Best posts made by Riddler

...So it's a mystery flame, huh?

I've got a question for y'all. Since Yamato basically introduced himself by asking Luffy to join his crew, we have all always judged him according to the standards we hold for a new crewmember. Interactions with the crew, dream, tragic backstory, loveability etc. Basically, we judged him like we would judge a main character. And from the reactions to him not joining after all, I've noticed a sort of consensus that people quite like the character, but weren't so hot on him becoming a full-fledged crewmember and are thus more or less relieved he won't be (for now) (of course, there is an even bigger consensus that the execution for this plot development was really lacking).

So, my question is: does your judgment of Yamato as a character change now that we have to reconsider him not as a crewmember and main character, but as a secondary, more or less arc-centric (time will tell) character? Because, to me, if I forget about all my qualms I had about him joining the crew, forget about all that stuff and just look at him like I would at any other secondary character in the story? Then he might just be one of my absolute favorite non-main characters in the whole series!

I just found Yamato immensely likable and fun. He was a real scene-stealer during the raid, got his own little flashback, even got to fight the main villain for a bit. It's a character with a lot of potential and I find myself wanting to see more of him in the future. That's not something I can say for a lot of characters in One Piece. Don't get me wrong, there are literally dozens of characters in One Piece I really love - that's one of Oda's gifts as a writer, he just knows how to make you fall in love with his creations - and I'm always happy when we get to see them again in the story. But I don't often find myself bummed out at the end of an arc because I want to see more of a particular character.

And that's how I feel about Yamato right now. I'm not per se bummed that he didn't join the crew - as I said in the spoiler chapter thread, I don't really need more crewmembers after Jinbe - but I wouldn't have minded him tagging along for a while, like Law or Vivi did. And as much as I didn't like how Oda executed things in the current chapter, I think the fact that I feel like this about a character that was only introduced really late in the arc, and also that it is totally believable and rings true that Luffy would allow him to join the crew when Yamato feels ready to, that seems to me like a big success on Oda's part.

I've read some people state that now in retrospect, all the time spent on Yamato during the raid was a waste of time because he didn't even join, and I just can't agree with that. Were Wyper's scenes in Skypiea a waste of time? Or Kyros's fight against Diamante in Dressrosa? Or Bartolomeo or Cavendish's fights? Or Bege's scenes in Whole Cake Island? I get it, secondary characters also take away screentime from the main characters and the cast of the raid was already bloated to begin with. But if Oda has a really good idea for a character, should he just scrap that character to save time? Especially if its a character like Yamato that a ton of fans really fell in love with?

Plus, we all figure that a lot of the established secondary characters will play some part in the final war, and if that's the case, Yamato is almost guaranteed to play a particularly big part. While there are a ton of characters in One Piece, there is a surprisingly small set of characters that hold "almost-main character" status for me. Law is in that category, for example. Vivi, too, I guess (don't get me wrong, she'll always be a crewmember to me, but it doesn't feel quite right to give her the same status as the regular main characters). And that's the group where I would put Yamato now - almost Strawhat-level.

That might not be all that satisfying for those who really wanted to see Yamato join - more like a consolation prize than anything, probably. I'm just saying that I don't see his character as a waste of time at all.

@Bugs said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

On the other other other other other hand, Saul’s status doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a pretty dull chapter. Daz is right, it’s not fun to read an entire info drop (which I should point out didn’t have anything truly groundbreaking besides Saul and the books, which was a chekhov’s gun waiting to be fired so not that much one) with almost no fun antics or character’s discovering things for themselves (Robin’s tears don’t move me; I would get it if the reveal was Robin actually seeing Saul, which would at least take some of the sting off the retcon).

I hate to go all "The Dude" on you, but that's not a fact, it's just, like, your opinion, man. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine; I find it annoying when people claim their opinion as fact to elevate it to a level where people can't really disagree without automatically being wrong (can't argue with a fact, right?), especially when we are talking about a topic that is super subjective, like if a chapter was a fun read or not. Clearly, plenty of people have enjoyed reading it, some have even been moved to tears by it...

Other people have already pointed why comparing Saul to other flashback characters doesn't really work out, because the other Strawhats all have at least some people left. Robin is the only one who had to watch everybody she ever cared about die - and then she had to live alone for 20 years, with everybody she ever met along the way betraying her. That's a super harsh fate, and one of the many friends she lost that day being revealed to still be alive doesn't really change any of that. She still had to watch everybody else die, including her mother who she never really got to know, and then had to live a really shitty life for two decades. That's why I'm happy for her, she deserves at least a small happy end.

The only other main character who even comes close when it comes to tragedy is Brook, who also had to watch everybody he cared about die and then spent several decades all alone, but at least he wasn't a little kid when it happened. And if you think about it, Brook learning that Laboon is still alive is very similar to Robin learning that Saul is still alive. The only difference is in how the reveal was presented to us, the reader - we obviously never thought Laboon was dead, while we thought Saul was a goner ever since Enies Lobby.

While I'm just as annoyed as everybody else when Oda milks a "death" for all its emotion only to then later reveal that, nah, the character was alive all along, this one feels differently to me. And I think the main difference is the reason for Saul's "revival". When Oda usually brings a character back from the dead, like Pell or Conis' dad, for example, it's just done to provide the arc with a happy ending where everybody can be joyful and nobody has to mourn their dead. There are no reasons beyond that, it doesn't really matter for the story if Pell is still alive or not. Things are different with Saul. While this reveal does make Robin more happy, that's not its only or even main purpose from a story-telling point of view. It figures into Vegapunk's past, it will very likely impact the plot of the Elbaf arc, it will change how we view Kuzan's character in the future.* It's important for the plot and didn't just happen because Oda can't bring himself to kill a character for good.

*On a small footnote, this is very similar to Igaram being revealed to be still alive after Robin apparently murdered him in cold blood in Whiskey Peak, which is "this character is actually still alive"-reveal nobody ever actually talks or complains about. This one was really important in order to make Robin a character we can actually accept as a sympathetic person. If Igaram had stayed dead, Robin would have been responsible for the death of a person that was very close to Vivi, after all. Things are very similar in Saul's case: now Kuzan actually isn't a coldblooded killer (no pun intended) anymore from Robin's point of view, which might be important in the future.

@ARTEMlS said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

It's not just you. I also expected the ancient history to be some mystery story, that is, an actual well-written mystery story with everything that belongs to such a story. Including red herrings.

First of all, despite lots of fantasy stories trying to tell us, archeology is more than just learning the ancient language and then just translating perfectly tailor-made texts which tell basically everything absolutely accurately. No, that's just not how the human nature works. People lie - be it sugar-coating or outright blatant false claims. Therefore, historical sources cannot and never should be taken at face value. A big part of evaluating historical discoveries is interpretation. Two different archeologists can e.g. both syntactically flawlessly translate an ancient text, yet come to two absolutely different interpretations and conclusions.

There should be some actual hurdles and obstacles in Robin's way for her to overcome. That's where some red herrings come in - be it due to Robin making some false conclusions on her own or someone else actively providing false information and doing historical revisionism. There's so much potential for the latter. Like one of the Gorosei just doesn't believe that it's possible to completely eradicate everything, therefore he instead started an operation to provide whoever tries to research the ancient times with as much as erroneous material as possible, trying to mislead them for years, decades or even centuries. Even going as far as creating fake poneglyphs.

I'm sorry, I think all of this stuff can be really interesting if that is what the story is all about, but as much as I love Robin and find all scenes of her uncovering the secrets of the past fascinating, the story isn't called "Nico Robin: Raider of the Lost Poneglyph" for a reason. Even if some readers seem to suddenly have a problem with this, the focus of the story is still on Luffy and his quest to become Pirate King and find the One Piece, and how he gets closer and closer to his goal, both geographically and regarding his position in the pirate world. Robin's storyline of uncovering the history of the Void Century is exciting and obviously important to the lore of the story, but it's still a secondary plot line at the end of day. Introducing fake poneglyphs that contain false information just seems overly complicated and sort of cumbersome. Do we really want plot lines of Robin going "Damn it, that Poneglyph I read in Skypiea actually was a total lie created by an evil forger/spy from the WG, now I have to rethink my whole theory on the Void Century!". That just seems kinda annoying and also like a very convenient way to me for the author to introduce some retcons to his established mythology

Or how about Black Maria being such a history revisionist - for whatever reason? That also would have given us a battle with some emotional stakes and opportunities for some proper inner conflict for Robin during the battle, but nah...

