Sabo hid a treasure that they got from some pirates and they wanted to use said treasure to create their own pirate crew and they tied it up, then the enemy pirates look for the treasure and seeing that Luffy knew Ace these pirates left, they take him and hit him to make him say where the treasure is but Luffy doesn't say anything and when Ace and Sabo saw this they decided to help Luffy. Then Ace asks him why he helped them and didn't tell the enemy pirates where his treasure was even though he and Sabo treated him badly, Luffy replies saying that he didn't say anything because he wanted to be friend with them because he didn't want to be alone.
Collector on the other hand helps Belos and later helps King because he wants to be free but above all because he doesn't want to be alone anymore. He considered Belos his friend before he betrayed him by trying to kill him by throwing his disc into the void and he considers King his best friend and loves hanging out with him, Collector is so desperate not to be alone that he agrees to befriend anyone who treats him good.
Another thing that Luffy and Collector share is the nature of their powers as their powers are dangerously destructive, they can even modify reality and the only limit they have is their imagination but they both use it in a funny way. Basically, they are both gods who spread joy and fun through their powers but can be dangerous if left out of control.
Luffy possesses the Gomu Gomu no mi (whose real name is Hito Hito no mi, model: Nika) which gives him the freedom to shape and stretch his body however he wants, he is quite creative with his power and he doesn't care if he or his techniques looks ridiculous. We see this with some improvised techniques and we even see it with his Gears and Gear 5 is the maximum expression of all the above mentioned.
In his Gear 5 form, Luffy can turn everything he touches into rubber, from objects to people, thing that he takes advantage of to do techniques like this.
or this
even in his fight against Lucci he creates goggles with his hair before attacking him.
Collector has cosmic powers. He taught Belos the draining spell and he was able to move the moon with his finger but we see that he has a preference for using his powers in a fun way and he doesn't care if his magic looks childish while using it: uses his powers to turn others into dolls,
creates a castle with a part of the Titan's skull,
and even uses a star to travel.
Interestingly Luffy and Collector share certain physical traits: they both have markings under their left eyes (Luffy's signature scar and Collector's star-shaped freckles) and when Luffy is in his Gear 5 form he takes on an appearance that makes him more similar to Collector (white hair, red eyes, white clothes with purple).
Another curious fact is that both relate to each other since Luffy is linked to the sun and collector is linked to the moon and stars and in the culture the sun and the moon always intertwine making them complementary in addition to the fact that the moon has no light own and reflects that of the sun. This could be interpreted as Collector and Luffy are the same but Collector doesn't have maturity and emotional intelligence (the moon lacks its own light) that Luffy has (the sunlight) but is trying to learn that maturity and emotional intelligence (moon reflects the sunlight).
SAME
ENERGY
Not to mention that I made a post where I mention how Luffy and Collector are similar, except that Luffy has mental and emotional maturity and Collector doesn't.
It would be quite interesting if Dana based on Luffy (and especially his Gear 5th form) to create Collector or just she at least knew about Luffy and his Gear 5th form.
I've seen a pretty interesting theory that Imu is actually a child. If this theory turned out to be true it would not only be an interesting plot-twist but would also be an interesting foil for Luffy.
Luffy is a boy who is growing up to become a man (in the Pirate King), his Gear 5 form represents the limitless imagination, joy and freedom of a child and has an optimistic point of view of life. Imu, on the other hand, could be an adult trapped in the body of a child who has lived for 800 years, rules the world from the shadows and does so with a system that oppresses others, his powers seem to represent terror and nightmares, and could also have a cruel or indifferent point of view of life.
Luffy, the boy who, despite becoming a man, retains his inner child. Imu, who despite being in the body of a child, is an adult who has lived so long that he lost his inner child.
Some time ago I made a post where I said that Imu would be a very good and interesting contrast for Luffy and both this post and the chapter 1060 on which it focuses show more clearly the contrast between Luffy, the future Pirate King and Imu, the current King of the World.
Isn't it "funny" that Imu destroys Lulusia in the same chapter where Luffy happily talks with his crew about what is at the end of his dream?
Like, you see this.....
...and after a few pages you have this
I think, if this is no coincidence (which likely isn't, Oda wouldn't randomly put all of these specific scenes in the same chapter), it could be taken as another proof that at the end of Luffy's dream of becoming the pirate king there is something bigger than that, something like maybe uniting the whole world under his crew, the whole world being one "crew" of friends (literally a one piece of friendship lol) and of course Imu stands in the way of it, because they want to keep the world divided into four seas, various nations with social and racial differences fueling hate against each other (instead of directing it towards the ACTUAL enemy).
