#ch165

So it’s something that’s bothered me a bit-- Aries has a belt and pouch in the manga, and it makes her look a little more resourceful and workman-like than her anime counterpart. I like the contrast between it and her simple white fluffy dress, because it gives her a good design balance. 

(She has it in the Angel fight and in her Edolas appearance in the anime, but I don’t believe she has it anytime else including all future appearances and the Karen flashback. She always has it in the manga.) 

It makes her look a little younger and cuter, I think? 

As it is in the anime, her scenes are always more emphasized on her offshoulder top and curves which annoys me because, she’s so cute and sexy already, you don’t need to emphasize her boobs and hips, geez. It’s like “wooly cute wooly cute” was the only thing they wanted to tell the audience about her, not the literal work pouch she has to express her sincerely hardworking side. 

It’s a different appeal, you know? The cute thing about her is how meek and shy she acts, so she doesn’t need three times of badoonkazoonkas. Her first appearance in the anime looks kind of wonky because her boobs were bigger than her face, and she had a One Piece reminiscent pencil waist. That is not a good thing. 

Her later appearances are fine, they fixed the proportions to look more reasonable and petite, but first impressions matter, you know? 

Anyway, with the belt in the manga, it’s almost like she’s actually here to work, and I like that. She emphasizes firsthand, in both of her appearances thus far, that she takes her job seriously despite the odds (against Leo) and she is not here to do things outside her job description like service men (against Karen). 

I wish that this part of her personality, which shows she’s not just a damsel in distress but also a genuinely earnest worker, was developed further. But alas. 

Anyways, I went off topic. I wanted to talk about everyone. 

Can we talk about the fact that Scorpio’s tail is clearly a fucking machinegun???

I think he uses it to shoot sand, but, literal ability-type magic looks like that. He could have been shooting it out of his tail and we’d believe it because we’ve seen hands and vases shoot out similar vortexes of elements, so why does it look like a machinegun? Heck, Lucy can do all this with just her hands in her star dress, too! 

I want to see him prepping and charging up a energy laser blaster of sand, at least.

I understand now why the Scorpio-Aquarius dress went in the mecha direction, but in the exact same way, Like, you can make it look like a gun or a mech all you want, it doesn’t feel like it works like one, you know?? Scorpio has a gun that doesn’t need to be a gun. SxA has huge machine limbs, but Lucy can’t even heavylift or efficiently tread terrains in it, so what’s the point? A cool design is pointless if it's clearly just a whimsical decoration! 

Don't always joke around, because when you're serious, no one believe 💫

Lol, these duo never forget to be clown 🤣

We don’t know how long the Straw Hats have been walking before Luffy plops down at this tree, but I get the impression they haven’t gotten far. Personally, I think Luffy waited until they were out of eye/earshot of Yuba and then just sat at the nearest bit of vegetation he could find. 

As for the timing of this fight, it’s not as random as it seems once you stop and think about it. All this time the Straw Hats have been going off of what Vivi’s said about Crocodile and the rebellion--Yuba was really their first time seeing up close and personal the destruction Crocodile has wrought, and Toto the first native Alabastian other than Vivi that they’ve interacted with. 

Ran-Mao is apparently still being drugged to keep her knocked-out.

Mey-Rin could possibly die before she gets Ran-Mao out of the manor. Even if that’s the case, she might still be able to help Ran-Mao anyway.

She was trying to get to Ran-Mao’s side when Jane attacked. Perhaps she can still manage to get to it and ruin the equipment that is keeping Ran-Mao drugged.

It occurs to me that even though Mey-Rin told Jane her former master bought her the pair of glasses she’s wearing, she never said whether she was nearsighted or farsighted. Here’s from ch153:

Jane might assume nearsighted, since Mey-Rin explains that the polish mixup was carelessness, not an inability to see up close. And now Jane is standing somewhat close to Mey-Rin... and Mey-Rin has her glasses on her hat. This might be even more of a bluff than I previously said.

Is she trying to make Jane think she is nearsighted, instead of farsighted? If Mey-Rin is in a position where she’s too far away from Ran-Mao to pull out the IV drip, maybe that’s why she has her glasses off... so she can aim that pistol with enough precision to destroy the IV tubing and other equipment.

Jane would be too busy dealing with Mey-Rin to care about Ran-Mao just yet, so maybe... just maybe... Ran-Mao could wake up, collect her thoughts... and save herself? Maybe she could even wake up in time to help Mey-Rin?