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One Piece ch. 423 Squee! And, uh, actual discussion, too! Wow.
One Piece ch. 423 squee ahoy, so y'alls what read slow and haven't caught up, mind yourselves.
Okay. We start off a chapter full of violence and angst with a cute little picture of Vivi eating watermelons =D
D'awww ^_^
Well it is a treat to see Vivi again, but there is ANGST, FRANKY FLASHBACK, LUCCIPARD, and MOST HORRIFYING THING EVER to get to, so moving right along...!
Well, okay, we can hold off on the angst (and yes, even the KITTY ;_;) to present Luffy's best impression of a Hoover in reverse:
Yep. That's our hero. Right there. This is him too:
Looking to be about the size of two straw hats. Isn't he a kyoot wibble bloody dirty chibi?
Poking fun at Luffy's his state aside, I do have to pause to give Oda props for ridiculousness and creativity. Again. I mean, come on. MASSIVE power-up, but the drawback is you look like a two-year-old with elephantisis of the head afterward. I think this qualifies for a WIN, personally.
And now, a panel that makes me very confused and possibly causes me to feel like even more of a pedophile than Avatar does:
It's Luffy and he's pissed. This is hot. Except he looks like he's five. This is, uh, NOT supposed to be hot. I end up very hormonally confused if I stare at it too long, so MOVING RIGHT ALONG.
To this:
The cute and crack just overwhelms me. This will be an icon as soon as I can get to it. But come ON. It's just....! Tiny Luffy, not much bigger than the damn HAT, running for his life. D'aww.
AND FINALLY THERE IS LUCCIPARD.
Except there is a PROBLEM. The fact that he kind of resembles a gorilla aside, please note that Luccipard's ears are about the size of his nipples. I am not sure if this says more about his ears or his nipples, but I AM sure I don't really want to think about it and would rather just GUH all over THIS:
THERE IT IS. LUCCIPARD IN ALL HIS GLORY. With! Bonus ear! WHY. WHY DOES LUCCIPARD HAVE TO LOOK CUTE?? WHY ODA. MY BRAIN CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE BREAKING VIA LUCCI.
Seriously, the tiny ears are adorable. Which SHOULD NOT BE.
>.>
<.<
Right. Uh, for those of you who have been missing Franky Family, the giants, and the rest of the gang, here they are. I will pretend Paulie is in the shot and cry in the corner ;_;
And now, a serious moment. I'm including the whole panel below because I LOVE the composition of this shot. It just pans so well. I love the orderly lineup of gate, ship, and Marines on the right, then Spandam, then the billows of smoke and then BURNING, ROBIN, and FRANKY. I hope to God Toei keeps this shot as-is in the anime and just pans from this far a zoom, because if the text bubbles weren't there but we still had this shot I would just DIE HAPPY.
/semi-serious critic. Back to FANGIRLING. Because this?
HOYES. FRANKY DO ME NOW.
Well, okay, maybe it was just a fangirling interlude, because I want to talk composition again, in this shot:
I love the distribtuion of the three main players here lots, and again we pan from relative order on the right, with just Robin crying and empty space around her (ZOMG SYMBOLIC???), then Franky and then the Marines milling around and finally Spandam and beyond him all kinds of chaos and confusion (lamentably covered by speech bubbles, oh well). Intentional or no, the structure parallels the one above, but who's on what side is antiparallel to the panel I gushed about earlier. And I loffs it.
Plus there is bonus Franky ass. I mean, really, this is a win-win situation.
And now a moment that is personally very satisfying for me. COMPLETE AND TOTAL SPANDAM PWNAGE BY FRANKY:
The remark made by one of the Marines was that Spandam had nowhere on his face left to swell.
GOOD.
Because he is a COMPLETE AND UTTER BASTARD. I mean. He's not even like Lucci. Bobby with the itty bitty kitty ears back there is, as I've noted previously, a pscyhopath. He's not right in the head, ya see. He doesn't seem particularly gung-ho about the whole justice business, although he's talked about it sometimes. But I think he's more into the power and by his own admission he's here for the killin's and the blood. So good for him.
Spandam, on the other hand, thinks he's doing something RIGHT and GOOD. WHUT. In my squee post on the previous chapter I waxed incoherent about the differences between the World Government's morality and Rob Lucci's (lack of) one. Well, kind of the same thing here, although Spandam is just so spectacularly self-centered that I think his understanding of right wrong beyond what benefits him is, um, limited. Let's put it that way. He's selfish, entitled, completely disrespectful of anybody's feelings, and utterly convinced of his own rightness. If he were not also an adorable spaz I would hate him pretty damn hardcore.
Anyone here ever read Guy Gavriel Kay's books? If not, I highly recommend them -- I've read Tigana, A Song for Arbonne and most of The Lions of Al-Rassan, and they're all excellent fantasy. But I digress. I bring up Mr. kay because he has a talent for making me utterly despise his villains. Villains are actually pretty rare in his books, which are rife with moral ambiguity (HOYES, HEART THAT HARDCORE). But the ocassional TRUE ASSHAT does show up, and I always utterly, utterly hate him. Usually Kay accomplishes this by narrating from the villain POV for a chapter or two, and you are sitting there in this DIRTY, DESPICABLE, HORRID mind and it feels AWUL and you don't UNDERSTAND how this person can be so BLIND and SELF-CENTERED except you kind of do because Kay MAKES you LIVE it.
