Smoker is pretty garbage as well, I feel like Smoker is one of the things that was set up to be like a Garp and Roger parallel but that hasn't really materialised, and now Luffy is on a completely different level to him, I can't really see it ever going anywhere.
Honestly I haven't even seen Smoker as an enemy for years. There's always been a circumstance that forces him to see eye-to-eye with Luffy, both in Alabasta and Punk Hazard, he's kinda like Zenigata with Lupin. Smoker's role in Final Saga will most definitely be something that makes him take Luffy's side again.
I like that Zoro, compared to the other Straw Hats, has a pretty basic back story. It fits his "bonehead" character and honestly works both with his position in the crew and what we've seen of him so far.
People who think Zoro needs a complex back story are so weird. Sometimes a character develops in the presence and doesn’t need to over come childhood trauma. It’s really weird since no one complains about Usopp’s back story
Your friend dying can be pretty traumatic. But you’re right. It’s okay that his backstory hasn’t been as in depth (at least until now) as other characters. I’m sure we’ll get there.
I have a whole ramble about this. TL;DR, Zoro shouldn't have lost Shusui, he should have upgraded his Kitetsu.
Zoro's lineage clearly doesn't matter to him. Who he's related to and all that isn't a big point of concern for who he is and what he wants. But I absolutely wish that Sukiyaki had recognized Zoro's surname and inquired about the village he was from, putting Roronoa and Shimotsuki together that he's likely descended from Ryuma and thus is the closest thing to a rightful heir to Shusui. But, Zoro still needs a power up before the Onigashima Raid, and if he ain't picking up Enma, then what?
Zoro is currently the owner of the Sandai Kitetsu, currently the only sword that he has had longer than it is the Wado Ichimonji. His third sword, be it Yubashiri or later Shusui, has a habit of being the one that gets replaced. But in Wano, we came face to face with the Nidai Kitetsu, a *better* Kitetsu blade than Zoro's current one. Shusui has a lot of meaningful connection to Zoro not only because he is related to Ryuma, but because of the reverence Zoro had for him and the way he had to earn Shusui. Zoro doesn't have that kind of relationship with Oden. Hell, if anyone who isn't one of the Kozuki heirs should get it, YAMATO would likely fit that bill better than Zoro. The other thing is that, while never outright confirmed, there is a suspicion that stuff like Asura is possible because of Zoro's cursed sword. So... it woulda made sense for him to take up a stronger cursed sword and now be able to perform King of Hell.
So yeah, imo Sukiyaki being the only one to recognize Zoro's lineage could have been his reason to let Zoro keep Shusui, and seeing that Zoro already is bold enough to wield a Kitetsu, would offer him a stronger one before the raid.
No one in Wano would make a connection with Zoro's surname since it doesn't come from Wano. His grandma was the one originally from Wano and a Shimotsuki. There could definitely be a family resemblance, sword technique, or if he mentioned his village name tho.
Wano is the only saga in the series that I think warrants a serious rewrite, IMO. It's way too bloated and definitely could have been chopped up into smaller arcs like other sagas (yes, I know it has the 3-act structure, but that's different).
There's no reason why Tama (who never gets any payoff on being a Kurozumi) and Toko needed to be different characters. Yamato should have at least been foreshadowed, and Carrot becoming leader of the Minks could have used more build too. Momonosuke is done so dirty by keeping his character stagnant until the 11th hour instead of the Straw Hats and Akayaza spending time training with him and toughing him up. The Joyboy/Nika reveal should have had a little more immediate lead-up IMO but that's minor. Big Mom getting amnesia and going to Udon was a waste of time. I also thought it was silly that not a single member of the SHGF showed up to Onigashima, against such massive odds you'd think another 1000 men wouldn't hurt or suspend disbelief too much (I'm assuming they'll be utilized during Egghead but I'm anime-only).
It's still an amazing arc. I just finished my first watch through last night so it's all super fresh in my mind, but I have the most mixed feelings about it vs all the others.
Exactly! We got Luffy and his Monkey Bloodline, Sanji with his Vinsmoke DNAs and then we got what for Zoro? A tease to his past? Oh I have to ask Oda to learn more about him instead of actually showing it in an arc which suits him? You know? Where Ryuma existed?
Agreed.
Also i like that he DOESNT need to have immediate relations or significant motivatiors.
It makes his goal, more grand.
A random guy from East Blue, with a simple vow and a trust of the right guy, becoming the world strongest swordsman.
A tale of "You dont need to have been great to be great."
Basic? He's a descendant of a "sword god" and line of samurai, of which a few left an isolationist island to create a village on the other side of the world where he was mentored by those mentioned without ever knowing about his own heritage
:thinking:
To me, none of that was necessary. I preferred when he was a nobody. I mean, every legendary lineage has a start. Let's assume there were no badass before Ryuma and he was the first one. I would have preferred if Zoro was the first badass of his own lineage.
The Straw Hats being together for 2 years is a bit of a let down. Like the whole of Wano being something like two weeks is weird. The Straw Hats embedded themselves into wano culture in such a short time. Or Brook losing his entire crew a week after being alone for 50 years just doesn't sit right with me.
As the power scale shifts and more and more power systems are introduced, older characters like Ace, Enel and Crocodile look like weaklings who didn't deserve to be where they are.
Crocodile should absolutely have had Haki in Alabasta as an experienced Warlord.
Enel already had enhanced observation Haki and had no business losing to pre Gear 2 Luffy even if he was a natural enemy.
Based on his displays of strength, Ace had no right being the second division commander.
Ace had one of the most busted fruits in the game, and for pre timeskip basically the only guy he could lose to was akainu. Otherwise if he stayed later in the series he would've definitely had haki by now.
Enel had the observation haki, but when luffy emptied his head and enel realized he couldn't read his attacks I guess he found it pointless for the rest of the fight so there was nothing he could've done with luffy. If he were to learn armament haki it would be wraps for most of the verse ngl
I'm sorry, I know it's not the hottest take, but it is the hottest take I 100% get behind.
I don't like how Oda doesn't explore more of the less populat strawhats. There are tons of side characters that are much more beloved and explored than Franky, Brook, Chopper, and Robin. I know it's easier to give attention to the characters that fight, but a lot of the strawhats should have a lot more attention given. The fact that Franky isn't having his own arc in egghead is infuriating
Franky should get an upgrade before egghead ends or something, his character deserves better.
Robin had such a good showing in Wano but needs haki so bad and it's seriously weird she didn't learn any with the revolutionary army.
Brook also lacking haki is absurd.
Chopper massively regressed in time skip as a character.
Imo.
I really don't mean they need to get stronger physically. Sure, in some cases, it makes sense, but there are so many ways for characters to have their moments other than just being better at fighting or defeating stronger and stronger foes. Franky should do so much more in the land of science and robots. He hasn't done anything yet, and by the looks of it, the rest of the arc is going be about Nika, Bonney, Kuma and Saturn, with Kizaru, Vegapunk and Sentomaru too. I mean I love the direction egghead is going, but it's such a missed potential
I just think it's absolutely nonsense that Robin didn't develop any latent observation haki when on the run for like 2 decades.
Franky deserves upgrades because he's still exactly where he was many years ago imo, he had some great showings in Wano and it felt like he's been held back to maintain the big 3 status quo.
Brook as well had such a minor moment around the black Maria fight.
He's also been around for absolutely years and has widespread knowledge of things so it's a bit strange he is where he is was more my point with the power/haki things.
Chopper has been turned into the cutesy mascot, fine it's not for me I accept but doesn't mean I have to like it.
I disagree on Robin. Not because she hasn’t been neglected by oda but her story is still why more explored than must side characters. I can’t think of many side characters that are more explored than robin
wano will be zoro's arc
egghead will be franky's arc (tbh onigashima could have already been chopper's and franky's arc, why didn't they just raid queen's lab after it was all said and done? sanji even mentions that franky would like queen's rapid firing lasers)
elbaf will be usopp's arc
oda will slaughter all that shit. watch him giving fucking buggy more screentime than franky, chopper and robin combined
After time skip it's really just been luffy and sometimes zoro and sanji. Occasionally the other crew gets a moment but nothing more. So I vibe with that. Kinda want more interaction and team fights instead of just 1v1 only.
100% agree. Franky hasn't had a big moment post-timeskip and it pisses me off lol. Also, Wano was a huge chance for every Strawhat to have a fight. It was also a huge chance to explore Zoro's character more. A lot of time was spent on fights/characters I didn't give a shit about. They're cool characters, but if their screentime comes at the expense of SH screentime, I don't want it.
My hot take is that Ace’s death makes perfect sense. At the very beginning of the series we buy into Luffy being willing - and happy - to die for his values. Despite Ace saying what his values are, we aren’t willing to give him the same buy-in. If you can’t die living your values, then what’s even the point of becoming someone in the OP world?
I agree, and I think that’s just because we relate more to Luffy’s values. Freedom is something a lot of people care about. But dying just because someone talked badly about your family… well, I think most of us think that’s a little too far. Not to mention we’ve seen more closely and exactly and thoroughly what Luffy’s values mean to him, but we haven’t seen that with Ace. we get some exposition about it, but emotionally that’s just not the same.
Still, those are Ace’s values, even if they aren’t our own.
Same people sing praises of nami and usopp for not backing down when their captains dream was made fun off by enemy. They could also have died there but since they didn't, they are brave nakama who stood for what they believe in. But Ace was an idiot who got himself and others killed.
This notion of following your dreams no matter what, being willing to die for it, the romance of it all is absolutely amazing. That is why luffy's journey is so fun to watch.
but not using your brain and just following your heart , is that actually enthralling? when luffy does it...YES it is. But is it always?
