#chapter 1082

But he knows what he is, and he is a pirate, a weak one, maybe, but ultimately a pirate, and Roger's former crew member.

He never trained to get better because he felt he didn't deserve it. He never thought of being big outside of the East Blue because he thought he was not good enough. And now these guys, who are stronger than him, come and decided (in his eyes) to be just mediocre?

And this may be the moment when he finally accepts he put himself down all his life. He always played safe because in his own eyes, he wasn't enough.

"Shanks had so much promised ahead of him, I gave up on my dreams"

Since Shanks was the promising one, the talented one, the strong one, Buggy put himself down. All for Shanks, but he forgot to tell Shanks about it.

Remember after he was given the warlord title he fantasized about becoming an Emperor and later King of the Pirates?

He didn't say that because he got carried away. That had been his dream all along

A childhood dream he is claiming back. It may be impossible, delusional, and complete madness, but he, in his desperate state, is taking a chance

They may hurt him and humiliate him again later, maybe that would happen, I haven't caught out with the manga yet, but, for this moment, Crocodile and Mihawk can't do much because, as much as they let him be Emperor just for show and as much as they use him for their own convenience, they are not the ones all those pirates are following. It's Buggy.

He is the one with followers. He is the one who is loved, and he is the one for whom hundreds of people would fight (and maybe even die for).

saying that he'll be the one, nor that he needs to exclude Buggy, just that he needs to

wait. Maybe for Buggy to power up or come into a realisation of his own power / worth, which is a wily beast indeed? Anyway, Red is on the move as Buggy says:

Maybe with a different right hand man (I love Beck too). But maybe that's the point, he and Buggy might meet as equals

[caption: Shanks prior to getting the road poneglyph and others from the Kid Pirates]

And they're not gonna claim the One PIece together, cos' that's Luffy's job, but maybe they will try together (competition is fine too, though).

As an aside, this frame about Luffy and Bartolomeo and Bartolomeo replacing the Red Haired Flags with Luffy's own from chapter 1054:

I don't know if I'm reading this right, but Shanks doesn't go after Bartolomeo because he replaced Shanks' flags with Luffy's, and because they were Luffy's flags he's letting it slip, OR that seeing Luffy now without dealing with Bartolomeo first might imply that Shanks agrees with the actions (and maybe he does), OR that they're going to hurt an ally of Luffy's, or that they need to hurt him so that Luffy doesn't think that Shanks is humouring Luffy.... I'm not 100% sure, but anyway I'm leaning towards the idea that the One Piece might be found by both Shanks and Buggy, but its truth worth lies beyond that, and that is what Luffy will gain.

Messy analysis, sorry. BUT, if Buggy had been patient, would things have gone differently? Would he have joined Shanks' crew if he'd gone straight for the One Piece, or did he imagine they'd sail as comrades of an equal standing (maybe not, due to his description of Shanks' potential, but that might've been Buggy-generated). A friend has said Buggy's a candidate for Conqueror's Haki and he's probably right.