Hi.
Since I was unable to convince people about this topic. I'm trying this new way. This will be an evolving thread.
> Objective of this thread:
Since a set of evidences is better than independent ones, in this thread I will be listing a set of anomalies from a storytelling point of view that I hope will make you understand why I feel like there is something fishy with this character. I don't remember everything so I will come back and add stuff over time.
There will be two types of anomalies:
- The anomalies "FOR" : These are things that, taken together, will tend to prove the hypothesis of this thread
- The anomalies "AGAINST" : These are things that, taken alone, will tend to disprove the hypothesis of this thread (see below) BUT if taken in taken in tandem with the "FOR", they can be seen as UNFINISHED setups for the hypothesis.
I've never done this, so it's very possible that this thread alone will convince me that there is nothing worth researching.
> Context for the newbies:
I know my fair share about the craft of stories. For better or for worse, legitimate or not, this knowledge gives me a "different" angle on One Piece. Presented with the character of Carrot, I noticed that she had a lot of the characteristics of Luffy, and I picked up the aura of a Straw Hat. This combination gave me a strange "vibe". A feeling of importance that I didn't quite understand at the time. Since then (around 2016), I've been crafting theories about Carrot (and the orbiting characters), trying to wrap my head around that feeling and learning about narration and Oda's craft in the process. I've been proven wrong about her joining the crew, but I still can't shake the feeling that she has some kind of importance we don't really understand yet.
> Hypothesis of this thread:
There was an actual reason why Carrot felt so different from other characters back then. She was crafted like a main character. Let me explain shematically:
In fiction, the best way to craft a compelling character is to give them a goal/a strong desire AND to give them weaknesses (that will hurt themselves and the ones they love) to overcome . These weaknesses will create a hidden need in the character's psyche: to stop hurting themselves and other people. The character will have to overcome this need and their weakness, usually by the process of a revelation about life and themselves.
ALL the strawhats went through this cycle at least once with different intensities, sometimes twice and for some of them, hidden cycle are still visible (Zoro is a good example of that)
And we can find two cycles with Carrot too, which is really strange since this type of treatment is usually reserved to IMPORTANT characters (the likes of Momo or Vivi or Rebecca). Usually, the character who have this cycle tend to be a focus at one point or another. But with Carrot, we get the cycle (or at least a part of it) - that I will explain later - but NEVER the real focus - except this one time.
This is illogic to me. I might be overthinking, maybe Oda didn't intend to create the clues of this cycle, but it is an enigmas and I love puzzles.
My hypothesis for this thread will be the following:
Oda crafted Carrot as an IMPORTANT "bigger than Queen of zou" type of character. He already knew that he would make her stowaway, already had a plan for her journey on Whole Cake and AT LEAST had the draft of her later storylines, if not already the knowledge that he would make her the Queen of Zou (will will see why later).
For these reason : Carrot is destined to have a BIG role is the future of the story.
---
Anomaly #1 (FOR) : The introductions of Carrot are TOO big
The first appearance of Carrot is actually through HER point of view. (From left to right, here)
As you can see Oda did not waste a seconde to introduce the "look-out" side of Carrot. Introduction are always very important in a story, they shape the way we characterize a character on a fundamental level. It's important for an author to introduce MOST of the "abilities" of a character early, as most people will tend to feel "cheated" if the character start to show unintroduced abilities in the second or third act. As a consequences it's best if all the abilities of the characters are linked to the ones introduced in their introduction or what is presented in their introduction. For example, Nami's weather abilities and personnalities are presented on the first panels of her introductions.
In One Piece most rather important characters have a "strong" introduction, usually around one specific traits of their physical abilities and their personnalities. It's quick and flashy. But the introduction of Carrot doesn't stop there and it's actually constructed like a build-up from slow and low >> to up and powerfull (and an introduction of the entire race):
First a clash against Zoro to introduce the power of Carrot and the Minks:
A strange ability (that is still unexplained) to further the introduction of the power of the minks and mostly Carrot here.
Then the explanation of Electro, the introduction of the "main" power of the minks, with the introduction of carrot's weapon, a Bugs Bunny like glove.
The introduction in most cases usually ends there for other "regular important" characters.
BUT it goes on !!
