#ch444

[opbackgrounds]

It is so incredibly kind of Franky to think of, and implement, the Mini Merry

[every-sanji]

[wannaeatramyeon]

not really ch444 spoilers... BUT

still thinking about this comment @whyreyousoobsessedwithme

I get this arc but I just CAN'T with how PTJ draws women's bodies. PRE-SURGERY? YOU NEED SOME LIPO ON YOUR ALREADY TINY WAIST? OH YOU NEED A BOOB JOB & LIFT ON YOUR NATURAL MASSIVE GIGANTIC HONKERS THAT DEFIES THE LAWS OF PHYSICS???? WHAAAAAT.

but at least the men are getting their personalities back (happy but side-eyeing)

[felikatze]

god i'm thinking abt how my fav joke in all of orv has a setup 200 chapters in advance which reminded me that the ch444 twist was foreshadowed like. 420 chapters in advance. it was foreshadowed in the third goddamn scenario god fucking dammit

[narutocaps]

[every-sanji]

[opbackgrounds]

I love how Oda splits the scardy cat trio from the rest of the crew. It's the best of both worlds, with the comedy of showing the crew both being and not being afraid, with an extra layer of humor from highlighting the difference between the two groups.

[opbackgrounds]

I’ve thought quite a bit about how Absolom fails compared to some of Oda’s other, equally despicable characters. A large part of that is Sanji’s character assassination, which is made more disappointing by the absolute peak character moments just the arc before it, but I think the problem runs deeper than that.

Compare Absolom to Spandam. Both characters were made to be hated, and Oda goes a step further by making them both absolute failures in everything that they do. The audience is supposed to point and laugh at their ridiculousness. As the kids would say these days, they’re deeply unserious characters.

But once Spandam actually starts beating on a defenseless Robin, suddenly it isn’t funny. His greatest abuses are treated with the weight that they deserve. This is the same formula Oda uses with hate sinks like the Celestial Dragons, Caesar Clown, and to a lesser extent Vanderdecken. Even Victoria Cindry this arc gets a moment of pathos with Dr. Hogback. In fact, Oda seems to have pegged Hogback as *the* character who deserves the most hatred throughout Thriller Bark, when Oda doesn’t usually doesn’t depict more than one true hate sink character per arc.

So Absolom becomes nothing but a joke. Even when Nami gets to fight back, it’s not treated seriously. And the fact that Oda doesn’t have that moment where he acknowledges the evil of what Absolom is trying to do is a massive black mark on both this arc and the series as a whole.

[opbackgrounds]

I'll be getting into my thoughts on Absolom as a character later, but this gag is a great representation for Thriller Bark as a concept. The Invisible Man is a classic literary and movie villain. The trope is usually played for horror, but Oda turns it into a great big joke. The result is one of the funniest arcs from start to finish, but reducing usually serious subject matter into cheap gags also results in some of the worst parts of the manga.

[opbackgrounds]

At least Robin's having a good time

[opbackgrounds]

I love that Luffy saw the little ghosties fly through a wall and he still thinks he can keep it in a cage

[opbackgrounds]

The Burton-esque character designs for Thriller Bark fit so well in the One Piece world

[opbackgrounds]

Usopp had no idea how contagious the antiadventureitis really is

[opbackgrounds]

It’s okay, Sanji. You’ll get your revenge when Zoro tries to fight Perona’s ghosts.

[opbackgrounds]

At least he tried

[opbackgrounds]

I mean, it is dead, so...