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Shiwasu Hoshikawa celebratory post for Chuuya's birthday
My name is Saja. Iām a wife, a mother, and a woman who once believed her story would be simple. I thought my days would be filled with watching my daughter grow ā from her first smile to her first steps ā surrounded by the small joys of everyday life.
But life had other plans.
War has returned to our home. Again. And once again, we find ourselves living under skies that never seem to rest.
There was a moment ā a fragile, breathless moment ā when the bombs paused and the world seemed to remember us. It gave us hope. We thought maybe, just maybe, we could start to rebuild. But now, we are back in the dark ā hiding, holding on, praying.
Iām writing this not as someone seeking pity, but as a mother who has no other choice but to speak.
Imagine holding your baby in the middle of the night, not because she cried, but because the world outside roared too loud for either of you to sleep. Imagine whispering bedtime stories not to lull her into dreams, but to keep the fear from settling into her tiny bones.
This is my life.
This is my daughterās life.
And even now ā especially now ā I believe in softness. I believe in kindness. Because when everything else is taken from you, hope becomes the most valuable thing you have.
Why Iām Reaching Out Our home has been damaged. Our lives changed. But through it all, my daughter wakes up every morning with a smile. She reaches for me with trust, with love, with faith that I will keep her safe.
Thatās why I keep going.
Iāve launched a campaign to ask for help ā not because itās easy, but because silence is no longer an option. I am asking for support not just for me, but for my baby, and for the quiet strength of so many mothers like me who are fighting, every single day, to hold their families together.
How You Can Help: š¤ Help us restore parts of our home so we can live with dignity š¤ Support women and mothers in Gaza with access to care and resources š¤ Keep the light of hope alive for a generation born in the shadows of war
š If you can, please support our journey here:
If you canāt give, please consider sharing. Your voice might be the reason someone else hears ours.
From My Heart to Yours Maybe our lives are worlds apart. Maybe youāve never lived through war. But if youāve ever held a child and wished the world could be better for them ā then you understand more than you know.
I donāt want my daughter to grow up thinking the world turned away.
Please, if youāve read this far ā thank you. Thank you for seeing us. Thank you for caring. We are still here. Still hoping. Still holding on to every kind act like itās a lifeline.
maybe iām too much of a staunch āatsushi is kind of a dickā purist but i actually donāt think him witnessing dazaiās abuse will actually change all that much in terms of the direct relationships between these characters and how they act towards each other.
part of it is i think sskkās ultimate arc is moving past the spectre of dazai haunting them, and part of it is like. akutagawa is (was..?) an abuser too. it would make no sense for atsushi to flip on dazai for akutagawa because itās either he believes redemption is real and dazai has changed (which like, he objectively has, regardless of whether he handled his relationship with akutagawa well) and akutagawa can change too, or abuse forever tarnishes your moral character and then atsushi must hate both these guys (which he clearly doesnāt).
ultimately bsd has a complex relationship with abuse thatās often uncomfortable to acknowledge, like the fact that akutagawa has abused two women on screen and hasnāt actually made proper amends either, and the fact that bsd both acknowledges that the mafia is a cruel organisation based in child abuse and exploitation that largely operates by grooming children into violence, and also posits that the mafia is kind of a necessary entity for the safety of the city. child abuse in bsd is interpersonal, yes, but itās also a larger system of exploitation of ability users, largely for combat, and practically every character participates in that system to a degree.
even the agency has child members, and while for some it can be argued that the agency saved them from bad situations, kenji, for example, seemingly lived a normal peaceful life until he was recruited to be a child soldier.
ultimately i donāt think the wish fulfilment scene where atsushi explicitly rags on dazai for treating akutagawa badly will ever happen, especially considering this isnāt news for him and atsushi hasnāt been sympathetic to akutagawa about it before. iām not saying itās not going to be called out, but i donāt think the #dazaiisoverparty is happening guys hold your horses
Something about Zoro being one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized characters in One Piece is funny (not haha funny, funny sad) to me because?? Thatās literally how his introduction starts?? With people misunderstanding him and thinking heās some big, monstrous demon who kills with cause and cannot be trusted or tamed.
Meanwhile the actual Zoro is a driven guy who is often both literally and figuratively directionless in life and found his goals in life through good people (first Kuina and then Luffy). He's tied up in the Marine base not due to those actual crimes he commuted (well not inherently anyway) but because he ādisrespectedā a Captain's son and stood up for a little girl. He accepts the challenge they present to him and because Zoro himself is a guy that puts his money where his mouth is he assumes the Marines will uphold their end of the deal and let him go (note the actual shock when Koby tells him the truth)
He joins Luffy's crew but also outright says heās not gonna let his goal take second place to Luffy or anyone else's for that matter, he bears the weight of two people's dreams, his heart isnāt going to be swayed by some pirate.
