Hi,
Yeah yeah.. I did gave up on this forum. But, I might extend my presence just a little bit longer. Not to fight toxicity here per say, but because I had an idea to have a little fun on my way out : "One Piece Debunk". One, maybe more threads to debunk some missconceptions about the story.
"Wrong, he ate the most powerful devil fruit and there is the prophecy of the Dawn" you might say... Well... no. It's a missconception. Luffy was never the choosen one. He simply is the best fit.
-----------
But first, I want to share a reflexion I had while replying to someone here:
I think, my problem is with the lazy definition of the trope "chosen one". The chosen one can mean a lot of things that are sometimes very different narratively, so I'm choosing to take a more "religious" approach and take the figure of the "Messiah" as an reference.
If we look closer at what the choosen ones are in fiction, you could say that the choosen one category can be categorized into two different one:
- The overall inevitable savior figure
- The choosen one (who is really choosen by all aspects of the story)
I think it's important to distinguishing those two as they don't have the same impact in term of public reception.
- The overall inevitable savior figure can simply be a result of a particular structure (like One Piece)
- To be a "choosen one" on the other hand, you need to be choosen by an external godly force to create a crazy action in order to accomplish something, then, you need to be selected and given priviledges at all stages of the story, because people know that you will create said action and they will try to help you do it. The chosen one will be given stronger power, not because he worked for it but because... he is the one.
As you can see, in one case, there can still be a struggle and the character needs to really work for it. In the other case, on the contrary, the character will benefit a certain form of priviledge (in Star wars, Anakin will favored by Obi-wan and enter the academy late, in Matrix Neo will be given private lessons). One case demands more merit when the other appears as a facility.
In term of reception, one is therefore more satisfactory than the other.
As for the power, in one case they are gained normally, in the other they are gained... just because of who the character is in the scheme of a prophecy.
So we must distinguish the figure of the savior from the figure of the chosen one.
-----------
Oh... I see some sceptics here. Good ! So first, I will I ask you one question : Why do you think Luffy became Nika ?
Because he was strong enough?
Because he died ?
Because he faced the strongest creature on Vearth ?
Because he is just the main character ?
To those question the answer is NOT EXACTLY. And you will find the reason why, in this page :
Yes, there is a little detail here that is very important to understand why Luffy awakened. People should really take attention to little details, especially when they talk about awakening:
Kaido stated that in order to awaken ones devil fruit, someone's mind and body have to catch up with the fruit. In other word, we are talking here about a synchronization of sort of the mind and body with the fruit.
So yes, in a way, Luffy did awaken because of his strenght and training, but he also and mostly awaken for another reason : his mind.
Zoan devil Fruits have a will of their own and the fruit of Luffy bares the name of the Sun God Nika, the god that brings smiles and fight with freedom. From that, we know that the will of the fruit is fundamentaly centered around the notion of Freedom and fun.
So for Luffy to awaken, he needed to reach a point where he had both in all circounstance ! And that's what Luffy achieved in this fight: Luffy expressing clearly having fun while fighting shows just how much he is starting to see the world : Now.. even fights are fun for him !
And thus.. Luffy managed to synchronize his mind (personnality), Spirit (will) AND body with his fruit. A little restart was all he needed to transform into full Nika mode.
So, why do I talk about the synchronization of the fruit ?
Well.. Because what I'm demonstrating here, is that the fruit did not create the power of Luffy.
It's Luffy himself who managed to synchronize with the fruit
The fruit simply gave him a chance and Luffy, because he is Luffy, took it.
---------------------
Look at it this way:
What happen when you give a javelin to a random kid ?
Well.. they will most likely throw it as far as they can and it will maybe go as far as 15 meters..
But give the javelin to someone whose characteristic will be able to make full use of the spear and...
The devil fruit is the Javelin And Luffy's synchronization is the training.
Luffy because of his training was able to let his body make full use of the devil fruit's properties and because of his jovial and seeking freedom personnality, the fruit naturally opened his power for Luffy.
In other word, this means that the fruit just stopped on someone with a potential, nothing more. The reason why the devil fruit never awaken before, is simply because in 800 years, no one who had the fruit was able to synchronize with it, and there is high chances that the fruit had many.. many users after Joy Boy and before Luffy.
This means that the reason why Luffy unlocked the fruit, is not because he was chosen, it's because Luffy made ALL the work, the right choices and adopt the right personnality to access the full capacity of his fruit.
---------
Now you will say to me : "But the prophecy !"
