Emotional dynamics of Strawhats (answering a Tumblr ask)

I'll repost this Tumblr post I just made in response to an ask I got (I was over a week late in replying, go me.) It turned so long I wanted to put it somewhere else too. Comments as always would be awesome.

Anonymous said:
I seem to recall you saying things to the effect of Usopp being the emotional core of the crew or being a big part of meeting the emotional needs of the crew (the precise wording escapes me). Do you have any meta on that/have you posted meta on that before? I'd love to have a link to read it!

Sorry for the lateness of my reply, Anon! I wonder if I've ever said that Usopp was the emotional core of the crew - it sounds a bit too definite and exclusive to my ears - but the second wording does sound like something I could have said, yeah. I can't think of any specific meta post I've made to that effect, though. I'll put down some rambling thoughts here instead, but that's all they'll be - obviously terribly subjective, and I'm not going to include any manga pics or the like from canon to make any kind of coherent case.

Many thanks to tresdem and silverwolfcc for listening to me on Plurk about this, helping me sort out my thoughts and contributing! (Everyone should read tresdem's ongoing One Piece meta blog we-are!.)
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