Skull. Gremlin.

Hello anon!! <333 I actually never thought to compare them until chapter 1181 dropped. I was going so crazy over them that I had to make this side blog XD

The moment I saw this panel, I instantly remembered this one with Buggy and Shanks in chapter 1082.

It's the way Buggy says "He shone so brightly," and how we see it shining around Joymu as they laugh, with Joy Boy positioned closer to the viewer, making him appear larger and more important, while Imu looks smaller in the background.

It's the "I knew I couldn't measure up, so I let go of my real dream," and the way Imu seems to accept that reality while laughing, despite the imbalance between them.

It's the "You said it yourself, didn't you, Shanks?" and "Isn't that right, Joy Boy?"

So now I'm speculating that maybe Joy Boy changed his mind, and they ended up having an argument, similar to shuggy.

I'm definitely not alone in noticing the similarities. I once saw a Japanese tweet saying, "Imu is basically if Buggy became King of the World after breaking up with Shanks." lol

Which leads me to another point. Unlike Buggy and Shanks, Joy Boy and Imu seem much closer in terms of strength. But something that really caught my attention was Imu's speech about envy and how such power can be achieved.

The whole explanation felt strangely personal, almost like he was speaking from experience. It sounded like he had felt those emotions himself... and chose to take the deal.

So was Imu not always close to Joy Boy in strength? Did he take the deal before or after Joy Boy's death? If it was after Joy Boy's death, then the deal could have been a response to loss. Joy Boy is gone, Imu is left with only the "Void," and accepting the deal becomes a way to preserve control or fill that absence. That would make the emotional angle stronger, though it doesn't explain the speech about envy quite as neatly.

There's also the fact that we don't know whether Imu rules the world because he genuinely wants to, or because he believes it's the only way the world can function, even if it's not what he truly wants.

We know Buggy always wanted to become Pirate King, but he felt he had no choice except to give up on that dream until he regained his confidence after seeing himself on "equal footing" with Shanks.

With Imu, though, we don't even know if becoming king was ever his dream. We'll have to wait and see.

And if Imu really was a Lunarian, there's a chance he once worshipped Joy Boy, the Sun God, and genuinely wanted him to rule. If his god failed him... maybe that's what drove him to the Devil. It could even explain why he asks, "What difference does it make?" as if, after losing faith, he no longer sees a distinction between the two.

And if he really is projecting, then that puts the line, "The world itself rejoices in a state of dominion," in a completely different light.

Is Imu talking about himself here? Is he reminiscing about the happiest moment of his life, when he was under Joy Boy's dominion? It gets even crazier when you remember that Imu was previously referred to as "the world itself."

Why is Imu so angry at Joy Boy? Does he really not enjoy ruling after all?

Buggy was angry at Shanks because Shanks broke his promise to go to Laugh Tale with him. So did Joy Boy ever make Imu a promise too? Because holding onto that much anger for 800 years can only be explained if Joy Boy broke a promise that sounded suspiciously like wedding vows.

Promises are one of the core recurring motifs in One Piece. We have:

- Shanks & Luffy.

- Zoro & Kuina.

- Shanks & Buggy.

- The Straw Hats & Vivi.

- Ace & Luffy.

- Ace & Tama.

- Noland & Kalgara.

- Luffy & Shirahoshi.

- Joy Boy & Poseidon(?).

- Brook & Laboon.

And more.

So it wouldn't surprise me if another 800-year-old promise ends up at the heart of the story.

(Oda is the one who posted these pics of the imu plush👀)

I also find it interesting that Oda made the Red Line a sort of checkpoint for promises.

On one side, we have Brook and Laboon. On the other, we get the bombshell that is Joy Boy and Poseidon. Then we have Luffy and Shirahoshi. We also constantly see Shirahoshi and her brothers making pinky promises with their mother. Promises were a huge theme in Fish-Man Island.

So what if there was someone up there, on top of the Red Line, directly above Fish-Man Island, who was also promised something 800 years ago?

What could that promise have even been about? Or maybe the better question is... does Imu have a dream?

The fact that Imu was talking with Joy Boy about the state of the world, and the way he seems to feel responsible for it, makes me think he absolutely did have one. Just like Hashirama and Madara shared a dream. (I don't know if you've watched Naruto, anon.) Joymu reminds me of those two even more than Shuggy.