But that battle did have emotional stakes and inner conflict, those were just centered on her relationship to the crew in general and to Sanji specifically instead of her role as an archeologist. And where does Black Maria being a history revisionist even come from? That's just a case of being pissed at the author because he didn't make your headcanon come true.

@electricmastro said in Chapter 1090: Kizaru:

So is Bonney closer to becoming a Straw Hat after getting over Vegapunk and continually hanging out with the Straw Hats like Sanji?

Do you honestly think she is going to become a Strawhat? What makes her special enough to be a main character?

Personally, I've felt pretty much since the timeskip that we were done with gaining new crewmembers. It just felt wrong to me to add a member now who completely missed the Strawhat's and Luffy's lowest point in the series. Jinbei is a special case, as though he joined pretty late in the game, he was introduced pre-timeskip, palyed a special part in helping Luffy get over his grief, and has joined the crew on several adventures before he finally joined.

But there hasn't been a single new character introduced Post-TS who ended up actually joining the crew. In retrospect, one could say that Pre-TS was mainly about building the Strawhat crew, as new members were joining pretty much every single arc. Post-TS, on the other hand, has been about actually becoming the Pirate King - everything Luffy has done in the New World has furthered that goal in retrospect (making alliances, building a grand fleet, taking down direct obstacles to the throne like the Emperors, finding the Road porneglyphs that lead to the One Piece etc.)

Imo Oda also partially didn't let Jinbei join for so long because he wanted to keep the discussion going on who else might join the crew - after all, if Jinbei was still promised to join, who says others couldn't also still join as well? But now that's done and over with and most promising new crewmember since entering the New World, Yamato, didn't actually end up joining either, it couldn't have been made more clear to me that that's it.

I mean, maybe you'll have some characters joining at the end of the series, like some epilogue-thing, but not for the actual series imo.

This trailer was amazing. I think I would actually give this a watch even if I wasn't a fan already. Seriously it actually looks really good. And I surprisingly don't care at all that they cut out Krieg and combine Baratie and Arlong arc into one arc. I hope they still find away to give Sanji his proper screentime and characterization.

Damn, I'm actually fucking hyped now.

It will be a while before I can really form my final verdict on Wano as a whole, but right now I think I would deem it flawed, but good. There were some weird decisions during the raid, particularly towards the end, no doubt about it. But generally, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I'm binge reading Act 3 right now (I'm in the middle of volume 100 right now - Vol. 101 has been released over here only recently), and it's honestly a ton of fun so far.

Stuff like Luffy seemingly running up stairs to reach Kaido for countless chapters is a complete non-issue now. The chapters just fly by and honestly, a lot of set-up happens during these couple of chapters. It provides the Scabbards with an opportunity to fight Kaido on their own and some of the Strawhats to meet their match-ups. The Ice Oni stuff also doesn't bother me at all anymore, as its purpose is much clearer now: it's main purpose is to provide Chopper with a great moment since he won't get a fight this arc, and also to build-up Queen as a cruel villain that needs to get his ass kicked asap.

While I haven't gotten to that part yet on my reread, I know that I enjoyed most of the fights during the arc. Aside from the final, somewhat lackluster clash, everything that happened on the rooftop fighting-wise was amazing, imo. Zoro's, Sanji's, Robin's, Law & Kid's and even Killer's fights were all really good overall. Jinbe's and Franky's fights were good, but too short. Nami vs. Ulti....would have been alright if Big Mom hadn't intervened in their fight. Good build-up both to their personal conflict and to Nami finally gaining Zeus as a permanent power-up, but the fight already wasted a lot of its initial potential when we didn't get an actual Nami & Usopp vs. the Dinobros fight. And then when Big Mom had to tenderize Ulti so that Nami could beat her....yeah. Big disappointment there, no sugarcoating it.

Anyway, regarding acts 1 and 2, I've watched both acts in the anime lately (Act 1 was aired over here earlier in the year and Act 2 is in the middle of airing right now) and am surprised how much I enjoy them now. I don't know if it's the anime adding details and extra scenes, but everything flows pretty well for me. Most notably, I remember feeling like all the Strawhats except for Luffy were totally underused to instead focus on the large cast of secondary characters, but watching the anime, I don't get this feeling at all, somehow. Most of the Strawhats are doing stuff in almost every scene, be it Chopper finding Big Mom and leading her to Udon, Sanji fighting Page-1, Nami, Robin and Brook sneaking into Orochi's party etc.

And while I guess it's somewhat of an unpopular opinion, I have to say I really like the Wano supporting characters. Momo and Kinemon really came into their own this arc. Tama and Hyogoro are really sympathetic, while Shinobu is a ton of fun. And the Scabbards...maybe there should have been less of them. But I do like them all in their own way, individually, they all have their own interesting little backstories. Honestly, I know that many readers were experiencing arc fatigue and just wanted the fighting to end, but in general, I wouldn't have minded seeing more from Kawamatsu and Denjiro in particular. Watching Act 2 again made me realize how much I enjoyed them initially.

@ARTEMlS said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

But that battle did have emotional stakes and inner conflict, those were just centered on her relationship to the crew in general and to Sanji specifically instead of her role as an archeologist.

The problem is this inner conflict just did not work at all because Black Maria didn't provide anything for Robin to be emotionally challenged in any way. When she asked "Did I hit a nail?" I just thought: No! You did hit nothing. You completely missed the mark. It just doesn't work.

She confronted her with her fear of only being a burden to her crew, which was literally one of Robin's biggest fears and the reason she left the crew in Enies Lobby. How does this not provide a good emotional hook for the fight but Black Maria being a history revisionist does? Black Maria didn't miss the mark at all. The fact that Robin wasn't fazed by those remarks as much as Black Maria intended was meant to show how much Robin had grown since then, both regarding her feelings of self-worth and her trust that the Strawhats would ever abandon her.

Of course, Luffy is the protagonist. But that does not mean there cannot be more compelling and better thought-out sideplots for the other Strawhats than what we actually have here.

I mean, I guess it's all subjective in the end, but I do find Robin's sideplot plenty compelling as it is and the suggestion that Robin hasn't actually had to work to gain information just isn't true imo. The only reason she found anything out on Fishman Island and Wano was because she was actively looking for Poneglyphs and then confronted people who might know something. Heck, she was even criticized on here for "carelessly" asking Oden's Dad questions about Pluton's location.

One thing I wanted to also respond to from your previous post was your statement that there were no (or not enough) hurdles in Robin's quest to uncover the secrets of the Void Century. To which I want to say: traveling the Grandline and surviving is in itself the hurdle for all of the Strawhats. Be it Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Franky or Brook,* they can all reach their goals and dreams by generally traveling through the Grandline, fighting the strong enemies along the way, and surviving. Why is Robin the only one who needs some extra hurdles in her way?

*I left out Chopper because I'm honestly not even sure what his dream even is. Now this is a character who would benefit from some story focus!

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

@Marcotty How is disclosing a secret by finding the right key "bad writing"?
Again, Luffy had to actually go out of his way and walk several extra miles to get and keep Robin in his crew. And all this while knowing nothing of how crucial she actually (once) was to obtain the One Piece. He gained the key and deserved it, for being a decent person.

If Kid and Law know of the burned man on Elbaf that knows ancient kingdom lore (and know what that entails), they would surely know of the Ohara scholar in Crocodile's entourage and work from there.
But they were likely too busy with their edgelord revenge plans and crucifying civilians habits, and they missed their chance, too bad for them.

Also, the OP being basically hard locked for anyone that isn't the reincarnation of the guy who buried it in the first place is instead good writing? Because now all hints are pointing to that, ask Roger for reference.

Robin will still be crucial for Luffy's group in particular to reach their goal. The fact that there a few more ways to read the Poneglyphs doesn't change the fact that Robin is still a super important help. If there were only 5 people in the world who could read the Poneglyphs, each of these five people would still be a really vital asset to your crew.

I am confused about your second point. Isn't it the other way around? If Robin, a member of Luffy's crew, was the absolute only way to become Pirate King, wouldn't that in fact make Luffy more special? Like, "of course, it's the Chosen One who has the one person in his crew that can help you get the One Piece, everybody else can just go screw themselves, they have no chance." The fact that there are other ways that may give other crews like Kidd, Blackbeard or Law a chance actually makes Luffy less special...

