@S.C.:
Man, it's been a while since there's been a pure "Man, fuck this guy" character like Judge, huh?
Kind of lol. But Arlong, Crocodile, Enel, Blackbeard, and even Akainu are much more charming scumbags. Judge is… meh. I still remember what I thought when I first saw his design. I had a whole "...That's it?" impression, even though I had no idea what to expect lol.
@The:
Rebecca was one of my favorite parts of Dressroba, so my taste might not be the most trustworthy, but i think Dogtoogh has been my favorite character post TS, above even Jack. I consider Dog to be one of the most well fleshed out characters in series, and this is done thanks to Odas improved writing skills, or at least what he has learned after 800 chapters. When i say fleshed out, i mean the potential to be an actual human being, and in that way Dog shines, and its really something else considering how little we've seen of him. What do we know about him? He is the second strongest big mom pirate, and in the world there are few who could beat him, he's also mastered his CoO to a ridiculous level and has a devil fruit that is in a way maybe better than Luffys. Oh and his lack of "quirks", or "speech pattern" or whatever else. I know this is a manga that flaunts how over the top the characters are, but in his own way Dog is also over the top. Just not in the way we're accustomed to. He has a personality, an already very defined one, but in Odas usual manner his look is just over the top, but in this case with an archetype we are not used to seeing from Oda. As you put it, the badass, well guess what? That in and of itself is more unique in this manga than anything else, and the lack of "quirks" is to make his personality and character work. What would be the point in having him do stupid things in serious situations just like everyone else? What exactly does that even add? Nothing. And why do i say that he is fleshed out and has a very believable(one of the most believable and sound characters in the series) personality? Because of what he's done and said. In almost every scene hes either trying to protect his family or being completely realistic and to the point, a trait Oda obviously put thought into, as someone who can see the future to some degree must have that ability affect his manner of acting and thinking. By realistic i mean what he says and does is mostly common sense(unless he is prevented from doing something by Oda himsel, like kill Luffy), examples like saying the main island was done for when BM started the rampage and him waiting for Luffy.
Also, his way of acting and what hes said and done are what make him a standout character to be honest. Let's be real, BM is a god damn mess. Shes' nothing but a wreck that happens to hold a massive amount of power. But in spite of all of that shes still Dogs mom, and all those freaks are his siblings, and what have the SHs been doing? Destroying his home and beating on his family. He is hardly a villain and to be honest hes', in terms of morality, actually a good guy compared to Luffy and his crew at this point. Him, as the second son, as someone able to see the future, is extremely protective and since all hell is breaking loose it is ridiculous to expect the guy to joke around or have a "quirk". For this guy, who cares so damn much this is serious business, since he has to literally watch over the kingdom AND his own captain/mom.
My hat is off to Oda, Dog is an incredibly well written character, and revived one of the least interesting arcs in the series. That and big mom being fun in her crazy mode.
Here are my thoughts on Katakuri:
! So he is a really strong character similar to other Yonko Commanders like Cracker, Jack, Marco, Jozu, and Vista. That's not too special (especially when his foresight hasn't played any major role in the story and got countered by both Sanji and Bege, so it's just as useless and ignored as the Monster Trio's Observation Haki is most of the time)and doesn't elaborate on what his actual personality is like. It's a given that Oda is supposed to introduce stronger characters every couple of arcs or so, similar to many action-adventure shonen series. Being serious and efficient is not a "well-defined" personality. It's two-dimensional. It might even be one-dimensional when you consider how Zoro and Robin are similarly stoic characters that still have other traits like being lazy drunks, having a lot of pride, train nonstop, get lost easily, like cute things, say morbid possibilities, like to read, and don't like embarrassing boyish activities. Katakuri does not need a random Quirk like Vergo having things on his face, I wish he had actual character that mattered and made him more than "tough guy focused on stopping intruders and protecting family". The archetype he covers design-wise is one that gives no clear direction or insight into the character other than he is a "tough and intimidating". Nothing that makes him individually stand out in an endearing or memorable way whatsoever except as a foil to his colorful and more more memorable family. He doesn't need to do stupid random things. That's, well, stupid and random. If Oda could give Senor Pink a hard boiled manly personality and unique design that actually connects to his intricate backstory and morals (which all came from a single chapter), he could have poured more into Katakuri if he wanted to. Being "realistic" is not having a personality. All Katakuri has done is state obvious things he is seeing that anybody points out. He inserts nothing special like how he feels, or what he uniquely wants to do, or anything that resembles a fleshed out character. Anybody can spout out random exposition about what is happening and deterring your enemies. In fact, they already do that. But with a flair of actual personality, at least when it comes to the Straw Hats or any major characters whereas most of the Charlottes have so little roles in the plot they lack individual personalities as much as Katakuri does. He doesn't need to joke around or have a random quirk. Just anything other than plainly stating what's happening around him. Something that adds unique perception, emotional investment, or basic humanity into what he's going.