But it DOES honestly feel like Oda went, "Oh, Luffy, you want to be just like Shanks? Here, have your own Buggy. Except he's immortal, King of the World, and about 800 times more unhinged."

It's also worth mentioning that we don't actually know who Joy Boy was apologizing to in the Fish-Man Island Poneglyph. Robin explicitly asks, "Who are you apologizing to, Joy Boy?" and we still don't have an actual answer.

Fishmen don't actually need the Noah, they can breath under the water just fine. What if Joy Boy actually intended to drown the world to turn it upside down(?), and Imu is simply trying to fulfill that dream?

So... was the Xebec and Imu confrontation in the Flower Room really just a Davy Jones fan vs. Joy Boy fan face-off?

Anyways, I just stumbled across the Chapter 1188 spoilers, and they completely derailed my train of thought, so I'll end this here. 😭

I've already rambled about the "they will surely meet again," along with the sun/moon stuff, here.

I want to add that I don’t make a habit of this now that I am a law abiding adult, but recently I accidentally did this again. Having been used to having my run of hospitals and walking basically anywhere as a child, I was visiting a friend in the hospital just before covid and I was legitimately exhausted and carrying a coffee cup cuz it was like 5:30am or something dumb, and I went to leave and get to the bottom floor and i’m like “this is not the lobby” and I walked around for a bit and people kept holding doors for me so I traveled through many corridors, and nothing looked familiar, and then I realized every single door was a key card swipe and everyone had mag-stripe badges with varying security levels and I realized I had gotton onto a staff elevator with the staff, who had swiped their card to go down into a high-security area of the building, and people had just been letting me through all these security doors.

So then I had to out myself and be like “Um I accidentally broke into you high-security wing, please show me the door, I’m literally just trying to leave this hospital” and I had to get like searched and stuff. 

And what was funny was that while I was blissfully walking around assuming I belonged, No one questioned ANYTHING and in fact, were violating protocols left and right to let me through, but the VERY SECOND I realized I was not where I was supposed to be and let that show on my face, like three people in the hall confronted me. 

So the take away is, be confident that you belong, look exhausted and like you don’t want to be there, and carry a cup of coffee. It will open pretty much all doors.

I finally attracted the notice of someone who was meant to be part of this restoration project when I came back up from the hole. He quickly came over to ask me, in Italian, what I’m sure were the very normal questions of “Who are you?”, “What are you doing here??”, etc.

Problem: I do not speak Italian.

My brain’s solution: Quick, what language do we speak that’s close?! 

And that is how I wandered up out of a hole in a Roman ruin without warning and began speaking ancient Latin to an archaeologist.

This man’s face went through 15 different absolutely floored expressions in ten seconds, like you could physically see him going through the thought process of “Have I encountered a ghost from ancient Rome? No, ghosts aren’t real. But if ghosts not real, how Latin??? Fellow researcher??? Supposed to be here???”

Omegaverse AU: lol I based it off that chart I did of what happens when Zoro and Luffy go into a rut at the same time. And since Sanji is the only omega (and in this case kept that a bit of a secret)....ruh roh.

This Ring quest will have two hobbits. Maximum.

Then they all get to Rivendell and have somehow multiplied into four hobbits. And it's like. Okay. Maybe the others are right.

Maybe this is too many hobbits.

We have as many hobbits as we have not-hobbits.

But damn it, you just don't want to get rid of any of these hobbits. Screw it! Everyone can deal. Four hobbits. This is a four hobbits problem.

So away you go.

And things go bad in the worst possible way.

Over and over.

You've lost your hobbits. You've lost yourself. The fellowship has been separated.

It takes everything in your power to help the humans defend themselves, bringing them together to save Rohan. Finally, as things begin to look upright, you're ready to face the war with everything the Rohirrim have left.

You're ready to face him. This may be the hardest battle you've ever fought. But you ride.

Then you get there and two of your fucking hobbits are sitting there like "Yeah, while you were gone, we raised a tree army and beat Saruman's ass. Wanna help us loot his tower?"

....

There were not, in fact, too many hobbits.

Saruman a two-hobbit problem

Sauron a four-hobbit problem

There has never in the history of anything been a large group of armed people without a nearby group of people exchanging sex for payment. If you bring up supposedly celibate orders I will laugh you out of the room.

