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infriga · 5 days ago

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Something really interesting about the Elbaf arc to me is how Oda really hyped the giants up as an ancient powerful warrior race throughout the entire series, but now that we've actually gotten to Elbaf all of that is being deconstructed to a surprising degree, with the locals announcing that they've left behind their violent past and have now dedicated themselves to peace and education. And the way it's set up you'd almost expect it to be treated as a joke twist, but instead it's being treated seriously. And I actually quite like that. Their warrior past isn't being treated as a bad thing by any means, they still respect their retired fighters, but Elbaf has basically taken up Ohara's mantle now.

For a while I was wondering if there was going to be a plot about giants being motivated to return to their former glory as warriors since this is, well, a shounen manga, especially with how much their warrior ways were hyped up throughout the series, though I was kinda hoping it wouldn't go there. But moments like these have actually convinced me that that's not the direction Oda is going with this:

The bad guys in this arc are literally trying to force the giants to fight on the government's behalf against their will. This is very explicitly painting their new dedication to peace and knowledge as an important thing to them that they will need to defend against the villains. And I suspect their race's battle prowess will be portrayed as best used to protect what's important to them, not something to use with abandon like they used to.

I really like this because it makes sense when you think about it. Throughout the series we've seen that despite their natural immense strength giants are often taken advantage of and abused precisely because of that strength, they're seen as a potential useful weapon by the government. Mother Carmel worked with the Marines to deceitfully recruit giant soldiers which likely lead to Saul's recruitment, giants have been captured and sold as high value slaves, Ceasar was hired to try and genetically engineer giants from human children to use as soldiers, Oimo and Kashi were blackmailed into working for cipher pol against their will, Oars's corpse was dug up and reanimated by Moriah and Dr Hogback, etc. Giants have been used and victimized repeatedly throughout the series because of their strength, and it has been used to harm and oppress others many times as well. So it makes sense that they'd start to value peace, and that they'd oppose the government by pursuing, protecting, and spreading knowledge and history. And on top of that the way the government suppresses history, knowledge, and education, has always been portrayed as an extremely bad thing.

What I'm curious about is how Loki will fit into all this. He seems like he's going to be the "princess" of the arc, like Rebecca/Momo/Vivi/etc, and not the antagonist, but he definitely represents the ideals of the old ways of Elbaf and sounds like he was at odds with his father who represented the new ways. This could set him up for character development or a redemption arc of sorts if he ends up taking the throne, since while he apparently wasn't the one who actually killed his father, he definitely doesn't seem like he'd be interested in peace and history so far. He's still quite violent and antagonistic, though he has shown the potential to be a protector and leader with his brief moments of concern for others that we've glimpsed. It's possible that he'll develop into a more moderate leader figure, not so extreme as his father who seemed ashamed of their warrior history and even cut off his own horns in an act of what to me seems like self mutilation more than anything, but also no longer as violent or careless as he once was when he was imprisoned. Maybe he'll learn about the value of peace and decide to protect that peace instead of just wreaking meaningless violence.

Then there's Hajrudin, who doesn't necessarily represent the new ways of Elbaf since he wanted to recreate the Giant Warrior Pirates, but is himself part of the younger and more peaceful demographic, and he's certainly less violent and angry overall than Loki. But he hasn't gotten as much attention this arc as you'd expect if he were going to be in the spotlight. He may end up being more of the Viola of the arc, so to speak, aka the sibling character whose arc is tied to Loki but Loki's story takes center stage. Or maybe they'll get some sort of joint story as the arc progresses. Either way I'm curious how that aspect of things will play out.

And something neat about this turn of events is how Elbaf has been tied to Shanks a lot recently, since way back at the beginning of the series one of the first lessons we saw Shanks teach Luffy was that violence should be used when appropriate, but is not always the answer. I like that thematic consistency. He established from chapter one that the point of having power and using strength is to use it to protect people, not just to get what you want or to earn the respect of others. As Makino put it: "Maybe sometimes it takes more courage not to fight."

#One piece #one piece spoilers #op spoilers #Spoilers #Elbaf #Elbaph #Sp #OP 1147 #One piece 1147 #Meta #Manga thoughts

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dissvicious · 7 hours ago

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Before the storm - 2/2

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