Character Discussion Why aren’t One Piece villains as iconic and memorable as Naruto/DBZ villains?
- Thread starter Shiroyru
- Start date
One piece has great villains, the thing you are focusing on are overcentrializied villains.
In the buu saga, after the like, what first 10? chapters the guy that needs to beaten is buu. everyone goes against it, they are no other characters that are relevant.
One piece doesn't work that way since the second arc because it a large maincast.
If you talk about the role in pop culture, the earlier something hit the mainstream the more it gonna be defining, there is more media every year
In the buu saga, after the like, what first 10? chapters the guy that needs to beaten is buu. everyone goes against it, they are no other characters that are relevant.
One piece doesn't work that way since the second arc because it a large maincast.
If you talk about the role in pop culture, the earlier something hit the mainstream the more it gonna be defining, there is more media every year
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Spot on.
There is also the fact that Naruto and Dragonball feature an entire cast of characters whose entire role is to job.
Yamcha, Krillin, Tenshinhan, Gotenks, Gohan (bu saga) are there just to job to hype the main villain.
Naruto is even a worse example, where characters exist to job and then disappear. it is not a case that the best part of Naruto is the Sound quartet fight, where nobody jobs and each character gets a fight (except Job lee).
It's like if Kaido before getting defeated by Luffy was to defeat the whole SHs and then lose to Luffy. To show how Kaido is strong Oda uses otehr characters and Zori, while the other SHs and Zoro too end up fighting other people.
There is also the fact that Naruto and Dragonball feature an entire cast of characters whose entire role is to job.
Yamcha, Krillin, Tenshinhan, Gotenks, Gohan (bu saga) are there just to job to hype the main villain.
Naruto is even a worse example, where characters exist to job and then disappear. it is not a case that the best part of Naruto is the Sound quartet fight, where nobody jobs and each character gets a fight (except Job lee).
It's like if Kaido before getting defeated by Luffy was to defeat the whole SHs and then lose to Luffy. To show how Kaido is strong Oda uses otehr characters and Zori, while the other SHs and Zoro too end up fighting other people.
Lol 😆 the shade is insane when Pain, Sasori, Orochimaru, Zabuza, are in Naruto
Pain will forever be better than Mookflamingo
Blackbeard is wasted.
Oda dragged out Wano and WCI too long 🤣
Shichibukai carry One Piece
Naruto is more popular WORLD WIDE than One Piece.
One Piece only surpassed Naruto in 2022 😆 🤣
2 years ago (aka when Wano actually still looked good at the start of Act 3 before Gear AS5 pull
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Pain will forever be better than Mookflamingo
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Blackbeard is wasted.
Oda dragged out Wano and WCI too long 🤣
Shichibukai carry One Piece
Naruto is more popular WORLD WIDE than One Piece.
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One Piece only surpassed Naruto in 2022 😆 🤣
2 years ago (aka when Wano actually still looked good at the start of Act 3 before Gear AS5 pull
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Do major Dragon Ball villains really have much backstory for that to be the reason for them being not generic? King Piccolo is literally born evil, Frieza is just a born and raised tyrant, Cell is a bio-android that is programmed to be a douche and Buu is evil cause he is Buu. All of them are essentially born evil. I'm not saying this makes them bad but I don't think these dudes have a backstory advantage over major arc One Piece antagonists like Lucci or Moria. The one time Akira tried to make an antagonist with a backstory in Jiren, nobody cared.
Heck, it is Oda's no backstory or minimal backstory characters that are his most popular.
Crocodile has no backstory, dude still cracked Top 20 character lists between his years long absence and him finally getting back into the story.
Enel has no backstory, dude is one of the most popular OP villains.
Lucci has minimal backstory, he's iconic anyway.
Compare that with characters that get clowned on despite having backstory in comparison to those blokes like Moria, Orochi and Linlin. I don't think the backstory is the problem here for Oda here for some of his characters.
Oda does have popular antagonists with dedicated backstories like Katakuri and Doflamingo. The big difference between them and somebody like Moria is essentially rule of cool.
Doffy and Kata are cool, Moria and Orochi aren't. Crocodile and Lucci are cool, Caesar Clown and Wapol aren't. Frieza and Cell are cool, Linlin and Kaido aren't.
Heck, it is Oda's no backstory or minimal backstory characters that are his most popular.
Crocodile has no backstory, dude still cracked Top 20 character lists between his years long absence and him finally getting back into the story.
Enel has no backstory, dude is one of the most popular OP villains.
Lucci has minimal backstory, he's iconic anyway.
Compare that with characters that get clowned on despite having backstory in comparison to those blokes like Moria, Orochi and Linlin. I don't think the backstory is the problem here for Oda here for some of his characters.
Oda does have popular antagonists with dedicated backstories like Katakuri and Doflamingo. The big difference between them and somebody like Moria is essentially rule of cool.
Doffy and Kata are cool, Moria and Orochi aren't. Crocodile and Lucci are cool, Caesar Clown and Wapol aren't. Frieza and Cell are cool, Linlin and Kaido aren't.
