#sho-dan

Just wanted to thank everyone who voted for Sho-Dan in @onepiece-polls 's crack ship tourney! Even in the final minutes of the poll, I never thought we'd win. The support and validation I've gotten for this ship has been so wonderful. I've felt like a lone goofball for years about this, I'm happy the potential compatibility makes sense to others!

Also wanted give a shout out to Smoking Kills shippers, wish I had thought of a name as cool as that when submitting, and the propaganda was very convincing!

And thank you onepiece-polls for hosting the event! I appreciate you giving niche fandom pairings the spotlight!

Sho-Dan art by @shepherd-bones. Check out the full post here.

Propaganda under the cut.

In this pinned post I'm going to explain the reason for the name, the reason for the ship, and what I plan to do with this blog.

Why Sho-Dan?

I decided to call it Sho-Dan because it's a play on the name Chō-Han, a Japanese dice game that was a favorite of Zatoichi's, the character that was the inspiration for Issho. It's not hard to imagine Dadan might be a gambler as well, albeit probably not a successful one.

Why did I start shipping them?

Issho has been my favorite One Piece character for years now. It's impossible to know at this point what kind of man Issho was before becoming Fujitora, but I get the impression that he hasn't let his new status in the world change how he views it. Despite being an Admiral, he doesn't follow Sakazuki's orders, nor does he seem to give a damn about the opinions of celestial dragons or whatever punishment they might want to inflict on him. He does what he thinks is right, including letting a certain pirate alliance save a kingdom. He sees the nuance of life.

I always wanted to ship him with someone that would make sense, but he canonically seems like a loner to me. (This isn't meant to be disrespectful to any other ships, this is just how I feel.) I got into the Zatoichi movies because of him, and Ichi always fell in love but always left them behind because his life was too dangerous (he was always on the yakuza's radar) and had to stay on the move. It made sense in my mind that Issho could be similar, making enemies when he acted on his sense of justice, being a wanderer before and after being drafted into the Marines. That he could have left a love behind to keep them safe.

I am fond of Curly Dadan because she's a big, loud woman who swears and smokes, is a coward who makes mistakes, but will be brave when it counts. The characters she interacts with (obviously excluding ASL) treat her like a daughter (Garp saying "I'm leaving these kids with you, raise them well" gives toxic dad vibes) or older sister (her underlings respect her but fear her wrath.) I couldn't help but think she might be lonely, too.

My first thought was shipping her with a woman, but the only woman she's canonically interacted with is Makino. Makino is nice, but I see her dating either a normal person or a great adventurer, not a cowardly mountain bandit.

In 2020 I became part of the Women! Wanted Zine. We had to pick a woman from One Piece and create fanworks for her, so I picked Dadan. This was also during the midst of my Zatoichi movie spree.

It started with a prompt. We were making flash art to spark interest in the zine, and the prompts were based on arcs and movies.

That week's prompt was One Piece Film: Gold.

I drew Dadan. To be honest, hadn't seen Film Gold yet. I looked up character references from the movie, and settled on an outfit I thought was appropriately cool.

This movie had casinos and gambling, though, and of course I had to draw Issho- It's how we're first introduced to him!

Suddenly, things fell into place.

What kind man would love Dadan? What fierce woman would love Issho? What lover would Issho abandon to protect, and what in Dadan's past made her so embittered?

In my mind, it made sense that Issho could've been a wandering swordsman in his youth, maybe catching rides from island to island. He could have met Dadan on Dawn Island, well before the arrival of Ace, Sabo and Luffy into her life. Knowing what we know from SBS 110, maybe he was on the run! Maybe it was before his association with that kingdom!

Now what?

I'm making this blog as a testament to this crackship. I will share art about them, and share things that remind me of them. If I'm ever motivated to continue it, I may share my fanfiction here.

Helliott forced us into an early morning the next day, and we were up by 10am to go for brunch at Le Cartet. 

The cafe facade is unassuming, but hard to miss due to the line up accumulating out the door (even on a rainy morning!). The inside decor, staff, and even patrons all scream SOHO hipster, which may be offputting for some, but rather enjoyable for me, although I'm neither SOHO or hipster, haha. 

The food hit me in all the right ways, not in the sense that anything was extravagant or even uncommon, but everything was just done right. Your order comes with coffee, OJ, and sweet breads, and their cafe au laits come in bowls as big as your face LOL. Talk about your morning kick! Highly recommended, my favourite brunch place in Montreal! 

After stuffing ourselves at brunch, we went to Parc La Fontaine to Bixi bike along the canal and the bike paths surrounding the park. After stopping a thousand times for Helen to take a thousand pictures, we went back to Old Montreal for some ice cream before seeing Helliott off at the train station. 

We continued our day on Bixi bikes by leaving the mainland and going to Ste-Helene/Notre Dame Island. Despite it being a cloudy/drizzling day, the view back into the city was still really nice. 

On our way there, we passed Habitat 67, an architectural piece created for Expo 67, that currently still serves as a residential complex. Yes, I spent some time creeping on the residents inside their homes. =D

That night, we went to this Japanese restaurant named Sho-Dan. It. was. the. bomb. 

Ohh... the chef's special sushi rolls were heavenly, the waiters there are super cute and personable, and the martinis (lychee) go down smooth and easy, mmm... prolly my favourite dinner in Montreal. =D 

The next morning, we headed straight to Schwartz for smoked meat. I had some, it was good, but not godly, like I've been told by countless people. 

We proceeded to do the most touristy thing we could: go to Biodome, lol. 

I never thought I would ever step foot in the Biodome again, haha. It was exactly as I remembered it, but smaller (probably cuz I'm bigger this time). 

The penguins are still my favourite. They're always a hoot to watch. 

After the Biodome, we went back to our favourite hill in Mont Royal and laid there, cloud-watching the afternoon away, chatting about life, romance, ambitions, you know, grassy knoll shit.