@Bartholemew:
This doesn't sound that bad, though.
As an overall profession for a main character, it's not bad at all. It would actually pretty cool and even be implemented in ways like analyzing the mentality of opponents and having an effective means to dig deep into the psychology of other characters (along with the significant themes of a series). But it definitely wouldn't contribute anything to the plot of One Piece specifically. Even the positions of "Archeologist" and "Musician" contribute more to the overall adventure/pirate ambiance. Even the whole "Astronomer" shtick people had going for Monet would contribute more considering all of the space shenanigans with Enel and alien connections with the Ancient Kingdom that are bound to be relevant later on in the story. There's a reason why Oda doesn't have the Straw Hats talk about their pasts, or has Luffy rarely care about listening to backstories rather than focusing solely on present issues.
@Chrior:
I think you make very sound and solid arguments and most of the people here agree with them. I also understand your point of view, but the situation doesn't strike me as wrong as much as you. Maybe because I like the Red Wedding scenario and that makes me biased towards thinking it a good development. But I also think that the revelation of Mama's feelings and plans towards Lola just a few chapters before the revelation of the Vinsmoke grand murder plan gives us an indication towards the singularity of this case. The fact that Big Mom had such a golden opportunity to become Pirate King, per her own words, and saw it all go up in flames because a marriage went wrong left a deep scar on her. We clearly see this by her reaction towards Lola's name even being mentioned.
I've seen that brought up before, and I always agreed that it is a legitimate possibility that would make sense. Wouldn't make me that much less disappointed as a compromise on what makes Big Mom's characterization and antagonist role so interesting, and I would prefer for such sensibilities to be more apparent in Big Mom's panel time outside of that chapter. But it can still work.
Now, the Germa 66 technology and might is something she had set her sights upon for quite a long time. Smoothie herself mentions that this chapter. This whole event has been a long time coming, and Big Mom probably sees this as her second big chance of rising a cut above the competition. So, after Lola's fiasco, she can't tolerate any more failures in her plans. Although we don't know if Linlin knows about it (despite very likely knowing who she's dealing with; she's a mafia boss type of character who knew Sanji worked for years in Baratie, after all), the Vinsmokes aren't kind and trustworthy people either. They basically planned on taking Pudding hostage as soon as they could, haul out of Totto Land, and then use Big Mom's name as a cover to stop the WG from attacking them during their North Blue conquests, while giving Big Mom as little as they could. So, knowing the kind of people she was dealing with, and not tolerating another failure in her grand plans to become King of Pirates, she opted to dispose of the unnecessary link between her empire and the Germa technology: the Vinsmoke family. They are the ones who can ruin the whole affair (and certainly kind of plan to rip her off!) and, as such, if they are disposed of, she gets the science and technology that she has wanted for a long time, adds the Germa 66 kingdom to her territories and armies, and, in her eyes, is then qualified to defeat the other Emperors and push for One Piece.
But see, that's never sold me though. People claiming that Big Mom already knows the Vinsmokes are bad people and would thus betray them. This would bother even more for a few reasons. Such as the antagonism between Big Mom and the likes of the Vinsmokes occurring off-panel in a cheap after the fact manner (which any author can use in their stories as an easy way to give shock value for the shock value without actual narrative merit) than effectively building up that conflict, which would have been pretty awesome to see. The Vinsmokes don't trust her and are willing to take Pudding hostage, that's obvious. But Big Mom doesn't know that, and the statement about the Vinsmokes taking Pudding hostage does not fit into the time frame of Big Mom being informed right after they said that, and ESPECIALLY not when apparently planning the Vinsmoke's demise before this arc even began.
