Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
I reblogged this a little bit ago; I'm thinking about luffy and shanks now, so this is just a surface-level rambling post about them:
the red hair pirates weren't around often, but op is of course littered with examples of choices luffy makes based on what he absorbed from shanks and his crew- significant, very core beliefs about people and piracy. baby king was in his hardcore formative years and had some pretty impactful experiences as he hovered around, and tagged along with those guys. some are explicit situations (like jaya island) and some are scenes with an implicit "I see shanks in him" vibe. now grown-up luffy totally runs parallel to uncle shanks in a number of cool ways, but I'm always tickled in the sense that these two are like, insanely unassuming but equally both legendary and wildly powerful: Folks think one's an idiot and that the other's a drunk hippie but they're both emperors with larger than life personas, who kick the shit out of people and who upset the ruling order regularly- a really entertaining and compelling combination.
the scene ending the summit war was unbelievable: mihawk, sengoku and anyone watching red force arrive essentially froze and braced themselves. and his strength on display during his strike against the kid pirates (only after being provoked). and his assistance from afar on wano. absolutely shanks is feared and respected in an almost reverential way, but the day before, he was probably hanging upside down hanging from the mast, singing a pirate tune off-key and fudging up the lyrics- benn had to climb up there and get him down. and after that he probably rolled up to one of the islands under his protection and scared off some terrorizing hooligans. he's so rad. then luffy- scrappier and more chaos-inducing, lord what's this kid gonna do next kind of thing, but respect for his exploits and a sense of dread when he does his thing are mounting exponentially. he doesn't mimick shanks- luffy's his own wacky ass luffy, but a few pieces of shanks are fused to, and encouraging for, his carefree spirit. no other emperor in the past had, or presently has, a bent like those two in conclusion: shanks and luffy are the chillest whatever dudes with terrifying kill switches- from nose picking and spaced out jolly hangtime straight to masterful haki street fighting mortal kombatant boys in 0.03 seconds and I can't tell you how much I love that
and the sandals. the wearing of the damn sandals. freedom on the high seas = sandals