Well, same thing ! This is a missconception.
A prophecy, unless if meant to have an impact on the story (ex: Harry Potter), will not be the reason why characters are moving toward their goals.
A prophecy is simply a photography of the future. Plus, One Piece seems to be set in an universe where the future can fluctuate, this means that prophecies are not stuck in stone in the manga.
In other words, the presence of a prophecy do not mean that Luffy or anyone else is "the chosen one".
It means that Luffy is the one that someone saw, not "the chosen one".
-----------
So, what does this means ?
Well.. it means that yes, the future is most likely already written in the universe of One Piece, but highly malleable.
Which is the reason why the characters are often wondering if the path of Luffy is
- Sometimes the result of Luffy's actions
- Sometimes the result of Chance
- Sometimes the result of Destiny
I'd say that it is a mix of those three thing. I don't think that Oda want his world to be clear on that. Until the end of his story, chances are that he will not priviledge one option more than the others.
Luffy is indeed very lucky, and we could even say that to some extent, his story shows that the universe favors his path. Which would make the word "destiny" coherent.
But Luffy's victories and life is also the result of who he is, the choice he made and his training.
So while, yes, destiny might play a role in his path (for example by putting the fruit or Shanks on his path)...
This does NOT make Luffy the chosen one. Luffy is favored by luck only because he makes the right choices.
Luffy just happens to be very lucky.
At best, you could say that the fruit senced Luffy's personnality and thus choosed him. But the fruit did not choose him for a great purpose and neither did the universe.
Luffy is just Luffy, he is not like Anakin and he is not like Neo. The fruit happened to be in the near visibility of Luffy, call it will, call it an act of the universe, no matter. Luffy ate the fruit. But at no point the fruit chose Luffy or did anyone chose Luffy because they knew the prophecy.
Only one person did that: Pedro. And it arrives laaaaaate in the story. At a moment where Luffy is already mastering his abilities.
So Luffy is not a chosen one.
He is an inevitable savior figure yes, almost a divinity you could say, but it's just Luffy making the right choices. No one choosed him. And he is not given power because he is Luffy.
Luffy has always been the inevitable savior's figure since the beginning and all the arcs have been created that way.
So Gear 5 doesn't change anything. The Nika reveal does not make Luffy the "chosen one"
- In a "chosen one" scenario the powers are given to the character in the future because of a prophecy in the past.
- In One Piece it's the opposite, it's because of the actions and awakening of the powers by Luffy in the future, that in the past, a prophecy was made.
Do you guys understand the clean nuance here ?
-----
Now.. this was for the Debunk of the choosen one trope. But some are still saying that there was no need to make Luffy a god and it therefore put down the storytelling.
And my answer to that is NO. The concept of deity does not desserve the story. In reality it elevates it ! And you will understand why :
Making Luffy a god was inevitable.
The entire story is centered about a conflict of godlike nature. And in storytelling sence, it's simply logical give Luffy overpowered powers at the end of the line. (And trust me, this might not even be enough, but that's another debate)
One Piece is the story of a boy who literally bends the world to his will. Luffy was therefore a god before being a god, because of the very premisse of the story.
What Oda did, was simply anchor the powers of Luffy into the very lore of the story. Luffy was meant to have those powers in the end since the start ! The toon force was inevitable the moment Oda drew a rubber boy fighting with goofyness. My guess is that he had the idea right at the creation of the character, it's just make more sence from a storytelling standpoint.
So.. the question is .. how do you integrate such a power into the lore ? Well.. You go full deity, there is no other real option if you want to create something impactfull that creates resonnance with the thematics of oppressions and joy.
Creating a devil fruit without a big background for that capacity wouldve been bland. With Nika, not only Oda creates a powerfull powerup, but here deepens his lore and he creates resonnance with multiple aspect of the mysteries and deepest lore of his story.
This was simply a genius move. There are no other words.
> Luffy is made for One Piece
> One Piece is made for the Gear 5
> The gear 5 is made for Luffy
It's a perfect creation circle.
It's so perfect in it's creation that this revelation created - by a milking technique - ripples in the continuum of the story like gravity waves in the present and in the future, making us see things in the past (the forms of the gears for ex) of the story and making us expect new things (the powers of Joy Boy for ex) !
