#I don’t know if he’s a theme does the fishman count

[creative-type]

Building up to Arlong Part I

“Just wait ‘till the Arlong arc.”

I think anyone who’s been in the One Piece fandom for any length of time has read some variation of the above sentence. It’s almost universally agreed that the Arlong arc is the tipping point from the series, elevating One Piece from okay to great. Detractors, newcomers, and the generally curious are all told to hold off their judgment until seventy chapters into the series, which seems like an absurd amount of time for a reader to get hooked.

In an interview with several of Oda’s former editors (English summary here, about three-quarters down the page) it’s stated that One Piece met some initial resistance in Japan among the staff at Shonen Jump, with some of the editors not seeing the appeal and others having to convince them of its “awesomeness”. 

It’s hard to imagine the manga garnering such a reaction today, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that One Piece is Oda’s first serialized work. He had been an assistant and written several one shots, but he’d never had to put together a long-form story before. He was learning and growing as an author and artist as he went along. 

Just compare the art in these two pages

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Both are establishing shots of new locations, one of Usopp’s hometown and the other the Marines setting Luffy’s first bounty. The amount of detail outside the marine base blows the idyllic hills of Syrup village out of the water. It can be jarring to see how sparse early One Piece panels are when you’re more used to the cluttered, chaotic pages of later chapters.

But I think it would be impossible for Oda to make the jump from “meh” to “this is amazing” without some proper buildup. Early One Piece arcs contain bits and pieces of what makes the series so beloved, and as each arc progresses Oda takes what he’s learned and adds it into an ever-improving whole. So let’s take a look at these early chapters and find the diamonds scattered among the rough.

Romance Dawn

Chapter 1 is arguably the best crafted stand-alone story in these early chapters. That makes sense. As a pilot chapter for the series I’m sure it was written and rewritten dozens of times for maximum effectiveness, and I think it gets across everything it needs to without belaboring the point.

Romance Dawn is a glimpse of the quality that Oda would later produce on a more consistent basis. The characters are fun and have hidden depths, the art is simple but dynamic, and the bait-and-switch where Shanks doesn’t initially beat the crap out of the mountain bandits is a surprise considering the genre. And if haki was indeed planned from the beginning it’s also the first instance of Oda’s famous foreshadowing ability. 

Considering future backstories it’s a little surprising that no one important to Luffy dies, but the familiar themes of inherited will, dreams, and sacrifice are present. The lack of uber-tragedy sets Luffy apart from a lot of protagonists and fits with his lighthearted, carefree characterization and the more whimsical nature of the series, while still hinting at the darkness that exists within the world. 

Alvida

Chapter 2 is also a stand-alone story, but it’s much more generic. Following a common trend during these early chapters, it’s more focused on establishing Luffy as a character than any of the antagonists, and world building is minimal. Alvida is so boring that Oda completely repurposed her design and personality when she was reintroduce in Louge Town, and at this point Coby is a walking, talking foil to Luffy with little to no personality of his own. 

There are a couple of things to note, though. One, Luffy’s characterization is remarkably consistent to what we see later in the series. Here we see him smile as he faces death, while later in the chapter Luffy insults Coby and calls him a wimp in a scene that’s reminiscent of his interaction with Shirohoshi during the Fishman Island arc. He also doesn’t help Coby until Coby stands up for himself, subtly enforcing the idea that Luffy is not a hero. 

Second, we can see the embryonic form of Oda’s later paneling and page layouts. The above scene reminded me of a picture I pulled for my analysis of Chapter 218.

You can’t see it here, but in Chapter 218 Oda tilts his panels to match the rocking of the Going Merry, using an unconventional panel format to convey the chaos the Straw Hats are experiencing while also giving the eye an easy path to follow.

Chapter 2 has the “fade to black” Oda commonly uses when transitioning scenes, but the format is the traditional three lines of (mostly) rectangular panels. Despite the huge whirlpool you don’t get a sense that the situation is dangerous.

Also note the sheer amount of information conveyed in the sequence from Chapter 218 compared to the Chapter 2 despite them sharing basically the same layout. There are four separate panels of the same whirlpool - adequate enough in showing the passage of time, but visually kind of boring, which sums up the art in general during these early chapters.

