Love and Loathe 2: Return of the Analysis

Rocko52

I'd be up for Doffy or Vivi

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

Vote for vivi-chwan

MrBits

**Ivankov

Love:** -Pretty fun design (male)
-Manages to be surprisingly strong despite his appearence
-FACE GROWTH HORMONES

Loath:
-I don't like the female design at all
-His accent is a pain to read
-I'm echoing everyone else here, but despite being a hormone using, high ranking Revolutionary, face growing, Dr. Frank N. Furter lookalike, Ivankov somehow feels weirdly forgettable. The only reason I'm even commenting is because he only has 2 other comments after all this time.

**Character: 2.5

Design:
Male 4
Female 1.5** Average 3.0

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

Ivankov

Love
eccentric dialogue and personality
unique character design
a strong okama figure, top figure in revos
Unqiue cool fighting style
Awesome miracle worker not afraid to save a good man

Loathe
Turning people against their gender unwillingly a few times
That he was so involved with sanji's story
No appearamces since time skip
hee haw gag a little overplayed

Character 3/5
Design 3/5

Strooger

Love: I had to reread the entirety of Impel Down to really remember everything about Iva. After doing so, I must say Iva is a pretty awesome character. His wonky artstyle and weird eccentrism might rub some people the wrong way, but I thought most of his antics were pretty hilarious. And him being such a stand up guy, with a heart of gold makes me like him all the more. On top of that, his ability is super cool. I kinda wish I could meet him so he could give me some hormones for my hair growth. I really hope we get to see more so we can get him fully fleshed out.

Loathe: I can't wrap my head around the "Death Wink" ability. And reading his lines just makes me visualise a Hollywood german accent, which is never good.

Character: 4
Design: 3

My vote: I'll vote for Vivi. And hope we get to tear into Rebecca or Mingo pretty shortly after.

Count Mario

I vote Vivi. I think we should let Dressrosa breathe for a while longer as we see how Whole Cake Island and Wano Country work out.

Zar

@Rocko52:

I'd be up for Doffy or Vivi

Only one vote, unfortunately. For now I'll throw a dice for your vote.

Count Mario

Plus, it would be nice to get some thoughts on Vivi in before the Reverie after all of these years.

Lucky Dragon

My vote goes to Vivi for two reasons.

1. Our choices have all been guys since Robin was the topic of discussion.

2. As an honorary Straw Hat, she has more substance to her than Rebecca.

Zar

Love and Loathe #19
Ivankov

Here's what you loved about Ivankov

Comedy - Every time Ivankov appeared you could expect some strange antics or one of his gags. This guy was hilarious.
Heart of Gold - He cares about his allies, in particular Inazuma, and kept Luffy going through the war. He may not be the Miracle Man Bon Clay expected, but he's still a good guy.
Wacky Hormone Powers - He changes gender, enlarges his head, fills people with energy… add to that Death Winks and what not. Ivankov has a very unusual fighting style and is far stronger than he looks.

Favorite Comment goes to Strooger "I had to reread the entirety of Impel Down to really remember everything about Iva. After doing so, I must say Iva is a pretty awesome character. His wonky artstyle and weird eccentrism might rub some people the wrong way, but I thought most of his antics were pretty hilarious. And him being such a stand up guy, with a heart of gold makes me like him all the more. On top of that, his ability is super cool. I kinda wish I could meet him so he could give me some hormones for my hair growth. I really hope we get to see more so we can get him fully fleshed out."
Here's what you loathed about Ivankov

Upstaged and Forgotten - Ivankov should by all rights be a memorable character (just look at him), but he was constantly overshadowed by the others.
Vat about that Acccent? - His speech pattern vas very annoying.
Pro Winker - How does he even do that? Is it his devil fruit?
Forceful Gender Bender - For being a "good" guy that was pretty damn evil.

Favorite Comment goes to Tanuki _"His power is unique, yes, but 'hormones' as a power is pretty abstract for One Piece. At times Ivankov feels like a Bleach character with his abilities being as ill defined as they are yet somehow still feeling comically overpowered. The ability to change boys to girls and vice versa is also sadly not used to help Luffy avoid further detection from Magellan and gang via rule 63, which is a bit of a missed opportunity. Honestly of all the wacky abilities shown in One Piece, Ivankov is one of the few I can't seem to wrap my head around no matter how hard I try. What does a Death Wink have to do with hormones-is it related to his devil fruit or just a combat choice? Why did he turn into a woman to fight Sadi? Are there any benefits for each for using his female form? Does his head increasing increase his Death Wink power or is it a side effect from using too many hormone powers? It's one of the few fruits I feel need a LOT of explaination, and it's also one of the few we didn't get much information on.

Ivankov is somehow upstaged wherever he goes. He's by far one of Luffy's biggest and most useful allies during Impel Down and Marineford, but doesn't really get much spotlight outside of giving Luffy a quick hormone boost to keep him going or death winking him out of the way of a dangerous attack. Jinbei, Bon-Chan, Crocodile and even Mr. 3 get moments where they truly shine that I felt overshadowed Ivankov. Heck, SABO outshines him by suddenly revealing that HE is actually the second in command of the Revolutionaries and not Ivankov during Dressrosa. Honestly it's a shame."_

With 5 votes, Ivankov got: Character/Actions: 3.20
Design: 3.30

~~ RANKINGS: Character ~~

Galdino (4.42)
Kureha (4.29)
Rosinante (4.13)
Arlong (4.11 - 9 votes) - 0.03 TIE!
Zoro (4.11) TIE!
Wanze (3.87 - 6 votes)
Jabra (3.78)
Carue (3.75)
Smoker (3.71)
Robin (3.54)
Gecko Moria (3.21 - 12 votes)
Ivankov (3.20 - 5 Votes)
Caesar (3.10)
Conis (2.56)
Bellamy (2.50)
Ohm (2.32)
Alvida (1.94)
Vander Decken IX (1.50 - 9 votes)

~~ RANKINGS: Design ~~

Rosinante (4.44)
Kureha (4.29)
Caesar (4.28)
Arlong (4.22 - 7 votes) - 0.07
Jabra (4.07)
Carue (3.90)
Galdino (3.88)
Gecko Moria (3.75 - 12 votes)
Smoker (3.73)
Wanze (3.69 - 8 Votes)
Zoro (3.40)
Robin (3.35)
Ivankov (3.30 - 5 Votes)
Vander Decken IX (3.00 - 9 votes)
Alvida (2.89)
Conis (2.63)
Ohm (2.59)
Bellamy (2.30)

And with that, let's present the 20th Character! Who'll rank higher, Carue or Vivi?

Vivi

To get the whole picture, please tell us the following:

What are the things that you love about Vivi?
What are the things that you loathe about Vivi?

At the end please give Vivi two ratings:

One for her character & actions in the story.
One for her look & design.

These must be between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest (.5's are acceptable - ex. 1.5 or 4.5).

This analysis will be open for the next 72 hours.
To celebrate reaching 20 characters, and because I have an upcoming exam, this is a special evaluation week!
Vivi's evaluation will close on Saturday (29th April)

Missed the previous character? You can still comment on them and the points will be counted. But only the previous character.

Enjoy!

Halfmetal-lich

Love
Vivi started the tradition of rotating guest stars on the Straw Hats, and she's memorable enough that people still remember her even after well over a decade since she left.

As annoying as "STOP FIGHTING" was. That moment of her breakdown is still powerful.

Loathe
1. Welcome to ground zero for "Nami clone"

2. STOP FIGHTING! Seriously, I understand that Vivi didn't want people to die, but her naivety borders on insulting. Luffy snaps her out of it, but only briefly.

3. No sixteen year old should have tits that big. What is this, Fairy Tail?

She's kinda just… "forgettable" When you think about Alabasta, One piece's first mega arc. What comes to your mind? Crocodile, Water Luffy, Nico Robin, Pell's legendary durability (fuck he's more memorable than Vivi!), the SHs throwing down, Ace. I don't think people think about Vivi at all, and that is bad if her character is the crux of what the arc is formed around. She's just sort of there, and frankly the one thing I remember about her from the arc (aside from STOP FIGHTING!") is her farewell to the SHs. Her most memorable contribution is being written out of the story.

