General & Others Oda's Obsession With Originality and Shockvalue And Why The Story Suffers

#61
Well done Rossi. I won’t comment on too much as I think everything here was well said, with one exception:




If Oda was creative, Haki would’ve never existed in the first place. It was a power invented so that Oda could stop pulling off unique fights like Luffy vs Croc or Luffy vs Enel, and Oda could just have Luffy defeat any opponent by punching them in the face rather than being truly creative in how Luffy (and other Haki users also) overcomes his obstacles.
It had to exist. How many fights can Luffy have that he just happens to manipulate the opponent's weakness? Enel vs Luffy had a ridiculous amount of plot. I don't believe this is particularly creative after a while...
 
#63
Except that's not really the case?

If anything, Oda is being just as straightforward as his always been with his narratives.

Oda isn't trying to be original, and its kind of funny to think that people are saying that he is, when his being pretty much as basic as his always been.
Lol
Basic and Oda dont match
Oda always trying to be creative and different and he always succeeds
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He could avoided all of that by not making Logia users intangible.
:kayneshrug:
Haki is a simple power
It is not like nen
Who has a greater haki will win
Thats why law beated verga and doffy beated law
And luffy couldnt beat doffy without the gamma knife from law
I see that haki is very understandable
Why you making problems out of no where
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It had to exist. How many fights can Luffy have that he just happens to manipulate the opponent's weakness? Enel vs Luffy had a ridiculous amount of plot. I don't believe this is particularly creative after a while...
Haki is confirmed after smoker df introduced
Enel and luffy fight was just physical but luffy was stronger
 

Elder Lee Hung

Conqueror of the Stars
#64
It had to exist. How many fights can Luffy have that he just happens to manipulate the opponent's weakness? Enel vs Luffy had a ridiculous amount of plot. I don't believe this is particularly creative after a while...
The point is that the fight wasn’t as simple as “I’m going to win by punching my enemy in the face”, there was more going on in those fights than that. Luffy vs Croc in particular, Luffy had to be a bit more creative in how he won that fight. Same with Luffy vs Magellan, he and Mr. 3 had to team up to succeed.

But team ups aren’t always going to be possible, and Luffy won’t always be able to exploit someone’s weakness. Enter Haki, the magic fight-winning powerup that will always be rewritten to be whatever it needs to be in order to defeat an opponent by repeatedly punching them in the face without any real ingenuity or brain power required, until Oda decides that they are done fighting and Luffy wins.

Haki itself isn’t a bad concept, what’s bad about Haki is that it only exists because Oda made it impossible on himself for Haki not to exist. He introduced invincible logias without knowing how he was going to have Luffy win against them, so then he wrote Haki as a non-specific and lazy solution. He made Kaido invincible without actually knowing how Luffy would win, so he had to write a flashback that destroyed Whitebeard’s character to explain the powerup that Luffy was about to get, and even then we still don’t really know what AdCoC is or how it works.

It’s another symptom of Oda establishing interesting storylines but not knowing how to resolve them.
 
#65
The point is that the fight wasn’t as simple as “I’m going to win by punching my enemy in the face”, there was more going on in those fights than that. Luffy vs Croc in particular, Luffy had to be a bit more creative in how he won that fight. Same with Luffy vs Magellan, he and Mr. 3 had to team up to succeed.

But team ups aren’t always going to be possible, and Luffy won’t always be able to exploit someone’s weakness. Enter Haki, the magic fight-winning powerup that will always be rewritten to be whatever it needs to be in order to defeat an opponent by repeatedly punching them in the face without any real ingenuity or brain power required, until Oda decides that they are done fighting and Luffy wins.

Haki itself isn’t a bad concept, what’s bad about Haki is that it only exists because Oda made it impossible on himself for Haki not to exist. He introduced invincible logias without knowing how he was going to have Luffy win against them, so then he wrote Haki as a non-specific and lazy solution. He made Kaido invincible without actually knowing how Luffy would win, so he had to write a flashback that destroyed Whitebeard’s character to explain the powerup that Luffy was about to get, and even then we still don’t really know what AdCoC is or how it works.

