The Fire Knights

Confirmed: All nicknames exchanged between Corazon and the Straw hats (and friends) in One Piece Academy are approved by Oda himself!

source

Here's how everyone has called each other so far:

when i say im on the love law side of my love hate relationship with one piece i mean that this fucker is all i can talk about again also i ordered a 40€ figure of him

"Embrace thine oblivion, as shall I"

Messmer's line when he kills you in phase 2 hits different in Japanese: 「燃え尽きるがよい。我と共に」 — "Burn out with me." He isn't just bonking you into oblivion and then follows the same fate, he's making a proposal to burn together. IMO, the Japanese feels more intimate and dramatic, the English more detached and abstract.

found this note while looking at huws tomb for writing refs a few weeks ago 😭

he lets mama braid his hair

Imagine taking years to summon the courage to proxy-touch your Lording via snakes, and then that half-stripped mofo just puts your hand on his throat and KOs you.

#RIP #the guy didn't even get the captain title yet #10 oblivious Impalers out of 10

i think he is utterly oblivious and that's really the rizz in itself.

*flying in on the wings after finishing chapter 11* If I were a big artist, I would've been the most insufferable Huw/Messmer propagandist ever. I would've drawn legions to their church 😂 (It's actually a subsidiary of Messmer's harem church, but shhhh - Huw would be one of the top two waifus in there. Or husbandos. Whichever one prefer.) Hope you don’t mind me asking - how did you discover the ship, and how did they end up in the outline of your fic in their final glorious form? 😌

Anon you do not need to be a "big artist" to make and enjoy your own propaganda. Make whatever you want forever (◕‿◕) When I lay down to die I do not intend for one of my last regrets to be “damn, I wish I’d made more niche cringe art that brought me personal satisfaction and served as a joyful escape from the crushing realities of life.”

As to how I “discovered” the ship, it just seemed to me the most (canonically) compelling way to contrast, in writing, the intimacy and eventual breakdown of Messmer’s familial situation (himself, Melina, Marika) with his navigation of the world beyond that (and who else might serve as an influence/conduit for his actions and worldview). It’s one of the more interesting implied facets of his character: that while he is cursed and eventually abandoned, his armies are/were loyal to him to the point of accepting eternity in a forsaken realm to see their duty done. This also makes any kind of rebellion/betrayal starker and more intriguing.  

To be obvious, devotion -> betrayal is incredible scaffolding already over which to build the progression of a relationship - which can then further explore all these junctures of loyalty, subservience, camaraderie, intimacy, and so on. 

And that Messmer is betrayed by someone close enough to him personally that he is canonically remorseful about it: there was already nuance, but now there are STAKES. Warlord doesn’t think twice about his quotidian genocidal crusade, but he is upset that a subordinate left him on read. Also, power dynamic. 

And that is why, despite not being a “big artist”, I am in my corner making them kiss.

In the dlc gameplay trailer, we see a boss version of Huw placed in Rellana's arena. Which of my two brain cells should I side with: the one that believes Huw used to drop by for a spar or two with Rellana because… reasons (¬‿¬ ), or the one convinced that a Black Knight character was meant to be the Sword of Messmer at some point? 🧠😂

I am on board with huw and rellana sparring. not even for legitimate combat reasons, but for the MOST petty shit - like who gets to walk the battlements with messmer or sit next to him at dinner, or other utterly inconsequential things.

I also think rellana matches messmer's freakish height, so any sparring with huw involves a comical height difference.

do you see my vision anon

I did write the summary on the wiki lol - happy to see that people use it! On a separate topic, and if you're interested, I remembered another bonus story released for Jump Victory Carnival 2021 about Luffy and Law bug hunting for beetles (imgur /a/Txt6ayl). It hasn't been included in any of the volumes (like the rest of the JVC stories)

LMAOAOA

the image quality got significantly worse after lettering, here's the raw link (credits: @walrsu)

THIS NERD NAMED 4 BEETLES IN 2 PAGES (the 'welcome ⬆️' signboard HAHA)

+ Luffy's face in this panel 😭 I love him being a little shit with Law

This made my day, thank you again!

If Messmer is an Empyrean, I think the winged serpents could be his other self. Them being one of his aspects would explain the otherwise mysterious nature of their intertwined existence, only unlike Marika/Radagon or Miquella/Trina, they were never fully separated. Messmer is a snake, having a snake as his other half only makes sense.