03:13 Aww Usopp and Nami holding hands! I always loved their relationship as the two "normal" people on the crew.

This honestly looks so good to me. Even if there will turn out to be some flaws, I'm honestly amazed that they seem to have managed to create an adaptation that actually captures the look and feel of the original East Blue saga so well. I hope so much that they will be rewarded for their efforts with a second season order!

@Gizmo said in Volume 105 Predictions/Discussion:

Okay, so Oda addressed that Tama is a Kurozumi, that Hiyori’s final line about burning was meant to address Orochi only, but leaves open the possibility of Kurozumi hatred in the future…

Given the discussions had here about that line When it came out, I’m glad Oda addressed the fact that discrimination might still exist on the Kurozumi, and that while Hiyori might have not meant the line to bear no ill will on the bloodline, it could still be interpreted like that for some of the folks out there.

I really appreciate Oda's thoughtful and mature response to the question. Ideally, he would have depicted that stuff in the story directly, but this at least shows he really put some thought into the situation and its implications. What Captain M said is also true, reading the ending of Wano in volume format will really be an improvement, since you get all these extra information inbetween chapters and Hiyori's statement about the Kurozumis will immediately be clarified and put into context.

@Barkworm This is completely ignoring Kidd's and Killer's characterization in the last arc as semi-allies who would die for each other and have a deep bond and friendship. Readers aren't that forgetful and as I said, the character has his fair share of fans (also, seriously, am I the only one here who likes Killer and wouldn't want him to die? Maybe it's because I've just reread the chapter where he defeats Hawkins, that was a pretty awesome moment for him).

If this wasn't meant to be seen as morally ambiguous, then why end with Kidd's crew begging Shanks to spare their captain's life, invoking sympathy for them, instead of, you know, portraying them as murderous assholes that need to be put down?

I have a huge smile on my face right now I just watched a review of the series by a German reviewer of films and tv shows on Youtube, who had never watched or read One Piece before watching the Live Action series. He described how much joy he felt while watching the episodes, and how much he enjoyed Luffy's wide eyed sense of adventure, how touching he found Nami's backstory etc.

He pretty much echoed how I felt when I fell in love with One Piece when I first watched the anime. Then I scrolled down to the comments and was hit by a wave of positivity. Super fans who have been reading the manga for decades! People who watched the anime as a kid and felt really nostalgic after watching the series! People who were completely unfamiliar with One Piece that binged the LA version and are now excited to check out the manga or anime!

Wow!

@Robby said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

@Robby said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

While Kidd has never been portrayed as the most likable character in the story, he was also never exactly depicted as someone we are supposed to hate

He crucified civilians and got a high bounty for hurting people.

He's always been an unlikeable ass. Oda just dediced back on Sabondy that he liked the design and he'd be a good rival... not anticipating how much Law was going to take the fandom.

I'm not conflicted at all, I hope Kidd is dead. I wish he'd died against Big Mom or Kaidou to raise the stakes. But OP is OP so he's fine.

That's absolutely true, I'm not denying that he was portrayed as an ass for the most part. What I was trying to say is that Oda never put Kidd in the position of a straight-up villain, which he could have. Kidd was always the most brutal and seemingly evil of the Supernovas from the start, but whenever he and Luffy collided,

You can say the same for Buggy, blower-upper of cities. Or Crocodile, genocider of kingdoms. And Ceaser Clown, poisoner of children. Wapol became a man that gets peed on by dogs. Enel started playing with robot teddy bears. And now n this very arc, murder machine Lucchi is being pulled into face faults.

All the bad people get toned down in Luffy's presence after they stop being a threat and made into jokes that ignore the horrible things they done.

Doesn't mean Kidd is "not actually that bad". It just means that Luffy is on camera and nothing truly bad can happen while the audience is watching.

What's the major difference between all of the characters you just mentioned and Kidd though? They all acted as the main big bad of an arc, they were all villains to the Strawhats that had to be defeated. If you asked any One Piece fan what kind of role Crocodile or Caesar or Enel has in the story of One Piece, most would answer "Oh, he was the main big bad of the Alabasta/Punk Hazard/Skypiea arc". Nobody would say the same about Kidd because even though he did some dastardly things on- and offscreen, he was never put into the role of a villain in the story. That's what I've been going on about, framing and portrayal. Those things are absolutely important in storytelling to manipulate how we feel about a character (and I don't mean that negatively - storytelling is all about manipulating how we feel about a situation or character). Despite his assholish behaviour, Kidd will be most remembered for his role as an ally during Wano, his at times touching relationship to his crew, particularly Killer, and his funny interactions with Luffy and Law. He's also brutal and merciless, as was shown in this very chapter, but he's also not exactly been depicted in the past as a character we are 100% meant to hate and want to see go down.

As for your second part about characters getting toned down in Luffys presence, I don't see how that's true at all. Luffy was present during all of the arcs in which these characters were the main villain, and they certainly weren't toned down in the slightest. I don't think Luffy's presence has anything to do with it, it has more to do with the fact that once their main role as arc villain was over, Oda did something different with them later on. That's different from Kidd though, who as I said never was an actual villain at any point in the story - though he certainly had the potential to be one, just like Bege had.

Also, I don't actually agree that most of these former villains have been softened up once they reappeared. Despite his pitiful cover story, Wapol was still a complete ass when he showed up again during the Reverie, as if he had learned absolutely nothing from his experience. Caesar, though he was forced to become an unwilling ally to the Strawhats and mostly turned into a comic relief character, never actually bonded with the Strawhats or became someone they cared about in any way. Just because we laugh at his misfortunes doesn't mean he has been softened up. The Strawhats have never forgotten the horrible things he did to those kids on Punk Hazard (thank you, Nami!) and he's always been portrayed as a selfish creep. He's definitely a love-to-hate type of character, but I can't think of a single scene where he actually displayed some decent behaviour or characteristics. The only major exception to this rule is Buggy, who I agree has been softened up consideringly after East Blue and who's villainous days feel long forgotten at this point.

ome people think Shanks and the Giants were in the right and Kidd got what he deserved, some feel like Shanks was unneccesarily cruel and a bully and that it would have been enough to beat up Kidd and then let him and his crew leave, and others can see both sides.

Kidd was literally seconds away from murdering a bunch of defenseless people that did nothing to him. In a fight HE started. Its WHY Shanks 1-shot him.

There's no sympathy to be found here. Kidd 100% deserved to be wrecked and was completely in the wrong.

Look, I'm not even disagreeing with that. This debate for me was never about questioning the morals of Shanks and the Giants actions - as I said in my first post on the topic, I think that debate is silly. My feelings on the topic are that what Shanks and the Giants did was completely fair game in the Pirate game, especially considering the situation and Kidd's personality and reputation. And in a way, this was absolutely a karmic retribution for the things Kidd and his crew have done in the past. Yes, I think I would agree that Kidd to some extent deserved what he got.

But I couldn't help but nevertheless feel some pity for his crew when reading the chapter. What can I say? Even if on some logical level I can argue "Well, seeing as how they did things A and B in the past, this seems like a fair handling of the situation", they were still begging for mercy and then seconds later they got coldly obliterated. I just felt kinda sorry for them and I didn't exactly feel like cheering for their demise here. If you did, that's cool, I'm not trying to say such a reaction would be wrong or whatever. But you can't just say "that's the only possible way to react to and feel about this chapter" when there have been plenty of posters here and in the spoiler thread who reacted very differently to the chapter then you - heck, in the post above me for example, Barkworm said that he liked the Kidd pirates and didn't want to see them go down like this. I was just saying the chapter was deliberately designed in a way as to allow both reactions, or even have some readers (like myself) feel conflicted about it.

Or are you saying that everybody who has voiced sympathy for the Kidd pirates has just been arguing in bad faith? (And btw, since everybody keeps talking only about what Kidd deserves, I want to stress that Kidd is actually the person I felt the least sorry for on that ship, personally)

@triangular_maze said in Chapter 1088: Final Lesson:

So, when I first looked at the color pages, the "Netflix" didn't immediately register, and I thought that Oda was starting a new thing with this, which would be to commemorate all of the previous arcs, starting with East Blue, and that every color page from here on out would continue with the next arc, and so on.
For a tiny moment there, I thought that we're really entering the endgame, now. It was kind of a bittersweet moment, this realization. Even though we are not quite there yet, someday this story is going to end. There will be a last cover page story (I wonder which character it's going to be). There will be a final color spread.