This is kind of the deal with Spandam. He has spent A LOT OF TIME TALKING OHMYGOD and so I think we're all well-acquainted with his view of the world. And frankly I would have felt better not knowing, although I would have liked One Piece less.
So after close to a YEAR of SEETHING at this BASTARD who KILLED FRANKY AND ICEBURG'S ADOPTIVE FATHER, drove their adoptive mother to drink, nearly killed Franky and completely ruined his body, and then tried to kill Iceburg and bring down everything Iceburg had been working for since then, FINALLY FRANKY BEATS THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF HIM.
Interrupts him to launch a FIST OF STEEL into his FACE, no less.
Vindicated?
Oh yes.
And then Spandam has to do something that just throws me. He manages to look HOT:
WHUT.
I, uh, will gloss over this. But come on, it's a nice shot >.>
A short interlude now to just draw attention to this shot of Robin. In part because Oda is a genius with expression, in part because Robin is just very beautiful, and also because I need a break from everything going on in this chapter ;_;
Okay, and now to a shot I LOVE VERY DEARLY.
Robin just looks so small, and I really love how dynamic Franky's pose is, and you can feel the weight and the tension in the shot, which makes just such a good segue to the next panels:
Now, I kind of wanted to post each panel separately, but that would have been way obnoxious. But I think each panel deserves its own paragrpah of squee.
First is Robin's face and the blade of Funkfreed's trunk just an inch shy of her head. I love her expression so much -- this and the previous panel of her that I clipped have this spectacular dead look in her eyes, like she just can't take anymore. But here in this panel she just looks so lost and confused by this guy she'd met all of, what? a day ago? Who just had a good bit of his right side run through by a giant elephant-sword for her sake.
Oh, Robin. I love her so much. More on her later this chapter.
And then after such a serious panel, because Oda is a genius, we have Spandam, whose mere presence is three parts comic relief and two parts utter hate. I do like how Oda breaks up drama with bits of weirdness or comedy, though.
And then, yes, Franky's foot. Let me explain why I love the panel. I think Oda is an incredible visual narrator. His fight scenes get confusing sometimes (everyone's do, I guess), but when it comes to showing the passage of time and highlighting particular narrative bits of a story, he is simply genius at picking just the right moments to show. The two examples that leap immediately to mind are in the Kalgara/Norland backstory and in Franky's flashback. In the former, these three pages do a fantastic job of that old bit of storytelling advice: showing, not telling. However the real highlight of this method in that volume is three later pages, and most especially the bonfire scene. I love the details there -- Moosu pulling Norland to dance with her and Kalgara pushing him.
The other, and possibly even better, use of this technique is in Franky's flashback, and those pages showing the construction and launch of the Puffing Tom are just brilliant. They illustrate the passage of eight damn years, and show wonderfully the developing relationships between Franky and Iceburg and Franky and his family, even as the boys grow and mature and the city changes around them. The first four pages are really where it's at, but the last three just nail it HOME, right to the HEART, with that last spread. It's amazing, I tell you.
So what does this have to do with Franky's foot? Well, that panel, to me, seems like just another tiny example of how well Oda uses visual narrative devices. To achieve the effect of pausing, and straining, he could have shown Franky's face or shoulders, or a less zoomed in shot of most of his body, but instead he chose just the foot, where it's grounded and pushing against the floor, firmly stopped. Me? I think that's pretty cool.
And now, having gone on about feet (in however circumlocutory a manner =P) for quite long enough, we have that panel I loved earlier, from a different angle:
Possibly I just really like the presence of Robin's gorgeous back (complete with bonus jacket stitching, oh yes!) and yet more FRANKY ASS, but also I envy Oda's skill with perspective, and just... I can't even articulate it. I just really like this panel >.>
On the other hand I know exactly what I like about these next three panels.
A lot of it requires translation but I think Funkfreed's expression in the first panel doesn't XD
Also therein, I love Franky's pose hardcore and possibly there will be icons of it, with and without elephant.
Up next is Franky being spectacularly hot. Which is nice and all, but really you need to know what they're saying to capture the full GUH:
YES. GUH. DO YOU SEE? FAITH. HOPE. LOVE. TRUST. PRIDE. Robin's learning all of those now, right here, this chapter and the last and ever since Luffy told her he wanted her with them. Her life's been filled with suspiscion and betrayal and shame in the very fact of her existence. These moments, when she stands up and places her trust in people she has finally learned to believe love and value her... God, that just make me cry.
And really, the next bit just turned the chapter into a bit of a bawlfest:
Of course I couldn't crop out a single inch of anything with young Franky and Iceburg in it, so here we are, Franky telling Spandman why, exactly, he should STFU.
