So I'm confused about something. There was a cover story about Ms Goldenweek and other Baroque works agents breaking Crocodile out of prison but he just. Told them no? And stayed there with Mr 1 and Mr 2? I don't get why he wanted to go to Impel Down just to break out when he had the chance
I can't tell you 100% why Crocodile chose to stay in prison and go to Impel Down, but my best guess really is that he was just...
Taking the L with grace
More specifically. Crocodile had lost everything. I think deep inside he might've been literally too depressed to want to go free again.
Like he does literally say that. He gave up.
He had been building his reputation as "the Hero of Alabasta" for at least 10 years at this point. He had built not just a criminal organization that he had been running for four years, but also he had been running legal business stuff (like his casino) for probably longer than that.
A decade's worth of work and effort to take over a country, and most importantly, get away with it. The reason he had orchestrated that whole rebellion was so that the rebels and the royal family could "take each other out", leaving the country wide open for a World Government Official such as himself to take up. The reason Baroque Works was doing this all in secret was so that the WG never found out, otherwise they wouldn't have let him have Alabasta.
But indeed, his plans were foiled by a kid in flipflops in less than 24 hours, just at the final moment before Crocodile would win. He lost everything. And the World Government found out about what he had been planning.
So even if he escaped from that prison with his former agents, what was he going to do?
He wouldn't be able to take over Alabasta anymore because he did not have manpower (as he had lost all his goons), and having lost his financial empire he wouldn't be able to build a new army any time soon. And even if he did, now that they knew what he had done the people of Alabasta would not accept him as their new king, even if he personally assasinated Cobra and the entire family.
Not to mention, the WG finding out about his plans meant that they had every fucking reason to try and stop Crocodile if he did as much as set foot on that island again. By which I mean, they could launch a Buster Call on his ass. Send all the fucking Admirals after him.
And so, even if Crocodile still believed Pluton was somewhere in Alabasta and that he just had to comb through the entire desert to find it... Between the Alabastan people and the WG in the way, finding Pluton would not be easy. Especially when Robin wouldn't even be there to just point him directly to it. It could take years, if not decades, while fighting off the WG by himself.
And that's while assuming Pluton was somewhere in Alabasta. Like WE the readers now know Pluton is in Wano, but since Robin didn't tell him that. All Robin said was that the Poneglyph "didn't mention the weapon", and Cobra's reaction to the name merely proved the weapon's existence in Crocodile's mind. But surely, because Crocodile is a smart young man, he'd understand there was a risk that Pluton could exist, but just not be in Alabasta, right? Like that would be a possibility too, right?
I think this is why Crocodile has given up on Alabasta. He had one opportunity at seizing the country, and he failed. And without Robin, he could spend the rest of his life combing through a haystack for a needle when there's no needle, and he'd have no idea. I think is why he explicitly says in Impel Down he no longer has "interest in that country". He won't be able to pull off another stunt like this, ever.
And that leads us back to "why not escape earlier and avoid going to Impel Down to begin with".
Thanks to his status as a Shichibukai, Crocodile hasn't been on the run from the WG for like two decades. And the past 10 or so years he has seemingly lived a life of luxury in his funny little casino. But now, having lost everything, he'd be back on the run. And because he's a world famous former "hero of the people", there would be nowhere he'd be able to go where people would not recognize him and send the marines after him.
So he'd be on the run, for the rest of his life or until he'd get capture again. And mind you, the guy does not trust anyone, so he'd be on the run alone. Without any purpose or goal.
And you might be thinking, "Daz and the rest of BW was still there!", yeah, arguably true. But at this point Crocodile had no reason to trust any of them.
Like personally, I think the reason Crocodile ended up taking a liking to Daz was BECAUSE he chose to follow him to Impel Down when he really did not have to. Like Daz showed an unusual level of loyalty to Crocodile, and I think Crocodile recognized that. That's why Daz is still with Croc, post-timeskip.
But Miss Goldenweek and co? Crocodile had no reason to believe they wouldn't betray him if given a chance and a reason. And if the WG would come chasing his ass, they'd have plenty of reason to try and betray Croc (handing Crocodile over to spare their own lives).
Not to mention, when they come release their former boss from jail, what did Miss Goldenweek say?
"Let's do Baroque Works again"
As I've already explained in detail, I think we might know why Crocodile wasn't interested in being Baroque Works' "boss" again.
So. Yeah. If in Crocodile's mind he'd be on the run from the Government for the first time in two decades all alone, in a situation where rebuilding what he had before would be bloody hard if not downright impossible, and he wouldn't be able to obtain what he had spent the last decade working for regardless...
