@Deicide said in [The evolving grand plot theory]
But let's try and analyze it anyway: in an alternate world in which Oda does use that scene in Chapter 1 but haki never exists, and Shanks never shows any sort of "staredown power" ever gain, people would eventually forget the details and go on with their lives. However, whenever someone went back to reread Chapter 1, it would leave an impression of "what was the deal with that? Did Oda forget about this?". It would feel like something was missing.
I can with absolute certainty say that this would not be the case for me, and similarly with all the other supposed cases of secret pre-skip “proto-haki” hints, like chapter 1 Shanks, or BB at Jaya, or now Jangos chakram. Why? Because every time these things are brought up as examples, my reaction is “Huh??”, because reading them 20 years ago I never assigned any deeper, unsolved meaning to them. To be sure this is a subjective matter, and if you Deicide claim that you honestly felt these scenes indicated strange unsolved plotthreads way back when, I can’t really claim otherwise. I just find the idea of there being secret, deliberate hints placed that early to be highly unlikely. Hell, the Danish translation of One Piece straight up doesn’t feature Zeffs whole “Inner Spear” allegory and does not have BB refer to a specific kind of “Ambition” at jaya, and instead has more pedestrian dialogue about Luffy having guts/conviction what have you…and this is no big deal, because the emotions and overall themes of the scenes still track 100%.
In general, the point I keep coming back to is how retrofitting Secret hints to the Haki system to old scenes either completely warps straightforward storytelling, or isn’t even representative for how haki would later work.
Like, Shanks and the Big Eel supposedly being “King Haki” foreshadowing. The scene involves Shanks staring intently at the eel and tells it to piss off, the eel goes Gulp, and then leaves. The straightforward interpretation is that by sheer level of intimidation, Shanks scared off the eel. This is after all, the most intense he’s shown in the entire chapter, more than when he had the mountain leader shaking in his boots a minute earlier, it’s a giant panel of Death Glare to scare off a beast. Establishing tough guy cred through sheer intimidating vibes is an extraordinarily common storytelling trope, the kind featured in books, movies, TV series and so on, as well as in One Piece itself. Arlongs fearsomeness furthered by how he can reel in a terrified MohMoo with a glare and a command. Luffy is quickly causing mooks to cower in fear with a mean glare. A giant catfish that wants to attack the Merry backs off because it can tell the crew would be able to kill and eat it. And so on.
If you really wanted to indicate that something noteworthy was going on with Shanks, an extraordinary ability specific to this universe, you could do stuff like, for instance, showing the environment being affected as well. Showing hints at a “force” being “activated”. Showing a more unexpected reaction from the Eel, showing Luffy take note that something happened.
Basically, none of the trademarks of King Haki are present. The eel doesn’t faint. Theres no hint of a “force” emanating from Shanks. Luffy registers nothing, despite King Haki always being a giant AOE attack. When Shanks boards WBs ship or when Rayleigh haki’s the auction house Oda deploys all of these tricks to showcase that theres a specific ability going on, including juxtaposing the effect of the Haki with Shanks or Rayleigh NOT being intimidating or barking threats, underscoring that this is something they can just “turn on”. In the absence of all of this, with a straightforward explanation already available, with nothing about the encounter linking Shanks to the concept of “ambition” why even assume that this is was ever a deliberate set-up to an ability that wouldn’t resurface for 430+ chapters? As opposed to it just being possibly reappropriated in hindsight because it kinda sorta but not entirely has a similar vibe to king haki?
Similarly, for the Django chakram scene, we have a comedic and surprising beat of Luffy being awakened by Nami just in time to get hit in the head by a chakram, to which Luffy recovers instantly and dramatically to the surprise of everyone. I guess that this is…supposedly some kind of proto armament hint? Because Luffys head wasn’t sliced clean through? However, to start with, It is not until Luffy recovers that the antagonists (whom are entirely unaware that Luffy is rubber) react. The chakra getting stuck in Luffys skull-which Jango does see before reacting to Luffy rallying himself- is not framed as noteworthy; it’s an implicitly understood conceit of this universe that the same blades that cut through solid objects won’t turn heroes into bloody puddles instantly. When Mr 1 causes torso cuts to Zoro with the same move that disintegrated a stone building he doesn’t go “how is that possible??”.
It’s a scene purely designed to showcase Luffy being cool by soldiering through a nasty attack; Jango being surprised at it does not mean theres a hidden unsolved meaning. It’s the exact same as when people are shocked at Luffy plowing through all of kriegs weaponry (which are very visibly and obviously hurting him), or when Miss Merry Christmas is shocked that Usopp stands up after getting his skull fractured by a four ton bat to the face. Its not secret hints that Usopp had a Homer Simpson style enhanced brain barrier. We saw the X rays.
Besides, once again, the scene is a poor fit for CoA as it would come to work; the chakram absolutely does penetrate Luffys skin making it a terrible supposed “hint” at skin-hardening superpower. This all occurring during a comedic beat where Luffys entire attention is angrily directed at Nami is terrible timing for “hinting” that Luffy is I guess subconsciously activating an ambition-fueled not-quite skin hardening defensive ability directed at an attack he’s completely unaware of. And Luffy proceeds to not exhibit or develop this ability the rest of the pre-skip period, wherein he gets cut over and over and over.
@Deicide said in [The evolving grand plot theory]
You know what's also shonen 101? That usually such great feats come with a power system behind it.
Call it chi, ki, nen, haki, spirit, life force, magic, or whatever. It's almost always there. That, or special lineage that makes characters super-human.
It's practically required because of power creep.
But… this is One Piece we’re talking about. Ludicrous feats have been the name of the game from the start, as a baseline feature of this universe. Zoro can lift and throw an entire building with non-DF augmented strength just cause, Luffy can topple two apartment buildings he’s stuck between with his personal strength just cause he’s strong. Whitebeard can keep moving after half his skull is gone just cause he’s cool and tough. Luffy can bounce back from being cleanly impaled on a giant hook and left in a sandpit. And so on and so on and so on. All pretty remarkable things.
Where do you draw the line for what clearly needs an underlying power system to explain itself? Do we need to go through the series from chapter 1 and figure out a cogent rule system that explains every character feat? Like, Luffy standing up, to Crocodiles surprise, after getting poisoned and initially succumbing means a hint at something something underlying ability, because since Crocodile was surprised there must be some deeper explanation than “Luffy is being cool and trying really, really hard”?