It’s another symptom of Oda establishing interesting storylines but not knowing how to resolve them.
Really this is the worst comment ive ever read
For ryou
Ryou first appeared in sabaody
Oda wrote ryou then wrote kaido
Wrote haki then wrote logia
Everything is planned and everything is foreshadowed
You critisize him for doing things he never did
He made the power and opposite from the beggining
Dont say things like lazy writing when things are obvious
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The point is that the fight wasn’t as simple as “I’m going to win by punching my enemy in the face”, there was more going on in those fights than that. Luffy vs Croc in particular, Luffy had to be a bit more creative in how he won that fight. Same with Luffy vs Magellan, he and Mr. 3 had to team up to succeed.

But team ups aren’t always going to be possible, and Luffy won’t always be able to exploit someone’s weakness. Enter Haki, the magic fight-winning powerup that will always be rewritten to be whatever it needs to be in order to defeat an opponent by repeatedly punching them in the face without any real ingenuity or brain power required, until Oda decides that they are done fighting and Luffy wins.

Haki itself isn’t a bad concept, what’s bad about Haki is that it only exists because Oda made it impossible on himself for Haki not to exist. He introduced invincible logias without knowing how he was going to have Luffy win against them, so then he wrote Haki as a non-specific and lazy solution. He made Kaido invincible without actually knowing how Luffy would win, so he had to write a flashback that destroyed Whitebeard’s character to explain the powerup that Luffy was about to get, and even then we still don’t really know what AdCoC is or how it works.

It’s another symptom of Oda establishing interesting storylines but not knowing how to resolve them.
Oda use the backward writing
He knew how everything will end
He just add small details
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The point is that the fight wasn’t as simple as “I’m going to win by punching my enemy in the face”, there was more going on in those fights than that. Luffy vs Croc in particular, Luffy had to be a bit more creative in how he won that fight. Same with Luffy vs Magellan, he and Mr. 3 had to team up to succeed.

But team ups aren’t always going to be possible, and Luffy won’t always be able to exploit someone’s weakness. Enter Haki, the magic fight-winning powerup that will always be rewritten to be whatever it needs to be in order to defeat an opponent by repeatedly punching them in the face without any real ingenuity or brain power required, until Oda decides that they are done fighting and Luffy wins.

Haki itself isn’t a bad concept, what’s bad about Haki is that it only exists because Oda made it impossible on himself for Haki not to exist. He introduced invincible logias without knowing how he was going to have Luffy win against them, so then he wrote Haki as a non-specific and lazy solution. He made Kaido invincible without actually knowing how Luffy would win, so he had to write a flashback that destroyed Whitebeard’s character to explain the powerup that Luffy was about to get, and even then we still don’t really know what AdCoC is or how it works.

It’s another symptom of Oda establishing interesting storylines but not knowing how to resolve them.
Destroyed whitebeard character ? Really ???
Do you even understanded it ?
 

Rosella.Fiamingo

Peerless In History
#66
Except that's not really the case?

If anything, Oda is being just as straightforward as his always been with his narratives.

Oda isn't trying to be original, and its kind of funny to think that people are saying that he is, when his being pretty much as basic as his always been.
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You didn't give any examples of how haki makes the plot incoherent despite claiming so multiple times.
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This is a kind of funny example, because there absolutely has been a crap ton of stuff leading up to this moment. I think that's more of a you problem than necessarily a problem with how Oda revealed it."

Same shit can be said for your jab at the Katakuri fight, which were both scenes that went out of their way to explain stuff.

They are moments that actually have far more build up than stuff like Zoro learning to cut Mr 1 in the heat of battle, or Luffy creating gear 2nd and 3rd on the fly.
You're not straightforward when you withhold information just for the sake of withholding information.

I said that I won't spend time giving examples of how Haki renders the plot incoherent because there are too many to name but If you want some here goes.

1. A character with really good COO like Katakuri and can see the literal future couldn't detect his little sister being there, and giving him aid and assistance the entire fight.

2. The whole Katakuri fight was rendered incoherent because Katakuri was simply made far too strong as a result of his Haki prowess and mastery to the point where he literally had to dumb down Katakuri and pull so much PIS to have Luffy survive that fight. Considering the circumstances of why Luffy was there (To Kill his Mother, having already hurt his precious siblings), he resorts to being lazy, dropping his weapon, injuring himself and letting Luffy win. And don't say it was an idealogical battle because it was not. The circumstances of that fight was a result of Oda hyper focusing on Katakuri's Haki and making him an impossible challenge for Luffy only to pull a million bullshits for Luffy to survive

3. Lol, Kaido's entire durability same for Linlin. The Haki Luffy knows is something Top Tiers at a minimum should have developed considering you have two durability freaks running around. How convenient that the strongest people in the world are being left in the dust by a literal 19 year old.

