I Feel Bad For Lin Ling, But My Brain Demands Angst. Or The Horrors. Miss J Said That Nice's Fans Have

luffy’s colours being white & red and zoro’s colours being black & green is so perfect to me.

white and black, they directly link to lightness and darkness. it relates to luffy’s relation to the sun god, his angelic gear 5 form, his vastly kind personality and unburdened joy. whereas that darkness relates to zoro’s sinister fighting style, ‘king of hell’ and the demonic references integrated from the beginning of his character to present. his capability for deadly aggression and more serious tone.

yet contrarily we have red and green. red, the colour of blood and fire, passion and warning, it is boldness as a colour, and often used in a way to represent urgency. like luffy, his goal steers his everyday, he is driven and determined, terrifying and powerful. his gear 5 red eyes sting in the memories of enemies, luffy is boldness and passion. and we have green; peace, nature and luck. zoro and his passiveness, his gentle relationship with the people he loves, his tendency to sleep through the day and protect when no one is awake. zoro has a distinct softness to him that, in my mind, is best described as mundane tranquility. zoro is green like grass swaying in the spring time breeze, he is peace.

they are opposites, they are two halves of a whole. where luffy is light and heaven, zoro is sinister and demonic. where luffy is danger, zoro is peace. they fit like a jigsaw, completing each other, while it is the fact they are opposites that allows them to fit so seamlessly.

luffy’s light and zoro’s green interact on a personal basis, gentle and happy, heaven and peace. luffy’s red and zoro’s darkness meet on the battlefield as unstoppable and terrifying allies, danger and hell.

their associated colours intertwine as perfectly as they do as characters, i really love it so much.

I’m ready. I’m ready for my ZoLu jealousy rant. Part 1 of 2.

[BTW, this rant is also a behind-the-scenes look at the madness that came over me when I wrote the unsubtly titled fic, “Four Times Zoro Did Not Get Jealous (and the One Time Sanji Confronted Him About It).” Prior reading of the fic is not necessary for enjoyment of my insanity analysis.]

At its core, I believe jealousy arises from 1. a special regard and 2. insecurity. You don’t get jealous over someone you don’t care about. And if you’re confident in the other person’s feelings for you, there’s not much to be jealous about.

With our resident swordsman, he definitely holds Luffy in high regard, meaning there would be reason to feel jealous over Luffy. The question then becomes, has Zoro ever been given a reason to feel insecure about his place in Luffy’s life?

My stance on this is a solid NO.

I believe Zoro knows his worth, partly because he has ALWAYS worked hard to earn his place beside Luffy. He trains constantly and goes above and beyond to do everything he can to stay by Luffy’s side and be Luffy’s “wing.” And Luffy has shown time and time again that he trusts Zoro implicitly in pretty much everything except for directions. Zoro is Luffy’s voice of reason, moral support, enabler, and rabid attack dog rolled into one muscular package. Luffy appreciates the crap out of Zoro, and he has never hesitated to show it. He calls for Zoro first, is always delighted to see him, and gives Zoro the Sabo face-glomp treatment (TM) after just two weeks apart. Yes, all Straw Hats are created equal, but I’ll fight every One Piece fan to defend my view that in the eyes of canon Luffy, Zoro may just be a tad more special.

My point is, Luffy has never given Zoro a reason to be jealous, and Zoro is secure enough in his position within Luffy’s life that he doesn’t feel threatened by anyone else. He’s been petty, sure, like his insistence that he is worth twice as many men as Sanji, but I do think that is just Zoro’s competitiveness. Because why on earth would Zoro be jealous over Luffy? Who can even come between them??!

Don’t get me wrong, I like to indulge in a jealous Zoro fic any time. In fact, if you know any, send a link my way pls! At my core, however, I don’t think Zoro is the jealous type. Not over Luffy at least. Shippers of other Zoro pairings? You do you.

However! There’s always a caveat. I do believe Zoro gets possessive, but in the way that all Straw Hats get possessive over Luffy. Because Luffy is theirs. And when Luffy nearly kills himself to save a whole kingdom, I think they get a little protective over their captain, and they’d want to keep him to themselves for a while. Ultimately, they know they can’t. Luffy is meant for the world to love, and all the Straw Hats know this. Zoro knows this more than anyone, having been THE FIRST.

So at the end of an adventure, when the fight is over and adrenaline leaves him, I think Zoro frets and anguishes so much that he wants to lock up his captain in a room where nobody else can take another piece of him, because Luffy has given enough, dammit. But Zoro doesn’t do that, because Luffy would not want him to.

