Goodnight, tonight Luffy did everything he could think of to make Zoro laugh because after not seeing him for two years he missed hearing Zoro's laugh, watching his body shake with it and his dimples showing as his face stretch with his smile. And Zoro, who was simply delighted to see his captain, couldn't hold his smile in.
happy new year eve ! ! !
Then:
Now:
zoro and/or luffy being given a norse funeral, sent out to sea on a flimsy dinghy boat. everything ending exactly how it began
Here’s the first half of slides from my comic class on Lettering!
Rest of the slides: https://gingersnappish.tumblr.com/post/616487287636803584/the-rest-of-the-comic-lettering-slides-first
I've been thinking that every time Inosuke is in the forest, he sees a resemblance to Tanjiro in the usual gifts of the forest
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 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.
old man zolu and the contrast between their combat and domestic life. i adore it so dearly.
the king of the pirates and the world's greatest swordsman; something so regularly mentioned yet something i never sit with and truly dwell on how powerful that is. to be incomparable in the one piece universe, to sit atop every enemy without question, and to sit there together? that’s unquantifiably strong. powerful in the way rayleigh's name alone evokes a fear and respect that shakes whoever hears it, causes even the most spontaneous and arrogant characters' movements to halt, to re-question their decision to fight. they will be that and so much more.
but then, the domestic side. days spent in each other's arms on the sunny's deck, bedtimes spent grumbling about sore backs and muscles. reaching for reading glasses on the bedside table, zoro asking luffy to grab something from the highest cupboard because he doesn't feel like doing so himself. zolu who can no longer spend hours uncomfortably wrapped around each other or else zoro’s ankles will begin to ache unbearably, so they found new positions to accommodate it, and they wrap around each other in different ways instead. the baffling opposition, terrifying and idyllic, i can't get enough.
luffy, with salt & pepper hair and encompassing hugs that remind everyone of a bear, who could near slaughter a man with a targeted glance. zoro, with gentle peace and happiness in his eyes, who's kill count got lost in the thousands many years ago. luffy and zoro who spend their days adventuring, soft, relaxed, but they can switch so uncannily and destroy world renown figures without an hour’s planning. covered in blood and looking forward to that evening's sunset together. just so sinister and so softly sweet, they’re perfect
🙌 yes yes
Ughhh... Please don't take his swordsman away from him