Hi!
In my many years of analysing One Piece, I came across one specific character that attracted my attention: Carrot. For many years I've analysed her journey and her development, creating a theory about her future as a potential crewmate for the strawhat pirates. This theory was proven wrong after the end of Wano but there is something strange in the development that make me wonder.. Did Oda made a storytelling mistake ?
We will analyse in detail a storytelling concept I call "development inertia" (don't bother its a neologism of mine that I created) to see if Oda has indeed made a mistake with Carrot or not.
What I'll say here is my own take on a storytelling theory, but bear with me, I'm sure you will understand.
First, we need an allegorie
As a writer, one of the many ways to picture a character in a story is to put it through allegories, so here is one of them:
Imagine a Spaceship, we will call it "ODYSSEY".
ODYSSEY is the representation of your Character. For our example, Odyssey is a girl who can't trust anyone, making her quite encline to hurt the one she loves and reject everyone. You could say that Odyssey is like a broken spaceship.. a spaceship that just left a planet A and keeps on accelerating toward a planet B.
In our story, if Odyssey doesn't change, she will face a life of misery which is represented simply in our allegory by a Crash on planet B.
Avoid the crash
Your goal as a writer is simple. In this allegorie, it is to avoid a crash and land your ODYSSEY safely on planet B which is represented in our story, by making your character change smoothly.
Now, this is where the allegory is important:
In space, when you throw something, it doesn't stop, it continues to move by shear inertia.. unless an equal opposite force is applied. So in our allegory, Odyssey needs to encounter an opposite force along the way or at least find a way to creates more fuel and opposite force, not to crash on planet B.
Do you follow ?
The same happens in our story and in real life. We are human, and like spaceships, us and our characters have "inertia": We can't change the direction of our mindsets in the blink of an eye.
So like the spaceship, Odyssey as a character will have to pass through steps, encounters opposite forces along the way, obstacles, meet peoples who will change her, and finally make multiple choices that will put her on a different pass.
I call this process "development inertia", for a character to change, an equal force from the path of the character must be applied.
Change takes time or a strong force
This is why development inertia is important when we analyse a story. To understand or predict a character's future.. It's important to analyse the Inertia of the characters in their own character arc.
For exemple, you can't expect Usopp to be a brave Warrior in every situation in the next chapter.. when all the clues are pointing toward the opposite. To evolve, Usopp needs to be put under high pressure repeatedly and even then, he evolves VERY slowly.
Another exemple: Robin. Wouldn' it be odd for her character to suddenly start cheerring like Luffy or Chopper? That because we would need a transition between those two states. For that, Oda would need to give us clues of potential change. By the way, Robin, already passed through such a change, it was just very subtle.
So how does it work for Odyssey in the story ?
.. Well first she will encounter some fellow who accept her, but her "inertia" will make her first reject this person or at least doubt them. Then, with time passing this person might grow on Odyssey and she may even get attach to them.. but of course she is still in her inertia.. Here might come a choice, a choice for her to choose between two evil: ask for help from that person risking to put them in danger or face another bad situation alone.. And here is the pivot moment.. this is the moment where we know if Odyssey has what it needs to slow down completely and not crash.. This is the moment where the character makes a step toward change: Odyssey will call for help!
Remember, humans are like spaceships, they have inertia, they don't change overnight. In a story, you will always need to look toward that inertia:
- Is the character ready to change ?
- Does the character needs another push ?
Understand the development inertia of the characters in a story and you will be able to find out if they are ready to change or not.
How does this apply to Carrot ?
Like Odyssey, Carrot went through a journey that put her on a specific path with a specific inertia. She became attracted by the sea.
First, it was just at a small speed, she was seen during the conversation between Luffy and Pekom saying this:
Note that this panel is also a PLANTINGS, a shadowing. Without it, Carrot jumping on the Sunny would feel weird.
Carrot first was just funnly attracted by the sea and therefore adventure, but she didn't saw it.. Then Oda clearly depicted Carrot's wonder in front of the sea:
And the ship went faster...
And faster....
And touched lightspeed...
At the beginning of Wano, Oda cimented Carrot as a character that was not only attracted to the sea, but a character whose attraction for danger, the sea and adventure was a fondamental part of.
I've given you the key point of this change, but you will find dozen and dozen of panel showing Carrot being attracted to adventure in the story.
This is what Carrot's development inertia look's like, a course toward danger and adventure...
Let's fast forward to the end of the arc
We are now at the end of Wano and the character are returning home... and here is what Oda is doing for Carrot:
Oda makes Carrot the new ruler of Zou, and therefore makes her go back to her home on Zunisha.
But here is the thing.. Carrot still has her inertia, nothing in Wano changed that, her diminitution for attraction for adventure was not shown. And therefore, Carrot is put in a peculiar place.
To make a metaphore, it would be like saying to a child who just went to a fairfest: "ok, you can go to the see whenever you want, but we choose for you to go home, what will you do ?"
An error from Oda ?
Many people interpreted those panels as an error from Oda. And it could be. If Oda ends One Piece and we never see Carrot again out on adventure, yes, this will be a big mistake. It would mean that Oda didn't pay enough attention to the character's development inertia of Carrot and let the ship crash on Zou.
But that's only if Carrot doesn't come back... What if she does ? This what I theorized here.
Au revoir for another thread !