That's just sad...if it wasn't so funny.
STOP FIGHTING/5 (1.5/5) 1/5

Zar

I'm really tired so my evaluation comes later.

Just wanted to say Vivi's an odd character for me. When I first read One Piece I thought she was extremely boring. But the more times I re-read One Piece, and as time goes on, I start to appreciate her.

I think it's because the longer the series gets the more unique she becomes. I expected her character type to return but it hasn't. Or maybe it's because I'm getting older? I dunno, I'm to tired to think about it.

Jinbei went through the same thing. Disliked him at first, but with recent developments and some re-reads he's become much more likable.

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

@Halfmetal-lich:

Love
Vivi started the tradition of rotating guest stars on the Straw Hats, and she's memorable enough that people still remember her even after well over a decade since she left.

As annoying as "STOP FIGHTING" was. That moment of her breakdown is still powerful.

Loathe
1. Welcome to ground zero for "Nami clone"

2. STOP FIGHTING! Seriously, I understand that Vivi didn't want people to die, but her naivety borders on insulting. Luffy snaps her out of it, but only briefly.
3. No sixteen year old should have tits that big. What is this, Fairy Tail?

She's kinda just… "forgettable" When you think about Alabasta, One piece's first mega arc. What comes to your mind? Crocodile, Water Luffy, Nico Robin, Pell's legendary durability (fuck he's more memorable than Vivi!), the SHs throwing down, Ace. I don't think people think about Vivi at all, and that is bad if her character is the crux of what the arc is formed around. She's just sort of there, and frankly the one thing I remember about her from the arc (aside from STOP FIGHTING!") is her farewell to the SHs. Her most memorable contribution is being written out of the story.

That's just sad...if it wasn't so funny.
STOP FIGHTING/5 (1.5/5) 1/5

I think you're blending rebecca and vivi here. I'm no ecchi expert but vivi, even in the anime was never above a large C cup in most of the frames? Furthermore this was before oda started dipping more and more into fanservice.

Halfmetal-lich

Point proven right there on how Vivi is so interchangeable with other characters.

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

@Halfmetal-lich:

Point proven right there on how Vivi is so interchangeable with other characters.

So you are gonna blame vivi for later female character designs being uninspired?

Count Mario

@Long:

So you are gonna blame vivi for later female character designs being uninspired?

Of course not.

Nami should be the scapegoat as the first model. :ninja:

Strooger

Love: I still miss Vivi. Her time aboard the ship convinced me completely she was going to join them after they saved Alabasta. In a lot of ways, I still think she was even more of a natural addition to the crew than Robin. It took me waaaay longer to get used to Robin in the crew than it took for me to get into the idea of Vivi being in it. She just instantly clicked with the entire crew and there are no non-crew members that has ever had that type of interaction with them. As a point of reference; Carrot has been around the Strawhats for more than 40 chapters now and it still doesn't feel even remotely as natural as Vivi did in the first 5-10 chapters. It was great to see her relationship flourish with different Strawhats on different occasions, like when she and Usopp are stranded in the snow on Drum Island.

I truly appreciate how, despite not being strong, she constantly keeps on trying as hard as she can. She really highlight how much more important it is to have a strength of character, rather than physical abilities. When you compare her to other princess characters, there is really no comparison. Vivi got shit done and her determination was truly admirable. Which is what made her brief fight with Luffy so incredibly powerful. To see her break down completely after realizing that she can't give anymore, is probably one of the most impactful character moments in the series and Shounen in general. It was flat out amazing to see that contrast be brought to the forefront in such an effective way. But even after that, she never fully rely on the Strawhats. She doesn't just lean back and expect them to do everything for her. She's still a very action driven character and highly dynamic. It's a huge shame that none of the princess style characters that's been introduced since doesn't even remotely come close to how good she is. I don't know what Oda was thinking when he made Shirahoshi and Rebecka so terrible. Shirahoshi was deliberately written to be whiney, spoiled and annoying. But with Rebecka, it really seemed like he tried to cash in on the success of Vivi. It just failed miserably.

Loathe: I kinda wish she had more going for her in the fighting department. She had a pretty interesting weapon, but not very much was done with it. Not that I think this was a necessity due to how fleshed out and wellwritten she is in general, it would just be a good bonus. Also, this is a very minor thing, but I think the switch from her being Miss Wednesday where she were completely smug and unlikable into her Vivi self is a bit to abrupt. But these are just nitpicks basically. I love Vivi and wish she could be her prince.

Character: 4.5
Design: 4.5.

Kaido King of the Beasts

Love: A character prominent for an entire saga needs to be pretty damn good, and for the most part, Vivi pretty damn was. She was actually pretty forgettable in all the arcs leading up to Alabasta, but rather than being a bad thing, it actually successfully built up her character to a great climax in Alabasta. She didn't peak too early, she didn't outstay her welcome.

Her drive to save her country is consistent and extremely admirable, and it's what we want a lot of our more recent female characters to be (it's definitely a good trait, though I don't quite like it when people seem to want others to be exactly like her). She's not strong at all, but her willpower was great to see. I mean, it was handled well enough that we remember the scene when Vivi attacked Crocodile, and not when she got overpowered by him a few pages later and screamed in fear. Vivi is a great example of a female character with fortitude, and fortitude seems to be something this fanbase really likes.

But, at the same time, Oda completes the circle of creating a character and gives her actual, important, relatable flaws, most specifically her naivete. These flaws are dealt with in a great way, and I enjoyed seeing Vivi progress from them to the point where, while she still wanted to achieve peace diplomatically, she recognized that some opponents can only be dealt with through action.

She made a good honorary member of the Straw Hats, having some pretty good interactions with the crew. She provided a nice contrast with her fellow female Nami, with her more conservative and proper personality. She maintains her uniqueness even to this day, with Robin holding her own and not serving as a replacement at all.

Her appearance in Chapter 823 suggests that she will still be a delight to read about once the Reverie Arc comes up, even if she will likely have to deal with serious issues like the death of her father and her country being under threat by the World Government.

Loathe: While I did compliment Vivi's interactions with the crew and how her big moments were held off till Alabasta, I would like to have seen her interact with them more. Particularly in Drum Island, which, with a tone so different as to make me put the overall goal of the saga in the back of my mind, provided her ample opportunity to shine in something she could have been a full character and not also a plot point, but I don't remember what she did in that arc at all. I would also have liked to see hints about her loyalties when she first appeared in the Laboon Arc, because while it was good that we became acquainted with her before her role was dropped, her appearance in Laboon just seems…flat, and could have been a much better establishing character moment even if we didn't find out the truth until Whiskey Peak.

Her initial outfit as Miss Wednesday was trash. And though I like her later design overall despite the Nami similarity, she went through art evolution WAY too fast, it was incredibly obvious that she had changed quickly in contrast to Nami where I wouldn't even know unless I looked back at East Blue.

Character: 4.5
Design: 3

MetaMario

@Count:

Nami should be the scapegoat as the first model. :ninja:

Makino came first, though….:ninja:

Love: Vivi is a pretty proactive princess. Haha. But no, she undergoes this dangerous mission, undercover as a Baroque Agents agent, in order to expose Crocodile to prevent the civil war brewing in Alabasta. Granted she's only 16 when we're introduced to her, so she's taking a hefty risk. She might not be as strong as oh say…Luffy, and she has her doubts and fears along the way, but she does not give in. Compared to future princesses like Shirahoshi and Manshelly she certainly is at the forefront of more action.

In the end she became a good friend to all of the Straw Hats, and it's this friendship that the reader cares in the first place, and why our heroes all almost get killed saving some country none of them have been to.

I REALLY like her weapons and striped clothing in Little Garden.

