@Monkey:
Tell me Dan, how long do you think I've been doing this lol. Then try and explain the needed check.
Don't know, don't particularly care, don't think it matters, don't see your point.
@Monkey:
No seriously, do explain.
You're smashing through any attempts to explain how Oda's mind might work in his choices. Just smashing on through like a crazed ape in the jungle, trampling over any explanations of why say…flashbacks are something Oda considers as different from the present...or that the fact that Whitebeard and Ace died in a very particular point of the series to the extent that it was Oda saying "Alright HERE I'll give a little"
I'll explain the irony, which was basically the cause of my fed up outburst, and my position.
The irony is in someone who goes around acting like you, consonantly insulting and belittling people like he's John Wayne back from the dead with a PhD in badassery calling anyone else a tough guy.
By the way i had no clue why you would be pushing that persona on me. Couldn't be further from the truth. But i guess it's the user name and avatar? I'm an MMA fan and i think double initials are neat. That's all. The other day i'm a weaboo, now i'm a keyboard warrior, and of course i'm always an idiot… how much do you think you know the people you talk to on the internet?
And my opinion is already explained, but again. I do not feel there is a significance in the difference between killing characters in flashback and real time. Others may but so far i have found the reasoning unconvincing. There IS a distinction and a pattern there, but whatever the details may be i don't care. Like i said, i do not find them significant. Oda is still killing important, fleshed out characters, in brutally emotional ways within in the same story, with relevance to the current characters and current plot. The structure of flashbacks does not in any way meaningfully insulate and/or invalidate these examples, as i see it. This proves to me he doesn't have this 'hang up' about killing
And i certainly don't think him killing Ace and Whitebeard was an 'okay, i'll give' moment. The progression of the plot called for their deaths. That's all. If important, named characters only die in the present in order to facilitate the plot (as they do in flashbacks as well), i have no problem with that. It's a hell of a lot better than the Star Terk writers trotting out the Red Shirt of the week, for example.
@Monkey:
Strong emotional attachment to a faithful ship doesn't mean it's a death in the sense of Ace lol. Nor does it suggest Oda is really loosey goosey with the killing thing.
Come on man. Merry wasn't just as ship. She had a 'soul', and her 'death' was, and was intended to be, just as significant and meaningful as any other character's death would be.
Oda will likely not go loosey goosey with killing people (though people do change styles and in general over the years, i'm certainly not expecting it though). More than likely death and killing will be limited to circumstances of plot facilitation and fodder getting off paneled or very ambiguously killed during on panel action