#you know whats wrong with this arc is that during thriller bark there is no good emotional story that pulls you in

[hauntingblue]

Oh zoro that was a slay. The silence at the start until he attacks...... banger

[beaulesbian]

[egghead spoilers, up to chapter 1110]

Sanji's humanity & Zoro's strength

(or lack thereof) - a theory of possible conflict between Luffy's wings before the end of Egghead arc. Long post ahead. Like.. very long post.

So the new chapter had a very interesting new "banter" between Sanji and Zoro, but no, actually just Sanji, because there was no usual back and forth quips followed after.

Yes, this whole post started because of these few panels: (" ...!!")

After rereading the chapter more times I realized, Sanji's not even speaking to Zoro or knows that Zoro can hear him. He's talking about Zoro, and calling him a burden to the team.

Which is just baffling to me? (fair, maybe I'm looking too much into it and next chapter it would be explained in different way) but for now, I need to put this out there and make my own small (long) theory on this.

There's lot to be said about the word burden here, and I will get to it later in the post, but for now, let's start with Sanji and his eyebrow!

It wouldn't be a perfect story if Oda didn't tangle threads of each respective characters from multiple arcs before and brought them up together later on during one of the most difficult times when Strawhats and Luffy are facing off with so much danger (reminds me of Sabaody but in a very different way).

In this instance Sanji's past could be brought up again, something that started worrying him since his fight with Queen in Wano, and especially given that his left eyebrow has been changing its shape quite a lot during the run of the Egghead arc.

Here's just few panels throughout end of Wano up to current Egghead chapter, where Sanji' left eyebrow is in the focus on the pages:

Chapter 1029 was the first part where Sanji was thinking his body might be undergoing some changes he couldn't control -broken bones insantly healed, stronger and faster than ever before, due to him beforehand using the Germa suit which possibly triggered this sort of superhuman modification he wasn't really aware of until then. When he realized he couldn't remember certain memories, he panicked, thinking he might be changing into something similar like his brothers, a scientific weapon created by his father. The worry and panic was all the more present because he thought he hurt someone without his knowing, and that'd slowly take away his kindness and sense of humanity. (Too bad I hoped the changes his body might be undergoing would only be realization of his non-cis gender status, but maybe that's still on the table for sometime in the future.):

^In this second panel his face is on purpose shadowed, which was the last time he was shown in that chapter,

and only again was in chapter 1031 - where his eyebrow changed:

and it takes him to think about Luffy and what his purpose would be if something so important of him would change. He knows why Luffy went after him in WCI, he knows what values are important for Luffy and his crew, and of course he doesn't want to be reminded of his family and his brothers and act as they did. He chooses the humanity, the kindness that Luffy loves in him.

Even to the extent to call Zoro and make a deal with him - to kill Sanji if anything would go wrong with him. "If I'm not in my right mind, I want you to kill me." That much trust he has in Zoro to protect the crew and Luffy!

Of course Zoro wouldn't do anything reckless without a good reason, but part of their banter and understanding each other would be to promise something like that - echo of Thriller Bark and the range of how far Zoro would go to take on someone elses pain. It's a promise to win their separate fights, but also this was something that Sanji put out there for Zoro to take notice of. (I will come back to that later.):

(still the "bad eyebrow" - he had that the whole chapter 1031).

After his fight with Queen (where it was also cleared what his actions were and weren't), he was only shown two times until he woke up, and both times he had his eyebrow back on good side.

1036 & 1044 (hearing Luffy awaken his powers):

All the way up to Egghead he seemed to have his eyebrow drawn this way, and it started to change only during fights -

ch 1075, still good eyebrow, tho.. ehh this behavior.. whatever:

ch. 1078, protecting his crew from Seraphim, bad eyebrow:

in between chapters 1090 - 1105 (most of which were flashbacks and Sanji nor Strawhats were shown) he appeared with his typical eyebrow:

and it changed again in ch 1107 - when he was again protecting Bonney / fighting against Kizaru:

interesting was chapter 1108 where he's standing between Saturn and Vegapunk, and he's describing Saturn with "he's less and less human by the minute" while his own face was obscured, (I mean.. interesting choice of words and what character said it, huh?):

and the next page he still has the bad eyebrow:

in chapter 1109 it's back on his typical side, where it continues from previous chapter of Sanji carrying Vegapunk- so at some point it must have shifted back (and I'm curious if these changes would be noticable in the animation). At this part he's watching how Saturn is summoning the other Gorosei to Egghead:

Which leads me to the point from above with Zoro.

chapter 1110 and their interactions (for me) was just off. I like their usual banter and bickering, it's funny (if it's in the manga and contained to few panels to make sense, not so much in the anime, but i'm not going into that now), but the thing to call anyone of their crew a "burden" just doesn't fit right. (Especially after WCI... c'mon Sanji, and especially to someone like Zoro, who's always the first one to think about the crew.)

I would understand it if he laughed along with the words to elevate their seriousness, or said something like "Finish it up, Mosshead, we need to get moving." but no. He calls him a burden. And again as I mentioned, it pretty much could have been even Sanji not realizing Zoro can hear that.

These words (in my opinion) were chosen on purpose for multiple reasons:

First we have the Zoro vs Lucci fight that goes on for a while in the real world - in the One Piece world it might be just few minutes - plus we don't know how tough were the fights with the Seraphim which let others be injured.

When Lucci attacked, Zoro immediately thrown himself with him away from the rest of the crew. Zoro was possibly stalling with the fight for time to leave. I feel he could have finished that fight earlier but that wasn't the point. The point might have been to hold him back from his crew.

also this was possibly the only fight after King where Zoro could test the limits of his powers and haki, just like Luffy in the Udon prison in Wano was basically training, this (and the Seraphim fights we haven't seen) could be something similar for Zoro.

Some people think that just because of these characters getting new powers it means they already understand how to use them/how it works, but that's usually not the point of how stories go - there can be progress and there can be setbacks, growing up but also falling back down, which makes the stories more interesting.

The words that Lucci used against Zoro were basically the same thing that Sanji said to Zoro few chapters later:

Amongst them he pointed out the Strawhats inability to cut off one of their own out of their crew to save others - like Lucci left Kaku behind just chapters before this fight when he attacked Vegapunk and Stussy (and Sanji trapped Kaku in the bubble prison). It's a play on very different characters and how they think and act to show clearly how they different they are.

The words burden or dead-weight really stood out, already when Lucci said it in chapter 1107, and the fact that they were targetting Zoro - someone who always blames himself (in his mind, not usually out loud) for not being strong enough, and someone who always has protecting his crew at the first place, was interesting in the connection to Sanji repeating basically the same words in the latest chapter.

I will probably make a different separate post only focusing on Zoro and his fear of being weak, but for the purposes of this post, just to pick a few moments where it's important in the manga:

One of the first time I've noticed how much Zoro keeps berating himself with words like "not strong enough" "too lax" "still too soft" "if I'd been stronger/ faster/ better..."

was just after Little Garden arc, where he almost cut off his ankles just to keep fighting. Time after time the crew encounters strong enemies and Zoro gets a new understanding how far up is the limit that he has to reach to keep the crew safe, so he keeps training. ch. 129:

When Luffy went to fight Crocodile and Zoro was worried and kept training on the way to Alubarna, this banter between Sanji and Zoro felt typical between them - it's about the two way street, the back and forth (that's why that new chapter and insult from Sanji feels so foreign, there's no reply, not quip back - only silence and some sort of determination, which isn't good nor bad, just.. weird.) ch. 179:

and after the final fight of Alabasta, possibly one of the first times I really started paying attention to how much it gets to Zoro, this question of how strong he needs to be. (along with what possibly was one of the first introduction of his haki and how he began training the Observation haki, disguised as meditation in the terms of the early manga) ch. 213:

Thriller Bark was one of the biggest arcs in this sense of Zoro and his protectiveness towards the crew and Sanji knows that - he knows what happened there, he even wanted to sacrifice himself in stead of Zoro for Luffy (but this is beside the point here, and I talked about it in other post before).

Zoro took on himself Luffy's pain, and after that arc he still went right to train as soon as he could despite being still injured, ch. 490. "still too weak!"

which goes through to Sabaody arc.

Chapter 510 until the end of that arc is just painful to go through again. Luffy was worried for Zoro and didn't know the scope of his injuries, while Sanji knew and was concerned in his own way too - that is another thing of how they care, sometimes wordlessly but there is that understanding of what to mention or not. ("Burden" still shouldn't be one of the words to use between them, not that far into the story.)

Now - fast forward to Punk Hazard where one of similar moments played out - Zoro telling Luffy not to goof around because they got in the New world and needed to take things seriously.

It was one of those small moments where Sanji was actually one of the few people shown with reaction to Zoro's words and his urgency, ch 678:

Sanji saying "He's so tough on himself" really puts into perspective how he sees Zoro - he knows what he's been through, and knows to what extremes he's willing to go to protect his crew.

He's definitely not someone who would carelessly call Zoro "a burden" even in the time and place and situation they found themselves on Egghead, if anything, he was supposed to be one of the first ones to know how serious is Zoro always about protecting the crew. (Even in the beginning of Egghead, Zoro stayed at first on the Sunny because "who will save them when they will need saving.")

There's few others scenes and parts where Zoro questions his worth and strength, especially in later Wano, calculating what needs to be done so they have strength to face off with Kaido, ch 980:

and later against King, ch 1033 "it was my strength that was lacking!" while unlocking his Conqueror's haki, still unknowingly:

The fact that it's been happening pretty much since the beginning of the story - how Zoro views himself as not strong enough, yet persisting in always getting stronger and protecting his crew - means so much for what character Zoro is and how much he values and loves his crew (just like all the other Strawhats in different ways), and also, as I've been catching up so quickly with the manga, there's been that hope for some call out of this behavior, to poke it where it hurts, to see what would happen if someone turns those words Zoro possibly feels in his mind against him out loud. And that's kind of what's been happening lately - and I'm curious what impact will this have on both Zoro personally and on the other Strawhats, depending who will be around for the conclusion.

Zoro is one of the few strawhats really thinking about the future, plans and what they need to still fight through, carefully calculating what his opponents might be doing, how strong they are and how much of a problem it would be to go through them.

And Sanji normally understands that, he knows how Zoro works and the other way around, that's why he still protected him when Zoro was injured, (if anything, in this moment Zoro could have been something like hinderance or annoyance to Sanji, yet he never said something like that), ch. 1015:

Even on Egghead, where there was temporary truce with Lucci and Kaku, Zoro pointed out how to recognize the Seraphim's weaknesses, and apologized for 'wasting their stamina' - again, calculating on his strength, ch. 1077:

Zoro isn't just fighting for the sake of a fight, he does have his dream and does know what's important to focus on (he himself always keeps the crew in focus when it's important!)

So it's difficult to have a conclusion about the whole Zoro vs Lucci fight without knowing what is Zoro thinking - hopefully in next chapter we will have more info on it (that is number 1111 - Zoro's birthday and bounty! so I hope it will be a big focus on Zoro again). But even beside that, it was obvious in such short time two people around him suddenly called him a burden to his team - something he takes very close to his heart and mind, something that will hopefully have some consequences for us to see and read, because as Oda is choosing words definitely carefully to have the right impact, two very similar words like "burden" don't seem like a coincidence.

