One Piece

I love Kuma, his past was so specific to my tastes that I think he's my favorite character.

Robin, Law, Oden and Kumas flashbacks are all up there for me. Genuinly not sure in what order I would rank all of them but Kuma might be at the top, though a bitof recency bias is probably involved there.

Kuma is the only one who threatened to replace Usopp as my favorite character. Easy pick.

Second best flashback might be Doflamingo's because I just love the narrative trick of showing him as a complete ass in the first single-page flashback and recontextualizing that so hard in the full version. Next I think the order is Big Mom, Señor Pink, Law, Fisher Tiger, Robin.

One of uzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Even though its recent, its hard not to say Kuma. As many flashbacks as we get in the series, its not often that we're waiting in heavy anticipation of it, and when we are, it usually at most a few years. We waited to find out what the deal was with Kuma for well over a decade. And despite that, Oda absolutely delivered with a gut wrenching but narratively superb tale.

Yeah, the Kuma flashback is definitely a Top 5 all-timer.

It's honestly really hard to rank them, I used to have Brook's backstory as my all-time favorite, but Oden and Kuma make a strong case. And I also really love the Fishman Island backstory, and Law's, and I have a soft spot for Kyros's backstory. And Noland and Kalgara is great, too.

I do think that Oda's storytelling with backstories has, if not necessarily improved, it has progressed. You can tell where Oda is changing things on purpose.

I've mentioned before, but the Old Style of flashback is "Child meets Mentor. Mentor sacrifices for Child, and Child inherits their will." Whereas the New Style of flashback is "Character is introduced who becomes Mentor. They meet a Child, sacrifice themselves for the Child, and the Child inherits their will."

It's really a perspective swap, whether the Mentor or the Child is the protagonist of the flashback. If they were in the Old Style, Rebecca, Kin'emon, and Bonney would be the protagonists of the Kyros, Oden, and Kuma flashbacks. If they were in the New Style, Bellemere, Hiriluk, Tom, and Saul would be the protagonists of the Nami, Chopper, Franky, and Robin flashbacks.

I think this change is happening because of Oda's own aging making him identify more with the Mentor figure than with the Child. I like that we have the New Style for variety's sake, and I appreciate that Oda hasn't discarded the Old Style, we got recent Old Style flashbacks with Sanji and Big Mom in Whole Cake Island and Yamato in Onigashima.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 17th 2024 at 1:41:05 AM

I do enjoy Jinbei's flashback in Fishman Island a lot too. The interconnecting tragedies of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime is some powerful stuff, in my opinion. And the recontextualizing of Arlong's issues. It doesn't make what he did okay, nor is it trying to, but we do see that his rage at least has roots in a very real place.

And I've mentioned this before but don't know if I've emphasized enough, I LOVE Otohime's drunken impassioned speech to her people imploring them to have the courage to reach for their dream of living in the surface world. And Amalee voicing her in the English Dub does a fantastic job. I'm almost a little annoyed that role gets mostly overshadowed by Uta now, because I think its underrated. And then King's voice actor, Gabe Kunda, voices Fisher Tiger in this flashback and does an outstanding job! One Piece dub should be more willing to double dip actors in major named roles, they can make magic happen.

Sorry, I got a bit distracted. Back to flashbacks, I do like parts of Oden's but its mostly when he's outside of Wano, traveling with Whitebeard and Roger. I actually don't care too much for inside Wano parts, except for the anime version of his battle with Kaido and his death.

I've also mentioned before enjoying Kyros's a lot. Again, I 'love' the pain in the line "These tin arms of mine can't even feel your warmth for one last time" as Scarlet dies...

I agree with a lot of those takes, particularly Otohime's drunken rant and the line about tin arms not being able to feel warmth. Those bits get me every time.

On a completely different subject, I really wonder if they're ever going to release the full version of this Straw Hat Concept art:

I'm not talking about the big detailed one, we did get a full version of that, with the reveal that Jimbei was originally in the picture but was edited out:

No, I'm talking about the little one in the corner there:

This one looks to be more further along than the bigger one, since Chopper is smaller, Robin and Franky are present (though Robin is still the "botanist") and Brook is tall. But I'm also like 90% positive this version was also edited to remove Jimbei, and it looks like they removed more than one character, since there are several big gaps on the left.

I was about to make a joking comment about a "desert princess" then I thought, "Wait, Vivi didn't exist yet"... And then I thought "No, she might have existed, its just that in the original concepts, Miss Wednesday and Vivi weren't the same person."

