#i don't wanna badmouth anyone's favorite her but hhhh I just personally don't think she was that well-written

[one-piece-dumpster-fire]

Pudding's case is fascinating - because this is an example of a WELL written subplot, but Pudding's design doesn't match the given backstory AT ALL. Would it make sense for a young girl from abusive family who spent her whole life mocked by mother and siblings for her appearance and developing a complex because of it to turn sides because someone finally treated her like a human being and said something nice to her? Of course! (part 1)

Oh boy this is gonna be a bit long I'm sorry xD

I feel like I should preface this by saying that Pudding is one of my absolute least favorite characters in OP for many reasons, but since most of them don't have anything to do with the topic at hand I'll try to keep myself from straying too much :'D

But before I get to the issue with her design, I have to say this: although the premise of Pudding's subplot makes sense and fits in with the overall theme of domestic abuse present throughout WCI, the execution of her character is,,,, not really something I'd call very well-written, to be honest😅?

Her insecurities or inner hurt is not explored beyond the flashback/compliment, which was also not build up at all, there isn't another significant moment where she reflects more on how Sanji's treatment of her contrasts with what she previously faced, or even the many parallels between them and how they both stem from abusive households yet choose to deal with their inner pain in different ways is never explored.

I always thought it was kind of a waste that you have an arc supposedly centered around Sanji being the 'kindest', yet his kindness didn't really seem to inspire her to change her view on herself. Which, if I'll be honest, was what I was expecting after Pudding broke down- that she would get to have a genuine talk with Sanji, demonstrate her initial conflicted feelings at his comment because she was never complimented before, and go through some self-reflection and exploration by really looking at their stories of abuse and how that molded her into who she is now. But... naga. She is turned into somewhat of a joke and everything her character did before is pushed aside and not adressed again.

With the premise Oda set up there could have been done so much more with her, but in my eyes, Pudding is one of the most disappointing characters he has written post-TS and a good example of unused potential.

She had great potential as a villain too, and I won't lie, I was incredibly disappointed when she was revealed to be just another 'tragic' female character, but even then her 'redemption' or whatever it was that happened with her could have been handled so much better and just feels like a repetition of what we've already seen in this, and even previous arcs: aka, woman has man call out her problems/take care of her problems, she has a realization, her character development is done.

As far as princesses go her character breaks out of the mold a little, admittably, yet her struggles are barely explored, and given how much excitement there was for her to be an actually unexpected female villain after her betrayal of Luffy and Sanji, her suddenly breaking down crying and having that flashback felt incredibly flat and honestly,,,, kinda forced, after everything that happened? Also why did Oda first set up a vague connection between her and Lola, their shared desire of being free, but then,,,, completely switched to making her character all about being insecure about her physical appearance instead? Especially when we get Katakuri later and his position/struggles within the family are, imo, explored a lot more than Pudding's, even though she's had far more screentime and is arguably more important to BM's overall cause.

Eeeeeeeeehhh but I'm ranting again lol there is much to be said about her character, but on how that ties in with her design:

I completely agree on that, Pudding looking the way she does and being referred to as a 'monster' honestly felt like a fucking slap in the face xD I mean even some of her weird '100% human' siblings (Perospero, Opera, whatever the hell Kato is-) look more like monsters than she does. Also in her flashback Pudding was only shown to be bullied by her mother and citizens- (none of her siblings were shown to be involved, they generally seem to turn more of a blind eye when it comes to the abuse from their mother? Which is just as bad tho) but I kept wondering, "which citizen in their right mind would bully the daughter of a fucking Yonko, especially when there are so many other freaky things walking around in Tottoland xD?"

It's blowing my mind and honestly made her backstory even less believable.

The other examples you mentioned are all things I wholeheartedly agree with as well- hhhh Hancock's overplayed 'crush' on Luffy is still something that haunts me whenever it's brought up, the same goes for the unfortunate treatment of Tashigi rip

I absolutely think that Oda is partly influenced by editors, and of course when it comes to female characters, fanservice for future merch must play a big role as well- yet at the same time I can't help but wonder, when every women looks almost identical to the next one, are fans really gonna be that excited about new merch anymore...?

I mean look at this and tell me Robin and Hancock don't look the exact damn same-

My worst issue with how Oda writes women lately is that you can sometimes see what he's going for, what he could be doing, but he hardly carries through anymore and instead reverts to over-used tropes. I was really expecting Komurasaki to be this hardboiled samurai daughter who doesn't take shit from anyone and proudly stands her ground, but then he turned her around and gave us Hiyori, whose interactions with Zoro I can barely watch,,,, and let's not even talk about Toki,,,,

Kiku is like the only female character I care for in Wano so far.

Man I just wish we could have something like Otohime, Bellemere, or pre-TS Robin again :( Who were allowed to be actual characters-

Or a case like Connis, who was first introduced as a maiden-like character but then began questioning what was happening on Skypeia and ultimately had this badass bazooka moment while denouncing Enel hhhh---