This page further the point of "Minks are strong", but what it does is put a spotlight on "Carrot", this specific character.
I watch a lot of One Piece reactors and at this point, they often say this sentence : "wow, she is cool" - And when they arrive to that scene..
.. they usually say "hey! I like Carrot". Which is understandable since by now at this scene, the story has been hammering the audience with a LARGE number of introduction for Carrot (not mentionning that it is also Carrot who diverts Rody with the tissue, it is through her that the Garchu is introduced etc).
So it's important to understand that the first anomaly is a STRONG cinematic strawhat/veryimportantcharacter like character introduction. HAMMERED by not one but TWO singular introductions. Yes, Carrot was not introduced once, but TWICE, with two very different characteristics.
- Her first introduction is meant to establish the "Moon" part of her character. It places her in the mink tribe, the fact that she is not only a kingbirds who keeps gard, but she is also a musketteer who is strong and can be a very agile look-out. This establish her legitimacy as a stowaway. This is the "Sulong" version of Carrot, the precise, sharp, silent killer, but also her first weakness: Carrot is absolutely not afraid of danger to the point of endangering herself. Like Luffy, she is a hothead and she will jump ahead not thinking about the consequences of her actions.
- Her second introduction establishes the entire "Sun" part of her personnality. Here, Carrot becomes what we only had a glimps here: , a ray of sunshine, the Alice in Wonderland type rabbit (she becomes Alice in this arc), completely survolted and always smiling like a little kid.
This introduction also establishes her desire : Carrot is eager to discover the world and understand the vastness of the sea. And most of all, this introduction establishes her second weakness: Carrot considers the sea to be a playground, much like a festfair. This means that she is literally going to sea to "play pirate" (which is funny since the very next chapter, where Wanda wonders about Carrot's absence, is also called "Playing pirate" in reference to kid's and Kaido's exchange, remember, there are often double meaning in the titles) .
This second weakness, combined to her first will eventually pushed the downfall of Carrot in front of Perospero.
The main takeaway of this first anomaly is this : Carrot's introductionS are far too big to be the ones of just a random slightly important character, but more evidently so, they are also too characterizing for just a random character that doesn't get any "good bye" scene.
In other words: these are the introduction of a character that is meant to have a big development.
Anomaly #2 (AGAINST) : The end of Carrot's development is missing
As I mentionned earlier, a character needs to overcome their weaknesses and you could say that Carrot started to understand that the sea was not a playground in Whole Cake, but she never really stopped to assess the danger correctly. Up to the end of her storyline, Carrot still overestimated her capacities and was willing to jump into a fight without thinking. Against Brulee or Perospero, who will destroy her here (thanks to the blocking of the moon):
What is really interesting here is that Perospero "stabs" Carrot in the heart EXACTLY where it hurts the most for her:
- The death of Pedro : She can't grieve him
- Her first weakness : She believed this would be a walk in the park
- her second weakness : He humiliates her and shows that she doesn't belong on the battlefield (at least from his pov)
This, in storytelling is an overused trick (kind of a necessary one really). The goal is to make the protagonist fail, and make the antagonist gloat on the failings of the protagonist. This is usually done into order to help the protagonist learn and understand their weakness. This taunting in battle, is usually the point where either the character reflects and comes back later stronger OR the character gets up and fight back.
BUT
....
Nothing.
Nothing happened. Nekomamushi beat Perospero and Carrot was crowned Queen of Mokomo. There is the "happy end", but not the entire "revelation into struggle, into coming stronger into defeating the trauma and weakness into showing the ennemy that they are wrong", it's not present.
Alone, this could simply be explained by saying "well, maybe oda never really had plans for Carrot".. "maybe carrot wasn't so important".. but as I established earlier, there are very clear weaknesses presented. Which means that Oda, like many other strawhats and non-strawhats character like Momo, Kyros or Vivi, was purposely creating these weaknesses.
Alone, we can explain that as rushed writing, perhaps a gift for the fans, as if oda "acknowledged" that she was important enough to receive a title.. but in the context.. it doesn't add up. This creates a counter anomaly. Like an author starting a character's evolution and... not finishing it.