4. The SN and Strawhats being capable of sneaking into the festival. We've seen several instances where characters who aren't even actively using COO can sense the presence of strong people passively. Yet, no such thing occurred with what one must expect multiple competent Haki users on Kaido's crew.


And no, there was little build up in Luffy's Bull shit COC powerup. It's something the fanbase somewhat guessed but there was literally no build up for it at all in the Wano Arc. The entirety of the arc has been focused on Luffy mastering COA. I don't care that he did it, I care that he literally pulls it out of his ass within a single chapter and is now pummeling Kaido with it.
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Well done Rossi. I won’t comment on too much as I think everything here was well said, with one exception:



I don’t think that is why Oda keeps Haki ambiguous.

Put simply, Oda keeps Haki ambiguous because he is not good enough of a writer to fully explain Haki now, and then write himself out of impossible situations in the future.

We’ve seen how Oda handles the impossible situations he writes himself into in the past, the man is straight up incapable of telling a good story without simply withholding information from the readers so that he can do whatever he wants to get himself out of trouble later.

Oda establishes that Sanji has exploding cuffs on, and if he tries to leave WCI, they’ll detonate. But shit...how do we get out of such an impossible situation? Meh, just have Reiji say they were fakes from the start.

Establish that Big Mom is going to have Jinbe roll the life-or-death wheel as a consequence for leaving her crew...how do we get out of such an impossible situation? Meh, just say that she didn’t make Jinbe roll it yet so that we can avoid any real consequence for Jinbe’s decisions.

Establish that Big Mom will obliterate the Baratie if Sanji doesn’t marry Pudding...how do we get out of such an impossible situation? Meh, just completely forget about it and never acknowledge that it happened again.

Introduce Whitebeard as a character who will fuck anyone up if they miss with his sons, but then can’t figure out why Whitebeard would not go to Wano after Kaido kills Oden? Meh, just say Whitebeard didn’t know Oden died after 20 years, or that they didn’t want to hurt civilians or some other bullshit.

This is a problem Oda has developed in recent years, the man creates interesting plot lines that seem impossible to solve...because they actually are impossible for Oda to solve. He writes himself into a situation so impossible that he doesn’t know how to get himself out of it, so he just dismissed the situation with some bullshit all together or forgets that he established it as a problem to begin with.

What does that have to do with Haki? Well, Haki let’s Oda get out of whatever impossible situation he wants to. Logia Devil Fruit users that are literally invincible? Meh, just create a power that makes them not invincible. Kizaru too fast? Meh, just create a power that makes him not-too fast. Kaido too durable? Fuck it, pull whatever nonsense out of your ass that makes him not too durable. These ass-pull solutions would become impossible if Oda fully explained what Haki was capable of from the start. Haki is ambiguous because Oda doesn’t even know what Haki is, Haki simply becomes whatever Oda needs it to be to get himself out of deep shit.

You said in the OP that Oda is a creative writer, but to me his writing problems stem from how uncreative he is. The story problems I described above require genuine ingenuity to solve, which Oda does not have. Everything about his story that fans misconstrue as him being a genius is likely shit he plagiarized from other writers anyway.

If Oda was creative, Haki would’ve never existed in the first place. It was a power invented so that Oda could stop pulling off unique fights like Luffy vs Croc or Luffy vs Enel, and Oda could just have Luffy defeat any opponent by punching them in the face rather than being truly creative in how Luffy (and other Haki users also) overcomes his obstacles.
Honestly, yes! I don't think I could put it any better as well. I had a lot of thoughts writing that and one thing I forgot to note down as explicitly as you have done is his withholding of information just for the sake of it as a means of slipping out of the impossible situations he creates and to avoid consequences.

And it's crazy to say that the pre-time skip actually had more tangible and lasting consequences for the strawhats even though the stakes were far lower. Luffy and CO are running through the territories of the most dangerous pirates and people in the world and are coming out scott free and are leaving with only gains. Not a single thing has been lost by Luffy and CO despite the New World being hyped up as a dangerous cruel place for the weak.