This type of perfect creations "circles" are things that very few authors achieved in History. I understood the greatness of this moment instantly and this is why I made this comment on day the scan dropped:
#OnePieceDebunk
Yeah yeah.. I did gave up on this forum. But, I might extend my presence just a little bit longer. Not to fight toxicity here per say, but because I had an idea to have a little fun on my way out : "One Piece Debunk". One, maybe more threads to debunk some missconceptions about the story.
LUFFY IS NOT THE CHOOSEN ONE
"Wrong, he ate the most powerful devil fruit and there is the prophecy of the Dawn" you might say... Well... no. It's a missconception. Luffy was never the choosen one. He simply is the best fit.
-----------
But first, I want to share a reflexion I had while replying to someone here:
I think, my problem is with the lazy definition of the trope "chosen one". The chosen one can mean a lot of things that are sometimes very different narratively, so I'm choosing to take a more "religious" approach and take the figure of the "Messiah" as an reference.
If we look closer at what the choosen ones are in fiction, you could say that the choosen one category can be categorized into two different one:
- The overall inevitable savior figure
- The choosen one (who is really choosen by all aspects of the story)
I think it's important to distinguishing those two as they don't have the same impact in term of public reception.
- The overall inevitable savior figure can simply be a result of a particular structure (like One Piece)
- To be a "choosen one" on the other hand, you need to be choosen by an external godly force to create a crazy action in order to accomplish something, then, you need to be selected and given priviledges at all stages of the story, because people know that you will create said action and they will try to help you do it. The chosen one will be given stronger power, not because he worked for it but because... he is the one.
As you can see, in one case, there can still be a struggle and the character needs to really work for it. In the other case, on the contrary, the character will benefit a certain form of priviledge (in Star wars, Anakin will favored by Obi-wan and enter the academy late, in Matrix Neo will be given private lessons). One case demands more merit when the other appears as a facility.
In term of reception, one is therefore more satisfactory than the other.
As for the power, in one case they are gained normally, in the other they are gained... just because of who the character is in the scheme of a prophecy.
So we must distinguish the figure of the savior from the figure of the chosen one.
-----------
Oh... I see some sceptics here. Good ! So first, I will I ask you one question : Why do you think Luffy became Nika ?
Because he was strong enough?
Because he died ?
Because he faced the strongest creature on Vearth ?
Because he is just the main character ?
To those question the answer is NOT EXACTLY. And you will find the reason why, in this page :
Yes, there is a little detail here that is very important to understand why Luffy awakened. People should really take attention to little details, especially when they talk about awakening:
Kaido stated that in order to awaken ones devil fruit, someone's mind and body have to catch up with the fruit. In other word, we are talking here about a synchronization of sort of the mind and body with the fruit.
So yes, in a way, Luffy did awaken because of his strenght and training, but he also and mostly awaken for another reason : his mind.
Zoan devil Fruits have a will of their own and the fruit of Luffy bares the name of the Sun God Nika, the god that brings smiles and fight with freedom. From that, we know that the will of the fruit is fundamentaly centered around the notion of Freedom and fun.
So for Luffy to awaken, he needed to reach a point where he had both in all circounstance ! And that's what Luffy achieved in this fight: Luffy expressing clearly having fun while fighting shows just how much he is starting to see the world : Now.. even fights are fun for him !
And thus.. Luffy managed to synchronize his mind (personnality), Spirit (will) AND body with his fruit. A little restart was all he needed to transform into full Nika mode.
So, why do I talk about the synchronization of the fruit ?
Well.. Because what I'm demonstrating here, is that the fruit did not create the power of Luffy.
It's Luffy himself who managed to synchronize with the fruit
The fruit simply gave him a chance and Luffy, because he is Luffy, took it.
---------------------
Look at it this way:
What happen when you give a javelin to a random kid ?
Well.. they will most likely throw it as far as they can and it will maybe go as far as 15 meters..
But give the javelin to someone whose characteristic will be able to make full use of the spear and...
The devil fruit is the Javelin And Luffy's synchronization is the training.
Luffy because of his training was able to let his body make full use of the devil fruit's properties and because of his jovial and seeking freedom personnality, the fruit naturally opened his power for Luffy.
In other word, this means that the fruit just stopped on someone with a potential, nothing more. The reason why the devil fruit never awaken before, is simply because in 800 years, no one who had the fruit was able to synchronize with it, and there is high chances that the fruit had many.. many users after Joy Boy and before Luffy.
This means that the reason why Luffy unlocked the fruit, is not because he was chosen, it's because Luffy made ALL the work, the right choices and adopt the right personnality to access the full capacity of his fruit.