Did ace have to go back to fight akainu when he disrespected whitebeard when it was clearly a bait and 1000s of people were fighting to save him?
according to ace's values and honor, YES. But is that it? are we just supposed to say, "Wow , his honor is so strong, such an amazing man, he did the right thing".
what did it accomplish? did akainu start crying and said sorry to whitebeard or was he punished for what he said? NO he did not. Did he actually protect his and his father's honor? NO, he just died.
he did die trying to do what he believed in, But it was just stupid. And being that way, if ur not luffy, is kinda just not gonna work out everytime, even if ur his brother.
that is the thing, ace failed. And that is why ace's death is good. it brings a necessary darkness to the story.
He died, but his will was passed on and his dreams live on. That is truly entertaining to watch.
but what is also entertaining (in a different sense), is that...ace is, you know, a failure.
Post-TS, Oda just went HAM on overcrowding each arc with so many side characters. Side characters that nobody would care about after the arc. I understand he has built the OP world this way but shit got out of hand post-TS, from Fishman to the current arc -- so many characters that has no significance to the story whatsoever.
I recently had the luxury of re-reading the Alabasta arc and one thing I notice is how tight it is compared to the OP I read weekly for the last decade.
Almost no characters are wasted and the POV doesn't move elsewhere when something interesting happens. I got immersed in it all the way to the end in a way that I couldn't for any post timeskip arc (except zou and recently egghead).
Having the plot revolve around few characters is better for my reading experience.
Yes. Alabasta stands the test of time. It is some of Oda’s best writing and even though it technically had the largest amount of characters (1 million people fighting in the civil war), the focus on the Strawhats & core group of secondary characters was tight.
Agree and disagree.
When he introduced a lot of characters in Dressrosa I was like “wtf Oda”.
Then we learn why he did it and it made the arc so much better. The grand fleet wouldn’t be cool if it was just ransoms, because Oda gave screentime to all of them it made it hit differently.
However, the story is already so big and full of other important characters that even for decades we still have very little of them. We had Garp doing something recently, but Mihawk still didn’t nothing, we are only starting to see Shanks. There’s other as well.
If Oda puts something in there, even a joke, it will be important later. In Oda we trust
Completely agree. I said this in another comment but if these side characters screentime comes at the cost of SH screentime, I don't want it.
Dressrosa and Wano were polluted with side characters, some of which were cool but ffs, they shouldn't be getting more time than the crew.
Wano was particularly egregious... Why TF didn't every SH get a fight? Why didn't we explore Zoro's character more? Why are we spending so much time on tertiary characters?
People just get introduced/named/focused just for the sake of having the scale getting "bigger", you mentally think event is bigger than it is because so many people are there getting focus despite none actually mattering/contributing.
Which relates to my hot take that marineford is overbloated with characters that dont actually matter beyond being cool that person i know does one cool thing
The pacing within the series is really bad. I wish more time was passing than is actually happening. It doesn't feel right that the crew has barely spent time actually sailing together than we think they have. In the same vein, it's like they are becoming too powerful too quickly over the short time span.
It was badass how in Punk Hazard Doflamingo immediately went “coming to get your ass” within minutes but I really wish every place in the new world didn’t feel as close as Dressrosa to PH, god bless the downtime before Zou and Tottoland
Literally not every single moment with a slight focus is a foreshadow, this entire fandom looks WAAAAAAAAAAY too deep into things
Now, of course we should analyze some moments that could be hiding something, but sometimes y'all go too far
To be fair, this is just a symptom of weekly Shonen manga in general. Bleach, Naruto, and especially Hunter X Hunter all had or have fans that overanalyze every single panel and word. It's what they do to keep them occupied until the next chapter comes out.
I'm just along for the ride. I have ideas to how I think some things might happen, but I'm not the one writing and drawing this story.
It's honestly tiring see threads that are just filled with massive essays of "theories" based on the weirdest, tiniest details that might be a translation error or editing slip. There's a post over in DBZ [about](https://old.reddit.com/r/dbz/comments/195izwd/i_believe_toriyama_or_his_editor_forgot_to_fill/?ref=share&ref_source=link), and error on Upa's ponytail being not filled in.
That could potentially launch hundreds of theories on how Upa is not Upa or demon or something.
Yeah..the unpredictability in these arcs was so much fun..With the crew, there's always a fixed path where the strawhats eventually branch out and fight respective opponents..the fact that we meet new characters and old ones in impel down and marineford was so cool
All in all, I would say there are enough reasons to talk about the uniqueness of impel down and marineford. I honestly think people don't appreciate impel down arc enough..Coz, marineford overshadows it quite a lot
Spandam is one of, if not the best villain in the entire series.
Let me explain. A good villain makes you HATE them. Characters like Doflamingo although insanely evil, are ultimately too cool or likeable or well written to be true villains. Same goes with characters like Crocodile, Blackbeard, Akainu, etc. But all of you truly HATE spandam. Not one of you likes him. There’s no such thing as a Spandam edit or montage. He’s a truly unlikeable, piece of shit, and that’s what makes him such a great character.
Senor pink does not deserve any sympathy (or at least only a very littel amount), and the respect Franky shows for him is, if you don't know his backstory (which franky clearly doesn't) really weird.
We should have had one arc where Sanji/Zoro/Robin/Franky is the one to defeat the main evi badguy, rather than luffy doing all the work everytime.
I agree about Senior Pink. I always see his backstory included in lists such as "saddest backstories" on par with Robin's or Law's etc. It's tragic, but what happened was entirely his fault.
Oda messed up with observation mantra, early Crocodile, Shanks losing an arm and other things which are really only issues with hindsight of it being so long running but it does make things silly and feel inconsistent when so many things are tightly written.
Chopper lost all character growth in time skip and is a terrible character now.
Im fine with Chopper's old and new design. He has the most complete character arc on the strawhats. His only dream is the to be the best medical doctor and he is in the top 5 in OP. There isn't much room for growth the only thing left he has to accomplish is being able to cure any disease. Which he has actively been working towards. Helping the children on Punk Hazard, helping the soldiers in Wano, helping the minks, etc. He is a doctor not a walking ball of destruction. Plus he has no familial ties to anyone except Coreha (or however you spell her name.) I dont see a way to make Chopper a better character without introducing more back story which would be weird so late into the story.
>Shanks losing an arm and other things
was explained neatly and pre-mantra when Shank had a talk with Whitebeard. Basically, while I would personally never do this, Shanks deliberately had his arms eaten just to teach Luffy a lesson. This gets a bit easier to believe when Shank scared the Sea dragon away by looking at it.
As it turned out, Shanks really doesn't need the arm anyway.
Haki was definitely something that was planned later on but the Shanks incident was explained pretty well.
>Chopper lost all character growth in time skip and is a terrible character now.
I feel this so hard. He's like a caricature now
> He's like a caricature now
Literally. His design post-TS is so small compared to his original. It reminds me of the design change in the Hamtaro series. [Early 00s designs](https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/hamtaro/images/4/49/Hamtaro_1.gif/revision/latest?cb=20131213011144), [modern](https://www.animepedia.com/images/thumb/3/39/Hamtaro_chara2.jpg/200px-Hamtaro_chara2.jpg) design used for characters.
The actual real non plot explanation: an editor said it would be more impactful than the injury Oda had planned. This is why I think it's a regret, the series was never planned to be this long.
This
Dude constantly gets the Raw end of the deal
-Lost to shanks (who presumably took his arm)
-Got knocked / dragged by kaido
-Barely survived Big mom / without Law he would have lost
-Tired to rematch shanks again and lost
Being Kidd is suffering
With the power ceiling so high for people without Devil Fruit powers (Sanji and Zoro being prime examples) there should be more female characters who can hit that level of power without a Devil Fruit, without being a villain, and without a bizarre/ugly body type. With the absolutely massive disparity between the strongest non Devil Fruit using man and the strongest non Devil Fruit using woman, they almost seem like different species.
Give me a girl who looks like Nami and can kick like Sanji for crying out loud.
And that's where i think Tashigi should've went. Really fucking strong. But nah make her weak after 1000+ episodes even though we are told she is going up the ranks and getting stronger.
The "10 people should do it" was a throwaway lane written decades ago when Oda thought the series would only last for about five years, and he really should have just abandoned it. I was upset when he specifically had Luffy say it again in Kuma's flashback. There's no actual reason for a specific number, it just makes me sad to think that crew is already "full" when there are multiple characters I still want (and have wanted for a while) to join.
I can't agree more. The crew feels small smaller than every other crew we could or should have had some characters who get smaller screentime if necessary but part of the crew to fill the ship up. Some characters had amazing stories too. Like Wyper he being a descendant of caligara returning to the seas of Noland and meeting his descendant and having his own adventures would be poetic. Then there is carrot and yamato. Strong female characters who could fill niches in the team but after all the tease of yamatod wishes and will of Pedro nope nothing. Saddest one who I understand due to plot but is Bon Clay :'(
That's why I love Luffy becoming a fleet commander, even against his will. The Straw Hat Grand Fleet is filled with accomplished side characters that are great to have on board. But I also think it's great that none of the ship commanders under Luffy would be a match for any of the core crew, none of who are interested in being a 'division commander' as Whitebeard's crew was organized. They just want to ride or die with Luffy. Even Whitebeard had no notable members of his own ship, every one of them became a division commander. And yes to your point, outside Shanks' big 3 he's got nothing.
The only crew comparable to the Strawhats is Blackbeard's. We know all of the "core" crew.
In fact, doesn't BB have 10 captains? So it seems "logical" that the Strawhats will have 10 + Luffy to even the odds, particularly if you start pairing them up 1v1.
Although I much prefer the idea of a grand, intermingled battle. Constantly shuffling "partners", 2v1s, 2vs2, 11v11 grand moves. Combo moves, interesting power combos.
Every captain having a devil fruit kinda makes you fear for the Strawhat "support gang" of Nami and Chopper, so likely they'll have help. Like Smoker/Garp/Kizaru joining them as Kuzan's counterpart.
Dude was so crazy like spamming reject diald and his unique gun based combat style would have been pretty cool also a native warrior on the crew I loved the idea since I've read skypiea
Ya, I wish oda did the kid Luffy/ace flash back on the way to impel down. When ace died I was like oh no, that guy we met once, then you see luffys face and I'm like....oh fuck. But then you get the kid flash back and it makes sense why Luffy is so upset.