Luffy and CO are not weak but they are nowhere as strong or as connected as the people they're messing with yet they come out squeaky clean each time. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when Jinbei came back seemingly ok. Im still holding out hope that he falls over and dies soon but I doubt it. I'm not even asking for characters to die but, there should be real consequences to their actions.

I would have been able to swallow WCI shenanigans if Luffy lost a limb or something against Cracker or Katakuri or if that Mogura wound became a permanent scar that didn't heal as a reminder of his reckless behavior.
 
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#67
You're not straightforward when you withhold information just for the sake of withholding information.

I said that I won't spend time giving examples of how Haki renders the plot incoherent because there are too many to name but If you want some here goes.

1. A character with really good COO like Katakuri and can see the literal future couldn't detect his little sister being there, and giving him aid and assistance the entire fight.

2. The whole Katakuri fight was rendered incoherent because Katakuri was simply made far too strong as a result of his Haki prowess and mastery to the point where he literally had to dumb down Katakuri and pull so much PIS to have Luffy survive that fight. Considering the circumstances of why Luffy was there (To Kill his Mother, having already hurt his precious siblings), he resorts to being lazy, dropping his weapon, injuring himself and letting Luffy win. And don't say it was an idealogical battle because it was not. The circumstances of that fight was a result of Oda hyper focusing on Katakuri's Haki and making him an impossible challenge for Luffy only to pull a million bullshits for Luffy to survive

3. Lol, Kaido's entire durability same for Linlin. The Haki Luffy knows is something Top Tiers at a minimum should have developed considering you have two durability freaks running around. How convenient that the strongest people in the world are being left in the dust by a literal 19 year old.

4. The SN and Strawhats being capable of sneaking into the festival. We've seen several instances where characters who aren't even actively using COO can sense the presence of strong people passively. Yet, no such thing occurred with what one must expect multiple competent Haki users on Kaido's crew.


And no, there was little build up in Luffy's Bull shit COC powerup. It's something the fanbase somewhat guessed but there was literally no build up for it at all in the Wano Arc. The entirety of the arc has been focused on Luffy mastering COA. I don't care that he did it, I care that he literally pulls it out of his ass within a single chapter and is now pummeling Kaido with it.
1- they said that she is a silent assassin and he was already fighting
You just dont concentrate when you watch
SILENT ASSASSIN
2-katakuri didnt love his mother as a son
He was doing his duty
We will know in the future more about him

For the CoC point
Luffy uses it with know efficiency
He wont master it
He will use it like he used the sword for the first time
 

Doggo

Talent is something you make bloom.
#68
1- they said that she is a silent assassin and he was already fighting
You just dont concentrate when you watch
SILENT ASSASSIN
2-katakuri didnt love his mother as a son
He was doing his duty
We will know in the future more about him

For the CoC point
Luffy uses it with know efficiency
He wont master it
He will use it like he used the sword for the first time
Who cares if she is silent?
CoO is a magical sonar.
An ability to remain hidden from detection from a CoO user would be yet ANOTHER thing Oda would pull out of his ass, since it is currently not a thing.
CoO is the most INCONSISTENT garbage Oda has created. It is amazing how simple and ok it was when it was just "Mantra". Then Oda decides to make it "omg so op so good" and fucks it up at every chance he gets.
 

Rosella.Fiamingo

Peerless In History
#69
1- they said that she is a silent assassin and he was already fighting
You just dont concentrate when you watch
SILENT ASSASSIN
2-katakuri didnt love his mother as a son
He was doing his duty
We will know in the future more about him

For the CoC point
Luffy uses it with know efficiency
He wont master it
He will use it like he used the sword for the first time
Nope, unless Oda has made it possible to conceal your presence, your voice (thats the thing that COO users are able to track one another with. They dont track through physical sensation.)

Katakuri doesn't need to love his mother. In fact, he can hate her but his Duty to protect his family ought to be enough to be reason to Kill Luffy for hurting his beloved siblings and trying to kill his mother who by the way if she was gone, his entire family would be in existential danger due to other Yonko and pirates swooping in capitalize on her death.

For COC, nothing will make him jumping back up (After a COC named attack) with no visible damage and start pounding on Kaido with something he just learned out of the blue not bullshit. Theres no build up or foreshadowing.
 