In summary, the conclusion of my book report is that no, Zoro doesn’t get jealous.

(But what about Luffy?! That’s coming in Part 2. I need to first write another 1000 words of my next fic.)

(I’m allowing myself one rant for every 1,000 words I write. It’s partly self-motivation, but mainly it’s a preventative measure against how annoying my ZoLu brainworm is becoming.)

It is terrifying that I’ve been shipping ZoLu longer than some of y’all have been alive. I don’t recall how I got so old.

But I am glad for the chance to experience One Piece and ZoLu slowly through the years and view them from different stages of my own life. Because when I was a young adult, they were just silly boys who got along and matched each other’s crazy. Then I grew up, got married, and realized Zoro and Luffy’s CANONICAL relationship is actually one that I want to have with my own spouse. Allow me to rant explain:

Loyalty is, of course, probably the number one aspect of their relationship that all fans can agree on. Trust is possibly a second. You can’t have a long-lasting relationship of any type without either. Sure, they take it an extra EXTRA mile with all the almost-dying and you-and-me-versus-the-world shit, but the general point stands.

If you dive deeper, they’re also best friends. They enjoy the same crazy adventures, know when to let loose, share the same values, tease each other (without malice), support each other in their goals, and watch each other’s back. Their personalities might be different, but their friendship is SOLID.

Then you dive even DEEPER, and you realize they’re also PARTNERS. When one of them faces a tough challenge, the other will step in and help shoulder the burden (Duel with Mihawk; Usopp’s departure; and yes, it did in fact drive me insane when Luffy took a nap while fighting Kaido because Zoro was there to buy him time.) When Zoro wants to pursue something, Luffy fights for his freedom to go after it (duel with T-Bone). When Luffy needs a sanity check, Zoro is there to provide it, and Luffy ACTUALLY LISTENS! (Punk Hazard, you’ll always be famous.)

It sometimes baffles my mind how non-problematic Zoro and Luffy’s marriage relationship is. Although as Sanji points out in a recent chapter, Zoro does enable Luffy too much and that might not be great for their health, but hey, he just wants to spoil his captain with fun adventures, okay?!?

I guess the point of today’s rant is: if you’re gonna get hitched for life, I hope your relationship is as solid as the one between Luffy and Zoro.

[I really want to rant about the role of jealousy in ZoLu. Gotta write another 1,000 words! I’m pumped!]

Not me scrolling through the Conclave tag only to see no one talk about the deliberate positioning and framing of the women in this movie.

Pulling up this movie I completely expected to only encounter Sister Agnes as the one woman we see in the trailer, the conclave a space that has been kept from the female members of the church. Now, color me surprised when I started the movie and most of the establishing shots we got were focused on all the women working in the Vatican.

And it is such a deliberate choice, it does the film a disservice not to talk about it.

Because while Cardinal Lawrence is having his fifteenth breakdown during sequestering and Bellini finds the ambitious asshole within himself, Ray does all the leg work, and Bel---- we see the women work.

We see the kitchens, we see them cook, we see them stand aside. Most of the time when the Cardinals are conspiring it is the women who interrupt because they are busy working, walking, running errands.

And there is power in that.

I think it is very deliberate how often (and with such lingering gaze) the camera shows us the lives of the other half - partially to connect to the wider themes of the movie, on how Bellini asks for women to get more power but never thanks them, and how Benitez stumps them all by thanking the women preparing their meals when asked to say the prayer (considering his own probably tumultuous relationship to gender within the church).

But it also stands in direct opposition to a long tradition in story telling: servants don't exist. How often the heroes of a regency romance are "alone" because the two hand maidens and three maids don't really count.

Conclave doesn't do that.

It doesn't let us look away.

Between all the petty drama, the politics, and the real life consequences of the conclave, we never stop looking at the people doing all the work.

Yes, we follow the ups and downs of Lawrence and Co, but in doing so the movie reminds us again and again of the women working the kitchen.