Oda should absolutely do the color spread arc recap thing when it's time, though.

Also, does this mean that Garp will be in the Netflix series?

Yup, he's been cast and can also briefly been seen in the new trailer.

@Captain-M I loved your post about Garp and Koby and how their answers reflected their characters Well said!

The reaction and disappointment a lot of posters feel towards Oda's writing of Whitebeard is pretty interesting, because I think it tells us a lot about what qualities Shonen fans value in heroic characters. We want our heroes to make rash decisions and take any possible risks when it comes to their friends, no matter the consequence or chance of winning. That's why we love Luffy and why we cheer him on when he punches a Celestial Dragon in the face after shooting one of his friends, even though that might have dire consequences for him and his crew. In fact, it almost would have if it hadn't been for Kuma saving the Strawhats. We know that in retrospect, Luffy almost doomed himself and his friends by his rash decision, and yet we still absolutely love that moment and don't judge Luffy negatively for that. We wouldn't have it any other way, in fact!

That's what Luffy, as a proper Shonen protagonist, is like, and from what we can tell about him so far, that's what Roger was like and probably even what Ace was like.

But it's not what Whitebeard was like and I'm glad Oda has such a good grasp on his characters that he wrote Whitebeard in a consistent way, because that's what Whitebeard has always been like - remember when he told Ace not to go after Blackbeard even though that bastard murdered a member of his crew?

Whitebeard, as opposed to Luffy and Roger, doesn't really like to take risks. Not because he is a coward or a "wimp", as wolfwood called him, but because he's...a Dad. He sees himself as the Father of his crew and his crewmates as his children, and that's what makes him different from Luffy and Roger. Sure, both of them also love their crews and at least in Luffy's case, we know he would do absolutely anything for them. But that's still not the same. Nothing compares to how protective parents feel about their kids. Whitebeard would also do everything for his children, but he wouldn't risk their lives on what amounts to a suicide mission, not to save a member of his family, but for what boils down to revenge.

Because that's what this would have been - a suicide mission. Maybe Whitebeard would have been able to take on Kaido in a straight 1 vs. 1 - I'd be willing to bet he could - but we are talking about attacking Kaido and his crew on their home turf, a basically impregnable island. How many members of his crew would perish in such an attack? And for what? Oden had already been dead for years when the Whitebeard pirates learned about his death, and as far as they knew, so were all of Oden's friends and family members. There was nobody left to save, except for the citizens of Wano, to whom neither Whitebeard or his crew had any real affiliation or connection with . Everybody they cared about was already dead, to their knowledge. So should Whitebeard have risked a kamikaze attack on Kaido to save this country, just because people he loved used to live there? That is a lot to ask of someone who is still a pirate, not a superhero.

This does make Whitebeard a lot more rational than either Luffy or Roger, but again, that is consistent with his prior characterization - he has always struck me as a much more rational guy. It's funny to me though that being rational is now seen as a bad trait, something that turns him into a wimp. This personality probably would make Whitebeard a rather lackluster Shonen protagonist, because we want our heroes to take risks and not think too much about the consequences, but it does make him a really good Father and Captain to his crew, because their well-being is very clearly the most important thing to him at the end of the day.

@Robby said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

"Who is this live action for?"

Everyone that dismisses comic books and cartoons no matter what. Everyone here is already a convert, we know how good cartoons can be. But outside of anomolies like Frozen, animation just is NOT as wide stream as anything live action. Like the new Spiderverse movie has made like 600 million! Fantastic, huge improvement over the first!

The most recent live action Spider man almost 2 billion. Nearly 3 times as much. Even the lowest grossing live action Spidey, Amazing 2, made 800 mill.

Look at the top 200 highest grossing movies of all time. 26 of those movies are animated and they're almost all sequels. The other 174 slots are live action. (And in the top 50 its like, 7 films, none in the top ten.)

WE all know animation is great, we don't have to be convinced. But the general public its always just kids stuff and they'll never give it a chance.

If you want to reach a NEW audience, you need to do live action. Same with Last Airbender.

Yeah, it's near perfect in its animated form and live action won't improve it. But there's millions and millions of people that might be willng to watch it and get the same story we already love, that have ignored the animated one for 15 years... just because its animated and "for kids".

Not to mention that there is also a subset of people who may even be fine with watching cartoons but never got into anime, for whatever reasons. I know plenty of people, especially in my age group (i. e. late twenties, early thirties) who just aren't interested in manga and anime, it's just completely foreign to them. Meanwhile, the same people would definitely watch this trailer and then get interested in the show, as it's not too different from mixing a series about pirates with superhero-stuff, which are both super popular with most people.

That's why I also get slightly annoyed by people who complain the trailer felt too much like Pirates of the Caribbean or the humor to MCU-ish. Guys, these are mega popular huge franchises, it's a good thing if the trailer manages to get fans of these franchises interested in checking out One Piece. Doesn't mean that they should turn the LA series into a cheap carbon copy of those IPs, but it doesn't hurt if the show has some aspects (like the music, for example) that feel a little reminiscent in parts.

Well, we've been gone for three months and a ton has happened in One Piece in the meantime! I thought it might be good to have a thread in which we can discuss what happened in all those missed chapters if we want to.

Thankfully, Oda decided to take a month off as well, so we didn't miss as many chapter discussions on here as we could have. All in all and excluding the most recent chapter, which has its own thread, 6 new chapters were released between then and now:

Chapter 1050 - Honor: Basically the aftermath of Kaido being defeated. He falls into a lava pool, causing a volcanic eruption. Momonosuke decides to not open Wano's border quite yet and sends his poor pet elephant away. He is then announced as the new Shogun of Wano.

Chapter 1051 - Shogun of Wano Country, Kozuki Momonosuke: Momonosuke acts as the new Shogun and tells the people of Wano what happened. Meanwhile, Yamato finally meets the Strawhats and Tama has an emotional little flashback to when her parents perished.

Chapter 1052 - A New Morning: A week passes and we learn that Ashura Doji and Izou actually died during the raid! Everybody takes a nice, relaxing bath (Yamato bathing with the boys). It's also revealed at the end that the newspapers have declared new Yonkous and that Admiral Ryokugyu has invaded Wano on his own.

Chapter 1053 - New Emperors: Lots of revelations: Kidd, Law and Luffy each got a new bounty of 3 billion berries, we learn that Tenguyama Hitetsu is actually Kozuki Sukiyaki and that Pluton is in Wano Country and the new Four Emperors now consist of Shanks, Blackbeard, Luffy and Buggy! While everybody is celebrating in the Flower Capital, Ryokugyu attacks the imprisoned Beast Pirates in Udon with his plant-based powers and then advances on the Flower Capital to capture Luffy.

Chapter 1054 - Flame Emperor: Yamato, Momonosuke and the Red Scabbards attack Ryokugyu, who is revealed to be a total douchebag, outside of the Flower Capital. Meanwhile, Shanks and his crew are chilling outside Wano and reminiscing about their past with Luffy. Shanks decides that it's time to a) kick Bartolomeo's ass and b) finally claim the One Piece. Tons of stuff about what happened at the Reverie is also revealed: Vivi is missing and Cobra was killed, apparently by Sabo, who is hailedas the new "Flame Emperor" by revolutionaries.

Chapter 1055 - The New Era Ryokugyu is hurt by Momonosuke's attack and then scared off by Shanks' mega-chad Haki, who is royally pissed at him. It's revealed that Luffy and his stronger crewmembers have been watching the whole thing to see if they need to intervene. The history of Wano country and the Road Porneglyph are revealed to Robin and Law, as well as the fact that opening Wano's borders means releasing Pluton.

Phew!

After formulating my thoughts on the scabbards in that thread, it made me think about what I thought about Perospero's fight in this arc. This seems like the appropriate thread to talk about it.

I have to say that one thing that has quite annoyed me during that phase of the arc was the sentiment by quite a few of the posters here that the Minks were being unreasonable assholes for "bullying" poor Perospero like that, since he didn't actually kill Pedro, the dude chose to take his own life. I just have to call bullshit on that for two reasons.