In my many years of analysing One Piece, I came across one specific character that attracted my attention: Carrot. For many years I've analysed her journey and her development, creating a theory about her future as a potential crewmate for the strawhat pirates. This theory was proven wrong after the end of Wano but there is something strange in the development that make me wonder.. Did Oda made a storytelling mistake ?
We will analyse in detail a storytelling concept I call "development inertia" (don't bother its a neologism of mine that I created) to see if Oda has indeed made a mistake with Carrot or not.
What I'll say here is my own take on a storytelling theory, but bear with me, I'm sure you will understand.
First, we need an allegorie
As a writer, one of the many ways to picture a character in a story is to put it through allegories, so here is one of them:
Imagine a Spaceship, we will call it "ODYSSEY".
ODYSSEY is the representation of your Character. For our example, Odyssey is a girl who can't trust anyone, making her quite encline to hurt the one she loves and reject everyone. You could say that Odyssey is like a broken spaceship.. a spaceship that just left a planet A and keeps on accelerating toward a planet B.
In our story, if Odyssey doesn't change, she will face a life of misery which is represented simply in our allegory by a Crash on planet B.
Avoid the crash
Your goal as a writer is simple. In this allegorie, it is to avoid a crash and land your ODYSSEY safely on planet B which is represented in our story, by making your character change smoothly.
Now, this is where the allegory is important:
In space, when you throw something, it doesn't stop, it continues to move by shear inertia.. unless an equal opposite force is applied. So in our allegory, Odyssey needs to encounter an opposite force along the way or at least find a way to creates more fuel and opposite force, not to crash on planet B.
Do you follow ?
The same happens in our story and in real life. We are human, and like spaceships, us and our characters have "inertia": We can't change the direction of our mindsets in the blink of an eye.
So like the spaceship, Odyssey as a character will have to pass through steps, encounters opposite forces along the way, obstacles, meet peoples who will change her, and finally make multiple choices that will put her on a different pass.
I call this process "development inertia", for a character to change, an equal force from the path of the character must be applied.
Change takes time or a strong force
This is why development inertia is important when we analyse a story. To understand or predict a character's future.. It's important to analyse the Inertia of the characters in their own character arc.
For exemple, you can't expect Usopp to be a brave Warrior in every situation in the next chapter.. when all the clues are pointing toward the opposite. To evolve, Usopp needs to be put under high pressure repeatedly and even then, he evolves VERY slowly.
Another exemple: Robin. Wouldn' it be odd for her character to suddenly start cheerring like Luffy or Chopper? That because we would need a transition between those two states. For that, Oda would need to give us clues of potential change. By the way, Robin, already passed through such a change, it was just very subtle.
So how does it work for Odyssey in the story ?
.. Well first she will encounter some fellow who accept her, but her "inertia" will make her first reject this person or at least doubt them. Then, with time passing this person might grow on Odyssey and she may even get attach to them.. but of course she is still in her inertia.. Here might come a choice, a choice for her to choose between two evil: ask for help from that person risking to put them in danger or face another bad situation alone.. And here is the pivot moment.. this is the moment where we know if Odyssey has what it needs to slow down completely and not crash.. This is the moment where the character makes a step toward change: Odyssey will call for help!
Remember, humans are like spaceships, they have inertia, they don't change overnight. In a story, you will always need to look toward that inertia:
- Is the character ready to change ?
- Does the character needs another push ?
Understand the development inertia of the characters in a story and you will be able to find out if they are ready to change or not.
How does this apply to Carrot ?
Like Odyssey, Carrot went through a journey that put her on a specific path with a specific inertia. She became attracted by the sea.
First, it was just at a small speed, she was seen during the conversation between Luffy and Pekom saying this:
Note that this panel is also a PLANTINGS, a shadowing. Without it, Carrot jumping on the Sunny would feel weird.
Carrot first was just funnly attracted by the sea and therefore adventure, but she didn't saw it.. Then Oda clearly depicted Carrot's wonder in front of the sea:
And the ship went faster...
And faster....
And touched lightspeed...
At the beginning of Wano, Oda cimented Carrot as a character that was not only attracted to the sea, but a character whose attraction for danger, the sea and adventure was a fondamental part of.
I've given you the key point of this change, but you will find dozen and dozen of panel showing Carrot being attracted to adventure in the story.
This is what Carrot's development inertia look's like, a course toward danger and adventure...
Let's fast forward to the end of the arc
We are now at the end of Wano and the character are returning home... and here is what Oda is doing for Carrot:
Oda makes Carrot the new ruler of Zou, and therefore makes her go back to her home on Zunisha.
But here is the thing.. Carrot still has her inertia, nothing in Wano changed that, her diminitution for attraction for adventure was not shown. And therefore, Carrot is put in a peculiar place.
To make a metaphore, it would be like saying to a child who just went to a fairfest: "ok, you can go to the see whenever you want, but we choose for you to go home, what will you do ?"
An error from Oda ?
Many people interpreted those panels as an error from Oda. And it could be. If Oda ends One Piece and we never see Carrot again out on adventure, yes, this will be a big mistake. It would mean that Oda didn't pay enough attention to the character's development inertia of Carrot and let the ship crash on Zou.
But that's only if Carrot doesn't come back... What if she does ? This what I theorized here.
Au revoir for another thread !
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