Taking the L and just going to prison might've been the easier option
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Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (04/10/2023)
Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms. Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.
Overall:
Over 1,000 Fics:
Over 5,000 Fics:
Over 10,000 Fics:
Source: AO3 Fandom Dashboard
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Okay I need to get this off my chest even though I think all my followers are bots haha. I will release it to the void so it gets out of my head!
But imagine: in Season 5, they’re battling Vecna and various demo-creatures and Steve is trying to protect his kids, and ends up dying. And a small part of him is relieved, but mostly he’s worried because they need all the manpower they can get, and he knows that Dustin and Robin especially will be devastated.
But then his eyes open, and his body doesn’t hurt, and he can hear birds really clearly, and his eyes focus without squinting, and he thinks “hey, maybe I got into heaven after all?” Except he’s in his bedroom, as it hasn’t been for a long time, and he figures out it’s actually 1981, two months before he starts freshman year. After hours or maybe days of screaming and panic attacks and searing grief, the knowledge that his friends don’t know him and will never know him the way they used to has settled in, and he resolves to make a plan. He still has two years before the shit hits the fan, but El is in the lab and he wants to get her out asap.
The problem is that he’s never been the ideas guy, he’s always been told he’s stupid, and he can’t go to anyone he normally would because they don’t KNOW him anymore, and his kids are only 9! And he briefly wishes that someone else was sent back, someone smarter, but he wouldn’t really wish this anguish on anyone else. And really, if he had parents who were present and cared, like the others, he would probably be committed for the way he was acting, so probably for the better.
He ultimately decides that the best thing to do is deal with the lab right away, so no one gets hurt. He knows Hopper won’t believe him, and what is a small-town cop supposed to do against the lab anyway? But then he remembers Murray Bauman, and thinks “yeah, that guy can take down an evil government organization no problem.” So he’s feeling pretty good about the plan until he realizes that Murray will probably ignore him or shoot him on the off chance he takes him seriously. Then inspiration strikes when he’s doing a grocery run and is gazing longingly across the produce at the Sinclair family. Little Erica appears to be negotiating with her mother about vegetables, and Steve thinks “yes! WWED?!”
So he takes the money his family leaves him, takes a bus to Illinois, and shows up to Murray’s gate. When Murray laughs him off, Steve tells him that there’s a note on his kitchen table outlining where he’s going, and that if he goes missing, Murray is to blame. There’s a silence that Steve chooses to interpret as encouraging, so he keeps going, telling Murray every fact about him that Steve knows: weapons he uses, aliases he has, conspiracies he believes, languages he speaks. Murray finally responds with a baffled “kid… who are you?” And lets Steve in.
Once in the house, Steve’s opening line is “do you think the government could fuck up enough to accidentally cross dimensions?” And Murray is somehow a mix of amused and horrified and confused, but yes, actually, the government COULD fuck up that much. Steve tells him all about the lab, and when Murray believes him, he adds the time travel and the whole history. Murray lets him spend the night and then they go to Hawkins the next day.
Hopper gets involved, and together they gather enough evidence to shut down the lab for good. The adults don’t let Steve do any fighting, even though he complains that he’s been through it all. They argue that even if his brain remembers, his body is a clean slate, and it should stay that way. They want to protect him the best they can. He’s in charge of getting El out, and he manages to convince Hopper to foster her. Over the planning stages, the adults figure out that Steve’s parents neglect him, so they work out a plan where Murray moves into the Hawkins’ trailer park so that he can foster Steve.
As the Upside Down situation gets resolved and it gets closer to school, Steve feels less and less like a 19 year old and more like a 14 year old. His old life feels more like remembering the plot of a movie, and he chafes less under the rules Murray makes for him. By the time school starts, he gets to make friends with Eddie as equals, not with an age imbalance, he just remembers who is important to him. And if he has his bisexual awakening 5 years earlier than the previous timeline, then it’s a good thing his father figure is much more accepting than the Harringtons would have been. To befriend his kids, he puts up babysitting fliers and actually loves babysitting for any kids, not just the Party. He becomes just as inseparable with Robin when she gets to high school the next year, and Nancy and Jonathan are good friends without the added awkwardness of dating. He even gets to know Barb, who it turns out is the perfect match for Robin.
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unfinished artwork for an unfinished fic. given my track record, both might not ever be finished, so I wanted to post this before the hyperfixation leaves
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