How are Animes like Naruto, let alone Dragonball different? My repertoire in regards to anime series isn't large, but if we keep it to the animes mentioned in the OP, Dragonball is off the table as the characters have no depth at all. Again, it's just a fighting anime.
Naruto? If we're honest, there isn't much depth either. If we look at the true villains (Itachi wasn't really one):
Obito: A guy who couldn't get over his teen crush's death and decided to enslave the word in a Genjutsu?
Madara: What was his motive? He had no backstory aside from his beef with Hashirama and falling for the fake message of the Uchiha table, essentially wanting to enslave the world too, until being backstabbed by Black Zetsu.
Don't get me started with Kaguya and Black Zetsu. The other villains, like the Akatsuki, didn't really have a deep backstory too. Nagato? Wanted revenge for the destruction of his village and death of his parents and Yahiko and tried to bring piece with a weapon of mass destruction.
Orochimaru? Dude's whole identity revolved around getting a better body to gain better Kekkei Genkai.
Being iconic has nothing to do with having character depth honestly. And again, there are iconic One Piece characters who shaped the public perception.
Naruto? If we're honest, there isn't much depth either. If we look at the true villains (Itachi wasn't really one):
Obito: A guy who couldn't get over his teen crush's death and decided to enslave the word in a Genjutsu?
Madara: What was his motive? He had no backstory aside from his beef with Hashirama and falling for the fake message of the Uchiha table, essentially wanting to enslave the world too, until being backstabbed by Black Zetsu.
Don't get me started with Kaguya and Black Zetsu. The other villains, like the Akatsuki, didn't really have a deep backstory too. Nagato? Wanted revenge for the destruction of his village and death of his parents and Yahiko and tried to bring piece with a weapon of mass destruction.
Orochimaru? Dude's whole identity revolved around getting a better body to gain better Kekkei Genkai.
Being iconic has nothing to do with having character depth honestly. And again, there are iconic One Piece characters who shaped the public perception.
It has been said already but the level of threat is a big factor (not the only one but a big one) in making a vilain iconic. The reader should feel dread by the idea that the hero is facing him.
Take Frieza for example. During the whole Namek arc he was glazed either by Krilin, Gohan, Kaio or his own men(Zabon, Dodoria and the Ginue commando). But what put Frieza on a level on his own (not even talking about his powerlevel number) is Vegeta.
The fact that Vegeta who was barely beaten in the previous arc, who was shown to be that much more powerful that Goku was so afraid of Frieza made his threat level through the roof.
Then came the fight. First of Freezia came out of his flying pod and he was as powerful as he was hyped to be and then some. But then he transformed and became even stronger and then he said that he had 2 more transformations. Every character that gotta fight him after they received a power up got massively obliterated. He even made Vegeta cried. Vegeta the embodiment of pride was crying and begging because of Frieza.
Then came the MC he was doing good but he was outgun by far while using his strongest form (at that time). He finally used his ultimate technic. Everyone thought he won but then Frieza came back, killed Kurilin and severely wounded Piccolo. And even after Goku got in super sayen mode Frieza was able to hold his own. Worst he was still not fighting at 100%.
As the reader you have the impression that frieza is really unbeatable. He is a real monster, evil to his core with no redeeming qualities, no sad story. Just pure and absolute power in the hand of a mad man, of a genocidical maniac. The level of threat was off the roof.
The only other character that made me felt like this was Dio.
Kaido could have been the one piece Frieza everything was set up for him to be…
The same way Dofla could have been the One Piece Dio.
Take Frieza for example. During the whole Namek arc he was glazed either by Krilin, Gohan, Kaio or his own men(Zabon, Dodoria and the Ginue commando). But what put Frieza on a level on his own (not even talking about his powerlevel number) is Vegeta.
The fact that Vegeta who was barely beaten in the previous arc, who was shown to be that much more powerful that Goku was so afraid of Frieza made his threat level through the roof.
Then came the fight. First of Freezia came out of his flying pod and he was as powerful as he was hyped to be and then some. But then he transformed and became even stronger and then he said that he had 2 more transformations. Every character that gotta fight him after they received a power up got massively obliterated. He even made Vegeta cried. Vegeta the embodiment of pride was crying and begging because of Frieza.
Then came the MC he was doing good but he was outgun by far while using his strongest form (at that time). He finally used his ultimate technic. Everyone thought he won but then Frieza came back, killed Kurilin and severely wounded Piccolo. And even after Goku got in super sayen mode Frieza was able to hold his own. Worst he was still not fighting at 100%.
As the reader you have the impression that frieza is really unbeatable. He is a real monster, evil to his core with no redeeming qualities, no sad story. Just pure and absolute power in the hand of a mad man, of a genocidical maniac. The level of threat was off the roof.
The only other character that made me felt like this was Dio.
Kaido could have been the one piece Frieza everything was set up for him to be…
The same way Dofla could have been the One Piece Dio.
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