And most of all, why would someone who can commit as many morbid and selfish atrocities like Big Mom judge the Vinsmokes like that? The only thing I've seen working on that front would be Linlin learning about Linlin's mistreatment and not being a fan of children being treated like that, especially if her phobia of Giants stems from being a Giantess who got treated in a similar manner due to her small size compared to them or something. Besides that, she would be a complete hypocrite. There's nothing to even suggest they can ruin anything besides calling the wedding off, and nothing has been seen to potentially provoke that reaction. And EVEN THEN, if we want to still go the "Big Mom is being especial careful after Lola ruined the first big political marriage", then having Pudding fake her feelings for and assistance to the Straw Hats already gets that across underhandedly while still preserving her ethics on not breaking her deals without being reasonable provoked.
On the other hand, some arguments against your position were also valuable in order to contribute to this view. Namely the fact that all agreements and trades that we've seen Big Mom do thus far have been with her in a position of unquestionable superiority, where she feels she can toy with the other side of the deal and appear as a reasonable business woman. After all, she's the only one who can make demands and, when things don't go her way, simply destroy the opposing party. We this with her obliterating islands who don't pay on time, with Jinbe trying to leave, for example. We've also seen examples of her sheer ruthlessness, like sending Amande, Diesel, and Randolf to obtain the ingredients for the wedding cake by killing whomever they deemed necessary to do so. Or with Montd'Or's books holding people prisioner just becase she likes them. So we can see a more pirate-y, simply cruel side of her as well, alongside her mafioso businesswoman side, which can feed her incredible desire and lead her to betray the wedding arrangement in favour of simply taking what she wants here and now.
I won't deny that Big Mom typically has the upper hand when making these deals. But that doesn't she has to apply for a cowardly route and compromise the morals she stands for when the tables are turned. There are all sorts of villains that can do the most detestable actions even compared to characters who are evil for the sake of being evil, and yet still have their perverse morals (even to the point of being anti-villains and claiming that their actions are for the good of others) stay intact. She's not really strained by the Vinsmoke marriage because they need her to retake North Blue. And they also stand to lose their Reverie invitation and status of being pardoned for their military actions by the World Government. Not to mention that their forces pale in comparison to her's, and they are docked right in her territory with a vast information relaying network. The Vinsmokes arguably stand at a larger disadvantage than Big Mom ever could. It's not like she went crawling to them and begged for their tech, at least as far as we know. And she has more to gain from having their military power along with the clone tech, especially since clones take at least five years to be cultivated (unless her lifespan stealing powers speed that up or something).
I hope this take on things can smooth both sides of the conversation on a sort of mid term, since this is how I see the events. I guess I'm kind of tired of seeing this topic again and again, even when the chapter's events barely have anything do to with it. I guess the ammount of breaks we've had has made it even worse than it should have been…
Believe me, I don't want to keep bringing up my dissatisfaction about this either. I've already made my point several times and only sound like a hackneyed old man complaining about kids playing on his lawn at this point. I can definitely respect others who don't see Big Mom breaking character, their arguments make sense. But I'm not going to just take accusations of having a purely biased subjective view when making my critiques, which is hardly true in the slightest and is a poor way to counter my points with harmful generalization. Especially since such statements indicate that it's supposedly impossible to both be invested in a character and make valid analyses of their character, as if the author can get away with writing his characters however we wants whether it breaks what's been established or rushes/ignores essential character development.
Edit: Wow, this came out much longer than intended, I don't usually write this much. Stop infecting me with the long posts virus, Count :ninja:
!
Thank you for posting all of that to try settling the debate though. I always appreciate somebody offering their earnest feedback like this and open-mindedly hearing both sides. That's very commendable, even though I'm sure it might have been a bit tedious to type all of that (I don't mind since debates can be properly amp up my emotional and mental investment without getting out of hand and forcing my opinion onto others, because that doesn't help anybody lol). I just hope these conversations I've been having on the whole Big Mom controversy in general haven't been unnerving anybody by feeling they're too intimidating or repetitive to participate in. I'm more than cool with ending my peace about my thoughts on the Red Wedding betrayal here. Unless somebody else comments that posts like mine and Desa's are unfounded, I'm not making any promises for backing down from enlightening others when my comments are practically called out as nonsensical lol.
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