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So I just realized something. Apparently Thriller Bark was supposed to happen after Skypiea, before Water 7/Enies Lobby. But was changed due to editorial imput.

I always thought it was odd when Usopp, after dealing with his self detriment about how useless he is in the water 7 arc, seems to say he’s “already negative” to Perona. As though his self worth hadn’t been resolved. I know it’s a joke to baffle Perona but What if that was supposed to be build up for Usopp to eventually snap for being Weak, and thus have a fall out with Luffy after all the adventures they’ve had, essentially if the Enies lobby saga supposedly takes right place before the Paramount war saga. This would make sense since it would show Oda wanted Usopp to have a self worth arc near the end of the pre-timeskip.

Another small detail where Usopp couldn’t save Nami from Absalom, so Sanji had to do it for him. What if when Usopp argues with luffy about the Merry, as Sanji cuts in Usopp complains that he was too weak to save her so much that Sanji had to solve it for him. Like Usopp berates himself for that, that the Franky brothers beating him up was his breaking point. Though I know chopper was involved so idk..

I just think a lot of the emotional core with Usopp and the Merry was supposed to be a thing that happens right before entering the New World. Plus other stuff too, like the Straw hats defeating CP9, thus having them be targets in sabody archipelago immediately afterwards. Not to mention that oda said he created the Supernovas the chapter before they were introduced, Luffy was supposed to be the only pirate rookie that was getting a reputation. Maybe Blackbeard too.

there is definitely an element of franky forsaking his dream (to build a ship and sail around the world) out of guilty obligation to stay in water 7 but a large part is also just that…he’s scared to build ships again. because what if they hurt the people he loves again?

so it’s not just that he won’t build ships again, he doesn’t want to build ships again, which is just…very tragic

Zoro & Usopp II (I)

Obsessed w this troper who just wrote like this full on meta on a 1p character page

 "One of Usopp's defining traits and an essential part of his Overshadowed by Awesome neurosis. He's good at quite a lot of things, but there's a crew member that's better at it (except sniping). He can cook and has a decent sense of strategy, but Sanji is the supreme chef and a genius tactician. He's shown some talent for stealth and deception, but Nami is a master thief and people actually believe her lies while Robin has twenty years of experience at sneaking around and gathering informations. He's an inventor and shipwright, but Franky rebuilt himself into a cyborg and creates the Thousand Sunny. He's a decent enough singer, his crewmates show a lot of appreciation when he sings while celebrating a victory, but Brook is talented with any instrument on top of singing and is good enough to become a rockstar in the span of two years. And he's physically resilient and has shown a good deal of charisma, but Luffy is made of Heroic Spirit and has warmed the hearts of people who have wanted him dead. Overall, Usopp is the weakest fighter of the group, and when it comes to being one of the smart/crafty guys. At the same time, he's a useful member because of these skills, considering how, at any point, when a crew member needs help, he is almost always the crew member to go to. The weakest crew member status is only really there because he doesn't specialize in one fighting style that isn't sniping. In terms of trades, he takes up every role that isn't already occupied by a specialist. A short list would include designing the Straw Hats' skull-and-crossbones and painting it on the Going Merry, creating various weapons and ammo (including mastering some very esoteric technologies to do so), creating functional diving bells out of crap that was lying around the ship, cutting the crew's hair (along with Robin), fishing (along with Luffy and Chopper), cooking (apparently he's the best male cook in the crew besides Sanji), amateur carpentry, and that's all on top of his dedicated role of manning the cannons"

"even though its filled with smoke, we can still see the sky, we can still see the ocean, this place isn't hell!" Usopp gets to say the thesis of water 7 and enies lobby both good for him.

It's interesting to analyze why this works, coming back around to skypeia as a happy ending, is water 7 takes everything away from you and pulls absolutely no punches in doing that, and it hits close to home for people like myself who have struggled with mental health their whole lives, and have gotten into fights like this. It's pointing out that even if you destroy all of your relationships willingly for the sake of your self esteem and fear of intimacy life will go on. There will be a tomorrow, even if you feel like you're in hell.

It's how much one piece articulates that, to a level no other story is willing to go, the depth of fear and how badly things can really get even between people who are your friends, who love you, and the naunce of how that can go wrong and how hard it can be to get out of it that makes "this place isn't hell!" meaningful.

