Likely to write some stuff

once sabo read the paper saying ace was dead, all those memories and promises came rushing back. seeing him breakdown & panic was heartbreaking. for so long, sabo lived his life with no idea where he came from or who is family was. sabo found his brothers & lost one of them on the same day.

“thank you for being alive, luffy”

seeing how relieved sabo was that luffy was alive made me so emotional. luffy felt so guilty over not being able to save ace but sabo was just so happy to find luffy alive. it took 10 years for sabo to remember his brothers but now he’ll never forget them. it was a miracle that sabo remembered ace & luffy to begin with, so being able to reunite with his youngest brother is everything to him. in a way, ace brought the two brothers together again. the scenes between sabo & luffy are so beautiful. even after so many years, the two have never stopped loving each other. no amount of time, amnesia, and distance can change the bond between these brothers. now that sabo has ace’s flame flame fruit, it’s like the three of them are still connected.

it's the perfect conclusion that allows you to relax with a laugh and a smile after everything that happened in the last half hour (and it was a lot!), it's a celebration of the fact that community has been restored through the haka, and last but not least it's a great homage to MJ.

This is not just because the movie came out one year later after his death so the homage gained more meaning, but also because it came out in a period of time where if anyone referenced MJ in a movie, it was for dragging his name into the mud, to make a joke about him and all the fake news around his persona.. but not Taika.

boy (2010), ofmd s2

Stede’s library, like most of the Revenge, is about pleasure. Books in 1717 in the Caribbean would be quite expensive and hard to come by, and Stede has amassed a library to fill the cabin. It’s implied that most - all? - of these are works of fiction or adventure, and books about pirates. We know Stede reads adventures, he has fantasy tales (from the future), he has books on pirates. We’re not told exactly what he reads, but he certainly has Shakespeare and it seems unlikely he’s reading “improving” works like essays.

Stede comes from a class where reading for pleasure is possible, but we should remark that reading for pleasure is also considered idle and feminine. It’s not a masculine pursuit. The two characters depicted as reading for pleasure are the two most explicitly femme men, Stede and Lucius. Stede’s love of reading - he’d rather read a book in bed than continue to drink and do whippies with Jack - is part of his femme characterization. The frivolity of bringing a library to sea is remarked on by Nigel, who mocks it, and by Izzy, who considers it a “waste of space.” The pleasure of reading is at odds with patriarchal culture. It is another mark against Stede’s masculinity.

Ed can read, but it is unlikely that he has much experience reading for pleasure. He’s not just amazed by the library but that Stede has actually READ all these books. This is in the context of Ed being seduced by the concept of a life where reading for pleasure is possible, where you can appreciate fabric for its softness, where clothing is worn not for utilitarian reasons but because it’s pretty. Where you can have two chandeliers because you want two chandeliers.

Reading for pleasure is also about imagination. Stede seduces the crew with stories. One of the reasons they hesitate in killing him is because he can do the voices. They listen and laugh and are moved by the narratives he reads to them. These, in turn, transform to story time, where the crew make up their own narratives, and where Ed comes out of his shell, to be “more open and available than I’ve ever seen him.” Unsurprising that this disgusts and worries Izzy. Ed is being frivolous. Ed is telling stories.

Stede’s stories are, in fact, a threat to patriarchal constructs and binaries and to the class system itself. They offer psychological truths, they allow characters to explore their desires and dreams, a future in which they can consider what they want and not just what they need. This begins with the idea of reading for pleasure, and taking the TIME to read for pleasure, and is treated as frivolous and repellant by the representatives of the patriarchy.

Happy Pride Month!