Warning, little rant incoming:

First of all, the only reason Pedro, Carrot or any of the Strawhats were in Big Mom's territory in the first place was because the Big Mom pirates basically kidnapped Sanji by blackmailing him AND were going to murder him in cold-blood. Everything that followed was in response to their actions. They were the aggressors and do not get to play the victim card because those meanie Strawhats attacked them.

Secondly and more importantly, the only reason Pedro sacrificed his life was because Perospero was about to murder Chopper and Brook. If a sadistic killer is about to execute your friends and you die trying to save them, then yeah, said killer absolutely gets the blame for your death. And of course your loved ones would be justified to hate the killer's guts, as he is the one that put you in a situation where it was either you or your friends.

All of that said, Perospero felt shoe-horned into the arc and his fight was incredibly lackluster. It made no sense for him to go to Onigashima alone and it was disappointing to have all these members of Big Mom's family with untapped potential, like Daifuku, Mont-D'or and most of all Smoothie, just waiting at the coast while the one character we already got a lot of in WCI got to play a part in the raid. Fine, including Perospero in the action to close of some hanging plot threads from the last arc could have worked, but then it at least needs to be emotionally satisfying and it was not.

As others have said, this fight belonged to Carrot, not Nekomamushi. I can understand why he would be angry at Perospero, but the characters had never met before and it was just weird to see him go off to have revenge for Pedro in the middle of the raid. And their ensuing "fight" barely deserves to be called a fight. Meanwhile, Carrot got absolutely nothing else in return, which has to be the worst treatment of a secondary character since Rebecca. Heck, it's actually worse. While Rebecca, after all her buildup of wanting to protect the Toy Soldier, ended up a completely useless damsel in distress who couldn't accomplish anything and constantly needed saving, she at least got a proper emotional conclusion at the end of the arc. All that stuff where Luffy helps her reconcile with her dad was actually touching and an appropriate ending for both characters. Carrot meanwhile got completely side-lined the whole arc and didn't even get to say goodbye to the Strawhats! That's just bad!

Pretty cool finale for the first season of LA One Piece! I think the Strawhats vs. Arlong pirates is a pretty good indicator on how future battles will look and how much time they will really take in comparison to the anime. A couple of minutes per fight at most. It's a shame about Zoro vs. Hachi, but if any fight had to be left out, I'm ok with it being this one. Not because I don't like it, I do, but fact is, Zoro already had plenty of cool moments this season. Usopp and Sanji needed the screentime and the opportunity to show what they got much more.

Usopp's fight was pretty neat, it's basically the same as in the original. I was sad to see that they left out the moment where he overcomes his cowardice, I feel like they could have added that to give the fight a more dramatic impact. It was still cool, basically the first time where he really showed off his fighting skills. The Sanji/Zoro tagteam, including their bickering back and forth, was also a lot of fun. I think they really should have included the part where Kuroobi drags Sanji under water...imo the Fishman in general got kind of robbed of their time to shine and show of their abilities.

This is most apparent in Luffy vs. Arlong. Arlong's personality and portrayal was, once again, on point, but he really didn't get to show what he could do. I mean, he didn't even hurt Luffy. No Shark on Darts, no biting Luffy or piercing him with his nose. Still, I thought the drama of their fight came across rather well, as did the "Nami, we're friends!" scene.

Poor Genzo was totally shafted. He isn't even a symbolic part of Nami's new tattoo in this version! Their solution for what Nami's tattoo means in this version was pretty creative, I'll give them that, but why not just keep the pinwheel? Don't tell me it would be too silly when Nezumi is running around with freaking Mouse ears on his hat!

The resolution of the Garp and Koby stuff, I thought was good. Nice reveal that Garp was just testing Luffy's willpower, puts a lot of his earlier behavior into context. It also came across quite well that Luffy at this point would be absolutely no match for him. Best part though was Koby saying goodbye to Luffy. We'll probably see a lot less of Koby in season 2...

Now, until this part of the episode, I would have probably rated the episode a bit lower. But then they really delivered in the last few scenes. Seeing all those characters from across the season reacting to Luffy's bounty was just as wholesome and cool as it always is in the manga, and it really tied the whole season together well. And I loved every scene with the crew all together on the Going Merry! Usopp boasting about his head being visible in the background of the wanted poster! Nami's tangerine trees! The oath (very cool idea to show everybody's kids version as they are saying their oath, that also helped make the season feel like a cohesive whole)!

But best of all: presenting the sails with the giant Strawhat Jolly Roger! I had goosebumps! Very, very good idea to keep that moment for the end of the season. It worked perfectly to symbolize that NOW they really are a crew and this was just the prologue, now the adventures of the Strawhat crew can really begin.

All in all, a pretty good show, that on it's own, I would probably rate...hmm....7,5? But as an adaptation that actually succeeded against all odds and delivered an overall fun and satisfying live-action version of One Piece, that can be enjoyed both by new and old fans? That earns them at least another point, so 8.5 over all it is!

My favorite part of the chapter were the first few pages showing York interacting with the Seraphims. I really liked the reveal last chapter that York was the culprit. Oda did some nice misdirection by having her get stoned by S-Snake first, and that doublespread of her towering over Vegapunk actually made her look pretty intimidating and scary. Time will tell how much thought she actually put into her plan, but for now, I'm enjoying her as the villain of the story. Despite her airy personality, she really seems to be a completely selfish jerk, as she doesn't appear to give a crap (pun intended) about killing her fellow Punks to reach her goals.

I wasn't quite as interested in the cutaway this time. I agree that the constant cutaways to different places are hurting Egghead's pacing a bit, but I also think that for one, this effect will be much decreased when rereading things in volume format later on. Also, I think we should just accept that in the final saga, we will be shown what's happening in the rest of world concurrently with the current arc, and no longer inbetween arcs. I get why Oda is doing this and it feels useless to constantly complain about it every week...

As for the big debate about the morality of Shanks actions, I honestly couldn't care less about this topic. They are pirates, not saints, just deal with it
I felt like this was portrayed as a purposefully morally ambiguous situation - we like Shanks, but Kidd and Killer have been allies and mostly sympathetic characters (especiall Killer) in the last arc. While Kidd has never been portrayed as the most likable character in the story, he was also never exactly depicted as someone we are supposed to hate (and Oda is quite good at making us hate a character if he wants to). So I feel like we are meant to feel conflicted about this outcome. Oda made sure to depict Shanks as caring and honorable for the most part, but I don't believe we were necessarily meant to cheer either when Kidd's ship and crew got completely obliterated.

This was very much framed as Kidd's personal Sabaody moment and I feel the next time we'll see him, he will be humbled quite a bit. Who knows, maybe Luffy will even be the one to inspire him to keep trying to achieve his dream. Elbaf might very well turn out to be the arc to give his character more depth, which many complained was missing in Wano.

@Robby said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

While Kidd has never been portrayed as the most likable character in the story, he was also never exactly depicted as someone we are supposed to hate

He crucified civilians and got a high bounty for hurting people.

He's always been an unlikeable ass. Oda just dediced back on Sabondy that he liked the design and he'd be a good rival... not anticipating how much Law was going to take the fandom.

I'm not conflicted at all, I hope Kidd is dead. I wish he'd died against Big Mom or Kaidou to raise the stakes. But OP is OP so he's fine.

That's absolutely true, I'm not denying that he was portrayed as an ass for the most part. What I was trying to say is that Oda never put Kidd in the position of a straight-up villain, which he could have. Kidd was always the most brutal and seemingly evil of the Supernovas from the start, but whenever he and Luffy collided, both in Sabaody and in Wano, he was instead always pushed into the role of hesitant ally to the main character instead of villainous force.

And despite your own feelings for the character - and on a sidenote, I don't particularly care for Kidd either, though I always liked Killer - he is pretty popular. I was more commenting on what the I feel the general reaction in the fandom to this chapter is supposed to be, and I think that is supposed to be conflicted. And look at the discussions here and in the spoiler thread - people are conflicted about the chapter! Some people think Shanks and the Giants were in the right and Kidd got what he deserved, some feel like Shanks was unneccesarily cruel and a bully and that it would have been enough to beat up Kidd and then let him and his crew leave, and others can see both sides.

People in the spoiler thread at parts implied that this was due to bad writing on Oda's part, i. e. that the Giants' and Shanks' actions should have been either made more understandable or less severe, but as I said, I think the situation is supposed to be morally ambigious by design.