And again Robin has a beautiful reaction panel, which I'll put first because Franky's speech segues into something awesome:
I'll quote more than is contained in the panels I've clipped because I love franky's speech hardcore:
Which brings us directly to...!
I'm not sure I can even express my GLEE and VINDICATION at this panel. Franky is crushing Spandam with an ELEPHANT. AND HE FUCKING DESERVES IT >=O
>.>
<.<
Yeah, okay, there's a thread over on AP right now about who the biggest jerk in One Piece is and possibly we all know my answer. Arlong was a bigot and an asshole, Crocodile might have been suave but was also an utter bastard, Wapol was self-centered and greedy, Enel was a crazy fuck, and Bellamy was just a relatively mindless ass. (This is not to say I don't like those characters, but honestly they're not nice people). Maybe it's the intensely personal nature of Spandam's sheer asshattery. Everyone else was all up about kingdoms and ruling the world and while Spandam's definitely into powertrips, he just gets his hands right in there in the heart of the way people deal with one another and very personally fucks them over. Right to their faces, while completely believing that he's in the right. He destroys people and families and to me that it just somehow much more awful, how he just waltzes into the private lives and deepest ties that people share and rips them to shreds. And he just REVELS in it. I mean, I've discussed Lucci at length and what he did to Paulie was just utterly inexcusable, but he has a certain detachment, a coldness. He enjoys it, sure. But Spandam's the one who'd dance on an enemy's grave. Gleefully.
So yeah, Spandam gets my vote for top jerk.
And by contrast, Franky gets my vote for top DO ME NOW
Hoyes, because after all that pwnage, we need a crotch shot and some plain and simple badassery. Order up, dude.
Having digressed a LOT, we come back to Robin, whom I've been meaning to talk about more but never do. Here, HERE is when she is finally ready to get her own back, and after that heartbreaking shot of little Robin, boy, but can you SEE it in the last panel.
What she says? Makes me die.
No Robin, You're not alone anymore.
NOW GO KICK SOME ASS while I cry of pride and joy and love and GOD, woman, you finally GET IT ;______________;
Phew, okay. Robin takes a lot out of me. Her story's just so intense.
So, now we are back to Luccipard and Luffytard (coined by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
megalotro, I believe):
Lucci's looking pretty retarded, but somehow I just find it very hard to resist little Luffy.
BUT THEN. I get DISTRACTED. By the RETURN OF THE ITTY BITTY EARS:
Also Rob seems to have regained his hourglass figure along with his DISASTROUSLY sexy arms and hot damn am I into that middle panel. Luffy, meanwhile, still seems to be having body image issues and once again whe have this cute/hot/pissed confusion going on >.>
Okay, and then I'm not cropping this panel, because I want to highlight Oda's style again:
I love the isolation and simplicity here, that really drive the impact home. A lot of artists might be tempted to try and overdo a panel like this in an effort to make it all exciting and convey action, but I prefer Oda's rather minimalist apparoch because damn does it ever work.
Also Luffy's tiny little legs and feet dangling like that just kill me. Along with Lucci's rather bored demeanor.
Speaking of Lucci's bored demeanor and death thereby:
GUH for the bored look and the slamming against walls but really mostly I am here for the ARM. Apparently I am INTO LIMBS. And that's OKAY because we have here sexy muscly man-(kitty-)arm with BONUS TAT and I just really can't object.
And now another absolutely precious panel which must be icon'd IMMEDIATELY
COME ON. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THAT XD
Lest we are overwhelmed by the cute/crack and forget all about the HOT, here is some MORE:
This panel is like a goddamn CHECKLIST for me. Scars? Check. Tats? Check. Arms, hands, shoulders? Hoyes. Visible back? Mm, definitely. Displaying of lanky legs? Definitely. Awesome pose? Check! Purr-worthy hair? Oh my, yes. AND KYOOT WIDDLE KITTY EARS? CHECK.
Apparently Lucci takes offense at my last remark.
That's okay. He's hot when he's angry, and the ears are still visible XD
AND FINALLY LUFFY RETURNS!
I spliced two panels that weren't consecutive together to highlight the HAWT. Because Luffy is doing his POSE and he's got the GRIN goin' on, and he no longer looks like he's five so I can safely feel ridiculously attracted to him. Oh yes. Thank you, Oda.
Both the Franky/Robin/Spandman and Luffy/Lucci bits having been brought to satisfying conclusions for the chapter, we return to our wayward heroes down in the tunnel with all the wet. Zoro and Sanji don't seem to like it much, but that is possibly one of the most adorable shots of Chopper EVER:
And for the Sanji fans out there, I love his hair lots in these two panels:
AND FINALLY.
WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR I'M SURE.
KOKORO HALF-NAKED:
Apparently the Strawhats agree with me here and would really rather DROWN:
Well, okay, it's not that bad. I find it really funny, actually. Once again Oda turns on the zany and makes something corny and/or predictable (I do think a lot of people saw the mermaid-Kokoro bit coming, right?) work by making it CRAZY. This is part of why I love One Piece. Trust Oda to take something dramatic and legendary like a mermaid or a pegasus (Gonforr's bird/mount) and turn it into something kinda lame and really funny. I love that man.