---------
Now you will say to me : "But the prophecy !"
Well, same thing ! This is a missconception.
A prophecy, unless if meant to have an impact on the story (ex: Harry Potter), will not be the reason why characters are moving toward their goals.
A prophecy is simply a photography of the future. Plus, One Piece seems to be set in an universe where the future can fluctuate, this means that prophecies are not stuck in stone in the manga.
In other words, the presence of a prophecy do not mean that Luffy or anyone else is "the chosen one".
It means that Luffy is the one that someone saw, not "the chosen one".
-----------
So, what does this means ?
Well.. it means that yes, the future is most likely already written in the universe of One Piece, but highly malleable.
Which is the reason why the characters are often wondering if the path of Luffy is
- Sometimes the result of Luffy's actions
- Sometimes the result of Chance
- Sometimes the result of Destiny
I'd say that it is a mix of those three thing. I don't think that Oda want his world to be clear on that. Until the end of his story, chances are that he will not priviledge one option more than the others.
Luffy is indeed very lucky, and we could even say that to some extent, his story shows that the universe favors his path. Which would make the word "destiny" coherent.
But Luffy's victories and life is also the result of who he is, the choice he made and his training.
So while, yes, destiny might play a role in his path (for example by putting the fruit or Shanks on his path)...
This does NOT make Luffy the chosen one. Luffy is favored by luck only because he makes the right choices.
Luffy just happens to be very lucky.
At best, you could say that the fruit senced Luffy's personnality and thus choosed him. But the fruit did not choose him for a great purpose and neither did the universe.
Luffy is just Luffy, he is not like Anakin and he is not like Neo. The fruit happened to be in the near visibility of Luffy, call it will, call it an act of the universe, no matter. Luffy ate the fruit. But at no point the fruit chose Luffy or did anyone chose Luffy because they knew the prophecy.
Only one person did that: Pedro. And it arrives laaaaaate in the story. At a moment where Luffy is already mastering his abilities.
So Luffy is not a chosen one.
He is an inevitable savior figure yes, almost a divinity you could say, but it's just Luffy making the right choices. No one choosed him. And he is not given power because he is Luffy.
Luffy has always been the inevitable savior's figure since the beginning and all the arcs have been created that way.
So Gear 5 doesn't change anything. The Nika reveal does not make Luffy the "chosen one"
- In a "chosen one" scenario the powers are given to the character in the future because of a prophecy in the past.
- In One Piece it's the opposite, it's because of the actions and awakening of the powers by Luffy in the future, that in the past, a prophecy was made.
Do you guys understand the clean nuance here ?
-----
Now.. this was for the Debunk of the choosen one trope. But some are still saying that there was no need to make Luffy a god and it therefore put down the storytelling.
And my answer to that is NO. The concept of deity does not desserve the story. In reality it elevates it ! And you will understand why :
Making Luffy a god was inevitable.
The entire story is centered about a conflict of godlike nature. And in storytelling sence, it's simply logical give Luffy overpowered powers at the end of the line. (And trust me, this might not even be enough, but that's another debate)
One Piece is the story of a boy who literally bends the world to his will. Luffy was therefore a god before being a god, because of the very premisse of the story.
What Oda did, was simply anchor the powers of Luffy into the very lore of the story. Luffy was meant to have those powers in the end since the start ! The toon force was inevitable the moment Oda drew a rubber boy fighting with goofyness. My guess is that he had the idea right at the creation of the character, it's just make more sence from a storytelling standpoint.
So.. the question is .. how do you integrate such a power into the lore ? Well.. You go full deity, there is no other real option if you want to create something impactfull that creates resonnance with the thematics of oppressions and joy.
Creating a devil fruit without a big background for that capacity wouldve been bland. With Nika, not only Oda creates a powerfull powerup, but here deepens his lore and he creates resonnance with multiple aspect of the mysteries and deepest lore of his story.
This was simply a genius move. There are no other words.
> Luffy is made for One Piece
> One Piece is made for the Gear 5
> The gear 5 is made for Luffy
It's a perfect creation circle.
It's so perfect in it's creation that this revelation created - by a milking technique - ripples in the continuum of the story like gravity waves in the present and in the future, making us see things in the past (the forms of the gears for ex) of the story and making us expect new things (the powers of Joy Boy for ex) !
This type of perfect creations "circles" are things that very few authors achieved in History. I understood the greatness of this moment instantly and this is why I made this comment on day the scan dropped:
#OnePieceDebunk
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