Her farewell to the Straw Hats stands one of the most heartwarming moments....she can't be a pirate but she'll always be one of their own.

Loathe: Wish she had more action scenes, but oh well. Design gets points for the beautiful flowing blue hair but it loses them for being too plain compared to many other of Oda's females.

Personality 4/5
Design 3/5

Kylor

Love: I wasn't always the biggest fan of Vivi's, and when I was younger I actually thought she was pretty basic, but the more time that's passed, and the more my tastes have changed, she's actually become one of my favorite characters in the series. With Vivi, Oda took a basic "escort the princess" subplot and turned her into a fleshed out, genuine member of the main ensemble. Even if she didn't stay on the crew long, she still had at least one memorable moment with each of the Straw Hats, and fit nicely in with their dynamic. Part of this is due to how driven and motivated she was. Through her, the reader had an immediate connection to the pain and turmoil that wracked Alabasta, and it's that investment that I think really gives that arc its strength. The Alabasta arc was her story, and she freaking sold it, taking grasp of the emotional core of the arc, and stealing the show along with it. To this day, I think it's safe to say that the goodbye at the end of that arc is one of the most resonant moments of the series, and it's not just for the punch to the feels. Seeing the Straw Hats through Vivi's eyes, and then seeing how her departure affected them, was one of the moments that really solidified just what the crew meant to each other.

Also, Vivi was one of the first characters to really show that the strength of a character doesn't come from fighting competence, or from emotional stoicism. Sure, Luffy was really the one who gave and took the bulk of the punches in Alabasta, but it was Vivi's constant struggle all the way to that point that gave those punches weight. She may not hit as hard as some others in the One Piece world, but she's still not to be messed with. Try to sabotage her kingdom with a secret gang of bounty hunters? She'll go undercover in that gang to for years to expose you, who cares if she's fourteen? Kidnap her and gloat about how you've been ruining her life for years, all while in a position of absolute power? Yeah, you bet she'll still try to get at least one shot in. Try to blow up her hometown with a giant cannon? Not today fucker, she'll make her way up a clocktower and put out that fuse with her bare hands if she has to. Yes, she does cry and have moments of weakness, and yes she does make mistakes, but through it all she just. Doesn't. Stop. Trying. And when everything else has failed and the people are still fighting in the streets? Yeah, you bet she'll keep screaming her lungs out until you stop. 'cause Alabasta is Vivi's home, and there ain't no fighting in Vivi's house. I don't care what you say, that's badass.

Loathe**:** Though she ended up being such a great character, I always found it kind of a wasted opportunity that Miss Wednesday and Vivi were basically two seperate characters. Sure, Oda didn't originally plan them to be the same person, but still, he didn't even try to hide that. I dunno, Miss Wednesday had so many crazy quirks on her own, that getting rid of all of them after the truth was revealed kinda felt like Oda was throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Also, yeah, she really suffered from a huge case of Namiface. Gotta dock points for that.

Personality: 5/5
Design: 2/5

The Tenth Strawhat

Love: Even though design wise Vivi's just a Nami with blue hair, her character and personality goes way beyond that. She broke the mold of the standard princess representation. She always placed the needs of her own people first before herself and was constantly determined to achieve her goal to free her country, Alabasta, from the dry, sandy clutches of Crocodile. Even going so far as to go secret agent and undo his plans from the inside out with only her and Igaram. I admire that quality in Vivi mainly because she drives home the point that even though the road ahead seems tough and fraught with adversity, never give up on your goals.

During the entire Baroque Works Saga, she was always active and interacting with the whole crew and was even around when Chopper joined which really got me to believe that she would join the crew after all that. It was bittersweet having to leave Vivi behind after so much bonding, but the X pledge is still one of my favorite moments ever in One Piece.

Ya know, personality wise, Vivi and Jinbei would get along pretty well.

Loathe: Other than the Namiface problem, there's really no other problems I have with Vivi.

Character and Personality: 5/5
Design: 4/5 (It's mostly because of her blue hair)

Lucky Dragon

Love: Her relationship to the Straw Hats. It's unique for someone who is on good terms with the crew, yet not a permanent fixture within it. A great deal of time is spent establishing a bond between Vivi and the crew. I think what sells it is that she was part of day to day life on the ship. Vivi built up a familiarity and rapport with the Straw Hats in that way, other characters who have filled similar roles have not. As a result, Vivi feels like someone who matters to the Straw Hats beyond just being a nice person they met on their journey. There's a sentimentality with her character that makes her feel along the lines of a family member. That's why by the time you get to her plight in Alabasta, what makes the events there so distressing and memorable, comes from how said events impact the relationship meticulously forged between Vivi and the Straw Hat crew. The impression Vivi left on the protagonists is very strong even long after they've parted ways. In my eyes, this stems from her entire story arc being about forming a connection with the Straw Hats, culminating in the mettle of those ties she created being put to the ultimate test.

Loathe: She's the definition of mild mannered. She doesn't have any quirks to speak of like Luffy's comical stupidity, or Zoro's horrible sense of direction, or even Robin's amusingly cute thought bubbles. So in that regard she sticks out from the other Straw Hats in a negative way.

Character: 3.5

Her character is one of the best examples of relationship building in the series.

Look: 3

Her appearance is typical for an attractive young woman in this series. But for what it's worth, I do like her hair color.

le crystal

Its time for indisputably best princess.
Love: A character who had only been together with the crew for one saga yet has the grand title of Honorary Strawhat. Looking at her actions throughout the saga, it isn't hard to see why. Her relationship with the Strawhats felt organic and tangible. She fit right into the crew, with her determination and her love for adventure. The little arcs before the grand stage of Alabasta showcased the bond she had with the Strawhats, the turmoil and the fun times they had together, which made the whole saga work so seamlessly well. Alabasta wasn't just a faceless rich sandy country bout to overthrown by some despicable government approved pirate and to be saved by our heroes. It was the home of a friend, a crewmate they were fighting for, a princess who puts the lives of her people before herself, shouldered the burden, infiltrated said enemies organisation and risks her life so many times just to save it. No matter how many times Crocodile mocked her or tried to mentally break her, she still never gave up and put all tasks on herself, till she had her friends, the Strawhats, to share it with her. With such high emotional stakes, there was truly a sense of joy when the Alabasta arc was wrapped up, with the rain falling and hope returning to the war torn country again. Vivi may not be your typical strong butt-kicking action girl, but I'll be damned if she isn't a badass.

And of course. Her goodbye scene. Never forget about that. Her return not long ago was awesome too, of course. After so much she went through it was a real joy to see her carefree and lively self right now.
Loathe: her transition from the attempted whale murderer Miss Wednesday to the noble Princess Vivi was a bit awkwardly handled. Also her naivety but that's part of her character development.
Character: 5/5 (my favourite female One Piece character so far.)
Design: 4/5 (eh…. really basic but it works just fine. And she has blue hair.)

ShinigamiKing

Love: Oda managed to make her be her own persons. Female characters usually aren'twritten as well as the dudes in a lot of shonen mangas, let alone any work created by men, so it was cool to see Vivi actually not feel overly shallow or "empty". She was different than Nami as well, and Nami was willing to bicker with her the same way she'd bicker with anybody else.

Loathe: not much to be honest. I wanna say a little whiny, but I can't, because she was still written well as a character. A character can still have "annoying traits" but still be interesting to watch as long as their traits make sense. And they do, because Vivi is worried about her country being destroyed by a warlord.

Character 5/5 - no real flaws. WAY better than Rebecca.
Design - 4/5 - kind of an awkward transition from Miss Wednesday to her final design, and she kind of has that same face syndrome that other female characters in the series suffer with.

Batoma

Ivankov only has 5 votes? I guess I'll do my part to help him out before reviewing Vivi.