D

Deleted member 83

#70
For example, Kozuki Oden remained a Silhouette for the longest time with no justification for why he ought to remain hidden.
Tbh I think Kawamatsu is more ridiculous but I understand your point
One reason Oda keeps them hidden might be due to unfinished character design, the oden silhouette we have in chapter 958, literally one chapter before the start of his flashback, has different hair style than the current Oden

Even the anime team has no idea what he looks like, they drew his hair as a hat during Kine'mon's story telling lol
 

Rosella.Fiamingo

Peerless In History
#72
Tbh I think Kawamatsu is more ridiculous but I understand your point
One reason Oda keeps them hidden might be due to unfinished character design, the oden silhouette we have in chapter 958, literally one chapter before the start of his flashback, has different hair style than the current Oden

Even the anime team has no idea what he looks like, they drew his hair as a hat during Kine'mon's story telling lol
Thats a good point in the case of Oden. I somewhat retract my point about him.
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DF´s became ALMOST irrelevant thanks to LolHaki
I think any creativity regarding how to counter Law's devil fruit was binned because of "Haki"
 
#73
Introduce Whitebeard as a character who will fuck anyone up if they miss with his sons, but then can’t figure out why Whitebeard would not go to Wano after Kaido kills Oden? Meh, just say Whitebeard didn’t know Oden died after 20 years, or that they didn’t want to hurt civilians or some other bullshit
Whitebeard particularly said he isn't interested in Wano's politics.
 

Elder Lee Hung

Conqueror of the Stars
#74
Whitebeard particularly said he isn't interested in Wano's politics.
Are you defending Whitebeard’s decision not to avenge Oden? That’d be like if I said that Whitebeard shouldn’t have tried to save Ace, because Whitebeard himself said he had no interest in Roger’s legacy or the Pirate King title.

Whitebeard tried to save Ace because Ace was like a son to him. He should’ve tried to avenge Oden for the same reason.
 
#75
Who cares if she is silent?
CoO is a magical sonar.
An ability to remain hidden from detection from a CoO user would be yet ANOTHER thing Oda would pull out of his ass, since it is currently not a thing.
CoO is the most INCONSISTENT garbage Oda has created. It is amazing how simple and ok it was when it was just "Mantra". Then Oda decides to make it "omg so op so good" and fucks it up at every chance he gets.
Exactly, Oda should have established clear rules and limitations for haki. Look at stands or nen, you have range as a factor, environment, conditions, equal cost to reward etc. I think haki should have also been uniquely integrated to ones own devil fruit ability rather than be used the exact same way by everyone that would have added an element of personalization aswell as thought provoking fights where you and the character are trying to figure out how this ability functions using the parameters the author set. The best way to describe it is in dimensions, the devil fruit is two dimensional and haki makes it three dimensional its simply taking the same shape and making it more complex but you are not abandoning the shape itself kind of making it obsolete.
 
#76
Thats a good point in the case of Oden. I somewhat retract my point about him.
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I think any creativity regarding how to counter Law's devil fruit was binned because of "Haki"
DF´s are,in OP,the coolest shit but now?

Rangestuff?Barrierhaki GG

Meleestuff?ACoC GG

I mean,they dont even touch each other anymore...what is that shit
 
D

Deleted member 83

#77
Thats a good point in the case of Oden. I somewhat retract my point about him.
Oh well that wasn't my intention lol there's also pg1 who had his design modified like twice after his first appearance, maybe Oda just wants to play safe and doesn't want to reveal it before completely settling for a design
But still, I hate silhouettes
 
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#79
. He introduced invincible logias without knowing how he was going to have Luffy win against them
Conquerors haki was shown in chapter 1 and around chapter 100 when the first logia -smoker was introduced, Dragon was able to touch him.
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He made Kaido invincible without actually knowing how Luffy would win,
Advanced armament haki was shown in chapter 500. Around 400 chapters before we got to know how durable kaido was
 
#80
Who cares if she is silent?
CoO is a magical sonar.
An ability to remain hidden from detection from a CoO user would be yet ANOTHER thing Oda would pull out of his ass, since it is currently not a thing.
CoO is the most INCONSISTENT garbage Oda has created. It is amazing how simple and ok it was when it was just "Mantra". Then Oda decides to make it "omg so op so good" and fucks it up at every chance he gets.
The Coo is a power that you use all your senses to detect the other people moves
reighley said that
So a silent assassin can hide his presence
Or like what corazon did with his df
 
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