Imu's style is surely divide et impera, while Luffy wants everyone to be free and happy. I also think ultimately the concept of "one piece" will be applied to the whole world, the Red Line will cease to exist and so all the separations and divisions it symbolises, not just physically as one huge mountain in a world of sea but also as the house of Celestial Dragons and World Government
Since it was revealed to us that the sapphire scales disease that Bonney inherited from her mother Ginny is incurable, a theory popped into my mind: what if Kuma turned into a cyborg to save Bonney?
Don't forget that the paw-paw fruit can repel anything from the target's body so Kuma probably repelled the disease from Bonney's body and absorbed it into her body so that it wouldn't come back to Bonney. Later, he would ask Vegapunk to turn him into a cyborg so that the disease couldn't affect him.
i just can't believe that oda fucking create sanji, a stereotypical ladies man who simps to an embarrassing degree for women while having his hackles comically raised around everyone he perceives as a man - and most notably butting heads with the more obvious ~manly man~ of the crew. haha, classic anime running gag, the kind that gets obnoxious at times but still makes you laugh.
AND THEN, like a billion chapters later, motherfucker steeples his fingers and goes "soooooooo... what makes a person Like That?"
and the answer is that he grew up in fucking Toxic Masculinity, The Kingdom. the answer is that he was always Different, in a way other guys instinctively perceived as weak, and that made him the target of visceral scorn and violence. the answer is that he was sensitive, sweet, caring, nurturing - feminine-coded traits which are only valued by patriarchy insofar that they're performed by women in service of men. the answer is that in a kingdom comprised almost entirely by violent men, the only ones who were ever kind to him, the only safety he ever had, were a girl and a woman.
so cooking is for women and servants, it makes you less of a man. only women will ever really value you for your passions and dreams. women are also actively hurt by the way the world works, they are unsafe unless they comply with men's violence, and you have to protect them.
(men will always know what you are, and they will hurt you if you let them.)
and even after he leaves... at baratie he is cherished and respected, but even that is an extremely masculine environment. we don't talk about our feelings, we don't let our guard down, the only love is tough love. when he tries to express his artistry and express himself through his cooking, rather than just filling orders and making money, he gets mocked.
so here is a man who will not raise a hand to a woman, because he rejects the masculinity he was raised with and refuses to become yet another man subjecting women to violence. he is desperate for women's attention and affection because it's SAFE, it's the only kind he can trust. other men are potential threats and must be treated as such. he must at all times be snarky, tough, Not Feminine, because to be perceived otherwise is to be powerless, to be hurt.
like y'all. the queer coding of it all? the overtly feminist themes? the active rejection of toxic masculinity and the way it's shown to be directly tied to imperialism? what the fuck.
Hello, it's me again. Back on my bullshit. as per this post
This one is about to sound even more conspiracy theorist but hey we ride or we die 🤷🏿♀️
but yeah, I just learnt that Mihawk and Shanks are both Pisces. and Pisces are associated with Yin and Yang which you know famous for equal balance a good month to give two famously, equal rivals.
But also if we take Red as their main color my good people I ask what would you say their supporting colors are? 🤔
That's right Mihawk's is black Shanks' is white bing bang boom Yin and Yang ladies and gentlemen. Not to mention they have the dot Shank's coat is black while Mihawk has his pasty white skin, and oh his trousers are usually colored white in the manga(so is his kogatana apparently. Apparently Toei just likes the way gold looks on Mihawk)
also as @manofbeskar pointed out Shanks' jorts (spiritually) are flower patterned but not just any flower, Roses! guess who also likes roses. Also the coat Mihawk wear when he actually deigns to wear a shirt is eerily similar to Shanks' and the only other person I can remember that wears a coat like that besides Shanks is Luffy who is also tied to Shanks so do with that what you will
so yeah there we have it; I have no idea what any of this could mean but I'm having fun.
honestly I'm just spiraling at the idea that Oda might actually never reveal anything about their connection 😭 I would actually die if that happened.
Was thinking about this lovely comment that @manofbeskar left me "(+ blackbeard thing, me and my dad were saying if bb hurts/kills shanks, there's a chance mihawk will go after him)"
And not to put on my theory glasses
but it unknowingly triggered my biggest fear that I didn't even know I had. What if blackbeard killing Shanks and Mihawk hearing about it is what triggers the flashback into his backstory. What if that happens and it actually kills me? What then?