! And "badass" is a fluid concept. Lots of characters are badass in this series. Visually speakijg, I find characters like the Admirals, Yonko, etc. badass. But that is because thrir designs and clothes stand out anatomy-wise in quirky exaggerated ways and say things about their personalities. But what makes them standout is how they have more personality substance behind why they're badass. Like Luffy standing up for his friends and getting back up after being defeated every time to defeat a villain. Usopp overcoming his cowardice and sniping from miles away. Zoro taking Mihawk's powerful slash suicidally and surviving all of Luffy's pain. Brook standing against Big Mom even though he will definitely loose while giving a speech about rescuing Sanji. Sanji decided to still save his scummy family and be the bigger person. Putting on black clothes and spikes to pull a generic facade of being "badass" is shallow and generic. Clothes don't make you badass, your actions do. Dressing "badass" by putting on random things that makes you look tough does not make you look "badass" or even unique, it makes you look a stereotype. And in Katakuri's case, they can make you look bland and pretentious. If we want to get into actions, all he has done is be a strong person in his crew with a sticky Devil Fruit. Which is admittingly cool to see, but that hardly stands out in the scope of this manga.
! Just ask yourself these questions. Why does Katakuri wear all black, have spikes, a face-covering scarf, or face scars? What do any of those things say about his character? If the answer you come to is because he's a serious tough looking "badass" guy that gets things done, then compare him to all of the other arc antagonists in this series and tell me why he stands out from them. Because there are a lot of other villains in this series who look serious, tough, badass, and efficient, and yet have so much more characterization design and personality-wise that actually complements those impressions to give them substance.
! Big Mom is a freaking awesome character and here is a brief dissertation on why she impresses me much more as an antagonist. First, her design. She stands out compared to all over the other villains in her giant-like size aside from maybe Kaido, but he will probably be smaller, and it originates from her unique condition of being born with great size and strength. Her grotesque fat and long nose give her a witch-y aesthetic that connects well to her likely being inspired by fairy tale characters like Ursula from The Little Mermaid and the witch from Hansel and Gretel, and connect to how her powers focus on taking souls and giving life to the landscape around her just like what popular depictions of witches are capable of doing. The rings she wears on all of her fingers illustrate her greedy nature. Her hat stands out because she is one of the very few characters in this series to wear a pirate captain's hat (illustrating her leadership position in the crew), let alone one that looks so unique with its bicorne shape and cloudy accessory, and ties into her piracy ambitions/Devil Fruit powers since it has a talking skull design that can talk and being able to become a wieldable sword. Its name, Napoloeon, and it being a bicorne hat/sword are directly inspired by the real life Napoleon Bonaparte. I'm not sure why Oda was inspired by Bonaparte for Big Mom, but he already referenced the Battle of Waterloo in Law's name and likes applying famous pirate/naval/political leader inspiration into names and designs all of the time. Big Mom's pink polka-dot dress and long pink hair is simple and feminine, but easily stands out and ties into the signature bright rainbow colors of her crew as well as candy (which she loves). Her lipstick and lips are drawn uniquely and connect to how Lola, who also wears huge lipstick and is the very first Charlotte we ever meet, is her daughter. She also has a heart tattoo on her left arm, which reminds me of those cliche "I Love My Mom" heart tattoos that tough people/fictional caricatures like to wear. And she wears a cape, which is fitting for a crew leader and is fairly unique since characters don't often wear capes in this series. I can also consider Prometheus and Zeus as accessories to her design, and they tie into the witch-y theme of weather manipulation and her Devil Fruit, and look brilliantly cartoony enough to fit the fairy tale/Disney flair of Totland as a whole. And Jesus, look at how many crazy different facial expressions Oda got of her emotions.