Shells Town 

The Shells Town arc shares a lot of the same flaws as the Alvida encounter, but has the benefit of a longer page count, which is helpful in fleshing out the story. Coby starts to grow into his own, and Zoro is introduced. The focus is still on establishing Luffy’s ideals as a pirate and Morgan is a one-note villain, but the world is starting to grow, namely with the complex morality of the marines.

We also get our first taste of Oda’s specific brand of Tragic Backstory (tm). Zoro’s flashback is arguably the weakest of all the Straw Hat’s. The pacing is rushed and I personally find the segue in and out of the present day to be a little jarring, but the bones of it is sound even if the execution is iffy. 

The fight against Morgan doesn’t last long, but outclassed as he is, he at least puts up a better showing than Alvida. There are some neat camera angles and perspective tricks that Oda uses that sell Luffy’s flowing, so-long-as-it-works-I’m-going-to-do-it fighting style. 

Again, this is but a taste of things to come, and short as it may be the Morgan fight is fun. Oda has said he gave Luffy the gum-gum fruit to help keep things from ever getting too serious, and reading these early chapters I believe it.

Orange Town

I would call the Buggy arc the first “standard” One Piece arc. At fourteen chapters it’s decently long by East Blue standards. It’s is leaps and bounds better than anything we’ve seen thus far, and we have the flashy bastard himself to thank.

Pre-comic relief Buggy manages to straddle the line between menacing and likable. One thing I do appreciate about One Piece villains is that they’re generally not given an excuse for their evilness (a trend that is admittedly starting to reverse post timeskip). We are never told why Buggy, Kuro, or Kreig set out to be pirates, and frankly we don’t need to know. Buggy is given a reason for his animosity towards Shanks, but it’s never used as a justification for his more jerkish behavior.

And he is a jerk. A clever, reasonably powerful, flashy jerk, but a jerk all the same.

With this added characterization, Buggy has the honor of being the first charismatic and memorable villain of the series, and is also the first instance of camaraderie within an enemy organization. In all honesty, I think the only thing separating Orange Town from the Cocoyashi village is emotional stakes. Buggy’s opinion notwithstanding, there is no Tragic Backstory (tm). The little dog comes closest, but the effectiveness of Shu depends entirely how much one cares for sad animal stories (I am immune, and subsequently don’t much care about Laboon either).

More importantly, it’s here that we see the first primitive instances of Straw Hat interaction, and some of the stuff that happens when Oda lets all the different personalities bounce off of one another is pure gold

Also Luffy shoves an old man face-first into a wall for his own good. I feel like that ought to be mentioned every time someone tries to call him a hero.

But the thing that really stands out in Orange Town when placed within the overarching plot is Oda’s burgeoning skill at playing the long game in regards to his storytelling, specifically in regard to Nami.

The Alvida, Morgan, and later Gaimon’s arcs are largely self-contained little stories that serve to flesh out Luffy as a protagonist. When Zoro was recruited the audience was informed of his history and character motivation almost immediately. During Nami’s first conversation with Luffy in chapter 9 we learn that she’s 1) raising 100,000,000 berries to buy a village, 2) loves money and tangerines, and 3) hates pirates. We don’t learn the reason for any of these things until her backstory is revealed in chapter 78.

There are obvious parallels to Robin’s recruitment much later, but really this is Oda something does quite often. Vivi and Law were both around for awhile before the meat of their stories were told. Having someone familiar around for big conflicts helps give a face to the nameless masses. It would have been really hard for Oda to make the reader care about the average Joe in Cocoyashi village without having a pre-established connection in the form of Nami, and it would be really hard to care about Nami if the audience hadn’t been given the time to get to know her first.

By waiting so long to let Nami develop as her own character, the emotional stakes missing from Orange Town are fully present during the much-beloved march to Arlong Park. The latter cannot exist without the former.