Panel-specific squee aside, I do want to highlight something general that I love about this chapter and several of the earlier ones: the interaction between Franky and Robin.megalotro and I were being semi-coherent about it earlier today. I really love how they play off one another. Both outcasts, but with such completely different world views and ways of dealing with it. Robin's earlier desire to die just went completely against Franky's philosophy, and way back before the CP9 fights when they were screaming at each other on top of the wall? God I loved that.
I also love it when Franky gets serious. I love him as his usual crazy self, but he's a grown man of thirty four years old, with a truly terribly tragic past and a lot of hard issues and decisions he's had to make. That he CAN just be silly and crazy after the life he's had makes me love him, but when he stops screwing around and you can SEE his history, it just calls to me.
I think the folks over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
frankyxrobin have definitely got the right idea -- I've discovered a huge soft spot for Franky and Robin as a couple, and the past few chapters have definitely had me squeeing about that a good bit.
At this point I'm really not sure that Franky would be joining, and possibly even Paulie has chance. I'd love for Franky to join the crew -- he plays off EVERYONE so well, especially Usopp, Chopper, Luffy, and Robin. He even has a really unique fighting style that sets him apart, and he's overall just so much fun and he has a DREAM. He lost family, and he has a dream. That's like a one-way ticket to nakama-ship, right there.
On the other hand, he just has so many ties! There's Franky Family, Mozu and Kiwi, and Iceburg! And basically all of Water Seven. Vivi was tied down like that, and she stayed hom while the Strawhats sailed on.
The crew still needs a carpenter, though, and possibly this is where Paulie might come in. I think his chances are pretty slim, though.kalei wrote a pretty good explanation as to why a few months back.
I'd be happy either way, I guess. If he doesn't join then I can be tickled by the thought of what happens next in Water Seven and what'll happen between him and Iceburg now that things have changed so drastically and I can write way too much fic about it. If he stays, then there will be lots of fun, and from the shippy side, HET in the crew that doesn't feel WEIRD. Nothing against any other het nakama 'ships, but pairing Nami off with any of the boys feels kinda wonky, though I have a soft spot for Luffy/Nami and Nami/Usopp. Robin just doesn't mesh well with anyone, I guess, although Zoro/Robin is kinda interesting. Franky/Robin is just really dynamic and they have a such a tense and intense relationship already. As I said tomegalotro, they have really strong connections already -- both outcasts, both captives, both posessors of forbidden knowledge and both hunted for it. They dealt with each of those in different ways, and they have such opposing views, which can sometimes draw people together faster and harder than shared opinions.
Speaking of differing opinions, and possibly just because I want to bring this up -- I remember that at the relevant time I had (and still do *cough*) a bit of a THING for Iceburg/Robin. Because this? Is HOT.
Well, besides it being hot, I'm just fascinated by the two of them, because they're two of the most intelligent people in the entire damn series, both with really calm and collected facades/exteriors that mask incredibly deep wells of emotion and vision. They think they're enemies, though in the end they're on the same side, and I find situations like that just deliciously tragic.
Plus? They're both utterly beautiful. Most of the rest of the cast ranges from pretty to cute to handsome, but Iceburg and Robin are just downright BEAUTIFUL and visually it just sends shivers down my spine.
Uh. Same goes for Lucci and Lucci/Iceburg, which is possibly why they keep crawling into everything I write or draw >.<
Oh, and while I've wandered so far off-topic, and speaking of hotness, I really do mean to draw some Hina/Robin sometime, because I think my brain fries at the very thought o_O;;
Phew, okay. So thought-provoking chapter, I guess.
I leave you with this:
And, of course, my eternal plea: WHERE IS HATTORI (other than right here, of course GLEE)
Okay. We start off a chapter full of violence and angst with a cute little picture of Vivi eating watermelons =D
D'awww ^_^
Well it is a treat to see Vivi again, but there is ANGST, FRANKY FLASHBACK, LUCCIPARD, and MOST HORRIFYING THING EVER to get to, so moving right along...!
Well, okay, we can hold off on the angst (and yes, even the KITTY ;_;) to present Luffy's best impression of a Hoover in reverse:
Yep. That's our hero. Right there. This is him too:
Looking to be about the size of two straw hats. Isn't he a kyoot wibble bloody dirty chibi?
Poking fun at Luffy's his state aside, I do have to pause to give Oda props for ridiculousness and creativity. Again. I mean, come on. MASSIVE power-up, but the drawback is you look like a two-year-old with elephantisis of the head afterward. I think this qualifies for a WIN, personally.
And now, a panel that makes me very confused and possibly causes me to feel like even more of a pedophile than Avatar does:
It's Luffy and he's pissed. This is hot. Except he looks like he's five. This is, uh, NOT supposed to be hot. I end up very hormonally confused if I stare at it too long, so MOVING RIGHT ALONG.
