#loguetown

the strawhats entering the grand line in the midst of a big storm is an effective bit of writing on several layers. first, it’s dramatic. second, it sells the danger of the voyage up ahead. up til now, throughout the east blue saga, the weather has always been clear and sunny (except for in flashbacks, like that time nami tricked some random buggy pirates and then predicted their boat would sink in a squall.) the east blue is a calm, quiet sea and up until this storm its weather fits that mood; and once we enter the grand line, the changing weather often helps establish tone and setting. finally, the storm fits with corazon’s line “the d will always bring a storm.” luffy entering the grand line in a storm is, in a sense, symbolic of the way luffy “brings” a storm to the grand line, creating huge waves with his actions in very little time.

i feel like we don’t get to see zoro actually drawing his swords very often. he usually just has them in his hands already when he needs to use them. it’s gotta be kinda awkward for him lol, with all of his swords on one side of his body. so this is a fun panel to me, in that it shows off the knot he kind of twists himself into to reach his swords.

this roger speech beats out “wealth fame power” for me, even if the latter might be more immediately iconic. this speech basically crystallizes the philosophy of the one piece universe, and it’s why i’m more forgiving of fate and destiny in this story when i’m usually not big fans of them as tropes. in my view, one piece’s employ of fate and destiny recalls a dialectical view of history. it’s in the idea that the development of history is driven by contradictions — here, expressed as “people seeking answers to the question of freedom.” also, “the ebb and flow of ages” being something that cannot be stopped makes me think of the idea that everything is always in constant motion, another facet of dialectics; to quote engels, “motion is the mode of existence of matter” (anti-duhring).

as mao puts it in “on contradiction”: “changes in society are due chiefly to the development of the internal contradictions in society, that is, the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, the contradiction between classes and the contradiction between the old and the new; it is the development of these contradictions that pushes society forward and gives the impetus for the supersession of the old society by the new.” in one piece the principle contradiction is that of freedom vs. absolute control (as opposed to periphery vs. core and proletariat vs. bourgeoise, which are the principle contradictions that define class struggle in our world.)

i’m not claiming that one piece is a truly marxist piece of media (sadly it’s not, even if a lot of us marxists really like it.) freedom vs absolute control is a very idealistic contradiction, even if one piece does root it in some class analysis (mostly that of slavery, but also colonialism and imperialism a bit.) and because one piece is a fantasy manga, its ideas are made very literal and representational — special devil fruits, prophecies, ancient weapons, etc. however, i do think that as opposed to a lot of fantasy stories where fate and destiny are fixed, rigid, metaphysical ideas — you’ve got one fate and you can’t do anything to change it — in one piece these concepts are dialectical, made of movements and transitions. hence why i find these themes much more compelling in one piece than i usually do.