@Ivotas:

Haven't read that far anymore. It was around Water 7 when I got into actually looking around for better translations because Carlsen just seemed to be inconsistent with the story. I still checked the first W7 volume after being interested in how it will be handled in Germen. When I read "Ecki Zugluft" I dropped the volume and never looked back.

Totally understandable. Whenever I re-read the manga, getting through the first 30-40 volumes or so is pretty rough. The original translator really sucked. Lots of mistakes, mistranslations. She often left out information, simplified the dialogue and also made every single character sound like a braindead twelve year-old. It's really not well-done. Thankfully, it really has become a lot better since, but the damage is done.

Since we are on the topic of dubs, translations etc., I really like the German dub of Detective Conan. It's a good example of how to keep the style and flavor of the original intact while also adding some little touches that make the show more accessible and more natural and real, for the dub audience. Like Ran always calling her father "Paps" or Kogoro calling her "Mausebein". It gives the series some extra charm and personality for me in German that I actually kinda miss when I just read the manga or watch it in Japanese with subtitles.

Regarding the problems with the story not going anywhere for years now and nothing getting resolved, I kinda stopped caring. I still enjoy reading, but it's the kind of mild entertainment you get when you watch an episode of Monk or C.S.I Miami or whatever. I'm not really invested in the story enough anymore to really care about getting a resolution or spend much time thinking about it otherwise. My excitement does rise a bit whenever we get a reprieve from those boring old "three suspects" cases. Those have gotten so tired and clichè by now that I have to force myself to not just skip through them most of the time.

@The-Light-of-Shandora said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

Found the German version of the trailer, they decided to go with the anime voice actors, works better for me than the English trailer.
Might even watch the German dub. Gosh maybe we get the iconic first opening again. That would be fantastic.
I wonder if every Dub will try to recruit their anime voice actors or go with new ones.

Damn, that actually improved the trailer for me as well. It's pretty amazing how well Daniel Schlauch's voice (German dub voice actor of Luffy) fits Iñaki Godoy's face.

I figured that one out, for each subcategory (Anime, General Discussion, Media etc.), you can change your settings to "Watching" in the upper right corner and then all unread threads belonging to that category will show up in "Unread".

I went through all categories once and changed the setting, so now all unread threads appear there automatically.

Edited to add that you can theoretically also go to single threads and change the setting only for that thread to "Watching", too, if you are only interested in a small number of topics.

@wolfwood I think that was just a neat little idea for a side character Oda came up with and nothing more, a loyal animal that can transform into a human. The fox was the one who provided everybody with their weapons for the raid, so I guess that was his plot purpose. I mean, I liked it for what it was. Sure, Oda could have done more with him, but I don't think everything introduced in an arc also has to play a big role in its climax (which was already cluttered with characters anyway). Who knows, maybe Oda originally intended for the fox to also be there for the raid but then cut him from the roster.

Speaking of the raid, was it ever explained how Hiyori managed to arrive at Onigashima?

I care! I started rewatching the series recently and it's humour still holds up damn well. Some of it would probably be considered offensive now, but the writing is just so sharp and his voice acting so funny. I just finished the first season, which got better and better with each episode, but his first Abridged Movie has been my absolute highlight so far.

@puffing-cinema

Well, your nitpicking turned out be pretty positive, so we're all good Regarding Rayleigh, yeah, I guess that is a bit contradictory. The difference for me is that Urouge and Bonney will probably still have their moments in the sun yet in the story, which is when we will also see more what they are capable of. Whereas I feel like we have seen all there is to see about Rayleigh's fighting abilities, so might as well add him in now. It's not that he would be the most fun character to play, he's kind of the same category as Garp for me. Badass old geezer that would deserve to be in there when it comes to plot importance and technically has the fighting skills to justify an inclusion. But it's also not a character I necessarily need.

Regarding some of your other points: Kuro just kind of feels like he belongs in there as a playable character if you add Krieg and Arlong. Just to complete the set of main East Blue villains. Agreed on Hody and I also think that Foxy would be fun, so why not. It's mostly his arc that I have trouble seeing translating well into a Pirate Warriors stage.

Regarding the priests on Skypiea, that was mostly in response to Johnny B. Decent wanting to make two stages out of it. That just means to me that you need a few more villains to beat. So I think I would at least put two priests in, I think.

Re:Onigashima. Who's Who should be easy, since he has a similar moveset to the CP9 agents. Black Maria would be a ton of fun, I agree! And why not, the Yonkou in PW4 have already let to the introduction of larger playable characters. Ulti I wouldn't necessarily need as a playable character, but imo she'd be a must as an NPC. She actually ended up as one of the Tobi Roppo with the most screentime. Sasaki and Page-1 are the two who are the most forgettable out of the bunch.

One thing that I would find troublesome about removing Skypiea (and also Jaya) is that you completely cut Robin bonding with the crew. Otherwise, you jump straight from Robin joining the crew in a surprise twist, at a point where most of the crew are a little wary of her, to her leaving the crew.

That long arc inbetween is super important to make both the crew and the audience getting used to and actually caring about Robin as a character and member of the crew. I think Water 7/Enies Lobby loses a lot of dramatic impact without Skypiea.

That said, I think the Skypiea saga can easily be condensed into 3 or 4 episodes. How about making Skypiea the first half of S3 and Water 7 the second half, ending on a cliffhanger. And then similarly split S4 into first half Enies Lobby/second half Thriller Bark and Sabaody. I think it's abdolutely doable. Skypiea has like a whole volume or two solely consisting of characters fighting, which would take much less time in live-action.

@Alfiere Uh why? I have friends too that I mostly just hang out with, goof around a lot etc., unless it's a serious situation (like, someone's parent died or someone had a car accident or whatever). Doesn't mean we aren't close friends. That's such a weird, judgmental thing to say....you can't be good friends (or friends at all) if you spend the majority of your time together having fun?

The Strawhats are a bunch of silly goofballs and they always have been. The image of them sitting in a circle on the ship and discussing their feelings just seems inherently wrong to me There have been plenty of occasions where they had serious discussions or provided strong emotional support for each other, but only when the situations calls for it.

Don't get me wrong, I actually found some of the gags this chapter a bit stale and recycled too (loved Luffy being a completely pathetic Emperor and Jinbe's reaction to Nami though, that actually made me laugh out loud), I just didn't think thse examples in particular fit their characters and their dynamics very well.

I would also say that part of the appeal of the Strawhats and one of the reasons why fans still want to see more of the main characters instead of less after more than twenty years of serialization is because they are just so much damn fun together. Oda is generally pretty good at keeping the characters fresh somehow despite the fact they don't really develop much as characters after they joined the crew.

@King-Cannon said in Official Wano Thread:

@Captain-M I guess this is the first arc to have blatant mid-way changes through it, whereas before it wasn't noticeable. Oda himself has already admitted to have changed the story to accommodate the chapter 1000 milestone and that he was still considering whether or not to show Zoro's family story not too long ago, and those are just the proven examples. Latest SBS also literally created a whole story to explain the rivalry between Raizo and Fukurokuju.

As a result, no other arc besides Wano has more unfinished and abandoned plot points. Not that other arcs didn't, but Wano's case is nearly impossible to ignore.

• Why does Zoro look like Ryuma and Ushimaru if he's no related to them?
• Did Zoro visit Ryuma's grave like he said he would?
• What was the point of the Nidai Kitetsu?
• What happened to the "Catch Yamato" game that was so suddenly dropped?
• What happened to Bepo and the rest of the Heart Pirates potentially risking the alliance's plan to save Law?
• Where were the Kid Pirates besides Kid and Killer during the former's capture?
• What happened to Sasaki wanting revenge on Denjiro?

There is also other weirdness like Who's-Who not caring about Luffy running around the Live Stage despite later admitting he had a grudge against him.

Add up the pacing issues, confusing motivations and unfocused storylines and you get a mess that's arguably more disjointed than Dressrosa.

I don't want to get into a big discussions about Wano's faults and strengths right now (maybe at some later point), but regarding the "Catch Yamato" game that was dropped pretty quickly, I've seen that mentioned a few times as a dropped plot point. Am I alone in never thinking this was never going to develop into a big storyline? I mean, what was supposed to happen? One of the Tobi Roppo running into Yamato and fighting him? We did get that with Ulti, basically.

