Hello everyone,
I was thinking about Fujitora and Ryokugyu and recently and came to the realization that these two characters are polar opposites of each other and are narrative foils. The big example of this is shown above, but for a list of all polar opposite personality traits of these two that I’ve come to realize lately:
1. Fujitora is outraged by the idea that the World Government believes itself to be God, and this outrage is one of the big factors that leads him to attempt to change the World Government from within. Ryokugyu on the other hand believes that the World Nobles are actually gods, and that “natural hierarchy” and discrimination are a good thing.
2. Fujitora and Ryokugyu’s animal epithets are also have opposite dispositions: Tigers are stealth-hunters. They lie in wait stalking their prey relying on subtlety until they find the right moment to strike, while bulls mindlessly and angrily charge at their targets with full force. This matches Fujitora’s and Ryokugyu’s actions during their arcs: Fujitora in Dressrosa hung back in the background quietly until he saw the opportunity for his apology to King Riku to critically wound the Shichibukai system, while Ryokugyu showed up to Wano and angrily charged every enemy in sight with minimal strategy or forethought.
3. Fujitora seems to be an observation Haki specialist, appropriate for a stealthy tiger looking for the moment to pounce, while Ryokugyu seems to be an armament haki specialist, appropriate for a bull charging at his enemies mindlessly.
4. I also noticed that Fujitora and Ryokugyu’s Admiral introduction pages are drawn with the exact same structure:
-Have full body character reveals drawn in the bottom right of the page
-Have close-up facial shots in the top left
-Have the dialogue/plot panels in the mid/bottom left of the page, each progressing in a similar way:
-The first panel features dialogue of the Admiral giving orders
-The second panel features that Admiral expressing a rational for their orders given/what they consider a priority
-The third panel concludes the scene
5. There is also a big difference in how much these two eat: Fujitora eats quite frequently, even when it seems inappropriate to do so (when first levitating his warship to attack the straw hats, again when Sengoku and Tsuru showed up to Dressrosa, again with talking to Sengoku taking Doffy to Impel Down, again at Reverie), and then of course there’s Ryokugyu who never (technically) eats anything at all.
6. This next point may be a bit reach-y but I feel there might be some significance here: Fujitora and Ryokugyu’s Devil Fruits can also be considered foil-ish, Fujitora’s gravity fruit let’s him pull objects and people down to the earth, Ryokugyu’s nature fruit let’s him grow plants up from the earth (one fruit pulls objects down, the other pushes them up, reach-y I know but there may be something deeper here).
Oda even introduced the possibility of Fujitora and Ryokugyu fighting during the Reverie, when Sakazuki explicitly ordered Ryokugyu to pull Fujitora out of Wano but Ryokugyu disobeyed him. The most interesting part of this scene to me was how cordial Fujitora and Ryokugyu spoke to each other. Despite being polar opposites as characters, these two have a very professional relationship with each other unlike more juvenile rivalries like Zoro/Sanji or King/Queen.
So with all of these opposing personality traits, it seems like Ryokugyu and Fujitora may be fated to fight against each other at some point in the future. The borderline-Revolutionary fighting the ultra Government loyalist just seems like something destined to happen right? I think many including myself see Fujitora winding up as an explicit ally in the final war, perhaps similar to the pre timeskip Hancock at Marineford who was supposed to be helping the Government but was actually aiding Luffy, Fujitora may even be able to be more subtle than Hancock was (see Fujitora secretly aiding Zoro and Elizabello vs Pica), we may see Fujitora secretly aiding Luffy in the final Marine war without any marines realizing it.
Fujitora and Ryokugyu to me seems like it has the potential to be the post timeskip Aokiji vs Akainu, the second fight between Admirals (except this time not off-paneled, lol).
Anyway, share your thoughts. What do you think?
@SakazOuki @Owl Ki @Blackbeard @MarineHQ @Kurozumi Seven7 @AkainuTheGrimReaper @Sentinel @Playa4321 @ZenZu @Uncle Van @Extravlad @kurwa @The White Crane @BigAmmi @ThatMojaveCourier06 @haxxor @King7 @scoobie3 @silverfire
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