Okay... I'll probably forget how to draw tomorrow, because I can't explain this

but you deserve to give informed consent to that process.

the lies around pregnancy - that it's inherently safe, that it doesn't do you permanent damage, that it's only extremely rare for people to die of pregnancy complications, etc like

all of these are lies constructed so that more people will get pregnant w/o knowing all that

there needs to be more talk about the impact of miscarriages and how common they are, how different abortion processes are and how accessible they are

but also like. talking about how pregnancy fucks your body up should not be taboo

this is a process that permanently changes most people's bodies, and that's even if the pregnancy doesn't do them like. severe illness or injury

and i just think everybody should have a right to KNOW that

When I was pregnant I was in a million forums for pregnant people because (cough adhd hyperfixation) and I had something called SPD (Symphysis pubis dysfunction) (not Sensory Processing Disorder though I also have that) which is where your pubic bones separate early (more or less) because they get all loosey goosey as your body gets ready to crank that baby out.

Except my pubic bone got confused and got misaligned at like 3 months pregnant. I could barely walk. I couldn't roll over in bed. Doing something that required me to shift my weight from one foot to another like opening a door knob was like an excruciatingly painful knife being stabbed into my pubic bone, I can't express how intense and blinding it was.

So I am in one million baby forums like "am I dying what is happening why is there a knife in my pubic bone" and all these people are like "I have that too! my doctor says it's normal and not to worry because it doesn't hurt the baby. I just deal with it by laying in bed for months in excruciating pain and think about how lucky I am to be having a little miracle growing in my body."

So lol nope. I went to my midwife and they are like, "Oh squeeze a can between your knees look up a physical therapy youtube on SPD" and I did that can-squeeze thing and it CURED THE PROBLEM in ONE DAY. I had been SUFFERING, y'all, it felt miraculous.

And I was so full of rage (flames, flames on the side of my face) that people are being told "Oh, it's NORMAL just deal with it" "It doesn't hurt the baby." Like, look, yes it's NORMAL but it's 100% treatable!!! SPD (again, not Sensory processing disorder) affects 1 in 5 pregnant people.

I was lucky to have amazing midwives (need a gender neutral term for that profession, but they see pregnant men and women)(side note highly recommend midwives if you are gender nonconfirming/a man/etc) and I have DOZENS of examples of shit like this.

Some people in moderate car crashes are very lucky, and walk away with zero injury. Some are very unlucky, and die. But most people fall into the third category, where they'll be injured at the time, then heal, and then for the rest of their life they have some minor and liveable complication from the injury. Like a knee that lets you know when the rain is coming, or a back that doesn't like seats without lumbar support, or a shoulder that never quite gets its full range of motion back.

she's been suffering with this since she gave birth to me. I'm 38 years old. she had that surgery last week.

Granted, it still needs to be updated because not just women give birth.

Here is an etymologically equivalent but gender neutral term I just made:

if you only have one person in your life that you trust, you probably are always going to turn to that person when something shit happens. as well as whenever something good happens. or anything else. this is not inherently a bad thing, and it’s really beautiful to have someone in your life that you trust so much

but if that person is suddenly busy or going through something difficult themselves or doesn’t have emotional capacity for a while, suddenly there’s a problem. not necessarily through any fault of your own, you don’t have anyone to turn to with as much regularity as you did before

this is true of any kind of relationship. this is true of any kind of coping mechanism, also. the problem is not that you trust that person. the problem is not that you use that coping mechanism. the problem is not even that there’s something wrong with you and that it’s all your fault. the problem is that nothing can be everything

But surely...surely, the response to Zionism should be "wow, we really fucked up with how we treated Jews and now they don't want to live with us anymore. We should probably make the world safer for them so they do want to live with us again."

Instead it's, "we're going to spend 2,000 years harassing, abusing, attacking and murdering Jews but how DARE they want to escape us?? That's so entitled! Have you EVER heard of anything so UTTERLY SELFISH as wanting your own country where you won't be murdered for your ethnoreligion????"

Like, if you're anti-Zionist surely your main priority should be tackling antisemitism? That would be the logical way to end Zionism if you're so absolutely certain it shouldn't exist????

Its like a husband beating his wife and then throwing a fit when she decides she wants to move out.

Like, do you know who I blame most of all for the catastrophe in Gaza right now? Most of all? Because it's not Israelis and it's not IDF and its not Netanyahu. It's not Palestinians and it's not Gaza and it's not Hamas.

Who I blame most of all is the rest of the world for letting it get this bad. And it all starts with the fact that the world decided killing Jews was okay, and continued that belief for 2,000 years.