To this:
The cute and crack just overwhelms me. This will be an icon as soon as I can get to it. But come ON. It's just....! Tiny Luffy, not much bigger than the damn HAT, running for his life. D'aww.
AND FINALLY THERE IS LUCCIPARD.
Except there is a PROBLEM. The fact that he kind of resembles a gorilla aside, please note that Luccipard's ears are about the size of his nipples. I am not sure if this says more about his ears or his nipples, but I AM sure I don't really want to think about it and would rather just GUH all over THIS:
THERE IT IS. LUCCIPARD IN ALL HIS GLORY. With! Bonus ear! WHY. WHY DOES LUCCIPARD HAVE TO LOOK CUTE?? WHY ODA. MY BRAIN CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE BREAKING VIA LUCCI.
Seriously, the tiny ears are adorable. Which SHOULD NOT BE.
>.>
<.<
Right. Uh, for those of you who have been missing Franky Family, the giants, and the rest of the gang, here they are. I will pretend Paulie is in the shot and cry in the corner ;_;
And now, a serious moment. I'm including the whole panel below because I LOVE the composition of this shot. It just pans so well. I love the orderly lineup of gate, ship, and Marines on the right, then Spandam, then the billows of smoke and then BURNING, ROBIN, and FRANKY. I hope to God Toei keeps this shot as-is in the anime and just pans from this far a zoom, because if the text bubbles weren't there but we still had this shot I would just DIE HAPPY.
/semi-serious critic. Back to FANGIRLING. Because this?
HOYES. FRANKY DO ME NOW.
Well, okay, maybe it was just a fangirling interlude, because I want to talk composition again, in this shot:
I love the distribtuion of the three main players here lots, and again we pan from relative order on the right, with just Robin crying and empty space around her (ZOMG SYMBOLIC???), then Franky and then the Marines milling around and finally Spandam and beyond him all kinds of chaos and confusion (lamentably covered by speech bubbles, oh well). Intentional or no, the structure parallels the one above, but who's on what side is antiparallel to the panel I gushed about earlier. And I loffs it.
Plus there is bonus Franky ass. I mean, really, this is a win-win situation.
And now a moment that is personally very satisfying for me. COMPLETE AND TOTAL SPANDAM PWNAGE BY FRANKY:
The remark made by one of the Marines was that Spandam had nowhere on his face left to swell.
GOOD.
Because he is a COMPLETE AND UTTER BASTARD. I mean. He's not even like Lucci. Bobby with the itty bitty kitty ears back there is, as I've noted previously, a pscyhopath. He's not right in the head, ya see. He doesn't seem particularly gung-ho about the whole justice business, although he's talked about it sometimes. But I think he's more into the power and by his own admission he's here for the killin's and the blood. So good for him.
Spandam, on the other hand, thinks he's doing something RIGHT and GOOD. WHUT. In my squee post on the previous chapter I waxed incoherent about the differences between the World Government's morality and Rob Lucci's (lack of) one. Well, kind of the same thing here, although Spandam is just so spectacularly self-centered that I think his understanding of right wrong beyond what benefits him is, um, limited. Let's put it that way. He's selfish, entitled, completely disrespectful of anybody's feelings, and utterly convinced of his own rightness. If he were not also an adorable spaz I would hate him pretty damn hardcore.
Anyone here ever read Guy Gavriel Kay's books? If not, I highly recommend them -- I've read Tigana, A Song for Arbonne and most of The Lions of Al-Rassan, and they're all excellent fantasy. But I digress. I bring up Mr. kay because he has a talent for making me utterly despise his villains. Villains are actually pretty rare in his books, which are rife with moral ambiguity (HOYES, HEART THAT HARDCORE). But the ocassional TRUE ASSHAT does show up, and I always utterly, utterly hate him. Usually Kay accomplishes this by narrating from the villain POV for a chapter or two, and you are sitting there in this DIRTY, DESPICABLE, HORRID mind and it feels AWUL and you don't UNDERSTAND how this person can be so BLIND and SELF-CENTERED except you kind of do because Kay MAKES you LIVE it.
This is kind of the deal with Spandam. He has spent A LOT OF TIME TALKING OHMYGOD and so I think we're all well-acquainted with his view of the world. And frankly I would have felt better not knowing, although I would have liked One Piece less.
So after close to a YEAR of SEETHING at this BASTARD who KILLED FRANKY AND ICEBURG'S ADOPTIVE FATHER, drove their adoptive mother to drink, nearly killed Franky and completely ruined his body, and then tried to kill Iceburg and bring down everything Iceburg had been working for since then, FINALLY FRANKY BEATS THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF HIM.
Interrupts him to launch a FIST OF STEEL into his FACE, no less.
Vindicated?
Oh yes.
And then Spandam has to do something that just throws me. He manages to look HOT:
WHUT.
I, uh, will gloss over this. But come on, it's a nice shot >.>
A short interlude now to just draw attention to this shot of Robin. In part because Oda is a genius with expression, in part because Robin is just very beautiful, and also because I need a break from everything going on in this chapter ;_;
Okay, and now to a shot I LOVE VERY DEARLY.