This is so beautifully stated.

working my way through water 7 and it’s genuinely making me insane. first of all: the self recrimination and hatred turned lashing out and self isolation from usopp is so real and I wanna give him a hug so fucking bad. my perfect angel boy who’s still learning that you can’t claw your way out of every loss; that sometimes the pirates come back and your mom still dies anyways. the world is suddenly so much bigger and scarier than he ever could’ve imagined, and he’s watched luffy pull off so many miracles at this point so why couldn’t he pull one off for merry?? extremely well written depressive episode, from the desperate bargaining to that inescapable feeling that you’re all alone in this and in truth you always have been. cannot WAIT for usopp to face up to himself and come back (core usopp trait: he always comes back. always always always. it makes me genuinely violent) and get loved and accepted til he fucking cries <3

second of all: I think this is the first time we get to see how luffy grieves something personal and hoooooo boy do I have thoughts! oh my GOD do I have thoughts. there’s something incredibly interesting to me about the way that in these moments we get flashes of luffy’s very real persistent pragmatism - when nami comes to talk to him after usopp first leaves and he doesn’t even bother joking around, just tells her that there was no avoiding this and if he could’ve he would’ve??? NUTS. love to see luffy’s emotional intelligence laid out that plainly. it’s one of my favorite parts of his character, how his whimsy and joy and freedom aren’t necessarily innate or effortless. bc it does take work for him to cheer up his crew and make the decisions (as silly as they seem) and keep reaching for his dreams! he’s just also very aware, i think, that to do any less than he does would slowly but surely crush his soul worse than any rejection or failure could. the only thing that could be worse than having this responsibility is not having it. AUGH. anyways great arc I’m having a great time!!! (lying through my teeth)

usopp and robin fighting about robins decision to commit suicide and disgard her own life putting the rest of the crew in danger is one of my favourite scenes in the history of one piece. not only is it incredibly funny that usopp continues with the sniper king bit, but the dichotomy between usopp telling her very clearly that if she does not love herself enough to not put herself in harms way, indirectly harming the people that love her, is so... pot calls the kettle black. in a way i find deliciously absurd.

in general the scene plays up its own absurdity, its a core emotional moment for water 7 and especially this sequence on the train. it plays with core established traits (usopp being able to navigate things better for other people than himself) and robins obvious self destructive suicidality into this fight sequence that has you watching usopp tell robin what he obviously wishes he could've realized sooner.

it conjures to mind two things for me, which is that people are often in this exact situation, people going through mental health crises talking their friends out of the exact same thing (something ive been on both ends of)

and how rare it is to have characters who deal with mental health issues be so present in your story that you can have two of them interact and come from the same perspective. usually when theres a scene like this a "talking x character out of suicidal ideation" scene it comes from a privileged perceptive talking down to a mentally ill one.

some of water 7s greatest themes are ones of solidarity as opposed to a power imbalance and this scene really articulates that thematic element quite well

Thinking about Water 7, that shit hurts man.

Usopp has spent his journey so far up to Water 7 being afraid but always there to do what he can I.e his team up with Chopper against baroque works or the entire Syrup village arc. But Usopp being the negative guy he is, cannot see himself as anything other than worthless.

So seeing the Merry falling apart, getting mugged because in his eyes he was weak, and then finding out Merry was being abandoned was the snap in his entire being. He couldn’t take it and he and Luffy fight.

And the thing is both of them know Merry can’t go any further. They both know she needs to be rested for the crew and for her sake. But with how Luffy delivers the message it’s clear he didn’t think it through and his emotions get the better of him. And with their fight, it really does feel like two 17 year olds fighting simply because 17 year olds make mistakes. But at the same time, there is far more maturity here.

Usopp fights with everything he’s got and challenges Luffy as a captain and what that means. And for Luffy, he fights Usopp at all.

Luffy knows how to not start fights, Jaya is a good example. But even in his most immature moment and even if to some extent he was holding back he still fought Usopp because he was owning up to his mistakes and because he knew Usopp needed this.

Even if Usopp lost, it was proof of something for Usopp and Luffy knows this and that’s why he lets him go and why he knows he needs to grow.

I can’t help but think that this entire fight was some weird cryptic way of Luffy saying I’m sorry.

Luffy is just so good at taking someone's insecurities and turning them into strengths.

I used to think that this scene was there merely for comedic purposes: Luffy was listing out ways that his crewmates' strengths complemented his own weaknesses and when it came to Usopp he couldn't think of anything better and just said "And I can't tell lies!!". But after recent rewatch/reread, I realised that this is inconsistent with Luffy's character. Luffy is dead serious about piracy. He is friendly and makes friends easily, but he is very picky when it comes to choosing his crewmates.