I wonder if after the series wraps, we'll get more information from Oda about when certain ideas formed? I doubt everything that's been revealed in recent chapters have always been part of the story. And yet, that Alabasta had a Poneglyph - likely one of the more important ones, since it details an Ancient Weapon - Does suggest that he always expected Alabasta and its Royal Family to have a deep connection with the world's history. Has Vivi and her family always secretly been part of the D?

That would be a reason not to release this version, if it includes "Nefertari D Vivi".

I'm of the opposite opinion: the princess character didn't exist in the earliest of early drafts, and it really only ever was Miss Wednesday, and nothing more. Bear in mind that this was in the First Five Years, the primordial early planning era of One Piece. Drawing Miss Wednesday as a princess may have been the moment something clicked with Oda, making him go "…Shit, wait a minute, I think I fucking got something here.” And oh boy, did he ever.

It's okay for not everything to have literally been planned out since Day 1. If anything, it's a testament to how well Oda pivoted, even back then. And if anything, I'm interested to see how the Live Action Show handles Vivi's "Miss Wednesday" façade, with what we now know about her. They're gonna be making her deliberately faking the loyalty to Crocodile this time around.

...I know its okay for "not everything to be planned out." My previous post was about questioning which parts were planned out.

The best part is that I didnt even wait for it, Kuma's flashback, the only part that I sorta expected which is the closes thing to waiting was that the World Goverment made the good guy out to be the "Tyrant". That's also another thing that made me love it even more.

Edited by AegisP on Apr 17th 2024 at 9:30:32 AM

We know Miss Wednesday was originally not Vivi, but that doesn't necessarily mean Vivi and Alabasta weren't originally part of the outline. It's just that Vivi wasn't going to be Miss Wednesday.

Aside from that, there are two big things we know weren't planned by Oda from the start:

• The Warlords. We know the characters who became the Warlords were part of the original plan, Doflamingo was originally going to be Joker, a Kaido subordinate. But the Seven Warlords as an organization was invented as a stop-gap so that Luffy didn't immediately jump into fighting the Emperors.

• The Worst Generation. Aside from Luffy, Zoro, and Blackbeard, all of them were invented in one day and then stapled onto the arcs of established characters, like Law being stapled to Doflamingo and Bonney being stapled to Kuma. Not clumsily stapled, Oda did a very good and clean job with that stapler, but still. Not part of the original plan.

We know Oda has had the ending in mind from the start, and you can see how he's going back to the original concept in how both of these groups are being treated. The Warlords as an organization is dissolved and the Worst Generation are either dying off, joining other factions, or fading into irrelevancy.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 17th 2024 at 11:40:16 AM

I love how discourse on Oda changed over time but what has never been at doubt is that he IS a terrific writer.

<Pokes Mad Monk with a stick> C'moooon. Do somethiiiiiiing.

Urouge: I cant diddy! I cant let Dragon beat me in the character who has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING department!

Speaking of which, the axes Gold Roger crewmember is awesome and I want to know more about him.

You know, i'm often surprised how much Ivankov is involved with One Piece's overall story.

They were involved with the catalyst of the God Valley incident, was responsible for Kuma getting his Paw fruit and almost ate the Azure Dragon fruit, was one of the founding members of the Revolutionary Army, knew Crocodile at some point enough for them to know a big secret of his, was big part of the big Impel Down escape, and their island serves as a reserve for the revolutionaries to hide.

Like damn, the Okama way sure went far for them.

And trained Sanji!

Ivankov, though, is clearly also a Revolutionary Comrade, though thick and thin, doing absolutely everything in his power to see to it that The World Government fucks right off, and for that, I salute him.

Actually, if I may (so long as I put this spoiler mark here), deeply personal though Kuma punching Saint Saturn in the face was, I get the distinct impression that any Revolutionary Comrades mourning what the Celestial Dragons did to Ginny, would have done the exact same thing in his shoes.

Though tbf it was less about getting payback and more about saving Bonney.

So yes, any of them would have done the same.

I don't LIKE being fair, I like being biased, unfair, and opinionated, dammit.

Never mind. Answered my own question.

Edited by chartoc on Apr 19th 2024 at 2:51:33 AM

I hope the One Piece Live-Action leans into Drum Island being Canada, beyond just casting a Canadian voice actor for Chopper. Because healthcare, and also Dalton is one of the most Canadian characters ever.

Huh, I never made that connection until now.