Love:
The Revolutionary Army had been in the story since the end of Water 7, but apart from a couple of short, rather vague/mysterious Dragon scenes, we had not seen very much of them. With Ivankov, we get an introduction to a high ranking revolutionary with a Rocky Horror Picture Show song and dance number, introducing Ivankov's status, personality, and powers in one highly entertaining scene. Continuing with the RHPS influence, we get the Dr. Frank-N-Furter style design for Ivankov, except even weirder with the chin and giant head.

His goofball personality and in-your-face presence is a nice contrast to what we had previously seen of Dragon. He really does not come across as a leader in a worldwide anti-government organization, but then he has several moments where he displays his knowledge of the world and its major powers that demonstrate his qualifications.

His powers are also very interesting and versatile. Considering he can use it to increase the body's healing rate, pump someone full of adrenaline, and change biological sex, the fact that his primary use for his powers is to increase the size of his already large head to monstrous proportions is absolutely amazing.

Loathe:
While his design is great, that mostly applies to his male design. Female Ivankov exchanges the bizarre body proportions of his original design for a fairly standard female design, pretty much only distinguishable by clothing, make-up and hair. It's kind of disappointing.

How strong is Ivankov? Between Magellan and his various encounters at Marineford, I cannot determine how strong he actually is. While he comes out of both arcs mostly unscathed, he did not have a truly strong showing against major opponents (except maybe Kuma). Despite being one of the higher up members of the revolutionaries, he does not necessarily have to be a complete monster in terms of strength, but he's one of four characters shown for the revolutionaries in chapter 801, so it calls into question the strength of the revolutionaries as a whole.

Also, unless I missed it, we still do not have his motivations for being a revolutionary despite seeing him in the context of Impel Down and Marineford, both major government facilities. You'd think his personal motivations would come up at some point.

Rating:
Character: 3.5/5 - A fun personality and highly placed connections in the story, brought down by still not knowing too much about him.

Design: 4/5 - His male design is great, but his overall rating is brought down by the lackluster female design.

.access timeco.

Mass Effect is consuming all of my geek time, but I fully intend to do a Ivankov one later. Is there a time limit for late analysis?

Zar

@.access:

Mass Effect is consuming all of my geek time, but I fully intend to do a Ivankov one later. Is there a time limit for late analysis?

When Vivi's evaluation is posted (saturday) time is up for Ivankov.

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

Vivi

Love

Vivi is a full character, she has her quirks, strengths, flaws and a genuine connection with the strawhats. Oda did a good job taking his time with crew interaction because her being with them during non plot heavy times really shows her slowly getting to know and building chemitry with the crew. After her general story is revealed, we see Igaram supposedly getting blown up ( before we knew about all the fakeouts and honestly oda could have kept him dead without making the alabasta arc a downer, but I suppose it was important for robin to not have killed them) and she tries her hardest to keep a straight face because she knows something like thi could happen. That's very "manly" for any shonen character to see and nami exclaims herelf "this girl is strong". Vivi Loves her country and doesnt want anyone else to have to sacrifice for it and this is out of a combination of ideals of a royal and genuine love. The crew, including luffy wants her to know that she isnt the only one who can fight and that's because of they actually like her. We feel like the reason they're fighting has nothing to do with Vivi's status but because they are saving her country because it means a lot to her. This a lot different than FI where it seems like Brook/zoro/usopp are just fighting to fight, luffy likes shirahoshi somewhat, and the other strawhats are motivated by ending hody's racism.

The whole alabasta arc is about her trying to minimalize any casualities she can and even though crocodile openly mocks her and has her being held over a roof she doesnt give up. She tries to kill him when she sees him 1st because she knows she cant reason with him, proving she's not afraid to get her hands dirty to help save her country. Then after she gets captured and freed she immediately goes to find the bomb and wrecks a pair of numbered agents before it's revealed the bomb has 2 timers. Even then when she has almost no options she still screams at everyone to stop fighting for what we could assume would be until they stopped, and that's not easy on your vocal cords guys.

She also isnt all seriousness, she has a sense of adventure that distinguishes her from nami, she has quirks about how much information she should let out like in whiskey peak where she said too much ad alabasta where she said too little. She had a jolly optimistic personality throughout balancing the huge weight she under for her country. She was just generally an interesting character to see how she would react to hijinks and all the wacky situations.

Loathe

As plenty of others have said her transition from Mrs. Wednesday to vivi design wise was rather sharp and more gradually it would have felt easier but her personality change didnt bother me that much as it was mainly a front a put on personality. Blue hair was cool but her design could have been more interesting than it was. Also this isnt realy a complaint but it would have been cooler to see a little mre vivi action than we got

Character 5
Appearance 3

MrBits

Generally when people talk about Vivi, they see her in one of two ways. Either she's a character of strong will and determination, or an annoying damsel in distress. While I lean towards the former, I think it's a bit of both.

Love:
-Vivi always puts the needs of her friends and her people above herself, no matter how much she ends up suffering for it.
-She forms a strong bond with the crew even with her limited screentime, there's a reason her farewell is one of the most iconic scenes in the series
-She shows great determination throughout.
-Honestly, just read all of the other 5/5 posts here, they do a way better job talking about her than I can.

Loath:
-As plucky and spunky as she is, I don't think she's ever had a true victory of her own that isn't undercut in some way. She tries to attack Crocodile, but can't harm him. She warns Kohza, but he just gets shot and the conflict escalates. Even her teaming up with the crew to take down the Mr.7 team, is undercut by the bomb being on a timer. I know that a character's "win rate" isn't everything, and all of these defeats allow her determination and will to show through, but sheesh, throw her a bone Oda. Even Shirahoshi and Rebecca, despite being vastly inferior characters, still managed to claim a few personal victories (stopping the Noah, and winning Block D). Even though she's a good character and a good motivator, the Strawhats still did most of the work and planning. Like, wouldn't it have been cool if Vivi was the one who came up with the "X Mark Plan" instead of Zoro? He has a ton of cool moments, let Vivi in on the fun.

-Similarly, man does she need to be saved a lot. Captured by Miss All Sunday. Trapped by a Bananadile. Chased by Mr.2. Dropped off a building.

-While this can be seen as a positive by some, she isn't as quirky as I usually like my One Piece characters

-Her Miss Wednesday personality is inconsistent with the rest of her character

-She's not the first or last Namiface, but she feels especially bad because she's often shown together with the real Nami.
Character: 4/5
Design: 2.5/5
Good character, but I think she's somewhat pedestalized because of how poor her successors are.

Zar

Eleven votes for Vivi so far! Not bad!

Vivi's evaluation will close in a little more than a day, so you know what time it is.

We go from beauty to the beast! A very slimy beast.

MrBits

@Zar:

Eleven votes for Vivi so far! Not bad!

Vivi's evaluation will close in a little more than a day, so you know what time it is.

We go from beauty to the beast! A very slimy beast.

I guessing it's Trebol

KageKageKing

I'm guessing it's Smiley.

The Tenth Strawhat

Probably Magellan, his poison looks like it could be slimy.

Count Mario

I think it's Trebol or Smiley, but just to add something to the table, it could be Caribou due to the Swamp Swamp Fruit. Opera is also possible, but he seems too recent.

Zar

Just gonna sneak in my Vivi evaluation here…

Love
The longer One piece gets, the more I appreciate Vivi. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or because the treatment of new characters (in particular women) makes her more unique, but it's been an interesting journey.

Vivi is one of my favorite princesses. Not just in One Piece, but in media in general. She's brave and adventurous, but instead of completely giving up classic princess traits Oda kept them and did something new with them. She's caring, so much that she risks her life for her people. She's naive, and it clashes with the harsh reality that she can't save everyone. She's well-mannered, which leads her to use her brain instead of brute force. But she's not stupid enough to think talk is always the solution, like the confrontation with Crocodile proves. It's a nice subversion from typical princesses that either follow the classic Disney formula (pretty, sweet, kind) or attempt to be different by being the opposite (adventurous, fighters, sexy, often dislike part of their royal lives). Vivi embraces her role as a princess while blending both typical and unusual traits assigned to that role (from a western perspective).