To wrap this up - with Sanji telling this to Zoro felt different than their usuall banter, and as I said before - maybe because Sanji wasn't even speaking to Zoro. At the same time, on Wano Sanji gave Zoro a clue that somehting was happening with him, the fact that there was a panel with just Zoro's ear twitching and then being silent, thinking, and not replying to Sanji with anything that would hint to us about his state of mind, and it could mean he's also aware of some difference in Sanji's acting.

The way he says this reminds me of the what Sanji was thinking during his fight with Queen - "what would be more useful to Luffy, regular flesh-and-blood body? Or a cruel, cold emotionless warrior of science." Even for this small part of seeing him speak with Jimbei and hearing what Zoro was up to until then, he speaks without almost any emotions beside anger? Even with his eyebrow not indicating the change, precisely, it doesn't have to be connected in this way, except physical fights, but there could be something still changing within Sanji to make him act this way, a way that really isn't something we've seen before. I think if in next chapters he speaks to Nami, Robin or some other woman without his typical over-the-top pleasanteries, it could indicate how much of a problem this could be for the Strawhats.

So we have Sanji's need to stay human and kind, the pact created with Zoro to kill him if anything felt wrong; and we have Zoro - someone who's biggest purpose from the beginning was to protect the crew and Luffy, while many times we've seen him question his own strength, and now two people in the span of like 5 minutes in the One Piece time are calling him a burden.

It will be interesting to see if this is heading towards a clash or conflict between Luffy's wings while Luffy needs the support to fight / flee from the Gorosei.

To end this too long post, I feel it's very on point for One Piece not to have a sole focus on just one character going through it™ in one arc, but it's always a few crumbs here and few hints there. This sort of conflict would be perfect to deal with both of Zoro and Sanji's respective fears - because this is very much about fears in their minds, while at the same time if they can resolve this, it would only strengthen their crew once again.

[wavytam]

SaNami in Thriller Bark and Whole Cake: How one arc was used to foreshadow the other

In this post I will talk about how Sanji's and Nami's storylines in Thriller Bark were used to foreshadow a lof of elements that played out in Whole Cake Island...

... and might as well foreshadow their dynamic in future arcs.

I decided to write this post after I rewatched Thriller Bark. 

As the episodes went by, having in mind that I had already caught up on Wano in the anime, I noticed some odd… similarities left in Thriller Bark that made me realize how much it foreshadowed future arcs (like Marine Ford and Fishman Island), but especially Whole Cake Island (and Egghead, but this is an analysis for the next post) especially the moments relating to Sanji and Nami.

I also remembered something that was speculation at the time and if anyone has a source for this information, please share, since it's been a while I've read about it and I don't remember where I got it from: apparently, during the time Marine Ford was being animated (and the manga was in Fishman Island) one of Oda's employees lost some type of sketchbook containing concepts and plans about Whole Cake Arc.

If this is true, it means that Oda had a lot of things figured out way ahead of the current storyline of One Piece - which is not exactly a surprise. But after rewatching Thriller Bark, I dare to speculate that Oda already had a lot of things planned for Whole Cake even before Fishman Island and even Marineford, and he actually used Thriller Bark itself to foreshadow it.

Obviously, every arc of One Piece usually leaves hints to future arcs (especially when it comes to Wano and Elbaf - Oda foreshadows both in almost every arc), but I'd like to take a moment to talk about the ones (on top of my head) that Thriller Bark left hints of.

Wano: Zoro's encounter with Ryuma's Zombie and Moria mentions Kaido.

Marineford: By the very end of the Thriller Bark arc, Boa Hancock's name is mentioned, and we also have a scene of Lola warning Luffy about Ace's vivre card.

These are just some of the elements I remember and won't get into much detail, otherwise this post would need two parts lol.

Anyway, with what I said in mind, there's one arc that Thriller Bark strangely foreshadows more than any other and, not only that, but also introduces elements that will later be essential in said arc: which is Whole Cake Island. There are so many moments thrown here and there, especially during Sanji and Nami's moments, that it got me curious to know for how long Oda:

Had planned to write Whole Cake

Had the entirety of Sanji's storyline figured out

Had planned some specific interactions between certain characters

As you can already guess by the title of this analysis, my assumption is that Sanji and Nami's roles and interactions in Whole Cake Island were something that Oda had planned ever since Thriller Bark… and maybe even before.

In this next part, I will show you the reasons why and also why I think that some of their moments in Thriller Bark still weren't mirrored in Whole Cake but might be in Egghead or maybe Elbaf.

Nami and Sanji’s roles in Thriller Bark

First, let's remember what happens to Nami and Sanji separately and how both their storylines intersect throughout Thriller Bark.

Nami starts off by getting lost from the Straw Hats along with Usopp and Chopper (the infamous Weak Trio) inside Thriller Bark. Through their perspective we see how weird and macabre the setting is and how there is something wrong with its inhabitants - specifically Doctor Hogback.

Meanwhile, Luffy, Sanji and the rest of the Straw Hats follow the trio's tracks and have an entirely different perception of the place. Through their perspective, everything that scared Usopp, Nami and Chopper is… kinda pathetic and weak? Lol, I loved how Oda planned this.

Once the Weak Trio arrives at Dr. Hogback's Manor, Nami is assaulted (ugh) by an invisible Absalom (mind you, a guy who has lion parts - a symbol that usually is connected to her throughout One Piece) and he decides to take her as his wife. Meanwhile, as the trio tries to escape, and the rest of the Straw Hats are looking for them, Sanji's and Zoro's shadows are taken by Gecko Moria and put inside Zombies. Something interesting happens: because Sanji is not well known like Zoro, Moria underestimates him and puts his shadow inside the body of a weaker Zombie (keep that in mind for later).

Sanji's zombie finds Usopp, Chopper and Nami, and rebels against his "programming" to protect Nami specifically.

That's when Moria's minions realize that Sanji is much stronger than they anticipated.

Later, Chopper and Usopp escape, but Nami is taken by Absalom. She also meets a Zombie named Lola whom she ends up befriending. Through Usopp, (original) Sanji finds out Nami was harassed by Absalom and was planning to force her into a marriage.

He gets so mad, he lights himself on fire and we have these interesting exchanges.

(Posting two translations of the same panel because both translations are so interesting: one of them Zoro says that he might “transform” into something, but the other says he might “mutate” - and considering the things we know now of Sanji’s past once again shows how Oda gives a lot of thought to Sanji’s characterization.

Anyway, if anyone knows which phrase is the closest to the original japanese and what else it could be talking about, feel free to comment or DM! I have zero knowledge of Japanese and I just know how many hints we might be missing because of it). 

Meanwhile, Nami is (probably) drugged by Absalom and is carried to the altar to get married.

Obviously (and under Luffy's orders) Sanji goes to look for Nami and we know how things go after this. He

crashes Nami's "wedding",

fights Absalom as he protects her body against any minor harm,

and ends up talking about his dream to become invisible and how he studied devil fruits when he was a kid (that moment for me is enough to prove that Oda had already planned Sanji's entire storyline with Germa, his siblings and his metal mask - I will talk about it in more detail later)

All of that effort seemed to go nowhere since Sanji was unable to free Nami. Absalom escapes with her and tries to marry her again, only for her to (finally) wake up and defeat him.

That's when we realise that it was thanks to Sanji, who weakened Absalom in their previous fight, that Nami was able to (in a sense) oneshot Absalom so easily.

So, unbeknown to himself and Nami, Sanji did end up saving Nami - this is an interesting motif in their relationship, and something I plan to talk about more in future posts.

Later, after everything is resolved, Nami befriends the real Lola. Lola not only talks about her mother Linlin (the Big Mom, one of the Four powerful Yonkos) but also gives Nami Linlin's vivre card. Only later in Whole Cake we find out Lola ran away from home and Chiffon mentions how she rejected the advances of a prince (Loki - Elbaf foreshadow) whom Nami takes interest upon for being… well, a prince.

Obviously a bunch of other things happen, but I only talked about the points I wanted to explore in this analysis. I'm sure you noticed there's a lot of them to talk about already.

Also, if you watched/read WCI I'm sure that, as I listed what happened in Thriller Bark, you already noticed how there are some interesting elements in it that later become crucial for While Cake to play out the way it did.

As I mentioned, one of the most important things that I think Oda had been planning to write ever since Thriller Bark (or before) was for Nami specifically to participate in Whole Cake.

This part I will leave for last, since the next topics will serve as a way to explain it.

TB Absalom's Invisibility and Sanji's Dream mirror WCI Stealth Black and the Rejected Germa Prince Storyline

Well, this topic is kinda controversial because of the sexual undertones it has and because of how Oda portrays Sanji's perviness. I won't talk about this part here since it's not the focus of this analysis, but I will link you to an amazing post that explores exactly that part of Sanji's character.

Here I will focus on the other part that Oda left implicit: which is the fact that Sanji had the dream to be invisible ever since he was a kid (when he still didn't have his hyperfixation on women) and how, at the same time, it was the exact power he was "supposed" to have as a Germa soldier and prince.

To me Oda not only used Absalom's powers as a way to leave open the possibility of Sanji having invisibility related powers in the future (which he kinda did in Wano), but also to tie it to his past with Germa. 

Only now do we know that the power Sanji was originally supposed to have was invisibility and the fact that Oda put Absalom with that exact power might show how ahead he was on the story (or how good he is with improvising hehe).

Now, this raises the question: if Sanji's mutation was supposed to be invisibility, where exactly did those fire powers come from? (This is something for a future post ;))

TB Nami and Lola mirrors WCI Nami and Chiffon

Through the bond Oda developed between Lola and Nami, the Straw Hats (and we, readers) gathered a lot of important information that would later be used by Nami herself to survive their adventure through Whole Cake.

First, Lola had a twin sister, Chiffon, who, because of the bond already established between Lola and Nami, ended up taking a liking to Nami in Whole Cake (and vice versa).

Big Mom's Family and Political Marriages

Second, as we get to know Lola in Thriller Bark we see that the idea of finding the man she loves and marrying him is an important concept for her. This is later on explained in Whole Cake, where we realize that Big Mom uses political marriages to gain more power and wanted to force Lola to marry prince Loki. That’s the sole reason for Lola to leave Big Mom and, once again, it seems like something Oda had already planned in Thriller Bark.

Big Mom's Vivre Card

Third, the Vivre Card Lola gave Nami was crucial for Nami, Luffy and the rest of the crew to navigate through Whole Cake and control Big Mom's henchmen. A lot of the problems that they were going through in Whole Cake were resolved because of that simple vivre card given around six arcs earlier, Thriller Bark.

Sanji and Nami Wedding Crashing Each Other's Weddings and Bridal Carries

Well, this is the part the SaNami Fandom has already talked about the most and for obvious reasons. It's not everyday a ship has so many wedding motifs, and the fact that Oda chose to parallel a lot of things that happened during the wedding in Thriller Bark at Whole Cake with Sanji and Nami, obviously adds more fuel to the fire.

