And Again

Sauron and Melkor crafting Maedhros' manacle

Full credit to @solsolange who created this gorgeous masterpiece, and who gave me permission to post it here.

Fanart of Weep and Be Burned, ch8

Dune AU

Princess of Zaun

LawLu and why it works (for me)

I recently engaged in @sungd ‘s post that was asking what was the appeal of lawlu and it really got me thinking/ hyper fixating on this ship more so I wanted to voice more of my thoughts on it!

Yeah the age gap is weird because it’s like a 7 year age difference so I see why folks are put off by this ship. HOWEVER, the reason why it doesn’t bother me as much is because of their personalities.

I’m gonna focus more on Law since he is the older of the two and that seems to be where people get hung up!

This will probably be long but bear with me there is a point! 😂 And if you don’t want to read all this either that is completely fine!

Ok here we go!

Law despite how he wants to be perceived, is actually a pretty respectful and honest guy. We get glimpses of this even from Sabaody where he gives the credit of freeing Jean Bart to Luffy rather than himself, despite it being him who cuts off Jean Bart’s chains and asking him to join his crew.

This happens again when he literally jumps into an active war zone to save a rival captain who he doesn’t really know at all. And rather than boast about it to Luffy’s allies, he just quietly stays in the corner and doesn’t even accept their gratitude for saving Luffy’s life. He even says that Luffy and co don’t owe him anything because he did this on a whim. Coming from someone who is framed as one of Luffy’s rival and also depicted as being sadistic and cruel, it is weird how Law doesn’t rub it in anyone’s face that HE was the one who saved Luffy and that Luffy and the rest of them owe him.

Even meeting up with Luffy again after the time skip, rather than Law force Luffy and his crew to help him take down Doflamingo because of some perceived debt, Law asks Luffy to form an alliance to take down Kaido. If Luffy had said no I get the feeling that Law would just accept it and continue his plan on his own. He never brings up how he saved Luffy as leverage or in general and again when Luffy thanks him for it, Law brushes him off and says that Luffy doesn’t owe him anything.

Like you literally save someone’s life and they don’t owe you???

And then we have Dressrosa where we get a lot of info on Law and why he is the way he is and why he hates Doflamingo. After suffering the way he has suffered, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if he was a cruel person because the world has not been kind to him. But he was saved by someone who was goofy, and kind, and saw him for what he was, which was a hurt child.

And he willingly shares all this information with Luffy, who resembles Corazon A LOT.

For me there are two crucial points in Dressrosa that really show just how much Law respects Luffy and even the crew itself.

The first one is his speech to Doflamingo, where he tells Doflamingo that he will lose because Luffy and his crew have performed nothing but miracles since they have been at sea. Despite Law being completely brutalized by Doflamingo and despite him wanting to be the one to take down Doflamingo, his faith is completely in Luffy, going as far as to call him and his friend’s miracle workers.

To me, this implies that Law has been following Luffy’s journey for a while which isn’t so far fetched but it also implies that Law has a great respect for Luffy and his crew that has been growing with each feat they accomplish. Notice how I use the word respect because we are not at the love stage.

The second crucial moment, for me personally, is when Law refuses to leave the vicinity of the battlefield despite him losing an arm and bleeding out. I remember when I first read what he said I was so shocked because it was so honorable in a way that we have only seen by Luffy’s crew and by people like Bon Clay and Jinbei.

The fact that Law wanted to stay and watch Luffy beat Doflamingo and if he didn’t beat him then he wanted to die with him because he would see it as his fault. The fact that he states that Luffy and his crew wouldn’t be in this situation had he not asked them to is something that has always stuck with me because it’s so… like idk I can’t find the word I am looking for but it just speaks “honorable” to me and it shows just how deeply Law respects Luffy and his crew. Like it just made me like Law even more because it showed that he CARES about people and that he avoids inconveniencing people as much as he can.

And what Robin says afterwards is, to me, what makes this ship work. This is verbatim from the manga but Robin tells him “Traffy, The captains in an alliance stand on equal ground! Luffy is here of his own will. He doesn’t participate in a fight unless he wants to.” And I think. This statement applies to Luffy’s approach to life in general. Luffy is all about freedom. Nobody can chain him down or make him do anything that he doesn’t want to do. Luffy is his own person and he has such a strong personality/ will that nobody can force him into anything he doesn’t like.

So when people try to make it seem as if this ship is predatory strictly because of the age difference, I understand why they feel that way but I would politely disagree because Luffy is NOT the kind of person who will allow himself to be in that situation and Law is NOT the type of person who would put another in that situation. Especially when you take into account Law’s backstory and hatred of Doflamingo. Law would never want to be compared to nor would he want to emulate someone like that. Also while they met pre-timeskip there was literally nothing there. Like to me this ship didn’t start until Punk Hazard.

And if we really want to talk about predatory then Boa Hancock simping for a 17 year old Luffy when she was 29? Yikes!

Anyway…

For me personally, I think if we were really to pinpoint when feelings would develop between them, I would say AFTER Dressrosa. Probably not towards Zou nor while they are on Zou. Law had too much going on in his head during Punk Hazard and Dressrosato even consider Luffy in any other light other than ally. After the defeat of Doflamingo, I think it would take some time for him to sit with his feelings on EVERYTHING and once he sorted through that then he might start thinking about how he views Luffy. If I were to say when that view would start, it would probable be when Luffy was on Whole Cake Island.

Either way, after thinking more about this ship, I am starting to like it more! Sorry for this long info dump! I hope it made some sense!

Rkgk

something something grabbable waist

animal crossing x resident evil