Disclaimer: Given the role of mentors and parallels in this series, and the occasional comment about fate, I figured a thread designated specifically to these topics might help keep other threads on topic. That said, depending on how it goes I may just merge or lock this thread, but for the time being keep it clean, polite, and relevant. Most of you have already discussed a lot of this, so think before you post and get your ideas together so you aren't just mindlessly spamming the same ideas over and over. That said, I'll kick things off with the most recent topic of debate:
[hide]@Bakajaro:
First off, this thread [..] made me really think about why I love this manga. It shows that:
- The difference in power is no joke. (Unlike other series)
- Oda doesn't let Luffy be trained a trillion times (Naruto), but so far only once, and just because he was obliterated with his crew.
Let's be honest here, sure i would love it if Luffy kept owning everybody like he did from East Blue to CP9, but isn't better that he was defeated on Saboady because the difference is too great? I hated the fact that he was powerless, I hated that he was defeated, but in the end, I see it was very important.
Also remember that Roger became the Pirate King after decades of being a pirate. Brook mentioned there being a rookie named Roger about 50 years ago, which makes sense since Newgate was 22 when the Rumbar Pirates entered the Grand Line, and yet Roger only became the Pirate King one year before he died. That's going on 30 years of pirate experience Roger gathered to get to his legendary status. Luffy's only 19. Unless Oda wants to skip tons of adventures and decades of Luffy's life before he becomes Pirate King, Luffy would need to have some extra help to get to the top faster than Roger did.
@Sea:
I think the fate he mentioned here is 緣, a common concept in Asian countries which means a predestined affinity, natural bond, linkage, bonding, etc. In our culture, when two people meet each other and make a special bond, whether good or bad, they believe it's fate/緣, a bond resulted by the action of their previous lives, perhaps. Rayleigh meeting a special man who also wears the hat of another man special to him is what moved him. A strange meeting, that he thinks was organized by fate/緣 and is thankful for.
[/hide]
^^ A few posts that reflect my own thoughts on the matter*, particularly NANLIT's. To make it simple, most of us are familiar with the stigmas of shonen manga, like ever growing levels of strength that seem to know no limit, training arcs back to back where person XX keeps getting new power ups to compensate for YY, bloodlines that provide certain abilities or positions that give character ZZ an advantage, etc, etc. One Piece really has very few of these, if any, when it comes down to it. It established the power of the world early on, most of said powers were all much older, wiser, and more experienced than Luffy and his crew. Luffy and his crew had all specialized in or trained in something since very early in their life, working very hard to refine or pursue said specialization up to this point. Most of the crew experienced hardship growing up, many of which VERY hard hardship. None of them were given a free ride, or inherited something naturally that gave their situation favor. All in all, it's been pretty fair all around. I think if anything, the biggest hurdle for us is the culture; fate and 'ki' being prime examples.
Anyway, I figure Roger's relationship with Shanks is similar to Shanks' relationship with Luffy. Luffy just happens to have the same mentality and fearless adventurers spirit that Roger had, so Shanks sees Luffy in the same light. They both passed down the hat to people they thought were worthy. How did Robby put it… it's not the hat that makes the man, but the man that earns the hat.