And that was just such a powerful artistic choice in a movie about a famously misogynistic church... I loved it. And I had to talk about it.

okay, so i've yapped a lot about how umemiya and kaji relate to sakura's character development as a leader and now i want to yap about how his personal growth is mirrored in nirei (+suo).

at the beginning of the series, sakura and nirei were functionally polar opposites: sakura was physically strong, but was out of touch with his social and emotional skills, whereas nirei had strength in social and emotional intelligence, but was physically weak.

when sakura first met nirei, he formed a negative opinion based on what he could see that he would soon retract. it's hard to see inner strength at a glance, just like how it's hard to track the growth of one's inner strength, especially in a fighting series.

what isn't hard to track in a series like wind breaker is physical strength, which is where nirei's arc comes in.

nirei's journey in becoming physically stronger is running parallel to sakura's journey to build his emotional strength, meaning that nirei's growth in physical strength is a direct, visual representation of sakura's growth in emotional strength.

and the person who is largely shepherding these two in their respective journeys? suo.

suo not only helps translate emotional/social situations to sakura (and also sakura's emotions to others) thus helping him navigate those conflicts, but he is also nirei's literal fighting instructor.

he also sometimes has to guide nirei on how to interact with sakura since they're so opposite from each other, which does suggest a personal familiarity with both sakura and nirei's mindsets. (we don't know much about suo yet, but if i had to wager a guess, i would say that he started out both physically and emotionally weak, which would be why he has such a deep understanding of sakura and nirei.)

from what i can see, these three are a really well-crafted trio and i'm excited to see where the series takes them.

My interpretation of original Nice so far (as of episode 3). I feel like the Nice that was around before he became a hero was a perfectionist, sure, what idol personality doesn't strive to show a picture of perfection. He probably enjoyed dancing and music, but he was still a person. So I suspect he had some selfish tendencies, not because I think he was 'evil' or anything, but when you live under the constant pressure of trying to make yourself the best person you can be it tends to seep out in little ways. I also think we can expect hints of a pretty insecure person hiding in there.

And with all of the heroes we've seen so far the powers they have are based on things they did/they're personalities before they became heroes. It almost feels like their powers may have originally manifested by their faith in 'themselves' as opposed to needing outside validation.

And (I'm projecting a little bit onto Nice here) when you start expecting perfection of yourself and get rewarded for people pleasing, you tend to lean into it. It becomes all you are, you cast off pieces of yourself and keep quiet about all of the things that annoy, anger, scare, or hurt you. You lose touch with who you really are until all that is left is the compulsion to be what 'others' need. This type of labor is exhausting and isolating. It can lead to burn out. You retreat from those you were closest to because suddenly it's too much to be around them. You find yourself feeling bitter and angry at them for having problems and issues. You probably tried bossing them around saying 'well if you do this 'x' can be resolved' All while knowing that any misstep can lead to others receiving you negatively. Which then feeds self hatred. I bet Nice told those closest to him (if there is only one other Nice before Lin Ling) that he wasn't 'nice' as in not kind. Because if he was kind he wouldn't be so angry and miserable just helping those around him. He wouldn't feel trapped by his role of being a hero. He wouldn't be obsessed with his image. He should feel fulfilled in his career and life, but he isn't.

And lastly, when you expect to be perfect, it truly is the worst thing when you are shown you have failed someone, that you couldn't uphold yourself to your own impossible standards. And suddenly you have no purpose, no goal, no worth. You don't ask for help because you can't. And you start to want to end it. Because you don't think 'perfection is an unachievable standard' you start to believe it is the only standard.

The amount of people calling nightwing pretty boy is actually insane like

He will literally shove his escrima into someone’s ears, electrocute them, and then give em a round house kick for good measure and somebody in the distance will be like, “who’s the pretty boy?”

My favorite thing about reading Dicks thought process vs literally how everyone else views him.

This is the least exaggerated version of this I will willing produce.

-older gen JL: thinks wing is dependable, charming, intelligent and a great leader, impressed how much he’s grown and how well he’s done in the hero world

Heroes his age: the golden standard that everyone tries to match up to and fails at one point in their sidekick-hood before accepting yeah I’m not Dick Grayson and having him lead them in a hero team. The defacto person to look towards in a crisis situation, manages tasks efficiently and doesn’t let personal details affect him. He’s cool, calm and collected while still being the most empathetic man on the planet.

Heroes younger than him: straight up awe. if the heroes who saw his awkward teenage phase, discowing and are privy to his love life info. How do you think people who just saw ‘Mr perfect’ without any of the painful growth to get there and since about 9 billion things have happened since Dick was Robin people have too much to talk about to ever bring it up. I see their thought processes going something like this

-oh my god is that nightwing like THE nightwing like Robins big brother nightwing like the leader of the titans nightwing is he looking at me oh my god he smiled at me wtf wtf wtf until they hyperventilate

(Source how Kow talks about dick Grayson like 99% of the time- ignore all Dan Dido works )

Batkids: awe with a side of insecurity bc that’s the gold standard and how tf are you supposed to get there. Even if you’re an amazing fighter like Cass, the leadership skills, ability to talk people down, make more allies than enemies, infiltrate, lie, cheat, steal, put on a million different masks and come out whole.