This topic, along with Lola, is actually the reason for me to write this analysis, since, in my opinion, there are a lot of details that seem too coincidental to be considered unplanned.

First detail: we have the fact that Nami was the main reason for Luffy to ever decide to invade Big Mom's territory and go after Sanji, whilst in Thriller Bark it was Sanji himself who was determined to stop Nami's wedding at all costs and Luffy… well, he just gave Sanji permission to do his thing lmao.

Second: during both wedding ceremonies, Sanji carried Nami bridal style; something that the groom was supposed to do with the bride.

Third detail: both Nami and Sanji were being forced to get married and it was always the other side that would try to save the forced groom/bride. The best part about this is the fact that neither Sanji nor Nami knew about the amount of difficulties the other went to save one another. Which brings me to the next topic:

Nami's Obliviousness to Sanji's efforts mirrors Sanji's obliviousness to Nami's efforts

Okay, this is more of a fact for the entirety of One Piece, but I think it's more evident in both Thriller Bark and Whole Cake. Again, although this is a topic that I want to talk about in more detail in another post, I do think it's worth mentioning a bit in here.

In Thriller Bark, Nami does not realize how important she is for Sanji and the extent of the things he is willing to do for her safety. Not only that, but Nami is also not aware of the things Sanji already did for her ever since Arlong Park.

In Whole Cake, it's more subtle, but the fact that only Luffy truly saw Sanji's breakdown and how much he was sacrificing himself for his crew, shows that Nami still does not know the true extent of Sanji's care and selflessness. 

And it raises the question: why? Why is it that Oda does not let Nami (until this day) know how much Sanji did to his crew and especially to her? To me, it's because, if Nami knew, she would treat Sanji differently. If she knew that Sanji does have a preference for her, that he defended her in Arlong Park, that he tried everything he could to protect her in Thriller Bark, and that he did a lot of things he wouldn't do for any other woman, maybe her view on him would change.

Consequently some type of tension between the two could eventually build up and what Oda has been trying to avoid for years (which was a romance between the crew) would eventually happen, and the entire dynamic of the crew would shift (but this is speculation ofc, it might be nothing and even if Nami knew, nothing could change).

And let's also consider that, although Sanji looks for Nami's validation when she witnesses him fighting, he never tries to brag or tell her about the times he defended her when she wasn't looking.

Obviously, in Whole Cake, Sanji is thinking about the entire crew when he sacrificed his happiness, not only her, but as I said, it's more about the fact that Nami does not know how much Sanji truly works under wraps to make sure the people he loves are safe - and how selfless he truly is for her when she only sees his perverted side.

Now, the same can be said about Sanji, to some extent. It's clear in the manga that Sanji does have strong feelings for Nami, if it's reciprocated, it's up to debate. But no one can deny that Nami does care about Sanji and sometimes, she cares more than anyone else in her crew.

We all noticed how Nami was the most eager to rescue Sanji, always trying to bring the seriousness of the situation to the rest of the crew and dragging Chopper, Luffy and Brook to the right path whenever they got distracted by something else. 

However, when it came to truly knock some sense into Sanji to accept help, Nami was conveniently taken out of the picture in favor of Luffy. 

Keep in mind that I am in no way complaining, the moments Sanji had with Luffy were beautiful, and he obviously would have the focus: Luffy is the main character and Sanji's captain.

But the fact that Oda kept Nami away in one of Sanji's moments of fragility, when he exposed his true nature and showed how caring he really is, can come off as suspicious. As if Oda does not really want Nami to see those moments… yet.

You can say that Oda also kept Chopper and Brook out of the picture, but even when Nami is with them, Oda kind of separates Nami's behavior from theirs. He emphasizes Nami's reactions and gives her serious expressions while the rest are put in more comical situations.

Also, during the Luffy vs. Sanji fight, one of the most emotional moments of WCI, Nami didn't need to be there if Oda only wanted to emphasize the importance of Luffy to Sanji.

In my opinion, he put Nami there, because Sanji cares about her and her opinion more than any other woman’s, even more than Robin’s. Which makes the following moment even more hurtful, especially because that was the only time Nami didn't use the "kun" honorific - showing how she lost respect for him.

Conclusion: the importance of Sanji and Nami in each other’s stories

By looking at these topics, I think it's very interesting how Oda made sure to use parts of Nami's plot in Thriller Bark to gather information that would help her, Luffy, Brook and Chopper to save Sanji in Whole Cake.

To me, the fact that so many of these things seemed to point out something: the interactions that both Nami and Sanji have is something that Oda thinks about carefully. Not only that, but everytime they are having a major moment/development, most of the times one is there to support the other.

Examples:

In Arlong Park Sanji defended Nami's actions

In Ennies Lobby Nami had a major fight against Khalifa because she knew Sanji wouldn't fight a woman

Until Nami decided to forgive Jimbei, Sanji was there to defend her

Again, the only exception is during Sanji's and Nami’s arcs in Wano -  but in my opinion it's because Oda’s intentional hiding of Sanji’s story from the other Strawhats will pay off in the future and will be a major factor in the One Piece story.

Well, this is it.

Okay, with all of those topics in mind, there are two main events in Thriller Bark that happened in relation to Nami and Sanji that still don't seem to have been mirrored:

Sanji's Zombie fought his own programming to protect Nami in Thriller Bark mirrors (?)

The underestimation of Sanji's True Power, what it truly is and how will it be activated

I plan to write that part for my analysis of SaNami in Egghead. If anyone is interested, stay tuned!

For everyone who stayed until the end, thanks for reading!! See you in the next post.

[khepiari]

Will Garp Return As Zombie? Spoilers for One Piece 1087+88

Few things before my deep dive:

I have no sympathy for Garp.

Koby, good job being the kind boy you are. You deserved a better world.

But, we all know, one good apple makes no difference when it’s left in the company of a rotten buffet.

Disappearance is not equal to final death

Pretty sure, Odachii is going to bring Garp back with a lost arm or a leg or lost soul in zombified form.

What I mean to say is—if Blackbeard got Gekko Moria’s powers or subjugated him to be his underling, Garp’s corpse will be a great addition to his arsenal.

It will be a great battle for Luffy, psychologically speaking. We all know he never got to sit and talk or punch and scream with Garp about the shared grief of losing Ace.

Only Garp knows what Luffy felt after losing his big brother, but Luffy doesn’t know what Garp felt after the death of a grandson he could’ve saved.

I am sure Luffy has been angry, and he would’ve definitely punched Garp until both were bleeding if they had a reunion but, Luffy would’ve never wanted his only family that he knew since his birth to die.

Now imagine the pain and grief and hurt he will have to overcome to fight his grandpa’s corpse.

It will pierce Luffy’s heart by 1000 cuts, because whatever chances of closure they had, it is no more.

The only hope from this battle for us as readers will be the last remaining consciousness of Garp’s body gaining some control, like how Victoria Cindry’s corpse did during the Thriller Bark Arc.

Since Garp has more will power, maybe he will apologize or ask Luffy to let go of his affection and end him. With that, the last of Luffy’s anger with for good, once Garp dies, and he embraces the fury of the sun god that resides in him; its final show down.

Because we know Blackbeard vs Luffy is going to be about Ace, but if it is about Ace and Garp, Luffy will have a really hard time winning. And most probably this fight will be part of the final war we have been building towards.

As my friend put:

“I can totally see Goda doing that. Luffy beats the crap out of his zombie grandpa, who with his dying breath gives Luffy the apology he’s been owed since Marineford.

And, because symmetry, he does it during the biggest war SINCE Marineford.

There’s also something horribly, appropriately Goda about the idea that Luffy’s first “kill” would be laying a zombie Garp to rest…”

Now time for Anti-Garp Hate Rant! You can stop reading

Yeah, bet your future on the corrupt institution that protects the scum of the world.

My thoughts after this panel.

I hope you rot in hell.

Hero my foot.

Don’t disappear. Just die.

Look, Monkey D Garp is a well written character! And trust me, I understand his position too well; his behaviour and actions are not new to me in fiction!

“Wise overpowered old men helping the wrong side” are very common in Indian/Asian Epics who have pulled similar bullshits in name of duty/justice/greater good. Who later get killed by trickery is everywhere, read Mahabharata or Ramayana, it is full of Garps.

But his decision to not help Ace escape but run after Koby all across the Grandline is enough to fuel my anger against him.

This panel Fuelled my rage further. As my friend put: "All lives are equal, except pirate lives, apparently."

Some argue Garp did everything to let Luffy get close to saving Ace on purpose. He did everything he legally could do. And if he saved Ace, the peace and protection his name brought to Windmill Village would be lost, and it would become the target of Pirates and Marines alike. Sounds plausible, but it's in the realm of speculation.

Old men in a position of power, refusing to intervene when they could’ve, have always used morally superior sounding arguments to get away from being held accountable.

Pushing Ace tragedy aside, If Garp was so strong why didn’t he stop Blackbeard when he had time?

He is no better than Bhishma Pitama from Mahabharata.

I am talking about the two years after Marineford.

What stopped him? He saw Blackbeard wield two DFs, did he and Sengoku only had the duty to protect Marineford? Why did he wait two years? Why didn’t he go after them himself?

Right after Marineford, he should’ve nipped evil in the bud by hunting down Blackbeard. What was holding him back then? The Grief of losing Ace still? Worry about missing Luffy?

Blackbeard is a Pirate, his enemy— who had two of the most powerful DFs in the world. What stopped him? Garp is the only one who could’ve fought because all he needed was Haki! What moral reasoning he had to not wreak havoc to stop this pirate?

Did World Government stop him because Blackbeard became a Yonko?

We now know how strong Garp is, so it was not a question of being injured after the war, we also know he cares not for permission or authority!

So why waste two years?

Only when his favourite student is kidnapped is when he felt the need to intervene.

If it's so-called sense of duty towards the future that made him bet his life on young navy; I am calling it bullshit.

I don’t care for whatever justification he has; if he could fight Blackbeard pirates head-on, he should’ve done it sooner and not let him gain so much power and let him terrorize the world.

I was really hoping that Blackbeard broke his spine. In the end, it's pathetic, he didn’t even die (not confirmed) at hands of Blackbeard.

How did his inaction help the powerless masses he swore to protect?

Who is Garp the hero supposed to represent? Isn’t it Justice? Who is he as a marine supposed to protect? Isn’t it the masses? Who is funding his salary? The taxes collected from masses.

In the end who is he serving?

The Gorosei and Celestial Dragons— yes, he hates them, but his indirect actions or refusal to fight them helped change nothing.

His inaction kept the status quo is intact!

Garp is nothing but a glorified a sell-out too! A poster boy of rebel with a good heart that Marine can capitalize for their propaganda.

You cannot change the world for better if you are part of the system that makes the world a bad place.

I hope he becomes a Zombie under Blackbeard!

[landsailorsky]

Hi there! Your recent enthusiasm for One Piece convinced me to give it a shot again, after a very long time. I started with that new live-action one, which was very enjoyable! And now I'm thinking to move on to the anime.

The thing is, the last time I attempted to watch it (a decade or so ago), I became intimidated by the amount of episodes and stopped. And now there are so many more!

