Character Discussion What are your overall thoughts on Harald as a character?

[Owl Ki]

Thumbs up from me. Good character, flawed bloke. Top 5 new Post-TS character alongside Loki, Katakuri, Fujitora and Xebec.

 

[Cozy Sofa]

Naive guy who underestimated the world. Not a bad guy, on the opposite he tried his best according to his beliefs, but perhaps he should have had better advisors (well he actually got sound advice from Xebec but I don't blame him for not believing the most wanted man in the world).

Jarul, Jorul or some of the anynomous Giant Elders should have helped him understand why Elbaph needed to stay strong for all those years and if he couldn't accept it he better stand down from ruling.

 

[MonsterKaido]

Mid character imo.

 

[Chiji_]

10/10, one of the more nuanced characters in the series

 

[Blackbeard]

I liked Harald, he was my favorite flashback character aside from Woki. I think the point of his flashback is that true peace with the WG is impossible, and I thought the writing around that ranged from mid to fine. Nothing in OP is truly great anymore except for Woki of course but Harald was good enough and cool enough for me.

Finally someone gets it.

Obligatory repost of my chapter post too.

I believe the message Oda wants to send through this backstory was "over relying on one thing is bad". And that Harald should've balanced between a peaceful route and military might.

The chapter subtly hinted that Ida actually was a little concerned about Harald going overboard with his peaceful route:

And In the very same chapter Saul also further showed this doubt:

I wouldn't really consider Harald a "bad" character. He is bad in the sense of choosing bad choices, but he served his central role in this backstory as a scapegoat so that readers can realize there's absolutely no way to "coexist" with the World Government if not a literal slave, setting the endgame war to take it down.

Throughout 800 years all Elbaph's kings were probably ruthless warriors, then Harald came and changed it but leaned too much towards the opposite side of power.

@Elder Lee Hung All in all? Loki will be the first Elbaph king ever to rule with a balance of peace and power.

@Elder Lee Hung @Owl Ki @PuckTheGreat @Bogard @Paperchampion23 @SakazOuki @Sentinel @Tyki_Mikk @Topi Jerami @ZenZu @nik87 @Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier @MarineHQ @HA001

 

[kekaro]

Harald is a flawed well fleshed out character, one of my favs in this manga

Anyone who compares him to twerkden needs to go back to school


Side note Elbaf is really in one of my top 5 arcs already for how many fun charcters it introduced, or even made some characters i find boring fun like Kaido

 

[[No Name]]

Well written and realistic king of a country.
It's like not a must to make him super smart.

 

[kumae]

Rocks: don't trust the wg they will fool you
Harald : does the opposite
:)

 

[MonsterKaido]

Rocks: don't trust the wg they will fool you
Harald : does the opposite
:)

Tbf rocks should have warned harald about imu.

 

[FutureWarrior123]

Oda rarely makes flashback characters so conflicting for readers and it’s a welcome change.

 

[Blahmigooo]

He's Oden 2.0 but on a bigger scale

Also ppl here
Oden - Dumbass, most retarded character
Harald - Best King, one of the best character, Tragic character,

The duality of man

 

[Zemlya]

An attempt from Oda to highlight the sliminess of politics, and how good people can get taken advantage of. But it felt like watching a Dhar Mann video instead.

 

[Definitivo]

I like Harald, a good character

 

[Fn Lucci]

Good send-off but man what a shit head

 

[L57]

worse than oden