It's nighttime, everyone's sleeping and Usopp wakes up cause he has to pee. Obviously, he wakes Zoro up to accompany him cause he's scared of going alone and ofc Zoro says no way. So Usopp has no choice but to go alone, and he walks in the woods, terrified, and then he screams or something and Zoro takes literally less than a second and he's there, with his swords drawn ready for a fight. Obviously it doesnt end up being anything dangerous, but idk. This lil moment that's quite literally nothing has stuck with me.

I've wanted to write this since I started OP but at the same time I wanted to wait to write all my thoughts and conclusions and everything until I caught up with it and I did yesterday, so here we are! (This post wont contain any explicit spoilers btw)

So, a detail abt me is that I'm a big shipper, okay. I love shipping two characters together, specially if theyre not canon, and I love making my lil hcs to the point that I don't normally accept any others. And as everyone knows, OP isn't romantic and there wont ever be any explicit romance in the story, which makes it perfect for people like me to make up infinite scenarios with your fav characters cause canon wont ever contradict you (normally). But I've found myself liking ships that I wouldnt call myself a shipper of. Like, for example, I love namivivi and zosan. I ship them to death and truly, big fan. However, when I see a Zoro and Nami edit, or fanart or something, I get so excited too, which this had never happened to me cause I normally tend to hate ships that contradict my hcs.

So for me, I think it goes back to how different platonic and romantic relationships are portrayed in media. I grew up thinking tropes like "touch her and you die" or "id burn the whole world just for her" and other actions that show how much you would risk for this one person were the epitome of true romantic love. Like, that was it for me. That was the purest sign of love and it was always achieved thru romantic love. So to get to see all these actions in One Piece, but between all the strawhats without any romantic undertone at all was an eye-opening experience for me.

Idk man if im making any sense, but I think that the strawhats have a kind of bond that surpasses all and everything I thought I knew about relationships, friendships and love. So even tho I have my preferred pairings, I very much see the vision of other ships cause even tho I may not believe they have chemistry or make sense romantically, I will never deny how much love a strawhat has for another one. And I think that's one of the strongest points One Piece has. It's just filled with so much love it makes it impossible not to see it.