All that to ask, do you have any favorite arcs/episodes? Or, if not favorite, ones you consider very important to the enjoyment of the series?

No pressure to answer, naturally. And let me just say your excitement and enjoyment of the series has been fun to see second-hand. 😁

Aww, thank you so much for sending me this, it made my day! (Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you, it's been a long week.)

There are SO many episodes!! It's definitely intimidating. I gave it a brief try before the Live Action came out, wasn't sure I wanted to invest that time and gave up. But after watching and LOVING the Live Action, I've tried again and really enjoy it!

That being said, my method of getting through long TV shows is just multi-tasking. I watch the dub (It's good!) and am usually doing a craft while watching or sometimes scrolling through tumblr, etc.

Other than that method, I know there is a fan-made cut of the show that removes a lot of the filler/redundancy and shrinks the run time significantly called One Pace, that gets recommended a lot, but I haven't tried it personally.

It is a bit of a hard show to skip around, imo, because a lot of the fun of it is the characters and their interactions and how they grow, plus a lot of minor characters appear in one arc and pop-up again later.

BUT if you were to eliminate episodes, here are what I'd consider the most important arcs, though I'm no means an expert.

(Here is a link to the wiki with a guide to the episodes)

-There are roughly 100 episodes of filler you can definitely skip, though that doesn't get rid of that much.

-If you want to skip what the Live Action covered, you can start with episode 48 and the Loguetown arc (48-53).

-The next few arcs introduce some minor characters we see again, but the next major arc that introduces a new Strawhat member is the Drum Island arc (78-91).

-It's long, but I would definitely recommend watching the next arc, Alabasta to get to know several reoccurring characters and the next Strawhat (92-130).

-It also goes on a while but the Skypiea arc introduces some important lore of the show (153-195)

-It's filler, but I ADORED the G-8 arc (196-206). Just funny hi-jinks that didn't feel like filler at all

-There's a few arcs in between you could skip but DEFINITELY watch Water 7 (227-263) and Ennies Lobby (264-312). There are parts that go on a bit long, but this was my favorite part of the show that I've seen so far and I know Water 7 is the favorite arc of many fans of the show. It condenses a lot of the best elements of it and is so fun to watch

-Thriller Bark DOES introduce the 9th Straw Hat, you can watch those episodes (337 and 338) but after that, I would go forward to Sabaody Archipelago (385-405) because it introduces some major plot points and characters and I feel like the positives of the Thriller Bark arc are outweighed by the negatives, imo.

-Impel Down has a lot of fun characters, but could be skipped and you could move onto Marineford (457-489). Definitely watch that to understand the story moving forward

-Post War Arc (490-516) is good to watch for Luffy backstory and what all the characters were doing during the time skip

-It doesn't seem like Fishman Island (523-574) really impacts the plot as a whole? (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong) So I think you could skip it.

-Punk Hazard (579-625) is fun and does set up the next arc (Dressrosa) so I might recommend watching that

I am watching Dressrosa (~Around episode 665 iirc) now so I can't speak past that! If anyone else sees this post, feel free to weigh in!

Thank you again for your kind message! ^.^ (I like your Dungeon Meshi icon - That's next on my list after I get through One Piece!)

[itsarealdandy]

alright getting close to ending the the fish man island arc so time for an updatee

i read this arc on and off bec the last arc was so much that i just finally needed to slow down/needed a break from reading one piece. man again i don't remember every single info on the fish man race, but i do remember arlong and sabaody arc. probably the most important things to remember when heading into this island and its' history/people.

im still thinking about the message they were putting out, which was to not let past prejudices and hatred affect the next generation of fish men/children, essentially making sure not to continue the cycle of hatred. this sort of thing is, you know, nice to think about in fiction, i'm just brain poisoned and thinking about how it relates to real life/society. all in all i did like that it made me think abt the message and how i feel about it (mostly positive, but its just man it really is hard to let go of past hatred/prejudices when you are wronged huh)

anyway for the straw hats, i've fucking missed them and it was nice to see how much their skills have developed during the time skip. please please please add jimbei hes fucking sick with it, it'll be cool having a fish man in the crew

oh yeah and we're heading into the new world, so can't wait to see the next island and what we're expecting~!

(east blue) Paramount War = Impel Down > Water Seven > Alabasta > Fish Man Island > Thriller bark > Sabaody > Skypeia

[wellfine]

Seeing the Sanji gaining weight after wci post immediately after the SH body types post made me wonder if your Sanji is... actually underweight/close to underweight? Like it doesn’t seem quite Sanji-Zeff dynamics to remain distressingly underfed dispute an athletic lifestyle but at the same time, ‘Sanji doesn’t believe he deserves more food than some unfeeling distant guide to correct living tells him he does’ feels very correct. So I imagine he stress eats during WCI and gains like 15 kilos and then post wci loses maybe 5-7 of those kilos, ultimately coming into equilibrium at something closer to a healthy body weight now the true depth of his trauma has been laid bare & accepted by the straw hats

Oops! You activated my deep Sanji headcanon trap card! Lotta words below (CW for talk of disordered eating)

I definitely drew/see Sanji as being a little underweight due to a difficult relationship with food, which I tried to hint at in my notes, but I tend not to say it outright that often because it always invites people with weird attitudes about disordered eating/underweight bodies/etc. I also tried to contrast between his "repose" and the other characters' to show how his body fat percentage tends to stay lower, while the other characters fluctuate (e.g. Zoro) or stay at a higher BF% and end up with less visible muscle definition as a result (e.g. Usopp).

To be totally honest with you Sanji has a lot in common with people at risk of disordered eating - traumatic childhood, being told he was worthless, especially based on his failure to achieve physical 'perfection', total deprivation of control over his earlier life (both when he was on Germa and when he was starving with Zeff), specific lack of control over his food (starving with Zeff especially), a love of food that manifests in preparing food for others' enjoyment rather than his own, and general difficulty accepting his own self-worth (running to Germa in order to save anyone, his difficulty accepting that Luffy wanted him as his chef, his attempt to sacrifice himself at Thriller Bark, etc).

People have misconceptions about what an eating disorder is, and whenever I try and bring it up, there are people who say he could never have one because "he starved once, why would he ever go hungry again!!" (when food scarcity especially in early childhood is a HUGE contributor to developing disordered eating) "he's a chef he loves food" (not everyone with an eating disorder hates food) "he's not underweight" (I mean, thanks to their overrepresentation in media people don't always recognise what underweight bodies really look like, especially when those people are also muscular, but to wit, you do not need to or want to be underweight to have disordered eating) "he's not a teen girl" (eyeroll emoji)... and not even touching the worse comments that dump on people with disordered eating etc. in order to insist their fav could NEVER, as if it's a moral judgement to have an ED, and implying it would somehow be an insult to Sanji.

Fact of the matter is most people's disordered eating has nothing to do with how they look, though I think you could also make the argument Sanji meets that criteria, too (I don't think a dude whose most defining character trait - tied with his eyebrow - is that he covers half his face 24/7 could be described as "confident in his appearance"). Most eating disorders emerge from a lack of control, which is like... Sanji's whole thing. He had no control over his life at Germa, he had no control over his situation on the rock, and we can see how fastidious he is about other aspects of control in his life as an adult. Monitoring his food intake down to the kilojoule is a very likely way he might deal with the trauma he's gone through. There's also the desire to make invisible/internal trauma visible, like other forms of self-harm. I think Sanji both wants people to worry about him and also wants nobody to know anything is wrong with him whatsoever and so it could easily manifest in passive ways like this - Zeff or Nami etc. worrying over "have you eaten enough?" is much easier for him to process and accept than anyone recognising his internal trauma.

All this to say, I think Sanji - probably without even consciously realising it - has a complicated relationship with feeding himself that manifests in him maintaining a borderline-underweight BF% for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with his appearance. I don't think he would've been underfed while at the Baratie, but I still think he would've been developing controlling compulsions around food that would've grown more once he left that environment and was solely in charge of not only his nutrition, but an entire crew's.

I think he probably tries to make sure he eats enough, mostly so that he can still be a useful and functional Straw Hat, but it's a manual thing. Like he doesn't realise until he's back underweight again and starting to notice the effects and has to pour butter over all his meals for a few weeks, lmao. And I think he definitely struggles emotionally with the idea of not "deserving" or "earning" certain foods, and using food (or lack thereof) as a way to punish himself. Add on to the fact that he's been smoking since he was a kid so his appetite is probably shot to hell, and I think you just have a guy whose natural inclination is not to eat more than absolutely necessary and oh, oops, he has a whole ship full of people he loves more than anything he has to feed first, guess he'll just have to make do on the scraps.

A few others have also pointed out the aspect of weight gain as a form/result of healing from trauma, and I can totally see this for Sanji, too. Comfort eating often stems from the exact same reasons as restrictive eating, control/lack thereof again being a major one. I don't think he would have to lose any of the weight gained in order to be happy or healed, though. Maybe he would gradually lose some of the weight he gained during WCI, maybe he wouldn't, but I think overall the arc works as a very appropriate backdrop to explore Sanji working through and starting recovery from disordered eating on top of his recovery from his other traumas.

[opbackgrounds]

Alright, friends, you know the drill by now. Here’s Part III of Sarcasticles’ overblown thoughts on sexism in One Piece. If you haven’t already, go read Part I and Part II before proceeding. 

I promise after this I’ll be done. By hook or by crook, we’re getting through the point of the original question. To the Anon who originally sent the ask, sorry it took this long to get here, I hope it’s helpful.

Also, I allude to some very, very minor Wano spoilers, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing here’s your warning. 

Characterization? I Don’t Know Her

What makes a good character?

I’ve spent an awful lot of time talking about character designs, when, funnily enough, it’s one of the aspects I pay the least attention to when it comes to deciding if I like how an author portrays their characters. I personally don’t care for fanservice, never have and never will. But unless it’s particularly egregious, I tend to ignore it because there are other factors I think are more important. 

The secret sauce for building characters is hard to define, because a good writer can take a concept that has no right being any good and turn it into something incredible (Oda does this all the time) where bad writers will seemingly slot all the right information in the right holes and still have their characters come out of the developmental oven flat and under cooked. 

One of the biggest buzzwords floating around these days is agency. Is a character active in their own story, or are they jerked around by the needs of the plot? Is their voice heard? Is their voice unique, or do they blend in with the background?

This is particularly important, because the term Strong Female Protagonist has been warped into shorthand for “girl who fights a lot and looks pretty doing it”. You can have a girl strong enough to lift mountains and still have her be a shit character. You can write a girl who’s main motivation is to get married and have babies with phenomenal depth. What matters is execution. 

The Petition to Call A Group of Rescue Arcs a ‘Damsel’

Both Nami and Robin had to be rescued, their main arcs bearing similarities that are impossible to ignore. But these aren’t copies of one another as much as variations on a theme, and with the existence of Marineford and Whole Cake Island I think anyone would be hard-pressed to say that One Piece’s rescue arcs are a girl’s thing. At this point it’s a feature, not a bug. 

Which makes sense given how fundamental the idea freedom is to the series. Hell, the first thing Luffy does after becoming a pirate is free Coby from Alvida’s tyrannical reign. Then he frees Zoro from an unjust authority that would have killed him had Luffy not intervened.