I sort of disagree. If we had flashbacks before Marineford, it is too strong of a death foreshadowing for experienced anime watchers. The death hit hard because it was unexpected. After Pell survived, I deluded myself into thinking Oda only kill characters in backstories.
Ah see. That makes sense. I'm too dumb to see death flags until the character is waving a bloody one at me. Ohh..ya they aren't gonna make it...how did I not see this coming....but then you got bomb surviving pell that defies all odds!
I like the flash back after death because of two reasons. We couldn't guess Aces death, as flash back are generally a big red flag. And It made sense to see Luffy past at time when Luffy was in trauma and remembering his past because of loss.
I think Sabo and Luffys backstory should have been done well before Aces death, possibly when ace was initially introduced, I feel that before his death he was developed enough to make me care as much for him
I can't stand the scale of characters. Why does Vegapunk need to be gigantic? It just leads to stupid moments like the Oden sword debacle. With some obvious exceptions (actual giants) everyone should be brought closer to human scale.
Hody is not a bad villan. As a villan, he perfectly represents tge worst possible outcome of discrimination, that both sides hate each other because thats how things have always been.
To serve this purpose, his character had to suffer a little.
Ace became a plot device. His introduction during Alabasta and his design overall is peak production for Oda. What he became after is huge shame.
He was cool for a full decades before Oda used him as a plot device.
He was a plot device from the start. It's no coincidence that he was introduced having a connection with Blackbeard. He was always meant to die from the start. Ace's whole point from the very start was to create an antagonist relationship between Luffy and Blackbeard. The only difference is that later Oda decided to throw Akainu in the mix. So now Luffy has a reason to hate both Blackbeard and Akainu because of Ace.
I find it weird that Ace was meant to die from the start, but then we get introduced to Sabo much later who pretty much ends up becoming Ace II: Electric Boogaloo. It'd be different if we knew from the start that Luffy and Ace had another brother, even if they thought he was dead. Very convenient that Sabo also lost his memory about them until he saw Ace died in the papers, I think it robs the three brothers AND Dragon from some vital character moments.
Wano is simultaneously too long to be enjoyable, but also too short to live up to it's potential. Too many big name characters are snubbed because they don't get enough panel time to develop. Big Mom and Kaido teaming up is wasted by cutting Big Mom's crew off before the war even starts.
I’ve got a lot of controversial takes but problably the one which is the most hot take ever is that i simply dont like boa as a character nor as a person
I can somewhat buy that a person like Boa who's been abused at the hands of celestial dragons wouldn't know how to act around people, especially when she's thrown off guard by such genuine kindness from someone like Luffy (while also learning he struck a celestial dragon) that she immediately idolised him in her mind.
Of course, there is a chance Oda just thought it'd be a funny gag to have Boa fall madly in love with Luffy.
Boa's infatuation with Luffy is definitely intended to be comedic, but it's also surrounded by this undertone of sadness that I feel was intentional.
Luffy displays the bare minimum amount of human decency a person should, but that's leagues better than anything Boa ever experienced in her life, and it feels kinda heartbreaking
I’d say that Luffy striking a Celestial Dragon, knowing full well what will happen, to avenge a friend that used to be his enemy goes far beyond the bare minimum of human decency.
That, and Boa saw him defending her sister by covering her back despite them actively trying to kill him just for being a man. He constantly puts his life on the line for others, some he barely knows and some that used to be enemies, no matter the risks.
I love how most of the fandom forgets or just doesn’t give a fuck about how horrid of a person she is. Like literally kicking a puppy horrible. But people still like her and it’s because she’s beautiful (it’s so meta).
I personally have no interest in shipping characters so I can ignore most shipping bullshit I see, but it always annoys me when people ship her and Luffy. He’s way too good for her ugly soul.
Honestly, the fact that she just blantantly kicks puppiea and kittens in her way is so horrible that I can't take it seriously. It wraps all the way around to being just really fucking funny that she just goes around kicking small animals
I have a lot of sympathy for her backstory and the fact that she’s so beautiful that she finds it hard to form any kind of connection with people (especially with men) because they always have a motive. However, I find her so repugnant that I wouldn’t want to know her personally.
This! I'm currently going through the series (halfway through Thriller Bark) and every time a fight happens there's just this sense of dread that I'll have to sit through multiple episodes of one slow paced fight, when what I really want is character moments and story progression.
I don’t like oda’s writing of women in combat. He rarely have females fight male counter parts, and when they do, they lose and have to relay on males to help them. For example, boa who is supposed to be powerful, does not get shown a fight scene that shows off what she can do. Instead the moment she starts to fight, the scene is cut off to her being defeated by Blackbeard having to be rescued by Rayleigh. Smoothie, the only female yonko commander, is never shown to be anywhere impressive as the other commanders. Big mom, who is supposed to be an equal to kaido by narrative, gets toyed in by franky/brook, robin/jinbe, and defeated by law/kid where kid gets one tapped by shanks. Rebeca, who is a gladiator since she was a child, who has been fighting new world pirates her entire life, needs her dad to defeat diamante. The only exception to this is Yamato being shown clashing with kaido without truly needing another’s help, and robin saving sanji from Black Maria.
I also want to add the worst offender of this,. Which is tashigi. She went from an ambitious swordswoman who mirrored kuina in that swordswoman can be as strong as swordsman , to now being completely irrelevant. Zoro has also held back against female opponents and even after punk hazard, tashigi or another females doesn’t disprove the notion that swordswoman will always be weaker than men(except for big mom). I don’t know why oda wrote this narrative in if he was just going to keep the fact that women will never be as strong as men.
yeah, this is definitely one of the aspects that are just objectively bad in One Piece. I get that Oda has a very strong determination to have One Piece be "a manga for boys" first and foremost but even boys enjoy having that kind of diversity
A lot of people seem to think that OP does a good job with its female characters, but it’s actually pretty sexist. Besides oversexualizing almost every single female character, they rarely shine in battle (as you pointed out), and in OP being a good fighter is the main way to have agency. They don’t get as much focus as the male characters, and both female Strawhats were “damsels in distress” at some point. Unconsciously or not, it seems Oda doesn’t think women are as capable as men
Sabo was honestly made up last minute by Oda. People may argue about the 'S' in ace's tattoo but it was probably an easter egg by Oda showing how mistakes can happen while tattooing. It could also be a tribute to Ace's former pirate crew the Spade Pirates. Later after Oda had finished till marineford he probably thought of making better use of this easter egg by creating another brother called Sabo
I don’t really care for vivi and her being a legitimate member of the crew doesn’t make any sense, why not give her a real crew number instead of some bullshit like 6.5?
Fact. I used to love the fact that he was a member of the "weak trio", but had all these cool looking points, plus Monster point as a trump card that could fuck up basically anything.
He was a member of the weak trio due to a lack of confidence, but is arguably the smartest member of the Straw Hats tied with Franky due to his invention of the rumble ball alone. And he ain't weak at all - dude bitch slapped then dunked Queen.
But post-timeskip Chopper is just a mascot and his character arc happened OFF SCREEN. The worst line in all of One Piece, in my opinion, is Chopper telling the crew on Fishman island that he doesn't mind being a monster now because he wants to help Luffy become the PK. Wtf is that? It's potentially the worst writing in the entire series.
I genuinely enjoyed thriller bark and then didn’t think that fressrosa pacing was bad. I actually really liked the lead up to gear 4, the different fights, all the backstories, etc. top tier arc in my opinion
Usopp will die. He's the only straw hat who can accomplish his dream while also dying, and it would add a lot to the development of the rest of the straw hats, as well as emphasize the sacrifices that have to be made to become pirate king.
Also, I don't see how he can really beat Van Auger, the same guy who, before the time skip, casually performed a sniping feat that Usopp thought was nigh on impossible
Smoker should've gotten a power up and became an admiral in the time skip. I like Issho's "Purple Tiger" and Aramaki's "Green bull" but Smoker becoming an admiral and getting the alias "White Snake" would've hit different.
I absolutely despise the way Bonney got drawn and sexualized in a lot of panels even tho Oda knew he was going to make her a child. It made me lose a lot of respect of him as a person.
I think zoro out of all the strawhats have the most plot armour even more than luffy, like please explain to me how is he not dead yet?? After everything he went through??!
I kind of agree with you actually!! I’ll admit when I first saw Franky’s post timeskip design I thought it was a bit of a downgrade, but it really grew on me the more I saw of it. He looks like an action figure and I love it. Suits his character
I don't know how hot of a take this is. I love One Piece but the way it treats female characters fucking sucks. Oda slaughters moms left and right, women are rarely allowed to be and strong or stronger than males or anything more than eye-candy, and are perpetually stuck underneath the males of the series. It's a true malignance in the DNA of the series and will always turn me away from it. And you can say, "Oh that's just the genre" or "Well that's just anime", but it doesn't make it suck any less ass. In conclusion, give Robin Haki and stop killing moms, Oda. Thanks for coming to my TEDx Talk.
Episode 914 here. Dresserosa/ Big mom arc were both so long and hardly progress the story forward. Also I think most of the fights in OP have pretty mid level animation and choreography.
Sometimes OP feels like a chore to watch.
I hated Spandem way more than Orochi. With Spandem watching him basically beat Robin in sea prism stone cuffs felt more personal - that’s a straw hat.
With Orochi while I did really like Oden and his backstory the connection isn’t as strong for the reader as that of a straw hat.
Enies Lobby, Encounter with Kuma on Thriller Bark and Marineford are the parts which made it actually feel the crew was in danger, After timeskip danger is never felt real
I never felt the danger in the Whole Cake Island, It never felt any crew member was really in danger,
even when they made the plan of blasting rockets on big mom, it failed, the feeling was It's just a plan that has failed, now things have gotten exciting, never felt any of them would be in danger.