But the best thing is that at no point in the series is she defined by being a princess. She's Vivi first and foremost. So all of her good traits feel natural, not just tacked on to make her princessy. And it makes the story much more interesting. The strawhats aren't helping her because she's some princess in need, they love her because of who she is. And that helps make their goodbye much more sad. It's something unique to the Alabasta arc - normally we meet characters knowing 99% of them will never be seen again, and we say goodbye with the satisfaction knowing that their stories have come to a close. With Vivi we said goodbye to a friend whose journey will continue.

I'm babbling a lot, so in conclusion: I like Vivi. She brought something new to the series and fit in well with the Strawhats. She would never have worked as a crewmate for a longer period, so she left at the best time. She had a lot of great scenes (begging for help at Drum, screaming for the fighting to stop, the speech in the rain, the good bye). She made Alabasta a great arc, and now that we have the parallel arc Dressrosa and parallel characters Rebecca and Riku to compare with, Alabasta and Vivi shines even brighter.

Oh, and I love her relationship with Carue.

Loathe
It's like beating a dead horse at this point, but Miss Wednesday. I know the whole "undercover princess" thing was a sudden decision, but come on. We went from whale killer to "I hope people don't die in a war!". Does her personality change when she changes hairstyles? And speaking of being undercover, what about Mr. 9? They worked together for a long time and it's clear he's on her side. I'd loved it if he stayed relevant instead of being dropped completely.

And i agree with MrBits, she should've had some victory instead of relying on the Strawhats for almost everything.

I don't think I'd change Alabasta, but part of me wonder if Vivi couldn't have been more active. I remember thinking the arc was a bore as a teenager (especially Vivi), and even now i can't shake that completely. It wouldn't hurt to have her do more. She is… boring at times.

And this is unrelated, but with Oda's treatment of women in the present manga I'm a little worried about her re-appearance. That chapter cover where she scrubs the bath floors while wearing a soaking wet tank top and minishorts, complete with cats bossing her on was really creepy.

Character/Story: 4.5 - There's nothing that needs immediate improvement. The only thing is Miss Wednesday, but there is not such thing as a flawless character and we do have a reason for that change.
Design: 4 - Nami, but a pretty Nami. I like the blue hair.

Batoma

Nefeltari Vivi

Love:
My favorite thing about Vivi is her progression throughout the Baroque Works saga. In Whiskey Peak, we learn she is a young princess who infiltrated the evil organization trying to take over her country. We get to see her go from comic relief villain to a princess in hostile territory who is in a situation way over her head. She starts Little Garden tense and probably depressed, yet she remains poised despite Igaram's "death" and an impending civil war in her home nation. However, the sheer ridiculousness of what goes on throughout the arc helps her loosen up so we can see her fun, adventurous side. In Drum, Wapol serves as a fantastic foil for her to express her views on what it means to rule a nation., and then in Alabasta we get to see her plans for a peaceful resolution to the conflict vanish as the situation spirals further and further beyond her control, leading to her desperate screams from the clock tower. Finally, when we leave her and Alabasta, we get the silent salute, which is undoubtedly one of the most emotional and recognizable scenes in the series and definitely the best such scene up until that point. All throughout the saga, she never feels stagnant. There is always another side to her story. In the end, we get one of the best long-term support/almost-main characters in the series.

I have to give a special shoutout to Miss Wednesday. Although she is overshadowed by the real Vivi, if we had ended her character arc there she would still be one of my favorite Baroque Works members. I find her dancing and perfume fighting style, her relationship with Mr. 9, and the cheesy accent she has in the anime (which I will never unhear when rereading that part of the manga) more memorable than all other Baroques Works characters (not counting Robin) except Crocodile, Mr. 2, and Mr. 3.

Also, Carue.

Overall, she is more than deserving of being one of the most revisited past characters in the series, and I am excited to see her role in the rest of the story.

Loathe:
Miss Wednesday is also one of the worst aspects of Vivi. Her country is on the verge of civil war, yet she is acting undercover as a campy bounty hunter fighting with belly dancing hypnosis and getting beaten up by otters and vultures. Her actions, even if she is supposedly only acting, are incompatible with the Vivi we meet later. The prime example, of course, is that we first meet her and Mr. 9 trying to kill Laboon, a character we easily grew attached to even before we meet Brook. That's right, one of the most peace-loving and sympathetic characters is first introduced trying to kill another character with his own hopes, dreams, and tragic backstory. I feel that either Miss Wednesday needed to remain a separate character from Vivi, or her introduction needed better planning.

One more problem with Miss Wednesday: when she found out Baroque Works was run by Crocodile, why did she stay undercover and not go back to Alabasta? Wasn't the whole point of her mission to find out his identity? She certainly was not going to find any smoking-gun level evidence in a backwater town like Whisky Peak.

Also, while Vivi is memorable for her character, I certainly cannot say the same for her design. As Miss Wednesday, she has the distinct ponytail and peacock color scheme. However, as Vivi, there is really nothing too unique about her design. She definitely falls into the standard One Piece female design category, but she doesn't really have any distinct characteristic other than blue hair. Her wardrobe is underwhelming when compared to the normal clothing worn by and associated with the Straw Hats. Her outfits on Little Garden and Drum are not very memorable, and she pretty much wears the same thing as Nami throughout Alabasta. The dress she wears during the salute scene at the end of the arc, combined with the jewelry, stands out in comparison to everything else, but she only appears in it for a short time. Almost all major One Piece characters have some distinctive visual trait, but she lacked this. To her credit though, this means she is remembered fondly almost entirely for her actual character arc and personality.

Rating:
Character: 4/5 - Great development. One of the best developed characters in the series. Loses a point for the dissonance with Miss Wednesday.

Design: 2/5 - Not bad, but plain as far as One Piece designs go.

Tanuki

Vivi
Love: The further down One Piece we get, the more I see just how amazing Vivi really and truly was. Here we have a Princess character, usually a damsel in distress type, uncover a corrupt plot to overcome her country. But she doesn't cry about it and beg for help. No, she gets up and takes action. Going undercover she not only manages to uncover the organisation who is threatening her beloved Kingdom, she's also a strong enough force to place in the top ten in a huge organization, and even manages to uncover who the true leader is in Sir Crocodile.
For all the love Sanji gets for his excellent espionage skills, Vivi really doesn't get her due. That's amazing spy work.

Not only that she is such a wonderful person that she manages to befriend TWO of her enemies(Mr. 9 and Miss Monday) to the point they're willing to stand up against the Mr. 5 pair after finding out she was a traitor to their cause.

And then she even manages to befriend her former opponents in the Strawhats. Like Luffy, Vivi has traces of the ability to befriend people to her cause.

Whilst many labelled her as a crybaby back in the day, with recent princesses like Shirahoshi and Rebecca, Vivi is remembered more fondly as a tough as nails girl with incredibly determination. Violet's the closest we've had since.
Her sheer guts and determination allowed gave her the nerve to stand up to Crocodile, one of the most dangerous men in the entire world, and still attack him. Her take down of the Mr. 7 pair was satisfying to watch as was her joint attack with Nami to save Usopp from Miss Valentine's guillotine move on Little Garden. Even as a child she had the foresight and willpower to not cause a war between Alabasta and Drum. Vivi is a character who shows admirable bravery in the face of many a villain, and she always, ALWAYS prioritises the safety of others before herself.

It's this endearing quality that makes Vivi one of my absolute favourite female characters in the entirity of One Piece, pushing her above even Nami and Robin.

Her friendships and interactions with the crew, as previously stated, are believable and really made everyone at the time believe she was going to become a permenant fixture. At the time of reading I remember I wasn't too plussed about her as a character(Carue was the half of the partnership I desperately wanted in) but in hindsight, Vivi's strong contrast with the more fiery and(to an extent) selfish Nami would have made her a worthy Strawhat.

That farewell still stands up in the series as one of the most striking images in the entire manga's run. It's absolutely beautiful.