Next .. Anomaly 3 (FOR) - The characterization of Carrot
Since I was unable to convince people about this topic. I'm trying this new way. This will be an evolving thread.
> Objective of this thread:
Since a set of evidences is better than independent ones, in this thread I will be listing a set of anomalies from a storytelling point of view that I hope will make you understand why I feel like there is something fishy with this character. I don't remember everything so I will come back and add stuff over time.
There will be two types of anomalies:
- The anomalies "FOR" : These are things that, taken together, will tend to prove the hypothesis of this thread
- The anomalies "AGAINST" : These are things that, taken alone, will tend to disprove the hypothesis of this thread (see below) BUT if taken in taken in tandem with the "FOR", they can be seen as UNFINISHED setups for the hypothesis.
I've never done this, so it's very possible that this thread alone will convince me that there is nothing worth researching.
> Context for the newbies:
I know my fair share about the craft of stories. For better or for worse, legitimate or not, this knowledge gives me a "different" angle on One Piece. Presented with the character of Carrot, I noticed that she had a lot of the characteristics of Luffy, and I picked up the aura of a Straw Hat. This combination gave me a strange "vibe". A feeling of importance that I didn't quite understand at the time. Since then (around 2016), I've been crafting theories about Carrot (and the orbiting characters), trying to wrap my head around that feeling and learning about narration and Oda's craft in the process. I've been proven wrong about her joining the crew, but I still can't shake the feeling that she has some kind of importance we don't really understand yet.
> Hypothesis of this thread:
There was an actual reason why Carrot felt so different from other characters back then. She was crafted like a main character. Let me explain shematically:
In fiction, the best way to craft a compelling character is to give them a goal/a strong desire AND to give them weaknesses (that will hurt themselves and the ones they love) to overcome . These weaknesses will create a hidden need in the character's psyche: to stop hurting themselves and other people. The character will have to overcome this need and their weakness, usually by the process of a revelation about life and themselves.
ALL the strawhats went through this cycle at least once with different intensities, sometimes twice and for some of them, hidden cycle are still visible (Zoro is a good example of that)
And we can find two cycles with Carrot too, which is really strange since this type of treatment is usually reserved to IMPORTANT characters (the likes of Momo or Vivi or Rebecca). Usually, the character who have this cycle tend to be a focus at one point or another. But with Carrot, we get the cycle (or at least a part of it) - that I will explain later - but NEVER the real focus - except this one time.
This is illogic to me. I might be overthinking, maybe Oda didn't intend to create the clues of this cycle, but it is an enigmas and I love puzzles.
My hypothesis for this thread will be the following:
Oda crafted Carrot as an IMPORTANT "bigger than Queen of zou" type of character. He already knew that he would make her stowaway, already had a plan for her journey on Whole Cake and AT LEAST had the draft of her later storylines, if not already the knowledge that he would make her the Queen of Zou (will will see why later).
For these reason : Carrot is destined to have a BIG role is the future of the story.
---
Anomaly #1 (FOR) : The introductions of Carrot are TOO big
The first appearance of Carrot is actually through HER point of view. (From left to right, here)
As you can see Oda did not waste a seconde to introduce the "look-out" side of Carrot. Introduction are always very important in a story, they shape the way we characterize a character on a fundamental level. It's important for an author to introduce MOST of the "abilities" of a character early, as most people will tend to feel "cheated" if the character start to show unintroduced abilities in the second or third act. As a consequences it's best if all the abilities of the characters are linked to the ones introduced in their introduction or what is presented in their introduction. For example, Nami's weather abilities and personnalities are presented on the first panels of her introductions.
In One Piece most rather important characters have a "strong" introduction, usually around one specific traits of their physical abilities and their personnalities. It's quick and flashy. But the introduction of Carrot doesn't stop there and it's actually constructed like a build-up from slow and low >> to up and powerfull (and an introduction of the entire race):
First a clash against Zoro to introduce the power of Carrot and the Minks:
A strange ability (that is still unexplained) to further the introduction of the power of the minks and mostly Carrot here.
Then the explanation of Electro, the introduction of the "main" power of the minks, with the introduction of carrot's weapon, a Bugs Bunny like glove.
The introduction in most cases usually ends there for other "regular important" characters.
BUT it goes on !!