Robin just looks so small, and I really love how dynamic Franky's pose is, and you can feel the weight and the tension in the shot, which makes just such a good segue to the next panels:
Now, I kind of wanted to post each panel separately, but that would have been way obnoxious. But I think each panel deserves its own paragrpah of squee.
First is Robin's face and the blade of Funkfreed's trunk just an inch shy of her head. I love her expression so much -- this and the previous panel of her that I clipped have this spectacular dead look in her eyes, like she just can't take anymore. But here in this panel she just looks so lost and confused by this guy she'd met all of, what? a day ago? Who just had a good bit of his right side run through by a giant elephant-sword for her sake.
Oh, Robin. I love her so much. More on her later this chapter.
And then after such a serious panel, because Oda is a genius, we have Spandam, whose mere presence is three parts comic relief and two parts utter hate. I do like how Oda breaks up drama with bits of weirdness or comedy, though.
And then, yes, Franky's foot. Let me explain why I love the panel. I think Oda is an incredible visual narrator. His fight scenes get confusing sometimes (everyone's do, I guess), but when it comes to showing the passage of time and highlighting particular narrative bits of a story, he is simply genius at picking just the right moments to show. The two examples that leap immediately to mind are in the Kalgara/Norland backstory and in Franky's flashback. In the former, these three pages do a fantastic job of that old bit of storytelling advice: showing, not telling. However the real highlight of this method in that volume is three later pages, and most especially the bonfire scene. I love the details there -- Moosu pulling Norland to dance with her and Kalgara pushing him.
The other, and possibly even better, use of this technique is in Franky's flashback, and those pages showing the construction and launch of the Puffing Tom are just brilliant. They illustrate the passage of eight damn years, and show wonderfully the developing relationships between Franky and Iceburg and Franky and his family, even as the boys grow and mature and the city changes around them. The first four pages are really where it's at, but the last three just nail it HOME, right to the HEART, with that last spread. It's amazing, I tell you.
So what does this have to do with Franky's foot? Well, that panel, to me, seems like just another tiny example of how well Oda uses visual narrative devices. To achieve the effect of pausing, and straining, he could have shown Franky's face or shoulders, or a less zoomed in shot of most of his body, but instead he chose just the foot, where it's grounded and pushing against the floor, firmly stopped. Me? I think that's pretty cool.
And now, having gone on about feet (in however circumlocutory a manner =P) for quite long enough, we have that panel I loved earlier, from a different angle:
Possibly I just really like the presence of Robin's gorgeous back (complete with bonus jacket stitching, oh yes!) and yet more FRANKY ASS, but also I envy Oda's skill with perspective, and just... I can't even articulate it. I just really like this panel >.>
On the other hand I know exactly what I like about these next three panels.
A lot of it requires translation but I think Funkfreed's expression in the first panel doesn't XD
Also therein, I love Franky's pose hardcore and possibly there will be icons of it, with and without elephant.
Up next is Franky being spectacularly hot. Which is nice and all, but really you need to know what they're saying to capture the full GUH:
Franky: Nico Robin. Are the Strawhats gonna make it here?
Robin: ...
Robin: All of them... no matter what!!
adapted from ooshi's translation
YES. GUH. DO YOU SEE? FAITH. HOPE. LOVE. TRUST. PRIDE. Robin's learning all of those now, right here, this chapter and the last and ever since Luffy told her he wanted her with them. Her life's been filled with suspiscion and betrayal and shame in the very fact of her existence. These moments, when she stands up and places her trust in people she has finally learned to believe love and value her... God, that just make me cry.
And really, the next bit just turned the chapter into a bit of a bawlfest:
Of course I couldn't crop out a single inch of anything with young Franky and Iceburg in it, so here we are, Franky telling Spandman why, exactly, he should STFU.
And again Robin has a beautiful reaction panel, which I'll put first because Franky's speech segues into something awesome:
I'll quote more than is contained in the panels I've clipped because I love franky's speech hardcore:
Franky: I never thought a day like this would come
Franky: If I had power that day
Kokoro: Endure this guys... you were saved by Tom
Kokoro: If you make them your enemy, you'll die even if you have a thousand lives.
Yokozuna: Gero!!
Franky: Stop, sea train!!!
Franky: I wanted to rescue Tom no matter what...!!!
Franky: We who knew the legendary stability of Enies Lobby... We who knew the might of the World Government!!
Franky: All that we thought was true, the Strawhats flipped over and kept going!!!
Franky: Without hesitation they've made the world their enemy, for the sake of one nakama!!
Robin: ...
Franky: That thought alone puts a hole in my chest...!!
Franky: To this day, I've never forgotten Tom's death!! Every time that official's [Spandam's] face comes into my mind...!! I wanted--
Franky: to strangle him!!!!
adapted from ooshi's translation
Which brings us directly to...!