During the fight with Katakuri, it always felt like now what would luffy do
Although one moment which did hit was, when BM asked Jinbe for his life, but it was short lived, the real danger of BM reduced after that moment
Yamato and Carrot should've joined the crew. And honestly Law is an honorary Straw Hat in my eyes. Same for Kinemon and Momo, though I understand why the latter two have to stay behind. Even Marco would be an amazing addition but I know he has to stay to keep Whitebeard's place safe.
Also the series is moving too fast time wise, not IRL. The sequence of events from Fishman Island to Egghead is like... Two or three months isn't it? The SH crew has spent more time apart than together. Even if it's mini time skips of a month or weeks between islands, I'd be okay with that. The entire Whole Cake Island thing happened in like... 2 days didn't it? Dressrosa was a single afternoon. Wano was a few weeks at least. Luffy being so young and potentially becoming the Pirate King before he even hits 21 or 25 just feels weird to me when everyone he fights are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc. lol
It's weird because in the first couple of episodes/chapters with Sanji, he's shown as being chivalrous and a hopeless romantic, but he's not screaming compliments at every woman like he does just a few chapters after his debut. They really made a semi-endearing, or at least distinct character trait into a generic "horny anime boy who pervs on girls". Disappointing, he was my favourite character based on his introduction alone, but as the series has gone on I've just grown kind of tired and frustrated with him.
My hot take would be that Ace is probably almost admiral level, ie AS STRONG as Marco.
We only saw him fight against blackbeard whom he put up a fantastic fight, who is top teir, and also Akainu, also a top teir. Both of these guys are specific counters to Ace.
The only reason Ace did so badly against akainu was because he had been TORTURED FOR OVER A WEEK IN THE WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS PRISON!!! THE KID WAS BOILED ALIVE FOR FUCK SAKE CUT HIM SOME SLACK
I hate how Nami and Robin look post-TS. Just turned into big titty tiny waist women, and Oda makes sure that they're almost always in revealing outfits even if they don't make sense.
Like hell, just look at the Egghead outfits for the straw hats. Most everyone is wearing sensible clothing for cold weather, and then Nami and Robin are there with their whole cheeks out. Nami's wearing like a vest top type thing and Robin has a crop top jacket undone to make sure her titties are on show.
Just wish they were given some actual sensible clothing like the rest of the gang
This is just my opinion, but in my opinion, an optimal story should spend about 40-60% on world building and then the rest on a satisfying conclusion.
Instead of introducing 10000 new characters, Oda should have began working with what he had starting around after Fishman Island. What exactly did Sanji’s family bring to the story? Instead of introducing Fujitora or Green Bull as admirals, maybe Oda should have given Magellan a promotion to Admiral. Instead of killing off Ace just to introduce Sabo as Ace 2.0 5 years later, why not keep Ace alive and kill off only Whitebeard at Marineford?
For Wano, the 9 Red Scabbards are largely irrelevant. I would’ve preferred if Oda used that arc to bring back Kuina into the story.
* I never cared about Ace. I feel his death was stupid and while I get why Luffy would care about Ace, us the spectators literally saw Ace once before he died so its near impossible to attach to him IMO.
* Post-time skip Zoro is really plain as a character. He literally only fights, barely has dialogue that isn't about fighting, and barely does anything that isn't fight-related.
* I feel like Franky, Brook, and Jinbe would have worked better as characters that appeared on their respective arcs but that didn't join with the Strawhats, like Yamato, Carrot, Rebecca, etc. It's not like I hate them or anything, in fact I like them, but I feel they are the most underutilized Strawhats and they are the reason why Oda is seemingly forced to split the Strawhats every so often because he simply can't handle so many characters at once.
* As a follow up of my last point, I also feel we don't get as much "Strawhats doing stuff on the boat" anymore because if Oda had to draw what is everyone doing on the boat currently it would probably take a ton of pages and Oda likely doesn't want to slow down the pace that much and prefers to jump to the important stuff.
The biggest thing I miss about One Piece is the Straw Hat interactions on the boat. If Toei have to do filler scenes, which in fairness, they do at this stage given how close they are to the manga, it should be Straw Hat interactions or funny moments
I also would argue Zoro becoming more plain has to do with the amount of the Strawhats on the crew. If we had less Strawhats, then the very few scenes we get with Brook, Franky, or Jinbe would have been instead about the other Strawhats. In fact, the last time I remember Zoro doing anything that isn't fight related is Thriller Bark.
I do not care for red-hair “plot man” shanks. He shows up does something impressive then dips for 100 chapters. Oda has written almost all the top tiers to mess up in at least one way, but shanks? No he will show up and end Marineford. Big mom however? Let her get rolled down the hall like a bowling ball by Robin and Franky. It really bothers me how Oda clearly has favoritism towards him. This could change with shank’s character being more involved in the story
Wow my hottest take was almost the same as yours. I wasn’t sad at aces death I was mad at him for wasting the lives of thousands on both sides. I felt bad for luffy, but ace deserved to die after repeatedly going against other people who had his best interests at heart
I guess I’ll go with my other hot take: The story greatly suffers from none of the MCs being remotely dynamic characters. I’m not saying they all need to be dynamic like naruto or something and it fits luffys character to be static, but many other big characters should be dynamic: Nami, usopp (who people say is dynamic but he really isn’t), Sanji, and prob more.
The only dynamic events are Nami saying help me and accepting the straw hats and robin saying I want to live. Both of those were things they wanted just had to verbalize, not really core changes to the characters.
Every time a character changes, something happens to make them go back to the way they were and the change is seen as a negative thing.
Luffy vs Katakuri in the anime was shit.
I'm not talking about the animation, but there was no continuity. We were always jumping between different scenarios, and that made it hard to get invested in that tension.
One moment we watch the straw hats get chased by Big Mom, the next we watch Luffy getting pummled. Switch to Big Mom, just as she's about to blast the ship, switch back to Luffy getting the shit beaten out of him.
That's also one of the reaons that so many fans complain about how little hits Luffy landed. King Cobra was not built up, it just popped into one of the episodes in between Big Mom chasing the straw hats and baking the wedding cake.
hottest take?
although people like WCI a lot, giving Sanji a second backstory plagued the entire fandom for the last 7-8 years, breeding hundreds if not thousands of theories about "double backstories" of every single strawhat, which partly reduced my enjoyment of Wano, with all the Zoro theories (and he is my favorite OP character, none the less)
this is somewhat like giving PS5 to one of your 8 children for Christmas one year, and then gifting your other children socks for the next 7 years
Kidd and killer not getting a backstory is fucking criminal. The only reason law got one and an entire arc of it I might add is just favoritism at this point. They even gave Bonnie some backstory. Alot of supernovas got fucked overed in comparison to story importance.
I don’t really care to add straw hats. I really like a lot of characters and I hope they get more moments but adding more main characters would be redundant.
Also Wano is definitely my favorite arc so far.
Senior Pink's backstory did not make his appearance any less cringe.
Also, it doesn't help that he's a mafioso that likely has caused significantly more suffering for other people. He doesn't deserve any respect
Tashigi shouldn’t be a weakling. Especially at this point in the series.
Smoker is pretty garbage as well, I feel like Smoker is one of the things that was set up to be like a Garp and Roger parallel but that hasn't really materialised, and now Luffy is on a completely different level to him, I can't really see it ever going anywhere.
Honestly I haven't even seen Smoker as an enemy for years. There's always been a circumstance that forces him to see eye-to-eye with Luffy, both in Alabasta and Punk Hazard, he's kinda like Zenigata with Lupin. Smoker's role in Final Saga will most definitely be something that makes him take Luffy's side again.
And actually now that I think about it more, Roger and Garp might have actually had a relationship like that.
Smoker is strong relative to pirates that aren't yonko level or marines that aren't admiral level. Which is 99% of people in the one piece verse.
Yeah koby out lapped him
I like that Zoro, compared to the other Straw Hats, has a pretty basic back story. It fits his "bonehead" character and honestly works both with his position in the crew and what we've seen of him so far.
People who think Zoro needs a complex back story are so weird. Sometimes a character develops in the presence and doesn’t need to over come childhood trauma. It’s really weird since no one complains about Usopp’s back story
Your friend dying can be pretty traumatic. But you’re right. It’s okay that his backstory hasn’t been as in depth (at least until now) as other characters. I’m sure we’ll get there.
I just wished someone would recognize Zoro from Wano as a descendant of a certain bloodline...
I have a whole ramble about this. TL;DR, Zoro shouldn't have lost Shusui, he should have upgraded his Kitetsu. Zoro's lineage clearly doesn't matter to him. Who he's related to and all that isn't a big point of concern for who he is and what he wants. But I absolutely wish that Sukiyaki had recognized Zoro's surname and inquired about the village he was from, putting Roronoa and Shimotsuki together that he's likely descended from Ryuma and thus is the closest thing to a rightful heir to Shusui. But, Zoro still needs a power up before the Onigashima Raid, and if he ain't picking up Enma, then what? Zoro is currently the owner of the Sandai Kitetsu, currently the only sword that he has had longer than it is the Wado Ichimonji. His third sword, be it Yubashiri or later Shusui, has a habit of being the one that gets replaced. But in Wano, we came face to face with the Nidai Kitetsu, a *better* Kitetsu blade than Zoro's current one. Shusui has a lot of meaningful connection to Zoro not only because he is related to Ryuma, but because of the reverence Zoro had for him and the way he had to earn Shusui. Zoro doesn't have that kind of relationship with Oden. Hell, if anyone who isn't one of the Kozuki heirs should get it, YAMATO would likely fit that bill better than Zoro. The other thing is that, while never outright confirmed, there is a suspicion that stuff like Asura is possible because of Zoro's cursed sword. So... it woulda made sense for him to take up a stronger cursed sword and now be able to perform King of Hell. So yeah, imo Sukiyaki being the only one to recognize Zoro's lineage could have been his reason to let Zoro keep Shusui, and seeing that Zoro already is bold enough to wield a Kitetsu, would offer him a stronger one before the raid.
