#whirlyrambles

then Whitebeard died. Whitebeard died after shouting The One Piece is Real! restarting Roger’s grand era of piracy with renewed hope and ambition. 

Whitebeard didn’t let Ace have his father’s legacy. He shouldered that burden himself. his death, instead of Ace’s, helped sparked a new era. His last words were the ones people cared about, not Ace’s private ones to his brother. Whitebeard made sure ace was a son of the sea - unable to be compared to roger in anyway.

SO VERY RELEVANT!

firstly, the theory that I have seen a lot is that the big meeting between Shanks and Luffy?? The big fight? The proof that Luffy is a great pirate and Shanks can take back his hat? It's going to be a Davy Back Fight - a proper one, without the schemeing of pirates like foxy. Foxy is a complete opposition to what Shanks is like as a captain, and basically just provides a standard Shanks will beat fully and absolutely lmao.

Secondly! the absolute amazing @grainjew (grainjew on ao3) and @sweetcandyholic (fallingwish on ao3) have a theory about Foxy + Long Ring Long Island's thematic relevance. Essentially, we know that water 7 is all about the captain's role right? Luffy has to make the decisions about merry, usopp and luffy's whole fight is about usopp's insecurity and Luffy's captainship, luffy's it's heavy about the duties of being a captain, even afterwards when Zoro points out about Luffy's role as a captain while debating on welcoming usopp back. What grainjew n sweetcandyholic say is that Long Ring Long Island sets this arc up perfectly, because it's about the captain's privileges. The captain makes all the decisions. The captain risks their crew members. The captain makes the choice to risk the crew's pride. The crew members have no choice. Its all about what the captain can do - then directly bleeds into water 7 which is about what the captain has to do.

it is the worst thing they have ever told me and now i am a member of fucking hell long ring long island, foxy as a captain that abuses his privileges in comparison to luffy, is fucking relevant. its cursed knowledge. i hate it sm.

okay but like. here's what i think - sabo's situation? its not going to involve luffy at all.

the news will be released. newspapers will flutter down from the sky, and the strawhats will conveniently leave wano right before they're able to read it. the audience will see the front page - sabo captured, killed, enslaved, whatever - and the strawhats will go on their merry way, because this upcoming war is not a war for pirates, but for revolutionaries. for marines who can't take akainu anymore. for citizens who want out of the governments power.

coby - our next fleet admiral - is there. garp is there. vivi - queen and ruler and strawhat - is there. the revolutionaries are there. mariejeoise - you know, where recent chapters have hinted at is something more - is the setting. we have all these players ready for a revolution to take place, and enough stakes and characters we care about for this setting to distract for a bit!

i think the reverie....2! isn't going to parallel marineford at all, because sabo isn't going to die - there has to be new stakes, and what better stakes than the fate of the entire world! its a different playing field, a different arc, because the purpose is entirely different from marineford - to give motivation for the straw hats to get stronger, to forge onward, and to answer the question usopp posed at the end of thriller bark - what happens if we go up against an enemy we can't beat? that luffy can't beat? the strawhats are strong now, and luffys about to defeat kaido. he's near unbeatable now, as he should be at this point in the story. the point has been made and a direct parallel to marineford would be somewhat redundant. the reverie is here to shake things up - to tie up all the plot points that have pointed at a corrupt government and the horridness of absolute justice, and the dreams of coby and sabo and the rest of them.

marineford was a war and a tragedy and the beginning of a new pirate era, the reverie is going to be a revoltuon and a victory and the beginninng of a new era for the world.

tl;dr - saving sabo (if he even needs to be saved) isn't going to be luffy's fight but garp's, and vivi's and cobys, because all the signs point to the fact that a revolution is coming and the reverie is the perfect place - additionally the purpose that marineford fulfilled is over, and having luffy save sabo with his crew (tho therapeutic and wonderful and would make me cry) would be a bit redundant.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!! op really embraces the fact that every person is the hero of their own story, or at the very least the protagonist of their own story. it really shows when we see the 'dreams' each character has, even side characters - hatchi was a villain of the week type antagoist and BAM now he has his own dreams, his own complicated relationship with nami, his own cover story, etc - he's a side character, but i wouldn't mind reading about him. Buggy and Bon chan are bigger examples of this, but even past villains, like CP9 and Baroque Works, have enough personality that i'd be intrigued! Each one piece character is distinct and vivid in their characterization, which makes it such a thrilling series to read.

(ya know, since there's supposedly an editor that wrote Oda's original idea for Wano... Zoro was going to be Kaido's son, Kaido's "daughter" was going to join the crew and a couple of siblings were going to be crewmates)

dear anon i literally did a spit take that is the stupidest plot idea i have ever heard of (at least compared to one piece's typically strong storyline) and im so glad i couldn't find a source for this otherwise my faith in oda's writing would have shrunk to a pea

OTHER WISE

the COMEDY - because literally no one would give a shit besides like. anyone but a straw hat. bet zoro would pull a luffy and go "i have dad? weird" and move on with his life. yamato would have a crisis because 'did oden have a brother' and then go cool brother lets take down our father together annd zoro would agree because he wants to take down kaido. kaido would be like the fuck a son?? and still try to kill him after a brief attempt to pull him over to his side.

uhhh the straw hats would go huh wild explains a lot, every single ally would go insane, every single enemy would go insane, itd be funny

YOU. YOU GET IT OH MY GOSH. literally BOTH of these should happen - and the first one is??? such a good way for Luffy to keep the hat???? and for the relationship between luffy and shanks to fall back to their natural teasing and respect they had when luffy was young which - like you second thing would be SO FUNNY because thhe straw hats are like. yes. shanks. emperor of the sea. 100% respect. then they meet him and he's doing the chopstick dance with Luffy. and just them bonding,,,, oh i want this to happen so bad so very very very bad. it would be so good.

HUH - never really heard of this perspective before - it tracks, i think, in some regard, but i don't really fall in line with this thinking, ultimately i think

kourshirou, from what we have seen, didn't put a stop to Kuina's training. he let her fight, let her train, and didn't put a stop to her battling - yet, told her that girls can't become master swordsman. i think he was just humoring her - he was sexist, and believed that women were weaker and could never be as strong as men, and that was simply the end of it. he believed his daughter was misguided, but like. not enough to do violence against her, yknow? it was just neglect of her dreams and capabilities.

he was just super passive i think is the thing - he treated things (like kuina's death) as facts rather than things to be challenged unlike zoro. in addition her death as an accident show thats anyone can suddenly lose sight of their dreams + gives importance to zoro's actions base on succeeding a dream rather than falling into the super easy path of vengeance that oda could have took