🍬 sweetie 🍬 :
i dont know enough about Teen Wolf to participate much in this discussion (i only watched max the first 2 seasons. not bc of a fault of the show though, i just had/have a lot going on and i do mean to get back into it someday), but i am LATCHED ON to the idea youre proposing between Noel Carroll's definition of a monster and the concept of Devil Fruit users
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bc, realistically, they just become superpowered and can no longer swim. it might be more accurate to call them "Anchor Fruit users" or something else that sinks in the water. but because "One Piece" is mostly islands, there is this implied reverence for the water as a form of connection. and the idea of losing that via losing the ability to swim is an interesting taboo to consider monstrous and uncanny. like, if you remove humanity/Devil Fruit users as potentially monstrous, one of the main types of monsters in the world are the sea monsters who do innately swim. and even they havent "had the sea turn her back on them". and its also interesting on a meta-textual level that we have this correlation between Devil Fruit users and "the devilish snake persuading Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, the alleged apple of knowledge". bc theres not TOO many things Oda takes from the real world of folklore and puts into "One Piece" (and im not going to say most of them bc spoilers) but its interesting one he drip-feeds fans really early on is devils, specifically biblical ones, in his fantasy world. like i dont think Christianity is really a thing in "One Piece", yet this concept of "devils = monsters and sin" prevails as propaganda against Devil Fruit users even though they exist as civillians, pirates, and Marines— theyre on every side. yet even the alleged Good Guy Marines, like Smoker, get treated with a degree of fear and unpredictability by civillians. and because Christianity doesnt exist reeeeaaaally in "One Piece" (the most it GENERALLY gets is a "Neon Genesis" level of "i included this imagry bc i think its cool"), it is really fascinating to go "devil = cant get in the water", because that isnt an association i was ever taught via pop-culture-osmosis about irl Christianity's devils. like "devils = fire", (+1)
2026-06-01 23:17:31