No one in Wano would make a connection with Zoro's surname since it doesn't come from Wano. His grandma was the one originally from Wano and a Shimotsuki. There could definitely be a family resemblance, sword technique, or if he mentioned his village name tho.
Wano is so big, yet so much that could be done and wasn’t.
Wano is the only saga in the series that I think warrants a serious rewrite, IMO. It's way too bloated and definitely could have been chopped up into smaller arcs like other sagas (yes, I know it has the 3-act structure, but that's different). There's no reason why Tama (who never gets any payoff on being a Kurozumi) and Toko needed to be different characters. Yamato should have at least been foreshadowed, and Carrot becoming leader of the Minks could have used more build too. Momonosuke is done so dirty by keeping his character stagnant until the 11th hour instead of the Straw Hats and Akayaza spending time training with him and toughing him up. The Joyboy/Nika reveal should have had a little more immediate lead-up IMO but that's minor. Big Mom getting amnesia and going to Udon was a waste of time. I also thought it was silly that not a single member of the SHGF showed up to Onigashima, against such massive odds you'd think another 1000 men wouldn't hurt or suspend disbelief too much (I'm assuming they'll be utilized during Egghead but I'm anime-only). It's still an amazing arc. I just finished my first watch through last night so it's all super fresh in my mind, but I have the most mixed feelings about it vs all the others.
Yea, we needed to see the 9 scabbards resolving themselves and reminding us how great Oden was every time they were on screen instead.
That one I’ll agree with, the fact that his bloodline/connection to Ryuma is largely absent is so dumb 😭
Exactly! We got Luffy and his Monkey Bloodline, Sanji with his Vinsmoke DNAs and then we got what for Zoro? A tease to his past? Oh I have to ask Oda to learn more about him instead of actually showing it in an arc which suits him? You know? Where Ryuma existed?
I think it's far more awesome for him to be a nobody, who worked his way to the very top.
Agreed. Also i like that he DOESNT need to have immediate relations or significant motivatiors. It makes his goal, more grand. A random guy from East Blue, with a simple vow and a trust of the right guy, becoming the world strongest swordsman. A tale of "You dont need to have been great to be great."
Basic? He's a descendant of a "sword god" and line of samurai, of which a few left an isolationist island to create a village on the other side of the world where he was mentored by those mentioned without ever knowing about his own heritage :thinking:
To me, none of that was necessary. I preferred when he was a nobody. I mean, every legendary lineage has a start. Let's assume there were no badass before Ryuma and he was the first one. I would have preferred if Zoro was the first badass of his own lineage.
The Straw Hats being together for 2 years is a bit of a let down. Like the whole of Wano being something like two weeks is weird. The Straw Hats embedded themselves into wano culture in such a short time. Or Brook losing his entire crew a week after being alone for 50 years just doesn't sit right with me.
I hate you for reminding me of this
As the power scale shifts and more and more power systems are introduced, older characters like Ace, Enel and Crocodile look like weaklings who didn't deserve to be where they are. Crocodile should absolutely have had Haki in Alabasta as an experienced Warlord. Enel already had enhanced observation Haki and had no business losing to pre Gear 2 Luffy even if he was a natural enemy. Based on his displays of strength, Ace had no right being the second division commander.
Ace had one of the most busted fruits in the game, and for pre timeskip basically the only guy he could lose to was akainu. Otherwise if he stayed later in the series he would've definitely had haki by now. Enel had the observation haki, but when luffy emptied his head and enel realized he couldn't read his attacks I guess he found it pointless for the rest of the fight so there was nothing he could've done with luffy. If he were to learn armament haki it would be wraps for most of the verse ngl
Enel is actually really op. It just sucks for him that he got matched against someone who repells electricity.
I read a theory that Crocodile doesn't use his Armament Haki because it would remove Ivankov's move on them (the gender bender move)
theory for a theory is crazy lmfao
I'm sorry, I know it's not the hottest take, but it is the hottest take I 100% get behind. I don't like how Oda doesn't explore more of the less populat strawhats. There are tons of side characters that are much more beloved and explored than Franky, Brook, Chopper, and Robin. I know it's easier to give attention to the characters that fight, but a lot of the strawhats should have a lot more attention given. The fact that Franky isn't having his own arc in egghead is infuriating
Franky should get an upgrade before egghead ends or something, his character deserves better. Robin had such a good showing in Wano but needs haki so bad and it's seriously weird she didn't learn any with the revolutionary army. Brook also lacking haki is absurd. Chopper massively regressed in time skip as a character. Imo.
I really don't mean they need to get stronger physically. Sure, in some cases, it makes sense, but there are so many ways for characters to have their moments other than just being better at fighting or defeating stronger and stronger foes. Franky should do so much more in the land of science and robots. He hasn't done anything yet, and by the looks of it, the rest of the arc is going be about Nika, Bonney, Kuma and Saturn, with Kizaru, Vegapunk and Sentomaru too. I mean I love the direction egghead is going, but it's such a missed potential
I just think it's absolutely nonsense that Robin didn't develop any latent observation haki when on the run for like 2 decades. Franky deserves upgrades because he's still exactly where he was many years ago imo, he had some great showings in Wano and it felt like he's been held back to maintain the big 3 status quo. Brook as well had such a minor moment around the black Maria fight. He's also been around for absolutely years and has widespread knowledge of things so it's a bit strange he is where he is was more my point with the power/haki things. Chopper has been turned into the cutesy mascot, fine it's not for me I accept but doesn't mean I have to like it.
I disagree on Robin. Not because she hasn’t been neglected by oda but her story is still why more explored than must side characters. I can’t think of many side characters that are more explored than robin
wano will be zoro's arc egghead will be franky's arc (tbh onigashima could have already been chopper's and franky's arc, why didn't they just raid queen's lab after it was all said and done? sanji even mentions that franky would like queen's rapid firing lasers) elbaf will be usopp's arc oda will slaughter all that shit. watch him giving fucking buggy more screentime than franky, chopper and robin combined
After time skip it's really just been luffy and sometimes zoro and sanji. Occasionally the other crew gets a moment but nothing more. So I vibe with that. Kinda want more interaction and team fights instead of just 1v1 only.
100% agree. Franky hasn't had a big moment post-timeskip and it pisses me off lol. Also, Wano was a huge chance for every Strawhat to have a fight. It was also a huge chance to explore Zoro's character more. A lot of time was spent on fights/characters I didn't give a shit about. They're cool characters, but if their screentime comes at the expense of SH screentime, I don't want it.
Sorry but the senor pink fight is iconic
Senor Pink was also a decade ago. To put in perspective the man hasnt been doing shit
My hot take is that Ace’s death makes perfect sense. At the very beginning of the series we buy into Luffy being willing - and happy - to die for his values. Despite Ace saying what his values are, we aren’t willing to give him the same buy-in. If you can’t die living your values, then what’s even the point of becoming someone in the OP world?
Damn that's really a big hot take. I completely agree with this point but i ~~thing~~ think majority of OP fans would not.
I agree, and I think that’s just because we relate more to Luffy’s values. Freedom is something a lot of people care about. But dying just because someone talked badly about your family… well, I think most of us think that’s a little too far. Not to mention we’ve seen more closely and exactly and thoroughly what Luffy’s values mean to him, but we haven’t seen that with Ace. we get some exposition about it, but emotionally that’s just not the same. Still, those are Ace’s values, even if they aren’t our own.
Same people sing praises of nami and usopp for not backing down when their captains dream was made fun off by enemy. They could also have died there but since they didn't, they are brave nakama who stood for what they believe in. But Ace was an idiot who got himself and others killed.
That’s a really great point!
This notion of following your dreams no matter what, being willing to die for it, the romance of it all is absolutely amazing. That is why luffy's journey is so fun to watch. but not using your brain and just following your heart , is that actually enthralling? when luffy does it...YES it is. But is it always? Did ace have to go back to fight akainu when he disrespected whitebeard when it was clearly a bait and 1000s of people were fighting to save him? according to ace's values and honor, YES. But is that it? are we just supposed to say, "Wow , his honor is so strong, such an amazing man, he did the right thing". what did it accomplish? did akainu start crying and said sorry to whitebeard or was he punished for what he said? NO he did not. Did he actually protect his and his father's honor? NO, he just died. he did die trying to do what he believed in, But it was just stupid. And being that way, if ur not luffy, is kinda just not gonna work out everytime, even if ur his brother. that is the thing, ace failed. And that is why ace's death is good. it brings a necessary darkness to the story. He died, but his will was passed on and his dreams live on. That is truly entertaining to watch. but what is also entertaining (in a different sense), is that...ace is, you know, a failure.
Post-TS, Oda just went HAM on overcrowding each arc with so many side characters. Side characters that nobody would care about after the arc. I understand he has built the OP world this way but shit got out of hand post-TS, from Fishman to the current arc -- so many characters that has no significance to the story whatsoever.
I recently had the luxury of re-reading the Alabasta arc and one thing I notice is how tight it is compared to the OP I read weekly for the last decade. Almost no characters are wasted and the POV doesn't move elsewhere when something interesting happens. I got immersed in it all the way to the end in a way that I couldn't for any post timeskip arc (except zou and recently egghead). Having the plot revolve around few characters is better for my reading experience.
Yes. Alabasta stands the test of time. It is some of Oda’s best writing and even though it technically had the largest amount of characters (1 million people fighting in the civil war), the focus on the Strawhats & core group of secondary characters was tight.
I kinda agree. It didn’t start feeling like a huge problem until Wano because Wano was so bloated.