I said in the opening that 70 chapters is an absurd amount of time to get hooked into a story, but in some ways I can completely understand why it would take that long. One Piece isn’t built on slick one-liners or “cool” characters. It’s fun and goofy and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Hints of future intrigue and mystery are strewn along like bread crumbs down a path, organically delivered as the world unfurls bit by bit. There’s a methodicalness to it that catches the reader by surprise, yet makes perfect sense as the crew goes from island to island.

Orange Town is just the beginning of this in action, but once again this is getting pretty long. I’ll finish the road to Arlong Park in another post. Thanks for reading :)   

[saltybiowarefantears]

One piece for the fandom meme

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me this one. This is what I get for having a mixed fandom personal blog. This will all be referring to One Piece as an anime rather than a manga. Again, with all the others, don’t be a dick to me or anyone else if we don’t agree on the same things. This isn’t specifically addressed to the asker, but to anyone who decides to come and cause shit with me or any of my followers. I will punt you so far your clothes will burn up on reentry into the atmosphere. If you want to have a discussion about any of my answers I’m more than happy to talk to you!

the first character i ever fell in love with: Mah boi Roronoa Zoro. Ok so 1) badass swordsman is a type I cannot avoid apparently, 2) I watched the show dubbed first, which means Chris Sabat, which meant insta-fave, and 3) even though he’s a total badass, he’s also a total dork (please refer to Syrup Village ‘We ate your captain’ and attempting to climb the hill with his swords).

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: One Piece has the exact opposite problem on me. The more I watch and absorb, my love of the characters only grows. Also there (pretty sure I can say) hundreds of characters to consider for each of these questions. Kizaru? Maybe? I don’t dislike him right now, but I was a big fan when he first showed up. Now though he’s kind of ventured into neutral territory.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: Luffy/Hancock. At the end of the timeskip I wondered if they got randomly married because Luffy has no fucking clue what’s going on at any moment in time, a la Dragonball with Chichi and Goku. I thought they were pretty cute for a while there. If Oda does go through with them marrying at the end (and handles it well) I won’t be upset, but I won’t be pleased either.

my ultimate favorite character™: *looks at all of my children* No. I’ve said it once before, the very most I can do is a three-way tie for If-I-had-a-gun-pointed-at-my-head-I’d-pick-them ranking. In that case, it’d be Zoro, Luffy, and Law. I love all of them though. I am a mother hen and they are my varied, dysfunctional children.

prettiest character: Robin. I prefer pre-timeskip, but she’s forever the most gorgeous. The only other person who comes close is her mother. I actually based a lot of my characters around her physical characteristics because I loved the look so much.

my most hated character: Blackbeard, King of the Fuckfaces, the head of the Fuckface Holy Trinity. I’m not typically a vicious person towards villains, but he deserves to die the most horrible, painful, infinite suffering death that Oda can conceive. This is, of course, only after being repeatedly punched by every Whitebeard pirate, Luffy, and Sabo.

my OTP: You mean the ship that has officially consumed my soul and taken over my life? I don’t know what you’re talking about… *eyes the several LawLu gifs in my drafts and almost literal volumes of discussions about them with Rachel*

my NOTP: Keep any Doflamingo/Law or ASL ships out of my waters, and we’ll be good. You shove that in my face and we WILL have problems.

favorite episode: It’s a tie between 505 and 522 (or any of the crew reveal episodes). The first one because Luffy’s love for his friends and crew and theirs for him literally pulled him back from insanity and unending suffering. That means SO MUCH TO ME. Also Jinbei’s quote of ‘What’s gone is gone, you have to ask yourself what remains’ is still one of my favorite inspirational quotes. The second one because MY CHILDREN. They finally get to be together again and it puts a big fat piece of gauze right over the seeping wound that is Summit War and the timeskip. Of course, these are my two favorite happy or inspirational episodes. 405 fucked me up hardcore because I was not expecting that particular outcome. My slack jawed disbelief will forever stay with me.

saddest death: 

The most dreaded One Piece ask. I’ll guarantee about 99% of the fandom will have the same answer. 