How does he know what he’s doing? How does he look so calm and collected when the worlds ending

Batman and Superman (remember when they co-parented in the 60s yeah me neither): like uncomfortable amounts of pride like the type of pride that feels too big for your chest as well as implicit trust.

For B specifically Dick is his crowing achievement as Batman

VS

Dick Grayson at any given moment pre Tom Taylor run: everything is my fault, I suck at everything, I’m never good enough to stop bad things from happening to the people I love it’s all my fault and I will never be able to stop it. My life is an accidental trolly problem except I didn’t know it when I started, I didn’t mean to press any levers I didn’t know what I was doing I am a burden who must make himself useful as an apology.

Like Dick is in a constant spiral of how much he hates his limits and how he just isn’t ever going to be strong,fast,smart or good enough while everyone is staring at him with heart eyes like omg it’s nightwing <3

today i am thinking about zoro and luffy both having two constantly depicted scars. one on their eye each and one on their chest each. so intrinsically intertwined they have matching mortal wounds.

and i know it’s silly, and coincidental, but i like to think it symbolises them understanding each other more and more as time passes.

zoro got his chest scar clambering and falling on the way to his dream, being defeated by mihawk so easily then swearing to never lose again. and luffy who got his chest scar clambering and falling in a different way. they understood ultimate defeat respectively, loss and something that hit, quite literally, over the heart. their chest scars are their most important reminders of strength, the need for it. and loss, the need to avoid it.

and then luffy, who’s eye scar is a self-inflicted wound as he tried to convince shanks he could be a pirate too- he was strong enough. and zoro who got his eye scar during the timeskip, in a way we still don’t completely know, in the height of his self loathing for not being strong enough. they both got the scars around their eyes for the future ahead of them, and in trying desperately to get there. luffy asking shanks to take him onboard, and zoro asking mihawk to train him. the scars around their eyes are ground zeroes, an ask, a plea, complete determination.

one piece started and zoro quickly learned to understand loss, knew loss, while luffy would learn loss so deeply in marineford. one piece started and luffy understood the need helpless desperation, growing up with shanks refusing him. and zoro learned that later, so horribly, after thriller bark turned into the sabaody incident turned into marineford where he couldn’t do anything.

zoro and luffy understand each other so completely, they’re soulmates. but there are still parts of themselves which are obscured, different, simply because they are two different people with two different histories. and those things that are missing come with age, experience or being together. they understand one another more each day, somehow that’s possible, and i think their scars are a good example of it. them learning things which they may not have understood before, connecting to parts of each other they may not have connected to before.

I agree with your points about how Suo and Sakura fool each other super well! I also love how differently they approach problems when a plan is needed. Like how Sakura tends to jump in headfirst, but when a plan is really needed he turns to Suo and trusts him to handle it. And Suo’s plans for protecting the bridge were legitimately brilliant, showing how correct Sakura was to trust him with it. (Seriously, Suo’s talent for strategy that goes beyond even their normal one on one fights and into planning out giant group fights is insanely impressive and I somehow never really see anyone mention that) But I just love that while being foils of each other they also support each other where they can and become much stronger for it

Going off on a tangent here, but Suo’s intelligence has to be one of my favorite parts of his character.

A little detail I like is how he references Japanese mediums of storytelling:

But the best example of Suo’s sheer intellect is during the Tsubaki chapters.

When Suo talks about the significance of Yui planting the dogwood tree, he first explains it’s Hanakotoba (Japanese flower language).

However, the “Am I indifferent to you” definition is not part of the dogwood tree’s flower language. In fact, Suo actually refers to this custom from the 19th century:

As Yui was the one who planted the tree (rather than Ito, the male), she (the woman) conveys that her feelings towards her husband are not of indifference despite his prior belief. Since this was a tradition from the Victorian Era (which predominantly took place in the United Kingdom and its colonies), Suo explains the meaning in English rather than Japanese.

And as you’ve mentioned here, Furin would’ve been cooked by Noroshi’s massive numbers if Suo didn’t come up with their main strategy. Additionally, Sakura would’ve never worked with Sugishita or realize that he can’t fight alongside other people properly if it wasn’t Suo who had guided him.

Because of Suo’s guidance, Sakura was able to take down enemies with Sugishita and fight well during the first half of Noroshi. In a way, Suo is the brains to Sakura’s brawn (and Nirei would be the heart).