#ch146

Gonna ramble a bit on Celestial Spirit headcanons for a bit. These dresses were definitely the prototype concept for Star Dresses, but I really like to think of the different clothing as ways to characterise the spirits themselves, too. 

Virgo gives Lucy a cute, off-shoulder, backless dress that’s logically not very practical for battle, but it is light on the fabric and thus doesn’t get in the way of a nimble fighter like Virgo. Virgo herself doesn’t wear the most practical clothing, but it’s going on the whole ‘fitting, less flappyness’ sort of look that focuses on trying to look super cute while not being too obstructive, at the risk of being too sexy. Virgo doesn’t care if she flashes the crowd or gets set up for a wardrobe malfunction, that’s why it works for her. Virgo even goes as far as to do Lucy’s hair into pigtails and put her emblem as a pin on the bandages. It’s a bit unnecessary, but it definitely marks the degree of detail and care Virgo takes as a maid, always ensuring great presentation despite her rough fighting style. 

In contrast to this, Cancer gives Lucy a long, flowy dress that is wildly impractical for battle but looks absolutely gorgeous, befitting of something a stylist would give a model to walk on the runway. 

Once again, this isn’t practical for battle at all-- it’s in the way of everything, her hair is style and not very secured, there are so many elements to this dress, and it probably gets in the way of Lucy’s cheerleader-esque agility. But this is Cancer’s choice of clothing, and Cancer chose to make Lucy look gorgeous despite everything that’s happening around them. His priorities in the situation was Lucy’s physical appearance, rather than mobility. He didn’t care if Lucy was going tower-climbing, he’s here to make her look like a princess. And Lucy’s fine with that. And that’s also why it gets torn up very quickly for the Vidaldus fight. It’s a bit of a lesson learned for all of them. 

What makes this so poignant for me, is I don’t think Sanji knows the weight the word “monster” has to Chopper. Kureha told Nami a bit of backstory, while Sanji and Luffy weren’t paying any attention to Chopper’s reaction to know how upset he was that they called him a monster about 5 chapters back. The backstory was given to the audience only; it wasn’t something one character was expositing for another.

Also, most likely, a telegram will get to Diedrich.

I also wonder how long will Lau stay around for... Will he be the place to “rest and gather their thoughts” or will he be... more?

While looking to identify a painting in ch151, I was reminded of ch146 and the discussion between Sebastian and Pitt, the photographer. So, I went back to it to look for clues about a specific painting. Sebastian says “The Legend of King Arthur”, and the text bubble is over a part of a wall hanging that must represent the painting that’s mentioned.

What I’d never really noticed before is that the “tableau” in question is shown almost in full just a moment later. It’s the drapery covering the entrance to the back rooms. Just a potential backdrop for photos.

So, all this time I had been trying to figure out if it was code for a very specific escape plan, with a very specific ultimate destination (like France)... when it’s really just about getting through the back rooms and into the sewers.

Well... 🐀 🐀 🐀.