#ch178

I really feel Knightwalker is a representation of who Erza would have been, if she stayed on Jellal’s side and served in the Tower of Heaven. 

The way it’s all framed, it feels like Knightwalker is holding back. She’s moody, unreadable, and she doesn’t immediately gloat or make fun of Lucy being so naive. Instead, she’s cold, and almost annoyed. It might be just me, but I feel she’s holding back, especially about the part where she 'likes sweet things and cute clothes'. She’s loyal to the kingdom, she’s the fearsome Captain Knightwalker, and the scary captain does not indulge in girly girl things and act lame and silly like our Erza. 

I think if Erza stayed in the tower, she would do that too, hold back on everything indulging and loveable about herself like she did at the start of her joining FT, as a way to handle her guilt. 

Even when Lucy starts shouting at her, Knightwalker’s face is cold. 

It is only at the moment right before she drops her, that she brings up a smile. 

She says she ‘loves to see the despair of others’, and yet, this is the only frame of a smile I can find. And it feels manufactured.

I truly think Knightwalker is restricted by her loyalty. What sets her apart from Erza isn’t love for her friends, but loyalty (to friends vs to authority). I think they’re similar, and they both would love sweets and cute things and fooling around with the boys to be free-- but while our Erza has allowed her heart out of its cage, Knightwalker is duty-bound to be strong and fearsome, and that’s why she does not let her little childish wants get in the way of her work. 

(Which is ironic, because Erza wears a suit of armor to represent locking her heart away, and Knightwalker is in revealing and proud bikini armor. Yet, the reality is entirely opposite.)

We even see at the end of this arc, just how vulnerable she can be when facing the right words. When she fights against Erza Scarlet, when the battle ends, they got somewhere with learning how to express her true emotions. 

Here’s to the return of her solo cup… and I even added a solo cup and a white glove for Sebastian. 😊

Abe: tries to explain things to Ren by sharing his childhood experience. Is immediately embarrassed about it.

Ren: thinks how funny and cute Abe was as a kid.

Omo 😂 He came with his brightness but went with pale face 😆

I love that Luffy loses a shoe here. 

And, really, this loss is necessary. We’ve been in the Grand Line for almost one hundred chapters without any real difficulty, nor has Luffy truly been challenged in combat throughout the series (I don’t count Smoker as he’s never presented as a true antagonist).

The Grand Line has been hyped for the entire series, and Crocodile acts as a gatekeeper to see if Luffy, and by extension his Straw Hats, are worthy of sailing on its seas.  

It’s so fitting that Crocodile himself is a failed silver medalist, something that’s not explicitly said in Alabasta but is somewhat implied. It’s so fitting that the first challenge is a test of the camaraderie and friendship of the Straw Hat Pirates, since unity is what they’re going to need if they’re going to survive.