@Count:
Building a country allows Linlin to stay at a home base and only focus on expanding territory. Kids being kidnapped by the World Government spawns the intent to reboot Enies Lobby and potentially war with the World Government. Streussen doesn't need that big of a hassle.
I dunno. I really think 6-8 kids running around in the world with that kind of network is begging to bite you in the ass. It's not like it would be hard to just have others search for them. They are working for the government not their prisoner.
Either possibility can make her depressed and guilty, and I doubt that it would be as simple as redoing the portrait destruction phase. It would cause her to want to change.
Depressed from losing her maybe. Guilty for killing her possible. But wanting to change I don't buy that. Not if the whole true is reveal to Big Mom. Big Mom is not going to suddenly want to change because her mom wanted to exploit her. Or rather it doesn't make much sense. Big Mom might regret her but her mom being among the selfish people is not going to be the one to switch her to think more about others. Ultimately all it proves is that she was always right to be selfish.
It would also weird for Oda because he doesn't derive sympathy from evil person. When Rocinante betray decide to betray his brother you don't care because Doffly is evil. Big Mom is not gonna have her big change from someone like Carmel when Yorle died and was no issue. Oda need an innocent to make the loss be that of a moral person which Carmel no longer is.
Aiming that change for the better instead of worse is what that the rest of the characters around Linlin have to do. I expect everybody to learn the truth rather than only Linlin and probably Pudding. Or else nobody is going to know how to react to a suddenly sad Big Mom and would be completely weirded out if she suddenly decided to be a better person without knowing why. All this family tension and focus demands a therapeutic/bonding resolution.
She is the alpha dog of her kingdom. The change has to come from her. There is no way she is going to get imposed stuff by her kid considering how scared they are of her.
Big Mom's age is irrelevant due to her having the mind of a child.
The age is not irrelevant when it is about Big Mom having been this way for decades and knowing that is not just a facade but her real personality. She isn't sacrificing her morals to be evil. She is simply doing what she wants and others get hurt as a result.
She can still grow after learning truths she was not privy too rather than already hitting a ceiling of maturity she can't overturn. The reader will still care about abducted kids while Linlin was off only eating. She's still indirectly hurting innocent people by not helping them out of ignorance. And Big Mom can still slap in the face (the discipline she never got as a child from probably Luffy), but not a full defeat.
It is not about maturity. It is about what would make her want to change. The hurting people because others got hurt while she was busy is such a remote level of responsability that I doubt even you believe much in it. Especially when most likely she would just be mad against whoever kidnaped them for having taken her family(which would make sense). If you are going to have Big Mom feel guilty indirect is probably the last thing you are searching for.
She could end up worse, but that's why we have her kids, the Straw Hats (especially Sanji, the guy who's getting praised for his kindness over and over again. He can teach Linlin a thing or two after calming her down), Pudding, as well as Lola's relatives (Chiffon and Pound, and maybe Lola makes a surprise entrance herself eventually) in order to curb Big Mom's stress. That's why they're there. I'm expecting some of sappy family support in order to ease all of the conflicts within her family. She not only realizes Carmel's flaws, but her own flaws. The latter will make her guilty.
That's the sitcom resolution. Which doesn't much apply here if only because fear is the most important part of that family so the most important step would have t come from Big Mom.
I doubt he's a contact since the narration says he was from a broken up pirate crew, while Carmel associates with CP0 and the World Government. And the latter is adding entirely new events outside of the time frame of Linlin's birthday feast that would feel too convenient.
I doubt he literally came today. Supposedly he has settled on there. Seeing Carmel doing some shady deal is not much of a stretch.
I never said it wouldn't be a waste or that it wouldn't look tame. I actually feel apprehensive about Oda backtracking from something as engagingly dark as child cannibalism. I only want to acknowledge that the way Oda is framing the story can lead to a revelation like this if he choose, which may unfortunately seem like a copout tonally.
Of course he can do anything. Oda had Ace be Roger's son after a 20 months pregnancy which the kind of stupid plot point I only expect from a fanfiction or a dumb predictions. But I also think it is important to acknowledge when something makes sense or not. Just because he can do it doesn't mean it makes sense.
Of course Carmel's death would have consequences and be as major as Yoruru's death. When Yoruru died, the narrator announces how both information about Linlin's monstrousness and Carmel's heroism spread everywhere involving Giants. Linlin killing her own mother, especially one as revered as Carmel, would be seen as a huge affront to the Giants. Giants even came to help build the Sheep's Home in Totland only because Carmel was there while they still didn't want to see Linlin's face. The fact that they already don't even want to see her and then deciding to not feel comfortable enough to mention her are logical steps in progression after an incident like killing Carmel, another Elbaf hero.
I would expect angry giant if it was just a murder he was witnessing. I would also expect him to help the kids if it was simply about Carmel. To make a giant turn pale and run away I expect him to have something particularly disgusting. Keyword being disgusting.
It will still cause much controversy. And conflict has to come from somewhere unless Blackbeard decides to show up. Or both.