Notice a pattern here? 

One Piece is written like Pachelbel Canon, in that a very simple core of ideas are repeated over and over with layers of complexity and nuance added over time, examining the same themes from every possible angle. 

And when you look at the Four Big Rescue Arcs -- Nami, Robin, Ace, Sanji -- you’ll see that it’s Ace who’s given the least agency throughout his arc. Nami chose to hijack the Going Merry, repeatedly chose to push away the Straw Hats until she reached her breaking point, at which she chose to ask for help, with Luffy only intervening once she does. 

Robin is a little less obvious, but during the post-Water 7 party chapters, Aokiji makes the interesting observation that Robin could have escaped CP9, but chose not to

Remember that before Robin’s backstory was shown, Luffy specifically said he didn’t care if she wanted to die or not, so long as she was with the Straw Hats when she made her decision. No one bullied her into “I wanna live”. It was a choice she made of her own volition after realizing the depths the Straw Hats would go on her behalf.

I know there are people who disagree with me, but Nami and Robin are well-written characters. I’ve expounded enough on my reasoning both here and on my main that I don’t want to spend the time belaboring the point. What I do want is to note that Luffy wouldn’t be able to attain his dreams without them. Nami keeps them on course while also severing as a sort of moral compass for the crew -- remember she was the one who insisted on saving the giant kids at Punk Hazard -- while Robin’s ability to read the poneglyphs is what’s going to get the crew to Raftel.

Robin admittedly doesn’t have the same presence within the Straw Hat Pirates as Nami, but I would hardly call that sexism. Since Water 7/Enies Lobby she’s been pretty content to go with whatever Luffy says, and the fact that she’s literally quieter than anyone else in the crew means she doesn’t get as much focus. I think there could be more scenes with her using her specific skill set, like her investigations in Wano and the forensic anthropology scene in the pre-Jaya chapters, but I’m okay with her being a supporting character. 

The East Blue Crew have consistently gotten the most focus of any of the Straw Hats. They are the core of the crew, something Oda admits in a roundabout way in the Color Walk where they all appear together for the first time in a color spread

With the main cast as large as it is, not everyone is going to have the same amount of focus or development. Robin is given a unique voice within the story because she doesn’t overreact the way literally everyone else does. Through her silence, she stands out. I find there to be very meaningful character development when she feels comfortable enough with the Straw Hats to start calling them by name in Thriller Bark, relaxed enough with her friends to comitt her first facefaults in a series lousy with them in both Dressrosa and Wano.

In an ideal world, Oda would better rotate through his cast, much like how Brook was the unsung MVP on Whole Cake Island (where Nami was also excellent in a supporting role) but I don’t think people realize how hard it is to juggle almost a dozen different people in a story that’s bloated exponentially over time. To his credit, Oda has handled his expanding crew better than most writers. 

I also find it hard to judge this aspect of the series because the manga’s not done yet. I don’t know how Robin and Nami will be used in the future. I mean, Robin never got a chapter title declaring her “The Seventh” which I find suspicious, so Oda could very well have events in store that completely turn our perceptions upside down. It’s impossible to say.

I will acknowledge that the lack of big fights is somewhat disappointing, but neither Robin nor Nami’s dreams revolve around them getting stronger. Robin doesn’t need to use her power to make people explode from the inside out, Nami doesn’t need to fry end-game bosses with her lightning stick. That’s simply not their narrative purpose. With the exception of Tashigi, I’ve found that the female characters advertised as fighters have lived up to their billing. Hancock came out of Marineford unscathed. Carrot’s sulong form was awesome, in the old-fashioned sense of the word. The whole climax of Whole Cake Island revolved around surviving Big Mom’s wrath. Not beating her, not fighting her, it took all the Straw Hats had to just survive. Once again you’re left with a number’s game where where there just aren’t enough female characters to even pretend things are balanced.

All said, I think if you’re going to complain about the lack of Robin fights then I think you also have to complain about the lack of Brook fights, and that’s just not something you hear about, especially after Whole Cake Island. You can’t have it both ways. Either there needs to be more even distribution of major fights throughout the entire crew, or you have to acknowledge that a character’s worth isn’t dependent on their fighting prowess. 

One Piece is a battle manga, and I do think that it’s fair to criticize when a character isn’t allowed to fight when they’re perfectly capable of kicking ass. But it’s also an adventure story, and that opens up entirely new space for a character to occupy, and that’s where I think Nami and Robin (but especially Nami) really shine

That Moment You Realize Humor Isn’t A Universal Language

I’ve spent so much time defending Oda’s designs and characters that it might seem like I’m perfectly okay with everything that’s portrayed in the manga. To be clear, I’m not. If the messages and comments I’ve gotten over the past several days have taught me anything, it’s that many fans share the same sticking points I do, namely in regards to some of the gags. 

I again want to be careful here, because I’m hardly an expert on Japanese culture and it’s really hard to tell if Oda writes his jokes because he thinks they’re funny, or if he thinks his audience will find them funny. I’m again going to default to somewhere in the middle, because if Oda truly found the perviness distasteful he probably wouldn’t have included it, and I’ve read enough SBS to know the guy likes his dick jokes. 

First and foremost, one must address the culture gap. Japan ranks last among G7 nations on gender equality, In 2004 two-thirds of Tokyo women in their 20-30s reported to being groped while on public transport. There are numerous barriers that make it difficult for a woman to succeed either in the workplace or politics. 

From what I can gather, some of these trends are reversing, albeit slowly and with great resistance. Contrary to what many people seem to believe culture is not always value neutral. And I say that as an American, recognizing there are plenty of things about my culture and country that are really fucked up. 

But who gets to decide who’s right and who’s wrong?

When inside that kind of environment, that kind of culture, it’s a lot easier to understand how a character like Sanji can exist. It’s easy to understand why Momo shoving his face into Nami and Robin’s boobs might be played for laughs. It’s not an excuse, but an explanation. And with Sanji failing more often than not, being the butt of his own joke as he slowly turns into a parody of what he once was, one could almost say Oda is pointing those types of people and saying, “Look how pathetic this guy is. Now go laugh as he gets a nosebleed so bad he needs multiple blood transfusions in order to not die.”

I say almost, because Sanji is never condemned for his actions, nor does he learn from them. Instead you have this character who’s supposed to be one of the kindest characters in the series decide to immediately go peep on a woman’s bath house after gaining the power of invisibility. 

Stay classy, Oda.

As distasteful as I find it, I don’t find fanservice to be an inherently evil thing that must be eradicated at all costs, and with Oda doing things like putting his entire cast, male and female, into skintight leathers you can hardly say that he’s excluding the men. 

Everyone will have their line in the sand, and mine goes back to agency. When Nami did her Happiness Punch way back in Alabasta, that was of her own volition. When Nami and Robin dress in clothes that show everything but the nipple, that’s something they chose and feel comfortable in. 

But when Smoker and Tashigi swapped bodies at Punk Hazard, Tashigi specifically asked Smoker not to strip, and he did anyway, opening her coat and removing her bra. This is especially egregious as Tashigi is one of the very few women in the series who is always shown wearing very conservative clothing. Oda specifically showed Tashigi getting upset at Smoker’s actions, and Smoker repeatedly refusing to listen to her.   

That’s where I draw my line. 

Some Final Thoughts I Couldn’t Fit Anywhere Else 

Thought The First--Oda has an interesting habit of turning his most despicable, scummy pieces of flaming human garbage into the butt of the joke. Villains like Crocodile and Doflamingo are certainly evil, but it’s the idealized, cool type of evil that makes you almost admire them. There aren’t very many real-world Crocodiles, but just about everyone knows a Spandam, or an Absalom, or a Vander Decken. These kinds of villains aren’t scary because of their physical prowess, but their unyielding obsessions and the power they’re able to wring from the system, and -- surprise, surprise -- all three are either actively trying to be creepy sex pests or coded as such with the visual language of the comic.   

And Oda turns them into a mockery. 

While there are some who feel like not treating serious issues like sexual assault seriously are doing a disservice to people who have endured similar experiences I think there’s merit to turning them into a laughingstock. As someone much smarter than me said once, if an opinion cannot withstand mockery it’s revealed to be ridiculous, and these scummy-scum villains are certainly ridiculous.

Thought The Second--It’s hard to say how much sexism is a thing in-universe. Kuina is the only one who is explicitly told her dreams were impossible because of her gender, but with the recent reveal confirming that her family came from Wano, which in turn is based on Feudal Japan, it’s hard to say how widespread these beliefs are. Tashigi brought it up again at Loguetown and Bellemere specifically told her girls that they lived in an era where “girls needed to be strong, too”, but otherwise it’s not a topic that’s been explored in any depth

Thought The Third--The in-universe fetishization of mermaids has some implications that I think are unintended but worth discussing. Shirahoshi has a reputation of being one of the most beautiful women in the world despite not leaving her tower for over 10 years (she’s 16). Mermaids whose tails have split are worth less on the slave market than those whose are intact. Even Zoro erased Kokoro from his memory after meeting the more attractive Caime. It’s one of those odd things that when combined with the more obvious racism themes could have some unfortunate implications, and I think could have been avoided had Oda show a little more restraint with some of his jokes. Unintended consequences are still consequences. 

Thought The Forth--There are many other instances throughout the series that people bring up with talking about sexism in One Piece. I feel like a lot of these can be explained away individually -- for example, both Belo Betty and Rebecca’s stripperific outfits were inspired by other media, the painting Liberty of the People and Red Sonja respectively; Lola chasing after an obviously abusive man makes a whole lot more sense when you meet Big Mom; Hancock’s love sickness could be seen as an emotionally stunted woman experiencing her first crush, etc., etc -- it’s when they’re all put together that they begin to read as “Problematic”. 

It would be impossible to go over all these individually, but I tend to fall on the side of leniency. In the end, everyone has to make their own decisions based on their own values. I’m hardly unbiased, and my enjoyment for the series will undoubtedly make me look the other way when another might call the exact same incident The Worst Thing Ever. The thing is, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and most are convinced that theirs don’t stink. I include myself in that statement. In the end it’s a comic for kids. It’s supposed to be fun. 

Thought The Last--I have spent entirely too much of my time writing this up, but in the end I guess I have to go back to what I said when I talked about my thoughts on Sanji: Everyone has their own personal line of acceptable bullshit, and for me Oda does more good than bad. Sanji specifically gets very little leniency from me because I don’t like a lot of the gross behavior Oda passes over as a joke. But the female characters themselves, generally speaking? They’re fine. There are other mangaka that have more equal male to female ratios or have women play more active roles in the story, but Oda does a lot better than most other shonen titles I’ve read. 

It’s okay to be critical of media you enjoy. It’s okay to complain. But remember that One Piece is a very long series, and there are some fans who have been a round for literally decades. I myself started reading weekly around the time Duval was introduced, way back in 2008. Every time a new batch of fans comes in the same old arguments get stirred to the top of the pot: Sanji is a creep, Oda can’t draw women, why doesn’t Robin ever get to fight?

