#also just realised that 3/5 of my top 5 are gonna be introduced in opla season 2

[supermarine-silvally]

Favorite 5 one piece characters and 5 you feel meh about

oooh it's so hard to choose! (especially for my faves heheh) but I've gotta go with...

Favourites:

note: not including Luffy because he's the main character

#5 Roronoa Zoro

I mean... he's Zoro. I don't know if it's possible not to like Zoro. For me, what elevated him beyond "he's extremely cool" to his current status in my top 5 faves was the "nothing happened" moment at the end of Thriller Bark. It really solidified his loyalty towards Luffy and the lengths of which he's willing to go to protect his captain and friends.

#4 Mr. 2 Bon Clay

Oh Bon-chan <3 When I started One Piece I never would've imagined to come across an explicitly queer character written in such a sympathetic way; who goes from being a minor villain to a beloved ally whom Luffy loves and respects. I love Bon-chan a lot and the ending of Impel Down is one of my favourite character moments in the entire show. Also the "queers never die" moment? Iconic.

#3 Yamato

As a transmasc person myself, there's no way I couldn't vibe hard with Yamato. I love everything about him, from his personality to his design to his insanely cool Devil Fruit abilities. I REALLY want to see him become a Straw Hat at some point in the future.

#2 Nico Robin

I LOVE Robin. My favourite Straw Hat hands-down. She's so beautiful and smart and has such cool abilities and plays such an invaluable role in the story. Her backstory is so heartbreaking and I truly believe that it's no exaggeration to call Enies Lobby peak One Piece. The "I want to live" moment is my favourite in the entire series. Watching Robin struggle with whether she deserves to be saved and her realising her friends are willing to go to war with the world to save her is just asdkjhsdf I love it and I love her pls marry me Ms Nico Robin

aaaaaaand to nobody's surprise, the number one spot goes to.......

#1 Portgas D. Ace

I love love love love LOVE Ace. From the moment he was first introduced in Drum Island to the childhood flashbacks of the postwar arc that laid out his story in full, I fell in love with everything about him and his character. He's insanely cool and silly and gorgeous and tragic and I have no idea how Oda managed to pack it all into one character but somehow he did. I tend to also be a sucker for older sibling characters since I myself am the oldest sibling in my family so I relate hard to that, too. I could write entire essays about how much I love Ace and why he is such a fantastic character but I think I'll leave it there for now lol also I own so much Ace merch it's ridiculous

The "Meh" Characters (I'm taking this to mean characters I am moreso indifferent to rather than ones I outright hate, which is a different list lol):

#5 Buggy

Controversial take, I know lol but let me preface this by saying I don't dislike Buggy-- I actually enjoy him in a lot of scenes, especially in Impel Down. But overall, I think he's overrated and I just don't vibe with his blowhard personality. And there were definitely moments in Marineford that I just found myself getting really annoyed with him (yeah yeah I know he was supposed to lighten the mood and all that but every time the scene cut back to him I was just like ugh gimme the Whitebeard Pirates back).

#4 Gecko Moria

Kind of a lacklustre villain for me, especially in comparison with the other Warlords. He feels like he really shouldn't have earned that title. All around just kind of whiny and annoying. (I love Thriller Bark, I just don't like Moria very much-- or at least don't think he reached his full potential as a villain in the way Crocodile and Doflamingo do).

#3 Foxy

Long Ring Long Land is my least favourite arc and while I did enjoy his fight with Luffy, I just found Foxy super irritating. Not enough to hate, but enough to make me go "oh thank god" when the arc was finally over.

#2 Sengoku

This fucking guy. He's not as outright fascistic as some of the other Marines like Akainu, but doesn't have the depth of Garp and or the ambiguity of Aokiji/Kuzan. There are some moments where the narrative tries to make him more sympathetic in ways that I don't think he deserves at all, considering his position within the Marines and his dedication to perpetuating the brutal oppression of the World Government and I will NEVER forgive him for basically ritually humiliating Ace atop the execution platform in a way that was, frankly, really cruel. He's just not interesting or developed enough for me to enjoy his presence in the story as an antagonist.

and my number one "I couldn't care less about this character" is......

#1 Enel

Okay. I like Skypeia as an arc. It has some great moments, like the ringing of the bell and the resolution of the story of Montblanc Noland and Calgera, but I just found Enel a really boring villain, especially in comparison to the major villain before him, Crocodile. I find him unappealing to look at (his face is just so punchable) and every time he was on screen I just wanted him to go away. He's not an interesting character to me and I don't understand how he has any fans whatsoever.