IT'S REALLL IT'S SO REAL. ACTUALLY INSANE

months ago, while mindlessly scrolling through twitter, i came across an analysis of this particular panel from chapter 434 (i can’t remember who wrote the thread, i’m so sorry </3), and i really want to talk about it too.

(EDIT: original author of the thread is @goingbuggy!!! go check out their metas, they're amazing)

the thread was focusing on the way the speech bubble covers shanks's scar completely, and how it can be seen as a sign of vulnerability. oda is using shanks’s own words to hide his suffering, letting his physical scars be representative of his emotional ones, even though the event he’s talking about is completely unrelated to the way he got his scar.

in fact, we know shanks is not ashamed of the scar, since just a couple of pages after this one he mentions it directly as a way to start the conversation about blackbeard:

he doesn’t have a problem with the marking itself, it’s just used as a narrative device, a tool to highlight (in an extradiegetic way) his emotional wounds and the pain he always tries so hard to hide, in an effort to keep his usual composure.

the original author of the thread compared the panel from chapter 434 to another, way older one, from the very first chapter:

this takes place right after shanks loses his left arm to save luffy’s life. it’s obviously a very emotionally charged moment, which means the best thing to do would be showing a close-up of shanks’s reaction to everything that’s unfolding in front of him at that moment (luffy’s cries, or even his own reaction to his sacrifice). oda, however, chooses not to do that; instead, he hides half of shanks’s face, just like he did in chapter 434. the way the moment is portrayed tells the reader shanks is willing to hide his pain in an even deeper way than what he’s showing by smiling at luffy right after getting his arm chopped off.

it’s a great way to explain an important characteristic without stating it right away. it's a focal point of shanks's character: it's his way of showing luffy he cares about him and would much rather hide his suffering than pass it onto him, but it's also oda's way of conveying that shanks is much more vulnerable than what he allows himself to show.

having said that, the reason oda chose to bring back this framing in chapter 434 appears obvious: shanks misses buggy.

it’s plain to see, especially if we look at the whole page.

shanks tries so hard to act collected when talking about buggy, but it’s obvious that he’s hurting. his wording makes it clear he’s trying to detach from him (“that’s the end of it” + “rumors have it”); he acts like buggy doesn’t exist in his thoughts anymore, when it’s obvious he still does. he feels remorse, he regrets letting buggy go. he’s scared he might have been in the wrong. he knows he hurt buggy, but he desperately wishes he didn’t.

all of this weighs on him in a way he isn’t used to, so he locks these feelings up, thinking of them only in relation to something that happened in the past, and as so, stays in the past. he smiles while talking about him and buggy, but it’s a remorseful smile. he cuts the conversation short even though he vividly remembers what happened between them, and as he does so, his words hide the scar. he desperately tries to patch things up in his mind by exclusively clinging onto the good memories they share, but the remorse always creeps up on him. he always smiles when talking about buggy, even when he’s talking directly to him. but his smile always ends up looking sour.

this is exactly why i hate it when people say shanks doesn’t care about buggy. oda wouldn’t have given these panels so much depth if he didn’t want to show just how much shanks actually cares. even just the fact the panel we are focusing on directly mirrors a panel from the first chapter, one so important and impactful, should tell you everything you need to know.

buggy will always be shanks’s weakness. caring so much about someone when you’re a pirate of that caliber is difficult in itself, even more so when that someone is so far away from you now.

Haaah?! That was obviously a lie!!

i know their interaction in the latest gakuen chapter was. well. minimal. but i really hope people still manage to see their potential and start shipping corasmoke...

i mean. look at them. corazon is so open and upfront about his feelings, he acts theatrically to say the least, while smoker is always so composed... and their very first interaction summarizes this difference perfectly. they would be so interesting as a duo because they seem like such an unlikely pair that they may actually work well together. i wish we could have seen them together in the main timeline too, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch since they're both marines, but oh well </3

Im going to give you my firstborn because you made me believe in shanks again

Love you man

oh??? i didn't know i had this power lol, thank you so much!!! <3

this might be surprising to hear but on a personal level i'm not too fond of shanks as a character, he has made some choices in the past that i strongly disagree with (i'm a firm buggy apologist)... but i still appreciate his place in the story and the way he's written a lot. he's one of the characters i spend more time analyzing and dissecting. i'm usually not a fan of extremely mysterious characters, but with shanks it's different. i don't know how to explain it. i would love to perform open brain surgery on him

however none of my kid pirates related theories ever end up becoming true so eh. i just wish they'd get a cool ass storyline like this because they deserve it </3

by the way i'm a firm believer in the "gunko is victoria" theory. i know it's far-fetched and honestly sounds pretty insane, but i'm praying for it to be true simply because of the massive angst potential for kid and killer. like, i'm sure it's not going to be real but i still hope it is, you know?

anon i need you to know you just made my day 10 times better. thank you so much

i read the first chapter of the new law novel last night and . Oh My God. i have so many thoughts... i might write some posts about it very soon

DID WE JUST GET NEW LAW CONTENT??? AM I DREAMING

Sabolaw my favorite rarepair in one piece

slowly going through my asks, sorry if i take a bit to post my answers, life gets in the way sometimes + i'm working on other long posts too!!!