Need I say more? Because I won’t. That shit is repressed. Fun fact, it was spoiled for me by a random YouTube comment on one of the soundtrack videos. Up until the specific episode I wasn’t sure it was a troll or not. My second watch though it fucked me up beyond reason. I have never cried so hard at a show before or since. That’s a phrase I use a lot for One Piece by the way. It has had such a profound effect on me in such previously inconceivable ways. It’s the curse of One Piece, though, that no one will believe you about it being that good or life changing. Anyway… rant on that over, I would like to add Corazon to the list. We’re ranking this bad boy by sheer volume of tears cried, and I think that one comes pretty close for me. Watching it after bingeing most of that portion of Dressrosa and being 4 in the morning probably didn’t help my reaction.

favorite season:It hurts to say, but Summit War. Everything from the end of the Archipelago up to the reunion (I’d count that if I could) is some of the best media I have ever experience in my entire life. No joke or exaggeration. It changed me for better or worse. Workshops should be done on the writing. Nothing has come close to touching it for me in anything before or since.

least favorite season: Probably Thriller Bark. Earlier I would have said Fishman Island, but watching it with Rachel changed my perspective on it. Thriller Bark was ok? I liked the spoopy Halloween theme and such, but I’m not a huge fan of any of the island antagonists (and I’m very antagonist driven in terms of whether or not I like an arc, which is why I still don’t really like Fishman Island). The ending of it though with Kuma was PHENOMENAL. Some of my favorite scenes are from that period.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: Ok… I have had MANY discussions about this. I’ve been meaning to write a mini-essay/analysis on the subject, but I’ll have to make something concise and coherent here. I have an issue with only one character like this, and that’s Vivi. Cue the gasped screaming of the fans. Before anyone blows a gasket, let me explain my reasoning. So sit down, shut up, and join me for this ride. Let’s start at the beginning with my initial, first watch impression of Vivi. She was fine, I wasn’t a huge fan because she seemed really bland in comparison to the other characters. Then the desert sequence happened with the ‘Oh I forgot to tell you about this thing you should have known’ moments. That put my teeth on edge. Then her unwillingness to sacrifice anything other than herself in order to save her kingdom. Ok, I get it, she’s 16 and doesn’t want anyone to die, but by this point she should have at least realized that the Straw Hats are loyal to her and volunteering to aid her. Alubarna happened and I fucking lost it with her. Her plan to blow up the palace, constantly falling and crying while on a serious time crunch, and her somehow not considering the clock tower as a location until it was literally too late were my last straws. These isolated issues just puts her in my neutral territory. There are two other factors that push her into me constantly not having to go apeshit around her: the other princesses and the fandom. To save time, I’ll summarize that I feel like the other princesses put Vivi to shame in terms of admirable features. Every last one of them managed to shove aside their emotions, stop crying, pull themselves up, and intelligently problem solve the situation. Vivi’s character is an excellent example of telling and not showing. Everyone constantly says she’s brave, but she never quite shows she’s brave. Yes, she’s brave to have gone into Baroque Works and to try and solve her country’s problems, but in comparison to the others she really isn’t that brave. Which leads me into the problem with the fandom’s portrayal of her. As you can already tell, I’m not a huge fan of her for some very specific reasons, especially her blandness and Mary Sue like qualities. While talking about this with someone, they mentioned that she seems to be kind of a fill character in terms of ‘Well Robin isn’t here, so Vivi has to say this thing Robin would normally say’, which lends her to a very inconsistent character. Me writing this is the only time I have ever seen anyone ever make any sort of negative comment about her. She is Saint Vivi who can and does no wrong. There are critiques of pretty much every other character except her. The fandom constantly applauds her for even the tiniest things while ignoring every single thing she did wrong. No one holds her accountable for her actions. And that, to me, is a writing sin. I can write you oodles about every character, even the ones I love with all my heart. Each character is flawed, which is what makes them great characters. Vivi is portrayed as this paragon of perfection, which she very much is not. She did wrong, she messed up several times, she’s not perfect. If any person or character actually called her out for it, I’d have less of a problem. For the time being though it’s this festering bitterness towards her and the fandom’s treatment for her. (Also the people who slam Rebecca in order to pull Vivi up higher… oh boy… we gonna have some fucking words.) Looks like I failed on making this short. Oops. I just have too many thoughts about this subject to be too concise.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: Doflamingo, King of the Garbage. All hail the deliciously sadistic asshole.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: ALL OF THE STRAWHATS AND THE ASL BROTHERS AND LAW. I’m emotional about this, can you tell? All of my kids deserve the pinnacle of happiness without any of that terrible shit happening to them. I want to wrap them all up in blankets and shove delicious hot beverages at them.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: Either Kid/Law or Doflamingo/Crocodile. I don’t love either of them per se, but I am here for it. I don’t ship it, but I greatly enjoy watching other people ship it.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship’: One Piece is the ultimate shipping sandbox, which makes this really hard. Most of the ships in it I politely wave at as they float by while I chug along in my huge fuckoff cruiseliner with slapped together tug boat in tow. Either I’m invested in the ship or I’m not. There’s no ‘lowkey’ in One Piece. TLDR: too many ships that fit the category of ‘I like this ship, but it’s not my ship’.