I'm not sure I can even express my GLEE and VINDICATION at this panel. Franky is crushing Spandam with an ELEPHANT. AND HE FUCKING DESERVES IT >=O
>.>
<.<
Yeah, okay, there's a thread over on AP right now about who the biggest jerk in One Piece is and possibly we all know my answer. Arlong was a bigot and an asshole, Crocodile might have been suave but was also an utter bastard, Wapol was self-centered and greedy, Enel was a crazy fuck, and Bellamy was just a relatively mindless ass. (This is not to say I don't like those characters, but honestly they're not nice people). Maybe it's the intensely personal nature of Spandam's sheer asshattery. Everyone else was all up about kingdoms and ruling the world and while Spandam's definitely into powertrips, he just gets his hands right in there in the heart of the way people deal with one another and very personally fucks them over. Right to their faces, while completely believing that he's in the right. He destroys people and families and to me that it just somehow much more awful, how he just waltzes into the private lives and deepest ties that people share and rips them to shreds. And he just REVELS in it. I mean, I've discussed Lucci at length and what he did to Paulie was just utterly inexcusable, but he has a certain detachment, a coldness. He enjoys it, sure. But Spandam's the one who'd dance on an enemy's grave. Gleefully.
So yeah, Spandam gets my vote for top jerk.
And by contrast, Franky gets my vote for top DO ME NOW
Hoyes, because after all that pwnage, we need a crotch shot and some plain and simple badassery. Order up, dude.
Having digressed a LOT, we come back to Robin, whom I've been meaning to talk about more but never do. Here, HERE is when she is finally ready to get her own back, and after that heartbreaking shot of little Robin, boy, but can you SEE it in the last panel.
What she says? Makes me die.
Robin: It's different from Ohara... from that time...!!
Robin: There's nothing to be afraid of!!
Robin: I'm ... not alone anymore!!
adapted from ooshi's translation
No Robin, You're not alone anymore.
NOW GO KICK SOME ASS while I cry of pride and joy and love and GOD, woman, you finally GET IT ;______________;
Phew, okay. Robin takes a lot out of me. Her story's just so intense.
So, now we are back to Luccipard and Luffytard (coined by
megalotro, I believe):Lucci's looking pretty retarded, but somehow I just find it very hard to resist little Luffy.
BUT THEN. I get DISTRACTED. By the RETURN OF THE ITTY BITTY EARS:
Also Rob seems to have regained his hourglass figure along with his DISASTROUSLY sexy arms and hot damn am I into that middle panel. Luffy, meanwhile, still seems to be having body image issues and once again whe have this cute/hot/pissed confusion going on >.>
Okay, and then I'm not cropping this panel, because I want to highlight Oda's style again:
I love the isolation and simplicity here, that really drive the impact home. A lot of artists might be tempted to try and overdo a panel like this in an effort to make it all exciting and convey action, but I prefer Oda's rather minimalist apparoch because damn does it ever work.
Also Luffy's tiny little legs and feet dangling like that just kill me. Along with Lucci's rather bored demeanor.
Speaking of Lucci's bored demeanor and death thereby:
GUH for the bored look and the slamming against walls but really mostly I am here for the ARM. Apparently I am INTO LIMBS. And that's OKAY because we have here sexy muscly man-(kitty-)arm with BONUS TAT and I just really can't object.
And now another absolutely precious panel which must be icon'd IMMEDIATELY
COME ON. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THAT XD
Lest we are overwhelmed by the cute/crack and forget all about the HOT, here is some MORE:
This panel is like a goddamn CHECKLIST for me. Scars? Check. Tats? Check. Arms, hands, shoulders? Hoyes. Visible back? Mm, definitely. Displaying of lanky legs? Definitely. Awesome pose? Check! Purr-worthy hair? Oh my, yes. AND KYOOT WIDDLE KITTY EARS? CHECK.
Apparently Lucci takes offense at my last remark.
That's okay. He's hot when he's angry, and the ears are still visible XD
AND FINALLY LUFFY RETURNS!
I spliced two panels that weren't consecutive together to highlight the HAWT. Because Luffy is doing his POSE and he's got the GRIN goin' on, and he no longer looks like he's five so I can safely feel ridiculously attracted to him. Oh yes. Thank you, Oda.
Both the Franky/Robin/Spandman and Luffy/Lucci bits having been brought to satisfying conclusions for the chapter, we return to our wayward heroes down in the tunnel with all the wet. Zoro and Sanji don't seem to like it much, but that is possibly one of the most adorable shots of Chopper EVER:
And for the Sanji fans out there, I love his hair lots in these two panels:
AND FINALLY.
WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR I'M SURE.
KOKORO HALF-NAKED:
Apparently the Strawhats agree with me here and would really rather DROWN:
Well, okay, it's not that bad. I find it really funny, actually. Once again Oda turns on the zany and makes something corny and/or predictable (I do think a lot of people saw the mermaid-Kokoro bit coming, right?) work by making it CRAZY. This is part of why I love One Piece. Trust Oda to take something dramatic and legendary like a mermaid or a pegasus (Gonforr's bird/mount) and turn it into something kinda lame and really funny. I love that man.