Loathe There isn't a lot I dislike about Vivi. She got kidnapped and made helpless a lot, but that was mostly because the entire Baroque Works was targetting HER specifically, and overall she managed to do pretty well for such a seemingly frail princess type.

I guess that she didn't get one really satisfying action moment. Yes, Miss Valentine getting her butt whooped was nice but it was one hit and she shared it with Nami. Yes, taking down the Mr. 7 pair was great and stopping the bomb was awesome but…Croc had set it on a timer so it didn't matter. Would have loved to see how she'd do if she'd stuck with the crew. I somehow think she'd be more of an action girl than Robin ended up being.

The Miss Wednesday act was a bit of an odd one. The sudden change seemed jarring, and felt like it was a spur of the moment decision from Oda rather than something planned. Not sure if that was the case, but Vivi being suddenly good was bizarre after we watched her try to murder Laboon for food.

Lack of appearance in Drum was also not good. Unlike Carue, Zoro and Usopp who also did very little, Vivi had previous backstory with Wapol so she really should have been more actively involved. Her interactions with Wapol could have made Wapol a more interesting and less forgettable villain too.

Does her not joining count as a loathe? So many missed opportunities as a result:
-I'd have loved to have seen her initial reaction with Brook having previously tried to kill Laboon for food.
-Dressrosa would feel very familiar to her, and she could have been just the kind of character that got Rebecca to sort her self out.
-I imagine her annoyance at Perona using the princess title so lightly whilst not understanding what it means to be a ruler and I wish we'd seen that. Could have helped Perona's heel face turn make more sense.
-She'd of had a strong affiliation with Ganfall on Skypeia for sure seeing the hell he was going through for the sake of his people and seeing Pierre and Carue interact could have been fun.
-A promise to Shirahoshi and Neptune that she'd convince her country of Alabasta to stand up for Merman/Fishman and Human relations could of been the first major step to solving the racism in the OP world and had the Strawhats convincingly aid that positive step.
-Her relationship with Robin would have been extremely interesting. Having Vivi stand atop Enies Lobby and declare she was going to save Robin would have easily been the character who had the most meaning behind those words. If Robin, a former enemy had been redeemed in Vivi's eyes, that already powerful scene would have been all the more impactful.

...dammit, I really wish Vivi(AND Carue) had become a permenant Strawhat now!

Character: 4.5/5
Vivi's overall a little less wacky than I usually like my characters, but unlike other 'serious' characters she has a lot of heart and fulfills her role beautifully. Half a point off because I realise how much more potential she had now.

Design: 2.5/5 I hate the term, but yes, Namiface was and still is an issue in this manga and Vivi's unique design suffered from it. Overall Vivi's design, like Zoro or Nami is a little too normal for me to truly appreciate. It's not awful, it's just very normal. Blue hair isn't even that unusual when we have Buggy, Franky, Porche, Miss Doublefinger, Wicca, Ain, Nojiko and Whitey Bay existing.

Zar

I'm really sorry but Vivi will be postponed one day. Exams, surprise assignments, a lovely family visit and a very well-timed sickness means I'm exhausted. And I don't want Vivi to get a half-assed evaluation.

It'll be up tomorrow morning.

What I can say is that 14 people have voted for Vivi (and one for Ivankov) and that makes me really happy. The love sections in particular has been a delight to read. I wonder what other characters could generate such positive comments.

Daz

Love:
Its interesting that Vivi is probably the character who've had the single greatest re-evaluation in OP history; from annoying crybaby to paragon of resolve. And its thankfully not just due to being better than recent princess. Unlike Rebecca, you always feel Vivi is trying her absolute damndest; even when she gets bailed out, she doesn't throw her hands up in the air and shriek for others to solve her problems. Vivi has guts, and is driven 100% by pure empathy. You cannot possibly give more shits than Vivi did, and though we may all have rolled her eyes at it once, you believe it when Oda says Vivis shouting the at the clock tower was the hardest thing for him to write. Its Vivi with absolutely zero cards left to play, its a completely raw moment, one that could only come at the end of an extraordinarily painful journey. Crocodile is often remembered as one of, if not THE greatest villain of the series, but thats only because his dickishness reflected off Vivis earnestness. Chapters 198-199 stand as some of the best of the entire series, and we can thank Vivi for that.

Loathe:
Everyones already mentioned the Miss Wednesday dissonance, which is no suprise considering Oda has directly confirmed that she was supposed to be a one-off villain, and all the princess stuff got added later. So its only to be expected.
Besides that she could've used a bit more personality outside of fierce national pride, and her instant acceptance of Luffy recruiting Robin seems completely unearned, even for Vivi. And she deserved to get fucking pissed at Luffy releasing Croc from prison.

Character: 4/5. Though she doesn't work too well outside of it, her role in Alabasta is too dang good.

Design: 1.5/5; can't give too high a score for blue-haired ponytail Nami

Tanuki

@Zar:

I'm really sorry but Vivi will be postponed one day. Exams, surprise assignments, a lovely family visit and a very well-timed sickness means I'm exhausted. And I don't want Vivi to get a half-assed evaluation.

It'll be up tomorrow morning.

What I can say is that 14 people have voted for Vivi (and one for Ivankov) and that makes me really happy. The love sections in particular has been a delight to read. I wonder what other characters could generate such positive comments.

No need to apologise Zar, sometimes real life gets in the way. Nothing wrong with that. Appreciate the heads up though!

Zar

Love and Loathe #20
Vivi

Here's what you loved about Vivi

Honorary Straw Hat - During her brief stay Vivi fit in with the crew and proved a very memorable member. You loved her relationship with the Strawhats, which eventually led to the unforgettable farewell scene.
Determination - She just doesn't give up. No matter what happens, no matter how much she cries, Vivi never stops trying.
Caring - She loves her country and her friends, and will do anything to help them. She always puts the well-being of others ahead of herself.
Smart Politician - Vivi showed that brute force and stoicism isn't always the answer. She uses her intelligence to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
Centerpiece of Alabasta - Alabasta wasn't just some random country that needed saving. Vivi is the one who got the reader actually interested in the country, wanting the war to stop, wanting to see Croc get his ass kicked.

Favorite Comment goes to Kylor
"Also, Vivi was one of the first characters to really show that the strength of a character doesn't come from fighting competence, or from emotional stoicism. Sure, Luffy was really the one who gave and took the bulk of the punches in Alabasta, but it was Vivi's constant struggle all the way to that point that gave those punches weight. She may not hit as hard as some others in the One Piece world, but she's still not to be messed with. Try to sabotage her kingdom with a secret gang of bounty hunters? She'll go undercover in that gang to for years to expose you, who cares if she's fourteen? Kidnap her and gloat about how you've been ruining her life for years, all while in a position of absolute power? Yeah, you bet she'll still try to get at least one shot in. Try to blow up her hometown with a giant cannon? Not today fucker, she'll make her way up a clocktower and put out that fuse with her bare hands if she has to. Yes, she does cry and have moments of weakness, and yes she does make mistakes, but through it all she just. Doesn't. Stop. Trying. And when everything else has failed and the people are still fighting in the streets? Yeah, you bet she'll keep screaming her lungs out until you stop. 'cause Alabasta is Vivi's home, and there ain't no fighting in Vivi's house. I don't care what you say, that's badass."
Here's what you loathed about Vivi

Miss Wednesday - Planned or not the transition from whale killer to caring princess was jarring.
Princess Nami - Namiface isn't unusual, but this is a major character who's been part of the crew. Nami standing beside Nami-in-a-blue-wig does look odd.
Non-action girl - For all her memorable moments she deserved to get a few more action scenes.
The Normal One -While most people seemed to like her more well-mannered personality, the lack of oddities and quirks made her boring for others.