This page further the point of "Minks are strong", but what it does is put a spotlight on "Carrot", this specific character.
I watch a lot of One Piece reactors and at this point, they often say this sentence : "wow, she is cool" - And when they arrive to that scene..
.. they usually say "hey! I like Carrot". Which is understandable since by now at this scene, the story has been hammering the audience with a LARGE number of introduction for Carrot (not mentionning that it is also Carrot who diverts Rody with the tissue, it is through her that the Garchu is introduced etc).
So it's important to understand that the first anomaly is a STRONG cinematic strawhat/veryimportantcharacter like character introduction. HAMMERED by not one but TWO singular introductions. Yes, Carrot was not introduced once, but TWICE, with two very different characteristics.
- Her first introduction is meant to establish the "Moon" part of her character. It places her in the mink tribe, the fact that she is not only a kingbirds who keeps gard, but she is also a musketteer who is strong and can be a very agile look-out. This establish her legitimacy as a stowaway. This is the "Sulong" version of Carrot, the precise, sharp, silent killer, but also her first weakness: Carrot is absolutely not afraid of danger to the point of endangering herself. Like Luffy, she is a hothead and she will jump ahead not thinking about the consequences of her actions.
- Her second introduction establishes the entire "Sun" part of her personnality. Here, Carrot becomes what we only had a glimps here: , a ray of sunshine, the Alice in Wonderland type rabbit (she becomes Alice in this arc), completely survolted and always smiling like a little kid.
This introduction also establishes her desire : Carrot is eager to discover the world and understand the vastness of the sea. And most of all, this introduction establishes her second weakness: Carrot considers the sea to be a playground, much like a festfair. This means that she is literally going to sea to "play pirate" (which is funny since the very next chapter, where Wanda wonders about Carrot's absence, is also called "Playing pirate" in reference to kid's and Kaido's exchange, remember, there are often double meaning in the titles) .
This second weakness, combined to her first will eventually pushed the downfall of Carrot in front of Perospero.
The main takeaway of this first anomaly is this : Carrot's introductionS are far too big to be the ones of just a random slightly important character, but more evidently so, they are also too characterizing for just a random character that doesn't get any "good bye" scene.
In other words: these are the introduction of a character that is meant to have a big development.
Anomaly #2 (AGAINST) : The end of Carrot's development is missing
As I mentionned earlier, a character needs to overcome their weaknesses and you could say that Carrot started to understand that the sea was not a playground in Whole Cake, but she never really stopped to assess the danger correctly. Up to the end of her storyline, Carrot still overestimated her capacities and was willing to jump into a fight without thinking. Against Brulee or Perospero, who will destroy her here (thanks to the blocking of the moon):
What is really interesting here is that Perospero "stabs" Carrot in the heart EXACTLY where it hurts the most for her:
- The death of Pedro : She can't grieve him
- Her first weakness : She believed this would be a walk in the park
- her second weakness : He humiliates her and shows that she doesn't belong on the battlefield (at least from his pov)
This, in storytelling is an overused trick (kind of a necessary one really). The goal is to make the protagonist fail, and make the antagonist gloat on the failings of the protagonist. This is usually done into order to help the protagonist learn and understand their weakness. This taunting in battle, is usually the point where either the character reflects and comes back later stronger OR the character gets up and fight back.
BUT
....
Nothing.
Nothing happened. Nekomamushi beat Perospero and Carrot was crowned Queen of Mokomo. There is the "happy end", but not the entire "revelation into struggle, into coming stronger into defeating the trauma and weakness into showing the ennemy that they are wrong", it's not present.
Alone, this could simply be explained by saying "well, maybe oda never really had plans for Carrot".. "maybe carrot wasn't so important".. but as I established earlier, there are very clear weaknesses presented. Which means that Oda, like many other strawhats and non-strawhats character like Momo, Kyros or Vivi, was purposely creating these weaknesses.
Alone, we can explain that as rushed writing, perhaps a gift for the fans, as if oda "acknowledged" that she was important enough to receive a title.. but in the context.. it doesn't add up. This creates a counter anomaly. Like an author starting a character's evolution and... not finishing it.
Next .. Anomaly 3 (FOR) - The characterization of Carrot
