Fluff Without Plot

yes yes stratt is very scary and whatnot but i feel like we are overlooking how intimiadting grace made her too (largely in the book). because you expect the leader of the petrova task force to be cold and ruthless and scary, but then her... assistant? second officer? her guy walks in with her and he's very sweet, personable, and incredibly smart. and there's so much dissonance because you're talking with stratt about the biggest ethical decision of your lifetime and he's, like, annotating papers for her in the background. or you accuse her of being cold and calculated and this ray of sunshine just matter-of-factly goes "yep! she'll do whatever it takes!". and at the end of your meeting, probably the worst day of your life, the dictator of the world who has just calmly convinced you to do some atrocity or another stands up, gestures to him, and they casually walk out together chattering about something else like they've already forgotten you're there. that's so terrifying

Imagine Eva Stratt years after sending her favorite guy to boss around to space. Getting the logs and recordings and finding out that her guy made first contact with sapient alien life and it IMMEDIATELY started bossing him around too. Like what if you surrendered your dog and it got adopted by an alien instantly. Happened to my girl Eva Stratt

a crucial aspect of understanding usopp and his place among the strawhats is the luffy recruited a liar, who turned out later to be a pretty good shot.