Laugh Tale

that love is like a star 🌟

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Just look at this recent Morj stream:

Or the casual OPLA viewers

Or this new viral short and all the positive comments

I actually think Zotash is one of the most liked and accepted ships in the general fandom. It's just not actively shipped, with dedicated people talking about it and producing content every day, because of a few factors:

lack of interactions and lack of Tashigi screentime in recent years, so it doesn't have the constant influx of new content other ships have, nor does it have the recency bias of other ships (like Zoro x Hiyori, or Tashigi x Reiju that got popular overnight because of a color spread). Zotash was super popular ages ago during Alabasta, with other mangaka even drawing doujinshi of it, and it had a resurgence during Punk Hazard, then it naturally fizzled out

Tashigi is after all a minor character who hasn't had an active role in the story in a while. It's not just the Zotash fan content that it's rare– Tashigi content is also very scarce, and the two things go hand in hand

Also Zoro x Tashigi haters: ughhh Zoro and Kuina are related so Zoro and Tashigi are automatically related too!

...

......

Eiichiro Oda: "Zoro no longer sees Tashigi as a Kuina lookalike" (Source: Oda-sensei's notes in One Piece Party Vol. 1 - 2014)

Also Oda: "Zoro's pre-timeskip nickname for Tashigi was 'Copycat', but his post-timeskip nickname for her is 'Captain Glasses'" (Sources: Oda-sensei's notes in One Piece Party Vol. 1 - 2014; One Piece Magazine 18)

Also Oda: "Kuina is Zoro's 親友 'best friend', not a relative, and only Zoro's grandma Furiko is to be considered a Shimotsuki. Zoro isn't part of the Shimotsuki clan." (Source: One Piece Magazine 18)