I think the purpose of this plot thread was never to delevop into an actual storyline, but rather to accomplish several smaller things that needed to be done, like:

• making the fact that Kaido's son has escaped and is running around Onigashima more of a plot point for readers to keep in min

• further characterizing both the Beast Pirates in general and the Tobi Roppo in particular (i. e. the rivalry among them)

• giving the Tobi Roppo a reason to separate and spread out around the island, which leads to stuff like Sasaki running into Denjiro or Ulti and Paypay fighting Luffy, which in turn leads to Yamato's big entrance attacking Ulti.

I like what I'm hearing!

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1058: New Emperors:

@Riddler I'd hardly describe the examples youmade as "meaningful" interactions that establish the straw hats as good friends. We know they're supposed to be and remember when that was prominently shown, a lifetime ago, so those scenes may make us go "oh, ok, that's still there, good", but the fact is that after all this time spent with them apart form each other and sharing whatever little screentime they got with other charachters, I wouldn't mind seeing Usopp asking some questions about Zoro's adventures on Wano or Brook commenting with Robin about being chased by CP0, instead of stock gag #5 and # 12 for the Nth time, know what I mean?

"Callously uninterested" mayybe was a bit strong, but there's definitely a sense of coldness i'd rather do without.

I probably should have been a bit clearer with my response - you didn't just question if they have meaningful interactions, but also if they hang out together, goofing around. That's what my examples were about. It's true that we had a little less of those in Wano, but they were pretty much on a mission from beginning to end there, so not as much time to just hang out. Regarding meaningful interactions (which is kind of a broad term to begin with - what makes an interaction meaningful anyway?), how about Franky saving Nami and her falling into his arms and calling him aniki? You already mentioned Sanji's and Robin's interactions, but I also felt that Robin and Brook had a few really nice moments together during the arc. There was also a whole bunch of fun interactions between all of them after they entered Onigashima and were about to split up.

And if you go just a little bit farther back in time, you will find dozens of moments between the crewmembers during WCI that I would call meaningful.

It's true that the Strawhats are usually pretty rough with each other and often act a little annoyed with each others antics, but it's always been like that, and it's also always been clear that they really do care a lot about each other and have each others back when it matters. I really didn't expect anybody to seriously doubt the strength of the Strawhat's friendship to each other at this point in the story.

It also should be noted that we just came out of several years of a pretty dramatic arc, involving tons of fighting and life or death situations, so I would assume that the Strawhats just goofing around for a bit and showcasing their goofiness and carefree attitude is exactly what most readers wanted/needed now. Again, not saying this chapter was the perfect execution of that, but as I said before, most of it was spend on the Cross Guard and reactions to the new bounties, so only a little room for crew interactions.

I also prefer Ambition. It fits the themes of One Piece much better. It comes across like people literally can apply their strong will to become stronger, whereas Haki makes it sound like a random magic power that some people just have and others don't. Controversies like Luffy being born with great Haki become much less troublesome if you phrase it as "being born with great ambition" instead. Like, that's something you would maybe even say in the real world about people who always reached for the stars and had the willpower to make their dreams come true.

After I was a little disappointed by episode 4, I immensely enjoyed this one. Just seeing the crew hang out at Baratie and actually becoming friends was so cool. Loved Zoro's and Nami's little drinking game and Usopp dancing like an idiot. I actually felt like I got a much better sense of Usopp as a character than during the Syrup arc episodes. Really enjoyed him drunkingly telling his Captain Usopp stories at the Baratie bar.

The Baratie set was easily the best location they had so far. I don't think it really came across what a crazy place the Baratie can be (i. e. the Fighting cooks), which I think could have been achieved by either giving the confrontation with Fullbody or Gin more focus. And I already love this version of Sanji, he seems immensely charming. One of my favorite scenes was Usopp and Zoro teasing Nami about Sanji's crush on her, lol.

Finally, Garp acts a bit more like his manga counterpart. That was cool, and he actually threw a cannonball at them! Him calling Mihawk directly to deal with the Luffy situation was an interesting change - it made it seem like these two characters had some kind of connection. Shame Krieg got reduced to a cameo. I mean, he always was one of the weakest villains of the show, but still...I'm curious to see what will happen next episode now to give Sanji and Zeff some focus.

Mihawk's fight with Zoro was pretty cool, but by removing certain elements like other characters watching, Zoro falling into the ocean or Luffy losing and angrily attacking Mihawk, they removed some of the dramatic impact. I guess I will have to get used to the show in general not being as emotionally impactful as the manga/anime.

Anyway, overall one of my favorites so far!

Wonderful chapter! I got goosebumps when I read the chapter title, because I did not anticipate Ohara figuring into things so strongly. I mean, obviously Ohara being obliterated by the WG for their knowledge was always a big thing, but seeing it tied into the plots of several different characters, particularly it being the incident that drove Dragon into creating the Revolutionary Army, is some awesome wordbuilding. That's how you create a fictional world that really feels alive. The purpose of Ohara's story wasn't just to provide Robin with an emotional backstory and to hint at the secrets of the WG, it impacted the One Piece world and the people who live in it in several different ways.

But while of this is fascinating to learn, the chapter wouldn't be as effective or engaging if it wasn't all centered on Robin and her emotional reactions to what she is hearing. Robin really is such a great character. Due to her overall quiet and subdued personality, she can sometimes disappear into the background when the more zany and extroverted Strawhats are around, but whenever she gets some focus, it's always really good and I love what Oda has been doing with her lately. Very much appreciated!

@FatDogForMidTerms said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

I was here with a different account back when Thriller Bark was happening and oh my fucking god do you guys remember Perona supporters?

FatDogForMidTerms is secretly AGOG confirmed.

You can't just go by number of chapters, you also have to look at their content. East Blue saga introduces five main characters and their backstories and consists of 6 different arcs, all with their own location, plot line and cast of secondary characters. You basically have to introduce viewers to a new location and new characters every single episode, most of which will only matter for that episode or the next.

Skypiea may be similar in length, but you have like two locations and what, 4 or 5 important secondary characters you have to introduce and feature. Spending like 6 episodes on Upper Yard is just too much and not really warranted in terms of plot. A huge part of this arc consists of fighting. We have to get used to the idea that most fights will at most be a couple of minutes in length.

Nah, that's just not true. Luffy trained his ass off and went through several hardships. He earned all of his crew by being a good friend to them. If he hadn't helped Nami, for example, he wouldn't even have made it to the Grandline in the first place. His oh so awesome fruit powers couldn't even save him from a bunch of Mountain Bandits. He had to train and sweat and bleed and then train some more to get where he is now, and it was mostly thanks to his own strength of will and his overall personality that he achieved anything.

How did anything you just mentioned help him defeat Crocodile or Doflamingo, for example?

They actually use Berry in the German dub, which I always kind of liked.

@Cockycent

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

@Riddler said in Chapter 1066: The Will of Ohara:

Nah, that's just not true. Luffy trained his ass off and went through several hardships. He earned all of his crew by being a good friend to them. If he hadn't helped Nami, for example, he wouldn't even have made it to the Grandline in the first place. His oh so awesome fruit powers couldn't even save him from a bunch of Mountain Bandits. He had to train and sweat and bleed and then train some more to get where he is now, and it was mostly thanks to his own strength of will and his overall personality that he achieved anything.

How did anything you just mentioned help him defeat Crocodile or Doflamingo, for example?

Yeah, none of that has anything to do with what we're talking about.
It's not achievements we're discussing, it's advantages in the pirate king race and wether those were gained or not, and in general deserving to still be in the game this late.
The fact that sometimes he achieved something of his own doesn't in the least disprove the fact that he's still going only because he had connections and an OP fruit:

If he wasn't Dragon's son, his journey would have ended in Logue Town, or at Thriller Bark, or at Sabaody, or at Impel Down, or here in Egghead.

If he wasn't Garp's grandson he wouldn't have gone past Long Ring Long Land, or Water 7.

If it wasn't for his litterally divine fruit, there'd be one less new emperor and one more blood stain on top of Onigashima.

"he trained hard" Yeah wow, so did everybody else in the Worst generation I assume, but they couldn't count on a family friend or member to step in every time their recklessness jeopardized the journey, or being revived with a 10x powerup by their fruit if killed.

