@.access:
That's where the problem lies, at least for me.
I don't mind a character being as good as they come, being a pacifist, throwing his pride away in order to acheive something - or, better, know that such a thing doesn't hurt his pride as Shanks not giving a damn about those guys "humilliating" him in the first chapter.
Actually, a king bowing to his people counts as something pretty badass in my book and that scene would be quite impressive if not for that red part above.
The problem is not the character itself, but how Oda abuses of this "untainted good ruler that is able to give anything and everything for his people without any shred of grey in his character" to oppose the villain.
On the other side, the CD suffer from the same thing. First time we saw them in Sabaody I was one of the readers hoping for the scene when Luffy would shove his fist down that guy's throat. But then another noble appeared and he was pretty much the same, then every noble in Luffy's flashback, then that guy with Otohime… every single noble was the evil incarnated! Not simply despotic racist people, what would be pretty bad already, but a demon in human shape without any redeemable trait. When that noble appeared in Jinbe's flashback I simply couldn't care less anymore, I was only annoyed by the whole situation.
Even if King Riku's behaviour was not the best, I wouldn't mind, I would probably love the way he acted. Problem is that Oda abuses the formula so much that it doesn't affect me anymore. One Piece lost its ability to make me cry and/or get angry three flashbacks ago because everytime Oda tries to do so, he resorts to the same thing.
I think you have a legit point here, but the formular has in my eyes also positive side effects for the overall story.
Overusing a formular in such a long story has to happen, especially within the realms of a fighting manga, where we have to come to a climax where the villain gets the shit beaten out of his living soul.
Another overused formular would be the the girl/woman that needs help to overcome the main villain. (e.g Nami, Vivi,Conis,Robin,Shirahoshi,Rebecca)
It might be used a lot of times, but the important factor is the satisfaction the readers gets out of it.
The formular depends on a bad or evil person who is contrasted to a saint-like person , what might be way to simple for real life, but by creating those black vs white contrasts you are garanteed a climax and that most people know clearly who to cheer for.
Lets assume King Riku ain
t a saint like person, but a king who just happens to have the spot and uses it for his advantage like many people would do.
Would that make you relieved when Luffy finally beats the evil king, so that the slightly less and more human like king would get back his position because our heroes fighted more or less for his sake?
That is the case in real life where you either fight for the one side or the other, but both arent exactly the perfect solution, but in such a manga scenario it would make us readers question why even fight for anything when the results aren
t satisfying.
With creating the celestrial dragons, Oda showed us already the most evil form humans can reach and by having those as the most powerful ones(in terms of political power), i assume it`s necessary to show that all over the world still kind- hearted people exist who contrast the celestrial dragons.
By showing those "saint-like" people Oda creates again that contrast.
So in most cases Oda has to show a representative for each country the SHs "reform", so that we readers know here and there still humanity and good people sparkle in this dark world the WG created who are able to "reform" the other citiziens of this country.(so most of the time a king fits this bill damn straight)
Furthermore its interesting that most character development we get in cover stories or re-appearances in the story is those of the bad guys. With Hatchan and Bon Kurei we have to former villains who changed their attitude drastically after being obsolete from their "evil leaders" which sparkles also in us readers the thought that people can change once under the right person(mentor) or by not being manipulated by others. Oda even goes a step further and shows that the persons considered bad (like Crocodile) have a good site and lays his focus more on the villains (in cover stories)to show they don
t have to stay bad, they can do other stuff to be necessary in this world without being a threat to everyone.
That also leaves us readers with the impression that once the evil nature is gone, people could change to the better(even when bad right now), which would be required for the end of the story, when the WG has to fall.