Favorite Comment goes to Daz
"Everyones already mentioned the Miss Wednesday dissonance, which is no suprise considering Oda has directly confirmed that she was supposed to be a one-off villain, and all the princess stuff got added later. So its only to be expected.
Besides that she could've used a bit more personality outside of fierce national pride, and her instant acceptance of Luffy recruiting Robin seems completely unearned, even for Vivi. And she deserved to get fucking pissed at Luffy releasing Croc from prison."

With 15! votes, Vivi got… Character/Actions: 4.27
Design: 2.94

~~ RANKINGS: Character ~~

Galdino (4.42)
Kureha (4.29)
Vivi (4.27 - 15 Votes)
Rosinante (4.13)
Arlong (4.11 - 9 votes)
Zoro (4.11)
Wanze (3.87 - 6 votes)
Jabra (3.78)
Carue (3.75)
Smoker (3.71)
Robin (3.54)
Ivankov (3.25 - 6 Votes) +0.05
Gecko Moria (3.21 - 12 votes)
Caesar (3.10)
Conis (2.56)
Bellamy (2.50)
Ohm (2.32)
Alvida (1.94)
Vander Decken IX (1.50 - 9 votes)

~~ RANKINGS: Design ~~

Rosinante (4.44)
Kureha (4.29)
Caesar (4.28)
Arlong (4.22 - 7 votes)
Jabra (4.07)
Carue (3.90)
Galdino (3.88)
Gecko Moria (3.75 - 12 votes)
Smoker (3.73)
Wanze (3.69 - 8 Votes)
Ivankov (3.42 - 6 Votes) +0.15
Zoro (3.40)
Robin (3.35)
Vander Decken IX (3.00 - 9 votes)
Vivi (2.94 - 15 votes)
Alvida (2.89)
Conis (2.63)
Ohm (2.59)
Bellamy (2.30)

And with that, let's present the 21st Character! Mucus Hippie

Trebol

To get the whole picture, please tell us the following:

What are the things that you love about Trebol?
What are the things that you loathe about Trebol?

At the end please give Trebol two ratings:

One for his character & actions in the story.
One for his look & design.

These must be between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest (.5's are acceptable - ex. 1.5 or 4.5).

This analysis will be open for the next 72 hours.

Missed the previous character? You can still comment on them and the points will be counted. But only the previous character.

Enjoy!

Kaido King of the Beasts

Love: You can tell that Trebol gives a LOT of shits. The guy is ridiculously dedicated to doing his job, in contrast to Diamante who goes out of his way to torture people and Pica who can't seem to focus on one opponent for more than a few seconds. He nearly stopped Operation SOP singlehandedly, and only failed because Sugar pulled a Diamante. He also contributed well in the final battle, working as a true tag team with Doffy rather than getting in the way/not doing anything (well, most of the time). The guy is so over-the-top and unpredictable that he can be pretty fun to watch, especially when he threw a freaking ship at the executive tower. I like how this behavior is portrayed as both a strength and weakness, giving Trebol significant skill in battle but also proving to be his downfall.

I also enjoyed the purpose Trebol served in the later part of the arc, showing us how Doffy was led into darkness. I think what makes this scene good to me is the fact that rather than have Doffy pull an overdone villain move and betray Trebol, he doesn't do this, but we clearly know that Trebol is living under false pretenses, which only makes it even sadder. This role also gave Trebol a ton of dark turns, which I really liked because it was a nice complement to his over the top nature. One moment you had Trebol throwing a ship, the next you had him stepping on dwarves and giving Doffy the tools he would specifically need to become a cold-blooded murderer.

His application of his powers was also pretty cool, given how there's sometimes been a theme of element generation paramecias being mistaken for Logias, so it was nice to see him take full advantage of that. I just wish the reveal wasn't contained to a single chapter, especially not the final chapter Trebol was up and about.

Loathe: I actually didn't mind that Law took him down, or that Robin didn't fight him (that would have been nasty). But his defeat is just extremely underwhelming. It was good not to drag out Trebol's spotlight moment too long, but his ultimate downfall felt so disconnected from what we saw him say and do just earlier in the chapter. I'm not even of the mindset that he HAD to get an actual fight, but something as sudden and almost-random as that was not satisfying in any way. Plus, him blowing himself up just made things a hundred times worse, because not only did it feel just as abrupt as Law's finishing blow, but IT DID NOTHING! All it was was cliffhanger fodder!

Speaking of explosions, Trebol's mucus flammability made no sense and barely served any purpose in the plot, outside of threatening the dwarves and later the explosion.

Finally, why did the Donquixote executive that had the most annoying mannerisms and voice have to be the one to give all that exposition? It made that scene more tiring than it should have been.

Character: 3.5. Outside of a few mishaps, Trebol fully embraces his sickening annoyingness and runs away with it.
Design: 4. Relevant to the plot, to boot.

Shobu Yoruichi

Glad Iva and Vivi passed, didn't feel comfortable like commenting those typical gals.

Love: Trebol deserves to be voted because he's unique in his way… i would've loved him to be part of Totland because this man would've gained three times the bullying to Pudding, he's ugly as fuck and i like it, you can't expect to an ugly one to be that powerful. Along with that, you can feel the antagonist vibe with him and got more space than Pica and Diamante to develop exactly that with situations, that also showed his brotherhood with his family, to simply kickass in the name of selfishness.

I passed a long time enduring to know what type of fruit he had... and got a rather weird surprise when i got that he ate the fruit... i thought that his robe ate it!!! It is the first time that a character makes me think that thing; dog, sword, jelly... nice but the man here didn't looked like a typical fruit user, this mystery deserves recognition to Oda.

Loathe: Why he wants to be Doflamingo? Why he shares properties of Logia? What's his objective? Unanswered questions that are on the air when thinking about this guy. He groupes with other rascals that pressumably want to be baddies and found a miraculous to-be-villain while wandering a city, thirty years later, still doing the same shit? What the fuck, man... like an atypical Davy Back Fight that you got you crew simply because a hint.

He was a guy meant to be bad and just that, didn't feel anything towards him, nor bad or good. When he was deafeated, it was the same; it didn't matter because the speed surpass him and even Bellamy's K.O was more significant than his existence. I hated the part when he was strike with Banana Shuriken and got a Logia response, Oda played too much there.

Character: Fodder baddie 2/5
Design: Ugliest to me 4/5

Zar

Love
When Trebol first appeared he was disgusting and annoying. I thought he was gonna be the slow-witted ogre, the comedic power-house of the Elite Officers. Then he gave a damn about somebody getting hurt (maybe there's more to him!), but once he threw a goddamn ship at his enemy and nearly obliterated Sugar in the process I knew I'm gonna like this guy.

And I was right.

!
So much for the slow-witted comedic guy. Turns out he's the smart one, and scary at that.

Diamante, Pica and Vergo might've been there too but you really get the feeling Trebol was the one behind all of them. I never liked the notion that Doffy was evil incarnate so knowing Trebol has been influencing him was a great twist. And it fit so well with Dressrosa's theme of manipulation. Even Doffy has his strings. It made the tag team at the end work on some level.

Aside from that he's fun. I'm not good at describing personalities, but most of his decisions feel natural. In a villain cast that was ruined by flat "here's my one quirk" characters Trebol was one of the few that felt like an actual person. I like that he incorporates his fruit with his design. Knowingly messing with the Logia/Paramecia overlap was interesting (and smart!).

Loathe
So he's the guy pulling the strings. That's an awesome revelation! It saved his character but aside from that it really didn't do anything for the story.

I'm still salty that Law (and even the Riku Family) didn't get a shot in on Doflamingo. If there ever was a villain that deserved someone else to finish him (or at least a double take-down) Doffy was the one. But this is One Piece so that's an impossible request. But then Trebol comes along and there was potential for it to work out after all. Luffy and Doffy are the ones the public see, the insanely strong guys deciding the future of the country. But in their shadows is Law and Trebol, the intelligent ones pulling the strings, the fight that will never be known and the fight that's between them personally and not just for the sake of something else. If Law wasn't literally overpowered and Trebol's fruit wasn't the mess it is, the match-up would be heavenly. No matter how much Law cuts Trebol his sticky powers would be able to keep him together, and large-area attacks sounds like a reasonable weakness for Law. It could've been a really good fight.

