Mismatched?

[KrossWinter]

I've been thinking on this for a while, and I know it's entirely stupid to be thinking about.

In technical terms, pirates are classified as 'bad' while marines are classified as 'good'. Now this is just in technical terms of the names themselves, not those who hold them.

Though I can quite easily say that Crocodile is as bad (in the awesome way) as you can get in my mind. Holding a vice grip on an entire country by holding a monopoly on the water? Ingenious.

But if we apply the technicalities of these terms in a literal sense to the One Piece world, we end up with a jumbled confusion. This happens because Luffy and the protagonists fall under pirates, who fall under 'bad'. But we know that the Straw Hats and -some- of the pirates are 'good'. And the marines are basically the antagonists, despite their name falls under the title of 'good'.

I know I've been thinking too hard on this, but what does one do with the definition in such a case? Pirates by definition are bad. Marines by definition are good.

What to do…I'd like to get what you guys think on this little title placement.

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

Well, I'll compare it to Star Wars… because why not?

In Star Wars the rebels are the good guys, because the Empire is evil. Cut and dry.

One Piece is similar in a way, because it's been shown pretty clearly at this point that the World Government is corrupt and pretty evil.

This makes the pirates who oppose the government the good guys, since the system is the bad guy. The whole "authority is bad" thing has been done in plenty of things, especially in those dystopian futuristic sci-fi movies.

But indeed, not all pirates are good guys, most of them are just out for their own selfish or chaotic interests.

So yeah... the Straw Hat crew are lovable outlaw heroes, and the Government is evil... and some other pirates are evil.

Sounds good to me.

[KrossWinter]

Thus if we told a person the basic concept of it, they would assume it would be anarchy against the government? And clever move comparing it to Star Wars. I had forgotten it was in a similar situation.

This also leaves the Shichibukai in a somewhat odd predicament. I'll compare them to the State Alchemists of FMA.

Both the State Alchemists and the Shichibukai are considered dogs of the government. But seeing as how I'm focusing more on the mechanics of One Piece, I'll target that. The Shichibukai are considered dogs by other pirates because they've all but forsaken the name. But despite being part of the World Government, we must take a look at the members individually.

Jimbei, Teach, and Hancock all are considered part of 'the good guys'. And I'll admit I want to say Teach is good because of how awesome his devil fruit is. But he's more…teetering on the edge I'll say.

Crocodile, while he once fell into the status quo by being 'bad' because not only was he trying to keep Arabasta in his vice grip, but he was also part of the Shichibukai. After he was removed of the title and given basic pirate rights again, which are nothing, he became classified as 'good' by the technicalties.

Moria, Kuma, and Doflamingo are classified as 'bad' because they are art of the World Government. And we already know they are with current knowledge.

Mihawk is a wild card. I just see him as the person who doesn't care what happens, but will fight if ordered. I don't even think he classifies as a pirate.

...Does he?

Anyways, since the events at Enies Lobby, the World Government I think can take signifigant action against the Straw Hat crew if they so wished. In fact, I think that's going to happen anyways. And I'm discounting the events in the Saboady Archipelago for the moment. I'm still slightly confused as to how Kizaru was called. I've been running on half a bottle of diet-coke for about 16-hours.

Since the Straw Hats have declared war on the World Government, that now classifies them as a terrorist group and a pirate crew. And once again, terrorists are considered 'bad' in this day and age. Very, very 'bad'.

In the world of One Piece, it's a bunch of opposites isn't it?

[Psycho_Kenshiro]

I agree, except I'll say there's good and evil aside from just the outlaw pirates vs. World Government thing.

Even though the World Government is evil, that doesn't mean any pirate who opposes them is good.

I consider Crocodile and Blackbeard to be evil. Most of the pirates in One Piece are selfish and probably just as corrupt as the World Government in their own way.

There are also good people on the World Government side, like Smoker and Tashigi.

Of course, it's interesting having the pure good Straw Hat crew compromise by teaming up with more "bad" pirates when the World Government is a common enemy.

Good stuff.

[KrossWinter]

Yes, that is most definately interesting.

Smoker always striked me as the person that will defect to the 'Straw Hat side', as I've named the good side. He'll turn on the World Government after what they've done become knowledge, and beat the crap out of everyone. :happy:

But what we've come to understand, is that normalcy shouldn't be looked for when something concerns the Straw Hats. You'll just get a -good- philosophical debate and a headache.

[CupidKirby]

Honestly if you think about it, I don't think neither Pirates nor the Government have been specifically labelled 'bad' or 'good' respectively. If you think about real life, the government and such aren't exactly prancing unicorns on the spring meadow in the magical land of candy. In truth, we do mess with things that shouldn't be touched.

Same with pirates; they're usually only considered bad because they oppose the government. It's sort of like saying that all teachers must love kids and that all police officers must believe in world peace. It just isn't going to happen.

[Captain Hypersock]

Everybody classifies themselves in this series. They're only good if they want to be. They all have their own definition of "good," after all. Some believe in "absolute justice," while others believe in "freedom."

[fedcom]

It seems to me that most pirates are bad, and the Straw Hat crew is just one of the exceptions.

[Elektrik Dynomite]

We don't know if kuma is bad either. For all we know he could be plotting against the government with the revolutionaries, thus the reasoning for splitting up the Straw Hats so they wouldn't be defeated and captured. Of course this is only a theory, but i'd say kuma is a wild card too

[CupidKirby]

@Elektrik:

We don't know if kuma is bad either. For all we know he could be plotting against the government with the revolutionaries, thus the reasoning for splitting up the Straw Hats so they wouldn't be defeated and captured. Of course this is only a theory, but i'd say kuma is a wild card too

It's also note-worthy that he decided to split them up instead of actually killing them or turning them in.