There was one thing I realised when rewatching Syrup Village arc: Luffy put in a lot of thought before letting Usopp into his crew. He started out thinking of Usopp as a bad person for being a habitual liar. But he soon realised that Usopp used his lying abilities for good, to cheer up a lonely, cooped up Kaya. I also realised that never once did Luffy call Usopp a coward. Usopp might be scared easily, but he stood up for the people he loved despite his fears. The anime showed a lot of cut scenes to Luffy's reactions to Usopp throughout the arc, and Luffy's face was always serious and thoughtful. Luffy only let people he deemed to be good into his crew, and Usopp might be one person that he couldn't figure out so easily. But by the end of Syrup Village arc (or perhaps by the time Usopp decided to fight the Black Cat Pirates), Luffy had already decided that Usopp was a good person.

Of course, one thing that stood out the most about Usopp is his love for lying. He lied about pirates to his fellow villagers every single morning. And he lied to Kaya about his mind-blowing adventures every single afternoon. But like the Usopp pirates, Luffy realised that Usopp didn't mean harm with his lies, and instead used lies to cheer up Kaya. Usopp's lies never harmed anyone. The only time it would have caused harm, was when his sincere warnings about pirates weren't taken seriously by the villagers. Were Usopp honest and believed by the villagers, they could have evacuated and avoided dangers. But because they didn't believe Usopp's warnings, they stayed put and were in danger of being attacked by actual pirates. However, upon realising this, Usopp didn't just wallow in guilt and despair. He could have let the villagers pay for not believing him when he was actually being honest. Instead, he chose to make sure that his lies stayed lies. A lie about pirates attacking meant peace. So, once again, Usopp made lies a good thing.

On the other hand, Luffy was so bad at lying. When Luffy first met Ace and Sabo, he almost gave away Ace and Sabo's treasures, which they spent years saving up, because of his inability to lie. Luffy was that bad at lying, even when his life depended on it. And he hasn't improved at lying since then.

So, when Luffy said he couldn't lie and implied that Usopp complemented him with his lying abilities, I don't believe Luffy was anything less than 100% sincere. I believe that Luffy truly appreciated and respected Usopp's ability for lying, more specifically, how he used lies for good.

I wish Usopp realised this, too.

I'm obsessed with how Luffy loves and chooses his crewmates for the very things they were taught to hide or hate themselves for.

Zoro is a scary monster with a crazy ambition and no regard for authority and that gets him strung up in a yard, but Luffy thinks that's perfect for the king of the pirates.

Nami wants to draw a map of the world for herself and for knowledge, not to help tyrants conquer it. She hides her personal ambitions because she was punished for them. But Luffy loves her dream, and he'll be traveling all over the world looking for the one piece with no plans of conquering people, only freeing them.

Usopp has terrible self-image and thinks he needs to lie to be special and good enough and provide as many skills as possible to be useful, but Luffy wants him on the crew because he likes him as a person and just thinks he's a cool guy.

Sanji is kind and gentle and generous, which to others makes him look weak. But Luffy knows it's really his greatest strength. It's the reason he chose him.

Chopper thinks he's a monster, ugly and rejected because he's different. Luffy wants him on the crew because he thinks a blue-nosed reindeer monster is really cool!!

Robin has had to kill the good parts of herself to survive, and she's been hunted her whole life for simply wanting the truth which puts her in opposition to the government. Luffy sees right away that she's not a bad person deep down. He chooses her because she saved him and she fought for her dream down to the last second. He will always be on the side of dreams and against oppressors.

I haven't gotten to the rest of the crew yet so feel free to add, but this pattern is so special to me. Luffy chooses his crew not despite the things they're hated for, exploited for, and insecure about, but because of them. That's so healing and beautiful.

I truly think what luffy and zoro saw so immediately in nami in orange town, before she even really saw it in herself, that made them clock her as crew was just that reality defying tenacity and conviction that all of them share. luffy looks at her across the bars of that cage and understands that there’s something in this world she wants with the same ferocity he does, ideals that she obeys with the same intensity as him, and it’s that moment of understanding that makes him set on her being part of his crew. nami likes to pretend that she’s the normal one but the truth is that she’s just as much of a freak as luffy or zoro, and she’s a freak in exactly the same way! she’d rather bend the laws of reality and physics to her will than lie down and accept a loss, and zoro and luffy spend the rest of their relationship calling her bluff every time she tries to pretend it isn’t true. all three of them have eyes bigger than their stomachs and an understanding from day 1 that the only thing scarier than trying and failing is to never have tried at all. I just love them a lot is what I’m getting at here ok

Sogeking vs God Usopp: Usopp’s Dual Roles

So I’ve been doing some thinking about Usopp’s two titles on his wanted posters: Sogeking and God Usopp. Both of them are larger-than-life personas connected to Usopp, and inform the way that he’s viewed by the world at large. And after thinking about it some I think I’ve come to the conclusion that each title reflects something about Usopp, and I think we can track something about his move from one to the other, as well as speculate where he goes from here.