It can be exhausting to go through the same hoops time and time again. So if you’re someone who is being critical and feel like no one is listening, or that a bunch of fans are going out of their way to defend Oda, that could be one of the reasons why. They’re tired of having a series they enjoy be shit on. 

There are other fans who legitimately don’t think that Oda’s done anything wrong, that jokes are just jokes. If you happen to fall in that category, remember that not everyone feels that way. Art reflects life, which in turn reflects art. One Piece is a few million copies away from outselling Batman. To say it isn’t influential to young readers, both in Japan and abroad, is beyond asinine. 

I thank everyone who’s taken the time to read this so far. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how civil the discussion and my inbox as stayed. Even if I didn’t respond to your message, I promise that I did read it. 

I wrote as much as I did because I know this is a topic a lot of people care about, and also so I hopefully don’t have to write about it again. A lot of hours has gone into this project, and it’s been exhausting, but in a good way, if that makes any sense. I’m ready to put it to rest. 

I was joking with some friends that I think I’ve hit just about every hot topic issue now, so hopefully I can go back to fun questions like speculating if Wapol can eat a person and poop out a devil fruit. 

Until then, Sarcasticles, out         

[kingluffy]

It might just be me but I feel like oda is now focusing a little bit on romance since dressrosa, and is nearly like putting endgame ships together but not fully trying to give it away, like with sanji for example I think it’s clear now that his two realistic end partners are either pudding or viola since he’s kissed both of them and generally if we being honest been less of a pervert (well sexually) around them especially pudding, but I think it’s clear pudding would end with him just because they technically got married (an official marriage is complete when the vows are done) their wedding got interrupted when they were about to kiss which they did later on and I think that pudding did that so at least to her they are married.

With ussop I think it’s clearly kaya but you know the more I think about it he might just might have an outside chance with nami but if I’m being honest they give me more of a friends and sibling vibe.and with kaya both her and ussop has shown feelings for each other but you never know this is Oda we are talking about.

For robin I think it’s going to be franky, now hear me out if I’m being honest I didn’t think robin would get an ending partner until very recently, I always heard of zoro and robin but I never really felt that ship like I wasn’t against it but I wasn’t for it. Then the colourspread where she was holding frankys face came like a punch to me 😂 all of a sudden I was like omds how didn’t I see that coming because I started to remember how their interactions where during water 7, Ennis lobby and thriller bark was like we all know how she made him join the crew ouch, when she got her wings she made him blush and only him in thriller bark, they both have sleep on each other or with each other (not sexually) loads of times actually some with brook, however so yeah and in wano you could now see their interactions too, franky offering to give only robin a ride on his motorbike, kinda cliche but hey it it works it does

Next is chopper I think he has two realistic options because most of the others would be beastiality which I highly doubt oda would include in the biggest manga of all time, so anyways I think he’s two options are carrot and the reindeer mink but I think if he was to have a pairing it would hands down be the reindeer mink because number one chopper actually has a crush on her and number two they are both in the same profession with her being a nurse and so on it’s almost as if oda made the mink just for chopper. And for chopper and carrot I get the same vibe as with nami and ussop friends/siblings vibes and the fact carrot calls chopper “chobro” shows she feels it’s like that too but I would rule it out.

Now for zoro there isn’t much to say here I already said my opinion on zoro and robin which is I don’t feel they have had enough moments especially recently too be considered endgame, don’t get me wrong it’s a big ship with loads of fans so I could see it happening I just doubt it same with zoro and tashigi with them I just don’t think they could happen ,because they are on two different sides pirate and marine, like their pairing is heavily reliant on the marines and world gov having a major reshaping. And I’m not gonna lie I thought and still have it in my mind just not as strong that zoro is asexual like I’ve never seen him show interest in other females or anything a prime example of that was the happiness punch in alabasta everyone went to see it even chopper did but zoro was the only one who didn’t and people would say what about luffy isn’t he asexual which I’ll touch on later but no luffy isn’t asexual and there’s evidence for that but none for zoro. That being said can still see zoro ending with someone that being hiyori because let me get this out there I think there’s a 0.1% chance of zoro asking a girl out and I just feel it more likely a girl would like aggressively love him (like be getting them into awkward situations time and time again to express her feeling) and the only girl who I think would do that is hiyori, tagashi is too tsundere to do it and robin is too composed and calm to do it too. I’m just thinking about the personalities with this one because I don’t really think zoro has had a lot of moments with girls apart from tashigi and you know about my problem with that ship so yeah hiyori for me.

Now the last one this one I can go on for literal days on this ship but this post is already long so I’ll try and summarise as best I can and if you want me to go in detail just tell me. So now for luffy. Now with luffy as most of you know I can only see him ending with nami like yeah girls like mageret have an outside chance but I can only really and truely see luffy and nami, let me just talk about personalities not even moments yet, they are the perfect example of opposites attract, ying-yang, definition of completing one another with luffy and nami they are my otp because of this reason mainly because unlike other anime’s and manga you can clearly see this and you could see it develop each arc and saga like for luffy every attribute he lacks like intelligence, craftiness, intimidation, etc nami compensates with him and teaches him about them and for nami her lack of bravery, see people’s true intentions luffy compensates for her teaching her and showing her it let just list a few of this moment : nami showing luffy how normal pirates behave after ussops arc, luffy showing nami his bravery in arlong arc, strong world etc And where we see them develop for nami we saw nami show her bravery for luffy in whole cake island when she fough cracker knowing she had no chance of winning or when she fought big moms army too. For luffy we see him becoming smarter and see his enemies true intentions in arcs like zou where he suspected sanji was taken against his will. Then we got how their goals and personality’s intertwines with each other because luffy wants to become pirate king and nami what’s to map the whole world, one of the things luffy loves the most is adventure and what adventure is bigger than exploring the whole world? Maybe love😂😂 (cringe I know but had too). Now people might say hancock but let me just say this I think the chances of hancock ending with luffy is so low that I believe yamato has a better chance than her and we’ve only seen Yamato for like 6 chapters so let me explain the main reason why I think she doesn’t have a chance is simply because luffy rejected her now to people that might not be a lot but it really is simply based on the fact that in nearly 1000 chapters and 15 movies luffy has never ever changed his mind. When he says something it happens or in this case does’nt for example when he said he’ll get a musician he did, when he said he’ll beat people’s asses he did even when he said he’ll save ace he did do it unfortunately ace went back, so when luffy has numerously told hancock he won’t marry her he really won’t. Now people can say that just means he won’t marry her but that doesnt mean they can’t be together but my response to that is simple what pairing in one piece aren’t married or engaged? So far in one piece every couple have been married or at least engaged. So that’s why I think hancock is out of the runnig or at least has a much less chance than nami does for ending with luffy. I didn’t even go into detail for luffy and nami but I’ll probably do that later. But please remember this is just MY opinion about the pairings in one piece you are free to disagree with it you can even comment to me why you disagree but I don’t want people to start acting toxic please. The reason i didn’t include brook or jimbei is because I don’t see them ending with anyone

[redrocx]

For the one piece ask: all of them? 😅 (I honestly can't decide which to ask for soooo...) Alternatively, only the ones you want to answer the most 👍🏻

Challenge accepted 🌚🌚

No but honestly, this was so much fun and I was bored at work

⛵️ - Fave pirate ship? (like boat ship)

It's a tie between the Thousand Sunny and Going Merry. Thriller Bark is epic though lol

🔫 - Fave canon arc?

Enies Lobby & Marineford, also Wano is creeping up there too

🚽 - Least favorite canon arc?

Davy Back Fight

💩 - Least favorite character? (in general)

Blackbeard

🙅 - Least favorite Straw Hat?

.... currently Zoro but only bc of the Zorosexuals lol I love him as a character but people are being so obnoxious that it kinda translates into how I feel about him too

😀 - Most favorite Straw Hat?

Luffy, Chopper and Robin~

😍 - OTP?

Lawlu, Frobin, Saboala

💀 - NOTP?

Hancock x Luffy

ZoSan

Kidd x Law

🙇 - A headcanon about <Luffy>

I like to think that he's asexual~

☠ - Fave pirate symbol?

You mean as in favorite flag? Obviously the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates flags (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

Also the ✖️

🏰 - Fave marine?

Garp, Aokiji (if he counts lol), Coby

❌ - Least fave marine?

Akainu 😂 though I like the way he's written

👾 - Fave villain?

Doflamingo

🎾 - Fave battle?

Luffy vs. Lucci, Luffy vs. Katakuri

😭 - Saddest scene?

Merry's death & Law's backstory

😆 - Funniest scene?

Too many lol but probably Luffy getting swallowed by Nora/Nola rofl

😜 - Funniest character?

Luffy

😳 - Any crushes?

Law, Shanks, Robin, Nami, Reiju, Kiku, Black Maria and I'm probably forgetting someone

👌 - Fave character design?

Hmmm.... I love Crocodile's design, simple mafia boss. Franky pre time skip was really neat too, so is Katakuri

🃏 - Who has the Best Hat? (the true question)

Law post time skip (sorry Luffy lol)

🖍 - Fave filler arc?

Lol obviously the navy base one XD

🗡 - Least fave filler arc?

The bounty hunters on ice

🆚 - Sub or dub?

Both, German dub is just so nostalgic. But mostly sub

☯️ - Anime or manga?

Both

⏰ - How long have you been into One Piece?

Since elementary school so about 18 years lol

🍎 - Fave Devil Fruit power?

Hana hana no mi & ope ope no mi

🍏 - Would you eat a Devil Fruit if you had the chance to?

If it's a cool one, definitely. Though I am gonna miss swimming lol

🐼 - Fave side character?

Sabo, Reiju, Kiku, Carrot

☔️ - Scene that made you cry the most? (not necessarily the saddest scene)

Merry's death, Law's backstory, Luffy dealing with Aces's loss

🌧 - Saddest backstory?

Law & Robin

😎 - Funniest joke?

Zoro will kill Kaido the one where Luffy tries to lecture Zoro on where South is on Skypiea

😱 - Most attractive character?

Shanks, Law, Robin, Reiju

😐 - Most annoying character?

Blackbeard, Spandam, Orochi

😕 - Scariest character?

Shanks honestly lol he's so badass and ominous it's scary af XD (but in a hot way lol)

👍 - Most powerful Devil Fruit power?

Good question. Probably Blackbeard's. Though others are not to be taken lightly too, like Law's, Big Mom's or even Kaido's.

🗣 - Got any theories for how it’s all gonna end?

Hopefully with a happy ending lol I'm terrified of the prospect of Luffy following in Roger's footsteps.

👏 - Fave techniques of <Luffy>

Haoushoku, Red Hawk, Gear 2

🙏 - Favorite episode?

Don't have just one

😏 - Favorite scene?

Again, don't have just one. But for example Luffy & Co ganging up to beat someone's ass; Sogeking shooting through the WG flag; Luffy decimating the Pacifista after his training; Jimbei donating blood to Luffy; Luffy stopping Doflamingo from crushing Law's skull, Sanji's "I'm the hunter" scene,...

👂 - Favorite quote?

"Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!"

"Compared to the "righteous" greed of the rulers, the criminals of the world seem much more honorable. When scum rules the world, only more scum is born. At least we're honest about being bad people."

