Tim: *drops Food By Accident*

What about ‘far too young to die, far too old to live.’ For the fic ask game?

Definitely Tim! A study of his non-aging and how so much has happened to him yet he's not allowed to pass his teen years. He's eighteen and hey, his little brother is fourteen now. Remember when he was six years younger than him? Tim was sixteen for, um, fifteen years? He thinks? He's seen countless of his loved ones die and move on and age and grow and he's eighteen. He's eighteen and he can't die, it won't let him die, they will not let him die, but they won't let him live either, and he's so so tired. He's so tired, but he's Robin! (He. He left Robin behind didn't he? Isn't Damian Robin? Why are there two Robins? Why did he go back?) Robin doesn't give up. Robin doesn't die, except when he did and she did and he did and he did and wow, Tim's the only one that hasn't died? Maybe he wants to die. Maybe he doesn't want to be Robin. Maybe he wants to be Nightwing or Batgirl or- or, maybe even Batman! (No. Not Batman. He's seen what happens when he's Batman.) But, please, he wants to live, but everyone keeps going back, regressing, forgetting what they've been through together, who they are, and Tim too, but suddenly they're back to normal and it's like nothing ever happened. And Tim's the only one that knows. He's too young to die. He's too old to live. He wants. He's stuck in a funny kind of limbo, isn't he?

...

He's so tired. He's so, so tired.

So. Hear 5. Nika. Loony Tunes Luffy, if you will. Tell us your thoughts on him and any potential meta? 👀 I’ve been aching to hear it from you since we first saw him go Full Silly Boy.

it's hard to answer this, because i have so many thoughts. i'm just going to try and start from the biggest points and move down.

i like gear five a lot, and i think this development feels very appropriate as a culmination of both luffy's character and the themes of one piece as a whole because of how it interacts with three extremely dominant motifs that have reoccurred throughout the story: freedom, laughter, and the sun.

from the very beginning of the story, luffy has acted, in small ways and big, as an agent of complete freedom. from his first meeting with coby to his breakout at impel down to the liberation of wano, what luffy does is destroy systems that control and oppress, if only because they are in his way. every strawhat is somehow trapped and held back from pursuing their own dreams when they meet luffy, and he frees them all, along with hundreds of others along the way, whether he's inspiring shirahoshi to venture outside or crushing yamato's manacles. his talent for this has always seemed almost preternatural.

luffy is not necessarily a benevolent person; he doesn't care much about helping people in the abstract. he's selfish. he values freedom for freedom's own sake, not because of any greater moral convictions. he doesn't think much about the negative knock-on effects of things like causing a mass breakout at impel down, and he doesn't really go around seeking out downtrodden and oppressed people to free out of a charitable or selfless instinct, nor does he really do anything because it's the right thing to do. he's dismissive of the idea that he might be a hero.

but because he is a completely uncontrollable free agent, and he doesn't really want anything but for himself and everyone he cares about to be completely free, he constantly collides with the systems of oppression that control his world, and when those collisions happen, it is the systems that fail, time and time again, because oppressive systems always do eventually. they can't withstand the light of day. and because he lives completely confidently and unapologetically, he is constantly inspiring others to do the same.

so by the time we are told about nika for the first time, we already know that what nika is said to do is what we've seen luffy doing for more than a thousand chapters: he frees people, and inspires them, and makes them laugh.

i also find luffy-as-nika to be very interesting and thematically appropriate when positioned in opposition to the various antagonists in one piece who have declared themselves to be gods, frequently some of its most tyrannical and oppressive villains- enel, the celestial dragons, doflamingo. all enslave and imprison people, robbing them of their freedom.

nika is a god of slaves, and a creature of liberation. the natural enemy, as rosinante might say, of that sort of megalomaniacal 'god.'

one piece has also consistently connected the theme of freedom, as embodied through luffy, with the sun since very early on. the sun pirates, former slaves, used the symbol of the sun to wipe away the brand of the celestial dragons. (and aren't i curious to know what jinbei might know about nika- he never did answer who's who's question about it.) the fishmen more broadly view the sun as something to be reached when they are truly free. on wano, the coming dawn is understood as the coming liberation. impel down and the florian triangle, places of indefinite imprisonment, are lightless dungeons where the sun doesn't reach. the sun is freedom.

and luffy has always been thoroughly sun associated, from the visual of his hat to his origin on dawn island in the east blue, to his ship, the thousand sunny.

finally, one piece has always placed a great deal of emphasis on smiles and laughter (laugh tale, joy boy, roger laughed, etc)- but that joy must be real. it can't be forced. we're told again and again, through koala, dressrosa's toys, and most obviously the victims of the failed SMILE fruits, that to force someone to smile, denying them the right to cry, is nothing less than an atrocity. people can't be forced to be happy- they should be happy because they're free.

luffy in gear five is laughing nigh-constantly, but it's just because he's having so much fun. unlike the victims of the SMILE fruits, his endless joy is genuine, because in this form, he is completely free- nobody can stop him, and nobody can control him. as he says himself, he can do whatever he wants.

i know that some people felt this moment was in some way a deus ex machina, but it just didn't feel that way to me, because of how well it plays on the story's established themes and trajectory, as well as concepts like devil fruit awakening having been established hundreds of chapters back.

luffy is the sun, the sun is freedom, freedom is joy. i think it makes total sense.

This fucking hurts??

Little Ani hiding behind Master Obi-Wan after causing chaos somewhere in the Temple

Based on this tweet thread it gave me a serious case of rotten teeth from all the cuteness

Maids, cleaners, janitors, and sanitation workers are all the most important people of civilization by far. Even 12 hours without them is VERY noticable and they simply need to be highly compensated for it

chinese college girls slay (cr: 哭天喊地六仙女）

"batmans only superpower is that he's rich"

no actually it's his empathy and kindness and his desire to always help people in need fuck you

FEMBOY OBI-WAN IS CANON TO MEEEEEEEEEE

anyone please ask your crush out like this