Argh Thats Such Cool Physical World Building And Such A Good Way To Illustrate It Omgg

Now, Usopp has a great point, who is older than Jarul??

"I didn't do much," said the guy who did half the work

All blue 🐠🐟

The irony of so much of the demon slayer fandom arguing about who is the strongest and who "solos" who when two of the most reoccuring themes in the story are a) people all have something different to bring to the table that can contribute in unforseeable ways and b) some enemies can't be defeated alone and every little thing helps either your companions or your successors accomplish what you couldn't by yourself. If you think about it, there was almost no enemy that tanjiro didn't need help taking down because going it alone wasn't the point

The final fight is literally a testament to that with muzan "soloing" everyone and losing to the combined power of every corps member, even the weakest ones. There were low ranking members holding up nearly every hashira as they fought. One guy just straight up drove a car into muzan, an act requiring no specific skill and a lot of nerve! And it all mattered in the end! Everyone came together to change the outcome!

Creativity, willingness, and the importance of connections are literally major themes!!! That the demons couldn't genuinely cooperate with each other was one of their most fatal flaws!!! Lust for individual power was not the great driving force in any of the heros, only the demons. And every time, it was presented as a major flaw that ultimately ruined them.

Happy birthday to the best boy and cutie, Sanji 😍

Hrm hrm today I’m having thoughts about Kuina and her overwhelming Lost Boy vibes and how like. You NEVER GET Lost Girls like that. Narratively, she is The Girl Who Didn’t Grow Up. She will always be eleven and perfect, immortalized in memory. In Zoro’s mind, she is forever just a little bit older and a little bit taller than him. Even now when he remembers her, he pictures her face from an upward angle. She will ALWAYS be “older” and yet she will NEVER be more than eleven. I want to know what was happening in Zoro’s head when he turned 12 and realized he was older than she would ever get to be. I just. All the vibes, give them to me. This is one of the things that just gets me every fucking time!!!

(Sabo is also positioned like this, and is a fairly straightforward example up until it gets subverted by him ACTUALLY GROWING UP. Sabo is what happens when the lost boy grows up and it’s fucking FASCINATING.)

I think the key thing is, in order to be a "lost boy" narrative and not just a tragically dead child character, there needs to have been an expectation of greatness. It's not that little girls don't die in fiction, or that they aren't mourned. But this particular type of narrative emphasizes the specific grief of the loss of incredible potential, which isn't a thing dead little girl characters usually get. They're usually narratives about the loss of innocence or the fragility of life and the injustice of mortality, and Kuina has a little of that - how unfair it is for her life to be cut short. But it's also the bit of, if you'll let me get lyrical for a moment, you could have done so much more if you only had time.

as people grow up, one of the things we have to deal with is the loss of the possibilities of what we could have been, because we can only become one of our possible selves. Even if you become great, even if you're happy, even if you made the best possible choice, you still have to make that decision that to become this I must give up on becoming that. Lost Boys don't ever get to become, so they are enshrined with all that potential still in them. All of the people they could have been, all of the paths they might have taken.

(A thing that drives me crazy: balancing the grief of growing up with the grief of not-growing-up. The tragedy of becoming and the tragedy of never getting to become. The dozens of ghosts of possible selves that every adult carries around with them. Not relevant to the current discussion, but still, a thing to think about!)

There's also the fact that she gets set up with a projected character arc - we can see how she might've grown and dealt with her insecurities and overcome the obstacles in her path, but she'll never get to do it. And Zoro can take their shared dream on himself and make that his responsibility, but he can't resolve her emotional baggage for her, because that's not how that works. And we don't know! Maybe she wouldn't ever have managed it! But Kuina-the-confident-adult is just one of the many possible people she'll never get to be.

"Usopp Pinocchio imagery", this "Usopp Aesop imagery" that.... What about Usopp Odysseus Imagery? I never see enough of it.

Y'know, Odysseus, who sailed the world going on grand adventures, always thinking of his little home island to return to. Odysseus, whose main trait was being a wily, clever teller or tales, who would often trick his enemies to win. Odysseus who boldly lied to a Giant to save his crew. Odysseus, who put on a disguise and pretended to be someone else, with only those close to him being able to recognize him, confirming his identity to the rest of the world with a feat of sharpshooter archery!

Or what about Odysseus' main character flaw being his tendency for hubris? Hubris in the original ancient Greek sense (ύβρις); overconfidence and bragging in the face of gods, calling yourself greater than gods even as a mortal, and offending them. Like perhaps claiming you have "8000 Men" under your belt while facing opponents much greater than you, or earning the title of "God" when you're not one. Or more cheekily, calling yourself the "Captain" of your crew in the face of Sun God Nika.

I wonder what Penelope, patiently waiting for Odysseus back home in Ithaca, and rejecting a gaggle of suitors, reminds me of. vvvvv

I'm sure there's something about the Veggie Kids being his Telemachus in there, too.

Their designs are so good I almost forgot they are horrible people

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NIKOLAAAIII!!