FaceTime With Mihawk

FaceTime with Mihawk ✨

You know what kudos to gege for not bringing anybody back to life except Toji. Really letting us know that god has favorites.

I feel like many people have a fundamental misconception of what unreliable narrator means. It's simply a narrative vehicle not a character flaw, a sign that the character is a bad person. There are also many different types of unreliable narrators in fiction. Being an unreliable narrator doesn't necessarily mean that the character is 'wrong', it definitely doesn't mean that they're wrong about everything even if some aspects in their story are inaccurate, and only some unreliable narrators actively and consciously lie. Stories that have unreliable narrators also tend to deal with perception and memory and they often don't even have one objective truth, just different versions. It reflects real life where we know human memory is highly unreliable and vague and people can interpret same events very differently

You do get the sense that Mihawk is a man that has never been normal about a single thing, a day in his life.

He either underreacts or overreacts, Things either don't affect him or obsess him there is no in between. There is only the russian roulette of which option you get.

And unless you're a certain red head or cotton candy haired child, neither option spells anything great for your general well being or the integrity of your ship...

“The dream must end or the people can not go free” puts that in my back pocket.

But no seriously this goes hard and honestly have never thought about it that way.

So we all remember this moment from Jaya

It's an iconic moment for a reason, people love it so much so you see people make fanart of it or even get it tattooed on themselves, and it's understandable 'cause what Teech says here is kind... hopeful, inspirational even

Which is why the scene always felt so wrong to me, in a way I could not like put into words or explain why?? Like I wanted to be like "hey this guy isn't that bad, I agree with him!" and yet what Blackbeard says here didn't quite sit right with me?

But now, in-hindsight, I understand why

It's because Blackbeard is wrong

Like, from the begining, from when we're introduced to Blackbeard, he and Luffy are explicitly shown to be the polar opposites of each other in many ways (their taste in food being just one easy way to summarize it), including in ideals and beliefs

And while it would be so easy to think this scene was about showing that despite their differences Luffy and Blackbeard actually have one thing they agree on, one common ground

They don't

Luffy's dream has an end

And it's not just that, that's not the only reason he's the opposite of Blackbeard in this sense. If Luffy just keeps on dreaming of doing things, he will never achieve them, because achieving your dreams means the end of them

And think about how that reflects on the rest of the story

If people keep on dreaming of freedom, they will never be free

Nami's village would remain in Arlong's hands, rain would never fall in Alabasta again, the fire of Shandra would never be lit again, Water 7 will sink into the ocean, the kids on Punk Hazard would never see their parents again, the families of Dressrosa would never be reunited, Wano would remain under Kaidou's oppression, everyone on Fishman Island will remain at the bottom of the ocean and never see the true sun

The dream must end or the people can not go free

The darkness of night will break away The dream will end and the sun will rise

Sadly I'm stuck at work, and I say sadly bc I'm picturing and really want to write some fic about Shanks stumbling into a de-aged Mihawk and, of course, taking him to the rhp for the time being until they figure out how to solve the situation, bc he's not going to leave a kid in need, and he's not going to leave Mihawk. And mainly I want to write it bc I can imagine Mihawk being the absolute, worst menace to ever grace the rhp with his presence. Did you think that Luffy was a handful to deal with? Wait until the rhp have to turn the red force upside down bc they're not sure if Mihawk has been kidnapped by the marines / another crew / whatever threat or if he's just having a sulk in some random part of the ship bc Shanks didn't have time to 'duel' him (he didn't read well that Mihawk wanted attention) and now Mihawk is 110% convinced that he hates him.

(This could be very sad, very easily bc I imagine that Mihawk had a very crappy childhood with some trauma sprinkled on top of it, but it'd be interesting, Shanks having to figure out how to deal with kid! Mihawk when he knows like. Two details of Mihawk's childhood and just has vague suspicions about why he doesn't talk more about it, even with him)

And also bc I imagine kid! Mihawk being the type of kid that is very happy to be treated like an adult? Like, he doesn't have any idea of what's going on besides the fact that Shanks has said that they're going to help him, but Shanks gives him a map to (colour with crayons) 'plot the course of the ship' and he's glowing.