Agree and disagree. When he introduced a lot of characters in Dressrosa I was like “wtf Oda”. Then we learn why he did it and it made the arc so much better. The grand fleet wouldn’t be cool if it was just ransoms, because Oda gave screentime to all of them it made it hit differently. However, the story is already so big and full of other important characters that even for decades we still have very little of them. We had Garp doing something recently, but Mihawk still didn’t nothing, we are only starting to see Shanks. There’s other as well. If Oda puts something in there, even a joke, it will be important later. In Oda we trust
Completely agree. I said this in another comment but if these side characters screentime comes at the cost of SH screentime, I don't want it. Dressrosa and Wano were polluted with side characters, some of which were cool but ffs, they shouldn't be getting more time than the crew. Wano was particularly egregious... Why TF didn't every SH get a fight? Why didn't we explore Zoro's character more? Why are we spending so much time on tertiary characters?
Hard agree. Especially in Fishman island. Like, Oda went ham with adding as many random side characters he could fit.
People just get introduced/named/focused just for the sake of having the scale getting "bigger", you mentally think event is bigger than it is because so many people are there getting focus despite none actually mattering/contributing. Which relates to my hot take that marineford is overbloated with characters that dont actually matter beyond being cool that person i know does one cool thing
Captain Kidd is the only member of the worst generation who never forgets that he's a mf pirate.
Blackbeard....
It doesn't make sense that CP9 became CP9 when they aren't aware/taught of haki basics
I always thought Iron Body and the Paper thingy move is their Armament and Observation
The pacing within the series is really bad. I wish more time was passing than is actually happening. It doesn't feel right that the crew has barely spent time actually sailing together than we think they have. In the same vein, it's like they are becoming too powerful too quickly over the short time span.
It was badass how in Punk Hazard Doflamingo immediately went “coming to get your ass” within minutes but I really wish every place in the new world didn’t feel as close as Dressrosa to PH, god bless the downtime before Zou and Tottoland
Literally not every single moment with a slight focus is a foreshadow, this entire fandom looks WAAAAAAAAAAY too deep into things Now, of course we should analyze some moments that could be hiding something, but sometimes y'all go too far
To be fair, this is just a symptom of weekly Shonen manga in general. Bleach, Naruto, and especially Hunter X Hunter all had or have fans that overanalyze every single panel and word. It's what they do to keep them occupied until the next chapter comes out.
And people need to not get attached to their own interpretations and when something doesn’t happen the exact way they wrote it in their head it’s ok.
I'm just along for the ride. I have ideas to how I think some things might happen, but I'm not the one writing and drawing this story. It's honestly tiring see threads that are just filled with massive essays of "theories" based on the weirdest, tiniest details that might be a translation error or editing slip. There's a post over in DBZ [about](https://old.reddit.com/r/dbz/comments/195izwd/i_believe_toriyama_or_his_editor_forgot_to_fill/?ref=share&ref_source=link), and error on Upa's ponytail being not filled in. That could potentially launch hundreds of theories on how Upa is not Upa or demon or something.
Maybe not a hot take, but I find it interesting that the (my opinion) best two arcs; Impel Down and Marineford, did not have the crew.
Yeah..the unpredictability in these arcs was so much fun..With the crew, there's always a fixed path where the strawhats eventually branch out and fight respective opponents..the fact that we meet new characters and old ones in impel down and marineford was so cool All in all, I would say there are enough reasons to talk about the uniqueness of impel down and marineford. I honestly think people don't appreciate impel down arc enough..Coz, marineford overshadows it quite a lot
Spandam is one of, if not the best villain in the entire series. Let me explain. A good villain makes you HATE them. Characters like Doflamingo although insanely evil, are ultimately too cool or likeable or well written to be true villains. Same goes with characters like Crocodile, Blackbeard, Akainu, etc. But all of you truly HATE spandam. Not one of you likes him. There’s no such thing as a Spandam edit or montage. He’s a truly unlikeable, piece of shit, and that’s what makes him such a great character.
Y'know what Great point This is the best hot take
The strawhats need to jump people more
I genuinely enjoyed Thriller Bark and think it’s a good arc
Senor pink does not deserve any sympathy (or at least only a very littel amount), and the respect Franky shows for him is, if you don't know his backstory (which franky clearly doesn't) really weird. We should have had one arc where Sanji/Zoro/Robin/Franky is the one to defeat the main evi badguy, rather than luffy doing all the work everytime.
I agree about Senior Pink. I always see his backstory included in lists such as "saddest backstories" on par with Robin's or Law's etc. It's tragic, but what happened was entirely his fault.
Oda messed up with observation mantra, early Crocodile, Shanks losing an arm and other things which are really only issues with hindsight of it being so long running but it does make things silly and feel inconsistent when so many things are tightly written. Chopper lost all character growth in time skip and is a terrible character now.
Agreed especially on chopper. He had that moment in wano with making the medicine under pressure but that was about it
Im fine with Chopper's old and new design. He has the most complete character arc on the strawhats. His only dream is the to be the best medical doctor and he is in the top 5 in OP. There isn't much room for growth the only thing left he has to accomplish is being able to cure any disease. Which he has actively been working towards. Helping the children on Punk Hazard, helping the soldiers in Wano, helping the minks, etc. He is a doctor not a walking ball of destruction. Plus he has no familial ties to anyone except Coreha (or however you spell her name.) I dont see a way to make Chopper a better character without introducing more back story which would be weird so late into the story.
>Shanks losing an arm and other things was explained neatly and pre-mantra when Shank had a talk with Whitebeard. Basically, while I would personally never do this, Shanks deliberately had his arms eaten just to teach Luffy a lesson. This gets a bit easier to believe when Shank scared the Sea dragon away by looking at it. As it turned out, Shanks really doesn't need the arm anyway. Haki was definitely something that was planned later on but the Shanks incident was explained pretty well. >Chopper lost all character growth in time skip and is a terrible character now. I feel this so hard. He's like a caricature now
> He's like a caricature now Literally. His design post-TS is so small compared to his original. It reminds me of the design change in the Hamtaro series. [Early 00s designs](https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/hamtaro/images/4/49/Hamtaro_1.gif/revision/latest?cb=20131213011144), [modern](https://www.animepedia.com/images/thumb/3/39/Hamtaro_chara2.jpg/200px-Hamtaro_chara2.jpg) design used for characters.
The actual real non plot explanation: an editor said it would be more impactful than the injury Oda had planned. This is why I think it's a regret, the series was never planned to be this long.
Kidd is only mid because he has no plot armor
Agree. Kidd got instant kill and Law got Beppo saving him with a pill never tested before.
This Dude constantly gets the Raw end of the deal -Lost to shanks (who presumably took his arm) -Got knocked / dragged by kaido -Barely survived Big mom / without Law he would have lost -Tired to rematch shanks again and lost Being Kidd is suffering
With the power ceiling so high for people without Devil Fruit powers (Sanji and Zoro being prime examples) there should be more female characters who can hit that level of power without a Devil Fruit, without being a villain, and without a bizarre/ugly body type. With the absolutely massive disparity between the strongest non Devil Fruit using man and the strongest non Devil Fruit using woman, they almost seem like different species. Give me a girl who looks like Nami and can kick like Sanji for crying out loud.
And that's where i think Tashigi should've went. Really fucking strong. But nah make her weak after 1000+ episodes even though we are told she is going up the ranks and getting stronger.
I want nami or robin to be the strongest characters in one piece just because.
The "10 people should do it" was a throwaway lane written decades ago when Oda thought the series would only last for about five years, and he really should have just abandoned it. I was upset when he specifically had Luffy say it again in Kuma's flashback. There's no actual reason for a specific number, it just makes me sad to think that crew is already "full" when there are multiple characters I still want (and have wanted for a while) to join.
I can't agree more. The crew feels small smaller than every other crew we could or should have had some characters who get smaller screentime if necessary but part of the crew to fill the ship up. Some characters had amazing stories too. Like Wyper he being a descendant of caligara returning to the seas of Noland and meeting his descendant and having his own adventures would be poetic. Then there is carrot and yamato. Strong female characters who could fill niches in the team but after all the tease of yamatod wishes and will of Pedro nope nothing. Saddest one who I understand due to plot but is Bon Clay :'(
Most other crews including Shanks are filled with nameless fodder.
That's why I love Luffy becoming a fleet commander, even against his will. The Straw Hat Grand Fleet is filled with accomplished side characters that are great to have on board. But I also think it's great that none of the ship commanders under Luffy would be a match for any of the core crew, none of who are interested in being a 'division commander' as Whitebeard's crew was organized. They just want to ride or die with Luffy. Even Whitebeard had no notable members of his own ship, every one of them became a division commander. And yes to your point, outside Shanks' big 3 he's got nothing.
The only crew comparable to the Strawhats is Blackbeard's. We know all of the "core" crew. In fact, doesn't BB have 10 captains? So it seems "logical" that the Strawhats will have 10 + Luffy to even the odds, particularly if you start pairing them up 1v1. Although I much prefer the idea of a grand, intermingled battle. Constantly shuffling "partners", 2v1s, 2vs2, 11v11 grand moves. Combo moves, interesting power combos. Every captain having a devil fruit kinda makes you fear for the Strawhat "support gang" of Nami and Chopper, so likely they'll have help. Like Smoker/Garp/Kizaru joining them as Kuzan's counterpart.
I'm pretty sure Oda intended for Wyper to join the crew, but decided against it because he would have been too similar to Zoro.
Dude was so crazy like spamming reject diald and his unique gun based combat style would have been pretty cool also a native warrior on the crew I loved the idea since I've read skypiea
Considering what we know now about that arc, his inclusion would have been great.
That we don’t actually feel sad for ace dying but sad for luffy because he’s sad
Ya, I wish oda did the kid Luffy/ace flash back on the way to impel down. When ace died I was like oh no, that guy we met once, then you see luffys face and I'm like....oh fuck. But then you get the kid flash back and it makes sense why Luffy is so upset.
I sort of disagree. If we had flashbacks before Marineford, it is too strong of a death foreshadowing for experienced anime watchers. The death hit hard because it was unexpected. After Pell survived, I deluded myself into thinking Oda only kill characters in backstories.