What fresh devil's deal is this?
Because like I got what I wanted Mihawk deep dive yay! But at what cost? Aren't some prices simply too high?
And I think we can all tell that we are gearing up for a Red Hair pirated Blackbeard Pirates confrontation (also isn't it neat that all three men involved in this whitebeard, blackboard, red hair, are all memorialized by their haircolor? Pretty fucking neat) But we also know that Shanks isn't going to beat blackboard Luffy, the protagonist has to do that! So it's reasonable to think that either the red hair pirates are shattered like what happened with Law and Shanks is gravely injured or Shanks dies and the red hair pirates have to regroup and probably partner up with the strawhats or something. but yeah if Shanks' death triggers Mihawk's backstory I think I'd be legally obligated to fly to Japan and attempt to fistfight Oda.
The Seraphim & The Concept of Self
I wonder who picked the Seraphim's outfits cause at first glance when you only look at S-Hawk and S-Snake it feels like there's a standard uniform. then you see the whole group and there's definitely some individuality going on; like S-Bear just wearing a mini kuma outfit, S-Shark with the gi, my man Moria got a little suspender situation going on over there. S-mingo wearing a whole ass hawain shirt. So there's definitely some variety though they all incorporate white in some way. And I wonder if maybe they got some input into what they wore one of the only acts of "free will" they were allowed was choosing whether they wore shorts or long pants which is as adorable as it is sad.
Because think about the implications that they are dressed to the taste of their adult counterparts, right down to how doffy and mihawk like to open their shirts (except for S-Snake which thank god) but yeah what if it wasn't an allowance of free will but a test to see just how deep DNA ran. If it could influence something as simple as choice of clothing, just another fact for Vega punk to marvel at.
Or maybe the clothes were chosen by one of the Vega punks (I can imagine Shaka doing it) or one of the other various lab assistants. And it's just another way to get them to embody the warlords, to reinforce who they were cloned to be, impressing on them that they are not their own people, their lives are not their own. They are already predetermined; from what powers they get, to what weapons they use, even down to what clothes they wear. Everything reinforces that they are not people, just "better" "stronger" versions of someone else.
Either way, and It might have not have been purposely meant that way because I'm pretty sure Vega punk doesn't really register them as human (which is weird cause he treats stussy very humanly and a whole other can of worms seeing as they seem to be aware and possess a personality to some capacity) it's another way of dehumanizing them, reducing them to the people they are meant to become. They have no "free will" no illusion of choice; they have a predetermined destiny, a pre-determined order, there was never any room for choice even down to the shirts on their back.
The Seraphim & The Concept of Self
I wonder who picked the Seraphim's outfits cause at first glance when you only look at S-Hawk and S-Snake it feels like there's a standard uniform. then you see the whole group and there's definitely some individuality going on; like S-Bear just wearing a mini kuma outfit, S-Shark with the gi, my man Moria got a little suspender situation going on over there. S-mingo wearing a whole ass hawain shirt. So there's definitely some variety though they all incorporate white in some way. And I wonder if maybe they got some input into what they wore one of the only acts of "free will" they were allowed was choosing whether they wore shorts or long pants which is as adorable as it is sad.
Because think about the implications that they are dressed to the taste of their adult counterparts, right down to how doffy and mihawk like to open their shirts (except for S-Snake which thank god) but yeah what if it wasn't an allowance of free will but a test to see just how deep DNA ran. If it could influence something as simple as choice of clothing, just another fact for Vega punk to marvel at.
Or maybe the clothes were chosen by one of the Vega punks (I can imagine Shaka doing it) or one of the other various lab assistants. And it's just another way to get them to embody the warlords, to reinforce who they were cloned to be, impressing on them that they are not their own people, their lives are not their own. They are already predetermined; from what powers they get, to what weapons they use, even down to what clothes they wear. Everything reinforces that they are not people, just "better" "stronger" versions of someone else.
Either way, and It might have not have been purposely meant that way because I'm pretty sure Vega punk doesn't really register them as human (which is weird cause he treats stussy very humanly and a whole other can of worms seeing as they seem to be aware and possess a personality to some capacity) it's another way of dehumanizing them, reducing them to the people they are meant to become. They have no "free will" no illusion of choice; they have a predetermined destiny, a pre-determined order, there was never any room for choice even down to the shirts on their back.