#raftel

Also this is majestic and I wanted it to be here⬇️

And this is so 💪💪🤝🤝🤝⬇️

Laugh tale, aka Raftel⬇️

In a previous post that I've shared, where Rayleigh remembers something, there's a glimpse of Roger, it's similar to this one. And tbh I was justtttt a little confused about him being Luffy because the resemblance over there was a little too much and it was just a glimpse. So I was confused up until now. But it is So Roger.⬇️

Broke me a little bit over here⬇️

This dialogue and this saying of goodbyes, brings me so much smiles and pain⬇️

Episodes 962-972

I can just imagine it now. Two crews stand just a little behind their captains, who met as a hardened New World pirate and a rambunctious boy who hung onto his every word, dreaming of going on and adventure someday, finally stand as equals. The crown sits in front of the two. The king and his consort. The son and his father. The red-haired man who finally gets the place he earned (by the pirate king’s side) as not a son but a father. He has no desire for the treasure itself, only to finish out his own adventure. But Luffy… he earned the title of Pirate King. He’ll be the one to achieve his dream of 800 years. And he still thinks he earned his place by SHANK’S side, whenever it’s nothing if not the other way around.

So Shanks takes a step back to make room for the new generation.

What if, we've already seen the One Piece?

Gaimon's debut chapter (and so far only full chapter he appears in) is disconnected with any single other chapter, arc or saga in one piece. He only makes one cameo in a cover story over 10 years later.

But there is something important about that chapter.

The chest was empty.

His treasure, did not exist.

Except it did.

Because the other chest we see is the one Gaimon's in.

That has always been a... peculiar thing, compared to other backstories. Oda does it often, but he also mentioned that Gaimon was his favorite character. Either seriously or jockingly. Why would he pick Gaimon out od all people?

And what is the One Piece inside of? A chest. We saw it, but not the insides.

I hope you have guessed where i'm going already.

THE ONE PIECE IS THE MOTHERFUCKING TREASURE CHEST ITSELF!!!

GOL D. "IF YOU WANT IT GO LOOK FOR IT" ROGER LAUGHED HIS ASS OFF BECAUSE HE OPENED IT, SAW NOTHING, HAD THE SAME REALIZATION AS ME, AND DIDN'T FEEL LIKE PUNCHING A HOLE THROUGH A WALL.

The gum-gum fruit being an mythical one instead of a paramecia explains a hell of a lot why Luffy is a constant on Shanks's mind after so many years.

I mean, I get it. Luffy was an adorable kid who idolized Shanks and saw him as a father, but Shanks is a veteran world traveler and a seasoned warrior.

There was NO REASON for him to lose his arm to a Sea King for Luffy. There was NO REASON for him to panic so badly that he forgot his conqueror's haki and plunged into the sea to save the kid. EXCEPT--

Luffy had eaten the Gomu-Gomu no Mi which was actually the Mythical Zoan fruit the Government was trying to hide so that the events of the Void Century never repeated themselves and so that they could retain all of their power.

Luffy had eaten the fruit the WG was so terrified of to the point where they had an entire division of Cypher Pol transporting it, a team that Shanks defeated for the sole purpose of retrieving a fruit that his Captain had told him about (in theory, because Shanks was a good soft boi who took care of his brother instead of going to Raftel).

The FRUIT was in danger of being lost to the whims of the Sea once again and there was no way Shanks could predict where it would turn up again - and what if he couldn't find it before the WG did?

I adore Luffy, and I adore Shanks, and I adore the relationship they have, and I truly believe that over the years Shanks truly came to love Luffy the same way Roger did him and Buggy, but a part of me believes that it was the rubber fruit that had him panic so bad, NOT Luffy.

Shanks had been a pirate since childhood. He traveled with Hiyori and Momonosuke. He's met, played with and said goodbye to many children over the years. The world he lives in and grew up is cruel. Hell, he saw Tequila Wolf up close and the little we've seen through Robin's eyes showed us there is likely a lot of young deaths happening there.

But the ones he is so close to, the ones he considers his children (hello Uta - I still don't know how I feel about your existence and until I see the movie, I won't be figuring it out) are the ones that have close ties to the WG in some way. I simply can't reconcile Shanks's complete loss of control over his emotions and abilities simply because of a child.

Road to Laugh Tale Vol. 4 is out!