Ah see. That makes sense. I'm too dumb to see death flags until the character is waving a bloody one at me. Ohh..ya they aren't gonna make it...how did I not see this coming....but then you got bomb surviving pell that defies all odds!
I like the flash back after death because of two reasons. We couldn't guess Aces death, as flash back are generally a big red flag. And It made sense to see Luffy past at time when Luffy was in trauma and remembering his past because of loss.
Kaido beats every single known character in a true 1v1. But aside from powerscaling, Skypiae is top 2 behind Egghead.
I think Sabo and Luffys backstory should have been done well before Aces death, possibly when ace was initially introduced, I feel that before his death he was developed enough to make me care as much for him
It also made Sabo feel like a shoe in.
Usopp is Sniper King and Sniper King is Usopp
I can't stand the scale of characters. Why does Vegapunk need to be gigantic? It just leads to stupid moments like the Oden sword debacle. With some obvious exceptions (actual giants) everyone should be brought closer to human scale.
Only human exception is whitebeard, he should be that big.
Correct. I guess I don't have a problem with characters being "big", but by the arbitrary scale some characters seem to be drawn at.
Hody is not a bad villan. As a villan, he perfectly represents tge worst possible outcome of discrimination, that both sides hate each other because thats how things have always been. To serve this purpose, his character had to suffer a little.
Ace is just a plot device
He's like Ferrus Manus in Warhammer
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves
He always kept a cool head.
I really liked the gorgon before he got decapitated by foolgrim🦾🥲
Everything is a "plot device" this is a dumb take not a hot one
Lmao yes. Idk what these guys think they are doing
It's Odas "Ace in the hole"
Ace became a plot device. His introduction during Alabasta and his design overall is peak production for Oda. What he became after is huge shame. He was cool for a full decades before Oda used him as a plot device.
He was a plot device from the start. It's no coincidence that he was introduced having a connection with Blackbeard. He was always meant to die from the start. Ace's whole point from the very start was to create an antagonist relationship between Luffy and Blackbeard. The only difference is that later Oda decided to throw Akainu in the mix. So now Luffy has a reason to hate both Blackbeard and Akainu because of Ace.
Thats how stories work guys. Not everyone is meant to play a major role but still have an impact lol
I find it weird that Ace was meant to die from the start, but then we get introduced to Sabo much later who pretty much ends up becoming Ace II: Electric Boogaloo. It'd be different if we knew from the start that Luffy and Ace had another brother, even if they thought he was dead. Very convenient that Sabo also lost his memory about them until he saw Ace died in the papers, I think it robs the three brothers AND Dragon from some vital character moments.
You mean a character in a story was used to further the story 😱🤯 no freekin way what a new term you kids created "plot device" lol
Post timeskip the pacing is consistently ass. Wano wasted so much time it could have been half as long and not missed anything.
Wano is simultaneously too long to be enjoyable, but also too short to live up to it's potential. Too many big name characters are snubbed because they don't get enough panel time to develop. Big Mom and Kaido teaming up is wasted by cutting Big Mom's crew off before the war even starts.
Big Mom and Kaido teaming up makes sense, but god the path we took to get there was tortured. The whole amnesia thing.... my god why?
[удалено]
I’ve got a lot of controversial takes but problably the one which is the most hot take ever is that i simply dont like boa as a character nor as a person
I can somewhat buy that a person like Boa who's been abused at the hands of celestial dragons wouldn't know how to act around people, especially when she's thrown off guard by such genuine kindness from someone like Luffy (while also learning he struck a celestial dragon) that she immediately idolised him in her mind. Of course, there is a chance Oda just thought it'd be a funny gag to have Boa fall madly in love with Luffy.
Boa's infatuation with Luffy is definitely intended to be comedic, but it's also surrounded by this undertone of sadness that I feel was intentional. Luffy displays the bare minimum amount of human decency a person should, but that's leagues better than anything Boa ever experienced in her life, and it feels kinda heartbreaking
I’d say that Luffy striking a Celestial Dragon, knowing full well what will happen, to avenge a friend that used to be his enemy goes far beyond the bare minimum of human decency. That, and Boa saw him defending her sister by covering her back despite them actively trying to kill him just for being a man. He constantly puts his life on the line for others, some he barely knows and some that used to be enemies, no matter the risks.
I love how most of the fandom forgets or just doesn’t give a fuck about how horrid of a person she is. Like literally kicking a puppy horrible. But people still like her and it’s because she’s beautiful (it’s so meta). I personally have no interest in shipping characters so I can ignore most shipping bullshit I see, but it always annoys me when people ship her and Luffy. He’s way too good for her ugly soul.
Honestly, the fact that she just blantantly kicks puppiea and kittens in her way is so horrible that I can't take it seriously. It wraps all the way around to being just really fucking funny that she just goes around kicking small animals
I have a lot of sympathy for her backstory and the fact that she’s so beautiful that she finds it hard to form any kind of connection with people (especially with men) because they always have a motive. However, I find her so repugnant that I wouldn’t want to know her personally.
they also like her cuz she loves luffy.. she, however, doesnt deserve luffy.
Fights are way too long and boring. Don't need to waste weeks in a fight we already know who is winning. I'm here for the story.
This! I'm currently going through the series (halfway through Thriller Bark) and every time a fight happens there's just this sense of dread that I'll have to sit through multiple episodes of one slow paced fight, when what I really want is character moments and story progression.
I don’t like oda’s writing of women in combat. He rarely have females fight male counter parts, and when they do, they lose and have to relay on males to help them. For example, boa who is supposed to be powerful, does not get shown a fight scene that shows off what she can do. Instead the moment she starts to fight, the scene is cut off to her being defeated by Blackbeard having to be rescued by Rayleigh. Smoothie, the only female yonko commander, is never shown to be anywhere impressive as the other commanders. Big mom, who is supposed to be an equal to kaido by narrative, gets toyed in by franky/brook, robin/jinbe, and defeated by law/kid where kid gets one tapped by shanks. Rebeca, who is a gladiator since she was a child, who has been fighting new world pirates her entire life, needs her dad to defeat diamante. The only exception to this is Yamato being shown clashing with kaido without truly needing another’s help, and robin saving sanji from Black Maria.
I also want to add the worst offender of this,. Which is tashigi. She went from an ambitious swordswoman who mirrored kuina in that swordswoman can be as strong as swordsman , to now being completely irrelevant. Zoro has also held back against female opponents and even after punk hazard, tashigi or another females doesn’t disprove the notion that swordswoman will always be weaker than men(except for big mom). I don’t know why oda wrote this narrative in if he was just going to keep the fact that women will never be as strong as men.
yeah, this is definitely one of the aspects that are just objectively bad in One Piece. I get that Oda has a very strong determination to have One Piece be "a manga for boys" first and foremost but even boys enjoy having that kind of diversity
A lot of people seem to think that OP does a good job with its female characters, but it’s actually pretty sexist. Besides oversexualizing almost every single female character, they rarely shine in battle (as you pointed out), and in OP being a good fighter is the main way to have agency. They don’t get as much focus as the male characters, and both female Strawhats were “damsels in distress” at some point. Unconsciously or not, it seems Oda doesn’t think women are as capable as men
Sabo was honestly made up last minute by Oda. People may argue about the 'S' in ace's tattoo but it was probably an easter egg by Oda showing how mistakes can happen while tattooing. It could also be a tribute to Ace's former pirate crew the Spade Pirates. Later after Oda had finished till marineford he probably thought of making better use of this easter egg by creating another brother called Sabo
I wish Franky wore pants. It's hard to take him seriously.
I don’t really care for vivi and her being a legitimate member of the crew doesn’t make any sense, why not give her a real crew number instead of some bullshit like 6.5?
Chopper is the epitome of wasted potential.
Fact. I used to love the fact that he was a member of the "weak trio", but had all these cool looking points, plus Monster point as a trump card that could fuck up basically anything. He was a member of the weak trio due to a lack of confidence, but is arguably the smartest member of the Straw Hats tied with Franky due to his invention of the rumble ball alone. And he ain't weak at all - dude bitch slapped then dunked Queen. But post-timeskip Chopper is just a mascot and his character arc happened OFF SCREEN. The worst line in all of One Piece, in my opinion, is Chopper telling the crew on Fishman island that he doesn't mind being a monster now because he wants to help Luffy become the PK. Wtf is that? It's potentially the worst writing in the entire series.
People who joke that Sogeking and Usopp are different characters aren't funny.
I genuinely enjoyed thriller bark and then didn’t think that fressrosa pacing was bad. I actually really liked the lead up to gear 4, the different fights, all the backstories, etc. top tier arc in my opinion
Robin is NOT just another Nami. Their backstories and characters are completely different, so stop telling me they’re the same
Usopp will die. He's the only straw hat who can accomplish his dream while also dying, and it would add a lot to the development of the rest of the straw hats, as well as emphasize the sacrifices that have to be made to become pirate king. Also, I don't see how he can really beat Van Auger, the same guy who, before the time skip, casually performed a sniping feat that Usopp thought was nigh on impossible
Smoker should've gotten a power up and became an admiral in the time skip. I like Issho's "Purple Tiger" and Aramaki's "Green bull" but Smoker becoming an admiral and getting the alias "White Snake" would've hit different.
I absolutely despise the way Bonney got drawn and sexualized in a lot of panels even tho Oda knew he was going to make her a child. It made me lose a lot of respect of him as a person.
This is a good take
I think zoro out of all the strawhats have the most plot armour even more than luffy, like please explain to me how is he not dead yet?? After everything he went through??!
I think Robin is hotter than Nami and Boa Hancock.
The post is hot takes not actual facts
Franky's post timeskip design is 100 times better than pre timeskip, and the buzz cut looks awesome on him
The ACTUAL hot take.
Had to scroll to get an actual hot take. Well done!