Then I guess I just don't know what exactly the differences between achievements and advantages in the Pirate King race are for you, because then you go on and list examples like, for example, that he only survived against Aokiji because of his grandfather, that he only survived against Kaido because of his overpowered fruit etc. Why do those things count as unearned advantages, but recruiting, for example, an amazing navigator to his crew because he was an awesome friend to her or defeating big obstacles in his way to become Pirate King like Crocodile or Doflamingo do not count as earned advantages? It just seems like an arbitrary distinction to me. All of that stuff is part of becoming the Pirate King in the end.

And I was never denying that Luffy oftentimes needed help - heck, he himself makes the point that he wouldn't be able to achieve shit without his friends help, for one, back in Arlong Park - or only survived due to sheer luck in numerous instances. As you pointed out yourself, that's been happening since Loguetown at the very least, all the way back in Chapter 100. I wasn't denying any of that, I was just taking umbrage with your claim that Robin was the only advantage he ever earned.

Yeah, the other Supernova also had to train and work hard to get where they are, but did any of them defeat several Shichibukai? Did any of them invade both Enies Lobby and Impel Down and survived? Sure, Luffy had a lot of help along the way, some of which was due to his family connections - but also only to a degree; while Ivankov and Jinbei started out helping him because of their connections to Dragon/Ace, they were very quickly drawn in and impressed by his own personality and strength of will - but he also had to fight much harder battles than the other contenders for the throne.

And while we are at it, couldn't you just as well say that Law only is where he is due to his overpowered Devil Fruit? Or that Teach is where he is because he knew Whitebeard and had the luck to stumble upon the Devil Fruit he wanted? Or that Big Mom only was able to become a Yonkou because she was born with amazing strength and durability and then also ate an incredibly powerful Devil Fruit? Why single out Luffy's "unfair" advantages and at the same time fully dismiss anything he did by himself to get where he is now?

Zanze pretty much summed up my thoughts about the Scabbards. I actually quite like them both as individual characters and as a collective group. Most of them have cool designs and quite interesting backstories. The four new ones really shined in Acts 1 and 2. I remember there were complaints at the time that most of the Strawhats felt only like secondary characters while the Scabbards and other Wano centric characters took center stage and that is absolutely valid.

The upside of this was that these two acts did a good job of introducing these new characters. Ashura Doji and Kawamatsu had really intriguing and moving backstories and I loved Denjiro both as an apparent villain and in Oden's flashback (which btw I am enjoying WAY more right now watching the German dub of those episodes in the anime). Kiku was probably the least three-dimensional of the four, but she also was very sympathetic.

The problem is that after this great setup, Act 3 doesn't deliver well in this regard, at least after their fight against Kaido, which, as Zanze said, was awesome, and I have to give Oda some credit here - at the time, there was a LOT of grumping about how Oda would surely either offscreen their fight against Kaido or the Strawhat's fights against the Tobi Roppo or both, and neither of these dire predictions came true.

But afterwards, Kawamatsu and Denjiro barely did anything and might as well have stayed down. Ashura's death scene actually works pretty well if you go back and reread it with the knowledge that he won't survive this. Kaido should have been the one to kill him though, let's be honest. And hey, Kiku actually gets some nice scenes later when fighting Kanjuro.

Speaking of which, both Kinemon and Kanjuro got a really good portrayal in Wano after just being rather mediocre secondary characters for the longest time. I really, really like Kinemon's character now, and Kanjuro being revealed as the traitor and an absolutely psychotic villain was the best thing that could happen to this very meh character. And best of all, it actually works pretty well, there are a lot of times before where he acted quite shady but made it seem like he was just incompetent.

Don't care about Inuarashi and don't understand why he of all Scabbards got his own 1v1. He's just a boring version of Nekomamushi, who, like all Minks, got totally shafted after such an awesome introduction on Zou. Izo was alright, I guess, I would have liked more interaction between him and Kiku. Raizo is fun, but imho he kinda pales in comparison to most of the other Scabbards.

So basically, really good introduction, cool stuff early during the raid, then the rest of the raid, almost everything that doesn't revolve around Kinemon, Kiku and Kanjuro is kinda lackluster and doesn't 't seem really necessary. Oh, and I don't mind at all that Kanjuro came back from the dead at least once, because most of what followed from this was pretty compelling drama.

His dad died a couple of days ago, apparently. I'm willing to forgive him a few instances of saying some stupid stuff right now.

It's also ok to still like an actor/celebrity even if you disagree with some of his or her views. I understand feeling disappointment when someone you like says or does something you think is stupid or wrong, but imo maybe we are sometimes a little too obsessed with people having to share our own opinions in order for us to support or like them. I wouldn't want to have a job where I constantly feel like I can only openly voice opinions that are deemed acceptable by everyone else or else I might be shunned and lose my job.

I don't envy celebrities, they are expected to be active on social media and voice their support for moral causes but as soon as they voice an opinion or thought the majority of their fans might disagree with, they get bombarded with hate. The smartest ones are those who just stay off social media completely and just ignore whatever happens there.

@Kishido said in Chapter 1078: Escape Limit:

@blue-san said in Chapter 1078: Escape Limit:

@Kishido

He has 2

1. From Big Mom when he charged in
2. From Law from Wano

Yeah but this chapter it looks like the Kidd pirates had 3

You're still in the wrong chapter thread. Thanks for spoiling me though, that was nice.

I've been enjoying the arc so far, but it's not exactly been wowing me either. It's all interesting stuff, Vegapunk is fun. I feel entertained when reading each chapter, but I also don't feel all that invested in what's going on on Egghead. Which kinda makes sense, since neither are the Strawhats, they don't really have a strong bond with either Bonney or Vegapunk, so they are just sort of reacting to all the crazy shenanigans going on around them. But at the same time, I also don't feel like I'm experiencing things through their eyes either, like it's been in the past. The Strawhats don't feel like they are the focus, but rather bystanders, and I think that bothers me a little. It's not like Vegapunk's stuff or Bonney's and Kuma's storylines aren't well-told or uninteresting - I feel particularly interested in the later's backstory and have high hopes for that - but I just want the Strawhats to feel like the main characters of the story.

So I don't dislike the arc, really. It's fun. But it doesn't feel like anything special or unique so far. The futuristic setting isn't used enough and most of the Satellites - which still is a cool concept - are honestly a little boring to me. I feel like you could have had a lot more fun with characters that basically embody a certain characteristic.

I also saw it yesterday and really liked it. It's a really emotional, heartfelt film that is also a ton of fun at the same time, yet never undercuts its tragic or dramatic moments. I won't spoil anything now, but imo it's a very appropriate and fitting end to the trilogy.

I don't think this counts as a spoiler, since we all know from the trailers and interviews that part of the movie focuses on Rockets backstory, so I want to give you a small warning: this is not the easiest watch if you love animals and hate to see them get hurt. I'll say no more, but yeah.

Still, if you loved or even just liked the first two films, you should absolutely give this a watch.

ProSieben MAXX has all my love for what they've done for animes in Germany in the last couple of years. I had a feeling the current batch would go up exactly to episode 1000. The next batch of episodes should actually see them catch up to the current episodes in Japan, that's amazing! I wonder what they will do then. I can't see a simuldub for the German market happening...I guess the most likely option is that they will basically air a new "season" of episodes each year consisting of the 30-40 episodes aired in the previous year in Japan.

@Alfiere said in Chapter 1079: The Emperor's Crew, the Red-Haired Pirates:

So Shanks takes it upon himself to protect weak pirates so that even them can freely roam the open sea of the new world, and is so successful that these pirates can't freely roam the New World because the instant they leave Shanks ' side they get brutally murdered and have to just go wherever he goes, am I reading this right?

No, you are not. We know that territories of Yonko don't get attacked by most pirates because of the Yonko's protection. We can safely assume that it's the same for a Yonko's allies: Most people would be too scared of Shanks' inevitable revenge and thus refrain from hurting the pirate crews associated with him.

Kidd is an exception to the rule since he has no problem attacking Yonkos, their territories or their allies.

The newest block of episodes has ended this week on episode 1000. They did keep the We Are opening instead of inserting "Die Legende", so it wasn't quite the nostalgia fest for longtime German dub viewers. But one little thing they did that I really enjoyed: they used soundbites of the old voice actors for Gold Roger and the narrator for the old school opening narration, both of whom have died years ago. That was quite nice! Particularly old Gold Roger, man, that voice was just perfect!