Friends with 2 heroes. Rescued crewmates of 2 heroes. Helped/saved protegé of 2 old heroes.
That makes sense, but it's still weird how he got to learn about Lola's existence. But Oda will probably make something up for that.
Wanted poster are a thing. And if he travel at all they can easily meet. Sabo and Koala? That's convenient.
I doubt it. But the fact that it fits the narrative of Big Mom being lied to so much out of fear makes me think it's more probable that she learns the entire truth for payoff. Both from her kids and about Carmel.
Is there literally anything that Carmel being a slave trader or CP0 kidnapping the kid would bring to the arc? It will be background no matter what. Expect if suddenly there was 70 year old secret agent in the wedding and he starts crying, repent and join the strawhat/Big Mom.
It wasn't random trivia that came after the arc, a knowledgable reader could already tell that was Drake's father.This isn't about Oda saving things for the future, it's about Oda ONLY saving things for the future.
Yes but we only learned/got confirmation of what happened to him after the arc. And it didn't play into the arc at all. The presence of Drake and what Doflamingo did to his family was totally incidental. The same way Sabo's survival didn't play much role and was not confirmed into much later. Or what the hell Dragon was doing in Goa at that time. Planting seeds for later is what Oda does.
Carmel's negotiations with CP0 is still not currently relevant in the arc. Carmel's way of teaching Linlin kind of is, but it's more just elaborated background? Her behavior already made sense before, despite being flawed. And unless CP0 is showing up in Elbaf, nobody is going to know the truth about Carmel if Streussen's confession doesn't offer enough pieces for that.He mostly always finds a way to make long running plotlines both currently relevant and long-term relevant.
Do you believe Drake being in Law's flashback was relevant?
And you also have Rosinante in that scene claiming that Doflamingo doesn't really regret anything. And that family shtick got shattered with the Baby 5 reveal and Law taunting Trebol about how he's really just a tool, and Doflamingo not saying he's wrong but only telling Trebol to keep his head in the game.
If you can pick and choose which moments matter, you can frame anything one way. Vergo's sacrifice and Dofla showing regret in a empty room are also present or when he says he was raised by the top 3. Dolfamingo was portrayed as evil but he was not portrayed as only evil. We even have Dofla being haunted by a nightmare. Yet you insist half of the characterization does not matter. It is both that make a whole. And I also doubt it has much to do with Big Mom. She already killed innocent accidentally so portraying her as good(if it is Odaa intention) always for accidental death of good people.
The death roulette got indirectly explained in Big Mom being so traumatized from not knowing what happened to her family that she doesn't want anybody to leave her again. Which is bad, and she should be held responsible. But that's something I can see be overcome and chalked up to convoluted morals like Law, Kid, and Whitebeard. And this late in the game where only Big Mom and Kaido are left, despite being the biggest baddies, I don't expect Oda to change his game up. I would like him to, but I can't.
I doubt Law, Kidd and Whithebard have convoluted morals.
She already killed the giant heroe and terrorize people. Killing a couple of children accidentally is within her established character. It doesn't break it since she did not do so knowingly.
And for your ants analogy, the story is being geared towards making Big Mom realize how those ants feel by having redeemable attributes about her character being shown. She's done terrible things, but mainly out of ignorance and illness. She can still change if she learns about her flaws instead of overreacting, and if people stop hiding those flaws from her in fear.
Points that are served by her accidentally killing innocent people that deeply matters to her rather than an evil person that tried to use her.
The latter gains pure sympathy and gratification, while the latter also gains sympathy but also sparks plenty of readers to call her a pure a monster even though it was out of her control.
One try to be built sympathy and change from the death of evil godmother while the second try to build sympathy and change from dear family member that valued her. I don't think the former makes much sense.
Big Mom's name not being mentioned isn't that big of an extension of how infamous she already was. And Big Mom sitting around while kids get kidnapped and possibly still eating Carmel, their hero, is still almost as horrific.
I disagree. Also means that the giant saw Carmel died and left the children. How does relate to the kids disappearing? And if it is ok to eat Carmel why not leave her good or eat everyone.
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I wonder how much lifespan did Big Mom put into zeus and Prometheus. She seems to have had them pretty young. And that's not counting those random things she put her lifespan into to play. So how old could Big Mom have lived without that? 140-160? Her longevity seems pretty big by one piece standards.
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As far as devil fruit go I am going to suppose she ate some random fruit close by. I don't expect that thing to come up again anyway so I choose not to care to much about it.
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@FolhaS:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/24/ef/91/24ef91bc2caa6b7a2034e7cb77437e43.jpg
That thing is awesome.
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@allbluebro:
I a not to concerned about Nami'progress because I know she has at least a couple times been shown working on a map or two… and the whole mastering using log poses and all the time she spent in the sky probably helped her dream a ton.
It still bothers me that she did not know about the new log poses needed in the new world. You would think that would be one of the first thing she learned on the sky island.