Send me a fandom and I’ll answer these questions!

[tokiro07]

Okay, so I’ve got another theory, but it kind of takes little details from across the whole story, so if I really want to do this one justice, I might need to reread all of One Piece again, and frankly I just don’t think I’m ready to do that right now

So I’m gonna write what I can now and if I feel like anything’s missing, THEN I’ll reread wherever I feel like I might be able to find what I’m looking for

(This got really long, actually, so I’m putting it under a readmore)

I’m probably going to be covering a lot of ground that people have talked about before, but whatever, a lot of these theories do that

We all know at this point that one of the major patterns for recruitment is based on either the needs of the crew or things that Luffy just outright wants. Lost at sea, they get a navigator; need a boat, get a boat (and a gunner for the boat); starving, they get a chef; one of them contracts a disease, they get a doctor; need someone to read ancient text necessary for finding One Piece, they get an archaeologist; ship’s falling apart, they get a shipwright; Luffy wants music, they get a musician

Before getting those things, they would always have someone to fill the gaps, like Usopp doing the carpentry. Other jobs that Usopp has done have included manning the crow’s nest as a lookout, upgrading weapons like a blacksmith, and painting the Jolly Roger like an artist.

Luffy has claimed to want a bronze statue and expressed consistently to prefer to go places that have snow.

Just to get her out of the way, I’ll cover Monet and work from there. If Monet joins, her Snow-Snow Fruit covers Luffy’s desire for snow. Beyond that, if the crew goes to space, her interest in astronomy will most likely prove helpful. Either way, though, there’s only really one scenario where astronomy is helpful, so she would likely need a secondary ability to contribute. 

Her ability to fly makes her work well as a lookout or scout. It’s worth noting that the very first thing we saw Monet doing was fulfilling this role for Caesar, going out into Punk Hazard to scout out the intruding Straw Hats. Interestingly enough, the Straw Hats themselves were, at the time, performing a scouting operation with Mini Merry II. Both times that Mini Merry was used were to send out scouts, and in both cases, Usopp was on board (potentially tying into the idea that jobs Usopp does are the ones that need to be filled). This could be to set up that Monet, who can act as a scout, may take over that job so the others won’t have to do so.

If Monet doesn’t join, Mini Merry isn’t put out of a job, but we still potentially need a lookout. If the Snow-Snow Fruit is involved, it may go to Carrot, who has demonstrated an affinity for being a lookout with her incredible jumping skills and eyesight. If not Carrot, the lookout could be Pedro, who can consistently be found in high places, like the crow’s nest.

If Carrot isn’t appointed to the position of lookout, she could be appointed the position of artist, replacing Usopp’s job as artist like Franky replaced his job as shipwright. How this job would contribute is hard to say, but Luffy’s inability to draw has come up at least three times (the Straw Hat and Foxy Jolly Rogers and Laboon), so this may be foreshadowing for the idea of an official artist joining.

A blacksmith is likely incoming somewhere down the line, but up to this point I don’t recall being introduced to any characters who would really match that.