! Now personality and antagonist attributes. She has amassed power in both her crew and territories by giving birth to children she grooms into becoming powerful crewmates and are married off to other factions in political marriages to affirm alliances not unlike that of real life crime/rich families. She is a glutton constantly stuffing her mouth with food, and she takes this to the extreme of demanding candy tributes from her territories or else they will get destroyed. She makes deals with people like a mafioso and spins rigged roulette wheels of death to determine how much of your lifespan she takes from you, and instituted a soul tax on her kingdom. She is easily aggressive and can scare her family into not wanting to tell her the truth. She believes in selfishness as a philosophy of piracy not unlike Luffy, except she differs from his ideals of mutual selfishness in how she is malevolent and subjugates others for her own gain. She has established a racially harmonious kingdom with islands made of food and has a hobby of collecting rare creatures that she keeps in books in her own private library, which stems from her childhood of learning to appreciate other races and having a childlike mentality similar to a kid that wants cute animal pets on a whim. She has an illness that causes her to go berserk and demand a specific type of food she is craving, and suffers short term memory loss after her craving is satiated. She detests giants because of a failed political marriage and backstory of being exiled from a land of giants, causing her to have a dream of wanting her family gigantified to attain world peace by seeing people eye-to-eye. She has severe mommy issues because of her foster family disappearing on her fifth birthday and kept a picture of her, which causes her to scream so loud that it paralyzes whoever is near her if it gets damaged. And her intro in this arc is literally singing like a Disney villain.
! Now that, THAT is a great character in my opinion. So much creativity and sheer passion that must have taken years to cultivate on Oda's part went into that. She perfectly fits a series as diverse and kooky as the surreal world of One Piece. So colorful and hilarious, yet intimidating and complex. I do have gripes about her, and other people have given good complaints about her here and there. But even if she is not absolutely perfect, still feel she is definitely great and soars above most of this series' arc villains.
! Now let me go over Katakuri's design. He wears spikes because… he's tough. He wears black leather and boot spurs like a cowboy because... he's tough. He wears a scarf over his face and has scars because... he's tough AND mysterious, I guess. Such unexpected depth, how complex. He has muscles, because he's tough. His hair is short and slightly spiky, so it hardly stands out. He has skull tattoos which, you guessed it, mean he's TOUGH. Now, Katakuri does have a diverse line of clothing here. It hardly says anything other than he's tough, but I would at least not get Katakuri confused with any other character or immediately forget him, so that's a slight praise I can give him. His attire is nowhere as bland as pre-timeskip Burgess' black shirt and white pants, who only stood out with his luchador mask. And I may give him a point for his powers being able to spawn multiple mochi limbs that can mirror Luffy's attacks and connect to his crew's food theme. Liking Katakuri's clothes are fine, I'm not making fun of anybody who likes such attire. I find types of black and gothic attire to be cool. But I feel like Oda threw something random onto Katakuri for the sake of it rather than having a creative vision he actually cared about in mind.
! Personality-wise, I don't even know. He's... determined? That's why he's pitching in so much to stop the Straw Hats compared to his siblings after all. He's smart, like when he decided to ambush the Straw Hats at their boat. He has almost never emoted, so he's stoic. And he's strong, hence why he is a Yonko Commander. Something a bit adorable about him is how he wants to protect his siblings from Luffy and criticizes Luffy for not doing so with his crew, which is nice. And he kind of mocks Luffy during his fight by copying his attacks. I find most of that to be underwhelming. Aside from wanting to protect his family, I expect most of this from plenty of One Piece villains as a bare minimum if they're good at their job. As well as more emotion. What is also bothersome is that Big Mom is in a delirious illness state right now, so she has to rely on her children to pick up the slack in the compelling villain personality/competency department. Katakuri does well competency-wise, but sticks out in his blandness so much to me. Perospero's quote about being reminded of Pedro whenever his prosthetic candy hand will melt while holding a cup of tea in the morning is so much more memorable than literally ANYTHING Katakuri has and probably will ever utter from his mouth that isn't generic villain smack talk or stating what is happening around him. And he is also a sadist too.
! When I look at Katakuri's traits, honestly, I don't even see why he has to be a Big Mom Pirate. He is so cheesily edgy, bland, and different from his family that he can fit into other antagonist crews. Aside from how powerful he is, what reason is there for him to not be a member of Baroque Works? He would perfectly fit in there. Sure, his mochi powers are technically food based, but just call it the sticky sticky fruit or even keep it like that and it still fits. Same for Doflamingo's crew. Maybe even Moria's crew, he certainly looks dark in a goth/punkish way to pull it off.