Speaking of Kuina, her impact and influence on Zoro's life isnāt talked about enough for my liking. She was Zoro's first friend, his first rival, his first goal. He looked up to her so much and his reaction to her passing cracks my heart in half every time because you can seem him just..go numb. Kuina, dead? Kuina, the strongest person he knows, gone? Kuina, who swore to him just yesterday theyād race to the top of the world together, doesnāt exist anymore. His blank face only cracking within the privacy of his sensei before he begs. He begs on his knees, tears streaming down his face please please please let me take Kuina's sword with me. Let me take our dream to a high neither of us could imagine. I wonāt let her name die here.
On top of gaining the Wado Ichimonji that day Zoro also gainedā¦fear. Not of death, well at the very least not his own, he gained his fear of not being enough. Kuina kicked his ass every way a person could and still died, what could someone like him do? So he trainsā¦and trainsā¦and trains some more. Overly, obsessively, constantly telling himself heās not enough, heās weak, he canāt protect anyone like this and everyone's death would be on him.
As for Zoro being cold and stoic thatās justā¦not completely true? Heās not stone, he can be excited or sad or angry just as much as most characters he just sucks at showing it canonically (Kuina thinks he hates her before their final fight after all). Sure heās not as forthcoming about it as some of the other Strawhats but Zoro's more of an action guy anyway, he'll show his love with his protection and unwavering faith.
In conclusion, Zoro is a ridiculously stubborn, incredibly loyal, mildly emotionally constipated, do what you say/say what you mean kinda guy.
(Also that whole āZoro would kill the whole crew if Luffy asked him toā thing? Top ten stupidest things Iāve ever heard from the fandom and thatās saying a lot. Heās loyal not brainless and heartless guys if Luffy asked him to do that, he would never but I digress, Zoro would square the fuck up with him so fast. DPMO.)
Look I like Roger enough, I understand what he represents and I generally donāt think he was a bad dude. I do however think he was shit at interpersonal relationships because, what the fuck. Whitebeards crew is infinitely more well adjusted and Iād say he arguably had the more traumatic death.
Like what even, what kind of planning leads a 53 year old man to sire a child knowing he is dying of an incurable illness and is about to turn himself in to be excuted by the marines where he will cause so much chaos it is literally still turning the world on its head 22 years later. He knew he was going to cause so much of a stir that he literally disbanded his crew and told them to spread far and wide to keep them safe. Because he knew the marines would hunt them far and wide But yet he still brought a baby into the world. Babe. What the fuck? What even is that? What was the thought process. I sincerely hope it was an accident and not a deliberate attempt to bring about a new era.
Because if so babe I need to see the recipe or Iām afraid we can never let you cook again
Something quite curious that I noticed in this chapter is that every time Gunko appears, her only visible eye is the lightest one. In every panel that she appears, either only half of her face is visible, or her right eye cannot be seen, covered either by her bangs or her hat. There's also a moment where she moves her hat only to lower it further over her eyes, and this is the same moment where she sees Brook for the first time, who seems quite confused by her action. Of course, this may not mean anything, but it is a very interesting detail, because it is obviously intentional. I don't remember her darker eye being so hidden in the other chapters she appears in, and this detail caught my attention because in the first chapters where Gunko was introduced, a lot of people connected her to Imu, because of her arrow powers and Imu's arrow-shaped attack, and I saw some people saying that maybe Gunko's eyes were different colors to symbolize some kind of connection with Imu, I'm not really sure what that connection could be, but it could be something related to her powers (or maybe with that regeneration ability she showed in this chapter, since that ability of the Gorosei seems to have been given to them by Imu), or she could share her vision and senses with Imu as a way for them to gain access to information about the world outside of Pangea Castle, or even some kind of brainwashing/mind control if we're being extreme. Like I said, I'm not sure where Oda is going with, or if he's even going anywhere with this, but I'm really excited to find out either way.
I like to think that chuuya secretly donates to animal shelters and never tells anyone. he'll be boasting about how tough of a mafioso he is one second and then quietly covering the medical bill for a one-eyed kitten the next. animals donāt lie. they donāt stab you in the back or expect things from you in return for their love. theyāre just soft and small and trying their best, and it hits a part of him he doesn't want to look at too closely. he reads every āthank you to our anonymous donorā update email like itās classified intel. someone at the shelter sent a picture of a puppy in a cast once and he stared at it for ten minutes straight. he would rather be shot point blank then explain to someone why the photo is saved and favorited in his phone though.
Hey sskk shipper, come here. Sit down. Listen to me please. If in ten years bsd ends and there's a time skip and Atsushi and Lucy are married with kids we are NOT going to hate on Lucy. We are NOT going to blame or disrespect or insult her. We are NOT going to hate on one of the very few women with a protagonist role of this franchise just because we may disagree with the author's writing. Okay? Thank you for listening to me, you can go.
CW: religious symbolism, mention of suicide, severed arm
[Read from left to right]
Speaking to the memory of him.
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