🙌 - Are you up to date?

Yess! Well kinda lol I don't check spoilers and I don't read the leaks, so I'm "behind" on new chapters until they come out on Sundays lol

❓ - What unanswered questions do you have related to One Piece?

So many XD

- who is Shanks?

- What happened to Sabo and Vivi?

- What's with the hat (both Luffy's and the giant one)

- Who's that ominous dude (forgot the name) sitting on the throne?

- What happened during the void century?

- What does the D stand for?

Just to name the ones at the top of my head

▶️ - Fave opening?

- kokoro no chizu

- Over the top

- Hard knock days

- We are

- Share the world

- Hikari he

-

🔙 Least fave opening?

We Can or whatever it's called lol

👀 - Fave eyecatcher?

The old ones, especially Robin's with that alluring melody

🏝 - Fave country/island visited?

Skypiea, Water 7, Fishman Island

🎆 - Something you can’t wait for??!!

To get to know what's the deal with Shanks. Also to see the Straw Hats fulfill their dreams ofc... but first of all ofc the war in Wano *gets goosebumps*

🔝 - “One Piece is better than <insert something else you also like>”

I don't do these types of things bc I don't like the sentiment of statements like that. One should never try and lift one's fave /something/ up by tearing another thing down.

🔍 - What do you think the One Piece is?

The truth of the void century

🔪 - A character who fills you with frustration?

Usopp, especially during Water 7

💓 - Which character do you relate to the most?

Law and Robin probably lol Law for his level of annoyance and being done with everything and Robin for her dark humor, as well as her love for reading books~

™️ - How has One Piece changed you?

I'm not even sure how to put it into words. It's just always been there for me ever since I was little. It made me find so many friends and meet so many awesome people. It's my home, my safe haven, the place I can always return to. It got me out of one of my darkest places last year (when I finally found back to it after having strayed from it for a few years). It's my anchor, and a way to connect with other people. Most of all, it's the most amazing story I have ever experienced, and has given me so many role models and things & words to live by.

[creative-type]

Why Tony Tony Chopper is my Least Favorite Straw Hat

I feel conflicted when I see people list characters from greatest to least favorite. Cut and dry lists in general - whether featuring power levels, most attractive, saddest backstory, etc - tend to elicit this reaction, because they’re so subjective and I think if an author has done a good job then the audience shouldn’t be able to make the list at all.

Which wouldn’t stop people from trying, but still. 

Using One Piece as an example, there are certain characters that resonate with me personally, the chief of whom is Nico Robin. I’m a total sucker for the misunderstood badass bookworm - Raven from the original Teen Titans cartoon, Tris Chandler from Tamora Pierce’s works, Roald Dahl’s Matilda, and Thistle from Daughter of the Lilies are just a few examples of this in other media.

But apart from Best Girl Robin, my feelings about the cast of One Piece tends to vary depending on how you define “favorite”. I love Luffy as a main character, but would hate to meet him in real life. I appreciate Zoro’s place in the crew, but find him boring and long wistfully for the days when he was allowed to be a goofball. Nami, Usopp, and Vivi grew on me over time, and if I could graph my feelings on Sanji over the course of the series it would look like I have ventricular tachycardia 

And then there’s Chopper. 

Just as I’ve liked Robin since her first appearance, I have never liked Chopper. I know typing it is akin to blasphemy amongst the One Piece fandom, but I was left unmoved by his backstory, and he’s never grown on me in the hundreds of chapters since then. The first thing I thought when I first saw his unused concept art was “what a wasted opportunity”. 

 A lot of this is subjective. I work in health care, so the quack doctor Hiliruk rubs me the wrong way on a purely professional level, which in turn makes it really hard for me to care when he dies. I dislike Chopper’s “mascot” status and how it’s affected his character design. I wish he would do more onscreen doctoring. I find his naivete annoying. I think his post-timeskip transformations look dumb. And so on and so forth, ad nauseum.

At the same time, Nami is never shown drawing maps and I regularly have her in my top 3-4 Straw Hats. Usopp and Luffy are just as stupid, but their antics don’t bother me half as much as Chopper’s do. When I decided to sit down and write about Chopper, I had to figure out what made me less tolerant about him specifically when there are plenty of others who share his same flaws. This is what I came up with.

Want vs Need and Forgotten Development

In his book The Anatomy of Story, John Truby describes the difference between a character’s want versus their need. While written with writing screenplays in mind, many of Truby’s techniques can be used regardless of medium. It’s an excellent tool for would-be writers, and I highly recommend it.

When looking at Chopper through the lens of want and need, it’s pretty easy to see what Oda had in mind.

Chopper wants to become a doctor who can heal any illness, but he needs to reconcile his human and reindeer natures and see himself as a complete person. Ironically, in doing so he willingly becomes the “monster” he was so afraid of.

 Since this transformation is for the sake of and with the support of his friends, it’s coded as positive when before it was negative. Chopper is no longer isolated and lonely, but an accepted and important member of an infamous pirate crew. Compare the above to his fight on Fishman Island

So Chopper does have a complete character arc through the first half of the series, and it’s a good one - simultaneously unique to him while bolstering the themes of One Pieces as a whole. Good job, Oda.

At the same time, I think there’s a secondary need that’s overlooked by the narrative, and by this point I doubt will be relevant to the story, and that’s the fact that Chopper needs to grow the fuck up.

To be fair, Chopper is only 15 at the start of the series, had spent the first years of his life as a reindeer and the rest isolated from the world for his own safety. It is understandable that he’d be naive. Dr. Kureha points this out for herself when he first joins the Straw Hat Pirates

What sets Chopper’s immaturity apart from, say, Luffy’s is that it is presented as something that he needs to overcome. This is especially true during the Skyepiea arc.

Remember that early on in the arc Chopper is left alone to guard the Going Merry. Chopper fails, losing quite badly to the Priest with all the strings whose name I can’t remember. Even with Gan Fall’s intervention it was plot armor sheer luck that kept the both of them from being killed. 

This loss nicely sets up Chopper’s battle with Gedatsu, which ended with Chopper’s first solo victory of the series. 

Chopper screams to the heavens that he’s a “real” pirate, which in context refers to reliable, brave, and strong. Note that this ties into his main need of self-actualization as the chapter before Chopper calls himself a monster just before hitting Gedatsu with his finisher. 

In doing so, Oda is effectively saying that Chopper needs to mature before he can become a complete character. In this way Chopper is like Usopp, whose desire to become a brave warrior the sea necessitates that he face his problems head on instead of run from them.

Later during the Davy Fight Back, Chopper is temporarily lost to the Foxy Pirates. He is understandably upset, but he goes overboard with his hysterics, causing Zoro to call him out.

Zoro in essence tells Chopper to man up. Now, masculinity as defined by One Piece is a pretty broad topic, and this isn’t the only time Chopper is told how to act “manly” by other members of the Straw Hat crew, one of the best examples I can think of being Sanji telling Chopper that “a man doesn’t believe a woman’s lies” when Robin tries to leave the crew. In this instance, however, I think “being a man” is interchangeable with “acting like an adult”, specifically in the area of taking responsibility for one’s actions. 

So we have the problem of Chopper’s naivete brought up by Kureha, the first steps of maturity seen during Skypiea, and the exposure that Chopper still has a long way to go during the Davy Fight Back. There’s even a moment during Thriller Bark when he has to deal with the realization that one of his idols is an evil dirtbag of Spandam-like proportion - a loss of idealism that most go through as a normal part of growing up.

The development isn’t fast nor especially profound. It’s never the main focus of Chopper’s arc because it’s not his primary need, and in a gag-happy series like One Piece I think Chopper’s childishness would always be the brunt of some sort of joke. But there is a sense of steadily marching forward toward a goal, and if things had kept trending in that direction I think it would have been enough to elevate Chopper from his dubious position as my least favorite Straw Hat.

But immediately after the timeskip we have this abomination of a scene

Words cannot express how much I hate this scene. Every other Straw Hat gets an awesome reintroduction. Nami and Usopp, who along with Chopper make up the so-called “weak trio”, even get to beat the crap out of some of the Fake Hat Pirates. 

Chopper mistakes creepy cucumber lady for Robin and runs away crying, undoing hundreds of chapters of development in one fell swoop. It’s stupid on so many levels I can’t even articulate enough to type them all out. The gag falls flat and makes it impossible for me to take him seriously going forward. I will admit that I’ve not done a lot of rereading of recent chapters to double check, but where Usopp and Luffy get plenty of moments post-timeskip to display a new-found maturity while maintaining their fun-loving nature, Chopper does not. He’s the same old Chopper.

I don’t have any way to confirm this, but I think part of this stagnation of character is due to Chopper’s status of cute mascot. To disrupt this status quo is to lessen his marketability. There is a reason why Chopper’s so damn cute when Oda originally wanted him to be kind of ugly. I mean, say what you want about Oda’s use of realistic body proportions, but there was a time when Chopper’s head wasn’t bigger than his torso.

Whether I’m right or not, I don’t think that it can be disputed that Chopper has gone through what I call “forgotten character development”. He’s just as immature (and in some places more so) as he was early in the series, and personally I can’t stand that kind of character. 

And again this is a highly subjective thing, but I don’t even think he’s that cute anymore. It’s a serious problem when your mascot ceases to be adorable and has no development to fall back on.

In the larger picture of One Piece, the loss of Chopper’s secondary development is a small thing, but it’s enough for me to not care about him at all. Sanji, for all his polarizing actions, at least makes me feel something. These days Chopper is just...there. 

I will admit that I might have let my initial distaste cloud my objectivity, so let me know what you think about Chopper’s development, or if there’s any other character that everyone else seems to like but you can’t stand. I’ll commiserate with the burden of having an unpopular opinion.

[littleweeghost]

Say it Ain’t So! ZoSan is Unhealthy?

I know, how awful of me to say...Am I asking to be killed?!

Welp, let’s jump right into it; I’ve been thinking about this for a bit, not sure why, but it has been plaguing me. This is my One Piece OTP so how can I even think that they couldn’t be together. Truth is, the thought came to me after an argument about Zoro and the person kept pointing out how purely awesome Zoro naturally was. He isn’t the only one to think this. Even in this current arc--the YEAR OF SANJI--Zoro has been mentioned and hyped! Meanwhile, Sanji is taking L’s enough to last a lifetime.

So it got me thinking and I came to the conclusion that although I still vote for a relationship (OTP level) between them, in reality, they wouldn't work. Why?