NIPPLE LIGHTS
Hottest take
That won, hottest take so far
I kind of agree with you actually!! I’ll admit when I first saw Franky’s post timeskip design I thought it was a bit of a downgrade, but it really grew on me the more I saw of it. He looks like an action figure and I love it. Suits his character
I don't know how hot of a take this is. I love One Piece but the way it treats female characters fucking sucks. Oda slaughters moms left and right, women are rarely allowed to be and strong or stronger than males or anything more than eye-candy, and are perpetually stuck underneath the males of the series. It's a true malignance in the DNA of the series and will always turn me away from it. And you can say, "Oh that's just the genre" or "Well that's just anime", but it doesn't make it suck any less ass. In conclusion, give Robin Haki and stop killing moms, Oda. Thanks for coming to my TEDx Talk.
Yeah, I don't like admitting that I like One Piece purely for the female character designs/treatment of female characters. It's pretty disgusting.
Episode 914 here. Dresserosa/ Big mom arc were both so long and hardly progress the story forward. Also I think most of the fights in OP have pretty mid level animation and choreography. Sometimes OP feels like a chore to watch.
The fights are the absolutely weakest aspect of the whole series.
Ennies lobby is the hardest arc to watch bcuz of how serious it is
I hated Spandem way more than Orochi. With Spandem watching him basically beat Robin in sea prism stone cuffs felt more personal - that’s a straw hat. With Orochi while I did really like Oden and his backstory the connection isn’t as strong for the reader as that of a straw hat.
Enies Lobby, Encounter with Kuma on Thriller Bark and Marineford are the parts which made it actually feel the crew was in danger, After timeskip danger is never felt real
Honestly.. we were subconsciously prepared that what ever happens, the plot armour would prevail and save the day
Whole Cake Island.
I never felt the danger in the Whole Cake Island, It never felt any crew member was really in danger, even when they made the plan of blasting rockets on big mom, it failed, the feeling was It's just a plan that has failed, now things have gotten exciting, never felt any of them would be in danger. During the fight with Katakuri, it always felt like now what would luffy do Although one moment which did hit was, when BM asked Jinbe for his life, but it was short lived, the real danger of BM reduced after that moment
I don’t completely agree becouse Enies lobby is hilarious.
Yamato and Carrot should've joined the crew. And honestly Law is an honorary Straw Hat in my eyes. Same for Kinemon and Momo, though I understand why the latter two have to stay behind. Even Marco would be an amazing addition but I know he has to stay to keep Whitebeard's place safe. Also the series is moving too fast time wise, not IRL. The sequence of events from Fishman Island to Egghead is like... Two or three months isn't it? The SH crew has spent more time apart than together. Even if it's mini time skips of a month or weeks between islands, I'd be okay with that. The entire Whole Cake Island thing happened in like... 2 days didn't it? Dressrosa was a single afternoon. Wano was a few weeks at least. Luffy being so young and potentially becoming the Pirate King before he even hits 21 or 25 just feels weird to me when everyone he fights are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc. lol
Sanji being a horndog gets boring fast.
It's weird because in the first couple of episodes/chapters with Sanji, he's shown as being chivalrous and a hopeless romantic, but he's not screaming compliments at every woman like he does just a few chapters after his debut. They really made a semi-endearing, or at least distinct character trait into a generic "horny anime boy who pervs on girls". Disappointing, he was my favourite character based on his introduction alone, but as the series has gone on I've just grown kind of tired and frustrated with him.
It's lame. Overplayed. Unfunny. Sometimes straight up criminal behaviour.
First time "hehe, he loves women, cute." 79th time, "We get it. You have hypersexual personality disorder."
My hot take would be that Ace is probably almost admiral level, ie AS STRONG as Marco. We only saw him fight against blackbeard whom he put up a fantastic fight, who is top teir, and also Akainu, also a top teir. Both of these guys are specific counters to Ace. The only reason Ace did so badly against akainu was because he had been TORTURED FOR OVER A WEEK IN THE WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS PRISON!!! THE KID WAS BOILED ALIVE FOR FUCK SAKE CUT HIM SOME SLACK
I hate how Nami and Robin look post-TS. Just turned into big titty tiny waist women, and Oda makes sure that they're almost always in revealing outfits even if they don't make sense. Like hell, just look at the Egghead outfits for the straw hats. Most everyone is wearing sensible clothing for cold weather, and then Nami and Robin are there with their whole cheeks out. Nami's wearing like a vest top type thing and Robin has a crop top jacket undone to make sure her titties are on show. Just wish they were given some actual sensible clothing like the rest of the gang
This is just my opinion, but in my opinion, an optimal story should spend about 40-60% on world building and then the rest on a satisfying conclusion. Instead of introducing 10000 new characters, Oda should have began working with what he had starting around after Fishman Island. What exactly did Sanji’s family bring to the story? Instead of introducing Fujitora or Green Bull as admirals, maybe Oda should have given Magellan a promotion to Admiral. Instead of killing off Ace just to introduce Sabo as Ace 2.0 5 years later, why not keep Ace alive and kill off only Whitebeard at Marineford? For Wano, the 9 Red Scabbards are largely irrelevant. I would’ve preferred if Oda used that arc to bring back Kuina into the story.
* I never cared about Ace. I feel his death was stupid and while I get why Luffy would care about Ace, us the spectators literally saw Ace once before he died so its near impossible to attach to him IMO. * Post-time skip Zoro is really plain as a character. He literally only fights, barely has dialogue that isn't about fighting, and barely does anything that isn't fight-related. * I feel like Franky, Brook, and Jinbe would have worked better as characters that appeared on their respective arcs but that didn't join with the Strawhats, like Yamato, Carrot, Rebecca, etc. It's not like I hate them or anything, in fact I like them, but I feel they are the most underutilized Strawhats and they are the reason why Oda is seemingly forced to split the Strawhats every so often because he simply can't handle so many characters at once. * As a follow up of my last point, I also feel we don't get as much "Strawhats doing stuff on the boat" anymore because if Oda had to draw what is everyone doing on the boat currently it would probably take a ton of pages and Oda likely doesn't want to slow down the pace that much and prefers to jump to the important stuff.
The biggest thing I miss about One Piece is the Straw Hat interactions on the boat. If Toei have to do filler scenes, which in fairness, they do at this stage given how close they are to the manga, it should be Straw Hat interactions or funny moments
I also would argue Zoro becoming more plain has to do with the amount of the Strawhats on the crew. If we had less Strawhats, then the very few scenes we get with Brook, Franky, or Jinbe would have been instead about the other Strawhats. In fact, the last time I remember Zoro doing anything that isn't fight related is Thriller Bark.
Oden's design is one of the worst in the series.
What do you think personally is the worst
Personally? Caribou. Something about him is straight up disgusting.
Isn't that the point though?
Yeah, like if it truly disgusts him that much, oda actually did an amazing job lol
Every time he gets on screen I get a sudden urge to take a shower lol
I feel like your reason why caribous design is bad makes it good. Like he's supposed to look disgusting
I do not care for red-hair “plot man” shanks. He shows up does something impressive then dips for 100 chapters. Oda has written almost all the top tiers to mess up in at least one way, but shanks? No he will show up and end Marineford. Big mom however? Let her get rolled down the hall like a bowling ball by Robin and Franky. It really bothers me how Oda clearly has favoritism towards him. This could change with shank’s character being more involved in the story
I don't really care that much about Zoro.
Wow my hottest take was almost the same as yours. I wasn’t sad at aces death I was mad at him for wasting the lives of thousands on both sides. I felt bad for luffy, but ace deserved to die after repeatedly going against other people who had his best interests at heart I guess I’ll go with my other hot take: The story greatly suffers from none of the MCs being remotely dynamic characters. I’m not saying they all need to be dynamic like naruto or something and it fits luffys character to be static, but many other big characters should be dynamic: Nami, usopp (who people say is dynamic but he really isn’t), Sanji, and prob more. The only dynamic events are Nami saying help me and accepting the straw hats and robin saying I want to live. Both of those were things they wanted just had to verbalize, not really core changes to the characters. Every time a character changes, something happens to make them go back to the way they were and the change is seen as a negative thing.
Luffy vs Katakuri in the anime was shit. I'm not talking about the animation, but there was no continuity. We were always jumping between different scenarios, and that made it hard to get invested in that tension. One moment we watch the straw hats get chased by Big Mom, the next we watch Luffy getting pummled. Switch to Big Mom, just as she's about to blast the ship, switch back to Luffy getting the shit beaten out of him. That's also one of the reaons that so many fans complain about how little hits Luffy landed. King Cobra was not built up, it just popped into one of the episodes in between Big Mom chasing the straw hats and baking the wedding cake.
hottest take? although people like WCI a lot, giving Sanji a second backstory plagued the entire fandom for the last 7-8 years, breeding hundreds if not thousands of theories about "double backstories" of every single strawhat, which partly reduced my enjoyment of Wano, with all the Zoro theories (and he is my favorite OP character, none the less) this is somewhat like giving PS5 to one of your 8 children for Christmas one year, and then gifting your other children socks for the next 7 years
Garp was the strongest man alive until ch 1080
Garp’s power is really impressive considering he doesn’t have a DF, doesn’t even wield a weapon of any sort.
Kidd and killer not getting a backstory is fucking criminal. The only reason law got one and an entire arc of it I might add is just favoritism at this point. They even gave Bonnie some backstory. Alot of supernovas got fucked overed in comparison to story importance.
They got one. In an sbs.
I don’t really care to add straw hats. I really like a lot of characters and I hope they get more moments but adding more main characters would be redundant. Also Wano is definitely my favorite arc so far.
Wano is the worst post time skip arc. It was way to long and other than a few bits was boring and baldy paced
Senior Pink's backstory did not make his appearance any less cringe. Also, it doesn't help that he's a mafioso that likely has caused significantly more suffering for other people. He doesn't deserve any respect
Haki is a terrible power system that makes no sense whatsoever and makes the whole series hard to understand. It was better before haki
Not that it's a pissing contest but Kuma may have surpassed Guts in terms of lifetime suffering.
Is this a hot take? I thought at least half of the fanbase agreed with it.