Panel-specific squee aside, I do want to highlight something general that I love about this chapter and several of the earlier ones: the interaction between Franky and Robin.
megalotro and I were being semi-coherent about it earlier today. I really love how they play off one another. Both outcasts, but with such completely different world views and ways of dealing with it. Robin's earlier desire to die just went completely against Franky's philosophy, and way back before the CP9 fights when they were screaming at each other on top of the wall? God I loved that.I also love it when Franky gets serious. I love him as his usual crazy self, but he's a grown man of thirty four years old, with a truly terribly tragic past and a lot of hard issues and decisions he's had to make. That he CAN just be silly and crazy after the life he's had makes me love him, but when he stops screwing around and you can SEE his history, it just calls to me.
I think the folks over at
frankyxrobin have definitely got the right idea -- I've discovered a huge soft spot for Franky and Robin as a couple, and the past few chapters have definitely had me squeeing about that a good bit.At this point I'm really not sure that Franky would be joining, and possibly even Paulie has chance. I'd love for Franky to join the crew -- he plays off EVERYONE so well, especially Usopp, Chopper, Luffy, and Robin. He even has a really unique fighting style that sets him apart, and he's overall just so much fun and he has a DREAM. He lost family, and he has a dream. That's like a one-way ticket to nakama-ship, right there.
On the other hand, he just has so many ties! There's Franky Family, Mozu and Kiwi, and Iceburg! And basically all of Water Seven. Vivi was tied down like that, and she stayed hom while the Strawhats sailed on.
The crew still needs a carpenter, though, and possibly this is where Paulie might come in. I think his chances are pretty slim, though.
kalei wrote a pretty good explanation as to why a few months back.I'd be happy either way, I guess. If he doesn't join then I can be tickled by the thought of what happens next in Water Seven and what'll happen between him and Iceburg now that things have changed so drastically and I can write way too much fic about it. If he stays, then there will be lots of fun, and from the shippy side, HET in the crew that doesn't feel WEIRD. Nothing against any other het nakama 'ships, but pairing Nami off with any of the boys feels kinda wonky, though I have a soft spot for Luffy/Nami and Nami/Usopp. Robin just doesn't mesh well with anyone, I guess, although Zoro/Robin is kinda interesting. Franky/Robin is just really dynamic and they have a such a tense and intense relationship already. As I said to
megalotro, they have really strong connections already -- both outcasts, both captives, both posessors of forbidden knowledge and both hunted for it. They dealt with each of those in different ways, and they have such opposing views, which can sometimes draw people together faster and harder than shared opinions.Speaking of differing opinions, and possibly just because I want to bring this up -- I remember that at the relevant time I had (and still do *cough*) a bit of a THING for Iceburg/Robin. Because this? Is HOT.
Well, besides it being hot, I'm just fascinated by the two of them, because they're two of the most intelligent people in the entire damn series, both with really calm and collected facades/exteriors that mask incredibly deep wells of emotion and vision. They think they're enemies, though in the end they're on the same side, and I find situations like that just deliciously tragic.
Plus? They're both utterly beautiful. Most of the rest of the cast ranges from pretty to cute to handsome, but Iceburg and Robin are just downright BEAUTIFUL and visually it just sends shivers down my spine.
Uh. Same goes for Lucci and Lucci/Iceburg, which is possibly why they keep crawling into everything I write or draw >.<
Oh, and while I've wandered so far off-topic, and speaking of hotness, I really do mean to draw some Hina/Robin sometime, because I think my brain fries at the very thought o_O;;
Phew, okay. So thought-provoking chapter, I guess.
I leave you with this:
And, of course, my eternal plea: WHERE IS HATTORI (other than right here, of course GLEE)
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Also, really impressive, considering Robin, you know? Doctorate when she was all ittybitty-like, learning a dead language all on her own, generally pwning the scholars of Ohara.
I wonder, did Robin already exist at the time of that BBS? Cause then I am seriously impressed with Ben.
But also, actually, I (personally) make a distinction between intelligent and smart. Intelligence I usually take to mean capacity to learn, memorize, understand complex ideas, etc. Smart is summed up in not failing at life, but parts of it are common sense, being able to deal with life/people/etc. Robin is really really intelligent, but I'm not sure how smart she is, seeing as she was kind of failing at life a little, much as I love her. Ben, on the other hand, just seems to be made of win in that regard.
Anyway, obviously I'm in a rambly mood. Thanks for the random bit of trivia =D
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I'm not sure when it was published, actually. D: Maybe Robin was around, I'm not sure.
As for the intelligent vs smart distinction, it's sort of a toss up on whether or not Ben is also intelligent, since we don't know a whole lot on him yet. Perhaps taking into the fact that the smartest man in OP became a pirate is proof of intelligence - or lack thereof. You never know! This is why I love him and Shanks so much - there's so much to speculate over.
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ITTY BITTY EARS!
*cough* coherency later today >.> for now, work *scrams!*
-Tro