! Now, despite everything I have said, I don't think Katakuri is some crime against humanity. Plenty of One Piece's supporting villains are bland. Like a bunch of Zoro's opponents. He's fine. He's simply not up to par with what I think of when it comes to some of Oda's greatest characters, that's all. But he stands out more than other supporting villains when he is supposed to be one of Luffy's big arc opponents and not a pushover like Blueno. Actually, speaking of Blueno, do you remember his personality. I think Katakuri has much personality as he did. Which was barely anything but focusing on the mission.
Liking Katakuri is fine, I get where it comes from. And his fight with Luffy is interesting and can become more fun. We are only talking about opinions and subjectivity about art at the end of the day. But I know for sure that I like Big Mom, as well as her arc more than what I dislike. And that I look forward to Kaido, who has drunken mood swings and a suicide hobby, and Blackbeard, an overconfident fate-believing coward, than I do with serious and tough Katakuri. I apologize if I sound condescending at all in my reply, I don't mean to insult you or anybody who likes him.
@Rocko52:
Honestly, I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with how Bobbin/Tamago/Pekoms were all handled this arc. I mean, on one hand I agree that they all basically served their purpose, but I definitely got attached to them in the years leading up to this arc & was really excited to see what they'd end up being like. (I remember a time, years ago, when I wondered if Zoro would take on Bobbin as a swordsman haha) I was digging Pekoms, especially after Zou, and while his initial role was exciting (serving as a reluctant guide to Totto Land/showing us Bege's betrayal/hinting at the future) it's a shame he really hasn't done anything since. You're spot on with Baron Tamago, I loved his design and attitude & I so wish he had done more this arc than just spar with Pedro - though that was admittedly a very cool moment. And of course Bobbin - who feels the most built up out of these three - was really a waste. I got so excited when he re-appeared with the Enraged Army, and hoped he'd be present at the wedding - but of course he got smashed by Sanji, and then "assassinated" by Bege. (I'm sure he's still alive though - that whole bit where Sanji runs off felt pretty confused/weirdly executed to me iirc)
Much as I really have loved WCI so far, I think this ties into my bigger issues with this arc, now as we near the end. You've mentioned it on here quite a bit I think, but it mostly amounts to how there were so many characters & elements in this arc that had strong build-up, but where then promptly skipped over or ignored. Another great example would be all the solid building at the beginning of the arc. One of the most egregious examples, to me, was the set-up of Caesar's scenario. We had him face to face with Big Mom, be told he had 2 weeks to work with, and was made to enter his new factory under the eye of Peospero. While I'm not even a huge Caesar fan, the whole set-up got me quite excited for how he'd possibly get out of this. I knew the arc would take place in much less than 2 weeks, but it was a really strong start to a plot-line which ultimately was rolled right past. We never saw the candy-factory again, and Gastino's appearance in Bege's gang was pretty much given a few panel's exposition. At the very least I'd have liked a tense action scene, but oh well. It seems though like there were a lot of moments/characters in WCI like this, with a strong establishing bit, only to later skip right to the conclusion.
I feel you. I was hoping for Pekoms to play more of a role in this arc too, and I expected more out of Bobbin and Tamago. Tamago has no excuse for missing that wedding either. Maybe Oda thought that it should have been obvious that nobody who was not blood-related to the Charlottes would be there, but he deserved better.
I completely agree about Caesar. The fact that we saw him after he already escaped and that Bege somehow got into Perospero's factory without anybody noticing to recruit Caesar felt too convenient. Especially when Caesar was not part of the wedding, he came to Zou by coincidence. I would think that Perospero would have more surveillance and security. But then again, Luffy somehow got out of wrecking soldiers in Big Mom's freaking castles and somehow Big Mom was never informed by any of those minions, even if her family wanted to cover it up. Bege not appearing at all in-between shooting Pekoms and Jimbei bringing him up to Luffy bothered me too. I get that he is head of security for the wedding, somehow even though he is an ally that only joined a year earlier, but I would have appreciated more moments of seeing how he used his connections and set up the plan throughout the arc. Like showing some of his minions showing up to help Streussen with the cake baking. Or Bege talking with Big Mom or one of the Sweet Commanders to show how much they have grown to trust him and maybe elaborate on how he joined the crew and built up renown. But nope, everything's ready when it's time to talk about the plan.
But what's done is done, and what we got from Bege and Caesar was still great.
The face of a Straw Hat.