However, lookout, blacksmith and artist have only received minimal foreshadowing, and certainly haven’t been acknowledged as necessary. That said, there are two more crew positions that I believe we have been informed of that, even if they aren’t particularly helpful, have been quite heavily foreshadowed for a long time.

The first is the position of tailor. Thus far, to my recollection, the “need” for a tailor has come up three times. The first time, Buggy damaged the straw hat, prompting Nami to repair it. The second time, Ace gave Luffy his vivre card, which Nami sewed into the band of the straw hat. The third time, Marguerite repaired Luffy’s clothes after they were ruined in his fight with Kuma. Marguerite spent the remainder of that arc as Luffy’s ally, and later mentioned that the Straw Hats looked like a fun group when she saw Luffy reuniting with them.

Based on the need for a tailor coming up three separate times, it seems clear to me that a tailor is going to be added sooner or later, and based on Marguerite’s interactions with Luffy and the crew, it seems likely that it will be her. However, I am not banking on it being Marguerite, as I don’t currently see any way for her to come back into the story, so instead I am willing to believe that Marguerite was simply meant to foreshadow that there would be a tailor joining, not necessarily her. This tailor may even be snake or reptile themed, as Marguerite owned a snake.

What a tailor could accomplish for the crew is a bit up in the air, but I believe something is going to happen to the straw hat again, just like it did in the fight with Buggy, and the tailor will be the only one with the skills needed to repair it.

As for the second position, it may seem far less intuitive, but I believe that it has been even more strongly hinted at than any other position. The second position that I believe the Straw Hats will definitely get is a pet.

Our first, and likely weakest hint towards this is Carue, Vivi’s pet duck. When Vivi temporarily joined the crew, Carue was along for the ride as her companion, and most certainly had his own contributions to the team. Carue even had the X mark like everyone else, demonstrating that he was considered just as much a Straw Hat as Vivi was.

Our second, and likely strongest hint is Chopper, as according to the World Government, Chopper is the Straw Hats’ pet, not doctor. As far as everyone who doesn’t know them is concerned, the Straw Hats already have a pet, so I believe that this is meant to be foreshadowing for the crew receiving a pet.

Our third hint is Surume, as Luffy did claim Surume as his pet. Surume didn’t officially join the Straw Hats, leaving the potential for another pet to come along later, but Luffy taming Surume for the purpose of drawing the Sunny when underwater gives a clear picture of the kind of job that a pet could do. In fact, if my previous theory of the Sunny eating a Devil Fruit is correct, Surume or another large aquatic animal could be the perfect method for keeping Sunny afloat. 

Another possibility is that if Sunny eats a Zoan Fruit, its animal form (likely a chicken, as I’ve said before) would be considered the pet, and it could travel on land with the crew as an otherwise unassuming (though probably large) chicken. This could also have been foreshadowed by Carue, a similarly large fowl. 

If neither Surume or the Sunny itself becomes the crew’s pet, there is one more option that many of you have likely already pieced together: Laboon. I mentioned earlier that Luffy’s poor art skills came up when dealing with Laboon. If you’ll recall, Luffy marked Laboon with the Straw Hat Jolly Roger, possibly foreshadowing Laboon as an official member of the Straw Hat Crew. This, coupled with the fact that Laboon will definitely want to follow Brook again, heavily implies that Laboon will become the Straw Hats’ official pet.

One more thing on this topic: I said before that although Luffy claimed Surume as his pet, he ended up leaving Surume behind on Fishman Island. What was the first thing the Straw Hats saw after leaving Surume? 

A pod of Island Whales with similar scars to Laboon’s, leading to an emotional moment from Brook. 

Brook will definitely want to add Laboon to the team, and I personally see no way that Luffy wouldn’t agree.

This said, I don’t believe Laboon will necessarily count towards the 13 crewmates that we’ve all been predicting for years, as I don’t think Laboon will really be able to help with the one-on-one fights, though he will probably be extremely helpful in a ship-to-ship battle at some point.

To summarize my theory: of the likely three slots left for the Straw Hats to recruit, one will almost definitely be a tailor, and independently of those three, Laboon will be added as the Straw Hat’s pet.