@Logiko could you define what is a “story” exactly?
"The Story" is a large term that I use to avoid being too specific. "The story" is everything that is included in the diegese of a final product of a fictionnal work.
With One Piece, the story is everything included in the canon material. This means the content of the chapters and the content of the mini adventures.
I don't consider the Sbs as part of the story as those informations are non diegetic since they do not impact the actual story in any ways and do not prepare events or situation in the continuum of the narration.
(I still consider the sbs as canon tho)
I fear that in your arrogance you’ve lost the difference between the author’s intention and the fan’s interpretation.
On the contrary.
I’m interested to hear how “the authors words don’t define the story” is the story not a sequence of words created by the author?
What I say is very precise and not really" the authors words don't define the story". What I say is:
The reality of the story always prevail on the words of the author on said story.
"What does this mean ?" You might ask.
This means that the reality of the final and finished product that is One Piece should always be superior in value to what Oda can say about his story.
If for example the story shows, through the narration / Through the dialogues / or any other means that Nami has a super-human ability and if Oda says "no, that's not the case", then the words of Oda will be less valuable that the reality of the story.
With this particular case, for example, Nami was shown to depict a super-human sence helping her to detect weithers with an incredible precision. We can see and know this through Nami's characterization, through her own actions and through the dialogue since Vivi herself found incredible that someone is able to predict something unpredictible.
So.. in the potential case where Oda would say "no, she is normal" (which will never happen, lets be honest), what we need to take into account are not the words of Oda but the reality of the story and the content of the narration.
Hence why the reality of the story must ALWAYS prevail on the words of the author on said story.
But if you want to understand that a little bit better, you can do this simple logical thought experiment:
If the story (dialogues + event + narration etc.) says that X=Y
&
If
at the same time, Oda is explaining outside of the story that X=/=Y...
What vision will you choose to follow ?
If your answer is Oda, then you will have rendered his story valueless. But the story is supposed to be the FINAL product, its not supposed to be something that can be changed unless we erease it.
This is why the reality of the story must ALWAYS prevail on the words of the author on said story.
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This doesn't mean that we must not listen to Oda, but when he says something that can contradict what he wrote, then we must not listen. We must let him change the story himself as this is the only way he can't "rectify" something.
In this case, people are trying to make Oda says that Zoro is the second main protagonist and therefore the most important character after Luffy.
In the reality of the story and the narration, that's not the case.
PLUS
In a story, the most important character after the protagonist is the antagonist. Simply beacuse the story revolves around the duel between the antagonist and the protagonist for a common goal.
Technically here. My reasonning doesn't even apply as the problem is not Oda, but the fans.