Because first off, neither are currently mature enough to tolerate a relationship. Yes, in comparison to most their age, Sanji and Zoro seem to be much more mature than most, but at the end of the say, they are pretty child-like still in many ways, from their constant bickering to their behaviors outside of combat. The fact that Zoro can never actually compliment Sanji's cooking--in front of him--implies that Zoro doesn't want to give Sanji that satisfaction. He's not ready to deal with the vulnerabilities that may come with something as simple as that. Another big sign is how Zoro has never called Sanji by name. One could argue that he does that on purpose to raise Sanji's hackles (out of fun) but it can also be interpreted that again, Zoro doesn't want to face the vulnerabilities that come with befriending Sanji, so he resorts to labeling Sanji by numerous adjectives followed by his "job title" (i.e. Love cook, idiot cook). What this could imply (to someone like Sanji or any other outsider) is that Zoro refers to Sanji by title because that's all he's acknowledging Sanji for; a cook. Sanji's major usefulness--prime value--is cooking. Now, is Zoro really thinking like this? I don't think so but again, it could be interpreted as such. On the other hand, there's Sanji and he is just as guilty of not trusting Zoro enough with his vulnerabilities. He consistently jumps at the chance to belittle Zoro's intelligence and out of anyone else on the ship, Zoro is the only one Sanji displays a large amount of aggression against. And for someone like Zoro or someone else, it can be interpreted as dislike, maybe even hatred.

Another reason is Sanji's past. Despite it being no fault of Sanji, unfortunately, there are too many unfinished chapters in his past. Sanji was abused and neglected by his family, suffered and survived a traumatic experience--starvation, and then grew up for the following decade with an ex-pirate that--although was a MUCH better parental figure than Judge--still resorted to physical means in educating Sanji. And now, he's a pirate himself, getting involved in adventures, but also situations that can result in just as many traumatizing or triggering events as his other troubles (i.e. Thriller Bark). But my main focus is Sanji's family--brothers in particular. It doesn't help that to some extent, Zoro seems to encompass a piece of all of Sanji's brothers in him. There's Ichiji, apparently the coldest of them all and the most emotionaless; Zoro usually exhibits a cold exterior or stoic face on a regular basis. We know Zoro isn't cold and he's smiled plenty of times, coddled Chopper plenty of times to indicate he's a softie, but usually, Zoro is pretty cold, stoic. That could be a constatnt reminder for Sanji.

Then there's Niji, arguably the most sadistic one; Niji looks like the type of guy that'd enjoy torturing animals and women. I don't know if it's just me, but in the flashbacks, it looks like the one who enjoys hurting Sanji the most is Niji and later, when Cosette was hurt, he was all sadist smiles and such. Now, I don't think Zoro "likes" hurting others, but there are plenty of examples of Zoro smiling (pretty sadistically I'd argue) whenever he's owning an opponent(s). He doesn't enjoy hurting others, but again, Zoro has exhibited a cruel persona during combat that I'm sure Sanji has been privy to. It may not affect him in the moment but it certainly places more distance between them.

Finally there's Yonji. Now personally, as much as Yonji tries to follow alongside his older brothers, he's the only one that seems to be his own person(?). What I mean is, with the exception of Sanji, he's the only one that exhibits a talent in something (mechanics/technology) and he's the only one that Judge (twice I believe)--outloud--praised Yonji and said that he was strong. Yes, Judge has boasted about his kids, but he specifically called Yonji out, especially when Sanji first returned. As for paralles however, there aren't any between him and Zoro except their hair color. Is that far-fetched? I don't think so because what's important to keep in mind is that Sanji has some extent of PTSD; for those that suffer from this, almost anything can be a trigger (i.e. any of the 5 senses or a combo of it can set someone off). People with green hair aren't common; off the top of my head, there's Caime (a female), Bartholomeo (a guy he rarely interacted with if at all), Yonji, and Zoro. Long story short, the fact that (surprisingly) Yonji and Zoro not only look similar but have green hair, it just doesn't settle well for Sanji's psychie.

And that's just the brothers. Earlier I mentioned Zeff. Again, let me preface that I LOVE ZEFF and he was the best thing to happen to Sanji, but for real life equilvalence sake, I think it's important to mention that Zeff couldn't meld all of the "voids" in Sanji's heart. For one thing, it's still a mystery if Zeff even knew or had an indication about Sanji's earlier upbrining. Still, that doesn't matter because whether Zeff knew or didn't, it doesn't change the fact that Sanji had very limited sensitivity in his life. The entirety of it was seems to consist of aggresison, violence, and roughness due to Zeff himself and all of the crazy staff of the Baratie and/or customers. The bond with his mother was very short-lived and Reiju was too inconsistent. Other than that, no other woman or non-aggressive person entered his life and it doesn't appear as if Zeff ever dated anyone. It's no wonder Sanji WORSHIPS women, not just because Zeff indicated that women aren't to be hit, but because he's an outsider to their influence. Whenever he sees them, all he sees are prettied-up ladies with grace and gentleness that he doesn't experience on a regualr basis.

So with all of that, it makes sense. It's not just a matter that they are young and petty, immature, because those things can improve with time. But unfortunately, Sanji has too much mental baggage and Zoro is just the wrong person to carry that with him. Still, I'm no expert, maybe you guys think differently? At the most, Zoro and Sanji could sustain a short-term lustful relationship but considering how much a romantic Sanji is, even that wouldn't last too long. But yeah, something to keep in mind...

P.S. I’ll be posting something soon on WHO Sanji can actually have a healthy relationship...

[cuccofarmer]

I’VE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT.

The present differences between One Piece pre- and post-timeskip – A One Piece Essay.

With One Piece’s Dressrosa arc finally wrapping up last year, there has been a collective sigh of relief as the longest running story has ended. The complaints, from what I saw, stemmed from the fact that pacing was a dramatic issue during Dressrosa and its overall length led to a huge loss of interest. Personally, I loved Dressrosa’s story, but I wholeheartedly agree that it was a total struggle to stick out. This was the arc that broke me. I saw the light and switched to reading the manga which is a million miles better, by the way. Despite all the superiorities in the manga, it still suffered from a multitude of similar problems as the anime.

This drove me to try and find out why I still felt a whole inside my heart even while reading One Piece. I had to think long and hard, and dug through the internet to find a lot of other opinions on the matter. I came to the conclusion that, since the timeskip, the overall thematic feel for our favourite pirate anime/manga has just changed drastically. I know this isn’t anything new, quite the contrary and don’t get me wrong I love One Piece a lot and still find joy in following the story.  

Search your mind and think back. Can you remember the good ol’ days when five intrepid kids (yes kids) got on a dingy little ship with dreams and ambitions that they could only wish to achieve? Good, because for many that is what made them fall in love with One Piece. I remember when I started watching all I wanted was to be on that ship with them. It made you feel part of something, like you were really on deck with the crew as they made their way from East Blue to the dreaded and mysterious Grand Line. Even following that, the crusade through to Alabasta, trying to save their very own princess. The diabolical Sir Crocodile, with his hook made of gold and his fearsome sand abilities. Remember as the crew faced off with Baroque Works and found the reason for their fighting.

Oh boy, and even Skypeia. I hated Skypeia for a long time because it was hard to get through, but I can tell you the second time I watched it I found a lot of reasons why it was good. The intrigue, the exploration, the mystery behind the missing island, and by far the best part of that arc, the Almighty Eneru (or Enel for those who prefer). Man was he as good villain. You could argue he was horrible, but just think of his motivation. How evil and power-mad can one man get? All it took was Luffy’s perfect counter to put him in his place.

Then to my favourite ever story arc in all of One Piece. It is so hard to beat Water 7. It had so much good shit crammed into it. Even more surprising if you combine Water 7 and Enies Lobby together as the saga it comes close to the length of Dressrosa. So why is it so much better? For many damn good reasons. Remember when the crew lost Robin, only to find her supposed betrayal? Good Lord was that heartbreaking, even though you knew she would come back there was a tiny part of you that was still secretly worried. There was that deep-rooted connection to each crew member that you didn’t want tainted. For me the defining moment of this saga was when the Strawhat pirates stood at the gates of hell (or Justice if you like), and stared death in the face when they were toe to toe with Cipher Pol 9. Enemies who could swat them like flies and yet they found the strength to beat them against all the odds, even if it meant sacrificing their humanity. Goddamn motherfucking Sniper King. That’s all I have to say.

Thriller Bark had that stink of adventure all over, however slow it was, so you could put up with the crew being duped by an idiot, Moria’s god-awful laugh, and the cringiest moments of Perv-salom. There was a mystery to be solved and a treasure to be found. There was something lacking though. How come Zoro and Sanji were missing for so long? Surely our two favourite hot-heads weren’t captured by the enemy? Well they were, and for one good reason: they needed to make room for the rest of the crew. At this point in the story we had eight crew members with the ninth one being introduced. How much time can you devote to NINE main characters? Five is perfect, six is fine, seven is manageable, eight is pushing it, but nine? It’s one hard task to make sure nine dang Strawhats have the same amount of development.

Luckily the plot went elsewhere at this point, we saw the crew split up and the focus was all on our meat-loving captain. Ace in danger? We better get going! So we couldn’t dwell on the fact that suddenly we were seeing so much less of our favourite nakama even when the crew was all together.

Then you hit the timeskip. Finally our Strawhats are all back together again! This should be a cause for celebration. Except something wasn’t quite right. Who’s this fishman poser? Why is he just a copy/paste Arlong? Luffy’s super duper strong now! Can’t he just squash him? Why do I care about a goddamn goldfish lady? Shira-who? Show me more nakama adventure! Wait what? Sanji’s decommissioned? You’re telling me I waited all the way through Amazon Lily to Marineford and now my favourite goddamn cook is in a fucking coma? I say nay!

Do you remember when Zoro used to smile because he was happy, not because he was sadistically going to cut someone to ribbons? Do you remember when Nami’s character was something more than fan service? Do you remember when Usopp fought through all his fears to look his enemy in the eye and stand his ground? Now he’s just played for laughs. Do you remember when Sanji was suave and collected and not a quivering heap in front of every lady he met? Do you remember when Chopper could ACTUALLY FUCKING DO SOME DOCTORIN’. Now he’s just a squeaky merchandising ploy. Do you remember when Robin, my favourite Strawhat, would ACTUALLY FUCKING DO SOMETHING – LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL. Do you remember when Franky didn’t completely look and act like an abomination? Me either, Franky never got that much screen time did he? And Brook, poor skeletal Brook, I hope you get some sort of development, man. It looks promising in Whole Cake Island, you might actually get some real badass action.

Above all, Monkey D. Luffy, when did you become such an idiot. Sure he was always a dolt, but now he just meanders through the story, punching anything in his way. The stakes aren’t as high anymore. Who knows what training the Dark King gave Luffy for two whole years? Hody Jones was a scrub. Caesar Clown was a scrub. Doflamingo was a Hannibal Lecter level badass mo-fo. I bet you he owns that Pulp Fiction wallet, but jfc a build up of close to 200 episodes? Like I said, I am trash for One Piece and the storytelling is still fucking prime. So I’ll keep going, especially since Whole Cake Island has given us a lot of promising material, maybe the first bit we’ve had in the New World.

Here endeth my essay on One Piece. Conclusion? We have become detached from our favourite characters. Through some fault in the story, a by-product of having to fit so much in each segment, we have lost a lot of what made us fall in love with it in the first place. We used to be so lucky we had heroes who we could identify with, who we could journey with. Nowadays we have these super-cool, super-badass pirates, but they’re untouchable. I just wish we had some semblance of the good ol’ days. Maybe I’m just being spoilt.

Also the animation is shit now.

Peace out, I love y’all. TLDR: Pre-Timeskip was better because the characters had more development and were more relatable whereas now they are super-powered infallibles.

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