At times he was too annoying and disgusting. Once he revealed he's the bad behind the bad he started gloating, became dumb as a rock and if memory serves correctly, set himself on fire. Seriously?

And his Fruit was a mess. Why is it combustible? It's like Oda planned for Usopp to blow him up but then changed his mind. The logia/paramecia part was interesting, but having Usopp cut him in half was going too far.

Why did he wear shackles?

Who is he? Why is he so evil? '

The one character in Dressrosa that gets decent screen time and he's the one I want to learn more about.

Character: 3 - I almost gave him a 4 for being one of the better characters in Dressrosa.
Design: - 4 - Appropriately slimy. Very memorable and fitting of his character.

Strooger

Love: Not much, for the majority of his appearances. His quirks were fun at first. And when he was down in the underground harbor, I thought he was legitimately threatening. The scene where he throws that big ass ship is awesome. And the scene where he interrogates the dwarves was legitimately creepy and effective. His ability in concept is also pretty interesting. I loved watching people trying to figure out his devil fruit and people arguing left and right about what was basically retconned. I.E. him being cut by Usopp's ability.

Loathe: All of the top executives failed to live up to expectations for me. But Trebol more than any other, I feel became more like an annoyance. I didn't see any reason to have him paired up with Doflamingo at the end other than Oda not finding any good ways of implementing him in the fight. It didn't feel organic at all to have him team up with Doflamingo. It's sort of revealed that he was the consiglieri of sorts, but it hadn't been properly hinted prior, so while people praise this, I kinda feel like it comes down more as a weakness. All in all I doubt Oda had much planned for him in the first place. I kind of have this conspiracy theory going that he was originally going to be paired with Robin for the fight, but that the editors basically told Oda he needed to make the finale more epic. Unfortunately, I don't think Trebol is threatening in the least. The entire time fighting Law and Luffy he just gets beaten up and played like a sucker while Doflamingo do all the hardwork. His ability isn't well elaborated on. Okay, so you're a flammable snot man who wear slime on your back. Cool, but why is your sticky stuff flammable? Aren't there better ways to have him implement this ability? And him falling for Law's superobvious trap was dumb and felt more like a way for Oda to get rid of him. Because we never see his body again.

Character -2, really unmemorable second hand character, apart from his design.
Design - 3 While I think his design is unique and interesting, it's also not easy on the eye. So I'm not sure whether to rate his appearance high or low. I'll give it a 3 for originality. But take of points for him being just flatout disgusting.

Zar

@Strooger:

All in all I doubt Oda had much planned for him in the first place. I kind of have this conspiracy theory going that he was originally going to be paired with Robin for the fight, but that the editors basically told Oda he needed to make the finale more epic.

You're not the only one. Even though I like him I get the feeling Oda changed his direction mid-way.

My take on the original plan:

Sugar was knocked out permanently in the Toy Factory
Usopp achieved haki by blowing up Trebol from afar
This would motivate Trebol's weakness to fire. That way Usopp can take him out in a single flashy shot.
The final fight with Doflamingo didn't include Law.

So the theory is that due to Law's popularity Oda's editors wanted him to be part of the final fight. But Oda still wanted the final to be only Luffy and Doffy, so he had to introduce a new opponent for Law. He made Trebol the real puppet master to give it some motivation and there you go.

Another theory is that when Green Bit was still it's own arc Trebol was the main villain. But then it got combined with Dressrosa and he lost his purpose.

I don't have the faith in Oda to give Robin a proper fight. But if he did, my bet is instead of being Trebol's opponent she was supposed to be Sugar's.

Well, it's all crazy speculation but it did feel like Trebol's sudden appearance in the final fight and the whole "i'm the real puppet master" twist was a last minute decision. Pica and Diamante at least had clear purposes as Zoro's and Kyros' opponents.

Kaido King of the Beasts

@Zar:

I don't have the faith in Oda to give Robin a proper fight. But if he did, my bet is instead of being Trebol's opponent she was supposed to be Sugar's.

I couldn't really see the two having a good fight, since Robin would either easily overpower Sugar or Sugar would just do what she did in the actual story. Unless Robin fought Sugar as a toy, which admittedly does have some potential.

I think Dellinger could have had great potential against her. She's good against speed as she showed with Hakuba but even so Dellinger could have given her a bit of a run for her money.

Strooger

@Zar:

You're not the only one. Even though I like him I get the feeling Oda changed his direction mid-way.

My take on the original plan:

Sugar was knocked out permanently in the Toy Factory

Usopp achieved haki by blowing up Trebol from afar

This would motivate Trebol's weakness to fire. That way Usopp can take him out in a single flashy shot.

The final fight with Doflamingo didn't include Law.

So the theory is that due to Law's popularity Oda's editors wanted him to be part of the final fight. But Oda still wanted the final to be only Luffy and Doffy, so he had to introduce a new opponent for Law. He made Trebol the real puppet master to give it some motivation and there you go.

Which brings back the point you made earlier, about the idea of having Law defeat Doflamingo instead. That would have carried so much weight for the story. On top of serving as a counter to the whole "Luffy always beat the main bad guy"; I don't think any One Piece fans would really mind if a different character than beat him for once. Oda would basically hit a hat trick in capitalizing on Law's character arc. But instead we got those unbearable "is Law dead?!" cliffhangers for like 5 chapters in a row :(.

@Zar:

Another theory is that when Green Bit was still it's own arc Trebol was the main villain. But then it got combined with Dressrosa and he lost his purpose.

This would have been so much better. :ninja:

@Zar:

I don't have the faith in Oda to give Robin a proper fight. But if he did, my bet is instead of being Trebol's opponent she was supposed to be Sugar's.

At this point, I have a hard time believing she'll get any opponents up until Blackbeard face-off, even in Wano. But back then, it felt like an obvious set up for it. What other reason could Robin and Usopp have to square of against two other officers? I thought at first, and when there was this thing with Robin leading Trebol away at first. Then we actually get to see her stop a few of his sticky blasts. It felt like we were going to see them fight. And then we got another fake out with her arriving at Diamante's plateu. Then I thought Oda would have her take control of the fight, for sure. But alas.

@Zar:

Well, it's all crazy speculation but it did feel like Trebol's sudden appearance in the final fight and the whole "i'm the real puppet master" twist was a last minute decision. Pica and Diamante at least had clear purposes as Zoro's and Kyros' opponents.

Which is funny, because at first in Dressrosa, it seems like Diamante is Mingo's Dragon. Out of the three officers, the two interacted the most after all. And then once Pica actually uses his ability, it seems like Pica is the real ace of the family. I guess it's a good thing that Oda actually took the time out to develop the relationship with all 3 of them. But once Trebol shows up at the end in a duo with Doflamingo, it feels like it comes out of left field.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Kaido:

I couldn't really see the two having a good fight, since Robin would either easily overpower Sugar or Sugar would just do what she did in the actual story. Unless Robin fought Sugar as a toy, which admittedly does have some potential.

I think Dellinger could have had great potential against her. She's good against speed as she showed with Hakuba but even so Dellinger could have given her a bit of a run for her money.

I guess Dellinger would have to be tweaked quite a bit though. Since Robin could catch Cavendish, while Dellinger got completely blitzed without having a chance to react. I would also have liked if Kuros just got to eat shit to Diamante and Robin basically has to step in and show how it's done.

Kaido King of the Beasts

Robin giving Kyros a bit more of a helping hand? Sure. Robin preventing Kyros from avenging his wife? Hell nah.

Count Mario

@Kaido:

Robin giving Kyros a bit more of a helping hand? Sure. Robin preventing Kyros from avenging his wife? Hell nah.

Now if Robin was Luffy, THEN she could steal a character's deserving spotlight role for cathartic vengeance because of mandatory protagonist glory. Like what happened to Law.