so recently i started rereading the series from the beginning. i just did that last year, but for some personal reasons i decided i wanted to go back and read it again. so anyway, i just wrapped up Whiskey Peak and i'm about to start Little Garden. as i've been making my way through the early parts of the series some things really stood out to me about how Oda has built the crew during the series. i apologize if this is a bit rambley.
Oda laid the groundwork for the entire crew (or at least everyone on the crew so far) very early in the series' run. so obviously we have the five members of the crew who join in East Blue; Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji. but even that early in the series Oda establishes the foundations for everyone else in the crew.
Brook
let's start with Brook, right? of course there's Laboon, setting up Brook's backstory. by the time the crew reaches Twin Capes, you can see Oda working and building towards Brook's introduction and recruitment by setting the foundation for his back story. there's also this page before the Baratie, where Luffy mentions wanting a musician to join the crew.
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Jimbei
we can move to Jimbei next, who has this name drop here in chapter 69 (nice). so again, already building up a member of the crew with a name drop, and setting the stage for Fishman Island, an arc where he would potentially (and did, in fact) play a major role.
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Chopper
then we've got Chopper. in Arlong Park, the doctor from Cocoyasi remarks to Luffy and Zoro that their ship needs a doctor, to which Luffy responds that he's probably right. (and then he brings the musician back up, so throw that in for building up Brook).
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additionally, you've got this moment between Luffy and Crocus where he asks him to be the ship's doctor, which he declines. but again, you see Oda laying the hints for a future member of the crew, in this case that a doctor will join the crew.
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Franky
next we've got Franky. the Merry starts taking visible and sustained damage even before they enter the Grand Line, with Sanji and Usopp breaking the whipstaff on the way up Reverse Mountain. then the head is broken off the ship when it runs into Laboon, and Luffy tears the mast off. so not only is the Merry taking damage something written very deliberately, as that ultimately lead to them looking for a shipwright in Water 7, but Usopp makes a comment about not being the crew's shipwright, indicating that they'll have to get one eventually.
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Robin i don't feel like I have to make the case for Robin being introduced early, considering she's introduced very quickly after the crew enters the Grand Line.
i know a lot of this is already common knowledge. but i also feel like it isn't a coincidence that you can see hints of every member of the crew almost immediately after the crew enters the Grand Line. you can make the argument that a lot of this is clearer reading this in hindsight, knowing the payoff for a lot of this set-up, and i would agree with you. but looking at it from the perspective of Oda as an author, this all feels very deliberate. Oda didn't just write all of this as throw away stuff, he knows who his main cast is and he introduces these ideas and clearly foreshadows them intentionally. i guess this is a hold over from when Oda planned for the series to be five years and that the crew would be completed sooner as a result. but i just think it's really interesting that you can see Oda's idea for at least 10 of the 11 members of the crew and working towards their respective appearances in just over the first 100 chapters. i feel like the next member of the crew is probably going to come from some kind of pay off that we haven't gotten yet from this early section of the series. it would certainly fit Oda's m.o. of foreshadowing to crazy degrees.
idk.
maybe someone's waiting on Elbaf.
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oh what's this? Oda's writing about vikings on the inbetween pages in Volume 2? jeez, sounds like something he's interested in. i wonder if this country of giant vikings that's been built up for 20 years will be important.
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